was the 12th (and next-to-last) ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominal ...

'' of

Komono Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Ise Province in what is part of now modern-day town of Komono, Mie. It was centered around Komono ''jin'ya''. Komono Domain was controlled by the '' tozama'' Hiji ...

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 ...

(modern-day

Mie Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture and Kyoto Prefectur ...

) under 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 ...

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 ...

of Japan. His courtesy title was ''Yamato-no-kami'', and his court rank was Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade.

Biography

Hijikata Katsunaga was the son of then 11th ''daimyō'' of Komono, Hijikata Katsuyoshi, and he became ''daimyō'' at the age of seven on his father's death. Because of his youth, he was assisted by his great-uncle Hijikata Yoshiyuki. During this period, as with many of the feudal domains of Japan, the samurai were divided between a pro-''

sonnō jōi was a ''yojijukugo'' (four-character compound) phrase used as the rallying cry and slogan of a political movement in Japan in the 1850s and 1860s during the Bakumatsu period. Based on Neo-Confucianism and Japanese nativism, the movement soug ...

'' faction who favored a restoration of political power to the

Emperor of Japan The Emperor of Japan is the monarch and the head of the Imperial Family of Japan. Under the Constitution of Japan, he is defined as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, and his position is derived from "the ...

and a stronger foreign policy, and a pro-status quo faction still loyal to the Tokugawa shogunate. On the start of the Boshin War, Hijikata Katsunaga declared the domain for the imperial cause, and contributed to the eastward march of pro-imperial forces to overthrow the Tokugawa. On the abolition of the position of ''daimyō'' in 1869, he was appointed imperial governor of Komono. However, he was of weak health since childhood and retired in the fall of 1870 in favor of his adopted son, Hijikata Katsuyuki. The following year, with the abolition of the han system, he relocated to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. He died May 10, 1884, at the age of 34, and his grave is at the

Yanaka Cemetery is a large cemetery located north of Ueno in Yanaka 7-chome, Taito, Tokyo, Japan. The Yanaka sector of Taito is one of the few Tokyo neighborhoods in which the old Shitamachi atmosphere can still be felt. The cemetery is famous for its beautif ...

, in

Taitō is a special ward located in Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. In English, it is known as Taitō City. As of May 1, 2015, the ward has an estimated population of 186,276, and a population density of 18,420 persons per km2. The total area is . Thi ...

, Tokyo.

References

Hijikata family info on "Edo Daimyo Kugyo" site
* Japanese Wiki entry on Katsunaga 1851 births 1884 deaths Tozama daimyo People of the Boshin War {{daimyo-stub