was daimyō

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...

of Odawara Domain

Odawara Domain

was a Japanese domain of the Edo period, located in western Sagami Province. It was centered on Odawara Castle in what is now the city of Odawara.-History:...

 in Sagami Province

Sagami Province

was an old province in the area that is today the central and western Kanagawa prefecture. It was sometimes called . Sagami bordered on Izu, Musashi, Suruga provinces; and had access to the Pacific Ocean through Sagami Bay...

, (modern-day Kanagawa Prefecture

Kanagawa Prefecture

is a prefecture located in the southern Kantō region of Japan. The capital is Yokohama. Kanagawa is part of the Greater Tokyo Area.-History:The prefecture has some archaeological sites going back to the Jōmon period...

) in early 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....

 Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, 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...

.

Biography

Ōkubo Tadamasu was a son of Ōkubo Tadatomo

Ōkubo Tadatomo

was a daimyō in early Edo period , Japan. He was assigned by the Tokugawa shogunate to Karatsu Domain, Sakura Domain, and finally to Odawara Domain in Sagami Province, , where his descendants remained until the Meiji Restoration....

, daimyō of Odawara Domain. In 1681, he was appointed a Sōshaban

Sōshaban

were officials of the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo period Japan. Conventional interpretations have construed this Japanese title as "master of ceremonies."...

(Master of Ceremonies) at Edo Castle

Edo Castle

, also known as , is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan. It is located in Chiyoda in Tokyo, then known as Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Tokugawa shogunate here. It was the residence of the shogun and location of the shogunate, and also...

, and rose to the position of Jisha-bugyō

Jisha-bugyo

was a "commissioner" or an "overseer" of the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo period Japan. Appointments to this prominent office were always fudai daimyō, the lowest-ranking of the shogunate offices to be so restricted...

on July 22, 1685. On December 18, 1687, he concurrently received the position of wakadoshiyori

Wakadoshiyori

The ', or "Junior Elders", were high government officials in 17th century Tokugawa Japan. The position was established around 1631, but appointments were irregular until 1662....

.

Tadamassa became daimyō of Odawara on the retirement of his father in 1698. In November 1703, the Great Genroku earthquake

1703 Genroku earthquake

The occurred at 02:00 local time on December 31 . The epicenter was near Edo, the forerunner of present-day Tokyo, in the southern part of the Kantō Region, Japan. It shook Edo and an estimated 2,300 people were killed by the shaking and subsequent fires...

 caused severe damage to Edo

Edo

, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...

 and to Odawara

Odawara, Kanagawa

is a city located in western Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2010, the city had an estimated population of 198,466 with a population density of 1,740 persons per km² . The total area was .-Geography:...

, destroying much of Odawara-juku

Odawara-juku

was the ninth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō. It is located in the present-day city of Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It was the first post station in a castle town that travelers came to when they exited Edo in Edo period Japan....

 on the Tōkaidō

Tokaido (road)

The ' was the most important of the Five Routes of the Edo period, connecting Edo to Kyoto in Japan. Unlike the inland and less heavily travelled Nakasendō, the Tōkaidō travelled along the sea coast of eastern Honshū, hence the route's name....

 connecting Edo with Kyoto

Kyoto

is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

. Despite this disaster, on September 21, 1705, Tadamasa was promoted to the position of rōjū

Roju

The ', usually translated as Elder, was one of the highest-ranking government posts in Tokugawa Japan. The term refers either to individual Elders, or to the Council as a whole; under the first two shoguns, there were only two Rōjū...

 under Shogun

Shogun

A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...

 Tokugawa Tsunayoshi

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi

was the fifth shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty of Japan. He was the younger brother of Tokugawa Ietsuna, thus making him the son of Tokugawa Iemitsu, the grandson of Tokugawa Hidetada, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu....

. However, further natural disasters followed. On October 4, 1707, the Great Hoei Earthquake again devastated Edo and Odawara, destroying much of what had been rebuilt from the earlier disaster. This was followed by the Hōei eruption of Mount Fuji

Hoei eruption of Mount Fuji

The started on December 16, 1707 and ended about January 1, 1708 during the Edo period. Although it brought no lava flow, the Hoei eruption released some 800 million cubic meters of volcanic ash, which spread over vast areas around the volcano, even reaching Edo almost 100 km away...

 in December, with volcanic ash

Volcanic ash

Volcanic ash consists of small tephra, which are bits of pulverized rock and glass created by volcanic eruptions, less than in diameter. There are three mechanisms of volcanic ash formation: gas release under decompression causing magmatic eruptions; thermal contraction from chilling on contact...

 raining on Edo and Odawara and repeated earthquakes. The following year the Sakawa River flooded due to sediment build-up resulting from the ash fall, and the crops failed. Some 104 villages in Ashigarakami District

Ashigarakami District, Kanagawa

is an administrative district of Japan located in western Kanagawa Prefecture. Most of the mountainous district is sparsely populated, and is part of the Tanzawa-Ōyama Quasi-National Park.-History:...

 and 59 villages in Suntō District

Sunto District, Shizuoka

is a district located in Shizuoka, Japan. The area is part of former Suruga Province.As of 2009, the district has an estimated population of 93,038 and a density of 543 persons per km². The total area is 171.48 km².-Towns and villages:...

 were rendered uninhabitable. Tadamasu appealed to 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...

 for assistance, and in response, the government annexed the disaster-struck portions of his territories as tenryō under the direct control of the central government, and provided Tadamasa for new territories with an assessed value of 60,000 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...

scattered across the provinces of Izu

Izu Province

was a province of Japan in the area of Shizuoka Prefecture. Izu bordered on Sagami and Suruga Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was .The mainland portion of Izu Province, comprising the Izu Peninsula is today the eastern portion of Shizuoka Prefecture and the Izu Islands are now part of...

, Mimasaka

Mimasaka Province

or was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is today northeastern Okayama Prefecture. Mimasaka bordered Bitchū, Bizen, Harima, Hōki, and Inaba Provinces....

 and Harima

Harima Province

or Banshu was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is the southwestern part of present-day Hyōgo Prefecture. Harima bordered on Tajima, Tamba, Settsu, Bizen, and Mimasaka Provinces. Its capital was Himeji....

. In addition, a special nation-wide tax of two gold ryō for every 100 koku of rice produced raised 480,000 ryō for relief efforts.

Tadamasa died in 1713. The new territories provided by the Shogunate where exchanged back in 1747, but did not regain their former value for another several decades.