Register record
Identity & authority
- Disambiguation
- One of the four original shutsuyaku appointed when the Kōbusho opened in Ansei 2 (1855), and later a spear shihan-yaku; known in the city as the "Akasaka yakko." Distinct from Hiraiwa Shichinosuke (平岩七之助) of the same roster.
- Reliability
- The founding appointment is doubly attested and secure. No school, dates or biography have been found, and the identification with the 平岩駿河守 of the yūgekitai notices is not established. The reading of the tsūshō 次郎太夫 is unconfirmed.
- Attestation
- corroboration: external
Names
| type | kanji | romaji | reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| myoji | 平岩 | Hiraiwa | ひらいわ |
| tsusho | 次郎太夫 | 〔Jirōdayū〕 | 〔じろうだゆう〕 |
| henmei | 赤坂奴 | Akasaka yakko |
Dates
- Floruit
- Ansei 2 (1855) to Keiō 2 (1866)
Origin & status
- Status
- 新番 松平信濃守組
- Offices
- 講武所出役 (shutsuyaku) — one of the original four, from Ansei 2 (1855)/2/5
- 講武所槍術師範役 (sōjutsu shihan-yaku)
Lineage & parentage
Summary
Hiraiwa Jirōdayū (平岩次郎太夫) was one of the four shutsuyaku appointed when the Kōbusho was established in Ansei 2 (1855), and afterwards a shihan-yaku in the spear department. He is in the register for a structural rather than a technical reason: he was there from the first day, in a working post, and the sources that record the academy’s founding record him by name. What they do not record is any school, teacher or transmission — an absence worth stating plainly, since almost every other spear teacher on the staff is entered with a line.
The founding appointment
The announcement of Ansei 2 (1855)/2/5 names ten sōsai holding office concurrently, six men serving jointly as tōdori, and beneath them four shutsuyaku who worked under the direction of the superintendent and directors: Sugiura Shume of the koshōgumi, Kimura Kansuke, Hiraiwa Jirōdayū of the shinban company of Matsudaira Shinano-no-kami, and Shōda Kinnosuke of the sword office.1 The same four appear in the Rikugun rekishi notice of the academy’s establishment.2
He was later among the senior staff who received the shogunal gifts distributed after the shogun’s visit: the tōdori and shihan-yaku took five scroll-rolls apiece, and Hiraiwa is listed among that tier, entered by his shinban unit — alongside Odani, Ōkusa, Hasegawa, Kubota, Shimosone, Udono and Egawa. The kyōju-kata below them received three bolts of cloth and the sewa-kokoroe two.3
He appears in the spear section of the roster as shihan-yaku,4 and the Yūgeki-tai notices of Keiō 2 (1866)/11/18 carry a Hiraiwa under the title Suruga-no-kami; whether that is this man is not established.
The Akasaka yakko
He was known in Edo as the Akasaka yakko (赤坂奴) — roughly “the Akasaka tough,” yakko carrying the flavor of a swaggering retainer-servant rather than a compliment. The by-name comes down through a contemporary rakushu lampooning the academy and its people, where the epithet is glossed directly: 「「赤坂奴」は鎗術平岩次郎太夫を指し」 — “the Akasaka yakko” means the spear instructor Hiraiwa Jirōdayū. It stands in a paired set of such jibes, its companion 「端反の裏金」 being aimed at Abe Seishū.5 It is the only thing resembling a personal characterization that the record preserves of him, and it suggests a figure conspicuous enough in the city to be worth a satirist’s shorthand.
Notes
