Tsugaru Nobumasa

Tsugaru Nobumasa (津軽 信政, August 28, 1646 – December 8, 1710) was the 4th daimyō of Hirosaki Domain in northern Mutsu Province, Honshū, Japan (modern-day Aomori Prefecture). His courtesy title was Etchū-no-kami.

Biography

Tsugaru Nobumasa was the eldest son of Tsugaru Nobuyoshi, 3rd daimyō of Hirosaki Domain. He was still 9 years old when his father died, and his uncle Tsugaru Nobufusa acted as regent until this coming of age. Of scholarly disposition, he studied in Edo under the great Confucian scholar Yamaga Sokō, and the kokugaku scholar Yamakawa Koretari. On assuming power in Hirosaki, he embarked on a large public works program, enlarging the castle town, developing the forestry industry, developing new paddy fields, irrigation, and inviting over 40 cultural figures to settle in Hirosaki to raise its level of culture. His military forces were also called to Ezo by the Tokugawa bakufu in the suppression of Shakushain's Revolt, an Ainu uprising against Japanese rule.

However, in 1695 a crop failure resulted in famine in the Tsugaru area, and Hirosaki Domain lost 30,000 people. Nobumasa had 5 sons and 26 daughters. He died on December 8, 1710 and his grave is at the Takateru Jinja in Hirosaki. Nobumasa was succeeded by his eldest son, Tsugaru Nobuhisa.

See also

• Tsugaru clan

References

• (in Japanese) "Hirosaki-jō" (17 Feb. 2008)
• (in Japanese) "Tsugaru-han" on Edo 300 HTML (17 Feb. 2008)
• The content of much of this article was derived from that of the corresponding article on Japanese Wikipedia.