Following his victory in the Battle of Sekigahara in , however, Tokugawa Ieyasu swiftly consolidated power from his heavily fortified castle at Edo now Tokyo. The prestigious but largely powerless imperial court named Ieyasu as shogun or supreme military leader in , beginning a dynasty that would rule Japan for the next two-and-a-half centuries.
From the beginning, the Tokugawa regime focused on reestablishing order in social, political and international affairs after a century of warfare. The political structure, established by Ieyasu and solidified under his two immediate successors, his son Hidetada who ruled from and grandson Iemitsu , bound all daimyos to the shogunate and limited any individual daimyo from acquiring too much land or power.
Suspicious of foreign intervention and colonialism, the Tokugawa regime acted to exclude missionaries and eventually issued a complete ban on Christianity in Japan. The dominant faith of the Tokugawa period was Confucianism, a relatively conservative religion with a strong emphasis on loyalty and duty.
In its efforts to close Japan off from damaging foreign influence, the Tokugawa shogunate also prohibited trade with Western nations and prevented Japanese merchants from trading abroad. With the Act of Seclusion , Japan was effectively cut off from Western nations for the next years with the exception of a small Dutch outpost in Nagasaki Harbor. At the same time, it maintained close relations with neighboring Korea and China , confirming a traditional East Asian political order with China at the center.
The Neo-Confucian theory that dominated Japan during the Tokugawa Period recognized only four social classes—warriors samurai , artisans, farmers and merchants—and mobility between the four classes was officially prohibited. With peace restored, many samurai became bureaucrats or took up a trade. At the same time, they were expected to maintain their warrior pride and military preparedness, which led to much frustration in their ranks.
For their part, peasants who made up 80 percent of the Japanese population were forbidden from engaging in non-agricultural activities, thus ensuring consistent income for landowning authorities. The Japanese economy grew significantly during the Tokugawa period.
A vibrant urban culture emerged centered in Kyoto, Osaka and Edo Tokyo , catering to merchants, samurai and townspeople rather than to nobles and daimyo, the traditional patrons.
The Genroku era in particular saw the rise of Kabuki theater and Bunraku puppet theater, literature especially Matsuo Basho, the master of haiku and woodblock printing. As agricultural production lagged in comparison to the mercantile and commercial sectors, samurai and daimyo did not fare as well as the merchant class. Despite efforts at fiscal reform, mounting opposition seriously weakened the Tokugawa shogunate from the midth to the midth century, when years of famine led to increased peasant uprisings.
It was signed under duress when Commodore Matthew Perry menacingly sent his American battle fleet into Japanese waters. The war ended when one of the most famous samurai heroes in Japanese history, Minamoto Yoshitsune, led his clan to victory against the Taira near the village of Dan-no-ura. The triumphant leader Minamoto Yoritomo—half-brother of Yoshitsune, whom he drove into exile—established the center of government at Kamakura.
The establishment of the Kamakura Shogunate, a hereditary military dictatorship, shifted all real political power in Japan to the samurai. Zen Buddhism , introduced into Japan from China around this time, held a great appeal for many samurai.
Also during the Kamakura period, the sword came to have a great significance in samurai culture. The strain of defeating two Mongol invasions at the end of the 13th century weakened the Kamakura Shogunate, which fell to a rebellion led by Ashikaga Takauji.
The Ashikaga Shogunate, centered in Kyoto, began around For the next two centuries, Japan was in a near-constant state of conflict between its feuding territorial clans. After the particularly divisive Onin War of , the Ashikaga shoguns ceased to be effective, and feudal Japan lacked a strong central authority; local lords and their samurai stepped in to a greater extent to maintain law and order. Despite the political unrest, this period—known as the Muromachi after the district of that name in Kyoto—saw considerable economic expansion in Japan.
It was also a golden age for Japanese art, as the samurai culture came under the growing influence of Zen Buddhism. In addition to such now-famous Japanese art forms as the tea ceremony, rock gardens and flower arranging, theater and painting also flourished during the Muromachi period.
This period ushered in a year-long stretch of peace and prosperity in Japan, and for the first time the samurai took on the responsibility of governing through civil means rather than through military force. This relatively conservative faith, with its emphasis on loyalty and duty, eclipsed Buddhism during the Tokugawa period as the dominant religion of the samurai.
It was during this period that the principles of bushido emerged as a general code of conduct for Japanese people in general. Though bushido varied under the influences of Buddhist and Confucian thought, its warrior spirit remained constant, including an emphasis on military skills and fearlessness in the face of an enemy. In a peaceful Japan, many samurai were forced to become bureaucrats or take up some type of trade, even as they preserved their conception of themselves as fighting men.
In , the right to carry swords was restricted only to samurai, which created an even greater separation between them and the farmer-peasant class. The material well-being of many samurai actually declined during the Tokugawa Shogunate, however. Samurai had traditionally made their living on a fixed stipend from landowners; as these stipends declined, many lower-level samurai were frustrated by their inability to improve their situation.
In the midth century, the stability of the Tokugawa regime was undermined by a combination of factors, including peasant unrest due to famine and poverty.
The incursion of Western powers into Japan—and especially the arrival in of Commodore Matthew C. On the island of Hokkaido, the crane population dwindled as their natural habitat became farmland. Watch this video to find out how local farmers help them fight extinction.
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Skip to content. Minamoto Yorimoto Minamoto Yorimoto, allegedly the man in this gorgeous silk painting, established the first shogunate in Japan in Twitter Facebook Pinterest Google Classroom. Background Info Vocabulary. Select Text Level: Educator Family. On August 21, , Minamoto Yorimoto was appoint ed as a shogun , or military leader, in Kamakura, Japan. Shoguns were hereditary military leaders who were technically appointed by the emperor.
However, real power rested with the shoguns themselves, who worked closely with other class es in Japanese society. Shoguns worked with civil servant s, who would administer programs such as tax es and trade.
They also worked with the daimyo , or wealthy landowners. Finally, shoguns worked with samurai , a warrior class who were usually employ ed by the daimyo. A series of three major shogunates Kamakura, Ashikaga, Tokugawa led Japan for most of its history from until
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