52Characteristics of the Saga Domain

“Domain” is a collective name for those regions ruled by a daimyo, or feudal lord, and its ruling structure in the Edo Period. The institution of domains continued up to the Meiji Restoration and was replaced in 1871 by prefectures. The Saga Domain ranked 8th in scale of the roughly 250 domains throughout the country, excluding those of the Tokugawa family. It was ruled by the Nabeshima family, from Lord Katsushige and his father Naoshige to the 11th Lord Naohiro, and its territory included a part of what is now Nagasaki Prefecture. Under the order of the Tokugawa government issued in 1642, the Saga Domain guarded the Port of Nagasaki, the sole channel of communication with the Netherlands and China. This enabled the domain to detect the developments taking place overseas before the rest of Japan, and by the end of the Tokugawa central government, Saga became the first of all the domains to adopt science and technology.