Viscount was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

 who served as the daimyō of Tonami han (the former Aizu han

Aizu

is an area comprising the westernmost third of Fukushima Prefecture in Japan. The principal city of the area is Aizuwakamatsu.During the Edo period, Aizu was a feudal domain known as and part of Mutsu Province.-History:...

) in the early Meiji Era. Born the eldest son of Matsudaira Katamori

Matsudaira Katamori

was a samurai who lived in the last days of the Edo period and the early to mid Meiji period. He was the 9th daimyo of the Aizu han and the Military Commissioner of Kyoto during the Bakumatsu period. During the Boshin War, Katamori and the Aizu han fought against the Meiji Government armies, but...

, he succeeded Katamori's adopted son Nobunori

Matsudaira Nobunori

Viscount was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period who served as daimyō of Aizu Domain from 1868-69. Born the son of Tokugawa Nariaki of Mito, he was adopted by Matsudaira Katamori as successor. After a year of serving as daimyō, he resigned, allowing Katamori's birth son Keizaburō to assume...

 in 1869. As the Meiji government had granted the former daimyō family of Aizu a 30,000 koku holding in northern Honshū

Honshu

is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...

, Kataharu became its daimyō, with Katamori technically in his "care."

Kataharu became a member of the new kazoku

Kazoku

The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan that existed between 1869 and 1947.-Origins:Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the ancient court nobility of Kyoto regained some of its lost status...

 in the Meiji Era, as well as an officer in the Imperial Japanese Army

Imperial Japanese Army

-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...

.