The , or "Chronicle of Bōsō at War and Peace", is a minor Japanese medieval text of unknown authorship that chronicles events of the southern part of

Kazusa Province was a province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture. The province was located in the middle of the Bōsō Peninsula, whose name takes its first ''kanji'' from the name of Awa Province and its second from Kazusa and Shimōsa province ...

of the

Bōsō Peninsula The is a peninsula that encompasses the entirety of Chiba Prefecture on Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It is part of the Greater Tokyo Area. It forms the eastern edge of Tokyo Bay, separating it from the Pacific Ocean. The peninsula covers ...

in present-day

Chiba Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama ...

in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

Authorship

The chronicle has no identifiable author, was probably composed by multiple authors and editors from a variety of sources, and frequently revised over a period of several centuries. The chronicle was, however, probably written by someone with an intimate knowledge of the geography the Bōsō region from the time of the chronicle into the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

Composition

The chronicle is a regional example of a "

gunki monogatari , or "war tales", is a category of Japanese literature written primarily in the Kamakura period, Kamakura and Muromachi periods that focus on wars and conflicts, especially the civil wars that took place between 1156 and 1568. Examples of this ge ...

" (軍記物語), or war tale written primarily in the

Kamakura , officially , is a city of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. It is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu. The city has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 people per km2 over the tota ...

and

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

s that focus on wars and conflicts. It consists of one volume, and is arranged in chronological order by event. Its exact time of authorship is also unknown. The Bōsō Chiran-Ki is traditionally dated to the beginning of the

, and was probably started between 1596 and finished as late as the 1660s. The chronicle is generally thought of to be an accurate account of regional conflicts in Kazusa Province, but the veracity of many parts of the account are uncertain. In spite of its many flaws, the document is one of the most important existing document concerning local history of a large part of Chiba Prefecture prior to the

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

. The earliest manuscript of the Bōsō Chiran-Ki dates to 1668 and is now held by the

National Archives of Japan The preserve Japanese government documents and historical records and make them available to the public. Although Japan's reverence for its unique history and art is well documented and illustrated by collections of art and documents, there is a ...

. A modern printing of the chronicle was released as part of a long series of source documents of the Bōsō region by the Bōsō Sōsho Kankōkai in 1940.

The Bōsō Chiran-Ki primarily details the circumstances surrounding local conflicts and the hostilities between regional commanders. It notably records the division, from approximately 1587, of traditional “ fudai” fiefdoms from local leaders by the

Tokugawa clan The is a Japanese dynasty which produced the Tokugawa shoguns who ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868 during the Edo period. It was formerly a powerful ''daimyō'' family. They nominally descended from Emperor Seiwa (850–880) and were a branch of ...

, the inevitable demise of the fiefdoms by

Hideyoshi Toyotomi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: ...

after the Siege of Odawara in 1590. The chronicle especially richly details the conflict between the castle lords of Kazusa Province, specifically: * Yoritada Masaki, Awa Masaki clan, lord of

Katsuura Castle Katsuura may refer to: *Katsuura, Chiba is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 16,872 in 8566 households and a population density of 180 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Katsuura ...

in present-day Katsuura City, * Yoriharu Toki,

Toki clan The is a Japanese kin group.Edmond Papinot, Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Toki," ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 61 retrieved 2013-5-9. History The Toki claim desce ...

, lord of Mangi Castle in present-day Isumi City, * Toyonobu Takeda,

Takeda clan The was a Japanese samurai clan active from the late Heian period until the late 16th century. The clan was historically based in Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. The clan reached its greatest influence under the rule of Taked ...

, lord of Chōnan Castle in present-day Chonan, * Yoshiyasu Satomi,

Satomi clan The was a Japanese samurai clan of the Sengoku period (1467–1573) and early Edo period (1603–1868). The clan ruled Awa Province as a ''Sengoku daimyō'' and was a major military power in the Kantō region during the wars of the Nanboku-c ...

, lord of Ōtaki Castle in the present-day town of Ōtaki.* The chronicle also describes the devastating Kazusa earthquake of 1601. It ends with an account of Rodrigo de Vivero. Rodrigo, a Spanish noble and governor-elect to the Philippines, was shipwrecked off the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

coast of the Bōsō Peninsula in present-day

Onjuku is a town located in Chiba, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 7,523 in 3683 households and a population density of 300 persons per km2. The total area o the town is . The name of the town is made of two ''kanji'' characters: the ...

in 1609, visited Ōtaki Castle and the capitol

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boso Chiran-Ki Azuchi–Momoyama period Japanese chronicles History books about Japan History books about the 16th century History books about the 17th century 17th-century history books Edo-period works Edo-period history books

Authorship

Composition

Contents

References