was the 1st ''

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 Shinjō Domain in Dewa Province,

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 ...

(part of modern-day

Yamagata Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Yamagata Prefecture has a population of 1,079,950 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 9,325 km² (3,600 sq mi). Yamagata Prefecture borders Akita Prefecture to the north, ...

). 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 ''Ukyō-no-kami'', and his Court rank was Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade.

Biography

Tozawa Masamori was the eldest son of Tozawa Moriyasu, but as his mother was a peasant girl whom Moriyasu had met in a falconry hunt, he was not expected to inherit. Masamori's mother was subsequent married off to a '' yamabushi'' and Masamori was raised as a peasant. However, Moriyasu's death in 1590, followed by that of his uncle Tozawa Mitsumori in 1592, left the clan leaderless and to avoid the possibility of attainder, the clan's retainers tracked Masamori down, murdered his stepfather, and brought him before

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 ...

as heir, with Mitsumori's widow as his adopted mother. He fought in 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 ...

for the eastern side, and was subsequently awarded a 40,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

'' domain of

Matsuoka Domain , also known as was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Hitachi Province (modern-day Ibaraki Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Matsuoka Castle in what is now the city of Takahagi, Ibaraki. With the e ...

in Hitachi Province and this he became ''daimyō'' 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 ...

. During the winter campaign 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 ...

he was assigned as castellan of Odawara Castle and during the summer campaign he was castellan of

Edo Castle is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan in Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. In modern times it is part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo and is therefore also known as . Tokugawa Ieyasu established the ...

. For these services, Shōgun

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 ...

arranged a marriage between Tozawa Masamori and a daughter of Torii Mototada. Following the attainder of the Mogami clan, he accompanied Torii Tadamasa to Dewa Province and was subsequently assigned a portion of the former Mogami lands, which became Shinjō Domain (60,000 ''koku''). The Tozawa clan remained at Shinjō 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 ...

Heraldry

banner A banner can be a flag or another piece of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or another message. A flag whose design is the same as the shield in a coat of arms (but usually in a square or rectangular shape) is called a banner of arms. Also, ...

: twelve black and white stripes * great standard: three white umbrellas * messenger's sashimono: a black horo with two flags * ashigaru: red disc on blue * lesser standard: gold horns above a red disc on blue * sashimono: as for the ashigaru but with a plume

References

* ''The content of much of this article was derived from that of the corresponding article on Japanese Wikipedia.'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tozawa, Masamori Tozama daimyo Tozawa clan 1585 births 1648 deaths People of Sengoku-period Japan