The Tokugawa Memorial Foundation was established in 2003 with the objectives of preserving, researching, and exhibiting historical cultural properties handed down to the Tokugawa family, and supporting research into the history of Japan during the Edo period, when the
Tokugawa Shogunate ruled.
For over 20 years since its establishment, the Foundation has continued to award the Tokugawa Prize for outstanding achievements in early modern Japanese history, and the Tokugawa Encouragement Prize, a scholarship for the completion of a doctoral dissertation that is expected to produce outstanding results in early modern Japanese history. In addition to this, the Foundation's chairman and curators have also been holding lectures and educational activities.
Since I became chairman in 2021, we have suspended all exhibition activities and conducted a comprehensive survey to once again grasp the full picture of the cultural properties and historical materials held by the Foundation. As a result, we have built a highly reliable database, made new discoveries, and completed the identification of items that are in urgent need of restoration. With the completion of the survey, we are proud to have laid the foundation for more substantial exhibition activities than ever before. In recent years, as the intellectual chaos that followed the Showa War finally comes to an end, the Edo period has once again come to be highly praised both at home and abroad for its highly developed civilization as the era in which the prototype of modern Japan was formed. Edo-period Japan - Tokugawa Japan - has attracted particular attention overseas, as it is believed to hold valuable clues for solving the various challenges facing the modern world, in that a great power was able to achieve domestic and international peace for over two and a half centuries. Taking advantage of this domestic and international trend, the Foundation will continue to make greater efforts in the areas of research grants, enlightenment, and commemoration, while also focusing on new dissemination efforts in line with the remarkable progress being made in information technology. We would be extremely grateful if you could provide us with your generous support.
Iehiro (Hiro) Tokugawa
President
Tokugawa Memorial Foundation