Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Great Peace throughout the Realm

After over a century of fierce civil wars between rival samurai lords, Japan was unified in the early 1600s under the Tokugawa family of military rulers. For the next 250 years Japan was at peace, with the Tokugawa shoguns ruling from their capital Edo (modern Tokyo).

During the Edo period (1600-1868), the arts flourished under the patronage of high-ranking samurai and the imperial court. Wealthy merchants also became important patrons of the arts.

The period saw the beginnings of porcelain production, the appearance of new schools of painting and the blossoming of woodblock printing. There were also striking developments in lacquerware, metalwork, textile design, and the arts of the tea ceremony.