During the Sengoku period, the area of Kariya Domain was part of the territory of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s mother’s family, the Mizuno clan.
However, Mizuno Katsunari, the grandson of Tadamasa was allowed to return to the clan’s ancestral territories by Ieyasu after the Battle of Sekigahara.
He was later awarded with more lucrative territories in western Japan, and replaced by Mizuno Tadakiyo from another branch of the clan based at Obata Domain in Kōzuke Province.
The next-to-last daimyō of Kariya Domain, Doi Toshiyoshi, despite holding several important posts within the administration of the Tokugawa shogunate, gave shelter to the rebels from the Tenchūgumi Incident and was forced to resign.
His adopted son Doi Toshinori presided over a domain in a state of civil war between pro-shogunate and pro-sonnō jōi forces during the Boshin War and was unable to fulfill his assigned duty to hold Sumpu Castle for the shogunate.