other · Korea and Japan

Tosa Domain

1601 CE – 1871 CE · capital Kochi

The Yamauchi domain on Shikoku whose lower samurai, including Sakamoto Ryoma, helped engineer the end of the shogunate in 1867.

Origins

After Chosokabe Morichika lost Tosa for joining the western army at Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu gave the province to Yamauchi Kazutoyo, who arrived in 1601 and built Kochi castle. Former Chosokabe retainers resisted and were suppressed.

Rule and society

Tosa was sharply divided between the upper samurai, descended from Yamauchi followers, and the lower samurai and rural goshi, many of Chosokabe stock. Nonaka Kenzan's 17th-century reforms developed land and forests. In the 1860s the lord Yamauchi Toyoshige, known as Yodo, steered between shogunate and loyalists, while the loyalist party of Takechi Hanpeita was crushed.

Decline and legacy

Tosa men Sakamoto Ryoma and Goto Shojiro proposed the peaceful return of power to the emperor, which the shogun accepted in 1867, and Tosa troops fought for the new government. It became Kochi Prefecture in 1871, and Itagaki Taisuke later led the democratic movement from Tosa.

Lineage

Chosokabe clan domain 1560 CE – 1600 CETosa DomainEmpire of Japan 1868 CE – 1945 CE

Connections (1)

Tosa Domain was part of Tokugawa Shogunate1603 CE – 1867 CE

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Cite this page

APA: The Epoch Institute. (2026). Tosa Domain. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tosa-domain
MLA: “Tosa Domain.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tosa-domain. Accessed .
Chicago: The Epoch Institute. “Tosa Domain.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tosa-domain.
Harvard: The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Tosa Domain’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tosa-domain (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻