The Tokugawa shared Hideyoshi’s suspicions that Christian missionary work could be a pretext for a future invasion of Japan by one of the European powers. In 1635, shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu decided that the only way to ensure Japan’s stability and independence was to cut off almost all contact with other nations.

When did Japan go into isolation?

While Sakoku, Japan’s long period of isolation from 1639 to 1853, kept it closed off from much of the world, one upshot was the rise of cultural touchstones that persist to this day.