Word: emperor
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Emperor's five daughters, Princess Teru died in 1961 at the age of 35, and Princess Hisa died within six months of her birth in 1927. Kazuko Takatsukasa, 54, became a Shinto priestess after her husband died; Atsuko Ikeda, 52, is a businessman's wife; and Takako Shimazu, 44, is married to a banker...
...merchant ships, 2) a commercial treaty permitting free trade, and 3) friendship. If the Japanese did not accede to U.S. terms, he implied, he would impose them by force. The Japanese could hardly ships they had no navy with which to defend themselves. Despite the opposition of the figurehead Emperor, the shogun regime, which actually governed the country, reluctantly signed a series of coerced treaties with five nations from 1854 to 1858. The barbarian merchants and missionaries began moving...
...full title of the shogun, head of a military oligarchy that had established itself in the 12th century, was "barbarian-subduing generalissimo," and now he had proved helpless. Angry nationalists rallied around the idea of overthrowing the disgraced shogunate and restoring direct rule by the Emperor, descendant of the sun goddess. Their slogan: Sonno-joi (Revere the Emperor! Drive out the barbarians...
...regions of Choshu and Satsuma in southwestern Japan. Young, ambitious, aggressive, these clan leaders had no intention of really restoring imperial rule, and they themselves were to govern as a new oligarchy for the next half-century. To symbolize the change, though, they decided to move the young Emperor, Mutsuhito, out of Kyoto and into the shogun's castle at Edo, which they renamed "eastern capital": Tokyo. A British infantry unit, on guard in a new European settlement, piped the Emperor to his new home to the tune of The British Grenadiers. The Emperor took for his reign...
...belief in their own cultural superiority despite repeated European humiliations, the Japanese decided early to learn the barbarians' ways. They sent inquiring envoys abroad and hired many foreign experts. Some of the lessons were basic. The Meiji rulers abolished feudalism in 1871, and all fiefs reverted to the Emperor. The samurai, warriors who had formed a ruling caste under the shogunate, were pensioned off. They were forbidden to carry swords or even to wear their traditional topknots. When the samurai rose in revolt, they were suppressed by new armies of conscripts (whom the French were training). With conscription came...