Background
Ōkubo Tadamasa was the sixth son of Ōkubo Tadamasu, the second daimyō of Odawara, and was born at the domain’s residence in Edo.
大久保 忠方
Ōkubo Tadamasa was the sixth son of Ōkubo Tadamasu, the second daimyō of Odawara, and was born at the domain’s residence in Edo.
His courtesy title was Kaga no Kami. He became clan leader and daimyō of Odawara on the death of his father in 1713. Tadamasa faced the daunting task of attempting to reduce the massive debt incurred by his father to the Tokugawa shogunate due to the Great Genroku earthquake and the Hōei eruption of Mount Fuji, and associated aftershocks, crop failures and floods.
Although he encouraged the migration of artisans to Odawara and the opening of new rice lands, high taxation and increasingly severe inflation led to civil unrest in Odawara-juku.
Tadamasa died of illness on November 20, 1732 at the domain’s Edo residence, His grave is at the clan temple of Saisho-ji in Setagaya, Tokyo. Tadamasa was married to an adopted daughter of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, the senior advisor to Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi.