Letter by Sakuma Masakatsu
- Person
-
作者佐久間正勝（不干斎）
- Date
-
制作年 AD17
- Title
- サクママサカツヒツショウソク
- Collections
- Century Akao Collection
- Depository
- Institute of Oriental Classics (Shido Bunko) Campus Mita
- Ref. number
- AW-CEN-000947-0000
- License
- CC BY Images license
- Creditline
-
慶應義塾（センチュリー赤尾コレクション）
- URL
- Classification
- Art
- AI Tagging
- Handwriting Font Rectangle Monochrome Writing
Sakuma Masakatsu (1556-1631) was an army general of the Momoyama to early Edo Period who was deeply attracted to sado (or chado), or the Way of Tea (Tea celemony). Born the son of Sakuma Nobumori (1527-81), Masakatsu used the pen names Fukansai and Sogan. With his father, Masakatsu served Lord Oda Nobunaga (1534-82) and was victorious in many battles, but he had to retreat to Mt. Koya in 1580. The reason for this was said to have been a slander by Lord Akechi Mitsuhide (?-1582) or the neglect of his military duties due to excessive devotion to sado. Masakatsu was later pardoned and allowed to join the forces of Oda Nobukatsu (1558-1630). In the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute, Masakatsu fought against Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-98)’s army. However, when Hideyoshi and Nobukatsu signed a peace treaty, one of the conditions was Masakatsu’s ritual suicide. In order to prove his innocence, Masakatsu shaved his head and become a monk and assumed the name of Fukansai. He lived as a hermit in Sasahara in Mikawa Province (Aichi Prefecture). After he was pardoned, he served in Hideyoshi’s “Otogishu,” or a group of counselors for non-political matters. Around this time, Masakatsu was active as a tea master and connoisseur, as is evidenced by an entry in Tsuda Sogyu (?-1591)’s Diary. Sogyu writes about the tea party hosted by Fukansai, i.e., Masakatsu.In his senior years, Masakatsu worked close to the second Tokugawa Shogun, Hidetada (1579-1632), and was given a stipend of 3,000 koku (a measure of rice equivalent to approximately 5 bushels) in Musashi Province (Saitama Prefecture).A sentence in Sakuma Masakatsu’s letter exhibited here reads, “I receive no letters since I live in such a remote place,” and it is signed “Mt. Tsukuba.” From these, we can learn that this letter was sent from Mt. Tsukuba in Hitachi Province (Ibaraki Prefecture), close to where Masakatsu was stationed in Musashino Province (Saitama Prefecture). Sakuma Masakatsu had received a letter on the previous day from Matsumura Nyudo (details unknown), stating that he was coming to visit on this day. But Masakatsu hastened to reply, saying that he has urgent business and asking Mr. Matsumura to visit the following night, the 28th, instead. This letter was perhaps written in great haste. The freely flowing style has been lost, so it could have been written in Masakatsu’s old age.
返々明廿八日晩御出所希候以上昨朝之御返事見申候今晩可有御出之由令満足候處俄ニ指當隙入之子細候間先指延申候条明晩必々御越可為本望候近比御自由成申事ニ候ヘ共昔知音無隔心ニ付而如此ニ候猶期面之時候恐惶謹言十月廿七日宗（花押）松村入道殿不干齋 御宿所
Overview
Rights
Depository and ID
Components
OPEN DATADESIGN
Keio Object Hub makes data on cultural objects open and tries designing various experiences using open data.
Details
Identifiers
- Title (EN)
- Letter by Sakuma Masakatsu
Physical description
- Weights and quantities
-
Quantity 1幅
As a prototype feature, the Keio Object Hub uses AI (machine learning) to generate keywords for searches and filtering.
For the first launch, Google Cloud's Vision API will be used to analyze the images of each object and automatically generate keywords.