was a feudal domain under the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

Japan, located in

Ise Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today includes most of modern Mie Prefecture. Ise bordered on Iga, Kii, Mino, Ōmi, Owari, Shima, and Yamato Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History The name of Ise appears ...

in former Hisai town (now part of the modern-day city of Tsu,

Mie Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture an ...

). It was centered around Hisai ''

jin'ya A was a type of administrative headquarters in the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Edo period of Japanese history. ''Jin'ya'' served as the seat of the administration for a small domain, a province, or additional parcels of land. ''Jin'ya'' ho ...

''. Hisai Domain was a sub-domain of

Tsu Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Ise Province and in Iga Province in what is part of now modern-day Tsu, Mie. It was centered around Tsu Castle. Tsu Domain was controlled by the '' tozama'' Tō ...

ruled by a cadet branch of the

Tōdō clan The was a Japanese samurai clan of humble origins from the Inukami District of Ōmi Province. Under Hideyoshi, Tōdō ruled Uwajima at Iyo province. During the Edo period, the Tōdō ruled most of Ise Province and all of Iga Province as ''daim ...

History

Under

Tōdō Takatora was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Tōdō clan from the Azuchi–Momoyama to Edo periods. He rose from relatively humble origins as an ashigaru (a light foot soldier) to become a ''daimyō''. During his lifetime he changed his feudal master ...

, Tsu Domain had a ''

kokudaka refers to a system for determining land value for taxation purposes under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo-period Japan, and expressing this value in terms of ''koku'' of rice. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Koku"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 5 ...

'' of 323,000 ''koku''. However, in 1669 on the retirement of his son Tōdō Takatsugu, 50,000 ''koku'' of his holdings were split off to allow his second son Tōdō Takamichi to establish a cadet branch of the clan. This was done to provide an alternate line of succession, in the event that the main lineage of the clan failed to provide a male heir, and to thus avoid the possibility of

attainder In English criminal law, attainder 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 hereditary titles, but ...

, which was a constant concern for the '' tozama daimyo''. Although Hisai Domain was styled as a "castle-holding domain", Tōdō Takamichi was not permitted to build a

Japanese castle are fortresses constructed primarily of wood and stone. They evolved from the wooden stockades of earlier centuries and came into their best-known form in the 16th century. Castles in Japan were built to guard important or strategic sites, such a ...

, but had to be content with a ''

'', or fortified residence. Tōdō Takamichi's successor, Tōdō Takakata brought another 3000 ''koku'' to the domain, raising its ''kokudaka'' to 53,000 ''koku''. As a sub-domain of Tsu Domain, Hisai Domain as a rule followed the customs and direction of the parent house; however, the domain was plagued by many misfortunes. The domain's

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

residence burned down five times, and the domain suffered frequently from crop failures and natural disasters. On them other hand, the parent house suffered frequently from lack of a direct heir, and many of the ''daimyō'' of Tsu Domain assumed that post after gaining experience in administering Hisai. The domain's financial situation was especially bad after the

Great Tenmei famine The Great Tenmei famine (天明の大飢饉, ''Tenmei no daikikin'') affected Japan during the Edo period. The famine was the deadliest one during the early modern period in Japan. It is considered to have begun in 1782 and lasted until 1788. It ...

of 1782 to 1788. However due to the reforms initiated by the 12th ''daimyō'' of Tsu,

Tōdō Takasato was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the middle Edo period. He was the 9th ''daimyō'' from the Tōdō clan to ruled Tsu Domain in Ise and Iga Provinces. Biography Takasato was born in 1746 as the son Tōdō Takahora, a 7000-''koku'' ''hatamoto'', ...

, the finances of the domain were restored. After his death, problems arose again, until the time of the 15th ''daimyō'' Tōdō Takayori in the

Bakumatsu period were the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, under foreign diplomatic and military pressure, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunat ...

, with the development of new rice lands and flood control works on the Kumozu River. With the start of 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 coalition seeking to seize political power in the name of the Impe ...

, Hisai Domain followed Tsu Domain's lead in joining with the

Satchō Alliance The , or was a powerful military alliance between the southwestern feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū formed in 1866 to combine their efforts to restore Imperial rule and overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. History The name ''Satc ...

forces. Following the establishment of the

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 the 1871

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) ...

, the territory of Hisai Domain became part of Mie prefecture in 1876. The Hisai ''jin'ya'' was located on the outskirts of Tsu, at what is now the grounds of the Hisai Junior High School.

List of daimyō

References

{{reflist Domains of Japan 1871 disestablishments in Japan Ise Province History of Mie Prefecture Tsu, Mie

History

List of daimyō

See also

References