Fiefs on the Northern Frontier: Japanese Domains and the Colonization of Ezochi in the Bakumatsu Era

In 1855, after Perry’s and Putyatin’s visits, the Tokugawa shogunate confiscated almost all of Ezochi (Hokkaido and surrounding islands) from Matsumae domain’s oversight and began to govern the territory directly. Yet, domain rulers became deeply involved with northern colonization and defense during that era. Some were mobilized by the shogunate for coastal defense, while others volunteered to govern and develop land and fisheries. This talk outlines shifts in shogunal policy regarding domain rule in Ezochi, and then introduces the examples of Ōno, Awa Katsuyama, and Saga domains to understand various scenarios of domains volunteering to go north. 

Maren Ehlers is Associate Professor of History at University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Visiting Associate Professor of East Asian Studies at Yale University.