was the 7th (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

Kakegawa Domain was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. The domain was centered at Kakegawa Castle in Tōtōmi Province, in what is now the city of Kakegawa, Shizuoka.

Tōtōmi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today western Shizuoka Prefecture.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tōtōmi''" in . Tōtōmi bordered on Mikawa Province, Mikawa, Suruga Province, S ...

, (part of modern-day

Shizuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,555,818 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Pref ...

) in

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 ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and the 11th hereditary chieftain of the Kakegawa-Ōta clan. 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 ''Bitchu-no-kami''.

Biography

Ōta Sukeyoshi was the 7th son of

Ōta Sukemoto was the 5th ''daimyō'' of Kakegawa Domain in Tōtōmi Province, (modern-day Shizuoka Prefecture) in late-Edo period and Bakumatsu period Japan and a high-level office holder within the Tokugawa shogunate,Meyer, Eva-Maria"Gouverneure von Kyôto ...

, the 5th ''daimyō'' of Kakegawa Domain. He became head of the

Ōta clan The was samurai kin group which rose to prominence in Sengoku and Edo period Japan.Papinot, Jacques. (2003)''Nobiliare du Japon'' -- Ōta, pp. 48 Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon.'' ...

and ''daimyō'' of Kakegawa on the death of his elder brother,

Ōta Sukekatsu was the 6th ''daimyō'' of Kakegawa Domain in Tōtōmi Province, (modern-day Shizuoka Prefecture) in late-Edo period Japan and 10th hereditary chieftain of the Kakegawa-Ōta clan. Biography Ōta Sukekatsu was the eldest son of Ōta Sukemoto, th ...

in January 1862, but was only a child of eight years at the time. His father, Ōta Sukemoto, although officially retired from public life, continued to control the domain until his death in June 1867. In January 1868, he was ordered to assist in the defense of

Sunpu Castle is a Japanese castle in Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan. The sobriquet of this feudal fortress was the "Castle of the Floating Isle".Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)Shizuoka It was also referred to as or . Hist ...

; however, with the start of 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 ...

, he withdraw to Kakegawa less than a month later, and surrendered to the new

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji ...

. In May 1868, with 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 ...

, ''

Shōgun , officially , was the title of the military rulers 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, except during parts of the Kamak ...

Tokugawa Yoshinobu Kazoku, Prince was the 15th and last ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful. He resigned his position as shogun in late 1867, while ai ...

was forced to resign his office, and the

Tokugawa clan The is a Japanese dynasty which produced the Tokugawa shoguns who ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868 during the Edo period. It was formerly a powerful ''daimyō'' family. They nominally descended from Emperor Seiwa (850–880) and were a branch of ...

under the leadership of

Tokugawa Iesada was the 13th ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He held office for five years from 1853 to 1858. He was physically weak and was therefore considered by later historians to have been unfit to be ''shōgun''. His reign marks the begi ...

was given the provinces of Suruga, Tōtōmi and a portion of

Mikawa Province was an Provinces of Japan, old province in the area that today forms the eastern half of Aichi Prefecture.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Mikawa''" in . Its abbreviated form name was . Mikawa bordered on Owari Province, O ...

as compensation. The Ōta clan was reassigned to a new domain in

Kazusa Province was a province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture. The province was located in the middle of the Bōsō Peninsula, whose name takes its first ''kanji'' from the name of Awa Province and its second from Kazusa and Shimōsa province ...

called Shibayama Domain in July of the same year with the same nominal ''

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. 5 ...

'' of 53,350 ''

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 ...

''. In 1869, he became imperial governor of Shibayama under the

. During his short tenure, he established a

han school The ''han'' school was a type of educational institution in the Edo period of Japan. They taught samurai etiquette, the classical Confucian books, calligraphy, rhetoric, fighting with swords and other weapons; some also added subjects such as m ...

and hospital, and attempted to set the foundation for the new domain by sponsoring industries. In January 1871, he completed Matsuo Castle in Shibayama and relocated his seat from Kakegawa; 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) ...

half a year later, he relocated to

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. In December 1876, he received a post within the

Imperial Household Ministry The (IHA) is an agency of the government of Japan in charge of state matters concerning the Imperial Family, and the keeping of the Privy Seal and State Seal of Japan. From around the 8th century AD until the Second World War, it was known ...

. After the establishment of the ''

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, he became a

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''). Ōta Sukeyoshi later provided financial support for foreign educators to come to Japan, including the American missionary Christofer Carrothers at Keio Gijuku in Tokyo, the forerunner of

Keio University , abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university located in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally established as a school for Rangaku, Western studies in 1858 in Edo. It was granted university status in 1920, becomi ...

. He was also supporter of La Société de Langue Française, the forerunner of

Hosei University formerly known as Tokyo University of Law (東京法学社, Tokyo Hogakusha) is a top research university in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Hosei University and four other private universities in Tokyo are collectively known as "MARCH (Japanese univers ...

. His wife was a daughter of the ''

rōjū The , usually translated as ''Elder (administrative title), Elder'', was one of the highest-ranking government posts under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. The term refers either to individual Elders, or to the Council of Elders as a wh ...

'' Manabe Akikatsu of

Sabae Domain was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan.Edmond Papinot, Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003). It was based at Sabae ''Jin'ya'' ...

His grave is at the Ōta ''

bodaiji A in Japanese Buddhism is a temple which, generation after generation, takes care of a family's dead, giving them burial and performing ceremonies in their soul's favor.Iwanami kojien The name is derived from the term , which originally meant ju ...

'' of Hongyō-ji in Nippori, Tokyo.

References

* Papinot, Edmond. (1906) ''Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du japon.'' Tokyo: Librarie Sansaish
..Click link for digitized 1906 ''Nobiliaire du japon'' (2003)
* ''The content of much of this article was derived from that of the corresponding article on Japanese Wikipedia.'' , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ota, Sukeyoshi (02) Fudai daimyo Kazoku Sukeyoshi (II) 1854 births 1913 deaths People of the Meiji era