The Tokugawa Shogunate
WHAP/Napp
Objective: To identify and explain significant
characteristics of the Tokugawa Shogunate
Do Now: List three facts about feudal Japan
Cues:
Notes:
I. Increasing Decentralization
A. During 1200s and most of 1300s, shogunates – the Kamakura (1185-1333)
and the Ashikaga (1336-1573) – preserved order and kept Japan relatively
unified but decentralization became a _________ in late 1300s and 1400s
B. Country was breaking down into a patchwork of independent or semiindependent ________ states
II. Onin War
A. A civil conflict called the Onin War broke out in 1467 and lasted till 1477
B. Even after war and for next hundred years, Japan experienced the “Era of
Independent Lords”
C. Daimyo fought daimyo __________, and each treated his own territory as if
it were an autonomous state
III. The Reunification of Japan
A. Lasted from 1560 to 1615unification brought about by ______ men
B. Firstgeneral Oda Nobunaga, one of first to use gunpowder weapons in
Japan but __________ before completion of full unification
C. The second unifier was Toyotomi Hideyoshi brought almost all of the
country back together again as a single nationHowever, failed to create a
political system that could ________ after his death
D. Soon after his death, the five men he had appointed as regents for his young
son began to fight each other – and rebel against their ____ ruler
E. The victor and ultimate unifier of Japan was Tokugawa IeyasuIn 1600,
Ieyasu defeated his fellow regents at the battle of Sekigahara
F. In 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu appointed himself ____________
G. From that moment forward, Ieyasu and his descendants would be the
masters of Japan
H. Of course, as all shoguns did, technically ruled in name of the _______, who
was cloistered and powerless in the ancient city of Kyoto (formerly Heian)
IV. The Great Peace
A. New government Ieyasu created was known as the Tokugawa Shogunate,
and it lasted from 1603 to 1868
B. There were fifteen Tokugawa shoguns, and until near the end, their grasp
on power and control over the nation was unassailable
C. After so many years of war and chaos, stability, law, and _______ were the
shogunate’s chief prioritiesperiod known as the Great Peace
D. Ieyasu centralized the countryHe established a new _______ at the city of
Edo, which is now the modern capital, Tokyo
E. Peace came at the price of dictatorship and increased social _____________
F. Japan’s class system became more rigid, and until mid-1700s, it was almost
Summaries:
Cues:
impossible for a person to move from one class or profession to another
G. Power of daimyo was reduced and ordinary citizens were forbidden to own
weapons rulers also maintained a monopoly on ___________ technology
V. Women in Tokugawa Japan
A. Lived under increased restrictions, particularly in _______ class, which was
guided by Confucian teachingsWives had to obey husbands or face death
B. In the lower classes, gender relations were more egalitarian
C. However, girl children were less valued, sometimes put to _______ or sold
VI. Isolationism or Act of Seclusion
A. Sealed Japan off from the rest of the world as much as they could
B. Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch in Japan during the 1500s had traded and
converted many Japanese to ________________
C. Hostility to Christianity and fear of foreign political and economic influence
were behind the Tokugawa’s decision to _______ off the country in 1649
D. Foreign merchants were allowed entry only into one city, Nagasaki
VII. Accomplishments of Tokugawa
A. Restored and kept the peaceThe population grew _________
B. Rice and grain production more than doubled between 1600 and 1720
C. Tokugawa Japan became highly urbanized (Edo was one of world’s largest
cities), and shogunate built an elaborate network of _______ and canals
D. During 1600s and 1700s, one class that became increasingly wealthy and
powerfulmerchant class (exception to general rule of social rigidity)
E. During Tokugawa era, wood-block print came into its own as an ____ form
F. Reasons for differences between Japan and ChinaJapanese urban areas
were developing rapidly and Confucian values carried less weight in Japan
VIII. Decline
A. Over the course of the late 1700s and early 1800s, Tokugawa Japan
partially modernized, both economically and socially
B. Agricultural techniques were rationalized or scientific techniques were
applied allowing fewer people to grow ______ food
C. The reform had the effect of boosting urbanization
D. It also created the labor force needed for proto-industrialization
E. Trade, commerce, and manufacturing became increasingly ____________
F. A national infrastructure – more roads, canals, and ports – began to emerge
G. But the increased social and economic clout of the merchant class
undermined the power of 5 to 8 percentthe traditional aristocracy
H. Allowed some modernization but not enough to disrupt status quo
I. In 1853, American gunships appeared off the Japanese coastCommodore
Matthew Perry”asking” to ______ Japan to trade
J. Certain samurai leaders, particularly from the southern provinces of
Satsuma and Choshu (Sat-Cho Alliance), urged the shogun to take a hard line
K. Anti-shogun forces asked the last shogun to resign and restore the emperor
L. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 began Japan’s _________ age
M. One of the first things Emperor Meiji did, in 1871, was to abolish ___________
Japan began a process of modernization and industrialization
Summaries:
Questions:
 Discuss factors that led to increasing decentralization in Japan.
 Describe the Onin War.
 Discuss the reunification of Japan.
 How did the Tokugawa shoguns ensure peace?
 Why did the Tokugawa shoguns isolate Japan?
 What economic changes occurred during the Tokugawa period?
 How did the arrival of Commodore Perry lead to radical changes in Japan?
1. Which of the following statements
4. Tokugawa Ieyasu ruled Japan as
concerning the Tokugawa Shogunate
(A) Hereditary emperor.
in the nineteenth century is most
(B) A temporary military ruler in
accurate?
support of the emperor.
(A) By the nineteenth century, the
(C) The elected lord of the daimyo.
Tokugawa were able to dispense with
(D) A powerful regional warlord.
the feudal organization of earlier
(E) None of the above.
Japan.
(B) Increasingly the Shogunate depended
5. What became of the Christian
on its long-standing alliances with
community in Japan under the
Western powers to maintain its
Tokugawa shogunate?
dominance.
(A) Christians were restricted to a few
(C) The Shogunate bureaucracy had
carefully controlled missions.
been opened to talented commoners.
(B) Christians were brutally persecuted
(D) The Shogunate continued to combine
and driven into secrecy.
a central bureaucracy with semi(C) Christianity merged with Buddhism
feudal alliances with regional
and Shintoism into a new syncretic
daimyos and the samurai.
religion.
(D) Japanese Christians continued to
2. Which of the following groups in
worship but lost support after
Tokugawa Japan advocated
European trade was restricted.
concentration of specifically
(E) None of the above
Japanese culture?
(A) Confucian scholars
6. The population growth in Japan
(B) National studies group
slowed after 1700 because of the
(C) Dutch studies group
practice of
(D) Buddhist scholars
(A) Abortion.
(B) Contraception.
3. Which of the following was not a
(C) Infanticide.
policy of the new Meiji government?
(D) Late marriage.
(A) Establishing a system of
(E) All of the above.
nationally appoint prefects
(B) Expanding state power
(C) Abolition of feudalism
(D) Reinforcing the daimyos
Excerpt from wfu.edu
For nearly a century Japan, with approximately 500,000 Catholics by the early 1600s,
was the most spectacular success story in Asia for European missionaries. Why did so
many convert? Some undoubtedly were attracted by the Christian message of salvation,
but others hoped to gain economic or political advantage. The daimyo of Omura seems to
have converted in the hope of attracting more trade to his port city of Nagasaki, and Oda
Nobunaga (1534-1582) the general who unified approximately half of Japan, encouraged
Christian missionaries to undermine the political influence of the powerful and wealthy
Buddhist monasteries. Nobunaga's tolerance of missionary activity was the main reason for
the many converts in the region around Kyoto, Japan's imperial city.
Although the dynamics of Japanese politics at first favored the European missionary
effort, when those dynamics changed, Christianity was persecuted and finally crushed.
Nobunaga's successor, Hideyoshi (15 36-1598), launched the anti-foreign, anti-Christian
policy that culminated in the Tokugawa exclusion edicts. Hideyoshi distrusted Europeans'
motives after the Spaniards conquered the Philippines and came to question the loyalty of
certain daimyo who had converted. In 1597 he ordered the execution by crucifixion of nine
Catholic missionaries and seventeen Japanese converts. In their single-minded pursuit of
stability and order, the early Tokugawa also feared the subversive potential of Christianity
and quickly moved to obliterate it, even at the expense of isolating Japan and ending a
century of promising commercial contacts with China, Southeast Asia, and Europe.
Japan's isolation policy was fully implemented by Tokugawa Iemitsu, the grandson
of Ievasu and shogun from 1623 to 1641. He issued edicts that essentially closed Japan to all
foreigners and prevented Japanese from leaving.
CLOSED COUNTRY EDICT OF 1635
1. Japanese ships are strictly forbidden to leave for foreign countries.
2. No Japanese is permitted to go abroad. If there is anyone who attempts to do so secretly,
he must be executed. The ship so involved must be impounded and its owner arrested, and
the matter must be reported to the higher authority.
3. If any Japanese returns from overseas after residing there, he must be put to death…
7. If there are any Southern Barbarians who propagate the teachings of the priests, or
otherwise commit crimes, they may be incarcerated in the prison. . . .
8. All incoming ships must be carefully searched for the followers of the priests.
EXCLUSION OF THE PORTUGUESE, 1639
1. The matter relating to the proscription of Christianity is known [to the Portuguese].
However, heretofore they have secretly transported those who are going to propagate that
religion.
2. If those who believe in that religion band together in an attempt to do evil things, they
must be subjected to punishment.
Thesis Statement: Change Over Time: Japan: From Feudalism to Meiji Restoration
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