Shimazu clan 島津氏
The Shimazu clan mon
Home province	Satsuma Ōsumi Hyūga
Parent house	Minamoto clan (Seiwa Genji)
Founder	Shimazu Tadahisa
Final ruler	Shimazu Tadashige
Current head	Shimazu Nobuhisa
Founding year	12th century (ca. 1196 AD)
Dissolution	still extant
Ruled until	1947, Constitution of Japan renders titles obsolete

The Shimazu clan (Japanese: 島津氏, Hepburn: Shimazu-shi) were the daimyō of the Satsuma han, which spread over Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga provinces in Japan.

The Shimazu were identified as one of the tozama or outsider daimyō families^[1] in contrast with the fudai or insider clans which were hereditary vassals or allies of the Tokugawa clan.

History

Grave of Shimazu family at Mount Kōya.

Samurai of the Satsuma clan, during the Boshin War period (1868–1869)

The Shimazu were descendants of the Seiwa Genji branch of the Minamoto. The Shimazu would become one of the families of Edo period daimyō to have held their territory continuously since the Kamakura period, and would also become, at their peak, the wealthiest and most powerful Tozama daimyō family with an income in excess of 700,000 koku.

The founder, Shimazu Tadahisa (d. 1227), was a son of Shōgun Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147-1199) with the sister of Hiki Yoshikazu. Tadahisa's wife was a daughter of Koremune Hironobu, descendant of the Hata clan, whose name Tadahisa took at first. He received the domain of Shioda in Shinano Province in 1186 and was then named shugo of Satsuma Province. He sent Honda Sadachika to take possession of the province in his name and accompanied Yoritomo in his expedition to Mutsu in 1189. He went to Satsuma in 1196, subdued Hyūga and Ōsumi provinces, and built a castle in the Hyūga Province part of the Shimazu Estate, which name he also adopted.

Shimazu Yoshihisa (1533 - 1611), the 16th Head of Shimazu family, the eldest son of Shimazu Takahisa.^[2] In 1586, succeed to unify and control the entire Kyushu region. He retired in 1587 after Hideyoshi Kyushu Campaign.

The 17th head, Yoshihiro (1535–1619), was the daimyō at the time of the Battle of Sekigahara, the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and the Siege of Osaka.^[3] His nephew and successor was Tadatsune.^[4] He held significant power during the first two decades of the 17th century, and organized the Shimazu invasion of the Ryūkyū Kingdom (modern-day Okinawa Prefecture) in 1609. The Shōgun allowed this because he wished to appease the Shimazu and prevent potential uprisings after their loss at Sekigahara.^[5] The trade benefits thus acquired, and the political prestige of being the only daimyō family to control an entire foreign country secured the Shimazu's position as one of the most powerful daimyō families in Japan at the time. The Shimazu clan was renowned for the loyalty of its retainers and officers, especially during the Sengoku period. Some retainer families, such as the Ijuin and Shirakawa, were determined to defeat any opposition to help expand the power of the Shimazu clan. The Shimazu are also famous for being the first to use teppo (firearms, specifically matchlock arquebuses) on the battlefield in Japan, and began domestic production of the weapons as well. Shimazu battle tactics are known to have been very successful in defeating larger enemy armies, particularly during their campaign to conquer Kyūshū in the 1580s. Their tactics included the luring of the opposition into an ambush on both sides by arquebus troops, creating panic and disorder. Central forces would then be deployed to rout the enemy. In this way, the Shimazu were able to defeat much larger clans such as the Itō, Ryūzōji and Ōtomo. Overall, the Shimazu was a very large and powerful clan due to their strong economy both from domestic production through trade, good organization of government and troops, strong loyalty of retainers and isolation from Honshū.

Hisamitsu (1817–1887), regent of Tadayoshi, was the daimyō of Satsuma at the time of the Boshin War and the Meiji Restoration, in which Satsuma played a major role.^[6]

Simplified family tree

Incorporates information from the Japanese Wikipedia article

^[7]

Order of succession

1. Shimazu Tadahisa
2. Shimazu Tadatoki^[8]
3. Shimazu Hisatsune^[8]
4. Shimazu Tadamune
5. Shimazu Sadahisa^[8]
6. Shimazu Ujihisa
7. Shimazu Motohisa
8. Shimazu Hisatoyo
9. Shimazu Tadakuni
10. Shimazu Tatsuhisa
11. Shimazu Tadamasa
12. Shimazu Tadaharu
13. Shimazu Tadataka
14. Shimazu Katsuhisa
15. Shimazu Takahisa^[9]
16. Shimazu Yoshihisa^[10]
17. Shimazu Yoshihiro^[3]
18. Shimazu Tadatsune^[4]
19. Shimazu Mitsuhisa
20. Shimazu Tsunataka
21. Shimazu Yoshitaka
22. Shimazu Tsugutoyo
23. Shimazu Munenobu
24. Shimazu Shigetoshi
25. Shimazu Shigehide^[11]
26. Shimazu Narinobu
27. Shimazu Narioki
28. Shimazu Nariakira^[12]
29. Shimazu Tadayoshi (with his father, Shimazu Hisamitsu,^[6] as regent)
30. Shimazu Tadashige
31. Shimazu Tadahide
32. Shimazu Nobuhisa(Chairman of the Shimazu limited)

Other members

• Shimazu Toshihisa
• Shimazu Iehisa
• Shimazu Toyohisa
• Shimazu Kameju
• Shimazu Tadahira
• Shimazu Tadamune
• Shimazu Sanehisa
• Shimazu Kiriyama (Exiled, self-imposed)
• Shimazu Shigehide^[13]

Important retainers

The Shimazu shichi-tō comprised the seven most significant vassal families—the Niiro, Hokugō, Ijuin,^[14] Machida, Kawakami, Ata and Kajiki.^[15]

See also

• Sengan-en
• Takako Shimazu
• Bombardment of Kagoshima

Notes

References

• Appert, Georges and H. Kinoshita. (1888). Ancien Japon. Tokyo: Imprimerie Kokubunsha. OCLC 4429674
• Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 48943301
• Kerr, George H. and Mitsugu Sakihara. (2000). Okinawa, the History of an Island People. Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 9780804820875; OCLC 247416761
• Papinot, Jacques Edmund Joseph. (1906) Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du japon. Tokyo: Librarie Sansaisha. OCLC 465662682; Nobiliaire du japon (abridged version of 1906 text).
• Sansom, George. (1958). A History of Japan: 1615-1867. Stanford University Press. OCLC 607164037