Chance?
The itinerary of my first trip to Japan was a study tour and engineered perfection crafted by JFMF the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund.
I was assigned to Ohda, one of 10 groups each destined for a unique study adventure in Japan. We would come together at the end of 20 days to share our experiences.
First day, last announcement: “The bus departs at 7:03 am.” It was delivered without the typical warning: “Don’t be late.” It was shared more as an invitation, rather than the implicit command: “Be there on time.” In a polychronic culture, people come before deadlines. It felt good. This is the way life ought to be.
We learned immediately the next morning that the white gloved driver would roll away from the hotel at exactly 7:03.
I tried to get to Okayama (origin of my mother’s parents) but I was on a JFMF itinerary and soon learned that Okayama would have to wait for another time. Only later did I realize that the family I was to meet and stay with was selected specifically for me. I was operating in a monochronic frame of mind and soon, soon I’d become aware of a polychronic sway of Japanese life hidden but not, in a world that on the outside looked like the precision gears and springs of the finest time keeping device ever crafted.
That time came 10 years later as I singularly crafted a personal itinerary based on an inner quest to find the Japanese family my mother never met and walk the land of her ancestors. I first stepped onto the ground at Narita International Airport and made my way to Asuka Village the next day.
So was it by chance that my personal quest would begin at a family home stay in Asuka Village? Chance that I’d stay at the center of what I’d later learn as the Asuka Period when the term samurai first came into broad use? Chance that I’d soon meet one of the most eminent sword smiths in all of Japan? A Living Japanese National Treasure. Chance? Destiny? Questions with answers about to unfold with each new step in ancestral lands.
A perfect reflection of the words of anthropologist Fosco Maraini:
You are about to embark upon “a journey where the signposts are unfamiliar, and where the new worlds you see reveal elements in yourself that you never even knew existed.”
Maraini was talking about Japan. See Tip #32 His insight prescient, his prediction intimate, a perfect fit, like the inside of my skin.
Historical Prelude:
When I sit with my family to work on a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle (a winter sport), we commonly start by assembling the perimeter. So too have I now begun to frame my experiences in Japan by gluing down the names, places, culture and history in a way that allows for experience to interlock with Japanese history.
縄文 30,000 BC to 538 Jōmon Period: Japanese prehistory.
縄文, Jōmon, means “cord” and refers to pottery decorated by pressing cord onto wet clay. Epiphany: Archaeological interest in pottery stems from its appearance in an archaeological record as evidence of the transition from a former nomadic hunter gatherer life to living in one place permanently which requires food preservation and storage technologies like pottery, which allows for fermentation of food.
飛鳥時代 538-710 Asuka Period. Long before the age of samurai there existed the high nobility after which the rest were farmers, fishermen, charcoal makers, artisans, metal smiths, carpenters, weavers, armorers, potters, paper makers, and ritual specialists. My grandfather Jotaro Kobayakawa was a charcoal maker for 20 years before he left Japan in 1906.
During the Asuka Period, 7 empresses reigned from the fifth to the eighth centuries, but after 770 succession was restricted to males. It was during this time that the term samurai came into use.
- Empress Suiko (554–628), r. 593–628—first ruling empress. Ruled for 35 years.
- Empress Kōgyoku (594–661), r. 642–645—formerly Princess Takara (Empress Consort of Jomei)
- Empress Saimei (594–661), r. 655–661 (same person as Empress Kōgyoku)
- Empress Jitō (645–702), r. 690–697
The Taihō Code of 702 classified most of the Imperial bureaucrats into 12 ranks, each divided into two sub-ranks, 1st rank being the highest adviser to the emperor. Those of 6th rank and below were referred to as "samurai" and dealt with day-to-day affairs. Although these "samurai" were civilian public servants, the modern word is believed to have derived from this term. Military men, however, would not be referred to as "samurai" for many more centuries.
- Empress Gemmei (661–721), r. 707–715
- Empress Genshō (680–748), r. 715–724—formerly Princess Hidaka
- Empress Kōken (718–770), r. 749–758
- Empress Shōtoku (718–770), r. 764–770 (same person as Empress Kōken)
- Empress Meishō (1624–1696), r. 1629–1643
- Empress Go-Sakuramachi (1740–1813), r. 1762–1771—most recent ruling empress Source: Wikipedia https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_empresses
Samurai were initially civil public servants beginning in 702 and for over 400 years would not carry military responsibilities until The Kamakura Period (1185-1333) which “saw the rise of samurai under shogun rule as they were entrusted with the security of the estates...” They “became the symbols of the ideal warrior and citizen.”
Fujiwara family controls the political scene via occupation of all Kyoto political offices and strategic marriages with the imperial family. This peaks in 1016 but comes to an end in 1068. Now, the power of the central government slowly shifts to large independent land owners known as daimyōs. https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2132.html
1068 Previously, samurai were public servants.
To maintain order diamyōs enlist warrior samurai to protect their lands. Some of the former samurai public civil servant class now become samurai of the warrior class. As more power shifts to land owners the need for a warrior samurai class grows.
鎌倉時代 1185 Kamakura: Minamoto Yoritomo succeeds as the new leader of Japan, is appointed Shogun, and establishes his home city Kamakura as the center of the new government.
室町時代 1333-1568 Muromachi Period
Oda Nobunaka begins the first attempt to unify Japan.
安土桃山時代 1568-1600 Azuchi-Momoyama Period
Oda Nobunaga assassinated 1582 by Akechi Missuhide
After 120 years of civil war, the daimyō and samurai Toyotomi Hideyoshi unifies Japan in 1590. His father Kinoshita Yaemon, a peasant foot soldier (ashigaru), to a samurai. Hideyoshi rose from peasant class to retainer to distinguished samurai general to lord Oda Nobunaka whom he succeeded.
Tokugawa leyasu was the richest and strongest of all daimyōs at the time of Nobunaga’s death and fights alongside Ishida Mitsunari to help bring Hideyoshi to power.
Ishida Mitsunari was a minor daimyō at this time but very loyal to Hideyoshi who appoints Mitsunari Inspector General for Tokugawa’s ill conceived invasion of Korea and China. Ishida is a commander of an unwinnable war.
Enter Kobayakawa Takakage, who was one of these daimyōs fighting in Korea.
Once ordered, daimyōs were forced to fight for Tokugawa in two Korean campaigns, eventually coming to realize the madness in Tokugawa’s vision of ruling all of Asia. The war would never be won and only these daimyōs would suffer the losses of samurai and resources.
This is perhaps why Mitsunari became disliked by many of the daimyo supporting Tokugawa.
While Inspector General in Korea, Mitsunari sends Tokugawa a scathing criticism of Kobayakawa’s performance. Tokugawa leyasu strips Kobayakawa from many of his rights, privileges and lands, a terrible reward for loyally fighting for Tokugawa. This is why at a most critical battle Hideake Kobayakawa joins forces with Tokugawa leyasu to defeat Mitsunari at the Battle of Sekigahara, October 21, 1600. In short, Hideake Kobayakawa with 15,600 samurai turns history to install Tokugawa leyasu as the Shogun who finally unifies the country ending hundreds of years of civil war in Japan.
Tokugawa leyasu(Eastern clans) vs. Ishida Mitsunari (Western clans) at the October 21, 1600 Battle Of Sekigahara.
Mitsunari recruits Kobayakawa Hideake* who with 5 other daimyōs switch their allegiance to Tokugawa leyasu at the Battle of Sekigahara. What is it about Mistunari that leads to the defection of 6 diamyōs giving Tokugawa leyasu a decisive victory? It may be that Mitsunari in executing Tokugawa’s ill conceived war in Korea, forcing loyal daimyōs to fight a war in a foreign land against their better judgements, leading to the unnecessary loss of thousands of samurai and the resources of many daimyōs in fighting an unwinnable war.
*Docudrama: Age Of Samurai, Episode 6 at 16:25.
徳川時代 1603-1868 Tokugawa Shogunate at Edo
In part, Daimyōs were ranked by the value of the land under their administration, kokukada. One koku was the amount of rice required to feed one person for a year.
In the year 1650, Japan’s total kokudaka was 26 million koku. 4.2 million koku directly controlled by the Shogun.
This web page was inspired by my long time friend Lloyd Kajikawa who mentioned in is last email: “You may be directly descendant in the Kobayakawa line. Who knows?”
Similarly, when Patricia and I visited the Samurai Museum in Shinjuku the owner became very animated when Patricia said I had Kobayakawa lineage. He had made the leap that my Kobayakawa family was descendant from Hideake Kobayakawa.
Not so fast. Is my Kobayakawa family descendant from Hideake Kobayakawa?
Let’s do the research.
Hideake was adopted into the Kobayakawa family by Takakage Kobayakawa who himself was a Morī adopted by Kobayakawa, so both of these figures are not ancestral. Since these prominent historical Kobayakawa’s were adoptees, I will instead follow the DNA.
If there is a common lineage it would bridge Hideake’s Kobayakawa clan to my earliest Kobayakawa ancestors. At the Battle of Sekigahara, October 21, 1600 Hideake led 15,600 samurai of the Kobayakawa clan into battle. How many of these men had married into the family? How many were unrelated farmers living on Daimyō Hideyaki’s land? And how many were familial Kobayakawa? It is this last group that may provide the ancestral bridge to my recently found Kobayakawa family in Niimi, Okayama.
If there is an ancestral link between the Kobayakawa clan of Kideake’s time it would be found within the 185 years span leading to the birth of my Grandfather’s grandfather, Jouemon Kobayakawa, who was born circa 1785. His son Kitaro was born May 28, 1830. To answer Lloyd’s question, the answer will be found by researching the Kobayakawa’s between 1600 and 1785.
Wikipedia
小早川氏 Kobayakawa Clan
Family Heads https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobayakawa_clan
- Kobayakawa Tohira (小早川遠平, ?–1237), founder of the clan.
- Kobayakawa Kagehira (小早川景平, ?–1244)
- Kobayakawa Shigehira (小早川茂平, ?–1264) - his two sons Masahira and Masakage made two branches of the clan.
Numata-Kobayakawa clan (沼田小早川氏):
- Kobayakawa Masahira (小早川雅平, ?–?) - 3rd son of Shigehira.
- Kobayakawa Tomohira (小早川朝平, ?–1348)
- Kobayakawa Nobuhira (小早川宣平, ?–?)
- Kobayakawa Sadahira (小早川貞平, ?–1375)
- Kobayakawa Haruhira (小早川春平, ?–1402)
- Kobayakawa Norihira (小早川則平, ?–?)
- Kobayakawa Hirohira (小早川煕平, 1416–1473)
- Kobayakawa Takahira (小早川敬平, 1452–1499)
- Kobayakawa Sukehira (小早川扶平, 1485–1508)
- Kobayakawa Okihira (小早川興平, 1505–1527
- Kobayakawa Masahira (小早川正平, 1523–1543)
- Kobayakawa Shigehira (小早川繁平, 1542–1574)
- Kobayakawa Takakage (小早川隆景, 1533–1597) - 3rd son of Mōri Motonari.
- Kobayakawa Hideaki (小早川秀秋, 1582–1602) - nephew of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Takehara-Kobayakawa clan (竹原小早川氏):
- Kobayakawa Masakage (小早川政景, ?–?) - 4th son of Shigehira.
- Kobayakawa Kagemune (小早川景宗, ?–?)
- Kobayakawa Sukekage (小早川祐景, ?–1338)
- Kobayakawa Shigekage (小早川重景, ?–?)
- Kobayakawa Shigemune (小早川重宗, ?–?)
- Kobayakawa Saneyoshi (小早川実義, ?–1364)
- Kobayakawa Yoshiharu (小早川義春, ?–?)
- Kobayakawa Nakayoshi (小早川仲義, ?–?)
- Kobayakawa Hirokage (小早川弘景, ?–?)
- Kobayakawa Morikage (小早川盛景, ?–?)
- Kobayakawa Hirokage (小早川弘景, ?–?)
- Kobayakawa Hirohira (小早川弘平, ?–?)
- Kobayakawa Okikage (小早川興景, 1519–1541)
- Kobayakawa Takakage (小早川隆景, 1533–1597) - 3rd son of Mōri Motonari.
Significant Members[edit]
- Kobayakawa Takakage (小早川隆景, 1533–1597)
- Kobayakawa Hideaki (小早川秀秋, 1582–1602)
- Kobayakawa Hidekane (小早川秀包, 1567–1601)
- Lady Toida (問田大方, d. 1619)
