Dr. Satana Suzuki
speaker
57 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Nov 2024
Dr. Satana Suzuki’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here today.
So the Edo period lasted from 1603, so that's when Tokugawa Ieyasu was appointed shogun by the emperor, to 1867, that's when Tokugawa Yoshinobu, that's the last shogun, return the land and register to the emperor. So 260 years, something like that. I'm not really good at math, but something like 260 years. So it's a long time, right?
No, it's not. The Edo period was preceded by a period of constant warfare and instability for about 100 years. But then between 1560 and 1582, Oda Nobunaga, that's one of my favorite historical figures, He was one of the warring state daimyo, and he sort of used force to extend control over two-thirds of Japan.
Unfortunately, one of his subordinates, Akechi Mitsuhide, he assassinated Oda Nobunaga in 1582. And after that, his other subordinate, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he rose to power.
Who takes over from him then? Toyotomi Hideyori. That's Toyotomi Hideyoshi's five-year-old son. So he was left in charge, but he was managed by a group of five regents.
That's right. One of the regents was Tokugawa Ieyasu. He thought that he was more qualified to unify Japan than anyone else. Looking back, he was right. So, yeah, in 1600, at the Battle of Sekigahara, Ieyasu sort of destroyed the forces loyal to the Toyodomi family.
Yeah, in 1603, he was actually named a shogun.
Or Sei Tai Shogun, that's the official title. You should know this. I should know what? You should know this. Come on.
Tokugai Ieyasu was not the first shogun, but he was the first shogun of all Japan.
Yeah. Basically, he unified the country.
The emperor's capital was in Kyoto and then shogun's capital was in Edo. But Edo was the political and administrative center of Japan. So during the Edo period, emperor had an important symbolic role, but he was essentially a prisoner in his palace. They are not allowed to step outside of their palace. They weren't even allowed to take a walk. Wow.
So the shogun had to keep him happy as the legitimizer of the political power, but also control and restricted the emperor via the law.
Yeah, so society was divided into basically four social classes. So you have the samurai elites, and then you have peasants, artisans, and merchants. And at the top of the elite group were the daimyo, the feudal lords, who are rulers of domains, or han in Japanese. And they're autonomously governed, these domains, or han,
But every alternate year, they had to live in Edo, and their families were essentially hostages of the Tokugawa to ensure their loyalty to the shogunate. So the family had to stay in Edo.
I guess, yes. I mean, they were elites. They're not commoners, right? Samurai basically means warriors, but Edo samurai are different to how they are thought of now because, you know, at the time of peace, they don't fight, right?
Yeah, and then they're often sort of administrators who are like paid salary with a rice stipend. So they're like salarymen.
Yeah, something like that because you don't need to fight.
That's good.
Yeah. So merchants, well, like merchants, really. Yeah. So officially at the bottom of this hierarchy, the social system. But, you know, they're often sort of despised for handling money. I don't know why people do that. I like money. Yeah. I mean, we can't do anything with money. I mean, I don't love it, but you need it.
You get more than me. But in reality, though, many became very, very rich and very wealthy and they sort of started to exert power and influence towards the end of the Tokugawa, you know, because the commerce and transportation develop and they have more jobs, right? But samurai, on the other hand, especially lower-ranking samurai... They became very, very impoverished towards the end.
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