Lot Essay
A notation in Tsujimoto Nihon Token meibutsu-cho, p. 435, lists another Nawa-kiri owned by Sasaki Shiro Saemonjo Takatsuna and used for the same feat, but that tachi was signed Masatsune and is now lost. Whether this Matsudaira origami can be an argument for a mistake in the original source used in the compilation of Nihon token meibutsu-cho is open to conjecture.
Shimazu Tadatsune was the son of Shimazu Yoshihiro who fought with Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Korea and later against Tokugawa Ieyasu. Yoshihiro was defeated by Ieyasu but later was pardoned on the condition that he retire to monastic life and turn over the family lands to Tadatsune. Two years later, in 1602, Ieyasu received Tadatsune at Fushimi and honored him by authorizing him to take the name Matsudaira as well as one of the kanji from Ieyasu's own name. He changed his name to Iehisa and served the shogunate well (as had the Satsuma naval forces) by quelling uprisings in the Ryukyu Islands. Later he was named Chunagon, then Satsuma no Kami and Osumi no Kami.
Shimazu Tadatsune was the son of Shimazu Yoshihiro who fought with Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Korea and later against Tokugawa Ieyasu. Yoshihiro was defeated by Ieyasu but later was pardoned on the condition that he retire to monastic life and turn over the family lands to Tadatsune. Two years later, in 1602, Ieyasu received Tadatsune at Fushimi and honored him by authorizing him to take the name Matsudaira as well as one of the kanji from Ieyasu's own name. He changed his name to Iehisa and served the shogunate well (as had the Satsuma naval forces) by quelling uprisings in the Ryukyu Islands. Later he was named Chunagon, then Satsuma no Kami and Osumi no Kami.