The Tokugawa shogunate was the longest period of uninterrupted peace Japan ever enjoyed. The brilliant and ruthless administration of the Tokugawa military administration combined with the rigid seclusion of the country allowed for the flowering of Japanese culture in an unprecedented way. We are going to take a short tour through the history and culture of early modern Japan, from the bloodshed of the Onin War to the forbidden pleasures of the floating world; these two and a half centuries of seclusion that we are going to tour are the crucible in which the modern Japanese temper was formed.

Warring States Japan Oda Nobunaga Toyotomi Hideyoshi Tokugawa Ieyasu The Tokugawa Shogunate Tokugawa Neo-Confucianism Kokugaku: Japanese Studies Motoori Norinaga The 500 Arhats Go Home: Social Class in Tokugawa Japan Kabuki: Frozen Features in a Floating World