Hijikata Katsuyuki was the nephew of the 10th
daimyō of Komono, Hijikata Katsuoki, and was heir to a 1000
koku hatamoto holding. He was adopted as heir to the 12th
daimyō,
Hijikata Katsunaga who was only five years his senior, in 1869, as Katsunaga was very sickly. Katsunaga retired the same year, and Katsuyuki was proclaimed
daimyō; however, by this time that title had been formally abolished by the new
Meiji government and his official title was that of Imperial Governor. In 1871, after the
abolition of the han system he moved to
Tokyo, and in November of the same year, he entered
Keio University to study the
English language In 1878, he joined the
Ministry of Industry. With the establishment of
kazoku peerage on 8 July 1884, he was made a
viscount (
shishaku) and served as a member of the
House of Peers from July 1890 to July 1897. In 1899, he was the secretary of the Camphor Bureau of the
Governor-General of Taiwan. On his return to mainland Japan, he again served as a member of the House of Peers from July 1918 to July 1925. In November 1925, he retired in favor of his nephew, Hijikata Katsutake. Katsutake's father,
Hisaakira Hijikata, was Katsuyuki's younger brother and was subsequently the 12th president of the
Bank of Japan. Hijikata Katsuyuki died on 24 April 1931, and his grave is at the temple of Gensho-ji in Komono. ==References==