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, in

Bitchū Province was a province of Japan on the Inland Sea side of western Honshū, in what is today western Okayama Prefecture. It was sometimes called , with Bizen and Bingo Provinces; those three provinces were settled in the late 7th Century, dividing form ...

. It was centered around Niimi

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 the city of

Niimi is a city located in northwestern Okayama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 27,106 in 12,626 households. and a population density of 34 persons per km2. The total area of the city is Geography Niimi is located on a k ...

Okayama Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,826,059 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Square kilometre, km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefecture ...

. .It was ruled throughout its history by the

Seki clan Seki may refer to: Places * Seki, Gifu, a city in Japan * Seki River, a river in Japan * Şəki, a city and provincial capital in Azerbaijan * Şəki (village), a village and municipality in Azerbaijan * Šeki, a small town in Slovenia * Seki, ...

. Niimi Domain was dissolved in 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 and is now part of Okayama Prefecture.

History

In 1697, following the

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 ...

of the Mori clan of

Tsuyama Domain 270px, Matsudaira Naritami, 8th daimyo of Tsuyama 270px, Kakuzankan, han school was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, in what is now northern Okayama Prefecture. It controlled most of Mimasaka Province and wa ...

, Mori Nagaharu, the sixth son of Mori Nagatsugu and ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'' of Miyagawa Domain, a sub-domain of Tsuyama Domain, changed his surname to "Seki" and was allowed to transfer to new domain in northern Bitchū Province. His nominal ''

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 assessed as 18,000 ''

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 ...

''; however, the actual ''kokudaka'' of his territory was less than 9000 ''koku'', which meant that the clan's finances were in arrears from the start. Seki Nagaharu built his ''

'' in the village of Niimi, was a distribution center for iron and rice, and opened a market to promote commerce. He and his descendants would rule the domain over nine generations and 174 years. Seki Masatomi, the third ''daimyō'' worked on financial reforms to overcome the severe financial situation, and achieved some success. He also opened a

han school The ''han'' school was a type of educational institution in the Edo period of Japan. They taught samurai etiquette, the classical Confucian books, calligraphy, rhetoric, fighting with swords and other weapons; some also added subjects such as m ...

, the Shiseikan, and encouraged the education of commoners. The fifth ''daimyō'' , Seki Naganobu, invited reformers from other domains as advisors, and to teach at the han school, notably the scholar Marukawa Shoin, who wrote a guidebook on model domain administration. However, by 1836, the domain revenues dropped as low as 3000 ''koku'', and financial reconstruction became an urgent task. The domain established monopolies on iron and

Japanese paper is traditional Japanese paper processed by hand using fibers from the inner bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub (''Edgeworthia chrysantha''), or the paper mulberry (''kōzo'') bush. ''Washi'' is generally tougher than ordinary p ...

in 1857. During 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 ...

, the domain pledged fealty to the Imperial cause from an early date. In 1871, Niimi Domain became Niimi Prefecture due to the

. Subsequently, it was incorporated into Okayama Prefecture. The site of Niimi jin'ya Is now occupied by Niimi Municipal Niimi High School. The Seki clan was granted the title of

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 ...

in 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 by 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 ...

. The current head of the family is Masaru Seki, and he participates in the ''daimyō'' procession festival held in Niimi every year.

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 ...

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

**2 villages in Oda District **16 villages in Aga District **3 villages in Asakuchi District **6 villages in Tetsuta District

List of daimyō

References

{{Authority control Domains of Japan History of Okayama Prefecture Bitchū Province Chūgoku region 1697 establishments in Japan States and territories established in 1697 1871 disestablishments in Japan States and territories disestablished in 1871

History

Holdings at the end of the Edo period

List of daimyō

See also

References