Ogawa Usen stone monument of the water imp

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, located in

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 ...

(modern-day

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,828,086 (1 July 2023) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

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 Ushiku ''

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

Ushiku, Ibaraki is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 83,826 in 36,380 households and a population density of 1423 persons per km2. The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 29.5%. The total area of the ...

. It was ruled for much of its history by the Yamaguchi clan.

History

In 1590 after the victory of

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: ...

in the Siege of Odawara,

Akai Teruko Akai Teruko (赤井輝子, November 6, 1514 – December 17, 1594) or Myoin-ni (妙印尼) was a late-Sengoku period Onna-musha warrior. Teruko was a woman trained in Naginatajutsu, ko-naginata, fought in many battles when younger and commanded th ...

was rewarded with a territory of 5,435 koku in

. The Yamaguchi clan was a junior branch of the

Ōuchi clan was one of the most powerful and important families in Western Japan during the reign of the Ashikaga shogunate in the 14th to 16th centuries. Their domains, ruled from the castle town of Yamaguchi in the western tip of Honshu island, compris ...

and originated in what is now

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 Square kilometre, km2 (2,359 Square mile, sq mi). ...

. Yamaguchi Shigemasa served

Oda Nobukatsu also known as Kitabatake Tomotoyo was a Japanese samurai of the Azuchi–Momoyama period. He was the second son of Oda Nobunaga. He was adopted as the head of the Kitabatake clan from Ise Province. He survived the decline of the Oda clan ...

and subsequently came into the service of

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 ...

. For his efforts 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, ...

, he was awarded a 5,000 ''

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 ...

'' holding in

Kazusa Province was a province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture. The province was located in the middle of the Bōsō Peninsula, whose name takes its first ''kanji'' from the name of Awa Province and its second from Kazusa and Shimōsa province ...

and another 5000 koku holding in

Musashi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan, which today comprises Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, most of Saitama Prefecture and part of Kanagawa Prefecture. It was sometimes called . The province encompassed Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Kawasaki and Yokohama. ...

, to which he subsequently added another 5000 ''koku'' in

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, ...

. However, he fell afoul of the

when he arranged the marriage of his son and heir, Yamaguchi Shigenobu to a daughter of

Ōkubo Tadachika , or also known as , was ''daimyō'' of Odawara Domain in Sagami Province in early Edo period, Japan. Ōkubo Tadachika was the son of Ōkubo Tadayo, a Fudai daimyō hereditary vassal to the Tokugawa clan in what is now part of the city of Okaza ...

without bothering to ask for permission first. For this violation he was stripped of his holdings and placed under house arrest. After apologizing, and after the death of Shigenobu in combat during 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 ...

as a common soldier, Ieyasu relented and restored him to a 15,000 ''koku'' holding in

Tōtōmi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today western Shizuoka Prefecture.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tōtōmi''" in . Tōtōmi bordered on Mikawa Province, Mikawa, Suruga Province, S ...

. He traded this holding for an equivalent in Hitachi Province in 1628, marking the start of Ushiku Domain. Shigemasa's fourth son and successor Yamaguchi Hirotaka constructed the ''jin’ya''; however, he also divided 5,000 ''koku'' of the domain to his younger brother Shigetsune. The descendants Of Yamaguchi Hirotaka continued to rule the 10,000 ''koku'' domain until 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 ...

. The domain had a total population of 8,604 people in 1,646 households per a census in 1869, of which 434 people in 130 households were classed as samurai.

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 ...

, Ushiku 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
In the case of the Yamaguchi, their holdings were divided between Hitachi and Shimosa provinces. *

**11 villages in Niihari District **13 villages in Kawachi District **2 villages in Shida District * Shimosa Province **1 village in Toyoda District **4 villages in Okada District **2 villages in Soma District

List of daimyō

References

Notes

External links

Ushiku on "Edo 300 HTML"
{{Authority control Domains of Japan 1871 disestablishments in Japan States and territories disestablished in 1871 Hitachi Province History of Ibaraki Prefecture