Although their residence was styled as a jin'ya, it was built in the former central bailey of the clan’s ancestral Kurobane Castle, which was located on a 50-meter tall hill, with moats, earthen ramparts and yagura watchtowers.
During the time of the 4th daimyō, Ōzeki Masuchika, the domain was divided, with 1000 koku going to each of his two younger brothers. In 1689, the noted haiku poet Matsuo Basho spent 14 day at Kurobane while traveling the Tohoku region and writing the Oku no Hosomichi. This was the longest stay in any one location during his journey. The 15th daimyō, Ōzeki Masuhiro, served in a number of important posts within the Bakumatsu period Tokugawa shogunate, including Kaigun bugyō and wakadoshiyori. He also improved the domain’s military by introducing the Spencer repeating rifle and western military technologies. The 16th and final daimyō, Ōzeki Masatoshi, sided with the Satchō Alliance in the Boshin War of the Meiji Restoration, and fought in the Battle of Aizu.
The domain had a population of 19,493 people in 3666 households, of which 1937 were samurai in 638 households per a census in 1870. [2]
Holdings at the end of the Edo period
As with most domains in the han system, Kurobane Domain consisted of several discontinuous territories calculated to provide the assigned kokudaka, based on periodic cadastral surveys and projected agricultural yields.[3][4]
