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==Political Structures==
==Political Structures==
*bakuhan taisei, Shogun, Roju, Hatamoto, Daimyo (fudai and tozama)
*bakuhan taisei, Shogun, Roju, Hatamoto, Daimyo (fudai and tozama)
Governance under the Tokugawa functioned through a system of nested or layered hierarchical spheres of authority, each of which retained some degree of autonomy as semi- or pseudo-"private" (''watakushi'') spaces. The shogunate's laws and taxes did not in fact directly apply to all the land, or all the people. Rather, the shogunate exercised authority over a portion of the land, while most of the rest was ruled by the ''daimyô''. The shogunate's direct vassals - i.e. the ''daimyô'' and the ''[[hatamoto]]'' - owed service (''yaku'') to the shogun, in the forms of corvée and ''sankin kôtai'', but did not pass taxes collected onto the shogunate. The ''[[han]]'' (''daimyô'' domains) were considered the ''daimyô's'' own private space, an extension in a sense of his household, and Tokugawa authority did not extend directly into such space. So long as a ''daimyô'' kept his own private affairs in order, they remained for the most part private, and the shogunate did not get involved. This same style of relationship was duplicated at lower levels, as retainers to a ''daimyô'' house owed certain obligations to the ''daimyô'' (i.e. to the domain), but enjoyed a degree of autonomy within their own jurisdictions. Village headmen, in turn, owed obligations to the retainers overseeing their region, including, chiefly, the payment of taxes to be passed along to the domainal government, but within the village, they enjoyed a degree of autonomy. And, finally, the individual villager household, likewise, was considered a "private" space, with a certain degree of autonomy from any outside authorities. Meanwhile, Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, and certain other institutions, as well as merchant guilds and certain other associations, were similarly self-governing, allowed a certain degree of autonomy so long as they fulfilled their obligations to the relevant authorities directly above them in the hierarchy, and so long as they kept their internal affairs in order.
As a result of these nested zones of autonomy, those within the system came to perform or enact different roles depending on the context, using different terminology, and often even representing facts differently. Generally speaking, following the letter of the law was less important than maintaining the peace,<ref>Luke Roberts, "Mori Yoshiki: Samurai Government Officer," in Anne Walthall (ed.), ''The Human Tradition in Modern Japan'', Scholarly Resources, Inc. (2002), 33.</ref> and so private internal matters were often represented differently to outside authorities. This dichotomy of ''uchi'' ("internal") and ''omote'' ("front" or "facing") representations can be seen in the terminology used in different contexts, as for example a domain's internal documents might refer to the domain as a ''kuni'' ("country," or "state"), while external documents (e.g. communications from a domain to the shogunate) would refer to the domain in more humble and personal terms, e.g. as ''shiryô'' ("private territory"), while in those documents ''wagakuni'' ("our country") would always refer to the realm (Japan) as a whole, and not to one's own domain. [[omote and uchi|''Uchi'' and ''omote'']] can also be seen in the way domains often reported the ''daimyô's'' succession, smoothing over cases where a lord might have fallen ill or died before naming an heir, or where the heir might have been too young to be officially designated, instead reporting in official documents to the shogunate that the lord was not yet ill, or had not yet died, when he named his heir, who of course was of age; so long as a domain's internal affairs did not need to concern the shogunate, and everything at least appeared to be done in accordance with protocols, the shogunate generally did not get involved.<ref>Luke Roberts, ''Performing the Great Peace: Political Space and Open Secrets in Tokugawa Japan'', University of Hawaii Press, 2012.</ref>
Communications from Nagasaki to Edo by the fastest means possible could take about a week, while messages traveling through official channels could take at least a month. Adding in the time it took for shogunate officials to deliberate and make decisions, the overall decision-making process could take a considerable amount of time. During the Bakumatsu period, this would prove a source of irritation to representatives of Western countries, accustomed to steamships, railroads, and telegraphs, which allowed for faster communication times.<ref>Mitani Hiroshi, David Noble (trans.), ''Escape from Impasse'', International House of Japan (2006), xxxiii.</ref>
Communications from Nagasaki to Edo by the fastest means possible could take about a week, while messages traveling through official channels could take at least a month. Adding in the time it took for shogunate officials to deliberate and make decisions, the overall decision-making process could take a considerable amount of time. During the Bakumatsu period, this would prove a source of irritation to representatives of Western countries, accustomed to steamships, railroads, and telegraphs, which allowed for faster communication times.<ref>Mitani Hiroshi, David Noble (trans.), ''Escape from Impasse'', International House of Japan (2006), xxxiii.</ref>
