see also: THE ART OF ASIA


EXPLORATION: Japanese Ukiyo-e
Japanese Prints
Hiroshige's "Tokaido"
Hokusai's "Views of Mt. Fuji" and "Panoramic View of Sumidagawa River"
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi "Tsuki hyakushi" - 100 Aspects of the Moon
Sesshu's Long Scrolll
"East and West"

Japan had been almost wholly isolated from the West since the 17th century under the shoguns of the Tokugawa. Japan was ruled by a noble upper class with the shogun at the top. Though it gave the empire a long, peaceful period of 1 cultural flourishing, it also prevented access to Western modernization in the areas of technology and politics. Under internal political pressure, the last shogun was forced to step down in 1868 in favor of the emperor, who pushed ahead with modernization. During the Meiji period, Japan quickly came to lead Asian industrialization and was also successful in foreign affairs.

The End of Seclusion and Domestic Changes
 

The Western states contributed to the development of Japan as a market and trading center. The resulting domestic crisis brought the end of the shogunate.

During the early 19th century, the Tokugawa shoguns tried to keep Japan sealed off from the Western world.

However, the United States demanded the opening of Japan and forced the 2 1854 Kanagawa Treaty, which ensured the Americans the use of two ports for trade.

3 European states then made similar treaties, and in 1860 Japanese envoys traveled to Europe to initiate trade with the West.

1 The Great Wave, colored wood engraving by Hokusai, 1830 see also: Hokusai's "Views of Mt. Fuji" and "Panoramic View of Sumidagawa River"

2 Commercial treaty between the United States and Japan, March 31, 1854

3 European and American ships at Yokohama

Many of the treaties made were disadvantageous to the Japanese, often guaranteeing the foreigners significant privileges.

This opening of the country had domestic consequences. The foreigners were considered enemy intruders by the Japanese people.

When several nationalistic-minded 4 samurai attacked foreign merchants, European warships shelled Kagoshima in 1863 and Shimonoseki in 1864.


4 Samurai in armor

An influential group that demanded political reorganization and the restoration to the emperor (tenno) formed in Japan. The Japanese modernizers, as well as the armed foreign powers, highlighted the Tokugawa shogunate's shortcomings. The shoguns recognized that Japan had to adapt its policies to the new conditions.

They were anticipated by the military leaders of the Satsuma, Choshu, and Tosa provinces, who seized the emperor's palace in 5 Kyoto on January 3,1868.

Tokugawa Yoshinobu then restored to the tenno the power of government that had been in the hands of the shoguns for over 250 years. Edo was declared the capital in 1868 and renamed Tokyo, and Tenno Mutsuhito (Meiji) moved there in 1869.

5 The emperor's palace in Kyoto, ca. 1900

Modernization and Territorial Gains
 

The reforms of the Meiji Restoration brought Japan into the Modern Era and made it the leading political and military power in East Asia.

The Boshin War, a short civil war against the last followers of the Tokugawa, led directly to the Meiji Restoration.

6 Tenno Mutsuhito, named Meiji ("the Enlightened"), had set as his goal Japan's modernization through comprehensive reforms.


6 Emperor Mutsuhito ("the Enlightened") with his family

This was accomplished above all with the aid of his powerful ministers Kido Takayoshi, Saigo Takamori, and Okubo Toshimichi. With one decree in 1871, they abolished the traditional feudal structure and installed governors to replace the previous system of local self-government.

European military advisors and engineers restructured the army, industry, and 8 transport.


8 Railway station between Ueno and Nakasendo

Laws and educational institutes were renewed in the Western mold. The rapid pace of these changes, however, also incited resistance. When in 1877 the warrior class of the samurai was disbanded, War Minister Yamagata Aritomo—who, following the Prussian example, had introduced compulsory military service—was forced to put down the Satsuma Uprising.

The Prussia state served as the model when drafting the new constitution of 1889 that formally made Japan a constitutional monarchy. A parliament with an upper and lower house was created as of 1890, although the tenno was still able to intervene in politics through decrees or by dissolving the lower house. The military also had a right of veto in the appointments of minister posts.

Industrialization demanded an expansion of the country's territories primarily to tap raw materials and markets abroad. In the 1870s, Japan came to an agreement with Russia about the Kurilc Islands north of Japan and occupied the Chinese Ryukyu Islands in the south. The Japanese used a revolt in Korea to seize additional Chinese territories.

They won the 7 Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, and in the Treaty of Shimonoseki took Taiwan and the Pescadores.


7 Japanese attack upon the Chinese defenders

Japan was also victorious in the 9 Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, which was fought over Manchuria and Korea; in a treaty negotiated at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1905, Japan gained the southern half of Sakhalin Island and the lease of the Liaodong Peninsula, among other things. Japan annexed Korea in 1910.

10 Tenno Mutsuhito died in 1912 in Tokyo.

During his reign, Japan had become the most progressively industrialized country in Asia and a major political and military power.

see collections:


THE ART OF ASIA

Japanese Ukiyo-e

Japanese Prints


Hiroshige's
"Tokaido"





Hokusai's
"Views of Mt. Fuji" and "Panoramic View of Sumidagawa River"





Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
"Tsuki hyakushi" - 100 Aspects of the Moon





Sesshu's Long Scrolll