Ikeda Tsunamasa Succeeds Mitsumasa in Okayama

In 1672 Ikeda Mitsumasa retired and his eldest son Tsunamasa became lord of Okayama. Tsunamasa had been born in 1638. The succession gave him responsibility for an established domain, rather than founding a new government.

Tsuda Nagatada had served Mitsumasa since 1653 and carried out school and land projects under him. He continued working under Tsunamasa, whose government pursued new agricultural land and the garden later known as Kōrakuen. The same official thus appears in projects commissioned by successive lords.

The recorded change of lordship and subsequent commissions establish an administrative continuity across the succession. They give much firmer evidence of Tsunamasa’s work with officials than of any particular lesson he received as a child.