Editing Edo period (section)

===Decline of the Tokugawa===<!-- This section is linked from [[Emperor Ninkō]] -->

[[File:DaiRokuDaiba.jpg|thumb|right|''Dai-Roku Daiba'' (第六台場) or "No. 6 Battery", one of the original Edo-era battery islands]]
[[File:Shinagawa Baidai cannon.jpg|thumb|One of the cannons of Odaiba, now at the [[Yasukuni Shrine]]. 80-pound bronze, bore: 250mm, length: 3830mm]]

The end of this period is specifically called the [[bakumatsu|late Tokugawa shogunate]]. The cause for the end of this period is controversial but is often recounted as resulting from the forced [[Convention of Kanagawa|opening of Japan to the world]], by [[Matthew Perry (naval officer)|Commodore Matthew Perry]] of the [[United States Navy|US Navy]], whose [[Naval fleet|armada]] (known by the Japanese as "[[Black Ships|the black ships]]") fired weapons from [[Edo Bay]]. Several [[artificial island|artificial land masses]] were created to block the range of the armada, and this land remains in what is presently called the [[Odaiba]] district.

The Tokugawa did not eventually collapse simply because of intrinsic failures. Foreign intrusions helped to precipitate a complex political struggle between the ''[[Tokugawa shogunate|bakufu]]'' and a coalition of its critics. The continuity of the anti-''bakufu'' movement in the mid-19th century would finally bring down the Tokugawa. Historians consider that a major contributing factor to the decline of the Tokugawa was "poor management of the central government by the ''shōgun'', which caused the social classes in Japan to fall apart".{{attribution needed|date=February 2018}}<ref>{{Harvnb|Jansen|2002|pp=289–292}}</ref> From the outset, the Tokugawa attempted to restrict families' accumulation of wealth and fostered a "back to the soil" policy, in which the farmer, the ultimate producer, was the ideal person in society.

The standard of living for urban and rural dwellers alike grew significantly during the Tokugawa period. Better means of crop production, transport, housing, food, and entertainment were all available, as was more leisure time, at least for urban dwellers. The literacy rate was high for a preindustrial society (by some estimates the literacy rate in the city of Edo was 80 percent), and cultural values were redefined and widely imparted throughout the samurai and ''[[chōnin]]'' classes.

Despite the reappearance of [[guild]]s, economic activities went well beyond the restrictive nature of the guilds, and commerce spread and a money economy developed. Although government heavily restricted the merchants and viewed them as unproductive and usurious members of society, the samurai, who gradually became separated from their rural ties, depended greatly on the merchants and artisans for consumer goods, artistic interests, and [[loan]]s. In this way, a subtle subversion of the warrior class by the ''chōnin'' took place.

A struggle arose in the face of political limitations that the ''shōgun'' imposed on the entrepreneurial class. The government ideal of an [[agrarian society]] failed to square with the reality of commercial distribution. A huge government bureaucracy had evolved, which now stagnated because of its discrepancy with a new and evolving social order. Compounding the situation, the population increased significantly during the first half of the Tokugawa period. Although the magnitude and growth rates are uncertain, there were at least 26 million commoners and about four million members of samurai families and their attendants when the first nationwide census was taken in 1721. Drought, followed by crop shortages and starvation, resulted in twenty great famines between 1675 and 1837. During the Tokugawa period, there were 154 famines, of which 21 were widespread and serious.<ref>{{Citation|last=Turkington|first=David|author-link=David Turkington|title=A Chronology of Japanese History|work=Edo Period (1603-1868)|url=http://www.shikokuhenrotrail.com/japanhistory/edohistory.html|access-date=May 5, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120625110809/http://www.shikokuhenrotrail.com/japanhistory/edohistory.html|archive-date=June 25, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[File:Great Tenmei Famine Map Artwork.png|thumb|upright|Starving peasants during the [[Great Tenmei famine]]]]
The [[Great Tenmei famine]] (1782 until 1788) was the worst famine in the Edo period.<ref name="tenmei"/> Many crops were damaged due to bad weather, serious cold and the [[1783 eruption of Mount Asama]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=天明3年（1783年）浅間山噴火 {{!}} 利根川水系砂防事務所 {{!}} 国土交通省 関東地方整備局 |url=https://www.ktr.mlit.go.jp/tonesui/tonesui00023.html |access-date=2022-03-25 |website=www.ktr.mlit.go.jp}}</ref><ref name="tenmei"/> A worsening factor of the Great Tenmei famine was a drop in global temperatures due to the eruption of the [[Iceland]]ic volcano [[Laki]] in 1783.<ref name="tenmei"/> The spread of the famine was largely due to mismanagement of the Shogunate and the clan.<ref name="tenmei">{{cite web |website=Nikkei |title=江戸の飢饉に巨大噴火の影 気温低下で凶作、人災も |date=April 30, 2022 |url=https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOCD13AD20T10C22A4000000/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220505023044/https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOCD13AD20T10C22A4000000/ |archive-date=May 5, 2022}}</ref>

Peasant unrest grew, and by the late 18th century, mass protests over taxes and food shortages had become commonplace. Newly landless families became tenant farmers, while the displaced rural poor moved into the cities. As the fortunes of previously well-to-do families declined, others moved in to accumulate land, and a new, wealthy farming class emerged. Those people who benefited were able to diversify production and to hire laborers, while others were left discontented. Many samurai fell on hard times and were forced into handicraft production and wage jobs for merchants.

Although Japan was able to acquire and refine a wide variety of scientific knowledge, the rapid industrialization of the West during the 18th century created a material gap in terms of technologies and armament between Japan and the West, forcing it to abandon its policy of seclusion, which contributed to the end of the Tokugawa regime.

Western intrusions were on the increase in the early 19th century. Russian warships and traders encroached on [[Karafuto]] (called [[Sakhalin]] under Russian and Soviet control) and on the [[Kuril Islands]], the southernmost of which are considered by the Japanese as the northern islands of [[Hokkaidō]]. A British warship entered Nagasaki harbour searching for enemy Dutch ships in 1808, and other warships and [[whaler]]s were seen in Japanese waters with increasing frequency in the 1810s and 1820s. Whalers and trading ships from the United States also arrived on Japan's shores. Although the Japanese made some minor concessions and allowed some landings, they largely attempted to keep all foreigners out, sometimes using force. ''[[Rangaku]]'' became crucial not only in understanding the foreign "[[barbarian]]s" but also in using the knowledge gained from the West to fend them off.

By the 1830s, there was a general sense of crisis. Famines and [[natural disaster]]s hit hard, and unrest led to a peasant uprising against officials and merchants in Osaka in 1837. Although it lasted only a day, the uprising made a dramatic impression. Remedies came in the form of traditional solutions that sought to reform moral decay rather than address institutional problems. The ''shōgun''{{'}}s advisers pushed for a return to the martial spirit, more restrictions on foreign trade and contacts, suppression of ''rangaku'', censorship of literature, and elimination of "luxury" in the government and samurai class.

Others sought the overthrow of the Tokugawa and espoused the political doctrine of ''[[sonnō jōi]]'' (revere the emperor, expel the barbarians), which called for unity under imperial rule and opposed foreign intrusions. The ''bakufu'' persevered for the time being amidst growing concerns over Western successes in establishing colonial enclaves in China following the [[First Opium War]] of 1839–1842. More reforms were ordered, especially in the economic sector, to strengthen Japan against the Western threat.

Japan turned down a demand from the United States, which was greatly expanding its own presence in the Asia-Pacific region, to establish [[diplomacy|diplomatic]] relations when [[James Biddle (commodore)|Commodore James Biddle]] appeared in [[Edo Bay]] with two warships in July 1846.