Hirata Yukie

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Hirata Yukie
平田靭負
"Statue of the Venerable Hirata Yukie" (平田靭負翁像, Hirata Yukie Ō zō), in Yōrō, Gifu Prefecture.
Personal details
Born	September 10, 1704
Died	July 4, 1755(1755-07-04) (aged 50)
Nationality	Japanese

Hirata Kamon Yukie (平田掃部靭負, 1704–1755) was a Japanese karō and samurai retainer of the Satsuma Domain best known for his involvement in the 1754 Hōreki River incident. His familiar name was Shinzaemon (新左衛門), and he later adopted the hyakkanna [ja] name "Kamon".

Biography

Hirata Yukie was born in 1704 to the family of Kagoshima samurai Hirata Masafusa (平田正房). In 1729, at the age of 24, he was commissioned as a general officer of ashigaru.

During the 1754 Hōreki River incident, Hirata was appointed by his domainal superiors as the bugyō overseeing engineering and construction work by Satsuma personnel across the numerous wajū. In the course of these labors, many Satsuma men died. Hirata himself died in 1755 after the project was terminated. According to official records he was one of the many victims of dysentery in the course of the incident, but a theory emerged in the late 19th century that he in fact performed seppuku to atone for his failure to protect his fellow Satsuma men from the malicious intentions of the shogunate.^[1] He was buried at the Daikoku-ji [ja] in Fushimi, Kyoto.^[1]

After his death, family leadership was taken over by his grandson Hirata Kesajirō (平田袈裟次郎).

Commemoration

There are a number of statues of Hirata Yukie, in, among other places, Yōrō, Gifu and at the Kaizō-ji (海蔵寺) in Kuwana.^[2]

The 1977 semi-historical gekiga Satsuma Gishiden contains a sympathetic depiction of Hirata Yukie, including the folkloric incident of his killing a man with one of his own severed ribs.^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b 羽賀 Haga, 祥二 Shōji (2005). "宝暦治水工事と〈聖地〉の誕生 Hōreki Flood Control Project and the Birth of a 〈Sacred Site〉". 名古屋大学附属図書館研究年報. 3. Japan: 名古屋大学附属図書館研究開発室 Nagoya University Library – Office of Research and Development. doi:10.18999/annul.3.75.
^ "海蔵寺 Kaizō-ji". Kuwana City Municipal Website. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
^ 平田 Hirata, 弘史 Hiroshi (January 30, 2007). Satsuma Gishiden, Volume 2 (1st ed.). Dark Horse Comics. ISBN 978-1593075187.