SAKAI TADAKIYO AND THE KOKURA PAPER
酒井忠清と小倉百人一首
Sakai Uta-no-kami Tadakiyo, lord of Umayabashi in Kouzuke, was a devotee of Cha-no-yu and once bought a fine piece of Ogura paper for a large sum which he regarded as a particular treasure.
酒井雅楽頭忠清は上野厩橋藩主、茶の湯愛好家で、ある時特別なお宝とされる小倉百人一首の色紙を高額をはたいて購入しました。
But he was told that there was another piece like it in a certain temple in Kyoto, and was very much astonished, for he declared that it was a piece that was quite unique in the Empire.
その後、彼は京都のお寺にそれとよく似た物が在ることを知りびっくり仰天、この国において二つは奇奇怪怪であると言いました。
So he sent to the temple a massage that he would like to look at the other piece, and as no one cared to refuse to comply with the wishes of this ‘second Shogun' they were not long in forwarding it to him.
早速、彼はその物を検分した旨を書いた手紙を寺に送りました。影の将軍の願いを拒絶する者などおらず、その寺は早速進んで見せる事になったのです。
When he put the two pieces side by side and examined them carefully he found that they did not differ in the least, and it was quite impossible to say which was genuine.
両方の色紙を並べて詳しく検分をして、とにかく違いは見出せません、その優劣をつける事は不可能でした。
Then he found that this other piece had certainly been given to the temple by Hideyoshi, and declared that there could then be no doubt that it was the original.
しかし、お寺所有の物は秀吉より拝領されたのを知り、間違いなくこちらが本歌であると言わざるおえません。
So he tore his own piece into fragments and burnt them, so that there should be no chance of mistake or fraud in the future.
そして彼は自分の持っている色紙を破りすて燃やしてしまいます。それはもう二度と間違いや詐欺無いようにする為ですが、、。
This Sakai Tadakiyo must have collected a great number of rarities in his time.
酒井忠清の人生の中で極めて珍しい収集があります。
Certainly he was not backward in asking for them.
彼はけして後退する人間ではありませんでした。
He heard that a relative had an album of six leaves containing the writings of six of the greatest men of the three dynasties Sung, Yuan and Ming which had been presented to his father Sakai Tadakatsu by the King of Korea, so he at once sent and asked him for three of them.
中国の宗、元、明の三王朝時代の偉人が書いたと言われるの六対の書を持つ親類から、これは父である酒井忠勝が朝鮮王より贈られたという物だと聞いた時、その内の三対をどうしても欲しい旨をその人物に依頼しました。
Now this relative Sakai Shuri-no-taiyu Tadanao was one of the most altruistic of men, and he immediately sent the whole six to Tadakiyo saying that it would spoil the collection to divide them, and it was not as though they would leave the family, for since they were of one stock it did not matter which branch had the album.
親類とは酒井修理太夫忠直でとても愛他的な人物で、早速、分けてしまっては価値が損なわれると言って忠清にすべて贈りました。親類の絆の大切さを示し、それ以来、彼らは一心同体として分け合うことはしなかったのです。