D. Lasting Impacts of the Tokugawa Shogunate

Japan enjoyed more than two and a half centuries of stability, prosperity, and isolation under the Tokugawa shoguns. Farmers produced more food, and the population rose. Still, the vast majority of peasants, weighed down by heavy taxes, led lives filled with misery. The people who prospered in Tokugawa society were the merchant class and the wealthy. However, everyone, rich and poor alike, benefited from a flowering of Japanese culture during this era.

The rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate is considered a turning point by many historians when it comes to Japanese history. The Tokugawa Shogunate successfully created a centralized state, bringing an end to hundreds of years of fighting and civil war between daimyos. Under leadership of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Japan was transformed from a feudal society to a “pre-modern” society and economy. The growth of cities, increase of economic activity (and use of currency), rise of the merchant class, productivity in agriculture, and flourishing arts, Japan would be set for the rapid growth and industrialization from 1868-1911.