The Kumamoto Domain was a state of Japan that existed from 1600 to 1871, ruled by the Hosokawa clan. They inhabited Higo Province in western Kyushu.
History[]
The Kumamoto Domain was created by Ieyasu Tokugawa for his Hosokawa vassals after the end of the Sengoku Period, and they had the fief of Higo Province in western Kyushu. Although they were loyal to the Tokugawa clan, in the 1860s they supported the Emperor's cause against the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Their leader, Hosokawa Yoshikuni, marshalled up resistance in western Kyushu against the Shogunate's clans, and they assisted their Satsuma Domain allies in the 1864 Kyushu Campaign of the Boshin War, against the Nobeoka Domain and Oka Domain.
The Hosokawa Domain ended in 1871 along with the other domains of Japan when Emperor Meiji abolished the caste system of Japan, and the Kumamoto Domain became a part of the new Japanese Empire.