From the Kuroda to Ōsaka: Why Matabei Became a Rōnin

In Keichō 16 (1611), Gotō Matabei left the Chikuzen-Fukuoka domain of the Kuroda clan. He had been a senior Kuroda retainer with a 16,000-koku fief — a substantial holding. The decision to abandon it and become a rōnin was a sharp departure from the conventions of the warrior society of the period. The background was a long-deteriorating relationship with the lord, Kuroda Nagamasa.

How Yoshitaka and Nagamasa Differed on Matabei

Matabei had been heavily valued by the founding Kuroda lord, Kuroda Yoshitaka (Kanbei). A close attendant from boyhood, he distinguished himself in the Kyūshū pacification and the Korean campaign, and at Sekigahara served as a core combat element of the Kuroda Eastern Army force. Yoshitaka had a high estimate of Matabei's judgment and arms, and intended him as a senior retainer to his heir Nagamasa as well. Nagamasa's assessment differed from his father's. He cooled toward Matabei progressively. The likely explanation is that Matabei's deep association with Yoshitaka's authority made him a personal threat to the new lord's establishment of his own command.

Deterioration

When Yoshitaka died in 1604, the relationship between Matabei and Nagamasa worsened rapidly. Nagamasa reduced Matabei's fief, excluded him from war councils, and stripped his voice in the castle. Matabei attempted on multiple occasions to negotiate transfer to other daimyō; Nagamasa blocked each attempt. By around 1610 the conflict was open within the domain, and over the following years Matabei resolved on departure. In 1611 he left Fukuoka.

The Hōkō-gamae and the Decade of Wandering

After Matabei's departure, Nagamasa issued the hōkō-gamae — a formal notice circulated to other daimyō prohibiting them from hiring the departing retainer. Formally a routine convention of the warrior society of the period, in substance it functioned as a sanction of effective social erasure for the departed party. With the hōkō-gamae in place, Matabei was completely cut off from regular routes back into service. For nearly a decade he wandered across Japan, taking shelter in Kyoto, Osaka, and other Kansai locations. During this period he built up a reputation within the broader rōnin networks of post-Sengoku Japan, and became one of the central figures of the post-war stateless-warrior community.

Set-Up for the Osaka Entrance

When the Osaka campaigns began in 1614, Toyotomi Hideyori issued a general call to the large body of rōnin produced after Sekigahara. Matabei, with the personal network and the reputation he had built over the decade of wandering, was invited as one of the Five Senior Rōnin of the Ōsaka defense. He stood alongside Sanada Yukimura, Mōri Katsunaga, Akashi Takenori, and Chōsokabe Morichika who entered Osaka Castle in the same period. For Matabei, the entrance to Osaka was the first chance in ten years to stand again as a regular samurai on the battlefield, since the hōkō-gamae had exiled him. The year or so until his death at Dōmyōji in 1615 was the culmination of his rōnin life.

"A samurai does not serve two lords; but righteousness is not always only one thing."