Learn all about the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan. Explore the history behind that time period in Japan, the culture at that time, and the unification of Japan.
Updated: 02/24/2022
Japan's Tokugawa Shogunate
Tokugawa Shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate was a period in Japanese history from around 1600 to 1868. This was considered a military government, as warlords held some of the most power in society. Many artistic and cultural ideas became popular during this period. Culture flourished under the shogunate because the period stayed relatively peaceful. The period is also sometimes called the "Edo shogunate,: as the capital of Japan at the time was located in Edo.
Japan Before the Tokugawa
Imagine, for a minute, that you are the ruler of a small piece of land. Your family has ruled the land for generations, and while you technically report to a great emperor, the fact is that you are really more fearful of the dictator. Now imagine that suddenly the dictator comes along and asks that you give up all of your land to that emperor and says it's for the good of the country. In exchange, you might get permission to be a judge or a governor, but not much else. What would you do? If you were a daimyo, or a local leader in Tokugawa Japan, your answer would probably be very different than what you might expect.
For centuries, Japan had a largely united culture, but was politically very segmented. While the emperor did rule from Kyoto, his influence only carried for a few miles, allowing local rulers more than a few days' journey from the capital to rule largely as they wished. Instead, it was the local daimyos who held the real power.
Needless to say, this did not gain the Japanese a great deal of respect from their neighbors. In a letter complaining about piracy, the Emperor of China goes as far as to call them barbarians, almost at times insinuating that the Japanese should just count their blessings that the Chinese have allowed them to continue on for as long as they have.
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Tokugawa Shogunate History
The military government of the Tokugawa shogunate was originally founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu, which is where the government originally gets its name. The culture of Japan had been unified for centuries; however, it was politically divided. Tokugawa Ieyasu, along with several other influential men, worked to unify Japan under one ruler. In order to maintain his rule, Ieyasu built off of the existing feudal system. Ieyashu moved the traditional capital from Kyoto to Edo. There, he became shogun, or the military ruler.
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There he maintained his power by maintaining a class of military warlords. These warlords, called daimyo, were local leaders who pledged loyalty to the shogun in exchange for power. These men had to maintain residences in Edo, where they were required to reside every other year. This was incredibly expensive, but it kept the daimyo close to the shogun so that he could supervise them and ensure their loyalty. This also meant that the daimyo had to have two homes and travel regularly back to the capital. This too was very expensive and was purposely done to make sure the daimyo were less likely to challenge the shogun's power. These daimyos divided up governing Japan, lessening the responsibilities of the shogun. They were in charge of extracting resources and taking taxes back to Edo. The daimyo were helped in this effort by the samurai, a class of military officers.
Unification of Japan
Before the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, Japan's decentralized power made it difficult for the emperor to rule as Europeans began exploration and colonization. Japan was at a disadvantage. Some Europeans like the Portuguese and the Spanish even began to set up missionary camps in Japan. This was disrupting the political structure. Japan would ultimately be unified through the efforts of several daimyos.
Oda Nobunaga was the local ruler of the Owari province. He began conquering nearby territories. By adopting western technology introduced by the Portuguese, he was able to build a capable and effective fighting force. He conquered a large part of central Japan, including the capital Kyoto, for a period.
After Nobunaga's death, he was succeeded by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Toyotomi became shogun and ruled over Nobunaga's conquered territories. The shogun was to be the emperor's military chief of staff. The emperor remained on the throne while the shogun was in power. However, the shogun was the real ruler of Japan, making the role of the emperor became virtually powerless. It was more of a ceremonial position. Toyomoti continued conquering territories. He solidified the class system, increasing the strength of the daimyo, and even confiscating weapons from peasants so they could not become warlords themselves. He attempted to conquer Korea, but failed. He soon died and was replaced by his aide Tokugawa Ieyashu.
Tokugawa Ieyashu decided to make the position of shogun hereditary, making every ruler during the Tokugawa period a member of the Tokugawa family. He founded the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603, quickly limiting the power of the daimyos and moving the capital to Edo. The descendants of Toyotomi had built a powerful clan. Tokugawa defeated them, solidifying his reign and taking over all of Japan. He took away the powers of local rulers to strengthen his own influence. Under Tokugawa, Japan was finally unified.
The Decline of Tokugawa Shogunate
The Bakumatsu period is referred to by many as the "final act of the shogunate." By 1853, the power of the shogunate began to decline. The Tokugawa shogunate had banned missionaries from Japan early on in its rule. Western merchants were banned as well; and most westerners were expelled. For several decades, there was only one Dutch ship that was allowed to come to Japan once a year. Without the influence of outside foreigners, the shogunate was able to increase their power. However, the local daimyo felt threatened. The shogunate banned the lower classes from possessing weapons. The only ones allowed to carry them were the daimyo and the samurai. Japan's isolation and the daimyo system had begun to weaken the country. They lacked much of the modern technology and ideas that other Asian countries like China had. Their agricultural and commercial production was slow compared to the rest of the world. While the shogunate had unified Japan under one ruler, rule was still somewhat decentralized; and without political unity, it was difficult for Japan to modernize.
In 1853, the U.S. Navy sent an armed fleet to the Tokyo harbor to demand the right to trade, leading Japan to open up to merchant activity. By 1867, two clans emerged against the Tokugawa and overthrew the shogunate. They declared a restoration named after the current child emperor, only 14 years old at the time, named Meiji. This began the Meiji Restoration. This was a political and cultural movement that embraced western technology and ideas after centuries of isolation from the west.
The Culture of the Edo Shogunate
Culture flourished during the Tokugawa shogunate. With the movement of the capital to Edo, the city began to grow, attracting many artists. The poet Basho created the haiku, a poetic form that remains popular today. Kabuki theater grew in popularity as the city's population grew. Kabuki had live actors perform scenes in front of an audience, which differed from the bunraku theater that also developed during this time. Bunraku used puppets to tell stories in front of an audience in smaller towns. Woodblock printing was originally developed in China. Using this printing technique works like poems or books could be produced and shared on a much larger scale in Japan. Instead of writing out every copy by hand, multiple copies could be printed at once.
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Since only the Dutch were allowed to trade with Japan, Dutch learning became influential. In fact, it led to an effort by many Japanese scholars to try and learn Dutch so they could better understand western science and technology. Ideas in Dutch medicine and astronomy were heavily studied. Neoconfucianism was also an important cultural aspect of the Tokugawa shogunate. This philosophy combined ideas of Chinese Confucianism with Buddhist philosophy. The philosophy focused on ideas of harmony and justice. It emphasized the importance of the relationship between a ruler and subject. A ruler was expected to be benevolent, while a subordinate was expected to be obedient.
Lesson Summary
The Tokugawa shogunate in Japan began around 1600 and ended in 1868. It came to power after Oba Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu worked to unify Japan. The shogun served as ruler of Japan. He was the emperor's military chief of staff, but really served as the de facto ruler. All rulers during the Tokugawa shogunate were members of the Tokugawa family. Daimyo served as local rulers subservient to the shogun. They were required to keep two residences: one in the area they ruled, and one in the capital, Edo. This was done on purpose by the shogun to control the daimyo. It was incredibly expensive and it allowed the shogun to supervise the daimyo. The Tokugawa shogunate remained isolated from the west. However, by 1853, the United States Navy appeared in Tokyo harbor to threaten the Japanese into trade. This opened Japan to the west. The Tokugawa family was eventually overthrown by two rival clans, leading to the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
Warlords
The situation only got worse with the arrival of Europeans. Suddenly, Japan started to get an education in just how far behind it was. Japan had a sizeable fleet of merchant ships that sailed throughout the region and came back with tales of how the Europeans were actually a force to be reckoned with.
The Europeans, namely the Portuguese and the Spanish, had also set up bases in Japan itself. From those bases came a number of Jesuit Missionaries, who began converting people to Christianity. Normally, Japan had only allowed foreign influence when it was viewed as beneficial. Christianity had not passed that test, and was causing discord throughout the land.
Meanwhile, a daimyo named Oda Nobunaga began conquering some of the surrounding territories of his domain. Ultimately, he conquered much of central Japan and, upon his death, his top soldier, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, became the ruler of the newly-conquered lands and was soon the Shogun. In theory, the Shogun was the Emperor's chief of staff, but in reality, it was the de facto ruler of Japan.
After failing to conquer Korea, Toyotomi died, to be replaced by one of his top aides named Tokugawa Ieyasu who, after seeing the last two rounds of succession, made his son his heir. Tokugawa's influence would be so important that the years from 1603 until 1867 are called the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Tokugawa worked quickly to limit the power of other daimyos by forcing them to keep a second residence in the capital of Edo. This expense took much of the power away from the local rulers and allowed Tokugawa to consolidate his power. Additionally, by 1587, Tokugawa ordered missionaries out of the country.
Tokugawa's Shogunate
It wasn't just missionaries that Tokugawa banned from Japan. He was tired of the endless arguing from the merchants, especially those who argued about Christianity, and wanted stability. After Tokugawa died, other Westerners were expelled, including the merchants. In fact, for decades, the only Western ship permitted in Japan was a Dutch ship, once a year, to Deshima, an island in the Nagasaki harbor.
By expelling the foreigners, the Shogunate was able to mandate a great deal more to its people. In order to placate the local daimyo, the Shogunate banned weapons from all people, except a handful of warriors known as samurai. It was for this reason that martial arts, particularly karate and judo, became so popular in Japan.
However, enough information did slip in from the West to assure the Japanese that they were able to change when it was necessary. However, by the 1850s it was clear that Japan would not be able to survive in isolation indefinitely. Desperately wanting access to Japan's markets, the U.S. Navy sent a fleet into Tokyo Harbor, aimed the guns on government buildings, and demanded the right to trade. Within a year, the Japanese had opened up merchant activity.
However, the writing was on the wall, as the daimyo system was weakening Japan. To be able to survive without having the consequences of other Asian powers, Japan would have to modernize, and that could only be done through political unity.
That brings us back to the opening question: would you do it? For many of us, the idea of giving up everything we'd ever known to be a glorified administrator would be hard to contemplate. However, for the Japanese daimyos, they realized that their only chance at remaining Japanese was through unity, and this was their only chance at unity. This transformation from feudal state to unified empire in 1868 is called the Meiji Restoration and set the tone for Japan's rapid development.
Lesson Summary
In this lesson, we looked at how Japan was able to both unify and take the first steps towards modernization as a result of the warlords and the Tokugawa Shogunate.
From a disorganized gathering of small holdings under the very loose power of the Emperor, the unification began when three strong leaders, Oda Nobunaga, Toyomoti Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, came to power in rapid succession, ultimately becoming the most powerful rulers in Japan. These men limited the power of the daimyos, or local leaders, and saw the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Ultimately, the Tokugawa would also institute a policy to control who had access to weapons as well as shutting out foreigners from Japan. Finally, in the face of American gunships, the Tokugawa were forced to modernize under the Meiji Restoration.
Learning Outcomes
After this lesson you should be able to:
- Describe Japan before the Tokugawa Shogunate
- Recall the origins of the Tokugawa Shogunate
- State why Japan closed its doors to foreigners
- Explain how a united empire in Japan was the answer to modernization
To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member.
Create your account
Video Transcript
Japan Before the Tokugawa
Imagine, for a minute, that you are the ruler of a small piece of land. Your family has ruled the land for generations, and while you technically report to a great emperor, the fact is that you are really more fearful of the dictator. Now imagine that suddenly the dictator comes along and asks that you give up all of your land to that emperor and says it's for the good of the country. In exchange, you might get permission to be a judge or a governor, but not much else. What would you do? If you were a daimyo, or a local leader in Tokugawa Japan, your answer would probably be very different than what you might expect.
For centuries, Japan had a largely united culture, but was politically very segmented. While the emperor did rule from Kyoto, his influence only carried for a few miles, allowing local rulers more than a few days' journey from the capital to rule largely as they wished. Instead, it was the local daimyos who held the real power.
Needless to say, this did not gain the Japanese a great deal of respect from their neighbors. In a letter complaining about piracy, the Emperor of China goes as far as to call them barbarians, almost at times insinuating that the Japanese should just count their blessings that the Chinese have allowed them to continue on for as long as they have.
Warlords
The situation only got worse with the arrival of Europeans. Suddenly, Japan started to get an education in just how far behind it was. Japan had a sizeable fleet of merchant ships that sailed throughout the region and came back with tales of how the Europeans were actually a force to be reckoned with.
The Europeans, namely the Portuguese and the Spanish, had also set up bases in Japan itself. From those bases came a number of Jesuit Missionaries, who began converting people to Christianity. Normally, Japan had only allowed foreign influence when it was viewed as beneficial. Christianity had not passed that test, and was causing discord throughout the land.
Meanwhile, a daimyo named Oda Nobunaga began conquering some of the surrounding territories of his domain. Ultimately, he conquered much of central Japan and, upon his death, his top soldier, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, became the ruler of the newly-conquered lands and was soon the Shogun. In theory, the Shogun was the Emperor's chief of staff, but in reality, it was the de facto ruler of Japan.
After failing to conquer Korea, Toyotomi died, to be replaced by one of his top aides named Tokugawa Ieyasu who, after seeing the last two rounds of succession, made his son his heir. Tokugawa's influence would be so important that the years from 1603 until 1867 are called the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Tokugawa worked quickly to limit the power of other daimyos by forcing them to keep a second residence in the capital of Edo. This expense took much of the power away from the local rulers and allowed Tokugawa to consolidate his power. Additionally, by 1587, Tokugawa ordered missionaries out of the country.
Tokugawa's Shogunate
It wasn't just missionaries that Tokugawa banned from Japan. He was tired of the endless arguing from the merchants, especially those who argued about Christianity, and wanted stability. After Tokugawa died, other Westerners were expelled, including the merchants. In fact, for decades, the only Western ship permitted in Japan was a Dutch ship, once a year, to Deshima, an island in the Nagasaki harbor.
By expelling the foreigners, the Shogunate was able to mandate a great deal more to its people. In order to placate the local daimyo, the Shogunate banned weapons from all people, except a handful of warriors known as samurai. It was for this reason that martial arts, particularly karate and judo, became so popular in Japan.
However, enough information did slip in from the West to assure the Japanese that they were able to change when it was necessary. However, by the 1850s it was clear that Japan would not be able to survive in isolation indefinitely. Desperately wanting access to Japan's markets, the U.S. Navy sent a fleet into Tokyo Harbor, aimed the guns on government buildings, and demanded the right to trade. Within a year, the Japanese had opened up merchant activity.
However, the writing was on the wall, as the daimyo system was weakening Japan. To be able to survive without having the consequences of other Asian powers, Japan would have to modernize, and that could only be done through political unity.
That brings us back to the opening question: would you do it? For many of us, the idea of giving up everything we'd ever known to be a glorified administrator would be hard to contemplate. However, for the Japanese daimyos, they realized that their only chance at remaining Japanese was through unity, and this was their only chance at unity. This transformation from feudal state to unified empire in 1868 is called the Meiji Restoration and set the tone for Japan's rapid development.
Lesson Summary
In this lesson, we looked at how Japan was able to both unify and take the first steps towards modernization as a result of the warlords and the Tokugawa Shogunate.
From a disorganized gathering of small holdings under the very loose power of the Emperor, the unification began when three strong leaders, Oda Nobunaga, Toyomoti Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, came to power in rapid succession, ultimately becoming the most powerful rulers in Japan. These men limited the power of the daimyos, or local leaders, and saw the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Ultimately, the Tokugawa would also institute a policy to control who had access to weapons as well as shutting out foreigners from Japan. Finally, in the face of American gunships, the Tokugawa were forced to modernize under the Meiji Restoration.
Learning Outcomes
After this lesson you should be able to:
- Describe Japan before the Tokugawa Shogunate
- Recall the origins of the Tokugawa Shogunate
- State why Japan closed its doors to foreigners
- Explain how a united empire in Japan was the answer to modernization
To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member.
Create your account
Frequently Asked Questions
How did Tokugawa Japan fall?
The daimyo had weakened Japan's power. Agriculture was not very productive. After trade was opened by the United States, two rival clans overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate.
What is the Tokugawa empire known for?
They are known for the feudal system and a period of stability. During this time, culture and art flourished, allowing Dutch learning as well as theater to grow.
Was the Tokugawa period good for Japan?
It was mostly good. It took away the power of the lower classes, but brought a period of peace. It also led to the development of several new artistic forms.
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BackResources created by teachers for teachers
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& teaching resources‐all
in one place.
I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. It’s like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. I feel like it’s a lifeline.
Jennifer B.
Teacher
Back
Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan | History, Culture & Unification
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