Ōta Sukeyoshi (II)

Ōta Sukeyoshi (太田 資美, March 22, 1854 – December 28, 1913) was the 7th daimyō of Kakegawa Domain in Tōtōmi Province, (part of modern-day Shizuoka Prefecture) in Bakumatsu period Japan.

Biography

Ōta Sukeyoshi was the 7th son of Ōta Sukemoto, the 5th daimyō of Kakegawa Domain. He became head of the Ōta clan and daimyō of Kakegawa on the death of his elder brother, Ōta Sukekatsu in January 1862, but was only a child of eight years at the time. His father, Ōta Sukemoto, although officially retired from public life, continued to control the domain until his death in June 1867. During this short period, he attempted to strength the domain’s finances through the establishment of a domain medical school and hospital, and sponsoring new industries.

In May 1868, with the Meiji Restoration, Shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu was forced to resign his office, and the Tokugawa clan under the leadership of Tokugawa Iesada was given the provinces of Suruga, Tōtōmi and a portion of Mikawa Province as compensation. The Ōta clan was reassigned to a new 53,350 koku domain in Kazusa Province called Shibayama Domain in July of the same year. In 1869, he became domainal governor under the Meiji government. After the establishment of the kazoku peerage system, he became a viscount (shishaku). Ōta Sukeyoshi later became a student of C. Carrothers at the Keio Gijuku in Tokyo, the forerunner of Keio University.

His grave is at the Ōta clan temple of Honko-ji in Nippori, Tokyo.

References

• Papinot, Edmund. (1906) Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du japon. Tokyo: Librarie Sansaisha...Click link for digitized 1906 Nobiliaire du japon (2003)
• The content of much of this article was derived from that of the corresponding article on Japanese Wikipedia.