Rokkaku Ujisato (六角氏郷)
Ujisato ROKKAKU (六角 氏郷) was a samurai in the Edo period. He was a legitimate son of Yoshisato ROKKAKU who belonged to the main branch of the Rokkaku clan. His mother was a daughter of Hidenobu ODA. His childhood name was Tatsutamemaru. His common name was Shiro. His official court rank was Jushiinoge (Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade), Nakatsukasa no taifu (Senior Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Central Affairs), Hyobu no taifu (Senior Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Military), Saemon no kami (Captain of the Left Division of Outer Palace Guards). He was sometimes called Hyobu by another name. His In (seal) was inscribed with "Kogenmeiryu" (江源明流).
While the reliability of his career has long been doubted in the historical studies, there are some documents, genealogies and so on which would make us presume that he really existed, and his real image has been clarified by those materials. He is sometimes said to be the same person as Gennai SAWADA, but as Gennai died in 1660, they are different persons.
Biography
In 1621, Ujisato was born as the first son of Yoshisato ROKKAKU.
He is not a daimyo, but he was recognized to be of the main branch of the Rokkaku clan in "Kansei Choshu Shokafu" (genealogies of vassals of the Edo bakufu [Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun] in the Kansei era), and he lived in Kyoto with the retainers attending on him. He was deeply cultivated and dared to say what he had to say by nature, and he kept friendship with the chief priests of Shokoku-ji Temple Gukei Toko and Joshu Myojo. On October 30, 1663, he argued with Gukei about the year of the birth of Muso Kokushi (the most reverend priest), and he corrected the error of the opinion which was believed at that time.
As a direct descendant of the Sasaki Rokkaku clan, he owned the genealogy of the head family of the Sasaki clan "Kindei no Maki" (a horizontal scroll written with gold paint), he had Ikai (Court rank) of Shii (Fourth Rank), and he was admitted inshoden (access to the retired emperor in the imperial court) by Emperor Gomizunoo ("Muso Kokushi Zokufu" [夢窓国師俗譜], "Hagakure Monryaku" [葉隠聞略], the genealogy of the Sasaki clan possessed by Sasaki-jinja Shrine [沙沙貴神社所蔵佐々木系図]),
There was an affair that because he wore shiro kosode (a kind of white underwear) which only the people with Court rank equal to Shii (Fourth Rank) or higher than that were permitted to wear although he was a ronin (masterless samurai), he was investigated by Kyoto Shosidai (the Governor-General of Kyoto) Masanori INABA in the Tenna era, but he referred to Eihonin Gomenkyo (imperial license for eternal appointment) and brought the genuine object of it confidently to reply the investigation, and so he was able to escape the trouble. Inaba inquired this matter of the lord of the Marugame domain Takatoyo KYOGOKU by sending a letter to him, and he got a response from him that said, "I have known the person called Hyobu ROKKAKU." In Hagakure Monryaku, we can find the statement that Naoshige NABESHIMA recognized Ujisato to be the main branch of the Rokkaku clan, so we can gather the fact that the people in those days realized that Ujisato was a legal descendant of the Rokkaku clan.
According to "Kyogoku-shi Kashin Nanigashi Oboegaki bassui" (the extracted memoranda by some vassal of the Kyogoku clan), Ujisato had kept a close friendship with Takatoyo KYOGOKU since the Tenna era, and he received supporting silver from the Kyogoku family.
This was based on the relationship in which because Ujisato had no son of his own, in exchange of presenting Takatoyo with the seven pieces of the family treasure that were handed down for generations by the Rokkaku family, he adopted Takatoyo's son to make him his successor (before this, he received Shigenaga NIWATA, a child of Masazumi NIWATA, to make his successor from the Niwata family which was the Tosho-ke [the hereditary lineage family of Court nobles occupying relatively high ranks] of the same Uda-Genji [the Minamoto clan of the Uda lineage] as he was, and after Shigenaga returned to his parents' home, he tried to get his successor by handing his family treasure over to the Chikuzen Kuroda family and the Tsuwano Kamei family, but in vain.)
There is also a record that when Ujisato visited Marugame three years after that, a proposal was made that the Kyogoku clan treat him as a member of the clan and paid him 3,000 koku (a unit of crop yields, 1 koku equals to about 180 liters) to invite him to Marugame.
In 1693, Ujisato died. His age at death was 73. There is an entry about his official court rank in the genealogy of the Sasaki clan possessed by Sasaki-jinja Shrine.
Descendants
Also, Atsuchika ROKKAKU (1727 - ?), one of Ujisato's descendants (probaly his grandson), was appointed to Takiguchi no musha (samurai guards of the Imperial Residence) in 1768, and was promoted to Sado no kami (the governor of Sado Province), and his descendants continued to exist as the Takiguchi Rokkaku family until the end of the Edo period ("Jigekaden" (a record of family trees of Jige, lower rank court officials, written by Kagefumi MIKAMI). Atsuyoshi ROKKAKU (dates of birth and death unknown), one of Ujisato's great-grandsons, wrote "Gosenko Gubu Shikimoku-sho", and became famous as a scholar, too.
Furthermore, one of the descendants of Doctor Shigemasa ARIMA, Ujisato's adopted son-in-law, is Doctor Shigeto ROKKAKU, who wrote works like "Koho Binran", "Shitsui Shinwa" and others in the Tenmei era.