history of Japan

Early modern Japan Edo period (1600–1868) Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate. The Edo period was characterized by relative peace and stability [ 1 ] under the tight control of the Tokugawa shogunate , which ruled from the eastern city of Edo (modern Tokyo). [ 2 ] In 1603, Emperor Go-Yōzei declared Tokugawa Ieyasu shōgun , and Ieyasu abdicated two years later to groom his son as the second shōgun of what became a long dynasty. [ 3 ] Nevertheless, it took time for the Tokugawas to consolidate their rule. In 1609, the shōgun gave the daimyō of the Satsuma Domain permission to invade the Ryukyu Kingdom for perceived insults towards the shogunate; the Satsuma victory began 266 years of Ryukyu's dual subordination to Satsuma and China. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] Ieyasu led the Siege of Osaka that ended with the destruction of the Toyotomi clan in 1615. [ 6 ] Soon after, the shogunate promulgated the Laws for the Military Houses , which imposed tighter controls on the daimyōs , [ 7 ] and the alternate attendance system , which required each daimyō to spend every other year in Edo. [ 8 ] Even so, the daimyōs continued to maintain a significant degree of autonomy in their domains. [ 9 ] The central government of the shogunate in Edo, which quickly became the most populous city in the world, [ 2 ] took counsel from a group of senior advisors known as rōjū and employed samurai as bureaucrats. [ 10 ] The emperor in Kyoto was funded lavishly by the government but was allowed no political power. [ 11 ] The Tokugawa shogunate went to great lengths to suppress social unrest. Harsh penalties, including crucifixion, beheading, and death by boiling, were decreed for even the most minor offenses, though criminals of high social class were often given the option of seppuku ("self-disembowelment"), an ancient form of suicide that became ritualized. [ 8 ] Christianity, which was seen as a potential threat, was gradually clamped down on until finally, after the Christian-led Shimabara Rebellion of 1638, the religion was completely outlawed. [ 12 ] To prevent further foreign ideas from sowing dissent, the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu , implemented the sakoku ("closed country") isolationist policy under which Japanese people were not allowed to travel abroad, return from overseas, or build ocean-going vessels. [ 13 ] The only Europeans allowed on Japanese soil were the Dutch, who were granted a single trading post on the island of Dejima at Nagasaki from 1634 to 1854. [ 14 ] China and Korea were the only other countries permitted to trade, [ 15 ] and many foreign books were banned from import. [ 9 ] It was during Tokugawa's rule that, in 1600, the English navigator William Adams became the first Englishman to reach Japan, along with his second mate Jan Joosten . Adams was later granted samurai status, and was recognized as one of the most influential foreigners in Japan during the early 17th century. The book Shogun by James Clavell , and the TV series of the same name , are based on Adams's experiences in Japan. During the first century of Tokugawa rule, Japan's population doubled to thirty million, mostly because of agricultural growth; the population remained stable for the rest of the period. [ 16 ] The shogunate's construction of roads, elimination of road and bridge tolls, and standardization of coinage promoted commercial expansion that also benefited the merchants and artisans of the cities. [ 17 ] City populations grew, [ 18 ] but almost ninety percent of the population continued to live in rural areas. [ 19 ] Both the inhabitants of cities and of rural communities would benefit from one of the most notable social changes of the Edo period: increased literacy and numeracy. The number of private schools greatly expanded, particularly those attached to temples and shrines, and raised literacy to thirty percent. This may have been the world's highest rate at the time [ 20 ] and drove a flourishing commercial publishing industry, which grew to produce hundreds of titles per year. [ 21 ] In the area of numeracy  – approximated by an index measuring people's ability to report an exact rather than a rounded age (age-heaping method), and which level shows a strong correlation to later economic development of a country – Japan's level was comparable to that of north-west European countries, and moreover, Japan's index came close to the 100 percent mark throughout the nineteenth century. These high levels of both literacy and numeracy were part of the socio-economical foundation for Japan's strong growth rates during the following century. [ 22 ] Culture and philosophy Samurai could kill a commoner for the slightest insult and were widely feared by the Japanese population. Edo period (1798) The Edo period was a time of cultural flourishing, as the merchant classes grew in wealth and began spending their income on cultural and social pursuits. [ 23 ] [ 24 ] Members of the merchant class who patronized culture and entertainment were said to live hedonistic lives, which came to be called the ukiyo ("floating world"). [ 25 ] This lifestyle inspired ukiyo-zōshi popular novels and ukiyo-e art, the latter of which were often woodblock prints [ 26 ] that progressed to greater sophistication and use of multiple printed colors . [ 27 ] Forms of theater such as kabuki and bunraku puppet theater became widely popular. [ 28 ] These new forms of entertainment were (at the time) accompanied by short songs ( kouta ) and music played on the shamisen , a new import to Japan in 1600. [ 29 ] Haiku , whose greatest master is generally agreed to be Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), also rose as a major form of poetry. [ 30 ] Geisha , a new profession of entertainers, also became popular. They would provide conversation, sing, and dance for customers, though they would not sleep with them. [ 31 ] The Tokugawas sponsored and were heavily influenced by Neo-Confucianism , which led the government to divide society into four classes based on the four occupations . [ 32 ] The samurai class claimed to follow the ideology of bushido , literally "the way of the warrior". [ 33 ] Decline and fall of the shogunate Main articles: Bakumatsu and Meiji Restoration By the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the shogunate showed signs of weakening. [ 34 ] The dramatic growth of agriculture that had characterized the early Edo period had ended, [ 16 ] and the government handled the devastating Tenpō famines poorly in the 1830s. [ 34 ] Peasant unrest grew and government revenues fell. [ 35 ] The shogunate cut the pay of the already financially distressed samurai, many of whom worked side jobs to make a living. [ 36 ] Discontented samurai were soon to play a major role in engineering the downfall of the Tokugawa shogunate. [ 37 ] At the same time, the people drew inspiration from new ideas and fields of study. Dutch books brought into Japan stimulated interest in Western learning, called rangaku or "Dutch learning". [ 38 ] The physician Sugita Genpaku , for instance, used concepts from Western medicine to help spark a revolution in Japanese ideas of human anatomy. [ 39 ] The scholarly field of kokugaku or "national learning", developed by scholars such as Motoori Norinaga and Hirata Atsutane , promoted what it asserted were native Japanese values. For instance, it criticized the Chinese-style Neo-Confucianism advocated by the shogunate and emphasized the Emperor's divine authority, which the Shinto faith taught had its roots in Japan's mythic past, which was referred to as the " Age of the Gods ". [ 40 ] Satsuma samurai during boshin war period (late 1860s) The arrival in 1853 of a fleet of American ships commanded by Commodore Matthew C. Perry threw Japan into turmoil. The US government aimed to end Japan's isolationist policies. The shogunate had no defense against Perry's gunboats and had to agree to his demands that American ships be permitted to acquire provisions and trade at Japanese ports. [ 34 ] The Western powers imposed what became known as " unequal treaties " on Japan which stipulated that Japan must allow citizens of these countries to visit or reside on Japanese territory and must not levy tariffs on their imports or try them in Japanese courts. [ 41 ] The shogunate's failure to oppose the Western powers angered many Japanese, particularly those of the southern domains of Chōshū and Satsuma . [ 42 ] Many samurai there, inspired by the nationalist doctrines of the kokugaku school, adopted the slogan of sonnō jōi ("revere the emperor, expel the barbarians"). [ 43 ] The two domains went on to form an alliance. In August 1866, soon after becoming shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu , struggled to maintain power as civil unrest continued. [ 44 ] The Chōshū and Satsuma domains in 1868 convinced the young Emperor Meiji and his advisors to issue a rescript calling for an end to the Tokugawa shogunate. The armies of Chōshū and Satsuma soon marched on Edo and the ensuing Boshin War of 1868–1869 led to the fall of the shogunate. [ 45 ] ^ Perez 1998 , p. 72. ^ a b Henshall 2012 , pp. 53–54. ^ Henshall 2012 , pp. 54–55. ^ Cite error: The named reference t2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page ). ^ Kerr 1958 , pp. 162–167. ^ Totman 2005 , p. 220. ^ McClain 2002 , pp. 26–27. ^ a b Henshall 2012 , pp. 57–58. ^ a b Perez 1998 , pp. 62–63. ^ Totman 2005 , p. 229. ^ Perez 1998 , p. 60. ^ Henshall 2012 , p. 60. ^ Cite error: The named reference Chaiklin was invoked but never defined (see the help page ). ^ "Dejima Nagasaki | JapanVisitor Japan Travel Guide" . www.japanvisitor.com . 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