Japanese Studies

Tokugawa period (德川時代, Tokugawa jidai), also called Edo period (江戸時代, Edo jidai), from 1603 to 1867, the final period of traditional Japan, a time of internal peace, political stability, and economic growth under the shogunate (military dictatorship) founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu.

1600 Tokugawa Ieyasu wins at Sekigahara; founds Tokugawa bakufu.

1590s-1620s Nationwide construction boom; Kyoto flourishes.

1630s Tokugawa Iemitsu regularizes internal and foreign relations.

1670s-80 Hishikawa Moronobu produces woodblock prints in Edo.

ca.1690s-1720s Population growth decelerates sharply.

1720s Tokugawa Yoshimune implements Kyoho Reform

1759 Yamagata Daini writes Ryushi shinron.

1780 Tenmei famine.

1790s Matsudaira Sadanobu promotes Kanse Reform.

1808 HMS Phaeton affair at Nagasaki.

1825 An edict to drive off foreign vessels is issued.

1833–1836 The Tempō famine. 

1837 Ōshio Heihachirō leads an insurrection.

1841 Rōjū Mizuno Tadakuni initiates the Tempō Reforms.

1849 The woodblock artist Hokusai dies.

1853 Commodore Perry arrives.

1854 The Treaty of Kanagawa is signed with the United States.

1858 Ii Naosuke is appointed great councilor (tairō); a commercial treaty with the United States is concluded; the woodblock artist Hiroshige dies.

1867 Shōgun Keiki restores political power to the imperial court.


(Source: Hane, Mikiso, and Louis G. Perez. Modern Japan : A Historical Survey. Vol. 5th ed, Routledge, 2013.)

 

Color print, Japanese

Edo period, 1600-1868

Japanese drama -- Edo period, 1600--1868

Kabuki plays -- History and criticism

Tokugawa period, 1600-1868

Wood-engraving, Japanese --Edo period