1600 1700 1800

1600 1636 Act of Seclusion c. Japanese cities grow Ieyasu wins the forbids Japanese to leave in size and population. . the country. Section 3 The Japanese Empire

hile enjoyed stability in the Read to Find Out 1400s and 1500s, experi- Main Idea Japan was more adaptable to W enced a period of turmoil. The changes than China was before the 1800s. shogun was a mere figurehead, and the emperor > Terms to Define performed only religious functions. Daimyos, who sankin-kotai, , , haiku controlled their own lands, waged war against their neighbors as feudal lords had done in Europe in the > People to Meet 1400s. “The strongest eat and the weak become the , , meat” was a Japanese expression of the time. , , Matsuo Warriors showed no chivalry or loyalty. This time Basho of local wars left Japan with a political system > Places to Locate known as the that combined , a central government with a system of feudalism.

The Tokugawa Shogunate Storyteller Oda Nobunaga (oh•DAH •boo•NAH Yamaga Soko bowed deeply. The shogun, •gah) was the first military leader to begin uniting Tokugawa Ieyasu, would determine if Yamaga was the warring daimyos. He announced his ambition prepared to assume a ’s responsibilities. “In on his personal seal: “to bring the nation under one peacetime, we should not be oblivi- sword.” After winning control of a large part of cen- ous to the danger of war. Should we tral Japan, Nobunaga led his army against the cap- not then prepare ourselves for it?” ital city of in 1568. Five years later, amid the asked Tokugawa. Yamaga under- chaos caused by the weak Ashikaga (ah•shee•KAH stood that many considered the use •gah) family, Nobunaga deposed the Ashikaga of arms evil. “Beyond these military shogun. Meanwhile, his forces had moved against duties, we have other functions. We Buddhist military strongholds around Kyoto. After are examples for all society, leading a 10-year siege, he won and so became the most simple and frugal lives,” Yamaga powerful man in the country. In 1582, however, a responded. Not only would the treacherous soldier murdered him. samurai excel at death; they should Toyotomi Hideyoshi also cultivate all aspects of life. Power then shifted to Nobunaga’s best general, Tokugawa spoke again, “A samu- Toyotomi Hideyoshi (toh•yoh•TOH•mee HEE•day rai’s life calls for constant discipline. •YOH•shee), who rose from a peasant family to his Are you, Yamaga Soko, prepared to high position in the military. By 1590 Hideyoshi devote yourself to this?” had forced Japan’s daimyos to pledge their loyalty —adapted from Sources of Japanese to him. Acting as a military dictator, Hideyoshi fur- Samurai in combat Tradition, reprinted in The Human thered his goal of unity by disarming the peasants Record, Alfred J. Andrea and James to prevent them from becoming warriors. In 1588 H. Overfield, 1990 he ordered the “great ,” demanding that

244 Chapter 7 Empires of Asia all peasants turn in their weapons. To stabilize the shogun, and less able to rebel against the govern- daimyo realms he controlled, he imposed laws that ment. Much like Louis XIV of France, the shogun prevented warriors from leaving their daimyo’s turned his aristocracy into courtiers who were care- service to become merchants or farmers. The laws fully watched and controlled. also prevented farmers and merchants from becom- ing warriors. Political System Hideyoshi, planning to expand Japan’s power The Tokugawa family and a select group of abroad, invaded as a step toward conquering daimyos controlled the government. Together they China. The invasion had another purpose—to rid made up the Council of Elders, the leading admin- the country of warriors who could start rebellions istrative body. Assisting the Council, as the “eyes and at home. However, as you learned in Chapter 14, ears” of the state, was a group of officials known as Admiral Yi’s Korean turtle ships thwarted the metsuke. The metsuke toured the country and Hideyoshi’s conquest. reported on possible uprisings or plots against the shogun. A genuine bureaucracy began to develop, Tokugawa Ieyasu working on the principles of joint decision making After Hideyoshi’s death in 1598, a third leader, and promotion based on talent and success. Tokugawa Ieyasu (toh•kuh•GAH•wah ee•YAH •soo), completed the work of unification. At the Social Classes Battle of Sekigahara (seh•kee•gah•HAR•ah) in Before 1600 there had been some social mobili- 1600, Ieyasu defeated the last of his opponents. ty between classes in Japan. Hideyoshi and Ieyasu Three years later, Ieyasu asked the emperor to make him shogun. The Tokugawa family retained the shogunate for 265 years. Tokugawa Rule Ieyasu established his government headquarters at the fishing village of Edo, present-day . There he built a stone fortress protected by high walls and moats. Today, the fortress is the Imperial Palace, but during the Tokugawa shogunate, the Japanese emperor continued to live in Kyoto. Although the emperor remained the official leader of Japan, the shogun exercised the real power. After taking control, Ieyasu reassigned the daimyos’ lands. He divided the daimyos into three groups: Tokugawa relatives, longtime supporters of the Tokugawa family, and those who came to the Tokugawa side only after the Battle of Sekigahara. He issued the most productive lands near Edo to the Tokugawa relatives. The others—potential ene- mies—received less desirable lands in outlying areas of Japan. To ensure daimyo loyalty, Ieyasu set up a sys- tem called sankin-kotai, or attendance by turn. Each daimyo had to travel to Edo every other year, bringing tribute and remaining in the shogun’s ser- vice for a full year. Thus, half the daimyos were directly under the shogun’s control at any one time. Even when the daimyos returned to their estates, they had to leave their families at Edo as hostages. The daimyos spent much of their income trav- Visualizing As a member of a professional class eling to and from Edo and maintaining several History of women, a geisha might serve a households. They also had to get the shogun’s per- samurai in song or dance, by playing a musical instru- mission to marry and to repair or build their castles. ment, or engaging in stimulating conversation. What Sankin-kotai kept them weak, obedient to the were the symbols of authority permitted only to a samurai?

Chapter 7 Empires of Asia 245 had both risen to the top from lowly backgrounds. with no thought to his reputation, gathers To maintain social stability and limit future rivals, profit and amasses a fortune. This is the they introduced measures that froze the Japanese way of life proper to each. This strict social structure. social order helped maintain peace and Under Tokugawa rule, the Japanese were stability throughout Japan. divided into four social classes. At the top were the samurai, including the daimyos, who held all polit- ical power. They alone could wear symbols of Tokugawa Ethics authority: a sword and a distinctive topknot in their Tokugawa ethics placed loyalty to the shogun hair. The farmers, as major food producers, were above the family. Duty and honor became the cen- the second-highest class. They were followed by tral values. Individuals had to develop strict inner artisans who made goods. Merchants were at the discipline to live up to the requirements of their bottom of society, because they only exchanged assigned place in life. These values gradually spread goods and thus were not productive. from the samurai through all social classes in Japan. No one could change his social class or perform Over the course of time, Tokugawa rules for tasks that belonged to another class. One samurai personal conduct evolved into complex rituals and recalled that his father took him out of school etiquette. Minute details came to have heavy sym- because he was taught arithmetic—a subject fit bolic meaning. They became a way to maintain con- only for merchants. A character in a popular puppet formity and control. This was important for a soci- play, written by the author Chikamatsu, described ety that had a large population and only a small the proper order of society: area of productive land.

A samurai’s child is reared by samurai parents and becomes a samurai himself because they teach him the warrior’s Contacts with the West code. A merchant’s child is reared by The peace and order of the Tokugawa shogu- merchant parents and becomes a mer- nate were interrupted when the first Europeans— chant because they teach him the way of the Portuguese—arrived in Japan in 1543. Although commerce. A samurai seeks a fair name the Japanese looked upon Europeans as barbarians, in disregard for profit, but a merchant, the warrior society saw that European weapons meant power. They purchased muskets and cannon to defeat their opponents. Roman Catholic soon followed the Portuguese merchants. Francis Xavier, the ear- liest of the Jesuit priests who came to Japan, admired the . To convert them, the Jesuits adopted their customs. Jesuit missionaries learned the subtleties of conversing in polite Japanese and set up a tea room in their houses so that they could receive their visitors properly. After Xavier won the support of some local daimyos, spread rapidly. Oda Nobunaga himself lent support to the Christians, for during this time he was moving against the Buddhist monasteries that were serving as military strongholds. Jesuits trained Japanese priests to cre- ate a strong Japanese Christian church. By 1614 the Jesuits had converted 300,000 Japanese. Many Japanese welcomed the first contact with Westerners, whose customs and styles became widespread in Japanese society. Even for Japanese Visualizing In Tokugawa Japan, cities became who had not converted to Christianity, Christian History leading centers of Japanese culture. symbols became fashionable. A Artisans began to produce goods for a growing urban described non-Christian daimyos who would wear market. What social classes made up Tokugawa Japan? “rosaries of driftwood on their breasts, hang a

246 Chapter 7 Empires of Asia Visualizing Merchants from the West arrive in Japan accompanied by History Jesuit missionaries. How did Christian missionary activity end under Tokugawa rule? crucifix from their shoulder or waist … they think it Japan barred all Europeans except the Dutch. good and effective in bringing success in daily life.” Unlike the Spanish and the Portuguese, the Dutch Hideyoshi began to suspect that Christian were interested only in trade, not conquest or influence could be harmful to Japan. He had heard religious conversion of the Japanese. For this reason, of Spanish missionaries in the Philippines who had after 1641 the Tokugawa government confined the helped establish ’s control over the islands. Dutch to a tiny island in Nagasaki harbor where they In 1587 Hideyoshi outlawed Christianity. Although and a few Chinese carried on a tightly regulated some priests were crucified, Hideyoshi generally trade. Through the Dutch traders, a trickle of infor- did not enforce his ban on the religion. mation about the West continued to flow into Japan. Tokugawa Ieyasu and his successors also feared Despite Japan’s geographic isolation and the that Christianity threatened their power and so con- Tokugawa policy of isolation, Japan’s society and tinued to persecute Christians, killing them or forcing economy continued to change internally. During the them to leave Japan. When Japanese Christians in the early Tokugawa period, agriculture brought wealth port city of Nagasaki defied authorities and refused to daimyos and samurai, who profited from the rice to disband, the government attacked their communi- produced on their lands. Merchants, in turn, grew ty in 1637 and finally wiped them out in 1638. wealthy by lending money to daimyos and samurai.

Karate Karate is unarmed combat Japan’s Policy of Isolation in which a person uses pri- marily the hands or feet to strike a blow at an The Tokugawa rulers, deciding that contact opponent. This martial art began on the island of with outsiders posed too many dangers, laid down Okinawa near Japan. During the , edicts. Their seclusion policy lasted 200 years. The Okinawa’s Japanese conquerors forbade the local Act of Seclusion of 1636 forbade any Japanese to leave the country and added, “All Japanese resid- people to own weapons. In response, many ing abroad shall be put to death when they return Okinawans learned to turn their hands and feet home.” The government banned construction of into fighting instruments. ships large enough for ocean voyages.

Chapter 7 Empires of Asia 247 THE UND RO Social life in the cities converged on bathhouses, A restaurants, and theaters. Japanese merchants and samurai could relax in the company of , women who were professional entertainers. Geishas Venice, Italy, 1637 were trained in the arts of singing, dancing, and The Teatro San Cassiano—the world’s first public conversation. Urban amusement centers also pro- opera house—opened in Venice in 1637. Early vided employment for playwrights, artists, and baroque operas consisted of recitatives, or poets. At this time a new form of theater known as informational parts, sung by soloists developed. Kabuki became popular for its accompanied by one or two instruments. The portrayal of historical events and emotion-filled arias, or solos expressing a character’s feelings, domestic scenes. During this period the elaborate allowed opera singers to show off their vocal Japanese puppet theater called Bunraku, in which skills. By the late 1600s, operas three-man teams manipulated each puppet as a were being written and backstage chorus sang a story, also arose. performed in , A popular form of art called -e developed France, and Germany. from the demand for prints of famous actors and Italian opera, however, their plays. At first, ukiyo-e prints were black-and- remained the white, but soon ornate, brightly colored prints accepted style. appeared in street stalls. Printed on delicate rice paper, they are highly prized collectors’ items today. A new form of poetry called haiku (HY•koo) also became popular among city people. In only 17 As the daimyos became a debtor class, the merchant syllables, the haiku was to express a thought that class became more powerful. would surprise the reader. Matsuo Basho, one of The system of sankin-kotai also helped merchants the great haiku masters, wrote this haiku: to prosper and trade to increase, because merchants provided the goods and services that the daimyos In my new clothing needed on their twice-yearly trips to Edo. To smooth I feel so different the daimyos’ journey, the government built roads, I must which also eased trade to distant regions. Rest sta- Look like someone else. tions along the roads often grew into large trading or administrative towns. As cities grew in size and population during At the same time, the demands for increased the 1700s and 1800s, the ban on foreign contacts taxes led the daimyos to increase agricultural was gradually relaxed. Some Japanese began to yields. As agriculture became more efficient, farm- study Western medicine in books that the Dutch ing required fewer people. Unemployed farm- brought to Nagasaki. Their interest in the so-called workers moved to prosperous towns and cities, Dutch learning spread to Western science and tech- seeking work as artisans. In urban centers such as nology. However, it would not be until the other Edo, Kyoto, and , social order began to break Europeans arrived in the 1800s that Japan would down and class distinctions became less rigid. begin to absorb other Western ideas.

SECTION 3 ASSESSMENT

Main Idea Recall during the Tokugawa shogu- 1. Use a diagram like the one 2. Define sankin-kotai, metsuke, nate. Which social class would below to show major changes geisha, haiku. you have wanted to belong to? in the Japanese political and 3. Identify Oda Nobunaga, Explain. social system from the 1400s Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Understanding Themes to the 1800s. Tokugawa Ieyasu, Francis 5. Reaction Discuss Japan’s Xavier, Matsuo Basho. rejection of Western ideas, 1400s 1800s Critical Thinking its isolationist policy, and how 4. Synthesizing Information this affected the country’s Imagine that you lived in Japan development.

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