Tokushima Domain (徳島藩) was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, controlling all of Awa Province and Awaji Province in what is now Tokushima Prefecture and Awaji Island of modern-day Hyōgo Prefecture. It was centered around Tokushima Castle, and was ruled throughout its history by the tozama daimyō Hachisuka clan.

History

Hachisuka Masakatsu was a vassal of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and dominated Tatsuno in Harima Province. He was awarded territories in Awa Province after Hideyoshi's conquest of Shikoku in 1585; however, due to his advanced age, he turned the clan chieftainship over to his son Hachisuka Iemasa. At the time, his territory was only a portion of Awa Province, with a kokudaka of 175,000 koku. He constructed Tokushima Castle, which would remain the clan's seat for the next 300 years. The clan had always been on bad terms with Ishida Mitsunari and at the time of the Battle of Sekigahara, Mitsunari forced Hachisuka Iemasa to take the tonsure and forcibly exiled him to Mount Koya. However, his son Hachisuka Yoshishige was married an adopted daughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and fought in the Eastern Army. As a result, the Tokugawa Shogunate restored the Hachisuka clan to their domains after the defeat of the Toyotomi clan and Hachisuka Yoshishige is regarded as the first daimyō of Tokushima Domain. Hachisuka Yoshishige went on to receive awards seven times from Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada for his actions at the 1614-1615 Battle of Osaka and his territories were expanded to cover all of Awa Province, as well as 70,000 koku in Awaji Province. In 1617, he was granted the remainder of Awaji Island, bringing his total kokudaka to 257,000 koku. Tokushima Domain developed indigo production in the Yoshino River basin, with Indigo dye much in demand throughout the Edo Period. Indigo merchants in Tokushima almost monopolized the national market due to the quality and strong backing of the clan, and was a major source of the domain's "unofficial" revenue. Although the domain's nominal kokudaka was 257,000 koku, its actual kokudaka through clan monopolies on indigo, tobacco, salt and other products came to more than 400,000 koku. The 13th daimyō, Hachisuka Narihiro, was the 22nd son of Shogun Tokugawa Ienari, and was therefore half-brother of the 12th Shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi and nephew of the 13th Shogun Tokugawa Iesada. Despite these connections, during the Bakumatsu period, he maintained contacts with the Imperial Court in Kyoto and was a supporter of the kōbu gattai movement, which created frictions within the domain, especially with the hereditary karō, the Inada clan, who ruled Sumoto Castle on Awaji and who favored a more reactionary approach. He died suddenly during the Battle of Toba-Fushimi at the start of the Boshin War at the age of 48. His son Hachisuka Mochiaki switched the domain's allegiance to the Imperial side. He became imperial governor of Tokushima following the abolition of the han system and subsequently served as a cabinet minister and president of the House of Peers in the Meiji government. The Hachisuka clan was ennobled with the kazoku title of marquis in 1884. In the early Meiji period, the hereditary karō and warden of Sumoto Castle, Inada Kurobei, demanded establishment as a daimyō. With his kokudaka exceeding 10,000 koku, this was technically possible; however, this demand met with violent opposition from Tokushima and was refused by the Meiji government. After the "revolt" was put down, the entire Inada clan and its retainers were exiled to the far northern tip of Hokkaido. Their experiences are fictionalized in the recent film Kita no Zeronen ("Year One in the North"). The Awa Province portion of Tokushima Domain became Tokushima prefecture; however, the Awaji Province portion became part of Hyōgo Prefecture.

Holdings at the end of the Edo period

Unlike most domains in the han system, which consisted of several discontinuous territories calculated to provide the assigned kokudaka, based on periodic cadastral surveys and projected agricultural yields, Tokushima Domain was a single unified holding.

List of daimyō

! #||Name || Tenure || Courtesy title || Court Rank || kokudaka

Genealogy (simplified)