Japanese history overview Pt. 8: The Edo era Pt. 1
The Edo era: 1603 – 1867
We’ve reached the Edo era! For those of you who have been reading this series since the beginning, well done for having made it to this point. Only a little further to go until we’re into the modern age. We left off last time in 1616 with Tokugawa Ieyasu dying and leaving the Edo shōgunate in the hands of his son, Hidetada. But despite having succeeded in destroying the Toyotomi―his family’s final threat―before his death, Ieyasu left his son with a lot of work to do regarding securing the ongoing success of the shōgunate.
Tokugawa Hidetada
For centuries, Hidetada was largely viewed as a useless buffoon who almost cost his father Sekigahara by not arriving at the battlefield in time. In all fairness, though, he didn’t have an easy run. Neither did Minamoto no Yoriie or Ashikaga Yoshiakira―second shōguns of the Kamakura and Muromachi shōgunates. It’s not easy being second. For one, however achieved you become, your accomplishments are going to pale in comparison to those of your father. For another, your father undoubtedly left you with a number of problems to sort out―problems which most people weren’t initially aware of because they were too busy being in awe of the fact your father established a shōgunate. That said, well aware of the mistakes his predecessors made, Ieyasu set Hidetada in good stead by first taking down the Toyotomi and next working together with his son to compile the Buke-shohatto, a list of rules devised to keep the daimyō under control and ensure that no one could become powerful enough to make a bid for the country and launch Japan into a second Sengoku.
The Buke-shohatto
The Buke-shohatto started off simple: 13 basic rules for samurai around the country to follow. Over the years, new rules were added and existing rules were altered or repealed until the document reached its final form in 1717. Many followed on from laws established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi during his time served as kanpaku, such as the ‘one castle per daimyō’ rule and the banning of marriages between daimyō families. (Ironically, it was by breaking this rule that Ieyasu was able to get a head start in gathering allies for Sekigahara. In fact, it was this act that caused his potential enemies to raise an eyebrow and set off the chain of events that led to the battle itself.) Other rules were original, such as banning daimyō from naming a successor on their deathbed and insisting that daimyō make formal requests to the shōgunate for even the most minor of repairs they needed to perform on their castle. These rules were made intentionally strict to trick or force daimyō into breaking them, at which point the shōgunate would relocate the daimyō to a smaller domain, or, in more severe cases, order the dissolution of his family.
Shinōkōshō
Again following on from Hideyoshi, Ieyasu and Hidetada put a ban on Christianity. One of the first things they had done when establishing the Edo shōgunate was to set up the Shinōkōshō(士農工商) hierarchy. This hierarchy placed samurai(士) at the top, followed by farmers(農), artisans(工) and finally merchants(商). Although farmers ranked high in the hierarchy, in reality, they received the worst treatment of all four groups; it was the only group that was required to pay taxes, and those taxes remained high throughout most of the Edo era. By placing them second in the hierarchy, Ieyasu intended to prevent anarchy by tricking the farmers into believing that despite their harsh conditions, they were high-ranking members of society.
Once born into a certain group, it was extremely difficult―though not impossible―to move up or down the hierarchy. Being born a farmer didn’t necessarily condemn you to a life of struggle and poverty, though; by the end of the Edo era, many farmers were richer than the majority of samurai.
So how does this all relate back to Christianity? Well, if you’re going to establish a hierarchy that ranks certain groups of people over others, the last thing you want is a religion that claims all men are born equal infiltrating your society and spreading its new and dangerous ideas. In order to keep a tighter grip on the populace and ensure that there were no secret Christians, the shōgunate demanded that every citizen be registered to a temple. In addition, they created metal plates containing the image of Jesus Christ and had each member of the population step on one of these plates periodically to prove they were not Christian.
Tokugawa Iemitsu
In 1623, Hidetada passed the title of shōgun to his son, Iemitsu, who spent a vast amount of money transforming his grandfather’s burial site, Nikkō-Tōshōgū, from a modest little shrine into one of the largest, fanciest, shiniest structures of the time. Even today, it remains one of the most popular tourist spots in the east of Japan.
Sankin-kōtai
Iemitsu also made possibly the most important addition to the Buke-shohatto of all shōguns to come: Sankin-kōtai. Under this system, daimyō were obliged to spend every second year in Edo, living on private estates set up for the occasion. Officially, the system was devised to ensure that Edo always had sufficient protection and to deter any daimyō who may have been hoarding thoughts of taking over the shōgunate’s capital. Unofficially, it was most likely intended to financially cripple daimyō to the point they couldn’t afford a rebellion. Naturally, the further a daimyō’s domain was from Edo, the more expensive and time-consuming the journey was. To make matters worse, the number of soldiers, servants and attendants to be led to Edo was determined by the size of the domain, making it difficult to cut corners. In extreme cases, the ordeal cost daimyō as much as 75% of their annual rice income!
Needless to say, many were opposed to the idea when it was first suggested. However, when Date Masamune, one of the shōgunate’s oldest, most famous, and most accomplished supporters, backed the system, other daimyō had no choice but to fall in line. The system was not, however, without its benefits to the daimyō: as well as enabling the spread of information around the country, it gave them the chance to see their wives, children and most loyal retainers, who were being kept in Edo as hostages―another system devised by the shōgunate to deter rebellion.
Sakoku – the Closing of the gates
Elsewhere, in a further effort to stop Christianity from infiltrating the country, Iemitsu banned Spain and Portugal from trading with Japan. Later in the century, the shōgunate would also ban England, leaving just the Netherlands as its only open trade route for Europe. This situation would later be referred to by historians as sakoku(鎖国), which literally translates to ‘chained country’.
Despite managing to maintain their trade agreement with Japan, however, Dutch merchants weren’t permitted to explore the country freely; they were only permitted to dock at ports established in Nagasaki and Hirado in the west of Kyūshū, and were limited as to how far they could travel within these areas. Later, an artificial island known as Dejima was set up in Nagasaki. With few exceptions, this was the only area where Dutch merchants were permitted to live.
Other than Europe, Japan also continued trading with Ming China and, by extension, all countries with whom Ming had trade agreements. The shōgunate also permitted trading with the Ryū Kyū islands to the south(now known as Okinawa), and the Ezo to the north(the area now known as Hokkaidō). Tsushima han, Satsuma han and Maebara han respectively had exclusive trade rights with these regions, allowing them to amass small fortunes.
The Shimabara rebellion
Despite its tight grip on the populace, however, not everything was going as swimmingly as the shōgunate would have liked; the aforementioned relocating and disbanding of daimyō families created a large number of rōnin, many of whom, due to the lack of available samurai work in the country, were forced to turn to lives of crime. In 1637, this problem was exacerbated when the daimyō in charge of Shimabara, an area in the west of Kyūshū, began levying extortionate taxes on the people of his land and employing corporal punishment when they were unable to meet his demands. It all came to a head when disgruntled farmers teamed up with the almost endless supply of rōnin left behind by Christian daimyō Konishi Yukinaga and Arima Harunobu, both of whom had lost their land(and lives) early in the Edo era. This civilian army ballooned to a whopping 37,000! It took the shōgunate four months and 124,000 men to put down the rebellion. They also had a little help from the Dutch, who sent a number of ships to help them take down the rebels―a major factor that contributed to the shōgunate’s decision to continue trading with the Netherlands throughout the Edo era.
The Keian Uprising
Despite this clear warning, still the shōgunate did nothing to quell the rōnin problem. The resentment felt by the countless desperate samurai grew to the point where in 1651, shortly after Iemitsu’s death, a military tactician by the name of Yui Shōsetsu decided to take action. Gaining the support of a large number of rōnin living around Edo, Shōsetsu devised a plan to kidnap both the emperor and Iemitsu’s young son, Ietsuna(the new shōgun). In order to ensure the plan’s success, he plotted to start a number of strategic fires around Edo, culminating in the burning down of Edo Castle. Amidst the chaos, one of his men would lead a team to the castle and capture the shōgun. While all that was going on, he planned to be in Kyōto with his own team, infiltrating the palace and taking the emperor captive.
None of this came to fruition, however; the plan leaked shortly after Shōsetsu left Edo, his men were taken and executed, and he was hunted down and forced to have to kill himself. Despite the plan’s failure, though, the rōnin succeeded in gaining the attention of the shōgunate. After the dust had settled, new rules were put in place allowing daimyō between the ages of 17 and 50 to name a successor on their deathbed, thereby ensuring the continuation of their domain. In 1683, this rule was again changed to extend the courtesy to daimyō of all ages.
Tokugawa Ietsuna
Ietsuna decided to take the shōgunate in a different direction from that of his predecessors. Having been an advocate of human rights since an early age, in addition to his decision to repeal the law regarding the naming of successors, he also decreed that daimyō no longer had to send their retainers to Edo as hostages. Furthermore, he put a ban on martyrdom―an act whereby a samurai commits ritual suicide upon the death of his master. Ietsuna reasoned that anyone willing to kill himself for his master was an asset to that daimyō’s family. Rather than die to prove his loyalty, he was better served staying alive to continue serving his master’s successor.
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi
Dog shōgun
Having been unable to produce an heir, Ietsuna passed the title of shōgun to his brother, Tsunayoshi, who prove to be far more extreme in his approach towards protecting human rights. While Ietsuna had concerned himself with improving the quality of life for all samurai under his jurisdiction, Tsunayoshi made it his mission to ensure quality of life for every living creature! His laws extended from humans all the way down to insects. In one particular case, a servant was put under house arrest for killing a mosquito! More than anything, though, Tsunayoshi had a fondness for dogs―so much so that he became known as the ‘Dog shōgun’. Historians aren’t quite sure why he had such an affinity towards dogs over other living things, but they speculate that it may be due to the fact that he was born in the year of the dog.
A large facility was constructed in the middle of Edo to house and care for stray and injured dogs. (Naturally, the exorbitant cost of running such an establishment was covered by taxpayers.) It was forbidden to keep dogs as pets; they were free to roam the streets unleashed and received treatment equal to that of Edo citizens. Attacking a dog was punishable by death. Turning a blind eye to a suffering dog or refusing to aid a pup in need was punishable by death. Pretty much anything that resulted in a decrease in the standard of living for dogs was punishable by death.
It goes without saying that during Tsunayoshi’s time as shōgun, the country was forced into veganism. In some cases, the consumption of certain species of fish was permitted, but meat was entirely off limits. Tsunayoshi commanded the shōgunate to continue to enforce these laws after he died, but, needless to say, within one month of his death, the majority of them were repealed.
Human rights
Tsunayoshi’s laws weren’t all bad, though; in the early Edo era, it was common for proprietors of inns to throw out any lodgers who showed signs of sickness, leaving them to die in the street. Likewise, parents would often dispose of their children if they didn’t have enough money or resources to raise them. Not only did Tsunayoshi outlaw these acts, but he went so far as to create institutions for children who had been discarded. These laws continued to be enforced for the remainder of the Edo era.
In regard to his human rights philosophy, Tsunayoshi had a lot in common with Ietsuna. Sadly, another thing he had in common with his older brother was his inability to produce an heir. The title of 6th shōgun therefore ended up going to his nephew, Ienobu. He, however, died just three years later. The title of 7th shōgun went to Ienobu’s four-year-old son, Ietsugu, who also died three years later! With all candidates from the main branch of the Tokugawa family depleted, the shōgunate had to turn to one of the branch families. And so, in 1716, Tokugawa Yoshimune of the Kī branch was selected to be the 8th shōgun of the Tokugawa shōgunate.
Tokugawa Yoshimune
Alongside Ieyasu and Iemitsu, Yoshimune is one of the most famous and well-respected shōguns of the Edo era. One of the major problems facing the country at the time he took command of the shōgunate was the lack of money in circulation. Depleting gold and silver mines combined with an increasing population was beginning to have a severe impact on the economy. To make matters worse, much of the gold and silver that was in circulation was being lost through trading with Ming and the Netherlands. During Tokugawa Tsunayoshi’s time as shōgun, a man by the name of Ogiwara Shigehide had tried to increase the amount of available money by creating new coins containing reduced amounts of gold. These new coins consisted of 57% gold as opposed to the older coins, which consisted of 85%. By offering to exchange the old coins for new coins, the shōgunate was able to melt down the gold in the old coins, create more money and increase its personal fortune.
The plan didn’t go as well as had been hoped, however; since they contained less gold than their predecessors, the new coins lacked the lustre and brilliance people had become accustomed to. For that reason, many chose to hang on to the old coins rather than make the exchange. When people did eventually begin to trade in their collections, it brought about an inflation the likes of which the shōgunate had never before encountered. The time was ripe for a reform―the first of three major reforms conducted throughout the Edo era: the Kyōho reform.
The Kyōho reform
Personnel
Named after the imperial era in which it was conducted, the Kyōho reform was carried out from 1716-1745―pretty much Tokugawa Yoshimune’s entire term as shōgun. Before Yoshimune could make a start on changing the country though, he needed to put together a crack team of experts who were up to the task. Up until that point, all executive positions within the shōgunate had been held by the fudai daimyō. Yoshimune needed a much larger pool of people from which he could cherry-pick his A-team. And so he decided that any samurai of any status could be accepted into the shōgunate regardless of their current position or status. One problem with that decision, however, was the fact that certain high-ranking positions within the shōgunate were expected to be held by samurai who controlled vastly wealthy areas of land. In order to get around this problem, Yoshimune devised a system whereby anyone elected into such a position would be awarded a rice stipend high enough to make up the difference between their current annual rice intake and the amount that someone of their status was expected to produce.
Revenue
With the personnel problem sorted, Yoshimune began to think about how to increase the shōgunate’s revenue and improve the flow of money around the country. He began with the simplest solution: frugality. If you can’t make any new money, protect the money you already have. He set an example for daimyō all over Edo by wearing only cotton clothing―even in the coldest of seasons―and limiting his diet to two modest meals a day.
Next, he created a new revenue source: the daimyō. Since the daimyō didn’t pay taxes, the shōgunate’s sole source of income was tax paid by farmers who lived on the land under which they had direct control. In order to get the daimyō to hand over their hard earned cash, they needed a strong incentive. Yoshimune found such an incentive: any daimyō who paid 1% of their annual rice yield to the shōgunate would have their Sankin-kōtai term cut from one year to just six months. This was win-win: the shōgunate increased its income and the daimyō got to save on the cost of keeping their men in Edo for six months, which would have amounted to a LOT more than 1% of their crop yield. The only downside for the shōgunate was that the system left Edo vulnerable due to the decreased number of samurai living in the city.
Rice cultivation
In addition to cutting costs and creating new sources of revenue, Yoshimune improved his current revenue source by cultivating new rice fields in areas of land under the shōgunate’s jurisdiction. This resulted in a 20% increase in the shōgunate’s rice yield. Following on from this success, Yoshimune also conducted research into crops that could be grown quickly and easily should a famine occur. He decided on the Satsuma potato and Korean carrot. While the increased rice yield his new fields had produced was good for the shōgunate, however, it resulted in the devaluation of rice, which was bad for the farmers and daimyō, whose livelihoods relied on the sale of rice. Yoshimune solved this problem the same way Tsunayoshi had 30 years earlier: by creating a new coin containing a reduced amount of gold. With more coins in circulation, merchants had more money in their pockets, which brought about inflation and saved the farmers and daimyō from starvation.
Fire brigade
With the vast majority of buildings in Edo having been constructed from wood and having been built in close proximity to one another, fires were a major problem. In fact, one particular fire that broke out in 1657 ended up burning down 60% of the budding metropolis! To improve the situation, Yoshimune established a fire brigade with 48 precincts, covering the whole of Edo. Not only did this succeed in reducing the spread of and damage caused by the multiple fires that broke out in the city on a daily basis, but the charismatic uniforms and equipment designs adopted by each precinct captured the hearts of the people and made the streets of Edo a more interesting place to walk. It was almost like having professional wrestlers walking freely through your town all day every day. Not only were they heroes, but to a large number of Edo’s residents, they were icons.
These are just some of the highlights of Yoshimune’s reform; there were another dozen or so procedures he implemented, but I’ll leave those for a more dedicated article. Sufficient to say, the Kyōho reform had some successes and some failures, but overall, it went a long way towards reshaping the country and getting the economy back on track.
Aside from his tireless work to solve the country’s myriad of problems, Yoshimune is known for having established two branch families for the Kī branch of the Tokugawa clan. Just as Ieyasu established three branches(Mito, Kī and Owari) to support the main Tokugawa line, Yoshimune put two of his sons in charge of the new Toyasu and Hitotsubashi branches of the family. His, first son, Ieshige, later established a third branch: the Shimizu. This ensured that the Kī Tokugawa had a wide pool from which to choose future shōguns, ensuring that they could retain their hold over the country until the end of the Edo era.
To learn about the other two reforms and more, join me in part two of this summary of the Edo era, a.k.a. part nine of this summary of Japanese history.
