was a

feudal domain A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. In contrast, th ...

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

Dewa Province was a province of Japan comprising modern-day Yamagata Prefecture and Akita Prefecture, except for the city of Kazuno and the town of Kosaka. Dewa bordered on Mutsu and Echigō Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History Early per ...

(modern-day

Akita Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Provinces and prefectures" in ; "Tōhoku" in . Its population is estimated 915,691 as of 1 August 2023 and its geographi ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It was centered on Kubota Castle in what is now the city of Akita and was thus also known as the . It was governed for the whole of its history by the

Satake clan The was a Japanese clan, Japanese samurai clan that claimed descent from the Minamoto clan. Its first power base was in Hitachi Province. The clan was subdued by Minamoto no Yoritomo in the late 12th century, but later entered Yoritomo's serv ...

. During its rule over Kubota, the Satake clan was ranked as a family, and as such, had the privilege of shogunal audiences in the Great Hall (''Ohiroma'') of

Edo Castle is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan in Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. In modern times it is part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is therefore also known as . Tokugawa Ieyasu established th ...

. In 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 ...

of 1868–69, the domain joined the

Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei The was a Japanese military-political coalition established and disestablished over the course of several months in early to mid-1868 during the Boshin War. Its flag was either a white interwoven five-pointed star on a black field, or a black ...

, the alliance of northern domains supporting 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 ...

, but then later defected to the imperial side. As with all other domains, it was

disbanded The fifth season of the American television series ''Arrow (TV series), Arrow'' premiered on The CW on October 5, 2016, and concluded on May 24, 2017, with a total of 23 episodes. The series is based on the DC Comics character Green Arrow, a cost ...

in 1871.

History

The Satake clan was a powerful samurai clan, who ruled

Hitachi Province was an old provinces of Japan, old province of Japan in the area of Ibaraki Prefecture.Louis Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Hitachi fudoki''" in . It was sometimes called . Hitachi Province bordered on Shimōsa Province, S ...

from the late

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

through the end of the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

. In 1600, the Satake sided with the pro-Toyotomi cause at the

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was an important battle in Japan which occurred on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu Prefecture, ...

.Saga, ''Memories of Silk and Straw'', pp. 16-17. After the defeat of the pro-Toyotomi forces by

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

and the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, the Satake clan was punished by a severe reduction in its ''

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 ...

''."Satake-shi" on Harimaya.com
(accessed 15 August 2008) and by being ordered to relocate from their ancestral territories in Hitachi Province to a much smaller fief in inhospitable northern Japan. As a result of this drop in income (to 205,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before co ...

'', or less than half of their previous ''kokudaka'' of around 540,000 ''koku''), the Satake had to lay off many retainers, and institute a general stipend reduction for those it kept."Kubota-han" on Edo 300 HTML
(accessed 15 August 2008) The domain also struggled through agricultural crises, which resulted in several peasant uprisings throughout the course of its history. It was also beset by an internal ''

O-Ie Sōdō O-Ie Sōdō (, "house strife") were noble family disputes within the samurai and aristocratic classes of Japan, particularly during the early Edo period (17th century). The most famous is the ''Date Sōdō'', which broke out among the Date family in ...

'' conflict, the , which was brought on by financial issues. The domain had a population of 56,813 people per the 1730 census. It maintained its primary residence (''kamiyashiki'') in Edo at

Uchi-Kanda is a district in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. As of March 1, 2008, its population is 1,277. The Uchi-Kanda district is located in the northern part of Chiyoda, to the west of Kanda Station (Tokyo), Kanda Station. It is bordered on the south by the Niho ...

Asahi-cho until a fire in 1682, after which the residence was moved to Shichigen-cho in Shitaya. The domain’s secondary residence (''shimoyashiki'') was in

Fukagawa In Japan, Fukagawa (深川) may refer to: * Fukagawa, Hokkaidō, a city ** Fukagawa Station, a railway station * Fukagawa, Tokyo is a district in Kōtō, Tokyo. It is traditionally part of the area of Tokyo. Formerly, it was a ward of the his ...

(later moved to Sakumachō), and its tertiary residences (''nakayashiki'') in Torigoe, Honjo and Nippori. Satake Yoshimasa

Satake Yoshiatsu was the 8th ''daimyō'' of Kubota Domain in Dewa Province, Japan (modern-day Akita Prefecture), and then 26th hereditary chieftain of the Satake clan. His courtesy title was '' Ukyo-daifu'' and ''Jijū'' and his Court rank was Junior Fourth ...

(better known by his nom-de-plume "Satake Shozan"), the 8th generation lord of Kubota, was an accomplished artist. Yoshiatsu painted a number of paintings in the Dutch style, and also produced three treatises on European painting techniques, including the depiction of perspective."Akita ranga" on ''Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System''
Accessed 19 August 2008. He was also a student of Dutch studies (''

rangaku ''Rangaku'' (Kyūjitai: , ), and by extension , is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the countr ...

'') scholar

Hiraga Gennai was a Japanese polymath and ''rōnin'' of the Edo period. He was a pharmacologist, student of ''Rangaku'', author, painter and inventor well known for his '' Erekiteru'' (electrostatic generator), ''Kandankei'' (thermometer) and ''Kakanpu'' ...

, who he had invited up to Akita to advise him on management of the domain's copper mines. It was during Yoshiatsu's lifetime that the of art was born and briefly flourished. Kubota Domain was uncommon in that it contained more than one castle, and was an exception to the Tokugawa shogunate's "one castle per domain" rule. The main castle was Kubota Castle, but there were also castles at Yokote and

Ōdate is a city in Akita Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 67,865 in 31,433 households, and a population density of 75 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Ōdate is located in the mountains of norther ...

, and five fortified estates elsewhere in the domain: Kakunodate, Yuzawa, Hiyama, Jūniso, and In'nai.Karino, p. 9. Each of these was given to a senior retainer who ran it as his own small castle town. The senior retainers had personal retainers who resided in these castle towns. Kubota Domain had two sub-domains: Iwasaki (20,000 ''koku'') and the short-lived Kubota-shinden (10,000 ''koku''). Two of the clan elder (''

karō were top-ranking samurai officials and advisors in service to the ''daimyōs'' of feudal Japan. Overview In the Edo period, the policy of ''sankin-kōtai'' (alternate attendance) required each ''daimyō'' to place a ''karō'' in Edo and anothe ...

'') families serving the Kubota domain were branches of the Satake family. One was the North Satake (Satake-hokke) family, stipended at 10,000 ''koku''; the other the West Satake (Satake-nishi ke) family, stipended at 7200 ''koku''. The North Satake family had its landholdings around Kakunodate, one of the fortified estates mentioned above; the West Satake resided in and had their landholdings around Ōdate. Yokote Castle was in the care of another hereditary ''karō'' family, the Tomura. Norihisa Satake, the current mayor of the city of Akita, is a descendant of the North Satake. During the

of 1868–69, the Satake clan was a signatory to the pact that formed the

, the alliance of northern domains led by the

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 ...

. The Satake clan's delegation at Shiroishi, the alliance's headquarters, was led by the clan elder (''karō'') Tomura Yoshiari. However, the Satake had political difficulties with the alliance, which culminated in the murder, in Akita, of a delegation from Sendai on August 21, 1868,Onodera, ''Boshin nanboku sensō to Tōhoku seiken'', p. 193. and the display of the messengers'

gibbet Gibbeting is the use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of criminals were hanged on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. Occasionally, the gibbet () was also used as a method of public ex ...

ed heads in the Akita castle town. The delegation, led by Shimo Matazaemon, was dispatched to request the Akita domain to hand over

Kujō Michitaka , son of regent Kujō Hisatada and adopted son of his brother, Kujō Yukitsune, was a ''kuge'' or Japanese court noble of the late Edo period and politician of the early Meiji era who served as a member of the House of Peers. One of his daughter ...

and other officials of an imperial delegation that had been originally sent to the region to gather support for the imperial cause. The Satake then backed out of the alliance and supported the imperial army; eleven days later, on September 1, 1868 the

Tsugaru clan The was a Japanese samurai clan who ruled the northwestern half of what is now Aomori Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of Japan under the Edo period Tokugawa shogunate. The Tsugaru were ''daimyō'' of Hirosaki Domain and its semi-subsidiary, ...

of the neighboring

Hirosaki Domain file:Hirosakijo.jpg, Hirosaki Castle, the seat of the Hirosaki Domain , also known as , was a ''tozama'' Han (Japan), feudal domain of Edo period JapanRavina, Mark. (1998) ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan,'' p. 222 It is located in Muts ...

followed suit. In response, the pro-alliance domains of

Morioka is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Iwate Prefecture located in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. On 1 August 2023, the city had an estimated population of 283,981 in 132,719 households, and a population density of . The total area of t ...

and Ichinoseki Domains sent troops to attack Kubota.Onodera, p. 194. Kubota forces were hard-pressed to defend their territory, with the result that the alliance troops had made serious advances by the time the war ended in northern

Honshū , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the seventh-largest island in the world, and the second-most populous after the Indonesian ...

.Onodera, p. 194. In early 1869, Satake Yoshitaka formally gave up the domain's registers to the imperial government, and was made imperial governor of Kubota (''han chiji'').Karino, p. 40. In mid-1869, the imperial government rewarded its service in the Boshin War with an increase in ''kokudaka'' of 20,000 ''koku''.Karino, p. 40. However, 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 1871, the former domain was absorbed into the new Akita PrefectureKarino, p. 41. and Satake Yoshitaka was ordered to relocate to

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. He subsequently received the ''

kazoku The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan, which existed between 1869 and 1947. It was formed by merging the feudal lords (''Daimyo, daimyō'') and court nobles (''kuge'') into one system modelled after the British peerage. Distin ...

'' peerage title of ''koshaku'' (

marquis A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wido ...

Holdings at the end of the Edo period

As with most domains in the

han system (, "domain") is a Japanese historical term for the Estate (land), estate of a daimyo in the Edo period (1603–1868) and early Meiji (era), Meiji period (1868–1912).Louis Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Han"in ''Japan Encycloped ...

, Kubota Domain consisted of several discontinuous territories calculated to provide the assigned ''

'', based on periodic

cadastral A cadastre or cadaster ( ) is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes and bounds, metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref> Often it is represente ...

surveys and projected agricultural yields. *

**286 villages in Akita District **59 villages in Kawabe District **181 villages in Senboku District **115 villages in Hiraka District **59 villages in Yamamoto District **55 villages in Ogachi District *

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

**3 villages in Tsuga District **8 villages in Kawachi District *

Teshio Province was a short-lived province located in Hokkaido, Japan, corresponding to all of modern-day Rumoi Subprefecture and the northern half of Kamikawa Subprefecture. History After 1869, the northern Japanese island was known as Hokkaido, and regional ...

Ezo is the Japanese term historically used to refer to the people and the lands to the northeast of the Japanese island of Honshu. This included the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, which changed its name from "Ezo" to "Hokkaidō" in 1869, Nu ...

** 1 trading post in Mashike District *

Kitami Province was a short-lived Provinces of Japan, province located in Hokkaido. It corresponded to modern-day Sōya Subprefecture and Okhotsk Subprefecture minus part of Abashiri District, Hokkaido, Abashiri District. History After 1869, the northern Japan ...

** 1 trading post in Rishiri District ** 1 trading post in Rebun District ** most of Soya District

List of Daimyō

Genealogy (simplified)

*Satake Yoshishige, 18th head of the Satake clan (1547-1612) ** I. Yoshinobu, 1st ''daimyō'' of Kubota (cr. 1602) (1570-1633; r. 1602-1633) **Iwaki Sadataka, Lord of Shinano-Nakamura (1583-1620) *** 15px II. Satake Yoshitaka, 2nd ''daimyō'' of Kubota (1609-1672; r. 1633-1672) ****Yoshioki (1633-1665) ***** Yoshikuni, 1st ''daimyō'' of Kubota-Shinden (1665-1725) ****** Yoshikata, 2nd ''daimyō'' of Kubota-Shinden (1692-1742) ******* VI. Yoshimasa, 6th ''daimyō'' of Kubota (1728-1753; r. 1749-1753) **** III. Yoshizumi, 3rd ''daimyō'' of Kubota (1637-1703; r. 1672-1703) ***** IV. Yoshitada, 4th ''daimyō'' of Kubota (1695-1715; r. 1703-1715) ***** Sōma Nobutane, 6th ''daimyō'' of Sōma-Nakamura (1677-1711) ****** Sōma Noritane (1702-1752) ******* Sōma Morotane, 8th ''daimyō'' of Sōma-Nakamura (1734-1791) ******** Sōma Yoshitane, 9th ''daimyō'' of Sōma-Nakamura (1765-1813) ********* Sōma Masutane, 11th ''daimyō'' of Sōma-Nakamura (1796-1845) **********Sōma Mitsutane, 12th ''daimyō'' of Sōma-Nakamura (1819-1887) *********** Satake Yoshisato, 9th ''daimyō'' of Iwasaki, 1st Viscount (1858-1914) ************ Yoshitatsu, 2nd Baron, head of the Iwasaki branch (1885-1935; Baron: 1893-1929) ************* Yoshiaki, head of the Iwasaki branch (1919-1976) ************** Yoshitomo, head of the Iwasaki branch (b. 1951) *************** Asanashi (b. 1986) ********** XII. Satake Yoshitaka II, 12th ''daimyō'' of Kubota, 1st Marquess (1825-1884; Lord: 1857-1868; Governor: 1869-1871; 30th family head: 1857-1872; 32nd family head: 1881-1884; Marquess: cr. 1884) *********** Yoshinari, 33rd family head, 2nd Marquess (1867-1915; 33rd family head and 2nd Marquess: 1884-1915) ************ Yoshiharu, 34th family head, 3rd Marquess (1890-1944; 34th family head and 3rd Marquess: 1915-1944) ************* Yoshihide, 35th family head, 4th Marquess (1914-1983; 35th family head: 1944-1983; 4th Marquess: 1944-1947), m. Tokugawa Yuriko (b. 1917), dau. of Tokugawa Yoshichika, 1st Marquess (1886-1976), and brother of Ogiu (Matsudaira) Yoshitatsu, 3rd Count (b. 1916). He adopted his nephew, the son of Ogiu Yoshitatsu: ************** ''Satake (Ogiu) Takashi, 36th family head'' (b. 1947; 36th family head: 1983-present) ***************Motohiro (b. 1981) *************** Akihiro (b. 1982) ********** Satake Yoshimatsu, 8th ''daimyō'' of Iwasaki (1837-1870) *********** Yoshinao, 31st family head, 1st Baron (1854-1893; 31st family head: 1872-1881; Baron: 1889) **** Yoshinaga, 1st ''daimyō'' of Iwasaki (1655-1741) ***** 15px V. Yoshimine, 5th ''daimyō'' of Kubota (1690-1749; r. 1715-1749) ** A daughter, m. Takakura Nagayoshi (1592-1664) *** Satake Yoshichika (1619-1702) **** Yoshihide (1645-1721) ***** Yoshimoto (1675-1752) ****** Yoshimichi, 2nd ''daimyō'' of Iwasaki (1701-1765) ******* VII. Yoshiharu, 7th ''daimyō'' of Kubota (1723-1758; r. 1753-1758) ******** VIII. Yoshiatsu, 8th ''daimyō'' of Kubota (1748-1785; r. 1758-1785) ********* IX. Yoshimasa, 9th ''daimyō'' of Kubota (1775-1815; r. 1785-1815) ********** X. Yoshihiro, 10th ''daimyō'' of Kubota (1812-1846; r. 1815-1846) *********** XI. Yoshichika, 11th ''daimyō'' of Kubota (1839-1857; r. 1846-1857)

Subsidiary domains

Iwasaki Domain

, also known as was founded in 1701 for Satake Yoshinaga, the fourth son of Satake Yoshitaka, the 2nd ''daimyō'' of Kubota Domain, who assigned him 20,000 ''koku'' of rice revenues from newly opened fields. He built a ''

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 ...

'' in what is now

Yuzawa, Akita is a city located in Akita Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 41,404 in 17,551 households and a population density of 52 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Yuzawa claims to be the birthplace of the famous ...

, where his descendants continued to rule until the Meiji restoration. The domain was unusual in that it did not directly control any territory, but was assigned revenues from the general revenues of the parent domain. The ''daimyō'' of Iwasaki Domain participated in the '' sankin kotai'' system, and used Kubota Domain’s tertiary residence in Edo, located in Torigoe.Edo daimyo.net
* Satake

('' tozama'') 1701-1871

Kubota Shinden Domain

was founded in 1701 for Satake Yoshikune, the grandson of Satake Yoshitaka, the 2nd ''daimyō'' of Kubota Domain. Satake Yoshizumi, the 3rd ''daimyō'' of Kubota domain assigned him 10,000 ''koku'', which he ruled as a subsidiary domain of Kubota Domain until his retirement in 1720. He was succeeded by Satake Yoshikata, who ruled until May 1732. He was adopted by Satake Yoshimine, the 5th daimyo of Kubota Domain to be his heir, and Kubota Shinden Domain was absorbed back into Kubota Domain. * Satake

('' tozama'') 1602-1871

Notes

References

*French, Calvin L., et al. (1978). ''Through Closed Doors: Western Influence on Japanese Art 1639-1853''. Rochester, Michigan: Oakland University. *Hoshi, Ryōichi (1997). ''Ōuetsu Reppandōmei''. Tokyo: Chūōkōron-shinsha. *Karino, Tokuzō (1910). ''Satake-ke rekidai jiryaku'' 佐竹家歴代事略. Akita: Karino Sadakichi. (Accessed fro
National Diet Library
17 August 2008) *McClellan, Edwin (1985). ''Woman in the Crested Kimono''. New Haven: Yale University Press. *Naramoto, Tatsuya (1992). ''Nihon no kassen: monoshiri jiten''. Tokyo: Shufu-to-seikatsusha. * Onodera, Eikō (2005). ''Boshin nanboku sensō to Tohoku seiken''. Sendai: Kita no mori. * * Saga, Jun'ichi (1987). ''Memories of Silk and Straw: A Self-Portrait of Small-Town Japan''. New York: Kodansha International. * Sasaki, Suguru (2002). ''Boshin Senso: haisha no Meiji-ishin''. Tokyo: Chuōkōron-shinsha. *

Yamakawa Kenjirō was a Japanese samurai, politician, physicist, academic administrator, and author of several histories of the Boshin War. He served as president of Tokyo Imperial University, Kyushu Imperial University, and Kyoto Imperial University. He also ...

(1933). ''Aizu Boshin senshi''. Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku shuppankai. *''Zusetsu: Nihon meijō-shū'' (2003). Tokyo: Gakken.

External links

"Akita ranga" on ''Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System''
Accessed 19 August 2008.

(accessed 15 August 2008)
List of Meiji-era Japanese nobility
(accessed 17 August 2008) {{Authority control Domains of Japan States and territories established in 1602 1602 establishments in Japan 1871 disestablishments in Japan States and territories disestablished in 1871 Dewa Province History of Akita Prefecture Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei Satake clan