Sakura Azumao (佐久良東雄)
Azumao SAKURA (May 13, 1811 to August 13, 1860) was a Japanese classical scholar and poet in the end of Edo Period in Japan. His real surname was Iijima. He was commonly called Yukie, Hiroshi, Shizuma and Takeo in addition to Azumao. His pseudonym was Kyoen. He acted as a loyal supporter of Sonno Joi (the doctrine advocating the reverence for the Emperor and the expulsion of foreigners).
His early years
He was born first son to Heizo IIJIMA, a goshi (country samurai) of Urasu Village in Niihari District, Hitachi Province (present-day Urasu in Ishioka City, Ibaraki Prefecture). His childhood name was Kichibe. His family served as a nanushi (village headman) for generations. He entered into the Kannon-ji Temple of the Shingon sect at the age of nine and became a disciple of Ajari (a master in esoteric Buddhism; a high priest) Koya, the chief priest of the temple. Under Koya, who was also known as "Manyohoshi" (Buddhist priest with profound knowledge of Manyosyu), he learned about manyo waka (poems in the anthology of early Japanese poetry known as "Manyosyu"). He entered the Buddhist priesthood at the age of fifteen, and then changed his name to Yoshiya as homyo (Buddhist name) and Koshun as azana (adult male's nickname). He is said to have persuaded and appeased the people rising up to call for tax reduction, and furthermore to have made a direct plea to the local governor to save the people when he was seventeen in 1827. He got Buddhism training in the Hase-dera Temple, the grand head temple of the Buzan school of the Shingon sect in Nara, and then took over as the 28th chief priest of the Kannon-ji Temple after Koya died in 1832. When he was 25 in 1835, he became the 18th chief priest of the Zenno-ji Temple in Manabe Village, Nihari District (present-day Tsuchiura City, Ibaraki Prefecture).
Since his twenties when he moved to Manabe Village, he had learned from and kept company with Toko FUJITA, Seishisai EIZAWA, Ourou KATO (Confucian scholar and feudal retainer of Kasama Domain), Kaname OKUBO (feudal retainer of Tsuchiura Domain joining a secret imperial decree called Bogo no micchoku), Minaka IROKAWA (Japanese classical scholar and soy sauce purveyor to the bakufu) and Koan FUJIMORI (Confucian scholar). Since then, he became known as a poet named Azumao and lectured on the study of Japanese classical literature while learning Mitogaku (the scholarship and academic traditions that arose in the Mito Domain). Since his scholarly acquisition was highly evaluated, he was encouraged to serve in the Mito Domain but he declined to do so.
Move to Edo
After he resigned as the chief priest of the Zenno-ji Temple in 1842, he went to Edo and then settled down in Yanokura-cho (present-day Higashi-Nihonbashi). He learned the study of Japanese classical literature as a disciple of Atsutane HIRATA. On June, 1843, the following year, he quitted the priesthood to aim for the restoration of the study of Japanese classical literature and pledge his loyalty to the Emperor. He went straight to visit the Kashima-jingu Shrine and dedicated a thousand cherry trees to the shine. He changed his name to Yukie Azumao SAKURA named after the cherry trees.
(Yukie means to disappear gracefully like snow.)
These cherry trees still remain as "Azumaosakura (Azumao's cherry trees)" in the forest on the opposite side of the Rokuen (deer garden) in the Kajima-jinja Shrine. The Norito (Shinto prayer) dedicated by Azumao to the Kajima-shrine Temple on that occasion, "Poetry to dedicate cherry trees to the shrine of Toyokashima Amatsu Omikami" was performed by Bisei FUKUBA with the Emperor Meiji in attendance after the Meiji Restoration.
In 1844, he got married to Teruko, a daughter of Gencho SUZUKI who was an oku ishi (inner physician treating the Tokugawa family) in the Mito Domain as well as a sister of Souyo SUZUKI (not the author of "Kyuminmyoyaku" [household medication]).
He and Teruko had two sons and two daughters (giving names Hisamaru, Iwao, Mine and Haru to the eldest son who died early, the second son, the eldest daughter, and the second daughter, respectively)
After moving to the Kansai region
Azumao went around to every place to explain the doctrine of the reverence for the Emperor, but after he went to Kyoto to become the retainer of Myohoin no miya in 1845, he stayed in Otori District in Izumi Province (present-day Sakai City) to lecture on the study of poetry. In the same year, he moved to Kita-Kyuhoji in Osaka to serve as a Shinto priest at the Zama-jinja Shrine. He opened a kamunagarasha (Shinto school) to teach the study of Japanese classical literature and Emperor-centered historiography at the same time as publishing Japanese classic literature books called the Zama version. In addition, he deepened friendship with Shigenobu MINAMI, the shoya (village headman) of Ikegami Village in Wakayama whom he met in the residence of Kazan WATANABE in Edo, and promoted the thought of reverence for the Emperor while staying with the Minami family. The teahouse where Azumao lived in those days still remains.
After he moved to Kyoto again in 1854, he learned Hakke Shinto (白家神道) from Jingi haku (a chief official in charge of matters relating to Shintoism), Sukenori SHIRAKAWA and then received the title of the master of the way of worship. Being called by Myohoin no miya, he was given the rank of nakaokuseki (中奥席格) and appointed to a professor of Emperor-centered historiography. In 1857, his wife Teruko died. Around this time, he called himself as Shizuma or Takeo and used Kyoen as his pseudonym.
After that, he moved to Osaka and supported Mito roshi (masterless samurai) who joined the Sakuradamongai Incident in 1860, but he was captured together with the entire comrade on March 23 and put in prison in Matsuya-cho for sheltering Taichiro TAKAHASHI and his son Shozaemon, who escaped to Osaka. In early April, he was sent to a prison in Edodenma-cho and died of disease in prison on June 27. Later, there was a rumor that he went on hunger strike to take his own life, declaring "I will never eat Tokugawa's millet."
After his death
Azumao's body was buried as a criminal's in the Honjo-ecoin Temple in Senju kozukabara, and then reburied in Yuhigaoka, Tennoji in Osaka with the aid of the Mito Tokugawa family in 1869. Since the burial place became an industrial exhibition site, his body was moved to the Higashinari District public cemetery for re-burial in 1889. He was enshrined in the Yasukuni-jinja Shrine in 1891 and given Jushii (Junior Fourth Rank) in 1898. In 1932, he was reburied in the Zenno-ji Temple where he used to serve as the chief priest, and then chureido (temple to enshrine the soul of person who fought for the loyalty) was built. His homyo (posthumous name given to a Buddhist) is Ekoin kasoshindokyoshi. Kaname OKUBO's grave is located next to Azumao's.
Reputation as a poet
As a poet, he left many waka poems and choka (long poems) and published the collection of poetry "Harunouta (Spring poems)" by himself in March, 1840. A poet, Nobutsuna SASAKI, in the "Kinsei wakashi" (history of modern waka poems), praised Azumao as the best poet in the loyalists to the Emperor and described his poems as exhilarating as well as quaint with a Manyo form.
As his poems were highly evaluated particularly in the early Showa period, his poem "How reverend Mother is because she gave birth to me to have me serve to the Emperor" was selected as 80th poem of Aikoku Hyakunin Isshu (One Hundred Patriotic Poems by One Hundred Poets).
Old residence of Asumao SAKURA
The birthplace where Azumao spent during his childhood was designated as a national historical site in 1944. It has a Nagaya-mon gate in front and a main building of a thatch-roofed bungalow with a courtyard in between. There are a doma (dirt floor) on the main building's right and rooms arranged in the shape of rice field on the left. It is not clear when the main building was built, but it can be estimated to have been built from the middle to the end of the 18 century, or the Horeki period to the Tenmei period, judging from old room arrangement in an audience hall style, an architecture method and a construction permission paper on the front gate. It is said that the residence was built on a flat terrain and then moved to the present place due to flood, but any historical materials about it has not been left. The Iijima family was a blacksmith as well as the head of Urasu Village, but it closed the business in the early Meiji period. Although the building was repaired many times, it retains characteristics of old residences in Hitachi Province and is highly valued.
National historic site: Old residence of Asumao SAKURA in 314-1 Urasu, Ishioka City, Ibaraki Prefecture
Date of designation: March 7, 1944.