Japanese History

Given that this series has one of the better ties to Japanese history, i thought, since i was teaching a couple other people about Japan's history, that i might create a thread here that gives a better look into the world of the Edo Period of Japan. From 24th March, 1603, to 3rd May, 1868.

I figure that as the time comes i can give more and more ties into Rurouni Kenshin, but ill start with general Japanese history, as well as some of the systems and other important features of this unique period in Japanese History, in fact, World History.

This, of course must start with the Sengoku Jidai, the time period before the Edo Jidai.

The Sengoku Jidai was a time of upheaval and social unrest, as well as near constant conflict that stemmed from the Onin War that raged from 1467 to 1477. This war was fought from economic distress and the need for a Shogunal sucessor. This period of strife would last nearly 200 years, and engulfed the entire country of Japan into bitter civil war. Towards the end, the three main Daimyo that would come out, would be Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Oda Nobunaga was the first of the three great Daimyo, his siezure of power would be like an iron fist, binding the country together. After his death at the hands of his most trusted General, Akechi Mitsuhide, Toyotomi Hideyoshi began to take control of what was left of Nobunaga's army's and eventually would conquer most of Japan. His rule was of enlightenment and art, and he was considered the peaceful leader, to Nobunaga's iron rule. Following two ill fated attempts to conquer China through Korea, Toyotomi Hideyoshi died from ill health. His young son, Hideyori, lacked the ability to hold power that his father once did, and soon Tokugawa Ieyasu rose up, leading to the Battle of Sekigahara, where some 160,000 men fought, with Tokugawa taking the reigns of power and having total control over Japan, as the Seitai Shogun, the Barbarian Conquering General. This would be the beginning of The Edo Jidai, starting in 1603 when Ieyasu, officially founded his Shogunate, or government of the Shogun.

This of course is a brief history of the Sengoku, but none the less important. It was what laid the foundation for the way the Edo Jidai was created, and it also had great influence over the systems and government that the Tokugawa would create in order to rule for more than 250 years in peace.

 

These history lessons will be, stretched out some, and not necssarily just about the timeline of the Edo Period but about some of the systems and interesting branches of government that existed.

Today, im going to talk about the Sankin Kotai System, or Alternate Attendance System which was put in place in 1635. This systems primary goal, was to make it near impossible for any Daimyo* to stage a Coup against the Shogun. Having seen the Sengoku Jidai and the struggle for power, the Tokugawa wanted a way to keep the Daimyo from having the means to gather power enough to topple the Shogunate. Thus Sankin Kotai was laid down as a law.

Around Edo Castle, all the Daimyo in Japan were required to keep an estate. This ensured that the Han's** finances would be tight and controlled, on top of this, the Daimyo's family were required to live at this estate year round, as a hostage, should they rise up in a Coup.

The way the system worked was that all Daimyo were required to have an alternating system of living in Edo and in their Han. For the Daimyo in Kanto, nearest to the Capital, the stay was every 6 months, for those in the outlaying regions, every other year, and for the Governor of Tsushima Island between Japan and Korea, every three years.

An additional strain on the Han's finances was the need for samurai to guard the Daimyo on the road to the Capital. The Han was assessed and the number of Samurai was dictated to them.

It was a brilliant solution to keep a government in power, after some 200 years of civil war over who would lead the country.

*A Daimyo is a provincial leader, while the Shogun was the ultimate power in Japan, each province, or Han, had its own Daimyo, a fuedal leader. Daimyo comes from the words "Dai" for "great" or "large" and "Myo" from the word "Myoden" meaning Private land.

** a Han, was a fief controlled by the Daimyo. Measured in "Koku" which was the amount of rice needed to feed a person for a year.

 

Thanks for the lesson Gensai, very interesting read. In some ways, Japan has changed drastically but you can still see the impact their past has on their culture today. For example, their business management practices are in some way similar to how the samurai kept watch over villagers, offering them protection. Today, that protection is more along the lines of offering workers job security, but also including them in business discussions.

 

Sounds like it was a common thing for the children of daimyo and samurai to grow up fatherless, even if their fathers were alive. In that case, I can almost see why Seisouhen was made as it was, showing Kenshin as the good samurai, serving his daimyo (the Meiji government) at the cost of his family. *sighs in frustration*

 

When a Samurai was disbarred or sentenced to seppuku, his family would follow in death. The wives would tie their legs so they wouldnt writhe, after they would stab the children, if they were old enough to understand, they would commit seppuku themselves.

And Kenshin served the Ishin Shishi, the Meiji Government wouldnt come around until after he left. Specifically he didnt have a master, nor was he a samurai. He was the son of farmers who died of Cholera, after which he was picked up and sold into slavery by an unknown person. He was chosen to for training by Hiko Seijurou who saw a purity of spirit within him. It should be noted, there were a few ranks of samurai, that werent hereditary, but in general, you had to be born, or adopted into a samurai family to be one. It wasnt until the late part of the 1800's that the ban on weaponry was eased, allow peasentry to bear arms again. Up until this point, unless a samurai, you werent allowed to own weaponry beyond a tanto, and later a shoto with a permit.

The caste system was officially laid down by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had risen from a mere peasent to become the ruler of all Japan in his lifetime, thus he knew that others may do the same, so he made a system that was impossible to transcend.

The way of the samurai was a bitter life at times. Though there were many that had a master to serve, and a stipend to survive. Following Sekigahara, many thousands of samurai found themselves without a han or a master to serve and turned to wandering the land. By law, the samurai were disallowed working the fields or doing menial labour. This meant they had very few ways to make money, to survive, some turned to being "yojimbo" bodygaurds, others to thievery, and still others to being bandits among the many roads throughout Japan.

 

I know Kenshin wasn't a samurai. But he had to act like one during the Bakumatsu. I didn't know the samurai's whole family had to die with him, though it makes sense.

 

So were going to talk today about the many roads that crisscrossed Japan.

Were going to focus on the "Gokaido", the "Five Roads". Specifically these roads were the, Tokaido, Nakesendo, Koshu Kaido, Oshu Kaido, and the Nikko Kaido. These major routes were of course supplemented by thousands of smaller routes and paths that lead to small villages and other towns.

The Tokaido or "East Sea Road", as its name suggests, ran along the Eastern Coast of Japan. Being the major route between Kyoto and Edo (modern Tokyo), it was a very heavily travelled route, infact the most heavily travelled in Japan. There were 53 way stations along this route, at which, travellers were required to present travel passes that were granted to them by the magistrate of travel for their han. For samurai, they were issued a wooden plank, it had their name and travel information, for peasents it was a paper pass made on special paper from the village of Hodo (Hodo-mura).

The next was the Nakasendo. As its name suggests, the route went through the mountains of central Japan before headed south to Kyoto. With a length of about 332 miles, it was a long trip, and it was of course less heavily travelled. However, it was still a major route, and it was prefered by some, since it lacked the major rivers that had to be forded on the Tokaido. Matsuo Basho, the famous haiku poet often travelled the Nakasendo. The Nakasendo, had 69 way stations along it.

The third route was the Koshu Kaido. The Koshu Kaido divided the country in half. running due west from Edo, eventually ending and meeting the Nakasendo in Shimosuwa-Shuku. It contained 44 way Stations on it.

The Oshu Kaido went north to Mutsu Han. This routes primary function was to allow for Daimyo on Sankin Kotai, to make it to Edo with a greater speed. The Oshu had only 27 way stations on it, however, the subroutes off of it, totalled near 100 stations. THe Mastumaedo headed north to Hakodate and the late Edo Jidai would see an inflow of traffic due to trade with Russia.

The final route was the Nikko Kaido, which went between Edo and Nikko Tosho-gu, a shinto shrine in Nikko. Tokugawa Ieyasu was a patron of the shrine and this route, laid down in 1617. The Nikko Kaido only had 21 Stations, sharing 17 with the Oshu Kaido. This is the shortest of the Gokaido.