was an late-

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 ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of History of Japan#Medieval Japan (1185–1573/1600), medieval and Edo period, early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retai ...

, and the 12th ''

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

Sendai Domain The , also known as the , was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871. The Sendai Domain was based at Aoba Castle in Mutsu Province, in the modern city of Sendai, located in the Tōhoku region of t ...

in the

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (''ken''): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku ret ...

of northern Japan, and the 28th hereditary chieftain of the

Date clan The is a Japanese samurai kin group. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Date", ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 5 retrieved 2013-5-5. History The Date family was founded ...

Biography

Narikuni was the son of Date Munemitsu of the Tome-Date clan, a subsidiary branch of the main Date clan, and was the grandson of

Date Yoshimura was an mid-Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 5th ''daimyō'' of Sendai Domain in northern Japan, and the 21st hereditary chieftain of the Date clan. The longest-serving of any of the ''daimyō'' of Sendai Domain, Yoshimura placed the domain b ...

, the 5th ''daimyō'' of Sendai. His childhood name was Kōgorō (幸五郎) later Tosaburō (藤三郎) and become Sojirō (総次郎). In 1828, with the death of

Date Nariyoshi was an mid-Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 11th ''daimyō'' of Sendai Domain in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan, and the 27th hereditary chieftain of the Date clan. Biography Nariyoshi was the grandson of Date Yoshimura, the 5th ''d ...

, Sendai Domain faced a major crisis. His son, the future

Date Yoshikuni was a late-Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 13th ''daimyō'' of Sendai Domain in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan, the 29th hereditary chieftain of the Date clan. He is known primarily for his role as commander-in-chief of the Ōuetsu Re ...

was only two-years-old. The

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 ...

had taken extraordinary measures to ensure the continuation of the Date line in the case of his predecessors Date Chikamune and Date Narimune; however, the patience 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 Kamakur ...

Tokugawa Ienari Tokugawa Ienari ( ja, 徳川家斉, November 18, 1773 – March 22, 1841) was the eleventh and longest-serving ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan who held office from 1787 to 1837.Hall, John Whitney ''et al.'' (1991) ''Early Modern ...

had worn thin over Sendai Domain succession problems, and the domain faced the possibility of

attainder In English criminal law, attainder or attinctura was the metaphorical "stain" or "corruption of blood" which arose from being condemned for a serious capital crime (felony or treason). It entailed losing not only one's life, property and heredit ...

. The ''

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 '' sh� ...

'',

Mizuno Tadaakira () is a Japanese sports equipment and sportswear company, founded in Osaka in 1906 by Rihachi Mizuno. Today, Mizuno is a global corporation which makes a wide variety of sports equipment and sportswear for badminton, baseball, boxing, cyclin ...

, initially proposed a solution whereby Nariyoshi’s 4-year-old daughter, Masahime would be married to a son of Tokugawa Ienari; however, negotiations did not proceed and instead she married Date Narikuni, from one of cadet houses of the Date clan. Date Narikuni would then adopt the infant Date Yoshikuni as his heir. Events went as planned and in 1828 Narikuni received Court rank of Junior Fourth, Lower Grade and the

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 ...

of ''Mutsu-no-kami''. His ranks were raised to Junior Fourth, Upper Grade and ''Sakonoe-chūshō'' in 1831. Narikuni was noted for his scholarly disposition and knowledge of literature. However, during the ''

sankin-kōtai ''Sankin-kōtai'' ( ja, 参覲交代/参覲交替, now commonly written as ja, 参勤交代/参勤交替, lit=alternate attendance, label=none) was a policy of the Tokugawa shogunate during most of the Edo period of Japanese history.Jansen, M ...

'' to Edo in 1840 he fell ill, and died 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 ...

the following year at the age of 25.

Family

* Father: Date Munemitsu (1787–1843) * Mother: Tsuneko-hime * Wife: Masahime (1824–1861)

References

* Papinot, Edmond. (1948). ''Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan''. New York: Overbeck Co.

External links

Sendai Domain on "Edo 300 HTML"
(3 November 2007) {{DEFAULTSORT:Date, Narikuni 1817 births 1841 deaths Tozama daimyo Date clan People of Edo-period Japan