Lecture 2 notes for the module Making Modern Japan (Great Expectations and Hard Times) PO52026A taught by Professor Rajyashree Pandey at Goldsmiths, University of London in the second year as an option module for students studying on the following degrees: BA (Hons) Politics, BA (Hons) Internationa...
Module: Making Modern Japan: Great Expectations and Hard Times
Lecturer: Professor Rajyashree Pandey
Lecture 2 – Japan during the Edo Period
In this lecture, we will be looking at Japan during the Edo (Tokugawa) period leading
up to the Meiji revolution period where Japan started to emerge as a modern nation
state.
We see Japan going through a form of revolution where it decides to transform itself
from a feudal society.
We need to understand the fact that nations have not always existed. Japan has
been a region rather than a nation. We begin to see the formation of Japan as a
nation during the Meiji revolution.
Requirements needed in order for a nation to exist are:
Institutional changes
Political changes
Japan has been under the Shogun rule for 250 years. This was a time where there
was a very rigid class structure and political system in place. It was a period where
the Daimyo (governors/lords) took power and control in Japan. The system was
based on the ideas of Confucianism.
Warrior clans ruled Japan.
The samurais were no longer engaged in battle in the Edo period – they were not
warriors anymore. They now form part of landed gentry and scholars. The samurais
were at the top of the rigid social class structure where they were given ruling status.
Based on the idea of Confucianism philosophy where a society could not survive
without agriculture, peasants came at second place in the class order. The
merchants were at the bottom of the social class order. However, it is the traders and
merchants who became the forerunners for shaping Japan as a nation.
There were many internal and external tensions during the Shogun rule.
During the Edo period, there was a policy of national seclusion (sakoku) in place
whereby only the Dutch were allowed to do trade with the Japanese near Nagasaki
and the other artificial islands. Why is there such a policy in place? What were the
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