The Bakufu governing structure in the Kamigata region during the late Tokugawa period

Abstract

In late premodern Japan, the region consisting of eight provinces surrounding the capital of Kyoto, known as Kamigata 上方, was as strategically important to the Tokugawa Bakufu as the Kanto region around Edo. Therefore, clarifying how Kamigata was governed is an important element in understanding the overall Bakufu governance mechanism. The present article focuses on the interrelationships among bureaucrats and the process by which legal directives were disseminated and implemented, in order to better understand the Bakufu's governance of the Kamigata region. The author findings may be summarized as follows. 1. The Bakufu-appointed governors of Kyoto (shoshidai 所司代) and Osaka (Osakajodai 大坂城代) supervised the region in a parallel system under which the former oversaw the Bakufu functionaries (bugyo 奉行) governing of the four eastern Kamigata provinces covering Kyoto proper, Fushimi and Nara, while the latter oversaw the Bakufu functionaries stationed in the four western Kamigata provinces at Osaka proper and Sakai. 2. The two governors acted as 1) intermediaries both transmitting legal directives issued from senior Bakufu officials (roju 老中) in Edo to their Kamigata functionaries and handling correspondence addressed by the Kamigata functionaries to fellow bureaucrats in Edo, and 2) the final decision-makers regarding any ordinances proposed or enacted by the Kamigata functionaries. 3. The Kamigata functionaries found themselves in a dual structure in terms of subodination: responsible to the senior Bakufu officials in terms of social status, while subservient to the two Kamigata governors in terms of administrative duties. Such a dual structure was a key point in the total Bakufu governance scheme, but in the case of the Kamigata functionaries, their superiors were separate entities, with administrative subordination playing the dominant role in their careers.