Oguri Tadamasa was born in 1827 into a hatamoto house at Surugadai in Edo, with a stipend of 2,500 koku. The head of the house was known in every generation as Matakichi. He passed his boyhood in the 1830s and 1840s, entered service at Edo Castle, married Michiko, a daughter of Tatebe Masaatsu, in the years 1848–54, and succeeded to the house in 1855 on his father's death. These twenty-eight years are what this chapter follows.
What this chapter covers is the time from his birth to his succession. The year that decided the second half of his life — the embassy to the United States and the voyage around the world, at thirty-four — is taken up in the next chapter, “His rise as a shogunal official, and the embassy to the United States”.
Articles in this chapter
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His birth, his family home, and the line of the house of Oguri
Born at Surugadai in Edo in 1827. The line of the Oguri, a hatamoto house of 2,500 koku, and his father Tadataka and his mother Kuniko.
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The founder Oguri Matakichi and the legend of his feat of arms — Anegawa, or Nagashino?
A tradition of a feat of arms by the founder of the house of Oguri. The sources differ, some giving the battle of Anegawa and others Nagashino.
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The origin of the family crest, a standing wave in a circle
The crest entered in the genealogy as that of the house of Oguri: a standing wave in a circle. Its form, and what a family crest meant.
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Asaka Gonsai's private school, and the company of able students
His early years studying at the private school inside the residence, in the 1830s and early 1840s. Many of the men who stood out in the last years of the shogunate came from Asaka Gonsai's school.
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Pockmarks and short sight — the boy Oguri as he was
A boyhood of smallpox scars and short sight, as it is handed down. Kurimoto Joun recalled him as “sickly-looking and stubborn”.
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Training in swordsmanship, jūjutsu and gunnery, and the Oguri school
His years of training: the Jikishinkage school of the sword under Onogai Seiichirō, jūjutsu under Kubota Sukedarō, gunnery under Tamura Kazue.
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An argument at fourteen: the nerve he showed at the Tatebe house
A story that around 1840, at Tatebe Masaatsu's residence, he held his own with men older than himself and was talked about for it.
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Entering the guard, and his first service
From his first attendance at the castle in 1843 to his entry into the guard in 1847. His official service as a hatamoto begins.
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He married Michiko, a daughter of Tatebe Masaatsu, in the years 1848–54. The household account book begun after the marriage survives.
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His father Tadataka's death, and the succession
In 1855 his father Tadataka died of illness while serving as commissioner at Niigata. Tadamasa took the name Matakichi and succeeded to the house.
Four years after succeeding to the house at twenty-eight, Tadamasa crossed the ocean as inspector. → His rise as a shogunal official, and the embassy to the United States