was a '' fudai''

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 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 is located in

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 ...

Honshū , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separa ...

. The domain was centered at Nagaoka Castle, located in what is now part of the city of Nagaoka in

Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...

. It was often referred to as to disambiguate itself from the smaller in what is now Nagaokakyo, Kyoto. The domain was ruled by the

Makino clan The are a ''daimyō'' branch of the ''samurai'' Minamoto clan in Edo period Japan.Alpert, Georges. (1888) ''Ancien Japon,'' p. 70./ref> In the Edo period, the Makino were identified as one of the '' fudai'' or insider ''daimyō'' clans which we ...

for most of its history. During the summer of 1868, it was the center of some of the fiercest fighting 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 ...

. Admiral

Yamamoto Isoroku was a Marshal Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II until he was killed. Yamamoto held several important posts in the IJN, and undertook many of its changes and reor ...

was the son of a Nagaoka samurai.

History

The territory of Nagaoka Domain was originally part of the holdings of

Takada Domain , was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It was located in Echigo Province, in the Hokuriku region of Honshū. The domain was centered at Takada Castle, located in what is now part of the city of Jōetsu in ...

with the exception of a 60,000 ''koku'' holding called held by a branch of the

Hori clan Hori may refer to: Ancient Egypt *Sewadjkare Hori, late 13th dynasty Pharaoh, also known as Hori II *Hori (High Priest of Osiris) Son of Wennenufer and High Priest of Osiris during the reign of Ramesses II (19th dynasty) *Hori I (High Priest of Pta ...

for their services to

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

. After the daimyō of Takada Domain,

Matsudaira Tadateru was a ''daimyō'' during the Edo period of Japan. He was the sixth son of Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was born in Edo Castle during the year of the dragon (''tatsu''), and as a child his name was Tatsuchiyo (辰千代). His mother was , a concubine of I ...

was disgraced at the

Siege of Osaka The was a series of battles undertaken by the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate against the Toyotomi clan, and ending in that clan's destruction. Divided into two stages (winter campaign and summer campaign), and lasting from 1614 to 1615, the siege ...

in 1616 and relieved of his holdings, Hori Naoyori was awarded with Zaodo Domain and an additional 20,000 ''koku'' from the former Takada lands. He quickly saw that the seat of Zaodo Domain was in a poor location prone to flooding by the

Shinano River The , known as the in its upper reaches, is the longest and widest river in Japan and the third largest by basin area (behind the Tone River and Ishikari River). It is located in northeastern Honshu, rising in the Japanese Alps and flowing g ...

, and built a new castle on the high ground on the opposite back at what is now Nagaoka. This marked the start of Nagaoka Domain. In 1618, he was transferred to

Murakami Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Echigo Province (modern-day Niigata Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Murakami Castle in what is now the city of Murakami, Niigata.Nagasaki Domain is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...

. In 1620, the domain ''

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 ...

'' was raised by 10,000 ''koku'', and was raised again by 2,000 ''koku'' in 1625. The domain, which extended across the Echigo Plain from western

Niigata City may refer to: * Niigata Prefecture, Japan **Niigata (city), the capital of the prefecture * Albirex Niigata, the city's professional football club * Niigata Transys, a Japanese railway vehicle manufacturer * Niigata Stadium, an athletic stadium in ...

, through Koshi District, Santō District and Nishikanbara District was excellent rice land, and also controlled the port of Niigata with its

Kitamaebune The was a shipping route (and also the ships involved) in Japan from the Edo period to the Meiji era. The route went from Osaka through the Seto Inland Sea and the Kanmon Straits to ports in Hokuriku on the Sea of Japan and later to Hokkaidō. ...

trade, and therefore the actual revenues of the domain were far in excess of its official ''

''. The actual revenues of the domain were 115,300 ''koku'' in 1712, and 142,700 ''koku'' in 1858 as opposed to its official rating of 74,000 ''koku''. Under the rule of the

, the domain was noted for its military organisation and sponsorship of training in the various military arts. During the

Battle of Hokuetsu The was a battle of the Boshin War of the Meiji Restoration, which occurred in 1868 in the northwestern part of Japan, in the area of modern Niigata Prefecture. Background The Boshin War erupted in 1868 between troops favourable to the resto ...

in the

, Nagaoka joined the

Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei The was a Japanese military-political coalition established and disestablished over the course of several months in early to mid-1868 during the Boshin War. Its flag was either a white interwoven five-pointed star on a black field, or a black i ...

, and was the site of fierce fighting between pro-Tokugawa forces and the imperial army.

Kawai Tsugunosuke was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period, who served the Makino clan of Nagaoka Domain, Nagaoka. Kawai was a senior military commander of Nagaoka forces during the Boshin War of 1868–1869. He escaped to nearby Aizu after his domain's fall; ...

and

Yamamoto Tatewaki was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period, who served the Makino clan of Nagaoka. Also known by his formal name, . Yamamoto served as a senior commander of Nagaoka forces during the Boshin War. He continued to fight after the fall of Nagaoka ...

were two senior Nagaoka commanders during the war. After the defeat of the pro-Tokugawa alliance, the domain was reduced to 24,000 ''koku''. In July 1871, 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) ...

, Nagaoka Domain briefly became Nagaoka Prefecture, and was merged into the newly created

. Under 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 ...

, the final daimyō of Nagaoka, Makino Tadakatsu served as domain governor, and later was a student at Keio Gijuku. His brother, Makino Tadaatsu was given the ''

kazoku The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan, which existed between 1869 and 1947. They succeeded the feudal lords () and court nobles (), but were abolished with the 1947 constitution. Kazoku ( 華族) should not be confused with ' ...

'' peerage title of ''shishaku'' (

viscount A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...

) and served as Mayor of Nagaoka and as a member of the House of Peers.

Bakumatsu period holdings

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 ...

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

'', 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.Elison, George and Bardwell L. Smith (1987)
''Warlords, Artists, & Commoners: Japan in the Sixteenth Century,'' p. 18
*

**263 villages in Koshi District **83 villages in Kanbara District **70 villages in Santō District **17 villages in Kariwa District

List of daimyō

References

External links

"Nagaoka" at Edo 300
{{Authority control Domains of Japan Nagaoka, Niigata History of Niigata Prefecture Echigo Province Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei

History

Bakumatsu period holdings

List of daimyō

See also

References

External links