Shinjō Domain

Shinjō Domain (新庄藩, Shinjō-han^?) was a Japanese domain of the Edo period, located in Dewa Province Japan and ruled by the Tozawa clan. It was centered on Shinjō Castle in what is now the city of Shinjō, Yamagata and occupied all of what is now Mogami District with 86 villages and part of Kitamurayama District with 16 villages in modern-day Yamagata Prefecture.

Much of Dewa Province was controlled by the powerful Mogami clan during the Sengoku period. The Mogami established a subsidiary holding centered on Sakanobe Castle in what is now Mamurogawa, Yamagata based on the Sengoku period foundations of a structure erected by the Onodera clan. However, the Mogami were dispossessed by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1622, with the majority of their holdings going to the Satake clan, who were transferred from Hitachi Province to their new (and much smaller) holdings at Kubota Domain.

Tozawa Moriyasu, a relatively minor daimyo originally from Kakunodate in Dewa Province served Toyotomi Hideyoshi at the Battle of Odawara in 1590; however, he fell ill and died shortly thereafter. His son, Tozawa Masamori sided with Tokugawa Ieyasu at the Battle of Sekigahara, and was eventually promoted to the status of a 40,000 koku daimyo, at Hitachi-Matsuoka Domain in Hitachi Province. When the Mogami were dispossessed, the Tokugawa shogunate transferred him from Hitachi to the newly created Shinjō Domain, and increased his revenues to 60,000 koku, where his descendants ruled for 11 generations to the Meiji restoration.