History Tokugawa Gosanke (徳川御三家)

The Gosanke occupied the highest rank among the Tokugawa clan's collateral branches (shinpan). Together with the shogunal house and, later, the Gosankyō (御三卿), they alone were permitted to use the Tokugawa surname and the distinctive triple-hollyhock (mitsuba aoi) crest. Although they are often described as supporters or advisers to the shogun , no formal office or institutional role defined this relationship. In practice, they functioned as powerful regional daimyō houses governing their own domains while serving as a dynastic reserve for the shogunate.

The three houses traced their origins to Ieyasu's younger sons. Tokugawa Yoshinao (徳川義直, 1600–1650), Ieyasu's ninth son, founded the Owari branch; Tokugawa Yorinobu (徳川頼宣, 1602–1671), his tenth son, established the Kii branch; and Tokugawa Yorifusa (徳川頼房, 1603–1661), his eleventh and youngest surviving son, founded the Mito branch. During the consolidation of Tokugawa rule in the early seventeenth century, Ieyasu placed these sons in strategically important domains at Nagoya, Wakayama, and Mito respectively.

The domains themselves were among the largest and wealthiest in Japan. The Owari house ruled the Owari Domain from Nagoya Castle with an income of approximately 620,000 koku. The Kii house governed the Kii Domain from Wakayama Castle, assessed at about 560,000 koku. The Mito house controlled the Mito Domain in Hitachi Province from Mito Castle, eventually reaching an income of around 350,000 koku. Their territories also occupied strategically significant locations. Owari controlled the approaches along the Tōkaidō and Nakasendō routes linking Edo and Kyōto , Kii overlooked vital maritime traffic through the Kii Channel, and Mito guarded the northeastern approaches to Edo.



The concept of the Gosanke evolved gradually rather than appearing fully formed. In the early Edo period, the term sometimes referred to the shogunal house together with the Owari and Kii branches. At other times it denoted the three senior Tokugawa houses of Owari, Kii and Suruga. The Mito branch initially ranked below Owari and Kii; its head held the office of gon-chūnagon rather than gon-dainagon, and the family was not permitted to use the Tokugawa surname until 1636, following the extinction of the Suruga house. Only from around the reign of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (徳川綱吉, 1646–1709), the fifth shogun, did the designation Gosanke become firmly associated with Owari, Kii and Mito. The disappearance of other important collateral houses, such as the Suruga, Kōfu and Tatebayashi branches, further reinforced this arrangement.

The principal purpose of the Gosanke was dynastic security. If the direct line of shoguns lacked an heir, a successor could be adopted from Owari or Kii. This system came into effect in 1716, when Tokugawa Ietsugu (徳川家継, 1709–1716), the seventh shogun, died without issue at the age of seven. Tokugawa Yoshimune (徳川吉宗, 1684–1751), lord of Kii, was adopted into the main line and became the eighth shogun. Yoshimune's descendants subsequently supplied the ninth through thirteenth shoguns, and the Kii branch later provided Tokugawa Iemochi (徳川家茂, 1846–1866), the fourteenth shōgun. As a result, Kii became the most successful of the three houses in terms of succession.

Despite being the senior branch and, in theory, first in line, the Owari house never produced a shogun. On one occasion, Tokugawa Yoshimichi (徳川吉通, 1689–1713), fourth lord of Owari, was considered as a possible successor to Tokugawa Ienobu (徳川家宣, 1662–1712). Opposition from influential advisers, including Arai Hakuseki (新井白石, 1657–1725), and the Owari family's reluctance to contest the succession prevented his accession. Thereafter, although succession crises recurred, candidates from Kii and, later, from the Gosankyō were chosen instead.



The Mito branch occupied a rather different position. Initially barred from directly providing shogunal heirs, it nonetheless enjoyed considerable prestige because its head resided permanently in Edo and formally communicated matters of succession to the imperial court. The house became especially famous for scholarship under Tokugawa Mitsukuni (徳川光圀, 1628–1701). Under his patronage, scholars compiled the monumental Dai Nihonshi (大日本史), a history of Japan that emphasised imperial legitimacy. Intellectual currents associated with Mito later contributed to the sonnō jōi ("Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarian") movement that gained influence during the final decades of the shogunate. Ironically, ideas cultivated within a Tokugawa house helped undermine Tokugawa rule itself.

The final shōgun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu (徳川慶喜, 1837–1913), was born into the Mito house. However, he became shōgun only after being adopted into the Hitotsubashi house, one of the later Gosankyō branches. Strictly speaking, therefore, no shōgun ever ascended directly from the Mito line.

Like the shogunal house itself, each of the Gosanke established subsidiary branches known as gorenshi (御連枝) to preserve the bloodline and prevent extinction. These cadet houses occasionally supplied successors. The Takasu Matsudaira family , a branch of Owari, produced four Owari lords, while the Saijō Matsudaira family supplied three lords to Kii. During the late Edo period, however, these reserves also weakened, and succession increasingly depended upon adoption from the line of Yoshimune and from the Gosankyō.

The Gosanke and the Gosankyō should not be confused. The Gosankyō — the Tayasu, Hitotsubashi and Shimizu houses — were established in the eighteenth century by Yoshimune as a second reservoir of heirs located closer to the shogunal court in Edo. Whereas the Gosanke controlled extensive domains and wielded considerable regional power, the Gosankyō possessed smaller estates and remained closely integrated into the political centre. Together, these institutions reflected the Tokugawa regime's persistent concern with dynastic stability.

During the Bakumatsu period, the three houses adopted differing political positions, yet none was officially designated an enemy of the imperial court. Following the Meiji Restoration , the heads of the former Gosanke entered the new kazoku peerage. Under the peerage regulations, the former Gosanke were treated as exceptional among the former daimyō families and were generally accorded the rank of marquess. In 1929, the head of the Mito house was elevated to the rank of prince.

The castles of all three houses survived into the modern era. The keeps of Nagoya Castle and Wakayama Castle, together with the Go-Sankai Yagura (御三階櫓) of Mito Castle, remained standing until the final months of the Second World War. All three structures were destroyed in American air raids in 1945. The keeps of Nagoya and Wakayama have since been reconstructed externally, while Mito's three-storeyed turret has not been rebuilt.

Links:

• The Tokugawa Three Houses (徳川御三家). From Japanese Wikipedia.
• The Tokugawa Three Houses (徳川御三家). From Touken World.

References:

• Bolitho, Harold, Treasures among Men: The Fudai Daimyo in Tokugawa Japan, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974.
• Jansen, Marius B., The Making of Modern Japan, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.
• McClain, James L., Japan: A Modern History, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002.
• Ravina, Mark, Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999.
• Totman, Conrad, Politics in the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1600–1843, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967.
• Totman, Conrad, Early Modern Japan, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
• Yamamura, Kozo, ed., The Cambridge History of Japan, Volume 4: Early Modern Japan, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.