Early modern Japan (1550–1850)

The Oda regime

In the 1550–60 period the Sengoku daimyo, who had survived the wars of the previous 100 years, moved into an even fiercer stage of mutual conflict. These powerful daimyo were harassed not only by each other but also by the rise of common people within their domains. The daimyo sought to resolve their dilemma by acquiring land and people to widen their domains and, finally, by trying to seize control of the whole country. That, of course, required the control of Kyōto, the political center of Japan since ancient times. Out of these bloody struggles emerged one Sengoku daimyo, Oda Nobunaga of Owari province (in modern Aichi prefecture), who succeeded in occupying the capital as the first feudal unifier.

The emergence of Nobunaga’s regime reversed the feudal disintegration of the previous century and moved the country toward unification. Oda was a military genius, who was the first to successfully adapt firearms to Japanese warfare. His bold wars of suppression, waged against both other daimyo and recalcitrant religious communities, led to a great redrawing of the political map of Japan, previously split up among daimyo throughout the country. In the Kinai district, where Nobunaga’s conquered territory was centered, however, he established control by dividing his new domain among his commanders. Rather than completely abrogating the long-established privileges of the temples, shrines, and local landlords (kokujin), he at first recognized them, regarding them as an important adjunct to the strengthening of his military power and using them as followers in his battles for unification. Cadastral surveys aimed at strengthening feudal landownership were at this stage carried out not so much to gain control over the complicated landholding and taxation system of the farmers as to define the size of fiefs (chigyō) of Nobunaga’s retainers in order to confirm the extent of their military services and obligations to him.

Nobunaga’s unification policy was predicated on a separation of warriors from the farmers, but unification was hampered because of resistance from old political forces, especially several major Buddhist temples. Unification proceeded further during the era of Nobunaga’s successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

The Hideyoshi regime

Nobunaga’s father was a minor Owari daimyo, whereas Hideyoshi was the son of a peasant from the same province. After entering Nobunaga’s service, Hideyoshi impressed all with his brilliant talents, and he soon rose to become one of Nobunaga’s most powerful commanders. After Nobunaga’s death—his vassal Akechi Mitsuhide assassinated him—Hideyoshi eliminated many rivals by relying on his superb political judgment and shrewd actions, firmly establishing himself as successor. Following in Nobunaga’s footsteps, Hideyoshi proceeded to unify the whole country at a rapid pace, and by 1590 all Japan—from Kyushu in the southwest to Tōhoku in the northeast—had come under his control. As an example of Hideyoshi’s shrewd judgment, he gave the Kantō domain, formerly controlled by the Hōjō family, to Tokugawa Ieyasu, nominally as a reward for distinguished service. The “reward” forced Ieyasu to move to Edo (modern Tokyo); this was, in fact, a stratagem to remove the Tokugawa family from the Chūbu region around modern-day Nagoya, which had been its power base.

At the core of Hideyoshi’s unification policy was its firm establishment in the principle of the separation between warriors and peasants. Hideyoshi adopted several major policies to accomplish this end: a comprehensive land survey (kenchi), the disarmament of the peasantry, and the separation of the classes. The so-called Taikō land survey played a crucial role in this process. Taikō was a traditional title for the former office of kampaku (chancellor) which Hideyoshi assumed in 1591. Like Nobunaga, Hideyoshi felt constrained by lineage not to make himself shogun and thus sought other titles to legitimize his rule. The Taikō land survey was carried out throughout the country from 1583 to 1598, being completed just before Hideyoshi’s death. As a result of this survey, the complicated relationships of rights to landownership that had developed since the Kamakura period were now clarified. The former shōen system of complex landholding had been obliterated by Sengoku daimyo. Landowning relations were now based on kokudaka—i.e., on the actual product of the land. Moreover, this kokudaka now came within the landlord’s grasp in every village, and land taxes were levied on the village as a unit. In addition to this definition of the rights held by the farming population, the kokudaka system also applied to the landholdings of the daimyo for distribution among their retainers. In place of previous land taxes (nengu) assessed in money as so many hundred or ten thousand kan of silver, an assessment of kokudaka was made as so many hundred or ten thousand koku of rice. A koku represented the amount of rice consumed by one person in one year (about five bushels); the amount also was used as a standard on which military services were levied in proportion.

As part of the process, a register was drawn up in every village. Peasants had their rights as cultivators recognized to the extent that their land was duly registered; in return, they were bound to pay land taxes in rice and were forbidden to neglect the cultivation of their fields or to move elsewhere. In return for a certain security of tenure, peasants were thus tied more closely to the land, allowing for easier exploitation. The promulgation of an order of social-status control in 1591 prohibited warriors from taking up farming and forbade other daimyo from employing a samurai who left his master. The ordinance required that peasants remain in villages and not flee to cities; it also forbade artisans and merchants from residing in villages, thus extending Nobunaga’s attempt to separate warriors and farmers into a social-class system of warriors, farmers, artisans, and merchants. Hideyoshi’s so-called “sword hunt” (katana-gari) of 1588, which attempted to disarm the peasantry and melt the confiscated arms into an enormous statue of the Buddha, was an important prerequisite for this policy. With the establishment of the kokudaka system, the Taikō land survey delivered the final blow to the shōen system of manorial holdings, which had already virtually disappeared under the onslaught of the Sengoku daimyo. The feudal chigyō system, based on the kokudaka assessment, was established throughout the country. The provincial daimyo all submitted to Hideyoshi’s regime, and the more egalitarian, alliance-like relationship between Nobunaga and the former Sengoku daimyo was replaced by a clear lord-vassal relationship.

The political structure of the Hideyoshi regime was not yet fully sufficient, however, to be the unified governing authority for the whole country. For example, the kurairechi (lands under its direct control), which were the immediate financial base of the regime, amounted to more than 2.2 million koku by the time of Hideyoshi’s death, nearly one-eighth of Japan’s cultivated land. But aside from those in the metropolitan and surrounding provinces, these lands were in many cases divided among the distant, independent tozama (“outside”) daimyo, and the management of these lands was entrusted to them. Such lands were thus not firmly in the grasp of the regime. By contrast, the lands that later came under the direct control of the Tokugawa shogunate amounted to more than four million koku, or nearly double those of the Hideyoshi regime; four-fifths of these were managed by officials known as gundai and daikan, who were direct retainers of the shogunate, with only a fifth entrusted to daimyo. This limitation of Hideyoshi’s regime gave rise to internal power struggles and finally drove Hideyoshi to such reckless actions as the invasions of Korea in 1592 and 1597. These two ill-advised adventures were designed to bring China under Hideyoshi’s sway and to provide an outlet for tens of thousands of warlike samurai only recently—and loosely—brought under Hideyoshi’s vassalage. Hideyoshi’s regime collapsed on the failure of the second Korean expedition and as the direct result of Hideyoshi’s subsequent death. Hideyoshi failed to bequeath his power to his heir, Hideyori, and Tokugawa Ieyasu emerged as the strongest candidate to succeed him.

Azuchi-Momoyama culture

Cultural historians often refer to the last few decades of this era as the Azuchi-Momoyama period, taking the name from Oda Nobunaga’s massive fortress at Azuchi, overlooking Lake Biwa at Hikone, and Hideyoshi’s magnificent edifice in the Momoyama district, southeast of Kyōto. Often abbreviated as, simply, the Momoyama period, it is characterized by gaudy splendour celebrating the ego of the two great rulers. The defining feature of the age is the castles —magnificent structures of stone, surrounded by wide moats and topped by graceful ramparts and donjons—that dotted the landscape between the 1580s and 1630s. Many of the associated castle towns were the forerunners of Japan’s present provincial capitals (e.g., Okayama, Kanazawa, Hiroshima, Ōsaka, and Matsuyama).

The castles were often filled with items reflecting the personalities of the rulers. In particular, Momoyama culture is noted for the magnificent standing screens, fusuma (sliding doors), and wall paintings of a monumental nature that decorated the castles. Artists of the Kanō school, drawing on the old Yamato-e style, produced colorful pictures of animals and landscapes. Characterized by rich pigments on reflective, gold-leaf backgrounds, these paintings are thought to have enhanced the poor illumination in the massive rooms of these castles. Whatever the reason for the strikingly rich colors and great reliance on gold, Momoyama paintings provide a vivid contrast to the somber tones of the monochrome paintings of the Muromachi era. A specific genre within this tradition is often referred to as namban (“southern barbarian”) pictures, since they represent both the European priests and traders—referred to as “southern barbarians” since they had entered Japan from the South Seas—of the day and their magnificent ships. Nobunaga and Hideyoshi spent great amounts of time and money indulging their cultural proclivities, especially the tea ceremony (cha-no-yu). Both men collected valuable tea bowls, caddies, and other implements associated with the rituals of the ceremony, and Hideyoshi favored enormous social events, such as the massive tea party scheduled to last for several days in Kyōto in 1587. Not always devoted to ostentation, Hideyoshi extended his patronage to the tea master Sen no Rikyū, the figure from whom all current tea masters trace their lineage. Rikyū brought the tea ceremony to new heights before he was forced to commit suicide by the impetuous Hideyoshi in 1591.