Ajima Tatewaki

Japanese: 安島帯刀 - あじま・たてわき

Year of death: August 27, 6th year of Ansei (September 23, 1859)
Year of birth: Bunka 9 (1812)
A senior retainer of the Mito domain who was executed during the Ansei Purge. His given name was Tadayoshi, later Nobutatsu. He was known as Yajiro and Tatewaki, and also called himself Gako. Born in Hitachi Province (Ibaraki Prefecture), he was the son of a Mito domain samurai, Toda Tadayuki, and the daughter of Yasushima Nobuyoshi, and was adopted by a Mito domain samurai, Yasushima Nobuyuki. He was the younger brother of Toda Tadahiro. In 1836 (Tenpo 7), he succeeded to the family headship, and in the 11th year of the same year, he became the treasurer and then head of the pages, serving as a close attendant to the domain lord, Tokugawa Nariaki, with a stipend of 150 koku and an account of 50 koku. In 1836 (Tenpo 7), he proposed the restoration of the mountain tomb, and in 1844 (Koka 1), when Tokugawa Nariaki was sentenced to retirement and house arrest, he participated in a movement to lift the punishment, and his stipend was confiscated and he was sentenced to house arrest and stay at a yagura house. With Nariaki's return to the domain government, in April 1849 he was reduced to house arrest, but in November of the same year he was released and was appointed to the small construction group, and from the 5th year of the 6th year he was appointed to the small storehouse. After the death of his elder brother, the chief retainer Toda Tadahiro, he became a chamberlain in 1856, and a chief retainer in July 1852. During this time he was involved in Nariaki's domain government reforms and consultation with the shogunate government, and helped support Nariaki's seventh son, Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu, as the successor to Shogun. He committed seppuku during the Ansei Purge. Before turning himself in he is said to have painted a self-portrait which he left for his family. One of his books is Shinobi Oto, written in the Japanese style and describing the achievements of Tokugawa Nariaki.

(Masahiko Yoshida)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：安政6.8.27(1859.9.23)
生年：文化9(1812)
安政の大獄で刑死した水戸藩家老。諱は忠誨,のちに信立。弥次郎,帯刀と称し峨興と号す。常陸国(茨城県)の生まれ,水戸藩士戸田忠之と安島信可の娘の子,同藩士安島信順の養子。戸田忠敞の弟。天保7(1836)年,家督を継ぎ同11年勘定奉行,続いて小姓頭取として藩主徳川斉昭に近侍,高150石,足高50石。天保7年には山陵修復を建議,弘化1(1844)年徳川斉昭が隠居謹慎に処分されるにおよんで処罰解除運動に参加,役禄召し上げ揚屋入り謹慎に処せられた。斉昭の藩政復帰により嘉永2(1849)年4月に自宅蟄居に減じられ同11月に処分を解かれ小普請組,5年以降小納戸役。兄の家老戸田忠敞の死後,安政3(1856)年側用人,同5年7月家老となった。この間,斉昭の藩政改革,幕政参与に関与し斉昭の7男一橋慶喜の将軍継嗣擁立に参加。安政の大獄で切腹。出頭を前に自画像を描いて家人に遺したという。著書に徳川斉昭の事績を書いた国文体の『しのび音』がある。

(吉田昌彦)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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