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Samurai Movies (12)

December 9, 2021

The Tokugawa Shogunate separated the 270 hans (clan/domain) into two groups and made those groups come and stay for a year (and go back) by turns. So in the Edo period, half of the daimyos stayed in Edo every time. Every other year, about 135 hans of the 270 hans made a march to Edo, and one year later, they made a march from Edo to their own han. He couldn't get a correct number of people (and horses) of a parade, but he had read that a big parade consisted of a thousand people. For samurai in that era, pride seemed to be the first priority. Maybe it included vanity. Retainers might have thought, "Oh, that han's 'kago' (palanquin) of the lord is more gorgeous than ours. Their horses look more robust. Their march is longer and more orderly than ours." and they would want to improve theirs own. On the way to Edo with 'sankin-kotai', each han would normally have to go through other hans' domains, so those citizens would naturally see those parades and they would form a certain reputation about each han's parade: which was gorgeous, which was shabby. The Tokugawa Shogunate once sent a message to each han not to make their parade too showy.   For 'sankin-kotai' and other parades, the Tokugawa Shogunate asked each han to improve and well maintain the main roads of each han. For example, there was a road from Edo to his han, it was called 'Oshu-kaido'. It was about 550 km from the center of Edo to the castle of his han. There were more than 10 hans between his han and Edo. Those hans widened the roads, made new bridges, etc. The Tokugawa Shogunate also asked to set road points every 4 kilometers, it was called 'ichi-ri-zuka'. 'Ichi' means 1, 'ri' means 4 km, and 'zuka/tsuka' means a mound. 'Ichi-ri-zuka' is regularly a big round shaped mound which had some pine trees. In his city, there remains that shape of 'ichi-ri-zuka' in front of a shopping center in one of the suburbs. The explanation board reads that it was constructed in 1910. It was the 140th 'ichi-ri-zuka' from Edo. Because of 'sankin-kotai', there were a lot of samurai who left their han and lived in Edo. A researcher said that the population of Edo was about 1 million, and about 50% of them were samurai, their families, and their workers; 25% were merchants, their families, and their workers; and, another 25% were craftsmen, their family, and their workers. One book gave an example about the number of samurai from a han. In a han of 240,000 koku, they had 3,200 retainers in Edo. With this rate, for a han of 10,000 koku, there would be about 130 retainers. His han was 200,000 koku. The book also stated that those samurai could be divided into two types: (1)those who came from their home han. They would normally be single, not married; and, (2)those who had been living in Edo for a long time, they had their families. Samurai were men, so because of this Edo was called 'men's city'. There were two types of residences for each han, a 'kami-yashiki', meaning an upper residence, and a 'shimo-yashiki', meaning a lower residence. In 'Kami-yashiki', the lord and his family would live. The 'shimo-yashiki' was used for political hospitalities. In his han's case, the 'shimo-yashiki was about 90,000�u. In there, there were several beautiful buildings and a gorgeous garden. They used this area in order to invite important people from the Tokugawa Shogunate and each han. Politics with the Tokugawa Shogunate was very important for each han, if they failed, they would be severely punished. Living in Edo, along with the political intricacies, took a lot of money from each han. A researcher said that in some hans', the yearly consumption rate in Edo was over 50% of those hans' yearly incomes from their land.   (To be continued ...)

No.458



*vanity :虚栄心
*robust :強健な
*orderly :整然とした
*hospitality :もてなし
*intricacy :込み入った事柄
*consumption :消費