 The countryside was ravaged from the effects of enormous Tenpo famine, and for much of his tenure his actual income was much reduced, at times to even the 100,000 "koku" level.The domain was also given the responsibility of policing the vast northern island of Ezo, including border patrols in Chishima islands, especially Etorofu and Kunashiri where incursions by ships from the Russian Empire were becoming more frequent.Sendai domain administered roughly one-third of the area of present-day Hokkaido.