Alternate Attendance Parades in the Japanese Domain of Satsuma, Seventeenth to Eighteenth Centuries

This study examines the practice of 'alternate attendance' (sankin kōtai), in which the daimyo lords of Tokugawa Japan (1600-1868) marched with their retainers between their home territories and the shogunal capital of Edo, roughly once a year. Research on alternate attendance has focused...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Clements, Rebekah|||0000-0003-2597-0882
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:258446
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/258446
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1017/S0080440122000056
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Japan
Korea
Early modern
Imjin War
Alternate atendance
Descripción
Sumario:This study examines the practice of 'alternate attendance' (sankin kōtai), in which the daimyo lords of Tokugawa Japan (1600-1868) marched with their retainers between their home territories and the shogunal capital of Edo, roughly once a year. Research on alternate attendance has focused on the meaning of daimyo processions outside their domains (han), along Japan's highways and in the city of Edo. Here I argue that, even as daimyo embarked upon a journey to pay obeisance to the shogun, the ambiguous nature of sovereignty in early modern Japan meant that alternate attendance could also be used for a local agenda, ritually stamping the daimyo's territory with signs of his dominance, much like what has been highlighted in the study of royal processions in world history. I focus on the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, providing a case study of visits made by the Shimazu family, lords of Satsuma domain, to a village of Korean potters within their territory, whose antecedents had been brought as captives during the Imjin War of 1592-8. During daimyo visits, a relationship of mutual benefit and fealty between the Shimazu and the villagers was articulated through gift-giving, banqueting, dance and displays of local wares. This in turn was used to consolidate Shimazu power in their region.