Gyuichi Ohta

Japanese: 太田牛一 - おおた・ぎゅういち

Year of death: Unknown (Year of death unknown)
Year of birth: 1527
A warrior and war chronicle writer from the Sengoku and early Edo periods. He was nicknamed Matasuke and called himself Izumi no Kami. He is said to have been from Anshiki, Yamada Manor, Kasugai County, Owari Province (Kasugai City and other areas). He started out as a foot soldier for Oda Nobunaga and was counted among the "number of men with three bows." From a young age, he seems to have kept a record of his lord Nobunaga's movements and events around him in the form of notes. Around 1581 (Tensho 9), he had become a magistrate in Omi Province, but the following year, Nobunaga was killed in the Honnoji Incident, and he retired to Matsuto, Kaga. He began serving Toyotomi Hideyoshi around 1582, and demonstrated his skills as a bureaucrat in the Toyotomi government, such as a land survey magistrate and a treasury land magistrate, rather than as a military commander. After Hideyoshi's death, he served Hideyori for a time, but soon retired and lived in Tamazukuri, Osaka, where he devoted himself to writing war chronicles. Among these, the 15 volumes of "Nobunaga-ki" and the 16 volumes of "Nobunaga-koki", which has been completely restored with the addition of a first volume, can be said to be the greatest masterpieces among biographies of Nobunaga, and are well-known for their high reliability as historical materials. Other famous works include "Okausamakunki no Uchi" and "Toyokuni Daimyojin Rinji Gosairei Kiroku" related to Hideyoshi, "Sekihara Gogassen Soushi" related to Tokugawa Ieyasu, and "Kondo no Kuge Soushi" and "Inokuma Monogatari" related to the nobility. The latest colophon of these books dates to 1610, when Ushiichi was 84 years old. As no works after that have been found to date, it is believed that he died shortly after that.

(Tetsuo Owada)

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

Japanese:

没年：没年不詳(没年不詳)
生年：大永7(1527)
戦国・江戸前期の武士,軍記作者。通称を又助といい,和泉守を称した。尾張国春日井郡山田荘安食(春日井市ほか)の出身といわれる。はじめ織田信長の足軽として「弓三張之人数」に数えられ,若いころから主君信長の動静や身のまわりにおきたことがらを手控の形で残していたらしい。天正9(1581)年ごろには近江のうちで奉行も務めるほどになっていたが,翌年の本能寺の変で信長が討たれるとともに,加賀松任に隠棲。豊臣秀吉に仕えるようになるのは天正17年ごろからで,武将としてというより検地奉行とか蔵入地代官など,豊臣政権の吏僚として手腕を発揮していた。秀吉没後,一時秀頼に仕えたが,まもなく隠退し,大坂玉造に住んで,以後,軍記の述作に専念した。なかでも『信長記』15巻,これに首巻を加え全体を修補した『信長公記』16巻は,信長伝記中の最高傑作といってよく,史料としての信憑性が高いことでも定評がある。ほかに秀吉関係で『大かうさまくんきのうち』『豊国大明神臨時御祭礼記録』,徳川家康関係で『関原御合戦双紙』を残し,その他,公家関係では『今度之公家双紙』『猪隈物語』などが有名である。これら諸書の奥書で年代的にみて一番遅いのが慶長15(1610)年で,牛一の84歳に当たる。現在のところそれ以降のものが発見されていないので,死没はその直後ではないかと思われる。

(小和田哲男)

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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