Product Code Database
A "Guardian of the banner" was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan.Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric et al. (2005). Hatamoto in ; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, see Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as gokenin. However, in the Edo period, hatamoto were the upper of the Tokugawa house,Ooms, p. 190. and the gokenin were the lower vassals. There was no precise difference between the two in terms of income level, but a hatamoto had the right to an audience with the shogun, whereas gokenin did not.Ogawa, p. 43. The word hatamoto literally means "origin/base of the flag", with the sense of 'around the flag', it is described in Japanese as 'those who guard the flag' (on the battlefield) and is often translated into English as " bannerman". Another term for the Edo-era hatamoto was 直参旗本, sometimes rendered as "direct shogunal hatamoto", which serves to illustrate the difference between them and the preceding generation of hatamoto who served various lords.
In the eyes of the Tokugawa shogunate, hatamoto were retainers who had served the family from its days in Mikawa Province onward.Ogawa, p. 35. However, the ranks of the hatamoto also included people from outside the hereditary ranks of the Tokugawa house. Retainer families of defeated formerly grand families like the Takeda family, Hōjō, or Imagawa clan were included, as were cadet branches of lord families.Ogawa, pp. 35–36. Also included were heirs to lords whose domains were , for example Asano Daigaku, the brother of Asano Naganori, local power figures in remote parts of the country who never became daimyōs; and the families of Kamakura period and Shugo (Governors): some of these include the Akamatsu clan, Besshō (branch of the Akamatsu), Hōjō, Hatakeyama clan, Kanamori clan (branch of the Toki), Imagawa clan, Mogami clan (branch of the Ashikaga), Nagai clan, Oda clan, Ōtomo, Takeda clan, Toki clan, Takenaka (branch of the Toki), Takigawa clan, Tsutsui clan, and Yamana clan families.Ogawa, p. 35 The act of becoming a hatamoto was known as .
Many hatamoto fought in the Boshin War of 1868, on both sides of the conflict.
The hatamoto remained retainers of the main Tokugawa clan after the fall of the shogunate in 1868, and followed the Tokugawa to their new domain of Shizuoka Domain. The hatamoto lost their status along with all other samurai in Japan following the abolition of the domains in 1871.
At the beginning of the 18th century, about 5,000 samurai held the rank of hatamoto; over two thirds of these had an income of less than 400 koku and only about 100 earned 5,000 koku or more. A hatamoto with 500 koku had seven permanent non-samurai servants, two swordsmen, a lancer, and an archer on standby.
Infrequently, some hatamoto were granted an increase in income and thus promoted to the rank of fudai daimyō. One example of such a promotion is the case of the Hayashi family of Kaibuchi (later known as Jōzai han), who began as jikatatori hatamoto but who became fudai daimyōs and went on to play a prominent role in the Boshin War, despite their domain's relatively small size of 10,000 koku.
The term for a hatamoto with income of about 8,000 koku or greater was taishin hatamoto ("greater hatamoto").
The hatamoto who lived in Edo resided in their own private districts and oversaw their own police work and security. Men from hatamoto ranks could serve in a variety of roles in the Tokugawa administration, including service in the police force as yoriki inspectors,Sasama, p. 45. city , magistrates or of direct Tokugawa house land, members of the wakadoshiyori council, and many other positions.Bolitho, p. 118.
The expression hatamoto hachimanhata was in popular use to denote their numbers, but a 1722 study put their numbers at about 5,000. Adding the gokenin brought the number up to about 17,000.
In the novel Shōgun (subject of a 1980 television series, and a 2024 remake), the protagonist Pilot John Blackthorne, loosely based on William Adams, eventually rises in the service of Lord Toranaga to become samurai and hatamoto.
|
|
