Features of the Bakuhan System and its Decline
In the Tokugawa Shogunate, at the apex mobility within this hierarchy was strictly
was the Emperor, a figurehead, a symbol of
political legitimacy. The real power was in the
hands of a dynastic military leader, the shogun,
who exercised supreme administrative authority
and had his capital at Edo. Among his officials, the
Councilors of the State were responsible for the
national policy and for supervision of the court and
the shogun’s own domain. The members of the
Junior Council controlled the samurai, the
shogun’s military forces and his household staff.
All these, as well as the governors were
daimyo or vassal-in-chief. They were assisted by a
number of lower officials. The daimyo had to swear
a pledge of fealty to the House of Tokugawa, in
return for which the shogun bestowed upon him a
patent of investiture that defined his holdings and
entitled him to rule.
The daimyo were classified into categories
in terms of their relationship to the Tokugawa
family. First came the daimyo families of Tokugawa
blood (shimpan), who on account of their absolute
loyalty occupied the strategically important
locations. Next in status were fudai daimyo, who
were stationed at critical places across the county
to parry any threat against shogunal interests. The
tozama daimyo dwelled on the periphery of the
Japanese islands and were permanently excluded
from any office in the central government on the
grounds that they were hostile and presented a
threat to Tokugawa rule.
The daimyo on their domains issued legal
codes, imposed taxes, and crafted administrative
systems. They commanded a body of loyal samurai,
policed their own borders and interfered in the
lives of the inhabitants to maintain peace. Below
the daimyo were the samurai, family-based bands
of warriors who owed allegiance to their lords in
return for the fixed rice-stipends.
The Tokugawa military dictatorship was
based on rigid social institutions. The shogun,
daimyo, and samurai formed the first social class.
The other 3 social classes in descending order were
the peasants, artisans, and merchants. Social
prohibited. The shogunate also erected a system of
checks and balances to forestall any possibility of
internal revolt. Court nobles appointed to act in
the shogun’s interests, had to swear an oath of
allegiance to him and through them he controlled
the appointment of all senior officials at the court.
As a measure of check on the daimyo’s
authority, the fudai daimyo were distributed
among the tozama daimyo, and they were also
subject to frequent transfers. Although they were
not taxed directly, the shogunate expected military
service from them, and also obliged them to
contribute manpower, material, and money to
construct and maintain Tokugawa castles and to
carry out public work projects, building and
repairing roads, etc. The daimyo had to follow the
laws of Edo; a strict passport system restricted
their movement and they had to seek the shogun’s
permission to travel.
No daimyo were allowed to make a direct
approach to the Emperor’s court at Kyoto. A secret
police and an espionage system was also set-up to
keep a check on the activities of the daimyo.
Another measure of check, the Sankin Kotai
System, compelled the daimyo to reside
alternatively in their domains and at Edo, leaving
their families at Edo as hostages when they
returned to their own domains. Foreign trade was
also strictly regulated.
However, the bakuhan system crumbled
under the weight of its own internal
contradictions. Since, the daimyo had to undertake
substantial expenditure to maintain residences
both at Edo and in their domains, to finance their
annual journeys due to the Sankin Kotai System,
and to fulfill their obligations to the shogun, they
began to convert the tax, collected as rice, into
money, by selling it in market centers, from where
merchants (chonin) sold it in various urban
centers.
As a result, the merchants assumed a
significant role, facilitated by the increasing
agricultural and rural production and flourishing
Features of the Bakuhan System and its Decline

commerce, which stimulated the growth of cities
and trading centers. Over time, the daimyo fell
heavily indebted to the merchants, for they were at
the mercy of the astute merchant financiers and
the vagaries of the rice market. This resulted into
social mobility of the merchants as wealthy
merchants were adopted into daimyo families
either by marriage or adoption.
crisis was worsened by the occurrences of natural
calamities, accompanied by peasant uprisings.
The Satsuma-Choshu alliance in 1866 and
the military defeat at the hands of the Choshu
daimyo formed the immediate background to the
downfall of the Tokugawas.

As warfare ceased to be a way of life, the

samurai were deprived of their land, making them
dependent on fixed rice-stipends given by the
daimyo. They were forced to take up residence in
castle towns, limiting them to the task of revenue
collection; creating local consumption centers,
which brought into being a merchant class. The
samurai began to grow cash crops or supplement
their income by setting up workshops.

The appointment of officials in the

bureaucracy on the basis of social rank, instead of
merit caused further social discontent among the
samurai class. To compound samurai grievances,
their incomes were reduced, as the shogun and
daimyo cut samurai stipends due to escalating
costs. Many gave up their allegiance to their
respective daimyo and became the ronin, owing no
fealty and professing no fixed occupation.

Thus, there emerged a daimyo-ronin-

chonin alliance, with a distinct anti-bakuhan
character and a common aim to end the Tokugawa
regime, whose policies had forced their decline.
The daimyo demanded a heavy tax from the
peasantry (now to be paid in cash), to meet the
growing expenses; forced the peasants to turn to
moneylenders, keeping their land as surety. The
peasants found it difficult to repay these loans and
land began to pass into the hands of the
moneylenders.

As the number of landless peasants grew,

peasant resistance was seen in migration to the
cities and also infanticides and suicides and
peasant revolts. The kuge also became active
participants in building an anti-bakufu league
together with the dissident daimyo. The internal