Tokugawa shogunate : Tokugawa

The Tokugawa Shogunate or Tokugawa bakufu (徳川幕府) (also known as the Edo bakufu) was a feudal military dictatorship established in 1603 by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family to 1867 AD. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital based in Edo.

Following the Sengoku Period of "warring states", central government had been largely re-established by Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the Azuchi-Momoyama period. After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, central authority fell to Tokugawa Ieyasu who completed this process and received the title of shogun in 1603. His descendants were to hold the position, and the central authority that came with it, until the 19th century.

The Tokugawa period, unlike the shogunates before it, was based on the strict class hierarchy established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The warrior-caste of samurai were at the top, followed by peasants, artisans, and traders. An additional class was filled by the burakumin (or eta), the lowest in status and socially despised for dealing in taboo trades connected with death. "Classless" persons such as entertainers also existed, having neither the restrictions nor the protections granted by the acknowledged castes.

Ironically, the very strictness of the caste system was to undermine these classes in the long run. Taxes on the peasantry were set to fixed amounts which did not account for inflation or other changes in monetary value. As a result, the tax revenues collected by the samurai landowners were worth less and less over time. This often led to confrontations between noble but impoverished samurai and well-to-do peasants. The autobiography of a late-period samurai, Msuii's Story, documents some such confrontations.

Toward the end of the 19th century, an alliance of several of the more powerful daimyo with the titular Emperor finally succeeded in the overthrow of the shogunate, culminating in the Meiji Restoration. The Tokugawa bakufu came to an official end in 1867 with the resignation of the 15th Tokugawa Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu and the "restoration" ('Taisei Houkan') of imperial rule.

1. Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) (r. 1603-1605)
2. Tokugawa Hidetada[?] (1579-1632) (r. 1605-1623)
3. Tokugawa Iemitsu[?] (1604-1651) (r. 1623-1651)
4. Tokugawa Ietsuna[?] (1641-1680) (r. 1651-1680)
5. Tokugawa Tsunayoshi[?] (1646-1709) (r. 1680-1709)
6. Tokugawa Ienobu[?] (1662-1712) (r. 1709-1712)
7. Tokugawa Ietsugu[?] (1709-1716) (r. 1713-1716)
8. Tokugawa Yoshimune[?] (1684-1751) (r. 1716-1745)
9. Tokugawa Ieshige[?] (1711-1761) (r. 1745-1760)
10. Tokugawa Ieharu[?] (1737-1786) (r. 1760-1786)
11. Tokugawa Ienari[?] (1773-1841) (r. 1787-1837)
12. Tokugawa Ieyoshi[?] (1793-1853) (r. 1837-1853)
13. Tokugawa Iesada[?] (1824-1858) (r. 1853-1858)
14. Tokugawa Iemochi[?] (1846-1866) (r. 1858-1866)
15. Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1837-1913) (r. 1867

See also: shogun -- bakufu -- Cloistered rule -- History of Japan -- Lists of incumbents

Common misspelling and questions (FAQ)

okugawa  tkugawa  tougawa  tokgawa  tokuawa  tokugwa  tokugaa  tokugaw  otkugawa  tkougawa  toukgawa  tokguawa  tokuagwa  tokugwaa  tokugaaw  tokugaw  ttokugawa  tookugawa  tokkugawa  tokuugawa  tokuggawa  tokugaawa  tokugawwa  tokugawaa  5okugawa  rokugawa  fokugawa  6okugawa  gokugawa  6okugawa  yokugawa  gokugawa  t9kugawa  tikugawa  tkkugawa  t0kugawa  tlkugawa  t0kugawa  tpkugawa  tlkugawa  toiugawa  tojugawa  tomugawa  toougawa  to,ugawa  toougawa  tolugawa  to,ugawa  tok7gawa  tokygawa  tokhgawa  tok8gawa  tokjgawa  tok8gawa  tokigawa  tokjgawa  tokutawa  tokufawa  tokuvawa  tokuyawa  tokubawa  tokuyawa  tokuhawa  tokubawa  tokugqwa  tokugwwa  tokugzwa  tokugwwa  tokugswa  tokugzwa  tokuga2a  tokugaqa  tokugaaa  tokuga3a  tokugasa  tokuga3a  tokugaea  tokugasa  tokugawq  tokugaww  tokugawz  tokugaww  tokugaws  tokugawz  yokugawa  tyokugawa  tokugawas 


feast, a bidden guest, or art thou for treading a townsman's wine- singing from thy boots!' 'Dear Lycidas,' I answered him, 'they all say that thou among sooth this greatly rejoices our hearts, and yet, to my conceit, the harvest-feast, for, look you some friends of ours are paying a increase, for verily in rich measure has the goddess filled their are thine alike and mine, come, let us vie in pastoral song, voiced mouth of the Muses, and they all call me the best of cannot as yet conquer in song that great Sicelidas--the Samian--nay, said, 'I give thee this staff, because thou art a sapling of Zeus, raise a house as high as the mountain summit of Oromedon, {40} so I notes against the Minstrel of Chios! But come, Simichidas, without it please thee at all, this ditty that I lately fashioned on the westering, and the south wind the wet waves chases, and when Orion saves Lycidas from the fire of Aphrodite, for hot is the love that wind, and the east, that stirs the sea-weeds on the farthest shores, all the birds that take their prey from the salt sea. Let all things haven. And I, on that day, will go crowned with anise, or with a Ptelea I will dip from the bowl as I lie by the fire, while one shall .