was the 7th ''

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 Honshū ...

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 Nobuyasu was the eldest son of

Tsugaru Nobuaki was the 6th ''daimyō'' of Hirosaki Domain in northern Mutsu Province, Honshū, Japan (modern-day Aomori Prefecture). His courtesy title was ''Kokushi (officials), Dewa-no-kami'', and his List of Japanese court ranks, positions and hereditary ti ...

, the 6th ''

'' of

. His father died when he was four years old, and all power remained in the hands his great-grandfather, Tsugaru Nobuhisa until 1746, and in the hands of the senior clan retainers until he came of age. He was received in formal audience by ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

Tokugawa Ieshige Tokugawa Ieshige; 徳川家重 (January 28, 1712 – July 13, 1761) was the ninth ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. The first son of Tokugawa Yoshimune, his mother was the daughter of Ōkubo Tadanao, known as Osuma no kata. ...

in 1753. Nobuyasu inherited a domain stricken by extensive famine caused by repeated natural disasters, with earthquakes and

volcanic eruption Several types of volcanic eruptions—during which lava, tephra (ash, lapilli, volcanic bombs and volcanic blocks), and assorted gases are expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure—have been distinguished by volcanologists. These are often ...

s by

Mount Iwaki is a stratovolcano located in western Aomori Prefecture, Tohoku, Japan. It is also referred to as and less frequently, due to its similar shape to Mount Fuji. With a summit elevation of and a prominence of it is the highest mountain in Ao ...

, inclement weather, and repeated crop failures. The domain was 350,000 gold ''

ryō The was a gold currency unit in the shakkanhō system in pre- Meiji Japan. It was eventually replaced with a system based on the ''yen''. Origins The ''ryō'' was originally a unit of weight from China, the ''tael.'' It came into use in Japan ...

'' in debt, and many of Nobuyasu's senior retainers were corrupt and contributed to the domain's problems. It was discovered that three senior retainers had conspired with merchants in

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

to sell of all of the domain's rice reserves for their personal profit, leaving the domain helpless in face of the

Great Tenmei Famine The Great Tenmei famine (天明の大飢饉, ''Tenmei no daikikin'') was a famine which affected Japan during the Edo period. It is considered to have begun in 1782, and lasted until 1788. It was named after the Tenmei era (1781–1789), during th ...

of 1781, during which time thousands of people within the domain starved to death. Beset by problems on all sides, Nobuyasu died suddenly in 1784, leaving the domain and its problems to his only son, Nobuakira. Nobuyasu had one son and three daughters. His grave is at the clan temple of Shinryō-in (a subsidiary of

Kan'ei-ji (also spelled Kan'eiji or Kaneiji) is a Tendai Buddhist temple in Tokyo, Japan, founded in 1625 during the Kan'ei era by Tenkai, in an attempt to emulate the powerful religious center Enryaku-ji, in Kyoto. The main object of worship is .Nihon Re ...

) in Taitō-ku,

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 ...

, as well as the Tsugaru clan temple of Chōshō-ji 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 ...

References

"Hirosaki-jō"
(February 17, 2008)

(February 17, 2008) * ''The content of much of this article was derived from that of the corresponding article on Japanese Wikipedia''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tsugaru, Nobuyasu Tozama daimyo Tsugaru clan 1739 births 1784 deaths People of Edo-period Japan

Biography

See also

References