What was the significance of the sankin kotai system?
The sankin kotai system was a centralized system of bakufu control over the daimyo which had many impacts to Japan. In addition, those who accompanied the daimyo en route to Edo allowed the city to grow from a tiny fishing village to a major city, with a population of a million by the 18th century. What happened to the daimyo?
How did the Tokugawa shogunate influence the daimyo?
Daimyo came under the centralizing influence of the Tokugawa shogunate in two chief ways. In a sophisticated form of hostage-taking that was used by the shogunate, the daimyo were required to alternate their residence between their domains and the shogun’s court at Edo (now Tokyo) in a system called sankin kōtai.
What happened to sankin kotai when the Tokugawa shogunate collapsed?
It was not, however, a universally loved system. When the Tokugawa shogunate began to lose power, it abolished sankin kotai in 1862. Within six months, nearly half the population of Edo left to return to their home domains. One daimyo even dismantled his residence and took it with him.
Why was sankin-kotai so costly?
Because sankin-kotai was a military service, daimyo had to move with a great number of their subordinate warriors, which traveling took the form of a large-scale march called daimyo-gyoretsu. Sankin-kotai was so costly that it placed an enormous financial burden on daimyo accordingly.
How did the Bakufu system benefit the daimyo?
The Bakufu (central government) had absolute political power over the fate of hans (local governments) and could even remove or abolish them. It was a feudal society in the sense that the shogun gave daimyos the land to rule. In return, daimyos pledged loyalty to shogun.
How might the shogun benefit from the Sankin Kotai system?
Answer and Explanation: The shoguns like Iemitsu benefited from this system because it increased the stability of their rule. The shoguns were military dictators. The daimyo were powerful feudal lords who might challenge the shoguns if their local power grew strong enough.
What was the purpose of Sankin Kotai?
Sankin-kōtai (Japanese: 参覲交代/参覲交替, now commonly written as 参勤交代/参勤交替, 'alternate attendance') was a policy of the Tokugawa shogunate during most of the Edo period of Japanese history. The purpose was to strengthen central control over the daimyōs (major feudal lords).
How did the Tokugawa regime control the daimyos?
Daimyo came under the centralizing influence of the Tokugawa shogunate in two chief ways. In a sophisticated form of hostage-taking that was used by the shogunate, the daimyo were required to alternate their residence between their domains and the shogun's court at Edo (now Tokyo) in a system called sankin kōtai.
How did the shogun gain the support of the daimyo?
How did the shogun gain the support of the daimyo? They created an orderly society and made peace, distributed land to lords.
What was an important contribution of the sankin kotai system to the modernization of Japan quizlet?
What was an important contribution of the sankin kōtai (alternate attendance) system to the modernization of Japan? (1) Japan's people developed a stronger sense of national cultural unity.
What is a shogun's role in society?
Shoguns were hereditary military leaders who were technically appointed by the emperor. However, real power rested with the shoguns themselves, who worked closely with other classes in Japanese society. Shoguns worked with civil servants, who would administer programs such as taxes and trade.
Did isolation have a positive or negative effect on Japan?
The isolation of Japan helped their economy, because of their long periods of stability and peace. Their economy was booming. But it affected them in a bad way because they had little trade with foreigners, overtaxing and the continued use of rice for payment.
What were the shogun's responsibilities?
The shogun controlled foreign policy, the military, and feudal patronage. The role of the Emperor was ceremonial, similar to the position of the Japanese monarchy after the Second World War.
How did the daimyo lose power?
Faced with the threat of western imperialism, the Tokugawa government collapsed. The daimyo lost their land, titles, and power during the resulting Meiji Restoration of 1868, although some were able to transition to the new oligarchy of the wealthy industrialist classes.
How did the Tokugawa shogunate maintain power and control over the daimyos?
The shoguns maintained stability in many ways, including regulating trade, agriculture, foreign relations, and even religion. The political structure was stronger than in centuries before because the Tokugawa shoguns tended to pass power down dynastically from father to son.
Who controlled the daimyo?
Daimyo were feudal lords who, as leaders of powerful warrior bands, controlled the provinces of Japan from the beginning of the Kamakura period in 1185 to the end of the Edo period in 1868. This warrior class, as newly risen holders of political authority, developed cultural traditions inherited from the court.
How did the feudal system benefit the shogun?
The system allowed the shogun to have direct control of most of his territory, but the lack of formal institutions of government would be a lasting weakness of the shogunates as personal loyalties were rarely passed on to successive generations.
What did the shogun do in the feudal system?
The shoguns of medieval Japan were military dictators who ruled the country via a feudal system where a vassal's military service and loyalty was given in return for a lord's patronage.
What was the benefit of Tokugawa alternate attendance system?
The alternate attendance system also provided entertainment for the common people. The daimyos' yearly processions back and forth to the shogun's capital were festive occasions, and everyone turned out to watch them pass. After all, everybody loves a parade. Alternate attendance worked well for the Tokugawa Shogunate.
How does the shogun maintain his power?
The shoguns maintained stability in many ways, including regulating trade, agriculture, foreign relations, and even religion. The political structure was stronger than in centuries before because the Tokugawa shoguns tended to pass power down dynastically from father to son.
How often did the Sankin Kotai rotate?
Sankin kotai was formalized in the first decades of the Edo period so that certain hereditary retainers of the Tokugawa (the fudai daimyo) alternated in Edo every six months while most other daimyo rotated to Edo every other year.
What is the Sankin Kotai system?
Alternate residence duty, or sankin kotai, was a system developed in the Warring States period and perfected by the Tokugawa shogunate. In essence, the system demanded simply that daimyo reside in the Tokugawa castle at Edo for periods of time, alternating with residence at the daimyo’s own castle.
What was the 17th century highway system?
17th century Highway System. The system promoted control by the Tokugawa over the entire country, moving Japan far away from the disunity of the Warring States Period to the nationalism of the 19th and 20th centuries.
When did the Tokugawa Shogunate lose power?
When the Tokugawa shogunate began to lose power, it abolished sankin kotai in 1862. Within six months, nearly half the population of Edo left to return to their home domains. One daimyo even dismantled his residence and took it with him.
Why did the Daimyo have to sell local products in national markets?
It also caused a more rapid emergence of a national commercial and financial system because the daimyo had to sell local products in national markets to provide the money necessary to pay expenses on the road and in Edo.
What was the Daimyo's hostage system?
When a daimyo was not residing in the Tokugawa castle, he was required to leave his family at his overlord’s castle town. It was , at its simplest, a hostage system which required that either the daimyo or his family (including the very important heir) always be physically subject to the whim of the overlord.
What was the burden on the Daimyo?
In addition, the daimyo was required to move between his home domain and Edo.
How did the Edo culture spread?
At the same time, because a great number of daimyo 's attendants traveled back and forth between Edo and the provinces, Edo culture spread nationwide via them. For example, the sankin-kotai carried out by Nariyuki TOKUGAWA, the eleventh lord of the Kishu Tokugawa Family in 1841 consisted of 1639 warriors, 2337 laborers, 103 horses. Shichiri-bikyaku (express messengers) and feudal retainers of the Kishu clan reportedly arrived at Hirakata-juku Station, one station along the trip, for preparation several months earlier than the lord would do. The procession consisting of several thousand people indicates that a large amount of expenses were consumed for the trip including the prior arrangements. The daimyo gyoretsu carried out by the Kishu Tokugawa family, one of three privileged branches of the Tokugawa family, were so gorgeous and prestigious that many peasants spared the time to see the scene. The Kishu Tokugawa family 's daimyo gyoretsu were exceptional, but other daimyo gyoretsu also had huge economic (money expended and so on) and cultural effects (social status and so on) on the areas along which the procession occurred.
What is Sankin Kotai?
Sankin-kotai is one of the Edo bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun )'s system that obligated daimyo (Japanese feudal lords) to reside in Edo periodically. Sankin means that daimyo served for the lord (Seii-Taishogun [literally, "great general who subdues the barbarians] in this case) for a certain period, while kotai means that they returned to their domains on leave to attend to government affairs there.
Why did Daimyo go to Edo?
After Ieyasu TOKUGAWA won the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and attained supremacy, various daimyo started to make their pilgrimage to Edo to gain the Tokugawa clan's favor. Following Hideyoshi's footstep, Ieyasu prepared the samurai residences near Edo-jo Castle so that daimyo 's families would live in Edo. In the beginning, daimyo 's sankin-kotai was voluntary, but it gradually became established as a system, and the 1635 edition of Buke Shohatto, issued in the era of Iemitsu TOKUGAWA, the third Shogun, made it obligatory.
How long can a Daimyo serve in Edo?
In leap August 1862, daimyo were permitted to serve in Edo for one hundred days once every three years as part of the Bunkyu Reform. In September 1864, the Edo bakufu, misinterpreting the post Kinmon Incident situations, brought the system back to the original form, but many domains did not follow the bakufu 's policy.
When do Daimyo have to arrive in Edo?
Daimyo are required to arrive at Edo in every April. Too many retainers are employed recently...), "参勤" and "交替"were used.
Why did warriors occupy half of the population of Edo?
Because a large number of vassals of each clan went to Edo leaving their families in their domains owing to sankin-kotai, warriors accounted for about half the population in Edo.
When did Fudai Daimyo live in Edo?
In 1642, fudai daimyo (hereditary vassals to the Tokugawa family) were required to live in Edo and their own feudal domains each for one year, which meant that all daimyo excluding the cabinet officials of the Shogunate were subject to sankin-kotai, in principle.
How long did the Tokugawa Shogun rule?
During its entire reign of more than 250 years, no Tokugawa shogun faced an uprising by any of the daimyo. The system remained in force until 1862, just six years before the shogun fell in the Meiji Restoration.
What was the first sankin-kotai law?
Actually, the first sankin-kotai law applied only to what were known as the tozama or "outside" daimyo. These were lords who did not join the Tokugawa side until after the Battle of Sekigahara (Oct. 21, 1600), which cemented Tokugawa power in Japan. Many of the lords from distant, large, and powerful domains were among the tozama daimyo, so they were the shogun's first priority to control.
Why did the Shoguns impose a burden on the Daimyo?
The shoguns' stated reason for imposing this burden on the daimyo was that it was necessary for national defense. Each daimyo had to supply a certain number of samurai, calculated according to the wealth of his domain, and bring them to the capital for military service every second year. However, the shoguns actually enacted this measure to keep the daimyo busy and to impose hefty expenses on them, so that the lords would not have the time and money to start wars. Alternate attendance was an effective tool to prevent Japan from slipping back into the chaos that characterized the Sengoku Period (1467 - 1598).
What was the name of the clan that was allied with the Tokugawas?
In 1642, however, sankin-kotai was also extended to the fudai daimyo, those whose clans had been allied with the Tokugawas even before Sekigahara. A past history of loyalty was no guarantee of continued good behavior, so the fudai daimyo had to pack their bags as well.
Where has Kallie Szczepanski taught?
She has taught at the high school and university levels in the U.S. and South Korea. our editorial process. Kallie Szczepanski. Updated March 03, 2019. The alternate attendance system, or sankin-kotai, was a Tokugawa Shogunate policy that required daimyo (or provincial lords) to divide their time between the capital of their own domain and ...
What was the name of the hotel that was built to house the Daimyo?
A new kind of hotel or guesthouse sprang up along the kaido, known as honjin, and built specifically to house the daimyo and their retinues as they traveled to and from the capital. The alternate attendance system also provided entertainment for the common people.
Why did the Lords need good roads?
Because the lords and their large numbers of followers had to travel so often, they needed good roads. A system of well-maintained highways grew across the entire country, as a result. The main roads to each province were known as the kaido .
How did the Daimyo divide his domain?
The daimyo divided his domain between his own personal granary land and the land on which his chief retainers were enfeoffed. Normally, his granary land amounted to from 30 to 40 percent of the whole. The daimyo’s retainers were divided between fief holders and salaried retainers.
How were Daimyo joined to the Shogun?
Daimyo were joined to the shogun by oath and received their lands as grants under his vermilion seal in a governing system called the bakuhan. Daimyo were classed according to their relationships to the shogun as kinsmen ( shimpan ), hereditary vassals ( fudai ), and less-trusted allies ( tozama; meaning “outsiders”).
What was the purpose of the Daimyo retainers?
All daimyo worked to convert their enfeoffed vassals to the enforced dependence of the salaried status , and by the 18th century most fiefs had been absorbed under the daimyo’s expanding authority.
How did Shugo Daimyo gain their income?
The shugo daimyo’s private landholdings were quite limited, however, and these daimyo gained much of their income from levying taxes on the cultivated lands owned by civil aristocrats and religious establishments .
What was the name of the country that the Sengoku Daimyo controlled?
By the late 15th century the Sengoku daimyo had divided Japan into a series of small, belligerent states as each individual daimyo competed for the control of more territory. The Sengoku daimyo built castles in the hill country from which they controlled their vassals, who likewise were petty landowners with castles.
What is the Daimyo called?
The kinsei (“early modern”) daimyo, as the daimyo of the Tokugawa period were called, differed from their predecessors in being more nearly petty monarchs within their domains.
When did the Sengoku Daimyo fight?
In the 16th century the Sengoku daimyo fought among themselves constantly, and a process of consolidation ensued, with fewer and fewer daimyo emerging from the local wars and each holding more and more territory. In 1568 Oda Nobunaga began the movement of decisive military conquest over the daimyo that was later carried on by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and completed in 1603 by Tokugawa Ieyasu. By this time roughly 200 daimyo had been brought under the hegemony of the Tokugawa family, the head of which served as shogun. In the 16th century the term daimyo became limited in its application to territorial lords having lands ( han) assessed at 10,000 koku (1 koku = 5 bushels) or more of annual grain production.
