As expected, Professor Kita explained Tsugaru's history with an air of scant confidence. The history of Tsugaru may not be fully known. This province at the northern tip fought other provinces and appears to have never been defeated. They appeared to have no conception of submission. The shoguns of the other provinces were astounded and pretended not to see this and acted as they pleased. They resemble literary circles in the Showa era. Aside from that, they did not make alliances with other provinces, quarreled internally with their comrades, and started fighting.
One example is a riot of the Tsugaru Ezo triggered by internal strife in one family of the Ando clan. Among the Tsugaru people, according to A Brief History of Aomori Prefecture by Takeuchi Umpei:
… strife in the Ando clan led to riots in the eight provinces of Kanto and became 'the beginning of the crisis that would alter life in heaven and on earth' noted in the historical record Houjou Kudai-ki (A Record of the Nine Generations of the Houjou) and led to the Genko Incident and the restoration during the Kenmu era (1333-1336).
Perhaps, it should be counted as one of the remote causes of that major undertaking. In truth, Tsugaru affected, although slight, the politics of central Japan. The discord in the Ando clan must be a glorious record deserving special mention in the history of Tsugaru.
The area near the Pacific Ocean in today's Aomori Prefecture was Ezo land long known as Nukanobu. After the Kamakura period, the Nanbu clan, a branch of the Takeda clan in Koshu, migrated here and became powerful, and after the Yoshino and Muromachi eras passed, achieved unification of the entire country under Hideyoshi. Tsugaru fought Nanbu. In place of the Ando clan, the Tsugaru clan was established in Tsugaru and somehow calmed the entire province of Tsugaru. In the twelfth generation of the Tsugaru clan during the Meiji Restoration, the feudal lord Tsuguakira respectfully ceded the domain to the emperor. That's an outline of the history of Tsugaru. There are various theories about remote ancestors of this Tsugaru clan.
Professor Kita also touched on this.
In Tsugaru, the Ando clan fell. The Tsugaru clan gained independence and was long viewed as the enemy by the Nanbu clan. Their domain abutted the boundary with the Nanbu clan. The Tsugaru clan was said to descend from Konoe Hisamichi, a chief adviser to the emperor, or may be a branch of the Nanbu clan or descendants of the second son Hideshige of Fujiwara Motohira or a branch family in the Ando clan.
Also, Takeuchi Umpei explained the following about this issue.
The Nanbu family and the Tsugaru family passed through and felt great alienation the entire time. The origin of the above was the Nanbu clan considered the Tsugaru clan to be enemies of their ancestors for appropriating their former fief. The Tsugaru clan was originally a branch of the Nanbu and resisted the lord from the ranks of low-level government officials. On the other hand, the Tsugaru clan claimed the Fujiwara clan as their ancestors and emphasized the addition of the bloodlines of the Konoe clan even in medieval times.
In fact, Nanbu Takanobu was overthrown to benefit Tsugaru Tamenobu and had various castles seized in the southern part of Tsugaru. The mothers of the ancestors of Oura Mitsunobu for several generations of Tamenobu were women with the pedigree of Nanbu Kuji Bizen-no-kami and the next few generations had the courtesy title of Nanbu Shinano-no-kami. It's reasonable to believe these women harbored hatred toward the Tsugaru family of the Nanbu clan as traitors. The Tsugaru family searched for distant ancestors among the Fujiwara and Konoe clans. In the present day, convincing foundational proof does not necessarily exist.
Feeble arguments are presented as in the Record of Kasoku that does not defend the Nanbu clan. As the Record of the Takaya Clan long ago states about Tsugaru, the Oura clan is a branch family of the Nanbu clan. Kidate's Diary also states "The families of Nanbu and Tsugaru become one body." In contrast to recently-published books like Tokushi Biyou (A History Reader) that state Tamenobu lived as part of the Kuji clan (family in the Nanbu clan), data does not exist today to verify the correctness of this assertion. However, the Nanbu have lineage in Tsugaru in the past. Even as low-ranking government officials, it cannot be said there is no history from any perspective other than the family line.
Similar to this statement from Professor Kita, a firm conclusion is avoided. I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter for reference what is stipulated directly and unequivocally by the Nihon Daihyakka Daijiten (The Great Encyclopedia of Japan).
The above description flowed, but on a closer look, Tsugaru has an insignificant existence from the perspective of Japan as a whole. In Oku no Hosomichi (Narrow Road to the Deep North) by Basho, he writes of his departure, "Thoughts of traveling three thousand ri before me fills my heart." North was Hiraizumi at that time and is no further than the southern edge of Iwate Prefecture today. It would take twice as much walking to reach Aomori Prefecture. Tsugaru is one peninsula on the Sea of Japan side of Aomori Prefecture. The Tsugaru of old was centered on the Tsugaru Plain that extended along the Iwaki River flowing over sixty miles; to the east were Aomori and the Asamushi area; to the west were the shores on the Sea of Japan; the north went down along the shore to the Fukaura area; and the south probably reached Hirosaki.
The Kuroishi clan, a branch family, lived in the south and had a tradition of independence as the Kuroishi clan in this area and encouraged what could be called a cultural temperament different from that of the Tsugaru clan. Now, in
