Nagayuki Ogasawara - Nagamichi Ogasawara

Japanese: 小笠原長行 - おがさわら・ながみち

Year of death: January 22, 1891 (Meiji 24)
Year of birth: Bunsei 5.5.11 (1822.6.29)
A senior councilor in the late Edo period. Born as the eldest son of Ogasawara Nagamasa, the lord of the Karatsu Domain (Saga Prefecture). He lost his father at the age of two and became a roommate under the lord who came from another family. In 1857 (Ansei 4), he became the heir to the lord Nagakuni and took charge of the domain's administration. He was well known for his academic knowledge, and in July 1862 (Bunkyu 2), while still in his heir status, he served as a soshaban (a member of the Imperial Court) and a wakadoshiyori (a member of the Junior Council of Ministers) and then as a senior councilor under the shogunate of Tokugawa Yoshinobu and Matsudaira Yoshinaga. The following year, he went to Kyoto and attempted to reconcile the Imperial Court and the Shogunate under Tokugawa Iemochi, but was attacked by the Sonno Joi faction and failed, so he returned to Edo. In May, he made the decision to pay compensation to Britain for the Namamugi Incident, and landed in Osaka with about 1,500 soldiers including Mukaiyama Ippi (Kouson) and Mizuno Tadanori, and tried to suppress the Sonno Joi movement, but this drew criticism from the Imperial Court and he was dismissed. In September 1865, he was appointed as a senior councilor, and then as a senior councilor. In the following year, he went to Hiroshima to carry out the punishment for the Choshu clan, and travelled to Kokura to command the expeditionary force to Kyushu, but the war situation was unfavorable, and he fled Kokura upon receiving news of Iemochi's death. In October, he was dismissed and placed under house arrest. The following November, he was reinstated as a senior councilor. In February 1868, after the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, he resigned as a senior councilor and renounced his position as heir. He escaped from Edo and joined the Oshu-Uetsu Reppan Dōmei (the Alliance of Feudal Lords), serving as a staff officer together with Itakura Katsushige. After the alliance collapsed, he entered Goryokaku in Hakodate. In April 1870, during the final stages of the Boshin War and the height of the Hakodate War, he returned to Tokyo on an American ship and went into hiding. In 1872, he made his public appearance, but thereafter spent the rest of his life in seclusion. "I want my gravestone to be engraved with the words 'No voice, no scent, no color, no faintness, so no name left in this world', and I want it to be without a common name or a posthumous name," he said in his will, jokingly. His son, Chosei, made a tombstone just like everyone else's.

(Inoue Isao)

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

Japanese:

没年：明治24.1.22(1891)
生年：文政5.5.11(1822.6.29)
幕末の老中。唐津藩(佐賀県)藩主小笠原長昌の長子に生まれる。2歳で父を失い,他家から入った藩主のもとで部屋住となる。安政4(1857)年藩主長国の世子となり藩政指導に当たる。学識はつとに高名で,文久2(1862)年7月,徳川慶喜,松平慶永の幕政のもと世子の身分のまま奏者番,若年寄を経て老中格。翌年上洛,将軍徳川家茂のもと朝幕間の融和を図るが尊攘派の攻撃にあい失敗,江戸に帰る。5月決断してイギリスに生麦事件の償金を支払い,向山一履(黄村),水野忠徳らと兵約1500を率いて大坂に上陸,尊攘運動の抑圧を図るが朝廷の反発を招き,免職された。慶応1(1865)年9月老中格,次いで老中。翌2年長州処分執行のため広島に出張,小倉に渡り九州方面の征長軍指揮に当たるが,戦局は不利に進行,家茂死去の報を得て小倉を脱す。10月免職・謹慎。翌11月老中に復職。鳥羽・伏見の戦の後の明治1(1868)年2月,老中を辞職し世子の地位も放棄。江戸を脱走,奥羽越列藩同盟に加わり板倉勝静と共に参謀役。同盟崩壊後,箱館五稜郭に入る。翌2年4月戊辰戦争の最終段階,箱館戦争の最中,アメリカ船により帰京,潜伏。同5年姿を公にするが,その後も世間を絶って余生を送る。「俺の墓石には,声もなし香もなし色もあやもなしさらば此の世にのこす名もなし,とだけ刻んで,俗名も戒名もなしにして貰いたいなあ」と冗談を交えて遺言。子の長生は世間並みの墓石を作った。<参考文献>『小笠原壱岐守長行』

(井上勲)

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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