During the late
Heian period, the area around what is now Takasaki was controlled by the
Wada clan. During the
Muromachi period, the Wada came under the service of the
Uesugi clan, who held the post of
Kantō kanrei; however in 1561, Wada Narishige, incensed over the appointment of
Uesugi Kenshin to the post, defected to the
Takeda. His son, Wada Nobunari, in turn came into the service of the
Odawara Hōjō. During the
Battle of Odawara in 1590,
Toyotomi Hideyoshi dispatched an army led by
Uesugi Kagekatsu and
Maeda Toshiie and destroyed Wada Castle. After
Tokugawa Ieyasu took control over the
Kantō region in 1590, he assigned
Ii Naomasa, one of his most trusted
Four Generals to nearby
Minowa Castle, with revenues of 120,000
koku. However, in 1597, Ieyasu ordered Ii Naomasa to construct a new castle on the site of the ruins of Wada Castle, as the location controlled a strategic junction connecting the
Nakasendō with the
Mikuni Kaidō highways. Ii Naomasu relocated to the site in 1598, renaming it Takasaki, and bringing with him the population of Minowa to form the nucleus of a new
castle town. This marked the beginning of Takasaki Domain. Ii Naomasa was transferred to
Hikone Domain, and Takasaki given to Sakai Ietsugu in 1604 with its revenues reduced to 50,000
koku. The domain then passed through two branches of the Matsudaira clan before it was awarded to Ando Shigenobu in 1619. The
Andō clan ruled over three generations to 1695.
Matsudaira Terusada of the Ōkōchi branch of the Matsudaira clan became daimyō in 1695. He also served in a number of important offices under Shōgun
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi and
Tokugawa Ienobu, and the domain was raised to 75,000
koku. He was replaced at Takasaki by
Manabe Akifusa, another favorite of Tokugawa Ienobu in 1710, but returned to Takasaki in 1716, and his descendants continued to rule Takasaki until the end of the Edo period. During the
Bakumatsu period, forces of Takasaki Domain played a role in the suppression of the
Tengutō Rebellion and the final daimyō, Matsudaira Teruna was ordered by the shogunate to defend
Kōfu Castle during the
Boshin War. After the end of the conflict, with the
abolition of the han system in July 1871, Takasaki Domain became “Takasaki Prefecture”, which later became part of Gunma Prefecture. The domain had a population of 3654 samurai in 916 households per a census in 1870. ==Holdings at the end of the Edo period==