How do you create
a nation out of 250
domains?
Key Dates
1603 – 1867
Tokugawa Shogunate
1853
Commodore Perry
arrives
1854
Treaty of Kanagawa
1890
This picture
What is surprising about this picture from the 1890s?
What does it tell us about Japan in the period after Western
Intervention?
A zen moment: centre
yourself
1
In 1862, just before the start
of the Meiji period, Tokugawa
sent officials and scholars to
China to study the situation
there. A Japanese recorded in
his diary from Shanghai…
The Chinese have become
servants to the foreigners.
Sovereignty may belong to China
but in fact it's no more than a
colony of Great Britain and
France.
China’s unequal treaties warn Japan
After the Opium Wars many in the Shogun’s
government were convinced that it had to
open up to the West or face the fate of China

2
Baku-han system
decentralized power
• Over 250 Daimyos have
great autonomy
• Many are ignoring
directions from Edo
• Do you know other
countries where politics is
decentralized?
3
Ronin Xenophobic
Murders of foreigners
A woodblock print by ukiyo-e master
Utagawa Kuniyoshi depicting famous rōnin
Miyamoto Musashi having his fortune told.
What impact might
this have on
Japanese society?
3
After the Tokugawa treaties opened
Japanese ports to European powers,
many Ronin become xenophobic - the
result of feelings of:
threat,
lost culture,
fierce pride,
social change, and / or
new commercial values
1860s: increasing instability 3
• Ronin killed the proforeign official for
signing a treaty with
the US
• Then committed
seppuku
• Very dangerous in Edo
for Shogun officials and
foreigners
Expel the
barbarians!
3
The murder of a British merchant
3
Charles Richardson murdered in 1863 when he failed to
dismount from his horse when passing a procession of
Satsuma samurai.
The Shi-shi (“Men of High Purpose”)
 Highly idealistic samurai who felt that the
arrival of Westerners was an attack on the
traditional values of Japan.
 They believed that:
 Japan was sacred ground.
 The Emperor, now a figurehead in
Kyoto, was a God.
 Were furious at the Shogun for signing treaties
with the West without the Emperor’s consent.
 Their slogan 
Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians!
Ryoma was one of these Shi Shi.
They feared European colonisation of
Japan.
They believed the Tokugawa were to
blame for Japan’s weakness.
The young Emperor agreed with these
xenophobic views – that Japan had
been humiliated by foreigners – and
encouraged policies to expel them.
Of what does this remind you?
• Compare and contrast Cixi and the
Boxers
Cixi and the Boxers
Emperor and the Shi-shi
Another zen moment:
centre yourself
Lower samurai
Satsuma and
Choshu


"Expel the Barbarians"
Merchants
The Satsuma Choshu
Alliance
(March 1866)
The Satsuma and Choshu Clans
Saigo Takamori of the
Satsuma clan
The Meiji Revolt - 1868
 An alliance of low
ranking samurai from
Satsuma and Choshu
plot to overthrow the
Shogun
The Sat-Cho Alliance
 Sakamoto Ryoma
and Saigo Takamori
played a key role
The Shogunate Is Overthrown!
 The Sat-Cho alliance with
the court is too strong
 Tokugawa Yoshinobu
forced to resign
1873
Empress Shōken
Mutsuhito
Emperor Meiji
(1868-1912)
1872
Tokugawa Yoshinobu
the 15th and last
shogun (1866-1868)
1868:
The Emperor restored to power
• The Emperor
moves with SatCho armies to
conquered Edo
• It is renamed
Tokyo (eastern
capital)
MEIJI 
“Enlightened Rule”
The Meiji Emperor moves
from Kyoto to Tokyo
• Source:"Le Monde Illustre",
February 20th, 1869.
Emperor Meiji
Review: Tokugawa to Meiji
• Satsuma and Choshu clans unite to rebel
against Tokugawa
• “Expel the barbarian, restore the Emperor”
• 1867 the Emperor is “restored” to power
• Civil war between Tokugawa and Sat-Cho
forces
• Sat-Cho clans win 1868
• The new Imperial government drops
promise to expel foreigners
• They accelerate modernisation!
Japanese were sent abroad to
learn from the West. But among
the Japanese, there has never
been the scornful indifference that
has often characterized the
Chinese attitude towards
foreigners. The Japanese have
never been too proud to learn. It
appeared therefore strange
reversal of the whole situation for
the anti-foreign monarchical party
and, in effect, became pro-foreign
almost overnight.
Search for three minutes
to find your favorite piece
of Ukiyo-e edo
Late edo prints, art
Ukiyo-e edo
Meiji Restoration
1868 -1912
Chronology
1573-1600, “Warring States” - Transitional Era
1635, Shogunate forbids Japanese to travel overseas
1639, Portugese ships forbidden; Japan closed to outside world
1641, Dutch Trading Mission is moved to Nagasaki
1600-1868, Tokugawa Period - Centralized Feudalism era
1853-54, Perry Mission to “open” Japan
1854, Japan concludes friendship treaties with U.S., Britain,
France & Netherlands; three ports open to foreign trade
1868, Meiji Restoration
1877, Satsuma Rebellion
1881, Sale of government industries to new zaibatsau
1889, Meiji Constitution
1894-5,Sino-Japanese War, Japan becomes imperialist power
1904-5, Russo-Japanese War
1910, colonization of Korea
1912, emperor Meji dies