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The Edo period ,also known as the Tokugawa period, was a historical period of Japan lasting from 1603 to 1867. It is considered the last period of traditional Japanese culture, government, and society prior to the Meiji Restoration, which saw the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate. Edo Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa family, whose male members assumed the rank of shogun with each successive generation. During this period, the emperor held no real authority and merely served as a figurehead whose role was to bestow the title of shogun onto new generations. This style of rule was feudalistic, a type of social order in which those in power owned most of the property on which lower classes lived and worked. In the social structure of the era, lords were ranked below shoguns, and below lords were samurai who served as both political officials and soldiers. The era of shogun rule emphasized the rejection of Western influences, with great measures taken to keep such influences out of Japan. Despite its many restrictions, the Edo period was both peaceful and prosperous, setting the stage for Japan’s modern age. The shogun ways began to weaken in the mid-nineteenth century as tensions among social classes rose. Eventually, two powerful clans were able to take control of Japan and push the government to restore imperial rule. This led to the end of Japanese feudalism and a reconnection with the West.

A general ban on Christianity in Japan was first introduced in 1587 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598), the de facto military ruler of Japan. Hideyoshi, and the early Tokugawa shoguns, suspected that Portuguese traders and missionaries were using conversions to Christianity as a means to extend their sphere of influence in the country. Restrictions sporadically continued and became more severe under the Tokugawa shogunate. By 1639 the Portuguese were permanently banned from Japan. A limited number of Chinese, Korean, and Dutch traders, restricted to the Nagasaki area, were the only foreigners allowed to reside in the country.

During the tenth and eleventh centuries in Japan, powerful aristocrats came to control most of the country’s wealth. Lower ranking aristocrats dissatisfied with the monopoly would assume posts in the provinces where they were free to acquire land and broaden their power base. Armed conflicts were commonplace as armies of highly trained soldiers vied with each other to amass power and property. The nucleus of these armies were warriors, known as samurai (meaning “one who serves”), who fought in armor on horseback. As retainers of the daimyo (feudal barons), samurai were totally dependent on their lord for a meager allowance. 16th century illustration of samurai story. By Lepidlizard (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Armoured samurai with sword and dagger, c. 1860. Felice Beato [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Samurai. The eldest of seven children of a low-ranking samurai serving as head of the Satsuma accounts department, Saigō Takamori (si-go tah-kah-moh-ree) was born in the castle town of Satsuma, on the southern island of Kyūshū, a tozama domain ruled by the Shimazu clan. The Tokugawa Bakufu military government was a feudal polity controlling from its capital at Edo (modern Tokyo) about 260 hereditary han (domains) ruled by local daimyo lords. Former enemies of the Tokugawa clan were included in this arrangement as tozama (outside lords), and their lands were latent repositories of anti-Bakufu sentiments. Saigō Takamori Saigō Takamori [g]Japan;Saig{omacr} Takamori[Saigo Takamori] Saigō Takamori Saigō Takamori [c]Government and politics;Saig{omacr} Takamori[Saigo Takamori]

The military rulers of Tokugawa Japan (1600-1867) enforced rigid class divisions and adopted the condescending view of conservative Confucian ethics on the social status of merchants. Merchants were placed below warriors, peasants, and artisans on the social hierarchy. However, believing agriculture was the productive part of the economy, the shogunate taxed the farmers heavily while puzzling over the growing wealth of the chōnin (common townspeople).

In Japanese society, local warlords known as daimyo owned and administered districts or provinces. Although in theory the emperor was supreme, only the daimyo could raise taxes, so during Japan’s medieval era most emperors were weak and held only titular power. Real political power rested with the daimyo, and throughout the era a number of highly influential daimyo fought one another to expand their holdings or to gain preeminence. The highest rank a daimyo could attain was that of shogun. Although the literal translation of the Japanese word shōgun is “barbarian-quelling generalissimo,” in reality, the position was that of military dictator.

Neo-Confucianism was the intellectual progeny of a sophisticated system of thought originally put forward by China’s great philosophical sage, Confucius, in the sixth century b.c.e. Using his ideas as their foundation, Neo-Confucian scholars of the Song Dynasty (Sung; 960-1279) created an intellectual paradigm based upon three philosophical concepts. The primary premise of this new system was that the universe and human society were based upon natural laws and that these laws could be discovered and understood through the use of reason. Furthermore, Neo-Confucian philosophers believed that the laws governing the world and society represented objective truths that were both universal and unchanging.

The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1603. After nearly 150 years of civil war, Ieyasu defeated all of his major rivals, consolidated central power, and began to take legal and administrative steps to ensure that power would remain in the hands of his family. To this end, disruptive influences like Toyotomi Hideyori, the son of Ieyasu’s predecessor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi , were eliminated. Legal codes like the Buke shohatto , a series of laws governing the samurai warrior houses, were also enacted in order to ensure the continued loyalty of the various feudal lords, or daimyos, to the Tokugawa family. Other elements in Japanese society proved harder to control, however.

Ukiyo-e (pronounced you-KEE-oh-eh) is a style of Japanese art using woodcuts that was popular during the Edo (or Tokugawa) period (1603–1868). Meaning "pictures of the floating world" in Japanese, this genre of art depicted everyday scenes of life in the city of Edo (modern Tokyo) and other urban centers. Ukiyo-e relied on thick black lines outlining the images that were often contrasted with a pastiche of subtle colors in later works.

The early history of the Tokugawa government is directly tied to the actions of its first two shoguns, Tokugawa Ieyasu and his son Tokugawa Hidetada. Ieyasu was born into a period of Japanese history that was just beginning to recover from many years of bloody civil conflict from roughly 1340. The era from 1477 to 1600 in particular is designated by scholars as the Japanese Warring States period. During this time, feudal barons fought savage wars of conquest as each attempted to establish his family as the premier power in the nation.

With peace and prosperity in the first decade of the seventeenth century, the capital of the new Tokugawa shogunate in Japan, Edo, expanded rapidly and was soon bustling with merchants as well as samurai, the feudal knights that were now united in the shogun’s service. To maintain power, the shogun required that the samurai stay in the capital for extended periods, which attracted prostitutes, some of whom also were skilled in dance or other forms of art. With peace, though, came boredom and a demand for entertainment. One of the earliest of the popular entertainers in Edo was Izumo no Okuni , a former shrine maiden and courtesan. Okuni created provocative dances that celebrated the sexually charged atmosphere of the time. Out of her creation came Kabuki theater.

The mission of Commodore Matthew C. Perry to Japan from 1852 to 1854 provided dramatic evidence of the increasing interest of the United States in eastern Asia. It followed a series of overtures to Japan by other Western countries and coincided with a period of significant debate within Japan’s ruling class over the question of opening the country to outside, particularly Western, influences.