Three types of Kokudaka(lord's official income) fraud - Katsuie Matsukura, Nobutoshi Sanada, Motohisa Osawa

The Utsunomiya clan, which ruled Shimotsuke during the medieval period, is said to be a descendant of Michikane Fujiwara, who played the villain in "Hikaru Kimi e", and his grandchild followed Yoriyoshi Minamoto in the Early Nine years war, and has since settled there. During the Sengoku period, Kunitsuna Utsunomiya was gradually losing power, but he found a way out by serving as a vassal to Hideyoshi Toyotomi, and after the Oshu shioki（lords' valuation by Hideyoshi), he was relieved of 180,000 koku in Shimotsuke. However, in 1597, in the later years of Hideyoshi's life, he was suddenly forced to leave the castle and was left in the custody of Hideie Ukita. The reason for the change is not clear, and conventional wisdom has it that it was due to false accusations by Nagamasa Asano, who had tried to adopt a child after Kunitsuna had no heir, or that he had under-declared his territory during a land survey. I imagine that Hideyoshi, who had been generously handing over territory to his subordinates up until that point, was looking for a reason to confiscate or reduce territory as the dispatch of troops to Korea was not going smoothly, but judging the fact that the following year he moved Kagetsugu Uesugi to Aizu, it may have been decided that any daimyo who did not have a heir would not be a check on Ieyasu was unnecessary. In the Edo period, the scale of sankin kotai and contributions during shogunate official construction were determined according to the kokudaka, and as the kokudaka increased, the cost burden increased, and the burden was felt by the people of the territory. Let's take a look at three cases where lords were forced to pay excessive tax burdens due to their ostentation.

The Matsukura family originally served Junkei Tsutsui of Yamato, but during the Shigemasa era, they became direct vassals of the Toyotomi family, and from Sekigahara onwards, they served Ieyasu and their contribution to the Summer Campaign in Osaka increased their territory to 43,000 koku of Hizennoe. They built a castle in this area and worked hard to suppress Christians according to the instructions of the shogunate, but heavy taxes and harsh religious oppression became the building blocks for the Shimabara Rebellion. His son Katsuie imposed an annual tax and labor equivalent to 100,000 koku, and despite poor harvests, he made extremely harsh demands, and finally captured the pregnant headman's wife and threw her in a water prison, killing both her and son, which triggered the Shimabara Uprising (peasants revolution) in 1637. Shogun Iemitsu sentenced Katsuie to beheading rather than seppuku. Throughout the Edo period, only one daimyo was beheaded.

Nobutoshi Sanada's father was Nobuyoshi Sanada, the eldest son of Nobuyuki, the first lord of the Ueda domain, but he was an illegitimate child. Nobumasa, the son of his legal wife (Komatsu Hime and Honda Heihachiro Tadakatsu's daughter), succeeded the second generation of the head family, and his son Yukimichi became the third lord. Dissatisfied with this, Nobutoshi challenged the shogunate and argued that he should be made the lord of the domain, but this was unsuccessful and the domain became independent as the Numata domain. The head family of the Matsushiro clan had 100,000 koku, but in order to counter this, Nobutoshi carried out a land survey and made a false report of 144,000 koku. The actual value was 60,000 koku, which was more than double the actual value of koku, and as a result, taxes were extracted based on the actual value of 60,000 koku, which led to starvation in the Numata domain, and the Ryogoku Bridge renovation project failed and was abolished. The Sanada family's Numata territory, which Masayuki Sanada used as his base for advancing to Joshu and gave Hideyoshi the reason to conquer Odawara, was completely lost due to the foolishness of Nobuyuki's grandson. "Three years after the castle was built, the castle fell for one day".

The Osawa clan separated from the Jimyoin family (descendants of Michinaga's sixth son, Yorimune) and settled in Totomi (east coast of Lake Hamana) during the Nanbokucho period. He served the Imagawa clan, but after the battle of Okehazama, he became a vassal to Ieyasu Tokugawa, and in the Edo period, he served as Koke hatamoto(shogunate vassal) and played a mediating role between the imperial court and the shogunate. After the Meiji Restoration, the 20th head of the family, Motohisa Osawa, reported to the Meiji government that in addition to Jitsutaka（actual production = 5,485 koku), 4,521 koku was planned to be cultivated on part of Lake Hamana. It was established as a feudal domain because the production was over 10,000 koku. The case was later re-investigated by the government, and the false report was discovered, resulting in a prison sentence. Motohisa's aim was for the Osawa family to become feudal lords and become a peerage, but after that the family was incorporated into the samurai class.

This incident occurred because the class system was strict and family status was valued, but it is better to declare your income as it is and pay taxes.