was the 11th and final '' daimyō'' of Ogi Domain in Hizen Province,

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

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 ...

. Before the Meiji Restoration, his courtesy title was '' Kii-no-Kami'' and junior 5th, lower grade court rank (''ju go i no ge'' 従五位下).

Biography

Naotora was born as the 7th son of Nabeshima Naomasa, the ''daimyō'' of Saga Domain. As the 10th ''daimyō'' of Ogi, Nabeshima Naosuke had no son, he adopted Naotora, who married his only daughter Haruko. Naotora became ''daimyō'' on the death of his father-in-law in 1864. 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 ...

of the Meiji Restoration began only four years later, and he was called upon to lead Ogi’s forces against the Tokugawa remnants at Akita in northern Japan. For his loyalty to the new government and efforts in the war, the revenues of Ogi domain were raised by 5,000 ''

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 ...

'' in August 1869. However, this reward was only nominal, as 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) ...

, the title of ''daimyo'' had been abolished and Naotora became "domain governor". This title was abolished as well in 1871, when Ogi domain became part of the new Saga Prefecture. Naotora departed Japan with his elder brother

Nabeshima Naohiro was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the mid-Edo period, who ruled the Hasunoike Domain in Hizen Province (modern-day Saga Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. Saga Prefecture has a population of 809,248 (1 Augus ...

in 1873 for studies in Great Britain, returning to Japan only in 1882. During his stay in England, many of his former retainers perished in the

Saga Rebellion The was an 1874 uprising in Kyūshū against the new Meiji government of Japan.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Saga no ran" in . It was led by Etō Shinpei and Shima Yoshitake in their native domain of Hizen. Background Following the 1868 ...

and he found himself in disfavor with the new Meiji government. However, through the efforts of his brother Naohiro after his return to Japan, he was awarded the peerage title of viscount (''shishaku'') under the '' kazoku'' system. He later served as an advisor to the Foreign Ministry and as a member of the House of Peers in the

Diet of Japan The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paralle ...

References

* ''The content of this article was derived from that of the corresponding article on Japanese Wikipedia.'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nabeshima, Naotora 1856 births 1926 deaths Kazoku Members of the House of Peers (Japan) Nabeshima clan People of Meiji-period Japan People of the Boshin War Tozama daimyo