and became the ancestors of, among other things, the live popular drama. But the spirit of the nation changed, as the puritanical and coldly calculating rule of the Tokugawa family tightened its grip on the country after the death of Hideyoshi in 1598, and the defeat of his son in 1615. Foreign influences dwindled, and prohibitions and persecutions, started under Hideyoshi, became increasingly the lot of Christians in Japan. A largely Christian revolt at Shimabara, near Nagasaki, was put down in 1637, and everything was done to stamp out Christianity, more for political than for religious reasons. At the same time, a policy of seclusion was instituted, the aim of which was to avoid any foreign involvement that might lead to disturbance of internal peace. All Japanese overseas, whether engaged in trade in the Southeast Asian peninsula, or as wives or entertainers in Java, were cut off from the homeland, and the only contact with the outside world was through the small and closely supervised Dutch and Chinese trading-stations in Nagasaki, all other foreigners having been expelled. This policy of isolation was reinforced by a prohibition on the building of ocean-going ships, and no Japanese was allowed to leave Japan.
This state of affairs lasted until 1853, when Commodore Perry’s ships appeared in Edo Bay, and forced the government to open some ports. Foreigners began to reappear in Japan. The Tokugawa regime, already under internal pressure, with the country seething with great restlessness, lasted only another 15 years before rule passed back to the young Emperor and his supporters: new ideas flooded in, bringing an end to the feudalism of traditional Japan.
The Government after 1603
A description of everyday life in traditional Japan would be difficult if not impossible to understand without some knowledge of how the government of the country was organized, and for this it is necessary to understand the position of the Tokugawas. The founder of their power, Tokugawa Ieyasu, a man of outstanding ability if not genius, had been an associate of both Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, his predecessors. Under Hideyoshi, he had held the east of Japan, having a fortress at Edo (the present-day capital, Tokyo). When he formally became Shogun in 1603, it was to Edo that he transferred the seat of his government, partly so that it should be surrounded by his supporters and partly because, like some military rulers of earlier times, he considered that the atmosphere of the capital, Kyoto, with its devotion to the fine arts and its sophisticated living, would corrupt the simple virtues of his followers.
After the death of Hideyoshi’s son in his stronghold of Osaka Castle, taken in 1615, the greatest immediate threat to Ieyasu’s power was removed. He died the next year, but members of the Tokugawa family succeeded one after another in the position of Shogun (which in effect became a hereditary one), having full control of all the land of Japan. Whatever threats there remained to this control, whether from the Emperor, religious groups, or military lords, were met with cunning and ruthless efficiency, the government being above all determined to keep the country at peace.
The Emperor in his court at Kyoto was theoretically the source of power, and indeed it was he who gave the Shogun his title. This ancient title, an abbreviation of a longer expression with the meaning of “Commander-in-Chief for quelling the barbarians,” was in effect equivalent to military dictator of the country. Once the Tokugawas had taken over the reins of government, the Emperor’s duties were confined to bestowing this title and to conferring lesser titles on such persons as the Shogun nominated. His time was to be spent in literary and ceremonial pursuits; his needs, and those of his courtiers, were met by a grant of land to provide them with an income. His activities were supervised by the Kyoto Deputy, a government official, so that he was a mere figurehead, albeit one widely respected throughout the country. At no time did there cease to be an emperor, lip-service continued to be accorded him, and it was round his person that final revolt against the Tokugawa régime was centered.
Another potential source of opposition was to be found in the Buddhist temples and shintō shrines; some of the former had played a considerable role in earlier civil wars. The Shogun kept them under control by a number of Superintendents of Temples and Shrines, and their incomes were allotted to them from central or local sources, which could be cut off if necessary. One Buddhist sect—the Shin sect—of which the Shogun was particularly suspicious was dealt with by a characteristic piece of Tokugawa “divide and rule” tactics; in the preceding era members of this sect had caused trouble for the military authorities by setting up autonomous communities of commoners, and to prevent this happening again Ieyasu ordered the sect to be split into two branches so that it would have to support separate groups of temples, kept apart and weakened by rival jealousies.
However, such threats as these were very minor compared with that from the hostile military lords. The Tokugawa ruler allotted territories in exchange for an oath of allegiance, and made sure that faithful followers and relatives, including those who had fought with him at Sekigahara in 1600, were given lands in strategic positions—forming a ring of buffer estates round Edo, a string of others protecting the great routes of Japan or keeping watch on possible lines along which potentially hostile lords might advance on Edo. These latter would be from the “outside” lords, who had surrendered to him at Sekigahara or afterwards. The majority of these were great landowners, and were, in fact, far more wealthy than the Tokugawa adherents. However, the Shogun himself held great estates, and also administered the main cities of Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka.
Thus the political control of the country worked through the officials of the directly held lands and through the vassaldom of the lords, who lived under threat of dispossession or transfer as punishment for disloyalty or misconduct. There were controls on the amount of fortification permitted; lords were encouraged to spy on their neighbors and report on suspicious activities, while social contact was frowned on. Then in addition there were government inspectors, whose function was to keep a watchful eye on the lords and make sure that they conducted their affairs in a manner to be approved.
Yet another weapon in the Shogun’s armory for controlling the top strata of society was the compulsory attendance at his court in Edo. In the early days of Tokugawa rule its possible opponents had to leave hostages in Edo as surety for their good behavior, but later a unified system was evolved. This required alternate residence of one year in Edo and one on his home territory for every large landowner (except for those whose lands were either near by or most distant from the center of government), involving an annual journey one way or the other. Appropriate residences had to be maintained in Edo, where the wives and families of the lords had to stay. This measure, along with the providing of garrisons for the Tokugawa castles and enforced assistance with certain public works, assured both political and economic control of the wealthy overlords, since the constant travel to and fro, coupled with the maintaining of two establishments in the style that was obligatory for a great lord, involved considerable outlay of income, time, and effort.
The rest of the population in town and country was controlled in two ways. First, there were officials appointed by local authorities or by the central government, and these worked through officers who could be termed “policemen.” The other method was through a system of responsibilities, so that an ordinary Japanese could rarely contravene the accepted code of behavior without involving others in punishment for his offence: the head of a family answered for its members, groups of households for each individual household, the headman for his village, and any group might be punished for the misdeeds of one of its members.
There was no semblance of a constitution. As regards criminal justice, magistrates had a code to guide them, but this was never published as a whole, although notices about certain crimes were posted from time to time. In principle, there was no punishment without confession, and this often led to a suspect being rigorously interrogated. This criminal code, such as it was, could be changed without warning. This was in keeping with the fundamental Tokugawa attitude, derived from Confucianist precepts, that the people should not be instructed as to what the law might be, but should be content to do what they were told.
These then were the ways in which the Tokugawa Shoguns sought to perpetuate their family’s power over every inch of the country, and dominance over every aspect of Japanese life, indeed, over every living soul. Their efforts met
