Foundations of the Tokugawa order

Tokugawa Ieyasu – 1542-1616 (r. 1603-1605)
Tokugawa Hidetada – 1579-1632 (r. 1605-1623)
Tokugawa Iemitsu – 1604-1651 (r. 1623-1651)

Stabilizing a new regime

• Ieyasu quickly established the succession of his house
  • he becomes shogun in 1603 -- he retires in 1605 and makes his son (Hidetada) shogun
  • Ieyasu becomes retired shogun
  • Hidetada hates his father's meddlings BUT this immediately established the heritability of the title shogun in the Tokugawa house
• Ieyasu eliminates rivals
  • Hideyoshi's succession crisis:
  • after first son dies in 1591, Hideoyshi adopts a nephew
  • after Hideyori is born in 1593, Hideoyshi's kills nephew and supporters
  • Lady Yodo, his mother, keeps Hideyori alive through 1615   
  • neutralizes Hideyoshi's heir (Hideyori) through marriage with Ieyasu's granddaughter
  • attack and destroys Hideyori in 1615
• Redistributes land
  • eliminates opponents
  • rewards allies with large land grants
  • resulting balance of power

    shogunal holdings	4.2 million koku
    hatamoto	2.6 million koku
    fudai and shimpan	10 million koku
    tozama	10 million koku
    imperial house	0.141 million koku

  
• Asserts legal authority over daimyo through buke shohatto
  • regulations on daimyo conduct
  • especially important is sankin kōtai with regulated travel and Edo residences, e.g. Shimazu and Hosokawa
• Regulation of imperial house through kuge shohatto

Institutions of sustained control

• elimination of Christianity of limits of contact with outside world
• formalization of sankin kōtai
  • this was made mandatory by Iemitsu for tozmama in 1635
  • for all daimyo (including fudai) in 1642
• system of inspectors
  • can check for illegal castle modifications
  • can check population registers
  • can demand tax registers
• special levies on daimyo
  • river works
  • castle construction
• control over currency
  • shogunate reserves for itself the right to strike coins
  • it seizes all the major gold, silver and copper mines in Japan
• ideological conformity
  • initially the shogunate is ideologically eclectic
    • Ieyasu's advisers rely on Buddhist and Shinto ideas
    • Tokugawa Ieyasu is a Shinto deity at Nikkō
  • official support for Hayashi Razan school in late 1600s

    Quote from Hayashi Razan: "Heaven is above and earth is below. This is the order of heaven and earth. If we can understand the meaning of the order existing between heaven and earth, we can also perceive that in everything there is an order separating those who are above from those who are below. When we extend this understanding between heaven and earth, we cannot allow disorder in the relations between the ruler and the subject, and between those who are above and those who are below. The separation into four classes of samurai, farmers, artisans and merchants, like the five relationships, is part of the principles of heavan and is the Way which was taught by the Sage [Confucius]"