Japan: Tokugawa to Meiji
21 Oct 1600 – 13 Sep 191271 items
early modernjapanSekigahara to the death of Meiji
On a foggy morning in October 1600 Tokugawa Ieyasu won a battle at Sekigahara and with it the right to rule Japan. His family held it for two and a half centuries, most of that time with the country closed to all but a few Dutch and Chinese traders. In 1853 four American warships anchored off Uraga. Fifteen years later the last shōgun had handed power back to a teenage emperor, and by the emperor’s death in 1912 Japan had a constitution, railways, a colony in Korea and a victory over Russia.
One row of bands holds the fifteen Tokugawa shōguns; others hold the Edo period, sakoku (the closed country), the Bakumatsu, the Boshin War and the Meiji era. Filter by shoguns for the dynasty, samurai for the warrior class from the forty-seven rōnin to its end, diplomacy and trade for the long opening to the world, government for the reforms and war for the fighting at home and abroad.
Two calendars
Japan counted its days in a lunisolar calendar, by era names such as Keichō and Genroku, until the day after the 2nd day of the 12th month of Meiji 5 became 1 January 1873. Every earlier date here is converted from the Japanese calendar to the Gregorian one, and the notes of the key events give the original. Many English books print the Japanese month and day as if they were Western ones, so the 47 rōnin’s raid on “14 December 1702” really fell at the end of January 1703.
Knowledge shall be sought throughout the world so as to strengthen the foundation of imperial rule. — the Charter Oath, article 5, 6 April 1868
Items
Battle of Sekigahara
Ieyasu named shōgun
Death of Ieyasu
Alternate attendance made law
Portuguese ships banned
The Dutch move to Dejima
Raid on Kira’s mansion
Yoshimune eases the ban on Western books
Mount Asama erupts
Edict to repel foreign ships
Hokusai’s “Great Wave”
Ōshio Heihachirō’s rising
Perry’s black ships at Uraga
Treaty of Kanagawa
Yoshida Shōin’s school at Hagi
Harris Treaty
Sakuradamon incident
British squadron bombards Kagoshima
Satsuma–Chōshū alliance
Taisei Hōkan: the shōgun returns power
Restoration of Imperial Rule
Battle of Toba–Fushimi
The Charter Oath
Edo Castle surrendered
Edo becomes Tokyo
Fall of Aizu-Wakamatsu
Goryōkaku surrenders
Domains abolished, prefectures created
First railway: Shinbashi to Yokohama
Japan adopts the Gregorian calendar
Saigō dies at Shiroyama
Meiji Constitution promulgated
Britain gives up extraterritoriality
Treaty of Shimonoseki
Anglo-Japanese Alliance
Battle of Tsushima
Treaty of Portsmouth
Itō Hirobumi shot at Harbin
Japan annexes Korea
Death of the Meiji emperor
General Nogi follows his emperor