Japan

The resignation of the shōgun was accepted by the emperor, on the understanding that a conference of the daimyōs was to be called and its opinion taken in reference to the subse...

Before going on to the meagre story which is supplied to us by the early years of Japanese history, it will be well to glean from the myths and legends which tradition has prese...

The death of Nobunaga in the forty-ninth year of his age left the country in a critical condition. Sakuma and Shibata had been his active retainers and generals for many years,...

The theory of the Japanese government during the greater part of its long career has been that of an absolute monarchy. The emperor was supposed to hold in his hands the supreme...

Ieyasu was not only a general of eminent abilities, who had from his youth been accustomed to the responsibility and management of great campaigns, but he was a statesman who kn...

We have now come to the time when the movements which resulted in the establishment of the empire of Japan took place. The events are still overlaid with myth and legend, which...

The outrages which now succeeded each other with terrible frequency were not confined to the native members of the opposing parties. Foreigners, who were so essentially the caus...

To the readers of the story of Japan the most interesting episode is that of the introduction and subsequent extirpation of Christianity. We have therefore given an account of t...

The most potent cause which led to the breaking down of the Tokugawa Shōgunate, was the attitude which the empire had assumed toward foreign nations. There were other causes whi...

In almost the worst period of the Ashikaga anarchy, A.D. 1542, the Portuguese made their first appearance in Japan. Galvano, who had been governor of the Moluccas, gives an acco...

The first knowledge of the Japanese empire was brought to Europe by Marco Polo after his return from his travels in China in A.D. 1295. He had been told in China of “Chipangu,(1...

The art of writing and printing was not introduced into Japan until A.D. 284, when it was brought from China. Up to that time therefore no written accounts existed or could exis...

The death of Yoritomo brought into prominence the very same system which had been the bane of the imperial house during many centuries. His son and the hereditary successor to h...

Among all the friends and retainers of Hideyoshi the most prominent and able was Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was six years younger than Hideyoshi, and therefore in A.D. 1598, when the T...

1616, on the business of the English trade, at which time he visited Adams’ seat, which he calls “Phebe,” doubtless mistaking the sound of the real name “Meni.”—See Chamberlain’...

In the present population of Japan there are two distinct races, the Ainos and the Japanese. Of the former there is only a small number now remaining in the island of Yezo. Ther...

207 The Jesuit historians relate with malicious satisfaction how one of the Spanish friars, in a dispute with one of Adams’ shipwrecked company, to sustain the authority of the...

223 A Japanese writer thus sums up the result of the effort to introduce Christianity into his country: “After nearly a hundred years of Christianity and foreign intercourse, th...

It is the object of this book to trace the story of Japan from its beginnings to the establishment of constitutional government. Concerned as this story is with the period of va...