The Alternate Attendance System in Tokugawa Japan
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T A daimyo procession at Kasumigaseki in Edo. Utagawa Hiroshige II, 1863, public domain The Alternate Attendance System in Tokugawa Japan Not only did alternate attendance enable shoguns to exert their authority over regional lords, it had a profound political, social, economic and cultural impact on Tokugawa Japan. Sandra Wilson Academic Chair of History, Murdoch University Tokugawa Ieyasu came to power in Japan after more than regime assumed that the domainal lords who had 100 years of endemic fighting among warlord states and fought on the losing side at Sekigahara would continue samurai houses. The Tokugawa shoguns restored central to be hostile. Nor was there any guarantee that domains authority through a complex system of political, social that had supported Ieyasu would always be loyal to the and military controls, combining a central administration Tokugawa house. The daimyo, moreover, maintained based in Edo with about 250 semi-autonomous domains their own armies and collected their own taxes, and thus governed by daimyo (domainal lords). might present a serious threat to the Tokugawa shogunate (government), especially if several of them joined forces. The shoguns managed to retain power until the 1860s, but they remained vigilant over potential enemies and The shoguns exerted their authority over the daimyo by alert to signs of social and political instability. Ieyasu threatening to confiscate their land or transfer it to new had assumed power not through peaceful means but by domains, by controlling key marriages and succession, defeating his enemies in battle in 1600 at Sekigahara. and by other means as well. However, the single most He and his successors were acutely aware, especially important way they sought to control the daimyo was the during the seventeenth century, that they, too, could be system known as alternate attendance. overthrown. Based on much earlier but more limited practices, The Tokugawa shoguns sought to maintain peace alternate attendance was formalised and made and stability—thus cementing their own power—by considerably more comprehensive in the 1630s and controlling all segments of the population. The greatest 1640s, after which it remained essentially intact until danger, however, was posed by the daimyo. The new 1862.1 It required daimyo to: Sandra Wilson, 'The Alternate Attendance System in Tokugawa Japan,’ Agora 55:3 (2020), 23–27 agora 55:3 (2020) 23 T • travel from the provinces every second On the Road year according to a schedule in which The daimyo procession was essentially a they were assigned a specific time slot for military display, with samurai in service their journey to the daimyo marching along the roads to and from Edo. Many processions were • ‘attend’ the shogun’s court spectacular displays of the daimyo’s wealth • remain in Edo, usually for a year and power, which was signalled not only by the size of the military contingent but also • leave their wives and most of their by the splendour of the soldiers’ uniforms, children behind when they returned to the ornamentation of weapons, and the their domains. array of lacquered boxes bearing the The system of alternate attendance codified daimyo’s crest and containing costly gifts for and expanded older forms of feudal service the shogun as well as other goods. Daimyo owed by vassals (in this case, daimyo) to were also accompanied by large numbers their lords (shoguns). Essentially it was a of ancillary attendants, including personal 1 Regulations for daimyo form of military service required of daimyo servants, secretaries, poets, concubines, visits to the capital appear in return for the domains granted to them doctors, veterinarians, cooks and porters. in the 1615 ‘Laws of Military Lords might travel with a portable bathtub Households (Buke by the shogun, and the right to rule those shohatto),’ which lands. and toilet, and with their pets: all required established the people to carry them and care for them.4 fundamental rules for the The continued presence of family members whole military class. An While a normal retinue would consist of in the capital was a way of guaranteeing amendment to these laws, 150–300 people, major daimyo would be proclaimed in 1635, the good behaviour of the daimyo while accompanied by more than 1000 warriors institutionalised the system they were in the provinces, and again and servants. In the case of the large domain of alternate attendance. institutionalised and extended earlier Both documents appear in of Tosa, the retinue often numbered more practices. Family members were effectively Japan: A Documentary than 2000 people; Kaga, the biggest domain hostages—the wives of daimyo spent almost History, Vol. 1 —The Dawn of outside the Tokugawa family, had 3500 men History to the Late Tokugawa all of their married lives in Edo, and in 1802.5 Period, David J. Lu, ed. daughters of daimyo spent their whole lives (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, there.2 Many daimyo themselves were born 2015), 206–208. Because a daimyo knew he would travel and raised in Edo. 2 Constantine Nomikos along the route to Edo every other year, it Vaporis, Tour of Duty: was worth his while to spend money in his Samurai, Military Service in The daimyo paid all their own expenses own domain on roads, bridges and other Edo, and the Culture of Early on their journeys and in Edo. A hugely facilities. While this contributed to rural Modern Japan (Honolulu: expensive system, alternate attendance was development, it also depleted the daimyo’s University of Hawai’i Press, designed to drain the coffers of the daimyo, 2008), 1–2, 12–13. financial reserves. thus restricting their economic capacity 3 Constantine N. Vaporis, to threaten the shogun’s government, and Journeys from the more distant provinces ‘Lordly Pageantry: The keeping them under the eye of shogunate Daimyo Procession and could take a considerable amount of time. Political Authority,’ Japan officials. The procession to and from Tosa, in Shikoku, Review, 17 (2005): 34. might require a month each way.6 Along the Alternate attendance also functioned as a 4 Ibid., 16–17. road, the daimyo retinue spent money on ‘performance’ that underlined the authority food and water for the travellers and horses, 5 Constantine N. Vaporis, ‘To of the central government. Constantine Edo and Back: Alternate as well as on accommodation and luggage Attendance and Japanese Vaporis points to the contrast with the services. Culture in the Early Modern Queen’s royal progresses in Elizabethan Period,’ Journal of Japanese England (1558–1603). While Queen Elizabeth As people had to spend money across a large Studies, 23: 1 (1997), 29, 31; I displayed her authority when travelling geographical distance, daimyo processions James L. McClain, Japan: A Modern History (New York: around the country, the Japanese shogun contributed to the growth of a money W.W. Norton, 2002), 39. displayed his by staying in one place and economy in Japan (as opposed to barter or compelling others to travel to him.3 other forms of exchange), and to a reduction 6 Vaporis, Tour of Duty, 36. 24 55:3 (2020) agora T The 53 Stations of the Tokaido by Utagawa Hiroshige II (c. 1833–1834). This image is the first in the series, and depicts a procession led by standard-bearers setting out over the Nihonbashi bridge in Edo. Public Domain in the number of currencies. Some Life in Edo standardisation of the spoken language also The duties of the daimyo and his retainers resulted, as people had to make themselves once in Edo were not onerous: the main point understood to others who used a variety of was simply to be there, and to be seen to be at dialects. the command of the shogunate. The daimyo attended receptions and ceremonies at Edo On the major routes, specialist towns grew Castle, and engaged in gift-giving and other up to service the needs of travellers. These rituals. For instance, they might be required ‘post-stations’ provided lodging, stabling, to make a pilgrimage to the Tokugawa family food, medicines and entertainment. shrine at Nikko, or to the mausoleum of Effectively, they became tourist towns. By Hidetada (the second Tokugawa shogun) the late Tokugawa period there were 250 in the southern part of Edo. They could be such towns at intervals of 5–10 km along the obliged to provide retainers for guard duty around Edo Castle, to help protect Tokugawa main routes. On the most heavily travelled family temples from fire, to repair roads 7 Conrad Totman, Early road, the Tokaido, which ran from Kyoto to within the Tokugawa jurisdiction, or to Modern Japan (Berkeley: Edo, there were 179 post-stations.7 University of California carry out works on river banks under the Press, 1993), 154; Vaporis, direction of the shogunate. Retainers might Alternate attendance also promoted the Tour of Duty, 27. also be required to undertake tasks at their growth of the larger urban centres on the 8 Nakai Nobuhiko and James domain’s compounds.9 way to Edo, especially Osaka—one of Japan’s L. McClain, ‘Commercial Change and Urban Growth ‘three metropolises’ along with Kyoto Alternate attendance had an enormous in Early Modern Japan,’ in and Edo—through which many daimyo impact on the city of Edo, helping to Cambridge History of Japan, retinues passed. By the mid-seventeenth transform it from the castle town of a single Vol. 4, John Whitney Hall, ed. century, Osaka had become a major centre (Cambridge: Cambridge daimyo to the central city of Japan. Edo’s University Press, 1991), 559; of commerce and manufacturing. The city’s population had already been boosted by Totman, Early Modern Japan, rapid growth was prompted especially by the establishment there of the shogun’s 154; Vaporis, Tour of Duty, its emergence as the main rice market for government.