Founding of the Tokugawa Regime
Key terms
- Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川家康 – 1542-1616 (r. 1603-1605)
- Tokugawa Hidetada – 1579-1632 (r. 1605-1623)
- Tokugawa Iemitsu 徳川家光– 1604-1651 (r. 1623-1651)
- tozama 外様
- fudai 譜代
- Nagasaki 長崎
- Edo 江戸 (now Tōkyō 東京)
- sankin kōtai 参勤交代
- Ezo 蝦夷 (Hokkaidō 北海道)
- Ryukyu 琉球
- Satsuma domain 薩摩 — ruling family is the Shimazu 島津
- Chōshū domain 長州— ruling family is the Mōri 毛利
- Tsushima domain 対馬 — ruling family is the Sō宗
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 meddling BUT this immediately
established the heritability of the title shogun in the
Tokugawa house
- Ieyasu eliminates rivals
- neutralizes Hideyoshi's heir (Hideyori 1593－1615) through marriage
with Ieyasu's granddaughter
- attack and destroys Hideyori in 1615
- Redistributes land
- eliminates opponents
- rewards allies with large land grants
Tokugawa holdings |
4.2 million koku |
hatamoto 旗本 |
2.6 million koku |
fudai 譜代 and shinpan 親藩 |
10 million koku |
tozama 外様 |
10 million koku |
imperial house |
0.141 million koku |
- resulting balance of power
Institutions of sustained control
- Elimination of Christianity of limits of contact with outside
world
- 1612 -- bans Christianity and destruction churches in Kyoto
- 1624 -- ban on trade with Spain
- 1629 begin uses of fumie
- 1635 -- ban on overseas travel with death penalty for attempting to return
- Cuts off Japanese overseas communities
- 1639 -- further injunctions against Christianity & ban on Portuguese ships
- 1640 begin use of shūmon aratame
- WHY such hostility to Christianity?
- Spanish and Portuguese bad mouth each other
- Early problems with religious institutions
- 1637 Shimabara rebellion
- Constraints on diplomatic relations
- Break with Hideyoshi's imperial aspirations
- Officially sanctioned diplomatic ties
- Ryukyu 琉球 through Satsuma 薩摩
- Yi-dynasty Korean through the Sō 宗氏 on Tsushima 対馬
 |
 |
Ryukyuan embassies had roughly 100 members and were linked to shogunal succession |
Korean embassies had over 400 members and were enormously expensive |
- Non-diplomatic ties
- Ezo 蝦夷(Hokkaidō) through Matsumae
- Dutch and Chinese through Nagasaki
- BUT -- fallacy of Japan as "closed country"
- Large trade volume continues
- Dutch in Dejima
- Chinese in Nagasaki enclave
唐館図（龍踊図） 川原慶賀筆 19世紀
- Diplomacy remains important
- Power of attainder: shogun can seize all or some of daimyō's holdings for:
- violation of shogunal order
- failure to get approval for succession
- failure to properly govern domain
- System of inspectors
- can check for illegal castle modifications
- can check population registers
- can demand tax registers
- Formalization of sankin kōtai
- this was made mandatory by Iemitsu for tozama in 1635
- for all daimyō (including fudai) in 1642
- leads to explosion of urban culture
- Special levies on daimyō
- 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
Language of Tokugawa Rule:
Although historians commonly refer to the Tokugawa rulers as shoguns, this was a relatively rare title in period documents. Much more common were the following:
- Kubō 公方: Perhaps the most common terms used to refer to the shōgun: it appears both in official government documents and popular language. The term might be best translated as "highness" because it was used to refer to many different lords. In classical Japan (794-1185) it commonly meant the emperor, then it was used for the Kamakura shoguns, and after the 1300s it referred to regional lords, such as daimyō. After 1600 it almost always meant the Tokugawa shōgun.
- Taikun 大君: This term was invented in 1635 in order to facilitate diplomatic relations with the Yi-dynasty 李王家 Korean court. The full title was 日本国大君 "Nihonkoku taikun," or "Taikun of Japan." This was commonly used by foreign diplomats to refer to the shōgun, not by Japanese representatives themselves. The 1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the US and Japan is an agreement between "The President of the United States of America and His Majesty the Tycoon of Japan."
- Tōshōgū 東照宮: More fully Tōshōdaigongen (東照大権現), or the "Great shining deity/Buddha/Bodhisattva of the East." This is the posthumous name of Tokugawa Ieyasu as a deity. This name was chosen over other candidates such as "Great deity/Buddha/Bodhisattva of Japan" and "August deity/Buddha/Bodhisattva." The simpler form comes from the shrine at Nikkō.