a powerful daimy (landowner) in his own right, with control of the confiscated Kanto region provided a prospective rival with a larger empire overall and potentially more influence and power. Yet it also successfully put Ieyasu far away in the east, busy with a new domain. Preoccupied with supervising the invading troops from his temporary base in Kyushu, Hideyoshi hoped to maintain control of the government reins by keeping Ieyasu isolated and far removed from his own castle in Osaka and the court in Kyoto. With Ieyasu busy fortifying his new castle and organizing the new eastern domain, it would be difficult for him to mount an effective challenge to Hideyoshi’s rule.
Ieyasu had previously visited the small castle built by Ota Dokan and knew it had marshes on three sides and a deep moat dug on the fourth side. With the castle thus completely surrounded by water, he recognized the potential for building it into an impregnable fortress. So in 1590 Ieyasu, along with his entire family and all of his retainers, moved into the dilapidated castle surrounded by a small town consisting of two rows of tiny houses along the shore of Edo Bay.
The country was still embroiled in the final years of civil strife and warfare of the Sengoku jidai4 (warring states period), so the new tenants immediately began erecting walls of stone and widening the moats to reinforce the existing defenses. They leveled the surrounding hills and filled in the shallow mudflats along the bay shore, creating dry land east of the castle where Ieyasu’s retainers and troops built their own residences. They constructed a broad, imposing stone wall around the city’s exterior and extending all the way to the bay. Where the T
kaid
, a highway between Osaka and Edo, entered the city from the south, they built a massive wooden gate called the Takanawa okido (great wooden gate). Along with another similar gate at Yotsuya, the stone walls and okido (gates) formed the first line of defense to protect their new domain from external aggressors.
After years of nearly constant civil war, Tokugawa Ieyasu was eventually successful in defeating his enemies and establishing himself as the sh
gun5 (Japan’s military government leader). Bolstered by the brilliant military campaigns led by the preceding sh
gun, Oda Nobunaga,6 and later by Hideyoshi, Ieyasu managed to unify the country under one central authority. The remaining few rival warlords were either eliminated or forced to submit to his authority after his decisive victory in the battle at Sekigahara in 1600. Tokugawa Ieyasu was named sh
gun in 1603. Although Japan’s emperor and his court remained in seclusion at the imperial capital in Kyoto under the theoretical protection of the new military leader, the regime Ieyasu commanded was actually the real power behind the throne.
The sh
gunate was responsible for administration of most aspects of feudal society during the next two hundred sixty-five years of relative peace.7 The areas outside of the Kanto were either han, independent geopolitical regions ruled by the feudal lords known as daimy
, or tenry, territories managed by governors appointed by the sh
gunate. Although the sh
gunate closely monitored the military activities of each han, the daimy
were granted independence in their other domestic and economic policies. Each daimy
was given complete power and authority to administer all criminal justice operations within his own han. This right often extended to jurisdiction over the samurai of the han even when serving outside their respective territories.
By deciding to keep the government center in Edo and far removed from the political intrigues surrounding the imperial court in Kyoto, Ieyasu was shifting the center of administrative power. Almost immediately, Ieyasu allocated specific construction improvements on his castle and the surrounding city to all the remaining daimy
. Each daimy
was hard-pressed to show his loyalty and impress the new sh
gun with completion of his assigned tasks rather than to risk Ieyasu’s displeasure.
To transport the huge stones and other materials necessary for improving Edo castle, a very large canal called the Dosan-bori was dug from the shore of Edo Bay to the front of the sh
gun’s new residence. This waterway continued to be used to carry provisions to the castle. Edo eventually became crisscrossed by a series of man-made moats and canals. Along with the natural rivers, the network of canals, dug in a grid pattern, was much more efficient for transporting goods than the confusing and narrow streets that developed within the sprawling city—a city that eventually stretched from the Tama River in the southwest to the Ara River in the north and east.
Edo’s new residents
Under the Tokugawa sh
gunate, very specific legal positions and appropriate functions were firmly defined for various social classes. These were issued in various detailed pronouncements. The Kuge Sho-hatto (Aristocratic House Ordinances) governed the imperial court and aristocratic families. The Buke Sho-hatto (Military House Ordinances) created rules for members of the military class. Religious orders were regulated by the Jin-hatto (Religious Ordinances), while the Gy-hatto (Village Ordinances) defined rules and regulations for farmers. The Edo-machij-sadame (Edo Town Rules) further defined the roles and expectations for Edo townsmen and, by extension, residents of any other town. These regulations and restrictions played a distinctive role in the development of the new capital of Edo.
Ieyasu instituted a system of sankin-ktai8 (alternate attendance), requiring all daimy
to spend a period of time living in Edo. This allowed the sh
gunate officials to keep a close eye on any potential dissention or unrest. The expense of maintaining two residences as well the huge costs for frequent travel between Edo and their home domains also drained the personal treasuries of the major landowners, money that they could not otherwise use to finance an armed insurrection. During the period when they were allowed to return to their own domains, their wives and children remained in the city as potential hostages in the unlikely event of rebellion.
To maintain their dignity, many of the daimy
built large and expensive manors on the low, flat-topped plateau left over after the large hill, Kanda-yama, adjacent to Edo castle was leveled. Known as the Kanda district, it is located along the southwest fringe of the yama-n-te, the hilly half of the city, and close to both the sh
gun’s castle and the burgeoning castle town center. For this reason, many daimy
and other high-ranking government officials selected sites here for their personal residences.
