#akoincident

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646-1709) governed Japan as the fifth shogun of the Edo period (1603-1876). He has often been ridiculed as the 'dog shogun' because of the laws he enacted to protect the lives of animals. Economically, however, the period of his rule was one of prosperity, and culturally, it was one of the most brilliant in Japanese history.

Early Years

Tsunayoshi was the son of the third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, by one of his concubines. Iemitsu died when Tsunayoshi was only five, and his elder brother Ietsuna (1641-1680) became the fourth shogun. Ietsuna himself was only ten when this happened, so power was in the hands of regents who governed on his behalf. In 1661, Tsunayoshi became the daimyo of the Tatebayashi domain in modern-day Gunma Prefecture. When Ietsuna suddenly died in 1680, Tsunayoshi became shogun. In his early years as shogun, Hotta Masatoshi (1634-1684) played an important role in running government affairs as he had done under Ietsuna. In 1684, however, Masatoshi was murdered by one of his relatives, and this provided Tsunayoshi with the opportunity to promote a number of his own supporters to important positions. From then on, government policies more closely reflected Tsunayoshi's own ideas. The period of his rule was one of cultural brilliance, but this was the result not so much of his actions but broader changes in Japanese society.

Chushingura

Kanadehon Chushingura (A Treasury of Loyalty of Loyal Retainers or The Story of the Forty-Seven Samurai) is the most popular play in the history of Japanese theatre, first performed in 1748. It is a work of fiction, but the details of the story are often confused with those of a real event, the Ako Incident (1701-3), on which it is commonly thought to be based.

Rise of the Puppet Theatre

After the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate at the beginning of the 17th century, peace came to Japan after a century and a half of civil war. The population quickly rose, and towns expanded. Edo (modern-day Tokyo) and Osaka especially grew rapidly, and in these cities, a new kind of urban culture developed that reflected the values of the townspeople. Included in this were two new forms of theatre. One was kabuki, which used actors, and the other was bunraku, a form of puppet theatre. In the European tradition, puppets are thought of as being children's entertainment, but in Japan, puppet theatre developed as a highly refined art form.

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646-1709) governed Japan as the fifth shogun of the Edo period (1603-1876). He has often been ridiculed as the 'dog shogun' because of the laws he enacted to protect the lives of animals. Economically, however, the period of his rule was one of prosperity, and culturally, it was one of the most brilliant in Japanese history.