Shimazu (clan)

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Family coat of arms Kutsuwa ( 轡 , kutsuwa), German bridle, Maru ni jūji ( 丸 に 十字 , German "cross in a circle")
Samurai of the Shimazu clan during the Boshin War

The Shimazu ( Japanese 島 津 氏 , Shimazu-shi ) were a Japanese aristocratic family who ruled first in the Japanese province of Satsuma , then in the Daimyat Satsuma , today's Kagoshima prefecture , for a total of about 700 years. In addition, the Kingdom of Ryūkyū (Okinawa) was their vassal state from 1609 .

During the Edo period , the Shimazu were influential Tozama daimyō despite the fact that their possessions were far from Edo . They also played a crucial role in the final stages of the shogunate . Shimazu Nariakira became a driving force behind the opening of Japan.

Together with the Daimyat Chōshū they succeeded in a military coup against the Shogun in 1866 , which led to the Boshin War . But only 10 years later there was a rebellion from within their own ranks against the government they appointed. Among the rebels was one of the important representatives of Satsuma-han: Saigō Takamori , but the government was led by Ōkubo Toshimichi , also a former samurai among the Shimazu.

The Shimazu in Okinawa

Shimazu family burial site on the Kōya-san

The support of Konoe Nobutadas saved this family in 1601 daimyo status, although they had been on the losing side at the Battle of Sekigahara . In return, he often received financial support.

But because they wanted to keep an eye on the Shimazu clan, the Tokugawa issued a decree that allowed the defeated to conquer the independent Okinawa . By 1609, Okinawa was completely under the rule of Satsuma.

After Okinawa was surrendered, the Shimazu clan demanded complete supremacy over all of the Ryūkyū Islands . To force this, the king of Ryūkyū was unceremoniously shipped to Japan as a hostage. Since the people of Okinawa only cooperated minimally, they were again banned. One of the bans was a revised version of the gun ban, which prohibited anyone from carrying or possessing any form of gun. In the end, this went so far that each village only had a single knife available, which was tied in the middle of the village.

Because of these bans, the unarmed martial arts in Okinawa experienced a boom. Since it was no longer allowed to carry weapons, martial arts were studied with all kinds of unsuspecting tools. Some of the developments from tools to weapons are, for example, Nunchaku , Bō , Tonfa , Sai and Kama . The martial arts Te and Quanfa (Kung Fu) were also combined and Tōde emerged , from which karate later emerged. Training was only done in secret and the old masters strictly adhered to the old Okinawan Kikotsu code that they had to use their fighting strength to defend their homeland. As a result of this code and the suppression of the Shimazu clan, resistance groups formed, which repeatedly gave the samurai skirmishes.

This did not go unnoticed by the leadership of the Shimazu clan and they were cracked down on. Since all the prohibitions had failed, the whole country was covered with terror . People had to pay more taxes, pay higher harvest taxes or regularly attend a kind of roll call that was rung in by the sound of a gong. Anyone who did not make it to the collection point (Isshōde) quickly enough was killed.

Two years after the invasion of Okinawa, the king was released after a treaty was signed with the Tokugawa government that guaranteed the island as the sole property of the Shimazu clan. Although the king was reinstated in his office, he remained under constant supervision and only had a puppet function.

Because of these facts, the Okinawans maintained their resistance and the secret traditions of their martial arts.

Members

Succession

  1. Shimazu Tadahisa
  2. Shimazu Tadatoki
  3. Shimazu Hisatsune
  4. Shimazu Tadamune
  5. Shimazu Sadahisa
  6. Shimazu Morohisa
  7. Shimazu Ujihisa
  8. Shimazu Yuihisa
  9. Shimazu Motohisa
  10. Shimazu Hisatoyo
  11. Shimazu Tadakuni
  12. Shimazu Tachihisa
  13. Shimazu Tadamasa
  14. Shimazu Tadaosa
  15. Shimazu Tadataka
  16. Shimazu Katsuhisa
  17. Shimazu Takahisa
  18. Shimazu Yoshihisa
  19. Shimazu Yoshihiro
  20. Shimazu Tadatsune
  21. Shimazu Mitsuhisa
  22. Shimazu Tsunataka
  23. Shimazu Yoshitaka
  24. Shimazu Tsugutoyo
  25. Shimazu Munenobu
  26. Shimazu Shigetoshi
  27. Shimazu Shigego
  28. Shimazu Narinobu
  29. Shimazu Nariaki
  30. Shimazu Nariakira
  31. Shimazu Hisamitsu
  32. Shimazu Tadayoshi
  33. Shimazu Tadashige

Other members

The Seven Vassals ( 島 津 七 黨 )

More followers

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Furusawa, Tsunetoshi: Kamon daichō . Kin'ensha, n.d., ISBN 4-321-31720-7 , p. 113.
  2. ^ E. Papinot: Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan. Reprinted by Tuttle, 1972 edition of 1910 edition. ISBN 0-8048-0996-8 .

swell

  • Sansom, George (1961). A History of Japan: 1334-1615. "Stanford: Stanford University Press.
  • Sansom, George Bailey (1962). "Japan: A short cultural history." New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc.
  • Turnbull, Stephen (1998). The Samurai Sourcebook . London: Cassell & Co.

Web links

Commons : Shimazu  - collection of images, videos and audio files