Takada Domain-The Daily Ledger

, was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It was located in Echigo Province, in the Hokuriku region of Honshū. The domain was centered at Takada Castle, located in what is now part of the city of Jōetsu in Niigata Prefecture. It was also known as .

History

During the Sengoku period, the area around Takada was controlled by the Uesugi clan. After Toyotomi Hideyoshi relocated Uesugi Kagekatsu to Aizu, he assigned the area to one of his generals, Hori Hideharu, who had distinguished himself in various battles. During the Battle of Sekigahara, Hori sided with Tokugawa Ieyasu; however as Echigo Province had many supporters and former retainers of the Uesugi clan, he was ordered to remain in Echigo on guard duty. After the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate, his son Hori Tadatoshi faced any problems with restless peasants, religious disputes, and an internal family dispute which resulted in his dispossession and exile.

Takada Domain

He was replaced by Matsudaira Tadateru, the 6th son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who built Takada Castle. This also served to strengthen the position of the shogunate against the powerful tozama Maeda clan of Kanazawa Domain. However, in 1616 Matsudaira Tadateru fell from favour with Tokugawa Hidetada at the Siege of Osaka and was dispossessed. The domain was then much reduced in kokudaka and assigned to a number of fudai clans. A junior branch of the Sakai clan briefly ruled Takada from 1616 to 1618, followed by Matsudaira Tadamasa from 1619-1623. Takada was then assigned to Matsudaira Mitsunaga, from another branch of the same Echizen-Matsudaira clan, from 1618 to 1681. This gave Takada a period of much-needed stability; however, he was also dispossessed following an O-Ie Sōdō. Takada was then ruled as tenryō territory directly by the Tokugawa shogunate from 1681-1685.

Takada Domain

Takada Domain was revived in 1685 for Inaba Masamichi, who ruled until his transfer to Sakura Domain in 1707. He was followed by Toda Tadazane, formerly of Sakura Domain, who held the post to his transfer to Utsunomiya Domain in 1710. Takada was then assigned to a junior branch of the Hisamatsu-Matsudaira clan, who ruled uneventfully from 1710 until their transfer to Shirakawa Domain in 1741.

Takada Domain

Sakakibara Masazumi was transferred from Himeji Domain in 1741 at the age of six as punishment for issues created by his father, Sakakibara Masamine. Although the Sakakibara clan continued to rule Takada through the Meiji Restoration in 1868, it faced an early crisis with the death of Sakakibara Masazumi before his formal audience with the Shōgun. To avoid the possibility of attainder, the clan secretly substituted Masazumi with his younger brother Sakakibara Masanaga and kept the death a secret. The Sakaibara ruled Takada with relative stability though the rest of the Edo period. During the Boshin War, Sakakibara Masataka the 6th (and final) Sakakibara daimyō of Takada sided with the imperial cause, and after the Aizu War, many of the former samurai from Aizu were exiled to Takada. The head of the Sakakibara clan was ennobled with the title of viscount in the kazoku peerage system.

Bakumatsu period holdings

As with most domains in the han system, Takada Domain consisted of several discontinuous territories calculated to provide the assigned kokudaka, based on periodic cadastral surveys and projected agricultural yields.