| Abstract |
It is important to study the governing systems of the Tokugawa shogunate in order to understand the structures and characteristics of the modern Japanese state. Little attention has been given to the ...military aspects of the systems, even though they were of high importance to the shogunate, which established its supremacy by military threat. One of the most important issues for the shogunate was obtaining accurate information and precisely communicating its intentions to feudal lords in times of emergency. However, only a few studies have researched this topic so far. Accordingly, this thesis is intended to describe the significant aspects of the shogunate's governing systems by examining how the shogunate communicated its intentions to feudal lords during the Amakusa-Shimabara Rebellion that broke out in 1637 in Kyushu, far from Edo. This study will investigate how the shogunate overcame time lags in communications with feudal clans. It took about 14 days for information to be transmitted at full speed from Kyushu to Edo at that time. Therefore, it took around 1 month for feudal lords in Kyushu to receive the shogunate's orders. This suggests that such orders were useless in reality. In order to solve the problem, the shogunate allowed the shogun's envoys to make their own decisions. However, they needed to be given specific orders in order to respond to the changing war situation. The shogunate had deployed senior statesmen in the Kyoto-Osaka area, which was an intermediary point between Edo and Kyushu, and granted them the right to make decisions during emergencies. These statesmen were called kamigata-shu. In the previous studies, it has been claimed that the kamigata-shu were granted decision-making power immediately after the end of the Amakusa-Shimabara Rebellion. The time lags in communication between the shogunate and feudal clans were overcome after 1639. However, the historical materials concerning the feudal lords' families under the orders of the shogunate reveal that the above situation had been established before the Amakusa-Shimabara Rebellion) broke out in 1637.show more
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