The Rise of Tokugawa Shogunate
by The chaotic period of Japan was ended when Tokugawa Ieyasu united all of Japan under his Shogunate. During this time, Christianity arrived in Japan with the Europeans and the Shogun had a wise reaction to the arrival of the Europeans. Edo became the capital and the emperor a figurehead. Here is the story of Japan, the early years of Tokugawa Shogunate and it’s interaction with the West.
The Tokugawa Shogunate began in Edo, Japan around 1603 under the leadership of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who united all of the Japanese warring states and their Daimyo under his rule. The Emperor and his family became political figureheads while the real military power lay with the Shogunate rulers. The loyal daimyo was given land closer to Edo and the interior of Japan while the untrustworthy Daimyo was send to the fringes of the Shogunate. The Shogun’s requirement for all Daimyo to come to Edo increased the need to better transportation systems and helped stimulate the economy of Edo and the country sides. An elite class of warriors known as the Samurai served under their feudal lords and pledged their loyalties to the Daimyo and the shogun. During this time, Christianity came to Japan and the Shogun wisely used the influence of the Europeans to learn more about them and to destroy Buddhist separatist movements that opposed his power. But with the rapid growth of Christianity, the Shogun felt threatened and a rural revolt was used as an excuse to stop conversions to Christianity.
From 1633-1639, various Edicts were send out by the Shogun that slowly broke the country away from Christianity and the European influence and by 1649, Japan became a closed country. However, the Dutch was still allowed to trade with Japan during once a year at the port of Nagasaki. The Shogun’s political reason for putting loyal Daimyo’s in the inner part of Japan began to show adverse effects. Central Japan experienced a large amount of population growth while the agricultural sectors did not develop as much, while the outer parts of Japan had large economic growth but no population growth. Thus there was more pressure on the agricultural systems and the price of rice increased to a point where the Daimyo and the Samurai had to buy rice on credit from the merchants willing to sell to them. In 1702, the Trial of the forty seven Ronin brought to the surface the issues of military codes of honor vs. the Civil laws and what should be done to preserve social order. Overall, the government and the Shogun remained closely traditional while Japan progressed in various areas of society including the implementation of Confucius ideas to limit the influence of merchants.
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