Ogasawara Tadanobu

Count Ogasawara Tadanobu (小笠原 忠忱, March 8, 1862 – February 6, 1897) was a Japanese samurai daimyo of the late Edo period. He was the head of Kokura Domain.^[1]

Ogasawara clan genealogy

Tadanobu was part of the senior branch of the Ogasawara clan.^[2]

Tadanobu's branch of the clan were daimyō at Kokura Domain (150,000 koku)^[3] in Buzen province.^[2]

He was a (count (伯爵, hakushaku) in the kazoku nobility system. This was because the head of this clan line and his heirs were ennobled in 1884.^[4]

Events of Tadanobu's life

During Tadanobu's tenure as clan head, the Kokura domain took part in the shogunate's Chōshū Expeditions, and also destroyed Kokura Castle. He was assisted in day-to-day affairs by his two karō, Komiya Minbu and Shimamura Shizuma. Komiya was the one who took charge of the burning of Kokura Castle. As the castle was built by the clan's ancestor Ogasawara Tadazane, he committed seppuku in atonement.

For his deployment of troops on the Imperial side during the Boshin War of 1868, Tadanobu received a personal stipend of 5,000 koku from the court.^[5]

In the Meiji era, Tadanobu spent a few years studying in Britain, returning in 1878. He held junior 3rd court rank (jusanmi (従三位)).

References

The emblem (mon) of the Ogasawara clan

Further reading

• Appert, Georges. (1888). Ancien Japon. Tokyo: Imprimerie Kokubunsha.
• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2002). "Ogasawara." Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-00770-3
• Papinot, Jacques Edmund Joseph. (1906) Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du japon. Tokyo: Librarie Sansaisha...Click link for digitized 1906 Nobiliaire du japon (2003)
• Varley, H. Paul. (1965). The Onin War: History of Its Origins and Background with a Selective Translation of the Chronicle of Ōnin New York Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-02943-8 (cloth)

See also

• (Japanese) Biography of Tadanobu (28 Sept. 2007)