The Tokugawa Shogunate
I. Founding of the Tokugawa Shogunate
A. By the 1500’s, there was a strong feeling that Japan should stop
fighting and become unified. Query: Why?
B. Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu founded the Tokugawa Shogunate and
began more than 250 years of peace in Japan.
Definition: Shogunate -
C. How did Shogun Tokugawa keep the peace? Answer: He controlled
the daimyo!
1. He crushed his enemies and took away their land so they didn’t
have the resources to fight him.
2. He forced the daimyo to have two houses - including one in the
capital under his watchful eye.
“Keep you friends close and your enemies closer!”
II. Foreign Contact - Japan closes its doors
A. European traders arrived in Japan in the mid 1500’s. They brought
with them European technology like guns as well as Christianity.
B. The Japanese felt Christianity was a threat because it taught loyalty to
Jesus Christ instead of to the daimyo or the Shogun.
C. The Japanese expelled all the foreigners from Japan and closed
themselves off from the rest of the world. The Tokugawa
Shogunate was a time of isolation for Japan.
Think Question - Would you expect isolation had a positive or negative impact on Japan?
Explain you answer.
Meiji Restoration
I. The fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate
A. The Tokugawa Shogunate was a time of isolation for Japan.
Unfortunately, that meant that Japan began to lag in technology.
B. In 1853, four American warships, led by Commodore Matthew Perry,
arrived in Japan. The Japanese had never seen ships like these and
so they realized they had fallen far behind the rest of the world.
C. Many Japanese citizens felt humiliated at being so far behind and so
they urged the emperor to get rid of the Tokugawa Shogunate and
rule Japan himself.
II. The Meiji Restoration
A. The Emperor of Japan took power and ended the Tokugawa
Shogunate. This was the first time since the early Yamato emperors
first united Japan, that Japan’s emperors had actually ruled the
country and not been just figureheads.
B. Japan now became eager to learn “Western” ways and technology.
They sent diplomats and scientists to both the United States and
Europe. The goal was to make Japan a world power.