The han (藩 han) or domain was the name of the estate belonging to a warrior in Japan after the 17th century. The fiefs of the daimyos of the samurai class of Japan during the Edo period were called han.[1]
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A han refers to a territory during the Edo era with an agricultural output assessed at 10,000 koku or more (enough rice production to meet the daily caloric needs of at least 10,000 people). The number of han varied, but typically there were around 300. Occasionally a han may establish another han from its own territories. Called a shihan, this is usually given to a son of the daimyo who was not expected to inherit. With approval from the shogun, some shihans became ruled by powerful daimyos in their own right, but often the shihan remained subservient to the main han.
The largest han besides the Shogunate was the Kaga Domain with slightly over 1 million koku.[2] It was situated in Kaga, Etchu and Noto provinces.
In July 1871, all the han were disbanded in favor of the formation of prefectures. (see: abolition of the han system)
Provinces (国 kuni) were established in an earlier era (mostly the 8th century) by the imperial court. The province was originally an administrative division of the central government, governed by governors sent by the imperial court in Kyoto for fixed terms. However by the late Heian era, central authority began to weaken and the governors find themselves increasingly challenged by local warriors. When the Kamakura Shogunate was established, it appointed samurai to each province as shugo daimyo, taking over responsibility for security and policing from court appointees.
By the Muromachi period, however, the imperial court had lost virtually all administrative powers. The shugo daimyo were able to centralize their rule within each province, through the destruction of the manor system and vassalising the kokujin. In doing so the daimyo slowly established unified and centralized governments within their territories. This process culminating in the han system, where each daimyo ruled their fiefs as unitary kingdoms, enjoying semi-independence from the shogunate where internal affairs are concerned.
Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, daimyo are defined as samurais whose fief produced more than 10,000 koku each year. A domain of a daimyo was what is known as a han. Retainers of daimyos, even if they receive more than 10,000 koku (e.g. Katakura Kagetsuna of Sendai, or Inada Kurōbei of Tokushima), are not daimyo themselves and therefore their fiefs are not considered hans. However, a daimyo may create a second domain from his han and invest one of his non-inheriting sons, thereby creating a cadet branch. Rulers of such a new domain may receive recognition from the Shogun and become a daimyo in his own right; nonetheless often the new han remain dominated by the senior branch of the family in the original han.
When the Tokugawa Shogunate fell, the han system remained in force for a few years into the Meiji period, but was subsequently replaced with the prefectures which remain in use today.
The structures of a han and the Bakufu were principally similar because Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the bakufu, kept the governmental structure which his ancestors had developed when they were small local daimyo in Mikawa Province. Some daimyo, especially those whose ancestors had served the ancestors of the Shogun, were lords of the han and also bureaucrats of the bakufu. Most of them governed fiefs rated from one to twelve koku. Other daimyo had no permanent office in the bakufu but were appointed to a temporary office.
Each daimyo served the Shogun and received the right of governance from the Shogunate. The heir of each daimyo was recognized in advance by the Shogunate. When a son of blood or an adopted son of a daimyo was determined as the heir of his father, the son went to Chiyoda castle in Edo and met the Shogun for recognition and permission to succeed. If this procedure was ignored, the succession was cancelled by the Shogunate, and a han was abolished in a practice called toritsubushi (scrapping) in Japanese.
Though every daimyo swore loyalty to the Shogun, their relationships varied. Aside from personal factors, the relationship between each han and the bakufu was determined and influenced by the relationship between the founder of the han and the shogunate or the ancestors of the Tokugawa. Roughly there were three classifications: Shinpan (Tokugawa's relatives), Fudai (those who had been friendly to Tokugawa from before Sekigahara) and Tozama (those who were against Tokugawa at the time of Sekigahara). There was another classification by size of domain.
Han varied by size and therefore by income. Every han was classified by the shogunate mainly by size. But the classification was determined by political significance, and han and daimyo were expected to behave suitably to their class.
The largest han occupied domains wider than a province and their daimyo were called kokushu, provincial lord. In Mutsu and Dewa provinces major daimyo were also granted this class, as their han occupied the whole province. Maeda, Shimazu, Ikeda, Date and other major daimyo were classified as provincial lords.
Some han were assigned to the highest rank provincial lord, even though their han were small, which could become a financial burden in some situations.
The lowest ranked daimyo were forbidden to build a castle. In the early years of the Edo period the Shogunate enacted the one province, one castle policy but later multiple castles were built in a province.
The word han first came into use by with scholars of Confucianism from the mid-Edo period onwards, in imitation of the feudal system of Ancient China, and became popularised around the time of the Meiji Restoration. While han was not used in any official capacity by contemporaries, it is now the established terminology in history for referring to the Tokugawa feudal system of the Tokugawa Shogunate.