The Pride of the Shadow Man: The Contradiction between Iemitsu's Regime and Katsunari Mizuno] - Early Edo Period (Kan'ei era)

The Pride of the Shadow Man: The Contradiction between Iemitsu's Regime and Katsunari Mizuno] - Early Edo Period (Kan'ei era)

The reign of Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third shogun of the Edo shogunate (1623-1651), was a transitional period in which the Tokugawa regime was consolidating its rule, and a shift from "military rule" to "civil government" was underway. The shogunate was attempting to establish a centralized power structure with the shogun at the top by strengthening control over the various feudal lords and thoroughly enforcing the shogunate's "fukushin" (feudal lord system), "sanka-fukin" (feudal lord system), and "samukke-hojo" (warrior law).

However, even during this period, there were local powerful clans that quietly followed a different path without resisting central control. Katsunari Mizuno was one of them. Born in Mikawa, a cousin of Tokugawa Ieyasu, he was a fierce general who distinguished himself in the battles of Sekigahara and Osaka, and later reigned as the first lord of the Bingo Fukuyama domain.

During Iemitsu's reign, the shogunate had ended warfare and moved to an era that emphasized domestic administration by competent officials. This forced those who had once led the way with the sword to reexamine the meaning of their own existence. Katsunari Mizuno did not simply follow the central authority, but ruled with a down-to-earth approach. His rule was based on human spirit rather than military might, and he supported the people of Fukuyama through town development and the fostering of industry.

The shogunate promoted the political rise of bannermen and goyemen and gradually tried to suppress the independent will of the feudal lords. Katsunari, however, did not bow to the central government, but rather maintained his pride as a feudal lord. In his stance, the last pride of a warrior and the calmness of a man who knew the political path coexisted.

The framework of the shogunate-han system was being completed by Iemitsu's power, but in the shadows, these solitary old vassals quietly watched the end of an era and the beginning of a new order. Katsunari Mizuno's life, as a "shadow priest" of Iemitsu's regime, continued to shine between the center and the provinces.