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MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW TERMS & NAMES

ECONOMICS The Tokugawa

regime unified Japan and began

250 years of isolation, autocracy,

and economic growth.

Even now, Japan continues to

limit and control dealings with

foreigners, especially in the area

of trade.

• daimyo

• Oda

Nobunaga

•Toyotomi

Hideyoshi

•Tokugawa

Shogunate

• haiku

• kabuki

SETTING THE STAGE In the 1300s, the unity that had been achieved in Japan

in the previous century broke down. Shoguns, or military leaders, in the north and

south fiercely fought one another for power. Although these two rival courts later

came back together at the end of the century, a series of politically weak shoguns

let control of the country slip from their grasp. The whole land was torn by fac-

tional strife and economic unrest. It would be centuries before Japan would again

be unified.

A New Feudalism Under Strong Leaders

In 1467, civil war shattered Japan’s old feudal system. The country collapsed into

chaos. Centralized rule ended. Power drained away from the shogun to territorial

lords in hundreds of separate domains.

Local Lords Rule A violent era of disorder followed. This time in Japanese his-

tory, which lasted from 1467 to 1568, is known as the Sengoku, or “Warring

States,” period. Powerful samurai seized control of old feudal estates. They

offered peasants and others protection in return for their loyalty. These warrior-

chieftains, called

daimyo (DYE•mee•oh), became lords in a new kind of

Japanese feudalism. Daimyo meant “great name.” Under this system, security

came from this group of powerful warlords. The emperor at Kyoto became a fig-

urehead, having a leadership title but no actual power.

The new Japanese feudalism resembled European feudalism in many ways.

The daimyo built fortified castles and created small armies of samurai on horses.

Later they added foot soldiers with muskets (guns) to their ranks. Rival daimyo

often fought each other for territory. This led to disorder throughout the land.

New Leaders Restore Order A number of ambitious daimyo hoped to gather

enough power to take control of the entire country. One, the brutal and ambitious

Oda Nobunaga (oh•dah noh•boo•nah•gah), defeated his rivals and seized the

imperial capital Kyoto in 1568.

Following his own motto “Rule the empire by force,” Nobunaga sought to

eliminate his remaining enemies. These included rival daimyo as well as wealthy

Buddhist monasteries aligned with them. In 1575, Nobunaga’s 3,000 soldiers

armed with muskets crushed an enemy force of samurai cavalry. This was the

first time firearms had been used effectively in battle in Japan. However,

Japan Returns to Isolation

A samurai

warrior

▼

108 Chapter 3

ompar

se a c

o compare t

chi

f th

aim

os who unified

apan.

TAKING NOTES

aimy

chievement

Page 1 of 6

Nobunaga was not able to unify Japan. He committed seppuku, the ritual suicide

of a samurai, in 1582, when one of his own generals turned on him.

Nobunaga’s best general,

oyotomi Hideyoshi

(toh•you•toh•mee hee•deh•yoh•

shee), continued his fallen leader’s mission. Hideyoshi set out to destroy the

daimyo that remained hostile. By 1590, by combining brute force with shrewd

political alliances, he controlled most of the country. Hideyoshi did not stop with

Japan. With the idea of eventually conquering China, he invaded Korea in 1592 and

began a long campaign against the Koreans and their Ming Chinese allies. When

Hideyoshi died in 1598, his troops withdrew from Korea.

Tokugawa Shogunate Unites Japan One of Hideyoshi’s strongest daimyo allies,

Tokugawa Ieyasu (toh•koo•gah•wah ee•yeh•yah•soo), completed the unification of

Japan. In 1600, Ieyasu defeated his rivals at the Battle of Sekigahara. His victory earned

him the loyalty of daimyo throughout Japan. Three years later, Ieyasu became the sole

ruler, or shogun. He then moved Japan’s capital to his power base at Edo, a small fish-

ing village that would later become the city of Tokyo.

Japan was unified, but the daimyo still governed at the local level. To keep them

from rebelling, Ieyasu required that they spend every other year in the capital. Even

when they returned to their lands, they had to leave their families behind as

hostages in Edo. Through this “alternate attendance policy” and other restrictions,

Ieyasu tamed the daimyo. This was a major step toward restoring centralized gov-

ernment to Japan. As a result, the rule of law overcame the rule of the sword.

An Age of Explorations and Isolation 109

Drawing

Conclusions

How would the

“alternate atten-

dance policy”

restrict the daimyo?

Edo (Tokyo)

Osaka

Nagasaki

Kyoto

Sea of

Japan

PACIFIC

OCEAN

Kyushu

Shikoku

Honshu

Hokkaido

KOREA

140° E

40° N

Land controlled by Tokugawa

or related households

Five highways

Daimyo boundary

0 200 Miles

0 400 Kilometers

Japan in the

17th Century

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER: Interpreting Maps

1. Place Why might Edo have been a better site for a capital in the 17th century than Kyoto?

2. Region About what percentage of Japan was controlled by Tokugawa or related

households when Tokugawa Ieyasu took power in the early 1600s?

▲

Himeji Castle, completed in the 17th century, is

near Kyoto.

Page 2 of 6

Ieyasu founded the Tokugawa Shogunate, which would hold power until 1867.

On his deathbed in 1616, Ieyasu advised his son, Hidetada, “Take care of the peo-

ple. Strive to be virtuous. Never neglect to protect the country.” Most Tokugawa

shoguns followed that advice. Their rule brought a welcome order to Japan.

Life in Tokugawa Japan

Japan enjoyed more than two and a half centuries of stability, prosperity, and iso-

lation under the Tokugawa shoguns. Farmers produced more food, and the popula-

tion rose. Still, the vast majority of peasants, weighed down by heavy taxes, led

lives filled with misery. The people who prospered in Tokugawa society were the

merchant class and the wealthy. However, everyone, rich and poor alike, benefited

from a flowering of Japanese culture during this era.

Society in Tokugawa Japan Tokugawa society was very structured. The emperor

had the top rank but was just a figurehead. The actual ruler was the shogun, who

was the supreme military commander. Below him were the daimyo, the powerful

landholding samurai. Samurai warriors came next. The peasants and artisans fol-

lowed them. Peasants made up about four-fifths of the population. Merchants

were at the bottom, but they gradually became more important as the Japanese

economy expanded.

In Japan, as in China, Confucian values influenced ideas about society. According

to Confucius, the ideal society depended on agriculture, not commerce. Farmers, not

merchants, made ideal citizens. In the real world of Tokugawa Japan, however, peas-

ant farmers bore the main tax burden and faced more difficulties than any other class.

Many of them abandoned farm life and headed for the expanding towns and cities.

There, they mixed with samurai, artisans, and merchants.

By the mid-1700s, Japan began to shift from a rural to an urban society. Edo had

grown from a small village in 1600 to perhaps the largest city in the world. Its popu-

lation was more than one million. The rise of large commercial centers also increased

employment opportunities for women. Women found jobs in entertainment, textile

manufacturing, and publishing. Still, the majority of Japanese women led sheltered

and restricted lives as peasant wives. They worked in the fields, managed the house-

hold, cared for the children, and obeyed their husband without question.

Culture Under the Tokugawa Shogunate Traditional culture continued to thrive.

Samurai attended ceremonial noh dramas, which were based on tragic themes. They

read tales of ancient warriors and their courage in battle. In their homes, they hung

paintings that showed scenes from classical literature. But traditional entertainment

faced competition in the cities from new styles of literature, drama, and art.

Townspeople read a new type of fiction, realistic stories about self-made mer-

chants or the hardships of life. The people also read

haiku (HI•koo), 5-7-5-sylla-

ble, 3-line verse poetry. This poetry presents images rather than ideas. For example,

Matsuo Basho, the greatest haiku poet, wrote before his death in 1694:

P RIMARY SOURCE

On a journey, ailing— Tabi ni yande

My dreams roam about Yume wa Kareno o

Over a withered moor. Kakemeguru

MATSUO BASHO, from Matsuo Basho MATSUO BASHO, in Japanese

Townspeople also attended kabuki theater. Actors in elaborate costumes, using

music, dance, and mime, performed skits about modern life. The paintings the peo-

ple enjoyed were often woodblock prints showing city life.

Analyzing Primary

Sources

How is Matsuo

Basho’s haiku a

poem about death?

110 Chapter 3

Vocabulary

A shogunate is the

administration or

rule of a shogun.

Page 3 of 6

An Age of Explorations and Isolation 111

Contact Between Europe and Japan

Europeans began coming to Japan in the 16th century, during the Warring States

period. Despite the severe disorder in the country, the Japanese welcomed traders

and missionaries, from Portugal and, later, other European countries. These new-

comers introduced fascinating new technologies and ideas. Within a century, how-

ever, the aggressive Europeans had worn out their welcome.

Portugal Sends Ships, Merchants, and Technology to Japan The Japanese

first encountered Europeans in 1543, when shipwrecked Portuguese sailors washed

up on the shores of southern Japan. Portuguese merchants soon followed. They

hoped to involve themselves in Japan’s trade with China and Southeast Asia. The

Portuguese brought clocks, eyeglasses, tobacco, firearms, and other unfamiliar

items from Europe. Japanese merchants, eager to expand their markets, were happy

to receive the newcomers and their goods.

The daimyo, too, welcomed the strangers. They were particularly interested in

the Portuguese muskets and cannons, because every daimyo sought an advantage

over his rivals. One of theses warlords listened intently to a Japanese observer’s

description of a musket:

PRIMARY SOURCE

In their hands they carried something two or three feet long, straight on the outside

with a passage inside, and made of a heavy substance. . . . This thing with one blow can

smash a mountain of silver and a wall of iron. If one sought to do mischief in another

man’s domain and he was touched by it, he would lose his life instantly.

ANONYMOUS JAPANESE WRITER, quoted in Sources of Japanese Tradition (1958)

The Japanese purchased weapons from the Portuguese and soon began their own

production. Firearms forever changed the time-honored tradition of the Japanese

warrior, whose principal weapon had been the sword. Some daimyo recruited and

trained corps of peasants to use muskets. Many samurai, who retained the sword as

their principal weapon, would lose their lives to musket fire in future combat.

Analyzing Motives

Why did

Europeans want

to open trade

with Japan?

Kabuki Theater

Kabuki is a traditional form of Japanese

theater. It makes use of extravagant

costumes, mask-like makeup, and

exaggerated postures and gestures. The

illustrations to the right show a

contemporary actor and a 19th-century

performer playing warriors.

Although kabuki was created by a

woman, all roles, both male and female,

are performed by men. Kabuki plays are

about grand historical events or the

everyday life of people in Tokugawa

Japan.

For 400 years, kabuki has provided

entertainment for the Japanese people.

And more recently, kabuki has been

performed for audiences around the

world, including the United States. Major

centers for kabuki theater in Japan are

Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka.

Page 4 of 6

The cannon also had a huge impact on warfare and life in Japan. Daimyo had to

build fortified castles to withstand the destructive force of cannonballs. (See the

photograph of Himeji Castle on page 109.) The castles attracted merchants, artisans,

and others to surrounding lands. Many of these lands were to grow into the towns

and cities of modern Japan, including Edo (Tokyo), Osaka, Himeji, and Nagoya.

Christian Missionaries in Japan In 1549, Christian missionaries began arriving

in Japan. The Japanese accepted the missionaries in part because they associated

them with the muskets and other European goods that they wanted to purchase.

However, the religious orders of Jesuits, Franciscans, and Dominicans came to

convert the Japanese.

Francis Xavier, a Jesuit, led the first mission to Japan. He wrote that the

Japanese were “very sociable. . . and much concerned with their honor, which they

prize above everything else.” Francis Xavier baptized about a hundred converts

before he left Japan. By the year 1600, other European missionaries had converted

about 300,000 Japanese to Christianity.

The success of the missionaries upset Tokugawa Ieyasu. He found aspects of the

Christian invasion troublesome. Missionaries, actively seeking converts, scorned

traditional Japanese beliefs and sometimes involved themselves in local politics. At

first, Ieyasu did not take any action. He feared driving off the Portuguese, English,

Spanish, and Dutch traders who spurred Japan’s economy. By 1612, however, the

shogun had come to fear religious uprisings more. He banned Christianity and

focused on ridding his country of all Christians.

Ieyasu died in 1616, but repression of Christianity continued off and on for the

next two decades under his successors. In 1637, the issue came to a head. An upris-

ing in southern Japan of some 30,000 peasants, led by dissatisfied samurai, shook

the Tokugawa shogunate. Because so many of the rebels were Christian, the shogun

decided that Christianity was at the root of the rebellion. After that, the shoguns

ruthlessly persecuted Christians. European missionaries were killed or driven out

of Japan. All Japanese were forced to demonstrate faithfulness to some branch of

Buddhism. These policies eventually eliminated Christianity in Japan and led to the

formation of an exclusion policy.

Comparing

How was the

treatment of

Europeans different

in Japan and China?

How was it similar?

▼ Japanese

merchants and

Jesuit missionaries

await the arrival of

a Portuguese ship

at Nagasaki in

the 1500s in this

painting on wood

panels.

Page 5 of 6

The Closed Country Policy

The persecution of Christians was part of an attempt to con-

trol foreign ideas. When Europeans first arrived, no central

authority existed to contain them. The strong leaders who

later took power did not like the introduction of European

ideas and ways, but they valued European trade. As time

passed, the Tokugawa shoguns realized that they could

safely exclude both the missionaries and the merchants. By

1639, they had sealed Japan’s borders and instituted a

“closed country policy.”

Japan in Isolation Most commercial contacts with

Europeans ended. One port, Nagasaki, remained open to

foreign traders. But only Dutch and Chinese merchants

were allowed into the port. Earlier, the English had left

Japan voluntarily; the Spanish and the Portuguese had been

expelled. Since the Tokugawa shoguns controlled Nagasaki,

they now had a monopoly on foreign trade, which continued

to be profitable.

For more than 200 years, Japan remained basically

closed to Europeans. In addition, the Japanese were forbid-

den to leave, so as not to bring back foreign ideas. Japan

would continue to develop, but as a self-sufficient country,

free from European attempts to colonize or to establish their

presence.

Europeans had met with much resistance in their efforts

to open the East to trade. But expansion to the West, in the

Americas, as you will learn in Chapter 4, would prove much

more successful for European traders, missionaries, and

colonizers.

An Age of Explorations and Isolation 113

TERMS & NAMES 1. For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

• daimyo • Oda Nobunaga • Toyotomi Hideyoshi • Tokugawa Shogunate • haiku • kabuki

USING YOUR NOTES

2. Which contribution by a

daimyo was the most

significant? Why?

MAIN IDEAS

3. What happened during the

period of the “Warring States”?

4. What was the structure of

society in Tokugawa Japan?

5. What were the new styles of

drama, art, and literature in

Tokugawa Japan?

SECTION ASSESSMENT

CRITICAL THINKING & WRITING

6. DRAWING CONCLUSIONS Why do you think that the

emperor had less power than a shogun?

7. ANALYZING CAUSES Why did the Japanese policy toward

Christians change from acceptance to repression?

8. FORMING OPINIONS Do you think Japan’s closed country

policy effectively kept Western ideas and customs out of

Japan?

9. WRITING ACTIVITY Write a two-

paragraph comparison of the similarities and differences

between the roles of women in China (discussed on

page 107) and in Japan (page 110).

CULTURAL INTERACTION

INTERNET ACTIVITY

Use the Internet to find information on the Japanese government

today. Then create an organizational chart showing the structure of

the government.

Zen Buddhism

The form of Buddhism that had the

greatest impact on Japanese culture

was Zen Buddhism. It especially

influenced the samurai.

Zen Buddhists sought spiritual

enlightenment through meditation.

Strict discipline of mind and body was

the Zen path to wisdom. Zen monks

would sit in meditation for hours, as

shown in the sculpture above. If they

showed signs of losing concentration,

a Zen master might shout at them or

hit them with a stick.

INTERNET KEYWORD

country profiles

aim

Achieveme

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