英語訳
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Toyohashi City Historical Discourse (Nobutoki's Character and General Achievements) 278
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First, regarding Nobutoki's character and conduct, it was generally as I described above, but now, what about the achievements during the period when this Nobutoki served as castle lord of Yoshida? As I mentioned before, Nobutoki was enfeoffed at Yoshida on July 12, Shōtoku 2, and served as lord of this domain for over seventeen years until his transfer to Hamamatsu in Tōtōmi Province on February 2, Kyōhō 14. At that time, there was a regulation for alternate attendance (sankin-kōtai) every other year, and specifically by an order dated April 12, Shōtoku 4, since this Enshū region was a particularly strategic location, the lords of Yoshida Castle and Kariya Castle were to alternate with each other, and the lords of Hamamatsu Castle and Kakegawa Castle were also to alternate with each other for their attendance duties.
Later, during Shogun Yoshimune's era, the system was temporarily changed to attendance every six months, but for the above reasons, during Nobutoki's time as castle lord, he alternated with the Kariya castle lord, serving either at his domain or in Edo for periods of one year or six months at a time.
As something of a digression, the famous Arai checkpoint was traditionally managed by the lord of Yoshida Castle and was a strategic point that the Tokugawa placed great importance on for communications between Kyoto and Edo. Therefore, when a lord of Yoshida Castle became a senior councilor, or even when appointed to positions like Kyoto deputy (Kyoto shoshidai) or Osaka castle keeper, he would invariably be transferred elsewhere, as was the established precedent. Nobutoki's transfer to Hamamatsu was for exactly the same reason.
Now, regarding matters from the period when Nobutoki served as lord of Yoshida Castle, fortunately the Ōkōchi family still preserves almost all of the domain's official daily records from that time, which provides us with invaluable convenience for research. However, since virtually everything, both major and minor events of the time, is recorded, even just reviewing the catalog is no easy task. Recently, I required a full two days just to thoroughly examine the records for Shōtoku 3 alone.
For this reason, I cannot discuss every event of the time here, but I would like to mention one or two of the main ones.
First, this great bridge of Yoshida, as I have mentioned repeatedly in previous chapters, was one of the four great bridges of the Tōkaidō and was under direct shogunal control, making it quite troublesome. This bridge appears most frequently in these official records. Particularly in Shōtoku 3, there were major repairs to this bridge, and originally when replacing or repairing this great bridge, as I mentioned in the previous chapter...
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...they would build a new bridge or temporary bridge alongside the old bridge, so there was no impediment to traffic whatsoever. However, this practice continued until the repairs of Genroku 16, and regarding the repairs of Hōei 4, since these were minor repairs, the details are somewhat unclear. But during the next repairs in Hōei 6, they abolished temporary bridges for the first time and had people cross by ferry boat during construction.
This caused great anxiety among the people of Yoshida-juku, but bridge construction in those days was extremely slow-going, with many officials coming from Edo who created a large bureaucracy but whose work made very little progress, so I think the hardships for travelers were truly considerable.
This goes back to an earlier period, but I think it really shows the circumstances of the time well, so I would like to excerpt below a petition submitted jointly by the village headmen and elders of the post station at that time:
**Humbly submitting this written petition**
Petitioners: The people of Yoshida-juku in Mikawa Province
1. Since last summer, the great bridge of Yoshida-juku has been replaced by ferry service, causing hardship for all travelers both high and low, and particularly causing severe distress and困窮 for all of Yoshida-juku. If the bridge were restored as before, travelers would face no hardships, and all the businesses in the post station could operate as before, for which we would be most grateful.
2. During floods on the Yoshida River or when there are strong winds, the relay station, express messengers, and official goods are delayed because of the ferry crossing. During the flood of June 22 last year, because of the ferry crossing, a document box bound for Kyoto was delayed three hours, and on the same day, an official messenger traveling from Gifu to Edo was delayed overnight on the far side of the river. Furthermore, during rainy weather, when horses and people from Yoshida-juku return from duties at Aburagawa post station, the river water rises and the ferry cannot operate, forcing them to stay on the far side of the river, repeatedly causing hardship.
3. During previous floods when the upstream embankment broke and water rushed in, even people from Teisuke and Daisuke villages on the far side of the river crossed the bridge to evacuate to Yoshida-juku. Should embankments break during future floods, even ferry crossings would become impossible, and we believe large numbers of people and even cattle and horses would face great hardship.
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Toyohashi City Historical Discourse (Nobutoki's Character and Some of His Achievements) 279