Tokugawa ie: Did you mean...?

The shoguns of medieval Japan were military dictators who ruled the country via a feudal system where a vassal's military service and loyalty was given in return for a lord's patronage. Established as an institution by the first shogun proper...

Fortifications of one kind or another had been used in Japan since ancient times, but in the period from 1576 until 1639, a new and distinctive style of castle was constructed. Rather than being used for fighting, these were impressive structures...

Scale model of the Honmaru and Ninomaru Palaces of Edo Castle, as they would have appeared during the late Tokugawa Shogunate. (Edo-Tokyo Museum, Japan)

Portrait of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) by Kanō Tan'yū, Edo period. Osaka Castle, Main Tower.

Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the last shogun of Japan in Osaka, 1867. Tojo Museum of History, Matsudo.

Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604-1651). Okayama Prefectural Museum.

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi Visiting Nikkō Shrine, woodblook print by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, 1875. Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725) was a Japanese playwright who wrote for both the puppet theatre and kabuki. He is regarded as Japan’s greatest dramatist. Apart from their aesthetic appeal, his plays are of value because they provide an insight...

Nagasaki, on the northwest coast of Japan’s Kyushu Island, was an important Portuguese trading base from c. 1571 to 1639, and the most eastern outpost of the Portuguese empire. The Portuguese presence transformed Nagasaki from a small fishing...

The Azuchi-Momoyama Period (Azuchi-Momoyama Jidai, aka Shokuho Period, 1568/73 - 1600 CE) was a brief but significant period of medieval Japan's history which saw the country unified after centuries of a weak central government and petty...