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- BARRY TILL
WITH THE DEATH OF THE POWERFUL general Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1598, and with his decisive victory�despite overwhelming odds�at the battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542�1616) seized the reins of power in Japan. In 1603 he had Emperor Go-Yozei assign him the title of shogun to legitimize his position. However, it was not until 1615 that Ieyasu attained absolute control of Japan with his victory over Hideyoshis son, Hideyori, at Osaka Castle, following a long and tenacious resistance. Because of its strategic geographical location, Ieyasu made Edo (modern day Tokyo) the capital of his unified nation and, for this reason, his regime is usually called the Edo period, its other name being Tokugawa. Edo had been an unimportant fishing village before, but that changed when Ieyasu selected it as his capital. Very quickly Edo was transformed from a village into one of the largest, most populous and most cultivated capital cities in the world. Since Edo city had such a vast system of natural rivers and canals, it made it a veritable Venice of the East. There was soon an unending stream of people hustling and bustling on its streets and over its numerous bridges. Boats and barges of all sizes could be seen carrying foodstuffs and other essential goods. The waterways became the lifeblood of the city and linked it to the rest of Japan, especially the city of Osaka, which grew rich supplying Edo with manufactured goods. [53-61] Swampy lowlands were reclaimed and became Edo's �downtown,� holding about two-thirds of the city's population in neighbourhoods separated by canals. Like other Japanese cities and towns, Edo was laid out in a number of concentric circles, each inhabited by a particular social class, with the upper classes in the central area and the lower classes in the outer rings.
Ieyasus victory marked a major turning point in Japanese history. The shrewd policies he and his two successors implemented to achieve political stability and longevity created the mould in which almost every facet of the nations life� particularly its political and social institutions�was cast for the next two and a half centuries. Ieyasus strong centralized government (known as the bakufu), with its efficient political administration and strong economic policies, is often considered to be the most successful shogunate of all time. The shogunate controlled the economies of the major cities of Edo, Kyoto, Osaka and Nagasaki and monopolized all foreign trade, resulting in an enormous net wealth. During the early Tokugawa rule, only a few relatively minor rebellions disturbed the bakufus firm control over the nation.
OPPOSITE
7. Shibata Zeshin (1807-91) Lacquer Inro,
Ivory Netsuke by Gyokuei Glass Ojime inlaid with lapis lazuli
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