Tag: Merchants

Yoshimune’s Gambit

After the brief reigns of Tokugawa Ienobu and his young son Ietsugu, the Bakufu selected a new shogun from the Kii Branch of the Tokugawa Clan. Tokugawa Yoshimune inherited a national government in the midst of multiple crises and introduced the Kyoho Reforms to try and set the ship of state back on its proper course.

The Pax Edo

The Early Edo Period was a time of newfound stability for the formerly chaotic Japanese archipelago. Although the samurai were the official ruling class of the nation, however, in many ways they were not the principle beneficiaries of the new national status quo.