An ancient document showing a large amount of funding for the construction of a temple to mourn Hideyoshi Nobunaga

An old document showing that Hideyoshi Hashiba and later Hideyoshi Toyotomi had raised a large amount of money to build a temple to mourn Oda Nobunaga after the Honnoji Incident was newly confirmed in a survey by the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo. it was done.

Researchers point out that "it is a valuable historical source that shows that Hideyoshi was trying to raise a large amount of money and promote the power struggle after Nobunaga's death."

The old document was purchased and stored by Matsuyama City more than 40 years ago, and it was confirmed by a survey by Associate Professor Yuki Murai of the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo that it was written about Hideyoshi's financing and how to use it. I did.

The document is believed to have been written three months after the Honnoji Incident, and Hideyoshi tells us that the 1000 pieces of silver provided will be used to build the Bodaiji Temple to mourn Nobunaga.

According to Associate Professor Murai, the other party is presumed to be a leading merchant, and 1000 pieces of silver is the current amount of hundreds of millions of yen.

Until now, it is not well understood how Hideyoshi raised funds for the construction of Nobunaga's Bodaiji Temple, and this discovery is a concrete example of that.

Associate Professor Murai said, "If Nobunaga's funeral was successful, he would have the cause of being the successor, and in fact Hideyoshi was able to take advantage of subsequent political movements. It is a very interesting historical source." I'm talking to you.

Hideyoshi Pays attention to the financial aspect and gives the power struggle an advantage

After the Honnoji Incident, who would take power was an important issue for Nobunaga's vassals.

Immediately after Nobunaga was defeated, Hideyoshi Hashiba and Katsuie Shibata, who were influential warlords of the Oda clan, gathered at Kiyosu Castle in Aichi Prefecture to discuss the inheritance of the family.

At this meeting, Hideyoshi and Katsuie sought different people and confronted each other, and the power struggle continued thereafter.

Hideyoshi defeated Katsuie in the following year, Tensho 11 = "Battle of Shizugatake" in 1583 AD, and Hideyoshi's power was established.

This ancient document is from the year before the "Battle of Shizugatake", and it can be seen from the contents that Hideyoshi was paying attention to the financial aspect and was thinking of advancing the power struggle to the advantage.

Associate Professor Yuki Murai of the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo said, "At the time the document was written, there were still many candidates for Nobunaga's successor, and it is important to mourn Nobunaga's bodhi above all in order to be successful. Under these circumstances, it was not for Hideyoshi's individual, but for Nobunaga-sama, so he probably proceeded with the procurement based on the theory of raising funds. There was a known historical document that said that he had distributed money, but on the contrary, there was no record of collecting money, which is very interesting. "