Shirakawa Domain (1/2)Sadanobu Matsudaira also served as the lord of the castle.

The Shirakawa Domain was a domain in the Tohoku region located in Shirakawa City, Fukushima Prefecture. In ancient times, Shirakawa Seki was established here, and it was regarded as an important gateway to the Ou region. Even in the Edo period, when the Shirakawa domain was established, it was a domain that was responsible for monitoring and suppressing the powerful Tozama daimyo in Tohoku.

Therefore, with the exception of the Niwa clan, the first lord of the domain, powerful clans and feudal lords served as castle lords, and families changed hands frequently. Sadanobu Matsudaira, famous for the Kansei reforms, also served as the castle's lord. Let's unravel the history of the Shirakawa domain.

The reign of the first feudal lord, the Niwa family, to the Maebashi Matsudaira family

The Shirakawa domain was founded in 1627. Niwa Nagashige, the eldest son of Niwa Nagahide, was transferred for 100,000 koku and built Shirakawa Komine Castle, which became the feudal lord's residence. After his father, Oda Nobunaga, whom Niwa Nagahide had served, passed away, Niwa Nagashige served Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but his treatment was not at all good.

As a result, Nagashige's vassals fell apart, and Nagashige himself sided with the Western army in the Battle of Sekigahara, so he was at one point given a commission. However, when he was awarded 100,000 koku for his military exploits at the Summer Campaign in Osaka, his scattered group of vassals reunited. Furthermore, as a result of the fact that the Shirakawa clan ruled the Shirakawa area before Niwa Nagashige and had to take care of the vassals of the Gamo clan, who had been repaid, the Shirakawa clan's finances were severely strained from the beginning. Mitsushige Niwa, the second lord of the domain, is the third son of Nagashige Niwa, but he took over after his father Nagashige's death in 1637, but six years later, in 1643, he became the Nihonmatsu domain. was transferred to establish the Thus, Mr. Niwa left Shirakawa.

After that, Tadaji Sakakibara, the eldest son of Tadamasa Osuga, grandson of Yasumasa Sakakibara, one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Tokugawa, and whose mother was the niece of Ieyasu Tokugawa, served as the lord of the castle for a short period of time, but he was soon transferred to the castle, and after that the Honda family became the second generation of the Oku-Hiramatsu family. The Heike family served as the lord for the first generation.

The lord of the Honda family did not have much notable achievements, and the ``Shirakawa Riot'' broke out over the successor of Tadahiro Matsudaira of the Okudaira Matsudaira family, who later became the lord of the domain. The Shirakawa Riot was a riot that erupted when the 50-year-old feudal lord, Matsudaira Tadahiro, became uneasy about the fact that his successor had not been decided. The commotion of the vassals, who had split up and each put forward their own successor candidates, reached the ears of the shogunate, and Tadahiro Matsudaira had his fief reduced to 100,000 koku and transferred to Yamagata, and left the Shirakawa domain.

After that, the Maebashi Matsudaira family served as the lord for three generations.
Naonori Matsudaira, the first generation member of the Maebashi Matsudaira family, was the model for the movie "Moving Daimyo." The story of a man who changed countries many times during his life, and as a result, had no leeway in his household finances, is based on historical fact. The movie depicts the move to the Dewa-Yamagata domain, but the story of the move to the Shirakawa domain is a later story.

The second lord, Motomo Matsudaira, tried to rebuild the domain's finances by imposing a very harsh annual tax on the people, but as a result, in 1719, a peasant revolt broke out throughout the domain, and the domain government was disrupted. It's confusing.
The third lord of the domain, Akinori Matsudaira, succeeded him and immediately transferred to the Himeji domain.

Reign of Hisamatsu Matsudaira family and Abe family

After the Maebashi Matsudaira family was transferred to Himeji, the Hisamatsu Matsudaira family came to replace them, and the most famous of them was Sadanobu Matsudaira. Sadanobu Matsudaira was the second son of the 8th Shogun Yoshimune Tokugawa, and was so intelligent that he was once a candidate for Shogun.