Hirosaki Domain
The Hirosaki Domain (弘前藩, Hirosaki-han) was a Japanese domain of the Edo period, located in northern Mutsu Province (modern-day Hirosaki, Aomori). It was ruled by the Tsugaru clan. A branch of the family ruled the adjoining Kuroishi Domain.
History
Background
Foundation
The domain was headquartered at Hirosaki Castle.
The domain's karō was Daidōji Naohide; the position of karō remained hereditary in his family.
The Tsugaru clan sided with Tokugawa Ieyasu's Eastern Army during the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600.[1] Its immediate neighbors also all supported the Eastern Army. After the Tokugawa victory at Sekigahara, the Tsugaru clan was granted an increase in territory, along with permission to keep its existing domain of Hirosaki (named for the family's castle town). The domain started out small at 45,000 koku, before being increased in size to 100,000 koku.[2] Tamenobu remained politically active in the early years of the Edo era, mainly in the Kansai area; he died in Kyoto in 1608.[3]
The early years of the Edo era were marked by a series of major O-Ie Sōdō disturbances that shook the Tsugaru family: the Tsugaru Disturbance (津軽騒動, Tsugaru-sōdō) of 1607, Kōsaka Kurando's Riot (高坂蔵人の乱, Kōsaka Kurando no ran) of 1612, the Funabashi Disturbance (船橋騒動, Funabashi-sōdō) of 1634, and the Shōhō Disturbance (正保騒動, Shōhō-sōdō) of 1647. In 1821, there was a foiled plot by Sōma Daisaku, a former retainer of the Nanbu clan, to assassinate the Tsugaru lord; this stemmed from the old enmity between the two clans.
A major branch of the Tsugaru clan was founded in 1656, which was first given hatamoto rank, before being promoted to daimyo status in 1809; this became the ruling family of the Kuroishi Domain,[4] which immediately bordered its parent family's domain. A lesser branch was founded by Tsugaru Nobuzumi, the son of the first Kuroishi-Tsugaru family head; this branch remained hatamoto through the end of the Edo period.[3] The main Tsugaru family's funerary temple in Hirosaki was located at Chōshō-ji.[5] Though neither Tsugaru daimyo family ever held shogunate office, the Tsugaru of Hirosaki (together with many of the other domains of northern Honshū) assisted the shogunate in policing the frontier region of Ezochi (now Hokkaido).[6] In the late Edo period, during the headship of Tsugaru Tsuguakira, the Hirosaki domain's forces were modernized along western lines.
Sub-domains
Disturbances
The early years of the Edo era were marked by a series of major O-Ie Sōdō disturbances that shook the Tsugaru family: the Tsugaru Disturbance (津軽騒動, Tsugaru-sōdō) of 1607, Kōsaka Kurando's Riot (高坂蔵人の乱, Kōsaka Kurando no ran) of 1612, the Funabashi Disturbance (船橋騒動, Funabashi-sōdō) of 1634, and the Shōhō Disturbance (正保騒動, Shōhō-sōdō) of 1647. In 1821, there was a foiled plot by Sōma Daisaku, a former retainer of the Nanbu clan, to assassinate the Tsugaru lord; this stemmed from the old enmity between the two clans.
Boshin War and dissolution
The Hirosaki domain ceased to exist in 1871. Its territory is now part of Aomori Prefecture.
List of lords
- Tsugaru clan (Tozama; 47,000->46,000->70,000->100,000 koku)
- Tsugaru Tamenobu
- Tsugaru Nobuhira
- Tsugaru Nobuyoshi
- Tsugaru Nobumasa
- Tsugaru Nobuhisa
- Tsugaru Nobuaki
- Tsugaru Nobuyasu
- Tsugaru Nobuakira (also known as Nobuharu)
- Tsugaru Yasuchika
- Tsugaru Nobuyuki
- Tsugaru Yukitsugu
- Tsugaru Tsuguakira
Notes
- ^ Edwin McClellan (1985). Woman in the Crested Kimono (New Haven: Yale University Press), p. 164.
- ^ Template:Ja icon "Tsugaru-han" on Edo 300 HTML (15 July 2008).
- ^ a b Template:Ja icon Tsugaru-shi on Harimaya.com (15 July 2008).
- ^ Onodera Eikō (2005). Boshin nanboku sensō to Tōhoku seiken. (Sendai: Kita no mori), p. 134.
- ^ Jan Dodd (2001), The rough guide to Japan. (n.p.: Rough Guides), p. 288.
- ^ Noguchi Shin'ichi (2005). Aizu-han. (Tokyo: Gendai shokan), p. 194.
References
- McClellan, Edwin (1985). Woman in the Crested Kimono. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Sasaki Suguru (2002). Boshin sensō: haisha no Meiji ishin. Tokyo: Chūōkōron-shinsha.
Further reading
In Japanese
- Kurotaki, Jūjirō (1984). Tsugaru-han no hanzai to keibatsu 津軽藩の犯罪と刑罰. Hirosaki: Hoppō shinsha.
In English
- Dazai, Osamu (1985). Return to Tsugaru: travels of a purple tramp. Tokyo: Kodansha International.