Tokugawa Isolation, Commerce, and Industry, 1603–1868

Abstract

The Tokugawa period, also known as the Edo period, began in 1603 and continued until 1868, when Japan finally ended her policy of isolationism. This was the last of Japan’s feudal shogunates. The founder of the dynasty, Ieyasu Tokugawa, emerged victorious from a series of great civil war battles that raged during the end of the sixteenth century. Tokugawa established his military government at the small village of Edo, located at the head of what is now Tokyo Bay. Over the next several decades, Edo grew rapidly, in part due the edict of the third Tokugawa shogun, which dictated that all 270 of Japan’s clans build and maintain residences at the capital. Right up until 1862, clan leaders were required to keep their families at Edo all year, while they themselves had to spend every other year at their country estates overseeing agricultural production. With about half of Japan’s lords in court attendance in any one year, the town soon grew to be a great commercial as well as political center. The richest lords brought thousands of retainers with them to Edo and required all kinds of services, from fresh food to new clothing and housing, paper and glass, leather goods and weapons, and many more.