was the 6th 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

Karatsu Domain was a Japanese domain of the Edo period. It is associated with Hizen Province in modern-day Saga Prefecture.

Hizen Province was an old province of Japan in the area of the Saga and Nagasaki prefectures. It was sometimes called , with Higo Province. Hizen bordered on the provinces of Chikuzen and Chikugo. The province was included in Saikaidō. It did not inclu ...

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 (modern-day

Saga Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. Saga Prefecture has a population of 809,248 (1 August 2020) and has a geographic area of 2,440 km2 (942 sq mi). Saga Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northeast and Nagasak ...

). Before 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 ...

, his courtesy titles were title of '' Sado no Kami'' and junior 5th, lower grade court rank (''ju go i no ge'' 従五位下).

Biography

Nagakuni was the eldest son of

Matsudaira Mitsutsune file:Matsumoto Castle, administrative headquarters of Matsumoto Domain.jpg, 250px, Matsumoto Castle, administrative headquarters of Matsumoto Domain was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It is locate ...

, the daimyo of

Matsumoto Domain 250px, Matsumoto Castle, administrative headquarters of Matsumoto Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It is located in Shinano Province, Honshū. The domain was centered at Matsumoto Castle, located in ...

Shinano province or is an old province of Japan that is now Nagano Prefecture. Shinano bordered on Echigo, Etchū, Hida, Kai, Kōzuke, Mikawa, Mino, Musashi, Suruga, and Tōtōmi Provinces. The ancient capital was located near modern-day Matsumoto, whi ...

. In October 1840, when the 4th daimyo of Karatsu, Ogasawara Nagayoshi died without heirs, the

Tokugawa Bakufu 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 ...

selected him as his replacement, and he was posthumously adopted as Nagayoshi’s son. Nagakuni found his new domain in dire financial straits, and made efforts to avoid bankruptcy through establishment of domain monopolies on

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry ...

and

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

ing. However, Nagakuni was the fourth adopted daimyo in a row in Karatsu domain from the time of Ogasawara Nagamasa, and quickly found his efforts hampered by

Ogasawara Nagamichi was a Japanese samurai and official in the Bakumatsu period Tokugawa Shogunate. Before the Meiji Restoration, his courtesy title was '' Iki no Kami'' and lower 5th Court rank.Beasley, W.G. (1955). ''Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy, 18 ...

, a younger son of the first lord who had been bypassed in the succession, but who wielded considerable behind-the-scenes political influence. The domain's government was divided into factions, and Nagakuni, as both an outsider and newcomer had a much weaker position than Nagamichi. Nagakuni attempted to heal the rift by adopting Nagamichi as his heir, but this had the result of all power devolving to Nagamichi, leaving Nagakuni as little more than a figurehead. In 1868, with the start of 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 ...

, Karatsu domain remained strongly in support of the

. In 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 ...

, Nagayuki served as a

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� ...

in the government, and Karatsu domain itself was a '' Fudai'' domain, unlike the neighboring Nabashima domains, which were of '' Tozama'' domain status. The Ogasawara remained loyal to the Tokugawa to the end, with many samurai accompanying the remnants of the Tokugawa army north to join the

Republic of Ezo The was a short-lived separatist state established in 1869 on the island of Ezo, now Hokkaido, by a part of the former military of the Tokugawa shogunate at the end of the ''Bakumatsu'' period in Japan. It was the first government to attempt t ...

and fighting in the

Battle of Hakodate The was fought in Japan from December 4, 1868 to June 27, 1869, between the remnants of the Tokugawa shogunate army, consolidated into the armed forces of the rebel Ezo Republic, and the armies of the newly formed Imperial government (composed ...

. In June 1869, the title of ''daimyō'' was abolished, and Nagakuni was appointed governor of Karatsu domain. However, in 1871, Karatsu domain itself was abolished 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) ...

, and became part of the new

. Nagakuni retired in September 1873, relocated to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, and died in 1877.

References

*''The content of much of this article was derived from that of the corresponding article on Japanese Wikipedia.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Ogasawara, Nagakuni 1824 births 1877 deaths Fudai daimyo Rōjū Ogasawara clan Toda-Matsudaira clan People of the Boshin War People from Matsumoto, Nagano