THE HISTORIOGRAPHICAL INSTITUTE THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

#151
151. DOCUMENTS CONCERNING THE SHIMADZU BARONY,
1603-1640
WITH these documents we enter the period of the Tokugawa shogunate (1600-1867), whose seat
of government was at Edo, the present Tokyo.
Within three years after the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1598, most of the barons of Japan
allied themselves with one or the other of the two great political parties which had gradually
formed themselves, the one upholding his son and successor Hideyori and the other following the
leadership of Tokugawa Ieyasu, formerly a peer of Hideyoshi and later his much feared vassal.
The rival factions met in a great decisive battle at Seki-ga-hara, in Mino, on 21 October, 1600,
from which Ieyasu emerged a complete victor and, consequently, the ruler of feudal Japan. In this
and the previous battle at Fushimi, Shimadzu Yoshihiro had for reasons which need not be stated
here fought against Ieyasu, despite the favors he had received from him at different times. At Seki-
ga-hara, Yoshihiro's nephew Toyohisa was killed, and the former's 1500 men either perished or
scattered in all directions. Yoshihiro himself barely escaped, and returned to Kagoshima. Later, a
mutual understanding was reached between him and Ieyasu; and the former was recognized as the
lord of his old domains, without such reductions for the suzerain and his ministers as were inflicted
by Hideyoshi (see No. 149C and D). The Shimadzu barony was recorded as aggregating 605,000
koku of taka, and consisted of the whole of the kuni of Satsuma and Osumi and of Murakata kori
in Hiuga. Likewise, the 57,000 koku of Ito, 53,000 of Takahashi, and 30,000 of Akitsuki, were also
secured for the respective barons. 28,600 koku at Sadowara (see No. 149), out of the domain con-
fiscated at Toyohisa's death, were granted anew to a Shimadzu as a separate barony.
The rule of the Tokugawa shogunate,-which may be said to have begun with the victory of
1600, although it was three years later that Ieyasu was appointed sho-gun,-was purely feudal
neither in its governmental organization nor in its institutions of land. This is not a place to enter
into a discussion of these large subjects;¹ let it suffice merely to refer to some of the salient features
of the new regime which are reflected in the following documents.
(1) the barony(han) of the baron(dai-myo).² It has been said (No.149) that Toyotomi Hide-
yoshi, an arbitrary ruler as he was, had the sagacity not only to recognize the general results of the
institutional evolution which had taken place gradually and naturally in separate regions of Japan,
but also to generalize some of these results and to apply the principles thus deduced to his policy
regarding the whole of feudal Japan (Nos. 149 and 150); the first Tokugawa suzerains matured
the same policy still further in the regime which they constructed. What is stated thus in abstract
terms is well illustrated by the organization of the dominions of the barons.
The barony possessed two aspects, for it was at once a public territory and a feudal grant, that
is to say, a state and a fief. As a minor state, the han was, on the one hand, under a strict super-
vision of the sho-gun's council at Edo, by which the baron's power over the territory could be re-
voked for a serious infraction of law; but was, on the other, almost completely autonomous in its
internal administration, so long as it fulfilled its obligations to the sho-gun. The baron's powers,
which were rigorously curbed beyond their legitimate limits, were generously large and full within
these limits, which were extremely broad. Because of this autonomy, it was inevitable that the
more than two hundred han which feudal Japan contained, should produce, as they did, a remark-
able diversity among them in details of their governance. The organization of each han³ should,
therefore, be studied by itself; that of the Shimadzu han will be seen in the documents which
follow (Nos. 151-154).
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The han was also a fief; and, as such, presented peculiarities which the Japanese fief had ac-
quired at the last stage of its long evolution. No longer consisting of fragmentary shiki, as in the
earliest feudal ages, the fief had gathered into itself all the superior rights of the land which it
covered; moreover, the han generally, with exceptions, formed a contiguous territory, instead of
being, as before, widely scattered over the country and intricately intermingled with other fiefs.
The fief in its relation to the sho-gun (that is, as a dominium utile) was considered more strictly
than ever as revocable by him for default in service and for the absence of a recognized heir,
though otherwise inheritable. This state of things indicated the increased power which the suzerain
had gained over his direct vassals, which presupposed his original conquest or benevolent grant.
This theory, however, could as a matter of fact hardly be applied in all rigor to the fiefs of such
puissant local chieftains as the Shimadzu. The fief in its relation to the baron's own followers (that
is, as a dominium directum) had evolved two notable institutions, which were further developed
in the new era. (a) The baron reserved for himself domains under his direct control (No 149D and
n.26), which he governed through agents revocable at will, (see No. 152). Only the remainder of
his barony he granted to sub-lords and religious institutions. (b) The old custom of subinfeudation
was further obviated by a system of rewarding the services of some vassals and officials, not with
pieces of land, but with quantities of rice distributed out of the baronial granary. This system
greatly added to the flexibility of the administration of the han and to the autocratic power of its
baron. Both these institutions were employed as well by the sho-gun as dispenser of the land of the
whole country and by the rear-vassal in the disposition of his small fief, as by the baron in his own han.
(2) Peasants in the mura(hamlet large or small). The Japanese peasantry in the Edo period
practised at once an economic individualism and an administrative collectivism: the possession of
arable land was entirely individual; the government of the hamlet was largely by mutual agree-
ment of its inhabitants. (a) The peasants, upon whom the class name hyaku-sho⁴ had devolved,
had succeeded in attaining an institutional position superior to that which they held in the earlier
ages. The warriors, who had long resided, more or less in isolation, in their individual domains in
the country, had been compelled, by exigencies of continual warfare, to live together near their
lords' fortresses, (although this change was less marked in South Kyushu than elsewhere); the
peasants were thus left alone on the fields and so were freed from the immediate control of resident
warriors; at the same time, they had gathered into their hands most of the shiki relating to the
exploitation of land which had formerly been split and vested in many persons feudal and non-
feudal. This re-integration of shiki had followed the disintegration of sho which had preceded it,
and had resulted in making the peasant the virtual owner of the land he tilled. His fiscal capacity
had been carefully determined and registered (No. 149). The Tokugawa shogunate took special
measures to protect him in the status he had thus acquired: the relatively high land-tax which pre-
vailed in this period rendered impossible any considerable aggrandisement of land by the more
clever among the peasants, for, among other reasons, the rent they would receive from their ten-
ants would hardly exceed the taxes they would have to pay to the rulers; the official interference
which the latter imposed upon the division and alienation of land further insured for the peasant
holdings a comparative equality and a large measure of economic security, which continued genera-
tion after generation, resisting effects of the natural changes of fortune which occurred among the
agricultural population. (b) The withdrawal of the warrior class from the fields also caused the
disappearance of the myo(name)-land which characterized the condition of land during the early
feudal ages; the myo had now either been absorbed into old mura or expanded and been converted
into new mura (see No. 149D). The smaller unit having vanished, the mura had again become the
central institution in the rural administration. The mura may be defined as an aggregate of peasant
householders who possessed scattered farms under individual titles. The mura had, already in the
preceding age (No. 149A and B), won a measure of self-government and assumed a collective re-
sponsibility toward the feudal ruler in relation to financial and general administrative matters.
These collective rights and responsibilities were still further increased and defined by the Tokugawa
shogunate.⁵ Indeed, the whole structure of the latter was built upon a secure foundation of self-
governing hamlets composed of well-disciplined peasants with nearly equally balanced estates. And
this peasantry formed one of the priceless legacies which the Edo regime at its downfall in 1867
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entailed upon the new nation. Inequalities of fortune have developed only after the dawn of the
new age; the consciousness of the peasantry as a class is only beginning to be awakened.
The following documents have been selected from a considerable body of sources, in order to
show the assessed taka of the Shimadzu barony as a whole. Between 1611 and 1614, a new survey
of the economic land of the barony was made, for after the previous survey of 1594-1595 (No.149)
many changes in the condition of land had occurred and the consequent injustice had entailed upon
the peasant-holders;⁶ but the total taka proved nearly equal to that of 1603 (A). B is a writ of in-
vestiture issued by the second Tokugawa sho-gun, Hidetada, to Shimadzu Iehisa (reg. 1602-1638).
C appears to be a summary of the taka of the barony presented to the sho-gun's government in
pursuance of an order of 1634. In the record of 1638 (D), one reads that another survey had been
made in 1632.

#151-A
A
(Haseba Yechizen zhi-ki.)
"Ta, hata, mountain-, mulberry-, and lacquer-dues, and sulphur-dues, of the 14
kori of Satsuma kuni:-total, 314,805.91705 koku.
"Ta, hata, and mountain-, mulberry-, and lacquer-dues, of the 8 koriof Osumi
kuni:-total, 170,833.966 koku.
"Ta, hata, mountain-, mulberry-, and paper-mulberry-⁷-dues, of Murakata kori of
Hiuga kuni:-total, 119,967.40034 koku.
"Grand total, 605,607.28339, of which:
ta,-358,592.6897;
hata,-244,380.16243,
sulphur-, mountain-, mulberry-, lacquer-, and paper-mulberry-⁷dues,-
2,634.43123."

#151-B
B
(A copy in SK, supp., IV.)
"You shall hereby completely (mattaku) hold(ryo-chi) 314,805 koku and fraction of
Satsuma kuni, 170,833 koku and fraction of Osumi kuni, and 119,967 kokuand frac-
tion of Murakata kori, Hiuga kuni: total, 605,607 koku and fraction. The contents
are [stated] in another document.
"Genna 3 y. 9 m. 5 d. [4 October 1617]. The sho-gun's monogram
"Matsudaira Satsuma no kami⁸ dono."

#151-C
C
(A copy in SK, supp., XVIII.)
"Contents of holdings(chi-gyo) of Satsuma and Osumi and in Murakata
kori, Hiuga.
"Grand total, 732,616 koku, of which:-
313,253 koku and fraction, Satsuma;
175,057 koku and fraction, Osumi;
120,606 koku and fraction, Murakata kori, Hiuga;
123,700 koku and fraction, the Ryu-kyu islands,
"Thus. Satsuma Chu-nagon."⁹ The copy of this in Shimadzu sei-roku ki, viii, bears the following date:-"Kwan-ei 11 y., kanoe
inu,¹⁰ 11 m. 26 d." (14 January 1635).
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The SK copy has notes in red added at some later date. The note under "Satsuma" reads:-
"312,549.3 koku are the taka of ta and hata;
703.7 koku are the rice for the mountain-, river-, bay-, and beach-dues; these are added
at the rate of 1 koku of taka for 1 koku of rice.
Besides, [there are] 2,456.3 koku, of which:
2,315.3 koku are recorded under Midzu-hiki mura, in Taki kori, but omitted in this list;
141.0 koku are in the register made at this time, but wanting in this list."
The note under "Osumi":-
"170,935.348 koku are the taka of ta and hata, of which 101,896 koku are wanting in the
register made at this time;
4,121.8 koku are the rice of the mountain-, river-, bay- and beach-dues, at the same rate
[as in Satsuma]."
The note under "Hiuga":-
"120,024.0 koku are the takaof ta and hata;
528.0 koku are the rice of the mountain-, river-, bay-, and beach-dues, at the same
rate."

An additional note;-
"The three items [added],
total taka of ta and hata,-603,508 koku and fraction.
Besides, 2,354 koku and fraction are wanting in this list.
Total, 605,862 koku correspond to the taka of the vermilion seal."¹¹

#151-D
D
(A copy in SK, supp., XXVII.)
"Determination of taka.
"Grand total taka, 732,616 koku, of which:-
313,253 koku and fraction, by the Kyoto rod,¹²-Satsuma;
175,057 koku and fraction, by the Kyoto rod,-Osumi;
120,606 koku and fraction, by the Kyoto rod,-Murakata kori, Hiuga;
123,700 koku and fraction, by the Kyoto rod,-Ryu-kyu,
added in the assessment of Kwan-ei 12th year [1635];
total taka, 699,855.84077 koku, of which:
1,118.94739, opened land placed under the lord's¹³ control before Kwan-ei 16 y.
[1639];
559.2736, wild land placed under the lord's control before Kwan-ei 16 y. [1639];
besides, 32,757.15923, deficient in comparison with taka according to the Kyoto rod:¹² when taka is revised according to the Kyoto rod, there is an increase of koku 5.689 to each 100
koku of the present taka.

"Of the foregoing,
according to the taka surveyed Kwan-ei 9 y. [1632]:-
269,061.8551, Satsuma, of which:

736.88268, opened land placed under the lord's control;¹³ 229.70764, wild land placed under the lord's control;

according to the same:-
198,903.35031, Osumi, of which:

310.94213, opened land placed under the lord's control;
288.31585, wild land placed under the lord's control;
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according to the same:-
108,224.24709, Murakata kori, Hiuga, of which:

71.12258, opened land placed under the lord's control;
41.25007, wild land placed under the lord's control.

Taka added in the assessment of Kwan-ei 12 y. [1635]:-
123,712.90201, Ryu-kyu.
"Of the aforesaid total taka, the taka assigned to the works¹⁴ [?], the
lord's expenditures in the kuni,¹⁵ and the culinary¹⁶ [?], accounted in
Kwan-ei 16 y. 6 m. [July 1639]-for the years of inu and tora [1634
and 1638]:-
taka 160,912.69223 koku [from] the lord's domains;¹⁷taka 1,372.14518 koku [from] Yaku island;
taka 27.374 koku [from] Iwo (Sulphur) island;
taka 9.3864 koku [from] Take (Bamboo) island;
taka 21.37603 koku [from] Kuro (Black) island;
taka 497.96825 koku [from] the Seven Islands;
taka 32,829.00074 koku [from] the Michi-no-shima islands, Ryu-kyu,

the taka assessed at present being, however, 43,250.76334.

Total the lord's domains,¹⁷ 195,671.94283
"Taka 6,186.97808, for the various houses;
Taka 378.27242, for the various castles;
total, 6,565.2505 koku.
".......................¹⁸ "Kwan-ei 16 y., tsuchinoto u,¹⁹ 12 m. [January-February 1640]. The Taka Office."

¹ The reader is referred to the Introduction to the history of Japan, by the late Professor Kat-
suro Hara, chap. xi, and the present editor's papers mentioned in No. 55, n. 17. Also see Summary
of Points, B-I-e and f, B-II-d and e, C-III, and D-I-a and b.
² For dai-myo, see No. 154, n. 30.
³ It is high time that the use of the most inaccurate and misleading term "clan" for the Japanese
word han should cease. The word han, literally meaning fence, and derivatively frontier, was adopted
from the history of China, where it often had signified outer regions organized as defenses of the
inner country in which the imperial capital was situated. In the Japan of the Edo period, the term
was applied to all baronies, i.e., the regions which the sho-gun had not reserved as his own domains,
but which he had entrusted to the autonomous rule of his barons. The han as an organization was,
therefore, past more than a millennium beyond the tribal stage of society; and was, as has been
shown here, territorial in character, and even partially post-feudal (cf. No. 152). Its European
parallel is the "feudal state" or "Territorium," that is, the dominion whose lord had its complete
Landgericht, and that, too, in the later stages of its development.
⁴ See No. 59, n. 14.
⁵ These important points can hardly be fully explained in a brief note. The student is again
referred to the works mentioned in n. 1 above, and in Summary of Points, C-VII-b, c, d.
⁶ Shimadzu-koku-shi, xxiii, 20-23.
⁷ Kaji, paper-mulberry (Broussenetia papyrifera), was a tree of whose bark paper was made. On
the system of taxation of the Shimadzu during the Tokugawa period, see Sei-han den-so ko.
⁸ Shimadzu Iehisa. The sho-gun had given the family-name Matsudaira to several of his more
distinguished barons. See No. 149, n. 28.
⁹ Shimadzu Iehisa. Chu na-gon, a councilorship at the imperial court, here a purely honorary title.
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¹⁰ The 11th year of the cycle.
¹¹ Go shu-in, vermilion seal, used in the sense of a writ bearing the sho-gun's seal in vermilion
color, or even of the land granted by such writ. The custom of using seals printed in vermilion in
lieu of or together with personal monograms grew from the period immediately preceding the Toku-
gawa. During the latter's age, all writs of investiture issued by the sho-gun at his succession which
were addressed to the barons below 100,000 koku and to his immediate retainers and the religious
institutions bore his shu-in; the greater barons received writs bearing his monogram. The Shimadzu,
of course, belonged to the latter class, but the earlier writs of the period may have borne the seal.
¹² Sao, measuring-rod used in land survey. One bu or tsubo was 6 shaku square, (1 shaku = 11.93
inches); sticks used were a trifle longer than 6 shaku, so that the loss that would naturally result
from the use of a stick in measuring might be neutralized. The Kyoto sao evidently was standard
stick.
¹³ On shi-hai. ¹⁴ On shi-age kata.
¹⁵ On kuni-dzukai. ¹⁶ O dai-dokoro.
¹⁷ Kura-iri.
¹⁸ Here follows the portion given below as No. 153 D.
¹⁹ The 16th year of the cycle.