Daimyo

“ Socially they were treated as men beneath the samurai, and they themselves were content to be treated as such. As a class, however, they had no personal relations with the daimyo, unless through the samurai, to whom the usufruct of the land which they cultivated had been allotted by the daimyo. In other words, their duty to their territorial lord was nothing but that which they owed as a people governed to a governor who chanced to rule hereditarily over the territory, but might at any time be displaced by somebody else at the pleasure of the Shogunate. ”

“ It should be borne in mind that the Daimyōs were not the only aristocracy in the land, though they were incomparably the richest and the most important. In the shadow of the Mikado's palace at Kyōto, poor but very proud of their descent from gods and emperors, and looking down on the feudal Daimyō aristocracy as on a mere set of military adventurers and parvenus, lived, or rather vegetated through centuries, the Kuge, the legitimist aristocracy of Japan. The revolution of 1868, in bringing about the fall of the Daimyōs, at last gave the Kuge their opportunity. ”

“ A certain number belonging to the upper class of the fudai or domestics of the Tokugawa Shogunate were made daimyo, and placed on the same footing as feudatories of historical lineage, the former equals of [Pg 295] the Tokugawa, and formed with them henceforth the highest military nobility of the country. The remainder of the domestics, who were not raised to the rank of daimyo, were comprised under the name of hatamoto, which means "under the standard," that is to say, the Body-guard of the Shogun. Among the members of this body there were indeed numerous scales of gradation. ”

“ If a daimyo, about to go up to the Castle of Yedo, return to his province, or visit a shrine or temple, required a retinue of yakko to guard him against the hatamoto, he sent word to the machi-yakko, who instantly supplied him with the desired number of followers. Thus the machi-yakko waged war with the hatamoto both directly and by providing the daimyo with his men. It was, therefore, necessary to hold in readiness a large army of adherents; and to keep them always under his eye, he met them nightly at his gambling resorts. ”

“ The tawara equals two-fifths of a koku. At present-day figures the stipend of Tamiya can be put at about 2000 yen; that of Itō Kwaiba, mentioned later, at 13,000 yen. The great daimyō with incomes running into the hundreds of thousands of koku were princes administering part of the public domain, with armies and an elaborate civil service to support. Even a hatamoto (minor daimyō, immediate vassals of the shōgun) of 10,000 koku, such as Yagyū Tajima no Kami had a large train at his Edo yashiki and at his fief. ”

“ It was natural that men accustomed to the polished life of the military capital were thought better qualified to fulfil such functions than the rustic samurai fresh from his territories who were good only for fighting and other serious kinds of business. While a daimyo was absent in his territory, a samurai of his, belonging to this metropolitan group, was entrusted with the care of his residences and their occupants in Yedo, and also with the duty of receiving orders from the Shogunate or of transacting inter-territorial business with representatives of other daimyo at Yedo. ”

“ The feudal organization of the government, by which the first allegiance was due to the daimyō, rendered the condition of things more demoralized. It was an old feudal custom, whenever the retainers of a daimyō wished to avenge any act without committing their lord, they withdrew from his service and became ronins. Most of the outrages which occurred during the years intervening between the formation of the treaties and the restoration were committed by these masterless men. ”

“ The reader is doubtless aware that the daimyo in former times used to dispose of the bulk of their incomes in supporting and helping their retainers; supplying hundreds, in some cases thousands, and in some few cases, even tens of thousands, of persons with the necessaries of life; and exacting in return military service, loyalty, and obedience. ”

“ But, from the days of Ietsuna, the wives and children of the daimyo were allowed to return to their provinces, and under the eighth shogun, Yoshimune, the system of sankin kotai ceased to be binding. This was because the Tokugawa found themselves sufficiently powerful to dispense with such artificial aids.
THE FIEFS There were certain general divisions of the feudatories. Everyone possessing a fief of 10,000 koku or upwards was called a daimyo. The title included the Sanke, the Sankyo, the gokemon (governor of Echizen) , the fudai (hereditary vassals) , and the tozama. ”

“ We have next a series of interesting instructions known as "wall-writings" of the castle of Osaka:
(1) Intermarriages between daimyo's families require the previous consent of the Taiko.
(2) Neither daimyo nor shomyo is permitted to enter into secret engagements or to exchange written oaths, or to give or take hostages.
(3) In a quarrel the one who forebears shall be recognized as having reason.
(4) No man, whatever his income, should keep a large number of concubines.
(5) The amount of sake imbibed should be limited to one's capacity. ”

“ Whenever a daimyo traveled to Yedo, the capital, he was treated almost as a god by the people. They were required to fall on their knees and bow their faces to the ground, and the death penalty was freely awarded to those who failed to make such expressions of respect. ”

“ Portraits of daimyos and famous scholars of the Sendai clan surround the Governor's room, and adjoining it is the tatami-covered apartment in which the daimyo used to sit when he was present at the examinations. Among the portraits is one of a retainer which was painted in Rome, where he had been sent on a mission of inquiry.
A Scarecrow.—A sketch by Professor Nasu.
In his scarecrow-making the Japanese farmer seems to have great faith in the Western-style cap, felt hat, or even umbrella, if he can get hold of one. Ordinarily, the bogey man has a bow with the arrow strung. ”

“ At the birth of this young prince, which occurred in the month of April, A.D. 1834, Maido, his father, was the lord daimyo [2] of Kanazawa prefecture, comprising the then wealthy and prosperous provinces of Kaga, Echigen, Sado, Echigo, Wakasa, Etchu, and Noto, in the northwestern part of Japan. It was the largest and most powerful of the shogun’s [3] many prefectures, and Maido was the last in succession of one of the longest unbroken lines of royal daimyos: under the shogun, he was an undisputed ruler, and his people were among the most progressive and peaceful in the land. ”

“ As to the rule that the daimyo shall come (to the shogun's court at Yedo) to do service:—
"In the Shoku Nihongi (The Continuation of the Chronicles of Japan) it is recorded amongst the enactments,
"'Except when entrusted with some official duty to assemble, no one (dignitary) is allowed at his own pleasure to assemble his tribe within the limits of the capital, no one is to go about attended by more than twenty horsemen, etc.'
"Hence it is not permissible to lead about a large force of soldiers. ”

“ No intermarriage might take place between members of the court nobility and the feudal houses without the consent of Yedo; no daimyō might apply direct to the emperor for an official title, or might put foot within the imperial district of Kiōto without the shōgun’s permit, and at all entrances to the region known as the Kwantō there were established guardhouses, where every one, of whatever rank, must submit to be examined, in order to prevent the wives and children of the daimyōs from secretly leaving Yedo for their own provinces. ”

“ A puissant daimyō’s procession often numbered as many as 1000 retainers, and nothing illustrates more forcibly the wide interval that separated the soldier and the plebeian than the fact that at the appearance of the heralds who preceded these progresses all commoners who happened to be abroad had to kneel on the ground with bowed and uncovered heads; all wayside houses had to close the shutters of windows giving on the road, and none might venture to look down from a height on the passing magnate. ”

“ Ōishi Kurano-suke, the senior retainer of the dead Daimyō, determines to revenge him, and consults with forty-six others of his most trusty fellow-lieges as to the ways and means. All are willing to lay down their lives in the attempt. ”

“ He had reason, under such circumstances, to fear that the beauty of Aoyagi might attract dangerous attention, and that means might be devised of taking her away from him. In Kyōto he therefore tried to keep her hidden from curious eyes. But a retainer of Lord Hosokawa one day caught sight of Aoyagi, discovered her relation to Tomotada, and reported the matter to the daimyō. Thereupon the daimyō—a young prince, and fond of pretty faces—gave orders that the girl should be brought to the place ”

“ There is a sad and awful tradition in the history of the Kengyōs, the oldest of the noble families of Izumo. Seven generations ago the Daimyō of Izumo made his first official visit to the temples of Hinomisaki, and was entertained royally by the Kengyō. As was the custom, the young wife served the royal visitor. Her simple beauty unfortunately [Pg 195] enchanted him, and he demanded that she leave her husband and go with him. Terrified, but like a brave loving wife and mother, she answered that sooner than desert her husband and child she would kill herself. ”

“ I He was born in a city of the interior, the seat of a daimyo of three hundred thousand koku, where no foreigner had ever been. The yashiki of his father, a samurai of high rank, stood within the outer fortifications surrounding the prince's castle. It was a spacious yashiki; and behind it and around it were landscape gardens, one of which contained a small shrine of the god of armies. Forty years ago there were many such homes. To artist eyes the few still remaining seem like fairy palaces, and their gardens like dreams of the Buddhist paradise. ”

“ Under the Hōjō and the Ashikaga shōguns the holders of the great estates changed frequently according to the vicissitudes of those troublesome times, but under the Tokugawa no change took place, and there thus Daimyōs. grew up a landed nobility of the most permanent character. Every one of these estates was a feudal kingdom, large or small, with its own usages and its own laws, based on the general principles above indicated and liable to be judged according to those principles by the shōgun’s government (baku-fu) in Yedo. ”

“ The daimyo who was ordered to inquire into the case found it both difficult and inexpedient to decide against either party, so that he promised to pronounce judgment after the lapse of fifty thousand fine days.
The assistance firemen give in house-building is not very laborious. Their usual work is the laying of foundations of houses, at which they sing a song in chorus and drop the tup at the end of each verse, that is, at the rate of about once a minute. It appears to be more of a pleasure to them than a task. ”

“ Venerable old men were as popular as callow youths. A popular rôle was a karo, or chief retainer, in the service of a feudal lord, and a mediator who tried to bring peace and harmony between warring factions was a rôle that pleased the people. Brave fighting men who could hold off an overwhelming number of attackers thrilled the audience; young daimyo, elegant, effeminate, robed in rich brocades; otokodate or chivalrous commoners, ready to unsheathe their swords in the protection of the brow-beaten lower classes ”

“ With only a few exceptions, the hereditary princes of the provinces had come to be merely the formal chiefs of their daimiates. The real power was in the hands of the energetic and [pg 383] capable samurai, who were employed to manage the affairs. They saw that any scheme for transferring the political authority of the daimyōs to the central government would render more important their services. They would become not merely the formal administrative functionaries, but the real officers to whom responsible duties and trusts would be confided. ”

“ Henceforward the daimyo of the provinces, and such of their kinsfolk as are men of distinction subordinate to them, may ride without applying for Government permission. Besides those, the following have permission, viz., vassals and retainers of high position about their lords; doctors and astrologers; persons of over sixty years of age, and sick persons and invalids. If ordinary retainers, or inferior henchmen (sotsu) are allowed to ride in palanquins, it will be considered to be the fault of their lords. ”

“ This village, with its charming view of the Bay of Odawara, the volcano of Oshima, and the islet of Enoshima, in front, and on turning around, when the weather is favourable, of Fuji behind, was as far toward our destination as the train could carry us. From there, through the celebrated castle-town of Odawara, we took the tram to Yumoto. In feudal times many bloody conflicts were fought in and around Odawara. For here dwelt in succession some of the most celebrated of the families of Daimyos in the days of the “Old Japan.” ”

“ He had been anxious enough to get rid of his accounted enemies, but did not much relish the talk about it; and now that the nation had been inflicted with a great calamity that would distract their minds, he appeared really glad at heart. The dead daimyos’ succession engaged his attention first, and hastening to bury the official notification beneath the excitement of the moment he began on the very next day to forward letters of advice and condolence.
The prime minister’s expressions of sorrow, especially to Shibusawa, were more than profuse ”