Tokugawa Japan
1600-1800
January 21, 2014
Review
•
What did the Joseon and Qing governments have in
common?
•
Were the Manchu Chinese? Was the Qing a Chinese
empire?
•
What was the relationship between China and Tibet?
What was the relationship between the Qing and
Taiwan?
•
Why did the population grow so quickly in the first
couple of centuries of the Qing?
Europeans Appear
(Ebrey 265-67)
•
The Portuguese were the first. They conquered Melaka (Malacca) in
1511, not long after they established a settlement in Goa in India.
Established Macao in 1557.
•
Next came the Spanish. They came from the opposite direction,
from the east, and they conquered the Philippines.
•
There was no organized large-scale government in the Philippines
to resist them, nor had much of the Philippines been converted to
Islam. As a result, the Spanish were able to both establish political
control over the islands that make up the Philippines and also
convert many of the Filipinos to Catholicism.
•
Their capital was Manila, from which they traded with China.
Impact of the Spanish
•
created Asia's only predominantly Christian
society (except for East Timor, a former
Portuguese colony)
•
brought new world crops (maize, peanuts,
potatoes, red peppers, sweet potatoes, etc) to
Asia where they stimulated population growth.
•
Brought Mexican silver dollars to Asia which
stimulated commercial activity.
Japan Before Tokugawa
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The Ashikaga shoguns, and their Muromachi shogunate, no
longer exercised much authority after the Ōnin War of 146777. (Ebrey, 219—223)
•
Daimyos (feudal lords) began acting like kings of their
domains, Buddhists began forming armed communities, and
merchants established independent cities.
•
Yet the economy grew.
•
And the Japanese now had muskets in addition to swords,
necessitating bigger castles and hastening unification of
Japan.
A Daimyo’s Castle
•
For an image of the famous Himeji Castle, go to:
http://taidaexchange.wordpress.com/2008/12/31/japan-himeji-castle-姬路城/
Jesuits in Japan
Ebrey, 267
•
What are Jesuits? (the Society of Jesus)
•
How were they able to establish a solid presence in
Japan, and even bring hundreds of thousands of
Japanese under the Roman Catholic banner?
•
Why were they kicked out of Japan, and their
followers persecuted?
The Tokugawa come to Power
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The three unifiers:
Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (invaded Korea), and
Tokugawa Ieyasu.
• Ieyasu established a shogunate in 1600
• What’s a shogunate? A military government in which the
leader is officially the emperor’s chief military officer. The
emperor continued to reign, but the shogun wielded the
greatest power.
• However, at the local level, the daimyo enjoyed a lot of
autonomy.
Tokugawa Japan
•
Tokugawa Ieyasu
•
Ebrey, 225—226.
•
Go to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/ieyasu_tok
ugawa.shtml
•
or
http://bhoffert.faculty.noctrl.edu/hst263/11.nobunaga.hideyoshi.html
Ending the fighting
•
Took swords away from the peasants (Ebrey, 224)
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pulled samurai off the land, living villages to govern
themselves (Ebrey, 289)
•
tried to freeze the social order (Ebrey, 288)
•
outlawed muskets
•
Crushed independent religious organizations
(Buddhist and Catholic)
Comparing Qing and Korea
to the Tokugawa
•
had a decentralized rather than centralized government
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ruled by warriors (samurai) instead of scholars: No civil
service exams (Ebrey, 288-89)
•
ruling class pulled off the land
•
had a distinctive urban culture (Ebrey, 295)
•
relatively isolated from the rest of the world
•
primogeniture was widely practiced (Ebrey, p. 288)
The baku-han system
Map of domain distribution in Tokugawa Japan:
http://go.grolier.com/atlas?id=mh00082
What’s a Han?
•
a Japanese fiefdom. The holder of a fief exercises all
rights over that land and rules over the people on it. In
return, he owes military service to his immediate superior.
A fief resembles a modern country in that it is one solid
piece of land under the administrative authority of one
governing authority, though the ruler of a fief is not
technically autonomous since he is under the overall
authority of his own immediate superior. (The lord of a
fiefdom and the samurai loyal to him are sometimes
described in samurai movies as constituting a “clan,”
even though they are not necessarily related.)
The Baku-han system
Ebrey, 289-291
•
Tokugawa house controlled more land than any other.
•
Domains rearranged to strengthen Tokugawa control
•
Daimyo required to spend half their time in Edo
(sankin kōtai)
•
Religions placed under strict control.
•
Strict limits on foreign trade
Tokugawa “feudalism”
• layered
government. (loyalty is to one’s immediate superior)
Decentralized government in which a ruler commands loyalty from
local elites, who in turn command loyalty from those beneath them.
Under a feudal government, the ruler does not exercise direct authority
over most of his kingdom. Rather, all authority (executive, military,
and judicial) is exercised by local leaders, who in turn have military,
financial, and ritual obligations to their immediate superior. Feudalism
usually requires a land-based economy, a sharp gap in military
technology between the fully equipped warrior and the rest of society,
and a weakened but still somewhat visible central government
framework. Also, it usually is built on personal ties of loyalty between
a leader and his followers.
Economic and Social Change
•
Population size stabilized by mid 18th-century
•
(See how Japan did that: Ebrey, 293)
•
Merchants grew wealthier, and more independent, yet they
didn’t challenge the samurai.
•
Samurai became bureaucrats (Ebrey, 290)
•
Some peasants became farmers ---growing for the market
rather than subsistence. (Ebrey, 292)
•
cities grew much larger. (Ebrey, 295)
Women in Tokugawa Japan
Japanese women did not bind their feet, nor were they secluded in their
homes.
They had to move into their husband’s home after marriage. They also lost
inheritance rights. These are changes from Japan 4 centuries earlier
Husbands could divorce wives, but wives could not initiate a divorce
(except by fleeing to a temple) .
Wives of rich or powerful men had to accept concubines into their
household.
In Tokugawa Japan, a few women were educated to they could help with
the family business. (Ebery, 300)
The growth of urban culture
Ebrey, 294-296
• Geisha --female entertainers
• Kabuki --popular drama
• Bunraku --puppet theatre
• Ukiyo-e --woodblock paintings
• Haiku -- 17-syllable poems
• Fiction ---popular vernacular novels
Tokugawa popular culture
•
woodblock print of Mt. Fuji by Hokusai
http://bento.si.edu/a-closer-look/hokusai-making-waves/
Kabuki Woodblocks
http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/japan/gallery/texthomep
age.htm
and
http://www.japansociety.org/kabuki_at_the_time_of_kunisada
haiku by Bashō
Ebrey, 295.
•
•
An ancient pond
A frog jumps in
The sound of water.
The summer grasses
of brave soldiers’ dreams
The aftermath
http://thegreenleaf.co.uk/hp/basho/00Bashohaiku.htm
Culture and Society
•
Urban Tokugawa men sometimes crossed status
lines to join cultural clubs, in which they participated
in poetry writing, performing puppet plays, singing
kabuki songs, performing tea ceremonies, etc.
•
This created a more cohesive society, one that
worked against the division of society along
hereditary status lines.
Japan and its Neighbours
•
What was the relationship of Japan to China? Did it pay tribute? How
did it obtain goods from China? (Ebrey, 290)
•
Japan was allowed a trading post on Korea’s southeast coast. Korean
envoys visited Japan, and corresponded via Tsushima, an island
between Japan and Korea.
•
What was the relationship between Japan and the Ryūkyūs? ( Ebrey,
290-91)
•
The Dutch were allowed a trading post in Nagasaki harbour (Dejima
Island) (Ebrey, 269)
•
Except for the Dutch, Europeans were barred from Tokugawa Japan
Religion in Tokugawa Japan
Shinto--primarily a worship of local deities
Buddhism -- used and controlled by the state, although it
was divided into many different denomination (Zen, Pure
Land, True Word, Nichiren-a unique Japanese form of
Buddhism)
Neo-Confucianism (Ebrey, 304) -appealed to some
samurai because of its emphasis on loyalty and on selfdiscipline. However, Japan was not as Confucian as
China, Korea, and Vietnam (no civil service exams).
Tokugawa thought
Ebrey, 296-299)
•
Neo-Confucianism was a favourite ideology of many samurai, and
the official ideology in government schools because it subordinated
the individual to the group.
•
However, it was not applied to actual politics, except in the case of a
few who asked why the shogun ruled instead of the emperor.
•
Confucian ethics grew in popularity among the merchant classes
(Shingaku)
•
There was also a nativist reaction against Neo-Confucianism called
“National Learning” (Kokugaku) which promoted Shinto ideas over
Neo-Confucianism.