Daimyo
 |
A Daimio paying a state visit, illustration from ca. 1860 |
The ()
were the most powerful
feudal rulers from the 12th century to the 19th century in
Japan. The term daimyo literally means "great name." From the
shugo daimyo of the
Kamakura period through the
sengoku daimyo to the daimyo of the
Edo period, the rank had a long and varied history. The term
daimyo is also sometimes used to refer to the leading figures of such clans, also called "
warlords". It was usually, though not exclusively, from these warlords that a
shogun arose or a
regent was chosen.
The Daimyo usually wore purples, ranging from dark to light depending on how high ranked they were. Dark and light purple preceded dark and light green, dark and light red, and finally black. The very highest daimyos were considered to be nobles.After the
Battle of Sekigahara of 1600 that marked the beginning of the Edo period,
shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu reorganized the clans and their territories, formerly
provinces (kuni), into the
han, based on their production of rice. Daimyo headed han assessed at 10,000
koku (50,000 bushels) or more. Ieyasu also divided the daimyo into three groups, depending on how close they were to the ruling Tokugawa family:
shinpan, who were related to the Tokugawa, the
fudai daimyo, who had been vassals of the Tokugawa or allies in the battle, and the
tozama daimyo, who opposed the Tokugawa but were defeated. Around 1800, there were approximately 170 daimyo in Japan.
The shinpan were collaterals of Ieyasu, such as the
Matsudaira, or descendants of Ieyasu other than in the main line of succession. Several shinpan, including the Tokugawa of
Owari (
Nagoya),
Kii (
Wakayama) and
Mito, as well as the Matsudaira of
Fukui and
Aizu, held large han.
A few fudai daimyo, such as the
Ii of
Hikone, held large han, but many were small. The shogunate placed many fudai at strategic locations to guard the trade routes and the approaches to
Edo. Also, many fudai daimyo took positions in the Edo shogunate, some rising to the position of
roju. The fact that fudai daimyo could hold government positions while tozama, in general, could not was a main difference between the two.
Tozama daimyo held large fiefs, with the
Kaga han of
Ishikawa Prefecture, headed by the
Maeda clan, assessed at 1,000,000 koku. Other famous tozama clans included the
Mori of
Nagato Province (Choshu), the
Shimazu of
Satsuma, the
Date of
Sendai, the
Uesugi of
Yonezawa, and the
Hachisuka of
Awa. Initially, the Tokugawa regarded them as potentially rebellious, but for most of the Edo period, marriages between the Tokugawa and the tozama, as well as control policies such as
sankin kotai, resulted in peaceful relations. The
sankin kōtai was a system whereby the Tokugawa forced all daimyo to spend every other year in Edo, leaving family members behind in their han. This increased political and fiscal control over the daimyo by Edo. As time went on in the Tokugawa period, many other systems of controlling the daimyo were put into place, such as mandatory contributions to public works such as road building. In addition, daimyo were forbidden to build ships and castles, and other shows of military power were often tightly controlled.
Upset by these controls, and often in bad economic situations because of things like sankin kotai, forced support of public works, and extravagant spending, the daimyo sided against the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Meiji Restoration. In 1869, the year after the
Meiji Restoration, the daimyo, together with the
kuge formed a new aristocracy, the
kazoku. In 1871, the
han were abolished and
prefectures were installed, thus effectively ending the daimyo era in Japan.°≈
''*
History of Japan*
Sankin-kotai*
Han (Japan).
