The Shimabara Rebellion began in 1637 among heavily taxed peasants and many hidden Christians in southern Japan. Tokugawa forces crushed the revolt in 1638. The uprising helped justify stricter controls on Christianity and foreign contact.

The repression of Christianity and tightening of isolation helped shape Edo-period cultural forms inwardly. Kabuki, haikai, popular fiction and regional storytelling developed under a social order that limited foreign influence but encouraged domestic urban creativity.