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Tokugawa Iemitsu's sankin-kotai system required every feudal lord in Japan to sp
1635 Event

August 3

Tokugawa Establishes Alternate Attendance System: Japan's Daimyo Controlled

Tokugawa Iemitsu's sankin-kotai system required every feudal lord in Japan to spend alternating years in Edo and their home domain — with their families remaining in Edo permanently as hostages. It was brilliant. The lords spent enormous amounts of money on the processions and entourages that these journeys required, keeping them too expensive and too busy to revolt. Edo, the city built to absorb all this activity, eventually became Tokyo. The system ran for over two centuries.

August 3, 1635

391 years ago

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