Changes

*''Japanese'': 津軽家 ''(Tsugaru-ke)''

*''Japanese'': 津軽家 ''(Tsugaru-ke)''

The Tsugaru of [[Mutsu province]] were at first known as the [[Oura clan|Ôura]] and their origins are unclear but they may have been a branch of the [[Nanbu clan|Nanbu]]. They held [[Oura castle|Ôura castle]] and were vassals of the Nanbu until they rebelled in the Sengoku Period after a period of worsening relations. [[Tsugaru Tamenobu|Tsugaru (Ôura) Tamenobu]] defended his lands against the Nanbu and others and was confirmed in his domains after supporting [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] in the [[Sekigahara Campaign]] ([[1600]]). The Tsugaru resided at [[Hirosaki castle]] until the end of the [[Edo Period]].

The Tsugaru of [[Mutsu province]] were at first known as the [[Oura clan|Ôura]] and their origins are unclear but they may have been a branch of the [[Nanbu clan|Nanbu]]. They held [[Oura castle|Ôura castle]] and were vassals of the Nanbu until they rebelled in the Sengoku Period after a period of worsening relations. Throughout the [[Edo period]], they were lords of [[Hirosaki han]].

 

According to some sources, the clan began with [[Tsugaru Tamenobu|Tsugaru (Ôura) Tamenobu]], who was either the nephew of [[Oura Tamenori|Ôura Tamenori]], or a Nanbu retainer from a minor Nanbu branch house known as the Kuji family, who then betrayed the Nanbu in order to ally with the Ôura. In either case, he married Tamenori's daughter in [[1567]] and thus became heir to the headship of the Ôura clan. Tamenobu claimed distant descent from the [[Fujiwara clan]], and asserted rights to some ancestral claim to the Tsugaru area, fighting the Nanbu clan for it. He pushed the Nanbu out of a handful of important castles and their surrounding areas in a series of campaigns from [[1571]] to [[1585]], by which time he was beginning to see his ranks swell as Nanbu retainers defected to his side.<ref name=rav116>Ravina, 116-117.</ref>

 

 

In the final years of the Sengoku, Tamenobu defended his lands against the Nanbu and others and was confirmed in his domains after supporting [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] in the [[Sekigahara Campaign]] ([[1600]]). The Tsugaru resided at [[Hirosaki castle]] until the end of the Edo Period, originally being invested with an ''[[kokudaka|omotedaka]]'' of 47,000 ''[[koku]]''. This was raised to 70,000 in [[1805]] and to 100,000 in [[1808]], as a reward for the domain's service in defending against [[Russian]] incursions.<ref name=rav116/>

 

By 1700, the domain's actual production was closer to 300,000 ''koku'', but this was never reflected in the official ''omotedaka'' rankings. Despite the clan's wealth, as a result of these humble and confused beginnings, with a clan name that was only established in the 1590s, and origins that may have involved betrayal (some Nanbu sources even suggest that Tamenobu took a castle by poisoning the lord), the Tsugaru clan was never able to achieve ''[[kunimochi]]'' status, or to otherwise be regarded as an elite lineage in the [[Edo period]]. After 1808, however, the clan was granted a number of the privileges enjoyed by those who did officially possess ''kunimochi'' status; for example, from that time forward, the Tsugaru lord was able to sit in the ''ôhiroma'' ("Great Audience Hall") at [[Edo castle]] with the most top-ranking lords, rather than in the ''yanagi no ma'' ("Willow Hall"). [[Tsugaru Yasuchika]] was granted the [[court rank]] of ''jijû'' ("chamberlain") in [[1820]], the highest rank a ''tozama daimyô'' could hold.<ref name=rav116/>

==References==

==References==

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[[Category:Clans]]

[[Category:Clans]]