Main Events in the History of Japan of the Edo Period

Prior to the 17th century, Japan had to go through a battle that decided the fate of its country for the next 2 centuries. This battle took place due to power-hungry regents who want to take the throne after the death of their master who left behind a five-year-old successor. Tokugawa Ieyasu won The Battle of Sekigahara late 1600, which then led to him becoming Shogunate (General) of Japan.

With the victory of the battle of Sekigahara came the Edo period in 1603. Edo became the central political power and the secondary capital of Japan due to the establishment of the bakufu headquarters, which was the military government of Japan. With the initiation of the Edo period came stability and peace. Japan in 1635 was trying to stay independent and to do so it was planning to sever the relations with the other countries, especially the Europeans, and close its barriers. Anyone who tries to pass them will be punished. Foreign trade was restricted and practices of Catholicism were punished by strict penalties. The Christian Problem was in fact an issue that controlled the Christian Demiyo in Kyushu and exchanged with the Europeans.In 1612, the slaves of Shikun and the landowners of Tokugawa were requested to forsake Christianity.

Other limitations appeared in 1616. They started with the limitation of outside exchange from Nagasaki and Hirado, on the island of Kyushu, to the northwest. Then, in 1622, they executed 120 ministers and converts. In 1624, they expelled the Spaniards and executed thousands of Christians in 1629. Finally, the declaration of 1635 forbade the Japanese to travel outside Japan and never take off in case of takeoff. On the other hand, in 1636, the Dutch were restricted to Digima, a little manufactured island that does not truly have a place to Japan within the harbour of Nagasaki.

After executing these new rules as every country that imposes new rules to their inhabitants, there will be some rebellion who didn’t accept these rules. The first rebellion took place in 1637 named the Shimabara Rebellion against the daimyō Matsukura Katsuie following his persecution of Christianity and his expensive tax code. He profoundly expanded charges for the development of the unused Shimabara Castle and savagely prohibited Christianity. The Shimabara Resistance was the greatest aware struggle in Japan among the Edo period, and was in a way a unassuming bunch of genuine torments within the center of the large calm period of the Tokugawa shogunate's appear.

This one was just the first, many other rebels showed up after as the alliance of local and mainly Catholic peasants led by Amakusa Shirō who were formed because of disappointment with Katsuie's approach. The Tokugawa shogunate sent a drive of more than 125,000 Dutch-backed warriors to control the rebels and crushed them after a long attack against their post at Hara Castle in Minamishimabara. After the effective concealment of the disobedience, Shirō and approximately 37,000 rebels and sympathizers were executed by decapitating and Portuguese dealers suspected of making a difference them were dislodged from Japan.

After dealing with a lot of rebels the last ones were in April 1638, the assault was given and the massacre lasted three days, during which the insurgents were exterminated and beheaded. The head of Amakusa Shirō, beheaded during the battle by Jinno Sazaemon of the Hosokawa clan, was sent to Edo, and the castle was demolished.

As we can see Japan in this period was just dealing with its inhabitant especially the rebels. In the Edo period directed by Shogunat Tokugawa, they were focusing on establishing peace and stability and involving new rules that everyone should respect and trying to be independent of the west. On the opposite of Russia that tries to govern the world and set plenty of wars to gain more territory that it had.