Tamamatsu Mahiro (玉松真弘)
Mahiro TAMAMATSU (April 20, 1810 – March 23, 1872) is a scholar of Japanese classical literature at the end of the Edo period. He is known for drafting the imperial order for the Restoration of Imperial Rule as a tactician of Tomomi IWAKURA. His kemyo (a common name) is Misao. His Gago (pseudonym) is Kiken.
He was born as the second son of Kimihiro YAMAMOTO of the Yamamoto family (the descendants of Saionji family), a branch family of the Abe clan, and became a priest and took the tonsure at Daigomuryoju-in Temple, to name his Kaimyo (a posthumous Buddhist name) 猶海. Although he was appointed to Daisozu hoin (a high-ranking priest of Buddhism), he provoked antipathy because he had strongly claimed to tighten official discipline of the temple, and returned to secular life in 1839. He called himself Kiken YAMAMOTO and then changed the name to Misao TAMAMATSU.
He studied in Kyoto under Takamasa OKUNI, a scholar of Japanese classical literature, but soon confronted with him and returned to Izumi Province to live in seclusion in Mano of Omi Province. He took Hyobu MIKAMI, Sigekuni JUGE and others as his disciples. In 1867 he met Tomomi IWAKURA through Mikami and became his trustworthy assistant. Thereafter, he always acted with IWAKURA from the end of the Edo period through the early Meiji period, helping his activities with his scholarship and literary talent.
Especially what made him famous can be that he made the draft of the imperial order for the Restoration of Imperial Rule which was presented at the Kogosho Conference (the meeting held in the presence of the Emperor in the Kogosho Conference Room of Kyoto Imperial Palace at the night of December 9, 1867, when the Decree for the Restoration of Imperial Rule was issued). Furthermore, he made less than small achivements including that he predicted a war would occur between the bakufu (shogunate) and the imperial government sooner or later, and developed a flag design of the Imperial standard (made of gold brocade) in order to encourage the fighting spirit of the imperial army.
After the Restoration of Imperial Rule was achieved, he became an internal office judge and took an extremely conservative stance, for example, together with Kanetane HIRATA, he required Daigaku-ryo (Bureau of Education under the ritsuryo system) (Kangakusho [the Chinese Learning Place]) be annexed to the Daigakukan which centers on the study of Japanese classical literature, and thus gradually deepened a gap between Iwakura and others. In 1869 he became a member of Toshoke (the hereditary lineage of Court nobles occupying relatively high ranks) and was supplied with 30-koku karoku (hereditary stipend) for san-nin fuchi (the equivalent of an annual three-man rice stipend). On the transfer of the national capital to Tokyo, he submitted a request for the extension for it, and while he was assigned to Daigaku chu hakase (middle Doctor) -cum-Jidoku (imperial tutor) in Tokyo in 1870, he hated the governmental policy of Europeanization and resigned in October the same year. Returning to Kyoto, he lived in seclusion but soon died of illness. In July, 1884, his legitimate son Masaki TAMAMURA was created a baron.
He is famous as a main character of "Kamo no Mizu" (Water of Kamo) by Ryotaro SHIBA.