History of Japan
Fudai supremacy: 1651–1675
| Geba Shogun period | |
|---|---|
| 1651–1675 | |
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The combined tenures of shoguns Tokugawa Ieçuna and Çunaxige were dominated by the Senior Council, an executive institution composed of several high-ranking feudal lords (譜代 fudai). This era would see Japan engage in a complex and tense geopolitical situation in eastern Asia while experiencing the formation of a samurai-run bureaucracy and a bourgeois centered on the rising merchant class.
First established in 1636, the Senior Council initially functioned as an advisory council to the shogun. Under the auspices of three Grand Councillors from the Sakai clan, the power of the shogun gradually declined in favor of the Council and the fudai families. In order to cement their power, the Sakai clan formed an alliance with the scholarly Hayashi clan, creating an alliance between the aristocracy and the Teixu school (程朱理学) of Neo-Confucianism.
Meireki era: 1655–1658
Since the Japanese silver boom of 1550–1645, silver had become increasingly rare in Japan. In 1655, the itowappu system, which provided that Japanese merchants buy Chinese silk at set prices, was abolished. In 1666, the state banned silver exports altogether, instead encouraging the export of copper, gold, and marine products to China and the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Despite their labor, these policies did not prevent the illegal smuggling of silver out of Japan by Asian vagabonds, a practice which was discreetly encouraged by the VOC.
The threat posed by the rise of the VOC led the Japanese government to take drastic measures which conflicted with its previous kaikin (海禁, maritime prohibition) policies. Shortly before the ascension of Ieçuna in 1651, Tokugawa Iemiçu consented to establishing a formal relationship with the anti-Qing vagabond Zeng clan, led by the half-Japanese half-Chinese warlord Koxinga. Later, in 1654, the government proposed the formation of an anti-Qing, anti-Dutch alliance. The offer was only accepted by Koxinga in 1656, after a Dutch embassy to Beiging established the two-century-long Dutch-Qing-Corea alliance, threatening the economic security of both the Zeng and the Japanese state.
Subsequently, the shogunate increased its political and economic support of the Zeng maritime organization and allowed periodic raids on Dutch shipping in the East China Sea. Koxinga's defeat at the hands of the Dutch-Qing-Corea alliance in the 1658 Battle of Namging led to the exodus of many Ming loyalists to Japan, particularly the port city of Nagasaki, reputed for its large Chinese community. Along with them came Zu Sugwey, Prince of Ningzing, one of the last remaining Ming princes and ancestor of the Ye dynasty emperors. The Zeng mercantile dynasty remained in good graces with the shogunate for decades due to their function as a counterweight to the VOC.
Manzi era: 1658–1663
n the late 1650s, some in Japan endorsed the normalization of relations with the Dutch due to their relative patience and irreligiousity compared to their Spanish and Portuguese counterparts. However, others postulated the declining profits of the Zeng organization and the ever-successful Dutch colonization of Formosa as reason to find new counterweights to the VOC. The latter view prevailed, with a small base near Kagoxima being given to a group of Portuguese Macanese merchants with instructions to throttle Dutch trade.
Soon after, the VOC, Neo-Confucian scholars, and others strongly voiced their opposition to this decision. This in turn 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. In 1661, the Oomura Bay Revolt erupted in southwestern Kyushu. Numerous confraria (underground Catholic brotherhoods), disgruntled peasants, Portuguese merchants, Ming loyalists, and other disaffected communities rose up against the shogunate.
Despite being a heterogenous rebellion, it was widely viewed by the government as a Christian one. Confucian scholars described the evil of the 'wicked religion' (zahoo 邪法) which sought to dupe Japanese peasants (genin 下人) with the promise of riches (ri 利). Eventually, the Revolt was suppressed in 1662 with 2,000 casualties, soon followed by the establishment of local offices of religious inquisition.
Kanbun era: 1663–1675
Emperor Reigen declared the new Kanbun era (寛文) in early 1663 in order to mark the disasters of the past five years. Under new Grand Councillor Sakai Tadakijo, the government issued new kaikin edicts cutting the Zeng family's profit margins and reasserting central government control over foreign trade and foreign residents. International commerce was limited to one million taels annually in 1671. Additionally, stricter passport controls were created throughout the nation, limiting non-Japanese merchants to the ports of Desjima, Nagasaki, Hirado, and Çuxima.
The VOC, frustrated by Japan's embargoes on Dutch commerce, petitioned for the Kingdom of Scotland to be granted a small trading outpost in Hirado. In 1669, the Royal Company of Scotland successfully received permission to construct said outpost on Hirado Island with the same terms and conditions as the Dutch were operating under in Desjima. This settlement would eventually be dissolved in the mid-1710s due to lack of profit and diplomatic pressure from the shogunate to do so.