270px, Gate of Saiki Castle 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 ...

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 what is now southern

Ōita Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Ōita Prefecture has a population of 1,081,646 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 6,340 km2 (2,448 sq mi). Ōita Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northwest, K ...

. It was centered around Saiki Castle in what is now the city of

Saiki, Ōita is a city located in Ōita Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 65,870 in 32921 households, and a population density of 73 persons per km2. The total area of the city is , making it the largest city by area in Kyushu. ...

and was ruled by the ''

tozama daimyō was a class of powerful magnates or ''daimyō'' (大名) considered to be outsiders by the ruler of Japan during the Edo period (江戸時代). ''Tozama daimyō'' were classified in the Tokugawa shogunate (江戸幕府) as ''daimyō'' who becam ...

Mōri clan The was a Japanese clan, Japanese samurai clan descended from Ōe no Hiromoto. Ōe no Hiromoto was descended from the Fujiwara clan. The family's most illustrious member, Mōri Motonari, greatly expanded the clan's power in Aki Province. Durin ...

for all of its history.

History

Bungo Province was a province of Japan in the area of eastern Kyūshū, corresponding to most of modern Ōita Prefecture, except what is now the cities of Nakatsu and Usa. Bungo bordered on Hyūga to the south, Higo and Chikugo to the west, and Chikuze ...

was under the control of the

Ōtomo clan The was a Japanese samurai family whose power stretched from the Kamakura period through the Sengoku period, spanning over 400 years. The clan's hereditary lands lay in Kyūshū. Origins The first family head, Ōtomo Yoshinao (1172–1223), ...

from the

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

to 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 ...

. One of their senior retainers was the Saiki clan who controlled the Saiki ''

shōen A was a field or Manorialism, manor in Japan. The Japanese language, Japanese term comes from the Tang dynasty Chinese language, Chinese term "莊園" (Mandarin: ''zhuāngyuán'', Cantonese: ''zong1 jyun4''). Shōen, from about the 8th to th ...

'' located where the modern city is now built. Under the tenure of the ''

Kirishitan The Japanese term , from Portuguese ''cristão'' (cf. Kristang), meaning "Christian", referred to Catholic Christians in Japanese and is used in Japanese texts as a historiographic term for Catholics in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries ...

'' warlord

Ōtomo Sōrin , also known as Fujiwara no Yoshishige (藤原義鎮) or Ōtomo Yoshishige (大友義鎮), was a Japanese feudal lord (''daimyō'') of the Ōtomo clan, one of the few to have converted to Catholicism. The eldest son of , he inherited the Funa ...

, the Ōtomo clan invaded

Hyūga Province was a province of Japan in the area of southeastern Kyūshū, corresponding to modern Miyazaki Prefecture Hyūga bordered on Ōsumi to the south, Higo to the west, and Bungo to the north. Its abbreviated form name was , although it was als ...

but was defeated by the

Shimazu clan The were the ''daimyō'' of the Satsuma han, which spread over Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga provinces in Japan. The Shimazu were identified as one of the '' tozama'' or outsider ''daimyō'' familiesAppert, Georges ''et al.'' (1888). in contr ...

from 1586, and were confined to Nyūjima Castle (the predecessor of

Usuki Castle is a Japanese castle in Usuki, Ōita Prefecture, Japan. Another name of this castle is . History This castle was constructed by Ōtomo Sōrin in 1562 on the island Nyū-jima, in Usuki Bay as his head castle. During the 1560s, Sōrin had the la ...

). During the Shimazu counter-invasion, Saiki Koresada stubbornly resisted calls to surrender and defeated a much larger Shimazu force at the Battle of Katata, forcing the Shimazu to move on without taking his territory. The Ōtomo were saved by

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: ...

's 1586-1587

Kyūshū campaign The Kyūshū campaign of 1586–1587 was part of the campaigns of Toyotomi Hideyoshi who sought to dominate Japan at the end of the Sengoku period. Having subjugated much of Honshū and Shikoku, Hideyoshi turned his attention to the south ...

and were allowed to reclaim Bungo province as their territory. However,

Ōtomo Yoshimune Ōtomo Yoshimune (大友義統, 15581605) was a Japanese daimyō of the Sengoku period, heir of Otomo Sōrin at the head of the Ōtomo clan. He was the eldest son and successor of Otomo Sōrin as lord of the Bungo Province. His mother was an an ...

(Sōrin's son) behaved in a cowardly manner during the

Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598) The Imjin War () was a series of two Japanese invasions of Korea: an initial invasion in 1592 also individually called the "Imjin War", a brief truce in 1596, and a second invasion in 1597 called the Chŏngyu War (). The conflict ended in 159 ...

which so angered Hideyoshi that he was deprived of his fief and banished. The Saiki suffered the fate of their overlords, and Saiki Koresada became a '' ronin'' and then entered into the service of other warlords, preserving his family name. Bungo was divided into small fiefs, and in 1596 assigned Mōri Takamasa as magistrate over 20,000 ''

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 ...

'' in Saiki and overseer of 80,000 ''koku'' of Hideyoshi's own holdings in the same area. Mōri Takamasa was not related to the

Chōshū Domain The , also known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871.Deal, William E. (2005) ''Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan,'' p. 81 The Chōshū Domain was based ...

. In 1582 when

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demo ...

was assassinated at the

Honnō-ji Incident The was the assassination of Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga at Honnō-ji, a temple in Kyoto, on 21 June 1582 (2nd day of the sixth month, Tenshō 10). Nobunaga was on the verge of unifying the country, but died in the unexpected rebellion of ...

, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was fighting the Mōri clan at Bitchū Takamatsu Castle and was forced to disengage and return to

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

post haste to deal with

Akechi Mitsuhide , first called Jūbei from his clan and later from his title, was a Japanese ''samurai'' general of the Sengoku period. Mitsuhide was originally a bodyguard of the last Ashikaga shogunate, Ashikaga ''shōgun'' Ashikaga Yoshiaki and later, one of ...

. During negotiations, he agreed to leave behind Mōri Takamasa as a hostage.

Mōri Terumoto Mōri Terumoto (毛利輝元, January 22, 1553 – June 2, 1625) was a Japanese ''daimyō''. The son of Mōri Takamoto, and grandson and successor of the great warlord Mōri Motonari, he fought against Oda Nobunaga but was eventually overc ...

liked him so much that he changed his surname from ��to ��利 When Hideyoshi died in 1598, Mōri Takamasa was still in Korea. After his return, he had a severe falling out with

Ishida Mitsunari was a Japanese samurai and military commander of the late Sengoku period of Japan. He is probably best remembered as the commander of the Western army in the Battle of Sekigahara following the Azuchi–Momoyama period of the 16th century. He ...

over his actions on Korea; however, he still remained loyal to the Western Army and led his forces at the

Siege of Tanabe The siege of Tanabe in 1600 was one of a number of battles which took place in parallel to the more influential Sekigahara Campaign, which led to the unification of Japan under Tokugawa Ieyasu. History The command of Tanabe Castle was held b ...

in 1600. He defected to the Eastern Army shortly after 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, ...

at the persuasion of

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 ...

and through his intercession was relocated 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 ...

to a 20,000 ''

'' holding in Bungo Province in 1601. This marks the start of Saiki Domain, and throughout the

, the

continued to rule Saiki for twelve generations. When Mōri Takamasa entered his territory, he found that the existing stronghold of Togamure Castle was located in a remote area, so he built Saeki Castle at the mouth of the Bansho River and opened a new ''

jōkamachi The were centres of the domains of the feudal lords in medieval Japan. The ''jōkamachi'' represented the new, concentrated military power of the daimyo in which the formerly decentralized defence resources were concentrated around a single, cent ...

''. Construction started in 1602 and completed in 1606. Saeki Domain was hilly and had little arable land, so income from agriculture was low; however, the coast is a

ria A ria (; , feminine noun derived from ''río'', river) is a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley. It is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea. Definitions Typically rias have a dendriti ...

coast with many lagoons, and suitable for fishing and marine transportation, which became the pillar of the domain's finances. Forestry was also an important source of income. The 6th ''daimyō'', Mōri Takayoshi encouraged literary and martial arts, and worked to promote industry in order to rebuild the domain's chaotic administration. He was noted for his intolerance of wrongdoing, and he expelled retainers from the territory or dismissed them from their posts.He laid the foundation for the later establishment of a domain academy, and also focused on disaster countermeasures. In response to the damage caused by the

1707 Hōei earthquake The struck south-central Japan at around 13:45 local time on 28 October. It was the largest earthquake in Japanese history until it was surpassed by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. It caused moderate-to-severe damage throughout southwestern Hons ...

, he built an embankment as a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

countermeasure and established a firefighting organization. The 7th ''daimyō'', Mōri Takaoka, continued his grandfather's efforts to reform the domain's administration and dismissed retainers and magistrates on grounds of misconduct. However, during Takaoka's time, the domain's finances were under strain, and the domain was on the verge of bankruptcy, racking up debt after debt and struggling even to pay interest. He attempted to rebuild domain finances by implementing a controlled economy and tightening regulations by strengthening monopolies, especially on salt. The 8th ''daimyō'', Mōri Takasue enforced three thrift edicts, halved the stipend of retainers of 200 ''koku'' or more, reduced expenditures, issued ''hansatsu'' bank notes. He also opened the han school "Shikodo" in 1777 and by 1784, the school had amassed a collection of 80,000 books. However, during the late Edo period, natural disasters and fires occurred frequently, and as a result, the lives of the people of the domain were poor and the domain's finances were in crisis. In January 1812, a peasant uprising consisting of 4,000 people broke out, and was suppressed with much difficulty, resulting in casualties. 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 ...

, the last ''daimyō'', Mōri Takaaki, modernized the domain's military despite financial difficulties. He made gunpowder and cannons, and also built a battery in Saeki Bay. He was also member of group of ''daimyō'' who had an audience with

Emperor Kōmei Osahito (22 July 1831 – 30 January 1867), posthumously honored as Emperor Kōmei, was the 121st emperor of Japan, according to the List of Emperors of Japan, traditional order of succession.Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'')孝明天皇 ...

and was a supporter of the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

from an early stage. In 1871, due to 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) ...

, Saiki Domain became Saiki Prefecture, and was later incorporated into Ōita Prefecture. The Mōri clan was elevated to 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 with the title of viscount in 1884.

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 ...

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

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 ...

'', 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
*

**156 villages in Amabe District **10 villages in Amabe District that were ''

tenryō 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 war ...

'', but administered by Saiki Domain

List of daimyō

References

{{Authority control Domains of Japan History of Ōita Prefecture Bungo Province Kyushu region

History

Holdings at the end of the Edo period

List of daimyō

See also

References