Gujō Domain

reconstructed ''tenshu'' of Gujō-Hachiman Castle
was a '' fudai'' feudal domain of Edo period Japan. It was located in northern Mino Province and southern Echizen Province, in central Honshū. The domain was centered at Gujō Hachiman Castle, located in what is now the city of Gujō in Gifu Prefecture. For this reason, it was also called .

History

During the Sengoku period, the area around Gujō was controlled by the Endō clan, who pledged fealty to Oda Nobunaga, followed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Under Hideyoshi, they were reduced to serve under the Inaba clan; however, following the Battle of Sekigahara, the Inaba were transferred to Usuki Domain in Bungo Province, and the Endō clan was restored to their former territories, becoming ''daimyō'' of the 27,000 '' koku'' Gujō Domain from 1600 to 1693. The 3rd Endō ''daimyō'', Endō Tsunetomo reduced the domain to 24,000 ''koku'' by giving 2,000 ''koku'' and 1,000 ''koku'' holdings to two of his younger brothers, but was successful in elevating his official status to that of a “castellan”. His successor, Endō Tsuneharu faced problems with peasant revolts, and his successor, Endō Tsunehisa was a minor, and died of poisoning soon after taking office. However, the Endō clan escaped attainder, and were transferred to the 10,000 ''koku'' Mikami Domain in Shimotsuke Province, where they resided to the Meiji restoration.

The Endō were replaced by a cadet branch of the Inoue clan from Kasama Domain in Hitachi Province from 1692 to 1697, with a ''kokudaka'' of 50,000 ''koku''.

The Inoue were transferred to Kameyama Domain in Tanba Province in 1697 and were replaced by the Kanemori clan from Kamiyama Domain in Mutsu Province from 1697 to 1758 with a ''kokudaka'' set at 38,000 ''koku''. The Kanemori faced a 4-year peasant revolt from 1754 which they were unable to suppress, and they were removed from office by the Tokugawa shogunate.

In 1758, the shogunate entrusted Gujō to the Aoyama clan, formerly of Miyazu Domain in Tango Province, with a ''kokudaka'' of 48,000 ''koku''. The Aoyama ruled until the Meiji restoration. During the Boshin War, the domain contributed its military forces to the Satchō Alliance, although many of its samurai defected to the Tokugawa side.

In 1871, with the abolition of the han system, the domain became part of Gifu Prefecture.

Bakumatsu period holdings

As with most domains in the han system, Gujō Domain consisted of a discontinuous territories calculated to provide the assigned ''kokudaka'', based on periodic cadastral surveys and projected agricultural yields.Elison, George and Bardwell L. Smith (1987)
''Warlords, Artists, & Commoners: Japan in the Sixteenth Century,'' p. 18

*Mino Province
**125 villages in Gujō District
*Echizen Province
**5 villages in Nanjō District
**13 villages in Nyū District
**69 villages in Ōno District

List of daimyō

References

*''The content of this article was largely derived from that of the corresponding article on Japanese Wikipedia.''

External links

*http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~me4k-skri/han/toukai/takatomi.html Takatomi on "Edo 300 HTML”]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gujō Domain
Domains of Japan
1600 establishments in Japan
History of Gifu Prefecture
Mino Province