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Abe Tadaaki | |
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| Daimyō of Oshi | |
| In office 1639–1671 | |
| Preceded by | Matsudaira Nobutsuna |
| Succeeded by | Abe Masayoshi |
| Personal details | |
| Born | |
Abe Tadaaki (阿部 忠秋; September 4, 1602 – June 25, 1671) was a high-ranking government official in Japan underTokugawa Iemitsu andIetsuna, the third and fourthTokugawa Shōgun. As thedaimyō of theOshi Domain in modern-daySaitama Prefecture, with an income of 80,000koku (earlier 50,000), Abe was appointedwakadoshiyori (junior councillor) in 1633,[1] andrōjū (Elder Councillor) shortly afterwards.
Iemitsu died in 1651 and was succeeded by his ten-year-old son Ietsuna. In accordance with the custom ofjunshi, a number of Iemitsu's closest retainers and advisors committed suicide so as to follow their lord in death; Abe did not engage in this practice, and was left, along with a handful of other high-ranking officials and advisors, to handle the affairs of government.
Especially remembered for his integrity, high morals, and practical sense of good government, Abe Tadaaki is known for his attempts to find employment for a number of samurai who becamerōnin in the wake of theKeian Uprising, acoup d'état which failed to be executed that same year, just after Iemitsu's death. While other government ministers reacted to the uprising with the instinctive desire to expel allrōnin fromEdo (the shogunal capital; todayTokyo), Abe thought it more pertinent to take a somewhat softer tack, aiding the rōnin in seeking legitimate employment, and thus drastically reducing the number who would have reason to take up arms against the shogunate.
Several years before Tadaaki's death in 1671,Sakai Tadakiyo was appointed head of the council ofrōjū; Tadaaki constantly rebuked Sakai for his poor sense of proper policy, and his laidback nature. He accused Sakai of taking bribes, and of handling situations on a case-by-case basis, without any sense of overall policy or progress towards a goal. Nevertheless, after thirty-eight years of loyal service to the shogunate, Tadaaki died aged 69, leaving the government in the hands of the likes of those whose policies (or dire lack thereof) would lead over the course of several decades to theGenroku period (1688–1704), which saw a peak in corruption, hedonism, and wastefulness.
| Preceded by | Daimyō of Mibu 1635–1639 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Daimyō of Oshi 1639–1671 | Succeeded by |
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