Ikeda Toshitaka (池田利隆)
(420,000 koku (approximately 76 million liters of crop yield))
Toshitaka IKEDA was a daimyo (Japanese feudal lord) of the early Edo period. He was the second lord of the Himeji domain in Harima Province. He was also the second generation in the head family of Ikeda family of Okayama Domain.
He was born as a son of Terumasa IKEDA at Gifu of Mino Province in 1584. He took part in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 accompanying his father. In 1603, when his younger paternal brother Tadatsugu IKEDA was assigned the lord of Okayama-jo Castle, he entered the castle as a vicarious administrator since Tadatsugu was still very young. In 1605, he was appointed to the chamberlain of jushiinoge (junior fourth rank lower grade) and served as Uemon no kami (Captain of the Right Division of Outer Palace Guards) as an additional post. The same year, he took Tsuruhime (Fukujoin) (daughter of Yasumasa SAKAKIBARA) as his lawful wife, who was an adopted daughter of Hidetada TOKUGAWA, to reinforce the relations with bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun). On June 2, 1607 he was transferred to Musashi Province, then he was granted the family name of Matsudaira and called himself 'Matsudaira Musashi no kami Toshitaka' (Musashi no kami: governor of Musashi Province). His father Terumasa died in 1613 and Toshitaka succeeded to the family estate. At that time, he allotted three 'gun' (three districts) in Nishi Harima region (Shiso-gun, Sayo-gun and Ako-gun) to his younger brother Tadatsugu, and as a result, the fief of the Himeji Domain reduced to 420,000 koku.
He joined up with the Tokugawa side in the Siege of Osaka in 1614. He died at the premature age of 33 in 1616. As his death was so sudden, it was secretly rumored that he had been poisoned by his stepmother Tokuhime. Mitsumasa IKEDA succeeded him after his death.
Toshitaka's graveyard: Gokoku-in Temple at Myoshin-ji Temple in Kyoto
Graveyard of the Ikeda family is in Waidani, Okayama Prefecture. Kokusei-ji Temple at Yamanoi, Himeji City, Kyoto Prefecture is also his family temple.