Tsuruga Domain

Overview

Tsuruga Domain (敦賀藩, Tsuruga-han) was a fudai domain of Edo-period Japan, held by a family of hereditary Tokugawa vassals. It was established in 1682, the second year of the Tenna era (天和, Tenna), and was abolished in 1870. The domain lay in Echizen Province (越前国, Echizen-no-kuni), on the Sea of Japan coast of the Hokuriku region of Honshū, and was administered from Tsuruga, at the site of what is now the city of Tsuruga in Fukui Prefecture. It was also known as Mariyama Domain (鞠山藩, Mariyama-han).

History

The domain's founding date of 1682 places it in the middle of the Edo period (1603–1868), the long peace during which the Tokugawa shogunate governed through some two hundred and sixty semi-autonomous domains. Tsuruga was a fudai domain — one held by a lord who had been a hereditary retainer of the Tokugawa house before 1600, as opposed to the tozama lords who had submitted only after the Battle of Sekigahara. Fudai domains were typically small and were placed at strategic points to secure the shogunate's control of the country.

Tsuruga's position on the Japan Sea coast gave it a role in the coastal trade and in the movement of goods between the Kansai region and the provinces to the north. The domain survived for nearly two centuries, from 1682 until 1870. Its end came in the first years of the Meiji era, when the new government dismantled the domain system and replaced the domains with prefectures; Tsuruga was abolished as a domain in 1870.

Territory and Influence

The domain was centred on Tsuruga, a port town on the coast of Echizen Province. Its administrative seat was a jin'ya (陣屋, jin'ya), a fortified headquarters of the kind used by smaller domains that did not maintain a full castle. The jin'ya stood in the centre of the present-day city of Tsuruga, at roughly 35.68° north, 136.08° east.

As a small fudai holding, Tsuruga's influence was local rather than national. Its value to the shogunate lay in its location: a port on the Japan Sea coast, positioned on the routes that linked the Kansai heartland with the provinces along the northern coast. The domain's second name, Mariyama, refers to a place associated with the ruling family's seat; the domain is recorded under both names.

The Name in Japanese

The domain's name is written 敦賀藩. Its kana reading is つるがはん, and its romanised form is Tsuruga-han.

The name breaks down into three characters:

• 敦 — read つる (tsuru) in this word. The character carries the sense of "kind," "sincere," or "cordial," and it is the first element of the place name Tsuruga.
• 賀 — read が (ga) in this word. It means "congratulation" or "rejoicing," and it is the second element of the place name. Together, 敦賀 (Tsuruga) is the name of the port town and of the domain.
• 藩 — read はん (han) in this word. It means "domain" or "fief," and it is the standard suffix for a daimyō's territory in the Edo period. The same character appears in the names of every domain of the era, from the largest to the smallest.

The alternative name, 鞠山藩 (Mariyama-han), uses 鞠 (mari, "ball") and 山 (yama, "mountain"), followed by the same suffix 藩.

Legacy

Tsuruga Domain no longer exists as an administrative unit, but its name survives in the place names of the city of Tsuruga, and the site of its jin'ya lies in the centre of the modern city. The domain's two-century existence, from 1682 to 1870, spans almost exactly the mature Edo period and its dissolution, and it is remembered as one of the small fudai domains that anchored the shogunate's control of the Japan Sea coast.