* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Shimazu Tadayoshi
島津忠良
Restorer of the Shimazu; Jisshinsai
Description
Overview
Shimazu Tadayoshi was a Sengoku-period warrior regarded as the restorer of the Shimazu clan of Satsuma. As head of the Izaku and Sōshū branch houses he prevailed in the clan's internal conflicts and placed his eldest son Takahisa at the head of the main line, laying the foundation for the Shimazu revival. After taking the tonsure he used the name Jisshinsai, and is also known as Lord Jisshin.
Origins and the Sōshū House
Born in 1492 into the Izaku house, a branch of the Shimazu, Tadayoshi lost his father early and is said to have been raised under his mother's instruction. He later succeeded to the Sōshū house and, uniting Izaku and Sōshū, built a secure power base in southern Satsuma. He was a cultivated man, versed in Zen, Confucian learning and waka poetry.
Clan Conflict and Takahisa's Succession
The authority of the Shimazu main line had by then decayed and the clan was split. At the request of Shimazu Katsuhisa, head of the main house, Tadayoshi placed his eldest son Takahisa with him as adopted heir, securing the succession. This provoked Shimazu Sanehisa of the Sasshū house, and father and son were for a time hard pressed. Tadayoshi reduced the castles of southern Satsuma one by one, drove back Sanehisa's forces, and through the Tenbun era established control of the province. He continued to act as guardian to Takahisa, setting the clan on the path toward unifying Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga.
The Iroha Poems of Lord Jisshin
Tadayoshi's name endured above all through the "Iroha Poems of Lord Jisshin" — forty-seven didactic verses, each beginning with one of the forty-seven kana of the iroha syllabary. In plain song form they set out the bearing expected of a warrior and the virtues of daily conduct. The set was long used as a standard text in the gōjū educational system of the Satsuma domain and shaped the outlook of generations of Satsuma samurai.
Assessment
Tadayoshi also left a record in civil administration, promoting industry and developing castle towns, and benevolent rule toward his people is recorded of him. He died in 1568 at the age of seventy-seven. In his grandsons' generation Shimazu Yoshihisa and Yoshihiro would sweep across nearly the whole of Kyūshū, and Tadayoshi is honoured as the man who built that foundation — the restorer of the house of Shimazu.