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The Other Side: An Introduction to Satsuma

If I had to pick one historical aspect that I see the most confusion about in Hakuouki fandom in generalit’d be this: Who are those people the Shinsengumi are fighting and why are they fighting

It’s a complicated !uestion because the answer changes o"er the course of the Shinsengumi’s history#

Here it’s time to talk about one of the oddest pieces of the pu$$le: Satsuma domain ie# the Sat  in the

 phrase %those Satcho bastards&' and those folks (a$ama owes a fa"our to# Or as I like to call them: theSlytherins of )apan#

This will be *art One of a two+part post on Satsuma# This post is general background information on

Satsuma# *art Two will co"er Satsuma’s actions during Hakuouki’s time period# One of the most

readable and interesting ,nglish+language books on Satsuma in the -akumatsu is .ark /a"ina’s The

 Last Samurai: T he Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori and I’m deeply indebted to it for writing this

 post#

 Felice Beato’s photograph of Satsuma samurai at the beginning of the Boshin War. Here they are

 plotting ho to make all the Hakuouki fans cry their eyes out o!er the Shinsengumi getting destroyed.

The best word to describe Satsuma domain might be 0uni!ue#’ ,"ery area of )apan had its own laws'

culture' dialect' history' traditions etc# but Satsuma stood out as being "ery much its own country within)apan#

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1or one thing' Satsuma was the "ery southern tip of pre+modern )apan: the southernmost part of the

island of (yushu# Today' we count the islands south of (yushu' including Okinawa' as part of )apan#

At the time of Hakuouki' they weren’t seen that way#

*ositioned on the outskirts' far away from the wars of central )apan' Satsuma had a remarkably long+lasting stable family dynasty# The Shima$u family took control of Satsuma around 2344 A5 and held

 power until after the .ei6i /estoration in the late 27th century#

 8ear the end of the Sengoku period 9the late 244s;' they e"en controlled most of the island of (yushu'

 but were dri"en back to their power base in Satsuma by Hideyoshi Toyotomi# Their ne<t attempt ate<pansion was taking a leading part in Hideyoshi’s failed in"asion of (orea#

The ultimate bad piece of luck for the Shima$u was the -attle of Sekigahara in 2=44' in which they

 backed the losing side against Tokugawa Ieyasu' the founder of the Tokugawa -akufu# 5espite being

on the losing side' Satsuma was really too far away from central )apan' and the Shima$u too entrenchedas a regional power' for Ieyasu to really punish them#

In the end' a peace was brokered where the Shima$u remained in control of Satsuma' and the new

Tokugawa shogunate encouraged Satsuma to turn its dreams of con!uest away from its northern

neighbours to the islands south of Satsuma#

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Satsuma had already taken some of the islands' but in 2=47' they in"aded the/yukyu (ingdom' todayknown as Okinawa' and completed their control of the /yukyu Island chain down to >aeyama# The

more northern islands Satsuma openly controlled#

-y the time of Hakuouki' Satsuma had its profitable sugar cane plantations 9sugar cane couldn’t grow

in mainland )apan; on the Amami Islands# In the ,do period' the Satsuma called the inhabitants ofthese islands %the hairy ?hinese& and they were often treated as sla"es#

The /yukyu (ingdom 9Okinawa; suffered a different fate' because it turned out to be e<tremely useful

to both Satsuma and the go"ernment in ,do# )apan had closed itself to trade with most of the outsideworld' but it still wanted to trade with ?hina# Howe"er' ?hina insisted that )apan recogni$e their,mperor as )apan’s ultimate o"erlord' and )apan refused# So officially' all relations between ?hina and

)apan had been broken off# 9*ri"ate ?hinese merchants still traded at 8agasaki#;

-ut the /yukyu (ingdom was technically a "assal state of ?hina# They paid fealty to the ?hinese

,mperor' and as a result got to trade with ?hina# In fact' the /yukyuans were a prosperous sea+going people with trading links all across South+,ast Asia# So instead of taking o"er /yukyu' Satsuma

instituted the most audacious system where /yukyu was secretly controlled by Satsuma but to the

outside world' it continued to be an independent kingdom#

This really didn’t fool anyone in"ol"ed' but it was a nice fiction that allowed )apan to trade with the

rest of South+,ast Asia' including ?hina# -oth ?hina and the -akufu go"ernment in ,do pretended notto know Satsuma was in charge' and e"eryone profited from the resulting trade# Well' e"eryone e<cept

the /yukyuans who lost most of their wealth to their Satsuma o"erseers#

With their sugar plantations and their control of the /yukyu (ingdom’s trade' Satsuma had a lot ofmoney going through it# Howe"er' its actual inhabitants were often "ery poor# @ike e"ery )apanese

domain' Satsuma was re!uired to spend a lot of money fulfilling its obligations under the -akufu

system and was deep in debt by the late ,do period#

5omains were re!uired to finance -akufu construction pro6ectscoastal defences etc# Another huge

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e<pense: The Shima$u daimyo and his entourage would ha"e to tra"el from Satsuma to ,do and back

in alternate years# A daimyo’s heir and official wife would be kept in ,do permanently as hostages# So

Satsuma would maintain huge residencescompounds in ,do full+time for the daimyo’s family and their 

,do+based retainers# As one of the largest and most prestigious domains' Satsuma spent particularlylarge sums to uphold their reputation for magnificent spectacle#

-ut the root of Satsuma’s particular problems is one astonishing statistic: One of four people in

Satsuma were samurai# The typical proportion across )apan was one of ten#

This imbalance was a direct result of the Shima$u’s military setbacks hundreds of years earlier#Satsuma domain was trying to support as many Shima$u retainers on their much smaller base of land as

they had when they controlled nearly all of (yushu#

Outside the upper classes' the samurai of Satsuma were scrambling to keep ali"e# The small allowances

of rice they recei"ed as Shima$u retainers were not enough to support their families# 1amiliessupplemented their incomes the best they could: taking up household crafts and farming small plots of

land# The 8ortherners would scornfully call Satsuma samurai 0the potato samurai’ because they often

li"ed off the lowly sweet potato#

.eanwhile' the Satsuma peasants carried one of the highest ta< burdens in )apan' with their ta<es going

to 9barely; support the samurai#

@ea"ing Satsuma and seeking your fortune elsewhere was not an option# ,"ery domain theoretically

controlled people crossing their borders' but Satsuma arguably had the tightest borders in )apan# ,"ery

single person in Satsuma domain had a wooden identity tag which they had to carry on their person atall times#

Satsuma had nearly the lowest literacy rates in all of )apan' and e<tremely low literacy rates for

women#

The education that samurai boys got' howe"er' was e<tremely intensi"e' if somewhat Spartan# They

were di"ided into neighbourhood cohorts where the older teenagers would be the teachers and kept busy from =:44 am to =:44 *. with about an hour’s break at noon# They learnt basic reading skills# All

their te<ts were histories and stories about Satsuma: in which the rest of )apan was barely mentioned#

And then they drilled' and learned sword+fighting and wrestling and marching and so on# Outside ofschool hours' samurai boys were kept to a strict curfew inside their homes#

Teenagers e"entually took o"er the tasks of teaching the younger kids' and studied more ad"anced te<ts

in the domain’s more formal academy: still focused on Satsuma and the ?hinese classics' without much

information about )apan# They also got their first assignments to work within the domain#

@ife was strictly regimented' and to me it sounds like hell' but the samurai of Satsuma were fiercely proud of their domain and its traditions# They were a tough' hardy people# Their capital city'

(agoshima' is alongside an acti"e "olcano' for hea"en’s sakes#

On the national stage' Satsuma had no "oice in go"ernment for nearly two centuries# As a formerenemy of the Tokugawa' Satsuma was an %outside domain&# They co+operated with the -akufu' always pushing and bending the rules a little: for e<ample' e"ery domain was ordered to ha"e only one castle#

Satsuma built tons of castles' and the -akufu let them' because they were too far away and independent

to rein in#

So' here’s a large independently+minded domain with little loyalty to a greater )apan' a longstandingresentment against the Tokugawa -akufu' a large and impo"erished population of warriors' access to

lots of money and trade opportunities# As long as the -akufu stayed strong' Satsuma made no trouble#

-ut if the -akufu was to weaken B

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Stay tuned for *art Two: which will co"er Satsuma’s actions during the -akumatsu period' and how

they connect to Hakuouki# It’s a story of conspiracies' betrayals' and witchcraft#