The Kii Tanabe domain (紀伊田辺藩)
The Kii Tanabe domain was governed by the Mikawa Ando clan, who were the chief retainers of the Kishu Tokugawa family and were granted the fief in Kii Province for helping successive lords of Kishu. Note, however, that the clan was no more than a vassal of the Kishu Tokugawa family and an indirect vassal, or Baishin, of the Tokugawa shogun family and the domain was not approved as an independent domain by the Edo bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun).
Summary
Tomochika ASANO ruled Kii Province while it was under the control of the Asano clan.
When Yorinobu TOKUGAWA, the 10th son of Ieyasu TOKUGAWA, was appointed as the lord of the Kishu domain in July 1619, Naotsugu ANDO, the lord of Kakegawa Castle in Totomi Province, was assigned to the post of attendant chief retainer. Naotsugu was given the domain with a yield of 38,000 koku in Kii-Tanabe (present Tanabe City, Wakayama Prefecture) and Tanabe-jo Castle (Kii Province).
Since the successive lords from the Ando clan were often active in the administration of the Kishu domain, they tended to live near Tanabe-jo Castle. Thus, while the descendants of Naotaka ANDO, a cousin of Naotsugu, served as the chief vassals of the Tanabe-jo Castle, they were often visited by the lords. A rice riot of unknown cause took place in the domain in June 1777 and a further rice riot, this time caused by skyrocketing rice prices, took place in December 1786. In the last days of Tokugawa Shogunate, naval defense became a priority, and 28 guns and gun emplacements were constructed in the domain. A further riot was the riot of Yoriki TANABE.
The Ando family played a central role in the Shogunate with a number of members, including Shigenobu ANDO, the younger brother of Naotsugu, being appointed as cabinet officials in the Shogunate. The Ando family also came into possession of the domain of Iwaki-Taira, but the main line of the Mikawa Ando clan was that which supported the Kishu Tokugawa family, and other Ando families are branch families.
In 1868 Tanabe was established as an independent domain by approval of the Meiji Government. With the abolition of the domain system in 1871, Tanabe domain first became Tanabe Prefecture and then Wakayama Prefecture.
The chronological order of the Lords.
38,000 koku (governed by hereditary vassal to the Tokugawa family and established as an independent domain in 1868).
Naotsugu ANDO
Naoharu ANDO
Yoshikado ANDO
Naokiyo ANDO
Naona ANDO
Nobutake ANDO
Nobusada ANDO
Katsuyoshi ANDO
Tsuguyuki ANDO
Hironaga ANDO
Tsugunori ANDO
Michinori ANDO
Naotomo ANDO
Michinori ANDO
Naoka ANDO
Naohiro ANDO
Naoyuki ANDO
Naohiro ANDO (former 16th lord; reappointed)