Uesugi clan

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The Uesugi clan (上杉氏, -shi) was a Japanese samurai clan particularly notable for their power in the Muromachi and Sengoku periods (roughly 14th-17th centuries). The clan was split into three branch families, the Ōgigayatsu, Inukake and Yamanouchi Uesugi, which boasted considerable influence. The Uesugi are perhaps best known for Uesugi Kenshin (1530-1578), one of Sengoku's more major warlords. The family name is sometimes rendered as Uyesugi, but this is representative of historical kana usage; the "ye" sound is no longer used in Japanese.

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[edit] Origins & Muromachi period

The Uesugi claimed descendance from Fujiwara Yoshikado, a Daijō Daijin (Minister of State) of the ninth century. During the 13th century, Kajūji Shigefusa adopted the surname of "Uesugi" upon settling in a place of that name in Tamba province. One of his grandsons would be Ashikaga Takauji, first shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate, while another three grandsons would originate the three Uesugi branch families.

Throughout the Muromachi period, members of the clan were appointed shugo (provincial governors), and would also dominate the post of Kantō Kanrei (shogun's deputy in Kantō).

They gained such power in the Kantō region that, in 1449, Kanrei Ashikaga Shigeuji plotted to kill his Uesugi deputy, and to significantly diminish if not eliminate the family's power. The Uesugi rose up and drove Shigeuji out of the area, asking the shogunate in Kyoto for another Kanrei. This development left the Uesugi extremely powerful within the Kantō region, more so than ever before, and the clan quickly expanded and grew, splitting into three branches, named after their home localities. The Yamanouchi became based at Kawagoe Castle, in Musashi province, while the Ōgigayatsu were in Hirai, in Kozuke province. The third branch, the Inukake, held a castle in the region as well.

The three would begin fighting for domination of the clan and the region almost as soon as the split occurred, and intense fighting continued for roughly twenty-five years, until the end of the Ōnin War came about in 1477, bringing with it the end of the shogunate. Though the Ōgigayatsu and Yamanouchi branches both survived this conflict, the Inukake did not.

[edit] Sengoku & Edo periods

Traditionally the Ōgigayatsu relied on the Ōta clan, while the Yamanouchi relied on the Nagao of Echigo Province as the pillars of their strength. Ōta Dōkan, a vassal of the Ōgigayatsu Uesugi, who were less numerous than their Yamanouchi cousins, lent them a great boost of power by building Edo castle for them in the 1450s. On the other hand, Nagao Tamekage, Deputy Constable of Kamakura in the first decades of the 16th century, allied himself with Hōjō Sōun, who would later become one of the Uesugi's strongest rivals.

The expansion of the Hōjō into the lower Kantō forced the two branches of the Uesugi to become allies. In 1537, Kawagoe fell to Hōjō Ujitsuna. Then in 1545, both of the branches of the Uesugi shared defeat, and attempted to regain their power. However, the Ōgigayatsu branch family came to an end with the death of Uesugi Tomosada, during a failed attempt to retake Kawagoe castle that year. Uesugi Norimasa, the holder of Hirai castle, which had fallen in 1551 to the Hōjō, took up arms with his retainer, Nagao Kagetora in Echigo. Kagetora then adopted the surname of "Uesugi" after campaigning against the Hōjō in Sagami Province; he would later take the name Uesugi Kenshin, and become one of Sengoku's most famous generals, battling the Hōjō and Takeda Shingen for control of the Kantō.

At the end of the Sengoku period, Kenshin's adopted son Uesugi Kagekatsu, then head of the clan, was a supporter of Ishida Mitsunari during the battle of Sekigahara. As a result of being on the losing side of the conflict, the Uesugi were afterwards much reduced in power. He was given the tozama domain of Yonezawa (300,000 koku) in Dewa province, in Honshū's Tōhoku (Northeast) Region.

Much research has been done on the economics of Yonezawa in the Edo period, particularly by Mark Ravina among others, and it is taken as fairly representative of a tozama (outsider) domain. Yonezawa was far from the capital, with far less direct political control from the shogunate, and also less trade and urbanization. Yonezawa was largely an agricultural domain, making it again a good representation of agricultural and social developments among the peasantry in this period.

Despite agricultural advances and generally high growth in the 17th century, Yonezawa, like most parts of the country, experienced a considerable drop in growth after 1700; it may in fact have entered stagnation or decline. The official koku revenue of the Uesugi daimyo was cut in half in 1664, but the clan continued to expend as before, maintaining the same lordly standard of living. Yonezawa, again representative of many other domains, entered debt, and was especially hard-struck by famines in the 1750s. The situation became so bad that in 1767, daimyo Uesugi Shigesada considered giving the territory back to the shogunate. Instead, he allowed his adopted son Uesugi Harunori to take over as daimyo; through agricultural and moral reforms, and series of other strict policies, Harunori turned the domain around. In 1830, less than ten years after Harunori's death, the shogunate officially praised Yonezawa as an examplar of good governance.

The Meiji Ishin in 1868 brought the abolition of the han system, that is, the end of the domains, the feudal lords, and the samurai class.

[edit] Some Uesugi of note

[edit] References

  • Frederic, Louis (2002). "Japan Encyclopedia." Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
  • Mark Ravina (1995). “State-Building and Political Economy in Early-Modern Japan,” Journal of Asian Studies 54.4.
  • Sansom, George (1961). "A History of Japan: 1334-1615." Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
  • Sansom, George (1963). "A History of Japan: 1615-1867." Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
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