were officials of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

responsible for administration of the mining operations at Sado. Cullen, Louis M. (2003)
''A History of Japan, 1582-1941: Internal and External Worlds,'' p. 112.
/ref> Sado island is the sixth largest in the

Japanese archipelago The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a archipelago, group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to t ...

. It is located in the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

off the west coast of

Echigo Province was an old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It bordered on Uzen, Iwashiro, Kōzuke, Shinano, and Etchū Provinces. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Echigo''" in . It corresponds today to Niigata ...

in northwest

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separ ...

. For much of its pre-modern history, exiles were banished to the island.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Sado''" in ; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, ''see'
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File
. The island was noted for its deposits of gold and silver since at least the 12th century; however, intensive mining operations did not begin until the opening of the Aikawa Mine in 1601. This same year, Sado was placed during the direct control of the

, and in 1603

Ōkubo Nagayasu was a Japanese samurai bureaucrat and ''daimyō'' of the Edo period. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Matsudaira Ietada"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 747. Career He was in charge of silver mines at Sagami after 1601, at Sado after 1603 and at ...

was appointed the first "commissioner". The title was officially Sado ''

daikan ''Daikan'' (代官) was an official in Japan that acted on behalf of a ruling monarch or a lord at the post they had been appointed to. Since the Middle Ages, ''daikan'' were in charge of their territory and territorial tax collection. In the Edo ...

'' until 1618, and ''

bugyō was a title assigned to ''samurai'' officials during the feudal period of Japan. ''Bugyō'' is often translated as commissioner, magistrate, or governor, and other terms would be added to the title to describe more specifically a given official' ...

'' afterwards. The post was occupied by ''

hatamoto A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as ''gokenin.'' However ...

'' assisted by a staff of up to a hundred ''

yoriki were members of the ''samurai'' class of feudal Japan. ''Yoriki'' literally means ''helper'' (ru - помощник) or ''assistant'' (ru - ассистент). Description and history ''Yoriki'' assisted ''daimyō'' (feudal lords) or their desig ...

'' and ''dōshin'' constables. The mines at Sado were worked vigorously; and were a major source of revenue for the early Tokugawa shogunate, producing approximately 100 tons of gold and silver from 1616 to 1627; however, by the 1730s the deposits were largely exhausted and production was less than a ton of silver until the mid-18th century. The post of Sado bugyō was abolished with the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

List of Sado bugyō

: * 1603-1613

Notes

References

* Beasley, William G. (1955)
''Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy, 1853–1868''.
London:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. eprinted by RoutledgeCurzon, London, 2001. (cloth)">RoutledgeCurzon.html" ;"title="eprinted by RoutledgeCurzon">eprinted by RoutledgeCurzon, London, 2001. (cloth)* Cullen, Louis M. (2003)
''A History of Japan, 1582–1941: Internal and External Worlds''.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005)
''Japan encyclopedia''.
Cambridge:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

. ; Government of feudal Japan Officials of the Tokugawa shogunate {{Japan-hist-stub

List of Sado bugyō

See also

Notes

References