Origins of the Tokugawa Sakoku Policy

Timeline

1. 1633–1635Edo · Tokyo MetropolisThe Tokugawa shogunate issued maritime ban edicts forbidding Japanese from sailing abroad or returning without permission, and requiring Portuguese and Spanish ships to undergo inspection at Nagasaki, Hirado, Buno, Sakai, and elsewhere; the sakoku policy thus began.
2. 1639–1641Dejima, Nagasaki · Nagasaki PrefectureThe shogunate expelled the Portuguese and forbade their return, relocating the Dutch trading post to the artificial island of Dejima, establishing a trade pattern with Nagasaki as the sole foreign window under direct shogunal control.
3. c. 1645–1650Japanese Archipelago · JapanBy around 1650, a system allowing only the Dutch and the Qing to trade at Nagasaki, strictly forbidding Japanese from sailing abroad, and closely scrutinizing the spread of foreign religions was largely formed, becoming a key pillar of Tokugawa early-modern state order.