Hello! It is the blog televising Japanese uniqueness, How Unique Japan!
On the page (What is the Edo era), I tried to explain the time with features of the Edo city. At the same time, I touched on the founder, Ieyasu Tokugawa.
(If you haven’t read it yet, please click that!)
So, this time, I would love to write about what rows he made that controlled Japan (throughout the Edo era from 1603 to 1868, 260 years!) for so long.
How did he and his family line successfully take the lead in the country?
The Laws to Control the Edo era
After he settled in Japan in peace and started the era, he created many laws for solid control.
Let’s see some important ones.
1. Forbidden Importing / Exporting (Isolation)
The Edo City (Ieyasu) banned trading with a unique law named Sakoku (lock up the country) that gradually became established.
In 1616 AC, ships from any European country were only allowed to dock in Nagasaki port.
In 1633, traveling overseas became forbidden unless with an official permission certificate. Then, around 1665 AC, traveling and trading were strictly banned except in the Netherlands and China (but they were only for trading, not traveling).
2. Hierarchy Control structure, BAKUHU, and HAN
He established the top organization controlling the country, like the government (but more hierarchic or monarchic) called Bakuhu. Then, he took a seat as the boss himself. It was named the Edo Shogunate system.
Under his order, the prefectures “Han” were named and settled.
Although there are 48 prefectures in Japan now, Japan at that time had 266 numbers of Han. Ieyasu then placed other generals as the rulers in each Han and controlled.
3. Exchange the position (Sankin koutai)
Ieyasu put other generals as rulers. However, he was still worried about any rebellion from them till his life ended.
So, he/the Bakuhu wanted to take the power of Hans with any method.
Thus, his grandson, Iemitsu Tokugawa inherited his anxiety and made another law in 1635 AC that all rulers had to send many workers to Edo City to help with some duties for society, for example, the police force, court, and even prison.
It was called “Sankin Koutai” (Exchange workers’ position).
The duty was constantly lasting till the Edo era ended. Every April, all positions are exchanged with the new workers. That means new workers from each Han went to the city, and previous workers returned.
That idea worked very well. Bakuhu could adjust the power of each prefecture Han due to travel costs, and they spy on them.
4. Tax system
The unique tax in Japan existed since 652 AC. However, Ieyasu systematized it more effectively.
The key was RICE. In that era, all agricultural workers had a duty to pay the tax with some amount of rice stored in barrels of straw.
The official workers measured the size of rice fields in each prefecture, han, then expected how much rice the worker would harvest.
The percentage was 60% for Bakuhu (tax). The left 40% were for villages. It looked a little unfair.
Fun fact. The tax (rice) was exchanged with money through rice wholesalers. That means they had great power in Japanese economics.
To close
Thank you so much for reading these articles. But it is not yet. This blog also has another category (for example, some Japanese foods). If you are interested in them, please take a look the front page!
OK! time to go! See you for the next article about Japanese Uniqueness!