Shōkasonjuku Academy
Shōkasonjuku Academy, or Shōka Sonjuku, is a small size academy also known as a national historic site of Japan. The location of Shōka Sonjuku is 1537-1 Chinto, Hagi city, Yamaguchi. Shōka Sonjuku is inside a shrine: Shōin Jinja (also Shōin Shrine). Shōin Shrine was built for Yoshida Shōin, to memorialize the leading figure of the Meiji Restoration. The traditional wooden building was one of the most crucial origins of political and philosophical ideas, specifically in manners of Western technology and critical industrialization of Japan. The area of Shōka Sonjuku is . It consists of an 8-mat classroom, 10-mat prep room and a earthen floor. The common view of Shōka Sonjuku is that this sonjuku (a place for academy) was established by Yoshida Shōin (one of the most unique ''intellectuals'' and ''philosopher of wang yangming school of mind'' in Japan). The actual origin of this sonjuku was when Shōin’s uncle Tamaki Bunnoshin used his own residence to establish a sh ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shōgun
, officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakura period, shoguns were themselves figureheads, with real power in hands of the Shikken of the Hōjō clan. The office of shogun was in practice hereditary, though over the course of the history of Japan several different clans held the position. The title was originally held by military commanders during Heian period in the eighth and ninth centuries. When Minamoto no Yoritomo gained political ascendency over Japan in 1185, the title was revived to regularize his position, making him the first shogun in the usually understood sense. The shogun's officials were collectively referred to as the ; they were the ones who carried out the actual duties of administration, while the Imperial court retained only nominal authority.Beasley, William ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tokugawa Shogun
The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 978.Nussbaum"''Edo-jidai''"at p. 167. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars of the Sengoku period following the collapse of the Ashikaga shogunate. Ieyasu became the ''shōgun,'' and the Tokugawa clan governed Japan from Edo Castle in the eastern city of Edo (Tokyo) along with the ''daimyō'' lords of the ''samurai'' class.Nussbaum"Tokugawa"at p. 976. The Tokugawa shogunate organized Japanese society under the strict Tokugawa class system and banned most foreigners under the isolationist policies of ''Sakoku'' to promote political stability. The Tokugawa shoguns governed Japan in a feudal system, with each ''daimyō'' administering a ''han'' (feud ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Takasugi Shinsaku
was a samurai from the Chōshū Domain of Japan who contributed significantly to the Meiji Restoration. He used several aliases to hide his activities from the Tokugawa shogunate. Early life Takasugi Shinsaku was born in the castle town Hagi, the capital of the Chōshū Domain (present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture) as the first son of Takasugi Kochūta, a middle-ranked samurai of the domain and his mother . He would have three younger sisters by the name of , and . He had smallpox at the age of ten, but fortunately he had recovered from it. Takasugi joined the '' Shōka Sonjuku'', the famous private school of Yoshida Shōin. Takasugi devoted himself to the modernization of Chōshū's military, and became a favorite student of Yoshida. In 1858, he entered the '' Shōheikō'' (a military school under direct control of the ''shōgun'' at Edo). When his teacher was arrested during the Ansei Purge in 1859, Takasugi visited him in jail. Shōin was later executed on 21 November 1859. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yamagata Aritomo
'' Gensui'' Prince , also known as Prince Yamagata Kyōsuke, was a senior-ranking Japanese military commander, twice-elected Prime Minister of Japan, and a leading member of the '' genrō'', an élite group of senior statesmen who dominated Japan after the Meiji Restoration. As the Imperial Japanese Army's inaugural Chief of Staff, he was the chief architect of the Empire of Japan's military and its reactionary ideology. For this reason, some historians consider Yamagata to be the “father” of Japanese militarism. During the latter part of the Meiji Era, Yamagata vied against Marquess Itō Hirobumi for control over the nation's policies. After Itō was assassinated in 1909, he became the most powerful figure in Japan save for the Emperor himself. Henceforth, Prince Yamagata oversaw all policymaking within the empire until a falling-out with the Imperial family resulted in him losing power shortly before his death in February 1922. Early career Yamagata Tatsunosuke wa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Itō Hirobumi
was a Japanese politician and statesman who served as the first Prime Minister of Japan. He was also a leading member of the '' genrō'', a group of senior statesmen that dictated Japanese policy during the Meiji era. A London-educated samurai of the Chōshū Domain and a central figure in the Meiji Restoration, Itō Hirobumi chaired the bureau which drafted the Constitution for the newly formed Empire of Japan. Looking to the West for inspiration, Itō rejected the United States Constitution as too liberal and the Spanish Restoration as too despotic. Instead, he drew on British and German models, particularly the Prussian Constitution of 1850. Dissatisfied with Christianity's pervasiveness in European legal precedent, he replaced such religious references with those rooted in the more traditionally Japanese concept of a '' kokutai'' or "national polity" which hence became the constitutional justification for imperial authority. During the 1880s, Itō emerged as the mo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ansei Purge
was a multi-year event in Japanese history of the Edo period between 1858 and 1860, during which the Tokugawa shogunate imprisoned, executed, or exiled those who did not support its authority and foreign trade policies. The purge was undertaken by Ii Naosuke in opposition to Imperial Loyalists. History The Ansei Purge was ordered by Ii Naosuke on behalf of the bakufu faction.Cullen, Louis. (2003). ''A History of Japan, 1582–1941: Internal and External Worlds'', pp. 184–188. He was the Senior Minister during the period preceding the Meiji Restoration and was part of the '' kōbu gattai'', the movement opposed by the Revere the Emperor, Expel the Foreigner (''sonnō jōi'') faction. The purge was carried out in an effort to quell opposition to trade treaties with the United States, Russia, Great Britain, France and the Netherlands, particularly under the U.S. - Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce. It involved the removal from power all opposition by way of imprisonment, torture ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Black Ships
The Black Ships (in ja, 黒船, translit=kurofune, Edo period term) was the name given to Western vessels arriving in Japan in the 16th and 19th centuries. In 1543 Portuguese initiated the first contacts, establishing a trade route linking Goa to Nagasaki. The large carracks engaged in this trade had the hull painted black with pitch, and the term came to represent all Western vessels. In 1639, after suppressing a rebellion blamed on the influence of Christian thought, the ruling Tokugawa shogunate retreated into an isolationist policy, the Sakoku. During this "locked state", contact with Japan by Westerners was restricted to Dejima island at Nagasaki. In 1844, William II of the Netherlands urged Japan to open, but was rejected. On July 8, 1853, the U.S. Navy sent four warships into the bay at Edo and threatened to attack if Japan did not begin trade with the West. Their arrival marked the reopening of the country to political dialogue after more than two hundred years ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hagi, Yamaguchi
is a city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, which was incorporated on July 1, 1932. As of May 31, 2016, the city has an estimated population of 50,179 and a population density of 71.80 of persons per km². The total area is 698.86 km². History In the medieval period, Hagi was dominated by the Yoshimi clan, who built Hagi Castle, the ruins of which can be visited today. The Mōri clan became ''daimyōs'' of Chōshū Domain at the beginning of the Edo period and built Hagi Castle at the foot of Mt. Shizuki in 1608. They transferred the capital of the domain from Hiroshima to Hagi at the same time. Hagi then developed as the political center of Chōshū for over 250 years. When the Meiji Restoration came about in the 1860s, as the result of efforts by samurai from Chōshū and a number of other domains, this small city gained great historical significance. Many Japanese statesmen and Prime Ministers were born and brought up in this city. On March 6, 2005, Hagi absorb ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chōshū Domain
The , also known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871.Deal, William E. (2005) ''Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan,'' p. 81 The Chōshū Domain was based at Hagi Castle in Nagato Province, in the modern city of Hagi, located in the Chūgoku region of the island of Honshu. The Chōshū Domain was ruled for its existence by the '' tozama'' '' daimyō'' of the Mōri, whose branches also ruled the neighboring Chōfu and Kiyosue domains, and was assessed under the ''Kokudaka'' system with peak value of 369,000 ''koku''. The Chōshū Domain was the most prominent anti-Tokugawa domain and formed the Satchō Alliance with the rival Satsuma Domain during the Meiji Restoration, becoming instrumental in the establishment of the Empire of Japan and the Meiji oligarchy. The Chōshū Domain was dissolved in the abolition of the han system in 1871 by the Meiji government and its territory was ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Samurai
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of History of Japan#Medieval Japan (1185–1573/1600), medieval and Edo period, early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the ''daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They had high prestige and special privileges such as wearing Daishō, two swords and ''Kiri-sute gomen'' (right to kill anyone of a lower class in certain situations). They cultivated the ''bushido'' codes of martial virtues, indifference to pain, and unflinching loyalty, engaging in many local battles. Though they had predecessors in earlier military and administrative officers, the samurai truly emerged during the Kamakura shogunate, ruling from 1185 to 1333. They became the ruling political class, with significant power but also significant responsibility. During the 13th century, the samurai proved themselves as adept warriors against the invading Mongols. During the peaceful Edo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |