Tsurushima

Tsurushima
Flag Seal of the Republic
Motto: "共栄、友愛、正義" (Tsurushiman) (Justice, Liberty, Mutual Prosperity)
Capital	Asahina New City
Largest city	Koshigawa
Official languages	Tsurushimese
Recognised national languages	Central Kaheiian Hokkien Sai Kitan
Recognised regional languages	14 languages Ainu Itak/Yezo Amami Ōshima Native Keian Kiheiian Kikai Kunigami Latin Miyako Okinoerabu Kaheo-Mutulese Tokunoshima Yaeyama Yonaguni Yoron
Demonym(s)	Tsurushimese, Daitoan, East Ochran
Government	Directorial technocratic socialist federal republic
• National Directorate	Various
Legislature	East Ochran Popular Assembly
Population
• 2017 estimate	126,672,000
• 2014 census	121,500,000
GDP (PPP)	estimate
• Total	$4.342 trillion
• Per capita	$34,281
GDP (nominal)	estimate
• Total	$4.342 trillion
• Per capita	$34,281
Gini	29.5 low
HDI	0.903 very high
Currency	Tsurushimese kiku (き)
Date format	mm.dd.yyyy
Driving side	right

Tsurushima, officially the Daitoa Republic of Tsurushima or alternatively known as the Republic of Tsurushima, (Tsurushiman romaji: Tsurushima kyōwakoku; hiragana: つるしまきょうわこく) is a country in East Ochran encompassing a chain of two major archipelagos and several smaller islands in the Makrian Ocean off the far eastern coast as well as the Kitagan peninsula in mainland Ochran and an enclave in the Zhou region. The Technocratic Republic is a constitutional, directorial federal republic composed of a total of five states of varying autonomy, with the Republic of Tsurushima as its largest and most dominant constituent entity on the Tsuru island chain and outlying islands. It shares a maritime border with Pulau Keramat to the south and southeast, a disputed border in the Kahei islands with the Arthuristan dominion of Lion's Rock and western land borders with Taizhou and Chagadalai on the Ochran mainland. Tsurushima is home to approximately 126.7 million people and its federal capital of Asahina located on the island of Takao in the Tsurushima Republic was a former minor castle town before hosting the republican rebellion of 1752, becoming a planned city after the Tsurushiman Revolution. Its largest city, Koshigawa, is the commercial center of the island nation and potentially the second-largest city in Ajax.

Etymology

The common name referring both to the Republic's major archipelago and the wider Great East Republic as a whole originates from an early self-description of the island as the islands of the noble red-crowned crane. More broadly, the proto-Kitaganic word tsuru can refer to a variety of birds while -shima is the append denoting an island or chain of islands. Several poetic names exist for the region as a whole including Azuma-no-kuni, the east country or Hitakami-no-kuni.

History

The Great Peace

Tsurushima, the islands of the noble crane, throughout much of their history have been dependent on the sea for a livelihood (as well as trade for natural resources found lacking) and on a strong tradition of civic duty, arts, the letters and sciences for innovation and culture. For much of the ancient to early modern history of Tsurushima and the Kitagan peninsula, the country was a theocratic bureaucracy with its center at the well-manicured gardens and ceremonial palaces of Nara and Kikugawa respectively, where a line of religiously symbolic god-kings and queens referred to as Tenno delegated power first to warlords and petty kings and, beginning with the classical age, the Confucian-inspired Grand Bureaucracy of the Ritsuryō system, which managed inter-clan roads, magistrates, currency, trade and foreign shipping and exploration. A stratocracy of military leaders called the Shogunate, with feudal military lords belonging to clans which subdivided territories emerged to share power with the civil bureaucracy. During this period of peace, regular contact was maintained with the rest of Ochran, trade systems throughout Ochran as well as to Scipia and Norumbia were well-maintained by the merchant class and the Ritsuryo while the Shogun protected the peace on the roads, trade routes and managed internal stability. During this period, the navy was well funded under direct Imperial supervision and exploratory missions reached the islands of the Vespanian and Makria Oceans as well as far-off Scipia. Indeed, Tsurushimese expeditions reach Norumbia before Belisarian explorers, establishing trade links with the ancient indigenous empires and establishing outposts which would eventually form the nucleus of the later Enyama colony. Trade missions were far less ambitious in scope and lasting links were with nations and ports in Ochran along the so-called Jade Path

While a balance was maintained initially between the bureaucratic system/trade interests and the Shogunate, the power represented through the daimyos and military's ability to secure control over food stocks eventually led to the position of Shogun becoming the de facto ruler of the nation with the daimyos exercising more power and privilege, as well as heavy responsibility, within their clans. The period of internal balance deteriorated beginning in the 1160s with a period of unusual environmental instability from greater storm activity, flooding and droughts destroying trade fleets at sea and leading to famine inside Tsurushima itself.

Birth of the Shogunate

Much of the nation's manpower had shifted from the fields to urban life dedicated to commerce or at sea during the Great Peace period. The loss of access to much of Ochran during the Bayarid conquests greatly damaged the food security of Tsurushima, with the defeat of the armies of the Governor of Kitagan by the Bayarid horde and surrender of the mainland provinces sparking a famine in Tsurushima by the 14th century. As the feudal lords had direct ownership of agricultural land and maintained the most capable fighting forces to protect the highways plagued by bandits, the Empress was ultimately forced to relinquish power from the faceless magistracy to the Shogun and the great daimyos of the clans, who ultimately used the authority to put much of the trading class back to field work. By the end of the 14th century, the Emperor had lost de facto power of appointment for the Shogun and the first period of war between the clans erupted after the Shogun from the Otomo clan attempted to secure the succession for his son. The first shogunate war set a precedent for the position of Shogun remaining in the most dominant clan or clan alliance until a period of internal civil war determines the next government of the islands. The war was resolved by the unexpected victory of an upstart bloc around the Kakita clan which established the First Kakita Shogunate, after the Otomo clan had fallen into disgrace from disreputable actions committed during the war. The power of the Shogunate was strengthened after successfully repelling invasions from mainland Ochran as well. Many of the former systems of arts and literacy dominated by the Imperial magistrates become incorporated and absorbed into the Samurai class as well, creating a hybrid role of scholar-warlords in Tsurushima and interest in the sciences focuses on military as well as civilian applications, with some of the first gunpowder firearms entering use in Tsurushima during this period.

End of the Isawa Shogunate

By the early 1500s, Belisarian and Mutulese presence in the southern spice islands as well as the Open Door policy of the Isawa Shogunate had led to so-called Belisarian Legation cities on the outlying islands and various trade and religious missions on the main Kahei islands themselves. As the spread of the syncretic Kirishitan catholic faith from the southernmost island to the interior is influenced by Fabrian Catholic missionaries from the Latin Empire, the Fabrians inevitably convert some of the influential clans in the region and begin to coordinate a favorable takeover of the 'pagan islands'. The Kirishitan Uprising spirals out of their control, however, as a zealous crusade causes considerable damage throughout the countryside, with pillaging and forced conversions, and earns a far-ranging condemnation of all Belisarian faiths in Tsurushima from the Shogun. The Isawa manage to muster an army to subdue the Kirishitan Crusade and repay the barbarism inflicted by the Kirishitans by public beheading of the major instigators (including the Latin missionaries). This serves to isolate Tsurushima proper from world trade and calls into question the Open Door policy and, by proxy, the authority of the Isawa. A new civil war resolves with the Isawa deposed and the installation of the traditionalist Kakita Shogunate, Tsurushima's last stratocratic dynasty. During this period, Tsurushima is closed outright to Fabrian Catholics and has limited access to foreigners in general. The code of ethics and honor holds its greatest importance as the clans are carefully monitored to ensure no shameful actions are perpetrated against another clan's lands and to contain the spread of dangerous uprisings. The colonies in the southern spice islands are ultimately abandoned to either self-government, combined rule with the Native islanders or occupation by Belisarian empires.

Fall of the Shogunate and the Imperial War

At the advent of the early 18th century, the young Emperor Tanaka develops a strong interest in natural philosophy and governance, studying both the classical Tsurushiman texts and Ochran philosophy but also taking an interest in Belisarian Enlightenment studies with secret excursions abroad. Emperor Tanaka begins to openly question the idea and power of the Shogunate and publicly suggests to Shogun Surikawa Yoshihiro that he gradually transfer power back to the Imperial Court. Forced with no honorable recourse, the Shogun reluctantly obliges, though with a hidden warning to the Emperor as much as etiquette would allow. The young Emperor's experience abroad makes him eager to reassert Tsurushiman maritime power, re-establish control in the spice islands and modernize the governmental system of the Empire and popularize access to education while his experience abroad helps open the country but maintain a healthy distrust of the great powers. Some of the old responsibilities are returned to the civil service and the reforms are promising but cut short. In 1723, an assassin's blade takes the life of the Emperor Tanaka without issue and without brothers. Factions behind various cousins and uncles begin to vie for the Imperial Throne but evidence emerges of illegitimacy in most of the claimants. The chaos provides an opportunity for Shogun Surikawa Yoshihiro to return to the forefront advocating for an Interregnum where the Shogunate asserts full control of the nation while claims to the Throne are more thoroughly studied. Soon, the shogunate and the various imperial claimants are in a state of war.

The rigid system, feudal control of the daimyos and inability to innovate in the face of the crisis regarding the imperial family and foreign influence ultimately led to a rising movement seeking a change to the shogunate. While not the first time a reformist faction emerged, without a strong legitimate imperial successor, this reformism ultimately fell upon a pact of lesser clans seeking to overthrow the current Surikawa Shogunate and the feuding imperial factions and instate new dynamic system of merit based on innovation. As the provinces centralized toward the castles and market cities, the bureaucracy of the Ritsuryō held more sway than ever before, and the rebellious republican clans looked to the culture of civil service and career scholars as a model for reform as well as their potential for securing arms and profits from trade to the cause.

Republican Uprising

The Republic was first declared at a Asahina Castle by a pact of reformist generals, civil servants and academics seeking a definitive stability, protected freedom and equality for all castes, laws based on science and natural philosophy and an end to the occasional mismanagement which comes with hereditary clan rule. The promise of an end to rule by nobility was heeded by the merchant classes of the growing cities which provided a more substantial navy to the Republic than the Imperial and Shogunate forces and soon contact was established with republican movements abroad which could provide resources and more advanced musketry. The Republicans remained wary of Belisaria's empires, however, and were unwilling to accept their intervention on the Republic's behalf. As the war continued, the more legitimate of imperial claimants died in battle or via assassination and the republicans had secured more support from samurai previously loyal to an imperial claimant. By 1752, the Asahina Republic had defeated the last Shogun, Surikawa Hiroki, in battle outside the gates of the Imperial city. The Republic of Tsurushima was proclaimed with its new capital at the port city of Asahina and an ambitious and progressive constitution, for the time, was drafted.

Second 'Great Peace'

The Republican Navy ultimately became a sizeable force in the Makria Ocean with increased modernization of the country and its maritime power. Reunification was re-established either peacefully or by force with some areas of the spice islands and the separation between military and civilian government, as well as legal barriers between the two, were codified with the bakufu of the old Shogunate transitioning into the chief stratocratic council of the military branch (the National Bakufu). Tsurushima becomes a nation open to new ideas and new peoples as promising opportunities abound for prospectors and traders and the seizure of some mainland Ochran territory brings the [Manchu] people into a plurinational state. Tsurushiman cultural traditions are preserved alongside [Polynesian], [Manchu] and immigrant cultural communities. The era of industrial growth and prosperity, however, also leads to an increase in direct foreign control of some of the country's industry and the emergence of corporations and plutocratic dynasties which shrink the role of the civil service and occasionally are at odds with the interests of the common good. An economic downturn hits in the early 20th century and many look increasingly to practical economic and scientific solutions to economic trouble and the country's de facto status of foreign exploitation. A popular movement installs technocrats to the Diet and conflict in Belisaria is used as an opportunity to nationalize some of the nation's vital industries and break apart trusts and plutocratic interests before they became too heavily entrenched in the political system. As with the early republic, the new constitutions installs a directorial republic with national service requirements of citizens, a national education system and a system of anonymous assessments in science, letters and the arts to be permitted to run for official political positions. The economic system is reformed to one of dirigisme which focuses primarily on scientific innovation and balancing improved quality of life with competitiveness on foreign markets. The previously unofficial name of an "enlightened republic" is adopted to signify the new directorial technate republic in Far Eastern Ochran with the Third Republic Period existing from 1893 to the present day.

Demographics

Religion

The Constitution of the Republic of Tsurushima does not establish a state religion and provides for a clear separation of church and state and secular pluralism. By extension, the civil rights guarantees enshrined in the Tsurushiman Constitution of 17XX were carried over to the new East Ochran Technocratic Republic in 1893. Shinto, Confucianism, and Taoism are dominant. Other major religions imported by successive immigrants to the Technate. Native beliefs among the Polynesians, Ainu and Melanesians. Minor Kirishitan sects persist.