Matsumae was the name of a town in Hokkaido, Japan, near the port of Hakodate. The Kakizaki clan, granted this land as a march fief in 1590 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and charged with defending it, and by extension all of Japan, from the Ainu 'barbarians', took the name Matsumae as well. In exchange for their service in defending the country, the Matsumae were made exempt from owing rice to the shogun in tribute, and from the sankin kotai system, under which most daimyo were required to spend half the year at Edo, while their families were, essentially, held hostage against their rebellion, spending the entire year at Edo. Hokkaidō (Japanese: 北海道, literal meaning: North Sea Route, Ainu: Mosir), formerly known as Ezo, is the second largest island of Japan. ... View of Hakodate from Mountain Hakodate (函館市; -shi) is a city and port located in Oshima, Hokkaido, Japan. ... Mark or march (or various plural forms of these words) are derived from the Germanic word marko (boundary) and refer to an area along a border, e. ... Events March 14 - Battle of Ivry - Henry IV of France again defeats the forces of the Catholic League under the Duc de Mayenne. ... Hideyoshi at his old age. ... For Ainu in J.R.R. Tolkiens fictional universe of Arda, see Ainur. ... This page is about the Japanese ruler and military rank. ... Sankin kōtai (参勤交代) was a policy of the shogunate during most of the Edo period of Japanese history. ... The daimyo (大名: daimyō) were the most powerful feudal rulers from the 12th century to the 19th century in Japan. ... DRAM is a type of random access memory that stores each bit of data in a separate capacitor. ... DRAM is a type of random access memory that stores each bit of data in a separate capacitor. ...

Since the Matsumae land was a march, a frontier land used as the border defense against the Ainu, the remainder of Hokkaido, then called Ezo, became essentially an Ainu reservation. Although Japanese influence and control over the Ainu gradually grew stronger over the centuries, originally they were left to their own devices and were not considered part of Japanese territory by the bakufu (shogunate). It was only during the Meiji Restoration in the late 19th century that the march was dissolved, and Hokkaido (and the Ainu) taken officially under Japanese control. Mark or march (or various plural forms of these words) are derived from the Germanic word marko (boundary) and refer to an area along a border, e. ... For Ainu in J.R.R. Tolkiens fictional universe of Arda, see Ainur. ... Hokkaidō (Japanese: 北海道, literal meaning: North Sea Route, Ainu: Mosir), formerly known as Ezo, is the second largest island of Japan. ... For Ainu in J.R.R. Tolkiens fictional universe of Arda, see Ainur. ... For the James Clavell novel, see Shogun or for the TV Miniseries. ... The Meiji Restoration (明治維新; Meiji Ishin), also known as the Meiji Ishin, Meiji Revolution or Renewal, describes a chain of events that led to a change in Japans political and social structure; it occurred from 1866 to 1869, a period of 4 years that transverses both the late Edo... Mark or march (or various plural forms of these words) are derived from the Germanic word marko (boundary) and refer to an area along a border, e. ...

Due to their location, and their role as border defenders, the Matsumae were the first Japanese to negotiate with Russia in any semi-official way. They might very well have been the first Japanese to meet Russians at all, within Japanese territory. In 1778, a merchant from Yakutsk by the name of Pavel Lebedev-Lastoschkin arrived in Hokkaido with a small expedition. He offered gifts, and politely asked to trade. The Matsumae official tried to explain that he had no authority to agree to trade on behalf of the Shogun and that they should come back the following year. The following September, the Russians did just that, according to some accounts misinterpreting what had been said and expecting to trade. Their gifts were returned to them, they were forbidden to return to the island, and were advised that foreign trade was only allowed at Nagasaki, a port on the southern-most of Japan's home islands. In 1790, a massive earthquake struck the island, and a forty-two-foot tsunami lifted the Russian ship out of the sea, depositing it a quarter-mile inland. The merchant Lebedev thus gave up on Hokkaido. 1785 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Yakutsk (Якутск) (pop. ... This page is about the Japanese ruler and military rank. ... Megane-bashi, the Eyeglasses Bridge Nagasaki (長崎市; -shi) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture located at the south-western coast of Kyushu, Japan. ... 1790 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... The tsunami that struck Malé in the Maldives on December 26, 2004. ...

At roughly the same time, in 1789, Finnish professor Eric Laxman, of the Russian Academy of Sciences, came across several Japanese castaways in Irkutsk. Like several other Japanese before them, they had been found in the Aleutians, off the coast of Alaska, by Russian sailors and had asked to be brought back to Japan. Like those before them, these castaways had been transported instead across Siberia on their way to St. Petersburg. Laxman saw this as an opportunity to work towards the opening of Japan, and suggested this to Catherine the Great who agreed. In 1791 she appointed the professor's son, Lt. Adam Laxman, to command the voyage to return these castaways to Japan, and to open discussions of a trade agreement. The expedition reached Hokkaido in October of 1792, and found the Japanese surprisingly hospitable. The Russians were allowed to spend the winter, and their forms were sent to the bakufu in Edo. However, Professor Laxman insisted on bringing the castaways to Edo, and that he would sail there himself even against the Shogun's desires. The bakufu sent an envoy to the Matsumae, requesting that the Russians make their way to the town of Matsumae by land; sensing a trap, the Russians refused, and were eventually allowed to make port in Hakodate, escorted by a Japanese vessel. They were given a guest house near Matsumae castle, and were, unusually, allowed their Western customs (they did not deny their Christianity, remove their boots indoors, nor bow to the Shogun's envoys), with little or no negative repercussions. They were given by the Japanese envoys three swords and a hundred bags of rice, but were informed that the Shogun's rules remained unchangable: foreigners could trade at Nagasaki only, if they came unarmed. All other ships would be subject to seizure. Due to his purposes in returning castaways, Laxman was granted a pardon in this instance, but he refused to relinquish the castaways until given something in writing answering his request for trade. The envoys returned three days later with a document, restating the rules regarding trade at Nagasaki, and the laws against the practice of Christianity in Tokugawa Japan. The Russians never did establish any regular system of trade at Nagasaki, and historians today still disagree as to whether the document given to Professor Laxman was an invitation to trade, or an evasive maneuver on the part of the shogunate. 1789 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... A traditional house in Irkutsk The Yenisei watershed, Lake Baikal, and the cities of Dikson, Dudinka, Turukhansk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk Irkutsk (Ирку́тск), the chief town of the Irkutsk Oblast, is one of the most important places in Siberia, being not only the principal commercial depot north of Tashkent, but also a... Looking down the Aleutians from an airplane. ... State nickname: The Last Frontier, The Land of the Midnight Sun Other U.S. States Capital Juneau Largest city Anchorage Governor Frank Murkowski Official languages English Area 1,717,854 km² (1st)  - Land 1,481,347 km²  - Water 236,507 km² (13. ... Siberian federal subjects of Russia Siberia ( Russian: Сиби́рь, common English transliterations: Sibir, Sibir; possibly from the Mongolian for the calm land) is a vast region of Russia and northern Kazakhstan constituting almost all of northern Asia. ... Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924), is a city located in Northwestern Russia on the delta of the river Neva at the east end of the Gulf of Finland... Catherine II (Екатерина II Алексеевна: Yekaterína II Alekséyevna, April 21, 1729 - November 6, 1796), born Sophie Augusta Fredericka, known as Catherine the Great, reigned as empress of Russia from June 28, 1762, to her death on November 6, 1796. ... 1791 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1792 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... For the James Clavell novel, see Shogun or for the TV Miniseries. ... DRAM is a type of random access memory that stores each bit of data in a separate capacitor. ... View of Hakodate from Mountain Hakodate (函館市; -shi) is a city and port located in Oshima, Hokkaido, Japan. ... Megane-bashi, the Eyeglasses Bridge Nagasaki (長崎市; -shi) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture located at the south-western coast of Kyushu, Japan. ... The Tokugawa shogunate or Tokugawa bakufu (徳川幕府) (also known as the Edo bakufu) was a feudal military dictatorship of Japan established in 1603 by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family until 1868. ...

Less than 100 years later, the special designation of the Matsumae fief, as a march, was dissolved, as Ezo, now called Hokkaido, was annexed to Japan. This came at the same time as the dismantling of the feudal system, so it is unlikely, though possible, that the Matsumae clan would have remained in control of their land, and of Matsumae Castle. It is unknown what the Matsumae clan's role was, if any, in the secession of the short-lived Republic of Ezo in 1868. Enomoto Takeaki (front, right) and the leaders of his loyalist troops in Hokkaido, 1869. ... 1868 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

References

• McDougall, Walter (1993). "Let the Sea Make a Noise: Four Hundred Years of Cataclysm, Conquest, War and Folly in the North Pacific." New York: Avon Books.