Nakatsu Domain (1/2)Produced Yukichi Fukuzawa

The Nakatsu domain was a domain that ruled the area of present-day Nakatsu City, Oita Prefecture. Nakatsu Castle, which was built by Kuroda Yoshitaka, who was useful to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Hosokawa Tadaoki, the founder of the Higo Hosokawa clan, served as the domain office, and was ruled by four families until the end of the Edo period. It is known as the domain that produced Yukichi Fukuzawa. Let's unravel the history of the Nakatsu clan.

Rule of the Kuroda and Hosokawa clans

The foundations of the Nakatsu clan were built by the Kuroda clan and the Hosokawa clan, who ruled Nakatsu before the Edo period and before and after the Battle of Sekigahara.
Yoshitaka Kuroda was given 123,000 koku in 6 districts of Buzen Province by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, moved to Nakatsu, and began construction of Kuroda Castle.
However, Yoshitaka Kuroda achieved great success in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, so he was transferred to the Fukuoka domain after increasing the number of stones.

After the Kuroda clan, the land of Nakatsu was given to Tadaoki Hosokawa, the founder of the Higo-Hosokawa clan.
It took Hosokawa Tadaoki more than 20 years to complete Nakatsu Castle, which was still under construction, and to organize the castle town.
Even today in Nakatsu City, you can still see traces and place names of the castle town established by Tadaoki Hosokawa.

In addition, Hosokawa Tadaoki built Kokura Castle in 1602 and moved there, so the name of the domain became ``Ogura Domain'', and Nakatsu Domain was treated as a branch domain, but in 1632 In 1999, the Hosokawa clan was transferred to the Higo domain, and the Nakatsu domain became an independent domain again.

Rule of the Ogasawara clan

After the Hosokawa clan was transferred to the Higo domain, Nagatsugu Ogasawara, a feudal lord, moved from Tatsuno in Harima Province with 80,000 koku.
During this period, all of northern Kyushu was under the control of the Fudai daimyo Ogasawara clan.

The first lord, Nagatsugu Ogasawara, contributed to the development of the domain by developing new rice fields, but the second lord, Nagakatsu Ogasawara, abandoned the domain administration and indulged in extravagance, even spending money for sankin kotai. It has become a situation where there is a shortage. Since he was finally punished by the shogunate, it can be seen that he had committed a very flagrant misgovernment.

Nagakatsu was demoted to Shinano no kami and was succeeded by his nephew Nagatane Ogasawara. He became the third lord of the domain, and for a while he carried out large-scale flood control works and attempted to develop new rice fields, but when the construction costs began to put even more pressure on the domain administration, he grew tired of it. Like his predecessor, he began to neglect the administration of the domain.

His vassals refused to listen, and finally in 1698, the shogunate abolished Ogasawara Nagatane. Normally, the Ogasawara clan would end at this point, but in consideration of the achievements of their ancestors, the stone was reduced to 40,000 koku, and Ogasawara Nagaen, the grandson of the first lord Nagatsugu Ogasawara, was allowed to succeed him. Ta.

However, Nagaen was also a foolish feudal lord, and like the second and third feudal lords, he abandoned the domain, indulged in luxury, and died in his 30s.
His eldest son Nagawara Ogasawara succeeded him at the age of only 6 years old, but he died young and the Ogasawara clan became extinct.
It is extremely rare for a feudal lord to carry out such bad governance for three generations in a row that the shogunate blamed.

Okudaira rule

After the Ogasawara clan died out after five generations, Masanari Okudaira entered the Nakatsu domain in his place.
He became the lord of the Utsunomiya domain in Shimotsuke Province and the Miyazu domain in Tango Province before becoming the lord of the Nakatsu domain with 100,000 koku.
The Okudaira family ruled the Nakatsu domain until the Meiji period.