Shimabara Rebellion

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Shimabara Rebellion
Part of the early Edo period

Ruins of Hara Castle
Date Late 1637- Early 1638
Location Shimabara Peninsula, Japan
Result Tokugawa victory; Christianity in Japan driven underground
Belligerents
Tokugawa shogunate Local rebels (Christians and others)
Commanders
Itakura Shigemasa, Matsudaira Nobutsuna, other commanders of local clan armies Amakusa Shirō
Strength
Over 125,000 Between 27,000 and 37,000[1]
Casualties and losses
1900 dead, 11,000 wounded Over 27,000 dead

The Shimabara Rebellion (島原の乱 Shimabara no ran?) was an uprising of Japanese peasants, most of them Christians, in 1637–1638 during the Edo period. It was also one of only a handful of instances of serious unrest during the relatively peaceful period of the Tokugawa shogunate's rule.[2]

Contents

[edit] Leadup to and outbreak of the rebellion

In the mid-1630s, the peasants of the Shimabara Peninsula and the Amakusa Islands, dissatisfied with overtaxation and suffering from the effects of famine, revolted against their lords. This was specifically in territory ruled by two lords: Matsukura Katsuie of the Shimabara Domain, and Terasawa Katataka of the Karatsu Domain.[3] Though the rebellion is cast by many historians as a religious uprising, this does not address the issues of the discontent from the famine and overtaxation. Those affected also included fishermen, craftsmen and merchants. As the rebellion spread, it was joined by masterless samurai who once served families such as the Amakusa and Shiki who used to live in the area, as well as former Arima and Konishi retainers.[4] As such, the image of a fully "peasant" uprising is also not entirely accurate.

Shimabara was once the domain of the Arima lordly family, which had been Christian; as a result, many locals were also Christian. The Arima were moved out in 1614 and replaced by the Matsukura.[5] The new lord, Matsukura Shigemasa, had aspirations of advancement in the shogunate hierarchy, and so he was involved with various construction projects, including the building and expansion of Edo Castle, as well as a planned invasion of Luzon. He also built a new castle at Shimabara.[6] As a result, he placed a greatly disproportionate tax burden on the people of his new domain, and further angered them by strictly persecuting Christianity.[7] Even the Dutch, who had a trading post nearby and were anti-Catholic, were startled at the excessive degree of repression. These policies were continued by Shigemasa's heir, Katsuie.

The inhabitants of the Amakusa Islands, which had been part of the fief of Konishi Yukinaga, suffered the same sort of presecution at the hands the Terasawa family, which, like the Matsukura, had been moved there.[8] Other masterless samurai in the region included former retainers of Katō Tadahiro and Sassa Narimasa, both of whom had once ruled parts of Higo Province.

[edit] The rebellion

The discontented, masterless samurai of the region, as well as the peasants, began to meet in secret and plot an uprising; this broke out in the autumn of 1637[9], when the local daikan (tax official) Hayashi Hyōzaemon was assassinated. At the same time, others rebelled in the Amakusa Islands. The rebels quickly increased their ranks by forcing all in the areas they took to join in the uprising. A charismatic 14 year old youth, Amakusa Shirō, was soon chosen as the rebellion's leader.[10]

Statues of Jizō beheaded by rebelling Christians.
Statues of Jizō beheaded by rebelling Christians.

The rebels laid siege to the Terasawa clan's Tomioka and Hondo castles, but just before the castles were about to fall, armies from the neighboring domains in Kyūshū arrived, and forced them to retreat. The rebels then crossed the Ariake Sea and briefly besieged Matsukura Katsuie's Shimabara Castle, but were again repelled. At this point they gathered on the site of Hara Castle, which had been the castle of the Arima clan before their move to the Nobeoka Domain, but was dismantled.[11] They built up palisades using the wood from the boats they had crossed the water with, and were greatly aided in their preparations by the weapons, ammunition, and provisions they had plundered from the Matsukura clan's storehouses.[12]

The allied armies of the local domains, under the command of the Tokugawa shogunate with Itakura Shigemasa as commander-in-chief, then began their siege of Hara Castle. The famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi was present in the besieging army, in an advisory role to Hosokawa Tadatoshi.[13]

They then requested aid from the Dutch, who first gave them gunpowder, and then cannons.[14] Nicolas Koekebakker, head of the Dutch trading station on Hirado, provided the gunpowder and cannons, and when the shogunate forces requested that he send a vessel, he personally accompanied the vessel de Ryp to a position offshore, near Hara Castle.[15] The cannons sent previously were mounted in a battery, and an all-out bombardment of the fortress commenced, both from the shore guns as well as from the 20 guns of the de Ryp.[16] These guns fired about 426 rounds in the space of 15 days, without great result, and two Dutch lookouts were shot by the rebels.[17] The ship withdrew at the request of the Japanese, following contemptuous messages sent by the rebels to the besieging troops:

The ruins of Hara Castle, seen from the sea
The ruins of Hara Castle, seen from the sea
"Are there no longer courageous soldiers in the realm to do combat with us, and weren't they ashamed to have called in the assistance of foreigners against our small contingent?" [18]

In an attempt to take the castle, Itakura Shigemasa was killed. More shogunate troops under Matsudaira Nobutsuna, Itakura's replacement, soon arrived.[19] However, the rebels at Hara Castle resisted the siege for months and caused the shogunate heavy losses. Both sides had a hard time fighting in winter conditions. On February 3, 1638, a rebel raid killed 2,000 warriors from the Hizen Domain. However, despite this minor victory, the rebels slowly ran out of food, ammunition and other provisions.

By April of 1638 there were over 27,000 rebels facing about 125,000 shogunate soldiers.[20] Desperate rebels mounted an assault against them on April 4 and were forced to withdraw. Captured survivors and the fortress's rumored sole traitor, Yamada Uemonsaku, revealed the fortress was out of food and gunpowder.

On April 12, 1638, troops under the command of the Kuroda clan of Hizen stormed the fortress and captured the outer defenses.[21] The rebels continued to hold out and caused heavy casualties until they were routed on April 15.

[edit] Forces present at Shimabara

Commanders: Itakura Shigemasa (800 men) Matsudaira Nobutsuna (1500 men)

Vice-Commander: Toda Ujikane (2500 men)

  • Allied domainal forces under shogunate command
Statue of the shogunal army's vice-commander, Toda Ujikane
Statue of the shogunal army's vice-commander, Toda Ujikane
  1. Mizuno Katsunari[23], Katsutoshi, Katsusada (5600 men)
  2. Kuroda Tadayuki (18000 men)
  3. Arima Toyouji (8300 men)
  4. Tachibana Muneshige (5500 men)
  5. Matsukura Katsuie (2500 men)
  6. Terasawa Katataka (7570 men)
  7. Nabeshima Katsushige (35000 men)
  8. Hosokawa Tadatoshi (23500 men)
  9. Arima Naozumi (3300 men)
  10. Ogasawara Tadazane (6000 men)
  11. Ogasawara Nagatsugu (2500 men)
  12. Matsudaira Shigenao (1500 men)
  13. Yamada Arinaga, leading Satsuma forces (1000 men)
  14. Other- 800 men

Total size of shogunate army: 125,800 men

  • Rebel forces:
  1. Combatants: Over 14,000.
  2. Noncombatants: Over 13,000.

Total size of rebel forces: Estimated between 27,000 and 37,000.[24]

[edit] Aftermath

Statue of Amakusa Shirō at the site of Hara Castle
Statue of Amakusa Shirō at the site of Hara Castle

After the castle fell, the shogunate forces beheaded an estimated 37,000 rebels and sympathizers. Amakusa Shirō's severed head was taken to Nagasaki for public display, and the entire complex at Hara Castle was burned to the ground and buried together with the bodies of all the dead. [25]

The shogunate suspected that Western Catholics had been involved in spreading the rebellion and Portuguese traders were driven out of the country. An already existing ban on the Christian religion was then enforced stringently, and Christianity in Japan survived only by going underground.[26]

Another part of the shogunate's actions after the rebellion was to excuse the clans which had aided its efforts militarily, from the building contributions which it routinely required from various domains.[27] Matsukura Katsuie was allowed to commit suicide, and his domain was given to another lord, Kōriki Tadafusa.[28] The Terazawa clan survived, but died out almost 10 years later, due to Katataka's lack of a successor.[29]

On the Shimabara peninsula, most towns experienced a severe to total loss of population as a result of the rebellion. In order to maintain the rice fields and other crops, immigrants were brought from other areas across Japan to resettle the land. All inhabitants were registered with local temples, whose priests were required to vouch for their members' religious affiliation.[30] Following the rebellion, Buddhism was strongly promoted in the area. Certain customs were introduced which remain unique to the area today. Towns on the Shimabara peninsula also continue to have a varied mix of dialects due to the mass immigration from other parts of Japan.

With the exception of periodic, localized peasant uprisings, the Shimabara Rebellion was the last large-scale armed clash in Japan, until the 1860s.[31]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Morton, Japan, p. 260.
  2. ^ Borton, Japan's Modern Century, p. 18.
  3. ^ Murray, Japan, pp. 258-259.
  4. ^ Ibid.
  5. ^ Murray, p. 258.
  6. ^ Naramoto, Nihon no Kassen, p. 394
  7. ^ Naramoto, p. 394
  8. ^ Murray, p. 259.
  9. ^ Morton, Japan, p. 260.
  10. ^ Naramoto, p. 395.
  11. ^ Nihon no Meijōshū, pp. 168-169.
  12. ^ Naramoto, p. 397; Perrin, Giving Up the Gun, p. 65.
  13. ^ Harris, Introduction to A Book of Five Rings, p. 18.
  14. ^ Murray, p. 262.
  15. ^ Murray, p. 262.
  16. ^ Murray, pp. 262-264.
  17. ^ Murray, p. 264.
  18. ^ Hendrik Doeff, Recollections of Japan, p. 26
  19. ^ Harbottle, p. 13.
  20. ^ Naramoto, p. 399
  21. ^ Murray, p. 264.
  22. ^ Adapted from Naramoto, p. 399. Numbers as per Japanese Wikipedia entry
  23. ^ Naramoto, p. 401.
  24. ^ Morton, p. 260.
  25. ^ Naramoto, p. 401.
  26. ^ Morton, Japan: Its History and Culture, p. 122.
  27. ^ Bolitho, Treasures among Men, p. 105.
  28. ^ Murray, p. 264.
  29. ^ Karatsu domain on "Edo 300 HTML"
  30. ^ Bellah, p. 51.
  31. ^ Bolitho, p. 228.

[edit] References

  • ---- (2001). Nihon meijōshū. (Tokyo: Gakken).
  • Bellah, Robert N. (1957). Tokugawa Religion. (New York: The Free Press).
  • Bolitho, Harold (1974). Treasures Among Men; the Fudai Daimyo in Tokugawa Japan. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-01655-7
  • Borton, Hugh (1955). Japan's Modern Century. (New York: The Ronald Press Company).
  • Doeff, Hendrik (2003). Recollections of Japan. Translated and Annotated by Annick M. Doeff. (Victoria, B.C.: Trafford).
  • Harbottle, Thomas Benfield (1904). Dictionary of Battles from the Earliest Date to the Present Time. (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. Ltd.)
  • Harris, Victor (1974). Introduction to A Book of Five Rings. (New York: The Overlook Press).
  • (Japanese) Japanese Wikipedia entry on the rebellion (6 Nov. 2007)
  • (Japanese) Karatsu Domain on "Edo 300 HTML" (6 November 2007)
  • Morton, William S. (2005). Japan: Its History and Culture. (New York: McGraw-Hill Professional).
  • Murray, David (1905). Japan. (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons).
  • Naramoto Tatsuya (1994). Nihon no kassen: monoshiri jiten. (Tokyo: Shufu to Seikatsusha).
  • Perrin, Noel (1979). Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1543-1879. (Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher)

[edit] Further reading

  • Morris, Ivan (1975). The nobility of failure: tragic heroes in the history of Japan. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston).
  • Sukeno Kentarō (1967). Shimabara no Ran. (Tokyo: Azuma Shuppan).
  • Toda Toshio (1988). Amakusa, Shimabara no ran: Hosokawa-han shiryō ni yoru. (Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu Ōraisha).

[edit] See also

[edit] External links