The Edo period lasted for more than 260 years from 1603 to 1868.
It is generally said that the beginning was in 1603 when Ieyasu Tokugawa became a shogun, and the end was in the Edo period until the repatriation of the Taisei Hokan in 1867.
This Edo Shogunate is the last samurai government in Japan following the Kamakura and Muromachi Shogunates. It will be.
Shogunate rule system
The rule system of the shogunate is bakuhan system It was composed of the shogunate, the government of the shogun, and the clan, the government of the daimyo who had a master-slave relationship with the shogun. The shogun gave each daimyo a red seal to guarantee its territory, and the daimyo had a certain degree of authority to exercise his own rule within that territory. This rule system was Abolition of the Clan in 1871 (Meiji 4). Will continue until it is abolished by.
In 1615, after the destruction of Toyotomi, the shogunate ordered that the daimyo's residence be limited to one. This is Law of One Castle Is called. Furthermore, Buke Shohatto And cracked down on each daimyo. The Buke Shohatto, which was changed little by little every time the shogun changed, has been changed to work since the time of the third generation Iemitsu. The addition of the shogunate strengthened the control of the shogunate.
Under the bakuhan system, the imperial court and temples and shrines will also be under the control of the shogunate.
The shogunate had ostensibly respected the imperial court because the shogunate was appointed by the emperor, but in reality the territory of the imperial family was extremely small. Furthermore, in 1615, Kinchu narabini Kuge Shohatto Was enacted to regulate the behavior of the emperor and officials.
In addition to that, Kyoto Shoshidai I was able to do little political activity in the imperial court until the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, but it seems that the cultural role was great.
Besides the imperial court, temples and shrines were also strictly controlled.
The shogunate set up a temple and shrine magistrate, and made the temples organize the Motoyama and Sueji temples for each sect, and set and regulated the temple law. For this reason, the religious activities of the temple have decreased, and the temple has become the current form of the temple, which is mainly for funerals and offerings of the Danka family.
Ieyasu's foreign policy
Ieyasu's foreign policy abroad was pacifism.
1600 When the Dutch ship arrived in Bungo, Ieyasu invited Dutch and British to Edo to serve as diplomatic and trade advisors. In 1609, he also realized the restoration of diplomatic relations with Korea, signing a treaty and pointing to 20 trading vessels a year.
On the other hand, for Christianity, like Hideyoshi, prohibition policy We strengthened the route of.
1613 Has issued a ban on Christianity nationwide, and has banished former Christian daimyo Dom Justo Takayama to Manila. It is said that this ban policy is due to the fact that new Dutch and British people who came to Japan preached the dangers of Spanish and Portuguese colonial policies.
At one point, various countries such as Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Korea (China), and Ryukyu traded with Japan, but with the ban on Christianity, the relationship between Spain and Portugal was cut off. increase.
Britain also lost the trade competition with the Netherlands, and the only European group to pull up to their home country was the Netherlands.
As a result, all ships coming from abroad have decided to visit only the port of Nagasaki. The Dutch trading house in Hirado is also Dejima in Nagasaki . The shogunate decided to use Dejima as a window to absorb European culture and purchase information from overseas.
Such a policy is isolation policy As a result of having continued for more than 200 years, the influence from overseas on industry and culture was limited, and the authority of the shogunate became stronger.
Domination of the daimyo
Ieyasu 1st, Iemitsu 3rd, Tsunayoshi 5th, Yoshimune 8th, Ienari 11th There were some shoguns who politicized themselves, but most of the other shoguns were entrusted to the shogunate, including the old man.
In order to avoid concentration of power, we have introduced a monthly system in which multiple major positions are assigned and take charge of political affairs on a monthly basis, creating a system that makes it difficult to monopolize power. In principle, important decisions were also collegial. The highest-ranking senior citizens and the temporary senior citizens, and the younger generations who assist them, are selected from the Fudai Daimyo.
The daimyo is Shinpan / Fudai / Tozama There were three types of daimyo.
Shinpan Daimyo is a Tokugawa family such as the Tokugawa Gosanke Refers to the daimyo of. Fudai is a vassal of the Tokugawa family from the beginning The Ii family, the Matsudaira family, the Honda family, etc. Tozama Daimyo is a vassal to Tokugawa before and after the Battle of Sekigahara. It is the daimyo who did. Since each daimyo was allowed to control independently, the shogunate was always wary of the movement of the foreign daimyo.
Shinpan and Fudai Daimyo were in control of important areas around Edo, and the composition of Tozama Daimyo was clearly understood.
As mentioned above, in the early Edo period from the first Ieyasu to the third Iemitsu, it was a time when strict rules were made to rule the daimyo. To put it the other way around, the unstable Warring States period ended in the true sense because the rules were created.
This system of the shogunate became stronger by introducing the attendance shift system around the time of Iemitsu III, and the control system of the shogunate was completed.
After that, the 4th generation Ietsuna entered the heyday of the Tokugawa administration, and the shogunate administration also entered a stable period.
Since the Edo period is long, I plan to divide it into about four articles. After the 4th Shogun family, I would like to write in the next article.