was a Japanese ''

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 the middle

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 ...

. He was the 10th ''daimyō'' from the Tōdō clan to ruled Tsu Domain in Ise and

Iga Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan located in what is today part of western Mie Prefecture.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Iga" in . Its abbreviated name was . Iga is classified as one of the provinces of the T� ...

Biography

Takasawa was born in 1781 as the son of the previous daimyo of Tsu Domain, Tōdō Takasato. However, in 1790, he was adopted by Tōdō Takasawa, the daimyo of Hisa Domain, a subsidiary domain of Tsu domain. Takasawa died the same year, and although only nine years old, Takasawa became daimyo of Hisai. The domain suffered from severe financial problems due to the frequent deaths of its lords, and lack of fiscal control. Under Takasawa, a series of reforms were implemented, including increased taxes, an involuntary saving system and fiscal restraint. A low-interest loan system was also implemented to encourage investment in new businesses and a reserve of capital was created to cope with natural disasters. In 1806, due to the premature death of his brother, Takasawa was transferred to Tsu Domain. At Tsu, he found the economic situation similar to that of Hisai, and therefore implemented the same reforms, despite the resistance of many sectors of society. One of his actions was a

debt moratorium A debt moratorium is a delay in the payment of debts or obligations. The term is generally used to refer to acts by national governments. Moratory laws are usually passed at times of special political or commercial stress: for instance, on severa ...

, which upset moneylenders. Takasawa attempted to set an example, by cutting his own stipends, and wearing cotton instead of silk. His efforts to combat corruption and to increase the arable land of the domain through better irrigation eventually paid off, and the domain’s finances recovered. Takasawa also strongly sponsored the domain’s academy, incorporating studies of ''

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 ...

'' as well as ''

kokugaku was an academic movement, a school of Japanese philology and philosophy originating during the Edo period. scholars worked to refocus Japanese scholarship away from the then-dominant study of Chinese, Confucian, and Buddhist texts in favor of ...

'' and the

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; ...

. Takasawa died in 1825 of illness at the age of 44. He was succeeded by his son, Takayuki, who did not maintain his fiscal reforms, and the economic situation was the domain again began to deteriorate towards the Bakumatsu period. His grave is at the temple of Kansho-in, a sub-temple of the Kanei-ji, located in Ueno, Tokyo.

References

*Totman, Conrad (1980). ''Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu''. (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press), pp. 425–429.

External links

Tōdō family information
{{DEFAULTSORT:Todo, Takasawa Daimyo 1781 births 1825 deaths