FwSeal
04-06-2001, 04:52
I was recently looking around for information on the Saito family of Mino, and came up with a few interesting facts that are worth posting here...
One of the more interesting figures of the sengoku period was Saito Dosan, the reputed oil merchant who became daimyo of Mino Province. While some scholars have called into question the authenticity of the popular view of Dosan's past, his remarkable rise to power stands as a model of the idea of 'gekokujo' - the low overcome the high.
His sudden fall at the hands of his son (or adoptive son) Yoshitatsu is almost as interesting and just as cloudy, however.
By 1526 Dosan (also known as, among many aliases, as Matsunami Shokuro, Nishimura Kankuro, and Saito Toshimasa) was a rising power in Mino Province, and evidently an instigator in the growing turmoil within the province. Mino was at that time nominally controlled by the Toki. Around 1526 Toki Yoshinari is said to have attempted to cement his relations with Dosan by giving him his concubine. In fact, one version of the changing of hands of the lady in question is quite interesting (if probably fictional). According to the story, Dosan won the lady in a bet. Yoshinari bet Dosan that if he could put a spear through the eye of a tiger painted on a shoji in the room they were sitting in, he would hand over his concubine (a concubine being one step below an actual wife and a step above a consort). Dosan then stood up and threw the spear (or plunged it into the shoji) - hitting his mark (actually, the little book that story came from, Owada’s Kono Issatsu De [Sengoku Bushô] 101nin ga Wakaru! doesn’t specifically say just how he put the spear through the tiger’s eye – ‘put through’ is about all it says). .
Just how Dosan came to acquire the woman aside, around seven months later she gave birth to a son (one or two western sources I've seen say 9 months, though the Japanese texts all seem to say 7). If Dosan suspected that the boy was not his own, he doesn't appear to have given it much consideration. He is said to have doted on the child, who would in time become known as Yoshitatsu. In the years that followed, Dosan overthrew first the Nagai, then Toki Yoshinari (who fled the province), becoming the lord of Mino. He clashed with Oda Nobuhide of Owari Province but made peace when the two lords agreed to a peace that arranged for the marriage of Dosan's daughter to Nobuhide's son Nobunaga.
Around 1555 or so, rumors began to circulate that Yoshitatsu wasn't in fact Dosan's son - that he was Yoshinari's. It does not appear that Yoshitatsu had been aware of that possibility himself until he heard it on the grapevine, as it were. The circumstances surrounding this time are unclear, however. One opinion is that Dosan, having had a number of sons after Yoshitatsu, had decided to name one of them heir (despite having officially retired by this point in favor of Yoshitatsu). Another theory holds that Yoshitatsu simply assumed that he would be disinherited, and decided to move first. A further idea is that Yoshitatsu just elected to usurp his father. Relations at any rate quickly soured between Yoshitatsu and Dosan.
Yoshitatsu first delt with two of his brothers. According to one story, he feigned illness (ironically, given that he would die of leprosy in 1561) and tricked them into coming to wish him a speedy recovery. When they arrived at his castle of Inabayama, Yoshitatsu they were murdered (Nobunaga is said to have used a similar trick against one of his rival brothers in 1557). He further moved to gain the support of Mino's greatest samurai, including Ujiie Bokuzen, Ando Morinari, and Inaba Yoshimichi. His ostensible call to arms was vengeance for the fallen Toki house and he was helped by Dosan's generally poor reputation. Aside from his scheming and long list of betrayals, Dosan was known to have been ruthless and cruel - earning his nickname of 'viper'. His best-known excess was his penchant for boiling people alive in a great cauldron (Takeda Shingen is also said to have had a few cauldrons for that purpose).
By 1556, Dosan clearly realized his end was drawing near, and just before his final battle drew up his will. This document is supposed to have included the wish that Mino be given to his son-in-law, Oda Nobunaga (a letter to this effect to Nobunaga still exists). In the event, Nobunaga would attempt to send Dosan aid but was not able to intervene in time to be of assistance.
At this time, Yoshitatsu was based at Inabayama, while opposite him, across the Nagara River, was Sagiyama - Dosan's castle. The two led their armies down from their mountains and faced one another across the Nagara in the late spring of 1556. Dosan was heavily outnumbered to the number of about 12,000 to 3,000 but fought hard. Yoshitatsu's initial attack was driven back but, in the end, Dosan's head was taken by a certain Komaki Genta and Yoshitatsu was supreme. Saito Dosan, one of the sengoku period's great usurpers, had himself been overthrown. At least one of Dosan’s sons did survive the fall of his father and later entered the service of Nobunaga as Saito Nagatatsu. He would die in 1582 along with Oda Nobuhide at the Nijo in Kyoto under attack by Akechi Mitsuhide’s troops. Ironically, the Akechi had been loyal supporters of Dosan during Mino’s civil war.
As for Yoshitatsu, he was a strong leader and skilled general, but died of leprosy in 1561. His young son, Tatsuoki, was unable to maintain the loyalty of his chief retainers and they at length deserted his cause for Nobunaga. In the fall of 1567 Nobunaga captured Inabayama Castle (which he would rename Gifu). Tatsuoki fled Mino and later took up with the Asakura of Echizen. In 1573 he was killed when Nobunaga invaded the Asakura domain. Another Saito, though not related in blood to Dosan or his offspring, was Saito Toshimitsu, one of Akechi Mitsuhide's chief retainers. He was killed following the Battle of Yamazaki in 1582, though daughter would become the well-known Kasuga no Tsubone, a nurse for the later Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu
One of the more interesting figures of the sengoku period was Saito Dosan, the reputed oil merchant who became daimyo of Mino Province. While some scholars have called into question the authenticity of the popular view of Dosan's past, his remarkable rise to power stands as a model of the idea of 'gekokujo' - the low overcome the high.
His sudden fall at the hands of his son (or adoptive son) Yoshitatsu is almost as interesting and just as cloudy, however.
By 1526 Dosan (also known as, among many aliases, as Matsunami Shokuro, Nishimura Kankuro, and Saito Toshimasa) was a rising power in Mino Province, and evidently an instigator in the growing turmoil within the province. Mino was at that time nominally controlled by the Toki. Around 1526 Toki Yoshinari is said to have attempted to cement his relations with Dosan by giving him his concubine. In fact, one version of the changing of hands of the lady in question is quite interesting (if probably fictional). According to the story, Dosan won the lady in a bet. Yoshinari bet Dosan that if he could put a spear through the eye of a tiger painted on a shoji in the room they were sitting in, he would hand over his concubine (a concubine being one step below an actual wife and a step above a consort). Dosan then stood up and threw the spear (or plunged it into the shoji) - hitting his mark (actually, the little book that story came from, Owada’s Kono Issatsu De [Sengoku Bushô] 101nin ga Wakaru! doesn’t specifically say just how he put the spear through the tiger’s eye – ‘put through’ is about all it says). .
Just how Dosan came to acquire the woman aside, around seven months later she gave birth to a son (one or two western sources I've seen say 9 months, though the Japanese texts all seem to say 7). If Dosan suspected that the boy was not his own, he doesn't appear to have given it much consideration. He is said to have doted on the child, who would in time become known as Yoshitatsu. In the years that followed, Dosan overthrew first the Nagai, then Toki Yoshinari (who fled the province), becoming the lord of Mino. He clashed with Oda Nobuhide of Owari Province but made peace when the two lords agreed to a peace that arranged for the marriage of Dosan's daughter to Nobuhide's son Nobunaga.
Around 1555 or so, rumors began to circulate that Yoshitatsu wasn't in fact Dosan's son - that he was Yoshinari's. It does not appear that Yoshitatsu had been aware of that possibility himself until he heard it on the grapevine, as it were. The circumstances surrounding this time are unclear, however. One opinion is that Dosan, having had a number of sons after Yoshitatsu, had decided to name one of them heir (despite having officially retired by this point in favor of Yoshitatsu). Another theory holds that Yoshitatsu simply assumed that he would be disinherited, and decided to move first. A further idea is that Yoshitatsu just elected to usurp his father. Relations at any rate quickly soured between Yoshitatsu and Dosan.
Yoshitatsu first delt with two of his brothers. According to one story, he feigned illness (ironically, given that he would die of leprosy in 1561) and tricked them into coming to wish him a speedy recovery. When they arrived at his castle of Inabayama, Yoshitatsu they were murdered (Nobunaga is said to have used a similar trick against one of his rival brothers in 1557). He further moved to gain the support of Mino's greatest samurai, including Ujiie Bokuzen, Ando Morinari, and Inaba Yoshimichi. His ostensible call to arms was vengeance for the fallen Toki house and he was helped by Dosan's generally poor reputation. Aside from his scheming and long list of betrayals, Dosan was known to have been ruthless and cruel - earning his nickname of 'viper'. His best-known excess was his penchant for boiling people alive in a great cauldron (Takeda Shingen is also said to have had a few cauldrons for that purpose).
By 1556, Dosan clearly realized his end was drawing near, and just before his final battle drew up his will. This document is supposed to have included the wish that Mino be given to his son-in-law, Oda Nobunaga (a letter to this effect to Nobunaga still exists). In the event, Nobunaga would attempt to send Dosan aid but was not able to intervene in time to be of assistance.
At this time, Yoshitatsu was based at Inabayama, while opposite him, across the Nagara River, was Sagiyama - Dosan's castle. The two led their armies down from their mountains and faced one another across the Nagara in the late spring of 1556. Dosan was heavily outnumbered to the number of about 12,000 to 3,000 but fought hard. Yoshitatsu's initial attack was driven back but, in the end, Dosan's head was taken by a certain Komaki Genta and Yoshitatsu was supreme. Saito Dosan, one of the sengoku period's great usurpers, had himself been overthrown. At least one of Dosan’s sons did survive the fall of his father and later entered the service of Nobunaga as Saito Nagatatsu. He would die in 1582 along with Oda Nobuhide at the Nijo in Kyoto under attack by Akechi Mitsuhide’s troops. Ironically, the Akechi had been loyal supporters of Dosan during Mino’s civil war.
As for Yoshitatsu, he was a strong leader and skilled general, but died of leprosy in 1561. His young son, Tatsuoki, was unable to maintain the loyalty of his chief retainers and they at length deserted his cause for Nobunaga. In the fall of 1567 Nobunaga captured Inabayama Castle (which he would rename Gifu). Tatsuoki fled Mino and later took up with the Asakura of Echizen. In 1573 he was killed when Nobunaga invaded the Asakura domain. Another Saito, though not related in blood to Dosan or his offspring, was Saito Toshimitsu, one of Akechi Mitsuhide's chief retainers. He was killed following the Battle of Yamazaki in 1582, though daughter would become the well-known Kasuga no Tsubone, a nurse for the later Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu