¹ To mention only a few recent references, Dore, Ronald P., Education in Tokugawa Japan (Berkeley, 1965), p. 188Google Scholar; Levy, Marion J., “Contrasting Factors in the Modernization of China and Japan,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, II (10 1953), 185–86Google Scholar; Yasuzō, Horie, “Modern Entrepreneurship in Meiji Japan,” The State and Economic Enterprise in Japan, ed. Lockwood, William W. (Princeton, 1965), p. 200.Google Scholar

² “The Nature of Traditional Society: Japan,” ed. Ward, Robert E. and Rustow, Dankwart A., Political Modernization in Japan and Turkey (Princeton, 1964), p. 30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³ Silberman, Bernard, Ministers of Modernization: Elite Mobility in the Meiji Restoration (Tucson, 1964), p. 341.Google Scholar

⁴ Levy, , “Contrasting; Factors …,” p. 185.Google Scholar

⁵ Fudai-kinsei, shimpan-kinsei, tozama-shokuhō and tozama-sengoku. This typology is discussed by Tasaburō, Itō, Nihon hōkenseido shi [A History of Japanese Fuedalism] (Tokyo, 1951), p. 256Google Scholar; and Hall, John W., “Foundations of the Modern Japanese Daimyo,” Journal of Asian Studies, XX/3 (05 1961), 317–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶ To summarize these figures, the samurai population was 574 in Hikone, 1,500 in Kaga, 1,500 in Owari, and 3,000 in Sendai; records are extant for 560 in Hikone, 965 in Kaga, 769 in Owari (average of three collections), and 1,112 in Sendai. Of these, about 10% were selected at random for each of the three periods. The numbers found useful are listed in Table 1.

⁷ Owari records of the 17th and 18th centuries were thin genealogies, whereas those of the 19th century were very substantial service records of each family head. See footnotes 13 and 30.

⁸ This refers to the number of families that were eliminated from the samurai class for whatever reason, though the most common reason mentioned in the records is failure to have an heir. Records of ex-retainers and extinct families compiled by Hikone, Kaga, and Owari make it possible to calculate that, during the 18th century, these han lost between 20% and 31% of their shi, or about 7–10% each generation. Without adoption to provide heirs for a quarter of the shi, the family death rate would have exceeded 40% in the 18th century. Records of extinct families are in “zekkaroku” (Kaga), “chōshin kōhairoku” (Owari), and “jichū yuishochō” (Hikone).

⁹ The lesser family's adoption of a son from the higher family would also result in social mobility— downward. But the chief concern now is adoption as a channel of upward movement.

¹⁰ A recent example is Yasuzō, Horie, “Modern Entrepreneurship in Meiji Japan,” p. 200Google Scholar, who believes that social mobility in the late Tokugawa period is seen in “the practice of adopting into a family sons born to a different social status.”

¹¹ Katsumi, Kuroita, Kokushi no kenkyū [Studies in Japanese History], III (Tokyo, 1936), 219.Google Scholar

¹² Kanda Sembei of Kaga. “Shoshi keifu” [Genealogies of Kaga Samurai] (hereafter cited as SK), VII, 105.Google Scholar

¹³ Kanda Jūrōzaemon, born into a 300-koku family, was adopted by a family with 250 koku. SK, VII, 106. In Owari, Matsudaira Yasunaga, a junior son of the first daimyo, Yoshinao, was adopted by a family with 2,500 koku. The adopting family was, however, related to the daimyo, had had daimyo status (40,000 koku) in the 16th century and held the position of Keeper of the Castle at the time of the adoption. A biographical sketch is in “Shirin sokai” [Origins of Owari Retainers] (hereafter cited as SS; the supplement, “Shirin sokai zokuhen”, is cited as SSZ below), CXXX. The two in Sendai were Shikura Hisatsune and Akutsu Sashige. The latter, born to a shi family, was adopted by an official merchant (goyō shōnin) of the han whose stipend was only 5 ryō and rations for 8. Yet this merchant family was descended from a shi of 300-koku status. “Date seishin kafu” [Family Records of Date's Hereditary Retainers] (hereafter DSK), V (20), 13–16Google Scholar; and IV (12), 1–4.

¹⁴ Shi who adopted or married outside their status (mibun) group needed han permission, Kaoru, Nakata, Hōseishi ronshū [Essays on the History of Legislation], I (Tokyo, 1926), 473.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Sources are SK, III, 7, 15; VII, 54–55; X, 28; XII, 2, 24–25; and Tōhan shikō [Draft History of Sendai-han], VIII, 18–19.Google Scholar

¹⁶ All from Kaga-han kumiwake samuraichō [Kaga Samurai Roster Arranged by Units] (Kanazawa, 1937)Google Scholar. Of the 419 cases of adoption in this roster, which is about 25% of the total, I was able to determine the original income of 162 and the rank of 165.

¹⁷ Nakamura Gorōzaemon, ibid. Also Katō Satoari, from a 250-koku family, was adopted into a family with 1,500 koku. SK, VII, 59.

¹⁸ The second son of Satō Hayato became the heir of the Emori family. Kaga-han kumiwake samuraichō.

¹⁹ In Kaga the heishi was made up of omote and soba koshō, six companies of ōgoshō, numerous umamawari groups, jōban umamawari and humihazure.

²⁰ The patterns of interstrata marriage in Kaga were very similar. Katsumi, Yokoe, “Hanshi shakai ni okeru mibun to kon'in,” Kazoku to sonraku, ed. Teizō, Toda and Eitarō, Suzuki, I (Tokyo, 1939), 348.Google Scholar

²¹ Ishikawa-ken shi, [History of Ishikawa Prefecture] III (Kanazawa, 1931), 4–7, 81, 90–91, 161–162Google Scholar. Also Kanō kyōdo jii [Dictionary of Kaga and Noto Local History] (Kanazawa, 1956), pp. 409, 433.Google Scholar

²² More than half of the Owari sample had incomes of 100 koku or less.

²³ Kahyū shizoku no kenkyū [Studies of Lower Class Samurai] (Tokyo, 1953), pp. 117–33, 325–26.Google Scholar

²⁴ One had 12 koku and rations for 2; 5 had 9 koku and rations for 2; 2 had 5 koku and rations for 2; and 1 had 2 ryō of gold and rations for 2.

²⁵ Nagoya-shi shi, seijihen [Nagoya City History: Politics], II (Nagoya, 1915), 55–58.Google Scholar

²⁶ The family service record is in “Jichū yuishochō” [Retainers Service Records] (Hereafter cited as JY), XXX.

²⁷ And received only 150 koku of the family's 200-koku stipend.

²⁸ The Naitō family service record is in JY, XII.

²⁹ His first appointment was as kashō or page in the daimyo's household, a position usually held by boys between 10 and 12 years old.

³⁰ In Kaga, Katsuo Hanzaemon rose from 400 koku to 1,000 koku and the top military rank of hitomochi kumi, and adopted his grandson as heir and successor in 1829. Details in SK, VII, 103. Examples among Owari men were Suzuki Wakajirō, Nakamura Isaburō and Nakayama Daisaburō. “Hanshi nayose” [Owari-han Samurai Family Records] (Hereafter cited as HN), su jō, 270–72; na ge, 96–99, 338–41Google Scholar. Nakajima Yoshikurō and Arao Kizō adopted grandsons. Ibid., na ge, 264–269Google Scholar; and a ge, 78–87Google Scholar. In Sendai, DSK, XII, 14–15; XIV, 14–15; and VIII, 33–34.

³¹ Thus assumption is usually made by sociologists. For example, Barber, Bernard, Social Stratification: A Comparative Analysis of Structure and Process (New York, 1957), p. 74Google Scholar; Berent, Jerzy, “Social Mobility and Marriage: A Study of Trends in England and Wales,” Social Mobility in Britain, ed. Glass, David (London, 1959), p. 322.Google Scholar

³² In Kaga the following examples were typical: 200 of 800 koku, 100 of 600 koku and 150 of 1,000 koku. SK, X, 8; III, 27; VII, 82 and VIII, 8.

³³ Dore, Ronald P., Education in Tokugawa Japan, pp. 198–99.Google Scholar

³⁴ This was generally true, though there were some notable exceptions. Kuzumaki Ukonzaemon of Kaga lost 800 of his adoptive father's 1,500 koku when he succeeded. SK, VII, 50. One suspects, however, that other factors, not clear from the record, were also involved; perhaps an improper adoption or an immature heir.

³⁵ Jibunosuke, Nishio, JY, XXXIX.Google Scholar

³⁶ Matsuda Masatake (d. 1763), SSZ, XXI.

³⁷ In 1645 libuchi Shigenari succeeded at age 4 to 120 koku of his grandfather's 240 koku. Family history is in DSK, LII, 22–28. Shiga Jizō, also of Sendai, was allowed to inherit 100 koku of his father's 600 koku more than a year after the latter died. Ibid., VI, 22–25.

³⁸ Shinzeimon, Yamagata, in JY, XXXIX.Google Scholar

³⁹ For example, Matsui Zembei of Hikone served only 3 years before relinquishing his position to an adopted son, but the son received only 200 koku of the 300-koku stipend. JY, XXXIX. Also Mataemon, Kato, SK, VII, 60.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ A study of shi careers in these four han indicate that those who served fewer than 11 years often lost part of their family stipend when they turned over the headship of the house to heirs.

⁴¹ Tatsuya, Tsuji, “Bakusei no shindankai,” Iwanami kōza nihon rekishi: kintei [Iwanami's Japanese History: Tokugawa Period], III (Tokyo, 1963), 1–36.Google Scholar

⁴² There was no choice in many cases. The preferred line of succession was known and followed. On the other hand, a man could pass over an obviously sick or dull-witted candidate.

⁴³ I have disregarded two other cases of upward mobility or stipend increase from 30 to 50 hyō because, as part of a general pay raise Owari granted many retainers of lower ranks in 1862, they had nothing to do with social origins or merit of the recipients.

⁴⁴ Satoari, Katō, in SK, VII, 59.Google Scholar