Page 47 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

ated and elaborated system. In assigning domains care was taken to
reward the Tokugawa vassals and allies, and to ensure the docility and
loyalty of the tozama lords. Tozama daimyo like the Shimazu and Mori
who had fought against the Tokugawa at Sekigahara and Osaka were
physically separated from potential allies by loyal fudai. The bakufu re-
tained the power of confiscating domains, expropriating daimyo, or reas-
signing them. It used this power of attainder fiercely in the first fifty
years of the seventeenth century, in the process promoting Tokugawa
vassals within the system and displacing daimyo whose loyalty or admin-
istrative ability was questionable. The daimyo were bound by precedent
and regulation and surveillance over them was maintained through a
system of inspectors (metsuke). Daimyo families were forbidden to con-
sort with the imperial court or to arrange marriages with other daimyo
without approval of the bakufu. Major tozama daimyo houses were en-
couraged to take wives from the Tokugawa family or its loyal vassals.
From 1634 a system of leaving family members as hostages in Edo was
established and this was quickly expanded into a system of compulsory
alternate-year residence in Edo (sankin kótai).
The sankin kdtai system was one of the most characteristic fea-
tures of the joint bakufu-daimyo system. It had profound economic,
social, and cultural implications for the daimyo, their families, and their
domains. All daimyo were required to spend alternate years in Edo in
attendance upon the shogun. Even when they returned to their domains
they had to leave wives and other family members as hostages in Edo.
On a complicated schedule daimyo processions slowly wended their way
to and from Edo along the major roads of Japan. They were a frequent
sight, especially along the Tôkaidô, and provided the subjects of many
Edo-period prints, such as those depicting the Fifty-three stages of the
Tdkaido by Ando Hiroshige. Guards on the lookout for any sign of rebel-
liousness at the checkpoints along the routes were warned to watch for
"guns heading for Edo and women leaving." Bakufu regulations laid
down precisely, on the basis of the koku yield of each domain, how many
samurai and what kinds of accoutrements were to accompany each
daimyo procession.
The implications of this elaborate, ceremonial hostage system
were profound. In addition to their castles and administrative headquar-
ters in their han, each daimyo had to build, maintain, and staff several
residences (yashiki) in Edo. Since the daimyo's function in Edo was to
attend upon the shogun, or serve in the shogunal government, rigid
standards of dress and protocol had to be met, and domains, however
poor, had to keep up appearances or risk official displeasure. The enor-
mous costs of this system, with residences in the domain and in Edo and
the expense of a large entourage traveling ceremoniously between the
two—it took nearly two months for the Shimazu retinue to reach Edo—
all fell on the domains, and most heavily on the peasantry whose job it
was to produce the tax rice that supported the whole baku-han power
structure. In order to meet the huge ceremonial expenses of sankin kdtai,
domain administrations heavily taxed their peasants and even pared
down the stipends of their samurai. In many cases they went heavily into
debt with Osaka merchants, pledging future crops against loans to pay
for the expenses of sankin kôtai. Intentionally, or by design, the Toku-
gawa had developed an elaborate hostage system that also added dignity
to shogunal rule, drained many domains of resources that might other-
wise have been turned against the Tokugawa, and—by bringing daimyo
households into close proximity with one another in Edo—fostered so-
cial competition among daimyo that kept their attention away from
thoughts of war.
Sankin kdtai also contributed to the massive growth and to the

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