Viscount was the 16th (and final) ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominall ...

'' of

Kurobane Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in the Nasu District of Shimotsuke Province (modern-day Tochigi Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Kurobane ''jin'ya'' in what is now part of the city of Ōtawara ...

Shimotsuke Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today Tochigi Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''SHimotsuke''" in . Shimotsuke was bordered by Kōzuke, Hitachi, Mutsu and Shimōsa Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was ...

, Japan (modern-day

Tochigi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Tochigi Prefecture has a population of 1,943,886 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,408 km2 (2,474 sq mi). Tochigi Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the nort ...

) under 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 government. ...

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in ...

. His

courtesy title A courtesy title is a title that does not have legal significance but rather is used through custom or courtesy, particularly, in the context of nobility, the titles used by children of members of the nobility (cf. substantive title). In some c ...

was '' Mimasaka-no-kami'', and his Court rank was Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade, later raised to Upper Third Rank.

Biography

Ōzeki Masutoshi was the son of Tani Morishige, the ''

'' of

Yamaga Domain 250px, Tani Morimasa, 12th ''daimyō'' of Yamaga was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Tanba Province in what is now the west-central portion of modern-day Kyoto Prefecture. It was centered around Y ...

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, Wakasa, and Yamashiro Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō syst ...

, although some accounts state that he was the third son of

Matsudaira Yorihisa The was a Japanese samurai clan that descended from the Minamoto clan. It originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture). During the Sengoku period, the chieftain of the main line of t ...

of Hitachi-Fuchū Domain. In any event, he was posthumously adopted in 1868 to succeed

Ōzeki Masuhiro Ozeki or Ōzeki may refer to: * Ōzeki, a rank in '' Makuuchi'', the top division of professional sumo ** List of ōzeki * Ōzeki station (disambiguation), the name of two railway stations in Japan * Ōzeki Masutoshi (1849–1905), 16th daimyō ...

, the 15th ''daimyō'' of Kurobane who had died without heir. In the Boshin War, he immediate pledged fealty to 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 ...

and was awarded with reconfirmation in his holdings of 15,000 ''koku''. In 1869 he was appointed imperial governor of Kurobane. 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) ...

in July 1871, he retired and relocated to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. In February 1872, he went to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

for studies, returning to Japan the following year. With the establishment of the ''

kazoku The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan, which existed between 1869 and 1947. They succeeded the feudal lords () and court nobles (), but were abolished with the 1947 constitution. Kazoku ( 華族) should not be confused with ...

'' peerage system he was awarded with the title of ''shishaku'' (

viscount A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicia ...

) in 1884. In 1885, he was awarded the

Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight ...

, 4th class. He was awarded the

Order of the Sacred Treasures The is a Japanese order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six classes, the lowest tw ...

, 3rd class on his death in 1905.

References

* Koyasu Nobushige (1880). ''Buke kazoku meiyoden'' 武家家族名誉伝 Volume 1. Tokyo: Koyasu Nobushige. (Accessed fro
National Diet Library
17 July 2008) {{DEFAULTSORT:Oseki, Masutoshi Tozama daimyo 1849 births 1905 deaths People of the Boshin War People of Meiji-period Japan Kazoku Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun

Biography

See also

References