2015年1月18日日曜日

About Edo era and Ihara Saikaku , a economic novelist in this period.

The one of the most apocalyptic event in Japanese history is the Onin War.  It broke out at 1467.A.D.  Before the Onin War , the trinity of aristocrats , samurai lords and priests had governed Japan. All of them came from noble lineages.

Because of this war , the noble lineages almost expired and the aristocratic hierarchy system crashed.

After that , long-lasting anarchy split Japan to many independent regions ruled by various samurai lords. Sometimes , these samurai lords got power by their strength , not nobility. Some of these samurai lords came from the lower class.It is not surprising that the ancestor of Tokugawa family that became the rulers of Japan was a depraved pilgrim!     

These samurai lords began to compete for supremacy each other.They tried to expand their territories and gain economic advantage.Later , their goal became the samurai lord throne, that is , the ruler of Japan.

This was the reason that the game of  the the samurai lord throne (or the ruler of Japan) started . During this age , many samurai heroes emerged and left many super-cool episodes. Most of them were relevant to warfare. Incessant wars and military conflicts repeated for 100 years in all parts of Japan.
The emperors had authority , but it had been hundreds years since samurai lords had gotten political powers (aristocrats and priests supported , or sometimes turned against samurai lords until the Onin War. After the war , both of them left from the political stage in Japan.) 

Finally , Tokugawa Ieyasu , who was a rural samurai lord(and also a descendant of a depraved pilgrim) won this game at 1603 A.D.  He ascended  the ruler of Japan from the lord of the small land.
Having gotten the samurai lord throne , he employed all available means to prevent warfare.
Tokugawa Ieyasu was famous for prudence and guile. His clever tactics extinguished roots of  warfare and conflicts. Then , the miraculous peacetime era came. It lasted for 300 years.

One of his tactics is depriving regional samurai lords of funds. Ieyasu ordered the regional samurai lords to engage in land development. They had to spend a large amount of money and run out of funds for waging war.  In some cases , this policy precipitate some samurai lords into heavy debt.

In Edo era, Japanese economic had developed greatly owing to both long-lasting peace and regional samurai lords spending forced by their rulers(Tokugawa dynasty).
Agricultural output continued to expand by land development through the era.
Product distribution system continued to grow, too. It covered and connected all regions of Japan .
Culture industry also grew and supplied people of various entertainment.
Educational system was developed in order to meet the demand for economic activities.
Many regional samurai lords struggled to make money for forced spending , so they tried various types of economic policy. All over the country , regional economy had been strengthened. 
In truth , at the end of Tokugawa dynasty ,  only issue for modernization was introduction of science and technology.

Some historians had seen Edo era as stagnant period , but actually , political , economic and social foundation for modernization was constructed in Edo era.

Ihara Saikaku (1642-1693) is a novelist in Edo era. He depicted merchants and workers in his novels in this economic growing age. 

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