Ōtawara Domain
History. The Ōtawara clan was a branch of the Nasu clan, and was one of the seven "Gōzoku" samurai bands of the Nasu region of northern Shimotsuke Province. In 1590, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi called upon the Nasu clan to assist in his plan to destroy the Hōjō clan at the Battle of Odawara, the Nasu refused his summons; however, Ōtawara Harukiyo went against his overlord and pledged allegiance to Hideyoshi. In return, he was awarded a 7,000 "koku" holding. In 1600, Ōtawara Harukiyo pledged his forces to Tokugawa Ieyasu and fought a rear-guard action against the Uesugi  clan while Ieyasu was at the Battle of Sekigahara. In return for this action, he was awarded another 5,000 "koku" and was thus admitted into the ranks of the daimyō. The Ōtawara continued to rule these holdings until the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The 3rd daimyō, Ōtawara Takakiyo, gave 1,000 "koku" to his younger brother, reducing the domain to 11,000 "koku". During the Bakumatsu period, the 12th daimyō, Ōtawara Hirokiyo, established a domain academy. The final daimyō, Ōtawara Kazukiyo sided with the imperial forces in the Boshin War, and his castle attacked by pro-Tokugawa Aizu Domain in May  1868. After the Meiji restoration, he was made a viscount ("shishaku") in the "kazoku" peerage system. After the abolition of the han system in July 1871, Ōtawara Domain became part of Tochigi Prefecture. The domain had a population of 12,535 people in 2397 households, of which 608 were samurai per a census in 1870. Holdings at the end of the Edo period. As with most domains in the han system, Ōtawara Domain consisted of several discontinuous territories calculated to provide the assigned "kokudaka", based on periodic cadastral surveys and projected agricultural yields.