Mutsuura Domain


Mutsuura Domain was a Japanese feudal domain of the Edo period, located in southern Musashi Province in what is now part of Kanagawa Prefecture. Mutsuura was a Fudai domain. It consisted of two separate geographic areas, one in Kuragi District, Musashi, and the other in Osumi District, Sagami, with its headquarters in Musashi in what is now part of Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama.
From its location near the famous medieval library of Kanazawa Bunko, it was referred to as Musashi-Kanazawa Domain or Bushū-Kanazawa Domain during the Edo period, although the Kanazawa Bunko itself was not within its territory.
In the han system, Mutsuura was a political and economic abstraction based on periodic cadastral surveys and projected agricultural yields. In other words, the domain was defined in terms of kokudaka, not land area. This was different from the feudalism of the West.

History

The Yonekura clan, former retainers of the Takeda clan of Kai Province, pledged allegiance to Tokugawa Ieyasu after the Takeda were destroyed by Oda Nobunaga, and subsequently served as hatamoto in the Tokugawa shogunate after the Battle of Sekigahara in 1603. Yonekura Masatada was favored by Shōgun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, rising rapidly through the ranks until he reached the post of wakadoshiyori in 1696.
The additional revenues provided by this office propelled him past the 10,000 koku necessary to qualify as a daimyō, and he became the first lord of Mutsuura Domain. He was subsequently transferred to Minagawa Domain in Kōzuke Province. His line died out with his grandson Yonekura Masateru, but a son of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu was selected to inherit the family name, taking the name Yonekura Tadasuke and was transferred back to Mutsuura Domain in 1722.
Mutsuura Domain was a jin'ya domain, and was not allowed a castle. It also lacked a unified area, but consisted of a number of widely dispersed holdings in what is now Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, Hadano, Kanagawa and Hiratsuka, Kanagawa. Although the jin'ya itself was located in what is now southern Yokohama, the clan’s family temple was the temple of Zorin-ji in Hadano.
During the Bakumatsu period, the 8th daimyō, Yonekura Masakoto, sided with the new Meiji government in the Boshin War of the Meiji Restoration. His domain was renamed Mutsuura Domain in June 1868, to avoid confusion with Kanazawa Domain in Kaga Province. Mutsuura Domain was abolished on July 4, 1871 with the abolition of the han system, becoming Mutsuura Prefecture. On November 14 of the same year, it was assigned to the new Kanagawa Prefecture.

List of ''daimyōs''

#NameTenureCourtesy titleCourt Rankrevenues
1Yonekura Tadasuke1722–1735主計頭Lower 5th 12,000 koku
2Yonekura Satonori1735–1749--12,000 koku
3Yonekura Masaharu1749–1786Tango-no-kamiLower 5th 12,000 koku
4Yonekura Masakata1786–1798Nagato-no-kamiLower 5th 12,000 koku
5Yonekura Masayoshi1798–1803Tango-no-kamiLower 5th 12,000 koku
6Yonekura Masanori1803–1812Tango-no-kamiLower 5th 12,000 koku
7Yonekura Masanaga1812–1860Tango-no-kamiLower 5th 12,000 koku
8Yonekura Masakoto1860–1871Tango-no-kami3rd, Viscount12,000 koku