The was a feudal domain under 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 ...

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 ...

Japan, controlling all of

Tosa Province was a province of Japan in the area of southern Shikoku. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tosa''" in . Tosa bordered on Awa to the northeast, and Iyo to the northwest. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō syst ...

in what is now

Kōchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kōchi Prefecture has a population of 669,516 (1 April 2023) and has a geographic area of 7,103 km2 (2,742 sq mi). Kōchi Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the northwest and Tok ...

on the island of

Shikoku is the smallest of the List of islands of Japan#Main islands, four main islands of Japan. It is long and between at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu ...

. It was centered around

Kōchi Castle is an Edo Period Japanese castle in the city of Kōchi, Kōchi Prefecture, Japan. It is located at Otakayama hill, at the center of Kōchi city, which in turn is located at the center of the Kōchi Plain, the most prosperous area of former ...

, and was ruled throughout its history by the ''

tozama daimyō was a class of powerful magnates or ''daimyō'' (大名) considered to be outsiders by the ruler of Japan during the Edo period (江戸時代). ''Tozama daimyō'' were classified in the Tokugawa shogunate (江戸幕府) as ''daimyō'' who becam ...

Yamauchi clan The Yamauchi clan (山内氏) were a family of rulers over what was then the Tosa Province which spanned the southern half of Shikoku island. The province was given to the family in 1600 after Yamauchi Kazutoyo led troops under Tokugawa Ieyasu ...

. Many people from the domain played important roles in events of the late Edo period including

Nakahama Manjirō , also known as John Manjirō (or John Mung), was a Japanese samurai and translator who was one of the first Japanese people to visit the United States and an important translator during the Bakumatsu, opening of Japan.* He was a fisherman bef ...

Sakamoto Ryōma was a Japanese ''samurai'', a '' shishi'' and influential figure of the ''Bakumatsu,'' and establishment of the Empire of Japan in the late Edo period. Sakamoto was a low-ranking ''samurai'' from the Tosa Domain on Shikoku and became an acti ...

Yui Mitsue was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during the First Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War. Biography Yui was born in Tosa Domain (present day Kōchi Prefecture) in what is now part of the city of Kōchi, where is father was a samu ...

Gotō Shōjirō Count was a Japanese samurai and politician during the Bakumatsu period, Bakumatsu and early Meiji period of Japanese history.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Gotō Shōjirō" in He was a leader of which would evolve into a political par ...

Itagaki Taisuke Kazoku, Count Itagaki Taisuke (板垣退助, 21 May 1837 – 16 July 1919) was a Japanese samurai, politician, and leader of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement (自由民権運動, ''Jiyū Minken Undō''), which evolved into Japan's firs ...

Nakae Chōmin was the pen-name of a journalist, political theorist and statesman in Meiji-period Japan. His real name was . His major contribution was the popularization of the egalitarian doctrines of the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Japa ...

, and

Takechi Hanpeita , also known as , was a samurai of Tosa Domain during the Bakumatsu period in Japan. Influenced by the effects of the Perry Expedition, Takechi formed the Tosa Kinnō-tō (土佐勤王党, Tosa Imperialism party) which was loyal to the ideals ...

. Tosa Domain was renamed during the early

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

until it 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 and became

History

At the end of the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, 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 th ...

, the

Chōsokabe clan , also known as , was a Japanese samurai kin group. Over time, they were known for serving the Hosokawa clan, then the Miyoshi clan and then the Ichijō clan. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géogra ...

ruled

. The Chōsokabe had briefly controlled the entire island of Shikoku under

Chōsokabe Motochika was a prominent ''daimyō'' in Japanese Sengoku period, Sengoku-period. He was the 21st chief of the Chōsokabe clan of Tosa Province (present-day Kōchi Prefecture), the ruler of Shikoku, Shikoku region. Early life and rise He was the son and ...

from 1583 until he was defeated by

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: ...

in the

Invasion of Shikoku The was a conflict of the Sengoku period of Japan fought between Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Chōsokabe Motochika on the island of Shikoku in 1585. Hideyoshi invaded Shikoku with a force of over 100,000 men in June and led a campaign against the ...

in 1585. Motochika fought for Hideyoshi in the

Kyushu Campaign is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...

and the

invasions of Korea An invasion is a military offensive of combatants of one geopolitical entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory controlled by another similar entity, often involving acts of aggression. Generally, invasions have objectives of c ...

. However, next ''

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 ...

Chōsokabe Morichika was a Japanese samurai of the Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period. Once the ruler of Tosa Province, his fief was revoked by Tokugawa Ieyasu after the Battle of Sekigahara. His childhood name was Sen'yumaru (千熊丸). Biograph ...

joined the pro-

Toyotomi The was a Japanese clan that ruled over the Japanese before the Edo period. Unity and conflict The most influential figure within the Toyotomi was Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the three "unifiers of Japan". Oda Nobunaga was another primar ...

Western Army 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, ...

in 1600, and was subsequently deprived of his title, and later his life. The victorious

ordered

Yamauchi Kazutoyo , also pronounced Yamanouchi (1545/1546? – November 1, 1605), was a retainer of Oda Nobunaga and later Toyotomi Hideyoshi. His father Yamauchi Moritoyo was a descendant of Fujiwara no Hidesato, a senior retainer of the Iwakura Oda clan (op ...

, lord of

Kakegawa Castle is a ''hirayama''-style Japanese castle. It was the seat of various ''fudai daimyō'' clans who ruled over Kakegawa Domain, Tōtōmi Province, in what is now central Kakegawa, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Background Kakegawa Castle is located a ...

Tōtōmi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today western Shizuoka Prefecture.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tōtōmi''" in . Tōtōmi bordered on Mikawa Province, Mikawa, Suruga Province, S ...

to take control of the province as ''daimyō'' of the newly created Tosa Domain, with a nominal ''

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 ...

'' of 202,600 ''

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 ...

''.M. B. Jensen, ''The making of modern Japan'', (Harvard University Press, 2002), pp. 51–52 The Chōsokabe's former

retainer Retainer may refer to: * Retainer (orthodontics), devices for teeth * RFA Retainer (A329), RFA ''Retainer'' (A329), a ship * Retainers in early China, a social group in early China Employment * Retainer agreement, a contract in which an employer p ...

s were extremely hostile to the new regime, while Tosa

peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...

s feared increased exploitation under the new lord and many fled across to the neighboring domains. Kazutoyo came in with only 158 mounted men, and had to petition the new government of the

for help in pacifying his new domain. This was achieved by "ruse and violence ... Two boatloads containing 273 heads were sent to Tokugawa headquarters to demonstrate Yamauchi efficiency, and another 73 dissidents were

crucified Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Carthaginians, ...

on the beach," however, stories that the Yamauchi invited major Chōsokabe retainers to a fake

sumo is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by th ...

tournament and had them massacred are believed to have been later fabrications. In any event, most of the old vassals of the Chōsokabe, who were half-peasants and half-soldiers, were allowed to remain as lower-ranked samurai within the new regime, with retainers of the Yamauchi clan monopolizing the senior position, and with the most senior Yamauchi retainers and clan members assisted to key points within the domain to prepare for rebellions. This discrimination between the old and the new retainers would persist during the

Bakumatsu period were the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, under foreign diplomatic and military pressure, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunat ...

and would be an increasing source of dissatisfaction with the lower-ranking samurai. Initially, Yamauchi Kazutoyo made Urato Castle, the old stronghold of the Chōsokabe as his headquarters, but he soon found it too small, so he built

and laid out a new

castle town A castle town is a settlement built adjacent to or surrounding a castle. Castle towns were common in Medieval Europe. Some examples include small towns like Alnwick and Arundel, which are still dominated by their castles. In Western Europe, ...

. Under his successor, Yamauchi Tadayoshi, new rice field development and new industries were promoted, and the clan's finances remained relatively stable until around the middle of the Edo period. The domain was always eager to raise its incomes; the expenses involved in its '' sankin kōtai'' obligation to live in the shogunate's capital of Edo in alternative years was extremely high due to the domain's geographic location, and the domain was constantly being called upon by the shogunate to provide labor for public works projects. However, from around the Horeki era (1751 to 1764) onwards, the clan's administration was shaken by uprisings and peasants fleeing to other territories. The ninth ''daimyō'', Yamauchi Toyochika and the 13th ''daimyō'',

Yamauchi Toyoteru Yamauchi or Yamanouchi (やまうち or やまのうち, lit. "inside mountains") is a Japanese surname. Either name is written in kanji as 山内 while Yamanouchi can also be written as 山ノ内. Notable people with the surname include: *Yamanou ...

attempted reforms based on fiscal frugality with limited success. In the

, the 15th ''daimyō'', Yamauchi Toyoshige (also known as Yamauchi Yodo) appointed

Yoshida Tōyō Yoshida Toyo was a Japanese samurai and Karō from Tosa domain. Gotō Shōjirō Count was a Japanese samurai and politician during the Bakumatsu period, Bakumatsu and early Meiji period of Japanese history.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005 ...

to undertake major reforms; however, he was assassinated by reactionary followers of

who were against modernization. Subsequently, Yamauchi Toyoshige took action against Takechi's "

Tosa Kinnō-tō Tosa Kinnō-tō (土佐勤王党, Tosa Imperialism party) was a political shishi (organization) of Bakumatsu era Japan which was loyal to the ideals of the sonnō Jōi movement. It was formed by Takechi Hanpeita, influenced by the effects of the ...

" party and suppressed the ''

Sonnō Jōi was a '' yojijukugo'' (four-character compound) phrase used as the rallying cry and slogan of a political movement in Japan in the 1850s and 1860s, during the Bakumatsu period. Based on Neo-Confucianism and Japanese nativism, the movement sou ...

'' movement in the domain. Initially a strong supporter of the ''

Kōbu gattai was a policy in the Bakumatsu era of Japanese history aiming to strengthen Japan against the perceived "foreign threat" by obtaining a political coordination between the Tokugawa shogunate, certain major feudal domains and the Japanese Imperi ...

'' movement to join the shogunate with the Imperial House of Japan, he later led the domain into 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 ...

and played a critical role in 1867 in advising Shōgun

Tokugawa Yoshinobu Kazoku, Prince was the 15th and last ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful. He resigned his position as shogun in late 1867, while ai ...

to carry out ''Taisei Hōkan'' (大政奉還), and to the return of power to the Emperor. In 1868, Tosa Domain was renamed "Kōchi Domain", which after the

in 1871, became Kōchi Prefecture. The Yamauchi clan was elevated to the rank of

marquis A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wido ...

in the ''

kazoku The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan, which existed between 1869 and 1947. It was formed by merging the feudal lords (''Daimyo, daimyō'') and court nobles (''kuge'') into one system modelled after the British peerage. Distin ...

'' system by the Peerage Order of 1884.

Holdings at the end of the Edo period

Unlike most domains in the

han system (, "domain") is a Japanese historical term for the Estate (land), estate of a daimyo in the Edo period (1603–1868) and early Meiji (era), Meiji period (1868–1912).Louis Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Han"in ''Japan Encycloped ...

, which consisted of several discontinuous territories calculated to provide the assigned ''

'', based on periodic

cadastral A cadastre or cadaster ( ) is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes and bounds, metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref> Often it is represente ...

surveys and projected agricultural yields, Tosa Domain was a single unified holding. At the end of the 16th century, the Chōsokabe family's ''kokudaka'' of Tosa Province was only 98,000 ''koku'' per the Taiko land survey. The Yamauchi clan had an official ''kokudaka'' of 202,600 ''koku'', but when the rival

Tokushima Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, controlling all of Awa Province and Awaji Province in what is now Tokushima Prefecture and Awaji Island of modern-day Hyōgo Prefecture. It was centered around Tokushima ...

gained

Awaji Province was an old provinces of Japan, old province of Japan covering Awaji Island, between Honshū and Shikoku.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Awaji''" in . Today it is part of Hyōgo Prefecture. It is sometimes called . Awaj ...

in 1615 and raised its ''kokudaka'' from 170,000 to 257,000 ''koku'', Tosa Domain also demanded that its kokudaka be reassess as 257,000 ''koku'', so that it would not lose prestige and be considered inferior to Tokushima. The shogunate refused the demand and Tosa Domain remained at 202,600 ''koku''. However, this was an official, nominal, value, and the actual ''kokudaka'' of the domain is estimated to have been at least 494,000 ''koku''. *

(entire province) **47 villages in Aki District **30 villages in Kami District **38 villages in Nagaoka District **23 villages in Tosa District **40 villages in Agawa District **61 villages in Takaoka District **109 villages in Hata District

List of daimyō

Subsidiary domains

Tosa Domain had two subsidiary domains:

Tosa-Nakamura Domain

was created in 1601 for Yamauchi Yasutoyo, brother of Kazutoyo and father of the 2nd daimyo, Tadayoshi. It had a ''kokudaka'' of 20,000 ''koku''. The domain was inherited by his son Masatomo, but went extinct in 1624. The domain was revived in 1658 for Yamauchi Tadayoshi's second son Tadanao, but as a 30,000 ''koku'' holding. It was abolished in 1689.

Tosa-Shinden Domain

was created in 1780 as a 13,000 ''koku'' holding for Yamauchi Toyotada, from a ''

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 ...

'' branch of the clan descended from the former ''daimyō'' of Tosa-Nakamura Domain. It had ''

'' of 13,000 ''

'' taken directly form the treasury of the parent domain, and thus did not have any physical estates. It was also not subject to '' sankin kōtai'', as its ''daimyō'' alway resided at the domain's mansion in the

Azabu is an area in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Built on a marshy area of foothills south of central Tokyo, its coverage roughly corresponds to that of the former Azabu Ward, presently consisting of nine official districts: Azabu-Jūban, Azabudai, Aza ...

area of

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

. The domain was abolished and reincorporated back into Tosa Domain in 1870.

List of daimyō

Simplified genealogy of the Yamauchi ''daimyō'' of Tosa

*Yamauchi Moritoyo (1510 – ) ** I. Kazutoyo, 1st ''daimyō'' of Tosa (cr. 1601) ( – 1605; r. 1601–1605) **Yasutoyo (1549–1625) *** II. Tadayoshi, 2nd ''daimyō'' of Tosa (1592–1665; r. 1605–1656) **** III. Tadatoyo, 3rd ''daimyō'' of Tosa (1609–1669; r. 1656–1669) ***** IV. Toyomasa, 4th ''daimyō'' of Tosa (1641–1700; r. 1669–1700). ***Fukao Shigemasa (1598–1672). Adopted into the Fukao family ****Fukao Shigeteru *****Fukao Shigenao ******Yamauchi Tadashige (1682–1721) ******* VIII. Toyonobu, 8th ''daimyō'' of Tosa (1712–1768; r. 1725–1767) ******** IX. Toyochika, 9th ''daimyō'' of Tosa (1750–1789; r. 1768–1789) ********* X. Toyokazu, 10th ''daimyō'' of Tosa (1773–1825; r. 1789–1808) ********** XI. Toyoaki, 11th ''daimyō'' of Tosa (1793–1809; r. 1808–1809). ********** XII. Toyosuke, 12th ''daimyō'' of Tosa (1794–1872; r. 1809–1843) *********** XIII. Toyoteru, 13th ''daimyō'' of Tosa (1815–1848; r. 1843–1848) *********** XIV. Toyoatsu, 14th ''daimyō'' of Tosa (1824–1848; r. 1848) *********** XVI. Toyonori, 16th ''daimyō'', 16th family head, 1st Marquess (1846–1886; r. 1859–1869; Governor of Tosa 1869–1871; Marquess: 1884) ************XVII. Toyokage, 2nd Marquess, 17th family head (1875–1957; 2nd Marquess 1886–1947; 17th family head 1886–1957) ************Toyoshizu, 1st Baron Yamauchi (cr. 1906) (1883–1937) *************XVIII. Toyoaki, 18th family head (1912–2003; 18th family head 1957–2003) **************XIX. Toyokoto, 19th family head (b. 1940; 19th family head 2003– ) ***************Toyohiro (b. 1978) *************** Toyonao (b. 1979) **********Toyoakira (1802–1859) *********** XV. Toyoshige, 15th Lord of Tosa (1827–1872; r. 1849–1859) ***Kazutada (1600–1663) ****Kazutoshi (1649–1675) ***** V.Toyofusa, 5th ''daimyō'' of Tosa (1672–1706; r. 1700–1706) ***** VI. Toyotaka, 6th ''daimyō'' of Tosa (1673–1720; r. 1706–1720) ****** VII. Toyotsune, 7th ''daimyō'' of Tosa (1711–1725; r. 1720–1725). Yamachi genealogy
/ref>

Notes

References

{{Authority control Domains of Japan History of Kōchi Prefecture Tosa Province Shikoku region 1601 establishments in Japan States and territories established in 1601 1871 disestablishments in Japan States and territories disestablished in 1871

History

Holdings at the end of the Edo period

List of daimyō

Subsidiary domains

Tosa-Nakamura Domain

Tosa-Shinden Domain

List of daimyō

Simplified genealogy of the Yamauchi ''daimyō'' of Tosa

See also

Notes

References