Land and lordship in early modern Japan / Mark Ravina.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ravina, Mark, 1961-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Japan--Politics and government--1600-1868.

Japan.

Yonezawa-han (Japan)--Politics and government.

Yonezawa-han (Japan).

Tokushima-han (Japan)--Politics and government.

Tokushima-han (Japan).

Hirosaki-han (Japan)--Politics and government.

Hirosaki-han (Japan).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (294 p.)

Place of Publication:

Stanford, Calif. : Standford University Press, 1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Examining local politics in three Japanese domains (Yonezawa, Tokushima, and Hirosaki), this book shows how warlords (daimyo) and their samurai adapted the theory and practice of warrior rule to the peacetime challenges of demographic change and rapid economic growth in the mid-Tokugawa period. The author has a dual purpose. The first is to examine the impact of shogunate/domain relations on warlord legitimacy. Although the shogunate had supreme power in foreign and military affairs, it left much of civil law in the hands of warlords. In this civil realm, Japan resembled a federal union (or “compound state”), with the warlords as semi-independent sovereigns, rather than a unified kingdom with the shogunate as sovereign. The warlords were thus both vassals of the shogun and independent lords. In the process of his analysis, the author puts forward a new theory of warlord legitimacy in order to explain the persistence of their autonomy in civil affairs. The second purpose is to examine the quantitative dimension of warlord rule. Daimyo, the author argues, struggled against both economic and demographic pressures. It is in these struggles that domains manifested most clearly their autonomy, developing distinctive regional solutions to the problems of protoindustrialization and peasant depopulation. In formulating strategies to promote and control economic growth and to increase the peasant population, domains drew heavily on their claims to semisovereign authority and developed policies that anticipated practices of the Meiji state.

Contents:

Front matter

Acknowledgments

Contents

Tables and Figures

Maps

Abbreviations

A Note to the Reader

Introduction

1 Land and Lordship: Ideology and Political Practice in Early Modern Japan

2 The Nerves of the State: The Political Economy of Daimyo Rule

3 Profit and Propriety: Political Economy in Yonezawa

4 Land and Labor: Political Economy in Hirosaki

5 Markets and Mercantilism: Political Economy in Tokushima

Conclusion

Appendix

Glossary

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [255]-269) and index.

ISBN:

0-8047-6386-0

OCLC:

70769317