tokugawa

By mia.coe
  • 250

    YAMATO PERIOD

    The Yamato Period, commonly broken into two separate eras: the Kofun (“tumulus”) Era, from 250 to 538, and the Asuka Era, from 538 to 710, saw the emergence of a central governing power in the west of Japan, centered around the Yamato Province (highlighted in yellow on the map). It was in this location that a local clan (also known as Yamato) began to consolidate its power and establish its claim as the imperial bloodline of the nation.
  • 707

    NARA PERIOD

    Beginning with the establishment of the new imperial capital at Nara in 710, the Nara Period marked the incipient stage of the classical era of Japanese history. It was during this period that imperial power was cemented and the dogma of imperial succession from the sun goddess, Amaterasu, was codified in the Kojiki and Nihonshoki.
  • 794

    HEIAN PERIOD

    Considered one of the culturally richest epochs in Japanese history, the Heian Period saw the zenith of court high culture. It also saw the inception of the nascent samurai, or bushi, class, whose ascendancy would eventually spell the end of Japan’s gilded age when the Taira and Minamoto clans fought each other in the Genpei War (1180 – 1185).
  • 1185

    KAMAKURA PERIOD

    With the defeat of the Taira clan in the Genpei War, political power shifted again, this time to the victorious Minamoto, under their leader, Minamoto no Yoritomo (1148 – 1199), who had himself declared shōgun. Under Minamoto rule, Japan entered its nearly seven-hundred-year feudal period, and the imperial court was relegated to a still symbolically important, but effectively marginal, ceremonial role.
  • 1336

    ASHIKAGA PERIOD

    the interregnum known as the Kemmu Restoration during which the Emperor Go-Daigo futilely attempted to reassert imperial rule, the Ashikaga Period, also known as the Muromachi Period, was inaugurated with the naming of Ashikaga Takauji as shōgun. The period is typically marked by two eras the Southern and Northern Courts Era and the Warring States Era. During the former, the Ashikaga shogunate established a Northern Imperial Court and warred against the Southern Imperial Court of Go-Daigo.
  • 1568

    AZUCHI-MOMOYAMA PERIOD

    The Azuchi-Momoyama Period was a brief period at the end of the Warring States Era when Oda Nobunaga and his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, imposed order on the nation in the aftermath of the crumbling of the Ashikaga shogunate. In fact, the period takes its name from Nobunaga’s and Hideyoshi’s respective headquarters, both near Kyōto.

  • TOKUGAWA PERIOD

    Historically considered the most stable and peaceful period in Japan's premodern history, the Tokugawa Period also known as the Edo Period, after the city in which the shōgun had his capital began with Tokugawa Ieyasu’s victory in 1600 over Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s forces at the Battle of Sekigahara, and the consolidation of political power around the Tokugawa clan and its daimyō allies in Japan’s east, on the Kantō plain. In 1603, the imperial court conferred upon Ieyasu the title of shōgun.

  • MEIJI PERIOD

    the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate, the final defeat of Tokugawa loyalists in Boshin War, Emperor Meiji was restored to direct suzerainty and the imperial court was moved to Edo, renamed Tōkyō. The new imperial government set about rapidly modernizing the country to bring it in line with the already industrialized Western world, as well as in an effort to forestall any imperial designs that the Western powers, which had already carved China up into spheres of influence, might have on Japan.

  • TAISHŌ PERIOD

    Begun with the death of the Emperor Meiji and the ascendance of his mentally and physically infirm son, the Emperor Taishō, the brief Taishō Period saw Japan continue its military involvement in East Asia when it seized German-occupied areas of China during World War I (1914 – 1918). Japan was subsequently required to relinquish many of its gains at the Treaty of Versailles.

  • SHŌWA PERIOD

    When the Crown Prince Hirohito ascended to the Chrysanthemum Throne and became the Emperor Shōwa upon the death of his father in 1926, few could have imagined that his long reign would see such upheaval and radical change. In the midst of strong pro-imperial and pro-military sentiments among both the corps of officers and the rank-and-file, the Emperor and his war cabinet set about expanding Japan’s military presence throughout East and Southeast Asia,

  • POSTWAR PERIOD

    After the Allied occupation ended with the San Francisco Peace Treaty on and Japan became once again an independent state when the treaty went into effect in April, the nation set about rebuilding itself from the devastation of war. however, it was under a new governing arrangement in which the emperor’s prerogatives were severely curtailed, and decision-making fell to the independent Diet. the Allies’ relinquishment of control, Japan lost most of its territorial possessions from the war years.