Sōma clan
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2018) |
| Sōma clan 相馬氏 | |
|---|---|
.svg) Sōma clan emblem | |
| Home province | Shimōsa Mutsu |
| Parent house |  Taira clan  Chiba clan |
| Titles | Various |
| Founder | Sōma Morotsune |
| Current head | Sōma Kazutane |
| Founding year | Heian period |
| Dissolution | still extant |
| Ruled until | 1873 (Abolition of the han system) |
| Cadet branches | Hashimoto clan, Izumi clan, Okada clan |
The Sōma clan (相馬氏, Sōma-shi) was a
.During the Boshin War of 1868–69, the Sōma clan fought on the side of the Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei, supporting the Tokugawa regime. After the Meiji Restoration, the head of the Sōma clan became part of the kazoku peerage, with Sōma Aritane receiving the title of shishaku (Viscount).
Origins
During the Nanboku-chō period following the fall of the Kamakura shogunate the Sōma were one of the few clans in Mutsu to remain loyal to the Northern Court.[1]: 278
Sengoku period
Although the Sōma were a minor regional power, their territory was sandwiched between the much more powerful Satake clan to the south and the Date clan to the north. The Date under Date Masamune were especially aggressive and expansionist, and despite efforts by the 16th hereditary chieftain Sōma Yoshitane to remain aloof of the conflicts of the Sengoku period, the Date invaded his domain on 30 occasions. Both Sōma Yoshitane and Date Masamune submitted to Toyotomi Hideyoshi at the Siege of Odawara.[2]
At the time of the
Edo period
Sōma Toshitane married an adopted daughter of
The subsequent history of the domain was largely uneventful, and the Sōma clan retained its holdings for the entirety of the Edo period, surviving until the Meiji Restoration.
The official kokudaka of the domain was officially 60,000 koku, but the actual kokudaka was almost 100,000 koku.
Boshin War
During the
Meiji era and beyond
In the early years of the Meiji era, the Sōma Incident became a major political scandal. On April 14, 1879, the former daimyō of Nakamura Sōma Domain, Sōma Toshitane, was placed under house arrest by the government, after family members filed a petition accusing him of mental instability. On December 10, 1885, one of his former retainers, Nishigori Takekiyo, filed a lawsuit accusing these relatives, led by Toshitane’s younger brother, Sōma Aritane, of having made false charges leading to Toshitane's incarceration, for the purposes of embezzling the monies of the former domain. The Sōma clan hired the famous lawyer Hoshi Tōru to defend their case, which went on for years, as the legal definition of insanity and the qualifications necessary for a doctor to declare a person mentally incompetent were not yet defined in Japanese jurisprudence. On Toshitane's death in 1892, Nishigori accused the defendants of having murdered him by poison. However, after an autopsy failed to find any evidence, Nishikori was countersued for slander and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Marquis Sōma Aritane (1863–1919) was the 30th hereditary chieftain of the clan, and acquired a 15,000
Notes
- ^ a b Monogatari: Hanshi Volume 1, Kodama Kōta, ed. Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu Ōraisha, 1966, p. 278
- ISBN 9781846039607.
- ^ (in Japanese) Hoshi, Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei, pp. 88–89.
Further reference
- Iwao, Seiichi. (1978). Biographical dictionary of Japanese history. Berkeley: University of California.
- Papinot, Edmond. (1948). Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan. New York: Overbeck Co.
- Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906) Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du japon. Tokyo: Librarie Sansaisha. Nobiliaire du japon (2003, abridged online text of 1906
- List of Meiji-era Japanese nobility (accessed 15 August 2008)
External links
- Soma Domain of Edo 500
- Hoshi, Ryōichi (1997). Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei. Tokyo: Chūōkōron-shinsha.