Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Cutting Of Contact
Missionaries continued to come to Japan, usually disguised as traders. As a result
shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu passed exclusion laws. The penalty fro breaking any of these
laws was death.
All Christian missionaries and foreign traders were forced to leave japan. Newcomers
were no longer allowed to enter.
The Japanese were not allowed to go abroad.
Ships large enough to make long voyages could no longer be built and exisiting ones
were destroyed.
Japanese who were out of the country were forbidden to return.
Most foreign objects were forbidden. All foreign books containing a Christina message
were banned; scientific books were forbidden.
Tightened Controls
The shogunate tightened controls on movement within
Japan.
People needed to get special documents to travel
from one domain to another.
A curfew was instituted to keep people from moving
around at night.
Wheeled transport was banned.
In 1639, the shogun banned Portuguese ships in Japan and
expelled all foreigners except Dutch, Korean, and Chinese
traders.
From the shoguns point of view , the isolation policy was
essential for national security. It was the only way to
eliminate possible threats to his power and to protect the
Japanese culture.