Chindai

Chindai (Japanese: 鎮台, chindai[*]) was a unit of organization of the Japanese Army that lasted for 17 years from 1871 to 1888. It was abolished when it was reorganized into divisions. It was the largest permanently established unit. As a military system, it succeeded the Goshin-hei, and with the establishment of the chindai and the subsequent implementation of conscription, the modern army of Japan began.

Overview

The chindai was an army organization adapted from the Dutch Army. Initially, the role of the Japanese Army was not foreign conquest but the maintenance of domestic order after the Boshin War. Accordingly, the chindai, organized only in peacetime, was to be temporarily reorganized into brigades (from the 18th year of Meiji, divisions) in wartime, as chindai alone would have lacked mobility.

First, the Dajōkan declared that chindai would be established throughout the country in the future, and on 10 June 1871 ordered the establishment of two chindai: the Tōsandō Chindai in the present-day Tōhoku region (headquarters at Ishinomaki, branch offices at Fukushima and Morioka), and the Saikaidō Chindai in the present-day Kyushu region (headquarters at Kokura, branch offices at Hakata and Hita). However, only the Saikaidō Chindai was actually organized. On 14 July of the same year, the whole country was brought under direct control of the Meiji government by the Abolition of the Han System, and at the same time a concept of five chindai systems—Hokkaido, Ishinomaki, Tokyo, Osaka, and Kokura—was presented, with the Ministry of War directly controlling them.¹ However, in Hokkaido, whose population was extremely small compared with other regions, the establishment of chindai was put on hold. As a result, on 4 October of that year, the two former chindai were abolished and four chindai were established as follows.¹

• Tohoku Chindai (Sendai)