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

Naegi Domain was a feudal domain of Edo period Japan It was located in Mino Province, in central Honshū. The domain was centered at Naegi Castle, located in what is now the city of Nakatsugawa in Gifu Prefecture. It is the smallest domain within the Tokuga ...

under 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 ...

of Japan. His wife was a daughter of Shimazu Tadayuki of Sadowara Domain. 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 ...

s were ''Buzen-no-kami'', ''Shinano-no-kami'' and ''Mino-no-kami,'' and he was also called .

Biography

Tōyama Tomoyoshi was the third son of the 11th ''daimyō'' of Naegi Domain, Tōyama Tomohisa, but both of his elder brothers died young. He was proclaimed heir in 1828 and became ''daimyō'' in 1838 on the death of his father. He was appointed to the guard of the Uchisaiwai Gate 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 ...

, ''Sumpu kaban'' and later became a ''

sōshaban were officials of the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo period Japan. Conventional interpretations have construed this Japanese title as "master of ceremonies" Created in 1632, this ''bakufu'' title identified an official selected from the ranks of the ...

''. In 1861 he became a ''

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 ...

''. The following year, 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 ...

occurred, in which a British merchant was killed by the retinue of

Shimazu Hisamitsu Prince , also known as , 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 ...

near

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

. Tōyama Tomoyoshi was assigned to apologize to the British government. Having completed this task, he was relieved of his position as ''wakadoshiyori'', and returned to Naegi. The following year, he was appointed as ''Osaka kaban'', and in 1865 was appointed ''wakadoshiyori'' for a second time. It was around this time that he changed his name from "Tomoaki" to "Tomoyoshi". He was assigned by

Shogun , 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 Iemochi (July 17, 1846 – August 29, 1866) was the 14th ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, who held office from 1858 to 1866. During his reign there was much internal turmoil as a result of the "re-opening" of Japan to western nations. ...

to accompany the abortive

Second Chōshū expedition The Second Chōshū expedition (Japanese: 第二次長州征討), also called the Summer War, was a punitive expedition led by the Tokugawa shogunate against the Chōshū Domain. It followed the First Chōshū expedition of 1864. Background The ...

. In 1866, after the sudden death of Tokugawa Iemochi, he was part of the escort that brought his body back to Edo. He resigned as ''wakadoshiyori'' in June 1867, and returned to Naegi in February 1868. He soon submitted to the new

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 ...

and was asked to dispatch troops to guard

Iwakura Tomomi was a Japanese statesman during the Bakumatsu and Meiji period. He was one of the leading figures of the Meiji Restoration, which saw Japan's transition from feudalism to modernity. Born to a noble family, he was adopted by the influential Iwa ...

and the imperial army advancing along the

Nakasendō The , also called the ,Richard Lane, ''Images from the Floating World'' (1978) Chartwell, Secaucus ; pg. 285 was one of the five routes of the Edo period, and one of the two that connected Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Kyoto in Japan. There were 6 ...

through

Shinano Province or is an old province of Japan that is now Nagano Prefecture. Shinano bordered on Echigo, Etchū, Hida, Kai, Kōzuke, Mikawa, Mino, Musashi, Suruga, and Tōtōmi Provinces. The ancient capital was located near modern-day Matsumoto, whi ...

. He was appointed imperial governor of Naegi in 1869. He ordered all of his

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 ...

to become farmers and spent all of the remaining wealth of the domain in an effort to pay of the domain's debts and to provide relief to his former retainers when the

decided that it would no longer provide any stipends to the ex-samurai class. Not having an heir, he adopted a son of Oda Nagayasu of Shibamura Domain to succeed the Tōyama family line. In 1870, he also missed an order that all Buddhist temples in Naegi, including the clan's ''

bodaiji A in Japanese Buddhism is a temple which, generation after generation, takes care of a family's dead, giving them burial and performing ceremonies in their soul's favor.Iwanami kojien The name is derived from the term , which originally meant jus ...

'' of Unrin-ji were to be destroyed, and that only

Shinto shrine A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The '' honden''Also called (本殿, meani ...

s would be permitted in his domain. The following year, 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) ...

in 1871 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 ...

. He retired in 1875, and spent his remaining years organizing relief efforts for his former samurai. His grave is at the cemetery of the former temple of Unrin-in in Naegi.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toyama, Tomoyoshi Fudai daimyo Wakadoshiyori 1819 births 1894 deaths People of the Boshin War