270px, Matsudaira Naritami, 8th daimyo of Tsuyama 270px, Kakuzankan, han school was a feudal domain under the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

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, in what is now northern

Okayama Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,826,059 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Square kilometre, km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefecture ...

. It controlled most of

Mimasaka Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area that is northern Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of western Japan. Mimasaka bordered Bitchū Province, Bitchū, Bizen Province, Bizen, Harima Province, Harima, Hōki Province, Hō ...

and was centered around

Tsuyama Castle is a Japanese castle located in the Sange neighborhood of the city of Tsuyama, Okayama Prefecture, in the San'in region of Japan. Tsuyama considered one of Japan's three major ''hirayama'' (平山城 hilltop) style castles along with Himeji ...

. It was ruled in its early history by a branch of the Mori clan, and later by a branch of the

Matsudaira clan The was a Japanese samurai clan that descended from the Minamoto clan. It originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture). During the Sengoku period, the chieftain of the main line of the ...

. Tsuyama Domain was dissolved in 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 is now part of Okayama Prefecture.

History

In 1600, after 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, ...

, Mimasaka Province was ruled by

Kobayakawa Hideaki (1577 – December 1, 1602) was the fifth son of Kinoshita Iesada and a nephew of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He was gained the rank of ''Saemon no Kami'' (左衛門督) or in China ''Shikkingo'' (執金吾) at genpuku and held the court title of ...

, the ''

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 Okayama Domain. However, his domain was abolished due to

attainder In English criminal law, attainder was the metaphorical "stain" or "corruption of blood" which arose from being condemned for a serious capital crime (felony or treason). It entailed losing not only one's life, property and hereditary titles, but ...

on his death without heir in 1602. In 1603, the

appointed Mori Tadamasa, the son of Mori Yoshinari of Kawanakajima Domain in

Shinano Province or is an old province of Japan that is now Nagano Prefecture. Shinano bordered Echigo, Etchū, Hida, Kai, Kōzuke, Mikawa, Mino, Musashi, Suruga, and Tōtōmi Provinces. The ancient capital was located near modern-day Matsumoto, whi ...

and the younger brother of

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 page

Mori Ranmaru , also known as Mori Naritoshi (森成利), was a samurai retainer to the Oda clan. He was son of Mori Yoshinari, and had 5 brothers in total, from the province of Mino Province, Mino. He was a member of the Mori clan (Genji), Mori Clan, descen ...

, to the newly created Tsuyama Domain with a '' kokudaka'' of 186,000 ''

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 ...

''. He changed the name of the area, which was originally called to "Tsuyama", began construction of Tsuyama Castle in 1604 and completed the layout of his

castle town A castle town is a settlement built adjacent to or surrounding a castle. Castle towns were common in Medieval Europe. Some examples include small towns like Alnwick and Arundel, which are still dominated by their castles. In Western Europe, ...

by 1616. In 1697, his 5th generation successor Mori Sugutoshi went insane in

Ise Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today includes most of modern Mie Prefecture. Ise bordered on Iga, Kii, Mino, Ōmi, Owari, Shima, and Yamato Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History The name of Ise appears ...

on his way to

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

to fulfill his '' sankin kōtai'' duties. The "madness" may have been an excuse, as Sugutoshi had been in charge of constructing dog kennels outside Edo as part of Shogun

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi was the fifth ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty of Japan. He was the younger brother of Tokugawa Ietsuna, as well as the son of Tokugawa Iemitsu, the grandson of Tokugawa Hidetada, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu.Nussbaum, Louis- ...

's highly unpopular and ridiculed law against cruelty to animal and Sugutoshi reportedly fell into a rage on hearing that a '' ronin'' had broken into the kennel, slaughtering many dogs, which had resulted in the shogunate ordering the execution of a number of his retainers for negligence. The domain was reduced to 100,000 ''koku'', and transferred to a branch of the Echizen-Matsudaira clan whose ancestor was

Yūki Hideyasu was a Japanese samurai who lived during the Azuchi–Momoyama period, Azuchi–Momoyama and early Edo periods. He was the ''daimyō'' of Fukui Domain in Echizen Province, Echizen. Early life Hideyasu was born as in 1574, the second son of To ...

. In 1721, the second ''daimyō'', Matsudaira Asagoro died at the age of 11 without heir. The shogunate agreed to allow a younger son of the ''daimyō'' of Shirakawa Nitta Domain to be posthumously adopted to secure the succession, but the ''kokudaka'' of the domain was halved to 50,000 ''koku''. The prestige and also the ability of the domain to support its retainers was thus severely restricted, and the domain thereafter suffered from political and economic instability and frequent peasant uprisings. In 1765, the 5th ''daimyō'', Matsudaira Yasuchika, opened a han school, the Kakuzankan (鶴山館), which lasted into the early

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

. The domain managed to restore its status to 100,000 ''koku'' when the 7th ''daimyō'', Matsudaira Naritaka, adopted the 14th son of Shogun

Tokugawa Ienari Tokugawa Ienari (, 18 November 1773 – 22 March 1841) was the eleventh and longest-serving ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan who held office from 1787 to 1837.Hall, John Whitney ''et al.'' (1991) ''Early Modern Japan'', p. 21./ref> ...

as his heir. Matsudaira Naritami was very active in the affairs of the Tokugawa family after 1868. Naritami was also known as Matsudaira Kakudō. In the Bakumatsu period, the domain produced a number of doctors and ''

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 ...

'' scholars, including diplomat and legal scholar Tsuda Mamichi and future Prime Minister Hiranuma Kiichiro. In 1871, the domain became Tsuyama Prefecture due to the

. It was later incorporated into Okayama Prefecture via Hōjō Prefecture.

Holdings at the end of the Edo period

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 ...

, Tsuyama Domain consisted of several discontinuous territories calculated to provide the assigned '' kokudaka'', 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, g. *

**22 villages in Higashinanjō District **3 villages in Aida District **7 villages in Yoshino District **45 villages in Shōnan District **10 villages in Katsuhoku District **26 villages in Nishisaijō District **25 villages in Nishihōjō District **25 villages in Tohokujō District **10 villages in Kumehōjō District **32 villages in Oba District * Sanuki Province **6 villages in Shōzu District **3 villages in Aida District In addition to the above, Tsuyama was in charge of administration of ''

tenryō The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil war ...

'' territories in Mimasaka: 7 villages in Tohokujō District, 27 villages in Oba District, and 32 villages in Saijō District.

List of daimyō

Simplified genealogy (Matsudaira)

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 ...

, 1st Tokugawa ''shōgun'' (1543–1616; r. 1603–1605) **Yūki (Matsudaira) Hideyasu, 1st ''daimyō'' of Fukui (1574–1607) ***Naomoto, Lord of Himeji (1604–1648) **** Naonori, ''daimyō'' of Shirakawa (1642–1695) ***** I. Nobutomi, 1st ''daimyō'' of Tsuyama (cr. 1698) (1680–1721; ''daimyō'' of Tsuyama: 1698–1721) ****** II. Asagorō, 2nd ''daimyō'' of Tsuyama (1716–1726; r. 1721–1726) ***** Chikakiyo, ''daimyō'' of Shirakawa (1682–1721) ****** III. Nagahiro, 3rd ''daimyō'' of Tsuyama (1720–1735; r. 1726–1735) *** Naomasa, 1st ''daimyō'' of Matsue (1601–1666) **** Chikayoshi, 1st ''daimyō'' of Hirose (1632–1717) ***** Chikatoki, 2nd ''daimyō'' of Hirose (1659–1702) ****** Chikatomo, 3rd ''daimyō'' of Hirose (1681–1728) ******* IV. Nagataka, 4th ''daimyō'' of Tsuyama (1725–1762; r. 1735–1762) ******** V. Yasuchika, 5th ''daimyō'' of Tsuyama (1752–1794; r. 1762–1794) ********* VI. Yasuharu, 6th ''daimyō'' of Tsuyama (1786–1805; r. 1794–1805) ********* VII. Naritaka, 7th ''daimyō'' of Tsuyama (1788–1838; r. 1805–1831) ********** IX. Yoshitomi, 9th ''daimyō'' of Tsuyama (1827–1871; Lord: 1855–1869; Governor: 1869–1871) ** Tokugawa Yorinobu, 1st ''daimyō'' of Kishū (1602–1671) *** Tokugawa Mitsusada, 2nd ''daimyō'' of Kishū (1627–1705) ****

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. Yoshimune is know ...

, 8th Tokugawa ''shōgun'' (1684–1751; 5th Lord of Kishū: 1705–1716; 8th Tokugawa ''shōgun'': 1716–1745) ***** Tokugawa Munetada, 1st Hitotsubashi-Tokugawa family head (1721–1765) ****** Tokugawa Harusada, 2nd Hitotsubashi-Tokugawa family head (1751–1827) *******

, 11th Tokugawa ''shōgun'' (1773–1841; r. 1786–1837) ******** VIII. Matsudaira Naritami, 8th ''daimyō'' of Tsuyama (1814–1891; r. 1831–1855) Genealogy (Echizen-Matsudaira) (jp)
/ref>

References

{{Authority control Domains of Japan History of Okayama Prefecture Mimasaka Province Chūgoku region Matsudaira clan 1600 establishments in Japan States and territories established in 1600 1871 disestablishments in Japan States and territories disestablished in 1871

History

Holdings at the end of the Edo period

List of daimyō

Simplified genealogy (Matsudaira)

See also

References