Fact about "Shinkun Iga Goe" (1st Term) (summary)
Lecturer: Tatsuo Fujita
Regarding a heroic episode of Ieyasu Tokugawa, the so-called "Shinkun Iga-goe" (literary "Divine lord going over Iga"), each historical document shows its different routes and period their escape so that some parts of their route are still considerable. In this lecture we've tried to infer their escape route in Iga through our examination of historical materials from that era. As a result, we've found three possible routes; (1) From Shigaraki-Ogawadate - boarder of Iga - Marubashira - Tsuge - Boarder of Ise - Ise-seki , (2) Shigaraki-Ogawayakata - Tarao - boarder of Iga - Marubashira - Tsuge - Boarder of Ise - Ise-seki , and (3) Shigaraki-Ogawayakata - Aburahi - boarder of Iga - Tsuge - Boarder of Ise - Ise-seki. We suppose that the first route is the most possible one and (2) and (3) are other possible options.
As our research said, their travel distance throughout Iga was (1) about 20km, (2) about 25km and (3) about 3km, and these distances covered about an eighth at longest or even one a seventh at shortest of their entire course.
We can't say for sure which route they took. But either way, Ieyasu's party could run through Iga within half a day, which means that it couldn't have been that difficult for them, as the episode said. From this point on, we need to confirm why this escape managed to become a "heroic tale" and why the activities of Iga-mono at that time were so emphasized. We found one possible key answer to these inquiries: The financial difficulties of Iga-mono as their background while living in Edo in the middle or later Edo Era.