United States or Ethiopia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


At his castle in Sakai, near Osaka, he amassed wealth by foreign trade, and there he received and harboured representatives of the Kusunoki and Kikuchi families, while at the same time he carried on friendly communications with the Doki, the Ikeda, and the Yamana.

At one moment it seemed as though this question would be solved by an appeal to violence, but ultimately, at the suggestion of Tsutsui Junkei, it was agreed that Samboshi should be nominated Nobunaga's successor; that Nobukatsu and Nobutaka should be appointed his guardians, and that the administrative duties should be entrusted to a council consisting of Shibata Katsuiye, Niwa Nagahide, Ikeda Nobuteru, and Hideyoshi, each taking it in turn to discharge these functions and each residing for that purpose in Kyoto three months during the year.

Let Ikéda Kunaishôyu send to claim this man, and we will show him the power of the Hatamotos." All the other Hatamotos, with one accord, applauded this determination, and made ready their force for an armed resistance, should my Lord Kunaishôyu send to demand the surrender of Matugorô. But the latter remained as a welcome guest in the house of Abé Shirogorô.

It happened that, once, the learned Nakazawa went to preach at Ikéda, in the province of Sesshiu, and lodged with a rich family of the lower class. The master of the house, who was particularly fond of sermons, entertained the preacher hospitably, and summoned his daughter, a girl some fourteen or fifteen years old, to wait upon him at dinner.

Thus, in spite of the fact that both were illegitimate and had already been adopted into other families, Nobunaga's two sons, Nobukatsu and Nobutaka, were put forward as proper candidates, the former supported by Ikeda Nobuteru and Gamo Katahide; the latter, by Shibata Katsuiye and Takigawa Kazumasu.

The Tokugawa battalions, following two routes the Tokaido and the Nakasendo made rapid progress westward, and on September 21st, the van of the division under Fukushima and Ikeda reached Kiyosu.

At forty-nine he became master of the Kwanto and was in his fifty-sixth year when Hideyoshi died. He had also three daughters; the first married to Okudaira Masanobu; the second to Ikeda Terumasa, and the third to Asano Nagaakira. The political complications that followed the death of the Taiko are extremely difficult to unravel, and the result is not commensurate with the trouble.

In other words, a man whose son had been adopted into another family might claim to be regarded as the head of that family in the event of the death of the foster-father. It is certain, however, that other and stronger reasons influenced the Bakufu prime minister. His most intimate friends were the shogun's father-in-law, Shimazu Ei-O, and Ikeda Isshinsai.

"Well, as you know, when my Lord Ikéda followed my Lord Tokugawa Iyéyasu to fight at Nagakudé, my father went in his train; and it was at the battle of Nagakudé that he picked up this sword." "My father went too, and was killed in the fight, and this sword, which was an heirloom in our family for many generations, was lost at that time.

The following history is in more senses than one a "Tale of a Sword." About two hundred and fifty years ago Ikéda Kunaishôyu was Lord of the Province of Inaba. Among his retainers were two gentlemen, named Watanabé Yukiyé and Kawai Matazayémon, who were bound together by strong ties of friendship, and were in the habit of frequently visiting at one another's houses.