Morioka han

• Japanese: 盛岡藩 (Morioka han)
• Other Names: 南部藩 (Nanbu han)
• Territory: parts of Mutsu province
• Castle: Morioka castle
• Lords: Nanbu clan
• Kokudaka: 100,000 (before 1808), 200,000 (after)

Morioka han was one of roughly ten smaller han located in Mutsu province in the Edo period alongside the larger, more prominent Sendai han. It was ruled from Morioka castle by the Nanbu clan.

The domain originally possessed a kokudaka of roughly 100,000 koku, but this was doubled in 1808 in recognition of the Nanbu clan's contributions to the defense of Ezo (Hokkaidô) against Russian encroachment. The new 200,000 koku level brought with it kuni-mochi ("province-holding") status for the Nanbu clan, but it was only an omotedaka increase, meaning an increase in the official status of the domain, as measured in koku, but not an actual increase in the domain's agricultural production or geographic territory.

Prior to 1808, the domain restricted its use of the term kuni (country/state), referring to the domain itself, to internal documents. In exchanges with the Tokugawa shogunate or other domains, humbler terms such as zaisho (residence) or ryôbun (portion of territory) were used, in accordance with the customs of omote and uchi. However, once the clan gained kuni-mochi status, it began to employ the term kuni in its external correspondence, signifying its increased status.

Similarly, the domain briefly, from 1753 to 1797, referred to its chief elder governmental advisors as rôjû, employing the same term which the Tokugawa used to refer to its chief governmental advisors. Historian Luke Roberts suggests this may have been done to lend the advisors, the clan, and/or the domain as a whole more prestige within internal contexts. In external communications, the domain was pressured to employ humbler terms such as toshiyori (lit. "Elder"), and eventually, after 1797, returned to using the less presumptuous and more widely used (i.e. within other domains) term karô ("house elder").

The domain is known to have suffered from economic difficulties in the early-mid-18th century, leading to a 1742 prohibition on residents from other domains settling within the territory Morioka han. This was done in order to prevent the domain's limited resources from being divided even more thinly, across more people; however, the economic difficulties were such that the domain instead saw a considerable exodus of its own people, as they sought better fortunes elsewhere. The affair damaged popular support for the domain's leaders, as some argued that the domain's government should make Morioka a place others want to come to, not a place that people want to leave.

Daimyô of Morioka

• Nanbu Toshinao (d. 1632)

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Other Notable Figures from Morioka

• Yoshimura Kan'ichirô

References

• Roberts, Luke. Performing the Great Peace: Political Space and Open Secrets in Tokugawa Japan. University of Hawaii Press, 2012. pp48-50.