Tsuruga Domain

File:Mariyama Shrine(Tsuruga).jpg

Mariyama Shrine, located on the site of Tsuruga jin'ya

Tsuruga Domain 敦賀藩
under Tokugawa shogunate Japan
1682–1871
Capital		Tsuruga jin'ya
Government		Daimyō
Historical era		Edo period
•	Established	1682
•	20pxSakai	1682
•	Disestablished	1871
Today part of		part of Fukui Prefecture

Tsuruga Domain (敦賀藩, Tsuruga-han) was a Fudai feudal domain of Edo period Japan. It is located in Echizen Province, in the Hokuriku region of Honshū. The domain was centered at Tsuruga jin'ya, located in the center of what is now the city of Tsuruga in Fukui Prefecture. It was also referred to as Mariyama Domain (鞠山藩, Mariyama-han).

History

The Tsuruga District was an important seaport on the Sea of Japan from ancient times. In the Sengoku period, it came under the control of Shibata Katsuie. Under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, it was assigned as a 50,0000 koku fief to Hachiya Yoritaka, and after he died without heir in 1585, it was assigned to Ōtani Yoshitsugu. However, after the 1600 Battle of Sekigahara, the victorious Tokugawa Ieyasu assigned all of Echizen Province as a 680,000 koku fief to his second son Yūki Hideyasu. In 1615, under the Tokugawa shogunate'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 was greatly reduced in size. The Tsuruga area became divided mostly between territory controlled by the Sakai clan of neighbouring Obama Domain and tenryō territory controlled directly by the shogunate.

In 1682, the 2nd daimyō of Obama Domain, Sakai Tadanao, 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 jin'ya was constructed in the Mariyama area in 1687, only a few official resided there - the daimyō of Tsuruoka worked as officials within the shogun government, and preferred to stay at the domain's residence in Edo. 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 tenth daimyō, Sakai Tadamasa proposed unsuccessfully that it be reabsorbed back into Obama. In 1861, the domain kokudaka was increased by 1060 koku with the promotion of Sakai Tadamasa to wakadoshiyori 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 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 until the abolition of the han system in 1871.

Bakumatsu period holdings

Like with most fudai domains in the han system, Tsuruga Domain consisted of discontinuous territories calculated to provide the assigned kokudaka, based on periodic cadastral surveys and projected agricultural yields,

• Echizen Province
  • 23 villages in Tsuruga District
• Ōmi Province
  • 13 villages in Takashima District

List of daimyō

#	Name	Tenure	Courtesy title	Court Rank	kokudaka
30px Sakai clan (fudai) 1682–1871
1	Sakai Tadashige (酒井忠稠)	1682–1706	Ukyō-no-suke (右京亮)	Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下)	10,000 koku
2	Sakai Tadagiku ( 酒井忠菊)	1706–1722	Hida-no-kami (修理大夫)	Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下)	10,000 koku
3	Sakai Tadatake (酒井忠武)	1722–1731	Ukyō-no-suke (右京亮)	Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下)	10,000 koku
4	Sakai Tadaka (酒井忠香)	1731–1788	Hida-no-kami (修理大夫)	Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下)	10,000 koku
5	Sakai Tadanobu (酒井忠言)	1788–1791	Sagami-no-kami (相模守)	Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下)	10,000 koku
6	Sakai Tadae (酒井忠藎)	1791–1833	Hida-no-kami (修理大夫)	Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下)	10,000 koku
7	Sakai Tadamasu (酒井忠毗)	1833–1867	Ukyō-no-suke (右京亮)	Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下)	10,000->11,060 koku
8	Sakai Tadatsune (酒井忠経)	1867–1871	Ukyō-no-suke (右京亮)	Junior 5th Rank, Lower Grade (従五位下)	11,060 koku

See also

• List of Han

References

• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 48943301
• Papinot, Edmund. (1906) Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du japon. Tokyo: Librarie Sansaisha. OCLC 465662682; Nobiliaire du japon (abridged version of 1906 text).

External links

• (Japanese) Tsuruga Domain on "Edo 300 HTML"

• Mass, Jeffrey P. and William B. Hauser. (1987). The Bakufu in Japanese History, p. 150.
• Elison, George and Bardwell L. Smith (1987). Warlords, Artists, & Commoners: Japan in the Sixteenth Century, p. 18.