The Tokugawa and the Emergence of Modern Japan (1600-1868) Teacher Resource Guide East Asia National Resource Center By Kelly Hammond
The Tokugawa The Tokugawa? The Tokugawa Regime? The Tokugawa Period? The Tokugawa Polity? The Tokugawa Bakufu? The Tokugawa Shogunate? The Edo period? With all these names floating around, it is no wonder people get confused about the period in Japanese history that scholars usually describe as lasting from 1600 to 1868. “Tokugawa” is the clan name of the family who managed to bring an end to a period marked by continuous war and destruction that plagued the Japanese archipelago for centuries. The Tokugawa family began the process of unifying Japan into the modern polity that we imagine it to be today. Following the disunity and chaos of the Warring States Period, Oda Nobunagu reestablished a centralized government, but it was only after a decisive battle in 1600 that the authority of the state fell to Tokugawa Ieyasu (“EEeh-ya-su”). Tokugawa Ieyasu inherited and expanded the political structures that Oda Nobunagu had put into place. This event marks the beginning of the Tokugawa period and for the next 268 years a military-like government would rule Japan with a Tokugawa clan member at its head. There were many changes to Japanese society during the Tokugawa period. The lasting peace meant that the population grew, urbanization increased, and infrastructure (e.g. roads and canals) and communications improved. The period was also accompanied by contentious
relationships with Qing China and Western missionaries, indicating that Japan constantly re-imagined its position in the emerging global order of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Before taking a closer look at some of these changes to Japanese society, a few more terms need to be explained and defined.
Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa.
Edo and Tokugawa? Are They the Same? Sometimes the Tokugawa period is referred to as the “Edo period.” Edo (江戸), which literally means “entrance to the bay” or “estuary,” is the old name for Tokyo. The Tokugawa clan established their government—or the bakufu—in Edo. Although Kyoto remained the official
capital, Edo became the de facto capital of Tokugawa Japan and the center of political power. Before this, Edo had been a small village.
“generalissimo.” The shōgun was usually a hereditary military leader of Japan throughout the early modern period. When Portuguese explorers arrived in Japan, they described the relationship between the emperor and the shōgun like the one between the Roman Catholic Pope (symbolic but little practical political power) and a European King.
View of Edo Castle. Source: Castles of Japan
During the Tokugawa period, however, the city grew to have about 1,000,000 inhabitants, rivaled only by Beijing for the largest city in the world at the time. In 1868, Edo was renamed Tokyo, which means “Eastern capital” (in relation to Kyoto) and the emperor moved from Kyoto to take up residence in Edo castle. This is all to say that sometimes people refer to the Tokugawa Period as the Edo Period because it was during this time that Edo rose to prominence as the center of politics and social life in Japan. Tokyo might not have become the global city that it is today if the Tokugawa had not established their de facto capital there in 1600.
Shogun? Bakufu? Daimyō? Samurai? Translated into English, shōgun (将軍) means “military commander” or
Map of regional breakdown of daimyo. Source: Giant ITP
The shōgun’s office or their administration is known as the bakufu (幕府), which literally means "tent office." Sometimes the bakufu is also called the “Shogunate” in English. The tent originally symbolized that the shōgun was a field commander who often moved locations, thus indicating that the position of office is temporary. The shōgun’s officials were as a collective the bakufu, and were those who carried out the actual duties of administration while the imperial court retained only nominal authority. During the Tokugawa Period, the effective power of government rested with the Tokugawa shōgun, not with the emperor who stayed in Kyoto, even though the shōgun gained
his legitimacy by earning the emperor’s official recognition. The shōgun controlled foreign policy, the military, and the feudal lords—or the daimyō. Daimyō is a generic term referring to powerful hereditary lords who ruled large territories and clans in early modern Japan. In the term “daimyo,” “dai (大)” literally means “large” and the “myō” stands for myōden (名田), meaning “private land.” The daimyō of early modern Japan are often compared to powerful feudal lords who ruled kingdoms in early modern Europe. Like feudal lords, the daimyō were subordinate only to the shōgun and the emperor.
Japanese Samurai in their traditional outfit. Source: Journey to Orthodoxy
After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu was recognized as shōgun. He then reorganized roughly 200 daimyō based on their rice production output and whether or not they had supported the Tokugawa clan in their rise to power. The Shogunate was never static and power shifted constantly throughout the Tokugawa period; each shōgun encountered competition and challenges
to his authority. Daimyō often hired samurai to guard their land and they paid them in land or food. In contrast with European feudal knights, samurai were not landowners but the military nobility of early modern Japan. Samurai came to mean “someone who serves the nobility.” During the Tokugawa period, the lasting peace meant that samurai served less as warriors but fulfilled more bureaucratic and administrative roles.
The Tokugawa Bakufu and the Policy of Alternate Attendance Sankin-kōtai, or the policy of “alternate attendance,” was a system established by the Tokugawa that had all the daimyō spend every other year at the Tokugawa court in Edo and leave their family members as “hostages” when they returned to their lands. These “hostages” were seen as a way of ensuring that the daimyō would not rise in rebellion or do anything against the wishes of the Shogun. However, in reality, the hostages led very normal and pleasant lives in the capital. The daimyō of course, did not travel alone; they brought large retinues numbering in the hundreds and had to maintain permanent staff in Edo as well as in their homelands. Because the men brought very few women with them to Edo (apart from their wives and daughters, who were left as hostages), the gender ratio in the capital was extremely skewed, with almost two men for every woman. This, in turn,
led to the establishment of brothels and the expansion of courtesan culture. The policy of Sankin-kōtai had numerous other important impacts on Japanese society; it increased the political control of the Tokugawa shōgun over the daimyō as they were forced to spend time away from their lands and spend great deals of their money to maintain a home at their castle and in the capital; it increased the need for roads and infrastructure between Edo and the daimyō’s lands; and it also meant that Edo would develop as a cultural center around the many lords and their families who now had to spend time in the capital and had large incomes to spend on entertainment, fashion, and food.
influenced the samurai culture. Zen meditation became an important teaching, while Confucianism played an important role in samurai philosophy by stressing the importance of the lord-retainer relationship, or the loyalty that a samurai was required to show his feudal lord.
Samurai and the Story of the Forty-Seven Ronin Samurai were the military nobility of early modern Japan. By the end of the twelfth century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi, a word that was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class. The idea of bushi originates from the samurai moral code, stressing frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and honour. The samurai followed a set of rules that came to be known as bushidō—or the way of bushi. While samurai numbered less than 10 percent of Japan's population in the early modern era, samurai teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in modern Japanese martial arts. The philosophies of Buddhism and Zen, and to a lesser extent Confucianism and Shinto,
The Tokugawa clan seal. Source: Lemon-s
By the nineteenth century, there was a paradoxical shift in the samurai culture; it became more codified as an elite social class, but also, their role as violent warriors was cut-back by the Shogun who was nervous about rebellion. When the Tokugawa Bakufu forced the daimyō to reduce the size of their armies, ronin (浪人)—or master-less samurai—became a large problem in Japanese society. One of the most famous legends in Japan is the story of the Forty-Seven Ronin, which took place in the eighteenth century Japan. The story tells of a group of ronin who sought revenge for their lord after he was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide).
Upon getting their revenge, the ronin were captured and obliged to commit seppuku. This true story gained a sort of mythical quality within Japanese culture and the Forty-Seven Ronin came to embody all the virtues of a samurai: loyalty, sacrifice, and honor.
Society and Culture in Tokugawa Japan During the Tokugawa period, Japan experienced a new era of prosperity and growth. The end of war period and the establishment of the Tokugawa led to quick expansion of the population, which reached about 17 million people by 1650. This growth was also facilitated by less frequent epidemics and the introduction of new, stronger rice strains. As the population grew and economy improved, commercial activities flourished, connecting regions that had previously been politically divided. This growth in population also led to the concentration of large numbers of people in urban areas, which in turn led to the growth of cities. Before, daimyĹ? had lived in walled castles, but wary of rebellion, Tokugawa Ieyasu had redesigned castles to have smaller walls and to be more open, allowing more fluid flow of traffic and to be less defensive structures. In tandem with the increased agricultural output owing to new types of grains, changes in both urban and rural Japan contributed substantially to the process of building a strong state and an industrial economy in the nineteenth century.
Illustration of Edo. Source: Museum of the City
In a way, then, the changes that happened in Japanese society throughout the Tokugawa period can be understood as developments that led up to the Meiji Restoration in 1868 rather than seeing the Meiji Restoration as a rupture or a break with the past (the Meiji Restoration will be discussed in the next module).
Religion, Christianity, and the Tokugawa Shogunate Most Japanese people do not exclusively identify themselves as adherents of a single religion. Rather, they incorporate elements of various religions in a syncretic fashion known as Shinbutsu shugou or the amalgamation of Shinto kamis and Buddhism. Shinto and Japanese Buddhism are therefore best understood not as completely separate and competing faiths, but as a multi-faceted and complex religious system. This comprehensive approach to religion suggests that Japanese were often open and receptive to new religious ideas, including Christianity. When Christian missionaries from the West first arrived in Japan, the Japanese,
compared to those in other parts of Asia, were more open to the Christian teachings. However, this did not last long as the missionaries quickly began to manoeuvre politically, much to the chagrin of the Tokugawa shogun. After a few failed attempts at banning Christianity, the Tokugawa Shogunate crucified twenty-six Christians—some of them Europeans and some Japanese—and finally managed to expel all the Western missionaries and force the remaining Japanese Christians underground. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Japan was producing about one-third of the world’s silver. Most of it was heading to China in exchange for luxury goods like silk and fine teas, but when Europeans got wind of the fact that there were large silver mines in Japan, they began to reach out. In 1543, two Portuguese ships arrived in Japan from Macao, establishing trade relations with the local daimyō and introducing the locals to muskets. In the endemic warfare of the time period, daimyō quickly realized the value of these muskets and placed large orders for them. Following right behind the merchants were the missionaries, who at first received a relatively free reign and began converting large numbers of Japanese to Christianity. Initially, they were tolerated but soon after they were expelled. It is likely that some of the daimyō had become allied with some powerful Jesuits and converted to Christianity, so the shogun saw Christianity as a threat to his political order, not as some sort socio-religious
problem. In any case, the expulsion of the Christians had a lasting impact not only on the development of Japan as a nation, but also on the way that Europeans wrote about Japan. Until recently, this event was seen as a “rejection” of the West and as the “closing” of Japanese society to the world during the Tokugawa and that society was stagnant and non-changing.
Commodore Matthew Perry and the Arrival of the “Black Ships”
Commodore Matthew C. Perry. Source: U.S. Navy Museum
In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Edo Bay with a number of war ships and demanded that the Tokugawa open trading ports to the Americans. He left the Tokugawa with an ultimatum; he would return in one year with more ships
and guns, and if the Japanese did not concede to his demands, he would attack. The Tokugawa shogun, aware of the humiliation that the Chinese had suffered in the Opium Wars with the British and the subsequent treaties they had been forced to sign, conceded to Perry’s demands. In the past, this event was explained by historians as “the opening” of Japan after centuries of isolation and stagnation. However, historians now argue the idea that Tokugawa Japan was a “closed” society is not a legitimate claim and is rather a vestige of an out-dated way of writing and thinking about history.
Japanese depiction of Perry. Source: Brian Hoffert
Although the Tokugawa did take measures to expel Europeans from Japan (apart from a few Dutch) and completely quell any sort of Christian influence, the idea that they were completely shut off to the outside world is out-dated, and frankly, wrong. Through their connections with the Dutch and other East Asian entities, like Siam, China, and Korea, the Tokugawa Shogunate had a good understanding of the changes going on
around them and the events that were shaping the early modern world.
Arrival of the West. Source: Library of Congress
In 1854, the Treaty of Peace and Amity allowed the United States to begin trading with Japan. Five years later, another act was forced on the Japanese government to open even more ports for trade with the United States. While there were antiWestern feelings among the Japanese population, many people realized the benefits of Western sciences and advanced military technology. This led to division within the country as different groups vied to have their viewpoints heard about how to approach modernization. In an attempt to keep up with Western weapons and defense, a naval training academy was established in Nagasaki in 1855 under the leadership of Dutch instructors. The following year, a military school that embraced Western ideas was launched in Edo. By 1868, changes that had been set in motion throughout the Tokugawa—and perhaps expedited by Perry’s arrival in Edo—led to the Meiji Restoration and the effective end of the Tokugawa Shogunate. We will explore these new developments in the next module.
Useful Websites Accompaniment website for most popular college level textbook for teaching introductory courses for Modern Japan http://www.oup.com/us/companion.websites /9780195339222/ Narrative of the history of the Tokugawa period from Asian History, a reliable source for information about Asia on the Internet: http://asianhistory.about.com/od/japan/p/H istory-Tokugawa-Shogunate-Japan.htm A lesson about the different Shoguns and periods in the Tokugawa presented by a PhD student in Japanese history http://sakurazen.blogspot.com/2011/01/lesson-in-historyshogunates-and.html A link to images from the Tokugawa period with good descriptions of the images, their sources and the context surrounding them http://www.artelino.com/articles/tokugawa_ bakufu.asp List of all the Tokugawa Shoguns and their concubines and wives. http://www.lesleydowner.com/journalism/se crets-of-the-shoguns-harem/the-tokugawashoguns/ Short documentary about the Tokugawa Period http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjovMjP U9ug Five-part series about the Tokugawa Period http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQlxcz9 U2x0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3V5gVL PEvI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOGyzG WW7j4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRrDg0u DJWQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vHvmA
VSyUI History of the Tokugawa (Edo) Period hosted by the Government of Japan http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2128.html Art from the Tokugawa (Edo) Period presented by the Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/edop/ hd_edop.htm Art from the Tokugawa (Edo) Period presented by the Honolulu Museum of Fine Art http://honolulumuseum.org/art/exhibitions/ 11649edos_zagat_guide_hiroshiges_grand_series_ famous_tea_houses Anatomical and Scientific Illustrations from the Tokugawa Period showing medical methods before and after the arrival of Europeans http://pasolininuc.blogspot.com/2013/02/an atomical-illustrations-from-edo.html Great Maps of Japan—searchable and great ability to zoom http://www.bigmapblog.com/2012/japanesemap-of-tokyo-bay-1852/ Blog about women and material culture in late Tokugawa Japan http://www.tokyoedoradio.org/Project/Links /edoCombs/edoCombs.html Explaination and description of state and society in the Edo Period http://www.grips.ac.jp/teacher/oono/hp/lect ure_J/lec02.htm Information about individual samurai and samurai culture in general http://www.samurai-archives.com/edo.html Interesting and thoughtful module hosted by the Asian education program at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco http://education.asianart.org/exploreresources/background-information/edoperiod-1615-1868-culture-and-lifestyle
Faculty posting about the decline of the Tokugawa http://bhoffert.faculty.noctrl.edu/HST263/15 .TokugawaDecline.html Naval Documents from the US Navy website of Commodore Perry’s visits to Edo http://www.history.navy.mil/library/special/ perry_openjapan1.htm
Suggestions for Further Reading Ambros, Barbara and Duncan Williams, eds. Local Religion in Tokugawa History. Nagoya: Nanzan Institute of Religion and Culture, 2001. Ambros, Barbara. Emplacing the Pigrimage: The Oyama Cult and Regional Religion in Early Modern Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008. Benedict, Ruth. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989. Berry, Mary Elizabeth. Japan in Print: Information and Nation in the Early Modern Period. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. Boxer, Charles. The Christian Century in Japan, 1549-1650. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967. Brown, Phillp C. Central Authority and Local Autonomy in the Formation of Early Modern Japan: The Case of Kaga Domain. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993. Davis, Julie Nelson. Utamoro and the Spectacle of Beauty. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007. Dower, John with Timothy S. George. Japanese History and Culture from Ancient to Modern Times: Seven Basic Bibliographies. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1995 (Second Edition). Farris, William Wayne. Japan’s Medieval Population: Famine, Fertility, and
Warfare in a Transformative Age. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2006 Ferejohn, John A. and Frances McCall Rosenbluth, eds. War and State Buildng in Medieval Japan. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010. Friday, Karl, ed. Japan Emerging: Premodern History to 1850. New York: Westview Press, 2012. Goodman, Grant. The Dutch Impact on Japan, 1640-1853. Leiden: Brill, 1967. Gordon, Andrew. A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009 (Second Edition). Gramlich-Oka, Bettina, and Gregory Smits, eds. Economic Thought in Early Modern Japan. Leiden: Brill, 2010. Guth, Christine. Art of Edo Japan: The Artist and the City, 1616-1868. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Hellyer, Robert. Defining Engagement: Japan and Global Contexts, 1640-1868. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009. Hurst, Cameron G. III. Armed Martial Arts of Japan. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. Jansen, Marius B. China and the Tokugawa World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992. Jansen, Marius B. The Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000. Katsu Kokichi. Masui’s Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1993. Maruyama Masao. Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974. McClain, James L. A Modern History: Japan. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2002.
McCLain, James L. and Osamu Wakita, eds. Osaka: The Merchants’ Capital of Early Modern Japan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999. Moran, J.F. The Japanese and the Jesuits: Alessandro Valignano in SixteenthCentury Japan. New York: Routledge, 1993. Nakane Chie and Oishi Shinzaburo, eds. Tokugawa Japan: The Social and Economic Antecedents of Modern Japan. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1990. Nosco, Peter, ed. Confucianism and Tokugawa Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984. Ooms, Herman. Tokugawa Village Practice: Class, Status, Power, Law. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Perez, Louis G. Daily Life in Early Modern Japan. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002. Ravina, Mark. Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999. Rubinger, Richard. Popular Literacy in Early Modern Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007. Ruch, Barbara, ed. Engendering Faith: Women and Buddhism in Premodern Japan. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002. Toby, Roland. State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984. Totman, Conrad. Politics in the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1600-1843. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967. Totman, Conrad. The Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1862-1868. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1980. Vaporis, Constantine N. Tour of Duty: Samurai, Military Service in Edo, and the Culture of Early Modern Japan.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2008. Whelan, Christal. The Beginning of Heaven and Earth: The Sacred Book of Japan’s Hidden Christians. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996.