was an mid-

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

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 ...

, and the final ''

daimyō 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 nominall ...

'' of Echizen-Matsuoka Domain and the 9th ''daimyō'' of Fukui Domain in

Echizen Province was a province of Japan in the area that is today the northern portion of Fukui Prefecture in the Hokuriku region of Japan. Echizen bordered on Kaga, Wakasa, Hida, and Ōmi Provinces. It was part of Hokurikudō Circuit. Its abbreviated for ...

of JapanBurks, Ardath W. (1985)
''The Modernizers: overseas students, foreign employees, and Meiji Japan'', p. 42
He was a patron of the arts.

Biography

Munemasa was born in Matsuoka in 1681 as the third son of Matsudaira Masakatsu of Echizen-Matsuoka Domain and his mother was a concubine. HIs name in infancy was Sentetsu (仙鉄), later becoming Matsudaira Masaoki (昌興) from 1693. The same year, he became ''daimyō'' of Echizen-Matsuoka on the death of his father. At that time, he took the name of Matsudaira Masahira (昌平) and was granted Senior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade Court rank and the

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 con ...

of ''Takumi-no-kami''. In 1721, he was chosen by Matsudaira Yoshikuni as heir to Fukui Domain, and became ''daimyō'' of Fukui the following year. With his accession to Fukui, Echizen-Matsuoka was dissolved and its territories rejoined to Fukui Domain.Burke
pp. 42, 47
After being 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 Kamaku ...

Tokugawa Yoshimune was the eighth '' shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1716 until his abdication in 1745. He was the son of Tokugawa Mitsusada, the grandson of Tokugawa Yorinobu, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lineage Yoshi ...

, he changed his name to Munemasa and was granted Senior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade court rank. Munemasa was already in his 40s when he became ''daimyō'' , and although married to an adoptive daughter of Ogasawara Tadataka of

Kokura Domain , also known as or then , was a Japanese domain of the Edo period. It was associated with Buzen Province in modern-day Fukuoka Prefecture on the island of Kyushu. In the han system, Kokura was a political and economic abstraction based on period ...

, he had no heir. This concerned the shogunate greatly, as Fukui Domain had been plagued several times by succession disputes, so at the insistence of the shogunate, he adopted Matsudaira Munenori of the Maebashi-Matsudaira clan as his heir, and married him to a daughter of Matsudaira Yoshikuni. He died in 1724 at the clan residence in Edo. His grave was at the temple of Tentoku-ji in

Toranomon is a business district of Minato, Tokyo. History Literally meaning "Tiger's Gate," Toranomon was the name of the southernmost gate of Edo Castle. The gate existed until the 1870s when it was demolished to make way for modern developments. T ...

, which was later moved the clan temple of Kaian-ji in

Shinagawa is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. The Ward refers to itself as Shinagawa City in English. The Ward is home to ten embassies. , the Ward had an estimated population of 380,293 and a population density of 16,510 persons per km2. The total are ...

, in Tokyo, as well as the temple of Unshō-ji in Fukui.

Family

* Father: Matsudaira Masakatsu (1636–1693) * Mother: Nakane-dono * Wife: Kikuhime, daughter of Matsudaira Yorimoto of Nukada Domain (adopted by Ogasawara Tadataka of Kokura Domain) * Concubine: Sugiyama-dono * Daughter: Katsuhime, married Mōri Munehiro of

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 ...

References

* Papinot, Edmond. (1948). ''Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan''. New York: Overbeck Co.

External links

Fukui Domain on "Edo 300 HTML"
(3 November 2007) *
越前松平氏 (Echizen Matsudaira) at ReichsArchiv.jp

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matsdaira, Munemasa 1675 births 1724 deaths Shinpan daimyo Fukui-Matsudaira clan People of Edo-period Japan