So Yoshikatsu (Tomiju)

Grave of Sô Yoshikatsu at Banshô-in temple on Tsushima

• Born: 1773/2/29
• Died: 1813/5/17
• Other Names: 富寿 (Tomiju)
• Japanese: 宗 義功 (Sô Yoshikatsu)

1773－1813　江戸時代中期-後期の大名。 安永2年2月29日生まれ。宗義暢(よしなが)の6男。対馬(つしま)(長崎県)府中藩主宗家11代の兄宗義功が死去したため,幕府側からの内々の助言をうけて替え玉となり,天明5年藩主宗家12代。文化8年朝鮮通信使を対馬にむかえたが,病気のため次男義質(よしかた)が接待役をつとめた。文化10年5月17日死去。41歳。幼名は富寿。

Sô Yoshikatsu was the 29th head of the Sô clan and the 12th Edo period lord of Tsushima han. The sixth son of Sô Yoshinaga, he was originally known by the childhood name Tomiju.

Tomiju's elder half-brother Isaburô served as lord of Tsushima domain under the name Sô Yoshikatsu until his untimely death in 1785 at the young age of 15. As Yoshikatsu had not yet named an heir (not had his potential heirs been old enough yet to be so designated), his death was not officially reported to the shogunate. Still, the domain received unofficial support from the shogunate to have Tomiju, then 13 years old, take on the name Yoshikatsu and take over as his brother.

In 1811, the final Edo period Korean embassy to Japan traveled to Tsushima (though earlier embassies had traveled to Edo, this one was received by shogunate officials on Tsushima). Due to Yoshikatsu being ill at the time, however, his second son Sô Yoshitada took his place in officially receiving the embassy. Yoshitada would later succeed Yoshikatsu to become lord of Tsushima.

Though some records from the time treated Tomiju and Isaburô as the same person, in order to maintain the legal fiction and avoid trouble for skirting official policy regarding the naming of heirs (and though only one grave for Yoshikatsu stands in the Sô family cemetery at Banshô-in on Tsushima), the brothers are today separately considered the 11th and 12th lords of the domain.

Preceded by: Sô Yoshikatsu (Isaburô)

Lord of Tsushima han 1785-1813

Succeeded by: Sô Yoshitada

References

• "Sô Yoshikatsu (2)," Nihon jinmei daijiten, Kodansha.