Tokugawa

American  

[taw-koo-gah-wah] / ˈtɔ kʊˈgɑ wɑ /

noun

1. a member of a powerful family in Japan that ruled as shoguns, 1603–1867.

2. a period of Japanese history under the rule of Tokugawa shoguns, characterized by a samurai ruling class, urbanization, and the growth of a merchant class.

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Example Sentences

He became a prolific presence in Japanese film and television, eventually even playing Tokugawa Ieyasu, the man on whom his “Shōgun” character is based, in the 1992 TV production “Oda Nobunaga.”

From Los Angeles Times • May 28, 2024

It took 100 years of battles to create a cohesive central government known as the Tokugawa Shogunate.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 20, 2023

During the Tokugawa period, which spanned the 17th to mid-19th centuries, samurai men regularly engaged in same-sex partnerships, said Gary Leupp, author of “Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan.”

From New York Times • May 17, 2023

In 1868, fearing a repeat of China's fate at the hands of Western imperialists, reformers overthrew the military dictatorship of the Tokugawa Shogunate and set Japan on a course of high-speed industrialisation.

From BBC • Jan. 20, 2023

The Shogunate of the house of the Tokugawa was not an entirely new invention.

From An Introduction to the History of Japan by Hara, Katsuro