Han system

The han (藩 han) or domain is the Japanese historical term for the estate of a warrior after the 12th century or of a daimyo in the Edo period and early Meiji period.^[1]

History

In the Sengoku period, Hideyoshi Toyotomi caused a transformation of the han system. The feudal system based on land became an abstraction based on periodic cadastral surveys and projected agricultural yields.^[2]

In Japan, a feudal domain was defined in terms of projected annual income. This was different from the feudalism of the West. For example, early Japanologists like Appert and Papinot made a point of highlighting the annual koku yields which were allocated for the Shimazu clan at Satsuma Domain since the 12th century.^[3]

In 1690, the richest han was the Kaga Domain with slightly over 1 million koku.^[4] It was in Kaga, Etchu and Noto provinces.

Edo period

In the Edo period, the domains of daimyo are defined in terms of kokudaka, not land area.^[5] Imperial provincial subdivisions and shogunal domain subdivisions were complementary systems. For example, when the shogun ordered daimyo to make a census of its people or to make maps, the work was organized along the borders of the provincial kuni.^[6]

Meiji period

In the Meiji period from 1869 to 1871, the title of daimyo in the han system was han-chiji (藩知事) or chihanji (知藩事).^[7]

In 1871, almost all of the domains were disbanded; and the prefectures of Japan replaced the han system.^[1] At the same time, the Meiji government created the Ryūkyū Domain which existed from 1872 through 1879.^[8]

See also

• List of Han
• Abolition of the han system
• Han school

Notes

1. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Han" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 283.
2. Mass, Jeffrey P. and William B. Hauser. (1987). The Bakufu in Japanese History, p. 150.
3. Appert, Georges. (1888). "Shimazu" in Ancien Japon, pp. 77; compare Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon; Papinot, (2003). Nobiliare du Japon, p. 55; retrieved 2013-3-23.
4. Totman, Conrad. (1993). Early Modern Japan, p. 119.
5. Elison, George and Bardwell L. Smith (1987). Warlords, Artists, & Commoners: Japan in the Sixteenth Century, p. 17.
6. Roberts, Luke S. (2002). Mercantilism in a Japanese Domain: the merchant origins of economic nationalism in 18th-century Tosa, p. 6
7. Lebra, Takie S. (1995). Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility, p. 29
8. Matsumura, Wendy. (2007). Becoming Okinawan: Japanese Capitalism and Changing Representations of Okinawa, p. 38.

References

• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
• Totman, Conrad. (1993). Early Modern Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520080263; OCLC 246872663