ABSTRACT
The Tokugawa era (1600–1867) represents a new stage in the development of Japanese society. A new form of military-bureaucratic government, the Tokugawa bakufu, provided a degree of centralized control and political stability previously unknown in Japan. Centered in Edo (modern Tokyo), the Tokugawa consolidated their control over the regional military power holders (daimyo) by 1651. Thereafter, the bakufu represented central political and military authority until the resignation of the last shogun in 1867.
