250px, Sonobe 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, located 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 ...

in what is now the central portion of modern-day

Kyoto Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Kyoto Prefecture has a population of 2,561,358 () and has a geographic area of . Kyoto Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the northeast, Shiga Prefecture ...

. It was centered around Sonobe ''

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 ...

'', which was located in the Sonobe neighborhood of what is now the city of

Nantan, Kyoto is a city located in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 30,744 in 14406 households and a population density of 50 persons per km2 (130 per sq. mi.). The total area of the city is . Geography Nantan is located in ...

History

In 1619, Koide Yoshichika, the 3rd ''daimyō'' of

Izushi Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Tajima Province in what is now the northern portion of modern-day Hyōgo Prefecture. It was centered initially around Izushi Castle in what is now the Izushi n ...

returned the domain to his elder brother (who had been ''daimyō'' of

Kishiwada Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Izumi Province in what is now the southern portion of modern-day Osaka Prefecture. It was centered around Kishiwada Castle and was controlled by the ''fudai dai ...

, and was given the newly created fief of Sonobe, with 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 29,800 ''

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 built Sonobe jin'ya, the

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, ...

and completed various irrigation and land improvement works. On his retirement, he took 5000 ''koku'' of the domain, reducing its ''kokudaka'' to 25,000 ''koku'' (as 500 koku had been added through the opening of new rice fields). On his death, this 5000 ''koku'' portion was divided between the two younger brothers of the 2nd ''daimyō'', Koide Fusatomo. The 4th ''daimyō'', Koide Fusasada, served as ''

Jisha-bugyō was a position within the system for the administration of religion that existed from the Muromachi period to the Edo period in Japan. Appointments to this prominent office were always ''fudai daimyōs'', the lowest-ranking of the shogunate office ...

'' and ''

wakadoshiyori The ', or "Junior Elders", were high government officials in the Edo period Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867). The position was established around 1633, but appointments were irregular until 1662. The four to six ''wakadoshiyori'' we ...

'' in the shogunal administration, notwithstanding his clan's status as a ''

tozama daimyō was a class of powerful magnates or ''daimyō'' (大名) considered to be outsiders by the ruler of Japan during the Edo period (江戸時代). ''Tozama daimyō'' were classified in the Tokugawa shogunate (江戸幕府) as ''daimyō'' who becam ...

''. He also reduced the domain to 24,000 ''koku'' by ranting 1000 ''koku'' to his younger brother. The 5th ''daimyō'', Koide Fusayoshi, also served as ''jisha-bugyō'' and ''wakadoshiyori''. However, during the tenure of the 7th ''daimyō'', Koide Fusatake, the domain suffered from repeated natural disaster, including flooding, crop failure and famine, which ruined the clan's financial resources. The increase in price and taxes led to a widespread revolt in 1787, which was worsened by a fire which destroyed most of the town. The domain implemented a monopoly system on tobacco and lumber, which helped alleviate its financial problems. During 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 ...

, under its final ''daimyō'', Koide Fusanao, the domain was one of the first to side with the imperial cause. As such, it was selected by the

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 ...

to be a place of refuge for

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 the event that Kyoto be attacked during 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 ...

, and the domain was authorized to reconstruct its

into a

Japanese castle are fortresses constructed primarily of wood and stone. They evolved from the wooden stockades of earlier centuries and came into their best-known form in the 16th century. Castles in Japan were built to guard important or strategic sites, such a ...

, the last to be built. Following the Meiji restoration he was made

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 1871, 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) ...

, Sonobe Domain became "Sonobe Prefecture". and subsequently became part of Kyoto Prefecture.

Holdings at the end of the Edo period

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 ...

, which 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.Elison, George and Bardwell L. Smith (1987)
''Warlords, Artists, & Commoners: Japan in the Sixteenth Century,'' p. 18
*

**52 villages in Kuwada District **125 villages in Funai District **9 villages in Ikaruga District

List of daimyō

References

{{Authority control Domains of Japan 1871 disestablishments in Japan States and territories disestablished in 1871 Tanba Province History of Kyoto Prefecture

History

Holdings at the end of the Edo period

List of daimyō

See also

Further reading

References