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Sakura Sōgorō
Kiuchi Sōgorō , also known as Sakura Sōgorō (1605 – September 1653) was a legendary Japanese farmer whose real family name was Kiuchi. He is said to have appealed directly to the ''shōgun'' in 1652 when he was serving as a headman of one of the villages in the Sakura Domain. In the appeal he requested the ''shōgun'' to help ease the peasants' burden of heavy taxes and bad crops. But since direct appeals were illegal in those days, he was arrested. It is widely believed that he was executed (crucified) along with his sons (and some sources claim also his wife) in 1653 by the ''daimyō'' of his feudal domain. However, no evidence for the existence of the incident has been found, although a farmer named Sōgorō was found listed on the record of the village. The legend of Sakura Sōgorō has been made into numerous stories and plays of kabuki, Jōruri, and so on (a.o. a play called "Self-Sacrificing Man Sakura Sōgo"). In 1851 the play was first staged at Nakamura-za. He is e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shimōsa Province
was a province of Japan in the area modern Chiba Prefecture, and Ibaraki Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Shimōsa''" in . It lies to the north of the Bōsō Peninsula (房総半島), whose name takes its first ''kanji'' from the name of Awa Province and its second from Kazusa and Shimōsa Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was or . Shimōsa is classified as one of the provinces of the Tōkaidō. It was bordered by Kazusa Province to the south, Musashi and Kōzuke Provinces to the west, and Hitachi and Shimotsuke Provinces to the north. Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, Shimōsa was ranked as a "great country" (大国) and a far country (遠国). History Shimōsa was originally part of a larger territory known as , which was divided into "upper" and "lower" portions (i.e. Kazusa and Shimōsa) during the reign of Emperor Kōtoku (645–654). It was well-known to the Imperial Court in Nara period Japan for its fertile lands, and is mentioned in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fukuzawa Yukichi
was a Japanese educator, philosopher, writer, entrepreneur and samurai who founded Keio University, the newspaper '' Jiji-Shinpō'', and the Institute for Study of Infectious Diseases. Fukuzawa was an early advocate for reform in Japan. His ideas about the organization of government and the structure of social institutions made a lasting impression on a rapidly changing Japan during the Meiji period. He appears on the current 10,000- Japanese yen banknote. Early life Fukuzawa Yukichi was born into an impoverished low-ranking samurai (military nobility) family of the Okudaira Clan of Nakatsu Domain (present-day Ōita, Kyushu) in 1835. His family lived in Osaka, the main trading center for Japan at the time. His family was poor following the early death of his father, who was also a Confucian scholar. At the age of 5 he started Han learning, and by the time he turned 14, he had studied major writings such as the '' Analects'', ''Tao Te Ching'', '' Zuo Zhuan'' and ''Zhuang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Tokaido Road (novel)
''The Tokaido Road'' is a 1991 historical novel by Lucia St. Clair Robson. Set in 1702, it is a fictional account of the famous Japanese revenge story of the Forty-Seven Ronin. In feudal Japan, the Tōkaidō (road), Tōkaidō (meaning "Eastern Sea Road") was the main road, which ran between the imperial capital of Kyoto (where the Emperor of Japan, Emperor lived), and the administrative capital of Edo (now Tokyo where the ''shōgun'' lived). External links''Tokaido Road''at Lucia St. Clair Robson's website Footnotes References * 1991 American novels American historical novels Novels by Lucia St. Clair Robson Fiction set in 1702 Novels set in Japan Ballantine Books books Novels set in the 18th century Japan in non-Japanese culture {{1990s-hist-novel-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Japan
The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to prehistoric times around 30,000 BC. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new inventions were introduced from Asia. During this period, the first known written reference to Japan was recorded in the Chinese ''Book of Han'' in the first century AD. Around the 3rd century BC, the Yayoi people from the continent immigrated to the Japanese archipelago and introduced iron technology and agricultural civilization. Because they had an agricultural civilization, the population of the Yayoi began to grow rapidly and ultimately overwhelmed the Jōmon people, natives of the Japanese archipelago who were hunter-gatherers. Between the fourth to ninth century, Japan's many kingdoms and tribes gradually came to be unified under a centralized government, nominally controlled by the Emperor of Japan. The imperial dynasty established ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tales Of Old Japan
''Tales of Old Japan'' (1871) is an anthology of short stories compiled by Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, Lord Redesdale, writing under the better known name of A.B. Mitford. These stories focus on various aspects of Japanese life before the Meiji Restoration. The book, which was written in 1871, forms an introduction to Japanese literature and culture, both through the stories, all adapted from Japanese sources, and Mitford's supplementary notes. Also included are Mitford's eyewitness accounts of a selection of Japanese rituals, ranging from harakiri (seppuku) and marriage to a selection of sermons. Table of contents * The Forty-Seven rônins * The Loves of Gompachi and Komurasaki * Kazuma's Revenge * A Story of the Otokodaté of Yedo * The Wonderful Adventures of Funakoshi Jiuyémon * The Eta Maiden and the Hatamoto * Fairy Tales ** The Tongue-cut Sparrow ** The Accomplished and Lucky Tea-kettle ** The Crackling Mountain ** The Story of the Old Man who Made Withered T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fukagawa Edo Museum
The Fukagawa Edo Museum is a museum of old Edo in the former Fukagawa ward (now Kōtō ward) of Tokyo, Japan. It consists of a large, covered, life-size replica of a Tokyo shitamachi neighborhood from around 1840, near the end of the Tokugawa period. It includes 11 buildings: houses, shops, a theater, a boathouse, a tavern, and a fire tower, all built using traditional techniques. Visitors can walk down the streets and enter the shops and houses. The lighting varies over time, to reproduce different times of day. The museum opened in 1986, six years after the Shitamachi Museum and seven years before the Edo-Tokyo Museum, all part of a national trend for building local history museums. The exhibits for all three were primarily designed by Total Media.Jordan Sand Jordan Sand is an American Japanologist. He is a professor of Japanese history and culture at Georgetown University with a focus on the architectural and cultural history of Japan. Biography Sand received his B.A. and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tada Kasuke
(date of birth unknown—died January 1, 1687, or in the third year of the Jōkyō era) was a Japanese farmer who led a failed appeal for lowered taxes in Azumidaira, a part of the Matsumoto Domain under the control of the Tokugawa shogunate. He was caught and executed along with twenty-seven farmers without trial. The rebellion has been called the Jōkyō Uprising, or the Kasuke Uprising. Family life Tada Kasuke was born into a wealthy farmer’s family in the late 1630s. The Tada family homestead was surrounded by moats and mounds, which suggests the power and position they held. Traditionally the head of the family became the headman of Nakagaya village, and Kasuke took over the position when his father retired. He was an educated man, who was said to have been influenced by the Wang Yangming school of Neo-Confucianism. In around 1680, he was fired as village head when authorities decided that he was too lenient on peasants. He had a wife named Otami, two sons, and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emperor Go-Kōmyō
was the 110th emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 後光明天皇 (110)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Go-Kōmyō's reign spanned the years from 1643 through 1654. This 17th-century sovereign was named after the 14th-century Nanboku-chō Emperor Kōmyō and ''go-'' (後), translates as ''later'', and thus, he could be called the "Later Emperor Kōmyō". The Japanese word ''go'' has also been translated to mean ''the second one'', and in some older sources, this emperor may be identified as "Kōmyō, the second", or as Kōmyō II". Genealogy Before Go-Kōmyō's accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name (his ''imina'') was ; and his pre-accession title was .Titsingh p. 412./ref> He was the fourth son of Emperor Go-Mizunoo. His mother was Fujiwara no Mitsuko, the daughter of the Minister of the Left (''Sadaijin''); but he was raised as if he were the son of Tōfuku-mon'in. His predecessor, Empress Meishō, was his e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sakoku
was the Isolationism, isolationist Foreign policy of Japan, foreign policy of the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate under which, for a period of 265 years during the Edo period (from 1603 to 1868), relations and trade between Japan and other countries were severely limited, and nearly all foreign nationals were banned from entering Japan, while common Japanese people were kept from leaving the country. The policy was enacted by the shogunate government (or ) under Tokugawa Iemitsu through a number of edicts and policies from 1633 to 1639, and ended after 1853 when the Perry Expedition commanded by Matthew C. Perry forced the opening of Japan to American (and, by extension, Western) trade through a series of Unequal treaty#Japan, treaties, called the Convention of Kanagawa. It was preceded by a period of largely unrestricted trade and widespread piracy. Japanese mariners and merchants traveled Asia, sometimes forming communities in certain cities, while official embassies and envoy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edo Society
Edo society refers to the society of Japan under the rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Edo society was a feudal society with strict social stratification, customs, and regulations intended to promote political stability. Japanese people were assigned into a hierarchy of social classes based on the Four Occupations that were hereditary. The Emperor of Japan and the '' kuge'' were the official ruling class of Japan but had no power. The ''Shōgun'' of the Tokugawa clan, the ''daimyō'', and their retainers of the ''samurai'' class administered Japan through their system of domains. The majority of Edo society were commoners divided into peasant, craftsmen, and merchant classes, and various " untouchable" groups. The ''Bakumatsu'' from 1853 on led to growing opposition to the Edo system and it was dismantled after the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Historic context Feudalism, social stratification, and explicit fine-grained ranking of pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rōjū
The , usually translated as '' Elder'', was one of the highest-ranking government posts under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. The term refers either to individual Elders, or to the Council of Elders as a whole; under the first two ''shōguns'', there were only two ''Rōjū''. The number was then increased to five, and later reduced to four. The ''Rōjū'' were appointed from the ranks of the ''fudai daimyōs'' with domains of between 25,000 and 50,000 ''koku''. Duties The ''Rōjū'' had a number of responsibilities, most clearly delineated in the 1634 ordinance that reorganized the government and created a number of new posts: :#Relations with the Emperor, the Court, and the Prince-Abbots. :#Supervision of those ''daimyō'' who controlled lands worth at least 10,000 ''koku''. :#Managing the forms taken by official documents in official communications. :#Supervision of the internal affairs of the Shogun's domains. :#Coinage, public works, and enfiefment. :#Governmental ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bakumatsu
was the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji government. The major ideological-political divide during this period was between the pro-imperial nationalists called and the shogunate forces, which included the elite swordsmen. Although these two groups were the most visible powers, many other factions attempted to use the chaos of to seize personal power.Hillsborough, ''page # needed'' Furthermore, there were two other main driving forces for dissent: first, growing resentment on the part of the (or outside lords), and second, growing anti-Western sentiment following the arrival of Matthew C. Perry. The first related to those lords whose predecessors had fought against Tokugawa forces at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, after which they had been permanently excluded from all powerful pos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
