Features of The Bakuhan System and Its Decline

Features of the Bakuhan System and its Decline
In the Tokugawa Shogunate, at the apex mobility within this hierarchy was strictly
was the Emperor, a figurehead, a symbol of prohibited. The shogunate also erected a system of
political legitimacy. The real power was in the checks and balances to forestall any possibility of
hands of a dynastic military leader, the shogun, internal revolt. Court nobles appointed to act in
who exercised supreme administrative authority the shogun’s interests, had to swear an oath of
and had his capital at Edo. Among his officials, the allegiance to him and through them he controlled
Councilors of the State were responsible for the the appointment of all senior officials at the court.
national policy and for supervision of the court and
the shogun’s own domain. The members of the As a measure of check on the daimyo’s
Junior Council controlled the samurai, the authority, the fudai daimyo were distributed
shogun’s military forces and his household staff. among the tozama daimyo, and they were also
subject to frequent transfers. Although they were
All these, as well as the governors were not taxed directly, the shogunate expected military
daimyo or vassal-in-chief. They were assisted by a service from them, and also obliged them to
number of lower officials. The daimyo had to swear contribute manpower, material, and money to
a pledge of fealty to the House of Tokugawa, in construct and maintain Tokugawa castles and to
return for which the shogun bestowed upon him a carry out public work projects, building and
patent of investiture that defined his holdings and repairing roads, etc. The daimyo had to follow the
entitled him to rule. laws of Edo; a strict passport system restricted
their movement and they had to seek the shogun’s
The daimyo were classified into categories permission to travel.
in terms of their relationship to the Tokugawa
family. First came the daimyo families of Tokugawa No daimyo were allowed to make a direct
blood (shimpan), who on account of their absolute approach to the Emperor’s court at Kyoto. A secret
loyalty occupied the strategically important police and an espionage system was also set-up to
locations. Next in status were fudai daimyo, who keep a check on the activities of the daimyo.
were stationed at critical places across the county Another measure of check, the Sankin Kotai
to parry any threat against shogunal interests. The System, compelled the daimyo to reside
tozama daimyo dwelled on the periphery of the alternatively in their domains and at Edo, leaving
Japanese islands and were permanently excluded their families at Edo as hostages when they
from any office in the central government on the returned to their own domains. Foreign trade was
grounds that they were hostile and presented a also strictly regulated.
threat to Tokugawa rule.
However, the bakuhan system crumbled
The daimyo on their domains issued legal under the weight of its own internal
codes, imposed taxes, and crafted administrative contradictions. Since, the daimyo had to undertake
systems. They commanded a body of loyal samurai, substantial expenditure to maintain residences
policed their own borders and interfered in the both at Edo and in their domains, to finance their
lives of the inhabitants to maintain peace. Below annual journeys due to the Sankin Kotai System,
the daimyo were the samurai, family-based bands and to fulfill their obligations to the shogun, they
of warriors who owed allegiance to their lords in began to convert the tax, collected as rice, into
return for the fixed rice-stipends. money, by selling it in market centers, from where
merchants (chonin) sold it in various urban
The Tokugawa military dictatorship was centers.
based on rigid social institutions. The shogun,
daimyo, and samurai formed the first social class. As a result, the merchants assumed a
The other 3 social classes in descending order were significant role, facilitated by the increasing
the peasants, artisans, and merchants. Social agricultural and rural production and flourishing
Features of the Bakuhan System and its Decline
commerce, which stimulated the growth of cities crisis was worsened by the occurrences of natural
and trading centers. Over time, the daimyo fell calamities, accompanied by peasant uprisings.
heavily indebted to the merchants, for they were at
the mercy of the astute merchant financiers and The Satsuma-Choshu alliance in 1866 and
the vagaries of the rice market. This resulted into the military defeat at the hands of the Choshu
social mobility of the merchants as wealthy daimyo formed the immediate background to the
merchants were adopted into daimyo families downfall of the Tokugawas.
either by marriage or adoption.
As warfare ceased to be a way of life, the

samurai were deprived of their land, making them
dependent on fixed rice-stipends given by the
daimyo. They were forced to take up residence in
castle towns, limiting them to the task of revenue
collection; creating local consumption centers,
which brought into being a merchant class. The
samurai began to grow cash crops or supplement
their income by setting up workshops.
The appointment of officials in the

bureaucracy on the basis of social rank, instead of
merit caused further social discontent among the
samurai class. To compound samurai grievances,
their incomes were reduced, as the shogun and
daimyo cut samurai stipends due to escalating
costs. Many gave up their allegiance to their
respective daimyo and became the ronin, owing no
fealty and professing no fixed occupation.
Thus, there emerged a daimyo-ronin-

chonin alliance, with a distinct anti-bakuhan
character and a common aim to end the Tokugawa
regime, whose policies had forced their decline.
The daimyo demanded a heavy tax from the
peasantry (now to be paid in cash), to meet the
growing expenses; forced the peasants to turn to
moneylenders, keeping their land as surety. The
peasants found it difficult to repay these loans and
land began to pass into the hands of the
moneylenders.
As the number of landless peasants grew,

peasant resistance was seen in migration to the
cities and also infanticides and suicides and
peasant revolts. The kuge also became active
participants in building an anti-bakufu league
together with the dissident daimyo. The internal

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Features of the Bakuhan System and its Decline

As warfare ceased to be a way of life, the

The appointment of officials in the

Thus, there emerged a daimyo-ronin-

As the number of landless peasants grew,

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