Sakata Moroto

• Born: 1810
• Died: 1875

Sakata Morotô was a late Edo period literatus and historian. He is known for his account of the life of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, Kaishôshô Yoshiyasu ason jikki, in which he restored Yanagisawa's reputation, arguing that most accounts of his lascivious or otherwise inappropriate behavior was based on unfounded rumors and accounts written long after the fact.

Sakata was a retainer of Akizuki han, and after the Meiji Restoration became an official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs prior to his death in 1875.

His Kaishôshô Yoshiyasu ason jikki survives in an 81-volume manuscript copy in the collection of the Shiryôhensanjo at the University of Tokyo.

References

• Rebeckah Clements, "Speaking in Tongues? Daimyo, Zen Monks, and Spoken Chinese in Japan, 1661–1711," The Journal of Asian Studies Vol. 76, No. 3 (August) 2017: 606.