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 no ...

'' of

Ōmura Domain was a Japanese Han (Japan), domain of the Edo period. It was centered around Kushima Castle in what is now the city of Ōmura, Nagasaki and was ruled by the ''tozama daimyō'' Ōmura clan for all of its history. History The lineage of the � ...

Hizen Province was an old provinces of Japan, old province of Japan in the area of the Saga Prefecture, Saga and Nagasaki Prefecture, Nagasaki prefectures. It was sometimes called , with Higo Province. Hizen bordered on the provinces of Chikuzen Province, Ch ...

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa and the other Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regio ...

, Japan. His

courtesy title A courtesy title is a title that does not have legal significance but is rather used by custom or courtesy, particularly, in the context of nobility, the titles used by children of members of the nobility (cf. substantive title). In some context ...

was ''Tango-no-kami''.

Biography

Sumihiro was born at Kushima Castle, the ancestral Ōmura residence in Hizen, as the 10th son of Ōmura Sumiyoshi, the 10th daimyo of Ōmura. When his elder brother, Ōmura Sumiaki became 11th daimyo of Ōmura in 1846, Sumihiro was officially adopted as his son and heir. Sumiaki was sickly, and retired from his duties in December 1846, and Sumihiro became the 12th daimyo of Ōmura on February 21, 1847. Sumihiro was an active ruler, interested in both ''

rangaku ''Rangaku'' (Kyūjitai: , ), and by extension , is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the countr ...

'' and classical learning, and concerned with the direction the country was taking into the unsettled

Bakumatsu period were the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, under foreign diplomatic and military pressure, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunat ...

. In 1862, he formed an alliance with neighboring

Hirado Domain 270px, Matsura Akira, final daimyo of Hirado Domain was a Japanese domain of the Edo period. It was centered around Hirado Castle in what is now the city of Hirado, Nagasaki and was ruled by the ''tozama daimyō'' Matsura clan for all of it ...

. Sumihiro was considered a strong Tokugawa loyalist, and in 1863 was entrusted with the important position of

Nagasaki bugyō were officials of the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo period Japan. Appointments to this prominent office were usually '' fudai'' ''daimyōs'', but this was amongst the senior administrative posts open to those who were not ''daimyōs''.Beasley, Wi ...

, but defected after only a year to become a supporter of the ''

Sonnō jōi was a '' yojijukugo'' (four-character compound) phrase used as the rallying cry and slogan of a political movement in Japan in the 1850s and 1860s, during the Bakumatsu period. Based on Neo-Confucianism and Japanese nativism, the movement sou ...

'' movement. During 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 coalition seeking to seize political power in the name of the Impe ...

of the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, he commanded his forces as part of the

Satchō Alliance The , or was a powerful military alliance between the southwestern 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 ''Satc ...

in support of

Emperor Meiji , posthumously honored as , was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the List of emperors of Japan, traditional order of succession, reigning from 1867 until his death in 1912. His reign is associated with the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which ...

, and fought against the Tokugawa remnants of the

Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei The was a Japanese military-political coalition established and disestablished over the course of several months in early to mid-1868 during the Boshin War. Its flag was either a white interwoven five-pointed star on a black field, or a black ...

in northern Japan. In June 1868, in return for his loyalty to the new government, the revenues of Ōmura domain were raised to 30,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before co ...

.'' However, 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) ...

later that year, he surrendered his office to the

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or deleg ...

and was appointed domain governor until Ōmura domain was absorbed into

Nagasaki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan, mainly located on the island of Kyūshū, although it also includes a number of islands off Kyūshū's northwest coast - including Tsushima and Iki. Nagasaki Prefecture has a population of 1,246,4 ...

in July 1871. He was awarded Third Court rank on his deathbed in January 1882, and was posthumously raised to Second Court rank in 1903. His grave is at Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo. His son, Ōmura Sumio was elevated to the rank of

viscount A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. The status and any domain held by a viscount is a viscounty. In the case of French viscounts, the title is ...

(''shishaku'') in the new ''

kazoku The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan, which existed between 1869 and 1947. It was formed by merging the feudal lords (''Daimyo, daimyō'') and court nobles (''kuge'') into one system modelled after the British peerage. Distin ...

'' peerage system in 1884, and further elevated to

count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

(''hakushaku'') in 1891. However, as he had no son, he adopted his son-in-law, the son of Shimazu Tadahiro to be his heir.

References

*''The content of this article was derived from that of the corresponding article on Japanese Wikipedia.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Omura, Sumihiro 1830 births 1882 deaths Tozama daimyo People of the Boshin War People of the Meiji era Rangaku