270px, Monument making location of Maebashi Castle, headquarters of Maebashi 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, located in

Kōzuke Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today Gunma Prefecture. Kōzuke bordered by Echigo, Shinano, Musashi and Shimotsuke Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, Kōzuke was ran ...

(modern-day

Gunma Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 km2 (2,456 sq mi). Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It was centered on

Maebashi Castle is a Japanese castle, castle located in Maebashi, central Gunma Prefecture, Japan. At the end of the Edo period, Maebashi Castle was home to a branch of the Matsudaira clan, ''daimyō'' of Maebashi Domain, Maebashi domain, although the castle wa ...

in what is now part of the city of

Maebashi, Gunma is the capital city, capital Cities of Japan, city of Gunma Prefecture, in the northern Kantō region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 335,352 in 151,171 households, and a population density of 1100 persons per km2. The tot ...

History

Maebashi was the location of an important fortification in the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

on a strategic junction of the

Tone River The is a river in the Kantō region of Japan. It is in length (the second longest in Japan after the Shinano) and has a drainage area of (the largest in Japan). It is nicknamed Bandō Tarō (); ''Bandō'' is an obsolete alias of the Kantō ...

with the main highway from Edo to

Echigo Province was an old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It bordered on Uzen, Iwashiro, Kōzuke, Shinano, and Etchū Provinces. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Echigo''" in . It corresponds today to Niigata ...

and the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

with the

Nakasendō The , also called the ,Richard Lane, ''Images from the Floating World'' (1978) Chartwell, Secaucus ; pg. 285 was one of the five routes of the Edo period, and one of the two that connected Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Kyoto in Japan. There were 6 ...

highway connecting Edo with

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

. The area was hotly contested between the

Uesugi clan The is a Japanese samurai clan which was at its peak one of the most powerful during the Muromachi and Sengoku periods (14th to 17th centuries). Appert, Georges. (1888) ''Ancien Japon,'' p. 79./ref> At its height, the clan had three main branch ...

and the

Takeda is a Japanese family name.1990 Census Name Files

and Odawara Hōjō clans. After

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...

took control over the

Kantō region The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Slight ...

in 1590, he assigned the area to his trusted general,

Hiraiwa Chikayoshi was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period. He ruled the Inuyama Domain. According to legend, he was involved in a 1611 plot by Tokugawa Ieyasu to assassinate Toyotomi Hideyori, son and intended successor of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, through ...

, with revenues of 33,000 ''koku''. Following the establishment of the

, the Hiraiwa were transferred to

Kōfu Castle was a Japanese castle located in the city of Kōfu, Yamanashi Prefecture, in the Chubu region of Japan. The site has been protected as a National Historic Site since 2019. The castle is also known as Maizuru Castle, and the present-day surroundi ...

and were replaced by a branch of the

Sakai clan The was a Japanese samurai clan that claimed descent from the Nitta branch of the Minamoto clan, who were in turn descendants of Emperor Seiwa. Serata (Nitta) Arichika, a samurai of the 14th century, was the common ancestor of both the Sakai ...

, formerly daimyō of

Kawagoe Domain Kawagoe Castle daimyō residence, administrative headquarters of Kawagoe Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It is located in Musashi Province, Honshū. The domain was centered at Kawagoe Castle, locate ...

. The Sakai ruled over nine generations from 1601 to 1749, during which time the domain was gradually enlarged to 150,000 ''koku''. The 2nd daimyō,

Sakai Tadayo was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period, and high-ranking government advisor, holding the title of ''Rōjū'', and later ''Tairō''. The son of Sakai Shigetada, Tadayo was born in Nishio, Mikawa Province; his childhood name was Manchi ...

and 4th daimyō,

Sakai Tadakiyo , also known as Uta-no-kami, Bodart-Bailey, Beatrice. (1999) ''Kaempfer's Japan: Tokugawa Culture Observed,'' p. 442./ref> was a ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) in Kōzuke Province, and a high-ranking government advisor and official in the Tokugawa shogu ...

served as ''

tairō ''Tairō'' (, "great elder") was a high-ranking official position in the Tokugawa shogunate government of Japan, roughly comparable to the office of prime minister. The ''tairō'' presided over the governing ''rōjū'' council in the event of an e ...

'' within the shogunal administration. After the Sakai were transferred to

Himeji Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Harima Province in what is now the southern portion of modern-day Hyōgo Prefecture. It was centered around Himeji Castle, which is located in what is now the ...

, they were replaced the a branch of the Matsudaira clan from

Echizen Province was a province of Japan in the area that is today the northern portion of Fukui Prefecture in the Hokuriku region of Japan. Echizen bordered on Kaga, Wakasa, Hida, and Ōmi Provinces. It was part of Hokurikudō Circuit. Its abbreviated form ...

, and Matsudaira Tomonori ruled from 1749 to 1767. However, erosion from the Tone River and repeated flooding continued to plague the castle, and in 1767 Matsudaira Tomonori decided to relocate his seat from Maebashi to

Kawagoe Castle is a flatland Japanese castle in the city of Kawagoe, in Japan's Saitama Prefecture. It is the closest castle to Tokyo to be accessible to visitors, as Edo castle is now the Imperial palace, and largely inaccessible. Along with a number of othe ...

, demoting Maebashi Domain to a detached territory of

. Towards 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 growing prosperity and economic importance of Maebashi due to the silk trade led to the local townspeople petitioning their lord for his return to Maebashi Castle. The Tokugawa shogunate also looked to Maebashi as a possible refuge should Edo be attacked by the western powers, and supported the move. A new Maebashi castle was completed in 1866, and the Matsudaira clan relocated back to Maebashi in 1867. During the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a clique seeking to seize political power in the name of the Imperi ...

, Maebashi Domain was quick to side with the imperial cause. However, the domain’s detached exclave in

Futtsu 260px, Futtsu City Hall is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 42,476 in 18,115 households and a population density of 210 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Futtsu is l ...

sided with the Tokugawa and one of the ''

rōjū The , usually translated as '' Elder'', was one of the highest-ranking government posts under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. The term refers either to individual Elders, or to the Council of Elders as a whole; under the first two ''sh� ...

'' of the parent domain in Maebashi was forced to commit ''

seppuku , sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese people ...

'' in atonement. After the end of the conflict, with 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 July 1871, Maebashi Domain became “Maebashi Prefecture”, which later became part of Gunma Prefecture.

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 ...

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

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 ...

'', 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, *

**60 villages in Gunma District **102 villages in Seta District **2 villages in Sai District **15 villages in Nawa District **21 villages in Nitta **1 village in Yamada District **10 villages in Ōra District *

Shimotsuke Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today Tochigi Prefecture.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''SHimotsuke''" in . Shimotsuke was bordered by Kōzuke Province, Kōzuke, Hitachi Province, ...

**4 villages in Aso District **3 villages in Ashikaga District *

Hitachi Province was an old provinces of Japan, old province of Japan in the area of Ibaraki Prefecture.Louis Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Hitachi fudoki''" in . It was sometimes called . Hitachi Province bordered on Shimōsa Province, S ...

**25 villages in Kōchi District **7 villages in Tsukuba District *

Musashi Province was a province of Japan, which today comprises Tokyo Metropolis, most of Saitama Prefecture and part of Kanagawa Prefecture. It was sometimes called . The province encompassed Kawasaki and Yokohama. Musashi bordered on Kai, Kōzuke, Sagami, S ...

**13 villages in Tama District **13 villages in Saitama District **65 villages in Hiki District **20 villages in Koma District **11 villages in Iruma District **2 villages in Hanzawa District **4 villages in Kodama District **7 villages in Chichibu District **3 villages in Naka District **11 villages in Ōsato District * Awa Province **31 villages in Asai District **19 villages in Hei District **18 villages in Awa District *

Kazusa Province was a province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture. The province was located in the middle of the Bōsō Peninsula, whose name takes its first ''kanji'' from the name of Awa Province and its second from Kazusa and Shimōsa province ...

**17 villages in Amaha District **20 villages in Sue District **74 villages in Mōda District *

Omi Province is a hereditary noble title (''kabane'') of ancient Japan. It was given to the descendants of the Imperial Family before Emperor Kōgen. Along with ''Muraji'', ''Omi'' was reserved for the head of the most powerful clans during the Kofun perio ...

**10 villages in Kurita District ** 2 villages in Yasu District **1 village in Gamo District

List of daimyō

Genealogy (Matsudaira-Echizen)

, 1st Tokugawa Shōgun (1543-1616) **Yūki Hideyasu, 1st Lord of Fukui (1574-1607) *** Matsudaira Naomoto, Lord of Himeji (1604-1648) **** Naonori, Lord of Shirakawa (1642-1695) ***** Chikakiyo, 1st Lord of Shirakawa (1682-1721) ****** Akinori, 2nd Lord of Shirakawa (1713-1749) ******* I. Tomonori, 1st Lord of Maebashi (1st cr., 1749) (1738-1768; r. 1749-1767) ******** Naotsune, 2nd Lord of Kawagoe (1762-1810) *********Naritsune, 4th Lord of Kawagoe (1797-1850) ********** Tsunenori, 5th Lord of Kawagoe (1836-1883) *********** Motonori, 13th Echizen family head, 1st Count (1875-1930; 13th family head: 1884-1907; Count: cr. 1884) ********* Yoihiro (1808-1855) ********** Megumi-hime (1850-1885), m. I. Matsudaira (Arima) Naokatsu, 1st Lord of Maebashi (2nd cr., 1867) (1840-1897; r. 1867-1869) *********** Naoyuki, 14th Echizen family head, 2nd Count (1861-1932; 14th family head and 2nd Count: 1907-1932) ************ Naohisa, 15th Echizen family head, 3rd Count (1885-1965; 15th family head: 1932-1965; 3rd Count: 1932-1947) ************* Naomasa, 16th Echizen family head (b. 1919; 16th family head: 1965-) ************** Naoyasu (b. 1944) *************** Naotaka (b. 1972) **

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 ...

, 2nd Tokugawa Shōgun (1579-1632) *** Tamahime (1599-1622), m. Maeda Toshitsune, 3rd Lord of Kaga (1594-1658) **** Maeda Toshitsugu, 1st Lord of Toyama (1617-1674) ***** Maeda Masatoshi, 2nd Lord of Toyama (1649-1706) ****** Maeda Toshitaka, 4th Lord of Toyama (1690-1745) ******* Maeda Toshitomo, 6th Lord of Toyama (1737-1794) ******** Maeda Toshinori, 8th Lord of Toyama (1768-1801) ********* Maeda Toshiyasu, 10th Lord of Toyama (1800-1859) ********** Maeda Toshikata, 12th Lord of Toyama (1835-1904) *********** II. Matsudaira (Maeda) Naokata, 2nd Lord of Maebashi (2nd cr) (1858-1907; Lord: 1869; Governor: 1869-1871; 12th Echizen family head: 1869-1884) Genealogy (jp)
/ref>

References

External links

Notes

{{Authority control Domains of Japan 1601 establishments in Japan States and territories established in 1601 1871 disestablishments in Japan States and territories disestablished in 1871 Kōzuke Province History of Gunma Prefecture