Kyoto Shoshidai

The Kyoto Shoshidai (京都所司代?) was an important administrative and political office in the early modern government of Japan.[1] However, the significance and effectiveness of the office is credited to the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu, who developed these initial creations as bureaucratic elements in a consistent and coherent whole.[2]

Contents

Shogunal deputies during the Kamakura shogunate

The official was the personal representative of the military dicatators Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi; and it was institutionalized as the representative of the Tokugawa shoguns.[3]

The office was similar to the Rokuhara Tandai of the 13th and 14th centuries. Tandai was the name given to governors or chief magistrates of important cities under the Kamakura shogunate. The office became very important under the Hōjō regents and was always held by a trusted member of the family.[4]

Shogunal deputies during the Tokugawa shogunate

The office was expanded and its duties codified as an office in the Tokugawa shogunate. The shoshidai, usually chosen from among the fudai daimyo, was the shogun's deputy in the Kyoto region, and was responsible for maintaining good relations and open communication between the shogunate and the imperial court.[5] No less important, this official was also tasked with controlling the access of the daimyo to the Court. He was appointed to oversee financial measures and the court, and to ensure the emperor's personal security and for guarding the safety of the court.[6] For example, the shoshidai supported the Kyoto magistrate or municipal administrator (the machi-bugyō) in making positive policy about firefighting for the royal palaces.[7] In this context, working with the shoshidai would have been the administrator of the reigning sovereign's court (the kinri-zuki bugyō)[8] and the administrator of the ex-emperor's court (the sendō-zuki bugyō), both of whom would have been shogunate appointees.[9] He would have been at the head of a network of spies whose quiet task was to discover and report any covert sources of sedition, insurrection or other kinds of unrest.[10]

As Governor-general of Kyoto and the surrounding eight provinces,[9] the shoshidai was responsible for collecting taxes in the home provinces and for other duties attached to this office as well.[11] The municipal administrators of Nara and Fushimi, in addition to Kyoto's municipal governance, the Kyoto deputy (the daikwan), and the officials of the Nijō Palace were all subordinate to the shoshidai. He was empowered to hear suits-at-law and he had oversight control of all temples and shrines.[6] The shoshidai had a force of constables (yoriki) and policemen (dōshin)[12] under their command.[11]

In addition to administrative duties, the shoshidai's participation in ceremonial events served a function in consolidating the power and influence of the shogunate. For example, in September 1617, a Korean delegation was received by Hidetada at Fushimi Castle, and the shoshidai was summoned for two reasons (1) for the Koreans, to underscore the importance accoreded the embassy, and (2) for the kuge courtiers in attendance, to make sure that they were properly impressed.[13]

To qualify for this high office, it eventually developed that service as governor of Osaka was a prerequisite. The close, personal link with the shogun was maintained through visits to Edo every five or six years to report directly to the shogun.[6] The conventional route of promotion was from governor of Osaka (the judai) to the shoshidai of Kyoto and from that position to the highest governing council (rōjū).[11] The shusidai earned 10,000 koku annually, in addition to the income from his own daimyoate.[4]

In September 1862, a concurrent, nearly co-equal office was created, the "Kyoto shugoshoku", was created in an attempt to strengthen the kōbu-gattai (公武合体 marital unity of the Imperial and Tokugawa families?) faction. The kōbu-gattai were feudal lords and Court nobles who sought a greater share of political power without actually destroying the shogunate, as contrasted with a more radical faction, the tōbaku (倒幕 overthrowing the shogunate?), which attracted men like Okubo Toshimichi. The related office of the shugoshoku had essentially the same functions as that of the shoshidai, but it was considered the senior of the two; and only members of the Matsudaira family were appointed.[5]

The last Kyoto shoshidai, Matsudaira Sadaaki, came from a collateral Tokugawa branch. As a practical matter, it could be said that this office ended with his resignation in 1867; but matters were not so unclouded in that time. After the Imperial edict sanctioning the restoration of Imperial government (November 1867), there was a time lag before the office of shoshidai was abolished (January 1868) and affairs of the city were temporarily entrusted to the clans of Sasayama (Aoyama), Zeze (Honda) and Kameyama (Matsudaira).[14]

Kyoto shoshidai of the Edo period

List of Kyoto shoshidai during the Tokugawa shogunate
Ordinal Name Duration Notes
The Edo period shoshidai were seen to be pivotal in maintaining stability across a span of centuries.
1 Okudaira Nobumasa 1600–1601
2 Itakura Katsushige 1601–1619
3 Makino Chikashige 1654–1668
4 Itakura Shigenori 1668–1670
5 Nagai Naotsune 1670–1678
6 Toda Tadamasa 1678–1681
7 Inaba Masamichi 1681–1685
8 Tsuchiya Masanao 1685–1687
9 Naitō Shigeyori 1687–1690
10 Matsudaira Nobuoki 1690–1691
11 Ogasawara Nagashige 1691–1697
14 Matsudaira Nobutsune 1697–1714
15 Mizuno Tadayuki 1714–1717
16 Matsudaira Tadachika 1717–1724
17 Makino Hideshige 1724–1734
18 Toki Yoritoshi 1734–1742
19 Makino Sadamichi 1742–1749
20 Matsudaira Sukekuni 1749–1752
21 Sakai Tadamochi 1752–1756
22 Matsudaira Terutaka 1756–1758
23 Inoue Masatsune 1758–1760
24 Abe Masasuke 1760–1764
25 Abe Masachika 1764–1768
26 Doi Toshisato 1769–1777
27 Kuze Hiroakira 1777–1781
28 Makino Sadanaga 1781–1784
29 Toda Tadatō 1784–1789
30 Ōta Sukeyoshi 1789-1782
31 Hotta Masanari 1792–1798
32 Makino Tadakiyo 1798–1801
33 Doi Toshiatsu 1801–1802
34 Aoyama Tadayasu 1802–1804
35 Inaba Masanobu 1804–1806
36 Abe Masayoshi 1806–1808
37 Sakai Tadayuki 1808–1815
38 Ōkubo Tadazane 1815–1818
39 Matsudaira Norihiro 1818–1823
40 Naitō Nobuatsu 1823–1825
41 Matsudaira Yasutō 1825–1826
42 Mizuno Tadakuni 1826–1828
43 Matsudaira Muneakira 1828–1832
44 Ōta Sukemoto 1832–1834
45 Matsudaira Nobuyori 1834–1837
46 Doi Toshitsura 1837–1838
47 Manabe Akikatsu 1838–1840
48 Makino Tadamasa 1840–1843
49 Sakai Tadaaki 1843–1850
50 Naitō Nobuchika 1850–1851
51 Wakisaka Yasuori 1851–1857
52 Honda Tadamoto 1857–1858
53 Sakai Tadaaki 1858–1862
54 Matsudaira Munehide 1862 Daimyo of Tango-Miyazu, later involved in international negotiations.
55 Makino Tadayuki 1862–1863 Daimyo of Nagaoka.
56 Inaba Masakuni 1863–1864
57 Matsudaira Sadaaki 1864–1867 Last shoshidai; brother of Matsudaira Katamori.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Ito, Shinsho. "Hideyoshi's Inauguration to Kampaku and the Foundation of Shoshidai," Journal of Japanese history (日本史研究). Vol.419(19970000) pp. 1-19.
  2. ^ Brinkley, Frank et al. (1915). A History of the Japanese People from the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era, p. 632.
  3. ^ Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Kyōto-shosidai" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 587 at Google Books; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, see Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File.
  4. ^ a b Murdoch, James. (1996). A History of Japan, p. 10 n1.
  5. ^ a b Beasley, W.G. (1955). Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy, 1853-1868, p. 325.
  6. ^ a b c Brinkley, p. 636.
  7. ^ Maruyama, Toshiaki. "The Fire Fighting for the Royal Palace by Kyoto Shoshidai and Machi-bugyō-shō: A study on the fire fighting in Kyoto under Tokugawa era (No.3) (京都所司代・京都町奉行所と御所の消防 : 江戸時代の京都の消防の研究(その3). Journal of Architecture and Planning, Architectural Institute of Japan (日本建築学会計画系論文集). No.591(20050530), pp. 149-153. Abstract.
  8. ^ Nussbaum, "Kinri-zuki" at p. 525. at Google Books
  9. ^ a b Brinkley, p. 589.
  10. ^ Murdoch, James. (1915). A History of Japan, p. 134.
  11. ^ a b c Brinkley, p. 637.
  12. ^ Nussbaum, "Dōshin" at p. 160. at Google Books
  13. ^ Toby, Ronald. (1991). State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu, p. 69.
  14. ^ Ponsonby-Fane, Richard A.R. (1956). Kyoto: the Old Capital, 794-1869, pp. 326-327.

References