Tsugaru Nobuyuki

• Died: 1862

Tsugaru Nobuyuki was the tenth Edo period lord of Hirosaki han. He succeeded his father Tsugaru Yasuchika as daimyô in 1825.

Nobuyuki was known for his lavish lifestyle and extravagant spending, as was his father. He married Tayasu Kanehime, niece of Shogun Tokugawa Ienari, in 1821, an event which put a serious drain on domain finances.

After becoming lord of Hirosaki in 1825, he developed a reputation for spending time with prostitutes, coming to be referred to as "lord nighthawk" (yataka donosama). His karô Kasahara Hachirobei is said to have been only an encouragement, and not a check, against the lord's lavish spending; he was the same under Yasuchika as well. In 1830, a faction headed by domainal financial magistrate (kanjô bugyô) Ogasawara Ryôhachi, managed to get Hachirobei dismissed from office and placed under house arrest. Further, Hachirobei's son Kasahara Ômi, was demoted in position. This faction then immediately began taking a series of dramatic steps to curtail domain spending, beginning with closing a number of Edo mansions, and cutting the number of castle staff.

The Tenpô Famine presented an opportune excuse for Kasahara Ômi to point fingers at this reform faction, accusing their austerity policies of causing or worsening the famine. Ômi convinced Nobuyuki that Ogasawara and his faction were betrayers, and in 1833/11, the daimyô had the leaders of the faction dismissed from office and placed under house arrest. A month later, on 1833/12/26, he had Ogasawara and two of his fellows executed. Ômi inherited the domain's problems, however, as he replaced the reform faction in their position of power in the domain, and in 1836, as a result of his failures to adequately address various problems, he was stripped of his position and stipend as well.

Three years later, in 1839, terribly weakened politically by the various in-fighting, Nobuyuki adopted Tsugaru Yukinori (three months his elder) of the branch domain of Kuroishi han to be his heir. Later that same year, in 1839/5, he retired in favor of Yukinori, who then took the name Tsugaru Yukitsugu.

Preceded by: Tsugaru Yasuchika

Lord of Hirosaki 1825-1839

Succeeded by: Tsugaru Yukitsugu

References

• Mark Ravina, Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan, Stanford University Press (1999), 147-150.