was the 12th (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

Shōnai Domain was a feudal domain in Edo period Japan, located in Dewa Province (modern-day Yamagata Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Tsuruoka Castle in what is now the city of Tsuruoka in Yamagata Prefecture, and was thus also known as the . It was gov ...

during

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 ...

Japan. His

courtesy title A courtesy title is a title that does not have legal significance but rather is used through custom or courtesy, particularly, in the context of nobility, the titles used by children of members of the nobility (cf. substantive title). In some co ...

was ''Saemon-no-jō''.

Biography

Sakai Tadamichi was the sixth son of

Sakai Tadaaki ,Keene, Donald. (2002) ''Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912'', p. 43./ref> also known as Sakai Tadayoshi,Meyer, Eva-Mari Universität Tübingen (in German); Beasley, William G. (1955). ''Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy ...

, the 6th ''daimyō'' of Shōnai. He became ''daimyō'' in 1868, when his elder brother, the 11th ''daimyō'' of Shōnai

Sakai Tadazumi was the 11th ''daimyō'' of Shōnai Domain during Bakumatsu period Japan. His courtesy title was ''Saemon-no-jō''. Biography Sakai Tadazumi was the fifth son of Sakai Tadaaki, the 5th ''daimyō'' of Shōnai. When his elder brother, the 10th ' ...

was deposed by the

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 ...

over his role in leading the domain 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 ...

as part of the pro-Tokugawa Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei. Shōnai Domain was initially punished by a reduction in ''

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 ...

'' to 120,000 ''koku''; however, the Meiji government was in a state of confusion and flux. From 1868 to 1869, Sakai Tadamichi was also appointed ruler of

Aizu Domain was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1601 to 1871.Ravina, Mark. (1998) ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan,'' p. 222 The Aizu Domain was based at Tsuruga Castle in Mutsu Province, the core of the ...

, which had been seized from the Aizu-Matsudaira clan. In June 1869, he was ordered to relocate to Iwakitaira Domain with a further reduction to 70,000 ''koku'', but the order was rescinded only a month later. The same month, he was appointed imperial governor of Shōnai. He 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 ...

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) ...

and retired in 1880, returning the position of chieftain of the Sakai clan to his elder brother Sakai Tadazumi. He died in 1921.

References

Papinot, Edmond. (1906) ''Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du japon''. Tokyo: Librarie Sansaish
..Click link for digitized 1906 ''Nobiliaire du japon'' (2003)
* ''The content of much of this article was derived from that of the corresponding article on Japanese Wikipedia.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Sakai, Tadamichi 1856 births 1921 deaths Fudai daimyo People of the Boshin War Sakai clan