was a '' fudai'' feudal domain of

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

Echizen Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area that is today the northern portion of Fukui Prefecture in the Hokuriku region of Japan. Echizen bordered on Kaga Province, Kaga, Wakasa Province, Wakasa, Hida Province, Hida, and Ōmi Provin ...

, in the

Hokuriku region The is located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lies along the Sea of Japan and is part of the larger Chūbu region. It is almost equivalent to the former Koshi Province (Japan), Koshi Province and Hokurikudō are ...

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 Tsuruga ''

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 ...

'', located in the center of what is now the city of Tsuruga in

Fukui Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Fukui Prefecture has a population of 737,229 (1 January 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,190 Square kilometre, km2 (1,617 sq mi). Fukui Prefecture border ...

. It was also referred to as .

History

The Tsuruga District was an important seaport on the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

from ancient times. In 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 ...

, it came under the control of

Shibata Katsuie or was a Japanese samurai and military commander during the Sengoku period. He was retainer of Oda Nobuhide. He served Oda Nobunaga as one of his trusted generals, was severely wounded in the 1571 first siege of Nagashima, but then fought ...

. Under

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: ...

, it was assigned as a 50,0000 ''

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 ...

'' fief to Hachiya Yoritaka, and after he died without heir in 1589, it was assigned to

Ōtani Yoshitsugu was a Japanese samurai of the Sengoku period through the Azuchi-Momoyama Period. He was also known by his court title ''Junior Assistant Minister of Justice'' or . He was born in 1558 to a father who was said to be a retainer of either Ōtom ...

. However, after the 1600

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, ...

, the victorious

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 ...

assigned all of Echizen Province as a 680,000 ''koku'' fief to his second son

Yūki Hideyasu was a Japanese samurai who lived during the Azuchi–Momoyama period, Azuchi–Momoyama and early Edo periods. He was the ''daimyō'' of Fukui Domain in Echizen Province, Echizen. Early life Hideyasu was born as in 1574, the second son of To ...

. In 1615, 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 ...

's "one country, one castle" policy Tsuruga Castle was destroyed. Further, Yuki Hideyasu's son, Matsudaira Tadanao was dismissed by the shogunate for misgovernment, and

Fukui Domain The , also known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1601 to 1871. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003). The ...

was greatly reduced in size. The Tsuruga area became divided mostly between territory controlled by the

Sakai clan The was a Japanese clan, Japanese samurai clan that claimed descent from the Nitta clan, Nitta branch of the Minamoto clan, who were in turn descendants of Emperor Seiwa. Serata (Nitta) Arichika, a samurai of the 14th century, was the common a ...

of neighbouring

Obama Domain The was a '' Fudai'' feudal domain of the Edo period of Japan. It is located in Wakasa Province, in the Hokuriku region of the island Honshū. The domain was centered at Obama Castle, located in the center of what is now the city of Obama in ...

and ''

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 ...

'' territory controlled directly by the shogunate. In 1682, the 2nd ''daimyō'' of Obama Domain,

Sakai Tadanao The was a ''Fudai'' Han (Japan), feudal domain of the Edo period of Japan. It is located in Wakasa Province, in the Hokuriku region of the island Honshū. The domain was centered at Obama Castle (Fukui), Obama Castle, located in the center of ...

, left a will stating that 10,000 ''koku'' portion of Obama Domain's holdings in Tsuruga be separated into a separate domain for his second son, Sakai Tadashige. This marked the start of Tsuruga Domain. Initially, the domain existed completely as a subsidiary domain of Obama Domain and continued to be administered as an integral part of that domain. Although a ''

'' was constructed in the Mariyama area in 1687, only a few officials resided there - the ''daimyō'' of Tsuruoka worked as officials within the shōgun government, and preferred to stay at the domain's residence in

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 ...

. The fourth ''daimyō'' of Tsuruga, Sakai Tadaka started to take steps to assert the domain's independence from the parent house from 1759; however, one hundred years later, the domain still remained economically dependent on Obama and the seventh ''daimyō'', Sakai Tadamasu proposed unsuccessfully that it be reabsorbed back into Obama. In 1861, 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 increased by 1060 ''koku'' with the promotion of Sakai Tadamasa to ''

wakadoshiyori The ', or "Junior Elders", were high government officials in the Edo period Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867). The position was established around 1633, but appointments were irregular until 1662. The four to six ''wakadoshiyori'' we ...

'' and the status of a "castle-holding ''daimyō'', but with these promotions came the onus to perform the '' sankin kōtai'', so the domain was actually worse off financially than before. 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 ...

, the domain followed the lead of the parent house and defected to the imperial side. The final ''daimyō'' of Tsuruga, Sakai Tadatsune served as imperial governor under 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 ...

until 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.

Bakumatsu period holdings

Like with most ''fudai'' 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 ...

, Tsuruga Domain consisted of 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
*

**23 villages in Tsuruga District *

Ōmi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan, which today comprises Shiga Prefecture. It was one of the provinces that made up the Tōsandō Circuit (subnational entity), circuit. Its nickname is . Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, ...

**13 villages in Takashima District

List of ''daimyō''

Sakai Tadashige

was the 1st ''daimyō'' of Tsuruga Domain in

under the

. Tadashige born at the Sakai clan residence in

, and was the second son of

. His childhood name was Senchiyō. In 1682, on the death of his father, he received an estate with a ''

'' of 10,000 ''

'' in Echizen Province. This marked the start of Tsuruga Domain. He later served as an '' Ōbangashira'' in the administration of the

. His

courtesy title A courtesy title is a title that does not have legal significance but is rather used by custom or courtesy, particularly, in the context of nobility, the titles used by children of members of the nobility (cf. substantive title). In some context ...

was ''Ukyō-no-suke''. His wife was the daughter of Doi Toshifusa of

Ōno Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003). It was based at Ōno Castle in Echizen Province in what is ...

. He died in 1706 and his grave is at the temple of Seisho-ji in

Atago, Tokyo is a district of Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It consists of 1- chōme and 2-chōme. As of April 1, 2008, it has a total population of 323. Geography occupies most of the district. The lower zone located between Mt. Atago and Tokyo Metropolitan Rout ...

Sakai Tadagiku

was the 2nd ''daimyō'' of Tsuruga Domain in Echizen Province under the Edo period Tokugawa shogunate. Tadakiku was the eldest son of Sakai Tadashige. He became ''daimyō'' of Tsuruga on the death of his father in 1706. He was an ''Ōbangashira'' in 1714 and died in 1722. His first wife was a daughter of Hotta Masayasu of Omi-Miyagawa Domain, and he later remarried the daughter of Aoyama Tadashige of

Kameyama Domain Kameyama may refer to: * Emperor Kameyama (1249–1305), emperor of Japan 1259–1274 *Kameyama, Mie 260px, Seki-juku (Tōkaidō) is a city located in northern Mie Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 49,457 in 21,745 ...

. His courtesy title was ''Hida-no-kami''.

Sakai Tadatake

was the 3rd ''daimyō'' of Tsuruga Domain in Echizen Province under the Edo period Tokugawa shogunate. Tadatake was the third son of Sakai Tadagiku. He was received in formal audience by

Shōgun , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...

Tokugawa Yoshimune was the eighth ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1716 until his abdication in 1745. He was the son of Tokugawa Mitsusada, the grandson of Tokugawa Yorinobu, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Yoshimune is know ...

in 1715 and became ''daimyō'' on the death of his father in 1722. His courtesy title was ''Ukyō-no-suke''. However, he was relieved of office due to a fire which burned down the clan residence in 1723. He died without heir in 1731.

Sakai Tadaka

was the 4th ''daimyō'' of Tsuruga Domain in Echizen Province under the Edo period Tokugawa shogunate. Tadaka was the 8th son of Sakai Tadagiku. He was posthumously adopted as heir to his brother Tadatake and became ''daimyō'' in 1731. In 1745, he served as ''Ōbangashira'' and in 1758 became a ''Sōshaban''. He rose to the post of ''

Jisha-bugyō was a position within the system for the administration of religion that existed from the Muromachi period to the Edo period in Japan. Appointments to this prominent office were always ''fudai daimyōs'', the lowest-ranking of the shogunate office ...

'' in 1761 and ''

'' in 1765. He retired in 1788 and died in 1791. His courtesy title was ''Harima-no-kami'', later ''Hida-no-kami''. His wife was a daughter of Mizuno Tadasada of Hōjō Domain.

Sakai Tadanobu

was the 5th ''daimyō'' of Tsuruga Domain in Echizen Province under the Edo period Tokugawa shogunate. Tadanobu was the fourth son of Sakai Tadaka, and became ''daimyō'' on the retirement of his father in 1788 as all three of his elder brothers died in infancy. He served as ''Ōbangashira''. In 1797 he retired, and died in 1799 at the age of 44. His wife was a daughter of Miura Akitsugu of Mimasaka-Katsuyama Domain. His courtesy title was ''Sagami-no-kami''.

Sakai Tadae

was the 6th ''daimyō'' of Tsuruga Domain in Echizen Province under the Edo period Tokugawa shogunate. Tadae was the eldest son of Sakai Tadanobu. His courtesy title was initially ''Ukyō-no-suke'', later ''Hida-no-kami''. He became ''daimyō'' on the retirement of his father in 1797. His wife was a granddaughter of Arima Takasumi of Echizen-Maruoka Domain. He served as ''Ōbangashira'' and '' Osaka-johan''. He died in 1833 at the age of 53.

Sakai Tadamasu

was the 7th ''daimyō'' of Tsuruga Domain in Echizen Province under the Edo period Tokugawa shogunate. Tadamasu was the fourth son of Sakai Tadae. His wife was a daughter of

Sakai Tadamichi was the 12th (and final) ''daimyō'' of Shōnai Domain during Bakumatsu period Japan. His courtesy title was ''Saemon-no-jō''. Biography Sakai Tadamichi was the sixth son of Sakai Tadaaki, the 6th ''daimyō'' of Shōnai. He became ''daimyō' ...

of Dewa-Matsuyama Domain; he later remarried to a daughter of Nagai Naosuke of

Kano Domain Kano may refer to: Places *Kano State, a state in Northern Nigeria *Kano (city), a city in Nigeria, and the capital of Kano State **Kingdom of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between the 10th and 14th centuries **Sultanate of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between ...

. He became ''daimyō'' on the death of his father in 1833. He served as ''

'' in the administration of the Tokugawa shogunate during three critical occasions. In 1859, Russian general

Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky Count Nikolay Nikolayevich Muravyov-Amursky (also spelled as Nikolai Nikolaevich Muraviev-Amurskiy; ; – ) was a Russian general, statesman and diplomat, who played a major role in the expansion of the Russian Empire into the Amur River basin a ...

led a fleet of seven vessels into Edo Bay, and demanded that Japan officially recognize Russian sovereignty over all of

Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, p=səxɐˈlʲin) is an island in Northeast Asia. Its north coast lies off the southeastern coast of Khabarovsk Krai in Russia, while its southern tip lies north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. An islan ...

. Sakai and Endō Tanenori (of

Mikami Domain was a '' Fudai'' feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It was located in eastern Ōmi Province, in the Kansai region of central Honshu. The domain was centered at Mikami ''jin'ya'', located in what is now the city of ...

) served as negotiators on the Japanese side, claiming that not only was Sakhalin Japanese territory, but so were the

Kurile Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands are a volcanic archipelago administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the Russian Far East. The islands stretch approximately northeast from Hokkaido in Japan to Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, separating the ...

, including

Kamchatka peninsula The Kamchatka Peninsula (, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific ...

. The second time was in 1861, when he met with British minister

Rutherford Alcock Sir John Rutherford Alcock, KCB (25 May 1809''London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538–1812''2 November 1897) was the first British diplomatic representative to live in Japan. Early life Alcock was born in St ...

and French minister

Gustave Duchesne de Bellecourt Gustave Duchesne, Prince de Bellecourt (1817–1881) was a French diplomat who was active in Asia, and especially in Japan. He was the first French official representative in Japan from 1859 to 1864, following the signature of the Treaty of Amit ...

over the murder of Henry Heusken. The third time was from 1863 to 1864, during negotiations with the British Chargé d'affaires Edward St. John Neale over reparation demanded due to the

Namamugi incident The , also known as the Kanagawa incident and Richardson affair, was a political crisis that occurred in the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the ''Bakumatsu'' on 14 September 1862. Charles Lennox Richardson, a British merchant, was killed by ...

, and with the French, British, Dutch and American delegations over the Shimonoseki Campaign. Although a strong supporter of the shogunate 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 ...

, he resigned his posts at the time of the ''Taisei hōkan'' and after the

Battle of Toba-Fushimi A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force c ...

, the domain submitted to the new

Sakai Tadatsune

was the 8th (and final) ''daimyō'' of Tsuruga Domain in Echizen Province. Tadatsune was the fourth son of Sakai Tadamasu. His wife was a daughter of Itakura Katsuaki of Fukushima Domain. He became ''daimyō'' in 1867 when his father submitted to the Meiji government and served as imperial governor in 1869. When the domain was merged with Obama Domain in 1870, he subsequently served as imperial governor of Obama until the