The Edo inheritance

by Tokugawa Tsunenari, Tokugawa Iehiro (Translator)

Book by Tsunenari, Tokugawa

Genres: Japan, Japanese History, History, Nonfiction, Japanese Literature

200 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2009

Reviews

[L.S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since a kid I have been very fond of samurai stories and Japanesse culture. The Last Samurai and Memoirs of a Gheisa are two of my favorite films. So this book was very special for me being written by the descendant of the famous shogunate of Ieyasu.
The book is not a scholar historical study of the period, but rather a narative very well told and relevant to the reader. Connections with world history are also briefly given. Beautiful details about the social life, education system, sanitation system (!), art, spiritual life (shinto, confuciansim).

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short book by a modern-day descendant of the great house Tokugawa. It's more of a reflection book than a historical one, but still you could learn about a lot about how the 265-year Tokugawa shogunate came into power and its effects not only in modern Japan, but in the world.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Closer to a selection of essays than a historical text, Tokugawa Tsunenari's book offers some insights into the evolution of Tokugawa politics, government, philosophy, economics, and society. He offers useful examples of how the Edo period continues to impact Japanese society and government along with how the era is due for a reevaluation breaking the comparison of the much different Japanese feudal period with the similarly named European analog. This is a valid point, but Tokugawa's work is decidedly slanted and could use with some more detailed expansion of several points. However, his brief asides and anecdotes are useful in further understanding the influence of the last shogunate.

[Amy Chavez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It's a hagiography of the Edo period, for sure, but well worth a read. Tokugawa Tsunenari compares what was happening in the UK and Europe during Japan's Edo period, which gave the era a new perspective for me. He pulls information from family archives and personal conversations, making a potentially dry subject very accessible to the average reader. The author is the former head of the Tokugawa clan, and stepped down in 2023. His great grandfather was Shimazu Tadayoshi of Satsuma. This book was translated by his son Tokugawa Iehiro. How cool is that? Iehiro is now head of the Tokugawa clan.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A while back a friend of mine and me had a talk about conservatism and how in Europe this has either become a movement dedicated to sustaining neoliberal austerity economics or social reactionary talk about anti feminism, anti LBGT and both opposed to nature conservation either from a pro business or a pro large farmers position. However that does not need to be conservatism, after all conservatism can be about protecting local identities through fostering of traditional crafts, ensuring a cultural link between elites and non elites, preserving the natural beauty of the nation and refraining from political radicalism in either direction. This take on conservatism is what Tokugawa Tsunenari promotes and he does so by proudly defending his families legacy in the face of over a hundred years of demonization.

Anyone familiar with Japanese history should recognize the name Tokugawa, it was after all the family that ruled Japan for over 250 years up to the late 19th century. The author and translator are the former and current heads of the Tokugawa family. This is the biggest strength of the book; this is not to be read as an objective account of the Tokugawa rule, this is a political manifest and plea for defending a legacy and valuing its worth in our current era. Tsunenari does by a historical account of how the Tokugawa rule came to be and discussing several social, political and cultural aspects of the reign of his ancestors. Throughout the book he refers to what was happening in the rest of the world and often does this to make comparisons that make Japan more favorable. Comparisons such as the 30 year war and how Japan was spared such a religious dogma strife, the French revolution and how Japan was spared the rational of the guillotines and the shock of reactionary terror squads. However often these comparisons are a bit shallow and are meant solely to enforce the point of Japan being in good hands while other parts of the world were in bad hands. Or that the world suffered from something which Japan was isolated from thanks to his families isolation policy. Lets be clear on this Japan has had its share of less desirable practices, for instance when talking about religious fanaticism we should remember the Ikko-Ikki movement which wanted to impose a Buddhist theocracy with force.

I would never recommend this book to one who has not read quite a few other books on the Edo period already because it is easy to get swept away in the rose colored lenses through which we are shown the authors view of his ancestors. The worst of whom it seems was so kind he wanted to enforce anti animal cruelty laws despite popular reluctance to both adhere or enforce them. Quite skillfully Tsunenari uses the account of the Japanse Korean Ming war to strengthen the positive image of his family; but off course he can, because it had been the founding Tokugawa Leyasu who had been opposed to the war and set out to improve relations afterwards. I can not help but see an attempt here to link Tokugawa Japan's external peace policy after an era of brutal conflict as equating it with contemporary Japanse external peace policy. Emphasizing Tokugawa rule as one of peace and respect is a consistent attempt as well as expressing admiration for education, public welfare, the moral character of the elites, cultural achievement and the equilibrium between society and nature. Now how about Hokkaido? The Ainu? Well… none of the applies and for all his attempt to show Japan differed from the west in a positive sense, the conquest of Ainu lands was a colonial exploitation that included terror, exploitation, elites gorging on natural resources and a steady decline of Ainu communities, not that much different from how many north American native communities endured in the same period. None of this is even vaguely mentioned by Tsunenari and I think it should be talked about, if all what he said was true, why then did the Ainu had to endure what they did.

Now what does this all serve? Why was this book written? On the one hand this about writing an anti meji narrative which makes the restauration the start of modern Japan. By emphasizing social, educational and cultural achievements of the Edo period he is advocating for making the end of Sengoku the start of modern Japan or at least a precursor like Elizabethan England and Cromwell are precursors to modern England. On the other hand this is a book promoting that brand of conservatism I talked about. He does so by emphasizing the importance of education but also apprenticeship in arts and crafts and social responsibilities for both companies and the elites. He actively opposes a “these kids these days are rotten” mentality insisting Japanese youth are still polite, kind and generous and if any defects are there, well Japanese society as a whole share responsibilities for those. This too is that sign of different conservatism, he talks about the collective effort everyone should strive for rather then individualism whilst still sticking to a society ruled by a worthy elite. What makes the elite worthy? By being like the Edo period samurai off course; dedicated, frugal, well educated, attentive to the people's needs, cultured, modest income, spiritual but not dogmatic, rooted in the locale, connected to the capital. Lets be clear this is a rose colored depiction of the samurai that ignores the social restrictions a feudal system imposes and enforces but he off course is correct that unlike their social counterparts in Europe, the Japanese feudal elite did not own much of the land but rather leased state land. Having said that emphasizing his own humble means is a bit overblown, the man is related to the imperial family after all.

Finally it is his ambition that the word should learn something from Edo Japan. What might that be then? Why ecological sustainability off course. Turning the narrative of stagnation on its head, to Tsunenari the halt of demographic growth in 18th century Japan is not a sign of stagnation but a proof of a society in equilibrium with its natural resources. Stopping short of a Malthus argument, he is clearly worried about the state of the world and our collective using of natural resources including Japan today both by continuing to develop land and importing goods from over the whole world to pour into the chasm of unending greed or Mannon. The isolation of Japan was not an attempt of political control by the Tokugawa family but a defence of the natural beauty of Japan whose resources would have been stripped in order to supply the global markets, which apparently was a line of reasing used by the Tokugawa ruler of the time.

I genuinely like this book because it is a political book, not quite a political manifest but it could be the basis of one. But if you want to read an objective account on the Edo period, yeah this is not it. It is noteworthy how vague the end of the Edo period is in his account. To tusnenari the most important things were that the Tokugawa signed a treaty with the USA to defend again the burgeoning British opium trade and that when the Restoration came that the Tokugawa family stepped aside leaving the latter half of the conflict to the Aizu family and other northern clans who wanted to make a new state in Hokkaido…. But why was there a Restoration movement at all? If everything was so great in Edo Japan why did anyone feel the need to revolt at all? The political divide among the elites of Japan between the clans that had supported Tokugawa and those that had opposed him or waited out who won is not talked about at all by Tsunenari. The Mori and Satsume clans led the charge against Tokugawa shogunate and they were clans that were still punished for their ancestors choices 250 years earlier. The failure of the Tokugawa to correct this course is to me the core reason the Shogunate fell; on this Tsunenari should be challenged in his narrative.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very personal book not written by an historian, with a particular agenda - but this is clear from the get go, and it is a quite interesting book to read, well worth the time.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tokugawa Tsunenari opens the book by telling the readers that he is simply a man interested in history, he is not a professional by any means of the word. This claim is certainly true. Although there is nobody more suited to writing a book like this, a literal living successor to the Tokugawa family, translated by his son, also a living successor of the Tokugawa family; however, the conclusions and arguments they bring forth after often incorrect or not entirely factual. Tokugawa also often strays from Japanese history to frequently return to the French Revolution or other events in European history which are not always relevant nor correct. For example his comments on witch hunting in Europe demonstrate that very little research was conducted.
Oddly enough the most interesting things about this book are when Tokugawa digresses to talk about his own life.
It was easy to read, but offers nothing new. There are plenty of other works on the Edo/Tokugawa period which are better.

[Tarjad Tarjad]

good

[Dora · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is full of interesting information and it gives a different point of view on Tokugawa Japan.