Japan Limits Western ContactCH. 3 SECTION 3

NEW FEUDAL ORDER By the 1300’s, Japan’s

unity broke down between shoguns(military leaders) in the north and south. A civil war, the Onin War (1467-1477), destroyed Japan’s feudal system and the country slipped into chaos...Sengoku (warring states)- period of chaos between 1467 to 1568 when Japan fell into a violent era of disorder.

Powerful samurai seized control of the old feudal estates establishing a new Japanese feudalism. These warrior-chieftains became known as daimyo and secured loyalty from the peasants by offering protection. These rival daimyo fought each other for territory leading to the endless disorder throughout the land.

UNIFYING DAIMYOS 1568- Oda Nobunaga

was a Daimyo who defeated his rivals and seized the imperial capital Kyoto. His motto was “rule the empire by force.” Nobunaga still had enemies (other daimyo and wealthy Buddhist monasteries) which he had to destroy in order to gain control of the country.

Japan around 1582. The areas in purple show the areas controlled by the Oda in 1560, and the grey area were the territory Nobunaga controlled at the time of his death in 1582.

1575- The Battle of Nagashino, Nobunaga led 3,000 musketeers against an enemy force of samurai cavalry. He crushed the enemy and the battle marked the first time that firearms (arquebuses) were successfully used in battle in Japan.

Early form of arquebus; a hand cannon with hook

By the spring of 1582 he had conquered central Japan and was attempting to extend his hegemony over western Japan. In June of that year, however, while Nobunaga was at Honnō Temple in Kyōto, Akechi Mitsuhide, one of his vassals, rebelled against him. Nobunaga was wounded during the attack, and, with no chance of escape, he committed seppuku (ritual self-disembowelment) on June 21, 1582.

Grave of Oda Nobunaga Grave located at Mt. Koya, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan

UNIFYING DAIMYO CONT’D… Toyotomi Hideyoshi

(Nobunaga’s best general) continued to fight and by 1590, controlled most of the country. With ambitions of conquering China, he invaded Korea in 1592 and began a long campaign against the Koreans and their Ming Chinese allies. Hideyoshi died in 1598 and his troops withdrew from Korea.

UNIFICATION! Tokugawa Ieyasu (one of

Hideyoshi’s and Nobunaga’s daimyo allies) did not participate in Hideyoshi’s disastorous campaigns in Korea. Instead, he centralized authority throughout his newly acquired lands. He completed the unification of Japan by defeating his rivals at the Battle of Sekigahara on October 21, 1600.

Tokugawa maintained control of the local daimyo by requiring them to spend every other year in the capital. Even when the diamyo went back to his lands he was required to leave his family in the capital (as hostages.) This was a major step in centralizing authority with Ieyasu’s government in Japan. Statue of Tokugawa Ieyasu at

the Tōshō Shrine in Nikkō, Japan.

In 1603, the powerless but prestigious imperial court, which over the years had dutifully assigned Ieyasu titles that reflected his growing power, appointed him shogun (generalissimo), thereby acknowledging that this most powerful daimyo in Japan was the man officially authorized to keep the peace in the emperor’s name. Two years later Ieyasu formally retired, left Edo for the more pleasant surroundings of his old home at Sumpu, and had the shogunal title assigned to his son Hidetada, intending thereby to assure that the title was recognized as a hereditary Tokugawa prerogative. This was the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

NEW CAPITAL CITY In 1603 when he

became the sole ruler or shogun, Ieyasu moved the capital to a small fishing village named Edo (later known as Tokyo). The Tokugawa or Edo Shogunate will last 1603-1867.