Fukui Domain (1/2)The Echizen Matsudaira family continued to rule until the Meiji period.

The Fukui domain ruled the center of what is now Reihoku, Fukui prefecture. The domain office was Fukui Castle, which was ruled by the Echizen Matsudaira family, whose founder was Hideyasu Yuki, the second son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, from the opening of the domain until the Meiji Restoration. Let's unravel the history of the Fukui clan.

From the establishment of the Fukui domain to the third lord Mitsunaga

Echizen, which included the Fukui domain, was given to Hideyasu Yuki, the second son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who achieved the greatest military success in the Battle of Sekigahara.
At this time, Hideyasu Yuki was given the entire Echizen area and had a total of 670,000 koku.

Hideyasu Yuki, with the help of his father, Tokugawa Ieyasu, built Fukui Castle on the site of Kitanosho Castle, which was built by Katsuie Shibata and destroyed in a fire.
In addition, in 1604, he was allowed to use the Matsudaira surname and established the Echizen Matsudaira family.
However, he died at the young age of 34 in 1609.

His eldest son, Tadanao Matsudaira, became the second lord of the domain, but in 1612, the Echizen Riot broke out, causing a feud between senior vassals. The Echizen Riots even led to armed conflicts between senior vassals, and Matsudaira Tadanao was unable to resolve the situation alone, so Tokugawa Ieyasu and the second shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada, personally resolved the situation.

Afterwards, Naotada Matsudaira won the title of Shigenobu Sanada during the Summer Campaign in Osaka, and accomplished military feats such as attacking Osaka Castle, but he became dissatisfied with the reward and began to engage in promiscuous behavior. Therefore, the second shogun, Hidetada Tokugawa, ordered Naotada Matsudaira to retire in 1623, and he was later banished to Oita Prefecture.

Tadanao Matsudaira's son, Lord Mitsunaga Matsudaira, is not recognized by the shogunate as an official lord of the domain. He was the eldest son of Tadanao Matsudaira, the second lord of the domain, but just before his inheritance was approved, he was protected by the shogunate and became the lord of the Takada domain, which was separated from the Fukui domain. However, the Echigo Riots broke out due to succession issues after the death of the eldest son, and the fourth shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi personally settled this as well.
After that, Mitsunaga Matsudaira was exiled.
Furthermore, he later returned to the lordship and lived a long life to the age of 93, although his life was full of restrictions.

From the third lord, Tadamasa Matsudaira, to the end of the Edo period

The third lord of the domain, Tadamasa Matsudaira, was the second son of the first lord of the domain, Hideyasu Yuki, and the half-brother of Tadanao Matsudaira.
It is said that he was a strong-willed man who excelled in military prowess, and there is a legend that he accompanied Hidetada Tokugawa during the Osaka Winter Siege, went to battle with his older brother Tadanao Matsudaira, and achieved more than 50 ranks.
Tadamasa Matsudaira renamed Echizen, which had previously been called Kitanosho, to Fukui.

In 1623, when Tadanao Matsudaira, the second lord of the domain, was exiled, he was ordered by the shogunate to become the lord of Echizen Hokusho (Fukui), a domain of 500,000 koku. As a result, the amount of koku for the Fukui domain will be reduced from 670,000 koku to 500,000 koku.
Tadamasa Matsudaira, who became the feudal lord, focused on developing new rice fields and improving the transportation network, and although he was plagued by famine and disasters many times, he and his vassals successfully survived them.

Mitsumichi Matsudaira, the fourth lord of the domain, became lord at the age of 10 upon the death of his father, Tadamasa Matsudaira. At that time, according to his father's will, he divided the Fukui domain into the Matsuoka domain, Yoshie domain, and other domains and distributed them to his younger brothers. At the same time, he invited the Neo-Confucian scholar Ito Tan'an from Kyoto to promote liberal arts centered on Confucianism and to develop the domain in academic and cultural fields. However, during this period, the Fukui domain was repeatedly struck by natural disasters, and the domain's governance deteriorated. In the first year of Kanbun (1661), the Fukui domain issued han bills with the permission of the shogunate, but this is said to be the first han bill in history, and in 1670, a great fire broke out in Fukui Castle. , the castle tower of Fukui Castle was destroyed by fire, and it was never rebuilt after that.

Furthermore, Matsudaira Mitsumichi was overwhelmed by the stress of his legal wife's suicide, the early death of his eldest son, and the pressure from his relatives, and finally committed suicide after making a will to hand over the headship of the family to his younger illegitimate younger brother, Masachika Matsudaira.
This caused the Fukui clan to further reduce the amount of kokudaka.

The sixth lord of the domain, Matsudaira Tsunamasa, soon became known for his eccentric behavior and failed to deal with the famine, so he was ordered to live in seclusion by the shogunate in 1686, and died at the age of 39.

The 5th and 7th generation feudal lords, Masachika Matsudaira, were ordered to become lords by will, but there was a huge uproar over the execution of the will that divided the family into three, and although they managed to become lords, there was dissatisfaction within the domain. However, the situation did not settle down, and he stepped down from the position of lord after two years. However, when the sixth lord, Matsudaira Tsunamasa, went insane, he became the seventh lord again. At this time, the name was changed to Matsudaira Yoshihin. Masachika Matsudaira, who became the feudal lord again, tried everything possible to rebuild the domain's economy, but in the end it did not work, and the domain's economy deteriorated to such an extent that it was said to be ``as impoverished as the Imperial Rebellion''.