Events in the year 1603 in Japan
Incumbents Monarch: Go-Yōzei Shogun: Tokugawa Ieyasu (starting March 24th)
Events March 24: Tokugawa Ieyasu is appointed shogun, beginning both the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Edo period. Perez, Louis G. (1998). The History of Japan. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 123–124. ISBN 0-313-00793-4. OCLC 51689128.
November – Rokugō rebellion: More than 1,000 rōnin rebel in support of their exiled lord, Onodera Yoshimichi.
Female entertainer Izumo no Okuni originates kabuki dance drama in Kyoto.
The earliest of eight companies that will eventually merge to form the Kikkoman Corporation, the producers of soy sauce, is founded.</onlyinclude>
Births September 15 – Tokugawa Yorifusa, daimyo (d. 1661)
Deaths September 19 – Matsudaira Iemoto, samurai (b. 1548)
References