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Tokugawa Ieyasu

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The first of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the great unificatior of Japan, and won the Battle of Sekigahara, which consolidated Japan for the first time under one government.

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Bakufu

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The shogunate government, Japanese word. One bakufu or another had been in place since the end of the Heian period, and was still in power until very shortly after the arrival of Commodore Perry and his Black Ships.

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Daimyo

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the lords of han prefectures. Equivalent to the lords in feudal Europe who answered to the king. These lords ruled over their own domain, collected taxes over their own domain.

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Alternate attendance

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This required that daimyo move periodically between Edo and his han, typically spending alternate years in each place. His wife and heir were required to remain in Edo as hostages. The expenditures necessary to maintain lavish residences in both places, and for the procession to and from Edo, placed financial strains on the daimyo making them unable to wage war. The frequent travel of the daimyos encouraged road building and the construction of inns and facilities along the routes, generating economic activity.

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Seclusion policy

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The policy of the Tokugawa Bakufu that prevented contact with the outside world. The teaching of foreign religions was forbidden, or bringing foreign books into the country, except for the Dutch: however, they still tolerated some Western trade and continued to cultivate foreign relations in Asia. Chinese goods made their way through the ryukyu islands. However, this set them up for a very sudden change in culture and everything when

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Bushido

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The system of Samurai values and mores that were codified in Tokugawa Japan

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Ukiyo and ukiyo-e

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The Floating World in Tokugawa Japan. These had a lot to do with the advent of commercialization and popular culture. These woodblock prints were mass-produced and sold, again, commercialization.

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Ihara Saikaku

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The author of "The Calendar-maker's wife." He focused on themes of love and life. His characters frequently try to live rather than try to commit suicide in the face of something that they can't bear. He also focuses on the mundane here-and-now; the floating world. Tokugawa period: represents a different direction for Japanese ideas, and more of a focus on individualism.

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Chikamatsu Monzaemon

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An author born to a samurai family during the Tokugawa period. He wrote "the love suicides at sonezaki," which emphasizes Japanese tradition and the conflict between love and loyalty. In this way, his works epitomize the samurai, bushido ideal of the time.

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The national learning

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During Meiji Japan, a focus on Japanese knowledge to repudiate Chinese ideas. A major proponent of this was Yukichi Fukuzawa. This was a huge reverse course in the history of Japanese knowledge, and marked the advent of a more scientific approach to knowledge in Japan.

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The Choshu-Satsuma alliance

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came about to bring down the Tokugawa Bakufu. Eventually, it became the Meiji Oligarchy, which essentially ruled the country, though through no official charter, throughout the years of the Emperor Meiji

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Commodore Perry

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The commander of the black ships who insisted that Japan open its ports. He left an ultimatum that sent the country more or less into turmoil, and opened the way for all sorts of economic problems, and then economic benefits, due to the opening of the nation. Prints of the time depict him as looking like more or less a "foreign devil"

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Fukuzawa Yukichi

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The father of the Japanese Enlightenment. Fukuzawa translated works of great foreign thinkers into Japanese and also changed them in such a way so that their works would be relevant to specifically a Japanese audience. He was very influenced by Dutch Learning, and valued a scientific, objective approach. Therefore, he hated Chinese learning and hated its influence on his country.

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The Ryukyu Islands

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These were gained by Japan after attacking China over an incident of Taiwan killing Okinawan sailors. These islands were a point of contention for Japan and China, and were officially annexed a while later.

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Yamagata Aritomo

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Twice the prime minister of japan and a field marshal in the Imperial Japanese Army, he was considered one of the architects of the foundations of early modern japan. He was also considered to be the father of Japanese Militarism. He supported many autocratic and aggressive policies that directly undermined the development of an open society at this time in the Meiji period.

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Ito Hirobumi

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Born as a samurai of Choshu, he eventually became a member of the genro and four-time prime minister of Japan. He helped to write/draft the Meiji Constitution, and was very conservative. He did not believe in a democratic system, saying that it was too early for Japanese people to be allowed to have a democratic government. HE supported the first sino-Japanese war, and succeeded in removing some of the unequal treaty clauses in the Japanese foreign relations.

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The Meiji Constitution

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Based on the autocratic Prussian constitution, this document provided for a form of constitutional monarchy under which the Emperor of Japan was an active ruler and wielded considerable power, but shared it with an elected diet. It was adopted in secret, without public debate, though Ito Hirobumi and others had much to say on the topic.

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Zaibatsu

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Product of high-growth late meiji era, and were brought back into importance again after World War II, specifically after the Reverse Course.

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Imperial Rescript for Soldiers and Sailors

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This was intended to be the official code of ethics for military personnel, and was one of the bases for Japan's prewar national ideology. Military personnel were required to memorize it by heart. Influenced by the Satsuma Rebellion, it stressed absolute personal loyalty of each individual member of the military to the Emperor. This was one of the beginnings of the Japanese Emperor-worship, and was heavily influential to the ideas of duties of soldiers during World War Two.

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Imperial rescript for education

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This document stated the beliefs of high government officials and their advisors that the goal of education was learning to serve society and the state. These officials argued that the early Meiji education system betrayed this objective by stressing individual initative. It used both Confucian and Western values to support this idea. The message stated that the imperial institution made Japan a special place and that subjects should obey authorities ranging from parents all the way to the emperor.

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"Good wife, wise mother"

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Product of late Meiji period that resurfaced after the Reverse Course. In the late Meiji, this was restrictive, yes, but it wasn't entirely so; this "good wife, wise mother" implied that women were in need of schooling, unlike the idea in the Tokugawa period that women were entirely unteachable. Also, this ideal meant that women's work at home was a valued form of service to the state.

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People's Right Movement -

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when ideas about individualism mixed with hopes for expanded participation in the political process. The two fundamental questions of this movement were, what sort of new political structure should be adopted, and who should participate. This happened in a grassroots sort of situation. People wrote petitions demanding a constitution and parliament. All of this led to the feeling of a free and open political environment during the Meiji period.

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The Habiya anti-treaty riot of 1905

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A riot protesting the peace treaty of the Russo-Japanese war, which did not gain Japan any territory. During these riots, people were saying that if they were to pay for the empire, and die for it, their voice should be respected in politics. This is not to say that they did not support the emperor and empire; they did, they simply believed that they should have a political system that would respect the shared wishes of the people and the Emperor.

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Natsume Soseki

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One of the foremost novelists of the Meiji era. He wrote the speech "My Individualism." He was very interested in Western ways, and was a proponent of following an individualistic way rather than following loyalty and the group mentality.

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Seiyukai

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A political party active from the early Meiji through 1940, when it voted to dissolve itself into the Imperial Rule Assistance Association as part of Fumimaro Konoe's efforts to create a single-party state, and thereafter ceased to exist. It was the only effective political party from 1900 through 1912. This was the political party founded by Ito Niobium - it was a pro-government alliance of bureaucrats and former members of the Meiji Oligarchy. It opposed social reforms and supported bureaucratic control and militarism, and thus was at the root of much of Japan's involvement in World War II

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Minseito -

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One of the main political parties in pre-war Japan. It advocated fiscal restraint, conciliatory foreign policy, and signed the London Naval Agreement, which limited Japanese shipbuilding ability. It could only recover its place in the diet after losing them by adopting a pro-military stance.

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The High Treason Incident

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A socialist and anarchist plot to assassinate Emperor Meiji in 1910, which led to a mass arrest of leftists. The police uncovered the plan and used it as a pretext to arrest a far larger number of socialists that silenced left-wing activists for several years. It created a shift towards more repressive ideologies in the late Meiji period, and has been cited as one of the factors leading to the creation of the "peace preservation laws."

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Blue Stocking

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A feminist magazine founded in 1911. Many members referred to themselves as "New Women," rejecting the negative connotations. Yosano Akiko wrote for this magazine, which eventually focused on women's liberation.

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Yosano Akiko

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A Japanese author, poet, feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, who was active in the late Meiji period, the Taisho period, and the early Showa period. She was a strong advocate of women's education all of her life. She called for women's liberation not only as mothers, and not solely as Japanese, but as human beings in a larger world.

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The Red Wave Society

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The first socialist women's association. It condemned capitalism, arguing that capitalism turned women into slaves and prostitutes. This was related to women's work in factories, with highly-regulated life in dormitories. It also focused on suffrage and women's rights.

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The Manchurian Incident

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Also known as the Mukden Incident, this was an early event in the second sino-Japanese war, when a section of railroad owned by Japan's south Manchuria railway was dynamited. The Imperial Japanese Army accused Chinese dissidents of the act, and responded with the invasion of Manchuria. The prevailing view is that Japanese Militarists staged the explosion in order to provide a pretext for war.

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Marco Polo Bridge

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This marked the start of the invasion of mainland China. The Japanese had agreed to this condition. However, on the night of July 7, 1937, night maneuvers were carried on without prior notice, which greatly alarmed the local Chinese forces. The Chinese, thinking an attack was underway, fired a few ineffectual rifle shots, which led to a brief exchange of fire at approximately 23:00. One soldier went missing, and his superiors went in looking for him, which was the start of the war. The missing soldier later turned up unharmed, but nobody was informed until well after the incident.

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The Tripartite Pact

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the pact between Germany, Japan, and Italy during WWII.

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Prince Konoe

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The 34th, 38th and 39th Prime Minister of Japan and the founder of the Taisei Yokusankai. He was the prime minister during the Marco Polo Bridge Incident and the attack on China. He was prime minister during the beginning of World War Two, as well, and during the signing of the Tripartite Pact. He attempted to make Japan into a single-party state, like Italy or Germany.

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Tojo Hideki

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One of the prime ministers during the war. He was said to have been responsible for authorizing the murder of millions of civilians in China, the Philippines, Indochina, and elsewhere. He was a member of the military once, and ascended to the prime ministership through his position as a general.

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Unit 731

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The military doctor unit that did vivisections.

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The Yoshida Doctrine

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THis doctrine placed the highest national priority on economic development, and also stated that Japan should keep a low diplomatic profile. The aim was to focus all available means on an economic recovery. IT was the basic tenet of Japan's foreign policy throughout the Cold War.

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The LDP

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A centre right, conservative political party in Japan. It ruled for nearly 54 years since its founding in 1955. It ruled through the entirety of the economic miracle, and through the reverse course.

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1600

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Battle of Sekigahara

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1945

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the Japanese Surrender, Peace Preservation Law

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1989

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End of Showa Period

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1950 to 1973

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High-Growth Era

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1950

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Korean War

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1931

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Invasion of Manchuria

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1868

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Meiji Restoration

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1853

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Arrival of Commodore Perry and the Black Ships

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1890

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Signing of the Meiji Constitution

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1947

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Peace Constitution created

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