The Closing of Japan - The Age of Sakoku Begins | The Edo Period Episode 5

before we get started with the video I really want to take the time to show off the new trailer for The shuo Mod coming out for Mountain Blade 2 bannerlord shoko is set in 1568 deep into the midst of the soku jidai Japan's iconic age of Waring States now I've talked about this upcoming mod several times over the past few years as each new progress update for it just continues to build up the hype surrounding it Shoku ho looks incredible and this has got to be the best looking trailer I've seen for it yet this new trailer not only shows off how massive and detailed the map of Japan in the game is going to be but also goes into greater detail on unique features such as donating to temples and monasteries to recruit Warrior monks destructible fortifications promoting units into officer companions tons of new armor and weapons and of course a teaser at the end for Naval Combat and I can tell you that this also looks like it will be as historically accurate as possible of the two great historical Consultants on the project I am well well acquainted with gunen history who happens to be one of the greatest experts on premodern Japanese arms and armor that I've have been in contact with seriously this mod could be a complete Standalone expansion to the game with this level of Polish and detail being put into it as you might already know I am no stranger to Mountain blade and have been a huge fan of the gecko Kujo mod for warband for years and although bannerlord is a great time for me personally I've really been waiting for a mod like this to really get me more into it I just wanted to show this mod off some more because with the release of the new trailer I I am beyond excited you can find a link down below to not only the new trailer you are seeing on screen here but also the mods Discord server which frequently posts updates if I were you I'd keep an eye on this mod because from the looks of it it might just turn out to be one of the best Samurai gaming experiences ever released but with that said let's get on to the video in the last episode The shimaa Rebellion came to an end as one of the largest scale Revolt in Japanese history was put down by the might of the shogunate yet Tremors from this event will continue to rock the nation as the large Christian element which had rallied the rebels will lead to the government cracking down upon foreign influence like never before now in the midst of the Edo period we enter into the age of sakoku where we will finally see what has been described as the closing of Japan [Music] [Music] by 1638 between the rubble and ruin of shimabara at top the bodies of the rebels who selflessly gave their lives in hopes of Salvation the bakufu planted its flag as we saw the shimabara Rebellion had been caused by the continued suffering of the lower classes which had mounted to unbearable proportions under the tyrannical rule of the matsukura family of shimabara domain however although the shogunate would not fail to see that this was the real cause of the unrest they would choose instead to focus on a more severe element within the rebel Camp one which had plagued Japan for years the rebels of course had rallied together under the Christian faith which had taken deep root in kushu ever since the arrival of Europeans decades prior it was their devotion which had in turn made them so resilient it had also been What was seen as the greatest threat they posed to the shogunate the shimabara rebellion was a Christian Rebellion ever since the time of toyotomi hioshi Christianity had become increasingly viewed as a negative aspect of heightened foreign influence many Dao had gone far to improve their relationship with the Portuguese who had come to their Shores in hopes of fostering greater trade relations with one of the primary aims being the buildup of foreign weapons one unfortunate method was the selling of Japanese people into European slavery something which hioshi demanded the stopping of but another method for the Dao was to embrace the Christian faith this then led to turning the people of their domain Christian as well as missionary work was allowed to flourish however this also brought about the ederse side effect of local Buddhist institutions being brought to ruin throughout heavily christianized areas hioshi had sought to restrict foreign efforts in Japan by clamping down hard especially turning his attention towards the spread of Christianity as he would punish those who had continued to preach the gospel with in Japan famously he executed 26 Christians in 1597 yet after his death Tokugawa yasu who had usurped power from the toyotomi at the climactic Battle of sakahara had been a bit more reserved in his distrust of foreigners in truth it appears yasu is actually quite interested in learning about the outside world and had tried to learn extensively from figures like William Adams an Englishman who had come to Japan and earned great favor with easu becoming himself a prominent figure Within asu's government following easu however we did see how his son and Heir Tokugawa hiar once again returned to being suspicious of Foreign Affairs we can see that with hi Tata that a real movement towards closing off the country began however it would not be until the rise of his son that such an effort would come into full realization over the past two episodes we have discussed the role of Tokugawa yitsu in some detail a somewhat unorthodox yet still competent Shogun yamitsu is often remembered as one of the most significant leaders of the bakufu like his father it appears that he had a natural distrust of foreigners and continued to make efforts to restrict their role in Japan to some degree this could have actually been a much easier process than it might have been in Prior years not only did yamitsu command perhaps more authority over the country being that the bakufu had become an increasingly well oiled machine over the years spanning all across Japan but there was also less foreigners to deal with both both Spain and England had left Japan in Prior years while Portuguese influence had continued to suffer being reduced further and further largely due to their Christian faith which was continually looked upon with suspicion the Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach Japan all the way back in 1543 and although for a time they held a commanding presence within Japan they found themselves continually falling into bad terms with the Japanese in later years from problems previously mentioned on top of that was also the enlightening truth which had been brought by William will Adams who was able to cut through many of the lies the Portuguese had spun in Japan and further earn the distrust of the new Tokugawa government the first official national separation edict had been issued in 1633 this had served to restrict the access of Ships coming and going to Japan as well as to forbid any Japanese who lived abroad for more than 5 Years From coming home the Second National separation edict issued the following year was done in effort to renew and entrench the existing rules of the first edict the third National separation edict which once again followed consecutively in 1635 officially moved the entry of all foreign trade to specifically the port of Nagasaki as well as to update the rules of the first edict stating that now no Japanese at all were allowed to leave Japan under severe penalty and the fourth edict in 1636 primarily targeted the Portuguese as it was here any Portuguese deemed unnecessary in Japan were deported while all others who occupied signific ific enough roles were instead moved to Nagasaki as well but of course following the end of the hostilities in shimabara Tokugawa yamitsu now had all the reason he finally needed to fully remove the Portuguese entirely in the fifth and final National separation Edict of 1639 the Portuguese would be completely kicked out of Japan and prohibited from ever returning although Portugal would make several more attempts over the following decade to resume trade the Japanese would refuse and in one instance even capture 61 members of a Portuguese Envoy and execute them all finally Portugal would give up the effort by 1647 Japan was lost to them this fifth edict to fully shut out the Portuguese is often seen as the Pinnacle of the efforts to seal off Japan and the real start of Japan's closure to the outside world many years later this period would come to be known as s koku a policy which would last for roughly two centuries but it is important to know that at this time it was never referred to as such rather a more accurate word which would have been used at the time to refer to the closing would be kikin or Maritime prohibitions yet over the years this concept has become somewhat blurred as many would use broad Strokes to define the country as fully closed off from the outside world entirely in fact he might have gotten a sense of that from some of my videos in reality the country was not fully closed not at all there were actually many links that Japan still maintained to the outside world in effect the idea of the closing of the country was just a concentrated effort to control or at least reduce the spread of any foreign religion or influence that could find its way into Japan mostly just from Catholics as you might be already well aware there were of course other Europeans who were still tolerated in Japan at least in Nagasaki these were of course the Dutch when William Adams had arrived in Japan in 1600 he had come aboard a Dutch trade vessel and through his working with easu had established significant Dutch trade relations with Japan and with the removal of the Portuguese and The Exodus of the English and Spanish from the country the Dutch now held a monopoly on All European trade in Japan which they would conduct through Nagasaki on specifically the island of dejima through which all foreign goods were brought in and extensively searched before being allowed to enter the country the Dutch were allowed to stay for several reasons firstly and perhaps the most important was that they were not Catholic but instead Protestant and had no interest in converting the Japanese people they were also at odds with the Portuguese and due to this nature of being seen as natural enemies were viewed as the lesser of two Problems by the shogunate No Doubt of course due to the diligence of William Adams the Dutch had also played a role in helping the Baku Fu to put down the shimabara Rebellion when they lent a ship to bombard shimabara Castle from the sea and lastly was the fact that they had to continually renew pledges to the shogunate in Edo where they maintained their relationship as one of trade and friendship nothing more yet it is also important to note that besides Europeans other countries throughout Asia were also allowed to maintain trade relations deima also served as a significant Port of Chinese trade as well while down in kagoshima the shimazu were allowed to continue trading with the mainland by route through the ryuku islands and into China and Korea the ryuku islands being a significant Conquest won by the shimazu in 1609 something we detailed all the way back in the singu ji series episode 60 besides this in the far north the matsum family was also allowed to conduct trade with the Inu tribes of Hokkaido so while this period is often described as full isolation it was in fact not rather more accurately it was a series of efforts to control access to the country not completely shutting its doors but instead just putting up heavy restrictions however for the sake of Simplicity I will continue to refer to this policy as a form of somewhat isolation now there are many theories about sakoku not only ones which challenge the ideas of whyatt came into being but also ones which speculate over the effects it had on Japan or in what other ways Japan might have been affected had there never have been such policies some believe that perhaps isolation came as more of a reaction to the gold and silver trade with Japan exporting high amounts and Rising inflation following the discovery of more access to gold and silver in the Americas this Theory suggests that one of Japan's primary motives in seclusion was to monopolize profits from this trade once more yet I am uncertain how much of this theory is necessarily accurate or widely accepted at this time as others have appeared to question just how much the bakufu actually knew about the wider world and if it was enough to actually affect such a move another theory plays into the idea that Shogun took ugawa yamitsu was himself rather xenophobic and thus was already heavily predisposed to removing or restricting any foreign activities in Japan and although this would make some sense regarding the fact that the efforts to isolate the country made the most progress under yamitsu it is not necessarily a theory which appears to be widely accepted however others have speculated that had Japan not restricted entry it may have one day in turn become a European Colony as was already occurring to other countries throughout Asia and the Pacific I strongly disagree with this notion however at least at this current point in history for one the move towards isolation was not just done immediately with yamitsu but rather had been a evolving process for many decades had there never had been a concentrated effort to control the influence of Europeans perhaps then a greater argument could be made that Japan may have just Fallen under the full influence of a European country but such an idea is pretty dubious and even then I don't believe there is any way a European country could have even conquered Japan mil militarily at this point in time for a variety of reasons either throughout the 16th and 17th century Japan was still a highly militarized Nation who themselves had amassed a huge quantity of firearms make whatever comparisons you want about Japanese weapons and armor to European weapons and armor it would not changeed the fact that Japan not only had enough Firearms to take on a European country but also the Manpower as well with hundreds of thousands ready to fight not even counting the fact that the Japanese would of course be fighting on their own terrain the one area Japan suffered with in terms of land Warfare was perhaps a lack of artillery but being that Japan is so incredibly mountainous cannons themselves would be increasingly difficult to transport and use efficiently this is one of the reasons why artillery was not really used as frequently in Samurai Warfare the terrain of Japan did not really suit it well and should a European incursion even have won a landing and perhaps a follow-up battle on flat land they would have never been able to dislodge bitter Samurai resistance which would have never surrendered and would have contined to bloody any European Force as they attempted to subdue the nation I know that this is all just heavy speculation but I do believe that in the end a European invasion of Japan at this point in history would have been just too costly an affair as thousands of Invaders would have died for little gain if that it would have severely weakened whatever country would have been foolish enough to attempt it but like I said I am only discussing this current point in history as I also believe that Japan's fate in the event of an invasion later into the 17 or 1800s would have been far more uncertain as time went on and Japan of course continued to fall behind in terms of military advancements in fact this is perhaps one of the largest problem areas for Japan in their isolation but it's not necessarily one we can even fully attribute to isolation without Wars to fight and heavy bakufu restrictions status quo is set in what need was there to advance military technology sure they could definitely witness advancements from the Dutch as they arose but certainly by the time isolation ended some 200 years later with the arrival of American warships Japan was indeed no way capable of contending with a modern Army at that time they simply did not do enough to keep up with the military evolutions of the outside world there is of course plenty more we could get into regarding this topic but once again it does Begin to Fall more into the realm of heavy speculation so we'll leave it there for now and while some point to an effect of sakoku being one which sort of froze Japan in time that would not necessarily be correct either yes certainly some areas stagnated like we just saw but others still Advanced plenty of learning and Innovations still progressed especially in areas of industry and finance not to also mention the massive cultural boom experienced during the Edo period as well Western technology was also not seen as something to be shunned but instead learned from and integrated this is where we begin to see rangaku or the study of Dutch Sciences this Focus allowed Japan to continue to learn about the outside world and its scientific advancements in particular Japan gained increasingly precious knowledge in the fields of anatomy and Medicine it was not until the opening of Japan in the 1850s that rangaku would transform more broadly into yaku which focused instead on all forms of Western studies in the end Japan's isolation can be seen as one of the most unique aspects of the country's History A Time In which Japan sought to safeguard itself and would go on to have profound impacts both positive and perhaps negative but to say that Japan lost all touch with the outside world would be incorrect and instead this period should be viewed as one of stricter government control as it was the bakufu's effort to guide the nation into what they deemed as the best Direction in 1651 after almost three decades as the Shogun IM mitsu passed away after a prolonged illness he was 47 years old he was would go down as one of the most significant Shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate rivaled only by the first Shogun his grandfather easu and perhaps the final Shogun Tokugawa yoshinobu he had cemented the structure of the bakufu foundations which had been laid by yasu and had been continued by hiara now coming into full fruition by yitsu a man who worked to restructure Japanese Society in many ways from the samurai to the lower classes to Japan's relationship with the rest of the outside world everything was now set for the edop per to progress into its long years of peace and stability yitsu was inomed at the touin temple close to his grandfather's great resting place of niku he is the only Shogun other than yasu to have been buried [Music] there in the next episode we see the eruption of one of the worst fires in Japan history as Edo is consumed by Flames causing tens of thousands to perish along with the complete destruction of the tenu of Japan's greatest Samurai Castle thank you for watching and don't forget to like subscribe and ring that notification Bell if you enjoyed this video and found it to be most [Music] informative