Yanagihara Norimitsu (柳原紀光)
Norimitsu YANAGIHARA (or Motomitsu YANAGIHARA) (November 14, 1746 - January 3, 1800) was a court noble (Shonii [Senior Second Rank], Gon Dainagon [provisional major counselor]) and historian in the Edo period. His father was Mitsutsuna YANAGIHARA, his mother was a daughter of Nobuyasu ODA who was the domain lord of the Tanba-kaibara Domain, Tanba Province. His childhood name was Tsunamaru, his original name was Mitsufusa (till 1767), his alias was Fujitsuru, his posthumous Buddhist name was Gyojaku. His wife was Michiko, a daughter of Akimichi KAJUJI. His sons were Naomitsu YANAGIHARA, Sukemae YANAGIHARA (柳原資前) and he had some daughters. The brother and sister, Sakimitsu YANAGIHARA and Naruko YANAGIHARA (Emperor Taisho's mother) were his great-great grandchildren. He was the author of history book "Zokushigusho."
He was conferred a peerage in 1748 and appointed as Jiju (chamberlain) in 1756. After that, he successively held kurodo no to (Head Chamberlain), sangi (royal advisor) and so on, and was also promoted to Gon Dainagon (provisional major counselor) in 1775, Shonii (Senior Second Rank) in 1781.
However, he received the chokkan gekan shobun (dismissal by the Emperor) from Emperor Kokaku for minor incidents and was banned from the imperial court. Although he was allowed to return to the imperial court two years later, he devoted himself to compiling the history book left by his father without serving the government.
The Yanagihara family was originally a family of noble race (court noble) which was the Hino family of the FUJIWARA Hokke (the Northern House of the Fujiwara clan) and known for being an academic family, however, its scholastic tradition had declined after the temporary discontinuation of the family line. Norimitsu's father, Michitsuna lamented that compiling history books by the government had stopped since the Rikkokushi (Japan's six national histories) as well as compilations by nobles since "Hyakuren sho" (in the Emperor Kameyama period), thus Michitsuna tried to compile the history books by himself, however, he died of illness before accomplishing his goal. Norimitsu decided to continue his father's work and compile history books.
In 1798, it took 22 years for him to compile the 81 history books "Zokushigusho" which covered the period between the Emperor Kameyama and the Emperor Gomomozono. (His history books stressed the legitimacy of the Northern Dynasty and denied the Yoshino court.)
Another one of his achievements included transcribing and editing important history books by hand to leave them in posterity. The existing original text of "Kodaireki" (a chronicle from the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties till the Muromachi period) was said to be transcribed by Norimitsu from the original text, and was very important because the original had been lost. Also various existing history books of "Nihon koki (history book on Japan)" of Rikkokushi (Japan's six national histories) were said to be based on the original text which Norimitsu transcribed from the Sanjonishi family. (theory of Tei MORITA).
Besides history books, he wrote the diary "Norimitsu kyoki (diary of lord Norimitsu)" (or "Gu shin (愚紳)") and essay "Kanso jigo" (monologue in the quiet life), which show his wide interests in noble society and natural science.
He entered the priesthood the year before he completed "Zokushigusho"and died in 1800 at age 55.
The historical materials which Norimitsu used for compiling "Zokushigusho" were passed down in the Yanagihara family and are now taken care of in the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo.