HistoricalPeriod
Edo period
Overview
The Edo period, also known as the Tokugawa period, is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional daimyo, or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characterized by prolonged peace and stability, urbanization and economic growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policies, and popular enjoyment of arts and culture.
In 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu prevailed at the Battle of Sekigahara and established hegemony over most of Japan, and in 1603 was given the title shogun by Emperor Go-Yōzei. Ieyasu resigned two years later in favor of his son Hidetada, but maintained power, and defeated the primary rival to his authority, Toyotomi Hideyori, at the Siege of Osaka in 1615 before his death the next year. Peace generally prevailed from this point on, making samurai largely redundant. The Tokugawa shogunate continued Ieyasu's policies of conformity, including a formalization of social classes in a strict hierarchy. From 1635, daimyō had to spend alternating years in the capital Edo, where their family was required to reside permanently, in a system of "alternate attendance" in order to keep the daimyō in check. By 1639, all foreigners were expelled under the policy of sakoku, with the exception of Dutch traders on the island of Dejima in Nagasaki, beginning a period of isolation.
During the Edo period, merchants greatly prospered, and laid the foundation for Japan's later zaibatsu business conglomerates. Despite general restrictions on travel within the country, daimyō processions to and from Edo developed a network of roads and inns. A commoner culture emerged in Edo and cities such as Ōsaka and Kyōto, and art forms such as kabuki and ukiyo-e flourished. Japanese scholars developed schools of neo-Confucian philosophy, and samurai, now mostly employed as administrators, formalized their bushido code of morality. In 1853, Japan was forcibly opened to Western trade by United States Commodore Matthew C. Perry, beginning the Bakumatsu ("end of the bakufu") era. The Edo period came to an end in 1868 with the Meiji Restoration and the Boshin War, which restored imperial rule to Japan.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Philosophers who discussed Edo period
- Bodhidharma
- Yunmen Wenyan
- Shūzō Kuki
- Hayashi Razan
- Motoori Norinaga
- Itō Jinsai
- Kumazawa Banzan
- Ogyū Sorai
- Yamaga Sokō
- Menzan Zuihō
- Fujiwara Seika
- Nakae Tōju
- Kamo no Mabuchi
- Yanagi Sōetsu
- Andō Shōeki
- Ninomiya Sontoku
Place in the tradition
Part of Japanese philosophy.