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The leased land wasn't a thing, that only happened a few times (giving a small island for the Nanban to trade like what happened with Nagasaki). If something other than them dying off happened then it would have been recorded by SOME clan (like if they were conquered). Even if you are thought dishonorable that doesnt mean people ARENT gonna record you, they would probably record you more so they can slander your name to future generations. I agree with you that they wouldn't be well liked but at one point there were 200,000 Catholics in Kyushu (from lowly peasants to honorable samurai to some famous daimyo) prior to the ban on missionaries and execution of Catholics who didn't convert back. I just find it fascinating there's such a blank hole in this clan's history. You bring up good points and maybe my interpretations give to much credit to the honor of the record keepers and they in fact ignored the Otomo and thats why they fell of the face of Japanese history.
The clan faded away in the early 1600's.
Otomo Sorin's heir, Otomo Yoshimune, disgraced himself during the Imjin War, or the invasion of Korea, and was stripped of everything.
Basically, what happened was he was tasked with holding a fort, and when he heard that a large Chinese army was on its way (the Chinese got involved late in the war to preserve Korea as a buffer state), he lost his nerve and ordered a withdrawal without putting up any resistance. When Hideyoshi learned about this, he confiscated all of the Otomo domain, leaving Yoshimune pretty much as a ronin who had to seek shelter with other daimyo.
When it looked like war was going to break out between Tokugawa Ieyasu and Ishida Mitsunari, Yoshimune decided to take the Ishida side. After the battle of Sekigahara, where Tokugawa prevailed, Yoshimune was exiled.
He died a little while later, around 1605 or 1606. Since he was the last man able to claim lordship of Otomo, and there was really nothing to claim anyway, the Otomo ceased to exist as a clan.
Awesome thanks! Do you know what clan took over their lands by any chance?
The land was divided up amongst a number of smaller clans, but it fluctuated as the Edo period went on. Sometimes daimyo domains in the Edo period were seized by the Shogunate, sometimes they were consolidated with other domains, and sometimes they were absorbed because of lack of heirs: at any time in the Edo period the number of domains, or "han," fluctuated between about 250 and 500.
The ancestral Otomo lands of Bungo province were divided up in a number of districts, or han. Some of the clans that got these districts were fairly prominent, like Murakami, who took Kusu district of Bungo and became known from then on as Kurujima clan.
Another prominent clan to rule in Bungo was one of the Matsudaira branches, ruling Funai han. This was one of the Matsudaira that Tokugawa Ieyasu set up after he secured the Shogunate, not the "real" Matsudaira clan he himself had been born into.
Something else that is probably worth clarifying too: Otomo Yoshimune had two younger brothers. The second oldest became a monk, and the last born brother became a retainer for the Hosokawa clan. So the Otomo name lived on for a while as a family name, just in case someone posts Otomo descendents from Edo or something....the point is that as a daimyo house, it ended with Yoshimune.
Thank you for this absolutely fantastic information!
"Yoshimune officially succeeded his father Sorin in 1576 and authorized the campaign aimed at driving the Shimazu from Hyûga province. After the Ôtomo army was defeated at Mimigawa (1578), Yoshimune was occupied with keeping increasingly rebellious vassals in line. Taking advantage of the death of Ryûzôji Takanobu at the hands of the Shimazu, Yoshimune sent an army into Ryûzôji territory, though he accomplished little.
When the Shimazu invaded Bungo and Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent an expeditionary force to Funai (led by Chosokabe Motochika and Sengoku Hidehisa), Yoshimune, against Chosokabe's advice, insisted on taking the field to relieve Toshimitsu castle, then under attack by the Shimazu. The result of this ill-concieved adventure was the January 1587 battle of Hetsugigawa, where Yoshimune and his allies were soundly defeated. Yoshimune fled back to Funai, which he soon had to abandon to the Shimazu.
After Hideyoshi's main army descended on Kyushu and drove the Shimazu back to southern Kyushu, Yoshimune was confirmed as daimyô of Bungo. He led 6,000 men to Korea as part of Kuroda Nagamasa's division but displayed cowardice in the fighting around Pyong'yang: learning of a sizable Chinese force moving into the area, Yoshimune disregarded Konishi Yukinaga's call for aid and retreated. This incurred Hideyoshi's wrath and the Ôtomo domain was forfeited.
Yoshimune sided with Ishida Mitsunari during the Sekigahara Campaign and was exiled afterwards. He died on 2 September 1605, the last lord of the Ôtomo family. Yoshimune had been baptized in 1574 as Constantinho but was not as sympathetic to the missionaries as his father had been."
The Otomo had been strong for a very long time...but I guess nothing lasts forever.
Edit: I guess I should append the last part and say, "unless you are the Shimazu clan." :D
Well even so the Shimazu clan tranformed into the Satsuma clan (both used interchangably) until the Meiji Restoration when all Samurai and Daimyo were stripped of lands, titles, and the right to wear katanas. So even they didn't last forever ;)
You're welcome for posting it haha
The daimyo were stripped of samurai status and their han by Meji, but they were given court status in its place, so they actually gained new title.
In this new state, daimyo were made into the equivalent of dukes or margraves, as the government moulded itself on a Prussian model. The government even sent men to Prussia specifically to see how it was done.
So like so many times in history, the more things changed, the more they stayed the same.
The former daimyo were still a privileged class that was entitled to a stipend, drawn from taxing the lower classes, and there were many barriers to social mobility.
Initially, the Meiji promised a new system with representation for the common people, the right to petition, abolition of formal classes, etc. But it only took about two years for the "diet," or representatives, to vote that the old daimyo should get a stipend, and this stipend was to be funded by a new, individual system of progressive taxation.
In many ways, it was more ridiculous than the han system, because in that system the daimyo were responsible for maintaining their domain and would go bankrupt, or even have it taken from them, if they mismanaged it too much, and the peasants and towns people were taxed mostly indirectly, by group, as well as through excises.
Whereas in the new state, former daimyo got their stipend because....because they existed. They didn't have to perform anything and there was nothing to indicate whether they were doing a good job or not; they just got paid for being themselves. And the taxes for raising the pay were applied on an individual basis, not on a group, making the burden heavier, and were based on income, not excise or resource/goods transfer, so it essentially punished people for having more money or owning anything that generated "profit." The new dukes and counts that were former daimyo were exempt from such taxes as well.
Yay for representative government! :D
Yeah they stayed prominent for many years, arguably up through right now.
Shimazu Tadashige, I believe his name was, became a senior rear admiral for the Imperial Japanese fleet in the 1930's. Men of Satsuma or Tosa lineage dominated the Imperial Army and Navy leadership all through the remainder of Meji and into the end of World War II.
I've heard of that company. They use the old Shimazu mon as the corporate logo :) But to my understanding, there is debate about whether the founder is actually Shimazu lineage or not, because iirc his name is actually "Shimazdu", and some of the record keeping is sketchy.
Edit: And there is still an inheritor, alive right now, of what would have been Shimazu clan, a direct descendant of Shimazu Tadahisa. I think he does pretty well for himself as well.
Its just a matter of perspective. If you're a liberal, then you might tend to believe that meiji oligarchy at the time implement most of their reform to protect their status quo. If you're a rectionary, then what Ito Hirobumi and Aritomo Yamagata did was the best thing they can do at the time. The unequal treaties weren't even repelled until the late 19th century. Their fate of their nation was at stake.