Masakoto Sano

Japanese: 佐野政言 - さの・まさこと

Year of death: 4/4/1784 (5/21/1784)
Year of birth: 1757
A samurai of the mid-Edo period. Son of Masatoyo. Called Zenzaemon. A shogunate vassal, he was awarded 500 koku for generations and became a new governor. In the winter of 1783 (Tenmei 3), he was selected to participate in a falconry with Shogun Tokugawa Ieharu as an honorary archer, and shot a wild goose, but for unclear reasons received no reward. Masayoshi held a grudge against Tanuma Okitsugu, a junior councilor, for this unfair treatment, and on March 24, 1784, he attacked Ikitsugu in the Kikyo Hall of Edo Castle, and Ikitsugu was seriously injured and died on March 26. Masayoshi was ordered to commit seppuku in his room. It is said that the sword fight was caused by the elder councilors Tanuma Okitsugu and Ikitsugu, who borrowed the family tree of the Sano family, which was their head family, and stole it without paying it back despite repeated requests. After his death, Masagen was praised as the "Great God of Reform" by the Edo common people, who did not approve of Tanuma's tyranny, and it is said that incense and flowers were always placed at his grave.His yellow-covered novel, "Kokuhaku Suikyou" (written by Ishibe Kinko and illustrated by Santo Kyoden, published in 1789), was known to be a work that blatantly based on this incident, and came under scrutiny from the writers.

(Toshihiko Uda)

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

Japanese:

没年：天明4.4.3(1784.5.21)
生年：宝暦7(1757)
江戸中期の旗本。政豊の子。善左衛門と称した。幕臣で代々500石を領し,新御番となった。天明3(1783)年冬,将軍徳川家治の鷹狩りに選抜されて名誉な供弓として参加し,雁1羽を射ち取ったが,不明瞭な理由で何の恩賞もなかった。政言はこの不公平な沙汰を,若年寄田沼意知の依怙贔屓によるものと恨み,翌4年3月24日江戸城桔梗の間で意知に切り付け,意知は重傷を負って3月26日死去,政言は揚座敷で切腹を命ぜられた。この刃傷沙汰は老中田沼意次・意知父子が主筋に当たる佐野の家の系図を借り受け,たびたびの催促にもかかわらず返済しないで,横取りしたのが原因ともいう。死後政言は,田沼の専横を喜ばぬ江戸庶民に「世直し大明神」とたたえられ,その墓には香華が絶えなかったと伝えられ,黄表紙『黒白水鏡』(石部琴好作,山東京伝画。1789刊)はこの一件をあからさまに趣向とした作として知られ,筆禍を被った。

(宇田敏彦)

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

<<: Manabu Sano - Manabu Sano

>>: The Maiden of Sano Chigami