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Historical Period
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The Tokugawa shogunate, a closed and peaceful Japan, ukiyo-e culture and Perry's black ships.

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Edo Period · 1603–1868 AD
江戸 · The Tokugawa Peace

The Edo Period

From Tokugawa Ieyasu's founding of the shogunate at Edo, through the closing of the country and two and a half centuries of peace that gave rise to the vivid townsman culture of kabuki, haiku and the woodblock print, to the arrival of Commodore Perry's black ships and the fall of the last shogun. Slide across the long Tokugawa calm, an isolated Japan of samurai and merchants that ended when the wider world came knocking.

1603 AD
The Tokugawa Shogunate
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1603 AD

The Tokugawa Shogunate
  • Political

    Ieyasu founds the shogunate

    Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Edo shogunate
    Via Wikimedia Commons

    Tokugawa Ieyasu becomes shogun and rules from Edo, founding a dynasty that will hold Japan for 265 years.

8 milestones

Meanwhile

Around 1603 AD

Full Chronicle

The Edo Period

From Tokugawa Ieyasu's founding of the shogunate at Edo, through the closing of the country and two and a half centuries of peace that gave rise to the vivid townsman culture of kabuki, haiku and the woodblock print, to the arrival of Commodore Perry's black ships and the fall of the last shogun. Slide across the long Tokugawa calm, an isolated Japan of samurai and merchants that ended when the wider world came knocking.

  1. The Tokugawa Shogunate

    • Ieyasu founds the shogunate

      Tokugawa Ieyasu becomes shogun and rules from Edo, founding a dynasty that will hold Japan for 265 years.

  2. The Tokugawa Order

    • The fall of Osaka

      Ieyasu destroys the Toyotomi heirs at Osaka Castle and issues laws binding the warrior houses to the shogun.

  3. The Closed Country

    • Sakoku: Japan closes its doors

      After crushing the Christian Shimabara revolt, the shogunate seals the country, banning Christianity and foreign trade.

  4. The Genroku Era

    • The floating world of Genroku

      In the Genroku years a brilliant merchant culture blooms — kabuki, the poet Bashō, and the pleasures of the "floating world."

  5. The Way of the Samurai

    • The Forty-seven Rōnin

      Forty-seven masterless samurai avenge their lord and then die by their own hands, becoming a legend of loyalty.

  6. The Late Edo

    • Hokusai's Great Wave

      Katsushika Hokusai prints The Great Wave off Kanagawa, the crowning image of the woodblock art of Japan.

  7. The Black Ships

    • Perry's black ships

      American warships under Commodore Perry steam into Edo Bay and force Japan to open to the outside world.

  8. The Fall of the Shogun

    • The last shogun falls

      Rebel domains overthrow the Tokugawa in the name of the emperor, ending seven centuries of warrior rule.