Background
Tadasuke Ooka was born in 1675 in Mie Prefecture.
大岡 忠相
Tadasuke Ooka was born in 1675 in Mie Prefecture.
Tadasuke Ooka was appointed Magistrate of Yamada (Mie Prefecture) (1712). Shogun Yoshimune Tokugawa picked him for the post of Magistrate of Construction and Repairs (1716) and Magistrate of Edo and also given the title of Echizen-no-Kami (1717). Was appointed Magistrate of Shrines and Temples (1736) and granted a 10,000-koku fief at Nishi-Ohira, Mikawa Province (Aichi Prefecture). Treated as a daimyo, he held the post of Soshaban, or the Chief Shogunate Protocol Officer.
He is depicted as a wise, benevolent judge in many stories including Ooka Seidan.
He handled many baffling cases as Magistrate of Edo with wisdom. Playwrights and story writers have found in those cases a prolific source of their material. Ooka is said to have been helped by two able detectives, Hansaku Ishiko and Ryosuke Okawa.