Collection
Rōjū Hōsho (Letter Received from a Senior Councilor of the Tokugawa Shogunate)
| Rōjū Hōsho (Letter Received from a Senior Councilor of the Tokugawa Shogunate) |
| Ink on paper; Edo period; Important Cultural Property; Gift of the Ii Family |
Some 5,000 rōjū hōsho letters received by the Ii family from senior councilors (rōjū) of the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo have been preserved in the Ii family collection. Letters that were damaged by water were repaired using the sukibame (leaf casting) method. One example (shown here) of these rōjū hōsho, written by Matsudaira Norisato and dated on the fifth day of the twelfth month of Genbun 3 (1738), expresses gratitude for the Ii family’s gift of samegaimochi—thin-cut slices of dried mochi, a local specialty—for the shogun’s family.
