Mori Domain (Bungo)

Mori Domain (森藩, Mori-han) was a Japanese domain of the Edo period. It was associated with Bungo Province in modern-day Ōita Prefecture on the island of Kyushu.

Mori Domain
森藩
Domain of Japan
1601–1871
CapitalMori jin'ya
 • TypeDaimyō
Historical eraEdo period
• Established
1601
• Disestablished
1871
Today part ofOita Prefecture

In the han system, Mori was a political and economic abstraction based on periodic cadastral surveys and projected agricultural yields.[1] In other words, the domain was defined in terms of kokudaka, not land area.[2] This was different from the feudalism of the West.

History

The Kurushima family, which ruled Mori during the Edo period, were the descendants of the Kurushima who formed part of the Murakami pirates of the Inland Sea, during the Sengoku period. Kurushima Nagachika (later called Yasuchika) held 14,000 koku of territory at Kijima in Iyo Province. In 1600, he sided with the western army; however, as his wife's uncle was Fukushima Masanori, Honda Masanobu was able to arrange for a special disposition allowing Nagachika's domain and family to remain unmolested. The family was moved to the Mori region of Bungo Province in 1601, and granted the same 14,000 koku of landholding.

The Kurushima family remained as lords of Mori until the Meiji Restoration. During the Boshin War they supported the Kyoto government, and were assigned to guard the abandoned daikansho at Hita (日田). The domain was abolished in 1871, first becoming Mori Prefecture, before being absorbed into Ōita Prefecture, where it remains today. In 1884, the Mori family became shishaku (子爵, viscounts) in the new kazoku nobility system.

The fairy-tale writer Kurushima Takehiko is a descendant of the Kurushima daimyō family.

List of daimyōs

The hereditary daimyōs were head of the clan and head of the domain.

  • Kurushima family, 1601–1871 (tozama; 14,000 → 12,500 koku)
  1. Kurushima Yasuchika
  2. Kurushima Michiharu
  3. Kurushima Michikiyo
  4. Kurushima Michimasa
  5. Kurushima Terumichi
  6. Kurushima Michisuke
  7. Kurushima Michitomo
  8. Kurushima Michihiro
  9. Kurushima Michikata
  10. Kurushima Michiaki
  11. Kurushima Michitane
  12. Kurushima Michiyasu

See also

References
Map of Japan, 1789 – the Han system affected cartography
  1. Mass, Jeffrey P. and William B. Hauser. (1987). The Bakufu in Japanese History, p. 150.
  2. Elison, George and Bardwell L. Smith (1987). Warlords, Artists, & Commoners: Japan in the Sixteenth Century, p. 18.
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