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Home / Periods / Feudal Japan and Samurai Era / Tokugawa Period

Period

Tokugawa Period

1603–1868 CE

The Tokugawa Period began in 1603 and created a long era of relative peace under the Tokugawa shogunate. Society was structured through status groups, domain rule, castle towns, controlled travel and restrictions on foreign contact. Edo grew into one of the world’s largest cities.

It mattered because peace transformed the samurai from constant warriors into administrators, retainers and cultural figures. Merchants, actors, courtesans, monks, police and officials became central to urban life. Laura Joh Rowland’s Sano Ichiro mysteries and many historical novels use Tokugawa Japan for detective fiction, court intrigue and conflicts between duty and desire.

Related people for Tokugawa Period

Series

Series about Tokugawa Period (2 series)

The Secret Scrolls of Naruto in Order

by Eiji Yoshikawa 6 books 4.5(41)

The Secret Scrolls of Naruto is the six-volume English translation of Eiji Yoshikawa’s 1926–1927 serial Naruto Hichō. A hidden document implicating the Awa domain in a conspiracy against the Tokugawa shogunate, drawing a swordsman-monk, detectives, thieves, fugitives and domain agents into a pursuit from Osaka and Edo to…

Musashi in Order

by Eiji Yoshikawa 3 books 4.5(30)

Eiji Yoshikawa’s Musashi is presented here in Alexander Bennett’s complete three-volume English translation. Beginning amid the wreckage of Sekigahara, it follows the violent Takezō as he becomes Miyamoto Musashi, confronts established sword schools and develops a discipline that extends beyond victory in combat. Across the sequence, Musashi’s attachment…

Books

29 Best Novels About the Tokugawa Period

Non-Fiction

3 Best Non-Fiction Books About the Tokugawa Period

Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.