Ashikaga Domain

The Ashikaga clan which ruled Japan during the Muromachi period established a branch government at their ancestral homeland of Ashikaga shōen in Shimotsuke to govern the Kantō region. However, by the late Sengoku period, this branch of the Ashikaga were very much weakened by the constant battles against the Uesugi clan, Takeda clan and Odawara Hojo clan, and were eventually dispossessed after the 1590 Battle of Odawara.

In 1688, Shōgun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi elevated his mother’s half-brother, Honjō Munesuke, to the rank of daimyō and assigned him a 10,000 koku territory on the former Ashikaga lands. He was later awarded an increase to 20,000 koku before being transferred to Kasama Domain in Hitachi Province in 1692.

In 1705, despite his somewhat advanced age, the hatamoto Toda Tadatoki received an additional 3000 koku in addition to his existing 8000 koku by Shōgun Tokugawa Ienobu as a reward for his long service, and Ashikaga domain was revived. The Toda continued to rule Ashikaga until the end of the Edo period. The final daimyō, Toda Tadayuki served the Tokugawa shogunate as Rikugun bugyō, but later switched allegiance to the pro-imperial cause in the Boshin war of the Meiji restoration.

After the abolition of the han system in July 1871, Ashikaga Domain became part of Tochigi Prefecture.

The domain had a population of 6,826 people in 1473 households, of which 383 were samurai in 106 households per a census in 1870.[1]

As with most domains in the han system, Ashikaga Domain consisted of several discontinuous territories calculated to provide the assigned kokudaka, based on periodic cadastral surveys and projected agricultural yields.[2][3]

• Shimotsuke Province
  • 7 villages in Tsuga District
  • 3 villages in Yanada District
  • 9villages in Ashikaga District
• Musashi Province
  • 5 villages in Saitama District

• Papinot, E (1910). Historical and Geographic Dictionary of Japan. Tuttle (reprint) 1972.

• (in Japanese) Ashikaga on "Edo 300 HTML"