A History of Japan Justin Hebert

The reigns of shoguns Tokugawa Ieshige and Tokugawa Ieharu caused further weakness in the Bakufu at a critical time. Rampant corruption was encouraged by one chief of the Roju named Tanuma Okitsugu. The Great Tenmei Famine, however, would bring all of his schemes crashing down.
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The forced isolation of the Edo Period was part of a larger strategy by the Bakufu to ensure the removal of any possible rivals. However, Japan greatly benefited from foreign import and foreign learning, in spite of the shogunate's insistence that the nation needed no such outside interference.
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Shortly after the foundation of the new shogunate, Tokugawa Ieyasu gradually makes his fortified city Edo into the new unofficial political capital of Japan. He needed to proceed carefully, however, to avoid offending the powerful daimyo who still supported young Toyotomi Hideyori.
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When conflict erupted at last between Toyotomi Hideyori and Tokugawa Ieyasu, the resulting battles would decide the political future of Japan for hundreds of years to come. However, in spite of the reduction they had experienced at the Shogun's hands, the Toyotomi Clan was still able to raise significant numbers of troops.
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As the Bakufu continued to persecute Christianity, and certain daimyo continued taxing their subjects at punitive rates, a rebellion broke out in Kyushu in 1637 which would prove to be the end of any remaining tolerance the Shogunate had for foreign elements in Japan.
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The reign of Tokugawa Iemitsu was marked by a general trend toward increasing the shogunate's power through self-perpetuating bureaucracy. His son Ietsuna's reign would prove to be a test of the Bakufu's machinery.
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