Tsunoda Tadayuki
was a Japanese scholar of kokugaku and a Shinto priest. Biography Tsunoda Tadayuki was born in 1834 in the remote village of Nagadoro (now within the city of Saku, Nagano Prefecture), the second son of , a kannushi of the local Chikatsu Shrine. Additionally, his father served as a tutor to the Naitō daimyo of Iwamurada Domain and an instructor at the domain school, the . Little is known of his early life and childhood. In 1855, he absconded from his domain and travelled to Edo in order to study under the mitogaku theorist . Around that time, he formally became a disciple of the kokugaku theologian , heir to the legacy of Hirata Atsutane. Later, in 1863, Tsunoda was one of a group of anti-foreign extremists who carried out the at Tōji-in in the vicinity of Kyoto. He was thereafter hunted by shogunate spies and hid for several years in the residence of , a fellow Hirata disciple, in the Ina Valley of the Tenryū River. In 1867, with the imminent outbreak of the Boshin War, Tsunoda came out of hiding and, under the assumed name "Yonegawa Shinanō", entered into the service of . When Sawa was appointed governor-general of Northern Japan within the revolutionary Imperial Army, Tsunoda served as liaison with the Kubota Domain and was involved in that domain's defection from the shogunate. Alongside many other Hirata disciples, Tsunoda attempted to enter into political service after the conclusion of the war. However, the progressive establishment, fearing that Hirata primitivism would obstruct the national modernization program, sought to expel Hirata influence from the government. As a result of this, Tsunoda was dispatched to serve as a provincial shrine priest and thereby removed from direct involvement in national affairs. Shrines to which he was attached included Hirota, Shimogamo, and finally Atsuta Shrine where he served as high priest. He served in that capacity until his retirement in 1914. To the end of his life Tsunoda despised all things Western, and made a point of never donning a single piece of Western attire. Only once, on the occasion of an audience with the Emperor, was an exception made. Legacy Tsunoda, under the fictional name , is a major character depicted in Shimazaki Tōson's epic novel Before the Dawn, first published in 1929. Selected works Bibliography References 1834 births 1918 deaths Kokugaku scholars People from Nagano Prefecture Japanese priests Japanese Shintoists Japanese writers of the Edo period Writers from Nagano Prefecture People of the Boshin War Japanese nationalists Meiji Restoration