Satake Clan - Edo Era

Edo Era

In 1600, the Satake sided with the Western Army at the Battle of Sekigahara, and were discovered to be in secret communication with Ishida Mitsunari, the leader of the Western Army. After the Western Army's defeat by the Eastern forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the Satake clan was allowed to continue, but was punished. The clan's income level was severely reduced, and in 1602, its territories were moved to Kubota, a much smaller fief in northern Japan, where they remained until 1871.

Kubota's income level was 205,000 koku, and it was classified as an outside (tozama) daimyō. The income level remained constant throughout its history. The domain often had agricultural crises, which resulted in several peasant uprisings throughout the course of its history. It was also beset by an internal o-ie sōdō conflict, the Satake disturbance (佐竹騒動, Satake-sōdō?), which was brought on by financial issues.

Satake Yoshiatsu (better known by his nom-de-plume Satake Shozan), the 8th generation lord of Kubota, was an accomplished artist. Yoshiatsu painted a number of paintings in the Dutch style, and also produced three treatises on European painting techniques, including the depiction of perspective. He was also a student of Dutch studies (rangaku) scholar Hiraga Gennai, who he had invited up to Akita to advise him on management of the domain's copper mines. It was during Yoshiatsu's lifetime that the Akita school (秋田派, Akita-ha?) of art was born and briefly flourished.

The Kubota domain was uncommon in that it contained more than one castle, despite the Tokugawa shogunate's "one castle per domain" rule. The main castle was Kubota Castle, but there were also castles at Yokote and Ōdate, and five fortified estates elsewhere in the domain: Kakudate, Yuzawa, Hiyama, Jūniso, and In'nai. Each of these was given to a senior retainer who ran it as his own small castle town. The senior retainers had personal retainers who resided in these castle towns.

Two of the clan elder (karō) families serving the Kubota domain were branches of the Satake family. One was the North Satake family (Satake-hokke), stipended at 10,000 koku; the other the West Satake family (Satake-nishike), stipended at 7200 koku. The North Satake family had its landholdings around Kakunodate, one of the fortified estates mentioned above; the West Satake resided in and had their landholdings around Ōdate. Another karō family unrelated to the Satake was the Tomura, who held Yokote castle.

During its rule over Kubota, the Satake clan was ranked as a Province-holding daimyō (国持ち大名, kunimochi daimyō?) family, and as such, had the privilege of shogunal audiences in the Great Hall (Ohiroma) of Edo Castle. Though no Satake lord ever held shogunate office, the clan (together with many of the other domains of northern Honshū) assisted the shogunate in policing the frontier region of Ezochi (now Hokkaido).