A Handbook of Modern Japan

by Ernest W. Clement

PERRY MONUMENT, NEAR URAGA

This is the era which was opened by Commodore Perry, and was almost entirely devoted to the persevering attempts of Perry, Harris, Curtius, Lord Elgin, and others to negotiate treaties, first of friendship and amity, and afterwards of trade and commerce, with Japan. It is rather interesting that the only events chronicled above, besides treaty-making, are terrible catastrophes, which the superstitious conservatives believed to have been visited upon their country as a punishment for treating with the barbarians! It is again a matter of peculiar pride to Americans that the first treaty of friendship and amity was negotiated by Perry; that the first foreign flag raised officially in Japan was the Stars and Stripes, hoisted at Shimoda by Harris on September 4, 1856; that Harris was the first accredited diplomatic agent from a foreign country to Japan; that he also had the honor of the first audience of a foreign representative with the Shōgun, then supposed to be the Emperor; and that he negotiated the first treaty of trade and commerce.

III. Period of Civil Commotions (1858-1868).
CHRONOLOGY.

1859.	Yokohama, Nagasaki, Hakodate opened.
	First Christian missionaries.
1860.	Assassination of Ii, Prime Minister of the Shōgun.
1861.	Frequent attacks on foreigners.
1862.	First foreign embassy. Richardson affair.
1863.	Bombardment of Kagoshima.
1864.	Bombardment of Shimonoseki.
1865.	Imperial sanction of treaties. Tariff convention.
1866.	Shōgun Iyemochi died; succeeded by Keiki.
1867.	Emperor Kōmei died; succeeded by Mutsuhito.
	Keiki resigned. Reorganization of the Government.
1868.	Restoration, or Revolution.

This era has been so named because it was marked by commotions, not merely between different factions among the Japanese, but also between Japanese and foreigners. The anti-foreign spirit that manifested itself in numerous assaults and conspiracies was so involved with internal dissensions that it is quite difficult to distinguish them. The assassination of Ii, the Shōgun’s Prime Minister, who had the courage and the foresight to sign the treaties, was the natural sequence of the opening of three ports to foreign commerce. The conservative spirit, moreover, was still so strong that the Shōgun had to send an embassy, the first one ever sent abroad officially by Japan, to petition the treaty-powers to permit the postponement of the opening of other ports. The murder of Richardson, an Englishman who rudely interrupted the progress of the retinue of the Prince of Satsuma, was the pretext for the bombardment of Kagoshima; and the firing on an American vessel that was passing through the Straits of Shimonoseki was the excuse for the bombardment of Shimonoseki. About the middle of this period the Imperial sanction of the treaties was obtained, and a tariff convention was negotiated.

The civil dissensions, however, continued; the great clan of Chōshiu became engaged in actual warfare against the Shōgun’s troops in Kyōto and were proclaimed “rebels,” against whom an Imperial army was despatched; the young Shōgun, Iyemochi, died and was succeeded by Keiki; and the Emperor Kōmei also died and was succeeded by his young son, Mutsuhito, the present Emperor. Finally, the new Shōgun, observing the drift of political affairs and the need of the times for a more centralized and unified administration, resigned his position; and the system of government was re-formed with the Emperor in direct control. The new Emperor declared in a manifesto: “Henceforward we shall exercise supreme authority, both in the internal and [the] external affairs of the country. Consequently the title of Emperor should be substituted for that of Tycoon [Shōgun], which has hitherto been employed in the treaties.” Of this manifesto, one writer says: “Appended were the seal of Dai Nippon, and the signature, Mutsuhito, this being the first occasion in Japanese history on which the name of an Emperor had appeared during his lifetime.”[86]

But the effect of the reorganization of the government seemed to the adherents of the former Shōgun to work so much injustice to them that they rose in arms against the Sat-Chō [Satsuma-Chōshiu] combination which was then influential at court. This led, in 1867, to a civil war, which, after a severe struggle, culminated in 1868 in the complete triumph of the Imperialists. This event is what is called by some “the Restoration,” and by others “the Revolution.” This was, in fact, the climax of all the civil commotions of the period; the anti-foreign spirit and policy were only secondary to the prime purpose of overthrowing the usurpation of the Tokugawa Shōgunate and restoring the one legal Emperor to his lawful authority. And thus fell, not only the Tokugawa Dynasty, as had fallen other dynasties, of Shōguns, but also the whole system of a Shōgunate; and thus the Emperor of Japan became, not ruler in name and fame only, but sovereign in act and fact. From 1868 to the middle of 1912 Mutsuhito was Emperor both de jure and de facto.

IV. Period of Reconstruction (1868-1878).
CHRONOLOGY.

1868.	Opening of Hyōgo (Kōbe) and Ōsaka.
	Emperor’s audience of foreign ministers.
	Yedo named Tōkyō and made capital.
1869.	Opening of Yedo and Niigata.
	The “Charter Oath” of Japan.
1870.	Light-houses, telegraphs.
1871.	Postal system, mint, and dock.
	Feudalism abolished.
	Eta and hinin (outcasts) admitted to citizenship.
	Colonization in Yezo [Hokkaidō].
1872.	First railway, newspaper, church, and Missionary Conference.
	Imperial University in Tōkyō.
	Iwakura Embassy to America and Europe.
1873.	Adoption of Gregorian calendar.
	Removal of anti-Christian edicts. Empress gave audience to foreign ladies.
1874.	Saga Rebellion. Formosan Expedition.
1875.	Assembly of Governors. Senate.
	Sakhalin traded off for Kurile Islands.
1876.	Treaty with Korea.
1877.	Satsuma Rebellion.
	First National Exhibition in Tōkyō.
1878.	Bimetallism.
	Promise to establish Prefectural Assemblies.