Information AboutMatsumae |
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was the name of a town in Hokkaido , Japan , near the port of Hakodate . The Kakizaki clan, granted this land as a March fief in 1590 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi , and charged with defending it, and by extension all of Japan, from the Ainu 'barbarians', took the name Matsumae as well. In exchange for their service in defending the country, the Matsumae were made exempt from owing rice to the '' Shogun '' in tribute, and from the '' Sankin Kotai '' system, under which most '' Daimyo '' were required to spend half the year at Edo , while their families were, essentially, held hostage against their rebellion, spending the entire year at Edo . Since the Matsumae land was a March , a frontier land used as the border defense against the Ainu , the remainder of Hokkaido , then called Ezo , became essentially an Ainu reservation. Although Japanese influence and control over the Ainu gradually grew stronger over the centuries, originally they were left to their own devices and were not considered part of Japanese territory by the '' Bakufu '' (shogunate). It was only during the Meiji Restoration in the late 19th century that the March was dissolved, and Hokkaido (and the Ainu) taken officially under Japanese control. Due to their location, and their role as border defenders, the Matsumae were the first Japanese to negotiate with Russia 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 Yakutsk by the name of Pavel Lebedev-Lastoschkin arrived in Hokkaido 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 the island, and a forty-two-foot Tsunami lifted the Russian ship out of the sea, depositing it a quarter-mile inland. The merchant Lebedev thus gave up on Hokkaido. At roughly the same time, in 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 Tokugawa 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. Less than 100 years later, the special designation of the Matsumae fief, as a march, was dissolved, as Ezo, now called Hokkaido, was annexed to Japan. This came at the same time as the dismantling of the feudal system, so it is unlikely, though possible, that the Matsumae clan would have remained in control of their land, and of Matsumae Castle. It is unknown what the Matsumae clan's role was, if any, in the secession of the short-lived Republic Of Ezo in 1868 . REFERENCES
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