Japanese isolation

1543 arrival of Portuguese merchants in Japan 1568 daimyo Nobunaga is victorius in civil war and it ends 1573 Nobunaga overthrows the Muromachi bakufu and extends his control over most of Japan 1582 Nobunaga is murdered and succeeded by Hideyoshi 1591 Hideyoshi reunifies and pacifies Japan 1592 Hideyoshi tries to invade Korea 1598 Hideyoshi dies; Japanese army retreats from Korea 1600 Ieyasu defeats enamies at the Battle of Sekigahara and extends political control over all of Japan

Closing of Japan Ieyasu succeeded by Hidetada, who became shogun. Hidetada increased pressure on Christians begun by Ieyasu, executing about 750 between 1613 and Thousands more died from exile, torture and imprisonment. Hidetada’s son Iemitsu became shogun in He expelled the Spanish altogether in 1624 and closed Japan from the rest of the world.

1636 Tokugawa edict

Shimabara Rebellion In the wake of the Matsukara clan's construction of a new castle at Shimabara, taxes were drastically raised, which provoked anger from local peasants and ronin (samurai without masters). Religious persecution of the local Catholics exacerbated the discontent, which turned into open revolt in The Tokugawa Shogunate sent a force of over 125,000 troops to suppress the rebels and, after a lengthy siege against the rebels at Hara Castle, defeated them.

Portuguese departure Blamed by Tokugawa clan for the Shimabara Rebellion Barred from entering Japan after Portuguese sailors exevuted for landing at Nagasaki Only Dutch remained in Japan, on small island near Nagasaki Only trade with China continued

Declining power of the Samurai Due to self-imposed isolation, Japan was cut off from changes occurring elsewhere in the world Tokugawa family tried to regulate and life in Japan and imposed many new rules The extended period of peace weakened the power of the samurai through lack of war and through lack of improvement in how they fought

Nakasando The Tokugawa formalized the keeping of hostages. They established rules which specified for each daimyo a period of time every year (or two or three) during which the daimyo must live in Edo. The daimyo’s family would have to live in Edo when the daimyo returned to his domain, so that the one stood hostage for the other.

It also placed an economic burden on the daimyo which drained away resources that otherwise might have gone into military preparations against the shogunate. The daimyo had to maintain a large residence and support facilities in Edo as well as in their domain. They had to travel to and from Edo along a route dictated by the shogunate. Most traveled on the Tokaido because the Nakasendo was used by the imperial court, but the overall burden was spread between the two roads. The whole system consumed about 25% of the income available to most daimyo.

Daimyo often in debt – more and more samurai became ronin or joined the merchant classes During the late 16th Century, Toyotomi Hideyoshi disarmed the peasants through a series of sword hunts with the intention of reducing their contribution to turmoil and to pin them to agricultural activity alone. In the years after 1588, samurai were progressively removed from their independent fiefs in the countryside and brought into the daimyos’ castle towns to live. The samurai became separated from the peasantry both in social role and place of residence.