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Politics and the Samurai Class Structure in Satsuma, 1858–1868

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

W. G. Beasley
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Extract

All historians would agree that one decisive factor in the overthrow of the Tokugawa Bakufu was the alignment against it in 1867 of several of the great domains (han), and the failure of the Shōgun to rally any comparable support among the rest. In the wider sense the reasons for this are complex, as well as being a matter of some controversy. Nevertheless, the proximate causes are obvious enough. In the anti-Bakufu domains, notably Satsuma and Chōshū, power had fallen into the hands of samurai groups which sought the destruction of the régime. In a number of others, similar groups wielded sufficient influence to prevent the daimyō or his senior officials from giving whole-hearted backing to the Tokugawa. Clearly, therefore, the study of how this came about, that is, of the nature and processes of domain politics, is important to an understanding of the Meiji Restoration.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , January 1967 , pp. 47 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1967

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References

1 For a discussion of Satsuma society, written with this point in mind, see Sakai, Robert K., ‘Feudal Society and Modern Leadership in Satsuma han’, Journ. of Asian Studies, 16 (1957), pp. 365–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 For a discussion of Chōshū politics in this period, see Craig, A., Chōshū in the Meiji Restoration (Cambridge, Mass., 1961).Google Scholar

3 There are excellent accounts of Tosa politics in Jansen, M. B., Sakanwto Ryōrna and the Meiji Restoration (Princeton, 1961)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and in the same author's article, ‘Takechi Zuizan and the Tosa Loyalist Party’, Journ. of Asian Studies, 18 (1959), pp. 199–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar I have also examined the subject in an article, ‘Political groups in Tosa, 1858–1868’, to be published in Bull, of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 30 (1967).Google Scholar

4 The narrative of Satsuma politics given here is based principally on vol. III of Kagoshima-ken shi (5 vols., Kagoshima, 1939–1943).Google Scholar

5 See the works referred to in notes 2 and 3 above.

6 A few of those excluded on these grounds—the process is necessarily subjective— had distinguished careers in the Meiji period. This fact might itself be thought to indicate that they ought to be included in the group, though I am not of this opinion. However, it might be best to name them, for the information of those readers who do not agree with me. They were Kawamura Sumiyoshi, Kuroda Kiyotaka, Kuroda Kiyotsuna, Morioka Masazumi, Nozu Michitsura, Nozu Shizuo. Apart from Morioka (founder of the N.Y.K. shipping line) they all followed military careers in later life.

7 The figures are for 1826, as given in Sappan seiyō roku (Kagoshima-ken shiryō-shū, no. 1, Kagoshima, 1960)Google Scholar, a reprint of a kind of official Satsuma handbook for that year. On the samurai class structure of Satsuma generally, see Kagoshima-ken shi, vol. II, and also Yoshihiko, Hayashi, Sappan no kyōiku to zaisei narabi gumbi (Kagoshima, 1939).Google Scholar

8 Many of the men referred to in this article have been the subject of published biographies, most of which are listed in Kōshi, Takanashi, Ishin shiseki kaidai: denki-hen (Tokyo, 1935).Google Scholar There are two collections of short biographies in which men from Satsuma figure prominently: Kinnō resshi-den (Tokyo, 1906)Google Scholar; and Zōi shoken-den (2 vols. Tokyo, 1927).Google Scholar In addition biographical information about many of the domain's samurai is to be found in the biographies of Ōkubo Toshimichi, Arima Masayoshi, and Kaeda Nobuyoshi: Ōkubo Toshimichi den (3 vols. Tokyo, 1910–1911)Google Scholar; Arima Shinshichi sensei denki oyobi ikō (Tokyo, 1937)Google Scholar; and Kaeda, 's Ishin zengo jitsu rekishi den (10 vols. Tokyo, 1891–1892).Google Scholar There is, as we have said, no extant list of middle or lower samurai from the domain records. However, there are two important collections of relevant material. The first is the Shimazu family archive, deposited at the Historiographical Institute (Shiryō-hensanjo) of Tokyo University, which contains two biographical works on the Teradaya plotters (Fushimi junnan retsuden and Fushimi junnan-shi den), as well as biographies, some printed, some in manuscript, of the following: Ijichi Sadaka, Kuroda Kiyotsuna, Machida Hisanari, Mishima Michitsune, Orita Toshihide, Shibayama Kagetsuna, Terajima Munenori, Yoshida Seiemon. The other collection is at Kagoshima Prefectural Library, where there are several locally printed volumes of short biographies, arranged according to the district in which the families lived, and also separate biographies, some of them in manuscript, of the following: Ijichi Masaharu, Iwashita Masahira, Komatsu Tatewaki, Koreeda Ryūemon, Terajima Munenori. I would like to thank the Director of the Historiographical Institute and the Librarian of the Kagoshima Prefectural Library, together with the staff of both those institutions, for the help they so readily gave me in my work on this material.

9 See above, p. 50, n. 6.

10 This is borne out by an analysis of high officials of the early Meiji period in general: see Silberman, B. S., Ministers of Modernization. Elite mobility in the Meiji Restoration, 1868–1873 (Arizona, 1964)Google Scholar; also my article, ‘Councillors of samurai origin in the early Meiji government’, Bull, of the School of Oriental, and African Studies, 20 (1957), pp. 89–103.Google Scholar I should point out that those to whom I referred as ‘lesser samurai’ in that article—that is, members of the hirazamurai families of the castle-town—are here called ‘middle samurai’, since I have come to the conclusion that this is a more accurate description: see note 4 in my article ‘Political groups in Tosa’, Bull, of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 30 (1967).Google Scholar

11 See my article, ‘Political groups in Tosa, 1858–1868’, in Bull, of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 30 (1967).Google Scholar

12 This figure has been worked out from the complete list of gōshi holdings for these 6 kōri which is given in Tosa-han gōshi chōsa-sho (Tosa shiryō sōsho, no. 3, Kochi, 1958). The ryōchi-daka was an official assessment of the total crop yield of a landholding, measured in koku of rice. I koku equals 5 bushels approximately.

13 Sappan seiyō roku (Kagoshima, 1960) gives landholding figures for districts and villages (pp. 137–66)Google Scholar, but not for households. The totals for goshi and baishin given under that head do not accord exactly with the numbers given in the population returns (pp. 105–12), but I have thought it best not to use the latter in making calculations specifically about landholding. If one were to do so, the averages per household would be slightly higher: approximately 4·9 koku for gōshi and 4·3 koku for baishin.