The Daté House Factional Dispute

The Daté House Factional Dispute (Daté Sodo) is a  dispute that occurred in the Sendai domain between 1658 and 1673, i.e. during the Manji and Kambun era in the Edo period, when daimyo(*1) were struggling with their family members over power. The Daté House Factional Dispute is widely known among numerous family disputes because it happened in one of the largest domains at that time, and it has been repeatedly featured in literary and theatrical works. This incident, an essential part of the Sendai domain's history, is this exhibition's focus. We trace it through rare documents from our library's collection.

"Documents of Kambun Incident" is a group of documents consisting of 52 items, and became a part of our library's collection during the Taisho period. Although it is considered to be passed through the Itagaki family of the Ichinoseki domain, most of the documents are about Okuyama Daigaku Tsunetoki, who is the magistrate (house elder) of the Sendai domain and one of the key persons of the Daté House Factional Dispute. This group of documents contains many letters between people involved in the dispute, as well as drafts of letters and memorandums by Okuyama. These show the political situation in the first half of the incident and Okuyama's recognition of it. 

"Toyoma-Daté Family's Documents" became a part of our library's collection in 1926 (Showa 1). These documents had been passed through the Toyoma-Daté family, one of the most important chief retainers in the Sendai domain. Consisting of more than 5,000 items, this is one of the largest groups of documents in our library's entire collection. It is also most representative of documents by chief retainers in the Sendai domain in that it contains rich information on the Toyoma-Daté family's administration, the Sendai domain's politics, and the culture of the time. This exhibition shows the items that are related to the Daté House Factional Dispute, mainly focusing on "Kambun Kyokai Shoron Ikken Shorui."

The Rokkajo Problem refers to the following: (i) setting up notice boards in the guardians' land, (ii) making an arrangement for the use of post-horses, (iii) offering a goshawk to the shogun(*3), (iv) offering the first bird and fish to the shogun, (v) returning people from neighboring land, and (vi) allowing passages for the items that are prohibited from being carried in and out. The guardians tried to deal with those problems as independent daimyo(*1). However, as their lands were divided from the Sendai domain, Tsunetoki considered it problematic.