Edo period

The Edo period,^[a] also known as the Tokugawa period,^[b] is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868^[3] in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional daimyo, or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characterized by prolonged peace and stability, urbanization and economic growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policies, and popular enjoyment of arts and culture.

In 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu prevailed at the Battle of Sekigahara and established hegemony over most of Japan, and in 1603 was given the title shogun by Emperor Go-Yōzei. Ieyasu resigned two years later in favor of his son Hidetada, but maintained power, and defeated the primary rival to his authority, Toyotomi Hideyori, at the Siege of Osaka in 1615 before his death the next year. Peace generally prevailed from this point on, making samurai largely redundant. The Tokugawa shogunate continued Ieyasu's policies of conformity, including a formalization of social classes in a strict hierarchy. From 1635, daimyō had to spend alternating years in the capital Edo, where their family was required to reside permanently, in a system of "alternate attendance" in order to keep the daimyō in check. By 1639, all foreigners were expelled under the policy of sakoku, with the exception of Dutch traders on the island of Dejima in Nagasaki, beginning a period of isolation.

During the Edo period, merchants greatly prospered, and laid the foundation for Japan's later zaibatsu business conglomerates. Despite general restrictions on travel within the country, daimyō processions to and from Edo developed a network of roads and inns. A commoner culture emerged in Edo and cities such as Ōsaka and Kyōto, and art forms such as kabuki and ukiyo-e flourished. Japanese scholars developed schools of neo-Confucian philosophy, and samurai, now mostly employed as administrators, formalized their bushido code of morality. In 1853, Japan was forcibly opened to Western trade by United States Commodore Matthew C. Perry, beginning the Bakumatsu ("end of the bakufu") era. The Edo period came to an end in 1868 with the Meiji Restoration and the Boshin War, which restored imperial rule to Japan.

Establishment of the shogunate

A revolution took place from the time of the Kamakura shogunate, which existed with the Tennō's court, to the Tokugawa, when the samurai became the unchallenged rulers in what historian Edwin O. Reischauer called a "centralized feudal" form of the shogunate. Instrumental in the rise of the new bakufu was Tokugawa Ieyasu, the main beneficiary of the achievements of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.^[4] Already a powerful daimyo (feudal lord), Ieyasu profited by his transfer to the rich Kantō area. He maintained two million koku, or thirty-six hectares of land, a new headquarters at Edo, a strategically situated castle town (the future Tokyo), and also had an additional two million seven hundred thousand koku of land and thirty-eight vassals under his control. After Hideyoshi's death, Ieyasu moved quickly to seize control of the Toyotomi clan.^{[citation needed]}

Ieyasu's victory over the western daimyo at the Battle of Sekigahara (21 October 1600, or in the old Japanese calendar, on the 15th day of the ninth month of the fifth year of the Keichō era) gave him control of all Japan. He rapidly abolished numerous enemy daimyo houses, reduced others, such as that of the Toyotomi, and redistributed the spoils of war to his family and allies. Ieyasu still failed to achieve complete control of the western daimyo, but his assumption of the title of shōgun helped consolidate the alliance system. After further strengthening his power base, Ieyasu installed his son Hidetada (1579–1632) as shōgun and himself as retired shōgun in 1605. The Toyotomi were still a significant threat, and Ieyasu devoted the next decade to their eradication. In 1615, the Tokugawa army destroyed the Toyotomi stronghold at Osaka.

Governance

The Tokugawa (or Edo) period brought 250 years of stability to Japan. The political system evolved into what historians call bakuhan, a combination of the terms bakufu and han (domains) to describe the government and society of the period.^[5] In the bakuhan, the shōgun had national authority, and the daimyo had regional authority. This represented a new unity in the feudal structure, which featured an increasingly large bureaucracy to administer the mixture of centralized and decentralized authorities. The Tokugawa became more powerful during their first century of rule: land redistribution gave them nearly seven million koku, control of the most important cities, and a land assessment system reaping great revenues.^[6]

The feudal hierarchy was completed by the various classes of daimyo. Closest to the Tokugawa house were the shinpan, or "related houses". There were twenty-three daimyo on the borders of Tokugawa lands, all directly related to Ieyasu. The shinpan held mostly honorary titles and advisory posts in the bakufu. The second class of the hierarchy was the fudai, or "house daimyo", rewarded with lands close to the Tokugawa holdings for their faithful service. By the 18th century, 145 fudai controlled much smaller han, the greatest assessed at 250,000 koku.

Members of the fudai class staffed most of the major bakufu offices. Ninety-seven han formed the third group, the tozama (outside vassals), former opponents or new allies. The tozama were located mostly on the peripheries of the archipelago and collectively controlled nearly ten million koku of productive land. Because the tozama were the least trusted of the daimyo, they were the most cautiously managed and generously treated, although they were excluded from central government positions.^{[citation needed]}

The Tokugawa shogunate not only consolidated their control over a reunified Japan, but also had unprecedented power over the emperor, the court, all daimyo, and the religious orders. The emperor was held up as the ultimate source of political sanction for the shōgun, who ostensibly was the vassal of the imperial family. The Tokugawa helped the imperial family recapture its old glory by rebuilding its palaces and granting it new lands. The Kinchū narabi ni kuge shohatto (Regulations for the Court and Nobility) restricted the Emperor and aristocrats to purely cultural, ritual, and scholarly pursuits. To ensure a close tie between the imperial clan and the Tokugawa family, Ieyasu's granddaughter was made an imperial consort in 1619.^{[citation needed]}

The Shogunate was supported by a professional bureaucracy of roughly 17,000 officials. At the top of this hierarchy sat the Rōjū (Senior Councilors), a council that rotated monthly duties to direct foreign policy, manage relations with the lords, and oversee national security.^[7] They were supported by the Wakadoshiyori (Junior Councilors), who supervised the Shogun’s direct vassals.^[8] Specific administrative sectors—such as finance, religious affairs, or the management of major cities like Edo, Kyoto, and Nagasaki—were the responsibility of officials known as Bugyō (Commissioners).^[9] To maintain order and detect dissent, the Metsuke (Inspectors) operated as an internal intelligence network. The Hyōjōsho (Supreme Court) served as the highest judicial body for disputes between domains.^[10]

Historians refer to the Tokugawa system as "parcellized sovereignty" because there was no unified national treasury, national tax code, or national judiciary.^[11] Instead, it operated as a network of reciprocal duties known as yaku: the Shogunate provided security and peace, while the domains offered loyalty and service when required. ^[12] A code of laws (Buke shohatto) was established to regulate the daimyo houses. The code encompassed private conduct, marriage, dress, types of weapons, and numbers of troops allowed; required feudal lords to reside in Edo every other year (the sankin-kōtai system); prohibited the construction of ocean-going ships; restricted castles to one per domain (han) and stipulated that bakufu regulations were the national law. Although the daimyo were not taxed per se, they were regularly levied for contributions to military and logistical support and for public works projects such as castles, roads, bridges, and palaces. A domain's status and military obligations were determined by its kokudaka—an objective measure of its assessed rice productivity in koku (approx. 5 bushels). A lord required a minimum of 10,000 koku to be recognized as a daimyo.^[13]

The various regulations and levies not only strengthened the Tokugawa but also depleted the wealth of the daimyo, thus weakening their threat to the central administration. The han, once military-centered domains, became mere local administrative units. While the Shogun exercised hegemonic control over the nation, the daimyo had full administrative control over their territory and their complex systems of retainers, bureaucrats, and commoners. Large domains like Tosa or Satsuma were nearly independent states with their own armies, legal codes, tax systems and paper currency within their borders.^[14] Residents often thought of their domain as a "country" (kuni) and could not easily conceive of a hierarchy of authority extending beyond their own lord.^[14] The autonomy of the han extended even into the capital. Daimyo estates (yashiki) in Edo functioned as extensions of the home province; the lord's retainers and people were subject only to his jurisdiction, and some large estates even maintained their own prisons.^[15]

Sankin-kōtai

Originally a voluntary practice to show loyalty after the Battle of Sekigahara, the sankin-kōtai system was formalized and made compulsory for all daimyō by Shogun Iemitsu in 1635. It required approximately 260 feudal lords to spend alternate years in residence at the shogun’s capital in Edo. While the daimyō returned to their home domains, their wives and heirs were forced to remain in Edo permanently as "hostages," ensuring the lords' compliance with shogunal authority. To manage this, daimyō were granted spacious estates (yashiki) in Edo appropriate to their status.^[16]^[17]

Domains were forced to fund parallel administrative structures: one for the home territory and another for the sprawling estates in Edo. Moving a lord's grand entourage across the country was extraordinarily costly.^[18] A lord from a domain like Tosa might travel with nearly 3,000 retainers, hundreds of horses, and dozens of boats.^[19] Economic burdens were further increased by the mandatory exchange of expensive gifts. Daimyō were required to present "duty offerings" to shogunal officials upon arrival in Edo and on various fixed occasions, with the quality of gifts strictly monitored to match the status of the house.^[20]

To acquire cash for their journeys and capital stays, domains shipped their surplus tax rice and local specialties to Osaka, which became the national commodity market.^[20] This led to the development of a complex financial system in Osaka, featuring futures markets and commodity shares.^[21] Domains employed professional warehouse managers (kuramoto) to manage sales and often had to borrow heavily from wealthy merchant houses, sometimes mortgaging future tax revenues to cover current Edo expenses. In a desperate attempt to meet the crushing costs of the Edo system, many domains turned to policies of provincial mercantilism: they encouraged the production of exportable "national" products — such as ceramics in Saga, lacquer in Kaga, or sugar in Satsuma — while strictly limiting imports from other regions to keep currency within their own borders.^[22]

Foreign relations and trade

The early phase

Initially, Japan was an active participant in global trade. Under the leadership of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the government sought to replace the era of chaotic piracy (wakō) with a structured, profitable system of organized trade. To bring order to maritime relations, Hideyoshi inaugurated the Vermilion Seal permits (shuinjō) in 1592, a practice Tokugawa Ieyasu continued and expanded.^[23] During this period, Japanese trading ships reached as far as Taiwan, Macao, Manila, and the Thai capital of Ayuthia, leading to the rise of "Japantowns" across the region.^[23]^[24]

Ieyasu granted broad trading rights to the Dutch in 1609 and the English in 1613.^[25] He employed the Englishman William Adams as an advisor and use his knowledge to break the monopoly on international information previously held by Iberian missionaries.^[26] Like Hideyoshi, Ieyasu encouraged foreign trade but also was suspicious of outsiders. He wanted to make Edo a major port, but once he learned that the Europeans favoured ports in Kyūshū and that China had rejected his plans for official trade, he moved to control existing trade and allowed only certain ports to handle specific kinds of commodities.

The beginning of the Edo period coincides with the last decades of the Nanban trade period during which intense interaction with European powers, on the economic and religious plane, took place. It is at the beginning of the Edo period that Japan built its first ocean-going warships, such as the San Juan Bautista, a 500-ton galleon-type ship that transported a Japanese embassy headed by Hasekura Tsunenaga to the Americas and then to Europe. Also during that period, the bakufu commissioned around 720 Red Seal Ships, three-masted and armed trade ships, for intra-Asian commerce. Japanese adventurers, such as Yamada Nagamasa, used those ships throughout Asia.

Sakoku

Following Ieyasu’s death in 1616, the administrations of Shoguns Hidetada and Iemitsu began to curtail foreign activities.^[27] The Shogunate sought to monopolize foreign trade, and by 1631, maritime permits were restricted to a small circle of families closely tied to the Tokugawa house.^[28] In 1633, the Shogunate prohibited Japanese vessels from traveling abroad without special certification.^[28] Finally, the Closed Country Edict of 1635 prohibited any Japanese from travelling outside Japan or, if someone left, from ever returning. In 1636, the Dutch were restricted to the small artificial island of Dejima – and thus, not Japanese soil – with only a few traders disembarking under a regulated policy of distrust and scrutiny. The final stage of isolation followed the Shimabara Rebellion (1637), an uprising the Shogunate blamed on Christian influence. This led to the 1639 edict which completely expelled the Portuguese from Japanese soil.^[29]

All Japanese subjects were ordered to register at a Buddhist or Shinto temple under the danka system. The Dutch and Chinese were restricted, respectively, to Dejima and to a special quarter in Nagasaki. Besides limited trade by some outer daimyō with Korea and the Ryukyu Islands to the southwest of Japan’s main islands, foreign contact was, by 1641, restricted to Nagasaki under the policy of sakoku.

The most immediate and explicitly stated motivation for sakoku was the perceived threat of Christianity. The shogunate viewed the religion as a "pernicious doctrine" (jaho) that undermined the social and political foundations of the Neo-Confucian and feudal order.^[30] By controlling all foreign relations and trade, the shogun also prevented regional daimyo from acquiring independent wealth, firearms, or foreign alliances that could challenge Tokugawa hegemony. Furthermore, relative isolation forced the Japanese to rely on their own resources. This stimulated domestic production, particularly in raw silk, which had previously been a major Chinese import.^[31]

The word sakoku (鎖国) was not used by the Tokugawa shogunate itself. It was coined in 1801 by the Nagasaki interpreter Shizuki Tadao while translating a work by the German physician Engelbert Kaempfer. During the Edo period, the Bakufu referred to these policies as kaikin (海禁 maritime prohibitions), etymologically identical to the haijin policies of China during much of the Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty. There is a common assumption that reducing the number of trading partners led to a proportional drop in the volume of trade. Historical records suggest the opposite: the Bakufu actually ordered the Dutch, the Tsushima domain, and the Satsuma domain to increase their trade to compensate for the expulsion of the Portuguese. During the early years of the sakoku regulations, the volume of trade by Dutch and Chinese ships actually increased sharply.^[32]

Relations with other countries

Korea

Following the disastrous invasions of Korea by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 1590s, Tokugawa Ieyasu sought to normalize diplomatic relations with the Joseon court. Peace was formally restored in 1605, and two years later, a Korean mission of over 500 men traveled to Japan to honor the accession of the second shogun, Hidetada.^[33] These negotiations culminated in the Treaty of Kiyu (1609). Under the provisions of the treaty, Japanese trade was restricted to the single port of Pusan — a significant reduction from the three ports previously open to Japanese merchants. Within Pusan, Japanese residents were confined to a designated quarter known as the wakan, where they lived under close supervision in conditions comparable to the Dutch and Chinese enclaves at Nagasaki. The Tokugawa bakufu delegated the practical management of Korean relations to its vassal, the Sō family, daimyo of Tsushima, for whom this monopoly over Korean trade was indispensable to the domain's economic survival.^[34]^[33]

Throughout the Edo period, twelve major Korean embassies, known as tsūshinshi, traveled to Japan, most timed to celebrate the accession of a new shogun.^[35]^[36]

China

Early in the Tokugawa period, discussions were held about establishing official trade with the Ming dynasty, but these efforts foundered on the Chinese court's insistence that Japan participate in the tributary system — a condition the bakufu found unacceptable. The Tokugawa shogunate deliberately avoided formal political ties with the Ming and later Qing dynasty because it was unwilling to acknowledge a subordinate status in the Chinese world system; the title "King of Japan" (Nihon kokuo) was viewed as redolent of the language of enfeoffment used by Chinese emperors and was replaced by "Sovereign Lord of Japan" (Nihonkoku Taikun).^[37] Under the Tokugawa order, China was reclassified (alongside the Netherlands) as a "trading country" (tsusho) rather than a diplomatic partner (tsushin).^[38] This meant that while trade flourished at Nagasaki, there were no formal state-to-state diplomatic missions exchanged with the Chinese court.^[39]

While the Dutch were confined to the small artificial island of Deshima, the Chinese were more numerous and eventually restricted to a much larger walled enclave known as the tōjin yashiki (Chinese quarter) established in Nagasaki in 1689.^[40] At its peak in 1688, nearly 200 Chinese ships visited Nagasaki, and the quarter housed thousands of residents.^[41] Historians note that the Nagasaki trade was essentially a "China trade," as Chinese merchants brought far more goods—particularly silk and books—than the Dutch East India Company.^[42]

Chinese scholars, artists, and monks were still treated with considerable deference by the Japanese elite. Chinese monks were permitted to establish branches of their temples in Nagasaki, and the Ōbaku school of Rinzai Zen was introduced to Japan by figures such as Ingen, who received patronage from both the shogun and the imperial court. Approximately 130 Chinese painters visited Nagasaki during the Edo period; the most accomplished among them, such as Shen Nanpin, introduced Ming and Qing painting styles that profoundly influenced the development of Japanese nanga and bunjinga traditions.^[43]^[44]

Ryukyu

In 1609, with the explicit knowledge and authorization of the Tokugawa bakufu, the Satsuma domain launched a military expedition to seize control of the Ryukyu islands. Satsuma disarmed the inhabitants and installed a shadow government that maintained the Okinawan ruler in his capital. The most critical aspect of this conquest was that it was kept secret from China.^[45] Satsuma and the bakufu forced Ryukyu to maintain its traditional tributary relationship with China under the guise of being an independent kingdom.^[46]^[47] This allowed Japan to bypass Ming and later Qing trade restrictions, as Satsuma used Ryukyu as a conduit to gain access to highly prized Chinese goods.

On the state-to-state level, the Tokugawa shogunate used Ryukyu to bolster its own domestic and regional prestige. Whenever a new shogun was installed, Ryukyu embassies were paraded through the streets of Edo. In official (though often rejected) correspondence with Chinese provincial authorities between 1611 and 1625, the bakufu explicitly asserted that the Ryukyuan king was Japan's vassal.^[45]

The West

The departure of the English, followed by the expulsion of the Spanish and Portuguese, left the Dutch as the only Europeans in Japan, restricted to the artificial island of Deshima in Nagasaki harbor. On Deshima, the Dutch lived as virtual "prisoners," strictly monitored and forbidden from crossing the bridge to the mainland without rare permission. They were also required to conceal their religious practices and Bibles.^[48] The shogunate maintained the Dutch presence primarily for intelligence. Every arriving captain was required to submit a fūsetsugaki—a report detailing world events, such as the Napoleonic Wars or the arrival of other Westerners in Asia.^[49] Periodically, the Dutch chief factor (opperhoofd) was required to travel to Edo to pay homage to the Shogun.^[50] Engelbert Kaempfer (1651–1716) was a doctor at Deshima in 1690 and accompanied the chief factor on his journey to Edo in 1691 and 1692. His account of the audience with the fifth Shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, highlights that by the late 17th century, Europeans had become "little more than exotic and amusing creatures" to the Japanese elite. Kaempfer's History of Japan, first published in English translation in 1727–1728, provides a rich storehouse of information:

We were then further commanded to put on our hats, to walk about the room discoursing with one another, to take off our perukes . . . Then I was desired once more to come nearer the skreen, and to take off my peruke. Then they made us jump, dance, play gambols and walk together, and upon that they ask’d the Ambassador how old we guessed Bingo to be, he answer’d 50 and I 45, which made them laugh. Then they made us kiss one another, like man and wife, which the ladies particularly shew’d by their laughter to be well pleas’d with. They desir’d us further to shew them what sorts of compliments it was customary in Europe to make to inferiors, to ladies, to superiors, to princes, to kings. After this they begg’d another song of me, and were satisfy’d with two, which the company seem’d to like very well. After this farce was over, we were order’d to take off our cloaks, to come near the skreen one by one, and to take our leave in the very same manner we would take it of a Prince, or King in Europe . . .

— Engelbert Kaempfer, History of Japan, trans. J. Scheuchzer (Glasgow: James MacLehose, 1906), 3:167–168

Society

During the Tokugawa period, the social order, based on inherited position rather than personal merits, was rigid and highly formalized. At the top were the emperor and court nobles (kuge), together with the shōgun and daimyo. Older scholars believed that there were Shi-nō-kō-shō (士農工商, four classes) of "samurai, peasants (hyakushō), craftsmen, and merchants (chōnin)" under the daimyo, with 80% of peasants under the 5% samurai class, followed by craftsmen and merchants.^[51] However, various studies have revealed since about 1995 that the classes of peasants, craftsmen, and merchants under the samurai are equal, and the old hierarchy chart has been removed from Japanese history textbooks. In other words, peasants, craftsmen, and merchants are not a social pecking order, but a social classification.^[52]^[53]^[54]

Only the peasants lived in rural areas. Samurai, craftsmen and merchants lived in the cities that were built around daimyo castles, each restricted to their own quarter. Edo society had an elaborate social structure, in which every family knew its place and level of prestige.^[55]

At the top were the Emperor and the court nobility, invincible in prestige but weak in power. Next came the shōgun, daimyo and layers of feudal lords whose rank was indicated by their closeness to the Tokugawa. They had power. The daimyo comprised about 250 local lords of local "han" with annual outputs of 50,000 or more bushels of rice. The upper strata were much given to elaborate and expensive rituals, including elegant architecture, landscaped gardens, Noh drama, patronage of the arts, and the tea ceremony.^[56]

Then came the 400,000 warriors, called "samurai", in numerous grades and degrees. A few upper samurai were eligible for high office; most were foot soldiers. Since there was very little fighting, they became civil servants paid by the daimyo, with minor duties. The samurai were affiliated with senior lords in a well-established chain of command. The shogun had 17,000 samurai retainers; the daimyo each had hundreds. Most lived in modest homes near their lord's headquarters, and lived off of hereditary rights and stipends. Together these high status groups comprised Japan's ruling class making up about 6% of the total population.

After a long period of inner conflict, the first goal of the newly established Tokugawa government was to pacify the country. It created a balance of power that remained fairly stable for the next 250 years, influenced by Confucian principles of social order. Most samurai lost their direct possession of the land: the daimyo took over their land. The samurai had a choice: give up their sword and become peasants, or move to the city of their feudal lord and become a paid retainer. Only a few land samurai remained in the border provinces of the north, or as direct vassals of the shōgun, the 5,000 so-called hatamoto. The daimyo were put under tight control of the shogunate. Their families had to reside in Edo; the daimyo themselves had to reside in Edo for one year and in their province (han) for the next. This system was called sankin-kōtai.^[57]

The peasants comprised 80% of the population, but their high prestige as producers was undercut by their burden as the chief source of taxes. They were illiterate and lived in villages controlled by appointed officials who kept the peace and collected taxes. The family was the smallest legal entity, and the maintenance of family status and privileges was of great importance at all levels of society. The individual had no separate legal rights. The 1711 Gotōke reijō was compiled from over 600 statutes promulgated between 1597 and 1696.^[58]

Outside mainstream society were the so-called eta and hinin, those whose professions broke the taboos of Buddhism. Eta were butchers, tanners and undertakers. Hinin served as town guards, street cleaners, and executioners. Other outsiders included the beggars, entertainers, and prostitutes. The word eta literally translates to "filthy" and hinin to "non-humans", a thorough reflection of the attitude held by other classes that the eta and hinin were not even people.^[59]

Hinin were only allowed inside a special quarter of the city. Other persecution of the hinin included disallowing them from wearing robes longer than knee-length and the wearing of hats.^[59] Sometimes eta villages were not even printed on official maps. A sub-class of hinin who were born into their social class had no option of mobility to a different social class whereas the other class of hinin who had lost their previous class status could be reinstated in Japanese society.^[59]

On the other hand, in practice, both eta and hinin were recognized as owners of fields, some with very large incomes (koku) and some economic power. Their chief held the title of Danzaemon (ja:弾左衛門) and had the authority to issue orders to eta and hinin throughout the country, as well as jurisdiction within the eta and hinin.^[53]^[60]

In the 19th century the umbrella term burakumin was coined to name the eta and hinin because both classes were forced to live in separate village neighborhoods.^[61] The eta, hinin and burakumin classes were officially abolished in 1871.^[59] However, their cultural and societal impact, including some forms of discrimination, continues into modern times.^[61]

Edo, 1865 or 1866. Photochrom print. Five albumen prints joined to form a panorama. Photographer: Felice Beato.

Economic development

The Edo period passed on a vital commercial sector in flourishing urban centers, a relatively well-educated elite, a sophisticated government bureaucracy, productive agriculture, a closely unified nation with highly developed financial and marketing systems, and a national infrastructure of roads. Economic development during the Tokugawa period included urbanization, increased shipping of commodities, a significant expansion of domestic and, initially, foreign commerce, and a diffusion of trade and handicraft industries. The construction trades flourished, along with banking facilities and merchant associations. Increasingly, han authorities oversaw the rising agricultural production and the spread of rural handicrafts.^[62]

Population

By the mid-18th century, Edo had a population of more than one million, likely the biggest city in the world at the time.^[63] Osaka and Kyoto each had more than 400,000 inhabitants. Many other castle towns grew as well. Osaka and Kyoto became busy trading and handicraft production centers, while Edo was the center for the supply of food and essential urban consumer goods. Around the year 1700, Japan was perhaps the most urbanized country in the world, at a rate of around 10–12%.^[63] Half of that figure would be samurai, while the other half, consisting of merchants and artisans, would be known as chōnin.^[63]

In the first part of the Edo period, Japan experienced rapid demographic growth, before leveling off at around 30 million.^[64] Between the 1720s and 1820s, Japan had almost zero population growth, often attributed to lower birth rates in response to widespread famine (Great Tenmei famine 1782–1788), but some historians have presented different theories, such as a high rate of infanticide artificially controlling population.^[65]

At around 1721, the population of Japan was close to 30 million and the figure was only around 32 million around the Meiji Restoration around 150 years later.^[66]^[63] From 1721, there were regular national surveys of the population until the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate.^[64] In addition, regional surveys, as well as religious records initially compiled to eradicate Christianity, also provide valuable demographic data.^[64]

Urbanization

During the Edo period, Japan was transformed from a collection of fragmented fiefs into one of the most urbanized societies in the pre-modern world. By forcing the samurai class to abandon their rural holdings and reside permanently in the castle towns (jōkamachi) of their respective lords, the regime created a series of concentrated administrative and consumption centers across the archipelago.^[67]^[68] The castle towns were meticulously designed as premodern "company towns". Typically, the lord’s castle sat atop a massive stone base, serving as the town’s military and administrative anchor, while the surrounding residential areas were strictly zoned according to rank and income. In contrast, the merchant and artisan quarters were squeezed into the narrow lanes of low-lying and less desirable locations, often reclaimed from swamps or riverbanks.^[69] Beyond their military origins, the jōkamachi functioned as vital administrative and consumption centers.^[70] Because the samurai class produced nothing of material value, their concentration in these urban hubs necessitated a large service class of townsmen to provide housing, goods, and luxuries.^[71]^[72]

At the center of the urban network was the shogun’s capital, Edo. Originally a small fortress town, Edo was transformed through massive engineering projects that leveled mountains and drained vast swamps to accommodate its rapid growth.^[73] The city's topography was dominated by the shogun's Chiyoda Castle and the walled estates (yashiki) of the feudal lords, which occupied nearly 70 percent of the urban land, leaving the burgeoning class of commoner townsmen (chōnin) to throng the narrow lanes and tenements of the "Low City" or shitamachi.^[74] This dense environment suffered from frequent and devastating fires, famously called the "flowers of Edo".^[75]

Beyond Edo, the "Three Metropolises" (santo) also included the imperial capital of Kyoto and the commercial powerhouse of Osaka. Kyoto remained the unrivaled center for the old aristocracy, religious institutions, and refined luxury crafts, while Osaka earned its title as the "Kitchen of Japan" by hosting a national rice commodity exchange that funded the lifestyle of the military elite.^[76] These major cities were knit together by the Gokaidō and coastal maritime circuits.

Transportation and communication networks

The foundation of the land network was the Gokaidō, five major national highways directly managed by the bakufu.^[77] These highways were supported by a network of 248 post stations (shukuba),^[78] which functioned as essential relay centers for transport, providing horses, porters, and specialized high-class lodging known as honjin for visiting officials and lords.^[79] Supporting these stations was the sukegō system, which forced nearby "assisting villages" to provide men and horses for official processions according to their rice productivity.^[80] For security and strategic control, the shogunate established fifty-three checkpoints or sekisho concentrated around Edo to enforce a policy of "women leaving, guns entering" (de onna-iri teppō), preventing hostages from escaping or weapons from being smuggled in for rebellion.^[81]

For the dissemination of the government's will to the public, the bakufu utilized kōsatsu, wooden signboards posted at prominent locations like bridges and intersections throughout the country. These boards contained official decrees, moral exhortations, and warnings against proscribed activities like the worship of Christianity. In the eighteenth century, these boards were so ubiquitous that they served as basic texts in village parish schools, acquainting commoners everywhere with the will of the central authority.^[82] Rapid transmission of information was facilitated by hikyaku (professional runners) who carried urgent official messages and could bypass typical travel restrictions.^[83] Economic information moved through similar channels; market quotations from the national commodity exchange in Osaka were regularly dispatched across the country via fast runners and even pigeons.^[84]

While the Edo period's land-based highways were essential for the movement of people and urgent news, the transportation of bulk commodities was handled by a network of coastal maritime circuits. By the 1670s, two primary routes had become highly structured to facilitate national trade: the Western Circuit and the Eastern Circuit. The Western Circuit brought ships from northern Japan along the Japan Sea coast, navigating through the Straits of Shimonoseki to reach the great commercial hub of Osaka. Simultaneously, the Eastern Circuit served domains along the Pacific coast, channeling vital goods to the central markets.^[85]^[86]

Economy and financial services

The Tokugawa era brought peace, and that brought prosperity to a nation of 31 million, 80% of them rice farmers. Rice production increased steadily, but population remained stable. Rice paddies grew from 1.6 million chō in 1600 to 3 million by 1720.^[87] Improved technology helped farmers control the all-important flow of water to their paddies. The daimyos operated several hundred castle towns, which became loci of domestic trade.

The system of sankin kōtai meant that daimyos and their families often resided in Edo or travelled back to their domains, giving demand to an enormous consumer market in Edo and trade throughout the country.^[66]^[88] Samurai and daimyos, after prolonged peace, were accustomed to more elaborate lifestyles.^[89] To keep up with growing expenditures, the bakufu and daimyos often encouraged commercial crops and artifacts within their domains, from textiles to tea.

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