was a
Japanese samurai in the service of the
Tokugawa shogunate. During the reign of
Tokugawa Yoshimune, as a magistrate (
machi bugyナ) of
Edo, his roles included chief of police, judge and jury, and Yamada Magistrate (
Yamada-bugyナ) prior to his tenure as South Magistrate (Minami Machi-bugyナ) of Edo. With the title
Echizen no Kami (Governor of Echizen or Lord of the Echizen), he is often known as . He was highly respected as an incorruptible judge. In addition, he established the first
fire brigade made up of commoners, and the Koishikawa Yojosho (a city hospital). Later, he advanced to the position of
jisha bugyナ, and subsequently became
daimyo of the
Nishi-ナ敬ira Domain (10,000
koku).
ナ経ka was born in 1677, but did not come into public notice until he was 35, when he was appointed an obscure judgeship. When he accepted this job, he found out that there was a long窶都tanding boundary dispute between the farmers of the Yamada and
Wakayama fiefs.
While it was obvious that the Yamada claim was the just one, however, no previous judge had been fool enough to irritate
Yoshimune, Lord of Kishナォ, as he was very close to the shogun,
Tokugawa Ietsugu. However, ナ経ka took up the case, and immediately settled it on its merits. Yoshimune was so impressed that when he became shogun five years later, he took the unusual action of promoting ナ経ka over hundreds of other candidates, to the important post of machi窶澱ugyナ (magistrate)...
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