Shimazu Tadayoshi
- This article is about the Bakumatsu/Meiji era daimyô. For others by the same name, see Shimazu Tadayoshi (disambig).
Shimazu Tadayoshi was the 12th and last Edo period daimyô of Satsuma han. He was the son of Shimazu Hisamitsu, adopted son of Shimazu Nariakira, and is counted as the 29th head of the Shimazu clan.
Upon Nariakira's death on 1858/7/16, Tadayoshi succeeded him as daimyô, officially taking the position on 1858/12/28; his father Hisamitsu served initially as regent, wielding considerable power over domainal affairs in place of his son. Acting in his son's name, Hisamitsu reversed many of Nariakira's policies, especially those pertaining to Ryûkyû, and acted in strong support of the Tokugawa shogunate and of samurai privilege through the Bakumatsu and into the Meiji period.
Tadayoshi was granted an audience with the new shogun Tokugawa Iemochi on 1859/2/7, and was granted the honor of taking one syllable from the shogun's name, changing his own name to Mochihisa. He would later change his name to Tadayoshi, however, on 1868/1/16, and this is the name by which he is most typically known.[1]
As a result of repeatedly requesting permission from the shogunate to postpone sankin kôtai obligations in 1862-1865 for a variety of reasons, in the end Tadayoshi became one of a relatively few daimyô in the entire Edo period who never performed sankin kôtai during his time as Lord.[2]
Following the 1863 Bombardment of Kagoshima by the British Royal Navy, in which much of the city was destroyed, Tadayoshi successfully represented to the Imperial Court that he had acted in accordance with the edict issued two months earlier by Emperor Kômei to expel the barbarians, driving the British ships away from Kagoshima in the end.[3]
Unlike many daimyô, who adopted Western/modern ways quite quickly into the Bakumatsu or Meiji periods, Tadayoshi is known for having maintained his topknot (chonmage), samurai dress, and other aspects of samurai lifestyle far into the Meiji period.[4] His residence at Iso, similarly, is very much in the style of traditional Edo period elite samurai architecture and decor, albeit with some modern/Western-style accommodations for entertaining guests.
He married two daughters of Shimazu Nariakira, Teru-hime, and later Yasu-hime.[5]
Tadayoshi moved to Tokyo in 1877, but had the Iso Palace renovated in 1884, and lived there from 1888 until his death in 1897.[4]
| Preceded by: Shimazu Nariakira |
Lord of Satsuma han 1858-1871 |
Succeeded by: None |
References
- ↑ Marco Tinello, "The termination of the Ryukyuan embassies to Edo : an investigation of the bakumatsu period through the lens of a tripartite power relationship and its world," PhD thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia (2014), 295.
- ↑ Tinello, 377.
- ↑ Robert Hellyer, Defining Engagement, Harvard University Press (2009), 194-195.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Gallery labels, Shôkoshûseikan, Kagoshima, Sept 2014.
- ↑ Kaiyô kokka Satsuma 海洋国家薩摩, Kagoshima: Shôkoshûseikan (2010), 58-59.
