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Units/Unit 2/Tokugawa Japan to 1800.html

2: Intellectual Change from the 15th to 17th Century

The Rise of Tokugawa Japan

The Rise of Tokugawa Japan

When we first meet Japan, they are in what we call the Sengoku Period, also known as the Warring States Era.  This was really the last phase of Japan's medieval history, which saw internal wars and anarchy disrupt all strata of society. While there was an emperor of Japan, military leaders ruled the land while the emperor and his court remained in place but held no power, because political power had devolved from court nobles to warrior families. These supreme military leaders who ruled Japan were called shōguns, and their periods of rule shōgunates.  By the 1500s, a class of territorial military lords, or daimyō, gained power within the shōgunates.  Subordinate to the shōgun and nominally to the Emperor, the daimyō were powerful feudal lords who ruled vast hereditary land holdings. In order to maintain their positions of authority, daimyō often hired samurai to guard their land. Samurai, who were the military elite of medieval and early-modern Japan, were trained as officers in military tactics and strategy. While the samurai numbered less than 10% of then Japan's population at the time, their teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in many Japanese martial art practices. It was during this early period of Japanese history that samurai values of bushidō – a code of moral principles such as duty, loyalty, self-sacrifice, and honor until death – became central to Japanese cultural tradition over the centuries. 

During the Ashikaga Shōgunate (1338-1573) shōguns gradually lost influence and control over the daimyo, who drew the region into a series of civil wars which became characteristic of politics in Japan between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries. The Ōnin War (1467–1477), a conflict rooted in economic distress and brought on by a dispute over shogunal succession, is generally regarded as the onset of the Sengoku period. Fighting in and around Kyoto lasted for nearly 11 years, leaving the city almost completely destroyed. The conflict in Kyoto then spread to outlying provinces.  The period culminated with a series of three warlords, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who are credited with the unification of Japan under one Shōgun. All three were born within eight years of each other (1534 to 1542), started their careers as samurai and finished as statesmen. It was the efforts of these three military leaders who used warfare to bring an end to the Sengoku period in order to establish eventual unity and internal peace.

ODA NOBUNAGA

The first of these men was Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582), a powerful daimyō who came from a minor warrior household, but his military prowess and his leadership abilities quickly placed him into a prominent position within the ongoing civil wars between the daimyō.  Nobunaga was daring and ruthless when it came to warfare, unafraid to launch a surprise attack when his forces were outnumbered ten to one, and anyone who resisted him paid a severe price.  Thousands of monks and villagers attached to the Buddhist monastery at Mount Hiei were slaughtered when they stood up to Nobunaga, an action that likely helped dissuade many of the weaker daimyō from resisting him. He also made extensive use of firearms, which had been introduced into Japan by the Portuguese in the 1540s. In 1573, Nobunaga deposed of the last of the Ashikaga shōguns who, by this point, held no real power anyway, and most of central Japan was under his control by 1580. His reign was noted for innovative military tactics, strides in civil administration, free trade, and encouraging the start of the Momoyama historical art period. Additionally, Nobunaga was very interested in European culture, which was still very new to Japan, and he was an avid collector of Western art. He also became the patron of Jesuit missionaries in Japan, even going so far as to support the establishment of the first Christian church in Kyoto in 1576, although he himself never converted to Christianity. In 1582, Nobunaga was killed by one of his own generals who turned against him, burning down the Kyoto temple where Nobunaga had taken refuge.  While some historians argue that Nobunaga died in the fire, others assert that he decided to commit seppuku, or suicide, in one of the inner rooms of the temple.

TOYOTOMI HIDEYOSHI

We don't know much about Hideyoshi's life before the Sengoku Period, but according to tradition, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was born in a village called Nakamura in Owari province, the son of a peasant and foot-soldier. Hideyoshi's childhood name is recorded as Hiyoshimaru, or 'bounty of the sun,' quite possibly a later embellishment contrived to give substance to a claim of divine inspiration Hideyoshi made regarding his birth. Histories of his life describe a boyhood spent traveling and searching for adventure before working as a page to the daimyō of the Sugura Province and finally enlisting as a foot soldier under Oda Nobunaga. He soon advanced to samurai and eventually general, and accompanied Nobunaga in several military campaigns. After Nobunaga's death in 1582, it appeared as if the movement to unite Japan would fail, but Hideyoshi moved against those who had betrayed Nobunaga and continued the struggle against the daimyos who had not submitted yet.  Within a year, he had consolidated his own power, dealt with most of the dissenters, and gained controlled thirty provinces.  By 1590, he was in total control of Japan, succeeding in unifying the warring states, in a period of rule that is often called the Momoyama Period after his castle in Osaka. During his rule, Hideyoshi changed Japanese society in many ways. These include the imposition of a rigid class structure, a country-wide census and registry, restrictions on travel, and surveys of land and production. He banned slavery, but forms of contract, prison, and indentured labor persisted throughout his reign. Finally, Hideyoshi continued Nobunaga's focus on art by patronizing acclaimed masters and spending lavish sums on social events.  His interest in the traditional tea ceremony rose among the ruling class and eventually spread to the warrior class. Hideyoshi is most known for his efforts at expanding Japan's borders.  Adopting Oda Nobunaga's dream of a Japanese conquest of China, Hideyoshi too believed that he could one day rule China and India, ordered two reckless and unsuccessful attacks on Korea involving 150,000 soldiers each.  He died in 1598 while the second attack was still in progress.

TOKUGAWA IEYASU

Before his death, Hideyoshi had tried to establish a system that secured the succession of his son, but his efforts failed and no successor was named. As a result, a brief power struggle ensued between Hideyoshi's chief vassals after his death, and a man by the name of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) emerged triumphantly after the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600.  As leader of Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu quickly ended Japanese involvement in foreign countries and began to secure his power at home.  In 1603, he received the title of Shōgun from the Emperor, which officially began the centuries of rule by the Tokugawa Dynasty.  He was already sixty years old at this point and only ruled for two years before he abdicated in 1605 to his son who became Shōgun in his place.  But in those two years, he succeeded in moving the capital to Edo, which would later become Tokyo, and he increased the amount of territory over which he had direct control.  He did this by breaking up or reducing the size of estates held by the daimyos.  His efforts finally brought peace to Japan, though political unity was certainly not complete. The Tokugawa Shōgunate effectively ruled Japan from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.  Tokugawa Ieyasu's successors maintained their support by granting loyal regional lords rice lands close to the capital, while those lords who were not supporters of the Tokugawa were given undeveloped lands at the northern and southern extremes of the islands. This decentralized system of regional lords meant that Japan developed well-spaced urban centers in all regions, while the Shōgun’s requirement that the regional lords visit the capital frequently stimulated the development of the transportation infrastructure and the development of commerce, particularly the development of wholesale rice exchanges. Under Tokugawa rule, the samurai became bureaucrats and consumers of luxury goods, spurring the development of an increasingly independent merchant class whose most successful families cultivated alliances with regional lords and with the Shōgun himself. By the end of the 1700s, the wealthy industrial families of Japan were politically influential and held the key to modernization and the development of heavy industry. 

Regardless of the political title of the Emperor, the Shōguns of the Tokugawa family controlled Japan administratively, politically, and militarily.  Although the Emperor officially appointed the Shōgun, he had virtually no say in state affairs. Instead, the shōgunate appointed a liaison to deal with the Emperor, his court, and Japanese nobility. Towards the end of the Tokugawa Shōgunate, however, after centuries of the Emperor having very little say in state affairs and being secluded in his Kyoto palace, the reigning Shōgun, Tokugawa Iemochi, married the Emperor's sister and the Imperial Court in Kyoto began to enjoy increased political influence. As a result, the Emperor would occasionally be consulted on various policies and the Shōgun even made a visit to Kyoto to visit the Emperor. Still, it was the Tokugawa family who maintained primary control of the country.

INCREASED EUROPEAN PRESENCE IN JAPAN

The Jesuit missionary to Japan, Francis Xavier

The greatest challenge for the Tokugawa rulers was dealing with the increasing European presence in Japan.  The Portuguese had first landed in Japan in 1543, when they were shipwrecked onto a southern island.  From that time, more and more Europeans came to the country's shores, first merchants and then missionaries.  The missionary effort was led initially by the Jesuit Francis Xavier.  It appeared at first as if the missionary effort would succeed. Nobunaga's interest in western culture extended to Christianity, and he protected the missionaries.  The Jesuits hoped that when/if he converted, the entire country would become Christian. Nobunaga’s death signaled the end of this hope, as Nobunaga's successors were much less enthusiastic toward the missionaries. During his rule, in 1597, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had twenty-six Christians publicly crucified in Nagasaki as an example to Japanese who wanted to convert to Christianity. These Christians became known as the Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan, and included five European and one Mexican Franciscan missionaries, three Japanese Jesuits, and seventeen Japanese laymen--three of whom were young boys. 

There was some success reported by missionaries to Japan, who reported hundreds of thousands of converts by the 1580s, most of whom were farmers from the southern and eastern regions of Japan.  Problems increasingly arose in these regions as more Japanese converted, because the converts refused to obey their daimyō the daimyōs’ requests were in conflict with their new Christian beliefs.  Consequently, Tokugawa rulers increasingly believed Christianity to be a serious threat to the traditional order of the country.  At the same time, non-Christian Japanese began to fear that the Europeans would add military ventures to their commercial and missionary activities, as was the case in India and China.  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 Tokugawa Shōgunate and influenced the implementation of laws that banned the practice of Christianity. His successors followed suit, compounding upon Ieyasu's laws, and historians often link these increased bans with the creation of the Sakoku Period.  Sakoku, in Japanese, literally means "chained country."

SAKOKU 

Immediately preceding this period, foreign affairs and trade were monopolized by the Tokugawa Shōgunate, which yielded a huge profit. Foreign trade was also permitted to the Satsuma and Tshushima domains. Rice was the main trading product of Japan during this time, first with the Portuguese and then eventually with the Dutch, English, and Spanish. From 1603 onward, Japan participated actively in foreign trade and by 1615, an embassy and trade mission under Hasekura Tsunenaga was sent across the Pacific to the New World colony of New Spain in the Americas. This period was also noted for a large number of foreign traders and pirates who were resident in Japan and active in Japanese waters. With increased concerns of foreign influence and Christian missionaries, the Shōgunate influenced the passage of the Sakoku Edict in 1635, an isolationist foreign policy of self-imposed isolation. Under the Sakoku Edict's guidelines, all Japanese were to be kept within Japan’s own boundaries with strict rules in place preventing them from leaving the country. Catholicism was strictly forbidden, as were missionaries. Trade restrictions and strict limitations on goods were set to limit the ports open to trade, and the merchants who would be allowed to engage in trade. Relations with the Portuguese were cut off entirely, while Dutch trade was restricted to Nagasaki ports. The Sokoku Edict also allowed inbound ships were only allowed from China and Korea. All Japanese ships were forbidden to sail overseas, and by 1649, the borders of Japan were fully closed.  At this point, the Shōgun made it illegal for a foreigner to enter Japan or for a Japanese citizen to leave under penalty of death, hoping to end the spread of foreign influence.  However, since the central power ruling Japan did not have total control, some trading continued on the outer edges of Japan.

Consequently, Tokugawa Japan went into decline in the seventeenth century largely due to a poor economy. Population growth in central Japan put a strain on the agricultural economy, but in the outer provinces, economic growth outstripped population growth. The Tokugawa system was also undermined by changes in rice prices and in interest rates, which combined to make both the samurai and the regional lords dependent on the willingness of the merchants to give them credit. The decentralized political system made it difficult for the Shōgunate to regulate merchant activities. In fact, this system stimulated commerce so that from 1600 to 1800 the economy grew faster than the population and merchants developed relative freedom, influence, and their own vibrant culture.

While Japan was largely peaceful during the Sakoku Period, the samurai were transformed from warrior elites into bureaucrats.  The economy was based on rice, which was used to pay samurai, and rice prices began to soar out of control.  Since part of the economic problems facing Japan was the low status of merchants within society, a reflection on the Confucian ideals followed in Japan, it was really the government which held Japan back due to its refusal to break with tradition while, ironically, creating policies designed to prepare the way for innovation within the country.  Unfortunately, seclusion prevented the government from making use of these opportunities and the country continued to decline into the nineteenth century.  Despite these problems, the Tokugawa Dynasty remained in control of Japan until 1867.  Sakoku remained effective until 1853 when an American expedition led by Commodore Matthew Perry opened Japan to Western trade.  We will discuss that in greater depth in Unit 6.