The was a Japanese clan which was granted the area around
Matsumae, Hokkaidōis a town located in Matsumae District, Oshima, Hokkaidō, Japan. The former home of the Matsumae Han, it has an Edo period castle, Matsumae Castle, the only one in Hokkaidō.The total area of the town is .-Demographics:...
as a
march fiefMark and march refer to a border region similar to a frontier, such as the Welsh Marches, the borderland between England and Wales.In contrast to a buffer zone, a march could be dominated by a single given country, and rather than being demilitarized, it could be strongly fortified for defence...
in 1590 by
Toyotomi Hideyoshiwas a daimyo in the Sengoku period who unified Japan. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Sengoku period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, named after Hideyoshi's castle. He is noted for a number of cultural legacies, including the...
, and charged with defending it, and by extension all of Japan, from the
AinuThe are an indigenous ethnic group of Japan. Historically they spoke the Ainu language and related varieties and lived in Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin. Most of those who identify themselves as Ainu still live in this same region, though the exact number of living Ainu is...
'barbarians' to the north. Originally known as the Kakizaki clan, and claiming descendence from the Takeda of
Wakasa provincewas an old province of Japan in the area that is today southern Fukui Prefecture. It is also known as Reinan .The province's ancient capital was at Obama, which continued to be the main castle town through the Edo period.-Neighboring Provinces:...
, the family later took the name Matsumae. In exchange for their service in defending the country, the Matsumae were made exempt from owing rice to the
shogunateThe Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which now is called Tokyo...
in tribute, and from the
sankin kōtaiwas a policy of the shogunate during most of the Edo period of Japanese history. The purpose was to control the daimyo. In adopting the policy, the shogunate was continuing and refining similar policies of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In 1635, a law required sankin kōtai, which was already an established...
system, under which most
daimyois a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in premodern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
(feudal lords of
Edo periodThe , or , is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1868 and is the premodern era. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. The period ended with the Meiji Restoration, the...
Japan) were required to spend half the year at
Edo, literally: bay-door, "estuary", ), also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...
, while their families were, essentially, held hostage to prevent rebellion, spending the entire year at Edo.
Due to their location, and their role as border defenders, the Matsumae were the first Japanese to negotiate with
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
in any semi-official way.
The was a Japanese clan which was granted the area around
Matsumae, Hokkaidōis a town located in Matsumae District, Oshima, Hokkaidō, Japan. The former home of the Matsumae Han, it has an Edo period castle, Matsumae Castle, the only one in Hokkaidō.The total area of the town is .-Demographics:...
as a
march fiefMark and march refer to a border region similar to a frontier, such as the Welsh Marches, the borderland between England and Wales.In contrast to a buffer zone, a march could be dominated by a single given country, and rather than being demilitarized, it could be strongly fortified for defence...
in 1590 by
Toyotomi Hideyoshiwas a daimyo in the Sengoku period who unified Japan. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Sengoku period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, named after Hideyoshi's castle. He is noted for a number of cultural legacies, including the...
, and charged with defending it, and by extension all of Japan, from the
AinuThe are an indigenous ethnic group of Japan. Historically they spoke the Ainu language and related varieties and lived in Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin. Most of those who identify themselves as Ainu still live in this same region, though the exact number of living Ainu is...
'barbarians' to the north. Originally known as the Kakizaki clan, and claiming descendence from the Takeda of
Wakasa provincewas an old province of Japan in the area that is today southern Fukui Prefecture. It is also known as Reinan .The province's ancient capital was at Obama, which continued to be the main castle town through the Edo period.-Neighboring Provinces:...
, the family later took the name Matsumae. In exchange for their service in defending the country, the Matsumae were made exempt from owing rice to the
shogunateThe Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which now is called Tokyo...
in tribute, and from the
sankin kōtaiwas a policy of the shogunate during most of the Edo period of Japanese history. The purpose was to control the daimyo. In adopting the policy, the shogunate was continuing and refining similar policies of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In 1635, a law required sankin kōtai, which was already an established...
system, under which most
daimyois a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in premodern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
(feudal lords of
Edo periodThe , or , is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1868 and is the premodern era. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. The period ended with the Meiji Restoration, the...
Japan) were required to spend half the year at
Edo, literally: bay-door, "estuary", ), also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...
, while their families were, essentially, held hostage to prevent rebellion, spending the entire year at Edo.
Due to their location, and their role as border defenders, the Matsumae were the first Japanese to negotiate with
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
in any semi-official way. They might very well have been the first Japanese to meet Russians at all, within Japanese territory. In 1778, a merchant from
YakutskYakutsk is a city in the Russian Far East, located about 4° below the Arctic Circle. It is the capital of the Sakha Republic , Russia and a major port on the Lena River. It is served by Yakutsk Airport as well as the smaller Magan Airport...
by the name of
Pavel Lebedev-LastoschkinPavel Sergeyevich Lebedev-Lastochkin was a Russian merchant from Yakutsk who, in the late 18th century, became one of the first Russians to make contact with the Japanese...
arrived in Hokkaidō with a small expedition. He offered gifts, and politely asked to trade. The Matsumae official tried to explain that he had no authority to agree to trade on behalf of the shogun and that they should come back the following year. The following September, the Russians did just that, according to some accounts misinterpreting what had been said, and expecting to trade. Their gifts were returned to them, they were forbidden to return to the island, and were advised that foreign trade was only allowed at Nagasaki, a port on the southern-most of Japan's home islands. In 1790, a massive earthquake struck Hokkaidō, and a forty-two-foot
tsunamiA is a series of water waves that is caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, such as an ocean. The original Japanese term literally translates as "harbor wave." Tsunamis are a frequent occurrence in Japan; approximately 195 events have been recorded...
lifted the Russian ship out of the sea, depositing it a quarter-mile inland. The merchant Lebedev thus gave up on Hokkaidō.
Kakizaki HakyōKakizaki Hakyo was a samurai artist from the Matsumae clan. His first success was a group of 12 portraits called the Ishu Retsuzo. The portraits were of 12 Ainu chiefs from the northern area of Ezo, now Hokkaido...
painted the
Ishū Retsuzō, a series of portraits of Ainu chiefs, in order to prove to the Japanese populace that the Matsumae were capable of controlling the northern borders and the Ainu. The 12 paintings of Ainu chiefs were displayed in 1791 in Kyoto.
At roughly the same time, in 1789,
FinnishFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
professor Erik Laxman, of the Russian Academy of Sciences, came across several Japanese castaways in
IrkutskIrkutsk is one of the largest cities in Siberia and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, situated by rail from Moscow. Population: -History:...
. Like several other Japanese before them, they had been found in the
AleutiansThe Aleutian Islands are a chain of more than 300 small volcanic islands forming part of the Aleutian Arc in the Northern Pacific Ocean, occupying an area of 6,821 sq mi and extending about westward from the Alaska Peninsula toward the Kamchatka Peninsula...
, off the coast of
AlaskaAlaska is the largest state of the United States of America by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, by Russian sailors and had asked to be brought back to Japan. Like those before them, these castaways had been transported instead across
SiberiaSiberia , is the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the USSR from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the...
on their way to
St. PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd and Leningrad...
. Laxman saw this as an opportunity to work towards the opening of Japan, and suggested this to Catherine the Great who agreed. In 1791 she appointed the professor's son, Lt.
Adam LaxmanAdam Kirillovich Laxman Finland-Swedish military officer and one of the first Russian subjects to set foot in Japan. A lieutenant in the Imperial Russian military, he was commissioned to lead an expedition to Japan in 1791, returning two Japanese castaways to their home country in exchange for...
, to command the voyage to return these castaways to Japan, and to open discussions of a trade agreement.
The expedition reached Hokkaidō in October of 1792, and found the Japanese surprisingly hospitable. The Russians were allowed to spend the winter, and their forms were sent to the
bakufu in Edo. However, Professor Laxman insisted on bringing the castaways to Edo, and that he would sail there himself even against the Shogun's desires. The
bakufu sent an envoy to the Matsumae, requesting that the Russians make their way to the town of Matsumae by land; sensing a trap, the Russians refused, and were eventually allowed to make port in Hakodate, escorted by a Japanese vessel. They were given a guest house near Matsumae castle, and were, unusually, allowed their Western customs (they did not deny their Christianity, remove their boots indoors, nor bow to the Shogun's envoys), with little or no negative repercussions. They were given by the Japanese envoys three swords and a hundred bags of rice.
They were informed that the Shogun's rules remained unchangeable: foreigners could trade at Nagasaki only, if they came unarmed. All other ships would be subject to seizure. Due to his purposes in returning castaways, Laxman was granted a pardon in this instance, but he refused to relinquish the castaways until given something in writing answering his request for trade. The envoys returned three days later with a document, restating the rules regarding trade at Nagasaki, and the laws against the practice of Christianity in
TokugawaThe Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which now is called Tokyo...
Japan. The Russians never did establish any regular system of trade at Nagasaki, and historians today still disagree as to whether the document given to Professor Laxman was an invitation to trade, or an evasive maneuver on the part of the shogunate.
Since the Matsumae land was a march, a frontier land used as the border defense against the Ainu, the remainder of Hokkaidō, then called
Ezois a Japanese name which historically referred to the lands to the north of Japan. It was used in various different senses, sometimes meaning the northern Japanese island of Hokkaidō, and sometimes meaning lands and waters further north in the Sea of Okhotsk...
, essentially became an Ainu reservation. Although Japanese influence and control over the Ainu gradually grew stronger over the centuries, at that time, they were left to their own devices and were not considered part of Japanese territory by the shogunate. It was only during the
Meiji RestorationThe , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution or Renewal, was a chain of events that led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure...
in the late 19th century that the march was dissolved and Hokkaidō formally annexed by Japan.
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