Search

After the Kyoho 享保 era, the Uekawa-ke 上河家 and the Tejima-ke 手島家 houses sustained a close relationship. Following the retirement of Soshin 宗信 in Horeki 宝暦11 (1761) from the leadership of the Uekawa-ke, he assumed the leadership of the Tejima-ke, calling himself Tejima Kazaemon 手島嘉左衛門. Thus the retirement from the head of the Uekawa-ke came to signify succession to the leadership of the Tejima-ke. To legitimatize the succession, the Uekawa-ke led the commercial merger of the two families and performed ancestral rites for the Tejima-ke. In Bunka 文化6 (1809), however, the discontinued Tejima-ke rehabilitated its lineage and therefore brought a sudden change in the relations between the two families. This marked the end of identity of the Tejima-ke, the chief family of the Uekawa-ke, and the head of the Shingaku School 心学講舎. The ties between the Tejima-ke and the Shingaku School were weakened as the association between the Uekawa-ke and the successors of the title Tejima Kazaemon grew weaker in later years., 個人情報保護のため削除部分あり