Hachisuka Narihiro

• Birth: 1821
• Death: 1868
• Japanese: 蜂須賀斉裕 (Hachisuka Narihiro)

Hachisuka Narihiro was the penultimate lord of Tokushima han.

The 22nd child of Shogun Tokugawa Ienari, Narihiro was adopted into the Hachisuka clan in 1827, and became lord of Tokushima in 1843.

Through much of the disputes of the Bakumatsu period, Narihiro maintained a position of compromise and conciliation between the Tokugawa shogunate and Imperial factions. He resisted shogunal requests to dispatch troops to attack Chôshû on several occasions, but also did not dispatch troops in support of the Imperial loyalists. During the second Chôshû expedition, Tokushima eventually did send troops, but the battle ended before they reached the front; following the Imperial victories in the battle of Toba-Fushimi in 1868, Narihiro dispatched troops to Tôhoku to aid the Imperial faction, but ultimately played only a minor role in the events surrounding the Meiji Restoration & the Boshin War.

Following his death in 1868, Narihiro was succeeded by Hachisuka Mochiaki, who served as governor of Tokushima until the abolition of the han in 1871.

Preceded by: Hachisuka Narimasa

Lord of Tokushima 1843-1868

Succeeded by: Hachisuka Mochiaki

References

• Mark Ravina, Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan, Stanford University Press (1999), 192.