Count 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

Tsu Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Ise Province and in Iga Province in what is part of now modern-day Tsu, Mie. It was centered around Tsu Castle. Tsu Domain was controlled by the '' tozama'' Tō ...

under the

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 ...

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 ...

of Japan. He was the 20th hereditary chieftain of the Tōdō clan.

Biography

Tōdō Takakiyo was born in 1837 as the eldest son of the previous ''daimyō'' of Tsu Domain,

Tōdō Takayuki was the 11th ''daimyō'' of Tsu Domain under the late Edo period Tokugawa shogunate and the 19th hereditary chieftain of the Tōdō clan. Takayuki's sudden betrayal of the Tokugawa forces at the Battle of Toba–Fushimi during the Boshin War ...

; his mother was from the Hashimoto clan. In 1849, he was awarded the courtesy titles of ''Daigaku-no-kami'' and ''jijū'' and Lower Fourth court rank. In 1863, he was sent to

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

in place of his father to attend to

Emperor Kōmei Osahito (22 July 1831 – 30 January 1867), posthumously honored as Emperor Kōmei, was the 121st emperor of Japan, according to the List of Emperors of Japan, traditional order of succession.Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'')孝明天皇 ...

as the nominal head of the domain’s forces sent to help suppress pro''-

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 ...

'' rebels during the Tenchūgumi Incident. He was awarded with the ceremonial

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 ...

of Captain of the Left Imperial Guards (左近衛権少将) by the grateful emperor the following year. At 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 ...

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 ...

, the samurai of the domain were divided between factions which supported the Shogunate, and those who supported the concept of ''

Kōbu gattai was a policy in the Bakumatsu era of Japanese history aiming to strengthen Japan against the perceived "foreign threat" by obtaining a political coordination between the Tokugawa shogunate, certain major feudal domains and the Japanese Imperi ...

;'' however, sentiment towards to shogunate was only lukewarm. During the

Battle of Toba–Fushimi The occurred between pro-Imperial and Tokugawa shogunate forces during the Boshin War in Japan. The battle started on 27 January 1868 (or fourth year of Keiō, first month, 3rd day, according to the lunar calendar), when the forces of the sho ...

, forces of Tsu Domain initially supported the shogunate, but switched sides in the course of the battle, contributing strongly to the defeat of the pro-shogunate forces. Tsu Domain subsequently contributed forces to other battles of the Boshin War, including the

Battle of Hakodate The was fought in Japan from December 4, 1868 to June 27, 1869, between the remnants of the Tokugawa shogunate army, consolidated into the armed forces of the rebel Ezo Republic, and the armies of the newly formed Imperial government (composed ...

on the side of 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 1868, Takakiyo was part of the guard to

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 ...

in his first pilgrimage to the

Ise Grand Shrine The , located in Ise, Mie Prefecture of Japan, is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the solar goddess Amaterasu Ōmikami and the grain goddess Toyouke-hime (Toyouke Omikami). Also known simply as , Ise Shrine is a shrine complex composed of many Shi ...

. On June 28, 1871, Tōdō Takayuki officially retired due to ill health, and Takakiyo was appointed imperial governor of Tsu, as the former title of ''daimyō'' had been abolished by the new

. 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) ...

only a month later, his position was abolished, and he relocated to Tokyo. With the establishment of ''

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 on July 8, 1884, he was made a

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''). He predeceased his father at the age of 53 in 1889 and was posthumously awarded Junior third court rank."Kanpo" No. 1920 "Investiture and Appointments" (in Japanese) 20 November 1889. Tōdō Takakiyo studied

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

under

Watanabe Kazan was a Japanese painter, scholar and statesman member of the samurai class. Biography He was born Watanabe Sadayasu in Edo (now Tokyo) to a poor samurai family, and his artistic talent was developed from an early age. His family served the ...

and was noted for his

flower paintings Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants (angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, mo ...

. He was also noted for

calligraphy Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an e ...

. He was married to a daughter of Hachisuka Narimasa of

Tokushima Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, controlling all of Awa Province and Awaji Province in what is now Tokushima Prefecture and Awaji Island of modern-day Hyōgo Prefecture. It was centered around Tokushima ...

References

*Himeno, Junichi. "Encounters With Foreign Photographers: The Introduction and Spread of Photography in Kyūshū". In ''Reflecting Truth: Japanese Photography in the Nineteenth Century'' (Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, 2004), 18–29. *Totman, Conrad (1980). ''Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu''. (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press), pp. 425–429.

External links

family information
{{DEFAULTSORT:Todo, Takakiyo Tozama daimyo Kazoku 1837 births 1889 deaths