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Satō Issai
was a '' Confucian scholar'' in late Edo to Bakumatsu period Japan. Biography Satō was the second son of Satō Nobuyoshi, a samurai in the service of Iwamura Domain, a minor (20,000 ''koku'') domain with holdings in Mino and Suruga Provinces. He was born in the domain's ''shimoyashiki'' ('lower residence') in Nihonbashi, Edo, and subsequently followed in his father's footsteps in service of the domain in 1790. In 1793, Matsudaira Norihira, the third son of the ''daimyō'' of Iwamura was adopted by the Hayashi clan, the Confucian advisors to the Tokugawa shogunate, taking the name of Hayashi Jussai. Satō was assigned to accompany him as his valet, and also entered the Shōheizaka Gakumonjo school for Confucian studies. He was a quick learner, and by 1805 had risen to the position of head of the school and was recognized as a Confucian master with many of his own disciples. Following the death of Hayashi Jussai in 1841, he was appointed as chairman of the school. Satō taugh ...
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Nihonbashi
is a business district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan, which sprung up around the bridge of the same name that has linked two sides of the Nihonbashi River at this site since the 17th century. The first wooden bridge was completed in 1603. The current bridge, designed by Tsumaki Yorinaka and constructed of stone on a steel frame, dates from 1911. The district covers a large area to the north and east of the bridge, reaching Akihabara to the north and the Sumida River to the east. Ōtemachi and Yaesu are to the west and Kyobashi to the south. Nihonbashi, together with Kyobashi and Kanda, is the core of Shitamachi, the original downtown center of Edo-Tokyo, before the rise of newer secondary centers such as Shinjuku and Shibuya. History The Nihonbashi district was a major mercantile center during the Edo period: its early development is largely credited to the Mitsui family, who based their wholesaling business in Nihonbashi and developed Japan's first department store, Mit ...
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Sonnō Jōi
was a '' yojijukugo'' (four-character compound) phrase used as the rallying cry and slogan of a political movement in Japan in the 1850s and 1860s, during the Bakumatsu period. Based on Neo-Confucianism and Japanese nativism, the movement sought to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate and restore the power of the Emperor of Japan. Etymology ''Sonnō jōi'' is the Japanese reading of the Chinese idiom ''Zunwang Rangyi'' (; "Revere the King, Expel the Barbarians"). During the Spring and Autumn period of China, Chancellor Guan Zhong of Qi initiated a policy known as ''Zunwang Rangyi'', in reference to the Zhou kings. Adopting and adhering to it, Duke Huan of Qi assembled the Chinese feudal lords to strike down the threat of barbarians from China. For it, Confucius himself praised Guan Zhong for the preservation of Chinese civilization through the example of the contrast in the hairstyles and clothing styles between them and barbaric peoples. Through the '' Analects'' of C ...
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Monuments Of Japan
is a collective term used by the Japanese government's Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties to denote Cultural Properties of JapanIn this article, capitals indicate an official designation as opposed to a simple definition, e.g "Cultural Properties" as opposed to "cultural properties". as historic locations such as shell mounds, ancient tombs, sites of palaces, sites of forts or castles, monumental dwelling houses and other sites of high historical or scientific value; gardens, bridges, gorges, mountains, and other places of great scenic beauty; and natural features such as animals, plants, and geological or mineral formations of high scientific value. Designated monuments of Japan The government ''designates'' (as opposed to '' registers'') "significant" items of this kind as Cultural Properties (文化財 ''bunkazai'') and classifies them in one of three categories: * * , * . Items of particularly high significance may receive a higher classification as: * * * ...
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Roppongi
Roppongi (, , 'six trees') is a district of Minato, Tokyo, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, famous for the affluent Roppongi Hills development area and popular night club scene. A few foreign embassies are located near Roppongi, and the night life is popular with locals and foreigners alike. It is in the central part of Tokyo, south of Akasaka, Tokyo, Akasaka and north of Azabu. History The name ''Roppongi'', which appears to have been coined around 1660, literally means "six trees". According to one account, the name comes from six very old and large Zelkova serrata, zelkova trees that used to mark the area; the first three were cleared, and the last were destroyed during World War II. Another legend has it that the name comes from the fact that six ''daimyōs'' lived nearby during the Edo period, each with the kanji character for "tree" or a kind of tree in their names. Roppongi was not extensively populated until after the Meiji Restoration, although the area was trafficked for centuri ...
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Shigeru Yoshida
was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1946 to 1947 and again from 1948 to 1954, serving through most of the country's occupation after World War II. Yoshida played a major role in determining the course of post-war Japan by forging a strong relationship with the United States and pursuing economic recovery. Born in Tokyo to a former samurai family, Yoshida graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in 1906 and joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He held various assignments abroad, including in China, where he advocated increased Japanese influence. From 1928 to 1930, Yoshida served as vice minister of foreign affairs, then served as ambassador to Italy until 1932. In 1936, he was considered for foreign minister in the cabinet of Kōki Hirota, but he was opposed by the Army, who strongly identified him with liberalism and friendship with Great Britain and the United States. Yoshida served as ambassador to Britain from 1936 to 1938. ...
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Prime Minister Of Japan
The is the head of government of Japan. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet of Japan and has the ability to select and dismiss its ministers of state. The prime minister also serves as the commander-in-chief of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, Japan Self Defence Forces. The National Diet (parliament) nominates the prime minister from among its members (typically from among the members of the House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives). He is then formally appointed by the Emperor of Japan, emperor. The prime minister must retain the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office. The prime minister lives and works at the Naikaku Sōri Daijin Kantei (Prime Minister's Official Residence) in Nagatachō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo, close to the National Diet Building. List of prime ministers of Japan, Sixty-five men have served as prime minister, the first of whom was Itō Hirobumi taking office on 22 December 1885. The List of prime minist ...
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Taguchi Ukichi
was a Japanese historian and Georgist economist of the Meiji period, and one of the foremost proponents of the '' bunmeishi'' view of history. He was elected to the House of Representatives of Japan in 1894. He is sometimes referred to as "the Japanese Adam Smith",De Bary, William Theodore, Carol Gluck and Arthur E. Tiedemann eds. (2005). ''Sources of Japanese Tradition: Volume Two: 1600 to 2000''. Second Edition. New York: Columbia University Press. pp1227ff. as he wrote many journal articles advocating certain economic reforms and policies. Biography Perhaps Taguchi's most famous work is his ''Short History of Japanese Civilization'' (, ''Nippon kaika shōshi''). He put forth one of the first, and most famous, ''bunmeishi'' versions of Japanese history, focusing on the Japanese people and their culture, rather than on the governments, and on the role of the people in the country's overall progress over the ages. This approach differed from that of so-called '' kokushi'' historia ...
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Sakoku
is the most common name for the isolationist foreign policy of the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate under which, during the Edo period (from 1603 to 1868), relations and trade between Japan and other countries were severely limited, and almost 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 ('' bakufu'') under Tokugawa Iemitsu through a number of edicts and policies from 1633 to 1639. The term originates from the manuscript work written by Japanese astronomer and translator Shizuki Tadao in 1801. Shizuki invented the word while translating the works of the 17th-century German traveller Engelbert Kaempfer namely, his book, 'the history of Japan', posthumously released in 1727. Japan was not completely isolated under the policy. was a system in which strict regulations were placed on commerce and foreign relations by the shogunate and certain feudal domains ...
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Convention Of Kanagawa
The Convention of Kanagawa, also known as the or the , was a treaty signed between the United States and the Tokugawa Shogunate on March 31, 1854. Unequal treaty#Japan, Signed under threat of force, it effectively meant the end of Japan's 220-year-old policy of national seclusion () by opening the ports of Shimoda, Shizuoka, Shimoda and Hakodate to American vessels.Perry It also ensured the safety of American castaways and established the position of an American consul (representative), consul in Japan. The treaty precipitated the signing of similar treaties establishing diplomatic relations with other Western powers. Isolation of Japan Since the beginning of the 17th century, the Tokugawa Shogunate pursued a policy of isolating the country from outside influences. Foreign trade was maintained only with the Netherlands, Dutch and the Qing Dynasty, Chinese and was conducted exclusively at Nagasaki under a strict government monopoly. This "''Pax Tokugawa''" period is largely assoc ...
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Hayashi Akira
(also known as ''Hayashi Fukusai'') was an Edo period scholar-diplomat serving the Tokugawa shogunate in a variety of roles similar to those performed by serial Hayashi clan neo-Confucianists since the time of Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was the hereditary '' Daigaku-no-kami'' descendant of Hayashi Razan, the first head of the Tokugawa shogunate's neo-Confucian academy in Edo, the ''Shōhei-kō'' ('' Yushima Seidō''). Academician Hayashi ''Daigaku-no-kami'' Akira was a member of the Hayashi clan of Confucian scholars, each of whom were ''ad hoc'' personal advisers to the shōgun's prominent figures in the educational training system for the shogunal bureaucrats. The progenitor of this lineage of scholars was Hayashi Razan, who lived to witness his philosophical and pragmatic reasoning become a foundation for the dominant ideology of the ''bakufu'' until the end of the 19th century. This evolution developed in part from the official Hayashi ''schema'' equating samurai with the cult ...
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Nakamura Masanao
was a Japanese people, Japanese educator and leading figure during the Meiji period. He also went by his pen name . Biography Born to a samurai family in Edo, Nakamura was originally a Confucianism, Confucian scholar. In 1866, as an academic supervisor, he accompanied a group of 14 Tokugawa bakufu students to study in Great Britain. The downfall of the Tokugawa regime brought an early end to the students studies in London and Nakamura returned to Tokyo in June 1868. On his return to Japan, he translated Self-Help (Smiles book), Self-Help, by Samuel Smiles, and ''On Liberty'', by John Stuart Mill into Japanese. The two texts were published in 1871 and 1872 respectively, and proved to be tremendously popular. He taught at the Tokyo Imperial University, founded a school, Dōjinsha, and headed what later became the Ochanomizu University. Nakamura was also noted for his promotion of educational opportunities for women and, with the help of Henry Faulds, a Scottish physician and ...
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Yokoi Shōnan
(born Yokoi Tokiari; September 22, 1809 – February 15, 1869) was a Bakumatsu and early Meiji period scholar and political reformer in Japan, influential around the fall of the Tokugawa bakufu. Life and career Yokoi was a ''samurai'' born in Kumamoto, Higo Province (present-day Kumamoto Prefecture), and a distant descendant of Hōjō Takatoki. Yokoi married Yajima Tsuseko and had two children with her, Miyako and Tokio. He was sent by the domain to Edo in 1839 for studies, and developed contacts with pro-reform members of the Mito domain. After his return to Kumamoto, he started a group to promote the reform of domain administration along Neo-Confucianism lines, opening a domain school called ''Shōnan-do''. In 1857, he was invited by the ''daimyō'' of Echizen, Matsudaira Yoshinaga to become his political advisor. While in Fukui, Yokoi wrote "Kokuze Sanron" (the Three Major Discussion of State Policy). One of the topics covered in Yokoi’s treatise was on sta ...
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