Title: Tour of duty : samurai, military service in Edo, and the culture of early modern Japan /
Authors: Vaporis, Constantine Nomikos, 1957-
Publisher: University of Hawaiʻi Press,
Year: 2008
Subjects: Sankin kōtai.; Daimyo.; Japan History
Abstract: "Aternate attendance (sankin kotai) was one of the central institutions of Edo-period (1603-1868) Japan and one of the most unusual examples of a system of enforced elite mobility in world history. It required the daimyo to divide their time between their domains and the city of Edo, where they waited upon the Tokugawa shogun. Based on a prodigious amount of research in both published and archival primary sources, Tour of Duty renders alternate attendance as a lived experience, for not only the daimyo but also the samurai retainers who accompanied them.
Contents: Beginnings -- The Road to Edo (and Back) -- The Daimyo Procession -- Assignment : Edo -- Daimyo Compounds : Place and Space -- Life in the Capital -- Carriers of Culture.