徳川日本
EDO JAPAN: 1603-1868
TOKUGAWA SHOGUNATE
Early Modern Japan
1603-1854
Also known as…
Edo Period
Tokugawa Period
WHY IS TOKUGAWA IMPORTANT?
 Brought an end to hundred+ years of fighting and civil war
between daimyos.
 Creation of a centralized state, national system
 Isolated Japan (that does NOT mean no change or no new
ideas or contact)
 Critical transition from “feudal” to “pre-modern”
society and economy.
 Creates conditions that enable Japan to modernize so rapidly
in Meiji period (1868-1911).
Before Tokugawa, Japan warring states of daimyo
(noble) warlords
Hundreds of separate
Daimyo estates
Each with their
own samurais for
battle and farmers
for food
Feudal &
decentralized
• Portugese bring guns, goods and religion in mid-1500s.
• Christians killed and foreigners expelled by 1630s
Francis Xavier
Jesuit missionary
Brings Christianity to
Japan 1542
17th century Japanese Bible
Tokugawa Ieyasu
Grasps power after a decisive battle at
Sekigahara in 1600. By 1603, Ieyasu is
granted the title of shogun by the
emperor and establishes the Tokugawa
shogunate
Tokugawa changes
• Economic activity
(Money economy)
•Growth of cities
•Rise of merchant class
•Productivity of
agriculture
•Flourishing of art
Tokugawa Strategy:
MAINTAIN ORDER
1. Order in Politics
-alternate attendance system (control daimyo)
-control over samurai
2. Order in Society
-rigid class system
-restrict travel
3. Order in International Relations
-isolationism (not complete, primarily from
Western influence
Capital city
moves to
Edo
(modernday Tokyo)
Tokugawa Strategies
1. Maintain Order in Politics
* collect weapons
* renew loyalty oath w/ new shogun
* all marriages approved by Tokugawa
* alternate attendance and hostage system
Hideyoshi’s Sword Hunt
Collects swords
from all
members of the
population
except samurai,
who now have
the sole right to
carry them.
Alternate attendance system (sankin kotai) 参勤交代
Families in Edo; daimyos travel back/forth every 2 years
参勤交代
Impacts of sankin
kotai (alternate
attendance
system):
Suppressed possibility of
rebellion (wives,
children of daimyo
remain in Edo as
hostages)
Economic costs of travel
on daimyo ensured
lack of funds for rebel
armies
Tokugawa Strategy:
2. Maintain Order in Society
-rigid class system
-new roles for samurai
-permission to travel
Tokugawa Strategy:
2. Maintain Order in Society
-rigid class system
-restrict travel
RIGID SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Confucianism: System to
promote stability
1. Reverence for past
2. Maintaining proper
place in an unchanging
hierarchy
3. Social hierarchy based
on contributions to
good of society
侍 Samurai:
• Literally, “one who serves”
• 7-8% of the total population
• Bound by code of ethics known as
bushido
Special rights:
dai-sho 大小 two swords (large and small)
kirisute-gomen 切捨て御免 right to cut
down/ kill offending commoners
without punishment
seppuku 切腹 right to
ritual suicide (selfevisceration)
New social roles for samurai during the
great Tokugawa peace
•Teachers
• Poets, scholars, writers
• Buddhist monks
• Government posts -- civil
administration
•Others: grew poor, became bandits
•ULTIMATELY LOST INFLUENCE
EDUCATION
INCREASED:
Tokugawa-era
commoner school
(terakoya) for
girls
Farmers & Peasants:
• More than 80% of total population
• Taxed 40-50% of the crops they
produced.
• Forbidden access to all recreation
and games other than local festivals.
• Provide labor for public works
(roads, bridges, etc.)
Rise of Castle Towns:
Townspeople and Merchants:
• Townsperson culture
• Laws stating what they could wear, where they could
live, size of home, etc.
• Major commercial centers emerge.
• Osaka -- sake, soy sauce, cloth, paper, iron.
textiles, pottery.
• Trade along the Tokaido Road
Kyoto -
Bookstore in Edo
Travel
Utagawa print: 53 stations of the Tokaido Road: Barrier station
Travel
Travel
Tōkaidō road
Rise of Merchants:
Money to be loaned to samurai and
daimyos
Urban culture
Provide goods and entertainment
Rise of Merchants:
Money to be loaned to samurai
and daimyos
Urban culture
Provide goods and entertainment
Outcastes or
“non-persons”
• The “invisible” class of
outcastes (butchers, leather
tanners, etc).
• Forced to live in designated
districts of Edo.
• Called non-persons非人
• Often worked as
entertainers.
1873 photograph by Shinichi Suzuki depicting leather
workers (tanners). One man scrapes the hide of a
slaughtered deer, while another seems to be
discussing a piece of finished cat. On the right stands
a young man with a load of animal skin.
Traveling Book and Print Salesman
Entertainments
•kabuki
•sumo
•Yoshiwara
pleasure
districts
Yoshiwara pleasure district
Hiroshige, “Crowds in the Theater Quarter” from 100 Famous
Views of Edo, 1848-1858.
Kabuki
Woodblock
print of a
kabuki actor
Bunraku puppet theater
Tokugawa Strategy:
2. Maintain Order in International relations
-isolationism
-1 Dutch ship/ year for goods, trade
Changes by the 1800s….
1.Dissatisfaction with Tokugawa rule
2.Arrival of Commodore Perry and Black Ships