* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Tokugawa Tsunayoshi
徳川綱吉
The Genroku Shogun—The Fifth Shogun Who Stirred Controversy with the Edict of Compassion for Living Things, Patron of Genroku Culture
Description
The Cultural Peak of Genroku
Born in Shōhō 3 (1646) at Edo Castle, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi was the fifth shogun of the Edo shogunate, and he presided over Genroku, one of the most dazzling eras in Japanese cultural history. He succeeded to the shogunate in Enpō 8 (1680) after the death of his elder brother, the fourth shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna. Tsunayoshi's reign coincided with the height of Genroku culture, and the era is remembered as a time when many genres of Japanese culture reached full maturity, including the haikai of Matsuo Bashō, the ukiyo-zōshi of Ihara Saikaku, the jōruri of Chikamatsu Monzaemon, and the ukiyo-e of Hishikawa Moronobu.
Devotion to Confucianism and Politics
Tsunayoshi was fond of learning from childhood, and his devotion to Confucianism was especially deep. After becoming shogun, he built Yushima Seidō to enshrine Confucius, and he had enough learning to lecture on the Confucian classics himself. This Confucian background strongly shaped his political views. His governing policy, which stressed the order between ruler and retainer and the importance of propriety, symbolized the evolution of the Edo shogunate from rule by force to civil governance. However, Tsunayoshi's politics were not necessarily well regarded. They also had negative aspects, including the excessive concentration of power in the sobayōnin (chamberlain) Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu and criticism of the Edicts on Compassion for Living Things, discussed below.
The Edicts on Compassion for Living Things and the Transformation of Bushidō
Tsunayoshi is especially remembered by later generations for the Edicts on Compassion for Living Things, issued from Jōkyō 4 (1687) onward. These edicts prohibited the killing and injuring of all living creatures, dogs included. They were initially promulgated as an animal protection policy based on the Buddhist spirit of compassion, but they gradually developed in extreme directions and caused serious disruption to the daily lives of the citizens of Edo and the samurai. Simply injuring a dog could be punished severely, with the death penalty or exile to a remote island, and the city of Edo was overrun with stray dogs, creating widespread disorder. These edicts gave rise to Tsunayoshi's notorious nickname, Inu Kubō (the Dog Shogun). At the same time, they also raised a question about the universal value of the dignity of life.
The Samurai and the Transformation of Sword Culture
Tsunayoshi's era was also a transitional period in which the samurai changed from a purely military class into civil administrative officials. As the Genroku peace continued, swords were redefined less as weapons and more as symbols of samurai status and as works of art. Records stating that Tsunayoshi himself held a deep personal attachment to particular famous swords are scarce. Meanwhile, as Genroku culture matured, the artistic standard of sword fittings (tsuba, menuki, kozuka, kōgai, and others) rose dramatically, and this was an age in which master craftsmen, including the Gotō family, produced splendid sword fittings.
Connection to the Akō Rōnin Incident
In the 12th month of Genroku 15 (January 1703), forty-seven Akō rōnin led by Ōishi Yoshio (Kuranosuke) killed Kira Kōzuke-no-suke Yoshinaka. This incident was the greatest political drama of Tsunayoshi's reign. Tsunayoshi's ruling after Asano Takumi-no-kami attacked Kira with a sword, in which only Asano was ordered to commit seppuku on the same day and his house was abolished while Kira was not held to account, became the motive for the rōnin's revenge. The revenge, carried out on the principle of righteousness in bushidō, and the subsequent orders for forty-six of the rōnin to commit seppuku, sharply highlighted the tension between the true meaning of the samurai and the authority of the shogunate. The incident raised deep questions in Edo society about how samurai who carried swords should conduct themselves.
The Legacy of Genroku Culture
When Tsunayoshi's reign ended in Hōei 6 (1709), the Edicts on Compassion for Living Things were abolished at once, but the cultural legacy matured in the Genroku period took deep root in later Japanese culture. Bashō's haikai, Saikaku's ukiyo-zōshi, and Chikamatsu's jōruri have retained lasting value as classics of Japanese literature, and the art of sword fittings, which reached its peak in the Genroku period, has been passed down to later generations as the finest achievement of Japanese craftsmanship. Tsunayoshi is a ruler whose reputation is mixed, but it is a historical fact that his reign marked a major turning point in Japanese culture.