Changes

==Terminology==

==Terminology==

The term ''han'' was only first officially applied to these domains in the [[Meiji period]], as they were being [[abolition of the han|abolished]] (廃藩置県, ''haihan chiken''), and as "modern" historians began to write "modern" histories of Japan. The term derives from the use of the same character (C: ''fān'')<ref>"藩 fān." ''Pocket Pro Chinese-Japanese Dictionary'' ポケプロ中日辞典. Shogakukan, Inc.</ref> being used during China's ancient [[Zhou Dynasty]] to refer to fiefs or domains of that time.<ref name=kodansha/>

The term ''han'' was only first officially applied to these domains in the [[Meiji period]], as they were being [[abolition of the han|abolished]] (廃藩置県, ''haihan chiken''), and as "modern" historians began to write "modern" histories of Japan. The term derives from the use of the same character (C: ''fān'')<ref>"藩 fān." ''Pocket Pro Chinese-Japanese Dictionary'' ポケプロ中日辞典. Shogakukan, Inc.</ref> being used during China's ancient [[Zhou Dynasty]] to refer to fiefs or domains of that time.<ref name=kodansha/> It was not even widely used unofficially until the [[Bakumatsu period]], though some thinkers used the term in their writings prior to that. [[Arai Hakuseki]] (1657-1725) was the first to apply the term ''han'' to the case of ''daimyô'' domains in early modern Japan, emphasizing the sense of them being subordinate entities, fiefs granted by the shogunate.<ref>Luke Roberts, ''Mercantilism in a Japanese Domain: The Merchant Origins of Economic Nationalism in 18th-Century Tosa'', Cambridge University Press (2002), 7.</ref> Conceptions of the relatively autonomous and "national" or state-like character of the domains remained prevalent, however.

During the Edo period, the term ''han'' was not used for the most part, and domains were instead referred to by a number of terms including ''[[kuni]]'' (国, "country", "state"), ''ryô'' or ''ryôbun'' (領・領分, "territory", "portion of territory"), ''shiryô'' (私領, "private territory"), ''ie'' (家, ''house''), ''zaisho'' (在所, "place where one is resident"), ''fu'' or ''seifu'' (府・政府, "government"), and ''kôgi'' (公儀, "government", "public affairs"), among others. The use of these terms was often governed by [[omote and uchi|''omote'' and ''uchi'']] (or "external" and "internal") concerns; a term such as ''kuni'' might be used in internal domain documents to refer to the domain, but when speaking to the shogunate about one's domain, ''kuni'' would be used to refer to Japan as a whole, and another term, such as ''zaisho'', would be used to the ''daimyô's'' humble appointed territory.<ref>Roberts. pp11ff.</ref>

During the Edo period, the term ''han'' was not used for the most part, and domains were instead referred to by a number of terms including ''[[kuni]]'' (国, "country", "state"), ''ryô'' or ''ryôbun'' (領・領分, "territory", "portion of territory"), ''shiryô'' (私領, "private territory"), ''ie'' (家, ''house''), ''zaisho'' (在所, "place where one is resident"), ''fu'' or ''seifu'' (府・政府, "government"), and ''kôgi'' (公儀, "government", "public affairs"), among others. The use of these terms was often governed by [[omote and uchi|''omote'' and ''uchi'']] (or "external" and "internal") concerns; a term such as ''kuni'' might be used in internal domain documents to refer to the domain, but when speaking to the shogunate about one's domain, ''kuni'' would be used to refer to Japan as a whole, and another term, such as ''zaisho'', would be used to the ''daimyô's'' humble appointed territory.<ref>Roberts, ''Performing the Great Peace'', pp11ff.</ref>

==Governance and Organization==

==Governance and Organization==