Ōoka Tadasuke

Who was Ōoka Tadasuke?

Ōoka Tadasuke was a Japanese samurai in the service of the Tokugawa shogunate. During the reign of Tokugawa Yoshimune, as a magistrate of Edo, his roles included chief of police, judge and jury, and Yamada Magistrate prior to his tenure as South Magistrate of Edo. With the title Echizen no Kami, he is often known as Ōoka Echizen. He was highly respected as an incorruptible judge. In addition, he established the first fire brigade made up of commoners, and the Koishikawa Yojosho. Later, he advanced to the position of jisha bugyō, and subsequently became daimyo of the Nishi-Ōhira Domain.

Ōoka was born in 1677, but did not come into public notice until he was 35, when he was appointed an obscure judgeship. When he accepted this job, he found out that there was a long–standing boundary dispute between the farmers of the Yamada and Wakayama fiefs.

While it was obvious that the Yamada claim was the just one, however, no previous judge had been fool enough to irritate Yoshimune, Lord of Kishū, as he was very close to the shogun, Tokugawa Ietsugu. However, Ōoka took up the case, and immediately settled it on its merits. Yoshimune was so impressed that when he became shogun five years later, he took the unusual action of promoting Ōoka over hundreds of other candidates, to the important post of machi–bugyō of Edo. The post of machi–bugyō combined the duties of mayor, police chief, judge, and fire marshal.