The , also known as the , was a

domain A domain is a geographic area controlled by a single person or organization. Domain may also refer to: Law and human geography * Demesne, in English common law and other Medieval European contexts, lands directly managed by their holder rather ...

(''han'') of the

Tokugawa Shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

during the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

from 1600 to 1871.Deal, William E. (2005)
''Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan,'' p. 81
The Chōshū Domain was based at

Hagi Castle is a Japanese castle located in the city of Hagi, Yamaguchi, Hagi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, in the San'yō region of Japan. Built in 1604 at the beginning of the Edo period as the main castle of the Mōri clan, it served as the seat of the Chōshū ...

Nagato Province , often called , was a province of Japan. It was at the extreme western end of Honshū, in the area that is today Yamaguchi Prefecture. Nagato bordered on Iwami and Suō Provinces. History Although the ancient capital of the province was Shimono ...

, in the modern city of Hagi, located in the

Chūgoku region The , also known as the region, is the westernmost region of Honshū, the largest island of Japan. It consists of the prefectures of Hiroshima, Okayama, Shimane, Tottori and Yamaguchi. As of the 2020 census, it has a population of 7,328,339 ...

of the island of

Honshu , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the list of islands by area, seventh-largest island in the world, and the list of islands by ...

. The Chōshū Domain was ruled for its existence by the '' tozama'' ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'' of the Mōri, whose branches also ruled the neighboring

Chōfu is a Cities of Japan, city in the western side of Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 238,087, and a population density of 11,000 per km2. the total area of the city is . Geography Chōfu is approximately ...

and Kiyosue domains and was assessed under the ''

Kokudaka refers to a system for determining land value for taxation purposes under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo-period Japan, and expressing this value in terms of ''koku'' of rice. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Koku"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 5 ...

'' system with peak value of 369,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before co ...

''. The Chōshū Domain was the most prominent anti-Tokugawa domain and formed the

Satchō Alliance The , or was a powerful military alliance between the southwestern feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū formed in 1866 to combine their efforts to restore Imperial rule and overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. History The name ''Satc ...

with the rival

Satsuma Domain The , briefly known as the , was a Han system, domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of ...

during the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, becoming instrumental in the establishment of the

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

and the

Meiji oligarchy The Meiji oligarchy was the new ruling class of Meiji period Japan. In Japanese, the Meiji oligarchy is called the . The members of this class were adherents of '' kokugaku'' and believed they were the creators of a new order as grand as that e ...

. The Chōshū Domain was dissolved in the

abolition of the han system The in the Empire of Japan and its replacement by a system of prefectures in 1871 was the culmination of the Meiji Restoration begun in 1868, the starting year of the Meiji period. Under the reform, all daimyos (, ''daimyō'', feudal lords) ...

in 1871 by the

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji ...

and its territory was absorbed into

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 Square kilometre, km2 (2,359 Square mile, sq mi). ...

History

The rulers of Chōshū were the descendants of the great

Sengoku The was the period in Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as the period's start ...

warlord

Mōri Motonari was a prominent ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) in the western Chūgoku region of Japan during the Sengoku period of the 16th century. The Mōri clan claimed descent from Ōe no Hiromoto (大江広元), an adviser to Minamoto no Yoritomo. Motonari w ...

. Motonari was able to extend his power over all of the

of Japan and occupied a territory worth 1,200,000 koku. After he died, his grandson and heir

Mōri Terumoto Mōri Terumoto (毛利輝元, January 22, 1553 – June 2, 1625) was a Japanese ''daimyō''. The son of Mōri Takamoto, and grandson and successor of the great warlord Mōri Motonari, he fought against Oda Nobunaga but was eventually overc ...

became ''

'' and implemented a strategy of alliance with

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: ...

. This would later prove to be a great mistake. After Hideyoshi's death, the ''daimyō''

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

challenged the Toyotomi power and battled with Hideyoshi's trusted advisor

Ishida Mitsunari was a Japanese samurai and military commander of the late Sengoku period of Japan. He is probably best remembered as the commander of the Western army in the Battle of Sekigahara following the Azuchi–Momoyama period of the 16th century. He ...

at the

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was an important battle in Japan which occurred on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu Prefecture, ...

. Mōri Terumoto was the most powerful ally of the Toyotomi and was elected by a council of Toyotomi loyalists to be the titulary head of the Toyotomi force. However, the Toyotomi forces lost the battle due to several factors tied to Mōri Terumoto: * His cousin

Kikkawa Hiroie (December 7, 1561 – October 22, 1625) was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period. Hiroie's father was Kikkawa Motoharu and his mother was a daughter of Kumagai Nobunao. Biography He initially ...

secretly made a deal with Tokugawa Ieyasu resulting in the inactivity of 15,000 Mōri soldiers during the battle. * His adopted cousin

Kobayakawa Hideaki (1577 – December 1, 1602) was the fifth son of Kinoshita Iesada and a nephew of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He was gained the rank of ''Saemon no Kami'' (左衛門督) or in China ''Shikkingo'' (執金吾) at genpuku and held the court title of ...

and his 15,600 soldiers betrayed Ishida and joined the Tokugawa side. * After assurances from Tokugawa Ieyasu, Terumoto gave up the formidable Osaka castle without a fight. Despite its inactivity, the

Mōri clan The was a Japanese clan, Japanese samurai clan descended from Ōe no Hiromoto. Ōe no Hiromoto was descended from the Fujiwara clan. The family's most illustrious member, Mōri Motonari, greatly expanded the clan's power in Aki Province. Durin ...

was removed from its ancestral home in Aki to

(also known as Chōshū), and its holdings were drastically reduced from 1,200,000 to 369,000

. This was seen as a great act of betrayal to the Mōri clan, and Chōshū later became a hotbed of anti-Tokugawa activities. The origins of this were evident in the tradition of the clan's New Year's meeting. Every year during the meeting, the elders and the administrators would ask the daimyo whether the time to overthrow the shogunate had come, to which the daimyo would reply: "Not yet, the shogunate is still too powerful." This dream would eventually be realized some 260 years later, when the domain joined forces with the

and sympathetic court nobles to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate. In 1865, the domain bought a warship ''Union'' ( ja) from Glover and Co., an agency of

Jardine Matheson Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited (also known as Jardines) is a Hong Kong–based, Bermuda-domiciled British multinational conglomerate. It has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and secondary listings on the Singapore Exchange ...

established in

Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...

, in the name of

. They led the fight against the armies of the former shōgun, which included the

Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei The was a Japanese military-political coalition established and disestablished over the course of several months in early to mid-1868 during the Boshin War. Its flag was either a white interwoven five-pointed star on a black field, or a black ...

Aizu is the westernmost of the three regions of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, the other two regions being Nakadōri in the central area of the prefecture and Hamadōri in the east. As of October 1, 2010, it had a population of 291,838. The princ ...

, and the

Ezo Republic The was a short-lived separatist state established in 1869 on the island of Ezo, now Hokkaido, by a part of the former military of the Tokugawa shogunate at the end of the ''Bakumatsu'' period in Japan. It was the first government to attempt t ...

, during the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a coalition seeking to seize political power in the name of the Impe ...

. The domains' military forces of 1867 through 1869 also formed the foundation for the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

. Thanks to this alliance, Chōshū and Satsuma natives enjoyed political and societal prominence well into the

Meiji Meiji, the romanization of the Japanese characters 明治, may refer to: Japanese history * Emperor Meiji, Emperor of Japan between 1867 and 1912 ** Meiji era, the name given to that period in Japanese history *** Meiji Restoration, the revolution ...

and even

Taishō era The was a period in the history of Japan dating from 30 July 1912 to 25 December 1926, coinciding with the reign of Emperor Taishō. The new emperor was a sickly man, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group ...

Economics

The initial reduction of 1.2 million to 369,000 ''

'' resulted in a large shortfall in terms of military upkeep and infrastructure maintenance, despite which the domain remained the seventh largest in Japan outside the shogunate-controlled domains. In order to bring the domain's finances out of debt, strict policies were enforced on the retainers: * All retainers' fiefs were drastically reduced. * Some retainers who were paid in land began to be paid in rice. * Some retainers were laid off and encouraged to engage in agriculture. Previously, as a result of high taxation, farmers secretly developed farms far inside the mountains as a private food source. A new land survey was conducted within the domain in which many hidden farms were discovered and taxed. The domain also began a strict policy with regard to trade. Laws were also passed through which the profitable trade of the "four whites" was controlled by the domain: paper, rice, salt, and wax. Some of the profits, and a large amount of the tax revenue from this trade, went into the domain coffers. These policies greatly strengthened the domain's finances and allowed the daimyo more effective control over his territory. However, these policies angered peasants and displaced samurai alike, resulting in frequent revolts.

Politics

The capital of the domain was the castle town of Hagi, which was the source of Chōshū's alternate name of Hagi han (萩藩). The domain remained under the rule of the Mōri family for the duration of the

. Because the shogunate frequently confiscated domains whose daimyo were unable to produce heirs, the Mōri daimyo created four subordinate han ruled by branches of the family: * Iwakuni han: 60,000 ''koku'', ruled by descendants of

. * Chōfū han: 50,000 ''koku'', ruled by descendants of

Mōri Hidemoto was a senior retainer of the Toyotomi clan throughout the latter Sengoku period of feudal Japan. Hidemoto was the eldest son of Mōri Motokiyo and initially began service under the Toyotomi as a military commander under his cousin Terumoto, ...

. * Tokuyama han: 40,000 ''koku'', ruled by descendants of Mōri Naritaka. * Kiyosue han: 10,000 ''koku'', ruled by descendants of Mōri Mototomo. During the Edo period, the main branch died out in 1707, after which heirs were adopted from the Chōfu branch, which also became extinct in 1751. The family then continued through the Kiyosue branch. The Mōri daimyo, as with many of his counterparts throughout Japan, was assisted in the government of his domain by a group of

karō were top-ranking samurai officials and advisors in service to the ''daimyōs'' of feudal Japan. Overview In the Edo period, the policy of ''sankin-kōtai'' (alternate attendance) required each ''daimyō'' to place a ''karō'' in Edo and anothe ...

, or domain elders. There were two kinds of karō in Chōshū: hereditary ''karō'' (whose families retained the rank in perpetuity) and the "lifetime ''karō''", whose rank was granted to an individual but could not be inherited by his son. The hereditary karō were either members of minor branches of the Mōri family, or members of related families such as the Shishido and the Fukuhara, or descendants of Mōri Motonari's most trusted generals and advisors such as the Mazuda, the Kuchiba and the Kunishi. The lifetime ''karō'' were middle or lower samurai who displayed great talent in economics or politics and were promoted to ''karō'' by the ''daimyō''. One such person was the great reformer Murata Seifu.

List of ''daimyōs''

('' Tozama'', 369,000 ''

''), 1600–1871

Simplified family tree of the main Mōri line (Lords of Chōshū)

*Mōri Motonari (1497–1571) **Takamoto (1523–1563) *** I. Terumoto, 1st Lord of Chōshū (cr. 1600) (1553–1625; r. 1600–1623) **** II. Hidenari, 2nd Lord of Chōshū (1595–1651; r. 1623–1651) ***** III. Tsunahiro, 3rd Lord of Chōshū (1639–1689; r. 1651–1682) ****** IV. Yoshinari, 4th Lord of Chōshū (1668–1694; r. 1682–1694). ****** V. Yoshihiro, 5th Lord of Chōshū (1673–1707; r. 1694–1707) ****Naritaka, 1st Lord of Tokuyama (1602–1679) *****Mototsugu, 3rd Lord of Tokuyama (1667–1719) ******Hirotoyo, 5th Lord of Tokuyama (1705–1773) *******Nariyoshi, 7th Lord of Tokuyama (1750–1828) ********Hiroshige, 8th Lord of Tokuyama (1777–1866) ********* XV. Motonori, 15th Lord of Chōshū, 1st Prince (1839–1896; r. 1869, Governor of Hagi 1869–1871, family head 1871–1896, created 1st Prince 1884) **********Motoaki, 29th family head, 2nd Prince (1865–1938; 29th family head and 2nd Prince 1896–1938) ***********Motomichi, 30th family head, 3rd Prince (1903–1976; 30th family head 1938–1976, 3rd Prince to 1947) ************Motoyoshi, 31st family head (1930– ; 31st family head 1976–) ************* Motoei (born 1967) ** Motokiyo (1551–1597) ***Hidemoto, 1st Lord of Chōfū (1579–1650) ****Mitsuhiro, 2nd Lord of Chōfū (1616–1653) *****Tsunamoto, 3rd Lord of Chōfū (1650–1709) ****** VI. Yoshimoto, 6th Lord of Chōshū (1677–1731; r. 1707–1731) ******* VII. Munehiro, 7th Lord of Chōshū (1715–1751; r. 1731–1751) ****Mototomo, 1st Lord of Kiyosue (1631–1683) *****Masahiro, 6th Lord of Chōfū, 2nd Lord of Kiyosue (1675–1729) ****** VIII. Shigetaka, 8th Lord of Chōshū (1725–1789; r. 1751–1782) ******* IX. Haruchika, 9th Lord of Chōshū (1754–1791; r. 1782–1791) ******** X. Narifusa, 10th Lord of Chōshū (1779–1809; r. 1791–1809) ******** XI. Narihiro, 11th Lord of Chōshū (1784–1836; r. 1809–1824) ********* XIII. Naritō, 13th Lord of Chōshū (1815–1836; r. 1836). *******Chikaaki (1766–1800) ******** XII. Narimoto, 12th Lord of Chōshū (1794–1836; r. 1824–1836) ********* XIV. Takachika, 14th Lord of Chōshū (1819–1871; r. 1836–1869) Genealogy
/ref>

Famous people

; Middle Edo period *

Murata Seifū was a Japanese samurai who served as ''karō'' of Chōshū Domain in the late Edo period. Known as a prominent economic reformer, his policies greatly strengthened the domain and enabled it to carry out many of its military reforms which led to ...

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Endō Kinsuke was a Japanese statesman in the early Meiji period. Endō was born to a ''samurai'' family in Hagi, Chōshū Domain (present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture. He was selected by the domain to be a member of the Chōshū Five who were smuggled out of ...

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Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

* Oka Ichinosuke (1860–1916), general in the Imperial Japanese Army and Minister of War during World War I *

Ōmura Masujirō (May 30, 1824 – December 7, 1869) was a Japanese military leader and theorist in Bakumatsu period Japan. He was the "Father" of the Imperial Japanese Army, launching a modern military force closely patterned after the French system of the da ...

(1824–1869), "Father of the modern Japanese Army" *

Ōshima Yoshimasa Viscount was a general in the early Imperial Japanese Army during the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War. His great-great-grandson, Shinzō Abe was Prime Minister of Japan. Biography Ōshima was born as the eldest son to a samu ...

(1850–1926), general in the Imperial Japanese Army during the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 189417 April 1895), or the First China–Japan War, was a conflict between the Qing dynasty of China and the Empire of Japan primarily over influence in Joseon, Korea. In Chinese it is commonly known as th ...

Sakuma Samata General Count was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, and 5th Governor-General of Taiwan from 11 April 1906 to May 1915. He participated in domestic conflicts, wars with Russia and was a leader of the expedition of Taiwan. Biography Sakum ...

(1844–1915), general in the Imperial Japanese Army, and 5th

Governor-General of Taiwan The governor-general of Taiwan (, shinjitai: ) was the head of the Government-General of Taiwan in the Japanese era (including Formosa and the Pescadores) when they were part of the Empire of Japan, from 1895 to 1945. The Japanese governors- ...

(1906–1915) ;

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

personnel * Arichi Shinanojō (1843–1919), admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy, Chief of the

Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff The was the highest organ within the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). In charge of planning and operations, it was headed by an Admiral headquartered in Tokyo. History Created in 1893, the Navy General Staff took over operational (as opposed to a ...

Nashiba Tokioki Baron was an admiral in the early Imperial Japanese Navy, noted for his role in the battleship naval disaster of 1904. Biography Nashiba was born in Chōshū domain (now Yamaguchi prefecture, as the 4th son to a 1000 ''koku'' ''samurai'' ret ...

(1850–1924), admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy * Tsuboi Kōzō (1843–1898), admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy ; Post

descendants of Chōshū families *

Shinzo Abe Shinzo Abe (21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. ...

(1954–2022),

Nobusuke Kishi was a Japanese bureaucrat and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan, prime minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960. He is remembered for his exploitative economic management of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in China in the 1930s, ...

(1897–1987), and

Eisaku Satō was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1964 to 1972. He is the third longest-serving Japanese prime minister, and is ranked second by longest uninterrupted service. Satō is best remembered for securing the return ...

(1901–1975), post-war Prime Ministers and descendants of Chōshū magistrate Satō Nobuhiro. They form the nucleus of the modern Satō-Kishi-Abe political dynasty * Aikawa Yoshisuke (1880–1967) Japanese entrepreneur, businessman, politician, and founder of the Nissan ''zaibatsu'', grand nephew of Inoue Kaoru * Inoue Koichi (penname: Inoue Kenkabō) (1870–1934), journalist and writer of ''

senryū is a Japanese form of short poetry similar to haiku in construction: three lines with 17 (or , often translated as syllables, but see the article on for distinctions). tend to be about human foibles while haiku tend to be about nature, and a ...

'' (short, humorous verse) * Inoue Mitsusada (1917–1983), Historian of Ancient Japan,

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

Professor, first director of

National Museum of Japanese History The , commonly known in Japanese as Rekihaku, is a history museum in Sakura, Chiba, Japan. The museum was founded in 1981 as an inter-university research consortium, and opened in 1983. The collections of the museum focus on the history, archaeolo ...

, Grandson of Inoue Kaoru and Katsura Taro * Matsuoka Yōsuke (1880–1946), diplomat, Foreign Minister, architect of the WWII era

Tripartite Pact The Tripartite Pact, also known as the Berlin Pact, was an agreement between Germany, Italy, and Japan signed in Berlin on 27 September 1940 by, respectively, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Galeazzo Ciano, and Saburō Kurusu (in that order) and in the ...

History

Economics

Politics

List of ''daimyōs''

Simplified family tree of the main Mōri line (Lords of Chōshū)

Famous people

See also

Notes

References

Further reading