From Bakumatsu to Meiji
– How Japan came into the modern age, 1850´s to 1870´s

After more than 200 years of splendid isolation, American warships appeared on Japan´s coast in 1853. Technological, political, and social stagnation during the Edo period (1603-1868) had let to the real danger that Japan may become a Western colony as so many Asian countries had.

However, this did not happen. Since c. 1800 Japan had come into internal motion with more and more, especially young people disaffected with the eternal status quo. Old rivals of the Edo-based shogunate, Satsuma and Choshu, took up the challenge. Western pressure met with conditions ripe for change inside Japan, and the changes would be so big that the country was catapulted into the modern age within one generation.

“Bakumatsu” means the period that ended the Tokugawa shogunate. It is a period full of larger-than-life characters, daring, longing for a better future and epic conflicts over what would be the right course for Japan. In short: it was a fascinating, eventful period that shaped much of Japan as we know it today.

Prof. Till Weber

Professor at German Department, Kokusai Gengo Bunka Programme, Faculty of Global and Regional Studies, The University of the Ryukyus

Contact information

Koharu Komiyama (Research Unit Administrator of Kuhn Unit)
koharu.komiyama@oist.jp