Essay On Tokugawa Iemitsu

By adapting the motto of the Meiji Restoration “wealthy country and strong arms,” the Meiji Restoration was successful instilling a sense of nationhood standing against the Western Powers and have transformed Japan into an economic juggernaut having one of the top economy in the world. The Meiji Restoration was a significant turning point in Japanese history because it led to revolutionary changes in Japan’s economic and political structures. But whether the Meiji Restoration is a revolution is still up for debate. The Meiji Restoration may not be a revolution in the traditional sense however it can’t be denied that the steps taken and changes made were revolutionary.

During the early centuries of the Edo Period in Japan (1600-1868), the Shogun (military commander) would have the domain lords of surrounding lands provide samurai that would have to give at least a year of service to him in Edo every other year. The domain lords and the samurai had to walk back and forth from their home domains all over Japan to where the Tokugawa family ruled in Edo. This march and the service was known as the alternate attendance (sankin kotai) (pg. 1). The men were not doing this because they wanted to, but because they were forced. The samurai would have to leave their families in Edo to serve as hostages for sometimes their entire lives while the Samurai would serve the Shogun. The Shogun knew if they had their families the samurai would abide and serve. This system of service was called feudal or hoko and over 250 lords followed this system of rules. The alternate attendance seems wrong, but it actually helped grow Japan and the surrounding areas. It was key to the growth of roads, population, and economic wealth. But without alternate attendance we also would not have seen growth in cultures. It was said by Nishiyama Matsunosuke, “alternate attendance was of great significance” (pg. 4).

The importance of Tokugawa Leyasu taking control included the fact of the Tokugawa shogonate being established bringing along with it 264 years of peace and order. Huge changes which occurred during the reign of the tokugawa family including the introduction of a strict class system and the control of the ruling daimyo families which also made maintaining peace in Japan very easy. Japan 's increased trade and tourism contributed positively to the wealth and success of Japan. These rapid economical and social changes in Japanese society helped to prepare for fast modernization in the following time period. Tokugawa Leyasu had a significant impact on Japan as he established the tokugawa shogunate which brought wealth, peace and education to Japan.

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and the first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, and has been one of the most significant figures in Japanese history. Besides being such a successful and powerful ruler, Ieyasu had immensely changed the way Japanese society was structured and organised. From 1603-1608, Tokugawa began the modernisation of Japan. He became the first shogun who had more power over the emperor, and started changing the ways of Japan’s trade, economy, agriculture and social hierarchy. Ieyasu’s ‘main political goal was to cut off the roots of potential dissent and rebellion’ (University of Colorado, 2015); he did so when his army was victorious at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. After this came 250 years of stability and

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is a primary document that was written in 1789 about Olaudah Equiano’s experiences as a slave. The document describes his hardships and emotions throughout his journey as a slave. Within the context, there are biases shown and described. Olaudah writes about how his journey makes him feel, which are biases because it’s his opinion. Also, this document is important in the study of history because it shows first hand the experience of slavery and how terrible it was. It helps us learn about the hardships that some slaves had to go through when they didn’t deserve it and it helps people learn that slavery was a dehumanizing act and that no one should ever go through that again.

To commence, Samurai’s are important in Japanese history because they helped start feudalism and the Shogun’s rule. It all started when the central government had no authority over the large landowners. The Daimyo refused to pay their taxes, so when the Jurisdiction came to collect, the daimyo had this huge army of Samurais. On the website It states that “,Japan was dominated by a delicately-balanced, feudal-military system led by daimyos.” This shows that for five centuries Samurais kept the large landowners safe. Without them Daimyos would have had to pay taxes and the Shoguns would not be ruling.

Social order was officially ceased and mobility between the farmers, warriors, artisans, and merchants was prohibited. This was part of the systematic plan to maintain stability. The fifteen Tokugawa shoguns made their foremost goals political stability and complete isolationism. The stability gained by isolation and strict class control caused feudal Japan to double in population going from fifteen million to thirty million. They also increased in urbanization and the influence of the merchant class. This shows Japan and Europe 's differences. Merchants were looked up to in Europe and were looked down upon in Japan. Their social structure went the Emperor, Shogun, Diamyos, Samurai, peasants, artisans, then the merchants. Another difference was how women were seen. In Europe, women were considered fragile and in Japan they were expected to be brave and honorable. In Japan there were people known as Bushidos. This meant, "The Way of the Warrior". Begin a warrior was a way of life to

Feudalism was a key component of life for those in both Western Europe and Japan. The two systems developed independently from each other yet still held a multitude of similarities. However, their many differences out shadow the unique parallels they shared. The major discrepancies between the two are found in each’s code, structure and regulations.

Japan and Europe had unique lifestyles, one part being its military. It consisted of archers, who wielded bows and skilled swordsmen, called samurai. In Europe however, their military consisted of archers and swordsmen called knights. These two military figures share many similarities between each other, outweighing the differences. The three similarities between samurai and knights are moral codes, training, and their ranking in feudalism.

(5) He applied pressure from land and sea. After six months, Hideyoshi asked for the Hojo daimyo 's surrender and commenced a 3-day attack on the castle when he refused. When the surrender came he confiscated the land. The great Hojo clan was eliminated and from this time on Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the undisputed military dictator of the land. (5) Considered a symbol of his power and desire to rule all of Japan, he ordered the construction of Osaka Castle, later ordering the restoration of the Imperial Palace.Toyotomi Hideyoshi impacted Japanese government in many ways. He acknowledged that an unstable peace and constant uncertainly had led to the practice of samurai farming and peasants to take up arms. To combat this, he issued decrees that defined the social status and duties of all Japanese. He banned everyone from having weapons besides samurai. Samurai were ordered back to towns. This strategy designed (3) to prevent uprisings and clarify boundaries between the classes had an immediate and centuries-long era of peace and stability. If you were born a farmer, you died a farmer. (4) Segmenting Rural Peasant/urban Samarai populations provided the basis for a significant social balance in

During the 18th and early 19th century the world experienced new changes in world powers with imperialist countries and countries who experienced imperialism. One example of this would be Japanese imperialism in Korea during 1910-1945, a 35 year harsh change in Korea’s culture, impacting both countries in negative and positive ways in the years to come. Everything started during the Meiji period, a period where Japan saw change within its government creating a centralized bureaucracy. But also change within the military occurred with the replacement of Samurai authority. Trying to be equal competitors in world power as their Western neighbors. Japan had gotten imperialist ideas from 1853 when the U.S. black ships steamed

Katsu’s family lived in Edo, Japan. Even though Edo had been transformed into a big city known as present day Tokyo, it had started out small. In 1457 Edo was a small little-known fishing village, that later grew into the largest metropolis in the world. The city, followed under Tokugawa shogunate, was the de facto capital and center of political power. It was built around Edo castle, formerly known as Chiyoda castle, which had been the chief headquarters for Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1590. (History.com, “Edo”) The people of Edo followed a strict caste system, greatly impacted by the Chinese Confucian values. The Feudal Japanese Society, people of Edo, was divided into four different castes: the Nobles, the Samurai, the Peasants, and the Chonin. The nobles included: the emperor; the figurehead of society, the shogun; the most powerful military lord, and the daimyos; lords who controlled their own region of Japan. The samurai were the professional warriors who were bound by a code of loyalty and honor to a daimyo. The peasants, included of farmers and fishermen, was the largest social group of whom were all legally bound to by the person who owned their land. Chonin, last on the

From the Kamakura Period of the late twelfth century to the Meiji Restoration in the nineteenth century, the samurai have held prominent positions as noble warriors in Japanese society. They have come to be famous in modern, Western pop culture as the fierce, stoic guards of feudal Japan, but their practices and rituals extended beyond wielding katanas and donning impressive armor. Samurai practices were rich and complex, with strict codes, ritual suicide, and a history of influencing culture and politics (“Samurai”).

Edward Koiki Mabo (Eddie) is a well-known Australian Indigenous person, who throughout his lifetime was committed to obtaining justice for Indigenous Australians. His greatest achievement was his stand against racial discrimination and his fight for Australian laws to recognise the traditional land rights of his family and the Meriam People of Murray Island. As a result, the doctrine of terra nullius, that claimed Australia was a land without owners, was overturned, changing Australian law forever, and the Native Title Act was introduced, which legally recognised the traditional land rights of Indigenous Australians.

There was always an attempt by the rule in the elite in Japan to centralize power, and this was resisted through armed struggle and formation of alliances by other levels of the Japanese society that would put pressure on the ruling elites, hence defeating their ability to centralize such power. Ferejohn and Rosenbluth capture how the Japanese ninjas were a manifestation of the fierce and extensive resistance to encroaching armies of the elite by the local farming communities .These communities armed themselves with guerrilla techniques and simple weapons and later on became warriors who advanced the struggle for villages for local autonomy in the dying years of medieval Japan. Religious groups such as Buddhists also had political arms that sought to advance political interests of the local groups. Ferejohn and Rosenbluth indicate that one of the unifiers of Japan, Oda Nobunag brought the Buddhist movement to its heels in the late 16th century .