Tozama daimyo

As tozama - daimyo (Japanese外 様 大名) was a group of daimyo ( feudal lords ) referred during the Edo period, who were not traditional allies, or even former opponent of the Tokugawa shoguns. So they stood in contrast to the other two major groups, the Shimpan - daimyo and Fudai - daimyo.

As tozama the daimyo were considered, which were vassals of Tokugawa Ieyasu after the Battle of Sekigahara. Many large Han, the rather isolated were in the north, south or east of Japan and were dominated by the influential, long-established families, belonged to it. The largest tozama - fief was, koku, with just over one million, Kaga on the territory of today's Ishikawa Prefecture on the Japan Sea. The Mōri, the date, the Hachisuka and the Uesugi belonged to it. Had many of the tozama traditional roles as rulers of areas at the " edges " of Japan, and thus tasks in foreign trade, as the Shimazu Satsuma, which controlled Okinawa, the Sō on Tsushima, who controlled the Korean trade, and the Matsumae to whose dominion the then inhabited only by Ainu Ezo belonged.

After Tokugawa Ieyasu had achieved supremacy in Japan, he attempted to secure the sympathy of the tozama - daimyo, but his grandson, Tokugawa Iemitsu undertook several measures to strengthen the power of the shogunate at the expense of the daimyo, especially the tozama. At the beginning of the Edo period, the tozama - daimyo were punished for minor offense already with the loss of rights and property.

Many daimyo of the South benefited from trade, not only with nearby China, but also with the emerging European seafaring nations. Iemitsu interrupted these so-called Nanban trading through the seclusion of Japan ( Sakoku ). At the same time he had to suppress Christianity, what specifically weakened the converts to Christianity daimyo.

By sankin - Kótai system, the daimyo were forced in 1635 to entertain expensive residences in Edo. For the tozama - daimyo in the remote provinces of the cost of the annual trip to or from Edo were added. Finally, he posted over a hundred loyal but less powerful families as so-called Fudai - daimyo on smaller but strategically important lands.

The tozama were usually denied access to consultant posts within the shogunate. Only towards the end of the Edo period, the Bakumatsu era, rose some tozama on in the political hierarchy. One, Matsumae Takahiro, was even Roju. At the same time, it was the tozama - daimyo, who organized the resistance against the shogunate, especially the Shimazu Nariakira in Satsuma and the Mōri in Chōshū. This eventually led to the Boshin War, the abolition of the Han and the Meiji Restoration. Many samurai from Satsuma and Chōshū became important figures in the new government, as part of the Meiji oligarchy.

Important tozama - Daimyo

  • Maeda (前 田家) in Kaga (加 贺 藩)
  • Shimazu (岛 津 家) in Satsuma (萨摩 藩)
  • Mōri (毛利 家) in Chōshū (长 州 藩)
  • Tosa Yamauchi (土 佐 山 内 家) in Tosa (土 佐 藩)
  • Todo (藤 堂 家) in Tsu (津 藩)
  • Asano (浅 野 家) in Hiroshima (広 島 藩)
  • Uesugi (上杉 家) in Yonezawa (米 沢 藩)
  • Satake (佐 竹 家) in Akita (秋田 藩)
  • Hosokawa (细 川 家) in Higo (肥 后 藩)
  • Ikeda (池田 家) in Okayama (冈山 藩) and Tottori (鸟取 藩)
  • Nabeshima (锅 岛 家) in Saga (佐贺 藩)
  • Kuroda (黒 田家) in Fukuoka (福冈 藩)
  • Date (伊达 家) in Sendai (仙台 藩)
  • Sō (宗 家) in Tsushima Fuchū (対 马 府中 藩)
  • Matsumae (松 前 家) in Matsumae (松 前 藩)
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