was a Japanese daimyo of the Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

. He served in a variety of positions in the Tokugawa shogunate

Tokugawa shogunate

The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...

, including Kyoto Shoshidai

Kyoto Shoshidai

The was an important administrative and political office in the early modern government of Japan. However, the significance and effectiveness of the office is credited to the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu, who developed these initial creations as bureaucratic elements in a consistent and...

 (1734-1732) and rōjū

Roju

The ', usually translated as Elder, was one of the highest-ranking government posts in Tokugawa Japan. The term refers either to individual Elders, or to the Council as a whole; under the first two shoguns, there were only two Rōjū...

.

At some point, there was a devastating fire in Heian-kyō

Heian-kyo

Heian-kyō , was one of several former names for the city now known as Kyoto. It was the capital of Japan for over one thousand years, from 794 to 1868 with an interruption in 1180....

 while Toki Tango-no-kami held the office of Kyoto shoshidai. Shortly afterwards, a clever poem which included a play on the shoshidais name was widely circulated:

Toki mo toki

Tango no gogatsuban ni

kaji dashite

Edo e shiretariya

Mi-shoshi senban.

• A conventional English translation (Frederic Shoberl
  Frederic Shoberl
  Frederic Shoberl , also known as Frederick Schoberl, was an English journalist, editor, translator and writer. Schoberl edited Forget Me Not, the first literary annual, issued at Christmas "for 1823" and translated The Hunchback of Notre Dame.-Biography:Shoberl was born in London in 1775, and...
  
  , 1822): "Such is the time at present: a fire broke out in the fifth night of the fifth month. When the news shall have reached Edo, there will be numberless applicants who will harass you without ceasing."
• A more literal English translation (Timon Screech, 2006):

At this very time

On Tango's evening

Fire broke out

Edo was informed

For the noble governor

Much [trouble].

The 18th century poet was Kazehaya Yoshizane, who puns "Tango" (Tango no Sekku), one of the five main festivals of the year (falling on the 5th day of the 5th month), with the daimyo's toponym

Toponymy

Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...

, "Tango" (Tango province

Tango Province

was an old province in the area that is today northern Kyoto Prefecture facing the Sea of Japan. It was sometimes called , with Tamba Province. Tango bordered on Tajima, Tamba, and Wakasa provinces....

). Poetry of this sort was an element of popular culture in this period. Witty and timely word play which somehow married puns on a personal name with a current event became fashionable. It could engender broad public approval, and occasionally such poetry might even receive approbation from the emperor.