Kyōhō Reforms

The Kyōhō reforms (享保の改革, kyōhō no kaikaku^?) were an array of economic and cultural policies introduced by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1736 Japan, during the Edo period. These reforms were instigated by the eighth Tokugawa shogun of Japan, Tokugawa Yoshimune, encompassing the first twenty years of his shogunate.

In the name of the Kyōhō Reforms, "Kyōhō" refers to the nengō (Japanese era name) after Shōtoku and before Genbun. In other words, the Kyōhō Reforms occurred during Kyōhō, a period from July 1716 through April 1736 within the larger (but not a nengō) Edo period. The reforms overlapped somewhat into the next era, which was proclaimed in the year Kyōhō 21 (1736) on the 21st day of the 4th month to mark the enthronement of Emperor Sakuramachi.

The reforms were aimed at making the shogunate financially solvent, and to some degree, to improve its political and social security. Because of the tensions between Confucian ideology and the economic reality of Tokugawa Japan (Confucian principles that money was defiling vs. the necessity for a cash economy), Yoshimune found it necessary to shelve certain Confucian principles that were hampering his reform process.

The Kyōhō Reforms included an emphasis on frugality, as well as the formation of merchant guilds that allowed greater control and taxation. The ban on Western books (minus those relating or referring to Christianity) was lifted to encourage the import of Western knowledge and technology.

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