Comparison of Weights, Measures, and Currency 177 (Tsuno Edition)

Greetings, I am Tsuno Miyake. This is a continuation of the comparison of weights and measures.

During the Edo period, there were nearly 300 daimyo in the provinces, exercising a certain degree of autonomy under the Tokugawa shogunate as their suzerain. In history, the territories and administrative structures they governed are called "han" (domains). Like the shogunate, the various domains actively carried out domain reforms to adapt to the changing times and escape financial crises. Since we looked at the Kubota Domain in northern Dewa last time, let's look at the various domains of southern Dewa this time.

◆Mogami◆

◆Upper◆

Mogami Yoshiaki

Southern Dewa—the present-day Yamagata Prefecture—is broadly divided into four regions: the Shonai Domain (138,000 koku) in the northwestern Shonai region (Shonai Plain); the Shinjo Domain (60,000 koku) in the northeastern Mogami region (Shinjo Basin); the Yamagata Domain (which shrank from 570,000 to 240,000, 150,000, 100,000, and finally 50,000 koku) and the Kaminoyama Domain (40,000 to 30,000 koku) in the eastern Murayama region (Yamagata Basin); and the Yonezawa Domain (300,000 to 150,000 koku) in the southeastern Okitama region (Yonezawa Basin). There were other branch domains and small domains, as well as many territories under the direct control of the shogunate, but there are historical reasons for this.

During the Northern and Southern Courts period, the Ashikaga shogunate appointed the Osaki clan, a branch of the Shiba clan (which was a branch of the Ashikaga themselves), as the Oshu Kanrei (Oshu Tandai) and dispatched them to the Mutsu provincial government. A cadet branch entered Yamagata in Mogami District of Dewa Province (before the Taiko Kenchi, the Yamagata Basin was roughly equivalent to Mogami District), took the name Mogami clan, and inherited the position of Dewa Ansatushi (Ushu Tandai). During the Sengoku period, they weakened due to conflicts with the Date clan, who had advanced from Date District in Oshu to Okitama District in Dewa, but Mogami Yoshiaki pacified the local warriors of Mogami District to expand his power, and also fought with Date Masamune and Uesugi Kagekatsu over territory. However, Kagekatsu occupied the Shonai region.

Later, he submitted to Hideyoshi and was confirmed in his original territory. He made his daughter, Komahime, a concubine of Hideyoshi's nephew, Hidetsugu, but when Hidetsugu was executed by Hideyoshi, Komahime was also executed, and her mother died of grief. Yoshiaki kept his distance from Hideyoshi and approached Ieyasu, siding with Ieyasu and fighting against Kagekatsu in the Aizu Conquest and the Battle of Dewa in the 5th year of Keicho (1600). As a result, after the war, he was recognized as a great daimyo of 570,000 koku in southern Dewa, including Shonai, and he worked for good governance by developing Yamagata Castle, Sakata Port, Tsurugaoka Castle, and the Mogami River. Kagekatsu lost Echigo, Sado, Aizu, and Shonai, and was transferred from a great daimyo of 1.2 million koku to 300,000 koku in Yonezawa, Dewa, and other areas.

However, the heir, Yoshiyasu, fell out with Yoshiaki and was assassinated by someone. After Yoshiaki's death, his second son, Iechika, succeeded him but died suddenly. His son, Ienobu, was too young and did not have the support of the retainers, so Yoshiaki's fourth son, Mitsushige, was about to be supported by the retainers. The shogunate took the situation seriously and attempted mediation, but the retainers refused to accept Ienobu as the domain lord, so in the 8th year of Genna (1622), the Mogami clan's Yamagata Domain was confiscated, and Ienobu was renamed Yoshi-toshi and transferred to Omi, Mikawa, and other areas with a reduction to 10,000 koku. His son, Yoshitomo, had his 5,000 koku of land in Mikawa and other areas stripped away, falling from a daimyo to a hatamoto, and continued until the end of the Edo period.

The Mogami clan's former territory was divided into four. The Sakai clan, hereditary vassals of the Tokugawa, entered the Shonai region, made Tsurugaoka Castle their residence, and established the Shonai Domain. The Tozawa clan, who had been transferred from Kakunodate in Dewa Senboku to Matsuoka in Hitachi, entered Mogami District and established the Shinjo Domain. The Torii clan, hereditary vassals of the Tokugawa, entered Yamagata Castle and established the Yamagata Domain, and the Nomi Matsudaira clan entered Kaminoyama Castle and established the Kaminoyama Domain. Among these, the Yamagata and Kaminoyama domains frequently changed lords and had their koku values reduced, but the Shonai and Shinjo domains continued until the end of the Edo period as they were when they first entered.

The various domains of southern Dewa were connected by the Mogami River, and at its mouth were the Shonai Plain and Sakata Port. Therefore, Shonai was the wealthiest and most prosperous, and during the Edo period, Sakata became the starting point for the Kitamaebune and the western sea route, becoming one of Japan's leading commercial cities.

Tsuruoka Sakata

The Shonai Plain spreads out at the mouth of the Mogami River, which runs through Yamagata Prefecture, and opens toward the Sea of Japan. For this reason, it has long flourished as a key point of transportation, connected to the inland areas by river and to Tsugaru, Hokuriku, Kinai, and the western provinces by sea. In the Nara period, the Dewa Palisade / Joro Palisade and Dewa District were established, and later the area south of the Mogami River was divided into Dewa District and Tagawa District, and the area north into Akumi District. However, Dewa District was absorbed into Tagawa District during the medieval period and disappeared.

In the Heian period, imperial estates were formed, such as the Yusa Manor in Akumi District and the Oizumi Manor in the Akagawa basin of Tagawa District. After the fall of the Oshu Fujiwara clan, the Muto clan was sent in as land stewards (jito) by the Kamakura shogunate. The Muto clan called themselves the Oizumi clan, and then took the name Daihoji clan from Daihoji Castle (later Tsurugaoka Castle), which they used as the base for their manor. Later, when the Hojo regents and the Uesugi clan became the land stewards of Oizumi Manor, they became their deputies, strengthened their ties with the Muromachi shogunate, and were even granted the official rank of Dewa no Kami and a character from his name by Ashikaga Yoshimasa. The sphere of influence of this Daihoji clan came to be called "Sho no Uchi," or Shonai.

During the Sengoku period, the Daihoji clan allied with the Echigo Uesugi clan to oppose the Mogami clan, but they were confiscated the year after the Oshu Shioki for the crime of inciting an uprising, and Shonai became the territory of Uesugi Kagekatsu. After the Battle of Dewa, when Uesugi Kagekatsu was transferred with a reduction in territory, it became the territory of the Mogami clan as mentioned above, but when the Mogami clan was confiscated, the Sakai clan entered and the Shonai Domain was established. The Sakai clan had their ancestral home in Sakai-go in western Mikawa and were senior hereditary vassals who had served the Matsudaira and Tokugawa clans for generations, so they were sent as a key point in Ou to keep the Kubota and Sendai domains in check, with their loyalty expected, just like the Torii and Nomi Matsudaira clans. In fact, the shogunate allowed the Shonai Domain to keep Kamegasaki Castle (Tozenji Castle), which Mogami Yoshiaki had developed in Sakata.

The Shonai Domain's official koku value was 138,000 koku, but when the Sakai clan conducted a land survey in the 9th year of Genna, an increase of over 53,000 koku was expected, and later the official value was increased to 140,000 koku. Furthermore, through the development of new rice fields, the actual yield reached 300,000 koku, and they prospered by shipping rice to Osaka and Edo through Sakata Port.

However, from the 7th year of Kyoho (1722), the price of rice fell, and the Shonai Domain's finances tilted due to the impact of a famine that had occurred two years prior. The district magistrate, Kitadate Sukejiro, carried out large-scale domain reforms, such as cutting the domain's budget by 30% (later by half), and restored the domain's finances, but in the 4th year of Genbun (1739), he was ordered to assist with the construction of the Nikko Toshogu Shrine, and the finances began to tilt again. The following year, expenses were forced upon them by the Shogun Yoshimune's procession to Kyoto, and when the domain lord, Tada-yori, was promoted to Roju in the 2nd year of Kan'en (1749), those activity expenses were also required, and with the Sakata Great Fire and the Horeki Famine following, the domain's finances fell into a critical state.

By the time of Tada-yori's grandson, Tada-nori, the debt had swelled to over 200,000 ryo, to the point where they could not even afford the expenses to return to their home domain from Edo. Therefore, at the suggestion of the chief retainer, Mizuno Shigemasa, Honma Mitsuoka was appointed and entrusted with the financial reconstruction of the Shonai Domain. What kind of person was he?

Honma Mitsuoka

The Honma clan was originally a samurai family from Sagami Province, and they became the Sado Shugo-dai (deputy military governor) during the Kamakura period, holding power in Sado for 300 years until they were suppressed by Uesugi Kagekatsu. A branch family settled in Sakata and became townspeople, and in the 2nd year of Genroku (1689), the first generation, Hara Mitsu, opened the Niigata-ya in Honcho, Sakata, engaging in a wide range of businesses such as dyeing, hardware, and sundries. The third son of his son, Kushiro Mitsumoto, was called Kosaku (commonly known as Kusaku, later Sokyu), who was born in the 9th year of Kyoho (1724), broadened his knowledge in Edo, and made a profit of several tens of thousands of ryo by speculating on the rice market in Sakata.

Mitsuoka was born at the end of the 17th year of Kyoho (1733) as the second son of Kosaku's older brother, Shogoro Mitsuhisa. His childhood name was Kuji, later Tomojiro and Kushiro, and in the 3rd year of Kan'en (1750), at the age of 18, he was sent to work as a clerk for Naraya Gonbei in Himeji, Banshu, to learn business. His father passed away in the 4th year of Horeki (1754), and he returned to Sakata to inherit the family estate.

During the Horeki Famine that occurred shortly after, he donated 100 bales of rice to save the destitute, and in the 8th year of Horeki (1758), he began a project to plant sand-arresting forests on the west beach of Sakata. He was also involved in the finances of the Edo domain residence, and in the 12th year of Horeki (1762), he was appointed as a Sakata town elder (head of town officials), and in the 14th year of Horeki/1st year of Meiwa (1764), he donated 1,000 ryo of gold to the domain and became the head of the domain lord's pages, being permitted to use the interest for repairs to the castle and the domain lord's family temple. The following year, the 2nd year of Meiwa (1765), he was granted a crest-patterned kimono and 500 hiki of gold by the domain lord, Tada-yori, and was permitted an audience. The following year, Tada-yori passed away, and Tada-nori succeeded him at the age of 13.

In the 4th year of Meiwa (1767), the 35-year-old Mitsuoka was granted samurai status and became a page-rank official, and the following year he was ordered to oversee the construction of the Sakata and Tsuruoka castles, donated 24,000 bales of stored rice (famine relief rice), and was granted a stipend of 500 koku and 30 retainers. In the 4th year of An'ei (1775), at the age of 44, he was appointed to manage the domain's finances, and when he was entrusted with the full-scale reconstruction of the domain's finances, Mitsuoka planned and executed a debt repayment plan, taking over the debts of domain retainers and farmers and refinancing them with low-interest loans from the Honma family. He also made estimates of regular income, cut unnecessary expenses such as reducing expenditures at the Edo domain residence, and had stored rice systematically stocked within the domain in preparation for famine. As a result, the domain's finances recovered in six years to the point of having a surplus, and there were no starvation deaths even during the Great Tenmei Famine.

Around this time, Kosaku, now known as Honma Sokyu, made a huge profit selling Sakata rice in Edo and even began lending money to various daimyo, and he reconciled with Mitsuoka and made the Niigata-ya prosperous. Furthermore, the Niigata-ya used the profits it earned to purchase land and increase its assets, becoming a great millionaire comparable to the Mitsui and Sumitomo families. The assets Mitsuoka inherited from the previous generation were 1,000 ryo in cash and 350 bales of rice fields, but in his generation alone, his cash increased to 130,000 ryo, his rice fields increased to 16,000 bales, and he also had 54,781 ryo in loans and 50,000 kan of silver. For this reason, it was sung at the time that "Sakata shines, Dojima is cloudy, and Edo's warehouse rice is raining," and because he was wealthier than a daimyo, the song "I cannot reach the level of Honma-sama, but I would at least like to become a lord" became popular.

Kansei Reforms

In the 8th year of Tenmei (1788), the Shonai Domain was ordered by the Shogunate to carry out renovation work on the Fuji, Oi, and Abe rivers in Suruga Province, but Mitsuoka borrowed funds from wealthy merchants in Osaka to handle the matter. Also, when he was ordered to guard the north in the 4th year of Kansei (1792), Mitsuoka donated 10 cannons for coastal defense. However, due to this, the domain's finances began to deteriorate again during the Kansei era, and they ended up carrying a debt of 100,000 ryo.

Matsudaira Sadanobu, who led the Kansei Reforms, reprimanded him, saying, "Mitsuoka is using low-interest loans to keep farmers in debt, accumulating land, and seeking private profit," and also caused Mizuno Shigemasa to fall from power. This was natural, as the main focus of Sadanobu's reforms was to return farmers who had lost their land due to debt to their farmland. Therefore, the Shonai Domain carried out reforms centered on Takeuchi Hachiroemon, exempted the repayment of loans (Tokuseirei), and gave the fallen farmers allowance rice and public land to return to their farmland. They also made it mandatory for wealthy farmers to submit stored rice, which served as a source of funds to save farmers during famines. As a result, the rural villages were revitalized, tax revenue stabilized, and the domain's finances recovered. In June of the 1st year of Kyowa (1800), Honma Mitsuoka, having seen this through, ended his life at the age of 70.

In the 2nd year of Bunka (1805), the Shonai Domain lord, Sakai Tada-nori, retired, and his son, Tada-ari, succeeded him at the age of 16. When Takeuchi Hachiroemon fell from power in the 6th year of Bunka (1809), Tada-ari appointed Mitsuoka's eldest son, Mitsumichi, and entrusted him with the finances. Mitsumichi used his private assets to help the domain's people in response to the Sakata Great Fire and earthquake in the 1st year of Bunka (1804), and was active in building Honma ships to trade with Ezo in the 5th year of Bunka (1808), supporting the Shonai Domain's finances until he retired in the 8th year of Bunsei (1825).

◆Saka◆

◆ta◆

[To be continued]

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