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==Governance and Organization==
==Governance and Organization==
The domain was at once a political entity to be governed, and at the same time, in some important conceptual respects, an extension of the lord's household. Though [[Uesugi Harunori]], who famously wrote "the lord exists for the sake of the state and the people; the state and the people do not exist for the sake of the lord,"<ref>Ravina, ''Land and Lordship'', 1.</ref> likely represents the attitudes of many ''daimyô'', this was certainly not the case for all lords of all domains across the period, and would in any case have been acted upon quite variously.
For many domains, we can consider the administration of the domain as consisting of two often conflicting sets of concerns: ''kasei'' (家政), the management of the lord's household, and ''kokusei'' (国政), the management of the "state."<ref>Luke Roberts, "Mori Yoshiki: Samurai Government Officer," in [[Anne Walthall]] (ed.), ''The Human Tradition in Modern Japan'', Scholarly Resources, Inc. (2002), 39.</ref> To a certain extent, the domain certainly did exist to support the lord and his household, both because of basic feudal obligation, this being his feudal domain, and in order to help effect the lord's ability to fulfill his feudal obligations to the shogun. But the feudal relationship went both ways, and a lord had a certain responsibility to the people of his domain, both purely out of reciprocal obligation as their lord (service in exchange for protection), and in order to ensure the people's ability to maintain a prosperous enough domain (e.g. growing enough food, and paying enough in taxes) to support his own personal and political needs. Thus, the entire relationship was, as in most if not all polities, reciprocal to a large extent.
As mentioned above in the discussion of ''sankin kôtai'', a lord's personal/household expenses could be quite considerable, and relied upon the prosperity of the people of his domain to be able to support these expenses through their taxes. Lords felt great pressure in the prestige economy of samurai society to present themselves as wealthy and prestigious, and this required considerable outlays to ensure the lord had the finest clothes, the finest horses, the largest and finest mansions, and sufficient grand pomp and circumstance in his various ritual performances (e.g. processions of his ''sankin kôtai'' entourage through the streets), both within the domain, and especially in contexts where it would be visible to other ''daimyô'', and to the shogun. Yet, even with this taken into account, there were times in many domains where the lord's expenses came to be unreasonable, even unsupportable. In some cases, his top advisors and policy-makers were able to reorganize budgets, raise taxes, or otherwise help provide for these excessive expenditures; in other cases, the advisors were able to convince the lord to cut back. In other cases, still, however, the advisors were unable to resolve the situation, leading to economic difficulties, sometimes disaster, for the domain, sometimes ending in rebellion and the violent (or not so violent) replacement of the lord.
Lordly successions were often relatively straightforward, with the lord simply designating his heir, and then either retiring, or passing away, and being succeeded by that heir. Though the heir was often the lord's eldest son, or another direct son, it was not uncommon for nephews, other relatives, or even members of other families to be adopted to serve as the heir. Officially, the shogunate required lords to name their heirs before falling ill, and required the heir to be of age (in other words, underage children could not be named heir). Early in the Edo period, this was relatively strictly enforced, leading to many domains falling into attainder; if the lord fell ill or died without naming an heir, or if his heir was not yet of age to be officially designated, the family lost their lands, and the domain was given to another family. Before long, however, the system came to be less strictly enforced, and even with a shogunate inspector (''[[metsuke]]'') present, a family could have a seriously ill or even deceased lord name a child his heir, with the official documents indicating that the lord was in good health at the time, and his heir a man of adult age. This was all a part of the system of ''omote'' and ''uchi'', in which maintaining the peace took precedence over strict adherence to the law.<ref>Roberts, ''Performing the Great Peace''.</ref>
However, it was not entirely uncommon for lords to also be forced to retire, or even in some cases killed, as political factions vied amongst their retainers. [[Tsushima han]] provides a bold example of this, as in [[1862]] chief advisor [[Sasu Iori]] was killed, and ''daimyô'' [[So Yoshiyori|Sô Yoshiyori]] pressured to resign in favor of his son [[So Yoshiakira|Sô Yoshiakira]], when a powerful faction among his retainers opposed Sasu & Yoshiyori's behavior regarding the domain's stances towards the shogunate, and in dealing with foreign threats. Though Yoshiakira remained Lord of Tsushima into the Meiji period, factional rivalries amongst his top administrators continued. [[Katsui Gohachiro|Katsui Gohachirô]], a member of the faction which arranged for Sasu's death and Yoshiakira's accession, turned against his fellow conspirators in [[1864]], launching attacks on the Sô [[daimyo yashiki|mansions]] in both Tsushima and Kyoto, and seizing the reins of domainal administration. He was killed the following year, as [[Hirata Oe|Hirata Ôe]], a supporter of the previous faction, organized against him. Hirata was then killed himself by some of Katsui's supporters, leaving one of Hirata's men, [[Higuchi Kennosuke]], to assume control of the domain's affairs. Higuchi was then killed in turn in [[1867]].<ref>Hellyer, 227-230.</ref> This is perhaps an extreme case, given that it takes place amid conflicts between pro- and anti-''[[sonno|sonnô]] [[joi|jôi]]'' factions in the heat of the Bakumatsu, but it seems not unlikely that similar factional disputes took place in many domains at various times over the course of the period.
==References==
==References==
