was the 4th ''

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

Hirosaki Domain Hirosaki Castle, the seat of the Hirosaki Domain , also known as , was a '' tozama'' feudal domain of Edo period JapanRavina, Mark. (1998) ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan,'' p. 222 It is located in Mutsu Province, in northern Honsh� ...

in northern

Mutsu Province was an old province of Japan in the area of Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Aomori Prefectures and the municipalities of Kazuno and Kosaka in Akita Prefecture. Mutsu Province is also known as or . The term is often used to refer to the comb ...

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 ...

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 ...

(modern-day

Aomori Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, ...

). His courtesy title was '' Etchū-no-kami,'' and his Court rank was Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade.

Biography

Tsugaru Nobumasa was the eldest son of

Tsugaru Nobuyoshi was the 3rd ''daimyō'' of Hirosaki Domain in northern Mutsu Province, Honshū, Japan (modern-day Aomori Prefecture). His courtesy title was '' Tosa-no-kami,'' and his Court rank was Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade. Biography Tsugaru Nobuyos ...

, 3rd ''

'' of Hirosaki Domain and was born at

Hirosaki Castle is a city located in western Aomori Prefecture, Japan. On 1 April 2020, the city had an estimated population of 168,739 in 71,716 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Hirosaki developed as a castle town fo ...

. He was 9 when his father died, and his uncle Tsugaru Nobufusa acted as regent until his coming of age. Of scholarly disposition, he studied in Edo (modern Tokyo) under the great Confucian scholar Yamaga Sokō, and Yoshikawa Koretaru. On assuming power in Hirosaki, he embarked on a large

public works Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, sc ...

program, enlarging the

castle town A castle town is a settlement built adjacent to or surrounding a castle. Castle towns were common in Medieval Europe. Some examples include small towns like Alnwick and Arundel, which are still dominated by their castles. In Western Europe, ...

, developing the forestry industry, developing new

paddy field A paddy field is a flooded field (agriculture), field of arable land used for growing Aquatic plant, semiaquatic crops, most notably rice and taro. It originates from the Neolithic rice-farming cultures of the Yangtze River basin in sout ...

s, flood control, and developing

sericulture Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, ''Bombyx mori'' (the caterpillar of the domestic silkmoth) is the most widely used and intensively studie ...

, textiles, silk, and paper as sources of local income. In 1660, he completed the construction of a 4.2 kilometer long dam to create Lake Tsugaru-Fushimi for irrigation purposes. It was the largest dam in Japan at the time. He also invited over 40 cultural figures to settle in Hirosaki to raise its level of culture. His military forces were called to

Ezo (also spelled Yezo or Yeso) is the Japanese term historically used to refer to the lands to the north of the Japanese island of Honshu. It included the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, which changed its name from "Ezo" to "Hokkaidō" in 18 ...

by 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 ...

in the suppression of Shakushain's revolt, an Ainu uprising against Japanese rule in 1669, and was master-of-ceremonies at the shōgun's pilgrimage to Nikko in 1683. However, in 1695 a crop failure resulted in famine in the Tsugaru area, and Hirosaki Domain lost 30,000 people. Nobumasa had 5 sons and 26 daughters. He died on December 8, 1710, and his grave is at the Takateru Jinja in

Hirosaki is a city located in western Aomori Prefecture, Japan. On 1 April 2020, the city had an estimated population of 168,739 in 71,716 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Hirosaki developed as a castle town fo ...

. Nobumasa was succeeded by his eldest son, Tsugaru Nobuhisa.

References

"Hirosaki-jō"
(17 Feb. 2008)

(17 Feb. 2008) * ''The content of much of this article was derived from that of the corresponding article on Japanese Wikipedia.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Tsugaru, Nobumasa Tozama daimyo 1646 births 1710 deaths Tsugaru clan People of Edo-period Japan

Biography

See also

References