Toribash
Original Post
Real Life History - The Edo Period and Earlier History of Japan
This thread is for the discussion and posting of the real life history during or before the Edo period in Japan.
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The Edo period (江戸時代, Edo jidai) or Tokugawa period (徳川時代, Tokugawa jidai) is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional Daimyo. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characterized by economic growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policies, a stable population, perpetual peace, and popular enjoyment of arts and culture. The period derives its name from Edo (now Tokyo), where on March 24, 1603, the shogunate was officially established by Tokugawa Ieyasu. The period came to an end with the Meiji Restoration and the Boshin War, which restored imperial rule to Japan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo_period

Last edited by bongbuster; Oct 16, 2023 at 10:53 AM. Reason: <24 hour edit/bump
Daimyo (大名, daimyō, Japanese pronunciation: [daimʲoː] (listen)) were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimyo
Samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in the late 1870s during the Meiji era. They were the well-paid retainers of the daimyo, the great feudal landholders. They had high prestige and special privileges:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai
On March 24, 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu received the title of shōgun from Emperor Go-Yōzei. Ieyasu was 60 years old. He had outlasted all the other great men of his times: Oda Nobunaga, Takeda Shingen, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Uesugi Kenshin. As shōgun, he used his remaining years to create and solidify the Tokugawa shogunate, which ushered in the Edo period, and was the third shogunal government (after the Kamakura and the Ashikaga)... The Tokugawa shogunate would rule Japan for the next 260 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokugawa_Ieyasu
Oda Nobunaga was an influential figure in Japanese history and is regarded as one of the three great unifiers of Japan, along with his retainers, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Nobunaga paved the way for the successful reigns of Hideyoshi and Ieyasu by consolidating power, as head of the very powerful Oda clan, through a series of wars against other daimyō beginning in the 1560s.


Read more here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oda_Nobunaga
"The Sengoku period ... was characterized by the decline of the Ashikaga shogunate, the de facto central government, while the feudal lords (daimyo), acquired greater political influence. The people rebelled against the feudal lords in revolts known as Ikkō-ikki (Ikkō-shū uprising)..."
Last edited by bongbuster; Jun 12, 2026 at 03:06 PM.