Looking for data resources on daimyo from late Sengoku/Azuchi-Momoyama period

[Philip Streich]

Hello,

 

I am looking for resources for data on daimyo and their domains during the late Sengoku/Azuchi-Momoyama period, 1570-1600. Could anyone tell me about resources that could be of use? The specific data I am searching for would ideally include measures of wealth, the value of domains, area of control, domain population, and size of armies (though I know this last variable was often notoriously exaggerated in pre-modern Japan). Data that is slightly before or after these dates, that is not totally comprehensive, or does not include all of these variables would naturally be welcome too.

 

Thanks! Any help would be appreciated! Additionally, if anyone is interested in forming a discussion group on medieval-era Japanese politics and warfare and lives in the Tokyo area, please let me know.

 

Sincerely,

Philip Streich

Aoyama Gakuin University, SIPEC

Rutgers University, Political Science Dept.

 

 

 

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Philip Streich
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Political Science
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick

 

 

[Dennis Darling]

Philip Streich,

 

Have you tried checking the series SENGOKU DAIMYO RONSHU, in 18 volumes and published by Yoshikawa Kobunkan (the series' editor is Nagahara Keiji). The volume I have at hand and know best (no. 9: Uesugi-shi no Kenkyu, 1984) stretches its examination of the Uesugi family to Hideyoshi's rule. It contains valuable references to primary sources and is (still) an excellent secondary source. I suspect that the same goes for some of the other volumes in the series.

 

Regards,

Dennis Darling 

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From: pstr...@rci.rutgers.edu
To: pm...@googlegroups.com
CC: pstr...@rci.rutgers.edu
Subject: [PMJS] Looking for data resources on daimyo from late Sengoku/Azuchi-Momoyama period
Date: Wed, 7 May 2008 22:17:03 +0900

[Morgan Pitelka]

I think that what Philip meant was quantitative data, no? _Sengoku daimyo ronshu_ is a great source for Japanese scholarship but I haven't seen collated data of the sort that a social scientist could use in quantitative analysis. 

You can extract some of the information you are after--particularly "the value of domains" and "area of control"--from the series that Dennis recommended, or from other secondary sources, but you are not likely to find other measures of wealth, domainal demographic data, or accurate military data in one location, if at all. When such data are available (usually for just one location at one historical moment, not so useful for broad analysis) they are tucked away in specialty journals or monographs. Studies of domainal income and finance are widely available for the Edo period. For example _Kinsei daimyo kinʾyushi no kenkyu_ might be useful, but I suspect this is not the period you are after.  

Since you are in Japan, though, you are ideally situated to consult with people who are interested in quantitative analysis of sixteenth-century Japan. I'm thinking that demographers and economic historians are your best bet, but maybe someone else can offer a better suggestion. I really haven't seen the kind of materials I think you are looking for, but as a historian who only uses qualitative methods, I may not have been paying attention!

One other place that you might look is the journal _Sengoku kenkyu_ (Kawasaki-shi : Sengokushi Kenkyukai).

Cheers,

Morgan

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Morgan Pitelka

Associate Professor

Occidental College

Los Angeles, CA 90041

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[robi...@icu.ac.jp]

Philip,

Information about grants in the late sixteenth century might also be found
in the texts below.

"Taikou-sama ondai gohaibunchou (Keichou ninen koro)," in Kusaka Hiroshi,
ed., Houkou ibun, Tokyo: Hakubunkan, 1914.
(To all, if there is a more accurate romanization, I would appreciate
correction.)

"Keichou sannen daimyouchou," in Zoku gunsho ruijuu, vol. 25 pt. 1,
Buke-bu, Tokyo: Zoku Gunsho Ruijuu Kanseikai, 1924.

The 1999 Iwanami "Nihonshi jiten" includes a table of late-sixteenth
century grants divided by province.

Ken Robinson