井上 正春
Inoue Masaharu was the eldest son of the disgraced former daimyō of Hamamatsu, Inoue Masamoto, who had been demoted to Tanakura Domain in Mutsu Province. He inherited the leadership of the Inoue clan and the position of daimyō of Tanakura Domain on his father’s death in 1820.
His courtesy title was Kawachi-no-kami. In 1820, Masaharu was also appointed to the office of Sōshaban (Master of Ceremonies), and in 1834 to that of Jisha-bugyō. In 1836, he was transferred to Tatebayashi Domain (60,000 koku) in Kōzuke Province.
In 1838, he was appointed Osaka jōdai (Castellan of Osaka) and in 1840, ascended to the rank of Rōjū (Senior Councilor) in the service of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi.
From his years in Tanakura in Mutsu, Masaharu brought back with him a considerable body of knowledge on cotton production as well as artisans to build new looms, thus developing a major new industry for Hamamatsu and source of income for the domain. He died in 1847, only two years after the return of the clan to Hamamatsu, and his grave is at the clan temple of Jōshin-ji in Mukogaoka, Bunkyō, Tokyo
Masaharu was married to a daughter of Abe Masakiyo, daimyō of Fukuyama Domain.
