History

The Heike clans illustrated scroll: The Dan-no-Ura battle is depicted
(Okayama Prefecture, Hayashibara Museum )

Yamaguchi

Japan

World

611

Rinsho, Korean crown prince and the
ancestor of the Ouchi family, came to Yamaguchi prefecture.

630	First mission to the Tang Dynasty

794	Transfer of the capital to Kyoto

610	Mohamet starts Islam

1096	First expedition of the Crusades

1186

The Genji clan and the Heike clan fought at Dan-no-Ura. The Heike clan perished.

1192	Kamakura Shogunate founded

1442

Ouchi Morimi built the five-storied
pagoda of Rurikoji temple

1467	Onin Era War

1339	The Hundred Years War begins

1492	Columbus discovers the New Continent

1523

Mori Motonari became the feudal lord of Aki province.

1550

St. Francis Xavier began to preach
Christianity.

1557

Mori Motonari ruled over Suo and Chofu

1604

Mori Terumoto built the castle in Hagi.

1600	Battle of Sekigahara

1673

Kikkawa Hiroyoshi built Kintaikyo bridge.

1719

Feudal clans school, Meirinkan, was
founded.

1783	Birth of the U.S.A

1789	French Revolution

1857

Yoshida Shoin started Shoka son juku.

1841	Tenpo Reform

1840

Opium War

1864

The fight against foreign ships at
Shimonoseki straits

1865

Takasugi Shinsaku, Ito Hirofumi, etc. raised military forces and the war against the Shogunate ended.

1867	Restoration of the Imperial Rule

1861	American Civil War

1871

Abolishment of Feudal Lord System

＜Explanation of terms＞
●Genji Clan
The chief of a clan of warriors who were active from the 9th to the 13th century. Genji opened the Kamakura shogunate and ruled over Japan as Shogun.
●Heike Clan
A powerful family among the warriors of the Heian period. Later the Heike clan was destroyed by the Genji clan.
●Daimyo
Under the rule of the Shogun, in exchange for pledging loyalty to the Shogun, huge territories were given to the Daimyos and thus many vassals were created.
●Han
The territory given to a Daimyo by the Shogun
●The Battle of Sekigahara
In Japanese history, this is so important that it is called the most decisive battle. The battle was fought at the battlefield of Sekigahara (present day Aichi Prefecture）between the eastern army whose chief was Tokugawa Ieyasu, a great power in those days, and Ishida Mitsunari who resisted against the Tokugawa side. Achieving victory in the battle, Tokugawa Ieyasu founded the Edo Shogunate and ruled throughout Japan.
●Coming of Commodore Perry
In 1883, as a U.S.A. mission to request protection for drifting fishing boats, the supplying of fuel for fishing boats and sales of food, Commodore Perry and his Four Black Steamships visited Japan. In those days, Japan had adopted the seclusion policy which was involved in the upheaval.
●Meiji Restoration
The Edo Shogunate where the warrior Shogun had ruled over Japan, was overthrown and the Meiji Government, whose nucleus was the emperor, came into existence. Taking that opportunity, the caste-status-system was abolished in Japan. Parliamentary government was started and politics, culture, society, life etc. changed greatly. Japan developed into a modern society.
This revolution is called the Meiji Restoration.

■The Ouchi Family:(The most powerful feudal lord in the western Japan who built the cultural town in the medieval period of provincial wars.)
The number one feudal lord in the western Japan who built the cultural town (Yamaguchi) in medieval times. The Ouchi family was a powerful local family, who had expanded its power around the 12th century and which ruled over the western and the northern part of Yamaguchi Prefecture in the 14th century. Gaining the geographical advantage, they traded actively with Korea and China. They imported cotton or Korean carrots which had not been available before those days. Thus, they made a great fortune. While the Ouchi family increased in power, they permitted the preaching Christianity. The Ouchi family accepted the continental cultural ideas and arts very readily and Yamaguchi kept developing as the cultural town. At that time Yamaguchi was an outstanding international city and was home to about 2,000 foreigners. Entering the civil war era, the war spread widely and people of culture, like aristocrats, scholars, priests, artists, etc. fled from Kyoto to peaceful Yamaguchi and this brought Yamaguchi to the height of its prosperity. But gradually, retainers developed resentments toward those living the luxurious life and they finally rose in revolt. Finally, at the end of the 16th century the Ouchi family was ruined.

Portrait of Ouchi Yoshihiro
( Yamaguchi prefecture Achives )

＜St. Francis Xavier Memorial Church＞
1550, a Christian missionary, St.
Francis Xavier arrived at Yamaguchi. In commemoration of the 400th anniversary of his visit here, this church was built. The present church was rebuilt in 1998.

■ The Mori family:（Governers of Yamaguchi in the Edo period who consolidated the foundation of later day Yamaguchi）
Later, instead of the Ouchi family, the rulers of Yamaguchi became the Mori family who had governed the neighboring Hiroshima region. At that time, the Mori family expanded their power still more and dominated all of the Chugoku district. But after their defeat in the Battle of Sekigahara, the Mori family was deprived of almost all of its territory and forced to retreat to Hagi. The resulting hatred of the Choshu clan, whose center was at Hagi, brought about the prime motivation to topple the Edo shogunate.

＜Hagi Castle Town＞
In Hagi, the castle town of the Mori family, you can see the old-fashioned streets of warriors' houses and merchants' houses made with white walls and mud walls.

＜Portrait of Mori Terumoto＞
( Yamaguchi prefecture Mori Museum )
Mori Motonari's grandson who ruled over Suo and Chofu after the Ouchi family. At the Battle of Sekigahara he fought against Tokugawa Ieyasu as the commander in chief of the western army . But being defeated, he was forced to retreat to Hagi and re-established his castle there.

■Yamaguchi fostered the driving force to bring about the Meiji Restoration - which changed Japanese history completely.
At the end of the Edo period, lasting for 260 years, the shogunate which concluded an unfair treaty during Commodore Perry's visit to Japan had various antipathies and a movement to overthrow the shogunate arose. The Choshu clan was the core of that movement. In particular, Yoshida Shoin insisted on opening Japan to the world by overthrowing the shogunate, which had broken off diplomatic relations with foreign countries. But he was executed. However, many young people he had educated adopted his purpose and continued the movement to overthrow the shogunate. Finally, in 1868, the Edo shogunate was overthrown and the Meiji government, aiming for a modern nation with a parliamentary government where the emperor was the nucleus, started. The main power of the Meiji government was from the former Choshu clan. The first prime minister, Ito Hirofumi, was also from Choshu. Yamaguchi played an important role in Japanese history.

Portraits of Takasugi shinsaku, Ito Shunsuke, etc.
( photo / Yamaguchi prefecture
Togyo Memorial Museum )

＜Shokasonjuku＞
Shokasonjuku where Yoshida Shoin educated his young people.
He educated about 80 prominent persons including Takasugi Shinsaku who contributed to the birth of the Meiji Restoration and Ito Hirofumi who became a leading figure in Meiji government , which ushered in modern Japan.

＜Portrait of Yoshida Shoin＞
Yoshida Shoin who educated the young people that led
the driving force of Meiji Restoration. At the young age of 30, he was executed.

Visiting patriots making modern Japan [ HISTORY ].
Visiting the places noted in connection with the Ouchi and Mori families [ HISTORY ].