Inada clan

• Japanese: 稲田家 (Inada ke)

The Inada clan was the most powerful landed retainer household under the Hachisuka clan of Tokushima han, subinfeudated with lands exceeding 14,000 koku. As karô, they were one of a handful of families eligible for the position of shiokiyaku (domain executor), the chief administrative position beneath the daimyô.

In the early 17th century, the Inada were entrusted with the defense of two castles, Sumoto castle on Awaji Island, and Waki castle in western Tokushima, and were granted lands worth roughly 7,000 koku surrounding each.

Fears of the threat of Western ships or incursions in the early 19th century led to many domains shoring up their defenses. The Inada were granted additional privileges in order to effect such efforts, and were permitted to acquire additional retainers to aid them in the defense of Awaji. By 1842, the Inada went from having roughly 70 of their own retainers (in the early 1800s) to over 1,300. During the Bakumatsu period, they and their sizable band of retainers then came to form a separate faction within Tokushima, actively fighting alongside the Imperial loyalists while the Hachisuka, in order to be cautious, remained neutral; this split between the separatist Inada and their lords is known as the Inada Dispute (Inada sôdô).

References

• Mark Ravina, Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan, Stanford University Press (1999), 65.