Matsudaira clan
The Matsudaira clan was a Japanese samurai clan that claimed descent from the Minamoto clan. It took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province. Over the course of its history, the clan produced many branches, most of which are in Mikawa Province. In the 16th century, the main Matsudaira line experienced a meteoric rise to success during the direction of Matsudaira Motoyasu, who changed his name to Tokugawa Ieyasu and became the first Tokugawa shōgun. Ieyasu's line formed. Other branches were formed in the decades after Ieyasu; some of those branches were of daimyō status. After the Meiji Restoration and the abolition of the han system, the Tokugawa and Matsudaira clans became part of the new nobility; the Matsudaira clan originated in Mikawa Province. Its origins are uncertain, but in the Sengoku era, the clan claimed descent from the medieval Seiwa Genji branch of the Minamoto clan. According to this claim, the founder of the Matsudaira line was Matsudaira Chikauji, who lived in the 14th century and established himself in Mikawa Province, at Matsudaira village.
In its territory in Mikawa Province, the Matsudaira clan was surrounded by much more powerful neighbors. To the west was the territory of the Oda clan of Owari Province; each generation of Matsudaira family head had to negotiate his relationship with these neighbors. Before the Edo period, there were 19 major branches of the Matsudaira clan: Takenoya, Katanohara, Ōgusa, Nagasawa, Nōmi, Fukōzu, Ogyū, Fukama, Sakurai, Tōjō, Mitsugi, Nishi-Fukama, Yata and Kaga; each of these branches took its name from the area in Mikawa. Many of the branches fought with each other, it was the main Matsudaira line residing in Okazaki Castle which rose the highest during the Sengoku period. During the headship of Matsudaira Hirotada, it was threatened by the Oda and Imagawa clans, for a time was forcibly brought into Imagawa service. After the death of Imagawa Yoshimoto and the fall from power of the Imagawa clan, Hirotada's son Matsudaira Motoyasu was successful in forming an alliance with Oda Nobunaga, the hegemon of Owari Province.
Motoyasu is better known as Tokugawa Ieyasu, who became the first Tokugawa shōgun in 1603. Several of the pre-Edo branch families survived into the Edo period; the Takiwaki-Matsudaira family became daimyōs of the Ojima Domain, from 1868 to 1871, ruled the Sakurai Domain. The Nagasawa-Matsudaira known as the Ōkōchi-Matsudaira, had several branches, one of them ruled the Yoshida Domain of Mikawa Province. A prominent Nagasawa-Matsudaira is the early Edo-period politician Matsudaira Nobutsuna; the Fukōzu-Matsudaira ruled the Shimabara Domain. The Sakurai-Matsudaira ruled the Amagasaki Domain; the Ogyū-Matsudaira had many branches. Nagai Naoyuki was a prominent Bakumatsu-era descendant of the Ogyū-Matsudaira of Okutono. Other pre-Edo branches of the family became hatamoto; the Tokugawa surname was not granted to all of the sons of the shōgun or the heads of the six main Tokugawa branches. Only the inheritor received the Tokugawa name, while all of his siblings would receive the Matsudaira surname. For example, the last shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu was not the firstborn heir of his father.
Yoshinobu was known as Matsudaira Shichirōma during his minority. Some of these sons of the 3 main Tokugawa branches, formed their own families, received their own fiefs; these included Takamatsu, Fuchū, Moriyama. Notable Matsudaira of these branches include Matsudaira Yoritoshi of Takamatsu, Matsudaira Yoritaka of Fuchū. Yoritsune Matsudaira and his son Yoriaki Matsudaira, who were 20th-century composers, were descendants of the Matsudaira of Fuchū; the Yūki-Matsudaira clan was founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu's son Yūki Hideyasu. Several branches of the Yūki-Matsudaira came into existence during the Edo period. Though the Yūki-Matsudaira retained control of Kitanoshō, the main Yūki line was not there, but in Tsuyama instead. Branches of the family ruled the Fukui, Mori, Tsuyama, Akashi and Maebashi domains. Famous Yūki-Matsudaira include Matsudaira Naritami and Matsudaira Yoshinaga, two daimyōs of the late Edo period. Matsudaira Yoshinaga in particular was important to Japanese politics of the early Meiji period, his leadership put the Fukui Domain on the side of the victors in the Boshin War.
The Hisamatsu-Matsudaira clan was founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu's half-brother Hisamatsu Sadakatsu. Due to his close relation to Ieyasu, Sadakatsu was allowed the use of the Matsudaira surname; some of the branches of the Hisamatsu-Matsudaira were allowed the use of the Tokugawa family crest, as well as being formally recognized as Tokugawa relatives, rather than being a fudai family. Branches of the Hisamatsu-Matsudaira ruled the Kuwana and Iyo-Matsuyama domains. Famous Hisamatsu-Matsudaira include the political reformer Matsudaira Sadanobu, the final Kyoto Shoshidai Matsudaira Sadaaki, shogunate politician Itakura Katsukiyo. In the Meiji era, the heads of all the Hisamatsu-Matsudaira branches received titles in the new nobility; the Ochi-Matsudaira clan was founded by
Sōja
Sōja is a city located in Okayama Prefecture, Japan. As of October 1, 2016, the city has an estimated population of 67,059 and a population density of 320 persons per km²; the total area is 212.00 km². In the 7th century, Ki Castle was built atop the mountain Kijōyama. Long in ruins and partial reconstruction began in 1999; the city was founded on March 31, 1954. On March 22, 2005, the villages of Yamate and Kiyone were merged into Sōja. Sōja is surrounded by all within Okayama Prefecture. Okayama Kurashiki Ibara Takahashi Yakage Kibichūō Takahashi River Shinpon River Makidani River Ki castle mountain Mount Fuku Mount Karube Sōja has been twinned with Chino, Nagano in Japan since 1984. Sōja City official website
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters that are used in the Japanese writing system. They are used alongside katakana; the Japanese term kanji for the Chinese characters means "Han characters". It is written with the same characters in the Chinese language to refer to the character writing system, hanzi. Chinese characters first came to Japan on official seals, swords, coins and other decorative items imported from China; the earliest known instance of such an import was the King of Na gold seal given by Emperor Guangwu of Han to a Yamato emissary in 57 AD. Chinese coins from the first century AD have been found in Yayoi period archaeological sites. However, the Japanese of that era had no comprehension of the script, would remain illiterate until the fifth century AD. According to the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki, a semi-legendary scholar called Wani was dispatched to Japan by the Kingdom of Baekje during the reign of Emperor Ōjin in the early fifth century, bringing with him knowledge of Confucianism and Chinese characters.
The earliest Japanese documents were written by bilingual Chinese or Korean officials employed at the Yamato court. For example, the diplomatic correspondence from King Bu of Wa to Emperor Shun of Liu Song in 478 has been praised for its skillful use of allusion. Groups of people called fuhito were organized under the monarch to read and write Classical Chinese. During the reign of Empress Suiko, the Yamato court began sending full-scale diplomatic missions to China, which resulted in a large increase in Chinese literacy at the Japanese court. In ancient times paper was so rare that people stenciled kanji onto thin, rectangular strips of wood; these wooden boards were used for communication between government offices, tags for goods transported between various countries, the practice of writing. The oldest written kanji in Japan discovered so far was written in ink on wood as a wooden strip dated to the 7th century, it is a record of trading for salt. The Japanese language had no written form at the time Chinese characters were introduced, texts were written and read only in Chinese.
During the Heian period, however, a system known as kanbun emerged, which involved using Chinese text with diacritical marks to allow Japanese speakers to restructure and read Chinese sentences, by changing word order and adding particles and verb endings, in accordance with the rules of Japanese grammar. Chinese characters came to be used to write Japanese words, resulting in the modern kana syllabaries. Around 650 AD, a writing system called man'yōgana evolved that used a number of Chinese characters for their sound, rather than for their meaning. Man'yōgana written in cursive style evolved into hiragana, or onna-de, that is, "ladies' hand," a writing system, accessible to women. Major works of Heian-era literature by women were written in hiragana. Katakana emerged via a parallel path: monastery students simplified man'yōgana to a single constituent element, thus the two other writing systems and katakana, referred to collectively as kana, are descended from kanji. In comparison to kana kanji are called mana.
In modern Japanese, kanji are used to write parts of the language such as nouns, adjective stems, verb stems, while hiragana are used to write inflected verb and adjective endings and as phonetic complements to disambiguate readings and miscellaneous words which have no kanji or whose kanji is considered obscure or too difficult to read or remember. Katakana are used for representing onomatopoeia, non-Japanese loanwords, the names of plants and animals, for emphasis on certain words. In 1946, after World War II and under the Allied Occupation of Japan, the Japanese government, guided by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, instituted a series of orthographic reforms, to help children learn and to simplify kanji use in literature and periodicals; the number of characters in circulation was reduced, formal lists of characters to be learned during each grade of school were established. Some characters were given simplified glyphs, called shinjitai. Many variant forms of characters and obscure alternatives for common characters were discouraged.
These are guidelines, so many characters outside these standards are still known and used. The kyōiku kanji are 1,006 characters; the list only contained 881 characters. This was expanded to 996 characters in 1977, it was not until 1982 the list was expanded to its current size. The grade-level breakdown of these kanji is known as the gakunen-betsu kanji haitōhyō, or the gakushū kanji; the jōyō kanji are 2,136 characters consisting of all the Kyōiku kanji, plus 1,130 additional kanji taught in junior high and high school. In publishing, characters outside this category are given furigana; the jōyō kanji were introduced in 1981, replacing an older list of 1,850 characters known as the tōyō kanji, introduced in 1946. Numbering 1,945 characters, the jōyō kanji list was extended to 2,136 in 2010; some of the new characters were Jinmeiyō kanji. Since September 27, 2004, the jinmeiyō k
Fudai daimyō
Fudai daimyō was a class of daimyōs who were hereditary vassals of the Tokugawa in Edo-period Japan. It was the fudai who filled the ranks of the Tokugawa administration. Many of the families who formed the ranks of the fudai daimyōs were families which had served the Tokugawa clan since before its rise to national primacy; some of these include the Honda, Sakakibara, Ii, Mizuno clans. Tokugawa Ieyasu's "Four Great Generals"—Honda Tadakatsu, Sakakibara Yasumasa, Sakai Tadatsugu, Ii Naomasa—were all pre-Edo period fudai, went on to become fudai daimyōs. In addition, some branches of the Matsudaira clan, while allowed to retain the Matsudaira surname, were fudai; as Tokugawa Ieyasu rose to power in the 16th century, his domains increased, as his domains increased, he began to hand out landholdings to his vassals, so that one by one, many of them became daimyōs. This was the birth of the fudai daimyō class. In contrast to the tozama, the fudai ruled small fiefs, many in strategic locations along the principal roads or in the Kantō region near the headquarters of the shogunate at Edo.
High posts in the shogunate, such as Rōjū and wakadoshiyori went to fudai. In addition, the post of Kyoto Shoshidai always went to a fudai daimyō. Other clans which were not pre-Azuchi–Momoyama period retainers of the Tokugawa came to be counted as fudai: the Ogasawara and Doi are among them. A family could be raised to or from fudai status. For instance, the Matsudaira clan to which Matsudaira Sadanobu belonged went from being a fudai house to being a recognized relative of the Tokugawa family. A hatamoto who had an increase in income which raised his income level over 10,000 koku became a fudai daimyō. Many fudai daimyōs were involved in the vigorous political activity of the Bakumatsu, as well as the renewed military activities which occurred in that period. Two such men of fudai daimyō background were Ogasawara Nagamichi and Itakura Katsukiyo, who were two of the last rōjū, worked for reform and strengthening of the ailing shogunate. Others, such as Matsudaira Munehide, were involved in diplomacy and foreign affairs.
In the Boshin War of 1868–69, some fudai houses such as the Toda of Ogaki and the Tōdō of Tsu sided with the shogunate during the first battle at Toba–Fushimi. However, after the shogunate's loss there, many fudai houses did not side with the shogunate or with the shōgun's former army which moved northward and set up the Ezo Republic; some remained neutral, while others switched allegiances and supported the Imperial Japanese Army. Ogasawara Nagamichi and Itakura Katsukiyo led small groups of their retainers during the fight against the imperial forces. However, their domains had been occupied by the imperial army, were forced to participate in the war on the imperial army's behalf. Only one fudai daimyō, Hayashi Tadataka of Jōzai Domain, willingly left his domain early in 1868, led most of his retainer force on behalf of the armies of the former shōgun, in the fight against the imperial army. A handful of fudai in the far north formed part of the Northern Alliance, fighting for the Alliance but not for the now-retired shōgun.
Most of the fudai in the country entered the Meiji era peacefully, ruled their domains until the domains' dissolution in 1871. After this, the former families of fudai daimyōs became peers in the new Japanese nobility system. Bolitho, Harold.. Treasures Among Men: The Fudai Daimyo in Tokugawa Japan. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-01655-0. Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5. Charismatic Bureaucrat. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. "Karatsu-han" Yamakawa Kenjirō. Aizu Boshin Senshi. Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai. "Takada-han" on Edo 300 HTML "Shirakawa-han" on Edo 300 HTML
Kofun period
The Kofun period is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD, following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period; this period is the earliest era of recorded history in Japan, but studies depend on archaeology since the chronology of historical sources tends to be distorted. It was a period of cultural import. Continuing from the Yayoi period, the Kofun period is characterized by a strong influence from the Korean Peninsula; the word kofun is Japanese for the type of burial mound dating from this era, archaeology indicates that the mound tombs and material culture of the elite were similar throughout the region. From China and the Chinese writing system were introduced near the end of the period; the Kofun period recorded Japan's earliest political centralization, when the Yamato clan rose to power in southwestern Japan, established the Imperial House, helped control trade routes across the region. Kofun are burial mounds built for members of the ruling class from the 3rd to the 7th centuries in Japan, the Kofun period takes its name from the distinctive earthen mounds.
The mounds contained large stone burial chambers, some are surrounded by moats. Kofun come with round and square the most common. A distinct style is keyhole-shaped, with a square front and round back. Kofun range in size from several meters to over 400 meters long, unglazed pottery figures were buried under a kofun's circumference; the oldest Japanese kofun is Hokenoyama Kofun in Sakurai, which dates to the late 3rd century. In the Makimuku district of Sakurai keyhole kofuns were built during the early 4th century; the keyhole kofun spread from Yamato to Kawachi—with giant kofun, such as Daisenryō Kofun—and throughout the country during the 5th century. Keyhole kofun disappeared in the 6th century because of the drastic reformation of the Yamato court; the last two great kofun are the 190-metre-long Imashirozuka kofun in Osaka and the 135-metre long Iwatoyama kofun in Fukuoka, recorded in Fudoki of Chikugo as the tomb of Iwai. Kofun burial mounds on the island of Tanegashima and two old Shinto shrines on the island of Yakushima suggest that these islands were the southern boundary of the Yamato state.
Yamato rule is believed to have begun about 250 AD, it is agreed that Yamato rulers had keyhole-kofun culture and hegemony in Yamato until the 4th century. Autonomy of local powers remained throughout the period in Kibi, Koshi, Chikushi, Hi. During the 6th century, the Yamato clans began to dominate the southern half of Japan. According to the Book of Song, Yamato relationships with China began in the late 4th century; the Yamato polity, which emerged by the late 5th century, was distinguished by powerful clans. Each clan was headed by a patriarch, who performed sacred rituals to the clan's kami to ensure its long-term welfare. Clan members were the aristocracy, the royal line which controlled the Yamato court was at its zenith. Clan leaders were awarded kabane, inherited titles denoting rank and political standing which replaced family names; the Kofun period is called the Yamato period by some Western scholars, since this local chieftainship became the imperial dynasty at the end of the period.
However, the Yamato clan ruled just one polity among others during the Kofun era. Japanese archaeologists emphasise that other regional chieftainships were in close contention for dominance in the first half of the Kofun period; the Yamato court exercised power over clans in Kyūshū and Honshū, bestowing titles on clan chieftains. The Yamato name became synonymous with Japan as Yamato rulers suppressed other clans and acquired agricultural land. Based on Chinese models, they began to develop a central administration and an imperial court attended by subordinate clan chieftains with no permanent capital. Powerful clans were the Soga, Katsuragi and Koze clans in the Yamato and Bizen Provinces and the Kibi clans in the Izumo Province; the Ōtomo and Mononobe clans were military leaders, the Nakatomi and Inbe clans handled rituals. The Soga clan provided the government's chief minister, the Ōtomo and Mononobe clans provided secondary ministers, provincial leaders were called kuni no miyatsuko. Craftsmen were organized into guilds.
In addition to archaeological findings indicating a local monarchy in Kibi Province as an important rival, the legend of the 4th-century Prince Yamato Takeru alludes to the borders of the Yamato and battlegrounds in the region. Another frontier, in Kyūshū, was north of present-day Kumamoto Prefecture. According to the legend, there was an eastern land in Honshū "whose people disobeyed the imperial court" and against whom Yam
Takeda clan
The Takeda clan was a Japanese clan active from the late Heian period until the late 16th century. The clan was based in Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture; the clan was known for their honorable actions under the rule of Takeda Shingen, one of the most famous rulers of the period. Four diamonds Four diamonds surrounded by a solid ring Two cranes bowing their heads together A centipede Hanabishi Fūrinkazan The Tai character Nobushige, Nobuyoshi, Harunobu, Katsuyori The Takeda were descendants of Emperor Seiwa and are a branch of the Minamoto clan, by Minamoto no Yoshimitsu, brother to the Chinjufu-shōgun Minamoto no Yoshiie. Minamoto no Yoshikiyo, son of Yoshimitsu, was the first to take the name of Takeda. In the 12th century, at the end of the Heian period, the Takeda family controlled Kai Province. Along with a number of other families, they aided their cousin Minamoto no Yoritomo against the Taira clan in the Genpei War; when Minamoto no Yoritomo was first defeated at Ishibashiyama, Takeda Nobuyoshi was applied for help and the Takeda sent an army of 25,000 men to support Yoritomo.
Takeda Nobumitsu, helped the Hōjō during the Jōkyū War and in reward received the governorship of Aki Province. Until the Sengoku period, the Takeda were shugo of Kai and Wakasa provinces. Prior to the Sengoku period, the Takeda helped to suppress the Rebellion of Uesugi Zenshū. Uesugi Zenshū was the kanrei chief advisor to Ashikaga Mochiuji, an enemy of the central Ashikaga shogunate and the Kantō kubō governor-general of the Kantō region. Mochiuji, lord of the Uesugi clan, made a reprisal against the Takeda clan in 1415; this reprisal began a rivalry between the Uesugi and Takeda clans which would last 150 years until the destruction of the Takeda clan at the end of the Sengoku period. While this rivalry existed, the Takeda and the Uesugi still had a huge amount of respect for one another. Takeda Harunobu succeeded his father Nobutora in 1540 and became shugo lord of Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. In this period the Takeda began to expand from their base in Kai Province. In 1559, Harunobu changed his name to the better-known Takeda Shingen.
He faced the Hōjō clan a number of times, most of his expansion was to the north, where he fought his most famous battles against Uesugi Kenshin. This series of regional skirmishes is known as the Battles of Kawanakajima; the battles began in 1553, the best known and severest among them was fought on September 10, 1561. Shingen is famous for his tactical genius, innovations, though some historians have argued that his tactics were not impressive nor revolutionary. Shingen is most famous for his use of the cavalry charge at the Battle of Mikatagahara; the strength of Shingen's new tactic became so famous that the Takeda army came to be known as the kiba gundan, or'mounted army'. Up until the mid-16th century and Shingen's rise to power, mounted samurai were archers. There was a trend at this time towards larger infantry-based armies, including a large number of foot archers. In order to defeat these missile troops, Shingen transformed his samurai from archers to lancers. Shingen died in on May 1573, at age 53 from illness.
His son Takeda Katsuyori succeeded Shingen though the nominal head of the family was his grandson Takeda Nobukatsu, Katsuyori continued Shingen's aggressive expansion plan south and westward and was successful achieving the largest extent of Takeda rule, however he was defeated in the Battle of Nagashino in 1575 by Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu. After Nagashino, the Takeda clan fell into sharp decline as it had lost many of its most notable samurai during the battle. Katsuyori's position within the clan became precarious; the campaign saw most of the Takeda followers abandoning Katsuyori and the other Takeda family members to their fate. The clan was eliminated, although descendants of the Takeda clan would take prominent positions in the Tokugawa shogunate, established in 1603. Takeda is a common family name in modern Japan, though it is unlikely that everyone with the Takeda name is descended from this noble house. In fact, most of the real descendants of the Takeda had a different name when they created a cadet branch.
During the Tokugawa period, several daimyō families were direct descendants of the Takeda. In 1868, these daimyō families were: The Matsumae, descendants of Takeda Kuninobu, were daimyō of Matsumae, the only feudal fief of Hokkaidō; the Nanbu, descendants of Takeda Mitsuyuki, great-grandson of Takeda Yoshikiyo, established himself at Nambu and took that name. The Nambu were daimyō of Shichinohe and Hachinohe; the Yanagisawa, descendants of Takeda Nobuyoshi, were daimyō of Kurokawa and Mikkaichi. The Gotō, descendants of Takeda Nobuhiro, were daimyō of Gotō; the Ogasawara are a cadet branch of the Takeda, by Takeda Nagakiyo, great-grandson of Takeda Yoshikiyo, the first to take the name of Ogasawara. His descendants were shugo of Shinano and Hida Pro
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