270px, Itakura Katsuhiro, last ruler of Niwase Domain 270px, Remnant of moats of Niwase Castle 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 central

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 a small portion of eastern

Bitchū Province was a province of Japan on the Inland Sea side of western Honshū, in what is today western Okayama Prefecture. It was sometimes called , with Bizen and Bingo Provinces; those three provinces were settled in the late 7th Century, dividing form ...

and was centered around Niwase ''

jin'ya A was a type of administrative headquarters in the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Edo period of Japanese history. ''Jin'ya'' served as the seat of the administration for a small domain, a province, or additional parcels of land. ''Jin'ya'' ho ...

'' in what is now

Kita-ku, Okayama is one of four Wards of Japan, wards of Okayama, Okayama Prefecture, Japan. The ward has an area of 451.03 km2 and a population of 295,312. The population density is 655 per square kilometer. The name means "North Ward." The wards of Okay ...

. It was ruled for most its history by a branch of the

Itakura clan The is a Japanese clans, Japanese clan which came to prominence during the Sengoku period.Meyer, Eva-Maria"Gouverneure von Kyôto in der Edo-Zeit." Universität Tübingen (in German). The family claimed descent from Shibukawa Yoshiaki, the son ...

. It 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."Bitchū Province" at JapaneseCastleExplorer.com
retrieved 2013-4-27.

Inukai Tsuyoshi Inukai Tsuyoshi (, 4 June 1855 – 15 May 1932) was a Japanese statesman who was Prime Minister of Japan, prime minister of Japan from 1931 to his assassination in 1932. At the age of 76, Inukai was Japan's second oldest serving prime minister, ...

, who became

Prime Minister of Japan The is the head of government of Japan. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet of Japan and has the ability to select and dismiss its ministers of state. The prime minister also serves as the commander-in-chief of the Japan Self-Defense Force ...

, was from Niwase Domain.

History

In 1600, Togawa Michiyasu, a vassal of

Ukita Hideie was the ''daimyō'' of Bizen and Mimasaka Provinces (modern Okayama Prefecture), and one of the council of Five Elders appointed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Son of Ukita Naoie, he married Gōhime, a daughter of Maeda Toshiie. Having fought a ...

had a falling out with his overlord and defected to the Eastern Army in 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, ...

. As a result, he was awarded a 29,200 ''

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 ...

'' domain 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 ...

and established his seat at Niwase Castle. The clan ruled for four generations, with each generation whittling down its patrimony through donations to younger brothers, leaving the 4th ''daimyō'', Togawa Yasukaze, with only 20,000 ''koku'' before the domain was dissolved through attainder after his death without heir in 1679. Four years later, in 1683, Kuze Shigeyuki from the

Sekiyado Domain was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Shimōsa Province (the northern portion of Chiba Prefecture and southern portion of Ibaraki Prefecture in modern-day, Japan). It was centered on Sekiyad ...

Shimōsa Province was a province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture and Ibaraki Prefecture as well as the bordering parts of Saitama Prefecture and Tokyo (the parts that used to be located east of the lower reaches of the old Tone River prior to the ...

revived the domain at 50,000 ''koku'' but as his status was not that of a "castle-holding daimyō", he set up a ''

'' in the Ni-no-Maru Bailey of former Niwase Castle. In 1686, he was transferred to Tanba-Kameyama Domain in

Tanba Province was a province of Japan in the area of central Kyoto and east-central Hyōgo Prefectures. Tanba bordered on Harima, Ōmi, Settsu, Tajima. Tango, Wakasa, and Yamashiro provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichid ...

. Seven years later, in 1693, Matsudaira Nobumichi from Kodome Domain in

Yamato Province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005). "Yamato" in . It was also called . Yamato consists of two characters, 大 "great", and 和 " Wa". At first, th ...

revived the domain, albeit at a ''

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 30,000 ''koku''. He was transferred to

Kaminoyama Domain a Han (Japan), feudal domain in Edo period Japan, located in Dewa Province (modern-day Yamagata Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Kaminoyama Castle in what is now the city of Kaminoyama, Yamagata. History Kaminoyama Domain was situated on t ...

Dewa Province was a province of Japan comprising modern-day Yamagata Prefecture and Akita Prefecture, except for the city of Kazuno and the town of Kosaka. Dewa bordered on Mutsu and Echigō Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History Early per ...

in 1697. In 1699, Itakura Shigetaka was transferred from Takataki Domain in

Kazusa Province was a province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture. The province was located in the middle of the Bōsō Peninsula, whose name takes its first ''kanji'' from the name of Awa Province and its second from Kazusa and Shimōsa province ...

, but the ''kokudaka'' of the domain was reduced further to 20,000 ''koku''. The

ruled for the next 172 years until the end of the

. The domain school, the Sei'ikan (誠意館), was founded in 1818. In 1871, the domain became "Niwase Prefecture" due to the

. Later, it was incorporated into Okayama Prefecture via Fukatsu and Oda Prefectures. The Itakura family was made a

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 ...

(''shishaku'' ) in 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 in 1884.

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 ...

, Niwase Domain consisted of several 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, g.Elison, George and Bardwell L. Smith (1987)
''Warlords, Artists, & Commoners: Japan in the Sixteenth Century,'' p. 18
*

**1 village in Tsuu District **20 villages in Oda District **10 villages in Kaya District

List of daimyō

References

External links

"Niwase" at Edo 300
{{Authority control Domains of Japan History of Okayama Prefecture Bitchū Province Chūgoku region Itakura clan Fujii-Matsudaira clan Kuze clan

History

Holdings at the end of the Edo period

List of daimyō

See also

References

External links