Foreword　　

　　My family had been in the service of the Mogami clan for some seven generations when it came to pass that the senior retainers became embroiled in a dispute precipitated by the extreme youth of Yoshitoshi, the new lord of the Mogami domain. Matsune Bizen no Kami lodged a petition with the Edo shogunate alleging an attempted coup by Yamanobe Uemon no Daibu and Sakenobe Echizen no Kami, but when his accusations were judged to be without merit, Matsune was given to the custody of Tachibana Hida no Kami. In the time which followed, Shimada Danjō and Yonekitsu Kanbei, emissaries of the shogunate, repeatedly impressed upon the senior councilors their duty to unite in support of the young Gengorō(1), but Yamanobe Uemon no Daibu had other intentions, and, allying himself with Sakenobe Echizen no Kami, he resisted these orders until the very end. In response to this, the shogunate ordered that the Mogami domain be forfeited, granting Yoshitoshi a small fiefdom of a combined 10,000 koku(2) in Gōshū(3) and Sanshū(4) in its place.
　　Finding myself cast adrift in the world, I retired with my family to the rural district of Kasai in the Musashi province, and the years passed by. There was a masterless rōnin from Aizu who also lived in the area, and having both been through similar circumstances, we fell naturally into conversation when we met day or night, commiserating at length over the decline of the families we had served. It was this rōnin who said the following to me:
　　“As you suffer increasingly from the maladies brought on by old age, I worry how much time is left for you upon this earth, and it also concerns me that you will be leaving behind many descendants who know nothing of the faithful service rendered by Lord Yoshiaki and Lord Iechika to the noble Tokugawa family. Would it not be wise to commit the memories of all you have seen and heard to paper, leaving this record as an enduring gift for your children and their children after them?”
　　I realized the justice of his words, and resolved to do that which had been suggested to me. During the autumn nights when I had a tendency to be wakeful, I reached back into my memory, recording all I could remember of the old tales, which I leave in this manuscript for my descendants.
　　I am afraid that I can offer but poorly written accounts lacking in coherence or clarity, and I hope that the reader will forgive this work for its shortcomings.


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(1) Yoshitoshi
(2) A traditional unit of rice that was used to denominate the size of landholdings and the income of samurai
(3) Ōmi province, present-day Shiga prefecture
(4) Mikawa province, present-day Aichi prefecture

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