Transcript CHAPTER 19.3

CHAPTER 19.3
JAPAN RETURNS
TO
ISOLATION
New Feudalism Under Strong Leaders
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Civil war begins in 1467 between north and south
War shatters Japan’s old feudal system
Shogun loses power to territorial lords
Sengoku (meaning warring states) begins
Daimyo – meaning “great name,” become lords
– Daimyo built castles
– Created small armies of samurai
– War against other Daimyo
New Leaders
• Oda Nobunaga takes control
– Believes in “rule by force” motto
– Uses muskets for first time and crushes enemy
samurai
– Unable to unify Japan and commits seppuku – suicide
• Toyotomi Hideyoshi continues Nobunaga’s
mission
– By 1590 he controls most of Japan
– Invades Korea in 1592
Japan Unites
• Tokugawa Ieyasu unifies Japan
– Tokugawa is Daimyo ally of Hideyoshi
– Tokugawa becomes sole ruler – Shogun
– Moves capital to Edo – now known as Tokyo
• Tokugawa tames Daimyo by requiring an “attendance
policy”
– Every other year the Daimyo had to spend in the capital
– When they returned they had to leave families as hostages
– This restores a centralized government and rule of law –
not sword
• Tokugawa Shogunate is founded and holds power until
1867
Life Under the Tokugawa
• Japan prospers under Tokugawa Shogunate (TS)
– Farmers produce more food and population rises
– Peasants taxed heavily
– Merchant class thrives
• Society very structured
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Emperor at the top, but held no real power
Shogun real leader (military commander)
Daiymo land holding samurai
Samurai (fighters/knights)
Peasants and artisans were next in line
Merchants were at the bottom, but eventually gain more power
• Peasants and farmers bore main tax burden
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Eventually abandon farm life for urban setting
Cities expand (rural to urban migration)
Edo becomes largest city in the world (1 million people)
Rise of commercial centers increase employment opportunities
(among women, too)
Confucian Ideal Society
• Confucius’s ideal society centered around
agriculture – not commerce
• Farmers were ideal citizens – not merchants
– Merchants made their money “supporting
foreigners and robbery.”
– Merchants made money off the backs of others
Culture under the TS
• Traditional culture thrives
• Tragic noh dramas popular among samurai
• Townspeople enjoy new type of realistic
fiction
• Many people enjoy haiku—three-line poetry
that presents images rather than ideas
• Kabuki theater—skits with elaborate
costumes, music, and dance
Contact with Europe
• Euros come to Japan in 1500s during the Warring
States period
– 1543 Portuguese sailors wash ashore after shipwreck
– Portuguese merchants follow with clocks, eyeglasses,
tobacco, and firearms
– Daimyo interested in guns
– Japanese warfare forever changed from sword to
firearm. Japanese begin producing weapons.
• Japanese welcome traders and missionaries
• Euros introduce new technologies and ideas
• Euros eventually wear out their welcome
Christian Missionaries
• 1549 Christian Missionaries arrive
• Japanese accept them. Why?
• Trade for muskets and European goods
• Jesuits, Franciscans, and Dominicans came to convert
• By 1600: 300,000 Japanese convert
• Tokugawa banned Christianity: Why?
– Found aspects of Christianity troublesome
– Missionaries actively sought converts
– Scorned traditional Japanese beliefs
– Involved themselves in local politics
• Peasant Christians rebel in 1637
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Shogun believes Christianity at root of problem
Christians persecuted
Euro missionaries killed or driven out of Japan
Japanese forced to demonstrate faithfulness to some branch of
Buddhism
– Policies eliminated Christianity in Japan and leas to exclusion policy
A Closed Country
• Persecution of Christians was an attempt to
control foreign ideas
• At first, Japanese could not contain Euro’s ideas
and involvement
• Strong leaders who later took power did not like
Euro influence – but did like trade
• Tokugawa Shoguns later exclude both
missionaries and merchants
• By 1639 Japan seals borders and institutes a
“closed country” policy
Japan in Isolation
• Most commercial contacts with Euros ends
• Only Dutch and Chinese merchants allowed in the
port of Nagasaki
• English leave voluntarily
• Portuguese and Spanish were expelled
• For more than 200 years, Japan is isolated from
Europe
• Japanese forbidden to leave (afraid of bringing
back foreign ideas)