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for many years, with great affection. And, strangely enough, when told of the Shōgun’s desire to dispossess him he cheerfully signified his compliance, and very soon after, abandoning his 670,000 koku fief as calmly as if it had been a pair of outworn straw sandals, he set off for his place of exile, the town of Funai in northern Kyūshū. On his way, at Tsuruga, he formally took Buddhist orders and assumed the priestly name of Ippaku. This was in the fifth month of the year 1623, when Lord Tadanao was a little past thirty years of age. From Funai he later moved to Tsumori, another town in the same province of Bungo, and at this place, on a small 10,000 koku fief granted him for his maintenance by the Shōgunate, he passed the remainder of his days uneventfully, dying in 1650 at the age of fifty-six.

No systematic account of Lord Tadanao’s life in this latter period has been transmitted to us. The lord of Funai castle, however, Takenaka Shigetsugu, whose duty it was to watch over Lord Tadanao, caused his retainers to keep a record of the exile’s behaviour, to be forwarded to the Shōgun’s minister Lord Doi Toshikatsu, and this small volume, entitled ‘Report on the Conduct of Lord Tadanao’, survives. The following is an excerpt:

… Since his removal to Tsumori in this province, Lord Tadanao has passed his days quietly, showing no signs of violent disposition. His lordship has frequently remarked that when he lost his 670,000 koku family heritage he felt only an immense relief, as if he had awakened from a bad dream. He prays that he may never, in any future reincarnation, be born again as Lord of a Province. Though surrounded by vast numbers of people, he avows that he very often experienced the torments of a soul fallen into a Hell of Solitude. Concerning the matter of his dispossession, he appears to harbour no resentment towards anyone. … At times of relaxation he occasionally invites a village elder or a priest to a game of Gobang in his private rooms. It had been