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 Kan'ei period, the reign of Tokugawa Iemitsu, was a time of transition from "military rule" to "civil government. The shogunate strengthened the control of the feudal lords and strove to establish a centralized power structure. However, behind the scenes, there was one man who maintained the old pride of being a warrior. He was Katsunari Mizuno. A cousin of Tokugawa Ieyasu, he was a fierce general who had passed through the doldrums of the Warring States period and stood out as the lord of the Bingo Fukuyama domain.

Katsunari was a practical ruler rooted in the field, even in the midst of Iemitsu's policy of emphasizing domestic politics. He devoted himself to town development and industrial development, and fulfilled his duties as a man of the provinces without blindly following the logic of the central government. He was not a ruler who merely boasted of his prestige, but a down-to-earth politician and a true feudal lord who supported the lives of his people.

While the shogunate was trying to increase the political power of the Hatamoto and Goyonin and to contain the power of the daimyo, Katsunari never lost his independence. His proud and quiet defiance, without relying on military might, made him the last "military" shadow shogun in the "civil" age of the shogunate system.