Tokugawa

Tokugawa , family that held the shogunate (see shogun ) and controlled Japan from 1603 to 1867. Founded by Ieyasu, the Tokugawa regime was a centralized feudalism. The Tokugawa themselves held approximately one fourth of the country in strategically located parcels, which they governed directly through a feudal bureaucracy. To control the daimyo [lords], who owed allegiance to the Tokugawa but were permitted to rule their own domains, the Tokugawa invented the Sankin Kotai system which required the daimyo to maintain residence at the shogun's capital in Edo (Tokyo) and to leave hostages there during their absence. Travel was closely regulated, and officials called metsuke [censors] acted as a sort of secret police. During the Tokugawa period important economic and social changes occurred: improved farming methods and the growing of cash crops stimulated agricultural productivity; Osaka and Edo became centers of expanded interregional trade; urban life became more sophisticated; and literacy spread to almost half of the male population. Failure to deal with the crises caused by threats from the West and by domestic discontent, the last Tokugawa shogun resigned in 1867. After the Meiji restoration , the Tokugawa family was allowed to hold some land in Suruga, and when the new nobility was created its head was granted the rank of prince.

Bibliography: See C. Totman, Politics in the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1600-1843 (1967); K. W. Nakai, Shogunal Politics: Arai Hakuseki and the Premises of Tokugawa Rule (1988); T. C. Smith, Native Sources of Japanese Industrialization, 1750-1920 (1988).

Tokugawa Japanese family that controlled Japan through the shogun (1603–1867). The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Ieyasu Tokugawa (1543–1616) who completed the unification of Japan. The Tokugawa ruled through the provincial nobility (daimyo), and they controlled much of Japan's wealth and farmland as well as controlling the emperor and priests. They banned Christianity and Western trade and isolated Japan from the rest of the world. The regime declined during the 19th century as their isolationist policy began to crack under Western pressure. The last Tokugawa shogun was toppled before the Meiji Restoration (1867).

Tokugawa The last Japanese SHOGUNATE (1603–1867). TOKUGAWA IEYASU, its founder, ensured supremacy by imposing severe restrictions on the daimyo (feudal lords). To avoid the effects of European intrusion, Christianity was proscribed in 1641 after the suppression of the Christian Shimabara rebellion and all foreigners except a few Dutch and Chinese traders at Nagasaki were excluded. Japanese were forbidden to go overseas. Interest in European science and medicine increased during the rule of TOKUGAWA YOSHIMUNE.

There followed 250 years of almost unbroken peace and economic growth. An economy based largely on barter became a money economy. An influential merchant class emerged whilst some daimyo and their SAMURAI were impoverished; some married into commercial families. The shogunate was faced with growing financial difficulties but under its rule educational standards improved dramatically.