Life
His origins are uncertain. Heibonsha says he was from Nagoya (other accounts say Hiroshima or Hakata), and came to in the Tenshō era (1573 to 1592) under the protection of Suetsugu Kōzen, father of Suetsugu Heizō.Britannica adds that his original name was Itō Koshichirō, and that he drifted to Aki before reaching Nagasaki.Heibonsha also says he was clever and a fine talker, and well versed in Western-style sweets and cooking.
His rise came through . In 1592 (Bunroku 1), during the Korean campaign, he was sent as Nagasaki's representative to Hideyoshi at Nagoya in Hizen, caught his eye, and on his advice is said to have changed his name from 安東 (a rendering of Antonio) to 東安.The City of Nagasaki also dates his appointment as daikan to that meeting at Nagoya Castle in 1592.Britannica dates his time as daikan only from about Keichō 7 (1602), governing the lands outside the 23 inner wards of Nagasaki(Disputed: 1592 or about 1602). Nakamura Tadashi explains the post: Hideyoshi's governor Terazawa Hirotaka used the Nagasaki townsman Murayama Tōan as daikan to collect the rice tax from the surrounding lands, and kept the arrangement.Tōan lived in the old Shinmachi ward, now Kōzen-machi.
He was a generous Christian. He gave large alms to churches and religious orders, and helped the Dominicans in particular.In 1609 the Dominicans took down their church at Kyōdomari in Satsuma, shipped the timber to Nagasaki, and built the Santo Domingo church on land donated by the Nagasaki daikan Murayama Tōan; it was destroyed only five years later, under the .Its excavated remains are shown today at the Santo Domingo Church Site Museum at Sakuramachi Elementary School.
The fall came in stages. The failed Taiwan expedition of Genna 2 (1616) set off criticism of his faith and a feud with Suetsugu Heizō that ended in a lawsuit.Heizō accused him of misconduct in office, and then more came to light: his eldest son, Blessed Andrés Tokuan,had hidden missionaries; he had hidden his third son Francisco, a priest who had been exiled; and in the Osaka campaign he had supplied provisions and ammunition to the western side, where that son was among the defenders.Nakamura Tadashi puts it as an accusation that he was a Christian who had secretly sided with Toyotomi Hideyori.
Kōdansha gives the date of his death: he was executed with his family on Genna 5.10.26 (December 1, 1619).Heibonsha says he was beheaded in Edo, and thirteen members of his family were executed in Nagasaki.The man who succeeded him as daikan was Suetsugu Heizō, who had accused him.
What is uncertain
Where the sources disagree
- Disputed: birth year. Heibonsha gives 1566, Britannica about 1568, and Kōdansha gives none.
- Disputed: start of his time as daikan. Heibonsha and the City of Nagasaki give 1592; Britannica gives about 1602.
- Disputed: year of Suetsugu's accusation. Heibonsha gives 1616, Kōdansha Genna 4 (1618).Heibonsha's entry on the daikan office also has Suetsugu becoming daikan in 1616.
- Disputed: where the family died. Kōdansha says he was executed with his family; Heibonsha says he was beheaded in Edo and thirteen of the family died in Nagasaki.
- Unverified: the details of the Taiwan expedition (thirteen ships under his second son Murayama Shūan, scattered by a storm). No opened source gives them.
- Unverified: Francisco ordained in 1602 as parish priest of Nagasaki, and the San Antonio church built for him. Heibonsha confirms only that Francisco was a priest who had been exiled.
- Unverified: the City of Nagasaki's wording ties his secret support for Osaka to "the battle of Sekigahara".That conflicts with Heibonsha's account, which places it in the Osaka campaign.