Tsuchimikado Yasushige (土御門泰重)
Yasushige TSUCHIMIKADO (February 26, 1586-September 12, 1661) is a Kugyo (Court noble) and Inyoka (the Yin and Yang school of philosophy) of the early Edo period.
Career
He was a son of Hisanaga TSUCHIMIKADO. His mother was the daughter of Nobushige ODA. There are Yasuhiro TSUCHIMIKADO, Takatoshi TSUCHIMIKADO, Yasutomi TSUCHIMIKADO among his children (however, the opinion is divided regarding the father of Yasutomi). His younger brother was Yasuyoshi KURAHASHI, the founder of the Kurahashi family.
Though his family was once fell on bad time as his father lost his position while involved in intrigue during the incident of Hidetsugu TOYOTOMI, Yasushige passed genpuku (ceremony of attaining manhood) in 1603 after the death of Hideyoshi TOYOTOMI, and was designated as Shorokuinojo Ukone no shogen and Kurodo (Senior Sixth Rank, Upper Grade, Lieutenant of the Right Division of Inner Palace Guards and Chamberlain), and promoted to Nakatsukasa Taijo in 1612. However, as he failed in his family business, the studies on the calendar system, he gave away the authority of the study to Tomokage KOTOKUI of the Kamo clan in 1616. As a result, Tomokage was designated as Onmyo no kami (Director of Onmyoryo, or Bureau of Divination) and Yasushige was transferred from Tenmon hakase (master of astronomy) to Sahyoe no kami (Captain of the Left Division of Middle Palace Guards), two years later. However, as he got into bad terms with Tomokage later and he also tried to recover the status of Onmyodo (way of Yin and Yang; occult divination system based on the Taoist theory of the five elements) by the hand of the Tsuchimikado clan (the Abe clan), it caused a long conflict between the Abe clan line Tsuchimikado family and the Kamo clan line Kotokui family over authenticity in Onmyodo.
He became Jusanmi (Junior Third Rank) on February 22, 1635 and climb up to Junii (Junior Second Rank) in 1649.
He died at the age of 69. He left "Yasushige kyoki" (Diary of Yasushige).