Ijichi Sadaka (伊地知貞馨)
Sadaka IJICHI (1926 - 1887) was a bureaucrat who lived during the Meiji period. He was from the Satsuma Domain. His other names were: Matajuro HORI, Chuzaemon HORI, Jiro HORI, Kotaro HORI, and Sonojo (壮之丞) ICHIJI.
He joined the launch of Seichugumi Organization formed by the young feudal retainers of Satsuma Domain. Hisamitsu SHIMAZU, who was gripping the real power of the clan as the father of the domain lord, selected him as his close adviser with the intention of managing the Seichugumi Organization, which was prone to be radical. Hori (Sadaka IJICHI) was also assigned Okonando (the attendant in charge of general affaires of the feudal lord). At first, he played an important role in the negotiations with other clans held in Kyoto, Edo (present Tokyo) and other places as a Hisamitsu's close adviser comparable to Toshimichi OKUBO. In December 1861, he needed time for preparing to carry out a troops dispatch plan formulated by Hisamitsu aiming at the reform of Edo bakufu (later this led to the Bunkyu Reform), and he was obliged to take a tricky measure by the order of the domain; that is to set fire to the Satsuma Domain's own residence maintained in Edo in order to delay the period of Sankinkotai (a system under which feudal lords in the Edo period were required to spend every other year in residence in Edo) for domain lord Tadayoshi SHIMAZU. For this 'damage caused by the fire,' Tadayoshi's delayed arrival in Edo was forgiven, however, on August 27, 1862, it was revealed by the bakufu that the fire was self-provoked by the Satsuma clan. Hori, who was accused for the crime as the principal offender, was extradited in a cage from Edo to Kagoshima on the domain's ship, Tenyumaru, and thus, he retired from the political front in the Satsuma Domain. Later, he changed his family name to Ichiji, and held the position of Shusshi (supernumerary government official) at the Currency Bureau and Ryukyu-zaiban (resident officer in Ryukyu (present Okinawa), and he also took charge of compilation of the neo-historiography.
After the Meiji Restoration, he served the Ministry of Home Affairs, however, accused by Toshimichi OKUBO, who was Home Minister then and who had been his sworn allies for many years, for having received a bribe from the Ryukyu government, and he was dismissed from the office.
"Okinawashiryaku" (Brief history of Okinawa) and "Okinawashi (Ryukushi)" (History of Okinawa [History of Ryukyu]) are considered as his principal literary works of history.