Overthrow of the Tokugawa

With the arrival of the Westerners in the mid-1800s, two of Japan's territorial lords began acquiring saltpeter -- superior in quality to the damp, old saltpeter stored by shogunate. The shogunate's monopoly on gunpowder was at an end. Territorial lords combined forces against the shogunate. Together they were led by a clique of aristocrats believing in unity and consensus, and with them were nineteen samurai chosen from several domains of the territorial lords (han). The U.S., British, French and Dutch forces joined against the shogunate, shelling coastal forts and sinking the shogun's ships. Japan's wealthy merchants supported the war against the Tokugawa shogunate, while ordinary townspeople were, as usual, distracted by their own survival concerns.

The territorial lords were in alliance with Japan's new monarch, Meiji, who, in 1868, declared the end of the shogunate's 265 year-rule -- although the war would not end until 1869. Meiji, at age fifteen, had no military force or lands of his own. He remained a figurehead, but, with the victory of the opponents of the shogunate the emperor's power was considered restored, with Meiji as Japan's 122nd emperor. Emperor Meiji was moved from Kyoto to the former shogun's place of rule, in Edo, renamed Tokyo -- Eastern Capital.

A slogan for opponents of the shogunate had been "honor the emperor, expel the barbarian," but the leaders of the military campaign against the shogunate had come face to face with the probability that an attempt to "expel the barbarian," would evoke a military response from the Western powers. Terrorist attacks on foreigners continued in 1868, and those ruling in the name of Emperor Meiji punished the terrorists. They promised the West that the treaties with Japan would be scrupulously observed, and Emperor Meiji approved a memo from the regime's leaders that expulsion was to be disavowed. For the sake of strengthening Japan, the leaders of the military victory pursued a policy of full cultural and commercial relations with the West. They wanted Japan to be an equal member in the world community of nations and eligible to participate in international power politics.

Facing the Western powers and believing in a need for a national military force and tax system, leaders of the victory over the Tokugawa believed that Japan needed centralized rule rather than power divided among the han. Four of the daimyo turned control of their han over to what was in theory the authority of the emperor, and in 1871 the other daimyo followed those four. The daimyo were made governors, given government stipends and moved to Tokyo. What had been the han became prefectures. People who had directed their loyalty to their daimyo began to direct their loyalty to the emperor.

Leaders of the military victory over the Tokugawa had placed Emperor Meiji on a sacred pedestal, and they associated the emperor with Shinto ideology. Shinto had the patronage of the Meiji government. Across the centuries, Shinto had fused with Buddhist worship, with Shinto shrines common on Buddhist temple grounds, and now an effort was underway to free Shinto from Buddhist domination. Violence and the breaking of images was committed against Buddhism. Buddhist temple lands were confiscated, and within a decade nearly 18,000 Buddhist temples were closed.

In Western society, everyone, king and beggar, was equal before God, the order in heaven remained disconnected from the social order on earth, and the soul of man was not worshipped as a god. In the new Japan the emperor was a living god, father of the nation and favored in heaven.

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