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 8th ''

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 Fukui DomainDiCenzo, John. (1978)
''Daimyo, domain and retainer band in the seventeenth century: a study of institutional development in Echizen, Tottori and Matsue'', p. 216
He was famed as a lover of

sumo is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a '' rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring ('' dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by t ...

Biography

Yoshikuni was born 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 ...

in 1681 as the sixth son of Matsudaira Masakatsu of Echizen-Matsuoka Domain and his mother was a concubine. HIs name in infancy was Katsuchiyo (勝千代), later becoming Matsudaira Masanao (昌尚). In 1701, when his uncle Matsudaira Masachika selected him has heir to Fukui Domain, he took the name of Matsudaira Masakuni (昌邦), and after his adoptive father Masachika was granted a 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 Ietsuna was the fourth ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty of Japan who was in office from 1651 to 1680. He is considered the eldest son of Tokugawa Iemitsu, which makes him the grandson of Tokugawa Hidetada and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. E ...

and had his name changed to Yoshinori, he followed suit, becoming Matsudaira Yoshikuni. At that time, he 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 ''Ōi-no-kami' He became ''daimyō'' in 1710 on his father's retirement. In 1714, he was granted the courtesy title of ''Sakon'e-gon-shōjō''. In his tenure, he attempted to rebuilt the domain's finances, and stressed public works projects in emulation of

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 ...

, whom he greatly admired. He dismissed a number of incompetent officials and corrupt magistrates, including the domain's '' Kanjō-bugyō,'' and proved to be a popular ruler. In return, Tokugawa Yoshimune ordered that all of the ''

tenryō 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' ...

'' territory in Echizen be administered by Fukui Domain. This effectively added 100,000 ''

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 ...

'' to the domain's ''

kokudaka refers to a system for determining land value for taxation purposes under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo-period Japan, and expressing this value in terms of ''koku'' of rice. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Koku"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 54 ...

''. He also completed a comprehensive historical survey of Echizen Province, listing 330 ruins of castles and fortified manors. In 1714, he invited military strategist

Daidōji Yūzan was a samurai and military strategist of Edo period Japan. He was born in Fushimi in Yamashiro Province (present-day Fushimi-ku, Kyoto). Among the works he wrote in his late years was the widely circulated , an introduction to warrior ethics that ...

to Fukui Domain. He died in 1722, without male heir and was succeeded by his brother Matsudaira Munemasa. His graves are at the temple of Unshō-ji in Fukui, and 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 ...

, Tokyo.

Family

* Father: Matsudaira Masakatsu (1636–1693) * Mother: Akiyama-dono * Adoptive father: Matsudaira Yoshinori * Wife: daughter of ''

kuge The was a Japanese aristocratic class that dominated the Japanese Imperial Court in Kyoto. The ''kuge'' were important from the establishment of Kyoto as the capital during the Heian period in the late 8th century until the rise of the Kamak ...

'' Hino Yoshikuni * Concubine: Itsuji-dono * Daughter: Katsuhime, married Matsudaira Munenori

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:Matsudaira, Yoshikuni (Fukui) 1681 births 1722 deaths Shinpan daimyo Fukui-Matsudaira clan People of Edo-period Japan