was a Japanese

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 official 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 ...

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 ...

. 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 title was '' Iki no Kami'' and lower 5th Court rank.Beasley, W.G. (1955). ''Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy, 1853-1868,'' p. 338.

Biography

Nagamichi was the eldest son of Ogasawara Nagamasa, the first Ogasawara

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 ...

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 incl ...

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 ...

). An infant at the time of his father’s death, he was bypassed in the succession by Ogasawara Nagayasu, originally the son of

Sakai Tadaari 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 ...

of Shonai Domain. Nagayasu died without heirs, and was replaced in turn by Ogasawara Nagao, and Ogasawara Nagakazu, each of whom was adopted into the Ogasawara clan as a successor, and each of whom died without heirs. Nagamichi was never chosen to be daimyō, but developed a political base within Karatsu Domain and was de facto ruler of the domain for much of his adult life. The final daimyō of Karatsu,

Ogasawara Nagakuni was the 6th and final ''daimyō'' of Karatsu Domain in Hizen Province, Kyūshū, Japan (modern-day Saga Prefecture). Before the Meiji Restoration, his courtesy titles were title of '' Sado no Kami'' and junior 5th, lower grade court rank (''ju g ...

attempted to end the factionalism in Karatsu by the expediency of adopting Nagakuni as his son and heir; the end result was that all power devolved to Nagamachi, leaving Nagamichi as little more than a figurehead. Nagayuki became a prominent official in the Tokugawa shogunate, with the positions of ''

wakadoshiyori The ', or "Junior Elders", were high government officials in the Edo period Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867). The position was established around 1633, but appointments were irregular until 1662. The four to six ''wakadoshiyori'' we ...

'' in 1862; '' rōjū-kaku'' in 1862-1863 and in 1865; and ''

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 1865-1866 and in 1866-1868. During these periods, he was primarily involved with foreign affairs, and was one of the senior Japanese officials during negotiations with

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

over reparations following the

Namamugi Incident The , also known as the Kanagawa incident and Richardson affair, was a political crisis that occurred in the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the ''Bakumatsu'' on 14 September 1862. Charles Lennox Richardson, a British merchant, was killed by t ...

. 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

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 ...

. Karatsu domain 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 Nagamichi and many samurai accompanying the remnants of the Tokugawa army north to join the

Northern Alliance The Northern Alliance, officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan ( prs, جبهه متحد اسلامی ملی برای نجات افغانستان ''Jabha-yi Muttahid-i Islāmi-yi Millī barāyi Nijāt ...

and then 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 ...

, 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 ...

. After the war, Nagamichi lived in retirement in

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 ...

. In June 1869, the title of ''daimyō'' was abolished, and 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

. His son, Admiral

Ogasawara Naganari Viscount was an Admiral and naval strategist in the Imperial Japanese Navy in Meiji and Taishō period Japan, and a member of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff. He was also known as Ogasawara Chōsei, Ogasawara Nagayo.Evans, ''Kaigun'' ...

, became a

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 ...

under the new ''

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 system; however, Nagamichi was not awarded a title, perhaps due to his involvement with the pro-Tokugawa side in the Boshin War. However, his lower 5th court rank was raised to 4th court rank in June 1880. He died in Tokyo in 1891.

References

Biography

See also

References

Further reading