When the new Meiji government regionalized the former territories of the bakufu into prefectures called Fu or Ken as the direct control territories of the emperor (tenryo) in 1868, 'Han' was newly adopted as an official name for the daimyo's domains because the daimyo's domains were thought to be the emperor's 'Han', so 'XX Han' became the official way of calling administrative divisions, with the 'XX' for the Hanshu's location (or castle, if daimyo had one) (fu-han-ken sanchisei [fu-han-ken tripartite governance system].)
1868年に明治新政府が旧幕府領を天皇直轄領（天領）として府・県に編成した際に、大名領は天子たる天皇の「藩」であると観念されたこともあり、「藩」は新たに大名領の公称として採用され、藩主の居所（城持ち大名の場合は居城）の所在地の地名をもって「何某藩」という名前が正式の行政区分名となった（府藩県三治制）。