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 ...

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 ...

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 former

Mikawa Province was an old province in the area that today forms the eastern half of Aichi Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Mikawa''" in . Its abbreviated form name was . Mikawa bordered on Owari, Mino, Shinano, and Tōtōmi Provinces. Mik ...

, in what is now the modern-day city of Nishio in

Aichi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,552,873 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the west, Gifu Prefectur ...

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 Nishio Castle.

History

When

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 ...

became independent of the Imagawa clan in 1561, he established Nishio Castle, and assigned his close hereditary retainer,

Sakai Masachika is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its keyhole-shaped burial mounds, or kofun, which date from the fifth century and inclu ...

to become its first castellan. It was a mark of Ieyasu’s favor and trust, as Sakai Masachika was the first of Ieyasu’s retainers to be so honored. Following the

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu prefecture, Japan, at the end 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 ...

was reassigned to more lucrative territories in western Japan, and was replaced by a branch of the

Honda clan The is a Japanese family that claims descent from the medieval court noble Fujiwara no Kanemichi. The family settled in Mikawa and served the Matsudaira clan as retainers. Later, when the main Matsudaira family became the Tokugawa clan, the Hon ...

as first rulers of the new Nishio-han. The domain changed hands with almost every generation, reverting for periods to '' tenryō'' status under direct control of the

. The Doi clan held the territory for almost 100 years (1663-1747), and the Ogyu branch of the Matsudaira clan from 1764 until the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

in 1867. The 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 ...

'', Matsudaira Noritsune, took part in the Second Chōshū expedition, and was assigned to guard Osaka and Kyoto, but presided over domain deeply divided between pro- and anti- Shogunal factions. He surrendered to the new

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji o ...

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 ...

, after the defection of many junior

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 ...

to the pro-Imperial cause. The domain had a population of 55,220 people in 13,039 households per the 1867 census, of whom 51,119 people were classed as farmers. The domain maintained its primary residence (kamiyashiki) 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 ...

at Daimyo-koji, in

Marunouchi Marunouchi () is a commercial district of Tokyo located in Chiyoda between Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace. The name, meaning "inside the circle", derives from its location within the palace's outer moat. It is also Tokyo's financial di ...

. Until the An’ei period (1772-1781)Edo daimyo.net
Nishio Domain was not a single contiguous territory, but consisted of many widely scattered holdings, which at the end of the Edo period consisted of: *Mikawa Province: 112 villages in

Hazu was a town located in Hazu District, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. As of May 1, 2004, the village had an estimated population of 12,351 and a population density of 474.13 persons per km². Its total area was 26.05 km². Isshiki was a coastal s ...

, 19 villages in Kamo, 7 villages in Nukata, 4 villages in Hoi, 1 village in Hekikai *

Suruga Province was an old province in the area that is today the central part of Shizuoka Prefecture. Suruga bordered on Izu, Kai, Sagami, Shinano, and Tōtōmi provinces; and was bordered by the Pacific Ocean through Suruga Bay to the south. Its abbrevia ...

: 8 villages in Kitō, 2 villages in Haibara, 1 village in Fuji, 1 village in Suntō, * Echizen Province: 27 villages in Nyū, 7 villages in

Nanjō District, Fukui is a Districts of Japan, district located in Fukui Prefecture, Fukui, Japan. As of October 1, 2005, the district has an estimated population of 12,273 with a population density, density of 35.69 persons per km2. The total area is 343.84 km2. ...

, 3 villages in Sakai 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, the domain became “Nishio Prefecture”, which later became part of Nukata Prefecture, and finally Aichi Prefecture.

List of daimyō

References

External links

Nishio Domain on "Edo 300 HTML"

Notes

{{coord, 34, 51, 6, N, 137, 02, 55, E, source:kolossus-jawiki, display=title Domains of Japan 1601 establishments in Japan States and territories established in 1601 1871 disestablishments in Japan States and territories disestablished in 1871 Mikawa Province Domains of Aichi Prefecture Honda clan Ii clan Ogyū-Matsudaira clan Ōta clan