From Edo to Hakodate

Life and times

A pupil of Kiyomaro of whom only three years are well known, those in Hakodate.

On this page
  1. In the Kiyomaro school
  2. Hakodate
  3. The two Masao

In the Kiyomaro school

The record on Bunka Isan Online, the portal of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, calls him a leading pupil (高弟, kōtei) of Minamoto Kiyomaro and gives him his civil name. The Japanese Wikipedia names a Suzuki Masao (鈴木正雄) among Kiyomaro’s pupils, with Kurihara Nobuhide and Fujiwara Kiyondo; Markus Sesko places Masao (正雄) in the Kiyomaro school. That Suzuki Masao and Minamoto Masao are the same person is not stated expressly by any of the sources consulted.

Hakodate

According to the state record, it is said that the magistrate of Hakodate, Hori Oribe no Shō (堀織部正), invited him to Ezo in 1858 (Ansei 5) to try ironmaking with the local iron sand, as part of his policy of promoting industry. He forged there for three years, until 1860 (Man'en 1), with sand from the Shiriuchi coast (today Esan). The record of the Hakodate City Museum adds that in the fourth month of 1859 (Ansei 6) the magistrate Muragaki Awaji no Kami presented two of his swords to the shogunate and that, after the shōgun had seen them, they remained in his apartments. Neither his origin nor his life after 1860 is recorded in the sources consulted.

The two Masao

He is not Yamaura Saneo (山浦真雄), Kiyomaro’s elder brother, whose name is also read Masao and who is sometimes rendered as Minamoto Masao. Sesko distinguishes the two in the Kiyomaro school: Masao (真雄) and Masao (正雄).