Ahatamoto (旗本; "Guardian of the banner") was a high rankingsamurai in the direct service of theTokugawa shogunate of feudalJapan.[1] While all three of theshogunates inJapanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to asgokenin. However, in theEdo period,hatamoto were the uppervassals of the Tokugawa house,[2] and thegokenin were the lower vassals. There was no precise difference between the two in terms ofincome level, but ahatamoto had the right to anaudience with theshogun, whereasgokenin did not.[3] The wordhatamoto literally means "origin/base of the flag", with the sense of 'around the flag', it is described in Japanese as 'those who guard the flag' (on the battlefield) and is often translated into English as "bannerman". Another term for the Edo-erahatamoto wasjikisan hatamoto (直参旗本), sometimes rendered as "direct shogunalhatamoto", which serves to illustrate the difference between them and the preceding generation ofhatamoto who served various lords.
The termhatamoto originated in theSengoku period. The term was used for the direct retainers of a lord; as the name suggests, the men who were grouped "around of the flag". Many lords hadhatamoto; however, when the Tokugawa clan achieved ascendancy in 1600, itshatamoto system wasinstitutionalized, and it is that system which is chiefly referred to now when using the term.
In the eyes of the Tokugawa shogunate,hatamoto wereretainers who had served thefamily from its days inMikawa onward.[4] However, the ranks of thehatamoto also included people from outside thehereditaryranks of the Tokugawa house. Retainer families of defeated formerly grand families like theTakeda,Hōjō, orImagawa were included, as were cadet branches of lord families.[5] Also included were heirs to lords whose domains wereconfiscated, for example Asano Daigaku, the brother ofAsano Naganori,[4] local power figures in remote parts of the country who never becamedaimyōs; and the families ofKamakura andMuromachi periodsShugo (Governors): some of these include theAkamatsu,Besshō (branch of the Akamatsu),Hōjō,Hatakeyama,Kanamori (branch of the Toki),Imagawa,Mogami (branch of the Ashikaga),Nagai,Oda,Ōtomo,Takeda,Toki, Takenaka (branch of the Toki),Takigawa,Tsutsui, andYamana families.[6] The act of becoming ahatamoto was known asbakushin toritate (幕臣取り立て;lit. 'promoted to theshogunate').
Manyhatamoto fought in theBoshin War of 1868, on both sides of the conflict.
Thehatamoto remained retainers of the mainTokugawa clan after the fall of the shogunate in 1868, and followed the Tokugawa to their new domain ofShizuoka. Thehatamoto lost their status along with all other samurai in Japan following theabolition of the domains in 1871.
The division betweenhatamoto andgokenin, especially amongsthatamoto of lower rank, was not rigid, and the title ofhatamoto had more to do with rank rather than income rating. In the context of anarmy, it could be compared to the position of anofficer. Throughout the Edo period,hatamoto held the distinction that if they possessed high enough rank, they had the right to personal audience with theshogun (thesehatamoto were known asome-mie ijō). Allhatamoto can be divided into two categories, thekuramaitori, who took their incomes straight from Tokugawa granaries, and thejikatatori, who held land scattered throughout Japan.[7] Another level of status distinction amongst thehatamoto was the class ofkōtai-yoriai, men who were heads ofhatamoto families and held provincial fiefs, and had alternate attendance (sankin-kōtai) duties like thedaimyōs. However, askōtai-yoriai were men of very high income in terms of the spectrum ofhatamoto stipends, not alljikatatori hatamoto had the duty of alternate attendance. The dividing line between the upperhatamoto and thefudai daimyōs'—the domain lords who were also vassals of the Tokugawa house—was 10,000koku.[3]
At the beginning of the 18th century, about 5,000 samurai held the rank ofhatamoto; over two thirds of these had an income of less than 400 koku and only about 100 earned 5,000 koku or more. Ahatamoto with 500 koku had seven permanent non-samurai servants, two swordsmen, a lancer, and an archer on standby.[8]
Infrequently, somehatamoto were granted an increase in income and thus promoted to the rank offudai daimyō. One example of such a promotion is the case of the Hayashi family of Kaibuchi (later known asJōzai han), who began asjikatatori hatamoto but who becamefudai daimyōs and went on to play a prominent role in theBoshin War, despite their domain's relatively small size of 10,000koku.
The term for ahatamoto with income of about 8,000koku or greater wastaishin hatamoto ("greaterhatamoto").
Thehatamoto who lived in Edo resided in their own private districts and oversaw their ownpolice work andsecurity. Men fromhatamoto ranks could serve in a variety of roles in the Tokugawa administration, including service in the police force asyoriki inspectors,[9] citymagistrates, magistrates ortax collectors of direct Tokugawa house land, members of thewakadoshiyori council, and many other positions.[10]
The expression "eighty thousandhatamoto" (旗本八万旗,hatamoto hachimanhata) was in popular use to denote their numbers, but a 1722 study put their numbers at about 5,000. Adding thegokenin brought the number up to about 17,000.
Famoushatamoto includeJidayu Koizumi,Nakahama Manjirō,Ōoka Tadasuke,Tōyama Kagemoto,Katsu Kaishū,Enomoto Takeaki,Hijikata Toshizō,Nagai Naoyuki, and the two WesternersWilliam Adams andJan Joosten van Lodensteijn.
Hatamoto patronized the development of the martial arts in the Edo period; many of them were involved in the running ofdojo in theEdo area and elsewhere. Twohatamoto who were directly involved in the development of the martial arts wereYagyū Munenori andYamaoka Tesshū. Munenori's family became hereditary sword instructors to theshogun.
Hatamoto appeared as figures in popular culture even before the Edo era ended.[citation needed] Recent depictions ofhatamoto include in the TV seriesHatchōbori no Shichinin, the mangaFūunjitachi Bakumatsu-hen, andOsamu Tezuka's mangaHidamari no ki. The real-time strategy video game seriesAge of Empires featureshatamoto in itsAge of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties expansion, again inAge of Empires IV as Samurai Bannermen, in both games they are especially powerful variants of the samurai.
In thenovelShōgun (subject of a 1980television series, and a 2024remake), the protagonist PilotJohn Blackthorne, loosely based onWilliam Adams, eventually rises in the service of Lord Toranaga to become samurai and hatamoto.
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