270px, Remnants of the walls of Kanō Castle was a '' fudai'' feudal domain of

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

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 ...

. The domain was centered at

Kanō Castle Kanō Tenman-gū was a ''hirajirō''-style Japanese castle located in the city of Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. It was one of the few castles built after the Battle of Sekigahara and establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate and was used as an adm ...

, located in what is now part of the city of

Gifu is a Cities of Japan, city located in the south-central portion of Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and serves as the prefectural capital. The city has played an important role in Japan's history because of its location in the middle of the country. Durin ...

Gifu Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Gifu Prefecture has a population of 1,910,511 () and has a geographic area of . Gifu Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to the north; Ishikawa Prefecture ...

History

Before the

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was an important battle in Japan which occurred on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu Prefecture, ...

, the central

Mino Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today southern Gifu Prefecture. Mino was bordered by Ōmi to the west, Echizen and Hida to the north, Shinano to the east, and Ise, Mikawa, and Owari to the south. Its abbreviated fo ...

was ruled by

Oda Hidenobu , the son of Oda Nobutada, was a samurai who lived during the Azuchi-Momoyama period in the late-16th century. He was a convert to Catholicism. His childhood name was Sanbōshi (三法師). Succession dispute When Oda Nobutada and Oda Nobuna ...

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demo ...

's grandson, from his base at

Gifu Castle is a Japanese castle located in the city of Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. Along with Mount Kinka and the Nagara River, it is one of the main symbols of the city. The castle is also known as . It was designated a National Historic Site in 2011. ...

. However, as Hidenobu sided with

Ishida Mitsunari was a Japanese samurai and military commander of the late Sengoku period of Japan. He is probably best remembered as the commander of the Western army in the Battle of Sekigahara following the Azuchi–Momoyama period of the 16th century. He ...

at the Battle of Sekigahara, his territory was confiscated by

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

. In 1601, Ieyasu granted the area to his son-in-law

Okudaira Nobumasa , also called Okudaira Sadamasa (奥平貞昌), was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku and early Edo periods. Nobumasa's family considered their origins to have been associated with Mikawa Province. The clan was descended through the Akam ...

. Okudaira Nobumasa was allowed to build

with materials from the dismantled Gifu Castle. This was the birth of the Kanō Domain. Nobumasa's placement at Kanō was meant to act as a check against the potentially hostile lords of western Japan, who might have wanted to march eastward against Ieyasu. Nobumasa retired in 1602, handing over the position of ''

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 ...

'' to his son

Okudaira Tadamasa was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period. He was the son of Tokugawa Ieyasu's daughter Kamehime with her husband, Okudaira Nobumasa. Due to this family connection, he was allowed to use the Matsudaira surname. He was briefly adopted by ...

; however, he retained 40,000 of the domain's 100,000 ''

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 ...

'' as a "retirement fund", and continued to hold actual power, establishing a system of

flood control Flood management or flood control are methods used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters. Flooding can be caused by a mix of both natural processes, such as extreme weather upstream, and human changes to waterbodies and ru ...

and aiding in the setup of the castletown. Nobumasa and Tadamasa died in quick succession; the third Okudaira lord of Kanō, Tadataka, died heirless in 1632, and so Okudaira rule in Kanō came to an end. Kanō was then given to the

Ōkubo clan The were a ''samurai'' kin group which rose to prominence in the Sengoku period and the Edo periods.Meyer, Eva-Maria"Gouverneure von Kyôto in der Edo-Zeit."Universität Tübingen (in German) Under the Tokugawa shogunate, the Ōkubo, as heredit ...

, with a reduced ''

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 50,000

from 1632 to 1639. Ōkubo Tadamoto was transferred from Kisai Domain in

Musashi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan, which today comprises Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, most of Saitama Prefecture and part of Kanagawa Prefecture. It was sometimes called . The province encompassed Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Kawasaki and Yokohama. ...

(which was dissolved as a result) and subsequently swapped places with the Matsudaira-Toda clan of

Akashi Domain was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Harima Province in what is now the southern portion of modern-day Hyōgo Prefecture. It was centered around Akashi Castle, which is located in what i ...

Harima Province or Banshū (播州) was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is the southwestern part of present-day Hyōgo Prefecture. Harima bordered on Tajima, Tanba, Settsu, Bizen, and Mimasaka Provinces. Its capital was Himeji. During th ...

. Under the Toda (1639-1711), the domain had a rated ''kokudaka'' of 70,000 ''koku''. The Toda ruled until their transfer to

Yodo Domain file: Inaba Masakuni.jpg, 270px, Inaba Masakuni, final daimyo of Yodo Domain The was a Japanese Han (country subdivision), domain of the Edo period, and the only domain located in Yamashiro Province. Its castle was located within modern-day ...

Yamashiro Province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai. It overlaps the southern part of modern Kyoto Prefecture on Honshū. Aliases include , the rare , and . It is classified as an upper province in the '' Engishiki''. Yamashiro Province included Kyoto it ...

in 1711. They were followed by the

Andō clan The is a Japanese samurai kin group. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)">DF 6 of 80">"Andō," ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 2 DF 6 of 80/nowiki> retrieved 2013-5-5. ...

from Bitchu-Matsuyama Domain (1711-1756), initially at 65,000 ''koku'', but later reduced to 50,000 ''koku'' due to misrule before they were transferred to Iwakitaira Domain in Mutsu Province. The Nagai clan, from Iwatsuki Domain in

, ruled from 1756 until 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 ...

, with a ''kokudaka'' reduced to 32,000 ''koku''. The 4th Nagai ''daimyō'', Nagai Naosuke, served the Tokugawa shogunate as a ''

wakadoshiyori The ', or "Junior Elders", were high government officials in the Edo period Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867). The position was established around 1633, but appointments were irregular until 1662. The four to six ''wakadoshiyori'' we ...

'', as did the final ''daimyō'', Nagai Naokoto. 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 ...

, the domain organized a surrender to

Iwakura Tomomi was a Japanese statesman during the Bakumatsu and Meiji period. He was one of the leading figures of the Meiji Restoration, which saw Japan's transition from feudalism to modernism. Born to a noble family, he was adopted by the influential Iw ...

without a fight. After the

, Nagai Naokoto served as Domain governor until 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) ...

in 1871, and later received 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 title 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 ...

Bakumatsu period holdings

As with most domains in the

han system (, "domain") is a Japanese historical term for the Estate (land), estate of a daimyo in the Edo period (1603–1868) and early Meiji (era), Meiji period (1868–1912).Louis Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Han"in ''Japan Encycloped ...

, Kanō Domain consisted of a discontinuous territories calculated to provide the assigned ''

'', based on periodic

cadastral A cadastre or cadaster ( ) is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes and bounds, metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref> Often it is represente ...

surveys and projected agricultural yields.Elison, George and Bardwell L. Smith (1987)
''Warlords, Artists, & Commoners: Japan in the Sixteenth Century,'' p. 18
*

*21 villages in Atsumi District *

Kawachi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the eastern part of modern Osaka Prefecture. It originally held the southwestern area that was split off into Izumi Province. It was also known as . Geography The area was radically different in th ...

**5 villages in Matta District **1 village in Katano District, Osaka{Katano District *

Settsu Province was a province of Japan, which today comprises the southeastern part of Hyōgo Prefecture and the northern part of Osaka Prefecture. It was also referred to as or . Osaka and Osaka Castle were the main center of the province. Most of Settsu's ...

**5 villages in Shimashimo District **8 villages in Shimakami District

List of daimyō

{, class=wikitable ! , , Name , , Tenure , , Courtesy title , , Court Rank , , ''

'' , - , colspan=7, Okudaira clan ('' fudai'') 1601-1632 , - , , 1, , , , 1601–1602, , ''Mimasaka-no-kami'' (美作守) , , Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下) , , 100,000 ''koku'' , - , , 2, , , , 1602–1614, , ''Settsu-no-kami'' (摂津守); ''Jijū'' (侍従) , , Junior 4th Rank, Lower Grade (従四位下) , , 100,000 ''koku'' , - , , 3, , , , 1614–1632, , ''Hida-no-kami'' (飛騨守) , , Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下) , , 100,000 ''koku'' , - , colspan=7, Okubo mon

(''fudai'') 1632-1639 , - , , 1, , , , 1632–1639, , ''Kaga-no-kami'' (加賀守) , , Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下) , , 50,000 ''koku'' , - , colspan=7, Matsudaira-Toda clan (''fudai'') 1639-1711 , - , , 1, , , , 1639–1668, , ''Tanba-no-kami'' (丹波守) , , Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下) , , 70,000 ''koku'' , - , , 2, , , , 1668–1705, , ''Tanba-no-kami'' (丹波守) , , Junior 4th Rank, Lower Grade (従四位下) , , 70,000 ''koku'' , - , , 3, , , , 1705–1711, , ''Kawachi-no-kami'' (河内守) , , Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下) , , 70,000 ''koku'' , - , colspan=7, Ando kamon

(''fudai'') 1711-1756 , - , , 1, , , , 1711–1732, , ''Tsushima-no-kami'' (対馬守) , , Junior 4th Rank, Lower Grade (従四位下), , 65,000 ''koku'' , - , , 2, , , , 1732–1755, , ''Tsushima-no-kami'' (対馬守) , , Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下) , , 65,000 ''koku'' , - , , 3, , , , 1755–1756, , ''Tsushima-no-kami'' (対馬守), ''Jijū'' (侍従) , , Junior 4th Rank, Lower Grade (従四位下), , 65,000 ->50,000 ''koku'' , - , colspan=7, Nagai clan (''fudai'') 1756-1871 , - , , 1, , , , 1756–1762, , ''Iga-no-kami'' (伊賀守) , , Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下) , , 32,000 ''koku'' , - , , 2, , , , 1762–1769, , ''Iga-no-kami'' (伊賀守) , , Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下) , , 32,000 ''koku'' , - , , 3, , , , 1769–1790, , ''Iga-no-kami'' (伊賀守) , , Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下) , , 32,000 ''koku'' , - , , 4, , , , 1790–1839, , ''Hizen-no-kami'' (肥前守) , , Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下) , , 32,000 ''koku'' , - , , 5, , , , 1839–1862, , ''Hizen-no-kami'' (肥前守) , , Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下) , , 32,000 ''koku'' , - , , 6, , , , 1862–1871, , ''Iga-no-kami'' (伊賀守) , , Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下) , , 32,000 ''koku'' , -

References

External links

Kano on "Edo 300 HTML"] {{DEFAULTSORT:Kano Domain Domains of Japan 1600 establishments in Japan History of Gifu Prefecture Mino Province Ōkubo clan Okudaira clan Toda-Matsudaira clan