Koemon was Ohtaka-Gengo's real younger
broter, but
he became an adopted son of his uncle Onodera-Junai,
and he used the name Onodera.
He was not oldest son and he was unmarried when
Ninjo-jiken occurrd. Ninjo-jiken was the incident
where Kira-Kozukenosuke was injured by a Katana
sord. the letter, written by Junai was as follows
"Koemon differs from us as he was not in dept to
our boss and he is a good-looking and able man."
Junai left it up to Koemon whether he would join the
Gimei, contract, or not.
But Koemon had much loiyalty. He said "When even
my old father-in-law devotes his life to our master
family, I can't only take one side." and was ready to
join Gimei, and then he was active as a member of a
radical group in Kamigata with his older brother
Gengo and his cousin Okano-Kin emon.
In July, the 15th year of Genroku, he attended the
Kyoto Maruyama Conference with his father.
In September, when Oishi-Chikara went to Edo in
place of Kuranosuke, he went to Edo with chikara. At
first he lived in Izumiya Gohei's 4-chome, Shin-
Koujimachi with Nakamura-Kansuke but then moved
into a temporary house.
On the day of Uchiiri, 14th, December, Koemon joined
the front gate-group and fought indoors with eight
members of Gimei such as Takebayashi-Tadashichi. His
father Junai wrote about the situation of his fight
in detail to Junai's wife, Tan. The letter was as
follows "Koemon jumped down first from the top of the
front gate with his brother Gengo and shouted his
name loudly, then he rushed up to the door and
kicked the door open and went in. Three nearby
guards, who were sleeping at the time, wake up and
confronted him, so he attacked them and proceeded
into the inner room. In the room, he saw many bows
leaning against the wall. He saw them, and quickly
cut strings into pieces, and then left. He was
admired for this by Mouri's. So as his father-in-
law I am pleased, too. Everyone will be happy they
hear this." He was left in Mouri-Kainokami's and he
died on 4th, February.
|
