was a '' fudai'' 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 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 is located in

Echigo Province was an old provinces of Japan, old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It bordered on Uzen Province, Uzen, Iwashiro Province, Iwashiro, Kōzuke Province, Kōzuke, Shinano Province, Shinano, and Etchū Province, ...

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 ...

. The domain was centered at Nagaoka Castle, located in what is now part of the city of Nagaoka in

Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,131,009 (1 July 2023) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...

. It was often referred to as to disambiguate itself from the smaller in what is now Nagaokakyo, Kyoto. The domain was ruled by the

Makino clan The are a ''daimyō'' branch of the ''samurai'' Minamoto clan in Edo period Japan.Alpert, Georges. (1888) ''Ancien Japon,'' p. 70./ref> In the Edo period, the Makino were identified as one of the ''fudai'' or insider ''daimyō'' clans which wer ...

for most of its history. During the summer of 1868, it was the center of some of the fiercest fighting during 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 ...

. Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku was the son of a Nagaoka samurai.

History

The territory of Nagaoka Domain was originally part of the holdings of Takada Domain with the exception of a 60,000 ''koku'' holding called held by a branch of the Hori clan for their services to

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: ...

. After the daimyō of Takada Domain, Matsudaira Tadateru was disgraced at the

Siege of Osaka A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

in 1616 and relieved of his holdings, Hori Naoyori was awarded with Zaodo Domain and an additional 20,000 ''koku'' from the former Takada lands. He quickly saw that the seat of Zaodo Domain was in a poor location prone to flooding by the

Shinano River The , known as the in its upper reaches, is the longest and widest river in Japan and the third largest by basin area (behind the Tone River and Ishikari River). It is located in northeastern Honshu, rising in the Japanese Alps and flowing g ...

, and built a new castle on the high ground on the opposite back at what is now Nagaoka. This marked the start of Nagaoka Domain. In 1618, he was transferred to Murakami Domain, and Nagaoka was assigned to Makino Tadanari, formerly of Nagasaki Domain. In 1620, the domain ''

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 ...

'' was raised by 10,000 ''koku'', and was raised again by 2,000 ''koku'' in 1625. The domain, which extended across the Echigo Plain from western Niigata City, through Koshi District, Santō District and Nishikanbara District was excellent rice land, and also controlled the port of Niigata with its Kitamaebune trade, and therefore the actual revenues of the domain were far in excess of its official ''

''. The actual revenues of the domain were 115,300 ''koku'' in 1712, and 142,700 ''koku'' in 1858 as opposed to its official rating of 74,000 ''koku''. Under the rule of the

, the domain was noted for its military organisation and sponsorship of training in the various military arts. During the Battle of Hokuetsu in the

, Nagaoka 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 ...

, and was the site of fierce fighting between pro-Tokugawa forces and the imperial army. Kawai Tsugunosuke and Yamamoto Tatewaki were two senior Nagaoka commanders during the war. After the defeat of the pro-Tokugawa alliance, the domain was reduced to 24,000 ''koku''. In July 1871, 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) ...

, Nagaoka Domain briefly became Nagaoka Prefecture, and was merged into the newly created

. Under 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 ...

, the final daimyō of Nagaoka, Makino Tadakatsu served as domain governor, and later was a student at Keio Gijuku. His brother, Makino Tadaatsu was given 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 ''shishaku'' (

viscount A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. The status and any domain held by a viscount is a viscounty. In the case of French viscounts, the title is ...

) and served as Mayor of Nagaoka and as a member of the House of Peers.

Bakumatsu period holdings

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 ...

, Nagaoka 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.Elison, George and Bardwell L. Smith (1987)
''Warlords, Artists, & Commoners: Japan in the Sixteenth Century,'' p. 18
*

**263 villages in Koshi District **83 villages in Kanbara District **70 villages in Santō District **17 villages in Kariwa District

List of daimyō

References

External links

"Nagaoka" at Edo 300
{{Authority control Domains of Japan Nagaoka, Niigata History of Niigata Prefecture Echigo Province Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei

History

Bakumatsu period holdings

List of daimyō

See also

References

External links