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Japanese samurai

Matsudaira Katamori (松平 容保) was a samurai who lived in Bakumatsu period and the early to mid Meiji period Japan. He was the 9th daimyō of the Aizu Domain and the Kyoto Shugoshoku (Military Commissioner of Kyoto). He initiated and established the Shinsengumi in 1863 (initially named Mibu Roshigumi). During the Boshin War, he led Aizu Domain against the incipient Meiji government, but was severely defeated at the Battle of Aizu. Katamori's life was spared, and he later became the head kannushi of the Nikkō Tōshō gū shrine. He, along with his three brothers Matsudaira Sadaaki, Tokugawa Yoshikatsu, and Tokugawa Mochiharu, had highly influential roles during the Meiji restoration and were called the "four Takasu brothers" (Takasu yon kyōdai ).

Matsudaira Katamori was born in the Yotsuya district of Edo, on February 15, 1836, at the residence of the Takasu Domain He was the seventh son of Matsudaira Yoshitatsu, daimyō of Takasu, born by one of Yoshitatsu's concubines, a woman of the Komori family whose name is believed by some scholars to be Komori Chiyo (she was also known by her Buddhist name, Zenkyō in.) Katamori, or as he was first known, Keinosuke , had an eventful childhood. Though the Takasu domain was small, it had a high level of prestige due to its status as a branch family of the Tokugawa clan (through the gosanke house of Owari). Furthermore, in the history of the Takasu Matsudaira line, there were daimyō who had been adopted from senior branches of the Tokugawa clan, such as Mito. Consequently, Katamori was in a very good position to be adopted out to a senior member of the Tokugawa house. This opportunity presented itself in the form of Matsudaira Katataka, the 8th generation daimyō of Aizu Domain. Yoshitatsu readily approved of the adoption, not only because Katataka was the lord of a more senior house with a distinguished history and lineage, but the fact that Katataka was his birth brother must have also entered into the equation. Consequently, the young Keinosuke was adopted by Katataka, and married Katataka's daughter Toshihime, in 1856. Interested to further Katamori's education, Katataka then sent his heir to Aizu, where he was educated in the domain academy, Nisshinkan.

Following Katataka's death in early 1852, Katamori succeeded to the family headship at age 18. As the 9th daimyō, he was granted the title of Higo no kami , which was traditionally held by the daimyō of Aizu. He also received the additional title of Sakonnoe gon shōshō (; Lesser General of the Left Guard) from the Imperial court, and formally sent his thanks to the Emperor later that year. Furthermore, Katamori inherited the family's traditional seat in the tamari no ma chamber, of Edo Castle where important matters of state were discussed in conjunction with the Senior Council.

The early years following his appointment were filled with trying times for his leadership of the domain. Just one year later, Commodore Matthew C. Perry led the Perry Expedition into Edo Bay and demanded that Japan end its centuries old national isolation policy and open to the country to American trade. The shogunate mobilized a massive number of men and ships from a broad coalition of feudal domains, and Aizu, being a prominent branch of the Shōgun's house and noted military power, was no exception. Aizu had already received orders to provide security in the coastal areas of Kazusa and Awa Provinces in the months prior to the Perry mission, and when the commodore went ashore to meet with Japanese officials, Aizu was one of the domains which provided patrol boats and coastal security for the event. This character, read ai was the contemporary character used in the ai of Aizu, and, as seen in artistic depictions of the era, was used on the domain's banners.

In 1862, senior political figures in the Tokugawa shogunate created the post of Kyoto Shugoshoku (Kyoto Military Commissioner), for the purpose of recovering public order in the city, which was under the influence of sonnō jōi militants. The post of Kyoto Shugoshoku was one that changed much of the dynamic that had theretofore existed in the city. Previously, the holder of the Kyoto shoshidai position had held the highest power there, supervising affairs in the Kyoto Osaka area as the representative of the Shōgun. However, the successive Shoshidai, as well as the city magistrates under their charge, were increasingly unable to secure and maintain the public order, so the post of Shugoshoku was superimposed on the existing structure. Where the Shoshidai and magistrates had been unable to secure through civil law, the Shugoshoku was to achieve through the use of military force. After much deliberation, the choice for the Shugoshoku post came down to two domains: Echizen and Aizu. Of the two, Echizen's Matsudaira Yoshinaga already held high Shogunal office as President of Political Affairs (; Seiji Sōsai shoku), so all attention was then turned to Matsudaira Katamori. However, the Shogunate would not listen to this refusal. Matsudaira Yoshinaga traveled personally to the Aizu residence, and confronted Katamori with harsh words invoking Aizu's distinguished past as Shogunate functionaries: "If [your founder] Lord Masayuki were still alive, he would accept without a second thought!" The two men rode nonstop from Aizu to try dissuading their lord from this venture. Saigo, ostensibly quoting the Chinese text Huai nan tzu, described the intent to rein in the radicals as "trying to put out a fire while carrying brushwood". However, faced with the issues of preserving Aizu's reputation, as well as the pressure of a direct Shogunal order brought about by such power figures as Tokugawa Yoshinobu, Matsudaira Yoshinaga, and others, Katamori hardly had a say in the matter; this was something that he indicated directly to his retainers. On September 23, 1862, Katamori was formally summoned to Edo Castle and presented with the assignment. The position was not without its personal incentives: it included an office salary of 50,000 koku a year, a 30,000 ryō loan to cover the expense of traveling to Kyoto, as well as a promotion to Senior 4th court rank, lower grade (; shō shi'i ge). Following the assignment, a sweeping program of personnel reassignment took place in the Tokugawa government's Kyoto command structure. Assigned together with Katamori were a group of trusted, powerful daimyō and hatamoto: Nagai Naoyuki was named Kyoto City Magistrate, Makino Tadayuki, the lord of Nagaoka Domain, was made Kyoto Shoshidai, and Chūjō Nobunori as Katamori's assistant for protocol. Katamori then sent a group of seven men under the previously mentioned Tanaka Tosa ahead to Kyoto, in order to begin forming the necessary connections with domains already in Kyoto, as well as the Imperial court. After a few months of further political difficulty, he left Edo on January 27, 1863 at the head of a thousand strong Aizu force. Entering Kyoto on February 11, he first headed to Honzen ji temple, changing into court clothes, then going to the residence of Imperial regent Konoe Tadahiro and paying his respects. His warm reception and popularity with many in the Court thus set a precedent of frequent visits that was to continue for the duration of his position.

The first difficulty that Katamori faced after taking office was the unfamiliarity of the locals with Aizu and its ability to get the job done. Aizu was so unfamiliar to many people in early 1863 that many of them pronounced its name "kaizu" or "kwaiz", with both ai and kai being common readings of the first character in "Aizu" This issue of unfamiliarity and unease began to have some resolution in the early months of 1863, when Katamori was formally received at the Imperial court. The court nobles were very pleased to see his arrival, and had great hopes for him as an agent of the Kōbu gattai movement to promote renewed cooperation between the Court and the Shogunate. In order to achieve the objectives that the Shugoshoku position entailed, Katamori made use of city patrol units, some of them made up of his own retainers, but others consisting of hired, previously lordless men, such as the Shinsengumi. Other groups emerged in subsequent years, including the Mimawarigumi, which was under the control of the Shoshidai (which as of 1864 was Katamori's brother Matsudaira Sadaaki of Kuwana). Katamori took his role as protector of Kyoto (and the Court) very seriously, and thus played a large role in the coup d'état of September 30 (or the coup d'état of August 18), and the Kinmon incident , which both involved clashes between the allied forces under Shogunate command (including Aizu) against the men of Chōshū Domain. During the punitive First and Second Chōshū expeditions, he also advocated a hard line against the domain. These events lead to increased animosity against Katamori and Aizu Domain within the Chōshū Domain. Katamori served as Shugoshoku from 1862 through 1864; and he served again from 1864 through 1868.

Katamori also disagreed with the Tokugawa policy of isolation and subscribed to the political notion of "Eastern ethics and Western Science". Katamori employed Prussian diplomat John Henry Schnell as an advisor and trader to procure and train his troops in western firearms. As the fortunes of the Bakufu waned, Katamori provided the seed capital for Schnell escape to California with a group of samurai retainers and their families in an attempt to establish the first Japanese colony in America, the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony in 1869. Sadly, with the forfeit of the Aizu domain, Katamori would be unable to continue his patronage of the colony and it would fail two years later. After Aizu Wakamatsu fell during the early Meiji Reforms, Katamori sent loyal retainers to modern day Placerville, California in the United States to form the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony. In total, twenty two Japanese (samurai, peasants, farmers, and tradespeople) attempted to farm the 640 acre colony with lackluster results; the mulberry trees and tea bushes did not take to foreign soil. The colony lasted less than two years. Katamori abandoned his efforts by 1871 despite an influx of new immigrants in 1870; his adherents either returned to Japan or drifted away. This was because the new government was primarily composed of people from Chōshū and Satsuma Domain, who resented Katamori for his activities as the Military Commissioner. Although the Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei, comprising most of the domains of northern Japan, supported Aizu Domain and Katamori, they were eventually defeated in the Aizu War. After a few years under house arrest in Tokyo, Katamori's life was spared, and he later became the head kannushi of the Nikkō Tōshō gū Shrine. He died on December 5, 1893, and was buried by Shinto rites, receiving the posthumous Shinto name of Masane reishin His heir, Matsudaira Nobunori, was adopted from the Mito Tokugawa family. However, Nobunori left the Aizu Matsudaira clan soon after the Meiji restoration, to let Matsudaira Kataharu become the heir to the clan. Matsudaira Kataharu was Katamori's eldest biological son, born from one of Katamori's two concubines (Saku and Kiyo) after Nobunori was adopted. The clan chieftainship then passed to Kataharu's brother Morio, and subsequently to Morio's son Matsudaira Morisada, who was the head of the Aizu Matsudaira until his death in 2011.