* 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 Apex of Genroku
Born in Edo Castle in the third year of Shōhō (1646), Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, as the fifth shogun of the Edo shogunate, presided over one of the most splendid eras in Japanese cultural history—Genroku. With the passing of his father, the fourth shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna, Tsunayoshi succeeded to the shogunate in the eighth year of Enpo (1680). His reign coincided with the golden age of Genroku culture, and history records it as an era when various genres of Japanese culture matured in full bloom: the haiku 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 Governance
Tsunayoshi favored learning from childhood and possessed a particularly deep devotion to Confucianism. Even after assuming the position of shogun, he established the Yushima Seido to enshrine Confucius and was learned enough to personally lecture on the Confucian classics. This Confucian cultivation profoundly influenced Tsunayoshi's political outlook, and his governing policy—which emphasized the hierarchical order and propriety between ruler and subject—symbolized the Edo shogunate's evolution from rule by force to civil administration. However, Tsunayoshi's governance did not always enjoy a favorable reputation; it also had negative aspects, including excessive concentration of power in his senior councilor Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu and criticism of the Laws of Compassion mentioned below.
The Laws of Compassion and the Transformation of Bushidō
What particularly transmitted Tsunayoshi's name to posterity is the "Laws of Compassion" (Shōrui Awaremi no Rei) promulgated from the fourth year of Jōkyō (1687) onward. This edict, which prohibited the killing or injuring of all living creatures, including dogs, was initially issued as a wildlife protection policy based on Buddhist compassion, but gradually developed in an extreme direction, causing considerable disruption to the daily lives of Edo townspeople and samurai. Capital punishment and exile were inflicted even for merely wounding a dog, and the streets of Edo became overrun with stray dogs, creating chaos. Though this edict became the source of Tsunayoshi's notorious epithet "the Dog Shogun," it simultaneously carried the aspect of a universal question regarding the dignity of life.
Warriors and the Transformation of Sword Culture
The era of Tsunayoshi was a transitional period during which warriors transformed from pure combat units into civilian administrative bureaucrats. As the peace of Genroku continued, the sword was redefined less as a weapon and more as a symbol of samurai status and as an object of art. While records of Tsunayoshi himself having deep attachment to particular famous swords are sparse, during his reign the system of sword authentication by the Honamiike family became more refined, and understanding of the artistic value of swords deepened. Moreover, during the maturation of Genroku culture, the artistic standard of sword fittings—the tsuba, menuki, kogai, and kōgai—rose markedly, and it was an age when master craftsmen including the Gotō family created magnificent sword fittings.
Relation to the Akō Rōnin Incident
In the fifteenth year of Genroku (1702), the incident in which forty-seven rōnin led by Ōishi Yoshio (Kuranosuke) killed Kira Yoshinao was the greatest political drama of Tsunayoshi's reign. Tsunayoshi's judgment in response to Asano Takuminokami's sword attack on Kira—only Asano was immediately ordered to commit seppuku and his house was abolished, while Kira went unpunished—became the motivation for the rōnin's vendetta. The vendetta based on the righteousness of bushidō and the subsequent order for forty-six to commit seppuku starkly illuminated the tension between the true essence of the warrior way and the authority of the shogunate. This incident cast a profound question upon Edo society regarding the nature of warriors bearing swords.
The Legacy of Genroku Culture
When Tsunayoshi's reign ended (the sixth year of Hōei, 1709), the Laws of Compassion were immediately abolished, yet the cultural legacy matured during the Genroku era took deep root in subsequent Japanese culture. The haiku of Bashō, the tales of human emotion by Saikaku, and the jōruri of Chikamatsu hold imperishable value as classics of Japanese literature, and the art of sword fittings that reached its zenith during the Genroku period has been transmitted to posterity as the quintessence of Japanese craftsmanship. Though Tsunayoshi as a ruler is a figure of mixed repute, the historical fact remains that his reign was a major turning point in Japanese culture.
Notable Swords
- Genroku-era sword authenticated by the Hon'ami family — a fine blade appraised under the flourishing sword connoisseurship system of Tsunayoshi's reign, representing the transformation of the sword from battlefield tool to treasured artistic object
- Sword associated with the Akō Incident — the blades of the forty-seven rōnin who avenged their lord in 1703 became icons of bushidō ethics, challenging the shogunal authority of Tsunayoshi's government and defining the era's understanding of the samurai ideal