Tokugawa shogunate
Encyclopedia
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal
regime of Japan
established by Tokugawa Ieyasu
and ruled by the shogun
s of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period
and gets its name from the capital city, Edo
, which is now called Tokyo
, after the name was changed in 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo Castle from 1603 until 1868, when it was abolished during the Meiji Restoration
.
of "warring states", central government had been largely reestablished by Oda Nobunaga
during the Azuchi-Momoyama period
. After the Battle of Sekigahara
in 1600, central authority fell to Tokugawa Ieyasu
who completed this process and received the title of shogun
in 1603. In order to become shogun, one traditionally was a descendant of the ancient Minamoto clan
.
Society in the Tokugawa period
, unlike the shogunates before it, was supposedly based on the strict class hierarchy
originally established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi
. The daimyo
, or lords, were at the top, followed by the warrior
-caste of samurai
, with the farmer
s, artisans, and trader
s ranking below. In some parts of the country, particularly smaller regions, daimyo and samurai were more or less identical, since daimyo might be trained as samurai, and samurai might act as local lords. Otherwise, the largely inflexible nature of this social stratification
system unleashed disruptive forces over time. Taxes on the peasantry were set at fixed amounts which did not account for inflation
or other changes in monetary value. As a result, the tax revenues collected by the samurai landowners were worth less and less over time. This often led to numerous confrontations between noble but impoverished samurai and well-to-do peasants, ranging from simple local disturbances to much bigger rebellion
s. None, however, proved compelling enough to seriously challenge the established order until the arrival of foreign powers.
Toward the end of the 19th century, an alliance of several of the more powerful daimyo, along with the titular Emperor, finally succeeded in the overthrow of the shogunate after the Boshin War
, culminating in the Meiji Restoration
. The Tokugawa Shogunate came to an official end in 1868, with the resignation of the 15th Tokugawa Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu
and the "restoration" (Ōsei fukko) of imperial rule. Despite of this, the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate brought Japan the longest period of peace and stability in its history, lasting well over 200 years.
The bakuhan taisei was the feudal political system in the Edo period
of Japan
. Baku, or "tent," is an abbreviation of bakufu, meaning "military government" — that is, the shogunate. The han
were the domains headed by daimyo.
Vassals held inherited lands and provided military service and homage to their lords. The Bakuhan Taisei split feudal power between the shogunate in Edo and provincial domains throughout Japan. Provinces had a degree of sovereignty and were allowed an independent administration of the Han in exchange for loyalty to the Shogun, who was responsible for foreign relations and national security. The shogun and lords were all daimyo: feudal lords with their own bureaucracies, policies, and territories. The Shogun also administered the most powerful han, the hereditary fief of the House of Tokugawa. Each level of government administered its own system of taxation.
The Shogun had the military power of Japan and was more powerful than the emperor, who was a religious and political leader.
The shogunate had the power to discard, annex, and transform domains. The sankin kōtai
system of alternative residence required each daimyo would reside in alternate years between the han and attendance in Edo. In their absence from Edo it was also required that they leave family as hostages until their return. The huge expenditure sankin-kotai imposed on each han helped centralize aristocratic alliances and ensured loyalty to the Shogun as each representative doubled as a potential hostage.
Tokugawa's descendants further ensured loyalty by maintaining a dogmatic insistence on loyalty to the Shogun. Fudai
daimyo were hereditary vassals of Ieyasu, as well as of his descendants. Tozama
, or "outsiders", became vassals of Ieyasu after the battle of Sekigahara. Shinpan
, or "relatives", were collaterals of Tokugawa Hidetada. Early in the Edo period, the shogunate viewed the tozama as the least likely to be loyal; over time, strategic marriages and the entrenchment of the system made the tozama less likely to rebel. In the end, it was the great tozama of Satsuma, Chōshū and Tosa and to a lesser extent Hizen that brought down the shogunate. These four states are called the Four Western Clans or Satchotohi for short.
The number of han (roughly 250) fluctuated throughout the Edo period. They were ranked by size, which was measured as the number of koku
that the domain produced each year. One koku was the amount of rice necessary to feed one adult male for one year. The minimum number for a daimyo was ten thousand koku; the largest, apart from the shogun, was a million.
in Kyoto
was still the legitimate ruler of Japan. Regardless of the political title of the emperor, the "shoguns of the Tokugawa family controlled Japan." The of Japan was a task given by the Imperial Court in Kyoto
to the Tokugawa family, which they returned to the court in the Meiji Restoration
.
The shogunate appointed a liaison, the Kyoto Shoshidai
(Shogun's Representative in Kyoto), to deal with the emperor, court and nobility.
Foreign affairs and trade were monopolized by the shogunate, yielding a huge profit. Foreign trade was also permitted to the Satsuma and the Tsushima domain
s.
The visits of the Nanban
ships from Portugal
were at first the main vector of trade exchanges, followed by the addition of Dutch, English and sometimes Spanish ships.
From 1603 onward, Japan started to participate actively in foreign trade. In 1615, an embassy and trade mission under Hasekura Tsunenaga
was sent across the Pacific to Nueva Espana (New Spain) on the Japanese-built galleon San Juan Bautista
. Until 1635, the Shogun issued numerous permits for the so-called "red seal ships
" destined for the Asian trade.
After 1635 and the introduction of Seclusion laws
, inbound ships were only allowed from China
, Korea
, and the Netherlands
.
first began appearing in Japan during the 16th century. As a symbol of foreign power over Japanese people, it would normally have been swiftly crushed. Oda Nobunaga
, however, embraced Christianity and the Western technology that was imported with it, such as the musket. He also saw it as a tool he could use to suppress Buddhist forces.
Though Christianity was allowed to grow until the 1610s, Tokugawa Ieyasu
soon began to see it as a growing threat to the stability of the Shogunate. As Ogosho ("Cloistered Shogun"), he influenced the implementing of laws that banned the practice of Christianity. His successors followed suit, compounding upon Ieyasu's laws. The ban of Christianity is often linked with the creation of the Seclusion laws, or Sakoku
, in the 1630s.
were the senior members of the shogunate. They supervised the ōmetsuke, machibugyō, ongokubugyō and other officials, oversaw relations with the Imperial Court in Kyoto
, kuge
(members of the nobility), daimyo, Buddhist temple
s and Shinto shrines, and attended to matters like divisions of fiefs. Normally, four or five men held the office, and one was on duty for a month at a time on a rotating basis. They conferred on especially important matters. In the administrative reforms of 1867 (Keiō Reforms), the office was eliminated in favor of a bureaucratic system with ministers for the interior, finance, foreign relations, army, and navy.
In principle, the requirements for appointment to the office of rōjū were to be a fudai daimyo and to have a fief assessed at 50 000 koku
or more. However, there were exceptions to both criteria. Many appointees came from the offices close to the shogun, such as soba yōnin, Kyoto shoshidai
, and Osaka jōdai
.
Irregularly, the shoguns appointed a rōjū to the position of tairō
(great elder). The office was limited to members of the Ii
, Sakai
, Doi, and Hotta clan
s, but Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu
was given the status of tairō as well. Among the most famous was Ii Naosuke
, who was assassinated in 1860 outside the Sakuradamon Gate of Edo Castle
(Sakuradamon incident
).
The wakadoshiyori
were next in status below the rōjū. An outgrowth of the early six-man rokuninshū (1633–1649), the office took its name and final form in 1662, but with four members. Their primary responsibility was management of the affairs of the hatamoto
and gokenin
, the direct vassals of the shogun.
Some shoguns appointed a soba yōnin. This person acted as a liaison between the shogun and the rōjū. The soba yōnin increased in importance during the time of the fifth shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi
, when a wakadoshiyori, Inaba Masayasu
, assassinated Hotta Masatoshi
, the tairō. Fearing for his personal safety, Tsunayoshi moved the rōjū to a more distant part of the castle. Some of the most famous soba yōnin were Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu
and Tanuma Okitsugu
.
were officials who reported to the rōjū and wakadoshiyori. The five ōmetsuke were in charge of monitoring the affairs of the daimyo, kuge and imperial court. They were in charge of discovering any threat of rebellion. Early in the Edo period, daimyo such as Yagyū Munefuyu
held the office. Soon, however, it fell to hatamoto
with rankings of 5000 koku or more. To give them authority in their dealings with daimyo, they were often ranked at 10 000 koku and given the title of kami (an ancient title, typically signifying the governor of a province
) such as Bizen-no-kami.
As time progressed, the function of the ōmetsuke evolved into one of passing orders from the shogunate to the daimyo, and of administering to ceremonies within Edo Castle. They also took on additional responsibilities such as supervising religious affairs and controlling firearms. The metsuke, reporting to the wakadoshiyori, oversaw the affairs of the vassals of the shogun. They were the police force for the thousands of hatamoto and gokenin
who were concentrated in Edo. Individual han had their own metsuke who similarly policed their samurai.
("three administrators") were the jisha, kanjō, and machi-bugyō
, which oversaw temples
and shrines, accounting, and the cities, respectively. The jisha bugyō had the highest status of the three. They oversaw the administration of Buddhist temples (ji) and Shinto shrines (sha), many of which held fiefs. Also, they heard lawsuits from several land holdings outside the eight Kantō
provinces. The appointments normally went to daimyo; Ōoka Tadasuke
was an exception, though he later became a daimyo.
The kanjō bugyō were next in status. The four holders of this office reported to the rōjū. They were responsible for the finances of the shogunate.
The machi bugyō were the chief city administrators of Edo and other cities. Their roles included mayor, chief of the police (and, later, also of the fire department), and judge in criminal and civil matters not involving samurai. Two (briefly, three) men, normally hatamoto, held the office, and alternated by month.
Three Edo machi bugyō have become famous through jidaigeki
(period films): Ōoka Tadasuke and Tōyama Kinshirō as heroes, and Torii Yōzō as a villain.
The san-bugyō together sat on a council called the hyōjōsho
. In this capacity, they were responsible for administering the tenryō, supervising the gundai, the daikan and the kura bugyō, as well as hearing cases involving samurai.
. By the end of the seventeenth century, the shogun's landholdings had reached four million koku. Such major cities as Nagasaki and Osaka, and mine
s, including the Sado
gold mine, also fell into this category.
Rather than appointing a daimyo to head the holdings, the shogunate placed administrators in charge. The titles of these administrators included gundai, daikan, and ongoku bugyō. This last category included the Osaka, Kyoto and Sumpu machibugyō, and the Nagasaki bugyō. The appointees were hatamoto
.
were administrators appointed between 1858 and 1868. They were charged with overseeing trade and diplomatic relations with foreign countries, and were based in the treaty ports
of Nagasaki and Kanagawa (Yokohama).
and modernized from a feudal shogunate to the Meiji government. It is at the end of the Edo period
and preceded the Meiji era. The major ideological and political factions during this period were divided into the pro-imperialist Ishin Shishi (nationalist patriots
) and the shogunate forces, including the elite shinsengumi
(newly selected corps) swordsmen.
Although these two groups were the most visible powers, many other factions attempted to use the chaos of the Bakumatsu era to seize personal power. Furthermore there were two other main driving forces for dissent; first, growing resentment of tozama
daimyo (or outside lords), and second, growing anti-Western sentiment
following the arrival of Perry. The first related to those lords who had fought against Tokugawa forces at Sekigahara (in 1600 AD) and had from that point on been exiled permanently from all powerful positions within the shogunate. The second was to be expressed in the phrase sonnō jōi
, or "revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians". The turning points of the Bakumatsu were the Boshin War
and the Battle of Toba-Fushimi
, when pro-shogunate forces were defeated.
Over the course of the Edo period, influential relatives of the shogun included:
Feudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...
regime of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
established by Tokugawa Ieyasu
Tokugawa Ieyasu
was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan , which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received appointment as shogun in 1603, abdicated from office in 1605, but...
and ruled by the shogun
Shogun
A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...
s of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
and gets its name from the capital city, Edo
Edo
, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...
, which is now called Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, after the name was changed in 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo Castle from 1603 until 1868, when it was abolished during the Meiji Restoration
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...
.
History
Following the Sengoku PeriodSengoku period
The or Warring States period in Japanese history was a time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict that lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The name "Sengoku" was adopted by Japanese historians in reference...
of "warring states", central government had been largely reestablished by Oda Nobunaga
Oda Nobunaga
was the initiator of the unification of Japan under the shogunate in the late 16th century, which ruled Japan until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was also a major daimyo during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. His opus was continued, completed and finalized by his successors Toyotomi...
during the Azuchi-Momoyama period
Azuchi-Momoyama period
The came at the end of the Warring States Period in Japan, when the political unification that preceded the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate took place. It spans the years from approximately 1573 to 1603, during which time Oda Nobunaga and his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, imposed order...
. After the Battle of Sekigahara
Battle of Sekigahara
The , popularly known as the , was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 which cleared the path to the Shogunate for Tokugawa Ieyasu...
in 1600, central authority fell to Tokugawa Ieyasu
Tokugawa Ieyasu
was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan , which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received appointment as shogun in 1603, abdicated from office in 1605, but...
who completed this process and received the title of shogun
Shogun
A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...
in 1603. In order to become shogun, one traditionally was a descendant of the ancient Minamoto clan
Minamoto clan
was one of the surnames bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the imperial family who were demoted into the ranks of the nobility. The practice was most prevalent during the Heian Period , although its last occurrence was during the Sengoku Era. The Taira were another such offshoot of...
.
Society in the Tokugawa period
Edo society
Society during the Edo period in Japan was ruled by strict customs and regulations intended to promote stability. Confucian ideas provided the foundation for a system of strict social prescriptions. At the top of the social order, though below emperor, shogun, and daimyo , were the samurai who...
, unlike the shogunates before it, was supposedly based on the strict class hierarchy
Hierarchy
A hierarchy is an arrangement of items in which the items are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another...
originally established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
was a daimyo warrior, general and politician of the Sengoku period. He unified the political factions of Japan. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Sengoku period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, named after Hideyoshi's castle...
. The daimyo
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
, or lords, were at the top, followed by the warrior
Warrior
A warrior is a person skilled in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based society that recognizes a separate warrior class.-Warrior classes in tribal culture:...
-caste of samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
, with the farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
s, artisans, and trader
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
s ranking below. In some parts of the country, particularly smaller regions, daimyo and samurai were more or less identical, since daimyo might be trained as samurai, and samurai might act as local lords. Otherwise, the largely inflexible nature of this social stratification
Social stratification
In sociology the social stratification is a concept of class, involving the "classification of persons into groups based on shared socio-economic conditions ... a relational set of inequalities with economic, social, political and ideological dimensions."...
system unleashed disruptive forces over time. Taxes on the peasantry were set at fixed amounts which did not account for inflation
Inflation
In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a...
or other changes in monetary value. As a result, the tax revenues collected by the samurai landowners were worth less and less over time. This often led to numerous confrontations between noble but impoverished samurai and well-to-do peasants, ranging from simple local disturbances to much bigger rebellion
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
s. None, however, proved compelling enough to seriously challenge the established order until the arrival of foreign powers.
Toward the end of the 19th century, an alliance of several of the more powerful daimyo, along with the titular Emperor, finally succeeded in the overthrow of the shogunate after the Boshin War
Boshin War
The was a civil war in Japan, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to return political power to the imperial court....
, culminating in the Meiji Restoration
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...
. The Tokugawa Shogunate came to an official end in 1868, with the resignation of the 15th Tokugawa Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu
Tokugawa Yoshinobu
was the 15th and last shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful...
and the "restoration" (Ōsei fukko) of imperial rule. Despite of this, the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate brought Japan the longest period of peace and stability in its history, lasting well over 200 years.
Shogunate and domain
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Baku, or "tent," is an abbreviation of bakufu, meaning "military government" — that is, the shogunate. The han
Han (Japan)
The or domain was the name of the estate belonging to a warrior in Japan after the 17th century. The fiefs of the daimyos of the samurai class of Japan during the Edo period were called han.-Edo period:...
were the domains headed by daimyo.
Vassals held inherited lands and provided military service and homage to their lords. The Bakuhan Taisei split feudal power between the shogunate in Edo and provincial domains throughout Japan. Provinces had a degree of sovereignty and were allowed an independent administration of the Han in exchange for loyalty to the Shogun, who was responsible for foreign relations and national security. The shogun and lords were all daimyo: feudal lords with their own bureaucracies, policies, and territories. The Shogun also administered the most powerful han, the hereditary fief of the House of Tokugawa. Each level of government administered its own system of taxation.
The Shogun had the military power of Japan and was more powerful than the emperor, who was a religious and political leader.
The shogunate had the power to discard, annex, and transform domains. The sankin kōtai
Sankin kotai
was a policy of the shogunate during most of the Edo period of Japanese history. The purpose was to control the daimyo. In adopting the policy, the shogunate was continuing and refining similar policies of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In 1635, a law required sankin kōtai, which was already an established...
system of alternative residence required each daimyo would reside in alternate years between the han and attendance in Edo. In their absence from Edo it was also required that they leave family as hostages until their return. The huge expenditure sankin-kotai imposed on each han helped centralize aristocratic alliances and ensured loyalty to the Shogun as each representative doubled as a potential hostage.
Tokugawa's descendants further ensured loyalty by maintaining a dogmatic insistence on loyalty to the Shogun. Fudai
Fudai
was a class of daimyo who were hereditary vassals of the Tokugawa in Edo period Japan. It was primarily the fudai who filled the ranks of the Tokugawa administration.-Origins:...
daimyo were hereditary vassals of Ieyasu, as well as of his descendants. Tozama
Tozama
A ' was a daimyo who was considered an outsider by the rulers of Japan. The term came into use in the Kamakura period and continued until the end of the Edo period.-Edo period:...
, or "outsiders", became vassals of Ieyasu after the battle of Sekigahara. Shinpan
Shinpan (daimyo)
The daimyo were certain relatives of the Tokugawa shoguns of Japan. While all shinpan were relatives of the shogun, not all relatives of the shogun were shinpan; an example of this is the Matsudaira clan of the Okutono Domain. The shinpan lords were also known as kamon daimyō — non-daimyo...
, or "relatives", were collaterals of Tokugawa Hidetada. Early in the Edo period, the shogunate viewed the tozama as the least likely to be loyal; over time, strategic marriages and the entrenchment of the system made the tozama less likely to rebel. In the end, it was the great tozama of Satsuma, Chōshū and Tosa and to a lesser extent Hizen that brought down the shogunate. These four states are called the Four Western Clans or Satchotohi for short.
The number of han (roughly 250) fluctuated throughout the Edo period. They were ranked by size, which was measured as the number of koku
Koku
The is a Japanese unit of volume, equal to ten cubic shaku. In this definition, 3.5937 koku equal one cubic metre, i.e. 1 koku is approximately 278.3 litres. The koku was originally defined as a quantity of rice, historically defined as enough rice to feed one person for one year...
that the domain produced each year. One koku was the amount of rice necessary to feed one adult male for one year. The minimum number for a daimyo was ten thousand koku; the largest, apart from the shogun, was a million.
Shogun and emperor
Despite the establishment of the shogunate, the emperorEmperor of Japan
The Emperor of Japan is, according to the 1947 Constitution of Japan, "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people." He is a ceremonial figurehead under a form of constitutional monarchy and is head of the Japanese Imperial Family with functions as head of state. He is also the highest...
in Kyoto
Kyoto
is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
was still the legitimate ruler of Japan. Regardless of the political title of the emperor, the "shoguns of the Tokugawa family controlled Japan." The of Japan was a task given by the Imperial Court in Kyoto
Imperial Court in Kyoto
thumb|left|350px|Front view of Kyoto imperial palaceImperial Court in Kyoto was the nominal ruling government of Japan from 794 AD until the Meiji Era, in which the court was moved to Tokyo and integrated into the Meiji government....
to the Tokugawa family, which they returned to the court in the Meiji Restoration
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...
.
The shogunate appointed a liaison, the Kyoto Shoshidai
Kyoto Shoshidai
The was an important administrative and political office in the early modern government of Japan. However, the significance and effectiveness of the office is credited to the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu, who developed these initial creations as bureaucratic elements in a consistent and...
(Shogun's Representative in Kyoto), to deal with the emperor, court and nobility.
Shogun and foreign trade
Tsushima Fuchu domain
The Tsushima Fuchū domain , also called the Tsushima domain, was a domain of Japan during the Edo period that controlled Tsushima Province and a small portion of Hizen Province. It was ruled by the Sō clan...
s.
The visits of the Nanban
Nanban trade
The or the in Japanese history extends from the arrival of the first Europeans to Japan in 1543, to their near-total exclusion from the archipelago in 1614, under the promulgation of the "Sakoku" Seclusion Edicts.- Etymology :...
ships from Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
were at first the main vector of trade exchanges, followed by the addition of Dutch, English and sometimes Spanish ships.
From 1603 onward, Japan started to participate actively in foreign trade. In 1615, an embassy and trade mission under Hasekura Tsunenaga
Hasekura Tsunenaga
Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga or was a Japanese samurai and retainer of Date Masamune, the daimyo of Sendai....
was sent across the Pacific to Nueva Espana (New Spain) on the Japanese-built galleon San Juan Bautista
Japanese warship San Juan Bautista
San Juan Bautista was one of Japan's first Japanese-built Western-style sail warships. She crossed the Pacific in 1614. She was of the Spanish galleon type, known in Japan as Nanban-Sen San Juan Bautista (“St. John the Baptist”) (originally called Date Maru, 伊達丸 in Japanese) was one of Japan's...
. Until 1635, the Shogun issued numerous permits for the so-called "red seal ships
Red seal ships
were Japanese armed merchant sailing ships bound for Southeast Asian ports with a red-sealed patent issued by the early Tokugawa shogunate in the first half of the 17th century...
" destined for the Asian trade.
After 1635 and the introduction of Seclusion laws
Sakoku
was the foreign relations policy of Japan under which no foreigner could enter nor could any Japanese leave the country on penalty of death. The policy was enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate under Tokugawa Iemitsu through a number of edicts and policies from 1633–39 and remained in effect until...
, inbound ships were only allowed from China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
.
Shogun and Christianity
Followers of ChristianityChristianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
first began appearing in Japan during the 16th century. As a symbol of foreign power over Japanese people, it would normally have been swiftly crushed. Oda Nobunaga
Oda Nobunaga
was the initiator of the unification of Japan under the shogunate in the late 16th century, which ruled Japan until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was also a major daimyo during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. His opus was continued, completed and finalized by his successors Toyotomi...
, however, embraced Christianity and the Western technology that was imported with it, such as the musket. He also saw it as a tool he could use to suppress Buddhist forces.
Though Christianity was allowed to grow until the 1610s, Tokugawa Ieyasu
Tokugawa Ieyasu
was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan , which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received appointment as shogun in 1603, abdicated from office in 1605, but...
soon began to see it as a growing threat to the stability of the Shogunate. As Ogosho ("Cloistered Shogun"), he influenced the implementing of laws that banned the practice of Christianity. His successors followed suit, compounding upon Ieyasu's laws. The ban of Christianity is often linked with the creation of the Seclusion laws, or Sakoku
Sakoku
was the foreign relations policy of Japan under which no foreigner could enter nor could any Japanese leave the country on penalty of death. The policy was enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate under Tokugawa Iemitsu through a number of edicts and policies from 1633–39 and remained in effect until...
, in the 1630s.
Rōjū and wakadoshiyori
The rōjūRoju
The ', usually translated as Elder, was one of the highest-ranking government posts in Tokugawa Japan. The term refers either to individual Elders, or to the Council as a whole; under the first two shoguns, there were only two Rōjū...
were the senior members of the shogunate. They supervised the ōmetsuke, machibugyō, ongokubugyō and other officials, oversaw relations with the Imperial Court in Kyoto
Imperial Court in Kyoto
thumb|left|350px|Front view of Kyoto imperial palaceImperial Court in Kyoto was the nominal ruling government of Japan from 794 AD until the Meiji Era, in which the court was moved to Tokyo and integrated into the Meiji government....
, kuge
Kuge
The was a Japanese aristocratic class that dominated the Japanese imperial court in Kyoto until the rise of the Shogunate in the 12th century at which point it was eclipsed by the daimyo...
(members of the nobility), daimyo, Buddhist temple
Temple
A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...
s and Shinto shrines, and attended to matters like divisions of fiefs. Normally, four or five men held the office, and one was on duty for a month at a time on a rotating basis. They conferred on especially important matters. In the administrative reforms of 1867 (Keiō Reforms), the office was eliminated in favor of a bureaucratic system with ministers for the interior, finance, foreign relations, army, and navy.
In principle, the requirements for appointment to the office of rōjū were to be a fudai daimyo and to have a fief assessed at 50 000 koku
Koku
The is a Japanese unit of volume, equal to ten cubic shaku. In this definition, 3.5937 koku equal one cubic metre, i.e. 1 koku is approximately 278.3 litres. The koku was originally defined as a quantity of rice, historically defined as enough rice to feed one person for one year...
or more. However, there were exceptions to both criteria. Many appointees came from the offices close to the shogun, such as soba yōnin, Kyoto shoshidai
Kyoto Shoshidai
The was an important administrative and political office in the early modern government of Japan. However, the significance and effectiveness of the office is credited to the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu, who developed these initial creations as bureaucratic elements in a consistent and...
, and Osaka jōdai
Osaka jodai
were officials of the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo period Japan. Appointments to this prominent office were exclusively fudai daimyō. Conventional interpretations have construed these Japanese titles as "commissioner" or "overseer" or "governor."...
.
Irregularly, the shoguns appointed a rōjū to the position of tairō
Tairo
Tairō was a high-ranking official position in the bakuhan taisei government of Japan. The tairō would preside over the governing Rōjū council in the event of an emergency. A tairō would be nominated from among a group of samurai families who supported Tokugawa Ieyasu...
(great elder). The office was limited to members of the Ii
Ii clan
The ' is a Japanese clan which originates in Tōtōmi Province. It was a retainer clan of the Imagawa family, and then switched sides to the Matsudaira clan of Mikawa Province. A famed 16th century clan member, Ii Naomasa, served as one of Tokugawa Ieyasu's generals, and received the fief of Hikone...
, Sakai
Sakai clan
The was a Japanese samurai clan that claimed descent from the Nitta branch of the Minamoto clan, who were in turn descendants of Emperor Seiwa. Serata Arichika, a samurai of the 14th century, was the common ancestor of both the Sakai clan and the Matsudaira clan, which the Sakai later served...
, Doi, and Hotta clan
Hotta clan
The was a Japanese clan that ruled the Sakura Domain in the late Edo period. Jindai-ji in the present-day city of Sakura was the clan's bodaiji, or family temple, and has many of the tombstones of prominent members of the Hotta clan.-References: ....
s, but Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu
Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu
was a Japanese samurai of the Edo period He was an official in the Tokugawa shogunate and he was a favorite of the fifth shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi....
was given the status of tairō as well. Among the most famous was Ii Naosuke
Ii Naosuke
was daimyo of Hikone and also Tairō of Tokugawa Shogunate, Japan, a position he held from April 23, 1858 until his death on March 24, 1860. He is most famous for signing the Harris Treaty with the United States, granting access to ports for trade to American merchants and seamen and...
, who was assassinated in 1860 outside the Sakuradamon Gate of Edo Castle
Edo Castle
, also known as , is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan. It is located in Chiyoda in Tokyo, then known as Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Tokugawa shogunate here. It was the residence of the shogun and location of the shogunate, and also...
(Sakuradamon incident
Sakuradamon incident (1860)
The on 24 March 1860 was the assassination of Japanese Chief Minister Ii Naosuke , by rōnin samurai of the Mito Domain, outside the Sakuradamon gate of Edo Castle.-Context:...
).
The wakadoshiyori
Wakadoshiyori
The ', or "Junior Elders", were high government officials in 17th century Tokugawa Japan. The position was established around 1631, but appointments were irregular until 1662....
were next in status below the rōjū. An outgrowth of the early six-man rokuninshū (1633–1649), the office took its name and final form in 1662, but with four members. Their primary responsibility was management of the affairs of the hatamoto
Hatamoto
A was a samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as gokenin. However, in the Edo period, hatamoto were the upper vassals of the Tokugawa...
and gokenin
Gokenin
A was initially a vassal of the shogunate of the Kamakura and the Muromachi periods. In exchange for protection and the right to become shugo or jitō , in times of peace a gokenin had the duty to protect the imperial court and Kamakura, in case of war had to fight with his forces under the...
, the direct vassals of the shogun.
Some shoguns appointed a soba yōnin. This person acted as a liaison between the shogun and the rōjū. The soba yōnin increased in importance during the time of the fifth shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi
was the fifth shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty of Japan. He was the younger brother of Tokugawa Ietsuna, thus making him the son of Tokugawa Iemitsu, the grandson of Tokugawa Hidetada, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu....
, when a wakadoshiyori, Inaba Masayasu
Inaba Masayasu
was a Japanese hatamoto and daimyō of Aono han in Mino Province in Edo period Japan. Masayasu's family was descended from Konō Michitaka....
, assassinated Hotta Masatoshi
Hotta Masatoshi
was a daimyō in Shimousa Province, and top government advisor and official in the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He served as rōjū to Shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna from 1679–80, and as Tairō under Tokugawa Tsunayoshi from the 12th day of the 11th lunar month of 1681 until his death on 7 October...
, the tairō. Fearing for his personal safety, Tsunayoshi moved the rōjū to a more distant part of the castle. Some of the most famous soba yōnin were Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu
Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu
was a Japanese samurai of the Edo period He was an official in the Tokugawa shogunate and he was a favorite of the fifth shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi....
and Tanuma Okitsugu
Tanuma Okitsugu
' was a rōjū of the Tokugawa shogunate who introduced monetary reform. He was also a daimyo, and ruled the Sagara han. He used the title Tonomo-no-kami....
.
Ōmetsuke and metsuke
The ōmetsuke and metsukeMetsuke
' were the censors or the inspectors of Tokugawa Japan. They were bakufu officials ranking somewhat lower than the bugyō. The metsuke were charged with the special duty of detecting and investigating instances of maladministration, corruption or disaffection anywhere in Japan; and particularly...
were officials who reported to the rōjū and wakadoshiyori. The five ōmetsuke were in charge of monitoring the affairs of the daimyo, kuge and imperial court. They were in charge of discovering any threat of rebellion. Early in the Edo period, daimyo such as Yagyū Munefuyu
Yagyu Munefuyu
was a daimyo and a teacher of kenjutsu and military strategy in Japan during the Edo period. His highest-ranking pupil was Tokugawa Ietsuna, fourth Tokugawa shogun. Munefuyu was the third son of Yagyū Munenori. One of his elder brothers was Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi...
held the office. Soon, however, it fell to hatamoto
Hatamoto
A was a samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as gokenin. However, in the Edo period, hatamoto were the upper vassals of the Tokugawa...
with rankings of 5000 koku or more. To give them authority in their dealings with daimyo, they were often ranked at 10 000 koku and given the title of kami (an ancient title, typically signifying the governor of a province
Provinces of Japan
Before the modern prefecture system was established, the land of Japan was divided into tens of kuni , usually known in English as provinces. Each province was divided into gun ....
) such as Bizen-no-kami.
As time progressed, the function of the ōmetsuke evolved into one of passing orders from the shogunate to the daimyo, and of administering to ceremonies within Edo Castle. They also took on additional responsibilities such as supervising religious affairs and controlling firearms. The metsuke, reporting to the wakadoshiyori, oversaw the affairs of the vassals of the shogun. They were the police force for the thousands of hatamoto and gokenin
Gokenin
A was initially a vassal of the shogunate of the Kamakura and the Muromachi periods. In exchange for protection and the right to become shugo or jitō , in times of peace a gokenin had the duty to protect the imperial court and Kamakura, in case of war had to fight with his forces under the...
who were concentrated in Edo. Individual han had their own metsuke who similarly policed their samurai.
San-bugyō
The san-bugyōBugyo
', often translated as "commissioner" or "magistrate" or "governor," was a title assigned to government officers in pre-modern Japan; other terms would be added to the title to describe more specifically a given commissioner's tasks or jurisdiction....
("three administrators") were the jisha, kanjō, and machi-bugyō
Machi-bugyo
were officials of the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo period Japan. Appointments to this prominent office were usually fudai daimyō, but this was amongst the senior administrative posts open to those who were not daimyō...
, which oversaw temples
Buddhist temples in Japan
Along with Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples are the most numerous, famous, and important religious buildings in Japan.The term "Shinto shrine" is used in opposition to "Buddhist temple" to mirror in English the distinction made in Japanese between Shinto and Buddhist religious structures. In...
and shrines, accounting, and the cities, respectively. The jisha bugyō had the highest status of the three. They oversaw the administration of Buddhist temples (ji) and Shinto shrines (sha), many of which held fiefs. Also, they heard lawsuits from several land holdings outside the eight Kantō
Kanto region
The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. The region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. Within its boundaries, slightly more than 40 percent of the land area is the Kantō Plain....
provinces. The appointments normally went to daimyo; Ōoka Tadasuke
Ooka Tadasuke
was a Japanese samurai in the service of the Tokugawa shogunate. During the reign of Tokugawa Yoshimune, as a magistrate of Edo, his roles included chief of police, judge and jury, and Yamada Magistrate prior to his tenure as South Magistrate of Edo...
was an exception, though he later became a daimyo.
The kanjō bugyō were next in status. The four holders of this office reported to the rōjū. They were responsible for the finances of the shogunate.
The machi bugyō were the chief city administrators of Edo and other cities. Their roles included mayor, chief of the police (and, later, also of the fire department), and judge in criminal and civil matters not involving samurai. Two (briefly, three) men, normally hatamoto, held the office, and alternated by month.
Three Edo machi bugyō have become famous through jidaigeki
Jidaigeki
is a genre of film, television, and theatre in Japan. The name means "period drama" and is usually the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—Portrait of Hell, for example, is set during the late Heian period—and the early Meiji era is also a popular...
(period films): Ōoka Tadasuke and Tōyama Kinshirō as heroes, and Torii Yōzō as a villain.
The san-bugyō together sat on a council called the hyōjōsho
Hyojosho
The ', established in 1634, was the judicial council in Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate. It was equivalent to the Monchūjo council of the earlier Kamakura shogunate. It was composed of the Rōjū , the highest officials in the shogunate government, and a number of Commissioners called Bugyō, who...
. In this capacity, they were responsible for administering the tenryō, supervising the gundai, the daikan and the kura bugyō, as well as hearing cases involving samurai.
Tenryō, gundai and daikan
The shogun directly held lands in various parts of Japan. These were known as bakufu chokkatsuchi; since the Meiji period, the term tenryō has become synonymous. In addition to the territory that Ieyasu held prior to the Battle of Sekigahara, this included lands he gained in that battle and lands gained as a result of the Summer and Winter Sieges of OsakaSiege of Osaka
The was a series of battles undertaken by the Tokugawa shogunate against the Toyotomi clan, and ending in that clan's destruction. Divided into two stages , and lasting from 1614 to 1615, the siege put an end to the last major armed opposition to the shogunate's establishment...
. By the end of the seventeenth century, the shogun's landholdings had reached four million koku. Such major cities as Nagasaki and Osaka, and mine
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
s, including the Sado
Sado Province
was a province of Japan until 1871; since then, it has been a part of Niigata Prefecture. It was sometimes called or . It lies on the eponymous Sado Island, off the coast of Niigata Prefecture ....
gold mine, also fell into this category.
Rather than appointing a daimyo to head the holdings, the shogunate placed administrators in charge. The titles of these administrators included gundai, daikan, and ongoku bugyō. This last category included the Osaka, Kyoto and Sumpu machibugyō, and the Nagasaki bugyō. The appointees were hatamoto
Hatamoto
A was a samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as gokenin. However, in the Edo period, hatamoto were the upper vassals of the Tokugawa...
.
Gaikoku bugyō
The gaikoku bugyōGaikoku bugyo
were the commissioners or "magistrates of foreign affairs" appointed at the end of the Edo era by the Tokugawa shogunate to oversee trade and diplomatic relations with foreign countries...
were administrators appointed between 1858 and 1868. They were charged with overseeing trade and diplomatic relations with foreign countries, and were based in the treaty ports
Treaty ports
The treaty ports was the name given to the port cities in China, Japan, and Korea that were opened to foreign trade by the Unequal Treaties.-Chinese treaty ports:...
of Nagasaki and Kanagawa (Yokohama).
Late Tokugawa Shogunate (1853–1867)
The Late Tokugawa Shogunate ( Bakumatsu) was the period between 1853 and 1867, during which Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy called sakokuSakoku
was the foreign relations policy of Japan under which no foreigner could enter nor could any Japanese leave the country on penalty of death. The policy was enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate under Tokugawa Iemitsu through a number of edicts and policies from 1633–39 and remained in effect until...
and modernized from a feudal shogunate to the Meiji government. It is at the end of the Edo period
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
and preceded the Meiji era. The major ideological and political factions during this period were divided into the pro-imperialist Ishin Shishi (nationalist patriots
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
) and the shogunate forces, including the elite shinsengumi
Shinsengumi
The were a special police force of the late shogunate period.-Historical background:After Japan opened up to the West following U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry's visits in 1853, its political situation gradually became more and more chaotic...
(newly selected corps) swordsmen.
Although these two groups were the most visible powers, many other factions attempted to use the chaos of the Bakumatsu era to seize personal power. Furthermore there were two other main driving forces for dissent; first, growing resentment of tozama
Tozama
A ' was a daimyo who was considered an outsider by the rulers of Japan. The term came into use in the Kamakura period and continued until the end of the Edo period.-Edo period:...
daimyo (or outside lords), and second, growing anti-Western sentiment
Anti-Western sentiment
Anti-Western sentiment refers to broad opposition or hostility to the people, policies, or governments in the western world. In many cases the United States, Israël and the United Kingdom are the subject of discussion or hostility...
following the arrival of Perry. The first related to those lords who had fought against Tokugawa forces at Sekigahara (in 1600 AD) and had from that point on been exiled permanently from all powerful positions within the shogunate. The second was to be expressed in the phrase sonnō jōi
Sonno joi
is a Japanese political philosophy and a social movement derived from Neo-Confucianism; it became a political slogan in the 1850s and 1860s in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, during the Bakumatsu period.-Origin:...
, or "revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians". The turning points of the Bakumatsu were the Boshin War
Boshin War
The was a civil war in Japan, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to return political power to the imperial court....
and the Battle of Toba-Fushimi
Battle of Toba-Fushimi
The occurred between pro-Imperial and Tokugawa shogunate forces during the Boshin War in Japan. The battle started on 27 January 1868 , when the forces of the Tokugawa shogunate and the allied forces of Chōshū, Satsuma and Tosa domains clashed near Fushimi...
, when pro-shogunate forces were defeated.
List of the Tokugawa Shoguns
- Tokugawa IeyasuTokugawa Ieyasuwas the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan , which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received appointment as shogun in 1603, abdicated from office in 1605, but...
, ruled 1603–1605 - Tokugawa HidetadaTokugawa Hidetadawas the second shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate.-Early life :...
, r. 1605–1623 - Tokugawa IemitsuTokugawa IemitsuTokugawa Iemitsu was the third shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Iemitsu ruled from 1623 to 1651.-Early life :...
, r. 1623–1651 - Tokugawa IetsunaTokugawa Ietsunawas the fourth shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty of Japan who was in office from 1651 to 1680. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Iemitsu, thus making him the grandson of Tokugawa Hidetada and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu.-Early Life :...
, r. 1651–1680 - Tokugawa TsunayoshiTokugawa Tsunayoshiwas the fifth shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty of Japan. He was the younger brother of Tokugawa Ietsuna, thus making him the son of Tokugawa Iemitsu, the grandson of Tokugawa Hidetada, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu....
, r. 1680–1709 - Tokugawa IenobuTokugawa Ienobuwas the sixth shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty of Japan. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Tsunashige, thus making him the nephew of Tokugawa Ietsuna and Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the grandson of Tokugawa Iemitsu, the great-grandson of Tokugawa Hidetada, and the great-great grandson of Tokugawa...
, r. 1709–1712 - Tokugawa IetsuguTokugawa IetsuguTokugawa Ietsugu; 徳川 家継 was the seventh shogun of the Tokugawa Dynasty, who ruled from 1713 until his death in 1716...
, r. 1713–1716 - Tokugawa YoshimuneTokugawa Yoshimunewas the eighth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1716 until his abdication in 1745. He was the son of Tokugawa Mitsusada, the grandson of Tokugawa Yorinobu, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu.-Lineage:...
, r. 1716–1745 - Tokugawa IeshigeTokugawa IeshigeTokugawa Ieshige; 徳川 家重 was the ninth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan.The first son of Tokugawa Yoshimune, his mother was the daughter of Okubo Tadanao, known as Osuma no kata. His childhood name was Nagatomi-maru. He underwent the genpuku coming-of-age ceremony in 1725...
, r. 1745–1760 - Tokugawa IeharuTokugawa IeharuTokugawa Ieharu Tokugawa Ieharu Tokugawa Ieharu (徳川家治 (June 20, 1737 – September 17, 1786) was the tenth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, who held office from 1760 to 1786.Ieharu was the eldest son of Tokugawa Ieshige, the ninth shogun.-Events of the Ieharu's bakufu:...
, r. 1760–1786 - Tokugawa IenariTokugawa IenariTokugawa Ienari; 徳川 家斉 was the eleventh and longest serving shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan who held office from 1787 to 1837.-First wife:...
, r. 1787–1837 - Tokugawa IeyoshiTokugawa IeyoshiTokugawa Ieyoshi was the 12th shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan.He was the second son of the 11th shogun, Tokugawa Ienari, and appointed Mizuno Tadakuni to conduct the Tenpo reform....
, r. 1837–1853 - Tokugawa IesadaTokugawa IesadaTokugawa Iesada Tokugawa Iesada Tokugawa Iesada (徳川 家定 (May 6, 1824 – August 14, 1858) was the 13th shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan who held office for only 5 years, from 1853 to 1858. He was physically weak and therefore unfit to be shogun in this period of great challenges...
, r. 1853–1858 - Tokugawa IemochiTokugawa Iemochiwas the 14th shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, who held office 1858 to 1866. During his reign there was much internal turmoil as a result of Japan's first major contact with the United States, which occurred under Commodore Perry in 1853 and 1854, and of the subsequent "re-opening" of...
, r. 1858–1866 - Tokugawa YoshinobuTokugawa Yoshinobuwas the 15th and last shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful...
, r. 1866–1867
Over the course of the Edo period, influential relatives of the shogun included:
- Tokugawa MitsukuniTokugawa Mitsukunior was a prominent daimyo who was known for his influence in the politics of the early Edo period. He was the third son of Tokugawa Yorifusa and succeeded him, becoming the second daimyo of the Mito domain....
of the Mito domainMito Domainwas a prominent feudal domain in Japan during the Edo period. Its capital was the city of Mito, and it covered much of present-day Ibaraki Prefecture. Beginning with the appointment of Tokugawa Yorifusa by his father, Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, in 1608, the Mito branch of the Tokugawa clan... - Tokugawa NariakiTokugawa NariakiTokugawa Nariaki was a prominent Japanese daimyo who ruled the Mito domain and contributed to the rise of nationalism and the Meiji restoration.- Clan leader :...
of the Mito domainMito Domainwas a prominent feudal domain in Japan during the Edo period. Its capital was the city of Mito, and it covered much of present-day Ibaraki Prefecture. Beginning with the appointment of Tokugawa Yorifusa by his father, Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, in 1608, the Mito branch of the Tokugawa clan... - Tokugawa Mochiharu of the HitotsubashiGosankyoThe ' were three branches of the Tokugawa clan of Japan. They were descended from the eighth of the fifteen Tokugawa shoguns, Yoshimune . Yoshimune established the Gosankyo to augment the Gosanke, the heads of the powerful han of Owari, Kishū, and Mito...
branch - Tokugawa MunetakeTokugawa Munetakewas a Japanese samurai of the mid-Edo period, also known as Tayasu Munetake . The first head of the Tayasu branch of the Tokugawa clan, he held daimyo-level income, but was not a daimyo himself, instead having his residence inside the Tayasu gate of Edo Castle.The 2nd son of the 8th shogun...
of the TayasuGosankyoThe ' were three branches of the Tokugawa clan of Japan. They were descended from the eighth of the fifteen Tokugawa shoguns, Yoshimune . Yoshimune established the Gosankyo to augment the Gosanke, the heads of the powerful han of Owari, Kishū, and Mito...
branch. - Matsudaira KatamoriMatsudaira Katamoriwas a samurai who lived in the last days of the Edo period and the early to mid Meiji period. He was the 9th daimyo of the Aizu han and the Military Commissioner of Kyoto during the Bakumatsu period. During the Boshin War, Katamori and the Aizu han fought against the Meiji Government armies, but...
of the AizuAizuis an area comprising the westernmost third of Fukushima Prefecture in Japan. The principal city of the area is Aizuwakamatsu.During the Edo period, Aizu was a feudal domain known as and part of Mutsu Province.-History:...
branch. - Matsudaira SadanobuMatsudaira SadanobuJapanese daimyo of the mid-Edo period, famous for his financial reforms which saved the Shirakawa Domain, and the similar reforms he undertook during his tenure as chief senior councilor of the Tokugawa Shogunate, from 1787 to 1793....
, born into the TayasuGosankyoThe ' were three branches of the Tokugawa clan of Japan. They were descended from the eighth of the fifteen Tokugawa shoguns, Yoshimune . Yoshimune established the Gosankyo to augment the Gosanke, the heads of the powerful han of Owari, Kishū, and Mito...
branch, adopted into the Hisamatsu-Matsudaira of Shirakawa.
See also
- ShogunShogunA was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...
- Edo periodEdo periodThe , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
- Keian uprisingKeian uprisingThe was a failed coup d'etat attempt carried out against the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan in 1651, by a number of ronin. Though it failed, the event is historically significant as an indication of a wider problem of disgruntled ronin throughout the country at the time...
- Bakumatsu (Late Tokugawa shogunate)
- Meiji RestorationMeiji RestorationThe , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...
- Tokugawa TsunenariTokugawa TsunenariPresent head of the main Tokugawa house. His great-grandfather by his birth family was the famed Matsudaira Katamori of Aizu...
Further reading
- Bolitho, HaroldHarold BolithoHarold Bolitho was an Australian academic, historian, author and professor emeritus in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University The name Bolitho is of Cornish origin.-Career:...
. (1974). Treasures Among Men: The Fudai Daimyo in Tokugawa Japan. New Haven: Yale University Press. 10-ISBN 0-300-01655-7/13-ISBN 978-0-300-01655-0; OCLC 185685588 - Totman, Conrad. The Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1862-1868. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1980.
- Totman, Conrad. Politics in the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1600-1843. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967.
- Waswo, Ann Modern Japanese Society 1868-1994
- The Center for East Asian Cultural Studies Meiji Japan Through Contemporary Sources, Volume Two 1844-1882
External links
- Japan
- Tokugawa Political System
- SengokuDaimyo.com The website of Samurai Author and Historian Anthony J. BryantAnthony J. Bryant-Biography:Anthony J. Bryant is the author of four books for Osprey Military Publishing on samurai history. He is an historian of Japan specializing in Kamakura, Muromachi, and Momoyama period warrior culture. His areas of interest also include Heian-period court structure and society and Japanese...
- Anthony J. Bryant is the author of Sekigahara 1600: The Final Struggle for Power, Praeger Publishers;(September, 2005)