Chōshū (Han)
Chōshū ( Japanese 長 州 藩 , - han ) was a Han (fiefdom) in Japan during the Edo period , in the area of the historical provinces of Nagato (also called Chōshū ) and Suō , or the modern Yamaguchi prefecture .
The fiefdom was also referred to as Hagi-han ( 萩 藩 ), after Hagi Castle , and from 1863 after the administration moved to Yamaguchi as (Suō-) Yamaguchi-han ( (周 防) 山口 藩 ).
After the Battle of Sekigahara, feudal lords were the Mōri with the rank of Tozama-Daimyō . Because of their history, the Mōri were hostile to the Tokugawa shogunate, and together with Satsuma they were the driving force behind the movement to abolish the shogunate ( Tōbaku ), the Boshin War and the Meiji Restoration .
history
Kamakura to Sengoku period
The Mōri family traces their lineage back to Ōe no Hiromoto , a court nobleman and vassal ( Go-kenin ) of the early Kamakura shogunate . Originally, as provincial lords ( 国人 領主 , kokujin ryōshu ), they only owned a small area in Aki Province , but in the Sengoku period , Mōri Motonari (1497–1571) was able to defend his two neighbors, the Ōuchi ( 大 内 氏 ) and defeat the Amago ( 尼 子 氏 ). At the height of their power, they ruled over 10 provinces in the Chūgoku region and part of northern Kyūshū .
Motonari's grandson and successor Mōri Terumoto ruled over the provinces of Aki , Suō , Nagato , half Bitchū , Bingo , half Hōki , Izumo , Iwami and Oki , an area that brought in a yield of at least 1,200,000 koku . This made him one of the most powerful daimyo of his time. His seat, he moved from the castle Yoshida Kōriyama in the castle Hiroshima .
After a dispute with Toyotomi Hideyoshi , a general of Oda Nobunaga , both sides made peace, and Mōri Terumoto became one of the Five Regents who would take over the government after Hideyoshi's death until his son came of age.
Two factions formed, an eastern one under Tokugawa Ieyasu , and a western one under Ishida Mitsunari , who was loyal to Hideyoshi's son Hideyori. As their most powerful member, Mōri Terumoto led, at least nominally, the Western Army in the Battle of Sekigahara (1600).
The battle was lost for the western alliance, something the Mōri were not innocent of either:
- His nephew Kikkawa Hiroie made a secret pact with Tokugawa Ieyasu, which is why his 15,000 soldiers of the Mōri clan behaved neutrally in the battle.
- His adopted nephew Kobayakawa Hideaki with his 15,600 soldiers betrayed Ishida's army and allied with the Tokugawa side.
- In return for a safe withdrawal, Mōri Terumoto surrendered Osaka Castle without a fight.
Edo period
Tokugawa Ieyasu did not reward the betrayal in the battle in the eyes of the Mōri: Although they did not have to surrender all their possessions, like many other daimyo of the opposing side, they were forced to give up their ancestral seat in Aki province and their lands were reduced from over 1,200,000 to 369,000 koku , around a quarter. The family's new rulership now consisted of two provinces : Chōshū (also: Nagato) and Suō . From the Tokugawa shogunate they were referred to as Tozama daimyo .
Since Hiroshima Castle was lost to the Mōri, they had to find a new location for their headquarters. They were ordered by the shogunate to build a castle in Hagi , which at that time was nothing more than a rural stretch of coast on the Sea of Japan . Nearby were only the ruins of the Tsuwano Castle of neighboring Han.
The Mori reacted bitterly to the loss of their lands, and so the destruction of the Tokugawa shogunate was their goal from the start. According to legend, it became a tradition that the advisors asked the daimyo every year at the New Year celebrations, "Are we going to overthrow the shogunate this year?"
The main concern of the Lords of Chōshū was now to return to their old strength. Thus, through land reclamation and better management of agriculture, the yield of the fief could be gradually expanded until it was almost three times as much at the end of the Edo period with around 1,000,000 koku.
The 7th daimyō of Chōshū, Mōri Shigetaka , carried out extensive reforms in his Han in the middle of the 18th century, including the development of new territory and the reorganization of finances. After the Japanese era name Hōreki , these are also called Hōreki reforms ( 宝 暦 改革 , hōreki kaikaku ). In 1829 the town councilors were granted special rights to set up so-called kaisho ( 会所 ), in which goods production and trade were regulated in the individual localities.
In 1831 there was a great peasant uprising, the Chōshū Tempō uprising ( 長 州 藩 天保 一 揆 ).
In 1836 Mōri Takachika carried out the tempo reforms with the help of Murata Seifū ( 村田 清風 ) . Japan was still officially closed , but in the 30s and 40s of the 19th century the number of European ships in the seas around Japan increased. Chōshū, which controlled the western tip of Honshū and the Kammon Strait , was in an exposed position and was fully aware of this development. News from the opium war in China also made it clear that sooner or later Japan would have to face the Western powers. So one began to fortify the coast on the one hand, and on the other hand to secretly undermine the export ban of the Shogunate, which brought the Han high profits.
After Seifūs dismissal, Tsuboi Kuemon ( 坪井 九 右衛門 ), Mukunashi Tōta ( 椋 梨 藤 太 ) and Sufu Masanosuke ( 周 布 政 之 助 ) took over the official business and developed his reforms further.
In addition, the education of their own samurai, but also of the common population, was promoted. Yoshida Shōin , in his school called Shōka Sonjuku , became the master teacher of many important leaders of the Meiji Restoration that followed soon . He developed many ideas that would shape the coming period, such as the worship of Tenno and the expulsion of the "barbarians" ( sonnō jōi ) and the unity of the imperial court and the shogunate ( kōbu gattai ).
Bakumatsu
In 1863 Mōri Takachika moved his residence from Hagi to the centrally located Yamaguchi . The name of the Han changed to Yamaguchi-han. This showed the beginning weakness of the Tokugawa Shogunate: While at the beginning of the Edo period it could still dictate where individual daimyo set up their residence, it was now only informed after the facts had already been established.
Driven by the Sonnō-Jōi thought, Chōshū begins to bombard western ships on Kammon Strait on May 10th . The Western powers retaliated with the first bombing of Shimonoseki on July 20th. However, it does not stop there. After a few diplomatic entanglements, a second bombing takes place on 5/6. September of the following year.
During the coup on August 18 On September 30, 1863 in Kyoto, Chōshū stood firmly behind the Kōmei -Tenno and the slogan Sonnō-jōi, against Satsuma (a later ally) and Aizu (opponent to the end). The Sonnō-jōi faction was defeated, and the Chōshū representatives were expelled from Kyoto. Expelled court nobles found an exile in Chōshū.
In the same year, the Han smuggled five young samurai out of the country so that they could study in London, the so-called Chōshū Five . The most famous of them, Itō Shunsuke, later became Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi . Inoue Monta (later Inoue Kaoru ), Yamao Yōzō , Endō Kinsuke and Nomura Yakichi (later Inoue Masaru ) travel with him .
In 1864 the situation in Kyoto escalated further. In the Ikedaya incident , Rōnin from Chōshū clashed with the Shinsengumi . Troops from Chōshū and Tosa then march to the imperial palace , but are stopped by samurai from Aizu and Satsuma at the Hamaguri Gate ( uprising at the Hamaguri Gate ). The shogunate then orders a punitive expedition against Chōshū under Tokugawa Yoshikatsu , daimyo of Owari . Under the military leadership of Saigo Takamori , the shogunate marched into Chōshū with around 150,000 soldiers from 36 Han. However, there was no battle, as the moderate faction in Chōshū prevailed and capitulated.
Saigo is content with the fact that the main people responsible for the attack on the Imperial Palace, Kunishi Chikasuke , Masuda Chikanobu and Fukuhara Mototake commit seppuku. The court nobles who were in exile in Chōshū are taken to other han, and the recently completed Yamaguchi Castle is half destroyed. The Sonnō-jōi faction is thus defeated in Chōshū for the time being, and moderate forces take over the helm. Samurai loyal to the emperor are exiled to Kyūshū, Daimyō Mōri Takachika escapes with his son to Hagi.
In Kokura on Kyushu, however, a group gathered around Takasugi Shinsaku , Yamagata Aritomo , Itō Hirobumi and Inoue Kaoru and founded the Kiheitai , a militia into which not only samurai, but also farmers and commoners were accepted. On January 13, 1865, this army marched into Chōshū based on the modern model with initially only 80 men, and with the help of Kido Takayoshi they managed to gather massive strength by March and emerge victorious from the Chōshū civil war .
The shogunate reacts to this with the second Chōshū expedition, but this ends in a complete disaster for the shogunate. Satsuma , hitherto bitter opponent of Chōshū, refuses allegiance to the shogunate and, through Sakamoto Ryōma's mediation , first secretly supplies Chōshū with modern weapons, before officially closing the Satchō alliance in March 1866 . In June, Mōri Takachika returns to the head of the Han from exile.
On July 18, the fighting began, but the shogunate army suffered a defeat against the modern trained and equipped militias of Chōshū. Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi , who had traveled from Edo, was too weak to lead the army and died in Osaka Castle on August 29, 1866 . His successor, Tokugawa Yoshinobu , negotiates an armistice with Chōshū.
Chōshū and Satsuma then put pressure on the emperor to force the new shogun to surrender power. In fact, Yoshinobu reacts to the imperial decrees, resigns as a shogun and hands over the power of government. But the imperial side is not satisfied with it, and the first military conflict between the shogunate and the imperial court, the battle of Toba-Fushimi, ensues . Defeated, Yoshinobu flees to Edo. The Edo Castle is passed after long negotiations without a fight to the imperial troops. The Boshin War , however, does not end there. Ōmura Masujirō leads the troops from Chōshū in the Battle of Ueno and against the Northern Alliance around Aizu . Chōshū's forces also defeat the Republic of Ezo . The dream of bringing down the Tokugawa would come true 260 years later.
Meiji period
After the Meiji Restoration , the Han system was abolished . The Mōri were the first to voluntarily return their lands to the emperor. In the newly created nobility system of the Meiji period ( Kazoku ) they were led as Kōshaku ( 公爵 , "prince").
Yamaguchi-han was merged with the subordinate Han Tokuyama and transformed into Yamaguchi Prefecture when the Han was abolished in April 1871 .
Through the achievements of Chōshū's soldiers in the Boshin War, Chōshū played an important role in building the Imperial Japanese Army . Many former samurai from Chōshū rose to become generals, admirals of the fleet or politicians during the Meiji period. Itō Hirobumi became the first Prime Minister of Japan , followed by Yamagata Aritomo , Katsura Tarō , Terauchi Masatake and Tanaka Giichi . Kido Takayoshi, who died early, and the ambassador and foreign minister Aoki Shūzō, who are very close to Germany, also belong to this elite.
economy
Due to the massive reduction of the land area, and thus the rice income, at the beginning of the Edo period from 1.2 million koku to around a quarter, Chōshū was forced to undertake extensive reforms in order to free the country from its debts.
First, the size of the lands of all samurai was reduced. Some of the samurai were completely stripped of their land; they were paid directly from the rice granaries. Other samurai have been released from service and encouraged to take up farming themselves.
To avoid taxes, many farmers secretly planted fields in the mountains. Tax collectors located these fields and taxed them.
The Han administration also began to regulate trade more closely. It created monopolies on the "four whites": paper, rice, salt and wax, which were heavily taxed. The high taxes also ensured regular revolts among the peasantry and the lower samurai ranks.
politics
During the Edo period , Chōshū was ruled by the Mōri from Hagi Castle. To avoid the shogunate from confiscating the lands because there was no inheritance, the Mōri created four subordinate Han ruled by branch lines of the family, from which an inheritance could then be adopted, which happened twice. The Han were:
- Iwakuni-han : 60,000 Koku, ruled by Kikkawa Hiroie and his descendants.
- Chōfu-han : 50,000 Koku, ruled by Mōri Hidemoto and his descendants.
- Tokuyama-han : 40,000 Koku, ruled by Mōri Naritaka and his descendants.
- Kiyosue-han : 10,000 Koku, ruled by Mōri Mototomo and his descendants.
As was usual in the Edo period, the daimyo of the Mōri had an advisory staff of Karō . This office was usually hereditary, and went to vassals with large land holdings, such as the heads of the Mōri branch families, related families such as the Shishido and the Fukuhara, or descendants of the generals and close advisers of Mōri Motonari, such as the Mazuda, Kuchiba and Kunishi. However, it also happened that individual, talented samurai with little land ownership were raised to the rank of Karō, such as the reformer Murata Seifū. In this case, however, the rank was not hereditary.
List of daimyo
-
Mōri ( Tozama-Daimyō , 369,000 Koku ), 1600–1871
| Surname | Kanji | Term of office | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mōri Terumoto | 毛利 輝 元 | 1563-1623 |
| 2 | Mōri Hidenari | 毛利 秀 就 | 1623-1651 |
| 3 | Mōri Tsunahiro | 毛利 綱 広 | 1651-1682 |
| 4th | Mōri Yoshinari | 毛利 吉 就 | 1682-1694 |
| 5 | Mōri Yoshihiro | 毛利 吉 広 | 1694-1707 |
| 6th | Mōri Yoshimoto | 毛利 吉 元 | 1707-1731 |
| 7th | Mōri Munehiro | 毛利 宗 広 | 1731-1751 |
| 8th | Mōri Shigetaka | 毛利 重 就 | 1751-1782 |
| 9 | Mōri Haruchika | 毛利 治 親 | 1782-1791 |
| 10 | Mōri Narifusa | 毛利 斉 房 | 1791-1809 |
| 11 | Mōri Narihiro | 毛利 斉 熙 | 1809-1824 |
| 12 | Mōri Narimoto | 毛利 斉 元 | 1824-1836 |
| 13 | Mōri Naritō | 毛利 斉 広 | 1836 |
| 14th | Mōri Takachika | 毛利 敬 親 | 1836-1869 |
| 15th | Mōri Motonori | 毛利 元 徳 | 1869-1871 |
Other possessions
Sub-Han ( 支 藩 )
Grandson Han ( 孫 藩 )
- Kiyosue ( 清末 藩 ) in Nagato
other areas
- Iwakuni ( 岩 国 領 , from 1868: 岩 国藩 ) in Suō
See also
Remarks
- ↑ Back left: Endō, back center: Inoue Masaru, back right: Itō, front left: Inoue Kaoru, front right: Yamao
literature
- Bakufu seichō kiroku 幕府 征 長 記錄 (1973). Edited by Nihon Shiseki Kyōkai 日本 史籍 協會 . Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai.
- Craig, Albert M (1961). Chōshū in the Meiji restoration . Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
- Huber, Thomas M. (1981). The Revolutionary Origins of Modern Japan . Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
- Ogawa Ayako 小川 亜 弥 子 (1998). Bakumatsuki Chōshū-han yōgakushi no kenkyū 幕 末期 長 州 藩 洋 学 史 の 研究 . Tokyo: Shibunkaku Shuppan.
