Ōno Domain

After both the Asakura and the Ikkō-ikki were destroyed by Oda Nobunaga in 1575, he assigned the area to his general Kanamori Nagachika under the regional control of Shibata Katsuie.

Kanamori was subsequently promoted to governor of Hida Province in 1586, and the area was assigned by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to Aoki Kazunori followed by Oda Hidekatsu.

After the Battle of Sekigahara, the entire province of Echizen was assigned by Tokugawa Ieyasu to his second son, Yūki Hideyasu in 1601 as Fukui Domain.

In 1624, Fukui Domain was divided, with Yūki Hideyasu's third son, Matsudaira Naomasa being awarded a 55,000 koku fief centered at Ōno.

Throughout its history, Ōno suffered from severe financial problems; however, Doi Toshitada (1811-1869) implemented substantial reforms and introduced rangaku and western technology.

Although a small domain, Ōno was noted in the Bakumatsu period for its westernised army and its han school.

Although the eldest son, he was born to a concubine and was raised by a retainer after the birth of his younger brother Toshiyoshi to Toshifusa's official wife; however, on his father's death in 1683, he inherited the title of daimyō.

When Honda Shigemasu of Maruoka Domain was dispossessed by the shogunate in 1695, he was assigned to oversee the transfer, and in 1696 he was appointed to the post of Osaka Kaban.

Toshihiro was the eldest son of Doi Toshitomo and was born at the domain's residence in Mejirodai, Edo.

Toshisada was the eldest son of Doi Toshihiro and was born to a concubine at the domain's residence in Sugikaibashi, Edo.

He became daimyō on the death of his father in 1745; however, due to his age, domain affairs were managed by senior retainers during his minority.

He was appointed Osaka kaban in 1759; however, through the remaining years of his tenure, the domain suffered from fires, repeated crop failures and continuing financial crisis, cumulated in a peasant revolt from 1787 to 1789.

He also reformed the domain's legal codes and finances, and established a network of stores throughout central Japan for trading goods and lending money.

Although the domain was landlocked, he also purchased ships and was a major force in the Edo period development of Karafuto (Sakhalin).

In 1864, the domain used a scorched earth strategy to keep the forces of the Mito Rebellion from crossing into its territory, burning down hundreds of houses and farms near its border, and thus creating much resentment by the local inhabitants.

In 1865, with the start of the Boshin War, the domain quickly defeated to the Imperial side, and sent its forces to participate in the Battle of Hakodate.