Date Tsunamune

Date Tsunamune (伊達 綱宗) was the daimyō (lord) of Sendai han for about two years, from 1658 to 1660. His father, Date Tadamune, died in 1658, but Tsunamune's succession and rule was soon opposed by a number of his kinsmen and vassals. This dispute eventually led to the Date Sōdō or "Date Disturbance" of 1671, which has been retold in theatre, and has become one of the more well-known tales of unrest and disunity among the daimyō of the Edo period.



In 1660, Tsunamune was in the capital of Edo, working on clearing and deepening a waterway in the city; this was part of the service he owed to the shogun each year, under the feudal system of corvée. A number of his relatives and vassals who opposed his rule came to Edo to petition the bakufu (shogunate) for his son, Date Tsunamura, to become daimyō. Tsunamune was dismissed from his corvée work, and arrested, under the charges of public drunkenness and debauchery to which, as the story goes, he was genuinely guilty.

Tsunamura was made daimyō, though the bakufu did not make this decision lightly. The Tairō Sakai Tadakiyo took a personal interest in the situation, and the Sendai Metsuke visited the area every year, informing the Tairō and other officials in Edo of the situation as well. Though Sakai had been friendly with Tadamune (Tsunamune's father, the previous lord), and did not wish to take extreme steps against Tsunamune, he had been delinquent in his responsibilities as daimyō, and the pressure from his political opponents was very strong.

Ultimately, despite some unsavory behavior on the part of Tsunamune's opponents, his son remained daimyō.