Hezutsu Tosaku

Japanese: 平秩東作 - へずつ・とうさく

Year of death: 8th March 1789 (3rd April 1789)
Year of birth: Kyoho 11 (1726)
A comic writer from the mid-Edo period. While running a tobacco shop in Edo Naito Shinjuku, he loved kyoka and gesaku, and was one of the people who started the trend for these. His real name was Tatematsu Kaneyuki, and he was commonly known as Inageya Kin'emon. It seems that he studied classics and poetry in his youth, as is reflected in his comical name "Heichi Tosaku." He was close to Hiraga Gennai and Ota Nanpo, and was also deeply involved in the Tanuma Okitsugu government, starting up a business, and engaging in exploration of Ezo, showing that he was not an easy character to deal with. Along with Gennai and Nanpo, he was a pioneer of so-called Edo gesaku, and he was a typical example of an early comic writer in that he had deep knowledge and ambition inside him, but also enjoyed kyoka and gesaku. <References> Inoue Takaaki, "The Comical Years of Heichi Tosaku"

(Mitsutoshi Nakano)

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

Japanese:

没年：寛政1.3.8(1789.4.3)
生年：享保11(1726)
江戸中期の戯作者。江戸内藤新宿で煙草屋を営む傍ら狂歌,戯作を好み,その流行の端緒を開いたひとりである。本名は立松懐之,通称は稲毛屋金右衛門という。若年時は経学,詩文の勉強に励んだらしいことは「平秩東作」の狂名にもあらわれている。平賀源内,大田南畝らと親しく,一方で田沼意次政権にも深くかかわって事業を起こしたり,蝦夷地探索に従事するなど,一筋縄ではいかぬ人物像を示している。源内,南畝と共にいわゆる江戸戯作の草分け的存在であり,内に深い学識と野心を秘めて,一方で狂歌や戯作に打ち興じるあたり,前期戯作者の一典型でもある。<参考文献>井上隆明『平秩東作の戯作的歳月』

(中野三敏)

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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