was the 13th

daimyo were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally t ...

Chōshū Domain The , also known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871.Deal, William E. (2005) ''Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan,'' p. 81 The Chōshū Domain was based ...

. His

domain Domain may refer to: Mathematics *Domain of a function, the set of input values for which the (total) function is defined ** Domain of definition of a partial function ** Natural domain of a partial function **Domain of holomorphy of a function * ...

was a traditional enemy of 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 ...

, and he became a key player in its downfall during the

Bakumatsu 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 governm ...

period. He was also the first daimyo to return his lands to the Emperor during 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 lord ...

. He was later allowed to use a character from the name of shōgun Tokugawa Ieyoshi and changed his name to Yoshichika (慶親).

Life

He was born on March 5, 1819, the first son of Fukubara Fusamasa (later known as Mōri Narimoto) and a concubine from the Harada clan. His father later became the 11th daimyo of

. His father was the first son of Mōri Chikaaki, but at the time of Takachika's birth, his father was the adopted son of Fukubara Fusazumi, the head of the Fukubara clan, one of the eight '' karō'' families of the domain. On August 28, 1819, his father returned to the Mōri main family, and on September 10, he was adopted by Mōri Narihiro and changed his name to Narimoto, later becoming the next daimyo of the domain. He employed Murata Seifū, Tsuboi Kuemon and Sufu Masanosuke as reformers of the economy and administration in his domain. Events during his reign include the Bombardment of Shimonoseki, the Ikedaya Incident, the

Kinmon incident The , also known as the , was a rebellion against the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan that took place on August 20 unar calendar: 19th day, 7th month 1864, near the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. History Starting with the Convention of Kanagawa in 1 ...

, the First Chōshū expedition and

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 Th ...

, the

Satchō Alliance The , or was a powerful military alliance between the feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū formed in 1866 to combine their efforts to restore Imperial rule and overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. History The name ''Satchō'' () i ...

and the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a clique seeking to seize political power in the name of the Imperi ...

. He was the first daimyo to return his lands to the

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( ...

during the

References

People from Yamaguchi Prefecture Daimyo 1836 births 1871 deaths Mōri clan Deified Japanese people {{Daimyo-stub

Life

See also

References