Mizuno clan
Terasawa Hirotaka, a retainer of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, became lord of Karatsu in 1595. In the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, he joined the forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu and attacked Gifu Castle. He was rewarded with greater lands around Karatsu, forming a dominion of 123,000 "koku". In 1598, he abandoned his original castle of Nagoya Castle, and started work on a new castle at Karatsu, using many materials from the old one, from 1602 1608. The Tokugawa shogunate ordered neighboring "tozama" domains to contribute to its construction, and they did so primarily by excavating its network of moats. In 1637, in part due to his failure to suppress the Shimabara rebellion, his lands were confiscated by the Shogunate. Karatsu Domain was given over to the control of the Ōkubo clan (1649–1678), Matsudaira (Ogyū) clan (1678–1691), the Doi clan (1691–1762), Mizuno clan (1762–1817), until finally coming into the possession of the Ogasawara clan in 1762.