was the 3rd ''

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 Mutsuura Domain in southern

Musashi Province was a province of Japan, which today comprises Tokyo Metropolis, most of Saitama Prefecture and part of Kanagawa Prefecture. It was sometimes called . The province encompassed Kawasaki and Yokohama. Musashi bordered on Kai, Kōzuke, Sagami, S ...

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 Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama,

Kanagawa prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

) and 6th head of the Yonekura clan. His courtesy title was '' Tango-no-kami.''

Biography

Masaharu was the second son of Yonekura Masanori, a 3000 ''

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 ...

'' '' hatamoto''. He was adopted as head of the Yonekura clan and on the unexpected death of Yonekura Satonori without any heirs in 1749. He was confirmed as ''daimyō'' of Mutsuura Domain in a formal audience with ''

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. ...

. As ''daimyō'', he was assigned to several ceremonial postings as guard of various gates to

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 ...

. In January 1776, he became a '' Sōshaban'' (Master of Ceremonies) and in April 1777 he rose to the position of '' wakadoshiyori'' (Junior Councilor) under ''Shōgun'' Tokugawa Ieharu. However, with the assassination of Tanuma Okitomo in April 1784, he rapidly lost favor at Court and attempted to resign his posts, but his request was refused. However, he fell ill later in the year, and died two years later at the age of 58. Yonekura Masaharu was married to the daughter of Yanagisawa Masatsune, the ''daimyō'' of Mikkaichi Domain, in

Echigo Province was an old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It bordered on Uzen, Iwashiro, Kōzuke, Shinano, and Etchū Provinces. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Echigo''" in . It corresponds today to Niigata ...

, and had a total of eight sons and six daughters. His grave is at the temple of Hase-dera in

Shibuya Shibuya ( 渋谷区 ''Shibuya-ku'') is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station (southern half) and Shibuya Station. As of April 1 ...

, Tokyo.

References

"Mutsuura-han" on ''Edo 300 HTML''
(17 February 2008) * ''The content of much of this article was derived from that of the corresponding article on Japanese Wikipedia.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Yonekura Masaharu Fudai daimyo Wakadoshiyori 1728 births

Masaharu Masaharu (written: , , , , , , , , , or ) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese writer *, Japanese singer-songwriter, musician and actor *, Japanese general *, Japanese businessman *, Japanese ''dai ...

1786 deaths People from Yokohama