13 Facts About Imagawa Sadayo

Imagawa Sadayo, known as Imagawa Ryoshun, was a renowned Japanese poet and military commander who served as tandai of Kyushu under the Ashikaga bakufu from 1371 to 1395.

Imagawa Sadayo had taken religious vows when the Ashikaga bakufu called upon him to travel to Kyushu and assume the post of constable of the region in 1370 after the failure of the previous constable to quell the rebel uprisings in the region, largely consisting of partisans of the Southern Court supporting one of the rebellious Emperor Go-Daigo's sons, Prince Kaneyoshi.

Imagawa Sadayo met with three of the most powerful families on Kyushu to gain their support in the attack, those families being the Shimazu, the Otomo and the Shoni.

Things seemed to be going well until Imagawa Sadayo suspected the head of the Shoni family of treachery and had him killed at a drinking party.

Imagawa Sadayo took matters into his own hands, but was aided by his son Yoshinori and his younger brother Tadaaki.

Imagawa Sadayo continued to push the loyalists forces until their resistance ended with Prince Kaneyoshi's death in 1383.

Imagawa Sadayo defeated many of the pirate bands and returned captured civilians and property to Korea.

In 1395 both the Ouchi and Otomo families conspired against Imagawa Sadayo, informing the Bakufu that he was plotting against the shogun, in a move that was likely an attempt to restore the post of constable to the family that had held it prior to Imagawa Sadayo, the Shibukawa family.

Imagawa Sadayo was relieved of his post and returned to the capital.

Imagawa Sadayo had, in addition, acted fairly independently in his negotiations with the Shimazu, the Otomo and the Shoni, and in negotiations with Korea about the wokou; this recall was prompted by all three causes being used against him by his enemies in the Shogun's court.

Imagawa Sadayo began composing poetry from an early age: by the age 20, he had a poem included in an imperial anthology.

Imagawa Sadayo's poems were displayed to more effect in his fairly popular and influential travel diary, Michiyukiburi.

Imagawa Sadayo was active in the poetic disputes of that day, scoring a signal victory over the Nijo adherents close to the Ashikaga Shogunate at the time with 6 polemical treatises on poetry he wrote between 1403 and 1412, defending the Reizei's poetic doctrine and their cause.