Agenda

CONFERENCE
Loyalty and Service in Sixteenth- Century Japan: A Study of House Hosokawa and the Unifiers

Andrew Fischer
Andrew Fischer took his doctorate at Cambridge, where he was a Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholar. Thanks to the generous support of the Japan Foundation, he was a visiting scholar at Kumamoto University from October 2024 to September 2025.

Abstract: In this lecture, I introduce a theoretical framework of loyalty consisting of three forms of loyalty: emotional, teleological, and deontological loyalty. Teleological loyalty is motivated by a desire to achieve a certain end, whereas a sense of duty is at the heart of deontological loyalty. I apply this theoretical framework to premodern Japanese history, particularly the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. My textual analysis reveals that, during the medieval period, transactional loyalty – a form of teleological loyalty with self-interest as its nucleus – impelled warriors to serve their master and was invoked by lords seeking followers. However, beginning in the sixteenth century, lords began appealing to a sense of duty by conflating themselves with the state (kokka) and realm (tenka). I argue that transactional loyalty and deontological loyalty – which were both styled chūsetsu or chūgi – coexisted during the sixteenth century; lords were eager to inculcate absolute loyalty in their subordinates while also recognizing that offering rewards was the most effective way to guarantee the continued support of their followers.
I also discuss the loyal service of House Hosokawa, the only warrior house to serve the Ashikaga shogunate and all three of the so-called unifiers – Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582), Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–1598), and Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) – at the highest level. The Hosokawa, led by Hosokawa Fujitaka (1534–1610) – better known as Yūsai – deftly survived each violent transfer of power and continuously expanded their land holdings and influence. The Hosokawa left an indelible mark on Japanese history by working behind the scenes to enable the rise of the unifiers and facilitating the appropriation of cultural capital by the warrior class. The case of the Hosokawa demonstrates that military success was hardly the only path to power in an age of endemic warfare and that cultural capital and personal connections were greater determinants of success in late medieval and early modern Japan.

Wednesday, April 22, 2026.
14:30 - 16:00 p.m. (CET)
The lecture will be held in English, in person in the Aula Magna Giovanni Morelli at Malcanton Marcorà and online on Gmeet.

Online registration is available until April 21, 2026 at 8 p.m. (CET) through this link
You will receive a participation link on April 21 after 9 p.m. (CET). If you do not receive the link, please send an email to gesshin@unive.it

Organized by Jelena Lukacevic, Student Association GESSHIN, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
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This initiative has been financed through Ca Foscari University’s funds for student activities.