Kyoto Shoshidai

The Kyoto Shoshidai (京都所司代, Kyōto Shoshidai) was an important administrative and political office in the early modern government of Japan.[1] However, the significance and effectiveness of the office is credited to the third Tokugawa shōgun, Iemitsu, who developed these initial creations as bureaucratic elements in a consistent and coherent whole.[2]

Matsudaira Sadaaki in Western uniform during the Bakumatsu period as the last Kyoto Shoshidai from 1864 to 1867.

Shogunal deputies during the Kamakura shogunate

The official was the personal representative of the military dictators Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi; and it was institutionalized as the representative of the Tokugawa shōguns.[3]

The office was similar to the Rokuhara Tandai of the 13th and 14th centuries. Tandai was the name given to governors or chief magistrates of important cities under the Kamakura shogunate. The office became very important under the Hōjō regents and was always held by a trusted member of the family.[4]

Shogunal deputies during the Tokugawa shogunate

The office was expanded and its duties codified as an office in the Tokugawa shogunate. The shoshidai, usually chosen from among the fudai daimyōs, was the shōgun's deputy in the Kyoto region, and was responsible for maintaining good relations and open communication between the shogunate and the imperial court.[5] No less important, this official was also tasked with controlling the access of the daimyōs to the Court. He was appointed to oversee financial measures and the court, and to ensure the emperor's personal security and for guarding the safety of the court.[6] For example, the shoshidai supported the Kyoto magistrate or municipal administrator (the machi-bugyō) in making positive policy about firefighting for the royal palaces.[7] In this context, working with the shoshidai would have been the administrator of the reigning sovereign's court (the kinri-zuki bugyō)[8] and the administrator of the ex-emperor's court (the sendō-zuki bugyō), both of whom would have been shogunate appointees.[9] He would have been at the head of a network of spies whose quiet task was to discover and report any covert sources of sedition, insurrection or other kinds of unrest.[10]

As Governor-general of Kyoto and the surrounding eight provinces,[9] the shoshidai was responsible for collecting taxes in the home provinces and for other duties attached to this office as well.[11] The municipal administrators of Nara and Fushimi, in addition to Kyoto's municipal governance, the Kyoto deputy (the daikan), and the officials of the Nijō Palace were all subordinate to the shoshidai. He was empowered to hear suits-at-law and he had oversight control of all temples and shrines.[6] The shoshidai had a force of constables (yoriki) and policemen (dōshin)[12] under their command.[11]

In addition to administrative duties, the shoshidai's participation in ceremonial events served a function in consolidating the power and influence of the shogunate. For example, in September 1617, a Korean delegation was received by Hidetada at Fushimi Castle, and the shoshidai was summoned for two reasons (1) for the Koreans, to underscore the importance accorded the embassy, and (2) for the kuge courtiers in attendance, to make sure that they were properly impressed.[13]

To qualify for this high office, it eventually developed that service as governor of Osaka was a prerequisite. The close, personal link with the shōgun was maintained through visits to Edo every five or six years to report directly to the shōgun.[6] The conventional route of promotion was from governor of Osaka (the judai) to the shoshidai of Kyoto and from that position to the highest governing council (rōjū).[11] The shusidai earned 10,000 koku annually, in addition to the income from his own daimyoate.[4]

In September 1862, a concurrent, nearly co-equal office was created, the "Kyoto shugoshoku", was created in an attempt to strengthen the kōbu-gattai (公武合体, marital unity of the Imperial and Tokugawa families) faction. The kōbu-gattai were feudal lords and Court nobles who sought a greater share of political power without actually destroying the shogunate, as contrasted with a more radical faction, the tōbaku (倒幕, overthrowing the shogunate), which attracted men like Ōkubo Toshimichi. The related office of the shugoshoku had essentially the same functions as that of the shoshidai, but it was considered the senior of the two; and only members of the Matsudaira family were appointed.[5]

The last Kyoto shoshidai, Matsudaira Sadaaki, came from a collateral Tokugawa branch. As a practical matter, it could be said that this office ended with his resignation in 1867; but matters were not so unclouded in that time. After the Imperial edict sanctioning the restoration of Imperial government (November 1867), there was a time lag before the office of shoshidai was abolished (January 1868) and affairs of the city were temporarily entrusted to the clans of Sasayama (Aoyama), Zeze (Honda) and Kameyama (Matsudaira).[14]

Kyoto shoshidai of the Edo period

List of Kyoto shoshidai during the Tokugawa shogunate
Ordinal	Name	Duration	Notes
The Edo period shoshidai were seen to be pivotal in maintaining stability across a span of centuries.
1	Okudaira Nobumasa	1600–1601
2	Itakura Katsushige	1601–1619
3	Makino Chikashige	1654–1668
4	Itakura Shigenori	1668–1670
5	Nagai Naotsune	1670–1678
6	Toda Tadamasa	1678–1681
7	Inaba Masamichi	1681–1685
8	Tsuchiya Masanao	1685–1687
9	Naitō Shigeyori	1687–1690
10	Matsudaira Nobuoki	1690–1691
11	Ogasawara Nagashige	1691–1697
14	Matsudaira Nobutsune	1697–1714
15	Mizuno Tadayuki	1714–1717
16	Matsudaira Tadachika	1717–1724
17	Makino Hideshige	1724–1734
18	Toki Yoritoshi	1734–1742
19	Makino Sadamichi	1742–1749
20	Matsudaira Sukekuni	1749–1752
21	Sakai Tadamochi	1752–1756
22	Matsudaira Terutaka	1756–1758
23	Inoue Masatsune	1758–1760
24	Abe Masasuke	1760–1764
25	Abe Masachika	1764–1768
26	Doi Toshisato	1769–1777
27	Kuze Hiroakira	1777–1781
28	Makino Sadanaga	1781–1784
29	Toda Tadatō	1784–1789
30	Ōta Sukeyoshi	1789-1782
31	Hotta Masanari	1792–1798
32	Makino Tadakiyo	1798–1801
33	Doi Toshiatsu	1801–1802
34	Aoyama Tadayasu	1802–1804
35	Inaba Masanobu	1804–1806
36	Abe Masayoshi	1806–1808
37	Sakai Tadayuki	1808–1815
38	Ōkubo Tadazane	1815–1818
39	Matsudaira Norihiro	1818–1823
40	Naitō Nobuatsu	1823–1825
41	Matsudaira Yasutō	1825–1826
42	Mizuno Tadakuni	1826–1828
43	Matsudaira Muneakira	1828–1832
44	Ōta Sukemoto	1832–1834
45	Matsudaira Nobuyori	1834–1837
46	Doi Toshitsura	1837–1838
47	Manabe Akikatsu	1838–1840
48	Makino Tadamasa	1840–1843
49	Sakai Tadaaki	1843–1850
50	Naitō Nobuchika	1850–1851
51	Wakisaka Yasuori	1851–1857
52	Honda Tadamoto	1857–1858
53	Sakai Tadaaki	1858–1862
54	Matsudaira Munehide	1862	Daimyō of Tango-Miyazu, later involved in international negotiations.
55	Makino Tadayuki	1862–1863	Daimyō of Nagaoka.
56	Inaba Masakuni	1863–1864
57	Matsudaira Sadaaki	1864–1867	Last shoshidai; brother of Matsudaira Katamori.

See also

• Bugyō
• Rokuhara Tandai

Notes

1. Ito, Shinsho. "Hideyoshi's Inauguration to Kampaku and the Foundation of Shoshidai," Journal of Japanese history (日本史研究). Vol.419(19970000) pp. 1-19.
2. Brinkley, Frank. (1915). A History of the Japanese People from the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era, p. 632.
3. Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric. (2005). "Kyōto-shosidai" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 587, p. 587, at Google Books.
4. Murdoch, James. (1996). A History of Japan, p. 10 n1.
5. Beasley, W. G. (1955). Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy, 1853–1868, p. 325.
6. Brinkley, p. 636.
7. Maruyama, Toshiaki. "The Fire Fighting for the Royal Palace by Kyoto Shoshidai and Machi-bugyō-shō: A study on the fire fighting in Kyoto under Tokugawa era (No.3) (京都所司代・京都町奉行所と御所の消防 : 江戸時代の京都の消防の研究(その3). Journal of Architecture and Planning, Architectural Institute of Japan (日本建築学会計画系論文集). No.591(20050530), pp. 149-153. Abstract.
8. Nussbaum, "Kinri-zuki" at p. 525., p. 525, at Google Books
9. Brinkley, p. 589.
10. Murdoch, James. (1915). A History of Japan, p. 134.
11. Brinkley, p. 637.
12. Nussbaum, "Dōshin" at p. 160., p. 160, at Google Books
13. Toby, Ronald. (1991). State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu, p. 69.
14. Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1956). Kyoto: the Old Capital, 794–1869, pp. 326–327.

References

• Bolitho, Harold. (1974). Treasures Among Men: The Fudai Daimyo in Tokugawa Japan. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-01655-0; OCLC 185685588
• Beasley, W. G. (1955). Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy, 1853-1868. London: Oxford University Press. Reprinted by RoutledgeCurzon, London, 2001. ISBN 978-0-19-713508-2
• Brinkley, Frank and Baron Kikuchi. (1915). A History of the Japanese People from the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era. New York: Encyclopædia Britannica.
• Murdoch, James and Isoh Yamagata. (1903–1926). London: Kegan Paul, Trubner. OCLC 502662122
• Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 48943301
• Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1956). Kyoto: The Old Capital of Japan, 794-1869. Kyoto: The Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 182637732
• Toby, Ronald P. (1984). State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691054018; OCLC 9557347