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is an area comprising the westernmost third of Fukushima Prefecture
Fukushima Prefecture

is a Prefectures of Japan of Japan located in the Tohoku region on the island of Honshu. The capital is the city of Fukushima, Fukushima....
 in Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
. The principal city of the area is Aizu-Wakamatsu
Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima

Aizuwakamatsu is a cities of Japan located in the Aizu region of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.As of 2008, the city has an estimated population of 128,591 and the population density of 335.72 persons per km?....
.

During the Edo period
Edo period

The , or , is a division of History of Japan running from 1603 to 1868. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu....
, Aizu was a feudal domain
Han (Japan)

The , or domains, were the fiefs of feudal lords of Japan that were created by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and existed until their Abolition of the han system in 1871, three years after the Meiji Restoration....
 known as and part of Mutsu province
Mutsu Province

was an old provinces of Japan of Japan, made up of the present-day Prefectures of Japans of Fukushima Prefecture, Miyagi Prefecture, Iwate Prefecture and Aomori Prefecture, and the municipalities of Kazuno, Akita and Kosaka, Akita in Akita Prefecture....
.

ruling family (daimyo
Daimyo

The were powerful territorial lords who ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. The term derives from a shortening of the title , which literally means "great named land" and originally simply referred to the owner of a large estate....
) over much of the Edo period was the Hoshina family, former senior retainers of the Takeda family
Takeda family

The was a famous clan of daimyo in Japan's late Heian Period to Sengoku period.The Takeda were descendants of Emperor Seiwa and are a branch of the Minamoto clan , by Minamoto no Yoshimitsu , brother to the Chinjufu-shogun Minamoto no Yoshiie ....
. In the early 17th century the head of the family, Hoshina Masamitsu, adopted the illegitimate son of the 2nd shogun Tokugawa Hidetada
Tokugawa Hidetada

was the second shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Tokugawa bakufu....
, and as a result, the Hoshina family's fortunes rose, with greater and greater enfeoffments
Enfeoffment

Under the Feudalism, enfeoffment was the deed by which a person was given land in exchange for a pledge of service. This mechanism was later used to avoid restrictions on the passage of title in land by a system in which a landowner would give land to one person for the use of another....
 being given to them until finally they were moved to Aizu in the mid-17th century, which was then rated at 240,000 koku.






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is an area comprising the westernmost third of Fukushima Prefecture
Fukushima Prefecture

is a Prefectures of Japan of Japan located in the Tohoku region on the island of Honshu. The capital is the city of Fukushima, Fukushima....
 in Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
. The principal city of the area is Aizu-Wakamatsu
Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima

Aizuwakamatsu is a cities of Japan located in the Aizu region of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.As of 2008, the city has an estimated population of 128,591 and the population density of 335.72 persons per km?....
.

During the Edo period
Edo period

The , or , is a division of History of Japan running from 1603 to 1868. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu....
, Aizu was a feudal domain
Han (Japan)

The , or domains, were the fiefs of feudal lords of Japan that were created by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and existed until their Abolition of the han system in 1871, three years after the Meiji Restoration....
 known as and part of Mutsu province
Mutsu Province

was an old provinces of Japan of Japan, made up of the present-day Prefectures of Japans of Fukushima Prefecture, Miyagi Prefecture, Iwate Prefecture and Aomori Prefecture, and the municipalities of Kazuno, Akita and Kosaka, Akita in Akita Prefecture....
.

History

The ruling family (daimyo
Daimyo

The were powerful territorial lords who ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. The term derives from a shortening of the title , which literally means "great named land" and originally simply referred to the owner of a large estate....
) over much of the Edo period was the Hoshina family, former senior retainers of the Takeda family
Takeda family

The was a famous clan of daimyo in Japan's late Heian Period to Sengoku period.The Takeda were descendants of Emperor Seiwa and are a branch of the Minamoto clan , by Minamoto no Yoshimitsu , brother to the Chinjufu-shogun Minamoto no Yoshiie ....
. In the early 17th century the head of the family, Hoshina Masamitsu, adopted the illegitimate son of the 2nd shogun Tokugawa Hidetada
Tokugawa Hidetada

was the second shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Tokugawa bakufu....
, and as a result, the Hoshina family's fortunes rose, with greater and greater enfeoffments
Enfeoffment

Under the Feudalism, enfeoffment was the deed by which a person was given land in exchange for a pledge of service. This mechanism was later used to avoid restrictions on the passage of title in land by a system in which a landowner would give land to one person for the use of another....
 being given to them until finally they were moved to Aizu in the mid-17th century, which was then rated at 240,000 koku. Hoshina Masayuki, the adopted head of the family, rose in prominence during the tenure as shogun of his half-brother Tokugawa Iemitsu
Tokugawa Iemitsu

Tokugawa Iemitsu , sometimes Romanisation Iyemitsu, was the third shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate who reigned from 1623 to 1651. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu....
, even acting as a regent for the underage 4th shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna
Tokugawa Ietsuna

was the fourth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan who was in office from 1651 to 1680. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Iemitsu, thus making him the grandson of Tokugawa Hidetada and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu....
. By the end of the 17th century, the Hoshina family was allowed the use of the Tokugawa hollyhock crest and the Matsudaira surname, and from then on was known as the Aizu-Matsudaira clan, with the name Hoshina being used mainly for internal documents.

In the house code set down by Masayuki, there was a specific injunction to serve the Shogun with single-minded devotion, and it was this injunction which the family took great pains to show its adherence to, even if its true objectives were those of improving status and prestige.

Aizu was known for its martial skill, and maintained at any given time, a standing army of over 5000. It was often deployed to security operations on the northern fringes of the country, as far north as southern Sakhalin
Sakhalin

Sakhalin , also Saghalien, is a large elongated island in the North Pacific, lying between 45?50' and 54?24' N. It is part of Russia and is its largest island, administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast....
. Also, in the period immediately before, during, and after Commodore Perry's arrival, Aizu had a presence in security operations around Edo Bay. The domain's two sets of formal rules for its army, the Rules for Commanders (???? shocho kinrei) and Rules for Soldiers (???? shisotsu kinrei), written in the 1790s, were notable in laying down a professional, modern standard for military conduct and operations, including the following two items in the Rules for Soldiers which codified the human rights and protection of enemy noncombatants, over 70 years before the first Geneva Convention of 1864:

  • ????????????????????????
"[When entering] the enemy's territory, trampling and ruining rice fields is forbidden."

  • ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
"When entering enemy territory, it is forbidden to rape women, harm the elderly, desecrate graves, burn commoners' homes, slaughter livestock needlessly, pillage money and rice, fell trees and wood, and pluck feathers."


During the tenure of the 9th generation lord Matsudaira Katamori
Matsudaira Katamori

was a samurai that lived in the Bakumatsu and the early to mid Meiji period. He was the 9th daimyo of the Aizu and the Kyoto Shugoshoku during the Bakumatsu period....
, the domain deployed massive amounts of their troops to Kyoto, where Katamori served as Kyoto Shugoshoku
Kyoto Shugoshoku

The was a Japanese bureaucratic office of the Tokugawa shogunate from 1862 through 1867. The officeholder was responsible for keeping the peace in the city of Kyoto and its environs, and in this role, largely supplanted the extant office of Kyoto Shoshidai, though the two offices existed side by side until 1867, when both were abolished....
. Earning the hatred of the Choshu domain, and alienating his ally, the Satsuma domain, Katamori retreated with the shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu
Tokugawa Yoshinobu

Prince Tokugawa Yoshinobu was the 15th and last shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful....
 in 1868. Though the Satsuma-Choshu controlled Imperial Court, following Yoshinobu's resignation, called for the punishment of Katamori and Aizu as "enemies of the Court," he took great pains to beg for mercy, finally acquiescing to calls for war later in 1868, during the Boshin War
Boshin War

The was a civil war in Japan, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to return political power to the Emperor of Japan....
. Though the Aizu forces fought as part of the greater efforts of the Ouetsu Reppan Domei
Ouetsu Reppan Domei

The Ouetsu Reppan Domei or was a Japanese military-political coalition established and disestablished over the course of several months in early to mid-1868 during the Boshin War....
, they were eventually besieged at Tsuruga Castle, the seat of the Aizu domain, in October 1868.

The Byakkotai
Byakkotai

The was a group of around 305 young, teenage, samurai of the Aizu domain, who fought in the Boshin War....
 ("White Tiger Company") was a group of young, predominantly teenage, samurai
Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of Pre-industrial society Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character ? was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau....
 who committed seppuku
Seppuku

is a form of Japanese Suicide#Ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku was originally reserved only for samurai. Part of the samurai honor code, seppuku was used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies, as a form of capital punishment for samurai who have committed serious offenses, and for reason...
 (a form of ritual suicide) on a hillside overlooking the castle after seeing its defences breached.

The Aizu clan, operating under the orders of the Shogunate, also acted as the first official supervisor and patron of the Shinsengumi
Shinsengumi

The were a special police force of the late shogunate period....
.

Famous people

  • Hideyo Noguchi
    Hideyo Noguchi

    , also known as , was a prominent United States-based Japanese bacteriologist who discovered the agent of syphilis in 1911....
    , a doctor who made considerable contributions to the fight against syphilis and yellow fever. His portrait is currently (2007) featured on the 1,000 yen bill in Japan.
  • Shiba Goro
    Shiba Goro

    was a samurai and later a general in the Imperial Japanese Army....
    , prominent at the Siege of the Peking legations, 1900.
  • Niijima Yae, co-founder of Doshisha University, instructor in the women's division of Doshisha and wife of Niijima Jo (Joseph Hardy Neesima
    Joseph Hardy Neesima

    was a Japanese educator of the Meiji era, the founder of Doshisha University and Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts.Neesima was born in Edo , the son of a retainer of the Itakura clan of Annaka Domain....
    )
  • Yamamoto Kakuma
    Yamamoto Kakuma

    was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period, who went on to become an educator and politician in the Meiji era. A native of Aizu, Kakuma served the Aizu daimyo Matsudaira Katamori during the latter's tenure in Kyoto, and fought at the Hamaguri rebellion and the early stages of the Boshin War ....
    , former samurai, co-founder of Doshisha University.
  • Takamine Hideo
    Takamine Hideo

    was an administrator and educator in Meiji period Japan....
    , former samurai, graduate of Oswego Normal School in New York State, Meiji-era educator and head of the Tokyo Normal School, Tokyo Art School, Tokyo Women's Normal School and Tokyo Music School. He is best known for introducing Pestallozian teaching methods to Japan and educational reform.
  • Ibuka Kajinosuke
    Ibuka Kajinosuke

    was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period, who became a Christian during the Meiji era. He was born in Aizu, and fought in the Boshin War. In his adult life, he also became an ordained minister , and was an educator....
    , former samurai turned Christian pastor, responsible for bringing the YMCA to Japan.
  • Matsudaira Tsuneo
    Matsudaira Tsuneo

    was a Japanese diplomat of the 20th century. The son of Matsudaira Katamori of Aizu, Tsuneo served as Japanese ambassador to the United States and Britain, and later as head of the Imperial Household Agency....
    , son of Matsudaira Katamori, ambassador to the U.S. and UK.
  • Matsudaira Setsuko, daughter of Matsudaira Tsuneo; later married Prince Chichibu no Miya, Emperor Hirohito's brother.
  • Yamakawa Kenjiro
    Yamakawa Kenjiro

    was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period who went on to become a noted physics, university president, and author of several histories of the Boshin War....
    , graduate of Yale University, physicist, researcher, academic administrator, President of Tokyo University and Kyoto University
  • Yamakawa Sutematsu graduate of Vassar College, after marriage to Oyama Iwao, she is known as Oyama Sutematsu, an organizer at the Rokumeikan, supporter of numerous organizations such as the Red-Cross in Japan and Women's Patriotic Society. She assisted in the founding of Tsuda College (which was organized by her close life-long friend Tsuda Umeko)
  • Yamakawa Hiroshi
    Yamakawa Hiroshi

    Baron was a samurai of late Edo period Japan who went on to become a noted general in the early Meiji period Imperial Japanese Army. An Aizu retainer famous for his ingenious strategies against the early Meiji government during the Boshin War to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, he was of the first people from Aizu to write a history of the...
     Brother of Kenjiro and Sutematsu, a famous military leader who defended the domain, later organized Aizu refugees, a key figure in the relief of Kumamoto Garrison during the Seinan War or Satsuma Rebellion and General in the Meiji Era
  • Yamakawa Futaba
    Yamakawa Futaba

    was a Japanese educator of the early Meiji era. Born in Aizu, she was the sister of the karo, Yamakawa Hiroshi; her other siblings included physicist Yamakawa Kenjiro and Meiji-era social figure Oyama Sutematsu....
     a co-worker of Takamine Hideo, head administrator at the Tokyo Women's Normal School, she is best known for her support of women's education
  • Tokugawa Tsunenari
    Tokugawa Tsunenari

    Present head of the main Tokugawa house. His great-grandfather by his birth family was the famed Matsudaira Katamori of Aizu. Tsunenari was active for many years in the shipping company Nippon Yusen, and at present is the head of the nonprofit Tokugawa Foundation....
    , grandson of Matsudaira Tsuneo; current head of the main Tokugawa family.
  • Saigo Tanomo
    Saigo Tanomo

    Saigo Tanomo was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period. Chief senior councilor of the Aizu clan, he achieved fame due to his distinguished action in the Boshin War....
    , former chief councilor of the Aizu clan; later, a teacher of Sokaku Takeda and a chief priest of the Toshogu Shrine.
  • Akabane Shiro, Japanese ambassador to Holland.
  • Akazuka Tanemori, Meiji-era police official.
  • Iwa Uryu, prominent social worker.
  • Suwa Kichiko, philanthropist.
  • Yuki Kunitari, poet.
  • Matsudaira Isao, grandson of Katamori
    Matsudaira Katamori

    was a samurai that lived in the Bakumatsu and the early to mid Meiji period. He was the 9th daimyo of the Aizu and the Kyoto Shugoshoku during the Bakumatsu period....
    , politician, governor of Fukushima Prefecture
    Fukushima Prefecture

    is a Prefectures of Japan of Japan located in the Tohoku region on the island of Honshu. The capital is the city of Fukushima, Fukushima....
     (1976-1988).
  • Akizuki Teijiro
    Akizuki Teijiro

    was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period, who served the Matsudaira clan of Aizu. Born in Aizuwakamatsu, Akizuki was recognized early as a skilled scholar, and studied at the Tokugawa Shogunate's Shoheizaka school, in Edo....
    , Aizu samurai, educator.
  • Kiyoshi Saito
    Kiyoshi Saito

    is a Japanese people football player who has recently played for Roasso Kumamoto.Club Career StatsLast update: 11 January 2009...
    , sosaku hanga
    Sosaku hanga

    The art movement in early 20th century Japan, during the Taisho period and Showa period periods advocated the principles of "self-drawn" , "self-carved" and "self-printed" , according to which the artist, with the desire of expressing the self, is the sole creator of art....
     artist.


List of Aizu daimyo


  • Gamo clan
    Gamo clan

    The was a Japanese clan which claimed descent from the Fujiwara clan.References* ...
     1590-1598 (Tozama
    Tozama

    A was a daimyo who was considered an outsider by the rulers of Japan. The term came into use in the Kamakura period and continued until the end of the Edo period....
    ; 919,000 koku
    Koku

    The is a unit of volume in Japan, equal to ten cubic shaku. In this definition, 3.5937 koku equal one cubic metre, i.e. 1 koku is approximately 278.3 litres....
    )


Name Tenure
1 1590-1595
2 1595-1598


  • Uesugi clan
    Uesugi clan

    The was a Japanese samurai clan, descended from the Fujiwara clan and particularly notable for their power in the Muromachi period and Sengoku periods ....
     1598-1601 (Tozama
    Tozama

    A was a daimyo who was considered an outsider by the rulers of Japan. The term came into use in the Kamakura period and continued until the end of the Edo period....
    ; 1,200,000 koku
    Koku

    The is a unit of volume in Japan, equal to ten cubic shaku. In this definition, 3.5937 koku equal one cubic metre, i.e. 1 koku is approximately 278.3 litres....
    )


Name Tenure
1 1598-1601


  • Gamo clan
    Gamo clan

    The was a Japanese clan which claimed descent from the Fujiwara clan.References* ...
     1601-1627 (Tozama
    Tozama

    A was a daimyo who was considered an outsider by the rulers of Japan. The term came into use in the Kamakura period and continued until the end of the Edo period....
    ; 600,000 koku
    Koku

    The is a unit of volume in Japan, equal to ten cubic shaku. In this definition, 3.5937 koku equal one cubic metre, i.e. 1 koku is approximately 278.3 litres....
    )


Name Tenure
1 1601-1612
2 1612-1627


  • Kato clan 1627-1643 (Tozama
    Tozama

    A was a daimyo who was considered an outsider by the rulers of Japan. The term came into use in the Kamakura period and continued until the end of the Edo period....
    ; 400,000 koku
    Koku

    The is a unit of volume in Japan, equal to ten cubic shaku. In this definition, 3.5937 koku equal one cubic metre, i.e. 1 koku is approximately 278.3 litres....
    )


Name Tenure
1 1627-1631
2 1631-1643


  • Hoshina/Matsudaira clan
    Matsudaira clan

    The was a Japanese clan that claimed descent from the Minamoto clan. It first originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province ....
     1643-1868 (Shinpan
    Shinpan (daimyo)

    The daimyo were certain relatives of the Tokugawa shoguns of Japan. While all shinpan were relatives of the shogun, not all relatives of the shogun were shinpan; an example of this is the Matsudaira clan of the Okutono Domain....
    ; 230,000->280,000 koku
    Koku

    The is a unit of volume in Japan, equal to ten cubic shaku. In this definition, 3.5937 koku equal one cubic metre, i.e. 1 koku is approximately 278.3 litres....
    )


Name Tenure
1 1643-1669
2 1669-1681
3 1681-1731
4 1731-1750
5 1750-1805
6 1805
7 1806-1822
8 1822-1852
9 1852-1868
10 1868