was a feudal domain in

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 ...

Japan, located in Dewa Province (modern-day

Yamagata Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Yamagata Prefecture has a population of 1,079,950 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 9,325 km² (3,600 sq mi). Yamagata Prefecture borders Akita Prefecture to the nor ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. It was centered on

Yamagata Castle is a flatland-style Japanese castle located in the center of the city of Yamagata, eastern Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. Throughout the Edo period, Yamagata Castle was the headquarters for the ''daimyō'' of Yamagata Domain. The castle was also ...

in what is now the city of Yamagata. Unlike some ''han'' whose control was relatively stable throughout the

(1603–1867), Yamagata changed hands a great number of times during its history.

History

Much of Dewa Province was controlled by the powerful Mogami clan during the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

. After

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

assigned the

Uesugi clan The is a Japanese samurai clan which was at its peak one of the most powerful during the Muromachi and Sengoku periods (14th to 17th centuries). Appert, Georges. (1888) ''Ancien Japon,'' p. 79./ref> At its height, the clan had three main branc ...

Aizu is the westernmost of the three regions of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, the other two regions being Nakadōri in the central area of the prefecture and Hamadōri in the east. As of October 1, 2010, it had a population of 291,838. The princi ...

, senior Uesugi retainer Naoe Kanetsugu established himself at the neighboring Yonezawa Domain, with an army of 20,000 and gradually expanded his control north into Mogami territory. However, with the help of the Date clan under

Date Masamune was a regional ruler of Japan's Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period. Heir to a long line of powerful ''daimyō'' in the Tōhoku region, he went on to found the modern-day city of Sendai. An outstanding tactician, he was made ...

, the Mogami were able to defend Yamagata until Naoe was forced to withdraw following the defeat of the pro-Toyotomi forces at the

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 ( Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu prefecture, Japan, at the end of ...

. During 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 ...

, in 1600, the Mogami were initially confirmed in their holdings, with an assessed income of 570,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

'', which was the 5th largest domain in Japan at the time. However, with after the death of Mogami Yoshiaki, the clan underwent a number of inheritance struggles, and was dispossessed by the Tokugawa shogunate, and a much reduced Yamagata Domain (220,000 ''koku'') was then assigned to the

Torii clan was a Japanese daimyo family of the Sengoku and Edo periods. History Yukinori, the founder of the Watari clan and the Torii clan, was from a family of Kumano Gongen Shinto priests in Kii Province. He was given the family name of Taira from Ta ...

in 1622. Torii Tadatsune died without an heir in 1636, and Yamagata was reassigned to

Hoshina Masayuki was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period, who was the founder of what became the Matsudaira house of Aizu. He was an important figure in the politics and philosophy of the early Tokugawa shogunate. Biography Hoshina Masayuki was born ...

(with a further reduction to 200,000 ''koku'') until he was assigned to rule Aizu Domain in 1643. Reduced further to 150,000 ''koku'', and then to 100,000 ''koku'' and finally to 60,000 ''koku'', domain was then ruled by several branches of the Matsudaira clan or the Okudaira clan, subsidiary branches of the shogunal Tokugawa clan from 1643 to 1764. The domain had a population of 13,032 people in 2157 households per the 1697 census. The domain maintained its primary residence (''kamiyashiki'') 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 ...

at Daimyō-kōji, in Marunouchi.Edo daimyo.net
In 1767, Yamagata Domain was assigned to the Akimoto clan, formerly of Kawagoe Domain, who ruled for four generations until 1845. During the

Bakumatsu period was the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji governm ...

, the domain was assigned to its final rulers, the Mizuno clan. It was now reduced to only 50,000 ''koku''.

Mizuno Tadakiyo was a ''daimyō'' during Bakumatsu period Japan, who served as chief senior councilor (''Rōjū'') in service to the Tokugawa shogunate. Biography Mizuno Tadakiyo was the eldest son of Mizuno Tadakuni, the ''daimyō'' of Hamamatsu Domain and c ...

served as '' Jisha-bugyō'' and '' wakadoshiyori'' in the shogunal administration and in 1862, became a '' rōjū'' in the service of ''

Shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamaku ...

Tokugawa Iemochi (July 17, 1846 – August 29, 1866) was the 14th ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, who held office from 1858 to 1866. During his reign there was much internal turmoil as a result of the "re-opening" of Japan to western nations. ...

. 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 clique seeking to seize political power in the name of the Imperi ...

, Yamagata Domain was a member of the Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei; although its final daimyō, Mizuno Tadahiro was only 13 years old. The domain switched sides to the pro-Imperial forces in June 1869. The new

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 ...

seized the domain, and exiled Mizuno Tadahiro to a newly created 50,000 ''koku'' Asahiyama Domain in Ōmi Province in 1870. 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 lord ...

in July 1871, the former Yamagata Domain became the nucleus of the new Yamagata Prefecture.

List of ''daimyōs''

External links

Yamagata on "Edo 300 HTML"

Notes

{{Authority control Domains of Japan 1623 establishments in Japan States and territories established in 1623 1870 disestablishments in Japan States and territories disestablished in 1870 Dewa Province History of Yamagata Prefecture Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei Aizu-Matsudaira clan Hotta clan Maebashi-Matsudaira clan Mizuno clan Ogyū-Matsudaira clan Okudaira clan Okudaira-Matsudaira clan Torii clan

History

List of ''daimyōs''

Further reading

External links

Notes