4 Ota Dokan

Have you ever seen this statue?　You can see it in front of the Kawagoe city office, in the Ryuon-ji temple（龍隠寺) in Ogose, and other places in Saitama and Tokyo. This is because the man was active in the Kanto area.

Do you know who he is？　His name is Ota Dokan. He was a warlord who was powerful in the Kanto area in the middle of the 15th century（in the Muromachi period）. In those days, Muromachi Shogunate（室町幕府）was losing power and the Kanto area was unstable, Dokan worked for the Uesugi Family（関東管領、上杉家）. He became good at military strategy and stabilized the area.

Ohta Dokan was born in Sagami-no-kuni（相模国）in 1432. In his childhood,his name was Tsuruchiyo（鶴千代). He was very clever and studied the classical Japanese poem style,waka（和歌）and the classical Chinese poem style，kanshi（漢詩） at Kamakura Gozan（鎌倉五山）． He was，and still is，well-known as a learned man as well as a tanka poet（短歌).

太田道灌像　　龍隠寺（越生町）

He became good at architecture too． In 1457，when he was 25 years old，he built the Edo castle（now，the Imperial Palace in Tokyo）． In Saitama prefecture，Kawagoe castle and Iwatsuki castle were built by him．

	Dokan became so famous that he could meet the Shogun， Ashikaga Yoshimasa （足利義政), in Kyoto. He stabilized the Kanto area and the Uesugi Family prospered．But his lord，Uesugi Sadamasa（上杉定正） was afraid that he would rebel． In 1486，Sadamasa invited Dokan to his mansion in Isehara （伊勢原）．Then，Dokan was killed by Sadamasa’s followers while he was taking a bath． He was fifty-five years old．（２５７語）
木造太田道灌像　川越市立博物館

ＡＥＴのハド先生（Mr.Hadd）が、中学生のユキ（Yuki）と一緒に越生町を散歩をしています。２人は今「山吹の里」にやってきました。
Mr. Hadd:	Oh，what a nice place！
Yuki 　：	Yes．We call this place“Yamabuki no Sato．”
	Yamabuki is a kind of flower, and the English name is...
	oh，a Japanese rose！
Mr. Hadd:	A Japanese rose！ I know that flower．
	But is Ogose famous for Japanese roses？
Yuki ：	Yes，it is．There is a famous story about that．
	Do you know Ota Dokan，the famous warlord？
Mr. Hadd:	Of course，I know him．
	I’m interested in Japanese history．
	He built the Edo Castle，didn’t he？
Yuki ：	That’s right．
Mr. Hadd:	But why was he concerned with Ogose？
Yuki ：	Because his father lived here when he was young．
	And sometimes he visited Ogose to meet his father．
	One day，when he came to see his father，he enjoyed
	hunting around here．Then he got caught in a sudden
	shower and visited a private house to borrow a mino(蓑）．
Mr.Hadd：	A mino？　What’s that？
Yuki ：	Well，It’s a kind of raincoat that's made of plants．
	It’s an old Japanese style raincoat．
	It’s an old Japanese style raincoat．
Mr. Hadd:	Oh，I see．
Yuki ：	But the family was very poor and didn’t have a mino．
	So the young lady in the house took out a spray of
	a Japanese rose and said to Dokan，
	*『七重八重　花は咲けども　山吹の*
	実のひとつだに　なきぞ悲しき』
	This is the old Japanese waka（和歌）．
	This is the old Japanese waka（和歌）．
	The poem means that the Japanese rose trees have a lot
	of blossoms but they don’t have any fruit．
	Fruit is mi（実） in Japanese. She wanted to say，
	“We don’t have a mino．” At that time，Dokan got
	angry，but after he understood what the lady wanted to
	say，he was ashamed of himself and he studied about
	waka much harder．
Mr. Hadd:	Oh，what an interesting story！
	I want to know more about him．