水戸梅譜 / Mito Baifu

In 1665, the impoverished ronin Gorobei Ioki visits the residence of Tokugawa Mitsukuni and asks to serve the Mito domain.

Mistaken for a man seeking charity, he is refused. Gorobei rejects the money offered to him and takes his own life within the estate, declaring that Mito is the only house he could serve.

His wife and eight-year-old son Kojiro disappear without revealing themselves. Following his father's final command, the boy drinks a symbolic cup of water and vows to become a loyal retainer of Mito.

Sixteen years later, Kojiro has inherited his father's name. He and his mother have transformed the barren fields of Senbagahara into productive farmland, creating a small farming community.

When a greedy landowner demands excessive rent, Gorobei seeks lawful judgment. He is arrested after claiming to be a Mito retainer, though his name appears on no official register.

Mitsukuni, searching the countryside for plum trees, happens to witness the inquiry. He recognizes Gorobei as the son of the man whose death has haunted him for sixteen years.

The young man reveals that his father's blood within the Mito estate became the foundation of his family's loyalty.

"Mito Baifu" is a moving historical tale of inherited devotion, honest governance, cultivated land, and a ruler learning to recognize true human worth.

寛文五年、主家を失った浪人・五百旗五郎兵衛は、徳川光圀の水戸家へ仕官を願い出る。

しかし、金銭目当ての浪人と誤解され、願いは退けられた。五郎兵衛は施しの銀を拒み、水戸家以外に仕える家はないとして、屋敷内で自害する。

妻は八歳の小次郎に、父から賜った盃と思って水を飲ませ、今日から水戸家臣として生きるよう命じた。

十六年後、小次郎は父の名を継ぎ、五百旗五郎兵衛となっていた。母と共に不毛の千波ヶ原を開墾し、田畑と七軒の農家を生み出していた。

ところが地主・車屋六造が不当な年貢増しを要求。五郎兵衛は公の裁きを求めて代官所へ赴くが、家臣帳に名がないまま水戸藩士を名乗ったことで拘束される。

野の梅を探して代官所へ立ち寄った光圀は、吟味の中で、若者が十六年前に死なせてしまった浪人の息子であることを知る。

父の血が染みた水戸の土こそ、五百旗家が代々仕える場所だった。

『水戸梅譜』は、親から子へ受け継がれる忠節、荒地を田畑へ変える労働、公正な民政、そして人の真価を見抜けなかった君主の悔恨を描く、山本周五郎の重厚な歴史人情小説です。