Hitotsuyanagi Naomori

Hitotsuyanagi Naomori (Japanese: 一柳直盛 ひとつやなぎ なおもり[*]) was a samurai commander and daimyo who lived from the Azuchi–Momoyama period into the early Edo period.

Life

Naomori was the younger brother of Hitotsuyanagi Naosue (一柳直末, also known as Sueyasu), a daimyo with 60,000 koku at Karumi Nishi Castle (軽海西城) in Mino (present-day Gifu Prefecture) who was a close associate of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. When Naosue died, Naomori succeeded to the family headship.

Under Hideyoshi's favor, he was already a daimyo with 35,000 koku just before the Imjin War, and he took part in the war as a naval commander (at that time Naomori was one of the Seven Spears of Shizugatake, and his domain was already slightly larger than that of Wakizaka Yasuharu, the naval commander who faced Yi Sun-sin at Hansan Island, who then held 30,000 koku). Under the Toyotomi regime, he was daimyo of the Kuroda Domain in Owari, and under the Edo shogunate, he held the position of daimyo of the Kanbe Domain in Ise. In his later years, his assessed revenue increased to 68,000 koku. He remained a daimyo of the Kanbe Domain for about 35 years. Shortly before his death, he received an order from the shogunate to transfer his fief, and he became the first lord of the Saijō Domain in Iyo, but he died before entering his domain.

After his death

His eldest son, Naoshige (一柳直重), succeeded him as lord of Saijō Domain. His second son, Naoie (一柳直家), became lord of the , and his third son, (一柳直賴), became lord of the ; each divided the family headship and succeeded to it. The Saijō Domain was later subjected to during the time of Naomori's grandson, (一柳直興), but the domains of the second and third branch families, Ono Domain and Komatsu Domain, continued under the until the .