Miyazu han (Miyazu domain) (宮津藩)
Miyazu han was one of the han (feudal lord's domain) located in Yosa County, Tango Province, during the Edo period. The headquarters of the han was in Miyazu Castle (Miyazu City, Kyoto Prefecture).
Brief history
In 1600, when Tadaoki HOSOKAWA was transferred to Kyushu after the battle of Sekigahara, Takatomo KYOGOKU entered Tanabe Castle (in Tango Province) from Iida Castle in Shinano Province (Miyazu was the official residential castle that reported to the Bakufu), and controlled the country of Tango (the Tango han domain). Eventually, the foothold was transferred to Miyazu Castle.
Later, the heir Takahiro KYOGOKU was sent into the Miyazu han (domain), Takamitsu KYOGOKU was sent into the Tango-Tanabe han (Maizuru han) and Takamichi KYOGOKU (the lord of the Mineyama domain of Tango Province) was sent into the Mineyama han, thereby placing three hans in Tango.
Therefore, it might be said that Miyazu han was substantially established by Takahiro KYOGOKU. Takakuni KYOGOKU, the child of Takahiro, was condemned by the Edo bakufu in 1666 for misconduct such as misrule and discord within the families, and was deprived of the privilege (the House of Kyogoku as lord of the Miyazu han existed as Koke-Hatamoto).
Through the direct domain of the Edo shogunate, in 1669, Hisamasa NAGAI entered the castle from the Yodo domain of Yamashiro Province. There was a incident wherein Naonaga NAGAI, the second-generation lord who had become a shoshaban (a middleman between attendants to the shogun), was killed in 1680 by Tadakatsu NAITO, the lord of the Toba domain of Shima Province, who became raving mad when the funeral of the family head of the house of the fourth-generation Tokugawa shogun, Ietsuna TOKUGAWA, was held at Zojo-ji Temple. Naonaga had no heir and the family was ultimately deprived of the privilege. Later, his brother Naomaru NAGAI was given 10,000 koku of the Kujira domain of Yamato Province in order to restore the family.
In 1681 Masakuni ABE took over the domain from the Iwatsuki domain of Musashi Province but was transferred to the Utsunomiya domain of Shimotsuke Province in 1697.
In exchange, from the same place, Masashige OKUDAIRA took over the domain and was transferred to the Nakatsu domain in 1717.
Then Yukihide AOYAMA took over the domain from the Shinano Iiyama domain. The second-generation lord Yoshimichi AOYAMA was transferred to the Gujo domain (of Mino Province) in 1758; the lord entered and departed at a dizzying pace.
Sukemasa MATSUDAIRA entered into the domain from the Hamamatsu domain (Totomi Province) with a stipend of 70,000 koku, whereby the house of the domain lord was finally settled. Munemoto HONJO, the original forefather of the Matsudaira (Honjo) clan, was a half-brother of Keisho-in, the biological mother of the fifth shogun Tsunayoshi TOKUGAWA, and was therefore promoted to daimyo (feudal lord), and from Mototoshi MATSUDAIRA, who was the child of Munemoto, the family was allowed to call itself the Matsudaira clan. This family continued for seven generations, and among them there were some who moved into the nerve center to become high officers in the Bakufu: two people became roju (senior councilors), and one person became the magistrate of temples and shrines. In 1868 they fought on the side of the bakufu in the Battle of Toba, Fushimi, but were defeated and thereafter obeyed the Meiji government.
In 1871 it became Miyazu Prefecture by abolishing the han and establishing the prefecture of Toyooka, so that eventually it was incorporated into Kyoto Prefecture.
The domain lord, who was a member of the Matsudaira Honjo clan, was granted a hereditary peerage as viscount in 1884. This is the ancestor of the house of Viscount Honjo.