Tokugawa shogunate: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The Tokugawa shogunate or Tokugawa bakufu (徳川幕府) (also known as the Edo bakufu) was a feudal military dictatorship of Japan established in 1603 by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family until 1868. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city of Edo, now Tokyo. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo castle until the Meiji Restoration.

Following the Sengoku Period of "warring states", central government had been largely re-established by Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi 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. His descendants were to hold the position, and the central authority that came with it, until the 19th century.

The Tokugawa period, unlike the shogunates before it, was based on the strict class hierarchy originally established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The warrior-caste of samurai were at the top, followed by farmers, artisans, and traders. Ironically, the very strictness of the caste system was to undermine these classes in the long run. Taxes on the peasantry were set to 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 confrontations between noble but impoverished samurai and well-to-do peasants.

Toward the end of the 19th century, an alliance of several of the more powerful daimyo 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" ('Taisei Houkan') of imperial rule.

Seclusion and Social Control

Like Hideyoshi, Ieyasu encouraged foreign trade but also was suspicious of outsiders. He wanted to make Edo a major port, but once he learned that the Europeans favored ports in Kyushu and that China had rejected his plans for official trade, he moved to control existing trade and allowed only certain ports to handle specific kinds of commodities.

The "Christian problem" was, in effect, a problem controlling both the Christian daimyo in Kyushu and trade with the Europeans. By 1612 the shogun's retainers and residents of Tokugawa lands had been ordered to foreswear Christianity. More restrictions came in 1616 (the restriction of foreign trade to Nagasaki and Hirado, an island northwest of Kyushu), 1622 (the execution of 120 missionaries and converts), 1624 (the expulsion of the Spanish), and 1629 (the execution of thousands of Christians). Finally, in 1635 an edict prohibited any Japanese from traveling outside Japan or, if someone left, from ever returning. In 1636 the Portuguese were restricted to Deshima, a man-made islet--and thus, not true Japanese soil--in Nagasaki's harbor.

The Shimabara Rebellion of 1637-38, in which discontented Christian samurai and peasants rebelled against the bakufu-- and Edo called in Dutch ships to bombard the rebel stronghold-- marked the end of the Christian movement. Soon thereafter, the Portuguese were permanently expelled, members of the Portuguese diplomatic mission were executed, all subjects were ordered to register at a Buddhist or Shinto temple, and the Dutch and Chinese were restricted, respectively, to Deshima and to a special quarter in Nagasaki. Besides small trade of some outer daimyo with Korea and the Ryukyu Islands, to the southwest of Japan's main islands, by 1641 foreign contacts were limited to Nagasaki.

Japanese society of the Tokugawa period was influenced by Confucian principles of social order. At the top of the hierarchy, but removed from political power, were the imperial court families at Kyoto. The real political power holders were the samurai, followed by the rest of society. In descending hierarchical order, they consisted of farmers, who were organized into villages, artisans, and merchants. Urban dwellers, often well-to-do merchants, were known as chonin (townspeople) and were confined to special districts. The individual had no legal rights in Tokugawa Japan. The family was the smallest legal entity, and the maintenance of family status and privileges was of great importance at all levels of society.

Shogunate and domain system (bakuhan taisei, 幕藩体制) is the political and feudal system in the Edo period of Japan.

The system is based on feudal where vassals hold inherited lands and provide military services, homage to the lords. However, the system also resembles the bureaucratic and modern politics as well, an aspect that is not seen in the European feudalism.

Unlike feudal systems found in the medieval history of Europe, in the system, the two level of governments exist, the shogunate in Edo and provincial domains throughout Japan coexist; the domains are given certain sovereignty and are allowed an independent administration in the fief in exchange of loyalty towards the Shogun while the shogunate is responsible for foreign relationships and the nation security. The shogunate and domains are both daimyo, translated as feudal lords with its own bureaucracy, policies and territory. The shogunate is the foremost, strongest and largest among them, thus, it is primarily responsible for its territory, the fief of the Tokugawa house just like other domains. Tax are collected and economy was conducted in terms of each domain. Besides the duty as the daimyo, the shogunate is also concerted with controlling the social classes, maintaining the order if the disorder is beyond the power of the domain and making policies across Japan.

Despite the system, the emperor in Kyoto is still a legitimate ruler of Japan. The administration (taisei, 体制) of Japan is the task given from the Imperial Court in Kyoto to the Tokugawa family, which is returned to the court in the Meiji restoration.

The foreign affairs and trade was monopolized by the shogunate--the trade yielded a huge profit to the shogunate. Foreign trades are also permitted to Satuma domain and Tsushima domain.

The shogunate has a power to discard, split and transform domains--those are essential tools to control domains. The Sankin-kotai or the alternative residence in Edo required domains to have hostages such as heirs and wives resident in Edo and visit the Edo each alternative year, which imposed a huge expenditure to the domains.

1. Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) (r. 1603-1605)
2. Tokugawa Hidetada (1579-1632) (r. 1605-1623)
3. Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604-1651) (r. 1623-1651)
4. Tokugawa Ietsuna (1641-1680) (r. 1651-1680)
5. Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646-1709) (r. 1680-1709)
6. Tokugawa Ienobu (1662-1712) (r. 1709-1712)
7. Tokugawa Ietsugu (1709-1716) (r. 1713-1716)
8. Tokugawa Yoshimune (1684-1751) (r. 1716-1745)
9. Tokugawa Ieshige (1711-1761) (r. 1745-1760)
10. Tokugawa Ieharu (1737-1786) (r. 1760-1786)
11. Tokugawa Ienari (1773-1841) (r. 1787-1837)
12. Tokugawa Ieyoshi (1793-1853) (r. 1837-1853)
13. Tokugawa Iesada (1824-1858) (r. 1853-1858)
14. Tokugawa Iemochi (1846-1866) (r. 1858-1866)
15. Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1837-1913) (r. 1867-1868)

Other influential figures in the shogunate include:

• Tokugawa Mitsukuni - Mito domain
• Tokugawa Nariaki - Mito domain

See also: shogun -- bakufu -- Cloistered rule -- History of Japan -- Lists of incumbents

• This article incorporates public domain text from the Library of Congress Country Studies.

- Japan

• http://hkuhist2.hku.hk/nakasendo/tokupols.htm