The was a
feudal domain of Japan during the
Edo period (1603-1867) occupying the whole of modern day
Yamaguchi Prefecture. The domain played a major role in the
Late Tokugawa shogunate. It is also known as the .
History
The rulers of Chōshū Han were the descendants of the great
Sengoku warlord
Mōri Motonari. Mōri Motonari was able to extend his power over all of the
Chūgoku region of
Japan and occupied a territory worth 1,200,000 koku. After he died, his grandson and heir
Mōri Terumoto became
daimyo and implemented a strategy of alliance with
Toyotomi Hideyoshi. This would later prove to be a great mistake. After Hideyoshi's death, the
daimyo Tokugawa Ieyasu challenged the Toyotomi power and battled with Hideyoshi's trusted advisor
Ishida Mitsunari at the
Battle of Sekigahara. Mōri Terumoto was the most powerful ally of the Toyotomi and was elected by a council of Toyotomi royalists 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 nephew Kikkawa Hiroie secretly made a deal with Tokugawa Ieyasu resulting in the inactivity of 15,000 Mōri soldiers during the battle.
- His adopted nephew Kobayakawa Hideaki and his 15,600 soldiers betrayed Ishida's force and joined the Tokugawa side.
- After assurances from Tokugawa Ieyasu, Mōri Terumoto gave up the formidable Osaka castle without a fight.
Despite its inactivity, the Mōri clan was removed from its ancestral home in
Aki to
Nagato Province (also known as Chōshū), and its holdings were drastically reduced from 1,200,000 to 369,000
koku.
thumb|100px|Color of Chōshū army at Boshin war.
This was seen as a great act of betrayal to the Mōri clan, and Chōshū han 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 has come, to which the daimyo would reply: "Not yet, the shogunate is still too powerful."
thumb|left|The Chōshū [[Kiheitai fought against the
Bakufu in the
Second Chōshū expedition and the
Boshin war.]]
This dream would eventually be realized some 260 years later, when the domain joined forces with the
Satsuma Domain and sympathetic
court nobles to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate. They also led the fight against the armies of the former shogun, as well as the
Ouetsu Reppan Domei,
Aizu, and the
Ezo Republic, during the
Boshin War. The domains' military forces of 1867 through 1869 also formed the foundation for the
Imperial Japanese Army. Thanks to this alliance, Chōshū and Satsuma natives enjoyed political and societal prominence well into the
Meiji and even
Taishō periods.
Economics
The initial reducing of 1.2 million to 369,000
koku resulted in a large shortfall in terms of military upkeep and infrastructure maintenance. In order to bring the domain's finance 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 in which the profitable trade of the "four white"s were controlled by the domain: paper, rice, salt and wax. Some of the profits, and a large amount of the tax revenues 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
Edo period. 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:
During the Edo period, the main branch died out twice and heirs were adopted from both the Chōfu branch and 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, 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 was promoted to karō by the daimyo. One such person was the great reformer Murata Seifu.
List of Daimyo
