Tawaramoto Domain (田原本藩)
Tawaramoto Domain existed in Tawaramoto, Toichi-gun, Yamato Province (present-day Tawaramoto, Tawaramoto-cho, Shiki-gun, Nara Prefecture).
Summary
Tawaramoto Domain was ruled by the Hirano clan. However, it was founded officially on August 31, 1868 as the so-called 'domain founded by Meiji Restoration' at the discretion of the new government to grant the clan a status of daimyo (Japanese feudal lord) with the crop yield of 10,000 koku (an unit of assessed crop yields of the land [1 koku: about 180 liter], which was also used to express the size of the land). Founder of the Hirano clan Nagayasu HIRANO served Hideyoshi TOYOTOMI, becoming one of the "Seven Spears of Shizugatake," alongside Kiyomasa KATO and Masanori FUKUSHIMA, for their military success in the 1583 Battle of Shizugatake and was awarded a territory in Yamato Province with 5,000 koku.
Although Nagayasu did not make any major contributions subsequently, he solidified control of the domain, implemented benevolent rule and brought prosperity, with Terauchi-cho nicknamed 'Osaka of Yamato.'
After Nagayasu's death, his successor Nagakatsu HIRANO worked on the construction of the jinya (regional government office). Due to the small size of the domain, however, financial conditions gradually declined; from the middle of the Edo period onward goyokin (the money the government charged temporarily on farmers and merchants) was imposed on the people of the domain for a number of times. Hirano clan rule lasted for nine generations, but it was only three years that the clan had the official status of domain lord.