The Tokugawa World

Gary P. Leupp, De-min Tao, Gary P. Leupp, De-min Tao

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000427417
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Japanese History
• Index: History

With over 60 contributions, The Tokugawa World presents the latest scholarship on early modern Japan from an international team of specialists in a volume that is unmatched in its breadth and scope.

In its early modern period, under the Tokugawa shoguns, Japan was a world apart. For over two centuries the shogun's subjects were forbidden to travel abroad and few outsiders were admitted. Yet in this period, Japan evolved as a nascent capitalist society that could rapidly adjust to its incorporation into the world system after its forced "opening" in the 1850s. The Tokugawa World demonstrates how Japan's early modern society took shape and evolved: a world of low and high cultures, comic books and Confucian academies, soba restaurants and imperial music recitals, rigid enforcement of social hierarchy yet also ongoing resistance to class oppression. A world of outcasts, puppeteers, herbal doctors, samurai officials, businesswomen, scientists, scholars, blind lutenists, peasant rebels, tea-masters, sumo wrestlers, and wage workers.

Covering a variety of features of the Tokugawa world including the physical landscape, economy, art and literature, religion and thought, and education and science, this volume is essential reading for all students and scholars of early modern Japan.

Part I

NATIONAL REUNIFICATION, 1563–1603

Chapter One

The three unifiers of the state (tenka)

Nobunaga (1534–82), Hideyoshi (1536–98), and Ieyasu (1543–1616)

Fujita Tatsuo 藤田達生

DOI: 10.4324/9781003198888-3

Historical transformation: from division to unification

The great transformation in Japan from Oda Nobunaga’s entry into Kyoto in 1568 through approximately the next twenty years until Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified the country was extraordinary, even in the context of world history. But to suppose that the numerous Sengoku daimyo of that time desired that national unification would be to totally misunderstand their purposes. Rather, in order to maintain their territories (ryōgoku), these daimyo entered into alliances with other neighboring daimyo, taking the ongoing national division for granted, and endeavored to maintain their relationships with the Ashikaga shoguns. Why did only Nobunaga and Hideyoshi seek to rule all of Japan? Why did the form of the state drastically change in a short period of time from dispersed rule (bunken) to centralized rule (shūken)? I will pursue these issues here.

These two tenkabito 天下人—“rulers of the state”—were born in Owari Province and each acquired control over an immense amount of territory that included the northern provinces (Hokkoku), the Kinai region, and the Owari, Mino, and Ise provinces—the third area constituting the three provinces of the Pan-Ise Sea region. I wish to focus on their respective implementations of new policies and their construction of new states (shin kokka) in central Japan. After passing through wars of state expansion—the wars of unification fought by the first two of the unifiers—these entities subsequently grew into a centralized state (shūken kokka), encompassing the whole Japanese archipelago. In addition, this chapter will discuss how Tokugawa Ieyasu reorganized the centralized state into a compound state (fukugō kokka) composed of the bakufu and the han domains, that is, local states (chihō kokka).

The early modern period born from boundaries: the Pan-Ise Sea region

The path toward mercantilism

The key term explaining the riddle of centralization (shūkenka) is mercantilism (jūshōshugi). The large-scale war economy demanded certain economic structures for the unprecedented large-scale production and consumption, rare in world history, that accompanied the economic revitalization born in the Japanese archipelago corridor, the Pan-Ise Sea region. I will focus on the long spear corps and the rifle corps, which were the principal units of Nobunaga’s army, as the factor that gave rise to mercantilism. While Nobunaga was in Owari, the long spear corps was the core of his army and the rifle corps bore supplementary roles. After his time in Gifu, the rifle corps was organized into units of 1,000 rifles, became autonomous, and filled more important roles.

The long spears used by Nobunaga’s forces were among the longest used by the Sengoku daimyo, being approximately 6.3 meters (approx. 18 feet) long (see Shinchō-kō ki). These spears, affixed with sword tips, were utilized primarily for striking. Thus, the longer they were, the more effective they were. Even when attacked by select cavalry units, if the spear lines remained well organized and did not fall into disorder, then, in theory, they were never defeated.

However, in achieving this, the foot soldiers (ashigaru) who belonged to the long spear corps were made to reside in row houses (nagaya) outside the castle. They were loaned spears of equal length, but the long spear corps could not fight if they did not engage in intensive group training during normal times. Accordingly, if elites did not recruit tough men as professional soldiers from among peasants and townspeople, these invincible long spear corps would not have appeared. Their long spears clearly expressed the distinction between soldier and farmer (heinō bunri) in the military system, and the length of their long spears expressed the wealth of their daimyo.

Even before guns (teppō) became widely used on the battlefield, firearms specialists within the military system spread knowledge about how to handle guns and gunpowder. Meanwhile, guns became mass produced in Japan—professional gun manufacturers emerged, such as the famous gunsmiths of Sakai in Izumi Province and of Tomomura in Ōmi Province. However, the buyers and the manufacturers would never have met without the weapons merchants who delivered the guns, as well as the ammunition necessary for them—black-colored gunpowder made by mixing coal, saltpeter, and sulfur, and lead, the basic component in bullets.

Moreover, because saltpeter and lead were not produced in Japan, trade in those goods could not have occurred if merchants with links to other East Asian countries had not served as intermediaries in this exchange. The system for the mass production of guns included local lords (ryōshu; purchasers), merchants (suppliers), and craftsmen (producers). If close relationships had not formed among them, the mass production system would not have emerged.

The daily, large-scale training of the long spear corps and the organization of the rifle corps at a size of 1,000 guns required an immense quantity of coin. The concentration of population in towns near castles (jōkamachi) accelerated the production–consumption cycle of daily necessities. One reason why Nobunaga and Hideyoshi each pushed forward with enlarging their territories, it may be thought, was—above all else—to acquire gold and silver for coinage, to support and enlarge their war economies.

In particular, we must emphasize that Hideyoshi’s rapid relocations of his base to Komaki Castle, then to Gifu Castle, and then to Azuchi Castle—all after having captured Nobunaga’s Kiyosu Castle—were to establish peaceful urban markets at distribution nodes and to promote a stable investment climate for private capital. Thus, the large-scale expansion of the long spear corps and the rifle corps advanced the centralization of Japan.

The Pan-Ise Sea government

Nobunaga traveled back and forth between Gifu and Kyoto from 1568, when he entered Kyoto, installed Ashikaga Yoshiaki as shogun, and restored the bakufu, until 1576, when he moved his base to Azuchi. Here, it should again be noted that the principal provinces held by Nobunaga were Owari, Mino, and Ise, the three provinces of the Pan-Ise Sea.

If the Hosokawa and Miyoshi governments, both of which preceded Nobunaga, may be called Pan-Osaka Gulf governments (Pan-Ōsaka wan seiken) due to their economic bases, the subsequent Oda government could then be called the Pan-Ise Sea government. Nobunaga, who subjugated the Owari and Mino provinces and then entered Kyoto, the capital, in 1568, subsequently defeated the Kitabatake in the ninth month of 1569. He then arranged the adoption of his second son Nobukatsu by Kitabatake (Tomofusa), and unified the province of Ise. He, thus, established the Pan-Ise Sea government, and suddenly the base of the samurai government that had installed the shogun in Kyoto relocated from the Osaka Bay area to the Ise Bay area.

Regarding conditions in Gifu at this time, Luis Fróis, a Jesuit missionary who had visited the castle town wrote, “According to what people say, there are 8,000 to 10,000 people here.” That is, Gifu had become a large city for the time. Moreover,

[i]n this city, there are a very large number of people who come for trade and for work, which makes one recall the congestion in Babylon. And merchants leading many horses bearing loads of salt, rolls of cloth, and other goods gather from various provinces.

Fróis reported in detail how merchants were prospering (see Fróis, Nihonshi). This incipient government bore the qualities of a maritime state with mercantilist policies that fundamentally depended upon shipping power. In this respect, Nobunaga differed significantly from most other Sengoku daimyo.

The maritime state that Nobunaga envisioned was one that collected taxes in return for guaranteeing the circulation of goods and providing security for port cities. The essence of that state was in organizing powerful military units through the superior power of capital and in further widening the commercial sphere. In order to be victorious in war, large-scale military units expanded production of long spears and guns, and through them gained control over cities, resulting in more territorial expansion. Thus, the expansion of territory became cyclical and self-perpetuating.

Of the three provinces of the Pan-Ise Sea, it was particularly important to control Ise. This not only meant controlling the great Tōkaidō Road, which linked the eastern provinces with Kyoto, but also meant controlling the maritime transport in the Pacific Ocean, the foothold of which was in the Kantō region. This was because the powerful port cities of Kuwana (today Kuwana City, Mie Prefecture), Yokkaichi (today Yokkaichi City, Mie Prefecture), Anōtsu (today Tsu City, Mie Prefecture), and Ōminato (today Ise City, Mie Prefecture), which linked Pacific Ocean transport to the Kantō area, were all interspersed in these provinces. The extent of warfare in this area had reached a critical point, and various strata of the local society earnestly desired peace. It was quite likely that a powerful local lord (ryōshu) would emerge here in the Pan-Ise Sea area and try to assert authority. Thus, Japan’s early modern period emerged from a region that may be called a boundary area within a boundary area.

The power of Nobunaga and of Hideyoshi, unprecedented in Japan, was born from several provinces in the Pan-Ise Sea area that marked the boundary between the eastern provinces (Tōgoku) and the western provinces (Saigoku). This indicates that the contradictions and the tensions between the Muromachi bakufu system, which maintained a tenacious vitality in the Kinai region especially, and the Sengoku daimyo system, which had developed in the eastern provinces, had intensified significantly in this region. While rulers of local areas tended to see Nobunaga’s military activities as positive state-building, Nobunaga’s treatment of Yoshiaki (greeting him in exile, installing him as shogun, attempting to restore the Muromachi bakufu) struck other Sengoku daimyo as very unusual.

Nobunaga appointed Yoshiaki as shogun in 1568, constructed a shogunal headquarters (Gosho), promoted retainers, and supported the bakufu. This administrative structure was supposed to have been used actively in stabilizing the governance of the domains (ryōgoku). The Pan-Ise Sea government was a local one (chihō seiken) that installed the shogun Yoshiaki and that supported the Muromachi bakufu. However, Nobunaga’s frightening territorial expansion into nearby provinces eroded Yoshiaki’s traditional rule.

Yoshiaki and Nobunaga: breaking the state

Dual administrations

The Pan-Ise Sea area was a large distribution node through which people and goods moved in all directions. Nobunaga sought to expand northward to the Ōmi and Echizen provinces. His opposition to the Azai and the Asakura families were personal actions necessary to secure the north–south transportation routes linking harbors along the Pacific Ocean coast (Atsuta, Kuwana, Rokkaichi, and others) and harbors along the Sea of Japan coast (Obama, Tsuruga, Mikuni), where Chinese, Korean, and Nanban ships docked. This concern with transportation security explains the “Genki Disturbance.”

In the eleventh month of 1575, Nobunaga was appointed to the rank of Ukone no daishō (Major Captain of the Right Division of Inner Palace Guards), at the junior third rank, and, in accordance with this, moved his base from Gifu Castle to Azuchi Castle. This corresponded with the territorial expansion that accompanied his acquisition of the Ōmi, Wakasa, and Echizen provinces at the end of the Genki Disturbance in the early 1570s. This new state (kokka), centered in Azuchi, encompassed the Tōsandō Road and the Hokkokukaidō Road, as well as the Sea of Japan and Pacific Ocean coasts, and Lake Biwa. Meanwhile, after his appointment as Ukone no daishō, not only Nobunaga’s retainer band but also various daimyo and their retainers, and even commoners came to refer to him by terms suitable for a shogun, such as “kōgi” and “uesama,” and even “kubō” and “shogun.”

Receiving the rank of Konoe daishō, Nobunaga was appointed to the highest military position, which entailed composing official documents of the shogun (gonaisho keishiki inbanjō). He distributed ranks and annual stipends to samurai. He issued ranks of investiture and provided an annual stipend (chigyō) to Sengoku daimyo who were his vassals. I believe that by becoming the actual leader of the samurai (buke) Nobunaga was able to establish a military government (buke seiken) that we might call the “Azuchi bakufu.”

This “Azuchi bakufu,” which was based upon the institutional premise of Nobunaga’s appointment as Ukone no daishō in the eleventh month of 1575, was the basis for the construction of Azuchi Castle, which began from the first month of 1574. It was realized in the fifth month of 1579, when Nobunaga became the lord (tenshu) of Azuchi Castle. Further, in the transition to peace with Honganji temple in Osaka, following an imperial command in the intercalary third month of 1580, Nobunaga surpassed Yoshiaki and became the tenkabito—the ruler of the state. In 1582, even Sengoku daimyo in distant provinces—including the Ashina, who were the lords of Kurokawa Castle in the Aizu area of Mutsu—as well as retainers and domain residents (ryōmin) used the terms “uesama” and “kōgi,” or “my superior,” to refer to the shogun.

During this period, powerful daimyo in Kyushu, the Kantō region, and the Ōu region in northern Honshu maintained friendly relations with Nobunaga. In 1582, attacks upon Shikoku and the Chūgoku area were expected. Through victories there, which completed Nobunaga’s project of unifying the realm, his appointment as shogun and the imperial visit to Azuchi Castle were realized, and the “Azuchi bakufu” appeared poised for even more success.

On the other hand, the “Tomo bakufu” (the government of Yoshiaki and the Mōri family) was simultaneously demonstrating its military power in the western provinces. In the second month of 1576, Yoshiaki moved from Kii to Tomonoura, in the Bingo Province (today, Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture), and established this regime. Mōri Terumoto became the vice-shogun (fuku shogun). The Mōri—as the core military unit of the “kōgi,” that is, the shogun, and who followed Yoshiaki’s commands—actively began military operations. Yoshiaki dispatched trusted officials, and they not only joined with anti-Nobunaga forces, but also undertook political maneuvers such as executing the betrayal of Araki Murashige, who was a retai...