Shinpan (daimyo)

As Shimpan - daimyo (Japanese亲 藩 大名) or Shimpan (亲 藩) was referred to in the Edo period in Japan, the most reliable from the perspective of the Tokugawa class of daimyo.

After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, began with the Edo Period, Tokugawa Ieyasu led by a fundamental reform of the clan and its territories.

Ieyasu divided the daimyo into three classes, depending on how they were close to the ruling Tokugawa family. The highest classification as Shimpan received the 23 relatives of Ieyasu (including secondary lines ) among the daimyo, the next rank had the 140 Fudai who had the Tokugawa connected already before Sekigahara and were considered allies, as a third group followed the tozama - Daimyo who had been on the losing side.

The influential positions in the military government ( bakufu ) were thereby given only to the Fudai - daimyo, whose fief (han ) were mostly relatively small, however, and in central Japan were close to the capital, and thus also a kind of buffer zone to the existing unreliable tozama daimyo formed.

Thus, the succession was assured, Tokugawa Ieyasu determined the three youngest of his sons heads of three Nebenlininen, the Gosanke. In fact, these secondary lines had to step in several times, as the main line became extinct. These were:

• Owari, based in Nagoya and an income of 620,000 koku,
• Keep headquartered in Wakayama and an income of 555,000 koku,
• Mito based in Mito and an annual income of 350,000 koku.

For this, the Matsudaira came in the fiefs Aizu, Fukui and Tsuyama and their sub- lines.

• Daimyo