1600-1868 (1450-1750)

1467: Onin war:
Sengoku period (country at war)
Reunification of Japan under the Tokugawa
Shogunate: Oda
Nobunaga, Toyotomi
Hideyoshi, Tokugawa
Ieyasu. Battle of
Sekigahara in 1600. Sole invasion: Ryukyu in 1609.
Commercial development,
Economic growth, and peace for next 250 years, leading to modernism.
(Other than various natural disasters like the Great
Fire of Meiriki and Hoei earthquake/Tsunami)
1543: Jesuit and
Portuguese foreigners arrive and begin transferring western ideals to the Japanese people.
1638: Despite Initial trade with Dutch, English and
Portuguese nation trade with western nations is prohibited for order in international relations. Act of seclusion.
Enforces East Asian political order.
1714: Change in currency to the gold Shotoku Koban

Dictionary.com: Noun:
A group of nations or peoples ruled over by an emperor, empress, or other powerful sovereign or government: usually a territory of greater extent than a kingdom, as the former British Empire, French Empire,
Russian Empire, Byzantine Empire, or Roman Empire.
• During 1450-1750 Japan was still feudal, with warring periods and a rising shogunate. Not labeled “empire”
• However, Japan’s proper post-feudal “Imperial” period began in 1868
• Had emperor and longstanding culture and feudal history.
• Term used to symbolize independence from China
• Certain degree of imperialism:
-Pacific Island annexations: Kuril (1875), Bonin (1876) and Ryuku (1879)
-Korean influence (Korean politics, troops from China and Japan sent for
“peace”, Treaty of Tientsin in 1885)
-Sino-Japanese War (Russian Trans-Siberian Railway, Chinese influence,
Japanese outnumbered better trained, treaty of Shimonoseki)

-The end of almost four centuries of fighting came with the reunification of Japan under the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1600 brings with it an emphasis on the reestablishment of order. Peace for majority of the 250 year-long rule of the Shogunate.
-Change in currency; went from being largely based on rice to the adoption of a new coinage system.
-Oda Nobunaga (d. 1582) Introduced firearms to Japanese warfare
-Wakan Sansai Zue, first Japanese encyclopedia published in 1712
-Toyotomi Hideyoshi was born a peasant and yet rose to finally end the
Sengoku Period.

-Hattori Hanzo: Legendary Samurai leader who commanded a 200-man strong unit of Iga men
-Oda Nobunaga: a samurai warlord in the late 16th century who initiated the unification of Japan during the end of the Warring States period.
Also the first to introduce firearms into japanese warfare.
-Toyotomi Hideyoshi: A peasant and yet rose through the social hierarchy to finally end the Sengoku Period after
Nobunaga’s early assassination and betrayal.
-Tokugawa Ieyasu: founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan.
-Non-military figure: Matsuo Basho: Reknown Japanese Poet of the edo period who brought forth peaceful ideals into the Edo culture.

• Neo-Confucianism
• Completely subservient to their husbands
• Seen as being inferior to men
• Had no lord besides their husband
• Performed household tasks; weaving, sewing, spinning
• Seen as the passive side (yin) of yin and yang
• Seen as being “silly” and presumed to be indocile, discontent, slandering, and jealous, unless controlled by a man

St. Francis Xavier arrives in 1549
Christianity spreads rapidly, thousands of converts by the
1580s
Nobunaga and Hideyoshi initially welcoming of the foreign missionaries. (Portuguese Meatless Friday Temporas
=>Tempura)
Christianity is officially banned in 1614
Continuous persecution drives few remaining
Christians underground

1543 European traders began visiting Japan
In 1590s, self imposed isolation due to fear of European conquest
By mid 1600s, only limited numbers of Dutch traders arrived from the West
Western books were banned
Elite still followed Western developments

• No formal end to Tokugawa Shogunate until
1868
• Empire of Japan officially renamed Japan on May 3 rd 1947
• Post WW2
• Pearl Harbour
• Loss in pacific ocean to US
• Occupied by allied forces (Douglas
MacArthur( to revise Japanese constitution and demilitarize Japanese forces.

• https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9e/Flag_of_Japan.svg/1280px-
Flag_of_Japan.svg.png
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Hoodinski#/media/File:First_Sino-
Japanese_War.svg
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hattori_Hanz%C5%8D#/media/File:Hanzo.jpg
• https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Toyotomi_Hideyoshi_on_his_horse.j
pg
• https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Tokugawa_Ieyasu2.JPG
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oda_Nobunaga#/media/File:Odanobunaga.jpg
• http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kEFTmMk3e5c/TME3mWBeo_I/AAAAAAAACn8/kTvaCIiAcF0/s1
600/St-Francis-Xavier-3.jpg
• http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-
CqbeqVh9siw/UKIdz4gJ9AI/AAAAAAAAAHE/SlizjVlvESo/s1600/Basho0.jpg
• http://www.history.com/s3static/video-thumbnails/AETN-
History_VMS/21/139/History_FDR_and_Pearl_Harbor_rev_SF_HD_still_624x352.jpg
• http://www.history.com/s3static/video-thumbnails/AETN-
History_VMS/21/139/History_FDR_and_Pearl_Harbor_rev_SF_HD_still_624x352.jpg