Matsumae Domain

Overview

The Matsumae Domain (松前藩, まつまえはん, Matsumae-han) was a Japanese domain (藩, はん, han — a hereditary territory governed by a lord under the Tokugawa shogunate) of the Edo period (1603–1868). It was established in 1604, the ninth year of the Keichō era (慶長, けいちょう), and abolished in 1871. Its seat was at Matsumae in Oshima Province (渡島国, おしまのくに), the southwestern peninsula of what is now Hokkaido. The domain's headquarters were Matsumae Castle and, later, Tate Castle.

The Matsumae Domain is unusual among Edo-period domains in two respects. It lay far to the north of the Japanese heartland, on the island then called Ezo (蝦夷, えぞ) and now known as Hokkaido. And its wealth came not from rice agriculture, the measure by which most domains were assessed, but from exclusive trade with the Ainu (アイヌ), the indigenous people of the northern islands.

History

The domain was founded in 1604, when the Matsumae clan's authority over the Oshima Peninsula was formally recognised. The clan built Matsumae Fukuyama Castle (松前福山城, まつまえふくやまじょう) at Matsumae, and from this base took the name Fukuyama for the castle and its line. The domain's original jurisdiction covered only the Wajin (和人, わじん — ethnic Japanese) settlements on the Oshima Peninsula. Over the following two centuries the Matsumae extended their control across the wider Ezo region, turning it into their domain.

In 1868, at the very end of the Edo period, the castle was relocated to Tate Castle (館城, たてじょう) at Assabu in Hiyama District, within the domain's territory. In the Meiji period the domain was known as Tatehan (館藩, たてはん). The domain was abolished in 1871, when the new Meiji government replaced the domains with prefectures.

Territory and Influence

The Matsumae Domain sat at the northern edge of the Japanese political world, in Oshima Province on the Oshima Peninsula. Its capital was Matsumae. The domain's economy rested on exclusive trade with the Ainu of Ezo, rather than on the agricultural base that underpinned the shogunate's system of governance elsewhere in Japan. This commercial footing set the Matsumae apart from domains whose value was reckoned in rice yield.

The domain's relationship with the shogunate was correspondingly distinctive. Towards the end of the Edo period, the shogunate frequently assumed direct control over Ezo, taking the region out of Matsumae hands. The domain's reach thus expanded and contracted with the shogunate's own northern policy.

The Name in Japanese

The domain's name is written 松前藩 and read まつまえはん (Matsumae-han). It breaks down into three kanji:

• 松 — read matsu here; meaning "pine tree".
• 前 — read mae here; meaning "front" or "before". In this name the second element of matsu and the mae of the place-name combine as 松前, Matsumae, the name of the town and the clan.
• 藩 — read han; meaning "domain", the territory of a daimyō (大名, だいみょう, a lord holding land directly under the shogun). The character originally referred to a fence or enclosure, and by extension to a defended territory.

The place name Matsumae is written with the characters for "pine" and "front". The domain's alternative name, Tatehan (館藩, たてはん), takes its first element from Tate Castle (館城), the seat adopted in 1868; 館 (read tate here) means a mansion or fortified residence.

Legacy

The Matsumae Domain marks the northern frontier of the Edo-period domain system. Its seat at Matsumae, in what is now Matsumae Town in Matsumae District, Hokkaido, preserves the castle name Fukuyama and the memory of the clan that governed the Oshima Peninsula from 1604. The domain's reliance on Ainu trade rather than rice, and the shogunate's repeated assumption of control over Ezo in the closing decades of the Edo period, together trace the shift by which the north passed from domain rule into the hands of the central government. When the domains were abolished in 1871, the Matsumae Domain — by then known as Tatehan — closed a history of more than two and a half centuries at the edge of the Japanese realm.