1
Oda Nobunaga
- Daimyo of Owari Domain
- began agricultural land surveys, sword hunts to maintain status distinctions, bureaucratized tax collection
S: first unifier of Japan after the Warring States Period, began centralizing Japan under one ruler
Sankin kōtai (Alternate Attendance)
- implemented by Tokugawa Iemitsu
- required all daimyo to maintain residences in Edo AND in their own domains
- they alternated residences every year, wives and children stayed behind in Edo
S: kept daimyo financially weak in forcing the upkeep of two houses, and weakened their identification with their home domain
Matthew Perry
- arrived in Japan 1853-54
- "gunboat diplomacy:" threatened war with Japan unless they agreed to trade in peace, put great pressure on the Shogunate to act to defend against Western incursion
S: "opened" Japan up to Western trade and began implementing unequal treaties that opened up treaty ports, lowered tariffs, and granted extraterritoriality
Dejima
- an artificial island off the coast of Nagasaki
- created to confine Dutch traders to one area to prevent foreigners from entering Japan proper
S: more strictly control Western goods, documents, and ideologies coming into Japan
Conscript Army
- 1873 Universal Conscription, required all male citizens to submit to mandatory military conscription, mixed soldier militias
- Promoted by Chōshū leaders Ōmura Masajirō, Kidō Kōin, Yamagata Aritomo
S: contributed to the abolition of the samurai class in the Meiji Period
Boshin War
- 1868-1869
- civil war led by low-ranking samurai from Satsuma and Choshu against Tokugawa forces
S: Directly led to the Meiji Restoration, after Satsuma and Choshu seize control of the emperor and make him declare an imperial “restoration,” the shogun loses the remainder of his power
Iwakura Embassy
- 1871-1873
- Japanese statesmen, scholars, and students travel to the West to seek knowledge in how to "modernize"
- economy, education, agriculture, architecture, industry, etc...
S: implementation of Western-style institutions in Japan allows the country to modernize quickly while retaining a distinct sense of Japanese identity
Harris Treaty
- 1858 "unequal" treaty with the U.S. negotiated by Townsend Harris
- opened up 5 treaty ports, low tariffs for foreign imports, extraterritoriality, right to practice Christianity in ports
S: ended the Tokugawa's period of sakoku, opened Japan up to diplomatic and trade ties with the U.S.
Satsuma/Choshu
- two domains in southern Japan that remained loyal to the emperor and combated the shogunate in the Bakumatsu period
- many shishi came from these domains (well-educated samurai, middle-ranking with no political power, frustrated with the shogun's handling of the West)
S: Samurai from Satsuma and Choshu defeated shogunal forces in the Boshin War to bring about the Meiji Restoration. Most Meiji oligarchs were revolutionaries from these domains
Fumi-e
- method of identifying Japanese Christians to enforce the ban on Christianity in the Tokugawa Period
- an image of the crucifixion that individuals were forced to step on to prove they were not Christians
S: enforced the ban on Christianity and increased anti-Western sentiment as Japan closed itself off to Western nations in the 17th cent.
Education Act of 1872
- establishment of a national education system by first minister of education Mori Arinori, made primary school COMPULSORY
- 10% local tax must be paid to maintain schools, compulsory
S: increased levels of education across Japan and a collective Japanese identity of loyalty and filial piety towards the emperor
1889
- Promulgation of the Meiji Constitution written by Ito Hirobumi
- outlined that the Emperor still had absolute power and total sovereignty, but that citizens of Japan had civil rights "within the limits of the law"
S: first step towards political participation in Japan within democratic structures (shift from feudal systems to constitutional monarchy)
Grandma of Popular Rights
- Kusunose Kita, early advocate for women's political rights
- criticized that female heads of household do not hold the same political rights as male ones, despite fulfilling all of the same tasks (tax-paying)
S: pioneer of women's suffrage in Japan, paved the way for women's participation in elections
"To Seek Knowledge Throughout the World"
- one of the points in the Five Charter Oath
- the notion that Japan needs to look beyond its borders for industrial, educational, economic, and political knowledge to help modernize
S: led to Western-learning initiatives like the Iwakura Embassy in 1871-73
Aizu
- a domain loyal to the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Bakumatsu Period that fought against forces from Satsuma and Choshu loyal to the emperor in the Boshin War
- Home of Shiba Goro, who fled during the Battle of Aizu
S: represented a symbolic collapse of the shogunate and status ideals in the 1860s
Sekigahara
- 1600, conflict between forces loyal to Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Tokugawa Ieyasu's allies that officially ended the Warring States Period
- after Hideyoshi died, Ieyasu gathered allies and destroyed the remaining loyal forces, which allowed him uncontested leadership as shogun
S: ended the Warring States Period and allowed the Tokugawa shogunate to rule Japan from 1600-1868.
Richardson Affair
- British merchant Charles Richardson was killed in Yokohama by Satsuma domain warriors in 1862
- outraged the British in this violation of their extraterritoriality established by unequal treaties
S: resulted in the Ango-Satsuma War, where Satsuma realized the importance of learning from the West in order to better defend themselves from it
Kishida Toshiko
- feminist popular speaker in the Freedom and Popular Rights Movement
- "progress" and "civilization" = women have political and economic rights on par with men
- fought for women's rights, and familial and educational equality
S: she was one of the first Japanese feminists, set a precedent for women's involvement in political spheres
Temple Registration System
- required all individuals to register themselves at Buddhist temples in the Tokugawa period
- “Compulsory Religion Affiliation Registers:” birth, marriage, & deaths
- Pragmatic measure to track census data and ideological diffusion across domains
S: empowered Buddhist institutions in service of daimyo and the shogun, used to crack down on Christianity
Great Teaching Campaign
- the declaration of Shinto as the guiding principle of the state, establishment of the Department of Divinities (unification of ritual and government)
- aligned with Kokugaku desires to center Japanese tradition over Chinese concepts and foreign religions
S: coincided with state-sanctioned attacks on Buddhism (Haibutsu Kishaku) and the emergence of new religions, upheld the relationship between religion and state in Meiji Japan
Motoori Norinaga
- Kokugaku scholar
- asserted that Japanese people should seek knowledge in their native traditions, not in alien Chinese sources
S: influenced the "revere the emperor, expel the barbarians!" anti-Western movement that put pressure on the tokugawa shogunate before its collapse
Tomioka Mill
- oldest modern silk-reeling factory in Japan
- female workers, long and unsafe factory conditions (exhaustion from long hours, disease, abusive treatment from employers)
S: japanese silk in high demand overseas, so the silk spinning industry became very important to Japan's economic growth (today, a World Heritage Site!)
Imperial Rescript on Education
- statement promulgated in the name of the Emperor in 1890, stating that the goal of education should be learning to serve society and the state
- state-centered, moralistic education curriculum grounded in Confucian rhetoric like filial piety and loyalty (Meiji Emperor portrait, recitation)
S: beginnings of Japanese nationalism and collective identity rooted in education
Yoshida Shoin
- Kokugaku scholar involved in the "revere the emperor, expel the barbarian! movement
- supported imperial loyalism, "rich country, strong army," and emphasized the importance of action in neo-confucian knowledge
S: he taught figures like Ito Hirobumi and Yamagata Aritomo who would become leading political figures in the Meiji Period
Meiji Six Society
- intellectual society published the Meiroku Zasshi journal, which circulated and promoted Western ideas in Japan
- Fukuzawa Yukichi, Mori Arinori, Nakamura Masanao
S: saw nation-states of the West as the forefront of world civilization, and that Japan should Westernize for the sake of individual and national progress (civilization and enlightenment)