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The Making of Modern Japan

cumbersome imposts and levies of the sixteenth century and took advantage of the traditions of self-rule that townsmen had developed during years of military confusion. The bakufu had a presence in Kyoto, one that was essential to its control Castle in the western and manipulation of the imperial court. The great Nijo quarter projected power in the stonework of its foundations, the defenses of its moats, the dimensions of its gates and interior, and the majesty of the paintings of massive pines that rst greeted visitors important enough to be admitted within its portals. This was the headquarters of the bakufu resident, shidai, who was its ofcial for contact with the court. In early Tokugawa the sho decades shoguns came to Kyoto, but after Iemitsus great descent with 300,000 men in 1634 no shogun came until the 1860s. There were samurai guard posts, but there was no samurai residential quarter. Eighty-six daimyo maintained stations or ofces in Kyoto to have access to its luxury goods for themselves and for exchange with their peers, but they were never in residence themselves. Kyoto was an early center of publishing, and it remained the leader in works in Chinese. Sometime around 1650, as travel picked up and curiosity about other parts of the country grew, a boom of map publishing began. Maps of Kyoto became immensely detailed, with woodblock prints that combined ) with current inforidentication of each of the many merchant districts (cho mation about the capital.10 Publishers competed with rival versions of ever more detailed and colorfully done products. Similar maps began to appear for other cities, particularly for Osaka and Edo. It is seldom noted, but important, that these maps were available for sale and distribution. Across the waters in China, ofcials of the Manchu garrison state would have been aghast at the thought of providing such convenient guides for insurrectionary forces. The Tokugawa regime had no such fears long before the Manchu conquest was complete. Osaka, the third of the three metropolises (santo), was quite unlike Kyoto and Edo. It had always played a central role in Japanese history through its port and commerce. To it came ships from China and Ryukyu, and from it the goods of that commerce moved along river routes to the early capitals ji, was estabof Nara and Kyoto. Japans rst Buddhist temple, the Shitenno lished there. In the sixteenth century Honganji Buddhist sectarians had resisted Nobunaga from their Osaka headquarters and, until Hideyoshi brought them to heel, they maintained a doughty tradition of commoner deance. Hideyoshi used the city as his military headquarters. The giant castle he erected there, though burned in the nal Tokugawa victory of 1615, was rebuilt by the bakufu as a symbol of its power. In the rst century of Tokugawa rule Osaka quickly became the center of