Kuze Hirotami

"', was a late-18th century "Nagasaki bugyō" or governor of Nagasaki port, located on southwestern shore of Kyūshū island in the Japanese archipelago.Screech, Timon. (2006). "Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1822," p. 152.] Kuze was one of the Nagasaki bugyō between 1775 [Screech, Timon. (2005). [http://books.google.com/books?id=sQQ353F1Zd8C&pg=PA284&vq=kuze+hirotami&dq=kuze+hirotami&source=gbs_search_s&sig=I_xfhOQ4sMoX_NvTuPpFtb6jdPw#PPA10,M1 "Japan Extolled: Japan Extolled and Decried: Carl Peter Thunberg and the Shogun's Realm, 1775-1796," p. 10] .] and 1784. [Titsingh, [http://books.google.com/books?id=BLzQA7cpr7wC&pg=RA2-PA255&lpg=RA2-PA255&dq=kuze+hirotami&source=web&ots=tVXGVj1Nuj&sig=7hVJNe8TSdO0wl-I8Zlc-r1HNUU#PRA2-PA176,M1 "Secret," p. 176.] ]

As Nagasaki bugyō, Kuze was paired with another shogunate official, each alternately exchanging places in Edo and Nagasaki. For example, the diaries maintained by Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) merchants during this period record that as Tsuchiya Morinao (Tsuchiya "Suruga-no-kami") is arriving in Nagasaki to take up his duties as Nagasaki bugō on September 27, 1783, Kuze is preparing to leave en route to Edo; and they both will swap locations the following autumn. [Screech, "Secret," p. 201 n63-n64.] The VOC accounts describe Kuze as a good governor. [Screech, [http://books.google.com/books?id=BLzQA7cpr7wC&pg=RA2-PA255&lpg=RA2-PA255&dq=kuze+hirotami&source=web&ots=tVXGVj1Nuj&sig=7hVJNe8TSdO0wl-I8Zlc-r1HNUU#PRA2-PA10,M1 "Secret," p. 10.] ]

Kuze is a close relation of one of the Osaka "shoshidai" in this period, Kuze Hiroakira. [Screech, [http://books.google.com/books?id=sQQ353F1Zd8C&pg=PA284&vq=kuze+hirotami&dq=kuze+hirotami&source=gbs_search_s&sig=I_xfhOQ4sMoX_NvTuPpFtb6jdPw#PPA284,M1 "Japan," p. 284 n103] .]

In 1783, Kuze was also one of four Shogunal finance administrators or "kanjō-bugyō" (勘定奉行), along with Akai Tadamasa, Kurihara Morisada, and Matsumoto Hidemochi. [Screech, "Secret," p. 221 n81.] Tanuma Okitsugu was Kuze's patron. [Screech, [http://books.google.com/books?id=BLzQA7cpr7wC&pg=RA2-PA255&lpg=RA2-PA255&dq=kuze+hirotami&source=web&ots=tVXGVj1Nuj&sig=7hVJNe8TSdO0wl-I8Zlc-r1HNUU#PRA2-PA47,M1 "Secret," p. 47.] ] The oldest surviving letter from Kutsuki Masatsuna to Isaac Titsingh dates from 1789; [Screech, "Secret," p. 36.] and this letter mentions prominent mutual friends such as Kuze and Shimazu Shigehide, who was the father-in-law of the eleventh Tokugawa Shogun Ienari. [see above] ]

References

* Lequin, Frank, ed. (1990). "The Private Correspondence of Isaac Titsingh", [Japonica neerlandica, IV] Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben. ISBN 90-5063-045-6
* Screech, Timon. (2005). "Japan Extolled: Japan Extolled and Decried: Carl Peter Thunberg and the Shogun's Realm, 1775-1796." London: RoutledgeCurzon. 10-ISBN 0-700-71719-6; 13-ISBN 978-0-700-71719-4 (cloth)
* __________. (2006). "Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1822." London: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0-700-71720-X
* Toyama, Mikio. (1988). Nagasaki bugyō: edo bakufu no mimi to me (Chuko shinsho). Tokyo: Chūō Kōronsha. 10-ISBN 4-121-00905-3; 13-ISBN 978-4-121-00905-0

ee also

* bugyō
* Machi-bugyō
* Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo -- [http://www.hi.u-tokyo.ac.jp/tokushu/kaigai/diariesD/diariesD.html "Dagregisters" Project] , Dejima.