Dazaifu (office)

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Monument stone for the Dazai-fu in the city ​​of the same name

The Dazai-fu ( Japanese 太宰府 ) was a military special administrative zone or general government on the invasion-prone north coast of Kyushu (then Tsukushi ) of ancient Japanese. It mainly comprised the province of Chikuzen . The main town was the strategically important port of Hakata , now part of Fukuoka .

After the Wamyōshō , the Japanese name was also ohomikotomochi no tsukasa (modern: ōmikotomochi no tsukasa ).

History 673 to around 1100

The Dazai-fu was established as a direct result of the defeat in the Battle of Hakusukinoe 663 (also: Battle of the Paekchon River; today: Geumgang ). In addition to the usual tasks of provincial governors, the governor general ( 大 宰 帥 , Dazai no sotsu / sochi or ohomikotomochi no kami ) had additional military tasks, such as building and manning forts. Administratively, the governor general - within the framework of the centralized Ritsuryo administration - was under the Settsu-shiki (from 793 Settsu no kuni no tsukasa , "governor of the Settsu province"), who also controlled the port of Naniwa (today: Ōsaka). In the early 10th century the post was occupied, if not vacant, by princes of the imperial house, but they rarely left the capital. The actual administration was then carried out by an extraordinary governor-general ( 大 宰 権 帥 , Dazai no gon no sotsu / sochi ), who was often able to enrich himself personally in this position. The governors of the surrounding provinces were subordinate to him.

The actual administrative center was 13 km inland from the port. The headquarters was secured by the Mizuki dam ( 水城 ) and two nearby fortresses - Ōno-jō ( 大野 城 ) and Kii-jō ( 基 肄 城 ) - which were built according to Korean models. These were located on the 400 m high hills Ōnoyama (= Shiōjisan) and Kiyama .

Embassies and Commerce

Before about 800, shipbuilding was not yet sufficiently developed to allow direct trips to mainland China . Journeys led to the Korean Peninsula via the island of Tsushima, about 150 km away . During the Nara period, the Japanese were practically prohibited from traveling abroad. The only exceptions were the few embassies to the Chinese Tang Court, to Silla and Balhae , a kingdom in today's Manchuria . The few arriving foreigners were housed in a government-owned guest house ( Kōrokan ) about 10 km west of Hakata, isolated from the local population , until 780 . A register of arrival and departure was kept and regularly sent to the capital. With the decline of centralized violence and the rise of private trade in the early Heian period , strict controls eased.

Private traders, first from Korea, then China, began to arrive more frequently from the early 9th century. The court secured a right of first refusal on luxury goods. Prices were set for the sale of other goods, and the trade itself was strictly controlled. Special foreign trade commissioners ( karamono no tsukai ) were later appointed for this task. In order to restrict private trade, the nenki system was prescribed in 911 , which prohibited foreign traders from landing goods more often than every two years. These restrictions opened up a wide range of opportunities for administrative officials to engage in corrupt practices, which are particularly well documented for later periods.

Military

Already the Nihon Ryōiki reports of the delegation of experienced border guards ( sakimori ), particularly from the provinces of the Kantō . As a rule, they had the necessary military experience through the fighting with the Emishi, which was common in the 8th century . They manned guard stations along the coast and on the offshore islands of Iki and Tsushima. In order to reduce the high costs for food and accommodation, only conscripts from nearby provinces were seconded, for the first time from 757 and finally from 795 or 804. In 813 the number of troops was reduced from 17,100 to 9,000. Around 900, later than in other parts of the country, the use of professional soldiers ( senshi ), who were recruited from the sons of the landed nobility, began.

Starting with the attack on Hakata 869, fighting the more and more frequently invading pirates, mostly Korean pirates, became the main task of the defenders from 890 onwards. This threat subsided significantly from 936 onwards.

Around 800 ships of the insurgent Fujiwara no Sumitomo were destroyed in a sea battle in Hakata Bay in 941.

In 1019 there was an attack by a fleet of Jurchen ( Toi ), a Manchurian tribe.

History after 1100

In the course of time the authority developed into a kind of "General Government of Tsukushi". From the Kamakura period it was administered by a military governor ( Kyūshū-tandai ). This position was always exercised by a member of the Hōjō clan , for the first time in 1275, during the Kamakura shogunate . Even after the Mongol invasion was repulsed (1281), the title was retained in the Muromachi period . After the deposition of - later rehabilitated - Imagawa Sadako (= Ryōshun) in 1395, the position within the Shibukawa became hereditary.

In fact, since the Kamakura period, the administration was exercised by the Shōni . With the fall of this family, the office lost its function.

For a long time the most important gateway for travelers and trade, Hakata Port was the richest city in Western Japan, and by 1420 had an estimated 10,000 residential buildings.

In 1953 the site was named a special historical site ( tokubetsu shiseki ).

literature

  • Bruce Batten: Foreign Threat and Domestic Reform. In: Monumenta Nipponica . Vol 41, 2, 1986, pp. 199-219.
  • Bruce Batten: Cross-Border Traffic on the Kyushu Coast 794-1086. In: Mikael Adolphson, Edward Kamens, Stacie Matsumoto (eds.): Heian Japan, centers and peripheries. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu HI 2007, ISBN 978-0-8248-3013-7 , pp. 357-383.
  • Marcus Bingenheimer: A Biographical Dictionary of the Japanese Student-Monks of the Seventh and Early Eighth Centuries. Their Travels to China and their Role in the Transmission of Buddhism (= Buddhismus-Studien 4). Iudicium-Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-89129-693-2 .
  • Nosongdang (di Song Huigyong): Nosongdang's report on his trip to Japan from 1420 = Nosongdang-Ilbon-haengnok (= publications of the East Asia Institute of the Ruhr University, Bochum 8). Published by Tchi-ho Pack. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1973, ISBN 3-447-01525-X (also: Bochum, Univ., Diss.).

swell

  • Japanese sources: Kawazoe Shōji; Dazaifu, Dazaifu Temmagū shiryō 17 volumes so far

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans A. Dettmer : The Yōrō Codex . The commandments. Introduction and translation of the Ryō no gige . Book 1. Harrasowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-447-05940-4 , p. 8 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ↑ II, 3; currently Shōmus
  3. ↑ Ryō no gige: Gumbō-ryō Art. 8.27
  4. ↑ including Shoku Nihongi Tempyō-Hōji 1 / int. 8/27, 3/3/24; Tempyō-Jingo 2/4/7
  5. ↑ Ruijū sandai kyaku Kōnin 4/8/9
  6. ↑ Klan from Northern Kyushu, the name is derived from the title. Dettmer, Hans; Report of Nosodang about his trip to Japan ... 1420; Wiesbaden 1973, note 26, 82;
  7. ^ Family history: Shōni-shi

Coordinates: 33 ° 31 '  N , 130 ° 31'  E