| |
| 1688–1704 |
| |
The Genroku period is regarded as the apogee of the vigorous culture of the merchant class of the Tokugawa period. Already the samurai class was becoming mired in debt to the merchants, into whose hands the wealth of the nation was beginning to pass. Consequently this was a time of ebullient and unsuppressed self-expression on the part of the merchant class. The extravagant life in the cities centered on the bunraku and kabuki theaters and the licensed quarters, the famous Yoshiwara in the case of Edo. Among the great writers and artists of the age were Matsuo Bash (1644–94), who made the haiku a great poetic form; Ihara Saikaku (1642–93), the author of many risqué novels about courtesans; Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653–1725), Japan's greatest playwright, who wrote about love and loyalty; and Hishikawa Moronobu (d. 1694), generally considered the founder and a master of ukiyo-e. Repressive measures in time tempered the Genroku spirit. | 1 |
| |
| 1703 |
| |
The Ch shingura (also called the Forty-seven Rnin) Incident occurred. Kira Yoshinaka was killed by a group of former retainers of Asano Naganori, daimy of Ak, whose execution in 1701 they felt to be Yoshinaka's fault. The deed shocked the nation, for, although they had clearly broken the law, the group claimed that they were simply following Confucian ethics in avenging their lord's death. They were eventually ordered to commit suicide. | 2 |
| |
| 1703 |
| |
| A great earthquake and fire at Edo were followed in the next five years by several other natural catastrophes, including the last eruption of Mount Fuji (1707). | 3 |
| |
| 1709–13 |
| |
| Ienobu as shogun. With the aid of the orthodox Confucian scholar Arai Hakuseki (1657–1725), this able and vigorous ruler carried out a series of much-needed economic reforms. | 4 |
| |
| 1713–16 |
| |
| The infant Ietsugu as shogun. | 5 |
| |
| 1715 |
| |
| The quantity of copper allowed to be exported by the Dutch was greatly reduced. Copper was the mainstay of the Dutch trade, but its export by the Dutch and the Chinese was a drain on Japan's resources. This reduction was followed later by even greater decreases, and the number of Dutch vessels calling at Deshima declined to two per year. | 6 |
| |
| 1716–45 |
| |
| Yoshimune as shogun (d. 1751). Since Hidetada's line had come to an end, the new shogun was chosen from the Tokugawa house of Kii, which, with the houses of Owari and Mito, had been named by Ieyasu the three Tokugawa cadet branches (gosanke) from which shoguns were to be selected. Perhaps next to Ieyasu the ablest and wisest of all Tokugawa rulers, Yoshimune attempted to revive the feudal regimentation and military virtues of Ieyasu's day and to carry through economic reforms. He also encouraged scholarship in all fields, and the Neo-Confucian scholar Muro Kys (1658–1734) was one of his chief advisers. Despite this able leadership, economic and social ills began to become acute in Yoshimune's time. Peasants were losing ownership of their land, and the farm population began to decline because of infanticide and migration to towns and cities. The samurai were deeply indebted to merchants. These economic conditions led to a mingling of the classes, which began to efface the old rigid barriers. | 7 |
| |
| 1720 |
| |
| Yoshimune removed the ban on the study of Western subjects and on the importation of European books, exclusive of those on religion. This move made possible the development of a small but vigorous group of students of Dutch—the principal language in which books coming to Japan were written—and of Western sciences, particularly medicine. A manuscript Dutch-Japanese dictionary was produced in 1745, and in 1774 Sugita Genpaku (1733–1817) translated a text on anatomy. This early start in Western scientific methods produced results in cartography and military science, which later proved of great value. | 8 |
| |
| 1732–33 |
| |
| A great famine in western Japan was met with positive measures of relief by Yoshimune. | 9 |
| |
| 1742 |
| |
| The criminal law of the land was codified for the benefit of judges and administrators. This codification remained the basis of criminal law for the rest of the Tokugawa period. | 10 |
| |
| 1758 |
| |
| Takenouchi Shikibu (1712–67), a scholar favoring an imperial restoration, and his noble disciples in Kyoto were punished by Edo. | 11 |
| |
| 1760–86 |
| |
| Ieharu as shogun. Though an able man, Ieharu was dominated by Tanuma Okitsugu (1719–88), who unsuccessfully attempted a number of reforms, and Tokugawa rule continued its downward course. During this period, peasant uprisings became frequent and serious, and they continued to be so until the fall of the regime. Although begun in the 17th century, there flourished in this period a National Learning (or Nativist) movement that sought a response within Japan's own cultural roots to the overwhelming presence of Neo-Confucianism from China and Korea. Since it found many of those roots in Shinto, the movement is also referred to as the Shinto revival, or Neo-Shintoism. Perhaps its greatest advocate was Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801), who wrote a penetrating study of the Kojiki and effectively revived serious consideration of The Tale of Genji. | 12 |
| |
| |
