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Yonezawa han was a domain in the [[Tohoku|Tôhoku]] region of [[Honshu|Honshû]], governed by the [[Uesugi clan]]. Covering the Okitama district of [[Dewa province]], in what is today southeastern [[Yamagata Prefecture]], the territory was ruled from [[Yonezawa castle]] in [[Yonezawa]] city. The Uesugi were ''[[tozama]] daimyô'', with an initial income of 300,000 ''[[koku]]'', which later fell to 150,000-180,000.
Yonezawa han was a domain in the [[Tohoku|Tôhoku]] region of [[Honshu|Honshû]], governed by the [[Uesugi clan]]. Covering the Okitama district of [[Dewa province]], in what is today southeastern [[Yamagata Prefecture]], the territory was ruled from [[Yonezawa castle]] in [[Yonezawa]] city. The Uesugi were ''[[tozama]] daimyô'', with an initial income of 300,000 ''[[koku]]'', which later fell to 150,000-180,000.
The domain is perhaps most notable for its rapid shift from a poor, indebted, and corruptly led domain to a very prosperous one in only a few decades in the 1760s-80s. Yonezawa was declared in 1830 by the shogunate to be the paragon of a well-managed domain. Scholar [[Mark Ravina]] uses Yonezawa as a case study, in analysing the political status and conceptions of statehood and identity in the feudal domains of the Tokugawa period (1603-1868).
Compared to many other domains, Yonezawa had a relatively large [[samurai]] population, and by the late 18th century, a relatively commercialized economy.<ref>Ravina, ''Land and Lordship'', 9.</ref> The domain is perhaps most notable for its rapid shift from a poor, indebted, and corruptly led domain to a very prosperous one in only a few decades in the 1760s-80s. Yonezawa was declared in 1830 by the shogunate to be the paragon of a well-managed domain. Scholar [[Mark Ravina]] uses Yonezawa as a case study, in analysing the political status and conceptions of statehood and identity in the feudal domains of the Tokugawa period (1603-1868).
==History==
==History==
The end of the shogunate and abolition of the ''han'' system brought with it an end of the [[samurai]] class and of the ''daimyô''. The Uesugi clan were incorporated into the ''[[kazoku]]'' or noble peerage, as Counts, or ''Hakushaku'' in Japanese.
The end of the shogunate and abolition of the ''han'' system brought with it an end of the [[samurai]] class and of the ''daimyô''. The Uesugi clan were incorporated into the ''[[kazoku]]'' or noble peerage, as Counts, or ''Hakushaku'' in Japanese.
==Society & Economics==
Due to the relatively large samurai population in the domain, which strained the domain's ability to support on rice stipends, many lower-ranking samurai were encouraged to engage in activities such as the weaving and even the selling of cloth, one of many examples in Edo period Japan of how [[Neo-Confucianism|Neo-Confucian]] ideals did not always live up to socio-economic realities.<ref>Ravina, 10.</ref>
==References==
==References==
*[[Mark Ravina]], ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan'', Stanford University Press, 1999.
*[[Mark Ravina|Ravina, Mark]] (1999). <u>Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan</u>. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
*[[Ronald Toby]], "Rescuing the Nation from History: The State of the State in Early Modern Japan," ''Monumenta Nipponica'' 56:2, 197-237.
*[[Ronald Toby|Toby, Ronald]] (2001). "Rescuing the Nation from History: The State of the State in Early Modern Japan." ''Monumenta Nipponica'' 56:2. pp197-237.
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[[Category:Han]]
[[Category:Han]]