 The Tokugawa Shogunate recognized the strategic value of the location as both a seaport, and also as Kuwana-juku, a post station on the vital Tōkaidō highway connecting Edo with Kyoto.In 1609, Tadakatsu was succeeded by his son Honda Tadamasa, who distinguished himself at the Siege of Osaka and was rewarded with a transfer to the more lucrative Himeji Domain in 1617.The strategic Kuwana Domain was then assigned to Ieyasu’s half-brother, Hisamatsu Sadakatsu, whose descendants ruled until they were transferred to Takada Domain in Echigo Province in 1710, and their place taken by the Okudaira branch of the Matsudaira clan, who ruled to 1823, when a branch of the Hisamatsu returned to Kuwana from Shirakawa Domain in Mutsu Province.