Tokugawa shogunate
The , or
Edo bakufu, was a
feudal military dictatorship of
Japan established by
Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the
shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the
Edo period and gets its name from the capital city of
Edo, now
Tokyo. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from
Edo castle until the
Meiji Restoration.
Following the
Sengoku Period of "warring states", central government had been largely re-established by
Oda Nobunaga and
Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the
Azuchi-Momoyama period. After the
Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, central authority fell to
Tokugawa Ieyasu who completed this process and received the title of
shogun in 1603. In order to become shogun, one must be descendant of the ancient
Minamoto clan. Ieyasu wasn't, so in order to overcome this obstacle, he had his lineage faked. His descendants were to hold the position of Shogun, and the central authority that came with it, until the 19th century.
The Tokugawa period, unlike the shogunates before it, was based on the strict class hierarchy originally established by
Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The warrior-caste of
samurai were at the top, followed by farmers, artisans, and traders. The very inflexibility of the caste system unleashed disruptive forces over time. Taxes on the peasantry were set to fixed amounts which did not account for
inflation or other changes in monetary value. As a result, the tax revenues collected by the samurai landowners were worth less and less over time. This often led to numerous confrontations between noble but impoverished samurai and well-to-do peasants, ranging from simple local disturbances to much bigger rebellions. None, however, proved compelling enough to seriously challenge the established order until the arrival of foreign powers.
Toward the end of the 19th century, an alliance of several of the more powerful
daimyo with the titular Emperor finally succeeded in the overthrow of the shogunate after the
Boshin War, culminating in the
Meiji Restoration. The Tokugawa Shogunate came to an official end in 1868, with the resignation of the 15th Tokugawa Shogun,
Tokugawa Yoshinobu and the "restoration" ('Taisei Hōkan') of imperial rule.
See
Late Tokugawa shogunate for details.
Shogunate and Han
The
bakuhan taisei (幕藩"制) was the feudal political system in the
Edo period of
Japan.
Baku, or "tent," is an abbreviation of
bakufu, meaning "military government" — that is, the shogunate. The
han were the domains headed by daimyo.
The system was
feudal. Vassals held inherited lands and provided military service and homage to their lords.
The Bakuhan Taisei split feudal power between the shogunate in Edo and provincial domains throughout Japan. Provinces had a degree of sovereignty and were allowed an independent administration of the han in exchange for loyalty towards the Shogun, who was responsible for foreign relations and national security. The shogun and lords were both
daimyo, feudal lords with their own bureaucracies, policies, and territories. The Shogun also administrated the most powerful
daimyo, the hereditary fief of House Tokugawa. Each level of government administrated its own system of
taxation.
The shogunate had the power to discard, annex and transform domains. The
sankin-kotai system of alternative residence required each daimyo to send a family representative that would alternate years between the han and attendance in Edo. The huge expenditure sankin-kotai imposed on each han helped centralize aristocratic alliances and ensured loyalty to the Shogun as each representative doubled as a potential hostage.
Tokugawa's descendants further ensured the loyalty by maintaining a dogmatic insistence on loyalty to the Shogun.
Fudai daimyo were hereditary vassals of Ieyasu, as well as of his descendants.
Tozama, or "outsiders", became vassals of Ieyasu after the battle of Sekigahara.
Shimpan, or "relatives," were collaterals of Tokugawa Hidetada. Early in the Edo period, the shogunate viewed the tozama as the least likely to be loyal; over time, strategic marriages and the entrenchment of the system made the tozama less likely to rebel. In the end, it was the great tozama of Satsuma, Choshu and Tosa and to a lesser extent Hizen that brought down the shogunate. These four states are called the Four Western Clans or Satchotohi for short.
The number of han (roughly 250) fluctuated throughout the Edo period. They were ranked by size, which was measured as the number of
koku that the domain produced each year. One
koku was the amount of rice necessary to feed one adult male for one year. The minimum number for a daimyo was ten thousand koku; the largest, apart from the shogun, was a million.
Shogun and Emperor
Despite the establishment of the shogunate, the
emperor in
Kyoto was still the legitimate ruler of Japan. The administration (
taisei, "制) of Japan was a task given by the
imperial Court in Kyoto to the Tokugawa family, which they returned to the court in the
Meiji Restoration.
The shogunate appointed a liaison, the
Kyōto Shoshidai, to deal with the emperor, court and nobility.
Shogun and Foreign Trade
 |
Sakurada Gate at Edo Castle, the center of Tokugawa rule |
The foreign affairs and trade were monopolized by the shogunate, yielding a huge profit. Foreign trade was also permitted to the
Satsuma and the
Tsushima domain.
The visits of the
Nanban ships from
Portugal were at first the main vector of trade exchanges, followed by the addition of Dutch, English and sometimes Spanish ships.
From 1600 onward, Japan started to participate actively in foreign trade.In 1615, an embassy and trade mission under
Hasekura Tsunenaga was sent across the Pacific to
Nueva Espana on a Japanese-built galleon
San Juan Bautista. Until 1635, the Shogun issued numerous permits for
Red seal ships, destined to Asian trade.
After 1635 and the introduction of
Seclusion laws, only inbound ships were allowed, from
China and the
Netherlands.
Rōjū and Wakadoshiyori
The
rōjū (老中) were the senior members of the shogunate. They supervised the ōmetsuke, machibugyō, ongokubugyō and other officials, oversaw relations with the
Imperial Court in Kyoto,
kuge (members of the nobility), daimyo,
temples and
shrines, and attended to matters like divisions of
fiefs. Normally, four or five men held the office, and one was on duty for a month at a time on a rotating basis. They conferred on especially important matters. In the administrative reforms of 1867, the office was eliminated in favor of a bureaucratic system with ministers for the interior, finance, foreign relations, army, and navy.
In principle, the requirements for appointment to the office of rōjū were to be a
fudai (hereditary) daimyo and to have a fief assessed at 50 000 koku or more. However, there were exceptions to both criteria. Many appointees came from the offices close to the shogun, such as soba yōnin, Kyoto shoshidai, and Osaka jōdai.
Irregularly, the shoguns appointed a rōjū to the position of
tairō (great elder). The office was limited to members of the Ii, Sakai, Doi, and Hotta clans, but
Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu was given the status of tairō as well. Among the most famous was
Ii Naosuke, who was assassinated in 1860 outside the Sakurada Gate of
Edo Castle.
The
wakadoshiyori were next in status below the rōjū. An outgrowth of the early six-man
rokuninshū (1633–1649), the office took its name and final form in 1662, but with four members. Their primary responsibility was management of the affairs of the
hatamoto and
gokenin, the direct vassals of the shogun.
Some shoguns appointed a
soba yōnin. This person acted as a liaison between the shogun and the rōjū. The soba yōnin increased in importance during the time of the fifth shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, when a wakadoshiyori,
Inaba Masayasu, assassinated
Hotta Masatoshi, the tairō. Fearing for his personal safety, Tsunayoshi moved the rōjū to a more distant part of the castle. Some of the most famous soba yōnin were Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu and
Tanuma Okitsugu.
Ōmetsuke and Metsuke
The ōmetsuke and metsuke were officials who reported to the rōjū and wakadoshiyori. The five ōmetsuke were in charge of monitoring the affairs of the daimyo, kuge and imperial court. They were in charge of discovering any threat of rebellion.
Early in the Edo period, daimyo such as Yagyū Munefuyu held the office. Soon, however, it fell to
hatamoto with rankings of 5000 koku or more. To give them authority in their dealings with daimyo, they were often ranked at 10 000 koku and given the title of
kami (an ancient title, typically signifying the governor of a
province) such as
Bizen-no-kami.
As time progressed, the function of the ōmetsuke evolved into one of passing orders from the shogunate to the daimyo, and of administering to ceremonies within Edo Castle. They also took on additional responsibilities such as supervising religious affairs and controlling firearms.
The metsuke, reporting to the wakadoshiyori, oversaw the affairs of the vassals of the shogun. They were the police force for the thousands of hatamoto and
gokenin who were concentrated in Edo. Individual han had their own metsuke who similarly policed their samurai.
San-bugyō
The
san-bugyō ("three administrators") were the jisha, kanjō, and machi bugyō. The jisha bugyō had the highest status of the three. They oversaw the administration of Buddhist temples (
ji) and Shinto shrines (
sha), many of which held fiefs. Also, they heard suits from several land holdings outside the eight
Kanto provinces. The appointments normally went to daimyo;
Ōoka Tadasuke was an exception.
The kanjō bugyō were next in status. The four holders of this office reported to the rōjū. They were responsibile for the finances of the shogunate.
The machi bugyō were the chief city administrators of Edo. Their roles included mayor, chief of the police (and later also the fire) department, and judge in criminal and civil matters not involving samurai. Two (briefly, three) men, normally hatamoto, held the office, and alternated by month.
Three machi bugyō have become famous through the jidaigeki, Ōoka Tadasuke and Tōyama Kinshirō as heroes, Torii Yōzō as a villain.
The san-bugyō together sat on a council called the
hyōjōsho. In this capacity, they were responsible for administering the tenryō, supervising the gundai, the daikan and the kura bugyō, as well as hearing cases involving samurai.
Tenryō, Gundai and Daikan
The shogun directly held lands in various parts of Japan. These were known as
bakufu chokkatsuchi; since the Meiji period, the term
tenryō has become synonymous. In addition to the territory that Ieyasu held prior to the Battle of Sekigahara, this included lands he gained in that battle, and as a result of the Summer and Winter Sieges of Osaka, and by the end of the seventeenth century had reached four million koku. Such major cities as Nagasaki and Osaka, and
mines, including the
Sado gold mine, also fell into this category.
Rather than appointing a daimyo to head the holding, the shogunate placed administrators in charge. The titles of these administrators included
gundai,
daikan, and
ongoku bugyō. This last category included the Osaka, Kyoto and
Sumpu machibugyō, and the Nagasaki bugyō. The appointees were
hatamoto.
#
Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542"1616) (r. 1603"1605)#
Tokugawa Hidetada (1579"1632) (r. 1605"1623)#
Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604"1651) (r. 1623"1651)#
Tokugawa Ietsuna (1641"1680) (r. 1651"1680)#
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646"1709) (r. 1680"1709)#
Tokugawa Ienobu (1662"1712) (r. 1709"1712)#
Tokugawa Ietsugu (1709"1716) (r. 1713"1716)#
Tokugawa Yoshimune (1684"1751) (r. 1716"1745)#
Tokugawa Ieshige (1711"1761) (r. 1745"1760)#
Tokugawa Ieharu (1737"1786) (r. 1760"1786)#
Tokugawa Ienari (1773"1841) (r. 1787"1837)#
Tokugawa Ieyoshi (1793"1853) (r. 1837"1853)#
Tokugawa Iesada (1824"1858) (r. 1853"1858)#
Tokugawa Iemochi (1846"1866) (r. 1858"1866)#
Tokugawa Yoshinobu (Keiki) (1837"1913) (r. 1867"1868)
Other influential figures in the shogunate include:
*
Tokugawa Mitsukuni of the
Mito domain*
Tokugawa Nariaki of the
Mito domain*
Shogun*
Edo period *
Keian uprising*
Late Tokugawa shogunate*
Meiji Restoration* -
Japan* http://hkuhist2.hku.hk/nakasendo/tokupols.htm
*
SengokuDaimyo.com The website of Samurai Author and Historian
Anthony J. Bryant**Anthony J. Bryant is the author of
Sekigahara 1600: The Final Struggle for Power, Praeger Publishers;(September, 2005)
