Synopsis:
Lords are weak and strong: Mino Saito family in the early Warring States Period, Saito Myotsuna, and Myojun era
Tale of the Thief: The Path of The Thief of the Three Fathers and Sons of Shogoro Matsuba and Michi Saito
In early March of the 23rd year of astronomy (1554), five years after the exile of Toki Raiyoshi, Saito Michizo ceded Inabayama Castle and the position of governor to his eldest son Saito Toshisho, and moved out of Inabayama Castle.
Saito Michizo
Two years earlier, Saito Michizo's former enemy, Oda Nobuhide, had died of illness, and in order to consolidate the "Nobuo Alliance" after Nobuhide's death, Saito Michizo met with his son-in-law Oda Nobunaga at Sōtoku-ji Temple on the border between Nao and O in April of the 22nd year of the Astronomical Year. It is said that after Seeing that the Oda Army, which numbered less than a thousand, was carrying a large number of iron cannons and "three guns", Saito Michizo once said to his courtiers on the way home, "I am afraid that my son will only be able to lead this guy's horse in the future." ”
During Oda Nobunaga's unification of the Owari Kingdom, Saito Michizo often sent troops to Owari Kingdom to support his son-in-law's battles, and Michizo also ordered his courtiers to report to him on the state of the Oda Army. Around this time, Oda Nobunaga's good fighting impressed Saito Michizo and made him value the son-in-law more and more.
However, at this time, Saito Michizo's sister-in-law Saito Toshiya suddenly raised an army against his father. According to the Nobunaga Chronicle, Saito Michizo believed that Saito Toshiyama did not have the capacity to serve as the governor of the house, and was very fond of Toshiyama's younger brothers SunJiro and Kiheiji, and had plans to depose him. Sun Jiro and Kiheiji, on the other hand, are favored by their fathers and despise their brother as the governor of the Saito family, which leads to Saito Toshiyama's murderous intentions.
On November 22, 1555, in the first year of Koji's reign (1555), Saito Toshiyama summoned Sunjiro and Kiheiji into Inabayama Castle under the pretext that he was terminally ill and wanted to summon his two younger brothers to discuss the aftermath, and then ordered Higenno Hiroshi to kill his brothers. On April 18 of the following year, Saito Michizo led his army to Tsuruyama, near the Nagara River, and sent emissaries to Owari Kuni, asking Oda Nobunaga to send troops to support him. On April 20, before reinforcements from the Oda Army arrived, Saito Toshiyama attacked saito's three armies, killing his father.
Regarding the hostility between Saito Toshiyama and his father Michizo, there is also a story in the Gifu Military Chronicle of the Edo period: When Saito Toshiyama hesitated whether to raise an army, the courtier (uncle?). Nagai Michiri said to him, "You were not originally the son of Michiyoshi, your mother, Lady Fukayoshi, was originally a concubine who guarded Toki Raiyoshi, but was later given to Michisan, and lady Fukayoshi was pregnant at that time, which gave birth to you." ”
The theory of karma was very popular in Japan during the Edo period, so the story of Saito Toshiya was Toki Raiyoshi Fellin became more and more extensive, but this matter is not found in the historical records of the same era, and even the gossip master Ota Yaichi did not mention this in the "Nobunaga Koji", so it should be a far-fetched creation of later generations.
In addition, saito toshiyama changed his name to "Saito Fanke" after his hostility with Michizo, according to Ota Niuichi, "Fanke" was the name of a father-killer in the Tang Dynasty of China, saito Toshiyama's move was on the one hand a gesture of repentance against his biological father, and on the other hand, it was also to show his determination to the courtiers who joined him. This fully shows that both Saito Toshiyama himself and bystanders such as Ota Nobuichi believe that the hostility between Saito Michizo and Toshiyama is a father-son dispute, not a "Hamlet"-style battle for the return of Toki.
After eliminating the power of his father, Saito Michizo, Saito Toshiyama officially began to rule the Mino Kingdom, and he changed his father's policy and became hostile to Oda Nobunaga of the Owari Kingdom. In February of the second year of Nagato (1559), when Oda Nobunaga was on the throne, Saito Toshiyama also sent assassins to assassinate Nobunaga.
During this period, Saito Toshiyama changed his name from "Fanke" to "Takasei", and after Seeing the shogun Ashikaga Yoshiki, Kami-Raku even changed the "Saito" Miao character, and obtained permission to use the "Yi color" Miao character, one of the four professionals, and named it "Yi Color Yoshiryū". Since Oda Nobunaga, who later gained the throne, did not approve of the Saito family's inheritance of the "Ichinose family", later historical sources referred to Ichinose Yoshiryu as "Saito Yoshiryu" in order to degrade the status of the Saito family. The same practice can be seen in the letters of Kanto tohoku clan Yasushi and Uesugi Kenshin in Japan at that time, neither of them recognized each other's "Hojo" and "Uesugi" identities, while calling each other "Nagao Keiko / Huihu / Kenshin" and on the other hand calling each other "Ise Clan Yasushi", but neither of them was the ultimate victor, and both the Uesugi family and the Hojo family existed as lords in the Edo period, so we will now call them "Hojo" and "Uesugi". In order to facilitate reading, the following will be unified according to the general theory, the historical Yisei Yoshiryu, Yidong father and son as Saito Yoshiryu, Ryūsei.
Saito Yoshiryu
In addition to severing ties with Owari Kingdom, Saito Yoshiryū also broke off relations with his father's ally, the Asai family, and in turn allied himself with the enemy Rokkaku clan, marrying his daughter to Rokukaku Yoshihiro, the governor of the Rokukaku clan. The alliance between Rokkaku Yoshihiro and the Saito family made the reclusive Rokkaku family former governor Rokkaku Seikira very dissatisfied, and it was in his letters dissuading Rokkaku Yoshihiro from allying with the Saito family that saito Yoshihiro's grandfather was originally only a monk named Matsuba, and later historians separated the deeds of Matsuba Shogoro and Saito Michi, who were originally confused into one person.
It is worth mentioning that after Saito Yoshiryu broke off diplomatic relations with the Asai family, the Asai family also formed an alliance with the Enemy of the Saito family, the Oda family, and the governor of the Asai family, Kenmasa Asai, also married Oda Nobunaga's sister Oda City, and at the same time took a word from Nobunaga's name and changed the name to "Asai Nagamasa". In addition, during the war between the Saito family and the Asai family, Toki Raiji, the son of the former guardian Toki Raiyoshi, also accompanied the Saito Army, and Saito Yoshiryu issued a complaint for this, blocking the territory of Toki Raiji, indicating that in the saito Yoshiryu era, the main subordinate identities of the Toki clan and the Saito clan had been completely reversed.
Saito Yoshiryu, like the rest of the Sengoku daimyōs, placed great emphasis on his absolute status within the domain, and the typical event was the "NagaroBetsu Rebellion" that occurred in Mino Kingdom after Yoshiryu changed his surname to "Ichiseku".
The reason for this was that after Saito Yoshiryu changed the clan from the "Saito clan" of the Fujiwara clan to the "Ichinose clan" of the Genji descendants, he abolished the status of the Nichiren Sect's Bodhi Temple at the temple where his father's ancestors believed, and began to build the Zen temple of the Genji clan under Inabayama Castle, "Dennō Gokoku-ji Temple".
At that time, Japanese Zen Buddhism was divided into many factions, down to the Linji Sect, Cao Dong Sect, Puhua Sect, Huang Barberry Sect, etc., of which the Linji Sect was the Muromachi Period Samurai Sect, and the Linji Sect was divided into the Myoshin-ji Sect, the Xiangguo-ji Sect, the Tenryu-ji Sect, the Nanzen-ji Sect, and so on. However, the Myoshin-ji sect was also a small mahjong hall, divided into four factions: Tokai, Ryusen, Seisei, and Lingyun, with the monk Takakawa Shoki, who was very influential in Mino Province at the time, being the Tokai sect, and the abbot of the Temple, Yoshiryu Saito, who was the weakest lingyun sect.
Takakawa Shoki
Saito Yoshiryu probably did not want to see the Tokai sect become "stronger and stronger" in Mino, but Takashi Kuaikawa was not happy, plus he was a very famous monk in Japan at that time, so under the protest of Saikawa Shoki, the monks of Mino Country left the temple. At the same time, Takakawa Shoki also said to Saito Yoshiryu, "You are just a country too guard, and I am a mage of the Three Realms." ”
Saikawa Shoki's actions caused great dissatisfaction among Saito Yoshiryu, who demanded that the Myoshin-ji Temple cut off The Monk's membership of Kuaikawa Shoki, but this move provoked an even greater reaction, provoking a confrontation between the Saito family and the entire Rinji Sect's Myoshin-ji sect. Not only Mino Kuni, but also the Reiyun Sect temples such as Suruga Kuni Kiyomi-ji Temple and Rinzai-ji Temple all sided with Takayoshi Kuaikawa, condemning Saito Yoshiryu and Beden Mukai. Of course, the monk's condemnation was not painful for the hard-line Saito Yoshiryu, who paid the court to promote the temple to a temple with the same style as the Southern Zen Temple, and resolutely confronted monks such as Saiki Kuaikawa to the end.
However, in May of the fourth year of Nagaraku (1561), Saito Yoshiryu suddenly died violently in Inabayama Castle at the age of thirty-three. The saito family's courtiers were originally very reluctant to oppose Saito Yoshiryu and Saikawa Shoki, and after Saito Yoshiryu's death, Saito Ryuko, who succeeded the family governor, immediately recalled Saikawa Shoki, not only abolishing the status of Bodhi Temple at TheDen Temple, but even pressing Saito Yoshiryu's coffin board to let Saikawa Shoki preside over the funeral.
On the other hand, Oda Nobunaga, the daimyō of Owari Domain, learned of Saito Yoshiryu's death and immediately sent an army to attack Mino Kingdom. Under the strong offensive of the Oda family, how long can the Saito family support it? Will the heirs of Michizo Saito lead the horses for Nobunaga? We'll talk about this next time.
Text author: Sanae Hojo
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