was a

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 ...

from Joseon who served the

Maeda clan was a Japanese samurai clan who occupied most of the Hokuriku region of central Honshū from the end of the Sengoku period through the Meiji restoration of 1868. The Maeda claimed descent from the Sugawara clan of Sugawara no Kiyotomo and Sugaw ...

in the early

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 characte ...

. He was one of the most successful samurai from Korea and was promoted to Commissioner of Kanazawa city.笠井、188頁 He was born in

Hanseong Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

, and his original name was Kim Yeo-cheol (). He was the son of Kim Si-seong (), an official of Joseon government. In 1592, his father was killed during the

Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–98) Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diasp ...

. After Hanseong had been captured by Japanese army, Yeocheol was taken prisoner by the troop of

Ukita Hideie was the ''daimyō'' of Bizen and Mimasaka Provinces (modern Okayama Prefecture), and one of the council of Five Elders appointed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Son of Ukita Naoie, he married Gōhime, a daughter of Maeda Toshiie. Having fought ag ...

. He was brought to Nagoya castle, then Okayama. He was raised by Hideie's wife Gō in Okayama. Next year, Gō went to Kanazawa and met her brother

Maeda Toshinaga was a Sengoku period Japanese samurai and the second early-Edo period ''daimyō'' of Kaga Domain in the Hokuriku region of Japan, and the 3rd hereditary chieftain of the Maeda clan. He was the eldest son of Maeda Toshiie. His childhood name was ...

. Toshinaga's wife Eihime was so pleased with her attendant Yeolcheol that decided to raise him in Kanazawa. 300px, Gyokusen-en, the Japanese garden made by the Wakita clan He was named Kyūbei and served Toshinaga as page who was given 230 koku. In 1605, he was adopted by the Wakita family (retainer of the Maeda clan) through the good offices of Eihime. He changed his name to Wakita Naokata. He performed distinguished services in the

siege of Osaka The was a series of battles undertaken by the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate against the Toyotomi clan, and ending in that clan's destruction. Divided into two stages (winter campaign and summer campaign), and lasting from 1614 to 1615, the siege ...

and was given 1000 koku as reward. He was promoted smoothly in the Kaga domain. Finally, he became Kanazawa machi bugyo (金沢町奉行): the commissioner of Kanazawa city. His father was

Yangban The ''yangban'' () were part of the traditional ruling class or gentry of dynastic Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. The ''yangban'' were mainly composed of highly educated civil servants and military officers—landed or unlanded aristocrats ...

, a

Scholar-official The scholar-officials, also known as literati, scholar-gentlemen or scholar-bureaucrats (), were government officials and prestigious scholars in Chinese society, forming a distinct social class. Scholar-officials were politicians and governmen ...

of the Joseon dynasty. Naokata also displayed his literary talent. He was one of the most prominent masters of

Renga ''Renga'' (, ''linked verse'') is a genre of Japanese collaborative poetry in which alternating stanzas, or ''ku (''句), of 5-7-5 and 7-7 mora (sound units, not to be confused with syllables) per line are linked in succession by multiple poets. ...

in Kaga and had thorough knowledge of '' The Tale of Genji'' and ''

Kokin Wakashū The , commonly abbreviated as , is an early anthology of the '' waka'' form of Japanese poetry, dating from the Heian period. An imperial anthology, it was conceived by Emperor Uda () and published by order of his son Emperor Daigo () in abo ...

''. Gyokusen-en, the Japanese garden in Kanazawa, was built by successive heads of the Wakita family from Naokata to the fourth head, Kyubei. The name of the garden was taken from the benefactor of Naokata: Eihime. She became a Buddhist nun and took the name Gyokusen-in in 1614. It is said that Naokata was a kakure kirishitan. He erected a stone lantern with the Virgin Mary engraved on it in Gyokusen-en. In his later years, he became a Buddhist priest and changed his name to Jotetsu (如鉄), using the same Chinese characters of his original name.

See also

References

Further reading