Hotta Masatomo (堀田正倫)
Masatomo HOTTA (December 28, 1851-January 11, 1911) was a Daimyo (Japanese feudal lord) during the late Edo Period. Count during the Meiji Period. The sixth (last) lord of the Sakura Domain in Shimosa Province. The tenth family head of the Hotta family, Masatoshi line.
He was the fourth son of Masayoshi HOTTA, the fifth lord of the Domain and late Edo Period Roju (member of shogun's council of elders).. His mother was from the Hirata clan. His legal wife was the daughter of Naritoki MATSUDAIRA and his second wife was the daughter of Michifusa MADENOKOJI. He had a daughter(legal wife of Masatsune HOTTA) and foster children, Masatake HOTTA and Masatsune HOTTA.
He became the family head and lord of the Domain when his father was outsted in a political battle with Naosuke II in 1859. He was loyal to the bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun) like his father and when an imperial decree to attack the fifteenth shogun, Yoshinobu TOKUGAWA, was promulgated after the Battle of Toba and Fushimi in 1868, he went to Kyoto to beg for Yoshinobu's life and the continuance of the Tokugawa clan, but not only was he refused by the new Meiji government but was captured and house arrested in Kyoto. Therefore, the Sakura domain was in trouble left without its lord but because the house elder Nui HIRANO followed the new government's orders and sent troops to Otaki domain, Hotta was not punished and did not have to quit.
He was appointed domain governor after the Meiji Restoration. He contributed to the promotion of Japanese cultural activities after the return of people and land to the emperor. He was raised to the rank of Count in 1884. He died in 1911. He died at the age of sixty-one.