Write a note on the Tokugawa rule in Japan.

 Following the Sengoku period (“Warring States period”), the central government had been largely re-established by Oda Nobunaga during the Azuchi-Momoyama period. After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, central authority fell to Tokugawa Ieyasu. Society in the Tokugawa period, unlike in previous shogunates, was supposedly based on the strict class hierarchy originally established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The daimyo (lords) were at the top, followed by the warrior-caste of samurai, with the farmers, artisans, and traders 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 rulers. Otherwise, the largely inflexible nature of this social stratification system unleashed disruptive forces over time. Taxes on the peasantry were set at fixed amounts that 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 larger rebellions. None, however, proved compelling enough to seriously challenge the established order until the arrival of foreign powers.  A 2017 study found that peasant rebellions and collective desertion (“flight”) lowered tax rates and inhibited state growth in the Tokugawa shogunate.

In the mid-19th century, an alliance of several of the more powerful daimyo, along with the titular Emperor, succeeded in overthrowing 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, leading to the “restoration” (ET , Osei fukko) of imperial rule. Not with standing its eventual overthrow in favor of the more modernized, less feudal form of governance of the Meiji Restoration, the Tokugawa shogunate oversaw the longest period of peace and stability in Japan’s history, lasting well over 260 years.

Shogunate and Domains 

The bakulian taisei was the feudal political system in the Edo period of Japan. Baku 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 shögun, who was responsible for foreign relations and national security. The shogun and lords were all daimyos: feudal lords witl own bureaucracies, policies, and territories.

The shogun also administered the most powerful lian, the hereditary fief of the House of Tokugawa. Each level of government administered its own system of taxation. The emperor, nominally a religious leader, held no real power, this was vested in the shögun. The shogunate had the power to discard, annex, and transform domains. The sankin-kotai system of alternative residence required each daimyo to reside in alternate years between the han and the court in Edo. During their absences from Edo, it was also required that they leave family as hostages until their return. The huge expenditure sankin-kõtai imposed on each han helped centralize aristocratic alliances and ensured loyalty to the shögun as each representative doubled as a potential hostage.

Shogun and Foreign

Trade Foreign affairs and trade were monopolized by the shogunate, yielding a huge profit. Foreign trade was also permitted to the Satsuma and the Tsushima domains. Rice was the main trading product of Japan during this time. Isolationism was the foreign policy of Japan and trade was strictly controlled. Merchants were outsiders to the social hierarchy of Japan and were thought to be greedy. 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 España (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 China, Korea, and the Netherlands.

Shogun and Christianity

Followers of Christianity first began appearing in Japan during the 16th century. Oda Nobunaga 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 Shõgun“), le influenced the implementation 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 law’s, or Sakoku, in the 1630s.

Rõjū and Wakadoshiyori 

Sakuradamon Gate of Edo Castle where Ii Naosuke was assassinated in 1860 / Wikimedia Commons The roju were the senior members of the shogunate. They supervised the õmetsuke, machi-bugyö, ongokubugyo (ja: 5 15) and other officials, oversaw relations with the Imperial Court in Kyoto, kuge (members of the nobility), daimyo, Buddhist temples 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 (Keio Many appointees came from the offices close yõnin (ja:UAN), Kyoto Shoshidai, and Osaka jādai.

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