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Y217: Japan 1853–1937

The impact of foreign intrusion on Tokugawa Japan 1853–1868: Tokugawa society, Perry and the unequal treaties

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 2

Overview

Recall questions on shogun and emperor, the social hierarchy and samurai discontent, sakoku, peasant unrest, epidemic disease and the currency crisis, Perry, Kanagawa and the treaties of 1858.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Why were many samurai discontented by the 1850s despite their high status?

Key term

Who held real political power in Japan in 1853, and what was the emperor's position?

Key term

Describe the social hierarchy of late Tokugawa Japan.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Who held real political power in Japan in 1853, and what was the emperor's position?

    Model answer

    Real power lay with the Tokugawa shogun, ruling from Edo through the bakufu, while the emperor remained a ceremonial figure secluded in Kyoto.

  2. 2

    Describe the social hierarchy of late Tokugawa Japan.

    Model answer

    Society was formally divided into samurai at the top, then peasants, artisans and merchants, with movement between the ranks officially forbidden.

  3. 3

    Why were many samurai discontented by the 1850s despite their high status?

    Model answer

    Long peace had left them with no fighting role, and their fixed rice stipends lost value against rising prices, leaving many in debt to merchants they were supposed to outrank.

  4. 4

    What was the policy of sakoku, and which single European nation was allowed to trade under it?

    Model answer

    Sakoku was the policy of national seclusion that barred foreigners and forbade Japanese from leaving; only the Dutch traded, confined to the artificial island of Dejima at Nagasaki.

  5. 5

    Give two causes of peasant unrest in the last Tokugawa decades.

    Model answer

    Heavy rice taxes combined with poor harvests and famine, and sharp price inflation that made food unaffordable, both provoked repeated village protests and urban rice riots.

  6. 6

    What epidemic disease swept Japan after the ports opened, and why was it blamed on foreigners?

    Model answer

    Cholera spread from 1858 and killed tens of thousands, and because it arrived with foreign shipping it was widely blamed on the newcomers and fuelled anti-foreign feeling.

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