270px, Katō Yasuaki, final daimyō of Ōzu Domain was a

feudal domain A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...

under the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

Japan, in what is now western

Ehime Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Ehime Prefecture has a population of 1,342,011 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 5,676 km2 (2,191 sq mi). Ehime Prefecture borders Kagawa Prefecture to the northeast, Toku ...

on the island of

Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...

. It was centered around Ōzu Castle, and was ruled throughout its history by the ''

tozama daimyō was a class of powerful magnates or ''daimyō'' (大名) considered to be outsiders by the ruler of Japan.Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, ''Tozama daimyō'' were classified in the Tokugawa Shogunate (江戸幕府) as ''daimyō'' w ...

Katō clan Kato or Katō may refer to: Places *Kato, Guyana, a village in Guyana *Katō, Hyōgo, a city in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan *Katō District, Hokkaido, a district located in Tokachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan *Katowice, a city in Southern Poland, ...

. Ōzu Domain was dissolved in the

abolition of the han system The in the Empire of Japan and its replacement by a system of prefectures in 1871 was the culmination of the Meiji Restoration begun in 1868, the starting year of the Meiji period. Under the reform, all daimyos (, ''daimyō'', feudal lords) ...

in 1871 and is now part of

History

In the early Edo period, Ōzu was part of the territory of

Tōdō Takatora was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of Tōdō clan from the Azuchi–Momoyama to Edo periods. He rose from relatively humble origins as an ashigaru (a light foot soldier) to become a ''daimyō''. Biography During his lifetime he changed his feudal m ...

, who had rebuilt Ōzu Castle. In 1608, the

promoted him to

Tsu Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Ise Province and in Iga Province in what is part of now modern-day Tsu, Mie. It was centered around Tsu Castle. Tsu Domain was controlled the '' tozama'' Tōdō cla ...

Ise Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today includes most of modern Mie Prefecture. Ise bordered on Iga, Kii, Mino, Ōmi, Owari, Shima, and Yamato Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History The name of Ise appears i ...

and created the 53,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

'' Ōzu Domain for

Wakisaka Yasuharu (1554 – September 26, 1626), sometimes referred to as Wakizaka Yasuharu, was a ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of Awaji Island who fought under a number of warlords over the course of Japan's Sengoku period. Wakisaka originally served under A ...

from Sumoto Domain on Awaji island. In 1617, his son Yasumoto was transferred to

Iida Domain site of the donjon of Iida Castle, administrative centre of Iida Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It is located in Shinano Province, Honshū. The domain was centered at Iida Castle, located in what i ...

Shinano Province or is an old province of Japan that is now Nagano Prefecture. Shinano bordered on Echigo, Etchū, Hida, Kai, Kōzuke, Mikawa, Mino, Musashi, Suruga, and Tōtōmi Provinces. The ancient capital was located near modern-day Matsumoto, whi ...

and Ōzu was reassigned to

Katō Sadayasu Kato or Katō may refer to: Places *Kato, Guyana, a village in Guyana *Katō, Hyōgo, a city in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan *Katō District, Hokkaido, a district located in Tokachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan *Katowice, a city in Southern Poland, ...

from Yonago Domain, with an increased ''

kokudaka refers to a system for determining land value for taxation purposes under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo-period Japan, and expressing this value in terms of ''koku'' of rice. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Koku"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 54 ...

'' to 66,000 ''koku''. Sadayasu died suddenly in 1623 without formally having appointed an heir, which would normally be cause for

attainder In English criminal law, attainder or attinctura was the metaphorical "stain" or "corruption of blood" which arose from being condemned for a serious capital crime (felony or treason). It entailed losing not only one's life, property and hereditar ...

; however, his eldest son Katō Yasuaki managed to secure an audience with

Shogun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

Tokugawa Hidetada was the second ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate. Early life (1579–1593) Tokugawa Hidetada was bo ...

and was accepted as heir. However, the shogunate also allowed his younger brother, Katō Naoyasu, to carve out a 10,000 ''koku'' portion of the estate and to establish Niiya Domain and a cadet brach of the clan. This move was vehemently opposed by Ōzu Domain, and relations between the two branches of the clan was hostile for the next two centuries. Niiya Domain was left in the ambitious position of both being a subsidiary domain of Ōzu and a direct domain under the shogunate. The Katō clan cultivated a reputation for scholarship. The noted

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...

scholar

Nakae Tōju was a writer and Neo-Confucianism, Confucian scholar of early Edo period Japan popularly known as "the Sage of Ōmi Province, Ōmi". Biography Nakae was the eldest son of a farmer in Ōmi Province. When he was nine years old, he was adopted by ...

spent his early career as a retainer of the Katō. The domain was also a sponsor of nascent ''

kokugaku ''Kokugaku'' ( ja, 國學, label=Kyūjitai, ja, 国学, label=Shinjitai; literally "national study") was an academic movement, a school of Japanese philology and philosophy originating during the Tokugawa period. Kokugaku scholars worked to refo ...

'' studies and expressed strong loyalty to the Imperial house, even from the early

Edo Period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

. In the

Bakumatsu period was the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji govern ...

, the domain fought on the imperial side in the 1868

Battle of Toba-Fushimi A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

. Although relatively small domain, it played a large role in

events. The steamship used by

Sakamoto Ryoma Sakamoto (written: ) is the 40th most common Japanese surname. A less common variant is . Notable people with the surname include: *Chika Sakamoto (born 1959), voice actor and singer *Fuyumi Sakamoto (born 1967), enka singer *, Japanese professio ...

's ''

Kaientai The was a trading and shipping company and private navy, considered to be the first corporation in modern Japan. Kaientai, originally named Kameyama Shachū (亀山社中, "Kameyama Troupe"), was founded by Sakamoto Ryōma in Nagasaki in 186 ...

'', the ''Iroha-maru'', was owned by Ōzu Domain. With the 1871

Ōzu Domain became "Ōzu Prefecture" and merged with "Uwajima Prefecture" before becoming part of Ehime Prefecture. The Kato clan was awarded the title of

viscount A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...

user the ''

kazoku The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan, which existed between 1869 and 1947. They succeeded the feudal lords () and court nobles (), but were abolished with the 1947 constitution. Kazoku ( 華族) should not be confused with ' ...

'' peerage system in 1884.『官報』第308号、明治17年7月9日 (Official Gazette, No. 308, July 9, Meiji 17)。

Holdings at the end of the Edo period

As with most domains in the

han system ( ja, 藩, "domain") is a Japanese historical term for the estate of a daimyo in the Edo period (1603–1868) and early Meiji period (1868–1912). Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Han"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 283. or (daimyo domain) s ...

, Ōzu Domain consisted of several discontinuous territories calculated to provide the assigned ''

'', based on periodic

cadastral A cadastre or cadaster is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref> Often it is represented graphically in a cad ...

surveys and projected agricultural yields.Elison, George and Bardwell L. Smith (1987)
''Warlords, Artists, & Commoners: Japan in the Sixteenth Century,'' p. 18
*

Iyo Province was a province of Japan in the area of northwestern Shikoku. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tosa''" in . Iyo bordered on Sanuki Province to the northeast, Awa to the east, and Tosa to the south. Its abbreviated form name was . In term ...

**5 villages in Kazahaya District **49 villages in Ukena District **17 villages in Iyo District **80 villages in Kita District

List of daimyō

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ozu Domain Domains of Japan History of Ehime Prefecture Iyo Province Shikoku region 1608 establishments in Japan States and territories established in 1608 1871 disestablishments in Japan States and territories disestablished in 1871

History

Holdings at the end of the Edo period

List of daimyō

See also

References