was ruled by proxy by the Ishikawa clan from Takakogi Castle in the present day Sunouchi district. During the tumult of the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Saijō was ruled by a series of lords until the establishment of Saijō Domain in 1636. Hitotsuyanagi Naomori was appointed lord of this domain, but died of illness in Osaka on the way to his new fiefdom. His successors ruled for two generations until attainder of the domain by the shogunate in 1665 for political reasons including a peasant rebellion. In 1670 the shogunate installed Matsudaira Yorizumi, a grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu, whose descendants ruled for 10 generations until the Meiji Restoration. The geography of Saijō underwent great changes during the Edo period. The second Hitotsuyanagi ruler, Naoshige, built Saijō Castle and diverted the Kita River to create a moat. The former castle grounds now house Saijō High School, one of a few public schools in Japan contained within a moat and castle gate. Flood control projects for the Kamo River and land reclamation from the Seto Inland Sea began during the end of the Warring States Period and continued through the Edo Period, with major reclamation projects undertaken by the Matsudaira family as a means to increase their personal land holdings, 20000 koku of which were lost when they were reassigned to Saijō. Modern After the Meiji Restoration, Saijō Domain and adjacent Komatsu Domain became Saijō Prefecture and Komatsu Prefecture, respectively, in 1871. That same year, both prefectures were absorbed by the new Matsuyama Prefecture, which would be renamed Ishizuchi Prefecture before being combined with Kamiyama Prefecture to form the current Ehime Prefecture in 1873. The area was divided into villages within Nii District, Ehime with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on December 15, 1889. The town of Saijō was created with the merger of the villages of Tamatsu (玉津村), Omachi (大町村), and Kansai (神拝村) on February 11, 1925. On April 29, 1941 Saijō merged with the villages of Iioka (飯岡村), Kanbe (神戸村), Tachibana (橘村) and the town of Himi (氷見町) and was raised to city status. On November 1, 2004, Saijō absorbed the city of Tōyo, and the towns of Komatsu and Tanbara (both from Shūsō District) were create the new and expanded city of Saijō. In 2004, Saijō experienced its worst typhoon season on record. A series of typhoons struck from August to the end of September, with