Matsudaira Sadaaki (松平定敬)
Sadaaki MATSUDAIRA was the fourth lord of the Kuwana Domain at the end of the Edo Period (Years in office: 1859 - 1868)
Kyoto Shoshidai (local governor of Kyoto)
The 13th head of the Sadatsuna family line of the Hisamatsu-Matsudaira family
His office and rank were Jushii (Junior Fourth Rank) and Konoe-fu (the Imperial Guard Division) (Promoted to Junii (Junior Second Rank) after the Meiji Restoration)
He was the eighth son of Yoshitatsu MATSUDAIRA, the lord of the Takasu Domain in Mino Province (Kaizu City, Gifu Prefecture). He had several older brothers, including the Lord of Aizu Domain, Katamori MATSUDAIRA; the Lord of Owari Domain, Yoshikatsu TOKUGAWA; and the head of the Hitotsubashi family Mochinaga TOKUGAWA.
Biography
Sadaaki was born the eighth son to Yoshitatsu MATSUDAIRA on Janyuary 18, 1847 at the residence maintained by the lord of the Takasu Domain in Ichigaya, Edo. His childhood name was Keinosuke.
In 1859, when Sadamichi MATSUDAIRA, Lord of Kuwana Domain, died, his eldest son, Mannosuke (later the Lord of Kuwana Domain, Sadanori MATSUDAIRA), was only 3 years old; and Sadaaki, aged 14 at the time, married into the MATSUDAIRA family, as the husband to their then three-year-old daughter, Hatsuhime. Sadaaki, who became head of the family, was awarded Jugoi (Junior Fifth Rank) and appointed to rule Ecchu Province. Hatsuhime's grandmother, Junshoin, was a daughter of the lord of the Satsuma Domain, and she had many conflicts with Sadaaki regarding the rule of the domain.
In 1860, he was promoted to Jushii (Junior Fourth Rank) and concurrently held the post of Jiju (chamberlain). He achieved shikoseki (anteroom seats for feudal lords and direct retainer of the shogun at the Edo-jo castle).
In 1863, he attended Shogun Iemochi TOKUGAWA when he went to the capital as a police escort.
In 1864, he was appointed Kyoto Shoshidai (local governor of Kyoto), and during the Kinmon Incident, he fought off the Choshu Domain army with the Aizu Clan. He also fought in the Tenguto War. In 1865, he was transferred to the post of Konoe-fu (the Imperial Guard Division). He concurrently held the post of Ecchu-no-kami (Provincial Governor of Ecchu).
When the Battle of Toba and Fushimi broke out and the Boshin War started in 1868, he accompanied Yoshinobu TOKUGAWA and was detained in Reigan-ji Temple (Koto Ward) in Edo. At Edo-jo Castle, the resistance force and deference faction fought, and the plot for deference to the new government by Ichio OKUBO and Kaishu KATSU moved forward. Furthermore, both the Aizu and Kuwana Domains were harrassed by the new government; therefore, at the domain's local level, chief retainers decided to submit to the new government and appointed the bereaved child of the former family head, Mannosuke (later Sadanori), head of the family, out of fear that the new government force would attack. This made it difficult for Sadaaki, who was a member of the resistance force, to return home. Ichio suggested that Sadaaki go to Kashiwazaki, Echigo Province, which was the divided territory of the Kuwana domain, and he boarded the Prussian ship 'Costa Rica' from Yokohama City bound for Kashiwazaki. Thereafter, he met with his older brother, Katamori MATSUDAIRA, at Wakamatsu-jo Castle, after which he traveled by the fleet of Takeaki ENOMOTO from Sendai to Hakodate City.
In 1869, he returned to Yokohama, admitting defeat, and he was given absolution on January 6, 1872. In February of the same year, he married his bride elect, Hatsuko. In 1877, he fought in the Seinan War, leading the old feudal retainers of the Kuwana Domain.
He became the Chief Shinto Priest at the Nikko Toshogu Shrine in 1894.
He died July 12, 1908
Hogo (priest name): Daishinin-dono
He is buried at the Somei Reien in Toshima Ward, Tokyo.