The Kaga ''ikki'', also known as The Peasants' Kingdom, was a
theocratic feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...
confederacy that emerged in
Kaga Province (present-day southern
Ishikawa Prefecture), Japan, during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The Kaga ''ikki'' was a faction of the
Ikkō-ikki, a gathering of peasant farmers, monks, priests, and ''
jizamurai'' (upper-ranking peasant warriors) that espoused belief in
Jōdo Shinshū
, also known as Shin Buddhism or True Pure Land Buddhism, is a school of Pure Land Buddhism founded by the former Tendai Japanese monk Shinran.
Shin Buddhism is the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan.
History
Shinran (founder)
S ...
Buddhism. Though nominally under the authority of the head abbot of the
Hongan-ji, the ''
Monshu'', the ''ikkō-ikki'' proved difficult to control.
During the
Ōnin War, the ''ikki'' in Kaga, with the approval of the Monshu
Rennyo
Rennyo (, 1415–1499) was the 8th Monshu (Patriarch) of the Hongan-ji Temple of the Jōdo Shinshū sect of Buddhism, and descendant of founder Shinran. Jodo Shinshu Buddhists often referred to him as the restorer of the sect ( in Japanese). He ...
, helped restore
Togashi Masachika to the position of ''
shugo'' (military governor). However, by 1474 the ''ikki'' fell into conflict with Masachika, and in late 1487, they launched the
Kaga Rebellion. Masachika was overthrown, and Togashi Yasutaka, his uncle, took his place as ''shugo''. Under Yasutaka's son, Taneyasu, the Kaga ''ikki'' asserted more and more influence over the provincial government.
In 1531, a civil war erupted as two factions within the Kaga ''ikki'' vied for control. Renjun, a son of Rennyo, won the war, abolished the position of ''shugo'', exiled Taneyasu, and established a much tighter Hongan-ji hegemony over the province. In 1546, the Kanazawa Midō was established as a governing body in Oyama Gobo, which would eventually grow into the present-day city of
Kanazawa
is the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture in central Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was .
Etymology
The name "Kanazaw ...
. The Midō oversaw very loosely organized committees of select warlords and priests, who in turn ruled over the local lords and village leaders. The Kaga ''ikki'' controlled Kaga until they were overrun by the forces of
Oda Nobunaga
was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demo ...
in a series of campaigns lasting from 1573 to 1582.
History
Emergence of the ''ikki'' in Kaga
Rise of the Ikkō-ikki
Throughout the 15th century in Japan,
peasant revolts, known as ''ikki'', increased in frequency. With the outbreak of the Ōnin War in 1467 and resultant chaos, they became even more commonplace. Many of the rebels embraced a militant offshoot of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism known as
Ikkō-shū. The religious leader Rennyo, eighth Monshu of the Hongan-ji school of Jōdo Shinshū, tried to distance himself from Ikkō-shū, but attracted many converts from the sect to the point were Ikkō-shū became synonymous with Jōdo Shinshū. Due to the violent tendencies of Ikkō-shū adherents, they became known as
ikkō-ikki, literally "Ikkō-shū riots" or "Ikkō-shū league".
In 1471, Rennyo relocated from
Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
to
Yoshizaki in
Echizen Province. Rennyo had attracted his largest following in Echizen and the bordering Kaga Province, a following which included not only low-class peasants but ''jizamurai'', or ''kokujin'', the emergent upper-ranking peasant warrior class.
Togashi civil war
In Kaga, a civil war had broken out between Togashi Masachika and Kochiyo Masachika for control of the position of ''shugo'' over the province. Kochiyo was victorious against his brother and drove him out of Kaga. When the Ōnin War began in 1467, Masachika sided with the
Hosokawa clan, while Kochiyo sided with the
Yamana. Kochiyo also patronized the Takada school of Jōdo Shinshū, a fierce rival of the Hongan-ji school of which Rennyo was head. Masachika, seeking to reclaim his land, reached out to the Ikkō-ikki and asked for their support. In exchange, he promised to end their religious persecution and lift them out of poverty. The priests in Yoshizaki agreed to aid Masachika, and Rennyo, though alarmed by the rebellious attitude of the rebels, tacitly rendered his support as well.
Asakura Toshikage, the ruler of Echizen and ally of the Hosokawa, also lent his support. Kochiyo was defeated, and Masachika restored to power.
Kaga Rebellion
Despite having aided Togashi Masachika in his return to power, within a year the Ikkō-ikki of Kaga fell into conflict with him. Claiming that he failed to adequately deliver on his promises of economic reward, the Ikkō-ikki of Kaga revolted in 1474. Rennyo refused to support these rebellions, and the Ikkō-ikki were quickly defeated and forced to take refuge in neighboring
Etchū. Shimotsuma Rensu, a ji-samurai from Echizen and an advisor to Rennyo, led another revolt, falsely claiming that Rennyo authorized his actions. This revolt also failed, and Rennyo excommunicated Rensu.
Though the early revolts in Kaga failed, unrest continued in the province, as the Ikkō-ikki would refuse to pay taxes and even seize tax revenues and land, despite Rennyo's admonitions of submission to the authorities. In 1487, possibly in an effort to secure a favor in the form of military aid, Masachika responded to ''
shōgun''
Ashikaga Yoshihisa's call for military aid against Rokkaku Tokoyori in
Ōmi Province
was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan, which today comprises Shiga Prefecture. It was one of the provinces that made up the Tōsandō Circuit (subnational entity), circuit. Its nickname is . Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, ...
. In Masachika's absence, the Ikkō-ikki launched a massive revolt, their forces numbering between one hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. Though Masachika quickly returned, the rebels, aided by several disgruntled former vassal families and nobility, overwhelmed him and trapped him in his castle, where he committed ''
seppuku''.
To replace Masachika as a ''shugo'', the vassal families which opposed Masachika put forward his uncle, Yasutaka, who had previously been a ''shugo'' of the province. Ashikaga Yoshihisa was enraged by the rebellion and ordered Rennyo to excommunicate his followers in Kaga. However,
Hosokawa Katsumoto, a personal friend and ally of Rennyo, brokered a deal which allowed Rennyo to merely reprimand the Kaga ''ikki''.
Rule under Yasutaka and Taneyasu
After the overthrow of Togashi Masachika, Kaga became known as "the kingdom of peasants" and "''hyakusho no motaru kuni'' " ("province ruled by peasants"). However, the Kaga ''ikki'' were content to live under the rule of Masachika's uncle, Yasutaka. When, in 1493,
Hosokawa Masamoto deposed ''shōgun''
Ashikaga Yoshitane, Yasutaka and Yoshitane fled to Kaga. Yasutaka then led several campaigns in an effort to restore the ''shōgun'', including two invasions of Echizen: one in 1494 and another in 1504. None of these campaigns featured ''ikki'' participation. However, after Yasutaka's death, the ''ikki'' asserted more control. They initiated two invasions, one in Etchū in 1506, and one in Echizen in 1508, both in support of ''ikki'' rebellions within those respective provinces. By the 1520s, the Kaga ''ikki'' had become the primary governmental faction within Kaga.
Kaga civil war
In 1531, the ''ikki'' control of Kaga was of such dominance that a conflict for leadership within the Hongan-ji embroiled the province in a civil war, often called the ''Daishō-Ikki'', or Big League-Little League, war. A faction led by Renjun, a son of Rennyo, came to power in the Hongan-ji, and was hostile to the three main Kaga temples. In the resultant war, the three Kaga temples were backed by the Togashi clan, other powerful vassals, local Hongan-ji priests, and the ''ikki'' based in Echizen. Renjun was backed by many of the smaller temples and emerged victorious from the conflict when he brought in an Ikkō-Ikki army from
Mikawa Province. Togashi Taneyasu was exiled, as were the other opposition leaders, and the position of ''shugo'' abolished.
Rule from Oyama Gobo
In the year immediately after the civil war, 1532, Rennyo led the Ikkō-''ikki'' in a campaign to aid
Hosokawa Harumoto against Miyoshi Motonaga. During that conflict, the Hongan-ji headquarters at
Yamashina was burned down, and Rennyo established a new city in
Settsu Province called
Ishiyama Hongan-ji, the predecessor to modern-day
Osaka
is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
. Due to the Kaga civil war and its aftermath, the Hongan-ji acquired large amounts of land in Kaga and thus exerted a powerful economic influence over the region. To manage its increased responsibilities, the Hongan-ji established the Kanazawa Midō, based in the city of Oyama Gobo, in 1546, to oversee Kaga's affairs from then onward. Oyama Gobo quickly grew to a population of 3,000–5,000, establishing the beginnings of what would become the present-day city of Kanazawa. Under the Midō, control of the province was centralized, to the point that rule under it resembled the rule of the ''daimyōs'' elsewhere in Japan.
Conquest by Oda Nobunaga
In 1570, ''
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 ...
'' Oda Nobunaga began a
campaign against the Ikkō-ikki, besieging the Hongan-ji headquarters at Ishiyama Hongan-ji and attacking ''ikki'' strongholds throughout Japan. By 1573, forces led by
Akechi Mitsuhide and
Toyotomi Hideyoshi pushed through Echizen and into the southern portions of Kaga. A counter-attack by the Kaga ''ikki'' in 1574 halted this advance, causing Nobunaga to personally lead the assault into Kaga. In 1575, Nobunaga recaptured Echizen, and Mitsuhide and Hideyoshi again invaded Kaga, this time more rapidly, successively capturing the fortified temples of Daishōji, Hinoya, and Sakumi. By the end of the year, the southern half of Kaga was conquered, and in November of that year Nobunaga boasted to
Date Terumune that he had "wiped out several tens of thousands of the villainous rabble in Echizen and Kaga."
Nobunaga granted Echizen to his general
Shibata Katsuie, and in 1576 Katsuie's nephew
Sakuma Morimasa penetrated deeper into Kaga, capturing
Miyukizuka. In 1580, Morimasa destroyed the capital, Oyama Gobo. The same year, Ishiyama Hongan-ji surrendered. Despite the resistance of the Ikkō-Ikki being effectively suppressed, a few Kaga ''ikki'' fled the plains and entrenched themselves in the mountains at the fortified temples Torigoe and Futoge. Shibata Katsuie captured these strongholds in 1581, but the garrisons he established were over-run and the temples recaptured. Still in the year 1581, Katsuie and Sakuma Morimasa again recaptured the temples, killing all the Ikkō-ikki at the sites. Despite this, in 1582, resistance elements again recaptured Torigoe and Futoge. A third attack was mounted by Morimasa, and this time the final resistance elements were eliminated, ending the last vestiges of ''ikki'' rule in Kaga.
Governance
The government structure of the Kaga ''ikki'' evolved over time. After the 1488 revolt, Togashi Masachika's uncle Togashi Yasutaka ruled as ''shugo'', and little changed in the
decentralized, feudalist structure of Kaga. Along with Yasutaka, several different factions also controlled Kaga. Three sons of Rennyo; Rengo, Renkō, and Rensei, headed the three Hongan-ji temples and led the ''ikki'' faction. Several former Masachika vassals, including the Mootori and Yamagawa, also held power. Historian David L. Davis explains that although 1488 is the conventional date given for the beginning of ''Ikki'' control in Kaga, it was only under Togashi Yasutaka's son Taneyasu that the ''ikki'' began asserting control over the government, becoming the dominant faction in the 1520s. He cites court documents from Kyoto to support his assertion: Until 1504 (when Yasutaka died), the ''shōgun'' and ''
shōen
A was a field or Manorialism, manor in Japan. The Japanese language, Japanese term comes from the Tang dynasty Chinese language, Chinese term "莊園" (Mandarin: ''zhuāngyuán'', Cantonese: ''zong1 jyun4'').
Shōen, from about the 8th to th ...
'' considered Yasutaka the legitimate government; from 1504 to 1521, they were uncertain, and after 1521 they would send legal papers to the Hongan-ji office immediately outside of Kyoto. Likewise, military expeditions were initiated by Yasutaka during his tenure. For instance, he made several attempts to restore Ashikaga Yoshitane to power, which included two invasions of Echizen, in 1494 and 1504, respectively. However, after Yasutaka's death, the ''ikki'' in Kaga launched an invasion of Etchū in 1506 and Echizen in 1508, both times in support of ''ikki'' rebellions in those respective provinces, and both times without any contributions from the old vassal families.
In 1531, Renjun, a son of Rennyo, emerged victorious in the Kaga civil war and established a much tighter Hongan-ji hegemony over the province. The leaders of the opposition, including Togashi Taneyasu, were expelled from Kaga, though those who supported them were allowed to return. Without any central governing body, Kaga was consumed by political instability. The
Asakura clan
The is a Japanese samurai kin group.Edmond Papinot, Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Asakura", ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 3 ">DF 7 of 80/nowiki> retrieved 2013-5-4. ...
to the south and
Uesugi to the north posed threats of invasion for Kaga, so the ji-samurai established a centralized authority at the Kanazawa Midō in Oyama Gobo. The Midō oversaw four district organizations of ''
hatamoto
A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the Shōgun, shogunates in History of Japan, Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred ...
'' – prominent local warlords. Each ''hatamoto'' commanded a group, ''kuni'', of which there were roughly twenty in total. These ''kuni'' in turn ruled over regional groups of local warriors, priests, and the heads of village communes. The highest political organization of the ''ikki'' in Kaga was a committee of ''hatamoto'', and the only permanent political body were the twenty ''kuni''. Important matters would be settled at the meetings of the local ''hatamoto'' in consultation with the local Hongan-ji priests. However, these meetings were sporadic and held at the county, rather than provincial, level, and thus, according to Davis, would probably rarely have involved more than five ''hatamoto'' and one or two Hongan-ji priests. ''Kuni'' meetings were probably similar, with the exception that a ''hatamoto'' present at a ''kuni'' meeting would have held great respect.
References
Citations
Works cited
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*{{Cite journal, url = https://books.google.com/books?id=aiLYQ22ohmkC, title = Rennyo and the Shinshū Revival, last = Weinstein, first = Stanley, date = 1977, journal = Japan in the Muromachi Age, publisher =
University of California Press
The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...
, location = Oakland, editor-last = Hall, editor-first = John Whitney, editor-link = John Whitney Hall, pages = 331–358, doi = 10.1525/9780520325531-027, isbn = 9780520028883, editor2-last = Toyoda, editor2-first = Takeshi, url-access = subscription
Former countries in Japanese history
1488 establishments in Asia
States and territories disestablished in 1582
Former confederations
History of Buddhism in Japan
Sengoku period
16th-century rebels