Shigenari Ohtaka

Japanese: 大高重成 - おおたか・しげなり

Year of death: Jōji 1/Shohei 17 (1362)
Year of birth: Year of birth unknown. Military commander during the Northern and Southern Court period. Son of Shigenaga. Commonly known as Jiro. Iyo Gonnokami. In 1333, he participated in Ashikaga Takauji's attack on Rokuhara, and is said to have effortlessly chopped off both of the enemy's legs using a 5 shaku 6 sun (approximately 1.7 m) long sword with one hand. Appointed as the first Kozamurai-dokoro of the Muromachi Shogunate, he served as Shugo of Wakasa (Fukui Prefecture) four times from 1338, but each time his tenure was short. In the Kan'o Disturbance that began in 1350, in which Takauji and his younger brother Tadayoshi fought, he initially sided with Tadayoshi and opposed Takanori's clanmate, Takanori Moronao, but after Moronao's death he sided with Takauji. He served as the Shogunate's Hikki-tsuke no Tojin from 1352 to the following year, but his whereabouts after that are unknown. He was devoted to Zen Buddhism, and wrote a guide to Zen Buddhism called "Muchu Mondoshu" for Naoki, written by his teacher Muso Soseki, with a postscript (text at the end of the book) by the abbot of Nanzen-ji Temple, Chikusen Bonsen, which was published in October 1344. In the same year, he invited Chikusen's disciple Dainen Hoen to restore Ankoku-ji Temple in Wakasa, a province that had fallen into disrepair. The temple was renamed Kosei-ji Temple, taking two characters from Shigenari's name.

(Akira Kawamura)

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

Japanese:

没年：貞治1/正平17(1362)
生年：生年不詳
南北朝時代の武将。重長の子。通称次郎。伊予権守。正慶2/元弘3(1333)年足利尊氏の六波羅攻めに加わり,5尺6寸(約1.7m)の大太刀を片手で操って敵の両足を苦もなく切り落としたという。室町幕府の初代小侍所に任じられ,暦応1/延元3(1338)年以降,4回若狭(福井県)守護となっているが,いずれも在職期間は短い。尊氏とその弟直義が争った観応1/正平5(1350)年に始まる観応の擾乱では,当初直義方に属して一族の高師直に対抗したが,師直の死後は尊氏方にくみした。文和1/正平7(1352)年から翌年までは幕府引付頭人を務めているが,その後の動静は不詳。禅宗に傾倒し,師夢窓疎石が直義のために著した参禅入門書『夢中問答集』に,南禅寺住持竺仙梵僊の跋文(巻末の文)を得て康永3/興国5(1344)年10月に刊行。また同年,竺仙の弟子大年法延を招いて荒廃していた分国若狭の安国寺を再興している。同寺は重成の氏名から2字をとって高成寺と改称した。

(河村昭一)

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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