The establishment of the
Tokugawa shogunate in 1600 redefined
tozama daimyō as the
daimyō who submitted as
vassals to the
Tokugawa only after the decisive
Battle of Sekigahara, including those who fought for the Tokugawa at the battle but were not official vassals.
Tokugawa Ieyasu had treated the great
tozama amicably, but his grandson
Tokugawa Iemitsu was less tolerant of them during his rule between 1623 and 1626.
Tozama and their descendants were distrusted and the Tokugawa shogunate discriminated against them in favor of the
fudai daimyō.
Tozama were largely excluded from the shogunate government, the
Bakufu, and their numbers were limited compared to the
fudai who filled the administration's ranks. Many of the largest and wealthiest
han—the personal
feudal domains of the
daimyō—were ruled by
tozama, including the
Maeda clan of the
Kaga Domain with a value of 1,000,000
koku under the
Kokudaka system. However, this was a deliberate Tokugawa plan to keep the
tozama in check, as
fudai daimyō were stationed in smaller domains in strategic locations, including along major roads and near important cities. Many notable
tozama families, including the
Shimazu, the
Mori, the
Date, the
Hachisuka, and the
Uesugi, were based in western and northern
Honshu and
Kyushu in contrast to the Tokugawa based in the eastern city of
Edo. Most, but not all, of these families had been living in roughly the same regions for centuries before the Tokugawa shogunate.
Tozama daimyō heavily profited from trade in the 17th century, particularly in western Japan where most of the country's important
ports were located. The shogunate responded in
Sakoku policies of
isolationism, preventing the ports of western Honshu and
Kyūshū from trading with foreigners and sending Japanese vessels abroad. The
Tozama daimyō had higher levels of independent power and local autonomy, and conducted their judicial, administrative and military affairs in the name of the local daimyos like sovereigns. The
Tozama domains' relationship to the Shogun was one of paying tribute, military levy and guard duty obligations. The decline of the Tokugawa shogunate during the
Bakumatsu period from 1853 led to lessening discrimination against
tozama daimyō. In November 1864,
Matsumae Takahiro, the
tozama daimyō of the
Matsumae clan, was appointed as
rōjū, one of the highest-ranking government posts in the Tokugawa government.
Tozama formed the nucleus of the growing anti-Tokugawa movement, with the
Satsuma and
Chōshū (Shimazu and Mori clans respectively) primarily responsible for the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in the
Meiji Restoration. Rallying other
tozama and even
fudai to their cause in support of the
Imperial Court, they fought against the shogunate,
Aizu Domain, and the
Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei during the
Boshin War of 1868 to 1869. Many people from Satsuma and Chōshū dominated politics of the
Empire of Japan in the ensuing decades, and well into the 20th century, as part of the
Meiji oligarchy. The distinction between
tozama and
fudai became obsolete when the
daimyō were morphed into the new
kazoku aristocracy. ==References==