Fukui Domain

In the Sengoku period, the area around Fukui was known as Kita-no-sho, and controlled by Shibata Katsutoyo, the adopted son of Shibata Katsuie, one of Oda Nobunaga's leading generals, after the Asakura clan was dispossessed by Shibata Katsuie. After Shibata Katsutoyo died of illness during the Battle of Shizugatake in 1583, the area was given to the Aoyama clan. However, the Aoyama sided with the Western Army under Ishida Mitsunari during the Battle of Sekigahara and were thus dispossessed by the victorious Tokugawa Ieyasu. In 1601, Ieyasu awarded Echizen Province to his second son, Yūki Hideyasu as a 670,000 koku fief. Yūki Hideyasu was permitted to change his name to Matsudaira Hideyasu, and he rebuilt Fukui Castle and the surrounding jōkamachi as his capital.[2] His son, Matsudaira Tadanao was of violent disposition and was on bad terms with Shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada, and was consequently dispossessed and banished to Kyushu. He was replaced by his younger brother, Matsudaira Tadamasa, with a reduction in kokudaka to 500,000 koku. His descendants continued to rule over Fukui until the end of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Under Tadamasa's successor, Matsudaira Mitsumichi, the domain was reduced further with the creation of subsidiary domains as Yoshie Domain and Echizen-Maruoka Domain. the domain was plagued with financial difficulties through most of its history, due to frequent flooding, crop failure, epidemics and the profligate spending of its daimyō. In 1661, Fukui became the first han to issue hansatsu (domain paper money).[2]

In 1686, the domain faced a succession crisis and O-Ie Sōdō with the removal of Matsudaira Tsunamasa due to insanity was reduced from 475,000 koku to 250,000 koku.[3] A number of the later daimyō of Fukui were adopted into the clan from the Hitotsubashi-Tokugawa family, one of the Gosankyō, the three lesser branches of the Tokugawa clan.

During the Bakumatsu period, Matsudaira Yoshinaga (better known as Matsudaira Shungaku), was one of the leading political figures in the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate. The final daimyō of Fukui was Matsudaira Mochiaki, who served as imperial governor under the Meiji government until the abolition of the han system in 1871 and the creation of modern Fukui Prefecture.

Like most domains in the han system, Fukui Domain consisted of several discontinuous territories calculated to provide the assigned kokudaka, based on periodic cadastral surveys and projected agricultural yields,[6][7]

• Echizen Province
  • 158 villages in Asuwa District
  • 136 villages in Yoshida District
  • 57 villages in Nanjō District
  • 57 villages in Imadate District
  • 93 villages in Nyū District
  • 8 villages in Ōno District
  • 168 villages in Sakai District

In addition, Fukui Domain administered the extensive tenryō territories in Echizen Province on behalf of the Tokugawa shogunate, deriving substantial revenue from these holdings, which were not counted as part of its nominal kokudaka.

• List of Han

Media related to Fukui Domain at Wikimedia Commons

• "Fukui" at Edo 300 Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine (in Japanese)
• 越前松平氏 (Echizen Matsudaira) at ReichsArchiv.jp (in Japanese)