Ueno Tadachika (上野忠親)
Tadachika UENO (1684 - June 18, 1755) was a feudal retainer of Tottori Domain of the middle of the Edo period. His common name was Koheita and his childhood name was Koheiji or Shinkuro.
Personal History
In 1684, he was born to the Nishio clan in Fushimi, Yamashiro Province. He was adopted by his aunt, Koonin (also known as Ueno) who was a concubine of Mitsunaka IKEDA in 1694, and he moved to Tottori. After being nurtured by Koonin, he went to Kyoto to study from 1698 to 1699. In April 1707, he was offered 300 koku from Koonin, and in September 1712, he changed his family name to Ueno. On the death of Koonin in March 1722, he was given a total of 600 koku, including the 300 koku given by Koonin earlier, and become the head of the Ueno family. When the Genbun uprising occurred in March 1739, Tadachika, who belonged to the village meeting, explained the memorandum filed by peasants to the lord of the domain, Yoshiyasu IKEDA, at the command of Ikeda, but he received house confinement order for the reason that he was sympathetic to the uprising in May 1739. According to the "Tottori-han shi" (History Record of Tottori Domain), it is said that he worked diligently on his writings during the time of house confinement. He was relieved of house confinement in December of the same year and called himself Kinezumi okina (the old man of squirrel). He died of illness at the age of 75 at his residence in Chamachi, near the Tottori-jo Castle, on June 18 1755. His son, Koheita, took over as the head of the family, but due to the reduction of hereditary stipend during the Kansei era (1789-1801), the family line ended.
His written works
Tadachika enjoyed studying from an early age and many books written by him still remain. He was well acquainted with various fields, had broad knowledge, and wrote about mysterious incidents that he explored. Later on, his achievements were referred to as a 'great gift that should be handed down to later generations, including our domain and historians' (according to the "Inpunenpyo" [Chronological Table of Tottori]) by Masayoshi OKAJIMA. He was also familiar with martial art and had written about it.
His major written works
"Sesso yawa" (The Evening story of snow window)
"Sesso kanwa" (The idle talk of snow window)
"Seia gokai" (The words on Seia, work about the Seia-ryu style swordplay)
"Amayo hitsudan" (The talks in a rainy night, work about the Hikita-ryu sojutsu school of spearmanship)
"Kachimi meiseki shi" (Famous historic places of Kachimi)
"Kakusui gekidan" (The intense talks on a wakeful night)
"Katsumi nikki" (The journal of Katsumi)
"Kaikan kasho" (The funny stories)
"Ihon Ikeda keizu" (Alternative version of the genealogical table of the Ikeda family)
"Bushigen" (The sayings of samurai)
"Kinezumi zuihitsu" (The essay of the old man of squirrel)