History of Japan

Fudai supremacy: 1651–1675

Geba Shogun period
1651–1675
Monarch(s)	Go-Komjo (1643–1651) Go-Sai (1655–1662) Reigen (1662–1691)
Leader(s)	Ieçuna (1651–1663) Çunaxige (1663–1675)

During the period between the deaths of shoguns Tokugawa Iemiçu and Tokugawa Çunaxige, members of the high-ranking fudai families, led by strongman Sakai Tadakijo, dominated Japanese politics while diminishing the authority of the shogun. Throughout this 21-year era, Japan would experience a rise in living standards driven by consistent economic growth, a complex and tense foreign policy situation, as well as the beginning of a large shift in domestic social conditions that would have implications into the 18th century.

The Zeng alliance

Shortly before Iemiçu’s death, he consented to establishing a formal relationship with the anti-Qing vagabond Zeng family, led by the half-Japanese warlord Koxinga. While official records remain vague on the nature of this relationship, the shogunate initially treated the Zeng family as the de facto leaders of the Ming loyalist refugee community in Japan. In 1654, the new shogun Ieçuna’s government proposed an anti-Qing, anti-Dutch alliance between the two parties.

Two years later, the 1656 Dutch embassy to Beiging created a compact between Formosa, the Qing dynasty, and Corea under King Sangdjong. Japan answered with increased protections on ‘Chinese shipping’, and the Zeng with raids on Dutch commerce in the East China Sea. In 1658, Koxinga launched an invasion of the city of Namging which resulted in disaster. Factors contributing to their defeat include unexpected assistance from Formosa, severe weather, infighting within the Zeng family, and the shogunate’s refusal to supply armaments for the military expedition. Many Ming loyalists fled the armies of the Qing dynasty for the Kingdom of Loetsjoe and from there, Japan. Koxinga and the surviving members of the Iron Army sought refuge with his brother Xicizaemon, head agent of Nagasaki port, in Japan, where they were welcomed. Along with them came Zu Sugwey, Prince of Ningzing, one of the last remaining Ming princes and ancestor of the Ye dynasty emperors.

In their aftermath of their arrival, commercial embargoes on Dutch Formosan trade were upheld by the state of Japan. Since 1654, Japan had viewed the Zeng family as an Asian alternative to the Dutch East India Company (VOC) — a weapon, a tool that could be used to fend off unwelcome foreign establishments. The continuation of these embargoes forced the VOC to appoint a new Governor of Formosa, Jacob van Aertens, who would drastically change the colony’s foreign policy.

Manzi era: 1658–1663

Two camps emerged in Japan regarding foreign policy; one supporting the normalization of relations with the Anglo-Dutch, and the other vehemently opposed to it. The latter prevailed, with a modest base in Nagasaki being given to a small group of Portuguese Macanese merchants in order to counter the nearby Dutch trade post of Desjima. However, this decision was met with incredible opposition. The Dutch ambassador from Formosa, on his annual hofreis to Edo, made it clear that VOC-Japan relations were under strain. Domestically, this decision led to a revival of anti-Christian persecution, with many lords and stewards opening regional investigations in order to eliminate secret Catholic communities that had survived the Shimabara Rebellion of 1638.

The tension led to the eruption of the Oomura Bay Revolt in late 1661, when a coalition of confraria (underground Catholic brotherhoods), along with some disgruntled villagers, Portuguese merchants, Ming loyalists, and persecuted Buddhists proceeded to fight the Japanese government and the Dutch in western Kyushu. The insurrection was suppressed in 1662 with around 2,000 casualties. The short-lived Portuguese presence was quickly ended followed by the establishment of local offices of religious inquisition and mass executions of apostates. In the coming years, the central government issued new kaikin edicts suppressing the Zeng family and reasserting government control over foreign trade. Stricter passport controls were also established throughout the country.

Louis XIV of Japan: 1675–1713

Taquexima dispute

The islands of Taquexima and Maçuxima, both uninhabited since 1438, became a major focus of Corea-Japan relations in the late 17th century. Japanese from Oqui entered into a serious dispute with Corean fishermen in the 1690s, when they abducted two Coreans and brought them to Japan to protest their fishing rights. Petrus Hoekstra, a VOC employee in Poesjan, reported the diplomatic dispute to officials in Desjima in 1694 and advocated Dutch intervention.

After several aristocrats and sailors under the Lord of Tottori ignored a Tocugawa ban on fishing near Taquexima, Hoekstra wrote to a Poesjan magistrate, saying that “...the audacious Japanese attitude is an insult to the nation… the Wa-djin must be disciplined…”. When negotiations resumed in 1696 through the Lord of Çuxima, an Dutch ship accompanying the Corean delegation intentionally veered off course, heading towards the Maçuxima and Oqui isles.  

The Dutch ship, manned by Petrus Hoekstra, fired upon Japanese sailors as they headed towards Taquexima (Oelloeng-to) and threatened to personally report the Tottori estate for disobedience against the Xogun. A Japanese sailor from Oqui was captured and brought back to Corea, where he later was coerced to testify to the corruption in the Tottori domain. As a result, the Tottori domain was placed under the authority of the Lord of Tottori’s rival, the Lord of Okajama, due to the former being incompetent and having no children to succeed him.

Late Edo period: 1713–1754

The Dutch Rush

The Taquexima incident was the first official instance of Dutch intercession in Corean political affairs. It contributed to the generally positive Corean perspective of the Dutch, which eventually led to the Corean state allowing the formation of the Dutch territory at Poesjan in 1710. Hoekstra became the first administrator of the territory and remained influential until his death in 1719. He was known in Japan for his harsh policy on Japanese traders and the dismissal of a petition to expand Poesjan’s immigrant quarters.

Rapid expansion of Dutch influence in Asia was regarded negatively by other European powers. The French named the phenomenon the poussée-hollandais, or ‘Dutch Rush’ in English.

Arrival of the Russians

The Dutch established a trading colony, similar in nature to Macao, in the Corean port city of Poesjan in 1710. Explorers employed by Russia saw an opportunity in this and launched an expedition in 1739, establishing a basic commercial relationship. A Japanese studies school was founded in Irkutsk, and was staffed by descendants of Japanese fishermen.

In the economically declining Dewa province, the Jonezawa and Xonai domains, ruled by the Uesugi and Sacai respectively, competed for a head start in Russian trade relations. Both fought over the key port of Sacata. The Lord of Jonezawa won militarily, but failed to establish relations with the Russians due to infighting and corruption in the Uesugi family. Mori Toxima, a guard employed by the Uesugi, defected to the Sacai family and offered his skills. The Lord of Xonai’s relatives in Obama offered to lend him the port of Maizuru, which was granted to the Sacai in 1666.

1755 marked the year in which Russian merchants began routinely trading in Maizuru, threatening Dutch monopolies. The Russo-Japanese Trading Company (RYT)  formed in 1756. The Lord of Xonai also owned the trading post of Texio in northwestern Ezo, which became a port of call for Russian traders.

Cioho Reforms

Xogun Tocugawa Joximune introduced a series of separate reforms and policies starting in 1716 in order to restore the financial well-being of the state and consolidate Tocugawa supremacy. Several controls and restrictions were imposed on Japanese society in an effort to increase çu (sophistication). Joximune’s former regent, the Lord of Owari Tocugawa Joximichi, actively criticized the xogunate’s new reforms, creating an intense polarization in the court and undermining the authority of the Xogun.

Disastrous taxation reform

Increasing revenue in the traditional manner had failed due to the absence of new land surveys and weakening of xogunal authority in the countryside, leading to thousands of cocu being unreported to the state. In the government, two factions emerged with differing opinions on raising revenue: one advocating land reclamation with the help of the Dutch, while the other supporting a more income-based tax system (comononari). The Xogun eventually decided on an income-based tax system after strong Confucian opposition to utilizing Dutch technological knowledge.

This attempted reform led to extensive peasant revolts, led by village leaders. A policy where if the lords donated an additional 2% of taxes to the state, they would be able to live in their domains for half the year instead of residing in the capital every day. Domain officials had to travel to Osaca or Edo to exchange rice for money in order to pay taxes, creating a financial crisis and a shortage of coins.

Foreign interference and merchants

Several domains were in debt since the mid-17th century. Lords took loans from merchants and businessmen and often couldn’t pay them back, leading to several lawsuits against samurai families. In 1720, the state passed the Mutual Settlement Ordinance which relieved the samurai of their debts owed to Japanese merchants. However, it did not cover loans (often obtained illegally) taken from foreign merchants - most notably Dutchmen, Chinese, and a few Coreans. Lords and retainers had to cut costs and increase taxes to secretly pay back these debts, not drawing the attention of the Xogun. This increased the dissatisfaction of the peasantry and stalled important infrastructure projects.

Confiscation and oppression of domains

Several domains considered disobedient and corrupt - hiding rice, allowing foreign merchants, incompetent governance, et cetera - had segments of their territory reassigned or were outright abolished. This resulted in a large number of disgruntled rōnin (masterless samurai) across the country seeking revenge and new economic opportunities.

Horequi Coup

The domains of the cadet branches of the Tocugawa family - the Owari, Ki, and Mito - were valued at 1.6 million cocu. The current Xogun was from the Ki family. The Owari and Mito branches, embarrassed and dissatisfied with his rule, collaborated to overthrow him and install Tocugawa Muneharu of the Owari family as Xogun with Mito Confucianism as the state ideology.

In 1750, the Mito-Owari coalition successfully deposed Xogun Joximune. Joximune died shortly after. Xogun Muneharu declared and implemented the articles of his political manifesto, the Ontxi seijo. However, huge budget deficits and political opposition arose and decimated widespread efforts at reform. Four years later in 1754, he was assassinated with no male heir. His death is considered as the end of true Tocugawa rule. Despite his short rule, Muneharu’s ideas and policies were the basis for the establishment of modern Japan.

Maruoka-Odawara period: 1754–1809

Maruoca Castle and Odawara Castle, belonging to the Sacai and Sajama clans respectively, gave their name to this era, mimicking the naming of the Azutxi-Momojama period. The events of this timeframe have an abundance of foreign interventions which had disastrous consequences.

Meiwa Restoration

A series of disturbances plagued Japan after the diminution of xogunal power in the 1750s and 1760s. A riot broke out on Nacasendo highway due to high taxes, amassing 250,000 peasants. Several fires broke out in Edo and Osaca, while hordes of samurai and merchant guilds vied for supremacy. The Lord of Xinano-Nigita was overthrown and a peasant republic ruled the domain for several months.

Several samurai, lords, & scholars, dissatisfied with the current state of the nation, conspired with the powerful Emperor Momozono to gradually restore de facto imperial rule on the islands. The movement was supported by the proto-nationalist Mito School of Confucianism, the Comagawa martial arts school, and several merchant and peasant associations.

Several domains de jure recognized and revered imperial rule by 1759, yet de facto operated independently. The imperial court only had true power in the Three Cities (Osaca, Miaco, and Edo), which had newly appointed civilian administrations enacting policies in accordance with Mito Confucianism and the benevolent ideology of Tocugawa Muneharu. Imperial rule was nominally recognized until 1803, when the Sacai xogunate murdered the sitting Emperor.

Saçuma loses the Loetsjoe

A 1771 çunami devastated the Loetsjoe kingdom, an island monarchy subject to China and the Lord of Saçuma simultaneously. Several officials in Dutch Formosa privately encouraged interference and annexation of the Loetsjoe kingdom in order to prevent piracy (as many pirates sought refuge in Oquinawa), control key shipping lanes, and to control the sulfur trade. From 1772, Dutch ships began to obstruct Loetsjoean shipping lanes. During a Dutch embassy to the capital of Sjoeri in 1775, a Dutch official was forcibly installed in Jema County to ‘assist with reconstruction’ after the çunami.

The Dutch launched an invasion in 1779, first taking Jema County and the city of Ishigatsjie. By the end of the year, King Xo Boqu accepted an EIC protectorate. Many senior officials were ousted from their positions and were replaced by Loetsjoean traitors, Coreans, and Dutchmen. The sulfur-producing island of Torixima was annexed directly by Formosa. In 1783, the native Criminal Code was reformed and replaced with a legal system fusing Loetsjoean, Chinese, and Dutch law.

In response, the Saçuma domain launched expeditions against the Formosans over the next few decades, all of which failed to bring Loetsjoe back under their rule. The Saçuma had previously relied on the sugar industry in the Amami islands, trade route profits, and other forms of maritime business. By the end of the century, their annual revenue was 400,000 cocu - a 45% decrease from 1750. As a consequence, the Lords increased revenue by sponsoring Confucian institutes in Cagoxima and establishing tea and sweet potato plantations. A large number of samurai and peasants also illegally emigrated overseas and were employed by the Dutch East India Company.

In 1807, the Ximazu family of Saçuma would be assigned the Cumamoto lordship, which had previously belonged to the Hosocawa clan. Consequentially, the Ximazu now reigned over approximately half of Quiuxu. With their revenue totalling over 1,000,000 cocu, they became one of the most powerful domains in the new xogunate.

Lake Kusuri Ainu revolt

Ainu began fleeing south to Kunashir and the Apasiri area in 1770, when Russia began taking over fishing grounds in the northern Kurils. The sudden influx of Russian traders and the northern Ainu to Ezo created tensions on the island. The Maçumae clan, responsible for most of Ezo, alerted the officials in Edo of a possible Russian naval invasion. The economic and social strain put on the Ainu culminated in a revolt in 1773, starting in the lakeside village of Tescaca and fueled by 3,000 Ainu soldiers. Russian mercenaries were hired by Ainu chieftains, bringing with them European military techniques.

Eventually in 1775, the Tocugawa central administration decided to directly rule Ezo in place of indirect rule via the Maçumae clan. Thousands of Japanese soldiers contained the rebellion and the Russian mercenaries to the rural north of Ezo, massacring or expelling Ainu populations in the south. As the Maçumae lost their power, they started to look for allies elsewhere. They became friendly towards the Russians and their various Japanese allies - such as the rising Sacai clan.

Cansei Reunification

Sacai Tadamitxi, Lord of Obama and prominent member of the Sacai clan, rose to prominence as the Tairō in the imperial court in 1779. After the disaster that followed the Tenmei famine, several clans allied with the Sacai in order to reunify Japan. The Maçumae, Mito, Date, Sajama, Ximazu and Maçura - were the earliest to form an alliance with the Sacai by 1785, and would eventually become the new state’s fudai. Notably, Russian merchants and most Japanese Christian lords supported this coalition.

The Dutch, on the other hand, opposed the reunification of Japan and took measures to provide for their allies in Japan, such as the Uesugi, Maçudaira, most crucially the uber-wealthy Hosocawa clan. Hosocawa Toxiçune, of the Cumamoto lordship, became the archrival of Sacai Tadamitxi and claimed the position of Xogun for himself, based on the Hosocawa’s direct descent from Emperor Seiwa.

In 1795, the Netherlands was invaded by France in the Augustine Wars and subsequently lost their ability to project power in eastern Asia. Subsequently, the Sacai coalition hired Russian mercenaries, Yellow Sea pirates, and hordes of discontented rōnin to push for the unification of Japan under their rule. Several notable battles include the Battle of Tacaxima, the Second Siege of Nara, the Battle of Aracawa River, and the collective Battles of Hixu.

Eventually in 1808, the Sacai had established their influence over most of Japan. However, the Tocugawa clan still maintained power in Oxima after expelling the Maçumae clan from their historic territories. Northern Ezo was ruled by Ainu chiefs with small enclaves ruled by Japanese lords. Several fiefs in central and western Japan also held out, protecting their own territories as well as Desjima.

By 1809, the Sacai were able to establish order in the cities of Edo, Osaca, and Miaco. The Emperor had also recognized Sacai Tadamitxi as the new Xogun. The Tairō, rebranded in Western records as the ‘Chancellor of Japan’, was occupied by the Xogun’s cousin, Sacai Txikaçu.

Kumohama period: 1809–1895

The era’s name (meaning ‘cloud beach’) was taken from the coastal Unpin Castle, which belonged to the Lord of Obama of the Sacai clan. While Japan began to modernize during this period, the country was hampered by political unrest, economic strife, and foreign intervention.

Russian betrayal & Ainu separatism

The Odawara domain was still in a state of rebellion in 1809, being ruled by the Maçudaira-loyalist Oqubo clan. A Russian flotilla under Admiral Gunin Ermilov approached the Idzu peninsula in order to expel the Oqubo from the province. Russia had established a small post in Itō in 1744 exclusively for shipbuilding purposes. After the Oqubo samurai were expelled from Idzu, Admiral Ermilov did not leave the peninsula when the Xogun ordered him to. The Sacai clan were in debt to Russian merchants and had refused to pay them back instantaneously.

A few months later, the Imperial Russian Navy seized the ports of Maizuru and Texio as well, which they had been trading at since 1755. Naval battles broke out between the Japanese and Russian fleets, with the Japanese fleet eventually succumbing to Russian demands in 1815 with the Treaty of Sunpu. In 1824, the Russians officially stated their claim on the Sakhalin and Kuril Islands. In 1825, Japan established diplomatic relations with France.

In 1835, the Sacai military captured Hacodate and executed the Tocugawa Governor of Oxima, reinstating the semi-autonomous Maçumae government on the peninsula. The Sacai army established themselves as far north as Soratxi by 1837 when Russian troops declared their support for an independent Ainu state, pushing the Japanese back down to the Oxima peninsula. Diplomatic ties were cut with Russia soon after, and a brief crisis ensued until 1844 when tensions subsided. The Russian Succession Crisis in 1868 marked a turning point in Russian foreign policy. Two years later, the Russians annexed the Ainu state as a semi-autonomous entity.