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The Matsumae-shi was a Japanese aristocratic family who were daimyo of Matsumae Domain, in present-day Matsumae, Hokkaidō, from the Azuchi–Momoyama period until the Meiji Restoration. They were given the domain as a Marches in 1590 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and charged with defending it, and by extension the whole of Japan, from the Ainu people "barbarians" of the north. They were the first Japanese to negotiate with Russia in any way. Following the Meiji Restoration, the family was bestowed the title of Viscount.
They were given the area around present-day Matsumae, Hokkaidō, what would become the Matsumae Domain, as a Marches in 1590 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. They were charged with defending it, and by extension the whole of Japan, from the Ainu people "barbarians" of the north. In exchange for their service in defending the country, the Matsumae were made exempt from owing rice to the shogunate in tribute, and from the sankin-kōtai system, under which most daimyōs (feudal lords of Edo period Japan) were required to spend half the year at Edo, while their families spent the entire year at Edo and were, essentially, held hostage to prevent rebellion.
Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the family was appointed Viscount in the new kazoku peerage.
In 1779, a massive earthquake struck Hokkaidō, and a forty-two-foot tsunami lifted the Russian ship out of the sea, depositing it a quarter-mile inland. The merchant Lebedev then gave up on Hokkaidō.
The Matsumae clan's fief had extensive contacts with the Ainu people of Hokkaidō, and had exclusive rights to trade with the Ainu communities of the island and to guarantee the security of Japanese interests there. Relations between the Matsumae and the Ainu was sometimes hostile, demonstrating that their power was not absolute in the region. In 1669, what started as a fight for resources between rival Ainu clans developed into a rebellion against Matsumae control of the region. It lasted until 1672, when Shakushain's revolt was finally put down. The last serious Ainu rebellion was the Menashi-Kunashir rebellion in 1789.
In 1790, Kakizaki Hakyo painted the Ishūretsuzō, a series of portraits of Ainu chiefs, in order to prove to the Japanese populace that the Matsumae were capable of controlling the northern borders and the Ainu. The 12 paintings of Ainu chiefs were displayed in 1791 in Kyoto.
At roughly the same time, in 1789, a Finland professor, Erik Laxmann, of the Russian Academy of Sciences, came across several Japanese castaways in Irkutsk. Like several other Japanese before them, they had been found in the Aleutian Islands, off the coast of Alaska, by Russian sailors and had asked to be brought back to Japan. Like those before them, these castaways had been transported instead across Siberia on their way to Saint Petersburg. Laxman saw their plight as an opportunity to work towards the opening of Japan, and suggested this to Catherine the Great, who agreed. In 1791, she appointed the professor's son, Lt. Adam Laxman, to command a voyage to return these castaways to Japan, and to open discussions towards a trade agreement.
The expedition reached Hokkaidō in October 1792, and found the Japanese surprisingly hospitable. The Russians were allowed to spend the winter, and documents about them were sent to the bakufu in Edo. However, Professor Laxman insisted on bringing the castaways to Edo, and said that he would sail there himself even against the Shōgun's wishes. The bakufu sent an envoy to the Matsumae, requesting that the Russians make their way to the town of Matsumae by land. Sensing a trap, the Russians refused, and they were eventually allowed to make port in Hakodate, escorted by a Japanese vessel. They were given a guest house near Matsumae Castle, and were, unusually, allowed to maintain their own customs: they did not deny their Christianity, remove their boots indoors or bow to the Shōgun's envoys. The Japanese envoys gave them three swords and a hundred bags of rice, but also informed them that the Shōgun's rules remained unchangeable: foreigners could trade only at Nagasaki, and only if they came unarmed. All other ships would be subject to seizure. Due to his purposes in returning castaways, Laxman was granted a pardon in this instance, but he refused to relinquish the castaways until he was given something in writing answering his request for trade. The envoys returned three days later with a document restating the rules regarding trade at Nagasaki and the laws against the practice of Christianity in Tokugawa Japan. The Russians never did establish any regular system of trade at Nagasaki, and historians today still disagree as to whether the document given to Professor Laxman was an invitation to trade, or an evasive maneuver on the part of the shogunate. The Russian expedition led by Adam Johann von Krusenstern and Nikolai Rezanov stayed for six months in the port of Nagasaki in 1804–1805, failing to establish diplomatic and trade relations with Japan.
Since the Matsumae land was a march or borderland, the remainder of Hokkaidō, then called Ezo, essentially became an Ainu reservation. Although Japanese influence and control over the Ainu gradually grew stronger over the centuries, at that time they were mostly left to their own devices and the shogunate did not consider their lands to be Japanese territory. It was only during the Meiji Restoration in the late 19th century that the march was dissolved and Hokkaidō was formally annexed, and renamed, by Japan.
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