Sankin-kotai+system

Also known as the Alternate Attendance Policy, the Sankin-kotai system was set up by Tokugawa Ieyasu in Japan in order to prevent the daimyos from uprising against him. This policy stated that all of the family of the daimyos must remain in the capital Edo, in a sense keeping the families "hostage," while the daimyos themselves were to alternate their residence each year between Edo and their homelands. With lots of time and money invested by the daimyos in traveling as well as in keeping the people under their domains happy, nothing remained for the daimyos to use to support an overthrow of the government. The introduction of the Sankin-kotai system marked the beginning of "rule of law" usurping "rule of sword," meaning that the daimyos' power was starting to decline as greater restrictions were placed on them.

Created by Jaclyn Speer 12.11.08

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