JAPAN RETURNS TO ISOLATION

PRIOR HISTORY

• 1300s unity/peace that had been achieved broke down

• “Shoguns” or military leaders in North & South fought for power

• Economic/political unrest

• Centuries before Japan would be unified again

FEUDALISM

• Civil War- 1467

• Shattered old feudal system

• Country collapsed in chaos

• Power shifted from military shogun to territorial lords

• Time period is known as the Sengoku, or “Warring States” period

• Daimyo- “great name”

• Military cheiftan

• Offered peasants & others protection for their loyalty

• Emperor @ Kyoto had title but not power

DAIMYO’S SEIZE CONTROL

• Daimyo- “great name”

• Military chieftains

• Offered peasants & others protection for their loyalty

• Kyoto- Japan’s capital• Emperor had title but did not have control of the country

• Built fortified castles & created small armies of samurai warriors on horses

• Added foot soldiers with guns (muskets)

• Fought rival Daimyo for land • Caused disorder throughout the land

RESTORING ORDER

• Daimyo sought to take control of the entire country

• Oda Nobunaga • Defeated rivals & seized imperial capital in Kyoto in 1568

• Wanted to eliminate any remaining Daimyo

• “Rule the empire by force”

• 1575- Crushed an enemy force of samurai calvary

• 1st time guns had been used effectively in battle in Japan

• Not able to unify Japan

• Commited Seppuku- ritual death of a samurai when his general turned on him

TOYOTOMI HIDEYOSHI• Nobunaga’s best general

• Continued fallen leader’s mission

• Set out to kill daimyo that remained hostile

• 1590- united Japan under one rule through diplomacy and conquest

• Led campaign against Koreans & Ming (Chinese) allies

• Planned to eventually conquer China

• Died in 1598- troops withdrew from China

TOKUGAWA UNITES JAPAN

• Earned loyalty of daimyo throughout Japan

• Became sole ruler or shogun

• Moved capital to Edo- power base• Small fishing village

• Eventually became Tokyo

• Daimyo still ruled at the local level

• Tokugawa’s Plan• Daimyo had to live in the capital ever other year

• During the other years they had to leave their families in the capital

• Rule by law, not by the sword

• Tokugawa Shogunate- system of rule until 1867

TOKUGAWA LIFE IN JAPAN• Society Pyramid

1. Shogun- supreme military commander

2. Daimyo- land holding samurai

3. Samurai

4. Peasants/Artisans- 4/5 population

5. Merchants

• Confucian Values

• Ideal society depended on agriculture not business

• Farmers- ideal citizens

• Peasant farmers carried majority of tax burden

TOKUGAWA LIFE IN JAPAN• Shift to urban society

• Edo (Tokyo) grown from small village to largest city in the world

• More than a million people

• Women

• Employment for women increased

• Entertainment, textile manufacturing, publishing

• Majority still worked in the field, managed the home, & children

• Culture

• Traditional culture thrived

• Haiku- new type of fiction (poetry)

• Kabuki- actors in elaborate costumes using music, dance & mime

EUROPEANS ARRIVE• During “Warring states period”

• Portugal was 1st

• Welcomed traders & missionaries

• Clocks, eyeglasses, tobacco, firearms, & items from Europe

• Daimyo took interest in Portuguese guns/cannons

• Missionaries

• Converted approx. 300,000 Japanese by 1600

• Tokugawa became worried because some missionaries scorned traditional Japanese beliefs

• Feared losing European Business

• 1612- Banned Christianity from country

• European missionaries were killed or driven out of Japan

CLOSED COUNTRY POLICY

• Shoguns realized they could safely exclude merchants & missionaries from Japan

• 1639- Leaders sealed the country’s borders• No European influence

• Nagasaki- Only port open for foreign trade• Only open to Chinese & Dutch

• Shoguns controlled Nagasaki- monopoly on foreign trade

• More than 200 years Japan remained closed to Europeans

• Japanese forbidden to leave so they couldn’t bring back European items

• Japan develops into self-sufficient country