Matsudaira Katataka
Biography. Matsudaira Katataka was born to Matsudaira Yoshikazu, the "daimyō" of Takasu Domain, in Mino Province, and was the grandson of Tokugawa Harumori of Mito Domain. HIs youth name was Keizaburō (慶三郎). With the unexpected death of Matsudaira Katahiro without heir following so soon after Matsudaira Kataoki, the domain was in danger of attainder. To prevent this, the "rōjū" of the domain renamed Keizaburō as "Katataka" and passed him off to the Shogunal authorities as a posthumous son of Matsudaira Kataoki, and thus a younger brother to Katahiro. The ruse worked, and he officially became "daimyō" in 1822  with the courtesy title of "Higo-no-kami". This was changed to "Sakonoe-gon-shōshō" in 1825 and to "Sakonoe-gon-chūshō" in 1827. He was wed to a daughter of Satake Yoshimasa of Kubota Domain, and re-wed after her death to a daughter of Maeda Narinaga of Kaga Domain, but he had only three daughters and no male heir. Though Matsudaira Katataka was praised by Ii Naosuke as a loyal servant of the Tokugawa shogunate, his fame was to be ultimately eclipsed by his adopted son Matsudaira Katamori (the son of his birth brother Matsudaira Yoshitatsu). Matsudaira