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

At the age of 17, he was adopted by Sadakuni Matsudaira, the second lord of the Shirakawa domain. After that, the Great Tenmei Famine occurred from 1783 to 1787. The Great Tenmei Famine was a famine that caused severe damage in the Tohoku region, but in order to minimize the damage, Sadanobu Matsudaira had rice transported from his divided territory of Echigo to Shirakawa, and at the same time had the Aizu clan sell the rice. We will negotiate as follows. Due to Sadanobu Matsudaira's discretion, the damage to the Shirakawa domain was prevented from expanding.

In recognition of this achievement and the track record of rebuilding the Shirakawa domain's finances after becoming the lord of the domain, Sadanobu Matsudaira was appointed as roju (roju) under the 11th shogun, Ienari Tokugawa, in 1787, after the fall of Otsuji Tanuma. You can get it.
Sadanobu Matsudaira, who became a senior citizen, started the Kansei reforms. Speaking of the Kansei reforms, there is a well-known kyōka that goes, ``Even fish can't live in Shirakawa's purity, and I love the original murky Tanuma.''This song originates from Matsudaira Sadanobu, the lord of the Shirakawa domain.
In the end, the Kansei reforms were abandoned after about six years, and Sadanobu passed away at the age of 72.
His second son Sadanaga Matsudaira succeeded him, but he was soon transferred to Kuwana.

After the death of the Matsudaira Hisamatsu family, the Abe family served as the lord of the Shirakawa domain until the Meiji era. Among them, the most famous one is Abe Masagai, the 7th generation owner. The era was the era of the 14th shogun Tokugawa Iemochi. Abe Masagai also met with Kaishu Katsu and reported to the shogunate the dangers of Kaishu's political ideas, and is said to have been the reason for his dismissal. At the same time, he also served as a check on Kyoto's pro-Jōi court nobles and roni samurai, and as a negotiator with the Imperial Court. He consistently served as a supporter of Iemochi Tokugawa, formed the Ouetsu clan alliance army, and fought against the new government army in the Boshin War, but was defeated and Shirakawa Komine Castle was burned down.
He fled to the domain of Hobara and surrendered, surviving until 1889.

Masagai Abe was succeeded by his son, Masashizu Abe, but he did not do any particularly notable work and died in 1899, at the age of 28, ahead of his father. Therefore, in reality, Shogai can be said to be the last feudal lord.

Shirakawa domain summary

The Shirakawa domain was a domain that changed hands rapidly, suffered from financial difficulties from its first generation, and suffered from frequent uprisings. There are some famous feudal lords, such as Sadanobu Matsudaira, but none of them have made particularly great achievements. Therefore, compared to other domains in Tohoku such as the Aizu domain, it can be said that the domain has a weak impression of being a ``lord.''