Tokugawa Japan: The Social and Economic Antecedents of Modern Japan

by Chie Nakane

The Tokugawa period brought 250 years of stability to Japan. The shogun had national authority & the daimyo had regional authority. This represented a new unity in the feudal structure, with increasingly large bureaucracy to administer the centralized & decentralized authorities. The Tokugawa became more powerful during their first century of land redistribution gave them control of the most important cities, & a land assessment system reaping great revenues. The feudal hierarchy was completed by the various classes of daimyo with varying spheres of influences & control of land & revenue. The Tokugawa shogunate consolidated their control over the emperor, the court, all daimyo & religious orders. The Tokugawa helped the imperial family recapture its old glory by rebuilding its palaces & granting it new lands. To ensure a close tie between the imperial clan & the Tokugawa family, Ieyasu's granddaughter was made an imperial consort in 1619. A code of laws was established to regulate the daimyo houses. The code encompassed private conduct, marriage, dress, types of weapons, required feudal lords to reside in Edo every other year, prohibited the construction of ocean-going ships; proscribed Christianity; restricted castles to one per domain stipulated that bakufu regulations were the national law. The daimyo were not taxed per se, but were levied for contributions for military & logistical support, projects as castles, roads, bridges & palaces. The various regulations & levies not only strengthened the Tokugawa but also depleted the wealth of the daimyo, thus weakening their threat to the central administration. The daimyo did have full administrative control over their territory & their complex systems of retainers, bureaucrats & commoners.

Genres: Japan, History, Nonfiction, Japanese History

240 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1992

Reviews

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nakane Chie edited this volume on Tokugawa Japan, which formed the basis for Japan spectacular development in the 20th century.

I was particularly interested in the total acreage of rice paddy developed in the Tokugawa period as well as the communications and printing industries.

[Cami · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of essays isn't what I would call edge-of-your-seat reading. It's rather slow but still quite interesting. I enjoyed it whenever I sat down to read, but I often found my attention drifting and had to exert more energy just to stay focused than I do with most books. Regardless, I appreciate the things that I learned from these essays. It helped me understand how villages might function; it taught me the meaning of the word "ukiyo" and how it applies to art; and it broadened my horizons about modes of succession from parent to child.

Additionally, I like how the translation of each essay was done. Many Japanese words were used throughout and enclosed within parentheses. This helped me test my knowledge of the language by seeing if I could relate the different parts of the phrase in English to the original phrase in Japanese. I appreciate translations that do this, rather than ones that try to erase as much of the original language/culture as possible.

All in all, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Japanese history. It may be a couple of decades old, but I assume that most everything within it holds true today. I would be very surprised if our knowledge of history has shifted that much in the years since its publication.