Tokugawa Ieyasu Research Paper

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and the first shogun of the Tokunawa shogunate. He was able to seize power in Japan in 1600 after the battle of Sekigahara between Tokugawa and the other daimyos that were against him. Although Tokunawa was essentially the ruler at that time with his headquarters in Edo (present-day Tokyo), it wasn’t until 1603 that the imperial court named him shogun. Tokugawa established a national hegemony in which the daimyos were required to pay allegiance in order to continue governing their domains. Tokugawa divided feudal domains to three types of daimyos: Fudai (hereditary daimyos), Tozamo (outside daimyos), and the Shimpan (collateral daimyos directly related to Tokugawa family). Tokugawa was able to look over the daimyos through the alternate attendance system. The way this worked was that all daimyos were obliged to spend time each year to attend at the Shogun’s court in Edo. Tokugawa was very cautious of the daimyos and liked to keep an eye on
In 1600, the first English and Dutch had arrived in Japan; they were Protestants that were willing to trade without engaging in religious activities. In 1609, he began to distance Europe from Japan, with the exception of the Dutch. Why the Dutch? Because he had made William Adams (English protestant, employed by Dutch), his most trusted advisors. Tokugawa had decided to further the Shogunate’s “evolving relations” with Spain and Roman Catholic Church. His turned this decision around when Tokugawa saw the influences of Christianity were becoming a problem for him, and around 1614 after the Protestant reformation, he signed the Christian Expulsion Edict. This ended all of Japan’s foreign affairs, and banned all of Christianity, and the right to practice it. Takugawa enforced this strictly, and as absolute ruler, it had to be followed. In result, many Japanese Christians fled from