Tsugaru Nobuyoshi

Tsugaru Nobuyoshi (津軽 信義, February 15, 1619 – December 22, 1655) was the 3rd daimyō of Hirosaki Domain in northern Mutsu Province, Honshū, Japan (modern-day Aomori Prefecture). His courtesy title was Tosa-no-kami.

Biography

Tsugaru Nobuyoshi was born as the eldest son of Tsugaru Nobuhira, 2nd daimyō of Hirosaki Domain, at the domain’s exclave located in Kōzuke Province. His mother, Tatsu-hime, was the daughter of Ishida Mitsunari and had been demoted to the status of concubine and exiled to Kōzuke when Nobuhira married Tokugawa Ieyasu’s niece to secure his position vis-à-vis the Tokugawa shogunate. He was still 13 years old when his father died, and was ordered to report before Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu together with his younger half-brother Tsugaru Nobufusa on his accession to the lordship.

However, his position as the son of a concubine resulted in a split in the ranks of the senior retainers of Tsugaru Domain, with a large faction supporting Tsugaru Nobufusa due to his blood connection to the Tokugawa, and due to the fact that he was born as son of Nobuhira’s official wife. This resulted in an O-Ie Sōdō known as the Funahashi Sōdō of 1634, which was only suppressed with assistance by the Tokugawa shogunate and resulted in the exile of a number of Nobufusa’s supporters in 1636. Problems arose again in 1647 in what was called the Tempyō Sōdō, with remaining supporters of Nobufusa demanding that Nobuyoshi retire in favor his younger half-brother, alleging misgovernment through excessive drinking and womanizing.

Nobuyoshi did have 25 sons and 26 daughters through a large number of concubines. However, he also continued his father’s works in increasing the production in his domain by developing new paddy fields, irrigation, and by developing copper and silver mines.

Nobuyoshi died on December 22, 1655 at the clan residence in Edo. His grave is at the clan temple of Juyo-in in Taitō-ku, Tokyo and also the Tsugaru clan temples of Chōshō-ji and Hōon-ji in Hirosaki. Four of his senior retainers decided to follow him in death by committing Junshi .

Nobuhira was succeeded by his eldest son, Tsugaru Nobumasa.

See also

• Tsugaru clan

References

• (in Japanese) "Hirosaki-jō" (17 Feb. 2008)
• (in Japanese) "Tsugaru-han" on Edo 300 HTML (17 Feb. 2008)
• The content of much of this article was derived from that of the corresponding article on Japanese Wikipedia.