The Edo Period of Japan: 1603 - 1868 Quiz

Answer: Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu seized power in 1600. He was made shogun (a military governor in Medieval Japan) in 1603, starting the Edo period. A shogunate is the government of the shogun who had absolute power, except when answering to the Japanese Emperor.

During Tokugawa Ieyasu's rule, he created a set of rules for the samurai, designed to keep them in line during the rule of his shogunate. He voluntarily resigned from his office in 1605. This was likely due to his age, as he was 60 when he was first appointed shogun in 1603. He still remained in power until he died in 1616.

Answer: Chonmage

During the Edo period, Japanese men would shave both the top and front of their head. The remaining long hair was oiled, tied, and folded around the top of the head in a topknot. This hairstyle is called a chonmage.

These days the chonmage is only usually sported by sumo wrestlers and kabuki, a classical style of Japanese drama and dance, actors.

Answer: Battle of Sekigahara

In what is now the Gifu Prefecture, Chûbu region, Japan, the Battle of Sekigahara took place in 1600. It unofficially established the Tokugawa shogunate. Tokugawa Ieyasu led his fighters against the clans loyal to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who were led by a fellow samurai, Ishida Mitsunari.

Answer: 80%

Peasants were forbidden to engage in any activities unless they were agricultural. This was to ensure that a stable income was maintained for those in positions of power, via less competition. Confucian philosophy also stated that a society could not survive without agriculture to produce the food, therefore the peasants were necessary as they were.

The peasants of Edo society scarcely went beyond their villages. Before traveling outside of their village (example, going on a pilgrimage) a peasant would need a permit. This made the peasants especially suspicious of strangers in their villages.

Answer: Artisans

Artisans were below the peasants in Edo class hierarchy because although they were also producers of goods, these goods were non-essential.

Despite the negative connotations of today with the word "peasant" the merchants of Edo society were at the very bottom of the Edo class system. This was because they did not produce any goods, only trade them. The power of merchants increased during the Edo period. Osaka and Edo (modern day Tokyo) had particular concentrations of powerful merchant communities, during the Edo period.

The Untouchables were also below the peasants, but they were not included on the hierarchy system at all. They were regarded as outside of society.

Answer: Shimabara Rebellion

Shimabara was a domain of the Edo period. This uprising took place in what is now Saga Prefecture on the Japanese island of Kyûshû. The uprising happened due to increased taxes for the construction of Shimabara Castle (still standing near Mount Unzen in Japan) and the way Catholics were being suppressed in the area.

Catholic peasants gathered in 1637. They were joined by the rônin - samurais without masters. Only between 15-17 years old, the charismatic Amakusa Shirô became the leader of the uprising. After a series of fights and laying siege to castles is various locations across Japan, the rebellion was finally quashed. The Tokugawa Shogunate had overseas support from the Dutch.

Amakusa Shirô defended Hara Castle (which no longer exists, and was situated in present-day Nagasaki) which the rebels had taken over. The Shogunate eventually overpowered the rebels, massacring around 40,000 people. Women and children were among the dead. After Shiro was executed his head was mounted on a pike in Nagasaki, as a warning to any future Christian rebels of Japan.

This rebellion caused Japan to expel the Portuguese from the country, crack down harder on Christianity (prohibiting it entirely) and strengthening their ties with the Dutch, who assisted the Shogunate during the rebellion.

Answer: Netherlands

Tokugawa Iemitsu, third shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate, also banned all foreign books. He allowed certain daimyo to trade with Korea, and the Ainu people of northern Japan.

Dejima was originally a Portuguese training post in Nagasaki that got taken over by the Dutch, once Japan had established stronger relations with them. Because of their assistance in military matters, Japan trusted them as the sole Western power to trade with. The trust was not, however, absolute: every ship that came into Dejima was thoroughly inspected. Religious texts and weapons were confiscated. The Dutch were also banned from practicing their religion in Japan while there.

Answer: Hidetada

Tokugawa Hidetada was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Edo Shogunate. He ruled from 1605 until he abdicated in 1623. His reign is known for his improvement of relations within the Imperial Court. He arranged for his daughter Masako to be married to the Emperor Go-Mizunoo, and their child would eventually become Empress Meishô, one of the eight women who would become Empress of Japan.

Answer: Baisao

Baisao was a monk of Zen Buddhism. He was called "Shibayama Kikusen" as a child, then "Gekkai Gensho" as a priest. "Baisao" actually means "old tea seller." He became known for traveling Kyoto from around 1735, selling tea. He became so popular that the sencha tea ceremony was invented.

Baiso was not pleased with this ceremony, however. He was an unconventional figure. He denounced ritual ceremonies similar to his own sencha tea ceremony and was uncomfortable with his growing fame. He stopped selling tea in around 1755. As he was approaching death Baisao destroyed a lot of his tea master utensils, in defiance of the tradition where these utensils were cherished and venerated.

Answer: Emperor Meiji

Emperor Meiji ruled Japan from 1867 until his death in 1912.

Edo became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603. The end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868 saw the imperial capital in Kyoto moved to Edo, which was then renamed "Tokyo", which means "Eastern Capital."

Answer: Shibukawa Shunkai

The Jôkyô calendar was in use until 1753.

Shibukawa Shunkai was the first astronomer of Japan to be officially appointed during the Edo period. He saw that there were errors in the traditional Chinese calendar of the time, the Senmyo-reki, which had been in use for around 800 years. Therefore he devised his own lunisolar calendar, which is a calendar that states both the time of the solar year and the Moon phase.

The Jôkyô calendar was revised over the years. This included calendars being released called the Horeki (1755), Kansei (1798) and Tenpo (1844) respectively.

Answer: 70%

Women in Edo Japan were considered an embarrassment to their family if they were not married by aged 18. Most of them were married by the ages of 15-18. But for men in Edo Japan, it was common for them to only have to get married by the time they were around 40.

It was rare to have a male married who was under 25. It was also much more common for a man of 40 to be married to a 16 year old girl.

Answer: False

Sushi (rice and seafood rolled into a roll) existed during the Edo period, but it was considered fast food and usually eaten by men on construction jobs, who needed something quick and cheap to make.

Answer: Boshin War

Translated as "War of the Year of the Yang Earth Dragon" the Boshin War was a civil war, born out of frustration by the samurai and nobles of Edo Japan, who were not happy with how the Tokugawa Shogunate was handling the opening of Japan. Western influence had previously had a negative effect on the economy of other Asian countries, and there were concerns Japan would meet the same fate.

These nobles and samurai banded together. They became a great source of influence to the young Emperor Meiji. The war ended in Emperor Meiji and his Imperial Court's favour. Between May and July 1868, Edo fell and the Tokugawa shogunate with it, birthing the Meiji Restoration and the Meiji period of Japan, lasting from 1868 - 1912.

Answer: Bakumatsu

The "Bakufu" refers to the shogun. "Bakumatsu" means "End of the bakufu."

During this time in 1863 (after Japan had been forced to open up to the West, by Commodore Matthew Perry in 1854) an edict named "The Order to expel barbarians" was issued, one of the last acts of resistance against Western influence, on the orders of Emperor Kômei. However, the shogunate did not intend to enforce this order. This did not stop people rallying to this cause though, and ronin (master-less samurai) assassinated both shogunate officials and Westerners. Charles Lennox Richardson, an English trader, was one of them and is considered a direct casualty of this policy. This outraged the English, who demanded compensation for the killing, and this eventually culminated in the Bombardment of Kagoshima, 1863.