Letter by Tachibana Muneshige 立花宗茂筆書状タチバナムネシゲヒツショジョウ

Description

Tachibana Muneshige (1569-1642) was a military general of the early Edo Period and the first lord of the Tachibana family to settle in Yanagawa in Chikugo Province, in today’s northern Kyushu. He was the first son of Takahashi Joun (?-1586), the Lord of Iwaya Castle in Chikuzen (today’s Fukuoka Prefecture), but was later adopted by Tachibana Dosetsu of the Otomo Clan. In 1585, Muneshige inherited the castle and estate of his deceased adoptive father. Muneshige later followed Toyotomi Hideyoshi in campaigns to Kyushu, and for the spectacular battles he waged against the Shimazu family ofSatsuma (today’s Kagoshima Prefecture), Muneshige was rewarded with a fief of 130,000 goku (rice barrels) in Yanagawa. Thereafter, he participated in various military campaigns, such as the siege of Odawara Castle and the invasion of the Korean Peninsula, in which he fought brilliantly. As he had sided with the Toyotomis in the Battle of Sekigahara, his estate was confiscated by the victorious Tokugawa family. However, Muneshige went up to Edo to apologize and plead his case before the Shogun. In 1603, he was given a much smaller estate (10,000 goku) in Tanakura in Mutsu Province (today’s Fukushima Prefecture), but by 1620, the original estate in Yanagawa had been returned to him. Thereafter, he served Tokugawa Hidetada, the second Shogun (Generalissimo) of the Tokugawa military government, as a member of the Ceremonies Committee. In this letter, Muneshige writes that he is aware of the petition that Tanita Gensuke submitted seeking promotion. Probably, Tanita was Muneshige’s vassal. The brush strokes and ink color of the signature match those of the main text of the letter, so it was most likely written by Muneshige himself, not by his private secretary.