Dosan Saito (2/2)The man who unified Mino and married his daughter to Oda Nobunaga.

There were two schools of tea ceremony in Mino during the Sengoku period. This is the genealogy of Soan tea and Shoin style tea.
The reason Dosan invited Baisetsu, a close aide of Yoshiteru Ashikaga, was said to be his political intention to flaunt his cultural superiority to the military commanders, samurai families, and people in his territory by building a shoin-style sukiya house in Baisetsu style. It has been.

Between February 22 and March 10, Tenbun 23 (1554), Toshimasa handed over the headship of the family to his son Yoshitatsu Saito, underwent shaving initiation at Jozaiji Temple, took the name Dosan, and moved to Sagiyama Castle. I retired.

It is speculated that Dosan's sudden retirement was forced by his vassals.
Dosan was unable to implement even a glimpse of the new measures of civil government that other Sengoku daimyo were implementing one after another at the time, and his vassals judged him unqualified to be a domestic ruler or lord.

However, Dosan was more partial to Yoshitatsu's younger brothers, Magoshiro and Kiheiji, and is said to have finally begun to consider disinheriting Yoshitatsu.

The discord between Dosan and Yoshitatsu became evident, and in the first year of Koji (1555), Yoshitatsu killed his younger brothers and raised an army against Dosan. Few of the former Toki clan vassals tried to side with Dosan due to his history of stealing the country, and in April of the following year, 1556, Dosan, with only 2,500 soldiers, fought against Yoshitatsu, who led 17,500 soldiers. There was a battle on the banks of the Nagara River (Battle of the Nagara River), and his son-in-law, Nobunaga, sent reinforcements but they were not able to arrive in time and were killed in the battle. He passed away at the age of 63.

There is a record that just before he was killed in the Battle of Nagara River, his youngest son, Toshiharu Saito, gave Nobunaga a will in which he handed over Mino to Nobunaga.

Letters exist at Myokakuji Temple in Kyoto and the castle tower of Osaka Castle, and it is also recorded in the Enoki. On the other hand, Dosan had previously described Yoshitatsu as ``incompetent,'' but it is said that after seeing Yoshitatsu's command of the Battle of Nagara River, he changed his opinion and regretted it. Dosan's head was carefully buried at Dosanzuka by a former retainer who had joined Yoshitatsu's side.

Inabayama Castle (Gifu Castle)

It is located on Mt. Inaba (currently Mt. Kinka in Gifu City, Gifu Prefecture), a mountain in Inokuchi, Mino Province, and has a history of being called Inabayama Castle. It has a history dating back to the Kamakura period, and is thought to have been fully developed during the period of Saito Dosan during the Sengoku period.

After that, Oda Nobunaga captured it from Saito Tatsuoki in the Battle of Inabayama Castle in 1567, moved his base from Komakiyama to this castle, destroyed that territory, and built a new castle called Gifu Castle.

It is written in "Nobunaga Koki" that ``From Komakiyama in Owari Province, he moved to Inabayama in Noshu.My name is Iguchi, but I was forced to rename it Gifu.'' From here, he began to spread the word and unify the country. With this in mind, Nobunaga renamed the castle at the top of the mountain and the town at the foot of the mountain from ``Iguchi'' to ``Gifu,'' and it came to be called ``Gifu Castle.''

There were castles on the top of the mountain and residences at the foot of the mountain, as well as routes connecting them, as well as forts located at key points in the mountain, and above all, the mountain itself functioned as a natural stronghold.

The castle lord's mansion, located at the foot of the mountain, is located in Tsukidani at the western foot of the mountain.The topography was created during the third generation of the Saito clan, and Nobunaga renovated it on a large scale, and two buildings were built on the north and south sides of a large pond. Excavations have revealed that there was a large garden there. There is also a record that the famous Louis Frois visited it, and it is said that it was used until the prelude to the Battle of Sekigahara.

After Nobunaga Oda, the castle's lords were Nobutada Oda, (after Nobunaga's death) Nobutaka Oda, Motosuke Ikeda, Terumasa Ikeda, Hidekatsu Toyotomi, and Hidenobu Oda. In response to Ishida Mitsunari's raising of an army, Hidenobu joined the Western army, and at the Battle of Gifu Castle (1600), a prelude to the Battle of Sekigahara, Hidenobu was attacked by Terumasa Ikeda and Masanori Fukushima of the Eastern army, and the castle fell, the following year in 1601. ) The castle was abandoned by Tokugawa Ieyasu.

The current structure is a mock tower made of reinforced concrete built in 1956 (as imagined at the time and intended to imitate the castle tower of yesteryear). Excavation surveys began around 1984 near the foot of the mountain, and excavations are still in progress.
The Nobunaga Kokyokan Ruins, located in Gifu Park at the foot of the mountain, has terraced terrain on both sides of the Tanikawa River flowing through Tsukidani, with buildings and gardens arranged there.

Dosan Festival

This festival is held every April in Gifu City, Gifu Prefecture.

This commercial event was created by local business and industry people on the occasion of the broadcast of NHK's historical drama ``Kunitoro Monogatari.'' The festival is held in conjunction with the Gifu Festival, an annual festival held at many shrines in the city, including Inaba Shrine, Golden Shrine, and Kashimori Shrine, so the city of Gifu is filled with a festive mood.

It began in 1972, and from around 1980, the Gifu Junior Chamber and local newspaper companies encouraged the participation of local businesses, opened a mikoshi plaza, and held a mikoshi parade. . Coinciding with the Gifu Festival, it has become more colorful year by year and is now the main event.

During the festival, a memorial service will be held at Jozai-ji Temple, a temple associated with Dosan Saito, which will be open to the public free of charge during the festival. Many people visit, and according to organizers, it is said that as many as 200,000 people will gather.