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| 1623 |
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| The English voluntarily left Hirado, because their trade with Japan had not proved profitable. | 1 |
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| 1624 |
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| The Spaniards were driven from Japan, and intercourse with the Philippines was stopped. | 2 |
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| 1636 |
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| Japanese were forbidden to go abroad, and those abroad were not, as a rule, allowed to return. Two years later the building of large ships was also proscribed. | 3 |
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| 1637–38 |
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The Shimabara Rebellion. The peasants of the peninsula of Shimabara and the island of Amakusa, near Nagasaki (on the island of Ky sh), which had been a well-Christianized region for decades, rose in desperation over economic and religious oppression. Some 37,000 of them defended themselves in the dilapidated Hara Castle on the coast of Shimabara for almost three months against vastly superior forces, aided by a Dutch vessel, until food and musket ammunition, on which they depended, failed them. They were killed almost to a person in the fall of the castle, and with this slaughter Christianity was essentially stamped out. | 4 |
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| 1638 |
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| The Portuguese traders were expelled because of suspicions concerning their complicity in the Shimabara Rebellion. When they sent emissaries in 1640 to reopen trade, almost the entire party was summarily executed. This left the Dutch at Hirado and Chinese traders at Nagasaki as Japan's sole means of contact with the outside world. | 5 |
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| 1641 |
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| The Dutch traders were moved from Hirado to the islet of Deshima in Nagasaki harbor, where they were kept under close surveillance and on a short leash. They were responsible for providing periodic reports to the authorities on events in Europe. | 6 |
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| 1651–80 |
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| Ietsuna as shogun. | 7 |
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| 1651–52 |
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| Two successive abortive coups at Edo were the last rebellions the Tokugawa had to face until the 19th century. | 8 |
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| 1657 |
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| Tokugawa Mitsukuni (1628–1700), lord of Mito, commenced the compilation of the Dai Nihon shi (History of Great Japan) on the model of the Chinese dynastic histories. Among the many scholars who aided him was the Chinese émigré Zhu Shunsui (1640–1701). The original task was not officially completed until 1720, and supplementary work was continued until 1906. The school of Japanese historians that grew up around this enterprise placed great emphasis on the centrality of the imperial institution to their nation's history and thus became one of the important facets in the imperial restoration movement later. | 9 |
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| 1657 |
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| A great fire destroyed much of Edo and the Edo castle buildings. | 10 |
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| 1680–1709 |
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| Tsunayoshi as shogun. Sakai Tadakiyo (1600–82), great counselor at the time of Ietsuna's death, proposed to have an imperial prince succeed the heirless Ietsuna, but on the insistence of Hotta Masatoshi (1634?–84), Ietsuna's brother, Tsunayoshi, was made shogun, and soon Masatoshi succeeded Tadakiyo as great counselor. The early years of this period were characterized by vigorous administrative measures. | 11 |
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| 1684 |
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| The assassination of Hotta Masatoshi left Tsunayoshi with less able counselors who allowed him to ruin Edo finances and bring great hardships on the people by edicts inspired by Buddhism. These edicts prohibited the killing of any living creature and extended special protection and privileges to dogs. Hence Tsunayoshi's subsequent moniker, “the dog shogun.” | 12 |
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