Tokugawa Mitsukuni

In this Japanese name, the family name is "Tokugawa".

Tokugawa Mitsukuni

Tokugawa Mitsukuni (徳川 光圀^?, 11 July 1628 – 14 January 1701) or Mito Kōmon (水戸黄門^?) was a prominent daimyo who was known for his influence in the politics of the early Edo period. He was the third son of Tokugawa Yorifusa (who in turn was the ninth son of Tokugawa Ieyasu) and succeeded him, becoming the second daimyo of the Mito domain.^[1]

Biography

In 1657 (Meireki 3) at the age of 27, he married a daughter of the kampaku Konoe Nobuhiro.^[2]

He was responsible for assembling the Mitogaku scholars to compile a huge Japanese history, Dai Nihon shi.^[3] In it, Japan was depicted as a nation under the Emperor, analogous to that in Chinese dynasties. This helped the rise of nationalism in the late shogunate and in the Mito domain later.

In 1661, at age 34, he became the daimyo of the Mito han.^[4] He anticipated the forcible division of kami and Buddhas (shinbutsu bunri) of 1868 ordering there the destruction of a thousand Buddhist temples and the construction of at least one shrine per village (one village, one shrine policy (一村一社, isson issha^?).^[5]

At age 63, he was awarded the court office of gon-chūnagon, or provisional middle counsellor. In 1691, he retired to his villa, Seizan-sō. He died there a decade later. He is now considered to be a kami.^[5]

He was also known as a gourmet of the Edo period. He is claimed to be one of the first Japanese to eat ramen as well as routinely enjoying such exotic food as wine and yogurt.

He directed at Zuisen-ji the creation of the very first guide to Kamakura, the Shinpen Kamakurashi. The book would have a profound influence on the city in the following centuries, an influence which continues to this day in names for parts of the city like Kamakura's Seven Mouths, Kamakura's Ten Bridges, and other such popular monikers he coined.

He posthumously received the court rank of junior first rank (1869) and first rank (1900).^[6] Mitsukuni had one son, who took the Matsudaira surname. Additionally, Mitsukuni adopted the son of an elder brother; this adopted son, Tokugawa Tsunaeda, became his heir.

Mito Kōmon

Actor Kōtarō Satomi as Tokugawa Mitsukuni in the jidaigeki "Mito Kōmon"

During the latter half of the Edo period and the Meiji period, a kōdan (narrative tale) named "Mito Mitsukuni Man'yūki" fictionalized the travels of Tokugawa Mitsukuni. This tradition of dramatizing his life continued with a novel and, in 1951, the first television series to portray him as a wanderer, masquerading as a commoner, who castigated the evil powers in every corner of the nation. In 1969, the TBS series Mito Kōmon began, and today continues to attract audiences. Episodes were re-broadcast in the early 1990s by WNYE-TV (New York City) under the title "The Elder Lord of Mito."

Each summer, the city of Mito hosts the Mito Komon festival, which prominently feature the Tokugawa seal as well as actors representing Tokugawa Mitsukuni and his assistants.

Notes

1. ^ Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1962). Sovereign and Subject, p. 248.
2. ^ Ponsonby-Fane, p. 249.
3. ^ "Tokugawa Mitsukuni". Kokugakuin University via the Encyclopedia of Shinto. 15 April 2006. http://eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/entry.php?entryID=558. Retrieved 1 October 2010. 
4. ^ Ponsonby-Fane, p. 250.
5. ^ ^{a b} Bocking, Brian (1997). A Popular Dictionary of Shinto - Tokugawa Mitsukuni. Routledge. ISBN 978-0700710515. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0700710515. 
6. ^ Ponsonby-Fane, pp. 251-252.

References

• Brownlee, John S. (1997) Japanese historians and the national myths, 1600-1945: The Age of the Gods and Emperor Jimmu. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. ISBN 0-7748-0644-3 Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. ISBN 4-13-027031-1
• Brownlee, John S. (1991). Political Thought in Japanese Historical Writing: From Kojiki (712) to Tokushi Yoron (1712). Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 0-889-20997-9
• Iwao, Seiichi, Teizō Iyanaga, Susumu Ishii, Shōichirō Yoshida et al. (2002). Dictionnaire historique du Japon (Vol. I), (Vol. II). Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose. 10-ISBN 2-706-81632-5; 13-ISBN 978-2-706-81632-1; OCLC 51096469
• Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1962). Sovereign and Subject. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 1014075

External links

Preceded by Tokugawa Yorifusa

Daimyo of Mito 1671-1690

Succeeded by Tokugawa Tsunaeda

Persondata
Name	Tokugawa, Mitsukuni
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1628
Place of birth
Date of death	1701
Place of death