Tokugawa shogunate

The Tokugawa shogunate or Tokugawa bakufu (????) (also known as the Edo bakufu) was a feudal military dictatorship of Japan established in 1603 by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family until 1868. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city of Edo, now Tokyo. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo castle until the Meiji Restoration.

Related Topics:
Feudal - Japan - 1603 - Tokugawa Ieyasu - Shogun - 1868 - Edo - Tokyo - Edo castle - Meiji Restoration

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Following the Sengoku Period of "warring states", central government had been largely re-established by Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the Azuchi-Momoyama period. After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, central authority fell to Tokugawa Ieyasu who completed this process and received the title of shogun in 1603. His descendants were to hold the position, and the central authority that came with it, until the 19th century.

Related Topics:
Sengoku Period - Oda Nobunaga - Toyotomi Hideyoshi - Azuchi-Momoyama period - Battle of Sekigahara - 1600 - Tokugawa Ieyasu - Shogun

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The Tokugawa period, unlike the shogunates before it, was based on the strict class hierarchy originally established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The warrior-caste of samurai were at the top, followed by farmers, artisans, and traders. Ironically, the very strictness of the caste system was to undermine these classes in the long run. Taxes on the peasantry were set to fixed amounts which did not account for inflation or other changes in monetary value. As a result, the tax revenues collected by the samurai landowners were worth less and less over time. This often led to confrontations between noble but impoverished samurai and well-to-do peasants.

Related Topics:
Toyotomi Hideyoshi - Samurai - Inflation

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Toward the end of the 19th century, an alliance of several of the more powerful daimyo with the titular Emperor finally succeeded in the overthrow of the shogunate after the Boshin War, culminating in the Meiji Restoration. The Tokugawa Shogunate came to an official end in 1868, with the resignation of the 15th Tokugawa Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu and the "restoration" ('Taisei H?kan') of imperial rule.

Related Topics:
Daimyo - Boshin War - Meiji Restoration - 1868 - Tokugawa Yoshinobu

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