Tokugawa Yoshimune

Shogun of Japan (r. 1716-1745)

• Born: November 27, 1684
• Birthplace: Wakayama, Japan
• Died: July 12, 1751
• Place of death: Edo (now Tokyo), Japan

One of the most active and influential of the later Tokugawa shoguns, Tokugawa Yoshimune ruled in cooperation with the great daimyo lords rather than against them and thus achieved financial reform and political stability. His dynastic policies of founding branch families ensured Tokugawa control of the shogunate up to its end in 1868.

Early Life

Tokugawa Yoshimune (to-koo-gah-wah yo-shi-moo-neh) was born south of the imperial capital of Kyoto, the third son of Tokugawa Mitsuada. His father was daimyo and head of the Kii branch of the Tokugawa family, founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu, who became the first Tokugawa shogun in 1603. On his father’s side, Tokugawa Yoshimune was a great-grandson of Ieyasu. His mother, however, was a nonaristocratic townswoman. She had entered Tokugawa services as a lady-in-waiting. Her great beauty, charm, and intelligence caught the attention of Mitsuada. Tokugawa Yoshimune’s mother, because of her low rank, was not allowed to raise her son herself.

In 1697, when he was thirteen years old, Tokugawa Yoshimune was made daimyo of the insignificant Sabae domain, centered on the town of Fukui on the north-central coast facing the Sea of Japan. He was placed here because his mother’s low social rank made it unlikely he would ever rise to a high position in life. His domain was so small that he had difficulty affording the minimum living standards prescribed for a daimyo, yet he remained independent of the more rigid education given to a likely candidate for succession as shogun.

In 1705, Tokugawa Yoshimune’s father died at age eighty. Because his two elder brothers had died as well, Tokugawa Yoshimune was made his father’s successor as daimyo of the Kii domain, a heartland of the Tokugawa family. Tokugawa Yoshimune’s first son, Ieshige, was born in 1711, but he suffered from physical deformity and a speech impediment. In 1712, shogun Ienobu died and was succeeded by his three-year-old son Ietsugu. While another nobleman, Manabe Akifusa, was appointed guardian of the child shogun, Tokugawa Yoshimune managed to be appointed his regent. He moved to Edo, center of shogunal power. In 1715, his second, gifted son Munetake was born.

Life’s Work

In 1716, child shogun Ietsugu died at age seven. The Gosanke, or “three houses of succession” representing the larger Tokugawa family, met with the rōjū, or senior councillors, to chose a successor. Supported by the dead boy’s mother, Gekkō In, Tokugawa Yoshimune was chosen as the eighth Tokugawa shogun.

Tokugawa Yoshimune soon purged Ienobu’s two most influential officials who continued to wield power. Manabe Akifusa was transferred to a remote location in 1717 and died there in 1720. The influential reformer Arai Hakuseki lost access to the new shogun and died without power in 1725.

Instead of promoting a single man to represent his interests, Tokugawa Yoshimune decided to work with senior councillors and major daimyos of the realm, who had come to resent the shogun’s special officials in previous reigns and so welcomed Tokugawa Yoshimune’s offer. To offset any weakness, Tokugawa Yoshimune directly involved himself in politics. He often circumvented the official chain of command and actively intervened in operational issues. This gave him freedom of action that he used energetically.

Tokugawa Yoshimune confronted inherited financial problems. Beginning with the fifth shogun, Tsunayoshi, in the previous century, Japan’s currency was debased to pay the shogun’s lavish expenses. Tokugawa Yoshimune stopped the practice in order to mix silver into gold coins. He also called for measures of austerity. Considered a highly moral and ethical person, Tokugawa Yoshimune implemented the budget and began with himself. He tore down the shogun’s extravagant living quarters, moving into an antechamber. He practiced a frugal lifestyle with a vegetarian diet for everyday consumption. When hunting, he dressed simply and accepted lunch invitations of the peasants. To curb the flamboyant lifestyle of the Genroku era (1688-1704), Tokugawa Yoshimune urged samurai to do sports and martial arts training. Merchants were told to be less lavish in displaying their wealth. To promote science, Tokugawa Yoshimune relaxed the ban on Western scientific books in 1720, and he also took an interest in compiling law cases and statutes. In 1721 his third son, Munenobu, was born.

In 1721-1722, the shogun could not meet the payroll for his retainers. Since most of the old rōjū to whom Tokugawa Yoshimune owed his selection were dead or retired, he felt confident to launch reforms. Tokugawa Yoshimune instituted the meyasubako, or box for popular appeals. Kept locked outside an Edo castle gate, anyone could drop a suggestion into the box for the shogun. The box was brought to him still locked to ensure confidentiality. Tokugawa Yoshimune took the letters seriously, which led, for example, to the development of Edo fire prevention and to a new hospital. His successors kept the box.

In 1722, Tokugawa Yoshimune launched his Kyōhō reforms. As an emergency measure, daimyos were forced to loan money to the shogun; in return, they could save by having to spend less time in attendance at Edo. Next, Tokugawa Yoshimune appointed a senior councillor for financial affairs (kattegakari rōjū) to supervise a staff of commissioners of finance (kanjō bugyō), consisting of four officers and five thousand men. They supervised tax collection, the judiciary, economic and commercial transactions, and emergency relief.

To attract capable men of low rank, in 1723, Tokugawa Yoshimune instituted a system of merit-based stipends (tashidaka), which gave skilled officials the legal minimum income required for their positions. Realizing he could not effectively rule alone, in 1724, Tokugawa Yoshimune turned over routine business to external officials. He also decreased the political influence held by court ladies. In 1726, he promoted his most trusted two adjutants to daimyo. With new taxes, the shogun’s income rose. In 1730, Tokugawa Yoshimune founded a new family branch of the Tokugawa, headed by his capable second son, Munetake. In 1731, emergency loans by daimyos were ended, and they had to spend more time in Edo.

In 1732, the Kyōhō Famine struck southwestern Japan, testing Tokugawa Yoshimune’s crisis management. Rural depression led to a riot in Edo in 1733. The shogunate’s emergency measures, such as releasing stored rice, advocating donations, and using whale oil against locusts had some success, but the situation was saved by the rich harvests of 1734 and 1735. More than twelve thousand people died, a number that arguably would have been higher without the shogun’s intervention. To improve agriculture, Tokugawa Yoshimune instituted crop experiments in his castle gardens. By 1735, strong currency led to economic stagnation. Reversing policies, Tokugawa Yoshimune increased the money supply by debasing the currency and minting copper coins, leading to the economy’s expansion. His gradual permitting of the sale of agricultural land led to the commercialization of agriculture.

In 1739, Tokugawa Yoshimune challenged his leadership by dismissing the obstinate daimyo of Owari. This was a serious execution of the shogun’s most powerful privilege. It had rarely been used in the last decades and would not be used again for a century.

Tokugawa Yoshimune founded a second branch family, headed by his nineteen-year-old third son, Munenobu, in 1740. In 1745, Tokugawa Yoshimune retired as shogun on behalf of his disabled eldest son, Ieshige, who had become an alcoholic. Yielding to tradition instead of recognizing merit would cost Tokugawa Yoshimune the resignation of a trusted senior councillor.

Until his death in 1751, Tokugawa Yoshimune and his councillors ruled well for the incapacitated shogun. Afterward, the adjutant Ōoka Tadamitsu took control. When Tadamitsu died in 1760, Ieshige was retired and succeeded by his son, Tokugawa Yoshimune’s grandson Ieharu. Yet even Ieharu let a grand chamberlain rule for him.

Significance

Tokugawa Yoshimune showed that a capable shogun could yield much power if he involved himself directly in administration and cooperated with the larger daimyos. His mixture of building consensus at the highest level of government and remaining involved in midlevel operations yielded great rewards.

Tokugawa Yoshimune confronted the financial problems of the Tokugawa shogunate in the early eighteenth century. Contemporary critics give much credit to his financial policy, which began in 1735, and his policy inevitably accelerated Japan’s move to an economic system that was more like capitalism.

Tokugawa Yoshimune’s dynastic policy of enlarging the base of Tokugawa rule by founding two new family branches (and inspiring another) ultimately succeeded in keeping the shogunate in Tokugawa hands until the Meiji restoration in 1868. Almost automatically, Tokugawa Yoshimune kept the emperor a mere representational figurehead in Kyoto.

Ironically, for a shogun who placed so much emphasis on merit among his officers, Tokugawa Yoshimune preferred tradition in his personal life. In fact, his choice of successor sabotaged shogunal rule. Beginning with Ieshige, whose disabilities and alcoholism left him no other choice, the subsequent Tokugawa shoguns left the execution of their power to trusted middlemen. This influenced the popular decision to replace the shoguns’ rule with that of an emperor in 1868.

Bibliography

Jansen, Marius. The Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 2000. Chapter 2 focuses on the Tokugawa shogunate. Proposes that because of Tokugawa Yoshimune’s nonaristocratic mother, his education was freer than that for a designated successor to the shogunate, which may have preserved his desire for independent action. Also provides background on his times and the overall organization of Tokugawa rule. Illustrations, notes, index, bibliography.

McClain, James. Japan: A Modern History. New York: Norton, 2001. The first three chapters examine the Tokugawa period, illuminate the inner workings of the rule of the Tokugawa shoguns, and explore life in Japan under Tokugawa rule. Illustrations, maps, index.

Nishiyama, Matsonosuke. Edo Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997. Focuses on daily city life in the Tokugawa era, with an emphasis on the common city dweller who was affected by the economic reforms pushed through by Tokugawa Yoshimune. Illustrations, index.

Totman, Conrad D. Politics in the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1600-1843. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967. A thorough analysis of Tokugawa rule. The last chapter chronicles the highlights of Tokugawa Yoshimune’s rule, including the question of his succession. Appendices, notes, bibliography, glossary, index, maps, and tables.