Japan: Past and Present Series/Age Of The Shoguns (1600-1868)

Winner of the Silver Apple, 1990 National Educational Film & Video Festival. This was the age of the Tokugawa family, the era of Edo, a period of over two centuries during which Japan was sealed off from the rest of the world and only a few Dutch and Chinese merchants — under constant surveillance — were allowed to live on Japanese soil and to trade with the Japanese. This program explains the history of Japan during this period: the established classes of daimyo, samurai, farmer, and merchant; the political organization of the shogunate; the growth of the merchant class and the development of kabuki; the delineation of Japanese sensibilities and the meaning of seppuku.