Changes

''[[Wakadoshiyori]]'' were appointed for the first time in [[1633]]. That same year, Iemitsu issued further bans on [[Christianity]]; implemented changes to the [[red seal ships]] system requiring captains to now carry a ''hôsho'' license from the ''[[roju|rôjû]]''; and issued regulations regarding inheritance/succession practices among merchants and artisans. This might be taken as representative of many other years of Iemitsu's reign, as various policies were shifted, or first implemented, setting precedents and standards that would in many cases be followed for the remainder of the [[Edo period]].

''[[Wakadoshiyori]]'' were appointed for the first time in [[1633]]. That same year, Iemitsu issued further bans on [[Christianity]]; implemented changes to the [[red seal ships]] system requiring captains to now carry a ''hôsho'' license from the ''[[roju|rôjû]]''; and issued regulations regarding inheritance/succession practices among merchants and artisans. This might be taken as representative of many other years of Iemitsu's reign, as various policies were shifted, or first implemented, setting precedents and standards that would in many cases be followed for the remainder of the [[Edo period]].

Iemitsu visited Kyoto in 1634, for the occasion of the accession of his niece to the Imperial throne as [[Empress Meisho|Empress Meishô]]. This is often said to have involved the largest military procession in Japanese history, with some 307,000 men in the entourage; this can be compared with the 100,000 man entourage brought by Tokugawa Hidetada to Kyoto in [[1605]], and the entourages of (only) several thousand men regularly brought by even the most powerful ''daimyô'' on their ''sankin kôtai'' journeys to Edo.<ref>Daniele Lauro, "Displaying authority: Guns, political legitimacy, and martial pageantry in Tokugawa Japan, 1600 - 1868," MA Thesis, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2013), 29.</ref> This was not Iemitsu's first trip to Kyoto; he went there in 1623 with his father and received a [[Ayutthaya|Siamese]] diplomatic mission at [[Fushimi castle]], and traveled to Kyoto with his father again in [[1626]]. In total, it was the ninth time a Tokugawa shogun had gone to Kyoto to meet with the Emperor.<ref>Watanabe Kazutoshi 渡辺和敏, "Sankin kôtai to honjin" 参勤交代と本陣, Honjin ni tomatta daimyô tachi 本陣に泊まった大名たち, Toyohashi, Aichi: Futagawa-juku honjin shiryôkan (1996), 50.</ref> This 1634 visit, however, would be the last shogunal journey to the Imperial capital until [[Tokugawa Iemochi]] in [[1863]], nearly 230 years later. While there, he enjoyed audiences with Empress Meishô and Retired [[Emperor Go-Mizunoo]], and received [[Ryukyuan missions to Edo|ambassadors]] from the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]]. Sometime later, Iemitsu dispersed many of the secondary buildings of the Nijô castle complex as gifts to Buddhist temples across the realm, reducing the impression of shogunal presence in the city.

Iemitsu visited Kyoto in 1634, for the occasion of the accession of his niece to the Imperial throne as [[Empress Meisho|Empress Meishô]]. This was not his first trip to Kyoto, but it would be his last. And not only the last trip to Kyoto for Iemitsu, but also the last trip of any shogun to Kyoto for over 200 years. Though Iemitsu was invested as shogun directly by the emperor, as his father and grandfather had been before him, as part of extensive efforts to cultivate a notion of Tokugawa legitimacy, by 1634 Iemitsu and his advisors felt that legitimacy had been secured. And so this trip to Kyoto was less a show of submission, and more a show of power.<ref>Kate Wildman Nakai, ''Shogunal Politics'', Harvard University Press (1988), 175.</ref> Iemitsu's entourage on this journey is often said to have involved the largest military procession in Japanese history, with some 307,000 men in the entourage; this can be compared with the 100,000 man entourage brought by Tokugawa Hidetada to Kyoto in [[1605]], and the entourages of (only) several thousand men regularly brought by even the most powerful ''daimyô'' on their ''sankin kôtai'' journeys to Edo.<ref>Daniele Lauro, "Displaying authority: Guns, political legitimacy, and martial pageantry in Tokugawa Japan, 1600 - 1868," MA Thesis, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2013), 29.</ref> This was not Iemitsu's first trip to Kyoto; he went there in 1623 with his father and received a [[Ayutthaya|Siamese]] diplomatic mission at [[Fushimi castle]], and traveled to Kyoto with his father again in [[1626]]. In total, it was the ninth time a Tokugawa shogun had gone to Kyoto to meet with the Emperor.<ref>Watanabe Kazutoshi 渡辺和敏, "Sankin kôtai to honjin" 参勤交代と本陣, Honjin ni tomatta daimyô tachi 本陣に泊まった大名たち, Toyohashi, Aichi: Futagawa-juku honjin shiryôkan (1996), 50.</ref> This 1634 visit, however, would be the last shogunal journey to the Imperial capital until [[Tokugawa Iemochi]] in [[1863]], nearly 230 years later. While there, he enjoyed audiences with Empress Meishô and Retired [[Emperor Go-Mizunoo]], and received [[Ryukyuan missions to Edo|ambassadors]] from the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]]. Sometime later, Iemitsu dispersed many of the secondary buildings of the Nijô castle complex as gifts to Buddhist temples across the realm, reducing the impression of shogunal presence in the city.

The following year, in [[1635]], Iemitsu oversaw the limiting of [[Chinese in Nagasaki|Chinese ships]] to [[Nagasaki]], the issuing of bans on Japanese overseas travel, a further fixing of the responsibilities of various Magistrates (''[[bugyo|bugyô]]'') in the service of the shogunate, the repromulgation of the ''[[buke shohatto]]'' (Various Laws for Warrior Households), and the implementation of the use of the term ''Nihon-koku [[taikun]]'' instead of ''Nihon kokuô'' ("King of Japan") in diplomatic exchanges. That year also saw Iemitsu judge allegations regarding falsified diplomatic documents in the [[Yanagawa Affair]].

The following year, in [[1635]], Iemitsu oversaw the limiting of [[Chinese in Nagasaki|Chinese ships]] to [[Nagasaki]], the issuing of bans on Japanese overseas travel, a further fixing of the responsibilities of various Magistrates (''[[bugyo|bugyô]]'') in the service of the shogunate, the repromulgation of the ''[[buke shohatto]]'' (Various Laws for Warrior Households), and the implementation of the use of the term ''Nihon-koku [[taikun]]'' instead of ''Nihon kokuô'' ("King of Japan") in diplomatic exchanges. That year also saw Iemitsu judge allegations regarding falsified diplomatic documents in the [[Yanagawa Affair]].