What Accounts For The Stability of the Tokugawa Regime? :: essays research papers fc

What Accounts for the Stability of the Tokugawa Regime?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the first half of the Seventeenth century, the regime perfected by Ieyasu Tokugawa and his successors was based on the accepted system of daimyà ´ domains which Nobunaga and Hideyoshi had been developing prior to Ieyasu’s rule. It was thus basically feudal in structure, but it represented a highly organised and stable stage of feudalism, unlike Europe ever experienced. The reasons for the stability of such a regime are quite numerous, and demonstrate the bakufu government’s capability of maintaining a time of peace for the better part of two centuries. They maintained this peaceful era by the strict regulation of the other powers of Japan, and thus there own influence was an omnipresent force throughout the nation. After the battle of Sekigahara in 1600, by which Ieyasu’s total control of Japan was attained, in order to achieve quick stability, as stated, he made use of the thoroughly familiar Daimyà ´ System. Upon achieving this rapid yet superficial form of stability, he endeavoured to make various improvements so as to solidify the permanence of his own power, and subsequently Tokugawa rule in general. This first method which he adopted to secure his position was by the division of land post-Sekigahara. The shà ´gun reserved for themselves a huge realm consisting of a quarter of the agricultural land of the country, located largely around their Kanto headquarters in Edo and the old capital region around Kyoto, but also including all the major Japanese cities, ports and mines. The other three quarters of the land was divided between three types of daimyà ´. Firstly, there were the ‘related’ daimyà ´ which consisted of various branches of the Tokugawa family, most notably the three large domains of Wakayama, Mito and Nagoya. Then there were the many fudai (‘hereditary’) daimyà ´, who had been Ieyasu’s vassals pre 1600, with their rather small fiefs in central Japan. Finally there were the tozama, who, during the battle of Sekigahara, had either been Ieyasu’s enemies or powerful allies and still posed a threat to his rule. These tozama held relatively large fiefs at the western and northern ends of the islands, far form the strategically important central part of the country. Thus the Tokugawa coalition of shà ´gun, ‘related’ daimyà ´, and ‘hereditary’ daimyà ´ (both of which were loyal to the shà ´gun), held well over half the agricultural land and virtually all the central and most strategic regions, and so any potential threat to Tokugawa rule was minimised.