Kururi Domain

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Kururi Domain (Kururi-han) was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo period Japan, lasting from 1590 to 1871. It was in Kazusa Province (today central Chiba Prefecture) and was centered on Kururi Castle, in what is now the city of Kimitsu, Chiba.

Castle and early history
The original Kururi Castle was a mountain-top fort built in the Muromachi period by Takeda Nobunaga and was ruled by the Mariya clan from 1540. During the Sengoku period, Satomi Yoshitaka took the castle to use against the Hōjō of Odawara. The Hōjō briefly captured it in 1564 but Satomi regained control in 1567. After the Battle of Odawara, Toyotomi Hideyoshi punished Satomi by stripping Kazusa of their lands.

Daimyō and reforms
When Tokugawa Ieyasu entered the Kantō region, he granted Kururi to Matsudaira (Osuga) Tadamasa, one of his trusted generals, making Kururi a 30,000-koku domain. Tadamasa built much of the castle’s present fortifications and founded a castle town at its base. After the Battle of Sekigahara, the Osuga clan was moved to Yokosuka; the Tsuchiya clan held Kururi from 1601 to 1679 with 20,000 koku. The domain was suppressed in 1679 when Tsuchiya Naoki was deemed unfit to rule, and his son was reduced to 3,000 koku as a hatamoto. Kururi was then governed directly by the shogunate (tenryō) until 1742.

Revival and the Meiji era
In July 1742, Kuroda Naozumi, daimyo of Numata Domain, was transferred to Kururi and the domain was revived. His descendants ruled Kururi until the Meiji Restoration. The final daimyo, Kuroda Naotaka, initially served for the pro-Tokugawa side at the Battle of Ueno but switched allegiance to the Meiji government two months later and became domain governor until the abolition of the han system in July 1871. Kururi Domain became Kururi Prefecture, then merged with Kisarazu Prefecture in November 1871, and later became part of Chiba Prefecture.

Population and lands
In 1869, the domain had 1,189 samurai in 253 households, 143 ashigaru in 74 households, and 20,766 commoners in 4,465 households. The domain maintained its main residence in Edo, at Hirokoji, Shitaya. Like other han, Kururi consisted of several scattered territories across Musashi and Kazusa Provinces to meet its assigned kokudaka.