Tomida Chikaie (富田親家)
Chikaie TOMIDA (dates of birth and death unknown) was a samurai from the Kodama Party of Musashi Province (today's Honjo city, Saitama prefecture) in the beginning of the Kamakura period. He was the founder of the Tomida clan of the Kodama Party. His common name is Saburo. He was the first master of the Tomida Residence, Musashi Province.
He was the founder of the Tomida clan of the Kodama Party.
Born as the third son of Ieyuki KODAMA, the third family head of the Kodama Clan, the head family of the Kodama party, Chikaie was given the demesne of Tomita in Wakaizumi-sho, Kodama-gun (today's Tomida, Honjo city) and relocated to Horinouchi, Nishi-tomida. He called himself Tomida Saburo Chikaie after Kodama Saburo Chikaie and became the founder of the Tomida clan. He appeared in Azuma Kagami by the name of Chikaie TOMIDA. He had two elder brothers, Iehiro SHO, the fourth head of the head family of Kodama Party, and Ieto SHIONOYA (therefore, the Sho clan and the Shionoya clan of the Kodama Party were of the same origin). His children include Chikashige TOMIDA.
He was known as a Bando (former Kanto region) samurai with powerful muscular strength.
He saved himself because of the popularity in Bando as a brawny samurai. When Yoshimori WADA raised an army to defeat the Hojo clan in 1213 (Battle of Wada), Chikaie sided with the Wada clan and was arrested by the army of the Kamakura shogunate (but he was sent alive to Kamakura, Sagami Province, because the shogunate army intended to show how brawny he was to the shogun family). The third shogun Sanetomo MINAMOTO, who heard Chikaie can lift up kanae (tripod kettle) and crush rocks, called Chikaie, gave him elk antlers, and ordered him to break them. Chikaie broke two of the antlers together and impressed Sanetomo and all others that were present, the feat of which allowed him to be exempted from the punishment and to newly obtain a demesne in Kii Province. According to Azuma Kagami (The Mirrors of the East), he felt deeply indebted for it and continued to stay as a royal retainer of the Kamakura shogunate, and his children also royally served the shogunate (the chronicle recorded his exploit together with his sons at the Jokyu War and his death in action).
Others
Antlers of elks from Oshu, which were believed to be broken by Chikaie, measure about 90 cm long and about 20 cm ?. Since antlers are made of bone, they require tremendous muscular power, and it stands to reason the people of the shogunate admired by Chikaie's strength.
Some members of the Shionoya clan of the Kodama Party were killed in action during the Battle of Wada. This indicates that many samurai of the Kodama Party were killed in action in this war.
Chikaie's life was saved because of the power-centered philosophy of the samurai society, for better or worse. His life was spared only because of his great muscular strength, and he was even given a demesne although he was originally with the enemy's side (what Chikaie showed was a muscular feat, not a military art). In the Battle of Wada, some samurai bands, such as the Wada clan and Yokoyama party, suffered from damages so seriously that the entire clan was almost destroyed, so this episode of Chikaie's is very outstanding under those circumstances.