was a Japanese feudal domain of the Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

, located in Hizen Province

Hizen Province

was an old province of Japan in the area of Saga and Nagasaki prefectures. It was sometimes called , with Higo Province. Hizen bordered on the provinces of Chikuzen and Chikugo. The province was included in Saikaidō...

. Ōmura was a tozama domain

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.-Edo period:...

.

Ōmura was settled in ancient times, and was controlled by the Ōmura clan since the 12th century. The Ōmura clan claimed descent from Fujiwara no Sumitomo

Fujiwara no Sumitomo

was a Japanese Heian era court noble and warrior. From 939 to 941 he aided the Taira clan in a series of revolts.Sumitomo built his power base in Northern Kyushu. After making a secret agreement with Taira no Masakado, who was leading a revolt in Shimōsa Province, Sumitomo led his own revolt in Iyo...

 (d. 941). Ōmura Tadazumi, an 8th generation descendant from Fujiwara of Sumitomo, was the first to take the Ōmura name, from the location of his castle and estates. Among his descendants was Ōmura Sumitada

Omura Sumitada

Ōmura Sumitada Japanese daimyo lord of the Sengoku period. He achieved fame throughout the country for being the first of the daimyo to convert to Christianity following the arrival of the Jesuit missionaries in the mid-16th century. Following his baptism, he became known as "Dom Bartolomeu"...

 (1532–1587), one of the Christian daimyo

Kirishitan

, from Portuguese cristão, referred to Roman Catholic Christians in Japanese and is used as a historiographic term for Roman Catholics in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. Christian missionaries were known as bateren or iruman...

 of Kyūshū

Kyushu

is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....

. Sumitada opened the port of Nagasaki

Nagasaki

is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...

 to the Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 and sponsored its development. Following Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

was a daimyo warrior, general and politician of the Sengoku period. He unified the political factions of Japan. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Sengoku period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, named after Hideyoshi's castle...

's campaign against the Shimazu clan

Shimazu clan

The were the daimyō of the Satsuma han, which spread over Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga provinces in Japan.The Shimazu were identified as one of the tozama or outsider daimyō clans in contrast with the fudai or insider clans which were hereditary vassals or allies of the Tokugawa clan,The Shimazu were...

, the Ōmura were confirmed in their holdings, though Nagasaki was taken from the Jesuits and made into a chokkatsu-ryō, or direct landholding, of the Toyotomi administration. His son, Ōmura Yoshiaki

Omura Yoshiaki

was a ruling head of the clan of Omura throughout the latter Sengoku Period of Feudal Japan. As Yoshiaki was the respective son of Omura Sumitada, he followed his father in succession at some variable time, at which relations with the Jesuits and trade with the Portuguese had been already firmly...

 (1568–1615) sided with Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu

 was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan , which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara  in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received appointment as shogun in 1603, abdicated from office in 1605, but...

 at the Battle of Sekigahara

Battle of Sekigahara

The , popularly known as the , was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 which cleared the path to the Shogunate for Tokugawa Ieyasu...

, but was forced to give up his domains to his son, Ōmura Sumiyori (d. 1619). Sumiyori had been baptized like his father and grandfather, but with the promulgation of the edicts banning Christianity, he became an apostate and persecuted the Christians in his domain. The Ōmura thus gained the trust of the Tokugawa Shogunate

Tokugawa shogunate

The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...

, and were confirmed in their holdings of 27,900 koku

Koku

The is a Japanese unit of volume, equal to ten cubic shaku. In this definition, 3.5937 koku equal one cubic metre, i.e. 1 koku is approximately 278.3 litres. The koku was originally defined as a quantity of rice, historically defined as enough rice to feed one person for one year...

until the Meiji Restoration

Meiji Restoration

The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...

.

The final daimyo

Daimyo

is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...

, Ōmura Sumihiro

Omura Sumihiro

was the 13th and final daimyo of Ōmura Domain in Hizen Province, Kyūshū, Japan. His courtesy title was Tango-no-kami.-Biography:Sumihiro was born at Kushima Castle, the ancestral Ōmura residence in Hizen, as the 10th son of Ōmura Sumiyoshi, the 10th daimyo of Ōmura...

, was initially a strong supporter of the Tokugawa government, and was entrusted with the position of Nagasaki bugyō

Nagasaki bugyo

were officials of the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo period Japan. Appointments to this prominent office were usually fudai daimyō, but this was amongst the senior administrative posts open to those who were not daimyō...

 in 1862. However, he defected to the Sonnō jōi

Sonno joi

is a Japanese political philosophy and a social movement derived from Neo-Confucianism; it became a political slogan in the 1850s and 1860s in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, during the Bakumatsu period.-Origin:...

 side in 1864, and joined with the Satchō Alliance

Satcho Alliance

The ', or Satchō Alliance was a military alliance between the feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū formed in 1866 to combine their efforts to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan....

 in 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 imperial court....

. In 1871, with the abolition of the han system

Abolition of the han system

The was an act, in 1871, of the new Meiji government of the Empire of Japan to replace the traditional feudal domain system and to introduce centralized government authority . This process marked the culmination of the Meiji Restoration in that all daimyo were required to return their authority...

, Ōmura domain became part of the new Nagasaki Prefecture.

His son, Ōmura Sumio was elevated to the rank of viscount

Viscount

A viscount or viscountess is a member of the European nobility whose comital title ranks usually, as in the British peerage, above a baron, below an earl or a count .-Etymology:...

 (shishaku) in the kazoku

Kazoku

The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan that existed between 1869 and 1947.-Origins:Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the ancient court nobility of Kyoto regained some of its lost status...

peerage system in 1884, and further elevated to count

Count

A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...

 (hakushaku) in 1891. However, as he had no son, he adopted his son-in-law, the son of Shimazu Tadahiro to be his heir.

The former Ōmura domain is now part of Ōmura city

Omura, Nagasaki

is a city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. As of January 1, 2009, the city has an estimated population of 89,891. The total area is 126.33 km², and includes Nagasaki Airport.-History:...

, Nagasaki Prefecture

Nagasaki Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. The capital is the city of Nagasaki.- History :Nagasaki Prefecture was created by merging of the western half of the former province of Hizen with the island provinces of Tsushima and Iki...

.

List of daimyo

• Ōmura clan

	Name	Tenure	Courtesy title	Court Rank
1		1587–1616	Tangō-no-kami	Lower 5th (従五位下)
2		1616–1619	Minbu-daisuke	Lower 5th (従五位下)
3		1620–1651	Tangō-no-kami	Lower 5th (従五位下)
4		1651–1706	Inaba-no-kami	Lower 5th (従五位下)
5		1706–1712	Chikugo-no-kami	Lower 5th (従五位下)
6		1712–1727	Ise-no-kami	Lower 5th (従五位下)
7		1727–1748	Kawachi-no-kami	Lower 5th (従五位下)
8		1748–1761	Danjō-shōhitsu	Lower 5th (従五位下)
9		1761–1803	Shinano-no-kami	Lower 5th (従五位下)
10		1803–1836	Tangō-no-kami	Lower 5th (従五位下)
11		1835–1847	Tangō-no-kami	Lower 5th (従五位下)
12		1847–1871	Tangō-no-kami	Lower 5th (従五位下)
XX	Ōmura Sumio	大村純雄