The History of~Japan (Part 5: The Tokugawas' Will)

Japan; the mystical land of "The Rising Sun". Behind the facade of the Megalopolis that is Tokyo, lies a land stained in blood of some of the world's mightiest warriors; the Samurai. A land that has a history of military rulers that at times ruled with an iron hand.

This is part 5 of this 9-part wiki page series about the history of Japan. In this part, we will cover Japan under the will of the Tokugawa clan who won the battles of the Sengoku Jidai and established their own shogunate, and the Tokugawa clan would have to deal with foreign influence which will lead to Japan isolating itself, the rapid expansion of Edo, and even the growing popularity of western studies.

## The Tokugawas' Will

Ieyasu Tokugawa has won the Battle of Sekigahara, and with it brought peace to Japan, 3 years after Sekigahara the Emperor has bestowed Ieyasu the coveted title of Shogun, Ieyasu's new Shogun will be Japan's biggest, and last Shogunate in the nation's history. But with a great power comes with a greater responsibility, Ieyasu is now tasked in keeping the peace he helped brought to Japan.

When it comes to merchant trading, Ieyasu understood the value of this, and thought that it would be in Japan's best interest to maintain its trade relations with China, Korea, and Europe so it can keep up with the fast growing societies in those places. But, what he didn't like (especially with European traders) is their practicing of Christianity as he considers it a threat to his newfound power, eventually in 1612, the Shogunate has passed laws that forced the Daimyo to denounce their Christian Faith, 4 years later further laws were passed expelling all of the foreign missionaries, more laws were passed which the Tokugawas had "limited" control over the ruling Daimyo.

If you lived in Tokugawa Japan, and if you had the gal to break any of the Tokugawa laws, no matter how petty the crime, you'll be given the harshest of punishments from crucifixion, to being boiling alive............if you were a man, a woman would be given slightly less penalties such as forced servitude, or even slavery. Penalties for high class individuals would mean Seppuku which even by this time was considered an honorable death.

For some of the ruling Daimyo, though with some of their power relinquished by the Tokugawa Shogunate, they can still get special privileges, though only if they get the expressed permission from the Shogun, like if they wanted to add on to their castle, or build another castle, or build a temple, or a shrine, or even a ship, that all had to go through the Shogun first.

Eventually, Ieyasu would die in his 60s from failing health, he would be mourned by his family, his body cremated (as in burned) and his remains placed in a temple in a mountainous region where he would hunt for Hawks. Hidetada would take over as Shogun in 1603, but it would be Hidetada's son, Iemitsu who would try to keep his family's Shogun together, and he will do it by repression.

### Iemitsu's Wrath

Iemitsu would become Shogun in 1623, eventhough he would try to emulate his famous grandfather, but he would pass repressive laws left, right, and center, nobody was safe from his tyranny. He even passed a law which tells the Daimyo from even the farthest reach of Japan to spend at least a year in Edo (the Shogun Capital), and this is where Edo would see an explosion in population, in fact so much so that by the beginning of the 18th century, Edo's population would rival the population of any major city in Europe at the time. With everybody a victim of Iemitsu's iron fist, there was a group of people that Iemitsu's iron fist would effect the most, the Christians, and what they do next will determine Japan's destiny for the next 200 years.

### Shimabara Rebellion, Japan's Isolation

In 1635, Iemitsu would pass a law that will be known as the "Sakoku Edict" which would slowly close Japan to the outside world, at first it would be confined to Japanese people traveling abroad, with this law the Japanese people couldn't travel anywhere outside their home country, and if any Japanese people that were already out, may never return, but this was only the beginning.

A year after the Sakoku Edict went into effect, a region in Kyushu called Shimabara was already feeling the negative effects of not only Iemitsu's policies, but also a devastating drought which had a huge effect on the rice harvest in the region, in fact so bad was the drought that the farmers in the region had a very hard time keeping up with their quota of rice for that year, plus the local Daimyo raised taxes for the construction of a new castle. These farmers were also Christian, so their relations with the Tokugawa Shogunate was already rocky. Eventually, in late 1637, soldiers apprehended a local farmer's daughter as a penalty for not keeping up on his rice quota, this would begin the Shimabara Rebellion on December 17.

The Tokugawa Shogunate with the aid of the Dutch sent around 125,000 men to Shimabara to quell this uprising which was led by a local Christian farmer "Shiro Amakusa" who took up base at the local Hara Castle where the Shogunate army would set up a siege. Despite inferior numbers, weapons, and experience, the Christian rebels held thier own for several months, until their food supply ran out. Eventually, the Christians surrendered, the Shogunate army captured and executed around 38,000 rebels and destroyed Hara Castle.

After the Shimabara rebellion, Iemitsu would further expand the Sakoku edict to the point where no foreigners were allowed in Japan. This is where Japan's period of isolationism begins. But that's not to say that Japan was \*totally\* isolated from the world, they still traded with the Chinese, the Koreans, and even the Dutch (for their aid in the Shimabara rebellion), albeit under \*heavy\* restrictions especially for the Dutch who were restricted to a makeshift community in the Japanese town of Nagasaki called "Dejima".

Dejima was a man-made island the Japanese created for the Dutch which was a hybrid between the Netherlands and Japan. It was a huge rarity for the Dutch on Dejima to get visits from Shogunate officials, and if they do get visits, they were under strict and heavy supervision. But at least for one Dutch who spent in time in Dejima; "Engelbert Kaempfer" who arrived in Japan via Dejima in 1690, he was given the exceptional permission to venture out of Dejima and into Japan as he on 2 separate occasions visited Edo and even (somewhat) got to meet the Shogun, although they never saw each other face-to-face. After Kaempfer left Japan, he went on to publish his chronicles on his 2 year stay in Japan, trying to clear up some of the misconceptions that the west had about Japan.

### Culture

The culture in Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate was, a mixed bag. Some of it was good, and some of it wasn't so good. Tokugawa Japan would set up a class system which is very similar to the classes in Europe where the Daimyo and the Shogun were at the top, and other people such as the Farmers, Artists, and Merchants were at the bottom, and thanks to Hideyoshi's separation edict, people stayed in their class of wealth, and were not allowed to intermingle with people with different classes, it also saw the growing popularity of travel since the constant wars of the Sengoku Jidai made that a daring feat, roads like the "Tokaido" would be constructed with thousands of inns for the travelers. Art also prospered during this period with Ukiyo-e (woodblock paintings) become the most popular, one artist "Hokusai Katsushika" would earn his place among the most famous for his work "The 36 views of Mt. Fuji" painting 36 pictures depicting Japan's most iconic landmark. City culture in Japan also saw its prime called "ukiyo" (meaning "Floating World) Performances also flourished with the introduction of "Kabuki" where the players would wear make up, red wigs and lavish dresses as they dance. One such Kabuki play chronicling a real time event will earn its fame.

### 47 Ronin

In 1701, a samurai master named "Asano Naganori" through some kind of misunderstanding attacked and drew his weapon on a Shogun official "Kira Yoshinaka" while visiting the Shogun at Edo Castle, and because this wasn't an actual fight as Kira didn't draw his own sword and drawing your weapon is forbidden at Edo castle, Asano was forced to commit seppuku, this made Asano's 47 followers became what is known as "Ronin" (meaning "Floating Man" but used as a derogatory term for a Samurai that doesn't have a master or lord). After over a year of planning, one of Asano's men named "Oishi Yoshio" with 46 other men go to assassinate Kira, knowing what the penalties are for doing this, they were ready to die. After the 47 Ronin killed Kira, the news spread quickly, and the Shogun ordered for their immediate execution, but Oishi pleaded to the Shogun to have he and his men commit Seppuku, these men committed this ritual suicide, but their actions remained controversial for centuries as they have questioned the absolute authority of the Shogun, but only in loyalty and honor of their master, and upheld the code of the Samurai.

### Japan's decline

By the beginning of the 19th century, Japan was beginning to see many forms of decline since the nation was almost isolated from the rest of the world. Its economy would begin to stagnate, then the delicate fabrics of wealth classes began to unravel as people from different classes began to intermingle, the Samurai who for over 7 centuries were in control of Japan's destiny also began to decline as bankrolls in Japan gradually becomes useless and the samurai weren't getting their stipends from the Shogun. More and more people were getting desperate with even some Samurai having no choice but to give up their Katanas.

What grew in popularity in 19th century Japan was the appetite for western knowledge (or "Rangaku"), Japanese doctors got hold of some medical books written and published by previous Dutch traders, and when they compared them with their old-fashioned Chinese medical books, this knowledge was nothing the Japanese saw before, until they have performed autopsies on several dead people and was exactly the same as in the dutch medical book. For the next few decades, the Japanese would not just study on the human anatomy, but also biology, astronomy, entomology, and other subjects.

### End of Isolation

The sakoku edict created and furthered by Iemitsu in the 1630s kept foreigners at bay. But with Japan's series of turmoils, it seems though the foreigners are getting better at trying to break down this boundary Japan was in. Though, China, Korea, and the Netherlands continued trading with Japan long after the isolation period began, but other foreign nations who are just expanding their influence into Asia, want Japan to "break the ice" so to say and re-open their doors to the world. By the mid 19th century, Great Britain, and France were already 2 of the world's biggest colonial powers, Russia was also growing in power and all 3 nations want Japan to re-open. But in 1853, several Japanese fishermen saw ships on the horizon, it wouldn't be long before these ships were getting closer, and when these ships can be recognized, the ships were the likes the Japanese never saw before, they were steam ships (powered by steam) from a nation Japan never heard of before; the United States of America.

The leader of this new fleet was American commodore Matthew C. Perry. He arrived at Edo harbor and gave Japan America's ultimatum; re-open your doors or we will take your nation by force, and promised them that he will return, and he did a few months later with a bigger fleet. Seeing no use to fight against a power far superior to Japan, the Shogunate's advisors agreed to re-open Japan's doors, thus ending Japan's period of isolationism.

That'll do it for this part. In our next part (click here), we will cover Japan re-opening it's doors to the rest of the world, the period of industrialization, and Japan gaining the power to take on the world. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.