Consolidation of the shogunate

Main article: Tokugawa shogunate

Tokugawa Ieyasu, first shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate

A revolution took place from the time of the Kamakura shogunate, which existed with the
Tennō's court, to the Tokugawa, when the samurai became the unchallenged rulers in what
historian Edwin O. Reischauer called a "centralized feudal" form of shogunate. Instrumental in
the rise of the new bakufu was Tokugawa Ieyasu, the main beneficiary of the achievements of
Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Already a powerful daimyō (feudal lord), Ieyasu
profited by his transfer to the rich Kantō area. He maintained two million koku of land, a new
headquarters at Edo, a strategically situated castle town (the future Tokyo), and also had an
additional two million koku of land and thirty-eight vassals under his control. After Hideyoshi's
death, Ieyasu moved quickly to seize control from the Toyotomi clan.

Ieyasu's victory over the western daimyō at the Battle of Sekigahara (October 21, 1600, or in the
Japanese calendar on the 15th day of the ninth month of the fifth year of the Keichō era) gave
him control of all Japan. He rapidly abolished numerous enemy daimyō houses, reduced others,
such as that of the Toyotomi, and redistributed the spoils of war to his family and allies. Ieyasu
still failed to achieve complete control of the western daimyō, but his assumption of the title of
shōgun helped consolidate the alliance system. After further strengthening his power base,
Ieyasu installed his son Hidetada (1579–1632) as shōgun and himself as retired shōgun in 1605.
The Toyotomi were still a significant threat, and Ieyasu devoted the next decade to their
eradication. In 1615, the Tokugawa army destroyed the Toyotomi stronghold at Osaka.

The Tokugawa (or Edo) period brought 250 years of stability to Japan. The political system
evolved into what historians call bakuhan, a combination of the terms bakufu and han (domains)
to describe the government and society of the period.[1] In the bakuhan, the shōgun had national
authority and the daimyō had regional authority. This represented a new unity in the feudal
structure, which featured an increasingly large bureaucracy to administer the mixture of
centralized and decentralized authorities. The Tokugawa became more powerful during their first
century of rule: land redistribution gave them nearly seven million koku, control of the most
important cities, and a land assessment system reaping great revenues.

The feudal hierarchy was completed by the various classes of daimyō. Closest to the Tokugawa
house were the shinpan, or "related houses". They were twenty-three daimyō on the borders of
Tokugawa lands, all directly related to Ieyasu. The shinpan held mostly honorary titles and
advisory posts in the bakufu. The second class of the hierarchy were the fudai, or "house
daimyō", rewarded with lands close to the Tokugawa holdings for their faithful service. By the
18th century, 145 fudai controlled much smaller han, the greatest assessed at 250,000 koku.
Members of the fudai class staffed most of the major bakufu offices. Ninety-seven han formed
the third group, the tozama (outside vassals), former opponents or new allies. The tozama were
located mostly on the peripheries of the archipelago and collectively controlled nearly ten
million koku of productive land. Because the tozama were least trusted of the daimyō, they were
the most cautiously managed and generously treated, although they were excluded from central
government positions.

The Tokugawa shogunate not only consolidated their control over a reunified Japan, they also
had unprecedented power over the emperor, the court, all daimyō and the religious orders. The
emperor was held up as the ultimate source of political sanction for the shōgun, who ostensibly
was the vassal of the imperial family. The Tokugawa helped the imperial family recapture its old
glory by rebuilding its palaces and granting it new lands. To ensure a close tie between the
imperial clan and the Tokugawa family, Ieyasu's granddaughter was made an imperial consort in
1619.

A code of laws was established to regulate the daimyō houses. The code encompassed private
conduct, marriage, dress, types of weapons and numbers of troops allowed; required feudal lords
to reside in Edo every other year (the sankin-kōtai system); prohibited the construction of ocean-
going ships; proscribed Christianity; restricted castles to one per domain (han) and stipulated that
bakufu regulations were the national law. Although the daimyō were not taxed per se, they were
regularly levied for contributions for military and logistical support and for such public works
projects as castles, roads, bridges and palaces. The various regulations and levies not only
strengthened the Tokugawa but also depleted the wealth of the daimyō, thus weakening their
threat to the central administration. The han, once military-centered domains, became mere local
administrative units. The daimyō did have full administrative control over their territory and their
complex systems of retainers, bureaucrats and commoners. Loyalty was exacted from religious
foundations, already greatly weakened by Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, through a variety of control
mechanisms.

Foreign trade relations