Tanuma Okitsugu
daimyo (1719-1788)
Tanuma Okitsugu (田沼 意次) (September 11, 1719 – August 25, 1788) was a chamberlain (sobashū) and a senior counselor (rōjū) to the shōgun Tokugawa Ieharu of the Tokugawa Shogunate, in the Edo period of Japan. Tanuma and his son exercised tremendous power, especially in the last 14 years of shogun Ieharu's reign. He is known for the economic reforms of the Tenmei era and rampant corruption. He was also a daimyō of the Sagara Domain. Tanuma used the title Tonomo-no-kami.
Tanuma's reforms aimed to rectify the systemic problems in Japan's economy, particularly the trade imbalance between the provinces (han) and the shogunal areas (tenryō) of Japan. The previous shogun, Tokugawa Yoshimune, sought to rectify the shogunate's economic problems by frugality and a focus on agriculture. Instead, Tanuma debased currency, sold monopoly rights to dealers, and taxed merchant guilds. To stem unfavorable balances of trade and bullion outflow, he took steps to increase foreign exports and set export quotas for Akita copper mines (copper being the primary coinage metal during that period), despite higher domestic prices. Tanuma's administration granted monopoly patents for numerous products, including iron, brass, sulfur, ginseng and lamp oil.
“Tanuma Okitsugu” enters the record as daimyo (1719-1788). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Tanuma, Okitsugu and daimyo can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q521070. VIAF identifies the subject as 6271134. The Library of Congress control number is n82024971. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1719 and 1788.
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