Odawara Domain - History

History

Following the defeat of the Late Hōjō clan in the Battle of Odawara by the forces of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1590, their vast territories in the Kantō region were assigned to Tokugawa Ieyasu. Ieyasu selected Edo to be the headquarters of his new domains, and assigned his close retainer, Ōkubo Tadayo to rebuild Odawara Castle and to rule as a daimyō over the strategically important post town and to guard the approaches to Edo from the west via the Hakone Pass. Ōkubo Tadayo’s territory included 147 villages in Ashigarakami and Ashigarashimo districts with total revenues of 40,000 koku. His son Tadachika served in the Tokugawa shogunate as a rōjū and had his revenues increased by 20,000 koku with additional territories in Musashi Province.

The domain then passed to Abe Masatsugu, former castellan of Otaki Castle in Shimosa Province. After a four-year tenure, he was transferred to Iwatsuki Domain in Musashi and was replaced at Odawara by Inaba Masakatsu, formerly of Masaoka Domain in Shimotsuke Province. Masashige was the son of 3rd Tokugawa Shōgun Iemitsu’s wet nurse Kasuga no Tsubone and played an important role in the Tokugawa administration. His two sons ruled Odawara after his death, before being transferred to Takada Domain in Echigo Province.

Odawara then reverted to the Ōkubo clan, when Ōkubo Tadatomo was transferred from Sakura Domain in Kazusa Province. Tadatomo was the great-great-grandson of Ōkubo Tadayo, and the domain remained in the hands of his descendants until the Meiji Restoration.

In 1707, the Hōei eruption of Mount Fuji devastated much of the lands of the domain, and much of the original domain became tenryō under direct control of the Shōgunate, with Odawara Domain compensated by equivalent lands in other parts of Sagami, Musashi, Harima and Izu Province.

During the Bakumatsu period, the Shōgunate relied on troops from Odawara to maintain a guard on the increasing foreign presence in Izu Peninsula, particularly Shimoda and Heda.

After the Meiji Restoration, the final daimyō of Odawara, Ōkubo Tadayoshi surrendered his domain to the new Meiji government without resistance. After the abolition of the han system in July 1871, Odawara Domain became “Odawara Prefecture”, which merged with “Ogino-Yamanaka Prefecture” and part of “Niirayama Prefecture” in September 1871. In November of the same year, it merged into the short-lived Ashigara Prefecture.