Han system
The han (藩 han) or domain is the Japanese historical term for the estate of a warrior after the 12th century or of a daimyō in the Edo period (1603–1868) and early Meiji period (1868–1912).[1]
History
In the Sengoku period (1467 – 1603), Toyotomi Hideyoshi caused a transformation of the han system. The feudal system based on land became an abstraction based on periodic cadastral surveys and projected agricultural yields.[2]
In Japan, a feudal domain was defined in terms of projected annual income. This was different from the feudalism of the West. For example, early Japanologists such as Appert and Papinot made a point of highlighting the annual koku yields which were allocated for the Shimazu clan at Satsuma Domain since the 12th century.[3]
In 1690, the richest han was the Kaga Domain with slightly over 1 million koku.[4] It was in Kaga, Etchū and Noto provinces.
Edo period
In the Edo period, the domains of daimyōs were defined in terms of kokudaka, not land area.[5] Imperial provincial subdivisions and shogunal domain subdivisions were complementary systems. For example, when the shōgun ordered daimyōs to make a census of its people or to make maps, the work was organized along the borders of the provincial kuni.[6]
Meiji period
In the Meiji period from 1869 to 1871, the title of daimyō in the han system was han-chiji (藩知事) or chihanji (知藩事).[7]
In 1871, almost all of the domains were disbanded; and the prefectures of Japan replaced the han system.[1] At the same time, the Meiji government created the Ryūkyū Domain which existed from 1872 through 1879.[8]
See also
Notes
- 1 2 Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Han" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 283.
- ↑ Mass, Jeffrey P. and William B. Hauser. (1987). The Bakufu in Japanese History, p. 150.
- ↑ Appert, Georges. (1888). "Shimazu" in Ancien Japon, pp. 77; compare Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon; Papinot, (2003). Nobiliare du Japon, p. 55; retrieved 2013-3-23.
- ↑ Totman, Conrad. (1993). Early Modern Japan, p. 119.
- ↑ Elison, George and Bardwell L. Smith (1987). Warlords, Artists, & Commoners: Japan in the Sixteenth Century, p. 17.
- ↑ Roberts, Luke S. (2002). Mercantilism in a Japanese Domain: the merchant origins of economic nationalism in 18th-century Tosa, p. 6
- ↑ Lebra, Takie S. (1995). Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility, p. 29
- ↑ Matsumura, Wendy. (2007). Becoming Okinawan: Japanese Capitalism and Changing Representations of Okinawa, p. 38.
References
- Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
- Totman, Conrad. (1993). Early Modern Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520080263; OCLC 246872663
