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Tokugawa Reishu, who established the shogunate in 1603, shares how his empire thrived. One key factor was eliminating anything deemed unbeneficial, such as restricting European trade to the Dutch only. Christianity was also prohibited and revolts were driven out. Improved farming methods and a highway network contributed to success. Koron Shodan viewed Tokugawa as a compassionate leader. Tokugawa aligned with powerful forces to expand landholdings. Listen for more on Exploring the Past. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Exploring the Past, where we interview history's most prominent figures to get the facts that you want to know. I'm your host, Liam Donnelly, and today I'm here with Tokugawa Reishu, who successfully established the shogunate in 1603. Mr. Reishu, how are you doing today? Hello, Liam. I'm doing quite well today, thanks for asking. Great. So let's get right into things. As we all know, under your family's rule, Japan thrived. So what would you say was one of the things that helped to really make your shogunate as triumphant as it was? Yeah, I'd say one of the most important features benefiting my empire was our ability to eliminate anything we didn't see fit. Okay. Very interesting. Could you possibly elaborate a little bit more? Or any specific examples? Well, for one, my family understood that Europeans desired our fine Japanese goods and were competing with my empire. So we did not allow any of these, except the Dutch, to remain trading. The Dutch? Why then? Well, while we did allow them to trade, we made sure they were limited to a small island off of Nagasaki. Not to mention, only one ship was allowed every year. Wow. Okay. As you said before, you believe your important factor was the ability to eliminate anything you saw as unbeneficial? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Are there any other examples you could think of? Actually, yes. When Christians began spreading their ideas through my family's empire, we soon realized they believed Christ is superior to any authority, which we certainly could not have in our empire. So how did you solve this problem of Christianity? Well, with the help of other officials, we quickly prohibited the religion and banned its practice. Wow. I would imagine they were not really happy with that. Certainly not. There were, in fact, many revolts, but us Tokugawas made sure to drive them out of the country. So you weren't goofing around at all, huh? Absolutely not. Well, surely there were other contributing factors towards your success, no? Indeed. Indeed, there were. The Dynasty took advantage of all our different forms of land. How so? Well, in more rural areas, we used improved farming methods as well as land surveys to ensure enough food for all. And in our cities, we created a major highway network connecting each member under our rule. Hmm. Very interesting. Moving on. Obviously, you know about Koron Shodan. Yeah. I've heard of him. Well, what do you believe Koron Shodan meant in Dia Nihil, Shiro, Part 12, Volume 24, pages 546 to 549? Was he talking about you in a good way or a bad way? From what I know, I believe he saw me as a person with compassion in his heart, for the needs of the people, and as an example for great emperors of the time. Did you have anyone to help rule alongside you and add to your success? Well, I later aligned myself with the powerful forces of Odunabunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, expanding my landholdings through successful attacks on the Hojo family to the east. All right. That was something, folks. I hope you enjoyed this episode with Tokugawa. You can find more information about him at nakasendaway.com slash tokugawa slash political dash system. And a huge shout out to him for answering some questions here on the podcast. Tune in next week for the next surprise guest of Exploring the Past. Peace. Transcribed by https://otter.ai