Chōshū Domain
The Chōshū Domain (長州藩, Chōshū han) was a feudal domain of Japan during the Edo period (1603-1867) occupying the whole of modern day Yamaguchi Prefecture. The domain played a major role in the Late Tokugawa shogunate. It is also known as the Hagi Domain (萩藩, Hagi han).
History
The rulers of Chōshū Han were the descendants of the great Sengoku warlord Mōri Motonari. Mōri Motonari was able to extend his power over all of the Chūgoku region of Japan and occupied a territory worth 1,200,000 koku. After he died, his grandson and heir Mōri Terumoto became daimyo and implemented a strategy of alliance with Toyotomi Hideyoshi. This would later prove to be a great mistake. After Hideyoshi's death, the daimyo Tokugawa Ieyasu challenged the Toyotomi power and battled with Hideyoshi's trusted advisor Ishida Mitsunari at the Battle of Sekigahara. Mōri Terumoto was the most powerful ally of the Toyotomi and was elected by a council of Toyotomi royalists to be the titulary head of the Toyotomi force. However the Toyotomi forces lost the battle due to several factors tied to Mōri Terumoto:
- His nephew Kikkawa Hiroie secretly made a deal with Tokugawa Ieyasu resulting in the inactivity of 15,000 Mōri soldiers during the battle.
- His adopted nephew Kobayakawa Hideaki and his 15,600 soldiers betrayed Ishida's force and joined the Tokugawa side.
- After assurances from Tokugawa Ieyasu, Mōri Terumoto gave up the formidable Osaka castle without a fight.
Despite its inactivity, the Mōri clan was removed from its ancestral home in Aki to Nagato Province (also known as Chōshū), and its holdings were drastically reduced from 1,200,000 to 369,000 koku.
This was seen as a great act of betrayal to the Mōri clan, and Chōshū han later became a hotbed of anti-Tokugawa activities. The origins of this were evident in the tradition of the clan's New Year's meeting. Every year during the meeting, the elders and the administrators would ask the daimyo whether the time to overthrow the shogunate has come, to which the daimyo would reply: "Not yet, the shogunate is still too powerful."
This dream would eventually be realized some 260 years later, when the domain joined forces with the Satsuma Domain and sympathetic court nobles to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate. They also led the fight against the armies of the former shogun, as well as the Ouetsu Reppan Domei, Aizu, and the Ezo Republic, during the Boshin War. The domains' military forces of 1867 through 1869 also formed the foundation for the Imperial Japanese Army. Thanks to this alliance, Chōshū and Satsuma natives enjoyed political and societal prominence well into the Meiji and even Taishō periods.
Economics
The initial reducing of 1.2 million to 369,000 koku resulted in a large shortfall in terms of military upkeep and infrastructure maintenance. In order to bring the domain's finance out of debt, strict policies were enforced on the retainers:
- All retainers' fiefs were drastically reduced.
- Some retainers who were paid in land began to be paid in rice.
- Some retainers were laid off and encouraged to engage in agriculture.
Previously, as a result of high taxation, farmers secretly developed farms far inside the mountains as a private food source. A new land survey was conducted within the domain in which many hidden farms were discovered and taxed. The domain also began a strict policy with regard to trade.
Laws were also passed in which the profitable trade of the "four white"s were controlled by the domain: paper, rice, salt and wax. Some of the profits, and a large amount of the tax revenues from this trade, went into the domain coffers.
These policies greatly strengthened the domain's finances and allowed the daimyo more effective control over his territory. However, these policies angered peasants and displaced samurai alike, resulting in frequent revolts.
Politics
The capital of the domain was the castle town of Hagi, which was the source of Chōshū's alternate name of Hagi han (萩藩).
The domain remained under the rule of the Mōri family for the duration of the Edo period. Because the shogunate frequently confiscated domains whose daimyo were unable to produce heirs, the Mōri daimyo created four subordinate han ruled by branches of the family:
- Iwakuni han: 60,000 koku, ruled by descendants of Kikkawa Hiroie.
- Chōfū han: 50,000 koku, ruled by descendants of Mōri Hidemoto.
- Tokuyama han: 40,000 koku, ruled by descendants of Mōri Naritaka.
- Kiyosue han: 10,000 koku, ruled by descendants of Mōri Mototomo.
During the Edo period, the main branch died out twice and heirs were adopted from both the Chōfu branch and the Kiyosue branch.
The Mōri daimyo, as with many of his counterparts throughout Japan, was assisted in the government of his domain by a group of karō, or domain elders. There were two kinds of karō in Chōshū: hereditary karō (whose families retained the rank in perpetuity) and the "lifetime karō," whose rank was granted to an individual but could not be inherited by his son.
The hereditary karō were either members of minor branches of the Mōri family, or members of related families such as the Shishido and the Fukuhara, or descendants of Mōri Motonari's most trusted generals and advisors such as the Mazuda, the Kuchiba and the Kunishi.
The lifetime karō were middle or lower samurai who displayed great talent in economics or politics and was promoted to karō by the daimyo. One such person was the great reformer Murata Seifu.
List of Daimyo
| Name | Tenure | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 4 | Mōri Yoshinari (毛利 吉就) | 1682-1694 |
| 5 | Mōri Yoshihiro (毛利 吉広) | 1694-1707 |
| 6 | Mōri Yoshimoto (毛利吉元) | 1707-1731 |
| 7 | Mōri Munehiro (毛利宗広) | 1731-1751 |
| 8 | 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 |
| 14 | Mōri Takachika (毛利敬親) | 1836-1869 |
| 15 | Mōri Motonori (毛利元徳) | 1869-1871 |
Notes
References
Further reading
- 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.