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The Importance Of Alternate Attendance In Japan

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During the early centuries of the Edo Period in Japan (1600-1868), the Shogun (military commander) would have the domain lords of surrounding lands provide samurai that would have to give at least a year of service to him in Edo every other year. The domain lords and the samurai had to walk back and forth from their home domains all over Japan to where the Tokugawa family ruled in Edo. This march and the service was known as the alternate attendance (sankin kotai) (pg. 1). The men were not doing this because they wanted to, but because they were forced. The samurai would have to leave their families in Edo to serve as hostages for sometimes their entire lives while the Samurai would serve the Shogun. The Shogun knew if they had their families the samurai would abide and serve. This system of service was called feudal or hoko and over 250 lords followed this system of rules. The alternate attendance seems wrong, but it actually helped grow Japan and the surrounding areas. It was key to the growth of roads, population, and economic wealth. But without alternate attendance we also would not have seen growth in cultures. It was said by Nishiyama Matsunosuke, “alternate attendance was of great significance” (pg. 4). The alternate attendance helped with maintaining peace among the lands and bringing the areas together …show more content…

When a domain lord or one of his retainers would be about to leave it was not unusual to receive large gifts from the locals living there as a thank you. There were so many scholars who lived in Edo who had books that were unique or copied from other domains which made the library full because of so many people coming and going from the central location and serving the domain lords on his trip. The purchasing of books while on alternate attendance showed another form of circulating material to the outer

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