Edo period
The Edo Bakufu (江戸時代? from Japanese: shogunate), or Edo period (江戸時代 Edo-jidai?< /span>, Yeddo-jidai; Japanese ago: era), aka Tokugawa Period (徳川時代 Tokugawa-jidai?)< /span>, or Tokugawa Shogunate (rule of the shogun emperor) or Era of Uninterrupted Peace (1603-1868) is a division of Japanese history, spanning from March 24, 1603 to May 3, 1868.
The period delimits the government of the Tokugawa or Edo Shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Tokugawa shōgun, Tokugawa Ieyasu. The Edo period ended in 1868 with the restoration of imperial rule by the fifteenth and last shōgun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu. The end of the Edo period also marked the beginning of the imperial period.
Rule of the shōgun and daimyō
Ieyasu Tokugawa, the main beneficiary of the achievements of Oda Nobunaga and Hideyoshi Toyotomi, was a "daimyō" extremely powerful ruler from the wealthy Kantō region. He owned land that produced two and a half million "koku"; later he settled in Edo (today Tokyo) and added to his possessions new lands that generated another two million. After Hideyoshi's death, he was quick to maintain control over the Toyotomi family.
The victory of Ieyasu's army over the "daimyō" of the West at the Battle of Sekigahara in the year 1600 gave it near total dominance over Japan. After consolidating his power by eliminating his enemies and strict control over other daimyo, Ieyasu ceded his son Tokugawa Hidetada the title of "shogun" to his son Tokugawa Hidetada. and named himself "shōgun" retired in 1605. The Toyotomi were still a threat to his cause, so he spent a decade eradicating them. In 1615 the Toyotomi fortress in Osaka was destroyed by the Tokugawa army.
The Edo period brought Japan two hundred and fifty years of stability. The political system evolved into what specialists call "bakuhan", a combination of the terms "bakufu" and "han", to describe the characteristic government of the period. In the "bakuhan" the "shogun" enjoyed national authority while the "daimyō" They held the regional The bureaucracy increased during this period in an effort to manage the combination of centralized and decentralized government. The Tokugawa consolidated their power during the first century of their rule: the distribution of land provided them with about seven million "koku" and control over the most important cities.
The feudal hierarchy was completed with the various classes of "daimyō". Those closest to the Tokugawa were the "shinpan" or related houses. There were at this time twenty-three "daimyō" on the borders of the lands belonging to the Tokugawa, who were directly related to Ieyasu. Second in the hierarchy were the fudai, who had been rewarded with land near Tokugawa domains for their loyal services. During the 18th century 145 the "fudai" they controlled small territories, of which the largest contained only 250,000 koku. Finally, 97 "han" they formed the third group, that of the "tozama", which were mainly old enemies or new allies. The "tozama" they were often located on the periphery of the archipelago, and together they owned lands of around ten million koku.
The Tokugawa not only consolidated their rule over reunited Japan, but also enjoyed unprecedented power over the emperor, the courts, the "daimyō" and religious orders. The emperor only gave his approval as the last option in the political affairs of the country; however, the Tokugawa helped the imperial family recover its glory days by rebuilding its palaces and ensuring the enjoyment of new lands. To ensure close ties between the imperial clan and the Tokugawa family, Ieyasu's granddaughter was made an imperial consort in 1619.
A series of legal codes were established to regulate the properties of the "daimyō". These codes also provided rules of conduct, marriages, clothing, type of weapons, number of troops that the "daimyō" they could own and further required that feudal lords reside in Edo for one year, forbade the construction of ocean liners, forbade Christianity, restricted the possession of castles to one per lordship among the major houses. Although in practice the "daimyō" They did not pay taxes, a series of military or logistical contributions were regularly imposed on them, in addition to contributions for public projects such as the construction of castles, roads, bridges and palaces. The contributions they received not only strengthened the Tokugawa, but also weakened the "daimyō" economically and therefore lessened the threat of an uprising against the central administration. What had previously been military strongholds were transformed into units of local administration.
The legal system was complex, and it was subject to the administrative unit, which meant that the individual did not exist as such in the law, nor was it recognized by the State. It existed only insofar as he was a member of the family unit. The family was considered the basic unit of administration, and all its members were subservient to it; the most common was the agrarian family. People who did not belong to a family clan or were not recognized by any had serious difficulties in surviving. Not being recognized by the state meant not being able to own property, real estate or privileges.
From openness to isolation
Like Hideyoshi, Ieyasu encouraged foreign trade, but was wary of foreigners. He wanted to make Edo a major port, but once he realized that the Europeans favored different ports in Kyūshū and China's denial of his trade plans, he began to control existing trade and only It allowed it to be marketed in some ports, with specific products.
The beginning of the Edo period coincided with the last decades of the Namban trade period, during which interaction with European powers in the economic and religious spheres intensified. It is at the beginning of the Edo period that Japan began building ships Western-type ocean liners, such as the Japanese warship "San Juan Bautista", a five-hundred-ton galleon that transported the Japanese embassy headed by Hasekura Tsunenaga to the American continent and Europe. Three hundred and fifty Shuinsen (royal seal ships), which had three masts and were armed for trade in Asia, were also commissioned during this period.
The “Christian problem” was, in effect, the problem of controlling both the daimyō converts in Kyūshū and trade with the Europeans. Around 1600, there were between 700 and 750,000 Christians in Japan. The Tokugawa and their supporters viewed the new religion as a destabilizing factor that could threaten their power, especially in league with the remnants of the followers of the Toyotomi. In 1612 the shōgun's servants and residents of Tokugawa lands were ordered to renounce Christianity. In Tokugawa manors, Christian temples were demolished and preaching was prohibited. More restrictions were announced starting the following year, including limiting trade with foreigners in Nagasaki and Hirado. In 1622, 120 missionaries and converts were executed. In 1624, the Spanish were expelled and diplomatic relations between Japan and Spain were severed. In 1629, hundreds of Christians were executed. The population was forced to register in Buddhist temples, which were transformed into unofficial registry offices. Faced with the impossibility of persecuting Christianity and maintaining foreign trade, the Government chose to sacrifice this in the time of the third shogun. Through a In a series of decrees issued between 1633 and 1639, the country was isolated from abroad. Finally, in 1635, any Japanese were prohibited from traveling abroad and it was provided that if they ever left the country, they would never return. Those who had settled abroad they were prohibited from returning to the country. The Portuguese and mestizos were also expelled from the empire.
The shogunate perceived Catholicism as an extremely destabilizing factor, for which reason it was persecuted. The Shimabara Rebellion of 1637-1638, in which Catholic samurai and peasants revolted against their feudal governments and the central government, was suppressed, forcing the Kakure Kirishitan to secretly profess their faith. A short time later, the Portuguese were also expelled and members of the diplomatic mission were executed.
By 1650 Christianity had been almost completely eradicated and foreign influence on political, economic and religious affairs within Japan became limited. Only China, the Dutch East India Company and for a brief period the British were allowed to visit Japan during this period, only for commercial purposes and with restricted access only to the port of Dejima in Nagasaki. Other Europeans who arrived on Japanese shores were executed without trial.
Society
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After a long period of internal conflict, the first objective of the newly established Tokugawa shogunate was to pacify the country. It created a balance of power that remained relatively stable for the next 250 years, influenced by Confucian principles of social order. Most of the samurai lost direct possession of the land and were faced with two options: lay down their arms and become peasants or move to the main city of their fiefdom and become hired servants of the daimyō.. Only a few samurai remained in the northern outer provinces or as direct vassals of the shōgun, known as the 5000 hatamoto. The sankin kōtai system was also established, in which it was stipulated that the families of the daimyo should reside in Edo, in addition to the daimyō they were to remain in Edo for one year and in their province the following year.
The population was divided into four classes in a system known as mibunsei (身分 制?): in the first level were the samurai (about 5% of the population), on the second level were the peasants (more than 80% of the population), on the third were the artisans and at the end were the merchants. Only peasants lived in the rural areas. Samurai, artisans, and merchants lived in the cities that were built around the daimyō castles, and each group had a specific area to occupy within the city. This system prevented the marriage of people of different classes.
Outside these four social classes were the so-called eta and the hinin, whose professions broke the Buddhism schemes. The eta were butchers, tanners, and gravediggers. The hinin served as guards or executioners. Other groups excluded from social classes included beggars and prostitutes.
Individuals had no legal rights in Japan. The family was the smallest legal entity contemplated, so maintaining the status and privileges of the family was of great importance at all levels of society. For example, Edo period penal laws prescribed “unfree labor” (slavery) for the immediate family of executed criminals in article 17 of the Gotōke reijō, but its practice was never established. The Gotōke reijō of 1711 was the compilation of statutes proclaimed between 1597 and 1696.
The obligatory influx of feudal lords into Edo, an insignificant village in the early 17th century century, the settlement of merchants, artisans and the transfer of Buddhist and Shinto temples to it determined a rapid growth of the population. By the middle of that century, the population was already around 430,000 inhabitants, half of them military. By the middle of the following century, the The city already reached one million inhabitants, a third of them military. The commercial importance of Osaka also caused it to grow remarkably: from two hundred thousand inhabitants in 1660 it rose to three hundred eighty thousand in 1736 and then to four hundred twenty thousand in 1765.
By the mid-17th century, Edo maintained a population of over a million, while Osaka and Kyoto they had more than 400,000. Some other castle cities had significant growth. Japan had a growth rate of virtually zero between the 1720s and 1820s, which is generally attributed to a low birth rate as a result of the famine, but some historians have put forward various theories such as the high rate of infanticide to artificially control the population growth.
Economy
Sources of stately income
The country was economically divided according to its political structure: a series of autonomous fiefdoms, the main one being the group made up of the Tokugawa family and their associates. These controlled lands that produced some seven million koku (four and a half the shogunal clan itself and the rest its associates), about a quarter of the national agricultural production. In the XVII, the income of the different lords came mainly from the taxes that the farmers had to pay, around 40% of the harvest. In 1728 taxes rose significantly. The responsibility for payment was not it was not individual, but multi-family: the peasant population was grouped into groups of five families, which were made responsible for the payment of a certain amount; this system dated from the rule of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but the Tokugawa extended it to the whole country.
The shogunal estate also derived income from the cities, which it controlled through the appointment of its aldermen, often trusted vassals of the Tokugawa. The shogun derived even greater funds from mining. Gold production and silver reached its heyday in the late 16th century and early XVII, thanks to the implementation of methods brought from Spanish America and that allowed Ieyasu to have enough mineral to prohibit the daimyos from minting money and reserve such activity for himself.
Agriculture
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Agriculture was the main economic activity of the empire and during the 16th and XVII had a notable development. Cultivated land increased, irrigation techniques, utensils and cultivation methods improved, and productivity grew considerably. Both the shogun how the daimyos encouraged the cultivation of new land, usually through tax exemptions for the peasants who cultivated it. The 17th century was the one in which there was a greater plowing of new lands. The increase in production and cultivated areas was mainly due to the development of public works dedicated to the extension of irrigation, which coincided in the second half of the century < span style="font-variant:small-caps;text-transform:lowercase">XVII with the foundation of new villages, dedicated to the cultivation of the new farmlands. This new impulse of agriculture was concentrated in the east of the island of Honshū, since in western Japan the same evolution had already taken place before.
In addition to improving rice production, fundamental in Japan, the cultivation of other plants also increased: other cereals (wheat, soybeans, millet...), mulberry, tea, indigo, flax, tobacco, grapes, tangerines, squash, potatoes or carrots. Between the early XVII century and the early XIX, silk production quadrupled; this made it possible to eliminate imports from China and later make the product the main export of the country. The extension of cotton, arriving in the country at the end of the XV or the beginning of the XVI, brought about an important change in national clothing: the less favored classes went from clothing from linen to cotton. The production of this new plant was concentrated in Kinai, a region that held the economic primacy of the empire. It also manufactured items that required specialized labor such as weapons, objects of high-quality art or clothing.
Commerce, population and urban life
The 17th century also saw a large increase in interregional trade, due in part to a large increase in population, which in the middle of the following century went from twelve to thirty-two million. This increase led to a greater demand for agricultural and handicraft products.
The Tokugawa social system, which sharply separated the peasantry from the military and forced soldiers to reside with their lord, favored the growth of cities. country—, he formed towns around his castle that had a population of between ten and thirty thousand people. The military neighborhoods, inhabited by soldiers whose income depended on pay and lacked their own fiefdoms, stood out as centers of great consumption. The lack of sufficient own production encouraged trade, necessary to supply them with the items they demanded. The main union nucleus of the manorial economies with the national one was the Kanai region, a primary supplier of manufactured products to rural areas, more late, and buyer of part of its rice crops, due to its large population.
Another driver of trade was the need for daimyos to buy gold and silver to pay for their obligatory stays in Edo and their trips between it and their fiefdoms, which were required by law. Given the need to pay for these expenses in gold and silver and the prohibition to exploit mines and coin money, the feudal lords had to acquire precious metals, selling their goods, mainly agricultural products obtained from taxes on farmers. This was another incentive for trade and for the development of transportation. The continuous transfer of the lords had as a consequence the improvement of the road network and communications: five large highways were created that linked Edo with the rest of the country, in which a system of lodgings arose and posts that favored transit. Another reason for the multiplication of trade was the great demand from Edo, whose population was growing rapidly, but which had a meager production which required the arrival of goods from other regions. Until the 19th century, Edo did not produce in sufficient quantities to supply itself or send products to other regions. The distribution center for manufactured products and rice from the fiefdoms was Osaka. Between one million and one and a half million koku from the western manors of the country were traded in Osaka. Coastal shipping was extended to link the two cities, as it was easier to transport goods long distances by sea than by land. In the 19th century XVII four main shipping routes were established: Osaka-Edo, Kyushu-Osaka, Hokkaidō-Honshū and Tōhoku-Edo.
Regarding foreign trade, at the beginning of the Tokugawa period the main task was to restore foreign relations, disrupted by the activity of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Trade with Korea and Manila recovered, but not with China. Government control of trade between the daimyo and the outside world, which rapidly tightened in the early 17th century century, eventually eliminated it. Ships needed official permission to trade with other territories. The main import item was quality silk, which accounted for 50–60% of total imports. The main export was silver, which was delivered to balance the trade balance, which was in deficit. Some seventy thousand Japanese traveled abroad (mainly to Southeast Asia), of which ten thousand settled there, several thousand of them in the Spanish Philippines. The pr The main suppliers of silk to the eager Japanese market were first the Portuguese, who in the XVII century had to face competition from the English and Dutch. The government also tried to moderate the fat profits of Portuguese merchants, who had initially managed to fix the selling price of imported silk. Trade relations with the Dutch and the English arose from the Tokugawa Ieyasi's need to compete with Toyotomi Hideyoshi's business activities from Osaka; to do so, he established links with the newcomers. Competition between the different nations disrupted the old Portuguese trade monopoly on the islands. After the English commercial withdrawal in 1623 and the break of relations with Spain in 1624, foreign trade was limited to Portugal and the Netherlands. In 1639 the arrival of Portuguese ships was prohibited. Chinese ships, which until then had been able to trade on the Japanese coasts, were restricted to Nagasaki. Dutch ships were restricted to Dejima in 1641. The almost total closure of foreign trade remained in force until 1853. Subsequently, new measures were introduced to limit the export of gold and silver, which had grown despite limited marketing. Gradually, the amount was reduced and the amount of imports—which could only be verified by government-tolerated Dutch and Chinese traders.
Economic development during the Tokugawa period included urbanization, shipments of various consumer goods, early in the period of foreign trade as well as the spread and sale of handicrafts. Construction deals increased along with the development of banks and the growth in the number of trade associations. The diverse have throughout the country enjoyed the increase in agricultural production, as well as the increase in the production of rural handicrafts.
Osaka and Kyoto became important centers of trade and handicraft production, while Edo was the most important center for providing food and essential consumer goods.
Rice was the basis of the economy, as the daimyō collected taxes from the peasants in kind. Taxes could be as high as 40% of the harvest. The rice was sold in the Fudasashi markets of Edo.
It was during the Edo period that Japan developed a sustainable system of forest management. Increased demand for wood for building, shipbuilding, and fuel led to rapid deforestation resulting in forest fires, floods and soil erosion. The response of the shōgun, around 1666, was to implement a series of policies that included reducing the number of trees cut down, increasing the number of trees planted, and only the daimyō and the shōgun could authorize the use of wood. By the 18th century Japan developed scientific knowledge specific to forestry and forestry.
Artistic and intellectual development
During the period, Japan progressively studied Western techniques and scientific advances (called rangaku) through information and books received from Dutch traders in Dejima. The areas of greatest study included geography, medicine, natural sciences, astronomy, art, languages, physics concepts such as the study of electrical and mechanical phenomena. There was also a great development of mathematics, in a current totally independent from that of the Western world. This strong current was called wasan.
The flowering of Neo-Confucianism was the greatest intellectual development of the period. The study of Confucianism had long been kept active by Buddhist clerics, but during this time this belief system strongly drew attention to the conception of man and society. Ethical humanism, rationalism and the historical perspective of Neo-Confucianism were taken as a social model. By the mid-17th century, Neo-Confucianism became the dominant legal philosophy and contributed directly to the development of the national apprenticeship system., kokugaku. His main virtue for the shogunal regime was his emphasis on hierarchical relationships, submission to superiors, and obedience, which extended to the entire society and facilitated the maintenance of the feudal system.
The increasing application of Neo-Confucianism as well as advanced study contributed to the transition of the political and economic order of social classes. New laws were developed, new administrative systems were instituted. A new vision of government and society emerged in search of a more comprehensive mandate. Each person had a different place in society and was expected to work in a way that fulfilled his mission in life. Citizens were to be governed with benevolence by those assigned to command. The government was all-powerful, but at the same time responsible and humane. Although Neo-Confucianism influenced the social class system, it was not applied in the same way as was customary in other countries such as China, where soldiers and clerics occupied the bottom rung of social classes, while in Japan some of these members constituted to the government elite.
The spiritual life experimented with traditional culture, based on Buddhist principles, and Confucian principles. Two different ways of conceiving life: Buddhism gave great importance to the underworld and Confucianism gave greater strength to humanism and practice.
Members of the samurai class added the traditions of bushidō to their ideology and renewed their interest in Japanese history, resulting in bushidō. A new lifestyle called chōnindō arose in cities such as Osaka, Kyoto, and Edo, which aspired to achieve bushido qualities such as diligence, honesty, honor, loyalty, and frugality. The study of mathematics, astronomy, cartography, engineering, and medicine was also encouraged. The new culture's search for new forms of entertainment became known as ukiyo and included geisha, music, folk stories, Kabuki theatre, bunraku, poetry, and art, which is reflected in the style known as ukiyo-e. Literature also enjoyed great talents such as Chikamatsu Monzaemon or Matsuo Bashō.
Legislative and administrative transformations influenced intellectual and cultural revolutions. During the validity of the Tokugawa Order, education was developed in all areas. Several educational centers were established to meet the needs of different social classes. In each feudal domain, schools were established to teach the sons of samurai families; they taught subjects of a cultural and moral nature and martial techniques.
Farmers claimed their education and training needs. From the 15th century, terakoyas (temple school) began to appear in which reading, writing and arithmetic were taught to children belonging to the middle class, especially in urban areas. It consisted of a class and a teacher, and twenty to thirty students attended. In rural communities there were schools for the children of wealthy members of the merchant class and farmers.
Ukiyo-e drawings began to be produced in the late 17th century century, but it was not until 1764 that Harunobu produced the first polychromatic printing. Designers of the next generation such as Torii Kiyonaga and Utamaro created elegant representations of courtiers. The Ukiyo-e style gained great importance during the XIX century and even many Western painters such as Edgar Degas or Vincent Van Gogh they were influenced by his techniques (see Japonism).
Buddhism and Shinto remained an important part of Edo-period Japanese society. Buddhism mixed with Neo-Confucianism provided standards of social behavior and, although they no longer had the same political force as in the past, this was promoted and practiced by the upper classes. With the prohibition of Christianity in 1640, Buddhism benefited, since the bakufu ordered that all the inhabitants had to register in one of the temples. Thus, while Buddhism served as the social foundation, Shinto served as the foundation for the political system and helped preserve national identity.
End of the shogunate
The Decline of the Tokugawa Shogunate
The end of this period is called bakumatsu. The causes of the end of this period are the subject of great controversy, but it can be seen that the common factor was the mandatory opening of Japan to the rest of the world by Commodore Matthew Perry and his navy known as the "black ships", which fired at the city of Tokyo.
The Tokugawa shogunate did not collapse simply because of its intrinsic flaws. The intrusion of foreigners helped precipitate a complex political struggle between the bakufu and the coalition of critics. The continuation of the antibakufu movement in the middle of the XIX century would eventually bring down the Tokugawa shogunate. From the beginning the shogunate tried to restrict the accumulation of goods in families and tried to promote the policy of "return to land", where farmers, the primary producers, were the ideal person within society.
Despite efforts to restrict assets, the standard of living for urban and rural dwellers increased significantly during the period, in large part because of the period of peace around this time.
A major challenge facing the political class was the nascent entrepreneurial class. The governmental ideal of an agrarian society failed, since it was neither compatible nor realistic with the new commercial distribution. A series of droughts and thus complete crop failures resulted in twenty great famines between 1675 and 1837. Unrest among peasants increased and by the end of the century XVIII Mass protests against high taxes and food shortages became almost routine. Families now homeless became tenant farmers while the rural poor moved to the cities. As the fortunes of previously well-to-do families declined, others were able to accumulate more land and a new well-to-do farming class emerged. The people who were able to benefit were able to diversify their production and hire employees, while others were disgruntled. Many samurai fell on hard times and were even forced to produce handicrafts or work for hire for merchants.
Although Japan was able to acquire and refine a wide variety of scientific knowledge, the rapid industrialization of Western countries during the century XVIII created for the first time a great difference in terms of technology and weapons between Japan and the rest of the industrialized countries, forcing the country to abandon its policy of isolation and contributing to the end of the Tokugawa regime.
Intrusions by Westerners increased in the early 19th century century. Russian warships and traders settled in Karafuto (on the island of Sakhalin, called Sakhalin Oblast under Russian and Soviet control) and on the Buril Islands, of which the southern ones are considered the northern islands of Hokkaidō. An English warship entered Nagasaki harbor looking for Dutch enemies in 1808, and sightings of warships and whalers increased in the 1810s and 1820s. United States whaling and merchant ships also reached Japanese shores.. Although the Japanese made a number of small concessions and allowed some landings, they were trying to keep foreigners out of the country entirely. The Rangaku became crucial not only to understand the “foreign” barbarians, but to fend for themselves without the help of Westerners.
By the 1830s there was a general feeling of crisis. Famine and natural disasters had great consequences on the population. Widespread unrest led to a peasant revolt against officials and merchants in Osaka in 1837, and although this revolt lasted only one day, it had an overall dramatic effect. Some advisers to the shogun believed that the solution lay in a return to the martial spirit, more restrictions on foreign trade, suppressing rangaku, censoring literature, and eliminating “luxuries.” the government and the samurai class. The opposition saw an opportunity to put an end to the Tokugawa and used the political banner of sonnō jōi (“Revere the emperor, expel the barbarians”), which called for unity under the imperial mandate and He opposed the intrusion of foreigners. The concern of the bakufu increased upon learning of the achievements of Westerners in establishing colonial enclaves in China after the first Opium War of 1839-1842, for which more reforms were implemented, especially economic, to try to strengthen the country against the foreign threat.
Japan refused a demand by the United States (which greatly increased its presence in the Asia-Pacific region around this time) to establish diplomatic relations in July 1846 presented by Commodore James Biddle.
End of isolation
When Commodore Matthew Perry turned up with a squadron in Edo Bay in July 1853, Abe Masahiro was in charge of relations with the Americans. Masahiro had no experience or precedent in how to handle these kinds of threats to national security, so he tried to balance the desire of the senior advisers who wanted compromises with Westerners, and the emperor who wanted to keep foreigners out. and that of the daimyō who wanted to go to war. Due to the lack of consensus, Masahiro decided to agree to Perry's demands to open Japan to international trade, but at the same time ordered military preparations. In March 1854 the “Treaty of Kanagawa” peace and amnesty treaty opened two ports to American ships seeking supplies, guaranteed fair treatment for American sailors, and allowed a consul to establish himself in Shimoda, a port on the Izu Peninsula. south of Edo. A trade treaty seeking to open more trade zones was forced five years later.
The resulting damage to the image of the bakufu was significant. Debates about government policies were not unusual and had generated strong criticism in the bafuku. Masahiro then began to seek the support of new allies, which is why he made different agreements with the fudai , the shinpan and the tozama . With the Ansei Reform of 1854-1856, the regime sought to be strengthened by ordering the acquisition of warships and weapons from the Netherlands, in addition to the construction of new defenses for the ports. In 1855, a naval training school with Dutch instructors was established in Nagasaki, a Western-style military school was established in Edo, and translation of Western books began the following year.
Opposition to Masahiro increased among fudai circles, which opposed opening the bakufu councils to daimyō tozama, for which he was replaced from his position and in 1855 he was appointed chairman of the council of Hotta Nariaki. At the head of the dissident faction was Tokugawa Nariaki, who professed strong loyalty to the emperor coupled with strong anti-Western sentiments and who had been appointed in charge of national defense in 1854.
In the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate, contacts with foreigners increased due to concessions granted in the treaty with the United States in 1859, including the opening of more ports for diplomatic representatives, unsupervised trade in four additional ports and foreign residences in Osaka and Edo. The concept of extra-territoriality (foreigners were subject to the laws of their country and not those of Japan) was also accepted. Hotta lost the support of key daimyō and when Tokugawa Nariaki opposed a new treaty, Hotta sought imperial support. The court officials, sensing the weakness of the shogunate, refused Hotta's requests and for the first time in many centuries involved the emperor in internal politics. When the shōgun died without a designated heir, Nariaki appealed to the court for the support of his own son, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, a candidate who had the support of the shinpan and tozama. The fudai won the political fight by installing Tokugawa Yoshitomi, arrested Nariaki and Yoshinobu, executed one of the intellectual leaders of the sonnō-jōi named Yoshida Shōin, and signed treaties with the United States and five other nations, ending more than 200 years of isolation.
Modernization of the Bakumatsu and its conflicts
During the last years of the shogunate, known as the bakumatsu, the bakufu took a series of strong measures to try to regain its dominance, although its involvement with modernization and relations with foreign powers were compromised. about to make him the target of the anti-Western sentiment that prevailed in the country.
During this stage the army and navy were modernized. A naval school was established in Nagasaki in 1855 and large numbers of students were sent abroad for several years for training, beginning a tradition of foreign-educated future leaders, such as Admiral Enomoto Tateaki. French naval engineers were hired to build naval arsenals. By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1867, the Japanese navy already had 8 steam warships, which were used against pro-imperial forces during the Boshin War. A French military mission was also established to modernize the shōgun's army.
Some extremists who viewed the emperor as a symbol of unity incited various sectors of society to violence against the shogunate, the authorities of the various feudal domains, and against foreigners. The outcome of a new conflict known as the Anglo-Satsuma War led to a new treaty to expand trade concessions in 1865, but Yoshitomi was unable to cope with the military might of Western countries. Finally in 1867 Emperor Kōmei died, being succeeded by his youngest son, Emperor Meiji.
Tokugawa Yoshinobu reluctantly became the head of the Tokugawa house and shōgun. He tried to reorganize the government under the figure of the emperor while trying to preserve the active role of the shōgun . Fearing the recent power of the daimyo of Satsuma and Chōshū, other daimyō called for the shogun to return power to the emperor as well as to a council of daimyō headed by the Tokugawa shōgun. Tokugawa Yoshinobu accepted the plan in late 1867 and resigned, announcing "imperial restoration." The leaders of Satsuma, Chōshū, and other domains anyway decided to revolt, besieged the imperial palace, and announced their own restoration on January 3, 1868.
After the Boshin War, the bakufu system was abolished and Tokugawa Yoshinobu was reduced to the rank of a simple daimyo. Resistance continued through 1868 and the shogun's naval forces under Admiral Enomoto Takeaki continued the fight for another six months in Hokkaidō, where they founded the short-lived Republic of Ezo.
Events of the Edo Period
- Battle of Sekigahara (1600)
- Ieyasu Tokugawa becomes shogun and establishes the Shogunato Tokugawa (1603)
- Winter siege in Osaka (1614)
- Summer siege in Osaka (1615)
- Eruption of Mount Fuji (1707)
- Bakumatsu (1853-1868)
- Meiji Restoration (1868)
- War Boshin (1868-1869)
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