was a late-

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 ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

, and the 13th (and final) ''

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

'' of

Kaga Domain The , also known as the , was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1583 to 1871.

in the

Hokuriku region The was located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lay along the Sea of Japan within the Chūbu region, which it is currently a part of. It is almost equivalent to Koshi Province and Hokurikudō area in pre-modern ...

of Japan, and the 14th hereditary lord of the

Maeda clan was a Japanese samurai clan who occupied most of the Hokuriku region of central Honshū from the end of the Sengoku period through the Meiji restoration of 1868. The Maeda claimed descent from the Sugawara clan of Sugawara no Kiyotomo and Suga ...

. Yoshiyasu was born in

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

as Inuchiyo (犬千代), the first son of

Maeda Nariyasu was an Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 12th ''daimyō'' of Kaga Domain in the Hokuriku region of Japan. He was the 13th hereditary lord of the Kanazawa Maeda clan. Biography Nariyasu was born in Kanazawa in 1811,

. His mother was Yō-hime, the daughter of

Shōgun , 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 Ienari Tokugawa Ienari ( ja, 徳川家斉, November 18, 1773 – March 22, 1841) was the eleventh and longest-serving ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan who held office from 1787 to 1837.Hall, John Whitney ''et al.'' (1991) ''Early Modern J ...

. In 1842, he was presented to the Shōgun

Tokugawa Ieyoshi was the 12th ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan.Hall, John Whitney ''et al.'' (1991) ''Early Modern Japan',' p. 21./ref> Biography Ieyoshi was born as the second son of the 11th ''shōgun'', Tokugawa Ienari and named Toshijirō (敏 ...

in formal audience, who a week later presided over his ''

genpuku is a Japanese coming-of-age ceremony which dates back to Japan's classical Nara Period (710–794 AD). /sup> This ceremony marked the transition from child to adult status and the assumption of adult responsibilities. The age of participat ...

'' ceremony. At that time, his name was changed from Toshizumi (利住) to Yoshiyasu. In May 1864 he was sent to

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 ...

in Nariyasu's place as leader of the Kaga samurai assigned to guard the Imperial Palace, however due to his poor health he preferred to stay at a small Kaga exclave located in

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 ...

, far from the danger. While there, he unsuccessfully attempted mediate between the Chōshū samurai and the forces of 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 ...

at the time of the

Kinmon incident The , also known as the , was a rebellion against the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan that took place on August 20 unar calendar: 19th day, 7th month 1864, near the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. History Starting with the Convention of Kanagawa in 1 ...

. This opened Kaga Domain to a charge of collusion with enemies of the state, and an alarmed Nariyasu had Yohsiyasu sent back to Kanazawa under

house arrest In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...

, which lasted until April 1865. On April 4, 1866, on the retirement of his father, he became ''daimyō'' of Kaga Domain; however, he was only a figurehead as his father continued to control all power. Kaga Domain joined the imperial cause in 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 ...

, and Yoshiyasu was appointed Imperial Governor of Kanazawa in June 1869. His court rank was increased to Senior Third Rank a month later. After 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, he relocated to Tokyo. Shortly afterwards, he developed

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

, and died at

Atami is a city located in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 36,865 in 21,593 households and a population density of 600 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Atami is located in the far ea ...

on May 22, 1874, at the age of 43. He was posthumously elevated to Senior Second Rank in 1893.

Family

*Father:

(1811–1884) *Mother: Yō-hime, 12th daughter of Tokugawa Ienari (1813-1868) *Wives: ** Takahime, daughter of Arima Yorinori (1832-1856) ** Nori-hime, adopted daughter of Takatsukasa Masamichi (1846-1864) *Concubine: ** Ofude no Kata ** Orisa no Kata ** Ouji no Kata *Children: ** Yasuko (1864-1923) married

Prince Arisugawa Takehito was the 10th head of a cadet branch of the Japanese imperial family and a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Early life Prince Takehito was born in Kyoto as a scion of the house, one of the ''shinnōke'' branches of the Imperial F ...

by Ofude no Kata ** Maeda Toshitsugu (1858-1900) by Ofude no Kata ** Michiko (1854-1899) betrothed to

Matsudaira Katamori Matsudaira Katamori after the Meiji restoration was a samurai who lived in Bakumatsu period and the early to mid Meiji period Japan. He was the 9th ''daimyō'' of the Aizu Domain and the Kyoto Shugoshoku (Military Commissioner of Kyoto). He in ...

later married Sakakibara Masataka by Ofude no Kata ** Tomohime (1856-1857) by Ofude no Kata ** Hiroko (1869-1891) married

Konoe Atsumaro was a Japanese politician and journalist of the Meiji era. He served as the 3rd President of the House of Peers and 7th President of the Gakushūin Peer's School in Meiji period Japan. He was also the father of Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe. ...

by Ofude no Kata ** Utsuhime (1862-1873) by Orisa no Kata ** Sadako (1871-1955) married

by Ouji no Kata

Ancestry

References

* Papinot, Edmond. (1948). ''Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan''. New York: Overbeck Co.

External links

Kaga Domain on "Edo 300 HTML"
(3 November 2007) {{DEFAULTSORT:Maeda, Yoshiyasu 1830 births 1874 deaths Meiji Restoration People of Edo-period Japan Maeda clan Tozama daimyo 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Japan