lecture dealing with the daimyo dominated Japan and the unification and formation of the Tokugawa Shogunate

1. Japan Limits Western Contact
CH. 3 SECTION 3

2. NEW FEUDAL ORDER
 By the 1300’s, Japan’s
unity broke down
between
shoguns(military
leaders) in the north and
south. A civil war, the
Onin War (1467-1477),
destroyed Japan’s
feudal system and the
country slipped into
chaos...Sengoku
(warring states)- period
of chaos between 1467
to 1568 when Japan fell

3.  Powerful samurai seized control of the old feudal
estates establishing a new Japanese feudalism.
These warrior-chieftains became known as
daimyo and secured loyalty from the peasants by
offering protection. These rival daimyo fought
each other for territory leading to the endless
disorder throughout the land.

4. UNIFYING DAIMYOS
 1568- Oda Nobunaga
was a Daimyo who
defeated his rivals and
seized the imperial
capital Kyoto. His motto
was “rule the empire by
force.” Nobunaga still
had enemies (other
daimyo and wealthy
Buddhist monasteries)
which he had to destroy
in order to gain control of
the country.

5. Japan around 1582.
The areas in purple
show the areas
controlled by the
Oda in 1560, and
the grey area were
the territory
Nobunaga controlled
at the time of his
death in 1582.

6.  1575- The Battle of Nagashino, Nobunaga
led 3,000 musketeers against an enemy
force of samurai cavalry. He crushed the
enemy and the battle marked the first time
that firearms (arquebuses) were successfully
used in battle in Japan.
Early form of
arquebus; a hand
cannon with hook

7.  By the spring of 1582 he had conquered central
Japan and was attempting to extend his
hegemony over western Japan. In June of that
year, however, while Nobunaga was at Honnō
Temple in Kyōto, Akechi Mitsuhide, one of his
vassals, rebelled against him. Nobunaga was
wounded during the attack, and, with no chance
of escape, he committed seppuku (ritual self-
disembowelment) on June 21, 1582.
Grave of Oda
Nobunaga Grave located
at Mt. Koya, Wakayama
Prefecture, Japan

8. UNIFYING DAIMYO CONT’D…
 Toyotomi Hideyoshi
(Nobunaga’s best general)
continued to fight and by
1590, controlled most of the
country. With ambitions of
conquering China, he
invaded Korea in 1592 and
began a long campaign
against the Koreans and
their Ming Chinese allies.
Hideyoshi died in 1598 and
his troops withdrew from
Korea.

9. UNIFICATION!
 Tokugawa Ieyasu (one of
Hideyoshi’s and
Nobunaga’s daimyo allies)
did not participate in
Hideyoshi’s disastorous
campaigns in Korea.
Instead, he centralized
authority throughout his
newly acquired lands. He
completed the unification of
Japan by defeating his
rivals at the Battle of
Sekigahara on October 21,
1600.

10.  Tokugawa maintained control
of the local daimyo by
requiring them to spend
every other year in the
capital. Even when the
diamyo went back to his
lands he was required to
leave his family in the capital
(as hostages.) This was a
major step in centralizing
authority with Ieyasu’s
government in Japan.
Statue of Tokugawa Ieyasu at the
Tōshō Shrine in Nikkō, Japan.

11.  In 1603, the powerless but prestigious imperial
court, which over the years had dutifully assigned
Ieyasu titles that reflected his growing power,
appointed him shogun (generalissimo), thereby
acknowledging that this most powerful daimyo in
Japan was the man officially authorized to keep
the peace in the emperor’s name. Two years later
Ieyasu formally retired, left Edo for the more
pleasant surroundings of his old home at Sumpu,
and had the shogunal title assigned to his
son Hidetada, intending thereby to assure that the
title was recognized as a
hereditary Tokugawa prerogative. This was the
establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

12. NEW CAPITAL CITY
 In 1603 when he
became the sole
ruler or shogun,
Ieyasu moved the
capital to a small
fishing village
named Edo (later
known as Tokyo).
The Tokugawa or
Edo Shogunate will
last 1603-1867.