Eighth Tokugawa shogun
Tokugawa Yoshimune
徳川吉宗 · 1684–1751 · Edo period
Tokugawa Yoshimune (徳川吉宗) was the eighth shogun and the great reformer of the Edo period — a careful, hands-on ruler who pulled the government back from the edge of going broke. He is also, in a quieter way, the man who gave ordinary people the cherry-blossom picnic they still enjoy today.
The reforming shogun
Yoshimune came to power in 1716 with an empty treasury, and started the Kyōhō Reforms. He cut his own court's spending, promoted officials for their ability instead of their birth, and set up a box where any subject could send him a request directly. He pushed for practical learning and loosened the ban on foreign books — a small opening that Western science would later come through.
Blossoms for everyone
For a long time, flower-viewing had been a pleasure for the court and the rich. Yoshimune opened it up. He had thousands of cherry trees planted along the Sumida River and on the hill at Asukayama — public riverbank and hilltop where regular townsfolk could lay down a mat, eat, drink, and enjoy the blossom together. It was a reform of a different sort: a ruler deliberately building a shared pleasure into the city, open to all. Today's busy, happy hanami is largely down to him.
Portrait: Kanō Tadanobu · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
