Hirohashi Kanekatsu (広橋兼勝)
Kanekatsu HIROHASHI (December 12, 1558 - January 18, 1623) was a court noble and kajin (waka poet) who lived during the Azuchi-Momoyama period and the early Edo period. He was a son of Kunimitsu HIROHASHI, descended from the Hino Line of the House of Fujiwara North, and his Kakaku (family status) was rated as important family (Court noble). His mother was a daughter of Nagaie TAKAKURA. His brothers were Terusuke HINO and Nisshin (16th chief priest of Honkoku-ji Temple, founder of Jojakko-ji Temple as the first chief priest). His children were Moromitsu HIROHASHI, Takamoto ABURANOKOJI, Takakazu WASHINO, 新遍, 観助, Hirohashi no tsubone, the wife of Nobutaka HIGUCHI, the wife of Muneyasu NAKAMIKADO, and the wife of Suefuku URATSUJI. His pseudonym was 後是称院. His one character name was 貢. His posthumous Buddhist name was Kaijaku. His official rank was Gon Dainagon (provisional chief councilor of state, conferred in 1597) and Juichii (Junior First Rank) Naidaijin (minister of the center, conferred in 1618). He and Mitsutomo KAJUJI were the first buke tenso (liaison officers between the imperial court and the military government) of the Edo bakufu (1603 - 1619).
In 1603, he unofficially announced the appointment of Ieyasu TOYOTOMI as Seii taishogun (literally, "great general who subdues the barbarians"). And he worked hard to reconcile the two forces in Osaka no Eki (The Siege of Osaka). As a buke denso, he endeavored to integrate the Imperial court and the bakufu and his power was so strong that it was described as 'peerless predominance' but at the same time he was berated as a 'crooked villain' because the bakufu forced him to compromise.