The Shimazu were identified as one of the tozama or outsider daimyō families[1] in contrast with the fudai or insider clans which were hereditary vassals or allies of the Tokugawa clan.
History
The Shimazu were descendants of the Seiwa Genji branch of the Minamoto. The Shimazu would become one of the families of Edo perioddaimyō to have held their territory continuously since the Kamakura period, and would also become, at their peak, the wealthiest and most powerful Tozama daimyō family with an income in excess of 700,000 koku.
The founder, Shimazu Tadahisa (d. 1227), was a son of ShōgunMinamoto no Yoritomo (1147–1199) with the sister of Hiki Yoshikazu. Tadahisa's wife was a daughter of Koremune Hironobu, a descendant of the Hata clan, whose name Tadahisa took at first. He received the domain of Shioda in Shinano Province in 1186 and was then named shugo of Satsuma Province. He sent Honda Sadachika to take possession of the province in his name and accompanied Yoritomo in his expedition to Mutsu in 1189. He went to Satsuma in 1196, subdued the Hyūga and Ōsumi provinces, and built a castle in the Hyūga Province as part of the Shimazu Estate, whose name he also adopted.
The 17th head, Yoshihiro (1535–1619), was the daimyō at the time of the Battle of Sekigahara, the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and the Siege of Osaka.[3] His nephew and successor was Tadatsune.[4] He held significant power during the first two decades of the 17th century, and organized the Shimazu invasion of the Ryūkyū Kingdom (modern-day Okinawa Prefecture) in 1609. The Shōgun allowed this because he wished to appease the Shimazu and prevent potential uprisings after their loss at Sekigahara.[5] The trade benefits thus acquired, and the political prestige of being the only daimyō family to control an entire foreign country secured the Shimazu's position as one of the most powerful daimyō families in Japan at the time.
The Shimazu clan was renowned for the loyalty of its retainers and officers, especially during the Sengoku period. Some retainer families, such as the Ijuin and Shirakawa, were determined to defeat any opposition to help expand the power of the Shimazu clan. The Shimazu are also famous for being the first to use teppo (firearms, specifically matchlock arquebuses) on the battlefield in Japan, and began domestic production of the weapons as well. Shimazu battle tactics are known to have been very successful in defeating larger enemy armies, particularly during their campaign to conquer Kyūshū in the 1580s. Their tactics included the luring of the opposition into an ambush on both sides by arquebus troops, creating panic and disorder. Central forces would then be deployed to rout the enemy. In this way, the Shimazu were able to defeat much larger clans such as the Itō, Ryūzōji and Ōtomo. Overall, the Shimazu was a very large and powerful clan due to their strong economy both from domestic production through trade, good organization of government and troops, strong loyalty of retainers and isolation from Honshū.
^Appert, Georges et al. (1888). Ancien Japon, pp. 77., p. 77, at Google Books
^"島津義久" (in Japanese). コトバンク. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
^ a bNussbaum, Louis Frédéric et al. (2005). "Shimazu Yoshihiro" in Japan encyclopedia, p. 860., p. 860, at Google Books; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, see Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File Archived 2012-05-24 at archive.today.
^ a bNussbaum, "Shimazu Tadatsune" at p. 860., p. 860, at Google Books
^Kerr, George H. (2000). Okinawa: the History of an Island People, p. 158., p. 158, at Google Books
^ a bNussbaum, "Shimazu Hisamitsu" at p. 861., p. 861, at Google Books
^Nussbaum, "Shimazu Shigehide" at p. 246., p. 246, at Google Books
^Nussbaum, "Shimazu Nariakira" at p. 861., p. 861, at Google Books
^Nussbaum, "Shimazu Shigehide" at p. 861., p. 861, at Google Books
^Nussbaum, "Ijuin" at p. 375., p. 375, at Google Books
^Papinot, Jacques. (2003). Nobiliare du Japon, p. 55.
^Chamberlain, Basil Hall. "The Luchu Islands and their Inhabitants," The Geographical Journal, No. 4, Vol. 5 (April 1895), p. 309.
^ a bNussbaum, "Shō" at pp. 805-806., p. 805, at Google Books
^Nussbaum, "Saigō Takamori" at pp. 805-806., p. 805, at Google Books
References
Appert, Georges and H. Kinoshita. (1888). Ancien Japon. Tokyo: Imprimerie Kokubunsha. OCLC 4429674
Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 48943301
Kerr, George H. and Mitsugu Sakihara. (2000). Okinawa, the History of an Island People. Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 9780804820875; OCLC 247416761
Papinot, Jacques Edmund Joseph. (1906) Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du japon. Tokyo: Librarie Sansaisha. OCLC 465662682; Nobiliaire du japon (abridged version of 1906 text).
Sansom, George. (1958). A History of Japan: 1615-1867. Stanford University Press. OCLC 607164037