(Saito Dosan)
＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
Saito Dosan, whose passionate performance by Masahiro Motoki in the 2020 NHK Taiga drama “Kirin ga Kuru” has garnered much attention, is a character who rose from a humble oil seller to conquer the entire Mino province.
This time, I’d like to provide a clear explanation of Saito Dosan.
1. Who is Saito Dosan?
Saito Dosan, who appeared alongside Oda Nobunaga as a protagonist in Ryotaro Shiba’s novel “Kuni-tori Monogatari” (The Tale of the Conquest of the Country), became famous as a “Sengoku daimyo who overthrew his superiors,” but not much is known about the first half of his life.
Saito Dosan (1494?-1556) was a warlord and daimyo of Mino during the Sengoku period, nicknamed “Mino’s Viper.” He is also known as one of the “Three Great Warring States Heroes,” along with Matsunaga Hisahide and Ukita Naoie (or Hojo Soun).
His ancestors had served as “northern warriors” for generations. His father, Matsunami Sakonshogen Motomune, became a ronin (masterless samurai) due to circumstances and lived in Nishioka, Otokuni County, Yamashiro Province. He was also born here.
As a child, he became a monk at Myokaku-ji Temple in Kyoto and took the name Horenbo. He later returned to secular life, took the name Matsunami Shogoro (also known as Shokuro), married the daughter of oil wholesaler Naraya Matabei, and established an oil merchant business under the name “Yamazakiya.”
His business method, which involved pouring oil without using a funnel, was a kind of performance in which he would pour the oil by passing it through the hole in a one-mon coin. If the oil spills, he will not charge. This became popular in Mino.
One day while traveling as a peddler, he reunited with his former apprentice, Higobo, and through his introduction, he began serving Nagai Nagahiro (?-1533?), a veteran retainer of the Toki clan, the guardian of Mino.
Another story goes that one day, after he had become successful as a traveling oil seller, a samurai named Yano of the Toki clan, from whom he bought oil, said to him, “Your oil selling skills are excellent, but they are ultimately those of a merchant. If you put this skill into martial arts, you could become a fine samurai, but it’s a shame.” This prompted him to resign from his business, train in spear and gun techniques, and become a master of martial arts. Then, determined to become a samurai, he was recommended by his former apprentice, Nikofusa, who was the head priest of Jozai-ji Temple in Mino, and became a vassal of Nagai Nagahiro, the deputy governor of Mino and the Toki clan.
Nagai Nagahiro was impressed by Nagai’s talent and martial arts skills, and introduced him to Masayori (years of birth and death unknown), the eldest son of the governor, Toki Masafusa (1457-1519), and his younger brother, Yorifusa (1502-1582). Yorifusa appears to have taken a liking to him.
A succession dispute subsequently broke out within the Toki clan. Masafusa wanted Yorifusa to succeed him, but Masayori won and became Shugo of Mino.
However, Yorifusa was a favorite of Masafusa, so in August 1527, he secretly prepared for battle and launched a night attack on Masayori, successfully driving him out of Mino. Masayori then fled to Asakura Takakage in Echizen Province.
However, despite his success in placing Yorifusa in the position of Shugo, Masafusa was unable to receive any significant benefits due to Nagai Nagahiro’s status as a vassal, and Nagai Nagahiro gradually became a hindrance.
In January 1530, he murdered Nagai Nagahiro and his wife for reasons such as “negligence in government duties” and “Nagahiro’s collusion with Masayori of Echizen, so he executed him on orders from above,” and took over the Nagai clan. After taking over the Nagai clan, he made Inabayama Castle (later Gifu Castle) his base.
In 1538, when Saito Toshiyoshi, a shugodai (deputy military governor) who, like the Nagai, was a senior vassal of the Toki clan, died, he inherited his family name and began calling himself the “Saito clan.”
However, as an upstart with no authority, those around him were not so easily receptive. So he set out to seize the entire Mino province. In 1541, he attacked his lords, Toki Yorifusa and Toki Yorizumi, at Okusa Castle, driving them out of the castle and successfully completing his coup. Yorifusa fled to Owari, while Yorizumi headed to Echizen to seek refuge with his maternal family, the Asakura clan.
Mino continued to be plagued by invasions by Toki Yorifusa, who was supported by Oda Nobuhide of Owari, and Toki Yorizumi, backed by Asakura Takakage of Echizen.
He fought often from his base in the impregnable Inabayama Castle, but eventually made peace with the Oda and Asakura clans.
Then, the topic of “a political marriage for Kicho (effectively a hostage)” was raised as a condition for peace with the Oda and Asakura clans. This will be discussed in more detail in the next section, “His relationship with his daughter Kicho (Nohime).”
Yorifusa was then banished from Mino by Nobunaga, and he traveled from place to place, eventually finding himself in Omi, Hitachi, Kazusa, and Kai. He was eventually discovered taking refuge with the Takeda clan during Oda Nobunaga’s Kai campaign in 1582.
(Saito Yoshitatsu)
His potential successors included his eldest son, Yoshitatsu (1527-1561), as well as his second son, Magoshiro, and third son, Kiheiji. However, Yoshitatsu seems to have disliked Yoshitatsu and favored his second and third sons. This may have been due to his suspicion that Yoshitatsu was the son of Yorinari and Miyoshino (a woman who was originally Yorinari’s favorite concubine and given to him as a concubine).
He initially thought that Oda Nobunaga, with whom he had made peace and married Kagetoyo as a de facto hostage, might be a “fool” as rumored. However, after inviting him to Mino and meeting him in person, he became enamoured with him, realizing that he was “no ordinary man.” And before the Battle of Nagaragawa with Yoshitatsu and his men, he even left a will stating that “the entire province of Mino would be handed over to Nobunaga.”
At first, he even considered dethroning Yoshitatsu, but perhaps due to pressure from his vassals, he eventually handed over the family headship to Yoshitatsu.
In the end, Yoshitatsu decided to kill his father, Dosan, and first summoned and murdered his two younger brothers (Mashiro and Kibei) in 1555, before facing off against Dosan in the Battle of Nagaragawa in 1556.
Few vassals sided with Dosan, and most sided with Yoshitatsu, so he was killed by his own son.
During his lifetime, Yoshitatsu had described Yoshitatsu as “incompetent,” but it is said that after seeing Yoshitatsu’s command at the Battle of Nagaragawa, he changed his opinion and regretted it.
He asked his ally, Oda Nobunaga, for reinforcements. Upon learning what had happened, Oda Nobunaga rushed to the scene himself, but Dosan had already been defeated and killed.
Following his death in 1561, Nobunaga seized the opportunity of Yoshitatsu’s sudden death to invade Mino, defeating Yoshitatsu’s son, Tatsuoki, and seizing control of Mino Province. Coincidentally, this was in accordance with Dosan’s will.
His last words were, “Where will I dwell, having abandoned all that is but this world?”
2. Relationship with His Daughter, Kicho (Nōhime)
Dosan appears to have viewed his daughters as little more than tools for political marriages. One of his daughters became the wife of Anenokoji Yoritsuna (1540-1587), the head of the Hida Anenokoji clan and a Sengoku period daimyo. Other daughters he had were the wives of Toki Yorika, Saito Toshimitsu, Ise Sadayoshi, and Inaba Sadamichi.
(Haruna Kawaguchi, who plays Kicho in the historical drama)
The other daughter, Kicho (Nohime) (1535-?), first married Toki Yorizumi (1524-1547), the shugo daimyo of Mino Province, and became his legal wife.
There are hints that she had previously engaged to marry Oda Nobunaga.
Around 1541, Dosan expelled the shugo, Toki Yorifusa, and killed his family, becoming the lord of Mino Province. However, many vassals still loyal to the Toki clan, and order within the country was in disarray. Therefore, he appointed his eldest son, Yoshitatsu, the son of Toki Yorifusa’s concubine, Miyoshino, who had been given to him by Yorifusa, as the illegitimate son of Yorifusa, and appointed him as the shugo of Mino.
However, in August 1544, Oda Nobuhide (1511-1552) of the neighboring province of Owari, who disliked the rise of the Saito clan, sent troops to assist Yorifusa and invaded Mino with Yorifusa’s nephew, Toki Yorizumi, who was assisted by Asakura Takakage of Echizen Province. As a result, the area around Inabayama Castle was burned down, and defeat seemed imminent, so Dosan decided to make peace with both sides.
The condition for peace with the Oda clan was a pledge to marry Nobuhide’s eldest son, KIchihoshimaru (Nobunaga), to his daughter (effectively a hostage). With the Toki clan, the promise was that Yorifusa would be placed in Kitakata Castle and Yorizumi in Kawate Castle.
In 1546, Dosan also made peace with Asakura Takakage, on the condition that Yorifusa hand over his position as shugo to Yorizumi. As a new token of peace (hostage), he gave his daughter, Kicho, to Yorizumi as a bride, and allowed Yorifusa and Yorizumi to enter Mino.
At this point, Nobunaga’s promise of marriage to Kicho was temporarily put on hold, but the Oda and Asakura clans had not given up on defeating Dosan, and in 1547 they urged Yorifusa and Yorizumi to base themselves at Okusa Castle, rally vassals supporting the Toki clan, and launch an uprising.
However, upon learning of this, Dosan attacked Okusa Castle with a large army, forcing Yorifusa to flee to Ichijodani in Echizen, home of the Asakura clan, and Yorizumi to be killed in battle (although it is also said that Yorizumi suddenly died the following year). Kicho became a widow and returned to her parents’ home.
Dōsan and Nobuhide then fought over Ogaki Castle, but the conflict was unresolved and they eventually made peace. So, as a condition for peace, the matter of the previous year’s marriage was brought up again, and Kicho was to be married to Nobunaga (effectively as a hostage).
3. A new theory: “The conquest of Mino was a two-generation conquest of Dosan’s father and his son.”
Until now, the conventional wisdom has been that “Dosan rose from a simple oil merchant to conquer (pacify) Mino in one generation,” and my explanation has followed that line.
However, recently, a more popular theory has emerged that “the conquest of Mino was a two-generation effort, spanning Dosan’s father and his son.”
This view arose from the ancient document “Rokkaku Jōteijō Transcription,” discovered during the compilation of the “History of Gifu Prefecture,” published between 1965 and 1973, which suggested that it was a father-son undertaking by Nagai Shinzaemon-no-jo and his son, Saito Dosan.
Even when it comes to such famous figures, newly discovered historical documents can overturn established theories and accepted beliefs, so even we amateurs can use our imaginations to come up with various “hypotheses.” In that sense, I believe “history” is truly fascinating.
History is the “history of the victors,” created by the victors, often embellishing and embellishing the story. The victors destroy historical records and related documents about the losers. They try to avoid leaving behind any documents that contain anything unfavorable to the victors, and anything else, so it’s common for the early lives of the losers to remain a mystery.
I believe that those who had close ties to the losers, fearing prosecution by the winners, would burn or conceal any documents that indicate a relationship with the losers in order to protect themselves. Those who had some kind of relationship with the losers would also keep quiet and not leave any records or other written records.
As an aside, I once heard that the Imperial Headquarters of the former Japanese Army issued a coded instruction to each unit just before defeat and surrender to “incinerate any confidential documents that could lead to the investigation of war responsibility or be disadvantageous diplomatically.”