Resource Description

THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNATE

• 1600 – 1868
•  Shogun controlled one quarter of the land
• Remainder divided into about 250 domains, each ruled by a daimyo
• Emperor was retained by symbolic
• Emperor resided in Kyoto and the Shogun in Edo
• Bakufu system – restrictions placed on the daimyos

• One castle
• Alternate years staying with the Shogun
• Wife and family could be hostages
• Marriages approved

• Confucianism kept a strict social pyramid

• Warriors, daimyo and samurai
• Farmers
• Artesians
• Merchants
• Eta – outcasts (leather workers, garbage collectors)

• Money economy in 1800’s – samurai high socially but poor, merchants low socially but rich
• Isolation policy

WESTERN INTERVENTION

• 1851 – Commodore Matthew Perry directed to head a naval mission to end isolation
• Interested in whaling and opening more ports to trade
• Fleet of four ships entered Uraga Bay near Edo on July 8, 1853
• Japanese impressed and intimidated by steam ships (Gunboat diplomacy)

WESTERN INTERVENTION CONT.

• Gave a letter from President Fillmore and would return in a year
• Returned 23 February 1854 and Treaty of Kanagawa signed
• American, British, Russian treaties approved by Emperor 1855 – increasing influence

END OF SHOGUNATE

• New Shogun assassinated in 1860 for signing treaty of Kanagawa
• Outlying provinces disagreed with deals with foreigners
• 1863 –  Emperor was restored to power by daimyos
• 16 years old – moved from Kyoto to Edo
• Name was Mutsuhito but changed to Meiji “period of enlightenment

MEIJI RULE

• 1868 – 1912
• First 10 years – power in the hands of 3 leaders from Satsuma and Choshu provinces
• Issue of the Charter Oath
• Destruction of elements of the bakufu system
• 1871 – all domains abolished – 10% of revenue to daimyos as compensation

MODERNISATION

• Industrialisation

• Production of iron weapons
• Shipyards opened
• Mines for coal and metals taken over by the Meiji government
• Modern banking system to focus on capitalism
• 1869 – first telegraph system
• 1880 – all major cities linked by telegraph
• 1872 – Tokyo – Yokohama railway opened