ipl-logo

Tokugawa Ieyasu's Impact On Japanese Society

869 Words4 Pages

Tokugawa Ieyasu was one of the most influential people in Shogunate Japan. He began the Tokugawa shogunate, which was a period of peace in Japan that lasted for over 250 years, after centuries of war between territories and allowed for development in law and social structure. He lived from 1543 until 1615 and ruled as Shogun between 1603 and 1605. He also ruled as Ōshogo from 1605 until his death and he had a huge impact on Japanese society in both roles.

Tokugawa Ieyasu was born in 1543, during a period of war in Japan, as different daimyo (powerful families or warlords) battles for power, resources and territory. His father was one of these daimyo and his constantly shifting enemies and alliances caused Ieyasu and his family to be held …show more content…

His time as shogun and ōshogo in Japan began a period of peace and stability that lasted for over 250 years and allowed for law, urbanization and social structure to develop. Ieyasu passed a law called the Buke Shohatto in 1615, which contained an outline of the social construct used in Japan throughout the Tokugawa Shogunate. It was a very military based system; the highest on the social hierarchy was the shogun, then the daimyo, then samurai and then commoners, which made up around 90% of the population and were made up of peasants, farmers, fishers and artisans, as well as merchants, although merchants were generally considered as lower in status than the other groups. The last on the social hierarchy were the outcasts, who were usually beggars and criminals. The Buke Shohatto also required that daimyo spend at least half their time in Edo, meaning many of their servants and workers, as well as family members moved to live in Edo full time. This was one of the reasons behind the urbanization of Japan, as well as his encouragement of businessmen and artisans to move into the cities. Another major impact that Ieyasu had on Japan was beginning its period of isolation during the shogunate. Although Ieyasu wasn’t completely opposed to foreigners, unlike some of his successors, he was suspicious of them, and he banned practicing Christianity throughout Japan. The peace Ieyasu bought to Japan, as well as the urbanisation resulted in significant population growth, from around 18 million in 1603 to 30 million in 1720. Clearly Tokugawa Ieyasu had an enormous effect on medieval Japanese

Show More
Related
433 Words | 2 Pages

During this time the Daimyo owned an extensive amount of land in Japan and were the highest in the social hierarchy, being right under the Shogun. Their duty was to govern an area of Japan and provide justice and to serve the Shogun. Many of the Daimyo were members of the Tokugawa family, others were “fudai” who were long time supporters of the Tokugawa cause, some were also family of the Tokugawa clan. There were other Daimyo who were accepted by the Tokugawa after

Read More
947 Words | 4 Pages

Groups of Samurai came together to finally overthrow the shogun, and restore Meiji to power. As stated in Document 2, the Charter Oagth states that all classes, no matter their rankings would unite, “carrying out the administration of affairs of state.” This was a massive change to the past 250 years when class systems were extremely separated with no way to move up or down the social

Read More
649 Words | 3 Pages

How Did the Laws of Tokugawa Japan Prevent Dutch Traders from Influencing Japanese Culture? In the Tokugawa Period, the Dutch’s contributions to Japan served as the door to knowledge on science, medicine, armaments, and products connecting the relationships between Europe and Japan. However, (can’t start a sentence with however) their kindnesses and contributions to Japan were very gentle comparing to what(how) the Japanese have treated and served to them.

Read More
145 Words | 1 Pages

The elite military class warriors in japan promoted education and influenced Japanese culture of how the samurai lived

Read More
788 Words | 4 Pages

The societies of Tokugawa Japan (c.1603-1867C.E.) and medieval Europe (c.1000-1500C.E.) had two things in common; a feudal system. A feudal system is something that features hierarchies or social structures. The feudal system normally starts with a religion, which is at the very top of the social pyramid, then it’s the King or monarch for Europe and the shogun for Japan, then there are the nobles for Europe and the daimyos for Japan. As we go down the pyramid there are the warriors, like the knight in Europe and the samurai in Japan, then there are the peasants. The peasants were included in both eras and are at the lowest part of the pyramid.

Read More
961 Words | 4 Pages

Toyotomi Hideyoshi impacted Japanese government in many ways. He acknowledged that an unstable peace and constant uncertainly had led to the practice of samurai farming and peasants to take up arms. To combat this, he issued decrees that defined the social status and duties of all Japanese. He banned everyone from having weapons besides samurai. Samurai were ordered back to towns.

Read More
532 Words | 3 Pages

All of this leads to an impact on military, feudalistic society and Japan’s history. To commence, Samurai’s are important in Japanese history because they helped start feudalism and the Shogun’s rule. It all started when the central government had no authority over the large landowners. The Daimyo refused to pay their taxes, so when the Jurisdiction came to collect, the daimyo had this huge army of Samurais.

Read More
1403 Words | 6 Pages

(History.com, “Edo”) The people of Edo followed a strict caste system, greatly impacted by the Chinese Confucian values. The Feudal Japanese Society, people of Edo, was divided into four different castes: the Nobles, the Samurai, the Peasants, and the Chonin. The nobles included: the emperor; the figurehead of society, the shogun; the most powerful military lord, and the daimyos; lords who controlled their own region of Japan. The samurai were the professional warriors who were bound by a code of loyalty and honor to a daimyo.

Read More
148 Words | 1 Pages

Hirohito was born on April 29, 1901, in tokyo, japan. Made crown prince at the age of 15, he was japan’s longest-reigning monarch, ruling from 1926 to 1989. The level of his involvement with Japan’s military during world war 11 has remained debatable, though he announced the country’s surrender to the allied forces in 1945. Then had plans to go to war with the united states as a self-destructive and opposed an alliance with nazi germany, though hedid little to stop the war that japan waged in his name. According to the long awaited official history of his reign released on tuesday.

Read More
296 Words | 2 Pages

Tokugawa started withdrawing Japan into seclusion, away from outside influences (pg. 381). Some new members of the Franciscan Order tried getting into Shogunate’s internal affairs and he acted by putting the Christian missionaries out, and by putting pressure on the Christian Japanese to convert back to Buddhism (pg. 383). Per the textbook on page 383, true power in both a military sense remained with shogun and a political member of the Tokaugawa clan acted in the name of the Emperor.

Read More
1144 Words | 5 Pages

His actions enabled, after death, the unification of a heavily fractured Japan under Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi

Read More
1678 Words | 7 Pages

Japanese unification started in the late 16th century by Nobunaga Oda and continued by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. When Tokugawa Ieyasu took the power the ‘unified Japan’ was just at the beginning, therefore, as the great strategist who was, his first aim was to centralise and increase power of the shogunate in order to facilitate Tokugawa control throughout the country while at the same time eliminate any potential threat. This obsession with order can be seen in any aspect of Tokugawa shogunate and therefore, besides society and politics, in foreign trades. However, the first century of Tokugawa period was not marked by isolation. In fact, after Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s death and as Tokugawa Ieyasu took the power, he managed to re-establish friendly

Read More
1430 Words | 6 Pages

Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa, or Matsuo Basho most commonly known, was a 17th century poet and to this day is known as the “greatest master of the haiku”of the Tokugawa, or the Edo Era (1603-1867). During this era, Japan closed their borders to decrease the influence of the Western world. This action allowed Japanese culture to flourish. Born in 1644 in the Ueno province of Japan (today known as Honshu), Matsuo Basho grew up with his father, mother, and six siblings. His father, Matsuo Yozaemon was a low ranking samurai but his position was highly respected.

Read More
520 Words | 3 Pages

We meet the EDO period known as Tokuwaga period as well, in the history of Japan which lasted for about 265 years starting in 1603 and ending in 1868. To commence with, the EDO age took place when the Japanese nation was dominated by the rule of Edo Bakufu. This particular period was determined by the significant economic development that had occurred during it. In addition, it appeared to be a very stringent social order, an innovative environmental protection policy and a growing interest in pop culture. It was given an end after the Meiji Restoration.

Read More
790 Words | 4 Pages

“To guard against external influence, they also worked to close off Japanese society from Westernizing influences, particularly Christianity. When the Tokugawa shogunate grew increasingly weak by the mid-19th century, two powerful clans joined forces in early 1868 to seize power as part of an “imperial restoration” named for Emperor Meiji.” This restoration was the beginning of the end of feudalism, or the way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour, in Japan. The Tokugawa regime acted to exclude missionaries because of suspicion of foreign intervention and colonialism. Eventually, they issued a complete ban on Christianity in Japan.

Read More

More about Tokugawa Ieyasu's Impact On Japanese Society

Related Topics

Open Document