Sakura Domain

Sakura Domain was originally created for Takeda Tadateru, the fifth son of Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1593, near the site of an ancient castle of the Chiba clan, which had fallen into ruins in the early Sengoku period.

The domain subsequently passed through a bewildering number of hands during the 1600s, before coming under the control of the Hotta clan in the mid-18th century.

During the Bakumatsu period, Hotta Masayoshi was one of the major proponents of rangaku and an ending to the country’s national isolation policy.

His son, Hotta Masatomo was a key supporter of the Tokugawa shogunate in the early stages of the Boshin War.

After the Meiji Restoration, he was pardoned, and eventually made a count (hakushaku) in the kazoku peerage.