For three hundred years, Japan enjoyed enviable stability and peace. All it took was locking up its warlike samurai elite in the world’s least efficient city.
In general, it was a divide-and-conquer policy that kept the peace, more important in my eyes than keeping hostages in Edo. Especially in the early years when they daimyo still had some military capabilities, the Tokugawa bakufu could and did transfer powerful daimyo to new domains where they had no local network. The lands directly controlled by the bakufu were also crucial from a strategic perspective - Osaka and Kyoto were the centers of manufacturing, Nagasaki the gateway for foreign commerce (which was mostly with China/Korea), the bakufu directly held the gold, silver and copper mines and so on.
As to the Edo alternate attendance, one function was to impoverish the Daimyo: rebellion is hard if you can't afford to purchase arms. You do pick that up.
Tax rates have to be taken with a grain of salt, because the price of rice did not rise when incomes rose, nor were cadastral surveys updated when yields increased – Japanese farmers were quite sophisticated in seed selection, writing about farming techniques and diffusing new cultivars across "han" boundaries. So the effective tax rate on agriculture fell, with lots of regional variation. More important, as the economy developed over time – including the growth of industry in and around Edo, after all there was no city there in 1600 – stagnant taxes calculated in bags of rice meant that "han" incomes failed to keep up with the rest of the economy. While some "han" were able to support one or another local industry, many weren't in good locations. [I argue that by 1720 the core regions of Japan constituted a "modern" economy in sense of De Vries and Van der Woude, but economic history isn't your focus. Decades back I edited a 7-volume series on Japanese economic history...]
Anyway, you do pick up important threads of why there was 250 years of peace. In fact you could argue that because the fall of the bakufu in 1868 was quick, with little fighting, it really constituted a coup d'etat not a civil war. Later wars (with China, Russia, a little bit during WWI and then the 15 Years War with the takeover of Manchuria in 1931) weren't fought on the Japanese home islands. So the last civil war in Japan ended in 1600, and while there was bombing aplenty, there was no land war in Japan proper during WWII. Disingenuous, perhaps, but by that reckoning Japan has gone 500 years without widespread domestic conflict.
Yeah, I'd say it's a tad disingenuous to say a war where almost every major domestic city was almost totally flattened/burned down wasn't a "domestic conflict", but Japan did go over 4 centuries without war on its land.
Can we make them even more glamorous and status-ey?? Like that utopian city in Honduras. Can they go there instead of San Francisco or whatever? Normal people need houses in normal cities.
It's interesting, I wonder if societies are more productive if they have elite 'spa towns' to draw away their stock of rich but inactive people, freeing up space in other cities for people who need to be there for jobs.
Yes, move the rich instead of eating them. Give the towns residency requirements so they stay and also incentives to keep playing Civilization II with the rest of us.
It was when the Bafuku/Shogun era was already over though (and confined to a pretty short length in time over a pretty small area). Not like the many and/or massive wars that roiled China and Europe (and India) multiple times (leading to tens of millions of deaths) during the era of the Shogunate.
Saying that it would have been nice to have peace without a prison capital like Edo is like saying it would be nice to have world peace without militaries or no crime without police and the justice system.
I wish I might have seen why you'd have to go such a long way around to visit the house next door, as depicted in the last graphic. Was it that all the passages were designated as one-way, and strictly enforced?
I strongly recommend a visit to the Edo-Tokyo Museum, 1 Chome-4-1 Yokoami, Sumida City, Tokyo 130-0015, together with the associated Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum, 3 Chome−7−1, Sakuracho Koganei, Tokyo. They are both exceptionally well done and really bring the history of this fascinating city vividly to life.
Interesting article. It is amazing that they could cram a half million samurai (who were armed with swords, correct?) in one small area and not have a civil war.
??? I mean, they were taught to follow some pretty strict (and enforced, by laws/shame/honor) rules of conduct. Were you expecting samurai to behave like wild beasts or something?
I think that you can easily figure out what I meant.
Samurai are loyal to their daimyo, and those daimyo have conflicting interests that potentially result in violence or civil war (which, by the way, were common in Japanese history).
Yes, they were common . . . when central authority was weak. And they occurred in eras that were unlike the Tokugawa bakufu system (that put a lid on violence as detailed in the article!) Just because daimyos had different interests doesn't mean they could successfully pull off a civil war/revolt. And being highly disciplined and rational, why exactly do you think any of them would attempt to start a civil war/revolt (in Edo! The center of Tokugawa power and loyalists! Where there were a ton of samurai but the majority belonged to Tokugawa or Tokugawa loyalists! And where they would be surrounded by even more Tokugawa loyalists throughout Kanto!)
I'm thinking our politics would improve without New Yorkers in it. Can we follow the Tokugawa example, encircle everywhere south of White Plains, and watch as our national politics improve?
This is a marvelous essay and now it has me thinking about writing one on Zwangendaba and his remarkable system of social assimilation. Bravo sir, you have thoroughly overturned my plans
Fascinating read, and an interesting reorientation from Veblen’s idea of a leisure class as willful conspicuous consumption to maybe something a lot less discretionary and mandated by state power. Also, I wonder whether this was a direct inspiration to The Hunger Games!
Wow! what an informative essay. Thank you.
Thank you!
In general, it was a divide-and-conquer policy that kept the peace, more important in my eyes than keeping hostages in Edo. Especially in the early years when they daimyo still had some military capabilities, the Tokugawa bakufu could and did transfer powerful daimyo to new domains where they had no local network. The lands directly controlled by the bakufu were also crucial from a strategic perspective - Osaka and Kyoto were the centers of manufacturing, Nagasaki the gateway for foreign commerce (which was mostly with China/Korea), the bakufu directly held the gold, silver and copper mines and so on.
As to the Edo alternate attendance, one function was to impoverish the Daimyo: rebellion is hard if you can't afford to purchase arms. You do pick that up.
Tax rates have to be taken with a grain of salt, because the price of rice did not rise when incomes rose, nor were cadastral surveys updated when yields increased – Japanese farmers were quite sophisticated in seed selection, writing about farming techniques and diffusing new cultivars across "han" boundaries. So the effective tax rate on agriculture fell, with lots of regional variation. More important, as the economy developed over time – including the growth of industry in and around Edo, after all there was no city there in 1600 – stagnant taxes calculated in bags of rice meant that "han" incomes failed to keep up with the rest of the economy. While some "han" were able to support one or another local industry, many weren't in good locations. [I argue that by 1720 the core regions of Japan constituted a "modern" economy in sense of De Vries and Van der Woude, but economic history isn't your focus. Decades back I edited a 7-volume series on Japanese economic history...]
Anyway, you do pick up important threads of why there was 250 years of peace. In fact you could argue that because the fall of the bakufu in 1868 was quick, with little fighting, it really constituted a coup d'etat not a civil war. Later wars (with China, Russia, a little bit during WWI and then the 15 Years War with the takeover of Manchuria in 1931) weren't fought on the Japanese home islands. So the last civil war in Japan ended in 1600, and while there was bombing aplenty, there was no land war in Japan proper during WWII. Disingenuous, perhaps, but by that reckoning Japan has gone 500 years without widespread domestic conflict.
Yeah, I'd say it's a tad disingenuous to say a war where almost every major domestic city was almost totally flattened/burned down wasn't a "domestic conflict", but Japan did go over 4 centuries without war on its land.
Interesting ideas. Do we need a status-tagged oligarch city to reduce housing costs??
Maybe we already have them!
Can we make them even more glamorous and status-ey?? Like that utopian city in Honduras. Can they go there instead of San Francisco or whatever? Normal people need houses in normal cities.
It's interesting, I wonder if societies are more productive if they have elite 'spa towns' to draw away their stock of rich but inactive people, freeing up space in other cities for people who need to be there for jobs.
Yes, move the rich instead of eating them. Give the towns residency requirements so they stay and also incentives to keep playing Civilization II with the rest of us.
It could happen with EVTOLs and whatnot.
Where is My Flying Car?? 😁
Tbf I would argue the Satsuma Rebellion was an civil war
It was when the Bafuku/Shogun era was already over though (and confined to a pretty short length in time over a pretty small area). Not like the many and/or massive wars that roiled China and Europe (and India) multiple times (leading to tens of millions of deaths) during the era of the Shogunate.
Saying that it would have been nice to have peace without a prison capital like Edo is like saying it would be nice to have world peace without militaries or no crime without police and the justice system.
I wish I might have seen why you'd have to go such a long way around to visit the house next door, as depicted in the last graphic. Was it that all the passages were designated as one-way, and strictly enforced?
Lots of walls and gates. Look at the illustration.
Very nicely done.
I strongly recommend a visit to the Edo-Tokyo Museum, 1 Chome-4-1 Yokoami, Sumida City, Tokyo 130-0015, together with the associated Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum, 3 Chome−7−1, Sakuracho Koganei, Tokyo. They are both exceptionally well done and really bring the history of this fascinating city vividly to life.
Interesting article. It is amazing that they could cram a half million samurai (who were armed with swords, correct?) in one small area and not have a civil war.
??? I mean, they were taught to follow some pretty strict (and enforced, by laws/shame/honor) rules of conduct. Were you expecting samurai to behave like wild beasts or something?
I said nothing about "behaving like wild beasts."
I think that you can easily figure out what I meant.
Samurai are loyal to their daimyo, and those daimyo have conflicting interests that potentially result in violence or civil war (which, by the way, were common in Japanese history).
*rolls eyes*
Yes, they were common . . . when central authority was weak. And they occurred in eras that were unlike the Tokugawa bakufu system (that put a lid on violence as detailed in the article!) Just because daimyos had different interests doesn't mean they could successfully pull off a civil war/revolt. And being highly disciplined and rational, why exactly do you think any of them would attempt to start a civil war/revolt (in Edo! The center of Tokugawa power and loyalists! Where there were a ton of samurai but the majority belonged to Tokugawa or Tokugawa loyalists! And where they would be surrounded by even more Tokugawa loyalists throughout Kanto!)
Obviously, you are just looking for an argument.
Goodbye.
Holy guacamole! My brain exploded (in a good way)...
I'm thinking our politics would improve without New Yorkers in it. Can we follow the Tokugawa example, encircle everywhere south of White Plains, and watch as our national politics improve?
This is a marvelous essay and now it has me thinking about writing one on Zwangendaba and his remarkable system of social assimilation. Bravo sir, you have thoroughly overturned my plans
Fascinating read, and an interesting reorientation from Veblen’s idea of a leisure class as willful conspicuous consumption to maybe something a lot less discretionary and mandated by state power. Also, I wonder whether this was a direct inspiration to The Hunger Games!