was a Japanese daimyō of the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

, who ruled the

Matsumae Domain The was a Japanese clan that was confirmed in the possession of the area around Matsumae, Hokkaidō as a march fief in 1590 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and charged with defending it, and by extension the whole of Japan, from the Ainu "barbarians" ...

. Though he was a

tozama daimyō was a class of powerful magnates or '' daimyō'' (大名) considered to be outsiders by the ruler of Japan.Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, ''Tozama daimyō'' were classified in the Tokugawa Shogunate (江戸幕府) as ''daimyō' ...

, he served in the

Tokugawa Shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

as a

rōjū The , usually translated as ''Elder'', was one of the highest-ranking government posts under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. The term refers either to individual Elders, or to the Council of Elders as a whole; under the first two ''shō ...

. His court title was '' Izu no kami''.

Youth

Takahiro, whose childhood name was Tamekichi, was born at

Matsumae Castle is a castle located in Matsumae in Hokkaidō, Japan, and is the northernmost castle in Japan. The only traditional style Edo period castle in Hokkaidō, it was the chief residence of the '' han'' (estate) of the Matsumae clan. History First buil ...

Ezo (also spelled Yezo or Yeso) is the Japanese term historically used to refer to the lands to the north of the Japanese island of Honshu. It included the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, which changed its name from "Ezo" to "Hokkaidō" in 18 ...

. He was the 6th son of

Matsumae Akihiro was the ninth ''daimyō'' of Matsumae Domain in Ezo-chi, Japan, in the latter half of the Edo period. He held this position from 1792 to 1807 and again from 1821 until his death in 1833; in the years between, the ''bakufu'' exerted direct con ...

, the 9th lord of Matsumae. At age 4, he was sent to the family estate in

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

. In an act most unusual for a daimyō's son, his education included the study of the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

. He succeeded to lordship of Matsumae in 1849.

Rise to Power as Rōjū

Takahiro was appointed as

in November 1864; this was a post that was unheard of for a

. The following year, he and his fellow rōjū Abe Masato were responsible for the opening of the Hyōgo port to foreign trade. However, as they did so against the wishes of the imperial court, the court issued orders calling for their dismissal from office.W.G. Beasley (2002), ''The Perry Mission to Japan, 1853-1854'' (London: Routledge), pp. 81-82. Both men lost their offices, court rank, and titles, and were forced to yield lordship of their domains. Takahiro retired in favor of his son Norihiro.

Death

Takahiro returned to Matsumae in the spring of 1866. Soon after, he contracted a fever and died at age 36. A few years after Takahiro's death, his grandson Nagahiro petitioned the imperial court for a pardon, which was granted, along with a restoration of his court rank and titles.

Media

Takahiro has appeared infrequently in fictional depictions of the bakumatsu era. Most recently he appeared as a minor character in the

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

Kaze Hikaru is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Taeko Watanabe. Set in the period, the story follows Tominaga Sei, a young girl who poses as a boy named Kamiya Seizaburō so she can join the Mibu-Roshi (Special Police; later known as ...

''.

References

*Beasley, W.G. (2002). ''The Perry Mission to Japan, 1853-1854'' London: Routledge. *Totman, Conrad. ''The Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu''. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
"Matsumae-han" on ''Edo 300 HTML''
(2 Jul. 2008) {{DEFAULTSORT:Matsumae, Takahiro 1829 births 1866 deaths Tozama daimyo Rōjū Matsumae clan