Tokugawa Japan

The Tokugawa, or Edo, period in Japan marked the end of a series of civil wars that had ravaged the country and introduced a long period of stability and unity. It began in 1603, when Tokugawa Ieyasu became the first of the Tokugawa shoguns – the powerful military leaders and effective rulers of Japan.

In 1543, when Tokugawa Ieyasu was born, Japanese warlords were fighting each other for control of the country. As a boy, Ieyasu learned the skills of fighting from a rival family he had been sent to as a hostage. When he finally returned home to his own family, he began a long and well-planned struggle for power. By 1598, Ieyasu had the biggest army in Japan and the most productive estates, which were centred on the fishing village of Edo. In 1603, the emperor appointed him to position of shogun, giving him power to run the country on the emperor’s behalf.

Ieyasu turned Edo into a fortified town (later known as Tokyo). He organized the country into regions, each led by a daimyo, who controlled the local warriors (samurai).

Ieyasu abdicated in 1605, but he continued to hold on to a real power. By 1612, he was fearful that Christianity might undermine his position. To combat this, he discouraged visits to Japan by foreign Christian missionaries.

Ieyasu died in 1616, but his policy of discouraging Christian missionaries was continued and in 1637 missionaries were banned altogether. All Japanese Christians had to give up their religion or be put to death. The shogun next banned all foreign traders from Japan, apart from the Dutch who were allowed to send one trading ship a year to the port of Nagasaki. Japan flourished, despite its isolation from the rest of the world. The Tokugawa dynasty ruled until 1867.

ORNAMENTAL WOMEN

Under the Tokugawas, wealthy Japanese women were regarded as ornaments. They wore high-soled platform shoes and complicated ornamental hairstyles that greatly restricted their movement. The rules of the society they lived in were rigid, too. People were expected to commit suicide if they or their families were disgraced in any way.