Page 34 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

forged. Over a century or so, from 1550 to 1650, the daimyo of the Age of
Wars, sengoku daimyo, became the daimyo of the age of unification
under Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Shokuhô daimyo) and
then the daimyo of the early modern era (kinsei daimyo). Before turning
to consider daimyo culture from the sixteenth century, let us look briefly
at some of the political and institutional changes that were taking place
in the character of the daimyo as Japan was brought back under central-
ized feudal control.
In the early sixteenth century more than 250 sengoku daimyo
domains existed in Japan, several to a single province. The political map
was constantly changing as these feudal lords enlarged their territories or
were swallowed up by their neighbors. Most of these sengoku daimyo
domains were created when one or more local warrior bands overthrew
the regional shugo. Their domains were not only smaller than those of
the shugo, but more tightly consolidated and rigidly controlled. Territory
had been acquired in battle and the area of territorial control generally
coincided with the daimyo's claim of political authority. The gap be-
tween legal and actual control was being reduced and it was becoming
impossible to lay claim to local authority unsupported by military power.
In the process the feudal lines of authority downward from the daimyo to
his vassals and the peasantry were tightened. Sengoku daimyo were inde-
pendent of central authority and had little respect for the Muromachi
shogunate and little contact with Kyoto. They thought of their territories
as "states" (kokka) and of themselves as the public authority (kôgï). Many
of them issued codes of regulations for their domains. Some, borrowing
an imperial prerogative, used their own private era names. Their princi-
pal justification for rule was that they brought law and order to their
domains. They rejected external sources of authority and absentee pro-
prietary rights in land, further impoverishing the bakufu as well as the
imperial court and the nobles.
The sengoku daimyo devoted himself to the total mobilization of
the domain for attack and defense. For most daimyo this meant fortify-
ing garrisons and castles, strengthening armies by forcing local warrior
families to accept vassalage and provide military service, moving vassals
from place to place to weaken local ties that might conflict with the
obedience of vassal to overlord, and taking hostages. To draw on the full
agrarian and commercial resources of the domain, daimyo dammed riv-
ers, built irrigation channels, surveyed land, established uniform weights
and measures, licensed merchants, set village quotas for taxes and mili-
tary services, and made villages responsible for self-administration. Land
was held either as direct domain or granted as fiefs to vassals in return for
service. Sengoku daimyo built castles and castle towns from which to
control their vassals and the villages that made up their landed base.
For these sengoku daimyo martial concerns were uppermost.
Many of them issued house codes or domain laws to remind themselves
and their successors of how to survive in an age of war. These codes
stressed constant readiness, the cultivation of a martial spirit, and atten-
tion to arms. Asakura Takakage (1428-1481) became shugo of Echizen in
1471. Like many other sengoku daimyo he devoted considerable attention
to the government of his domain and drafted a code of injunctions for
his son Ujikage to observe. In the seventeen articles of the code he
stressed centralized control by the daimyo, constant preparedness for
war, promotion of warriors on the basis of merit, frugality, impartial
enforcement of laws, an emphasis on rationality, and the encouragement
of indigenous domain culture:

Do not give a command post or an administrative position to anyone who lacks
ability, even if his family has served the Asakura family for generations

21