英語訳
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Toyohashi City Historical Discourse (The Ōkōchi Clan and Its Ancestors) 258
**Main Text:**
"From these three places - Ogura village in Tsuga District, Shimotsuke Province, Ōsawa village in Kawachi District of the same province, and Ōkuwa village in the same district of the same province - to Nikkō, for over twenty years planted cedars along the roadside left and right and in the mountains for over ten ri, humbly donated to Tōshō-gū.
1st year of Keian, year of the earth rat, 17th day of 4th month, Junior Fifth Rank, Matsudaira Uemon-no-tayū Minamoto Masatsuna"
Now, that first year of Keian was exactly the year of Masatsuna's death, as Masatsuna passed away on the 22nd day of the 6th month of that year at the age of seventy-three. In other words, the erection of this monument was only about two months before his death, and at that time his adopted son Nobutsuna happened to be at Mount Nikkō accompanying the third shogun Iemitsu. Probably the date of the monument's erection, the 17th day of the 4th month, was the anniversary of Ieyasu's death as mentioned before, so the third shogun was at Mount Nikkō that day with Nobutsuna and others accompanying him to worship at the Tōshō mausoleum. It is believed that all matters concerning this monument's erection were arranged by Nobutsuna for his adoptive father Masatsuna. The same was true regarding the forestry project. As Masatsuna gradually aged, Nobutsuna was increasingly in a position of full prosperity, so Nobutsuna carried on his adoptive father's will and greatly assisted in implementing his plans. However, some people today transmit this forestry project as if it were entirely Nobutsuna's undertaking, but this rather misrepresents the true facts. There are still many more things to relate about Masatsuna, such as his military service in the Osaka campaigns and his achievements, which I think you are all already familiar with.
**Matsudaira Nobutsuna** Now Masatsuna had four sons - Toshitsuna, Takatsuna (later called Masanobu), Masamitsu, and Hidetsuna (later called Masatomo) - but before they were born, as previously mentioned, he adopted his elder brother Hisatsuna's eldest son Nobutsuna. There were circumstances behind this, as Nobutsuna, who as you know was later called "Chie-Izu" (Wise Izu), was extraordinarily intelligent from childhood. He was born on the last day of the 10th month of Keichō 1. According to the Ōkōchi family genealogy, at age six he became Masatsuna's adopted son, at age eight in the 9th month he first had an audience with Shogun Hidetada, and in the 11th month of that year had an audience with Ieyasu at Fushimi. When Iemitsu was born on the 17th day of the 7th month of his ninth year, on the 25th (or perhaps 23rd) of that month he began serving him. However, according to one account, although Nobutsuna was still a child, he desperately wanted to serve close to the shogun and advance in the world, but since he belonged to the Ōkōchi house, it was difficult for this wish to be fulfilled quickly. Since his uncle Masatsuna had inherited the Matsudaira house, which was a collateral branch of the Tokugawa, this was convenient in all respects, so he fully related his feelings. Therefore Masatsuna finally took pity on his ambition and made him his adopted son, thus enabling him to have audiences with both the shogun and the former shogun.
**Biography of Nobutsuna** Regarding this Nobutsuna's career, as you all know, there is an inexhaustible amount of material about him. Fortunately, recently at the Ōkōchi Viscount house, the current head, Lord Masatoshi, has undertaken the compilation of his biography, and taking the opportunity of last year's 250th anniversary of Nobutsuna's death, he has hired specialists who are currently compiling it. Therefore I believe a complete biography of this person will be completed before long, and I am welcoming this with the greatest joy. So I will leave the detailed biography to that work and now wish to limit myself to stating only the general outline. To briefly outline just the main points: at age nine he first served Iemitsu, and when Iemitsu was appointed shogun in Genna 9, he was appointed head of the page corps, received court rank as Izu-no-kami, and was granted a domain of 2,000 koku. On the 18th day of the 11th month of Kan'ei 9, he became senior councillor rank, and on the 5th day of the 5th month of the 10th year was appointed senior councillor with an increase to 30,000 koku, becoming lord of Oshi castle in Musashi Province.
**Shimabara Campaign** In the 14th year, when the famous Kyushu Shimabara Rebellion broke out, he went there as deputy commander for the suppression, and this story is particularly famous. At this time Toda Samon Ujitetsu (son of Toda Kazumasa) also went to suppress the rebellion. The troops Nobutsuna led numbered about 1,300, with over 200 retainers and attendants. Accounting magistrate Nose Shirōzaemon and accountant Yamanaka Kihē handled provisions, and their departure was on the 3rd of December. Speaking of the current surviving Toyohashi retainer families, their ancestors generally participated in this campaign, and truly precious items captured at that time - swords, guns, and oil paintings - are still preserved in each family today. Among these are some quite important items from a historical perspective, many of which have been exhibited at historical document exhibitions. I plan to photograph or copy all of these and compile them into a separate volume.
The Shimabara campaign ended in February of the following year, and Nobutsuna finally captured the rebel fortress and cut down 37,000 rebels. In April he returned
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Toyohashi City Historical Discourse (The Ōkōchi Clan and Its Ancestors) 259