Reunifying Japan
The Tokugawa Shogunate
Feudal Period
• Japan fell apart, the emperor became a figurehead, and rival Daimyo fought one another
constantly
Hideyoshi
Hideyoshi
– Role in Japan
• Successful unifier; harsh warlord
– Invasions
• Invasion of Korea in 1592
• Korean use of “turtle boats” (boats with
cannon on board) destroyed part of Hideyoshi’s
navy with gunpowder: Weakened Korea, which
becomes a vassal state of China
• Invaded Manchuria
• Hideyoshi died in 1598, Japanese forces
withdraw; Daimyo begin fighting one another
again
Tokugawa Shogunate
Unification
• Tokugawa Ieyasu crushes independent
Daimyo; unifies Japan (1603), Capital at
Edo (modern Tokyo)
• Rival daimyos subjugated, but allowed
autonomy in their own territory
• Alternate Attendance instituted (similar
to nobles required to live at Louis XIV’s
palace at Versailles)
• Christian missionaries convert over
300,000
Achievements
• Edo grows to 1,000,000
• Cultural revival (Hokusai’s “The Great Wave”
wood block print; Kabuki theater)
• Roads built & sea travel opened to help
Alternate Attendance
• Merchants and daimyos on outlying islands
remained very free and merchants gained
great wealth
• Japan’s natural resource of silver helps drive
new trade with Europe
Isolation
• Christianity was viewed as a rival to
shogun’s power
• 1617 – harsh persecution begins
• Complete isolation declared
• One port open to only Dutch – isolated
on an island in Nagasaki harbor
• Tokugawa Japan’s period of isolation lasts
until 1850s.
• Period of extreme xenophobia