Essays on Tokugawa Shogunate

1603 - 1867

Japan

Edo period

Tokugawa period, which lasted from 1603 to 1867, the final period of traditional Japan government, a time of internal peace, political stability, and economic growth under the shogunate (military dictatorship) founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu before the Meiji Restoration of 1868.

The bakuhan system was the feudal political system in the Edo period of Japan. Baku (bakufu) is meaning "military government". The han were the domains headed by daimyō. The Tokugawa regime focused on reestablishing order in social and political affairs after a century of warfare. Ieyasu achieved hegemony over the entire country.

The Neo-Confucian theory dominated Japan during the Tokugawa Period. There were four social classes: warriors, artisans, farmers and merchants. The growth of Japanese economy was significant during the Tokugawa period.

The dominant faith of the Tokugawa period was Confucianism. The Tokugawa regime completely banned on Christianity in Japan.

The Tokugawa shogunate prohibited trade with Western nations and prevented Japanese merchants from trading abroad in purpose to close Japan off from damaging foreign influence. The Act of Seclusion (1636) cut off Japan from Western nations for 200 years.

The late Tokugawa shogunate was the period between 1853 and 1867. During those years, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy and modernized from a feudal shogunate to the Meiji government.