Japan and Isolationism World History/Napp

“In 1467, civil war shattered Japan’s old feudal system. The country collapsed intochaos. A violent era of disorder followed. This time in Japanese history,which lasted from 1467 to 1568, is known as the Sengoku, or ‘Warring States,’ period. Powerful samurai seized control of old feudal estates. Theyoffered peasants and others protection in return for their loyalty. These warriorchieftains,called daimyo, became lords in a new kind ofJapanese feudalism. Daimyo meant ‘great name.’ Under this system, securitycame from this group of powerful warlords. The emperor at Kyoto became a figurehead,having a leadership title but no actual power.

A number of ambitious daimyo hoped to gatherenough power to take control of the entire country. One, the brutal and ambitious Oda Nobunaga, defeated his rivals and seized theimperial capital Kyoto in 1568. Following his own motto ‘Rule the empire by force,’ Nobunaga sought toeliminate his remaining enemies. 1575, Nobunaga’s 3,000 soldiersarmed with muskets crushed an enemy force of samurai cavalry. This was thefirst time firearms had been used effectively in battle in Japan. However, Nobunaga was not able to unify Japan. He committed seppuku, the ritual suicideof a samurai, in 1582, when one of his own generals turned on him. Nobunaga’s best general, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, continued his fallen leader’s mission. But he died before unification occurred.

One of Hideyoshi’s strongest daimyo allies, Tokugawa Ieyasu, completed the unification ofJapan. In 1600, Ieyasu defeated his rivals at the Battle of Sekigahara. His victory earnedhim the loyalty of daimyo throughout Japan. Three years later, Ieyasu became the soleruler, or shogun. He then moved Japan’s capital to his power base at Edo, a small fishingvillage that would later become the city of Tokyo. Japan was unified, but the daimyo still governed at the local level. To keep themfrom rebelling, Ieyasu required that they spend every other year in the capital. Evenwhen they returned to their lands, they had to leave their families behind as hostages in Edo. Through this ‘alternate attendance policy’ and other restrictions,Ieyasu tamed the daimyo.” ~ World History

Questions:

- Describe the era known as the Sengoku or “Warring States”.

- Define daimyo.

- What was the role of the emperor in this period?

- Identify three significant facts about Oda Nobunaga.

- Identify three significant facts about Tokugawa Ieyasu.

- Describe the “alternate attendance policy”.

- Why did the “alternate attendance policy” tame the daimyo?

Society in Tokugawa Japan / Portugal and Japan / Act of Seclusion
-Japan enjoyed more than two and a half centuries of stability, prosperity, and isolationunder the Tokugawa shoguns
- While the emperor had the top rank, he was just a figurehead
- The actual ruler was the shogun
- Below him were the daimyo, the powerful landholding samurai
- Then samurai warriors followed by peasants and artisans
- Merchants were at the bottom, but they gradually
became more important as the economy expanded
- By the mid-1700s, Japan began to shift from a rural to an urban society / - The Japanesefirst encountered Europeans in 1543, when shipwrecked Portuguese sailors washedashore
- Portuguese merchants soon followed
- ThePortuguese brought clocks, eyeglasses, tobacco, firearms, and other items
- The Japanese purchased weapons from thePortuguese and soon began their own production
- In 1549, Christian missionaries began arriving
- Francis Xavier, a Jesuit, led the first mission to Japan
- By the year 1600, other European missionaries had convertedabout 300,000 Japanese to Christianity
- The missionaries upset Tokugawa Ieyasu / - An uprisingin southern Japan of some 30,000 peasants, led by dissatisfied samurai, shookthe Tokugawa shogunate
- Because so many of the rebels were Christian, the shogundecided that Christianity was at the root of the rebellion
- After that, the shogunsruthlessly persecuted Christians
- The persecution of Christians was part of an attempt to controlforeign ideas
- By1639, they had sealed Japan’s borders and instituted a “closed country policy”
- No foreigners could enter Japan except the Chinese and Dutch at the port of Nagasaki and no Japanese could leave Japan

Identify and explain the following terms:

Peace and the Tokugawa Shogunate

Class Hierarchy in Tokugawa Japan

Status and Reality of Merchants in Tokugawa Japan

From Rural to Urban in Tokugawa Japan
Edo (Tokyo)

The Portuguese in Japan

Francis Xavier

Missionaries and Tokugawa Ieyasu

Persecution of Christians in Tokugawa Japan

“A Closed Country Policy” or the Act of Seclusion

The Port of Nagasaki

Japanese and Travel in Tokugawa Japan

P R I M A RY S O U R C E

In their hands they carried something two or three feet long, straight on the outsidewith a passage inside, and made of a heavy substance. . . . This thing with one blow cansmash a mountain of silver and a wall of iron. If one sought to do mischief in anotherman’s domain and he was touched by it, he would lose his life instantly.

~ ANONYMOUS JAPANESE WRITER, quoted in Sources of Japanese Tradition (1958)

- What is the anonymous writer describing?

Zen Buddhism

The form of Buddhism that had thegreatest impact on Japanese culturewas Zen Buddhism. It especiallyinfluenced the samurai. Zen Buddhists sought spiritualenlightenment through meditation. Strict discipline of mind and body wasthe Zen path to wisdom. Zen monkswould sit in meditation for hours. If theyshowed signs of losing concentration,a Zen master might shout at them orhit them with a stick.

- Identify five significant facts about Buddhism.

- What is unique about Zen Buddhism?

- Why might Edo have been a better site for a capital in the 17th century than Kyoto?

- About what percentage of Japan was controlled by Tokugawa or related households when Tokugawa Ieyasu took power in the early 1600s?

Base your answer to the question on the excerpt below.
Edict of 1635 Ordering the Closing of Japan
  • Japanese ships are strictly forbidden to leave for foreign countries.
  • No Japanese is permitted to go abroad. If there is anyone who attempts to do so secretly, he must be executed. The ship so involved must be impounded and its owner arrested, and the matter must be reported to the higher authority.
  • If any Japanese returns from overseas after residing there, he must be put to death….
  • Any informer revealing the whereabouts of the followers of padres (Christians) must be rewarded accordingly. If anyone reveals the whereabouts of a high ranking padre, he must be given one hundred pieces of silver. For those of lower ranks, depending on the deed, the reward must be set accordingly….
—Source: David John Lu,Sources of Japanese History, McGraw-Hill
This Edict’s provisions tell us that in 1635 the Japanese government was motivated by
  1. A fear of change
  2. A desire for cultural exchange
  3. A hope for individual rights
  4. An appreciation of diversity
By closing Japanese harbors to most foreigners in the 1600s, the Tokugawa shogunate attempted to
  1. protect Japan from European influence
  2. increase Japanese agricultural production
  3. eliminate Japan’s influence on Southeast Asia
  4. destroy traditional Japanese culture
/ During the feudal period of Japanese history, the emperor had mainly symbolic authority. Which statement best explains the reason for this situation?
  1. Power had been granted to shoguns and daimyos.
  2. Communist guerillas had destabilized domestic political institutions.
  3. A democratic constitution prevented the emperor from centralizing authority.
  4. American occupation forces had undermined the belief in the emperor’s divinity.
One way Japanese feudalism during the Tokugawa shogunate was different from European feudalism is that during this period of Japanese feudalism
  1. political power was more centralized
  2. foreign missionaries were welcomed
  3. emperors were overthrown in coups d’etat
  4. most wealthy merchants were able to attain high social status
  • The Ming emperor banned the building of large oceangoing ships in 1433.
  • The Tokugawa shogun issued the Act of Seclusion in 1636.
One way in which these historical occurrences are similar is that both led to increased
  1. social mobility
  2. globalization
  3. cultural diffusion
  4. isolation
In European and Japanese feudal societies, social status was usually determined by
1. Marriage 3. Birth
2. Education 4. Religion