On This Day in Japanese History

[Countessmeout]

I thought it a shame with the European monarchies having history threads, the others don't. Japan has such rich royal history.

January 24, 1924 wedding of Emperor Hirohito and Empress Kojun.

https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/n...own-prince-news-photo/104418314?adppopup=true

Hirohito was Crown Prince at the time of his wedding. His father Emperor Taisho had come to the throne in 1912. His mother Empress Teimei was the daughter of Prince Kujō Michitaka (head of the senior branches of the Fujiwara clan). He was the eldest of four sons. Prince Mikasa who died in 2016 was his last sibling, his other two brothers pre-deceased him.

His bride was Princess Nagako Kuni (later Empress Kojun). She was the daughter of Kuniyoshi, Prince Kuni. Her father belonged to an Oke branch of the imperial royal family and her mother's family were daimyos (feudal lords).

The couple were betrothed when the Princess was 14 years old, in 1917. She was withdrawn from the school for aristocrats she had attended to undergo six years of training expected to be needed for a future crown princess.


In a change from tradition Hirohito had been allowed to choose his wife. He had selected from a group of elligible young women who had been brought for a tea party. He watched from behind a screen and selected Nagako. The engagement was made known in 1919.


In contrast to those before him, Hirohito gave up his concubines on marriage. The couple had four daughters early in marriage, but took 10 years to have a son. In the end the couple had five daughters and two sons. Her husband became emperor in 1926.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Kōjun#/media/File:Empress_Kojun_and_Prince_Akihito.jpg

The couple were married for nearly 65 years. Her husband died January 7, 1989, 2 1/2 weeks before their anniversary. The empress had been in poor health for years and had been unable to attend her husband's funeral. She remained in seclusion until her own death 2000 at the age of 97. She was the longest empress consort in history, having surpassed an over 800 year record in 1995.


The couple had 7 children, 10 grandchildren and have at least 4 great-grandchildren (I only know about Akihito's grandchildren. I am not sure if any of their other grandchildren have kids).

 

[yukari]

January 31, 1543 – Birth of Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康), the founder and first shōgun of the Tokugawa, or Edo, shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Ieyasu was born as Matsudaira Takechiyo into the family of a local warrior situated several miles east of modern Nagoya. His father, Matsudaira Hirotada, was involved in a network of shifting alliances that repeatedly drew him into battle. When Ieyasu was two years old, his mother was permanently separated from his father’s family because of one such change in alliances, and in 1547 military adversity compelled his father to send him away as hostage to the Imagawa family, powerful neighbours headquartered at Sunpu (now the city of Shizuoka) to the east.

In 1560 Imagawa Yoshimoto was slain during a battle with Oda Nobunaga, who was rapidly gaining power, and young Ieyasu seized the opportunity to return to his family’s small castle and assume control of his surviving relatives and vassals. Within months he took steps to ally himself with Nobunaga.

Relying heavily on his alliance with the now-mighty Nobunaga, Ieyasu survived the vicissitudes of endemic war and slowly extended his territory until, by the early 1580s, he had become an important daimyo, in control of the fertile and populous area stretching from Okazaki eastward to the mountain barrier at Hakone.

After the death of Nobunaga at Honnō-ji castle in 1582; Toyotomi Hideyoshi moved to assume Nobunaga’s preeminent political position while Ieyasu emerged as his principal rival. After a few bloody but indecisive skirmishes, however, the cautious Ieyasu offered a vow of fealty, and Hideyoshi was content to leave Ieyasu’s domain intact. During the rest of the 1580s, while Hideyoshi busily extended his control over the daimyo of southwestern Japan, Ieyasu strengthened himself as best he could. He continued to enlarge his vassal force, increase his domain’s productivity, and improve the reliability of his administration. And in 1586, for greater security, he moved his headquarters even farther to the east, away from Hideyoshi, to Sumpu,

During the 1590s Ieyasu, unlike several daimyo from western Japan, avoided involvement in Hideyoshi’s two disastrous military expeditions to Korea. Instead, he made a risky move by leaving his home domain to the Kantō region. He stationed his most powerful vassals on the perimeter of his territory and along main access routes, keeping the least powerful—and least dangerous to himself—nearer Edo, and built a castle in Edo. This castle would later be known as Edo Castle, the residence of the shogun and location of the Tokugawa shogunate, and also functioned as military capital during Edo period. After Meiji Restoration, it became the Tokyo Imperial Palace.

When Hideyoshi died in 1598, Ieyasu had the largest, most reliable army and the most productive and best organized domain in all Japan.
Hideyoshi’s death precipitated another power struggle among the daimyo which led to Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 in which Ieyasu, as the most powerful and most respected of Hideyoshi’s former vassal advisers, became the head of one faction in that struggle. In the ensuing battle Ieyasu’s eastern army triumphed.

Having secured the strategic heartland, he proceeded over the next several years to make his control more sure by issuing regulations and establishing supervisory organs to constrain daimyo, imperial court nobles, and clerics, as well as his own vassals. In 1603 the powerless imperial court dutifully assigned Ieyasu title of shōgun, thereby acknowledging that this most powerful daimyo in Japan was the man officially authorized to keep the peace in the emperor’s name. Two years later Ieyasu formally retired, left Edo for the more pleasant surroundings of his old home at Sunpu, and had the shogunal title assigned to his son Hidetada, intending thereby to assure that the title was recognized as a hereditary Tokugawa prerogative.

As the retired shōgun (ōgosho), he remained the effective ruler of Japan until his death in 1616.

Four years after his death, his granddaughter, Masako (youngest daughter of Hidetada and his wife, Oeyo) entered the palace as a consort of the Go-Mizunoo tennō. Masako’s daughter later ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne as Meishō tennō.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokugawa_Ieyasu

 

[Muhler]

Thanks, Yukari.

A very fascinating family dynasty.

Ieyasu is perhaps better known in the West as Toranaga from the TV series Shogun, convincingly played by Toshiru Mifune.
Mariko and Blackthorne were also historical figures even though it's doubtful they ever met and the two of them having a relationship would be next to unthinkable.

There were a few Europeans in advisory roles at the time. Blackthorne wasn't English though, but Dutch (Can't remember his name off hand), and he became quite influential in regards to foreign policy after Ieyasu took over as Shogun and ensured that Japan and the Netherlands had a trade deal.
The Dutch shipped goods to and from China to the closed-off port of Nagasaki (IIRC), in return they didn't interfere in local affairs, as was the usual custom of the Dutch.

Because the political and economic background described in Shogun was historically correct, only the names were changed.
The influence of the Portuguese was exaggerated in the series though. Japan was indeed under the Portuguese sphere of influence, but it is more correct to say that competing religious orders interfered in Japanese politics - with some success. More on that later.

By 1600 Japan was divided into two pretty much equally strong alliances, East and West. Ieyasu controlling the Eastern Alliance. Which is also why the battle of Sekigahara was so bloody. It was very much a slogging match. In Japan battles were usually won by the side with the largest army (depending on who switched side and when. A major ally of the Western Alliance switched side during the battle of Sekigahara BTW) typically overwhelming the smaller army.
One factor at Sekigahara was the use of muskets (or more correctly matchlocks) from behind fortified positions, which neutralized a good deal of the Western Alliance's cavalry. It was here Japan had been influenced by European suppliers of weapons and advisors in regards how to best utilize matchlocks. However the Japanese were the first to standardize calibers. Previously matchlocks had all kinds of calibers, depending on who made them. Which meant that each musketeer was issued a mold, so that he could make his own musket balls for his particular weapon. A logistic nightmare!

After Sekigahara there were a few mopping up operations, but nothing that could threaten Ieyasu's position as Shogun.
In the 1630's there was a serious rebellion by Christian Daimyo's it was crushed with considerable difficulty and that led to the banning of all foreigners on Japanese soil, except Nagasaki. Foreigners who landed or were shipwrecked outside Nagasaki were either escorted to Nagasaki or killed.
That only ended in the 1850's when an American squadron sailed into Tokyo Bay demanding Japan being opened up for foreign trade - and getting very close to being colonized as well. Something the Japanese were all too aware of. But that's another and equally fascinating story.

But after the Christian rebellion had been put down, nothing happened.
The two first Shoguns after Ieyasu were energetic, competent and dynamic - the rest less so.
By 1650 the whole Samurai class basically had nothing to do. Apart from policing, hunting the odd bandits and sometimes putting down a small and remote rebellion, they had nothing to do. A samurai born in 1650 could very well expect to live his entire life without ever seeing action of any sort.
This is were various forms of art took over, because they had to do something, besides training for a battle they most likely would never experience.
Poetry, the tea ceremony and erotic, not to forget, were three art forms that were elevated to pretty much hysterical heights.

Japan, although remaining very cultured, well organized and well run, became lethargic, extremely traditional, static (there was no movement between classes) and all reforms and progress was frowned upon.
So when the world came knocking on the door in the 1850's it came as a huge shock and it dawned upon the Japanese how backwards (and thus vulnerable) they had become.

 

[yukari]

Ieyasu is perhaps better known in the West as Toranaga from the TV series Shogun, convincingly played by Toshiru Mifune.

When I hear “Mifune”, the first think that come up in my mind is Kurosawa’s Rashomon (he’s the God of jidaegeki!). Never watched Shogun, I tend to avoid “western jidaegeki”, even Mifune can’t tempt me. And why did they change his name? (“Toranaga” makes me imagine lion-dragon).

Thank you for adding stuff about Sekigahara.

A major ally of the Western Alliance switched side during the battle of Sekigahara BTW) typically overwhelming the smaller army.

But don’t forget, there’s Sanada Maru incident too (the Ueda castle, not the Osaka castle one). Hidetada’s blunder there had significantly reduced Ieyasu’s troop in Sekigahara. Not only full of switching side, but this battle also full of fighting against family (which not really uncommon actually).

That only ended in the 1850's when an American squadron sailed into Tokyo Bay demanding Japan being opened up for foreign trade - and getting very close to being colonized as well. Something the Japanese were all too aware of. But that's another and equally fascinating story.

Do you mean Capt Perry? Indeed, it’s another (long) fascinating story; start with Black Ships and end with Meiji Restoration.

But after the Christian rebellion had been put down, nothing happened.

This is also another story. The frictions with the Christian converts actually had happened since Hideyoshi. One of sore point with Christianity was seppuku, since you know, it’s basically suicide and Christianity condemns suicide.
One of the most famous convert that time was Hosokawa Tama (or Garasha/Gracia), wife of Hosokawa Tadaoki and daughter of Akechi Mitsuhide (who’s responsible of Nobunaga’s death). She is said to play a part on the outcome of Battle of Sekigahara. Mitsunari (Ieyasu’s opponent) planned to take her as hostage to sway her husband alliance, but she was then killed by Tadaoki’s retainer who then committed seppuku (there’s some dispute whether it was her idea or Tadaoki’s order). The outrage over her death did much damage to Mitsunari’s reputation which greatly reduced his chances of recruiting more allies, some of whom were also secretly Christians.

By 1650 the whole Samurai class basically had nothing to do. Apart from policing, hunting the odd bandits and sometimes putting down a small and remote rebellion, they had nothing to do. A samurai born in 1650 could very well expect to live his entire life without ever seeing action of any sort.

Imagine if sengoku period last longer ....

This is where various forms of art took over, because they had to do something, besides training for a battle they most likely would never experience.
Poetry, the tea ceremony and erotic, not to forget, were three art forms that were elevated to pretty much hysterical heights.

And that’s the interesting part. Many of Japanese artistries flourish thanks to bushi class (warrior class) who’s job was to fight, not kugyo (nobles/palace court) or Imperial family members like in Europe (which happened way since near the end of Heian period with the rise of Taira clan), simply because they were the one with money.

 

[Muhler]

I've allowed myself to add numbers to your posts. Makes it easier. ?

When I hear “Mifune”, the first think that come up in my mind is Kurosawa’s Rashomon (he’s the God of jidaegeki!). Never watched Shogun, I tend to avoid “western jidaegeki”, even Mifune can’t tempt me. And why did they change his name? (“Toranaga” makes me imagine lion-dragon).
(1)

Thank you for adding stuff about Sekigahara.

But don’t forget, there’s Sanada Maru incident too. Hidetada’s blunder there had significantly reduced Ieyasu’s troop in Sekigahara. Not only full of switching side, but this battle also full of fighting against family (which not really uncommon actually).
(2)


Do you mean Capt Perry? Indeed, it’s another (long) fascinating story; start with Black Ships and end with Meiji Restoration.
(3)


This is also another story. The frictions with the Christian converts actually had happened since Hideyoshi. One of sore point with Christianity was seppuku, since you know, it’s basically suicide and Christianity condemns suicide.
One of the most famous convert that time was Hosokawa Tama (or Garasha/Gracia), wife of Hosokawa Tadaoki and daughter of Akechi Mitsuhide (who’s responsible of Nobunaga’s death). She is said to play a part on the outcome of Battle of Sekigahara. Mitsunari (Ieyasu’s opponent) planned to take her as hostage to sway her husband alliance, but she was then killed by Tadaoki’s retainer who then committed seppuku (there’s some dispute whether it was her idea or Tadaoki’s order). The outrage over her death did much damage to Mitsunari’s reputation which greatly reduced his chances of recruiting more allies, some of whom were also secretly Christians.


Imagine if sengoku period last longer ....


And that’s the interesting part. Many of Japanese artistries flourish thanks to bushi class (warrior class) who’s job was to fight, not kugyo (nobles/palace court) or Imperial family members like in Europe (which happened way since near the end of Heian period with the rise of Taira clan), simply because they were the one with money.
(4)

(1) The TV-series Shogun wasn't bad actually. Better than the book it was based on.
It was pretty accurate in regards to history, even though all historical figures were renamed.
And to appeal to a Western audience a western man had the main part and a love story was added.
Hosokawa Tama was Mariko in the series, and like the TV-figure, Hosokawa Tama was a linguist as well. Her death is also well covered in the series. She didn't commit suicide per se, but she placed herself in a situation where her death was almost inevitable. In a sense she committed seppuku by proxy.
Anyway, the death of Hosokawa Tama meant that Ieyasu's main protagonist, Mitsunari, was forced to allow his other high ranking "guests" to walk free. Leading their families to openly side with Ieyasu at Sekigahara.
Her husband was by all accounts not the brutal wife-beater he was presented as in the series.

(2) Oh yes, switching sides in the middle of a battle was almost endemic!
And the blunder of Hidetada, not "marching towards the sound of guns" almost cost Ieyasu his victory. Sekigahara was a very close thing! Which is also why Ieyasu lost his composure a couple of times during the battle. The most famous being his order to fire at a passive part of the armies (there were actually several armies converging at Sekigahara) prompting it to finally switch sides from Mitsunari to Ieyasu as agreed previously...
Ieyasu was a man of his time. He had the morbid habit of closely studying the facial expressions of the decapitated heads of his enemies.

(3) Indeed I do.
It was a giant humiliation of the shogunate! It was realized that the Shogun was unable to prevent foreign invaders from conquering Japan, if they really wanted to and also was unable to protect the sacred person of the Emperor.
That simply could not be allowed to happen, hence the Meiji Restoration.
Which was an astonishing feat!
Unfortunately too successful, as the rearmament and the subsequent victories over China and Russia, led to a militarization, isolation and not least an over confidence of the Japanese leadership.

(4) Hmm, the merchant class had money too and lots of it! But they were looked down upon, mainly because they didn't fight. But also because they didn't own land. They were not allowed to form a class competing (openly) with the samurai class! But in private they did.
Nobunaga came from a pretty humble origin and rose to de facto dictator of Japan. That ended after the Ieyasu family took over. No more social mobility.
Japan anno 1575 was as close to social equality as it had ever been before or after. Until after 1945 that is.

Once the Imperial family had been - confined - for a lack of better word to Edo, they focused on Shinto and fine arts. A way to avoid degenerating. The Emperor was paraded once a year on a fairly short stretch of road in Edo, reserved only for the Emperor and that was pretty much all the public ever saw of him, if they even saw that much.

 

[yukari]

(4) Hmm, the merchant class had money too and lots of it! But they were looked down upon, mainly because they didn't fight. But also because they didn't own land. They were not allowed to form a class competing (openly) with the samurai class! But in private they did.

I’m not really sure about merchant class having lot of money. Near the end of Edo period and after, yes, but not during the majority of Edo period. Not with the shogunate practically control everything (including trade) and Japan under isolation (which come account mentioned was not actually full isolation since at some point the shogunate still did some foreign trade in secret).

For those merchants (and farmers) there’s tax to be paid to the daimyo and bandit to deal in which because non-samurai were banned from owning sword (thanks to Hideyoshi) they basically had nothing to defend themselves (unless they hired samurai for protection). Sure, not every samurai were rich, many were poorer than merchant especially by the end of Edo period. There’s story about samurai selling his katana blade to get money and replaced it with bamboo (since only the tsuka/handle was visible, so unless he drew it nobody would know). There’s also ronin/masterless samurai (who mostly turned into bandit). So the big chunk of money during that era was circulating within samurai class (mainly daimyos). The shogunate was even richer than Imperial family and its court (something that started way during the end of Heian era).

Once the Imperial family had been - confined - for a lack of better word to Edo, they focused on Shinto and fine arts. A way to avoid degenerating. The Emperor was paraded once a year on a fairly short stretch of road in Edo, reserved only for the Emperor and that was pretty much all the public ever saw of him, if they even saw that much.

You mean post-Meiji Restoration, right? Because AFAIK, until the end of Tokugawa shogunate, the Imperial family and its court resided (or borrowing your word, confined) in Kyoto.

 

[Muhler]

Numbers again. ?

I’m not really sure about merchant class having lot of money. Near the end of Edo period and after, yes, but not during the majority of Edo period. Not with the shogunate practically control everything (including trade) and Japan under isolation (which come account mentioned was not actually full isolation since at some point the shogunate still did some foreign trade in secret).
(1)

For those merchants (and farmers) there’s tax to be paid to the daimyo and bandit to deal in which because non-samurai were banned from owning sword (thanks to Hideyoshi) they basically had nothing to defend themselves (unless they hired samurai for protection). (2) Sure, not every samurai were rich, many were poorer than merchant especially by the end of Edo period. (3) There’s story about samurai selling his katana blade to get money and replaced it with bamboo (since only the tsuka/handle was visible, so unless he drew it nobody would know). There’s also ronin/masterless samurai (who mostly turned into bandit). (4) So the big chunk of money during that era was circulating within samurai class (mainly daimyos). The shogunate was even richer than Imperial family and its court (something that started way during the end of Heian era). (5)

You mean post-Meiji Restoration, right? Because AFAIK, until the end of Tokugawa shogunate, the Imperial family and its court resided (or borrowing your word, confined) in Kyoto.

(6)

(1) It was as you know put into system. Vis a vis the port city of Nagasaki, where foreigners were allowed to off load cargo. Not least the Dutch.
Smuggling had for centuries been a lucrative trade, going all the way through the social strata.
The merchant class certainly funded a good deal of the endemic wars during the 1500's. They had the money - and an economic interest in a Japanese expansion into Korea. Something that is often overlooked by historians. It wasn't just territorial ambitions.
And while it is indeed true that the Tokugawa dynasty did its very best to control the merchant class, that control slipped away certainly be the latter half of the 1600's. The merchant class never gained real direct political influence but they still had money and desired goods.

(2) Oh yes! Because by the late 1500's the peasants, who constituted the majority of the armies, scared the samurai class!
The well known quote about a cheap spear being able to match an expensive sword, wasn't just a tactical observation, but just as much a reference to the growing albeit still dormant power of the peasants class. Hence why the peasant class was disarmed shortly after Ieyasu taking over. (Someting similar happened about a century earlier in Central and Northern Europe BTW.)
Kurosawa explained the peasant versus ronin relationship very well in his masterpiece. Including the mutual contempt and cynicism.

(3) Most samurais very relatively poor. Sure they were supplied with food, lodging and clothes by their daimyo, however most didn't own land themselves, but mostly lived in "barracks" so to speak.
What was worse for the "private" samurais was that advancement was very slow, due to there being no wars where you could rise by merit or bravery. On top of that there was a lot of bribery and patronages in regards to what promotion there was. So most samurais led a safe, but pretty modest life.
They certainly didn't have the means to pursue the modern trends in regards to art and the highly elevated tea ceremony.

(4) Some of these ronin became monks, who were a real menace! The idea of monks being devoted to religion and contemplation, was not universal. Some monasteries were de facto "robber baronies" extorting their surroundings. One such monastery was for a period located near Kyoto. Embarrassingly close to the Imperial family.
You are, I suppose, familiar with the 47 ronins?
What is of interest is not so much what they did. (That has been widely praised in Japan then and today, even though their actions may have been much less praiseworthy.) What IMO is interesting are the details around the events in Edo in 1703. Not least the shift in power from the daimyos to what was basically civil servants (from the samurai class of course). To an extent that daimyos, even relatively junior daimyos, anno 1603, would never have accepted.
It caused a huge stir! And while it was a much admired return to the "good old days" the shogunate made very sure, that it would not repeat itself!

(5) IIRC the Japanese emperor had stopped having a direct political not to mention military role by the 1200's. (I haven't read up on that though.) And it was well known that the Shogun/most powerful daimyo controlled the finances of the court - and used that as a means to control the Imperial Family. Perhaps not least the extended branches of the Imperial Family.

(6) Yes. ? Kyoto.

 

[Countessmeout]

Glad I started this thread. I have been enjoying reading the last few posts.


February 5, 976 birth of Emperor Sanjo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Sanjō#/media/File:Emperor_Sanjō.jpg

His given name was Iyasada-shinnō. He was the second son of Emperor Reizei who was the 63rd emperor of Japan. His mother was Fujiwara no Chōshi. He had two full brothers and a full sister. He was the half brother of Emperor Kazan (as well as two sisters who were all the children of another one of his father's consorts Fujiwara no Kaishi/Chikako).
His mother would be granted the posthumous title of Zō-Kōtaigō, Empress mother, when her son succeeded as emperor.

His mother died when he was 7 years old. From that point he was raised in the household of his maternal grandfather.

Iyasada-shinnō was named crown prince at the age of 11. His brother Kazan gave up the throne 986 to become a monk. He was not succeeded by his brother as by tradition the throne alternated between two lineages. Instead a son of Emperor En'yū took the throne as Emperor Ichijo.

In July 16 1011 Ichijo would abdicate the throne. The throne returned to the line of Reizel and Iyasada became Emperor Sanjo. His father who had abdicated in 969, would die at age 62, months after his second son became emperor.

He would abdicate in 1016 as he had become increasingly blind at the time.

He was succeeded by Emperor Ichijo's son Emperor Go-Ichijō.

In May 1017 he entered the priesthood. He would die the next month at the age of 42. His posthumous name Sanjō-in was in honor of the palace he spent his life in after his abdication. The in would later be dropped. His actual grave is unknown but he is venerated at shrine in Kyoto.

None of his sons would succeed the throne. But a grandson of his through a daughter would ascend the throne.

During the reign of the previous emperor it had become custom to have two empresses.


His first was Fujiwara no Kenshi. The empress was the daughter of Imperial regent Fujiwara no Michinaga. They had one daughter.

-Princess Teishi: She married the future Emperor Go-Suzaku and would be empress in 1036. Through her Sanjo's line returned to the throne as her son became Emperor Go-Sanjō.


A year after his first empress he married Fujiwara no Seishi. Her father was first cousins with Michinaga (making the two empresses related).She bore her husband four sons and two daughters. Though her eldest son would be crown prince for a time, none of them came to the throne.

-Imperial Prince Atsuakira
-Imperial Prince Atsunori
-Imperial Prince Atsuhira
-Imperial Princess Tōshi: she served as the 37th Saiō in Grand Shrine of Ise.
-Imperial Princess Shishi: married Fujiwara no Norimichi.
-Imperial Prince Moroakira

He also had two consorts (not empresses). Fujiwara no Yasuko was a daughter of Fujiwara no Kaneie. The other was Fujiwara no Genshi, daughter of Fujiwara no Michitaka.

 

[Countessmeout]

February 11, 1948 birth of Yoshihito, Prince Katsura.

Yoshihito was the son of Takahito, Prince Mikasa. His father was the youngest brother of Emperor Hirohito. His mother Yuriko was a daughter of Viscount Masanari Takagi. He was their third child and second son out of five children. Prince Tomohito of Mikasa was his elder brother, and Norihito, Prince Takamado is his younger brother. He was born in the Mikasa Family Home at Kamiōsaki, Shinagawa, Tokyo.

He was a graduate of the Department of Political Studies in the Faculty of Law of Gakushuin University.He would later go to Australia to study graduate school in Canberra.

He worked for the Japanese National Broadcasting Company after he finished school. He would make a few return trips to Australia to promote the ongoing relationship with the two countries.

He was named Prince Katsura (Katsura-no-miya) and authorized to start a new branch of the royal family at the age of 39.

Unfortunately health wise he was never in good shape. He suffered a stroke and had surgery for a hematoma in 1988. Despite being in a wheelchair following this he continued to be quite active in public service as a royal. From 2008 though he was hospitalized off and on often suffering from sepsis. In 2014 he suffered an illness which caused damage to his heart.

He died from a massive heart attack June 8, 2014 at the age of 66.


His funeral was attended by 560 dignitaries including the imperial family. His niece Akiko served as hostess as he never married.


He was outlived by both of his parents, his father dying in 2016. His mother is currently the oldest living member of the royal family. He out lived both of his brothers. Norihito died in 2002 from heart failure at 47 and Tomohito died in 2012 from multiple organ failure at 66 (he had been suffering from several forms of cancer for some time). His sisters are alive at 76 and 69.

 

[Countessmeout]

February 19, 1709 death of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, fifth shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty of Japan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokugawa_Tsunayoshi#/media/File:Tsunyaoshi.jpg

He was born February 23, 1646. He was the son of Tokugawa Iemitsu, third shogun and one of his concubines Otama. His father had 10 concubines as well as his wife. As well as five siblings he also had five adopted sisters. His brother Tokugawa Ietsuna was five years older and would succeed as the 4th shogun.

After his birth he lived with his mother in her private apartments in Edo castle. His childhood name was Tokumatsu.

He should have been raised as a samurai warrior given his station in life. But his father feared that he was too strong and personable. His older brother was quite dull and over shadowed by his younger brother. The shogun feared his younger son would displace his heir. He had Tokumatsu raised as a scholar instead of a warrior in hopes to limit the risk of him displacing his brother.

He was extremely close to his mother who he relied on for advice until her death. The natural daughter of merchants, she had been adopted by the Honjo family. She was considered quite a remarkable woman in her life.

In 1651 his father died and his elder brother became shogun. Little is known of him during his brother's reign as he had no part in governing.

His brother died in 1680 and there was a dispute over the succession. Some thought the shogun should pass to the royal blood line and to a son of the emperor, Emperor Go-Sai. But it was one of his brother's advisors Hotta Masatoshi, who promoted Tsunayoshi to succeed his brother. In 1681 he was officially recognized as the 5th shogun of the dynasty.

Gokoku-ji was founded in honor of his mother. The temple is notable for having survived air raids when many other historical buildings around it had not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gokoku-ji


Hotta Masatoshi was named tairo in thanks for his support of him becoming shogun. He was committed to the samurai ways from early on his reign.


Under the influence of his mother he was a very relgious man. He continued his studies while shogun into religion. He cracked down on societal vices like prostitution and even banned certain fabrics.


His deep religious faith led him to introduce laws for the protection of animals. Having been born in the year of the dog he introduced laws to protect canines and other animals in the kingdom.

He was given the nickname Inu-Kubō, which means the Dog shogun.

His death in 1709 is debatable. There were rumors that he was stabbed by his consort when he wished to appoint one of of his natural sons as heir. But the general census is that he died from the mesaels, days before his 63rd birthday.

As his children had pre-deceased him he was succeeded by his nephew Tokugawa Ienobu, the son of his brother Tokugawa Tsunashige.

Like his father he had a wife Takatsukasa Nobuko as well as numerous concubines (he had 5).

He had three children:
-Tsuruhime: his daughter died in 1704 following a miscarriage, and her husband Tokugawa Tsunanori of Kii Domain seems to have died a few months later. She was his last child. She was daughter of his concubine Oden.

-Tokugawa Tokumatsu: his first son died at the age of four in 1683. He was also the child of Oden.

-Tokugawa Chomatsu: died at the age of 2. He seems to have been poisoned by the shogun's official wife. He was son of his father's favorite concubine Yasuko.

Like his father he also had five adopted children including his nephew and future heir.

 

[yukari]

If you’re familiar with Chūshingura, also known in western as 47 Rōnin, that incident happened during Tsunayoshi’s reign (watch Mizoguchi‘s film, but don’t watch the 2013 American’s film one – it’s insulting).

It is said that Tsunayoshi's father, Iemitsu, drummed Confucianism into him was to get Tsunayoshi to learn his place as a younger brother and not to act disrespectfully to Ietsuna, hence causing succession conflict. Previously, there dispute between Iemitsu and his younger brother, Tadanaga, in which Iemitsu as the oldest son by right was Hidetada’s heir, but their mother favour Tadanaga more than him. It ended with Tadanaga being ordered to commit seppuku by the brother.

Of all the shoguns, Tsunayoshi is also known as the one who, due to the influence of Confucianism, revered the emperor the most. Tsunayoshi increased the "goryo" (Imperial family's estate) from 10,000 koku to 30,000 koku and presented it to the emperor. He also had Imperial mausoleums throughout Yamato and Kawachi Provinces investigated, spending a huge amount of money to restore 66 of them which were in need of repair. Most of the court nobles' territory of also doubled during Tsunayoshi's time.

Although there are some exaggerated reports about Tsunayoshi's behavior in documents with little value, in recent years, Tsunayoshi's politics have undergone a reevaluation. On one hand, there is the negative assessment that Tsunayoshi "ignored the opinions of anyone except his close advisors and favourite retainers and burdened the people with evil laws." On the other hand, Engelbert Kaempfer, a German doctor who had an audience with Tsunayoshi in 1691 and in 1692, rated him highly in his book "The History of Japan," saying, "I had the impression that he was a great monarch." Kaempfer's view of Tsunayoshi and the interaction between them are described in detail in Kenperu to Tokugawa Tsunayoshi" (Beatrice M. Bodart-Bailey, 1994, ISBN 4-12-101168-6). >> Kaempfer was part of Dutch embassy contingent who did annual visit to Edo from Dejima in Nagasaki << (note that he referred him as “monarch”).

His most controversial law was Shorui Awaremi no Rei (生類憐れみの令 or Laws of Compassion), aimed at protecting both men and animals from cruelty, but at same time also has been recognised as a "seriously wrong law" and an "evil, autocratic law" and even being called as “the worst laws in the feudal history of mankind”. Since he was born in the year of the Dog, dogs were treated with special care but it actually also covered many living things such as cats, birds, and even fish, shellfish and insects.

At first, it was a spiritual law simply carrying the message "refrain from taking lives", however the number of offenders did not decrease. Therefore, a registration system for Dogs was established, dogs were protected from cruel treatment by appointing inspectors, and from 1696 the shogunate offered rewards to people who informed on cruel treatment towards dogs. In his way, the law went beyond the spiritualism, the society was put under surveillance, and as the result, it is thought that dissatisfaction with the bad law among people in general was heightened against government.

The warrior class was also partially subject to punishment, although this was limited to the lower classes and in the highest ranks only the vassals were punished, however there was a case of a warrior being sentenced to death. Few examples:
- On April 9th, 1687, 10 villagers in Musashi Province were ordered to exile for deserting sick horses (On February 27th, 1689, 14 indirect vassals and 25 farmers were exiled to Kozu island for same reason).
- On June 26th, 1687, Tatara Jintayu, a vassal of the Akita family, was sentenced to death because Akita Kihin (the heir of Akita Suehisa, middle inner page, a direct retainer of Edo bakufu) shot a dart with a blowgun at a swallow.
- On February 1st, 1688, the use of crane as a trade name or family crest was prohibited.
- On October 3rd, 1688, villagers in Niiha-mura Village, Musashi Province were punished for cutting trees on which birds built nests.
- On October 4th, 1689, Sakai Masanao, a direct retainer of the Shogunate, was sentenced to house arrest, because dogs had a fight and were killed in front of a conference chamber.
- On October, 16 th, 1695, 11 people including a police sergeant, were ordered to commit Seppuku due to a violation of the law. Their children were exiled.
The consumption of fish and birds (including chickens, turtles and shellfish) was prohibited; the use of crane as a trade name or family crest was prohibited; teaching dogs, cats and mice to do tricks for shows was prohibited; and even later on, the trade of live fish was also prohibited.

The Great Famine (1695-1696) of the Genroku era was caused by cold-weather damage in the Tohokoku region which lead harvests to drop to 30% of the average, and in Tsugaru Domain over 50,000 people (one third of the domain's population) died. It is said that the ordinances of animal protection added to the misery because they were neither allowed to hunt animals or birds for food, nor kill pests. In addition, due to the persevering law, birds and animals were not afraid of humans and men wandering around due to famine were attacked by crows and kites, becoming the prey of stray dogs if they fell.

This famine affected the entire country and the increase in rice prices lead to destructive urban riots by farmers in Izushi Domain, Tajima Province. However even during the famine the Shogunate accommodated 80,000 wild dogs in the kennels in Nakano and gave them 3 go (0.18L) of polished rice, 50 moon (187g) of bean paste and 1 go of sardines daily. Citizens of Edo were furious about how well dogs were treated by the Shogunate.

After Tsunayoshi's death in 1709, when Arai Hakuseki took the office of Shogun Ienobu's assistant, he abolished this law before even holding a funeral ceremony for Tsunayoshi. It is said that at that time some residents of Edo kicked and mistreated dogs to make up for all the times they had been unable to up till then. From then on, among common people in Edo, the eating of meat including pork and wild boar rapidly spread and changed from 'medicine' for the purpose of nourishment to something to be enjoyed. In this period, specialist meat shops which remain even today appeared.
>> While in Korea and in China, they usually eat dog meat, in Japan dog meat is actually not regarded as a common foodstuff <<

https://www.japanese-wiki-corpus.or...nimals (Ordinances of Animal Protection).html

Here is another interpretation of the law if you're interested:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2384718?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents


PS: So does it mean this thread is for Japanese history in general? Not limited to royal/Imperial family related stuff like the European OTD thread?

 

[Countessmeout]

I included a shogun as though they were military leaders, they were still a dynastic ruler of Japan. Perhaps I was wrong to include him.

But yes when I started the thread the focus was to be on royal history.

But thank you for the more information on the animal laws. It was actually what drew me to him. While protection of animals is very important (I actively volunteer and donate to such work), it has to be done within limits. It certainly seems he went to far extremes, which led to a lot of issues for the people. I can imagine not allowing hunting and fishing, especially in times when crops were limited, would cause great distress to the people.

And thank you for the link, I am happy to have more to read up on.

 

[yukari]

Actually I'd like to propose the inclusion of historical figures from samurai class (particularly the daimyo, not just shōgun) even though they couldn't be considered as royal (the Imperial family) nor noble (that would be kuge or the palace courtier) because compare to its European counterpart, post 10th century until Meiji, the Imperial family barely had any significant contribution to Japanese history.

Take for example how the French and English kings were involved in the Hundred Years' War (1337 to 1453) while the Japanese Emperor had almost nothing to do during the Mongol invasions of Japan (元寇, Genkō, 1274 and 1281) or the Korean Campaign (1592–1598) – the first would be Hōjō clan and the later was Hideyoshi.

Or the notable country's civil war; Wars of the Roses (1455 – 1487) was basically a royal war between kings/queens, but sengoku period in Japanese (1467-1615) was pure samurai class with no record of the Palace did anything about it. To put it simply, a random Japanese is most likely be better informed about Oda Nobunaga than Ōgimachi (I don't think non-historian would even know who Ōgimachi was) compare to how the average British would recognise Elizabeth I better than Robert Dudley.

The Hōjō clan, Hideyoshi, and Nobunaga were never shōgun.

Plus unlike in the European monarchies, pre-Meiji there's hardly any information about Japanese Imperial family members who's not emperor because the non-heir children were usually either became Buddhist monk/nun or married within palace wall and basically did nothing other than living in the palace.

PS: btw, many of the most famous and powerful samurai clans claimed descent from the Seiwa Genji (清和源氏), which is a line of the Japanese Minamoto clan that is descended from Emperor Seiwa. So in a way, they were royal (yeah, very far-fetched. It's like saying your British neighbour is royal because they're descendant of George I's illegitimate child )

 

[Muhler]

I believe that you cannot truly understand a historical royal/monarchy without at least a basic understanding of the culture, history, politics and leading figures.

Not least with such an obscure monarchy as the Japanese, where the Imperial Family led a very closed off life and with an even lesser political role, as was the case for centuries.

And the German doctor visiting Japan, was in a sense right. The Shogun was the de facto king of Japan. Certainly in the European/global definition of the role: i.e. a king rules or at least has a direct hands on influence on political affairs.

I cannot help wondering whether Japan got close to a general uprising in the early 1700's?
The first three Shoguns were hands on and had a direct influence on political affairs, after that Japan seems to have reverted into a civil servant rule. Which is not necessarily a bad thing but such a rule is typically very static. The main aim being to preserve status quo, with little thought about reforms or change.
Even the dog-loving Shogun, albeit altruistic and religious was a terrible politician! Who would have lasted for about half an hour in 1570.
Louis XVI was by all accounts a decent, kind, caring and conscientious man - it didn't prevent him from losing his head though... He too was a terrible politician.

 

[yukari]

And the German doctor visiting Japan, was in a sense right. The Shogun was the de facto king of Japan. Certainly in the European/global definition of the role: i.e. a king rules or at least has a direct hands on influence on political affairs.

If we're talking about de facto "ruler" and direct hand on political influence, then we'll also have to include the nobles (the kugyō 公卿 - which was hereditary position), particularly the Fujiwara clan, because during the majority of Heian era, they were the de facto ruler of Japan (with some emperors managed to take some control back by exercising insei). Even later on during bakufu era, the kugyō was basically the one who control of the palace.

IMO the Yamato dynasty survives until today because they were/are no longer wield political power and stop "ruling" (other than protected by their "God" status). I mean, the only emperor who's killed during power struggle that I know of is Antoku, compare that with the bloody dynasty change in the neighbor monarchies (China and Korea) or in Europe.

I cannot help wondering whether Japan got close to a general uprising in the early 1700's?
The first three Shoguns were hands on and had a direct influence on political affairs, after that Japan seems to have reverted into a civil servant rule. Which is not necessarily a bad thing but such a rule is typically very static. The main aim being to preserve status quo, with little thought about reforms or change.

Not really.

The next shōgun after Tsunayoshi, Ienobu, was actually a very hands on shōgun. For one, he removed all the power from the chamberlains (who were given strict power by Tsunayoshi). He was credited to transform the bakufu from a military to a civilian institution (which was already in the making during the rule of Ietsuna and Tsunayoshi), e.g he discontinued the censorship (telling his subordinates that the thoughts and feelings of the populace should reach the high levels of the bakufu), reformed the judicial system, and created the gold coin to stabilize the economy.

In fact, the one who's been considered among the best of the Tokugawa shōguns is Yoshimune, the 8th shōgun (some even put him as one of Japan’s greatest rulers). His far-reaching reforms totally reshaped the central administrative structure; such as improving the quality of the administration and raising national morale by instituting a vigorous program of education for all his subordinates, designed to improve their literary skill and to imbue them with the old warrior values of discipline and leadership, combating corruption, increasing crop yields by developing new land and popularizing new crops, such as sweet potatoes and sugarcane, that could be grown in soil not used for rice cultivation (since the chief source of revenue was the tax on agricultural produce).

Sadly it's not long lasting because his successor, Ieshige, was uninterested in government affairs and left all decisions in the hands of his chamberlain, thus after Yoshimune's death corruption and inefficiency became rampant again.

I would say that even Yoshinobu, the last shōgun, was not a bad ruler/statesmen. Unfortunately for him, thing was already so bad that he barely could do anything about it.

 

[yukari]

25 February 1336 – Ashikaga Takauji entered Kyoto, marking the end of the Kenmu Restoration (建武の新政, Kenmu no shinsei)(1333-1336).

The Emperor's role had been usurped by the Minamoto clan ever since Minamoto no Yoritomo had obtained the title of shōgun in 1192, ruling thereafter from Kamakura. In the latter days, the government of the Kamakura bakufu was controlled in all but name by the tokuso (head) of the Hōjō clan (the clan of Yoritomo’s wife). However, the political situation had been unstable ever since the Mongol invasion, and due to this and other factors, criminals were active in several provinces and the shogunate gradually found itself losing the support of the warrior class.

Meanwhile, in the Imperial Court conflict had arisen between the Kameyama (Daikakuji-tō) and the Gofukakusa (Jimyōin-tō) branches of the Imperial line; in which the bakufu then put a system in place of alternating emperors from each lineage every decade which worked for awhile. On the accession of Go-Daigo, the retired emperor Go-Uda (Go-Daigo’s father) broke the long-established custom and dissolved the office of retired emperor (in no chō) – it’s still debatable whether it was intentional or mainly due to his health. As a result, the entire authority of the imperial government was concentrated in the hands of a single emperor, Go-Daigo.

>>(Back then, to outmanoeuvre Fujiwara clan’s control of the government who had maintained power through marriages to the imperial family around mid 9th century, in which they then abused their position as sessho or kampaku (both are translated as regent, sessho is regent for young emperor while kampaku is for adult emperor) and daijō-kan /chancellors, the emperor would abdicate in favour of his son (or grandchild). By abdicating, the emperor was free from the burden of largely meaningless ceremonial duties and escaped the control of the kugyō, thus they could now concentrate on wielding real political power. The retired emperor (jōkō 上皇 or hōō 法皇 after joining monastery) was considered as having authority equivalent to that of the emperor and once inside a temple or monastery, they surrounded themselves with capable non-Fujiwara aristocrats. It was the edicts of the jōkō, not the reigning one, that were obeyed in a form of imperial government called insei 院政. This practice was continued through Kamakura bakufu era and things got interesting when several tennō only reigned for a decade then abdicated, hence multiple jōkō in the same time )<<.

(A bit about insei and brief summary of how the power shifted from Imperial family to samurai clans)
https://www.ancient.eu/article/1106...rnment' describes,the reference to a cloister.

Go-Daigo's ideal was the Engi era (901–923) of the reign of emperor Daigo, a period of direct imperial rule and to achieve it, the only obstacle left was the bakufu. He appointed his own son as his heir (which in a way defying the bakufu since by contention it should be Jimyōin-to’s turn) and twice instigated anti-shogunal uprisings (Shōchū Incident of 1324 and Genkō War of 1331). He failed and in the aftermath of Genko War, Go-Daigo was taken captive and exiled to the island of Oki (modern-day Shimane Prefecture), and the Jimyōin lineage, which had the backing of the Kamakura bakufu, was able to raise their candidate, Kōgon, to the throne.

In 1333, Go-Daigo escaped from Oki with the help of Nawa Nagatoshi and his family, raising an army at Senjo Mountain in Hōki Province (the modern town of Kotoura in Tottori Prefecture). Meanwhile the Kinai area, local leaders, supported by militant Buddhist monks, raised an army to overthrow the bakufu. The imperial forces were led by Prince Morinaga (or Moriyoshi, Go-Daigo's own son who had returned to secular life after serving as head abbot of the entire Tendai sect) and Kusunoki Masashige, but the decisive victory was brought about by the two powerful Kantō warrior families of Ashikaga Takauji and Nitta Yoshisada, two discontented vassals of the Hōjō family.

At that time Takauji, who had been sent by the shogunate to find and destroy that army, sided with the emperor and turned on the Hōjō and attacked the Hōjō headquarters in Kyōto. Following after, Yoshisada, who had raised an army in the east, laid siege to Kamakura. When the city finally fell to Nitta, Hōjō Takatoki, the shogunal regent, fled to Tōshō temple, where he and his entire family committed suicide, ending Hōjō power and Kamakura shogunate.

The return of Go-Daigo to Kyōto in 1333 is known as the Kemmu Restoration. He reclaimed the throne and immediately set about to restore direct imperial rule. He abolished the powerful office of kampaku and set up a central bureaucracy. He revived the Records Office (Kirokusho) to settle lawsuits in the provinces and established the Court of Miscellaneous Claims (Zassho Ketsudansho) to handle minor suits and a guard station (musha-dokoro) to keep order among the warriors in Kyōto. He placed Morinaga in charge of his military forces and set up members of the imperial family as provincial leaders in the north and east.

Many local warriors, however, who had joined the imperial forces in the overthrow of the bakufu were disappointed in the division of the spoils and the direction of the emperor’s reforms. The Emperor reclaimed the property of some manors his family had previously lost control of, rewarding with them, among others, Buddhist temples like Tō-ji and Daitoku-ji in the hope to obtain their support. He however failed to protect the rights of tenants and workers. He also did not understand the importance of the warrior class to him either.

Go-Daigo made his greatest error when he failed to properly reward minor warriors who had supported him, even though he gave generous reward to Ashikaga and Nitta. The tribunals set up to the purpose were inefficient and too inexperienced for the task, and corruption was rife. Samurai anger was made worse by the fact that Go-Daigo, wanting to build a palace for himself but having no funds, levied extra taxes from the warrior class. A wave of enmity towards the nobility started to run through the country, growing stronger with time. By the end of 1335 the Emperor and the nobility had lost all support of the warrior class, including Ashikaga Takauji.

Takauji, who had travelled to eastern Japan without obtaining an imperial edict in order to suppress the Nakasendai Rebellion, became disaffected. He believed the military class had the right to rule and considered himself not as usurper but rather a restorer of Minamoto power, since the Ashikaga descended from a branch of the Minamoto clan.

Daigo ordered Nitta Yoshisada to track down and destroy Ashikaga. Ashikaga defeated Nitta Yoshisada at the Battle of Takenoshita, Hakone, but later defeated by Kusunoki Masashige and Kitabatake Akiie and fled to Kyūshū.

Ashikaga Takauji now turned against Go-Daigo, raising a revolt against the emperor. The war started with most samurai convinced that Takauji was the man they needed to have their grievances redressed, and most peasants were persuaded that they had been better off under the shogunate. The campaign was therefore enormously successful for the Ashikaga, with huge numbers of samurai rushing to join him (they saw him as the man who could bring back the shogunate's heyday, hence his strength was superior to that of any other samurai, Nitta Yoshisada included). By 23 February 1336 Nitta Yoshisada and the Emperor had lost, and Kyoto itself had fallen. Two days later, Ashikaga Takauji entered the capital and the Kenmu Restoration ended after just two and a half years. Takauji then enthroned the Jimyōin-tō emperor, Kōmyō (brother of Kōgon), and officially began his shogunate with the enactment of the Kenmu Law Code.

Go-Daigo fled to Mount Hiei but that same year, seeking reconciliation, he returned to Kyoto and made peace with the Ashikaga faction, handing over the three Imperial Regalia to Emperor Komyo. In January 1337, he escaped from Kyoto and fled to Yoshino (near Nara). Claiming that the Regalia he had passed to Kōmyō were fakes and insisting that he himself was the only legitimate Emperor, he established the Yoshino Court (the Southern Dynasty), starting the Nanboku-chō period in which there were two rival courts – the Northern Dynasty (the Jimyōin-tō) in Kyoto and the Southern Dynasty (the Daikakuji-tō) in Yoshino – until 1392 when the two courts reunified.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenmu_Restoration

 

[Muhler]

Thank you as always, Yukari, for your informative and educational posts.

I really ought to knock you on the head you know!
You have forced me to do some extra reading up of Japanese history of this most fascinating era.

An annoying thing is that Japanese names are not spelled the same in western languages.

 

[yukari]

My deepest apology then, Muhler.
Before you dive further, please be aware, it's full of tangled webs. Luckily there's no inter-country/kingdom marriage to make it more convulted. Don't say I didn't warn you.

But personally, I find that every power shift in Japanese history is a case of history repeating itself. I can draw parallel between Kiyomori – Yoritomo and Hideyoshi – Ieyasu (one entered the court to "rule" while the other stay outside the palace wall and became shogun) or Kenmu Restoration and Meiji Restoration, both started off with foreign's threat, then the discontented vassals using the emperor to usurp the reigning shogunate (because let's be honest here, Shimazu clan and samurai of Satsuma had bone to pick with the Tokugawa, an old grudge from the aftermath of Sekigahara Battle) and ended not with Imperial rule but to the one who "backed" the emperor.

It helps to understand the current imperial family too. Take Akihito's abdication for example. It may puzzles western royal watcher why he couldn't just abdicate or why there's even a stipulation of banning abdication in the Imperial Household Law, afterall the Dutch and Spanish monarch can abdicate easily. But in the past the emperor used insei to take back control of the government from the Fujiwara and the daijō-kan (office that the Fujiwara used to control of the government) was only abolished completely in 1885 in favor of the newly created office of Prime Minister. So who know if Fumihito ascend the throne, he'd just abdicate in favour of Hisahito not long after, only then to meddle in politic as retired emperor?

 

[yukari]

11 March 1862 – wedding of Kazu-no-miya Chikako naishinnō (和宮 親子内親王) and Tokugawa Iemochi (徳川 家定).

>>> Eng Wikipedia put the wedding date as 11 February 1862, but on the Japanese version (and several references I’ve read) stated 文久2年（1862年）2月11日 – Bunkyū 2 (1862) 11th day of the 2nd month – which in Gregorian calendar means 11 March 1862 since Bunkyū era spanned the years from March 1861 through March 1864.

Unlike in post Meiji Japan where the system of "one reign, one era name" has been adopted which starts immediately upon the emperor's accession and ends on 31 December and subsequent years follow the Gregorian calendar, back then the era names were subjected to frequent change and started whenever the emperor chooses where the first year continued until the next lunar new year, which is understood to be the start of the nengō's second year.<<<

Chikako was the eighth and youngest daughter of Emperor Ninkō and his concubine, Hashimoto Tsuneko which made her the younger half-sister of Emperor Kōmei. Tokugawa Iemochi was the 14th shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. They were 15 years old when they’re married (both were born in July 1846, only two weeks away). Their marriage was a political marriage as part of the kōbu gattai (公武合体, "Union of Court and Bakufu") movement, in order to foster reconciliation between the Imperial court and the shogunate.

Following the 1857 Perry Expedition, the Imperial Palace (particularly the kuge/court noble) was not happy with the unequal treaties signed during Tokugawa Iesada’s reign which was signed by the shogunate before receiving the imperial assent and basically broke the sakoku (isolation) policy and opened Japan to foreign influences. (Those treaties were Harris Treaty of 1858 between Japan and US; The Anglo Japanese Convention of 1854 between Japan and UK which followed by The Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Commerce, between Queen Victoria and the tycoon of Japan in 1858; other foreign Treaties of Amity and Commerce signed in 1858 were also include one with Netherlands, France and Russia).

On November 1858, on a meeting between imperial courtiers and Tokugawa representative, Konoe Tadahiro, one of the most prominent courtier, suggested the possibility of a marriage between an imperial princess and the new shōgun, Iemochi, to unite and strengthen the nation to the point that the recently-concluded foreign treaties could be abrogated with impunity. Chikako was chosen after the original candidate died in 1861.

Initially she refused, and her brother, Emperor Kōmei, declined the shogunate request stating that she was already engaged to Taruhito shinnō and did not want to leave Kyoto, and that, like any woman in Japan, his own sister could not be compelled to marry anyone she did not wish to marry, even by Imperial order.

However, Iwakura Tomomi, a leading figure at Court, saw that the marriage might be used as a means of extracting promises from the shogunate. In September the bakufu agreed to expel foreigners within ten years. The subsequent signing by the shogunate of treaties with Prussia, Switzerland and Belgium threatened to undermine the agreement but eventually on 30 November i860 the Emperor gave his formal consent to the marriage. Supporters of the Sonnō-jōi (尊皇攘夷, “Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarian”) movement were outraged at what they saw as an insult to the imperial institution.

Later on, the proposal gained more supporters, including Chikako's mother and uncle as well as several prominent kuge at the Imperial court. Eventually Kōmei was persuaded to accept the proposal if, in return, the shogunate would repudiate the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with the United States, and return to the previous isolationist policy.

It was then resolved that if Chikako continued to refuse to accept the marriage, Kōmei would abdicate, another member of the Imperial family would be chosen instead, and that Princess Kazu would have to become a nun. Under those pressure, she finally agreed, but gave several conditions including demands that her lifestyle in Edo would remain the same as in Kyoto. Kōmei would also add the conditions that the shogunate must deliver on its promises on foreign affairs, work out a strategy to improve the livelihood of artisans unable to compete with cheap foreign imports, and that his sister's conditions must be met. Kōmei would then make his sister a naishinnō.

In 1862, Chikako, her mother, and her chief attendant Niwata Tsuguko moved to Edo Castle with a number of attendants. They travelled along the Nakasendo because it was safer than the Tokaido with its broad rivers which could run out of control and a pass at Satta which had an inauspicious set of written characters in its name, at least for a bride. A party of 15,000 traveled to Kyoto to fetch her and 10,000 returned in her company to Edo, not counting the baggage porters and teamsters who handled the animals.

And due to concerns over attacks by those against the Tokugawa shogunate's policies, security forces from dozens of hans were mobilised to protect the procession. In addition, rumours that the support in the court for this marriage was the result of Tokugawa bribery and scheme to hold an Imperial Princess hostage led Emperor Kōmei to send Iwakura Tomomi to safeguard the court's interests. Iwakura would force the shōgun to put a vow of loyalty to paper before returning to Kyoto.

To move such a large party along the highway would have put considerable strain on the road’s resources at the best of times. According to Annaka honjin records, post-towns had to supply 2500 porters and 200 horses the day before the procession arrived and 8000 men and 3000 horses on the days it was passing. Kumagaya post-town had to draft men and animals from 32 surrounding villages which were sukego. Wada post-town had its honjin burn down just the year before Kazunomiya’s visit. It was hurriedly rebuilt, but had to borrow utensils from the waki-honjin in order to serve her (the honjin was recently reconstructed as a museum which preserves these utensils as well as a pair of straw sandals worn by the Princess). Wada also had to call up a labour force of 28,695 men from the surrounding sukego villages to support the travellers on November 11, according to materials at the museum there.

Peasant farmers and others who lived close to the highway were obliged to provide labour to help such official parties move on down the road. During her progress, post-towns were blocked to other travellers, access to fields was closed off, and the road itself was swept, tidied up, and possibly even improved with more ishidatami (stone paving) laid down in the passes. Everyone was put on their best behaviour. In Wada, for example, orders were issued stipulating that villagers should stay inside as the procession passed; that women and children should sit formally and be quiet; that dogs and cats must be tied up; that fires were prohibited; and that roof stones should be securely fastened so an accident could not occur. There were rumours that the procession had to carry bath water all the way from Kyoto for the delicate bride, but actually she did drink local water. The procession was necessarily slow and on average only passed through 2 or 3 post-towns per day with frequent stops for the delicate Princess to rest. Thus, it took 26 days to make a journey that most travellers covered in about two weeks, October 20 to November 15, 1861.

In retrospect, it is, therefore, not surprising that Kazu-no-miya’s trip caused discontent among the commoners who were expected to bear the burden as well as the baggage at the tail end of the harvest season. Such, however, was the importance of the trip and the embarrassment of the Tokugawa shogunate that the Tokugawa officials were forced to negotiate with the protesters. An agreement was struck; the progress of Kazu-no-miya’s party was not impeded and the commoners received a guarantee that they would be compensated for economic damage resulting from the trip.

The marriage ceremony was held on 11 February 1862 in elaborate ceremony at the Edo Castle. This ceremony differed from that of all previous Tokugawa shōguns: having been made a naishinnō by her brother before leaving Kyoto, Kazu now outranked her husband as well as her mother-in-law, Tenshō-in. Furthermore, Princess Kazu retained the customs of the Imperial palace, such as wanting to be addressed with “miya-sama” as opposed to “midai-sama” (the traditional title for the official wife of shōgun).

Although it was an arranged marriage, the young bride and groom, neither yet sixteen old, grew genuinely fond of each other, that they are usually called the closest couple out of all the Tokugawa shōguns (the other couple would be Gōu and Hidetada, the 2nd Tokugawa shōgun). Iemochi only once took a concubine, which the princess gave him permission to do. She would also eventually reconcile with her mother-in-law.

The death of Iemochi in 1866 put an end to their very short marriage. The couple did not have any children.

In the end, the marriage was a futile undertaking. Conceived of as a means of healing the breach between Edo and Kyoto, the marriage, on the contrary antagonised the very people it was designed to conciliate, leading to series events which resulted in the abolition of the Tokugawa shogunate and Meiji Restoration.

More about the political background and marriage negotiation:
The Kazunomiya Marriage. Alliance Between the Court and the Bakufu

More about the outrageous trip from Kyoto to Edo:
The Story of Princess Kazunomiya

 

[Countessmeout]

Wow thanks for the information

I mean when a princess went to her new home it was usually a big show, but I think that might put most of them to shame in the Western world. The length, the numbers, the cost is just wow.

Feel bad for the peasants and other travelers along the road during all of that.

 

[yukari]

I mean when a princess went to her new home it was usually a big show, but I think that might put most of them to shame in the Western world. The length, the numbers, the cost is just wow.

Feel bad for the peasants and other travelers along the road during all of that.

Imagine something like this happened in any European monarchy. They're not even allowed to watch, in contrast to how it was/is in Europe where the crowd would gather to watch as the procession passed.
There would be a huge riot! ?

The thing is, Japanese Emperors were protected by their divinity status and it the past, the "authority" (aka shogunate) protected it by hiding them. It was the contrary of "to be believed, I'll have to be seen", but more like "to be believed, nobody should see me." I mean, they're "God" and people would start to wonder if they saw how the said "God" look like ordinary human, right?

Actually Kazu-no-miya was not the first Imperial Princess who married into Tokugawa shogunate, but I couldn't find any reference whether the previous princesses had as "extravagant" travel as her or not.

 

[Muhler]

What a remarkable account!

Fascinating read.

It is quite true that that first foreign treaties were a downright humiliation of Japan. One stipulation was that foreign (Western) citizens could not be tried and sentenced by a Japanese court for crimes in Japan. And that Japanese legislation did not necessarily apply to foreigners. It basically had to be a crime according to what was common internationally.

There was one example where a samurai killed a foreigner for committing a serious transgression. (I can't remember the exact details though.) The samurai was forced to commit seppuku in front of representatives of the country, the killed foreigner came from
The samurai died with honor, but it was a dishonor for Japan as a whole.

Japan soon send the best and brightest out into the world to learn. To learn about the world, technique, organization, development you name it.
The lessons learned was brought back and became the start of Japan as a modern industrialized nation - with a military strong and modern enough to deter foreign intervention.
It worked. In two generations Japan was string enough to inflict no less that than three crippling defeats of a major western power, Russia. In the 1905 war.
The naval attack on Port Arthur, knocking out the Russian Pacific fleet. The defeat of the Russian Baltic fleet later on at Tsushima. (Moving a fleet halfway across the world, was a remarkable achievement! Russian almost ended up having a war in Britain on their hands though. See the Doggerbank incident.)
And the army defeating the Russian land forces taking Port Arthur, and thereby Korea.
That victory led to a Japanese overconfidence and in Japan expanding, first in Manchuria and later China.
What Japan also, most adeptly, did was to exploit the Western rivalry and in particular in courting both Britain and Germany. Germany had a number of smaller colonies in the Pacific and wished for Japan to help protecting them.
While Britain wanted Japan to help an already over extended Royal Navy to help patrol and protect the British interests in the Pacific. Not least in regards to a recovering Russia, with ambitions in Asia. If Russia focused on Japan, Russia wouldn't move south towards India.
Already by around 1900 Japan was in a position where it was considered an equal to the Western powers during the intervention in the Boxer Rebellion in China.
Japan viewed USA with a mix of admiration. They wanted to become a developed industrial nation, with considerable possessions in the Pacific, just like USA.
But also with a great deal of trepidation. That had not forgotten that it was USA that forced Japan to open up - with Japan being powerless. A huge humiliation!
At the same time as Japan was building up its industrial strength, there was an increasing need for raw-materials. But most of the available natural supplies were already colonized by Western powers. Hence Japans interest in China, but also, quietly, Siberia.

Japan was on the winning side in WWI, and gained quite a lot with very little effort. And by the early 1920's Japan turned into a nationalist, militarist state...

 

[yukari]

IMO the Tokugawa-Edo shogunate approach in maintaining their power seems to be by wealth instead of by military force like the two previous shogunate regimes (Hojo-Kamakura and Ashikaga-Muromachi), perhaps taking lesson from the downfall of Ashikaga (with the sengoku) and Hideyoshi (the failed Korea campaigns). So after eliminating their opponent through force (Sekigahara and Osaka Seige), to prevent any potential threat from other daimyo the Tokugawa did a regular “domain arrangement” so no daimyo could amass enough wealth to be any threat. Another way is by ordering them to make regular visit to Edo (which of course would be costly for those daimyo).

By “closing” Japan from foreigner, which was not really fully close since the shogunate still engaged in foreign trade in secret. Or in another word, they had the full control of foreign trade and by monopolising it they also made sure that they’re the only one who’d gain wealth. In this case, I don’t buy if they’re not aware of the development outside Japan. So when the “Black Ship” happened, they knew that fighting would potentially make them being colonised (like India by UK and Indonesia by Dutch). Therefore, signing the treaties to (maybe) buy a time. I see it as pragmatic move.

On the other side, the Imperial palace (both imperial family and noble courtiers) had been completely isolated in Kyoto for long time. Sure, there’s a couple foreign embassy’s visit, but if there’s any “talk” it’d be more like pleasantries of gift presenting (the “serious talk would be with the shogunate) and most likely the one who received and engaged them was the daijo-kan, not the emperor himself. So I will not surprise if everyone in the palace was ignorant of the outside development, and coupled with the emperor’s god-status, they might even think that the world really revolved around them and the coming of foreigner would “tarnish” their culture. The way of seeing foreigner/stranger as barbaric is not exclusive to Japan, Westerners also thought like that to almost every foreign civilisation they’d encountered, wasn’t it?

Then there’s Satsuma-Tosha side, which mostly consisted of samurai who’d been “fell victim” of those early domain rearrangement. Understandably they held long grudge against the Tokugawa. But with their position in the south of Japan, they were far from Edo and used it as excuse to limit their visit to Edo while secretly gathering wealth and man power. It was said that they made a move after the death of Iemochi because they feared the potential of Yoshinobu would become “the 2nd Ieyasu”.

Sometimes I wonder, if Yoshinobu had been picked as shogun instead of Iemochi or even earlier Iesada could abdicate for him, maybe the outcome of Meiji Restoration would be different so did Japan’s involvement in the WWII.

 

[Muhler]

IMO the Tokugawa-Edo shogunate approach in maintaining their power seems to be by wealth instead of by military force like the two previous shogunate regimes (Hojo-Kamakura and Ashikaga-Muromachi), perhaps taking lesson from the downfall of Ashikaga (with the sengoku) and Hideyoshi (the failed Korea campaigns). So after eliminating their opponent through force (Sekigahara and Osaka Seige), to prevent any potential threat from other daimyo the Tokugawa did a regular “domain arrangement” so no daimyo could amass enough wealth to be any threat. Another way is by ordering them to make regular visit to Edo (which of course would be costly for those daimyo). (1)

By “closing” Japan from foreigner, which was not really fully close since the shogunate still engaged in foreign trade in secret. Or in another word, they had the full control of foreign trade and by monopolising it they also made sure that they’re the only one who’d gain wealth. In this case, I don’t buy if they’re not aware of the development outside Japan. So when the “Black Ship” happened, they knew that fighting would potentially make them being colonised (like India by UK and Indonesia by Dutch). Therefore, signing the treaties to (maybe) buy a time. I see it as pragmatic move.
(2)

On the other side, the Imperial palace (both imperial family and noble courtiers) had been completely isolated in Kyoto for long time. Sure, there’s a couple foreign embassy’s visit, but if there’s any “talk” it’d be more like pleasantries of gift presenting (the “serious talk would be with the shogunate) and most likely the one who received and engaged them was the daijo-kan, not the emperor himself. So I will not surprise if everyone in the palace was ignorant of the outside development, and coupled with the emperor’s god-status, they might even think that the world really revolved around them and the coming of foreigner would “tarnish” their culture. The way of seeing foreigner/stranger as barbaric is not exclusive to Japan, Westerners also thought like that to almost every foreign civilisation they’d encountered, wasn’t it?
(3)

Then there’s Satsuma-Tosha side, which mostly consisted of samurai who’d been “fell victim” of those early domain rearrangement. Understandably they held long grudge against the Tokugawa. But with their position in the south of Japan, they were far from Edo and used it as excuse to limit their visit to Edo while secretly gathering wealth and man power. It was said that they made a move after the death of Iemochi because they feared the potential of Yoshinobu would become “the 2nd Ieyasu”.

Sometimes I wonder, if Yoshinobu had been picked as shogun instead of Iemochi or even earlier Iesada could abdicate for him, maybe the outcome of Meiji Restoration would be different so did Japan’s involvement in the WWII.

(4)

Numbers again. ?

(1) In the same way as Louis XIV started the practice about gathering the nobility at Versailles. It was also very much for control. - And just around the same time the "Edo-pilgrimages" started. There are a number of remarkable and parallel similarities between Europe and Japan, independent of each other.
It was not only expensive for the Daimyos, but certainly also for the Shogunate! But then again, civil war and rebellions are even more expensive.

(2) They were certainly not ignorant. The Shogunate among other things imported books from Europe and they questioned tradesmen who had gone abroad. The problem was that the political elite in Japan didn't fully understand what they read or were told. How could they? The information was simply too fragmented and the world described too alien to fully comprehend. In order to do that, you have to go out, see, hear and talk.
And you are right. The treaties bought time. Japan had no choice. They would suffer the salami-approach, as was happening in China. The various major powers would slowly (because no single power would be allowed to take control of China) take control of China one slice at the time. Using a mix of treaties, internal rivalry, backed up by military force. In Japan, probably one island at the time... There would unquestionably be daimyos who were willing to be set up as local puppet kings and the Shogunate would have been powerless against them.

(3) The concept of regarding foreigners as barbarians is pretty universal. IIRC the Greek word for foreigner is basically barbarian. Practically all major cultures worth mentioning looked down upon outsiders to some degree.
Even the Apache tribe (Tineh tribe actually) who were by no means rich or powerful, regarded everybody else not as inferior, but as vassals - to be treated as such.
I find you thoughts about the isolated Imperial family interesting! There is little doubt in my mind, that the Shoguns made sure they were as little informed as possible. But to what extent were they really ignorant? Fascinating, eh?

(4) How so?

 

[yukari]

(4)

(4) How so?

I take it you mean my opinion about Yoshinobu. Well, here's my reason:

- Even when the shogunate was "ruled" by the roju (the elders/chamberlains, because the shogun wasn't capable or not interested in governing like the case of Ieshige), there's no big "war" during Edo period, compared to the Kamakura and Muromachi period. It's also said that Tokugawa clan valued frugality, simplicity and discipline (there's some exception like Ienari) so either that or they're good at preventing insurgent.

- Yoshinobu was taught in the literary and*martial arts, as well as receiving a solid education in the principles of politics and government at*Kōdōkan. He was brought up and groomed to be a leader. Compared to the few previous shogun, he's the most prepared one. I mean in short time he managed to significantly strengthen national army and navy, which had already been formed under Tokugawa command, by gaining the assistance of the Russians, and the*Tracey Mission*provided by the British Royal Navy and purchasing equipment from the United States. This guy knew what's he's doing.

- Unlike the previous shogunate, the Tokugawa shogunate didn't end because they "lost" the war. Yoshinobu resigned from his position and for me it said something about his character/wisdom (Boshin War happened after he resigned and he's not the one who instigated it) . And don't forget, his mother was an Arisugawa princess so those bakufu-imperial family reconsiliation might work better with him as shogun.

- So given time, if he became a shogun a decade earlier (him instead of the teenage Iemochi), Meiji Restoration might still happen but in more peaceful way.

- As for World War, I always think that "pride" is the biggest source of Japanese's strength but it's also one that brought their downfall. After restoration, the power returned to people at the palace aka the noble courtiers. As I wrote on my previous post, being isolated in Kyoto for too long might make them become out of touch towards the real world outside, more than the people in charge in the shogunate (marriage between imperial family and noble was a norm so those noble might also thought they had "blood of god" in their veins). Out of touch, big ego, arrogance >>> rule the world because we're superior.

Maybe if there's still some influence of the shogunate (mere mortal, not "god"), the sense of superiority wouldn't be that big.

 

[Muhler]

Fascinating.

I'll have to do some reading up on Yoshinobu.

See? You are again making me read stuff. This really can't go on. ?

Becoming out of touch may (probably was) have been a problem at the court. But by the early 1930's it had become a genuine problem at the military/political leadership (That was pretty much the same thing as Japan was de facto run by a military junta by that time.)
Japan had stopped sending out their best and brightest to learn and study abroad.
What was the point? Japan is the best country in the world with the purest and strongest moral fiber and most stellar civilization. - Nationalism at full throttle...
In fact those who had traveled abroad were the nationalists seen as "tainted." Their sense of Bushido had gone "soft" so to speak by associating with foreigners.
Even admiral Yamamoto, who was untouchable after Pearl harbor, was frowned upon, and he was increasingly ignored when he presented his thoughts on the long term military and political strategy of the Japanese leadership.
Many if not most of his contemporaries, who had studied abroad, and who had risen to prominent positions during the 1930's were either sidelined or promoted out - some were even murdered!
That also included top politicians and diplomats, who were also sidelined, ousted or murdered.
- When I repeatedly state that it was the best and brightest who were send abroad, it's no exaggeration. They were the ones who were destined to go all the way to the top and they were selected early on.

In contrast to those were the nationalists. Practically none of them had even been abroad, let alone studied. In fact they prided themselves of never having been abroad.
They failed to understand the West, in particular USA. They failed to comprehend the vast resources and economic strength of in particular USA, once mobilized. It's down to basics: They failed to comprehend that a plant that produced say 100.000 cars a year, could after a period be modified to produce tens of thousands of planes a year.
Japan had no such resources, that they did comprehend though.
Just as bad, the nationalists failed to understand that they had awoken something in China. Patriotism among the ordinary Chinese.
In the eyes of the nationalists, China was a political chaos and weak, ripe for the plucking. The ordinary Chinese should have a knock on the head and be told what to do, that's should suffice.
The result was that by 1940 Japan had been mired in a hopeless and endless, unwinnable war, from which it could not extract itself. Not without Japan, and the Japanese nationalists losing face.
Something similar happened in the late 1500's when Japan invaded Korea, as you will remember.

Deliberate isolationism, especially combined with nationalism, simply couldn't work.

And that leads me to Emperor Hirohito.
The big question is how much did he know before 1945 and to what extent did he support the nationalist policy?
It was in everybody's interest that Emperor Hirohito was presented as benign after WWII, and he certainly learned and adapted to the changed circumstances after WWII - something present day Japanese, should perhaps be more grateful for than they are...
However, there is IMO very little evidence to even suggest that Emperor Hirohito had any qualms about the aggressive policy of the 1930's. I.e. invading China and declaring war on basically all the Allied nations. (They made sure to stay clear of the Soviet Union, because Japan had been bloodnosed severely in a number of border battles in 1938 IIRC.)

And a little definition, just for the sake of it:
Patriotism: Loving your country and wanting the best for your country, while acknowledging that other people love their country as well.
Nationalism: The firm belief that your country may not be the most powerful in the world, but it's certainly the best in the world and as such should have a leading global role. - Even at the cost of other countries.
- Nationalism is alive and well in leading political circles in Japan these days...

 

[yukari]

17 March 1537 – Birth of Toyotomi Hideyoshi 豊臣 秀吉, the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.

Note: The date of birth is more of tradition instead of actual record. Very little is known for certain about Toyotomi Hideyoshi before 1570 and he spoke very little about his past.

He was born as a farmer's son with no traceable samurai lineage in Nakamura Village in Owari Province (Aichi Prefecture). Initially he didn’t have surname. It is said that he met Nobunaga the first time when he was standing under a tree, for that he later took a surname of Kinoshita (literally means “under a tree”). He later served Oda Nobunaga as an ashigaru – a peasant employed by the samurai as a foot soldier and distinguished himself gradually.

There are several famous episodes in his sandal-bearer period, such as, he had voluntarily taken the position of the construction director of Kiyosu Castle, or food procurement director, and achieved great success with all of them; but these episodes have no historical evidences and seem to be just a legend. By these achievements he made a success to gain Nobunaga's favour and distinguished himself among Oda followers.

He was assigned to govern Kyoto with Akechi Mitsuhide and others in 1568 when Nobunaga went up to Kyoto. In 1570, he served the battle to defeat Asakura Yoshikage of Echizen province. Oda troops made inroads well, but when they were on the march around Kanegasaki, Nagamasa AZAI of northern Omi, who was on Oda's side, suddenly attacked them from behind. Although it was a desperate struggle of pincer operation by Azai and Asakura, Hideyoshi brought up the rear successfully with Ikeda Katsumasa and Akechi Mitsuhide.

After Azai clan was subverted in 1573, Hideyoshi was given three counties of northern Omi, which had been ruled by Azai, changed the place-name of Imahama to Nagahama, and became a lord of Nagahama Castle (in Omi Province). Around this time, he changed surname from Kinoshita to Hashiba. He tried to recruit human resources well from Omi province and promoted former Azai vassals and talented young men such as Ishida Mitsunari aggressively.

He continued to rise as Nobunaga’s general; he successfully subdued followers of Akamatsu clan (an official of Muromachi Shogunate) and got Himeji Castle from Kodera Takataka, defeated several vassal of the Mori clan over Uezuki Castle after the offensive and defensive battle, defeated Bessho Nagaharu who was a lord of Harima Miki Castle by starving strategy for two years, and in the same year he also defeated Arikoyama Castle where Yamana Takahiro of Tajima province stuck. Yamana vassals rose in revolt at Tottori Castle after an exile of Yamana Toyokuni, Hideyoshi took starving strategy after dominating foods around Tottori and defeated them (the battle of Tottori Castle). He continued to fight against Mori Terumoto, who ruled Chugoku region. In the same year, he attacked Iwaya Castle (Awaji province) and ruled Awaji province, and later invaded Bicchu province and flooded Takamatsu Castle (Bicchu Province), which Shimizu Muneharu of Mori’s side protected (Mizuzeme against Takamatsu Castle). For the capture of Chugoku region such as the battle at Miki, starving strategy of Tottori Castle and flooding Takamatsu Castle, he showed his real ability as 'Hideyoshi, an expert at assault of castle'.

After Nobunaga was killed (suicide) at the incident of Honno-ji Temple during Mitsuhide’s rebellion, Hideyoshi went back to Kyoto to manage other warriors' activities, and defeated Mitsuhide at the battle of Yamazaki, which resulted him in becoming Nobunaga's successor. That position was cemented after he came up as winner in his conflict with Shibata Katsuie (who committed seppuku).

He also had a brief conflict with Tokugawa Ieyasu, but resolved by “exchanging hostage”. Hideyoshi sent his mother to “live” under Ieyasu’s watch and marrying his sister to Ieyasu (she was married, and for that, her husband was ordered to commit seppuku). In exchange, Ieyasu sent his second son Ogimaru to be Hideyoshi’s adopted son. Ieyasu later went to Kyoto to swear to become a vassal of Hideyoshi.

As he rose in power, Hideyoshi’s wealth was also increase. He built Osaka Castle in the former place of Ishiyama Honganji Temple. Otomo Yoshishige, a daimyo of Bingo province was said to be very surprised at luxuriousness of this castle and praisedit as 'the most wonderful castle in the world'.

Following Nobunaga’s example, he didn’t aim the position of shogun. Instead, using his wealth, he bribed Konoe Sakihisa to adopt him as son and given new surname Toyotomi (Sakihisa was only one year older than him) to secured a succession of high court titles Chancellor (Daijō-daijin) and later became kampaku (regent). As kampaku, he managed to fulfil Nobunaga’s ambition to unify Japan, effectively ending the sengoku period. At that point, practically he’s the one who rule Japan.

He introduced such policies as 'Taiko Kenchi' (nationwide location survey), the imposition of a rigid class structure, restrictions on travel, and 'Katanagari' (sword hunt). During the Sengoku period, it had become common for peasants to become warriors, or for samurai to farm due to the constant uncertainty caused by the lack of centralized government and always tentative peace. Upon taking control, Hideyoshi decreed that all peasants be disarmed completely. Conversely, he required samurai to leave the land and take up residence in the castle towns. This solidified the social class system for the next 300 years. Politically, he set up a governmental system that balanced out the most powerful Japanese warlords (or daimyōs). A council was created to include the most influential lords. At the same time, a regent was designated to be in command.

Despite having many concubine, at the age of 52 he only had one son who later died in 1591. Hideyoshi then adopted his nephew, Hidetsugu, and named him as his heir. He resigned as kampaku to take the title of taikō (retired regent) and Hidetsugu succeeded him as kampaku.

Yearning for some accomplishment to solidify his legacy, he adopted Oda Nobunaga's dream of a Japanese conquest of China and launched the conquest of the Ming dynasty by way of Korea (at the time known as Koryu or Joseon). As an ally of Ming China, the Joseon government of the time at first refused talks entirely, and in April and July 1591 also refused demands that Japanese troops be allowed to march through Korea. The government of Joseon was concerned that allowing Japanese troops to march through Korea (Joseon) would mean that masses of Ming Chinese troops would battle Hideyoshi's troops on Korean soil before they could reach China, putting Korean security at risk. In August 1591, Hideyoshi ordered preparations for an invasion of Korea to begin.

In only four months, Hideyoshi's forces had a route into Manchuria and occupied much of Korea. The Korean king Seonjo of Joseon escaped to Uiju and requested military intervention from China. In 1593, the Wanli Emperor of Ming China sent an army under general Li Rusong to block the planned Japanese invasion of China and recapture the Korean peninsula. The Ming army of 43,000 soldiers headed by Li Ru-song proceeded to attack Pyongyang. On January 7, 1593, the Ming relief forces under Li recaptured Pyongyang and surrounded Seoul, but Kobayakawa Takakage, Ukita Hideie, Tachibana Muneshige and Kikkawa Hiroie won the Battle of Byeokjegwan in the suburbs of Seoul. At the end of the first campaign, Japan's entire navy was destroyed by Admiral Yi Sun-sin of Korea whose base was located in a part of Korea the Japanese could not control. This, in effect, put an end to Hideyoshi's dream of conquering China as the Koreans simply destroyed Japan's ability to re-supply their troops who were bogged down in Pyongyang.

During this invasion, his concubine Yodo-dono gave birth to Toyotomi Hideyori, creating a potential succession problem. To avoid it, in 1595, he exiled Hidetsugu and later ordered him to commit seppuku by the reason of his immorality. His wife and children were also put to death at the same time. Hidetsugu's family members who did not follow his example were then murdered in Kyoto, including 31 women and several children. There are various views as to whether Hidetsugu's immorality was true or not; there is a view that Hideyoshi regarded him as a nuisance because his son was born.

This birth of a son also gave Hideyoshi a new motivation for his Korean Campaign, which met with less success than the first invasion. While Hideyoshi's battle at Sacheon was a major Japanese victory, all three parties to the war were exhausted. He told his commander in Korea, "Don't let my soldiers become spirits in a foreign land.” This put a seed of displeasure in the heart of several daimyo towards Toyotomi clan, something that Ieyasu took benefit later.

On 18 September 18 1598 Hideyoshi passed away at Fushimi Castle, asking Tokugawa Ieyasu and Maeda Toshiie, a guardian of Hideyori to look after affairs. There are various views on the reason of his death such as a stomach cancer. He died at 61 years old. Hideyori inherited the family estate. His death was kept secret by the Council of Five Elders to preserve morale, and they ordered the Japanese forces in Korea to withdraw back to Japan. Because of his failure to capture Korea, Hideyoshi's forces were unable to invade China. Rather than strengthen his position, the military expeditions left his clan's coffers and fighting strength depleted, his vassals at odds over responsibility for the failure, and the clans that were loyal to the Toyotomi name weakened. It was not until the late 19th century that Japan again fought a war against China through Korea, using much the same route that Hideyoshi's invasion force had used.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyotomi_Hideyoshi

 

[yukari]

Hideyoshi's favourite concubine and the mother of his two sons, Yodo-dono or Chacha, was the eldest daughter of Ichi (younger sister of Nobunaga) and Azai Nagamasa.

Hideyoshi killed Nagamasa when he attacked the Azai clan and Ichi committed suicide when he attacked Shibata Katsuie (he was her second husband after Nagamasa).

It was said that Hideyoshi was attracted to Ichi and wanted to marry her, but after Nagamasa's death, she chose Katsuie. After Ichi's death, Hideyoshi adopted her three daughter (including Chacha). Chacha was 30 years his junior.

 

[yukari]

20 March 1181 – Death of Taira no Kiyomori 平 清盛, the first samurai to establish samurai-dominated administrative government in the history of Japan.

>>Note: the official recorded date is 治承5年閏2月4日(Jishō 5, 4th day of the 2nd month). I found several version of its Christian calendar date, which are 20 March 1181 (Wikipedia), 21 March 1181 (Britannica), and 27 March 1181. I choose 20 March simply because I found more books/references with 20 March than 21 March. There’s table of comparison between Jishō year to Christian calendar/Julian date here (in Japanese) if you’re interested.<<

He was born the first son of Taira no Tadamori, the head of the Ise branch of the Taira clan. There’s also speculation that he’s actually Emperor Shirakawa’s son who was later given to Tadamori who raised him as his own son.

It has been said that, when he was young, he often visited the residence of Fujiwara no Ienari, who was the most favoured retainer of cloistered Emperor Toba (who ruled through insei). After the death of his first wife, Kiyomori married Taira no Tokiko, daughter of Taira no Tokinobu. Tokinobu was a Hogan-dai (an administrative official of the retired-Emperor's Office) of cloistered Emperor Toba, and together with Fujiwara no Akiyori and Takashina no Michinori (Fujiwara no Shinzei), he was in charge of business affairs at the government affairs office, thus another connection to Toba.

In 1147, during the Gion-toran-jiken (the Gion Brawling Incident), an arrow shot by the Kiyomori’s side accidentally hit the holy shrine. Although the Enryaku-ji Temple, whose branch temple was Gion-sha Shrine, strongly demanded deportation of Tadamori and Kiyomori, Toba protected them from the wrath of the temple. With the death of Iemori, his younger half brother, in 1149, Kiyomori's position as a person of the direct clan lineage therefore became firmly established. He created huge profits by being appointed Aki-kokushu (Governor of Aki Province) and obtaining naval dominance over the Seto Inland Sea, and he and his father together expanded their power to Sai-goku (Western Japan) and in 1153, after the death of Tadamori, he became the head of the Ise branch of the Taira clan in Kyoto.

In 1156 a conflict for power erupted between the retired emperor Sutoku and his younger brother, the reigning emperor Go-Shirakawa (both were sons of Emperor Toba). Sutoku attempted a coup d’état with the support of the Minamoto warrior clan, led by Minamoto Tameyoshi. Kiyomori supported Go-Shirakawa in the ensuing conflict, known as the Hōgen Disturbance (Hōgen no ran), one of the bloodiest and bitterest in Japanese history, and emerged victorious, partly because of the defection of Tameyoshi’s son, Yoshitomo.

Dissatisfied with his share of the spoils, Yoshitomo took advantage of Kiyomori’s absence from the capital during the winter of 1159–60 to seize power, an act that precipitated the Heiji Disturbance. Although taken by surprise, Kiyomori gathered what forces he could muster and advanced in a series of daring, cleverly executed maneuvers. Victorious, he returned to the capital and annihilated his enemies, allowing only Yoshitomo’s two infant sons to live, a leniency he later regretted.

Due to his status as the head of the sole remaining warrior clan, it allowed Kiyomori to gain control over the Imperial army and police. This led Kiyomori to establish the foundation of a samurai government.

He put himself to be the guardian of Emperor Nijō and was also appointed to betto (a chief official of the retired emperor's office) of Go-shirakawa-incho (the Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa's Office), creating a situation where Kiyomori worked for both the Emperor and the retired Emperor. He also arranged a marriage between Go-Shirakawa and his sister in law, Shigeko (Tokiko’s sister) and later a marriage between his daughter, Moriko, to the kanpaku, Fujiwara no Motozane, to establish a firm and close relationship with a sekkan (court noble) family. This arrangement allowed him to establish a strong political system.

Because Emperor Rokujō, the successor to Emperor Nijō, was still young, Motozane took political leadership as regent, and Kiyomori was promoted to Dainagon (Chief of the Counsellor of State) and assisted Motozane. Kiyomori then pushed Norihito, Shigeko’s son, to become crown prince and he became Naidaijin (Minister of the Center) and eventually rose to become the first courtier of a warrior family to be appointed Daijō-daijin (Chancellor of the Realm), the chief minister of the government and the de facto administrator of the imperial government. In 1168, he forced Rokujō to abdicate in favour of Norihito, who later became Emperor Takakura, and in 1171, arranged marriage between the new emperor and his daughter, Tokuko.

However, many of the courtiers from traditional (non-warrior) noble families were less than pleased with both Kiyomori's attainment of power, and how he comported himself with regard to other high ranking courtiers. This include Go-Shirakawa.

In July, 1177, the Shishigatani Incident occurred. The occurrence of incident was revealed by the betrayal of Tada Yukitsuna, and this made Kiyomori plan to remove vassals of the Cloistered Emperor in the cloister government. As a result, Fujiwara no Moromitsu was executed, Fujiwara no Narichika was deported to Bizen no kuni (Bizen Province) (where he did not received any food and died). Kiyomori, however, did not charge Go-Shirakawa.

In 1179, Go-Shirakawa seized shiteki-keryo (the land for official hereditary Court nobles) and Echizen no kuni (Echizen Province)without consulting Kiyomori. Furthermore, the Cloistered Emperor appointed 8-year-old Matsudono Moroie to be Gon-chunagon (Deputy Middle Counselor) instead of 20-year-old Motomichi (whose wife was Kiyomori's daughter, Hiroko). As a result of this appointment, it became clear that the Matsudono family would succeed the sekkan family post.

Kiyomori, finally becoming furious about Go-Shirakawa's moves that had ignored him, led an army to the capital, this was the so-called Jisho-sannen no seihen (the Coup in 1179: the third year of the Jisho era); Kiyomori fired all 39 court nobles and Imperial vassals (8 aristocrats and a total of 31 tenjo-bito (high-ranking courtiers allowed into the Imperial Palace), zuryu (a provincial governor), and kebiishi (police and judicial chiefs) who were considered to be anti-Taira clan, including kanpaku Motofusa, Gon-chunagon Moroie, and Fujiwara no Moronaga, and replaced them with court nobles who were pro-Taira clan. Go-Shirakawa was afraid of Kiyomori's move and therefore asked to be forgiven, but Kiyomori never forgave him and confined him in the Toba-dono palace. The Go-Shirakawa insei came to a complete end there.

Finally, in 1180 Kiyomori forced Emperor Takakura to abdicate and give the throne to his two years old son, Tokihito, who then became Emperor Antoku. Exercising power through his grandson, Kiyomori moved the capital from Kyoto to his own city of Fukuhara (modern Kōbe), which provided ready access to the Inland Sea and the rich trade routes with China.

With the exertion of Taira power and wealth and Kiyomori's new monopoly on authority, many of his allies, most of the provincial samurai, and even members of his own clan turned against him. The first wave of resistance against the Taira clan's tyranny was the rise of an army led by Mochihito, the second son of Go-Shirakawa, backed by one of Kiyomori’s trusted chieftains, Minamoto no Yorimasa, but the rebellion was easily crushed. Yorimasa was executed, but Mochihito managed to flee.

Mochihito managed to gain support from Minamoto no Yoritomo, Yoshitomo’s son who had been spared in his youth and then seized the opportunity to raise a revolt, in which he gained the support of many warriors in the outlying provinces. Meanwhile, temples also started to show an anti-Taira clan trend even at Enryaku-ji Temple (at that time, the temple had their own army) and this created a situation where Kiyomori was surrounded by powerful temples.

An army was dispatched from the capital to quell the rebellion, but the Taira forces, weakened by many years of luxurious living, were no match for the frontier troops and were immediately defeated. Turning over all government administration to his son, Munemori, Kiyomori devoted himself to building a new army, but before the task could be accomplished, he died in Kujo-kawaraguchi at the age of 64 due to fever.

In 1185, 4 years after Kiyomori’s death, Yoritomo annihilated the last of the Taira clan, including the emperor Antoku, and established the first shogunate government; the Kamakura shogunate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taira_no_Kiyomori
https://www.japanese-wiki-corpus.org/person/TAIRA no Kiyomori.html (The chronology and events are fine, but the date is not accurate. It seems whoever wrote this, has "translated" the Japanese date directly into Christian date without proper conversion).

Fiction recommendation:
Novel: Yoshikawa Eiji's "Shin Heike Monogatari" (English translation by Fuki Wooyenaka Uramatsu: (2002) The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War. Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8048-3318-9)

Film: 2012 NHK Taiga drama "Taira no Kiyomori" (if you've never watched Taiga before, I suggest to skip the first 10 episodes. Taiga never changes the actors of the main characters throughout the series. It's a bit hard to stomach a 27 years old Matsuyama Kenichi plays 12 years old Kiyomori or 27 years old Matsuda Shota plays 7 years old Masahito (later Emperor Go-Shirakawa)).

 

[Muhler]

As always interesting posts from you, Yukari.

Hideyoshi is a most fascinating person!

His rise is an interesting consequence of the endemic civil wars during the 1500s.
Ashigarus were conscript (mainly) peasants soldiers, who were given rudimentary training a simple weapons and send in en mass to overwhelm an opponent, be that samurais or other ashigaru units. Casualties were largely irrelevant, they were basically arrow-fodder.
But the constant warfare meant that ashigaru units were retained longer and as such became more and more professional and battle-hardened.
Combined with the losses among the samurai-class that meant that individual ashigarus could advance by merit and cross the class-boundaries. Something most unusual in Japanese history!
At the same time the military commanders also became more professional and result-oriented. Otherwise they lost and died. So why the samurai class frowned upon ashigarus rising up the ranks, it was simply a question of necessity.

So Hideyoshi were among those who proved his worth and rose to the top and a Japan, that was a close to being egalitarian as it had ever been before or would be for the next 350 years.

Interesting Hideyoshi indeed did take stern initiatives to prevent ashigarus from doing like him - in fact they were to be disarmed as soon as possible. And that included the ordinary peasants who scavenged the battlefields for discarded weapons and armor - very often killing wounded in the process.
It was also very much a concern in the samural class that they would be usurped by the peasants if the ashigarus got too much power - or just as bad, realized how much power they actually had! The samurais were certainly outnumbered.

Ieyasu, who later became Shogun, quickly ensured that the ashigarus were neutralized. It's interesting to speculate as to whether it was Ieyasu who convinced Hideyoshi to agree with that policy or whether that was a part of a political deal.
Hideyoshi, who had risen to the top, might also have more simply selfish political motives: he didn't want competition from people like himself nor was he interested in a more unruly peasant political uprising, that could also turn into a revolution. That was to be avoided!
The samurais were more easy to deal with perhaps, as long as they retained their status and property they would stick to status quo.

- This situation where Japan, could very well have faced a serious peasant rebellion had parallels to Europe. In the early 1500s there were a number of serious peasant rebellions in Central Europe in particular and they got close to attaining their goals: More political influence, distribution of wealth and a more rights, not least human rights. These rebellions were crushed with great difficulty and great cruelty.
It is said that the Central European "obedience to orders", were founded around 1520. - Sie werden so oft geknecht das Knechte geworden. (Forgive my German.) = They were broken so often that they became slaves.

- In Japan, that happened too, though without the same bloodbath. But the result was similar: The peasant class ended up with very few rights. They were reduced to serfs.