TERMS AND GUIDE QUESTIONS FOR FILM

Tokugawa Japan 1600-1868

 

 

Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616): founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1867), the last political period before the Meiji Reforms (1868). Ieyasu emerged victorious over his rivals at the Battle of Sekigahara (1600). He was soon appointed Shogun by the emperor and moved his government in Edo (Tokyo).

 

Daimyo: a member of the Japanese nobility, a local lord with a certain amount of taxable rice lands.

 

Samurai: members of Japan’s social elite from the Kamakura period (1185-1333) until the end of the Tokugawa Era.

 

Alternate Attendance System (Sankin Kotai): requirement that a daimyo spend every second year at the Tokugawa castle complex at Edo. When the daimyo returned home, he was required to leave his family in Edo. This “hostage system” was extremely costly for an individual daimyo, with 20% of his annual income often spent on travel alone between Edo and his home region.

 

 

Tokaido: the approx. 300-mile coastal road connecting Edo with the imperial court at Kyoto.  The road was one of five major highways of the Tokugawa Era and the site of both commerce and tourism.

 

Sumptuary Laws: laws passed in various pre-modern societies to control certain types of cultural behavior, from the wearing of certain clothes to the eating of certain foods.  Such laws were usually designed to reinforce class distinctions.

 

Bushido ("Way of the Warrior."): a code of behavior first codified in the mid-17th century for the samurai class. This Confucian-influenced code wed strict personal ethics with the guiding principle of physical sacrifice.

 

Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725): Samurai-born Japanese playwright said to have written over one hundred plays for Puppet Theater (Bunraku) His most famous play Sonezaki Shinju (The Love Suicides at Sonezaki) was based on reports of an actual double suicide.

 

 

#1. What did the Tokugawa Period contribute to Early Modern Japanese society?  The Economy?  Education?

 

#2. Describe how the Tokugawan penchant for order was applied in politics, society, and foreign relations.  Note: Elements of this response are found in the first 20 minutes of the documentary.

 

#3.  How did Tokugawan rulers use Confucian principles to enhance their control?

 

#4. What were the major societal changes during the Tokugawa Period?  Specifically, how did the social role of the samurai class change?  How did the samurai class change Japanese society in general?