The was a Japanese aristocratic family who were daimyo of Matsumae Domain, in present-day Matsumae, Hokkaidō, from the Azuchi–Momoyama period until the Meiji Restoration. They were given the domain as a march fief in 1590 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and charged with defending it, and by extension the whole of Japan, from the Ainu "barbarians" of the north. They were the first Japanese to negotiate with Russia in any way. Following the Meiji Restoration, the family was appointed Viscount.
History
The clan, originally known as the Kakizaki clan (蠣崎氏), had settled in Kakizaki, Kawauchi, Mutsu on the Shimokita Peninsula. Claiming descent from the Takeda clan of Wakasa Province, the family later took the name Matsumae.
They were given the area around present-day Matsumae, Hokkaidō, what would become the Matsumae Domain, as a march fief in 1590 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. They were charged with defending it, and by extension the whole of Japan, from the Ainu "barbarians" of the north. In exchange for their service in defending the country, the Matsumae were made exempt from owing rice to the shogunate in tribute, and from the sankin-kōtai system, under which most daimyōs (feudal lords of Edo period Japan) were required to spend half the year at Edo, while their families spent the entire year at Edo and were, essentially, held hostage to prevent rebellion.
Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the family was appointed Viscount in the new kazoku peerage.
Relations with the Ainu and Russia
Due to their location, and their role as border defenders, the Matsumae were the first Japanese to negotiate with Russia in any way. They may 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-Lastochkin arrived in Hokkaidō 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 shōgun and suggested that the Russians come back the following year. The following September, the Russians did just that. According to some accounts, they had misinterpreted what had been said and expected to trade. Instead their gifts were returned to them, they were forbidden to return to the island, and they were advised that foreign trade was allowed only at Nagasaki, a port on the southernmost of Japan's home islands.
In 1779, a massive earthquake struck Hokkaidō, and a forty-two-foot tsunami lifted the Russian ship out of the sea, depositing it a quarter-mile inland. The merchant Lebedev then gave up on Hokkaidō.
The Matsumae clan's fief had extensive contacts with the Ainu of Hokkaidō, and had exclusive rights to trade with the Ainu communities of the island and to guarantee the security of Japanese interests there. Relations between the Matsumae and the Ainu was sometimes hostile, demonstrating that their power was not absolute in the region. In 1669, what started as a fight for resources between rival Ainu clans developed into a rebellion against Matsumae control of the region. It lasted until 1672, when Shakushain's Revolt was finally put down. The last serious Ainu rebellion was the Menashi-Kunashir Rebellion in 1789.
In 1790, Kakizaki Hakyō painted the Ishūretsuzō, a series of portraits of Ainu chiefs, in order to prove to the Japanese populace that the Matsumae were capable of controlling the northern borders and the Ainu. The 12 paintings of Ainu chiefs were displayed in 1791 in Kyoto.
At roughly the same time, in 1789, a Finnish professor, Erik Laxmann, 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 their plight 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 a voyage to return these castaways to Japan, and to open discussions towards a trade agreement.