Short Introduction - The Edo Period

The Edo period was a period in the Japanese history between 1603 and 1868 when the Tokugawa clan ruled over the Japanese island. The period was later followed by the much important and turbulent Meiji period.

The so called Tokugawa shogunate under its ruler Tokugawa Ieyasu which also gave the name for the period introduced a new form of central governance which united the whole of Japan and in turn moved the real power from the Imperial family in Kyoto to the new military regimes Edo.

During the 16th century foreign traders and Christian missionaries from Portugal, Span, Holland, and England arrived but during the 17th century the Shogunate suspected the Catholic missionaries real purpose was to work for a larger invasion from Spain or Portugal and therefore banned all contact with Europeans from Catholic countries. Only a very limited outpost with Dutch traders was to be allowed by the Shogun, at the harbor in Dejima. Korean ships was granted entry to Nagasaki and the actual capital.

The isolation lasted in 251 years until the American commander Perry arrived at the Japanese shore and literally forced Japan to open itself to the wester powers through the Kanagawa convention year 1854. Within a few years of contact with the west the Japanese society was completely changed. Many historians have though tried to give a different angle to this and claims have been made that the Japanese shogunate was on its way down any way, with or without foreign intrusion.

After the so called Boshin War 1867-1868 the shogunate was forced away from power and the Emperors position was reinstated, which for most is known as the Meiji restoration. The decades that followed meant numerous changes in the political, cultural, and technological spheres. Japan needed and wanted western technology and know how to rapidly modernize to prevent a full scale colonization of its land.

Short Introduction - The Edo Period