Kurohane Domain

Kurobane Domain (黒羽藩, Kurobane-han^?) was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in the Nasu District of Shimotsuke Province (modern-day ), Japan. It was centered on Kurobane jin'ya in what is now part of the city of . Kurobane was ruled through all of its history by the tozama Ōzeki clan.

After Tokugawa Ieyasu took control over the Kantō region in 1590, he assigned a 13,000 koku holding in northern Shimotsuke Province to Ōzeki Takamasu, the head of one of the seven leading samurai clans from the area. His son, Ōzeki Sukemasu, fought a rear-guard action against the Uesugi clan in Aizu during the Battle of Sekigahara and was rewarded with an increase in revenues to 20,000 koku and was confirmed as daimyō of Kurobane.

Although their residence was styled as a jin'ya, it was built in the former central bailey of the clan’s ancestral Kurobane Castle, which was located on a 50-meter tall hill, with moats, earthen ramparts and yagura watchtowers. During the time of the 4th daimyō, Ōzeki Masuchika, the domain was divided, with 1000 koku going to each of his two younger brothers. The 15th daimyo, Ōzeki Masuhiro, served in a number of important posts within the Bakumatsu period Tokugawa shogunate, including Kaigun bugyō and wakadoshiyori. He also improved the domain’s military by introducing the Spencer repeating rifle and western military technologies. The 16th and final daimyō, Ōzeki Masatoshi, sided with the Satchō Alliance in the Boshin War of the Meiji Eestoration, and fought in the Battle of Aizu.

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