Tokugawa Ieshige
The plain of Nobi had a number of big rivers with complicated geographical features, resulting in many floods. There was a strict rule that the levee or dike of the river should be lower than the levee of Owari Domain, which was held by one of the main cadet branches of the Tokugawa clan. The division of the rivers into three was originally planned by Izawa Sobei, the government head of Mino District in 1735, but his plan was not accepted. Instead, the Shōgun Tokugawa Ieshige ordered a river engineering project to be conducted by distant Satsuma Domain, knowing that this would pose a significant financial burden on the domain.