Kutsuki Masatsuna (朽木 昌綱, March 5, 1750 – May 18, 1802), also known as Kutsuki Oki-no kami Minamoto-no Masatsuna, was a hereditary Japanese daimyō of Oki and Ōmi with holdings in Tanba and Fukuchiyama.[1] His warrior clan was amongst the hereditary vassals of the Tokugawa family (the fudai) in the Edo period. His childhood name was Tomojiro (斧次郎).
Masatsuna was a polymath and a keen student of whatever information was available at that time concerning the West. Since most printed material was only available in the Dutch language, such studies were commonly called "Dutch learning" (rangaku).[2]
Dutch Japanologist Isaac Titsingh considered Masatsuna to have been his closest friend while he was in Japan, and their correspondence continued after Titsingh last left Dejima for the last time. The oldest surviving letter from Masatsuna to Titsingh dates from 1789;[3] and this letter mentions mutual friends such as Shimazu Shigehide (the father-in-law of the eleventh shōgun, Tokugawa Ienari) and Kuze Hirotami (Nagasaki bugyō or governor of Nagasaki port).[4]
Masatsuna and Titsingh shared an interest in numismatics. After Titsingh was reassigned from Japan in 1784, he sent packages of coins from India—Dutch coppers, as well as coins from India, Russia, Turkey, and Africa. Titsingh in turn received Japanese and Chinese coins as gifts.[2]
Masatsuna was an author of several treatises on numismatics. He was the first in Japan to circulate a book about non-Japanese coins with impressions taken from actual coins which had been obtained from Western traders.
Masatsuna's collection of coins was brought to the UK in the 19th century, and is now in the British Museum and the Ashmolean Museum.[5]
^Titsingh, Issac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, p. 420.
^ abFleming, William. Book review: Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779–1822", Southeast Review of Asian Studies, Annual, 2006.
^Screech, Timon. (2006). Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779–1822, p. 36.
^Screech, p. 152.
^See Helen Wang, 'How did Kutsuki Masatsuna's coins come to the British Museum?', in Catalogue of the Japanese Coin Collection (pre-Meiji) at the British Museum, with special reference to Kutsuki Masatsuna (British Museum Research Publication 174, 2010).
KutsukiMasatsuna (朽木 昌綱, March 5, 1750 – May 18, 1802), also known as Kutsuki Oki-no kami Minamoto-no Masatsuna, was a hereditary Japanese daimyō of Oki...
was presented to the emperor by KutsukiMasatsuna (1750–1802), also known as Kutsuki Oki-no kami Minamoto-no Masatsuna, hereditary daimyō of Oki and Ōmi...
detailed on a smaller scale at around this time. In 1789 (Kansei 1), KutsukiMasatsuna published Illustrated Explanation of Western Geography (泰西輿地図說, Taisei...
collection (pre-Meiji) at the British Museum with special reference to KutsukiMasatsuna. British Museum. p. v. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 December...
Collection (pre-Meiji) at the British Museum with special reference to KutsukiMasatsuna (PDF). ISBN 978-0-86159-174-9. ISSN 1747-3640. Archived from the original...
period. The Kutsuki were a powerful clan at Kutsuki-tani (朽木谷), Takasima-gori, Ōmi Province. Father: Kitsuki Tanetsuna Wife: Asukai Masatsuna's daughter...
successive daimyō, Kutsuki Nobutsuna and KutsukiMasatsuna were noted as literati, and promoted rangaku studies. the 9th daimyō, Kutsuki Tomotsuna, promoted...
acquired from the Tamba Collection (which was originally in the hands of KutsukiMasatsuna, 1750–1802). Many government-issued cash coins and other currencies...
became the 11th Shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate. 1787 (Tenmei 7): KutsukiMasatsuna published Seiyō Senpu (Notes on Western Coinage), with plates showing...
Collection (pre-Meiji) at the British Museum with special reference to KutsukiMasatsuna (PDF). British Museum. ISBN 978-0-86159-174-9. ISSN 1747-3640. Archived...
Collection (pre-Meiji) at the British Museum with special reference to KutsukiMasatsuna by Shin’ichi Sakuraki, Helen Wang and Peter Kornicki, with Nobuhisa...
Tanuma Okitsugu was Kuze's patron. The oldest surviving letter from KutsukiMasatsuna to Isaac Titsingh dates from 1789; and this letter mentions prominent...
historical Japanese era during which Titsingh visited Japan. Kuze Hirotami KutsukiMasatsuna Foreign relations of imperial China Royal Society – Titsingh was elected...
title was Tango-no-kami. Yonekura Masanaga was born as the 3rd son of KutsukiMasatsuna, daimyō of Fukuchiyama Domain in Tango Province. In 1812, on the death...
Collection (pre-Meiji) at the British Museum, with special reference to KutsukiMasatsuna (co-ed. with Shin'ichi Sakuraki, Peter Kornicki, with Nobuhisa Furuta...
collection (pre-Meiji) at the British Museum : with special reference to KutsukiMasatsuna (British Museum Research Publication, no. 174) - S. Sakuraki, H. Wang...
174, 2010 ISBN 978-086159-174-9, pp. 1–12; Wang, Helen. "How did KutsukiMasatsuna's Coins Come to the British Museum", ibid, pp. 13–16. Journal of the...
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