Iyo Matsuyama Domain (1/2)ruled by three houses

The Iyo Matsuyama domain was a domain that included Matsuyama City, Kume District, Noma District, and Iyo District in Ehime Prefecture.
Yoshiaki Kato, one of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Seven Spears, served as the first lord of the domain, and it was ruled by three families, the Gamo family and the Matsudaira family, until the end of the Edo period. Here, let's unravel the history of the Iyo Matsuyama domain. Since there are multiple Matsuyama clans, the Matsuyama clan that ruled Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture is usually called the Iyo Matsuyama clan.

The era of the first lord, Yoshiaki Kato

Yoshiaki Kato, the first lord of the Iyo Matsuyama domain, was a vassal of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and was counted as one of the Seven Spears and Seven Generals of Mt. Shizugatake. However, after Hideyoshi's death, he came into conflict with Ishida Mitsunari and other five magistrates, and took over as Tokugawa Ieyasu.

At the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, he sided with the eastern army, and as a result of his efforts, he received an additional 100,000 koku and became the first lord of the Iyo Matsuyama domain.
Iyo Matsuyama Castle, one of the 12 existing castle towers, was built by Yoshiaki Kato.
However, as the castle took 25 years to build, Yoshiaki Kato never saw the castle completed and was transferred to the Aizu domain in 1627 due to the commotion following the death of Tadasato Gamo in Aizu. I did.

In addition, Tadatomo Gamo, the son of Tadosato Gamo, was reduced to 150,000 koku and became the lord of the castle of Iyo Matsuyama.
Yoshiaki Kato left his mark on the construction of Iyo Matsuyama Castle and the maintenance of the castle town, and an equestrian statue is still erected in the castle tower today, while Tadasato Gamo was in the middle of his sankin kota in 1634. He left no notable achievements until his sudden death.
Instead, there is a ghost story that he was frustrated that no sons had been born since he took over as lord of the domain, and every night he would open the bellies of pregnant women in the castle.

Even today, a stone called ``Manata Stone'' still remains on the grounds of Iyo Matsuyama Castle, and it is said that you can hear the cries coming from it at night.
This story is thought to be a later creation, but it can be said that the story suggests that the sudden death of the Gamo clan lord, which occurred during the time of the Aizu feudal lord, had been a topic of concern among the samurai for a long time.

Matsudaira family era

Since Tadatomo Gamo had no heir of diameter, the Gamo family's feudal period ended with just one generation.
The shogunate then installed Sadayuki Matsudaira, a nephew of Tokugawa Ieyasu, as the lord of the Iyo Matsuyama domain.
It is the westernmost domain of the Tokugawa family.

This was considered to be a check on foreign feudal lords in Western countries, and in fact, Sadayuki Matsudaira acted as an agent of the shogunate, negotiating with foreign ships in Nagasaki, and was behind the completion of the national isolation system. After the death of the third shogun, Iemitsu Tokugawa, he also assisted the fourth shogun, Ietsuna Tokugawa.
Sadayuki Matsudaira remained the lord of the domain until he was 72 years old, an extremely old age at the time, and lived to be 82 years old even after his retirement.
However, his successor, Sadayori Matsudaira, died at the age of 56 from a fall from a horse, and entered Matsuyama only three times. His son Sadanaga Matsudaira also died of illness at the young age of 35.

Sadanaga Matsudaira had no direct descendants, so he adopted an adopted child, and the direct male line from Sadayaki Matsudaira to this point ended.
During the era of the fourth lord, Sadanao Matsudaira, a dark shadow began to appear in the finances of the Iyo Matsuyama domain. Sadanao tried to homogenize the burden on farmers and stabilize finances by issuing han bills and introducing the land-tsubo system.
Sadanao was also a man of culture, enjoyed haikai, and was a guardian of Kosuke. As a result of this, haiku became popular in the Iyo Matsuyama domain, laying the groundwork for producing haiku poets such as Masaoka Shiki during the Meiji period.

When Sadanao was the lord of the domain, a raid by Ako samurai occurred in Edo. Since the Ako domain faced the Iyo-Matsuyama domain across the Seto Inland Sea, they kept Ryokane Oishi and 10 other samurai who participated in the raid until they were executed.
Unlike the second and third generation feudal lords, this feudal lord lived into his 60s.

During the era of the fifth feudal lord, Sadahide Matsudaira, a famine occurred in the Iyo Matsuyama domain due to a large amount of poop, and more than 3,000 people starved to death. However, since only farmers died of starvation and no feudal retainers died of starvation, the shogunate accused them of being too harsh on the people and placed them under suspension.

Shortly after his suspension was lifted, Sadahide Matsudaira passed away at the young age of 38.
After that, although there were some incidents, the Iyo Matsuyama domain continued to run through the 11th generation without major famines or rebellions by vassals.

The 11th feudal lord, Sadamichi Matsudaira, created a new domain school called Sanseido, expanded the previous domain school Shuraikan, and founded Meikyokan. Furthermore, he tried to clean up the lax discipline, encouraged the development of industry and practiced frugal practices, and was praised as the founder of the Matsuyama domain's revival.
He also has strong ties to the Shogunate, visiting Nikko Toshogu Shrine on behalf of the 11th Shogun Ienari Tokugawa, and climbing Edo Castle as a chamberlain.