was a Japanese

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

of the late

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

, who served the

Date clan The is a Japanese samurai kin group. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Date", ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 5 retrieved 2013-5-5. History The Date family was founded ...

Sendai han The , also known as the , was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871. The Sendai Domain was based at Aoba Castle in Mutsu Province, in the modern city of Sendai, located in the Tōhoku region of the i ...

, and was famous for his role in the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a clique seeking to seize political power in the name of the Imperi ...

. He was also known as Naohide 直秀 and Buichiro 武一郎.

Biography

The Hosoya family claimed descent from Hosoya Jinbei, a man of Yamashiro, who took his name from Hosoya village in Date district. For generations they served the Date clan as senior guardsmen, with a stipend of 50 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

''. Hosoya's date of birth is uncertain; some believe he was born in 1840, while others say 1845. Hosoya lost his father and mother at a young age, ending up in the care of his grandfather, Sanjūrō. During his youth, he studied sword, spear, archery, gunnery, and ''bugyō'' (believed to be a form of aikido). His first job, as per his grandfather's wishes, was as a temple acolyte at Chūrenji Temple in

Shiogama is a city located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 52,662, and a population density of 3,032 persons per km² in 23,270 households. The total area of the city is . Geography Shiogama is in north-central Miya ...

. Later, he became a construction officer, as well as briefly serving in the Sendai security force in Kyoto, at the gates of the Imperial Palace. After the outbreak of the

, he was appointed a scout officer, and was active everywhere from Shōnai, to Shirakawa, to

Yonezawa Yonezawa City Hall is a city in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 81,707 in 33,278 households, and a population density of 150 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Yonezawa is most famous for ...

, even as far south as Mito. Led a group of militia informally known as the Karasugumi ("Crow Brigade"), because of their black clothing. In praise for his skill in guerilla warfare, Sendai lord

Date Yoshikuni was a late-Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 13th ''daimyō'' of Sendai Domain in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan, the 29th hereditary chieftain of the Date clan. He is known primarily for his role as commander-in-chief of the Ōuetsu Re ...

appointed him Captain of Pages, and bestowed on him the honorary name of Buichirō. After the dissolution of the domains, Hosoya entered the field land reclamation, working together with such famous figures as

Enomoto Takeaki Viscount was a Japanese samurai and admiral of the Tokugawa navy of Bakumatsu period Japan, who remained faithful to the Tokugawa shogunate and fought against the new Meiji government until the end of the Boshin War. He later served in the Mei ...

Nagai Naoyuki , also known as or , was a Japanese hatamoto under the Tokugawa of Bakumatsu period Japan. His great-great-grandchild was Yukio Mishima. Naoyuki's adopted son, Iwanojō Nagai, was the father of Natsu, who was Mishima's grandmother. Iwanojō's r ...

, and Sawa Tarōzaemon. Entering the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

in the mid-1870s, he served as a lieutenant in the

Seinan War The Satsuma Rebellion, also known as the was a revolt of disaffected samurai against the new imperial government, nine years into the Meiji Era. Its name comes from the Satsuma Domain, which had been influential in the Restoration and becam ...

, receiving the

Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight ...

for his distinguished service in combat. Later served in the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the po ...

before returning to Sendai and becoming a monk by the name of Asen (鴉仙); this combined the character for "crow" (鴉) with the "Sen" (仙) of "Sendai". Hosoya died at his hermitage in Sendai, in 1907. His son Hosoya Jūtarō (1862–1933) was also famous, and a farmer, as his father once was. Today, Hosoya's ''jinbaori'' (armor surcoat) is on display in the

Tōhoku History Museum The is a museum in Tagajō, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. It houses finds from excavations at the site of Tagajō as well as from other archaeological sites in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. These include a Jōmon period jade axe excavated ...

, in

Miyagi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,305,596 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefecture to the nort ...

References

* ''Sanbyaku han kashin jinmei jiten'', vol. 1.

External links

Further information on Hosoya and the Sendai domain in general
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hosoya, Judayu 1839 births 1907 deaths Japanese farmers Meiji Restoration People from Sendai Domain People of the Boshin War Japanese Buddhist clergy Japanese military leaders Japanese military personnel Samurai Japanese pages Date retainers Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei