Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
of Kyūshū, and Francis Xavier came in 1549 to start the Jesuit mission. This was so suc-
cessful that soon the Jesuits had virtual control of the city of Nagasaki, and churches were
established even in Kyoto and Osaka. Christian emblems became popular as decorative
motifs, and among the disguises worn in the
fūryū
, foreign garb, and foreign headgear in
particular, had considerable vogue. Strange beasts were exhibited in menageries, and in
Kyoto and elsewhere sideshows and puppet-shows were given, as well as crude dramatic
performances. Farmers were doubtless less happy than the rest, but the spread of settled
government,andaspiritofnationalunity,partlyarousedbythecontactwithforeignersand
in reaction to the threat against national security which their presence seemed to offer, led
to an improvement in public morale. The painted screens that were a feature of the period
veryoftenillustratethelifeofthetimes,mainlyinthetowns,withfrequentscenesofmuch
activity and jollity.
These entertainments and festivities carried on into the seventeenth century, and be-
came the ancestors of, among other things, the live popular drama. But the spirit of the
nation changed, as the puritanical and coldly calculating rule of the Tokugawa family
tightened its grip on the country after the death of Hideyoshi in 1598, and the defeat of his
son in 1615. Foreign influences dwindled, and prohibitions and persecutions, started under
Hideyoshi, became increasingly the lot of Christians in Japan. A largely Christian revolt at
Shimabara, near Nagasaki, was put down in 1637, and everything was done to stamp out
Christianity, more for political than for religious reasons. At the same time, a policy of se-
clusion was instituted, the aim of which was to avoid any foreign involvement that might
leadtodisturbanceofinternalpeace.AllJapaneseoverseas,whetherengagedintradeinthe
Southeast Asian peninsula, or as wives or entertainers in Java, were cut off from the home-
land, and the only contact with the outside world was through the small and closely su-
pervised Dutch and Chinese trading-stations in Nagasaki, all other foreigners having been
expelled. This policy of isolation was reinforced by a prohibition on the building of ocean-
going ships, and no Japanese was allowed to leave Japan.
This state of affairs lasted until 1853, when Commodore Perry's ships appeared in Edo
Bay,andforcedthegovernmenttoopensomeports.ForeignersbegantoreappearinJapan.
TheTokugawaregime,alreadyunderinternalpressure,withthecountryseethingwithgreat
restlessness,lastedonlyanother15yearsbeforerulepassedbacktotheyoungEmperorand
his supporters: new ideas flooded in, bringing an end to the feudalism of traditional Japan.
The Government after 1603
A description of everyday life in traditional Japan would be difficult if not impossible to
understand without some knowledge of how the government of the country was organized,
and for this it is necessary to understand the position of the Tokugawas. The founder of
their power, Tokugawa Ieyasu, a man of outstanding ability if not genius, had been an as-
