PRESENT-DAY HADAS

Hada-no-Kawakatsu was a man who had served four emperors: Bitatsu, Yomei, Sushun, and Suiko. In the reign of the Emperor Bitatsu (572-585 C.E.), a rebellion broke out, an fierce battles were fought. By an edict of the emperor, Kawakatsu was appointed Commander-in-chief of all Imperial forces, and he duly proceeded to quash the rebellion, after a great victory on the field of battle.

A grateful emperor gave him the province of Shinano (the modern prefecture of Nagano) as his reward. Kawakatsu in turn gave the rule of the province to his son, Hirokuni, whose descendants enjoyed peace and prosperity in the area for the next twenty generations.

Dr. Chitose Noda, himself one of the descendants of Hada no-Kawakatsu, said that some of his ancestors later moved fro Shinano to Tosa (present Kochi Prefecture), the southern part of the Shikoku Island facing the Pacific Ocean. There they began to call themselves the Hada of Chosokabe, and used the symbol of sailboats as their family crest.

For the next five centuries they ruled the province, extending their dominion over the entire island of Shikoku. However, in 1601, the Tokugawa Shogunate deposed Chosokabe Morichika, he feudal lord of the Chosokabe clan, and confiscated his domains. During the subsequent 300 years in the Tokugawa, or Edo Era, the province was ruled by a family named Yama-no-Uchi, one of the feudal clans who had allied themselves to the Tokugawa regime.

The sudden visit of Commodore Perry from America in 1853 broke the 300 years of dormant peace under the Tokugawa Shogunate rule and plunged Japan into a period of temporary chaos that preceded the development of the country into a modern industrialized world power.

It is a fact that the leadership in the resistance activities, which brought about the overthrow the Tokugawas, was taken by young malcontents, mainly of humble origin, from Satsuma (Southern Kyushu), Choshu (Western Honshu), and Tosa (Southern Shikoku). Many young men from Tosa, of Chosokabe origin especially, participated in the actions, which were to lead eventually to the rebirth of Japan, known in history as the Meiji Restoration. After the restoration, the Chosokabes of Tosa assumed leading positions in the nation's political and economic life. The late Japanese Premier Shigeru Yoshida was a Chosokabe of the Hada people. He held the office of Premier at the time of signing of the peace treaty between Japan and 48 nations in San Francisco on September 8, 1951.