Tadaaki Matsudaira (2/2)Explanation about his upbringing, achievements, and life

Houseboats sometimes pass through the Dotonbori River, and after the year-end and New Year holidays and other events, young people sometimes jump into the river, causing worry for others.

In fact, the person who created Dotonbori is said to be Tadaaki Matsudaira.
At that time, it was believed that the Horikawa River (an artificially created river) was necessary for the development of urban areas. This was at a time when inventions such as cars were not yet on the market, so water transport using the flow of water was ideal for logistics. Because Tadaaki Matsudaira had tremendous trust from Ieyasu, he was entrusted with the development of the urban area around Osaka Castle. One of the development works carried out there was the construction of Dotonbori.

At that time, Tadaaki Matsudaira ordered and entrusted the construction of this Horikawa to a man named Yasui Doton. In other words, it is said that Tadaaki Matsudaira was the one who built it under orders from Ieyasu, but it was Doton Yasui who actually worked physically to build it.

Doton Yasui was killed in the ``Osaka Natsu no Jin'' while constructing Horikawa. After that, his younger brother Doboku Yasui took over the construction under the orders of Tadaaki Matsudaira.
It was finally completed three years later in 1615. At this time, it was named ``Dotonbori'' because ``the moat built by Mr. Doton'' was intended to preserve the achievements of Doton Yasui, who first started construction of the Horikawa River and worked hard while directing the workers. It had a name.

However, one thing that is strange is that ``Doton Yasui and Doboku were members of the Toyotomi side.'' As some of you may know, at the time, the Tokugawa army led by Tadaaki Matsudaira and the Toyotomi army, famous for Toyotomi Hideyoshi, were in conflict.
Normally, people would not show favoritism to members of the Toyotomi army, but Tadaaki Matsudaira named Dotonbori after Yasui and others.

Yasui and his colleagues may have been able to order the start of construction because they were highly skilled engineers, but choosing a form that was advantageous to the other party, even down to the final name, was extremely difficult at the time. That's rare. (If Yasui and others from the Toyotomi side are named, there is a possibility that surrounding residents will also migrate to the Toyotomi side.)
From this point, you can see Tadaaki Matsudaira's good humanity and respect for others.

He also worked hard to build roads.

As mentioned above, Tadaaki Matsudaira was entrusted with the development of the urban area, but building Dotonbori was not the only thing he did for this purpose. Tadaaki Matsudaira also focused on the reconstruction of the town that was damaged by the ``Osaka Summer Siege'' that occurred during the construction of Dotonbori.
Part of this is road construction. They created a new transportation route by naming the roads that run north-south in what is now Osaka city ``suji,'' and the roads running east and west ``dori.'' The concept of "Feng Shui" is used in naming and routes, and there are various names depending on the direction, and there are many names for roads that are still used today.
Even though the town that I was developing was hit by the Osaka Summer Siege and suffered a tragedy, I remained focused on development without cutting corners, and this has had an impact on our lives today. That's what I'm doing.

It was Tadaaki Matsudaira who built Shinsaibashi.

Tadaaki Matsudaira also built Shinsaibashi, which is still in use today. Nowadays, it is commonly referred to as a general term for the downtown area, but at the time there was actually a bridge there. Originally, Shinsaibashi was a bridge spanning a river called Nagahori River, and this river was also built when Dotonbori was built.
At that time, residential areas were divided across the river, and there were an unusually small number of bridges, so Shinsaibashi was built as a key transportation hub. Since it was made of wood at the time, it required considerable maintenance costs, and it is said that a large amount of money was used to maintain it. Because so many people use them, they can quickly become damaged, and there have been reports of fires, floods, and other damage.

A shopping street called ``Shinsaibashi-suji'' still exists today, and the name ``suji'' comes from the name of the road created by Tadaaki Matsudaira.
The name ``Shinsaibashi'' has been used by many large companies as their branch names, and the name is still in use today. (Mitsubishi UFJ Bank Nishi-Shinsaibashi Branch, Osaka Shinsaibashi Post Office, United Arrows Shinsaibashi Store, Tokyu Hands Shinsaibashi Store, Chanel Daimaru Shinsaibashi Store, Louis Vuitton Osaka Shinsaibashi Store, etc.)

The trust of the Osaka townspeople was also very strong.

After the entire town was damaged during the Osaka Summer Siege, many townspeople asked Tadaaki Matsudaira for help. Therefore, it is known that Tadaaki Matsudaira started building temples and graves, and worked hard to meet the wishes of the townspeople who had suffered from the war. In this way, Tadaaki Matsudaira was highly trusted by the general townspeople, and it seems that he was not simply a ``lord in charge''. This may be due to the influence of the 11 articles he wrote when he was appointed as the lord of the domain, and we can see that he treated everyone with sincerity.

summary

This time, I introduced a person named Tadaaki Matsudaira. Tadaaki Matsudaira was a person who was greatly involved in the construction of the now famous Dotonbori and the development and development of the Osaka area, including Osaka Castle.He was highly trusted by Ieyasu and left behind many achievements. He demonstrated great humanity and leadership in uniting many samurai warriors to the point that he was admired by the townspeople, and accomplished a feat that will go down in history. When you visit Kansai, please don't forget that Tadaaki Matsudaira was involved in sightseeing and living there.