He held this position from 1792 to 1807 and again from 1821 until his death in 1833; in the years between, the bakufu exerted direct control over the whole of Ezo, while the Matsumae clan were relocated to Yanagawa Domain.

[2] Alerted to the question of the northern frontier by the arrival of Russian and British ships (under Adam Laxman and William Robert Broughton respectively), in 1799 the bakufu assumed direct control over eastern Ezo.

[2] Initially the bakufu was to be directly responsible for the area from Urakawa to the Shiretoko Peninsula, and the nearby islands, for a fixed term of seven years; however, since access to this region via Hakodate was still through Domain territory, this caused teething issues for both parties; and so, later that same year, the Domain was asked to relinquish also all the area east from the Shiriuchi River (知内川) on the Oshima Peninsula to Urakawa (i.e., including Hakodate).

[3] His domain thus greatly reduced, Matsumae Akihiro was compensated with the grant of lands in Musashi Province, in what is now Kuki, Saitama Prefecture, to the value of five thousand koku.

[3] In Kyōwa 2 (1802), the bakufu decided to take permanent control of eastern Ezo, establishing the Hakodate bugyō, the Matsumae clan receiving a gift of 3,500 ryō of gold in return.