Bakumatsu

I. Internal frictions and causes for discontent

A. Samurai

fixed, low incomes

arbitrary cuts by daimyo

merchant wealth and status

too few jobs and favoritism

frozen ranks within castes

merit v. birth controversy

corruption at the top

B. Peasants

taxation

rents and tenant farming

loans, usury and forclosures

sankin kotai and absentee landlords

yonaoshi [plowing the earth]

C. Chonin [townspeople]

Shogunal and daimyo monopolies

wealth and status

need for new markets?

II. Ideologies for revolution

A. Zhu Xi Confucianism: orthodoxy

rectification of names and Japanese history

the Mito school

Nihongi and Kojiki

the Shogun as servant to the divine

B. Kokugaku [National Learning]

Motoori Norinaga and The Tale of Genji

China: dry, masculine, logical and limited

Japan: wet, feminine, intuitive and limitless

Shinto and the Divine Emperor

Amaterasu [Sun goddess]

Shogun as usurper?

Shogun as [disloyal?] servant

C. Rangaku [Dutch Learning]

geography, widening horizons and fear

early warning system?

mathematics and expansionism

medicine and anti-Confucianism

astronomy and Amaterasu

Rangaku and Kokugaku

strange bedfellows?

same coin, different sides?

III. The final countdown

A. The arrival of the West

early Russian attempts

the Opium War, 1839-1841

Commodore Mathew Perry, 1853-1854

the Russians at Nagasaki

sumo, geisha and delay

[the American Civil War?]

the trouble with public opinion polls

"treaties of trade and friendship"

ports and land access

extraterritoriality

tariff control

most-favored-nation

Townsend Harris, 1856-1858

B. Yokohama: the wild, wild, East

first impressions: toilets, brothels and gunfights

the real Mme. Butterfly [Loti and Okiku]

ukiyo-e: a certain fascination

C. Shogunal efforts at reform

encouragement for Rangaku scholars

missionary controls and teachers

Katsu Rintaro [Kaishu]

Fukuzawa Yukichi

the embassies: 1860 and 1863

exchange students

Ii Naosuke and shogunal shenanigans

D. Shishi: the opposition

Satsuma, Choshu, Hizen and Tosa

low ranking samurai and rich peasants

young, frustrated kuge and the Meiji emperor

Yoshida Shoin [Choshu], 1830-1859

stowaway attempt

house arrest

reaction to Harris treaty

assassination attempt and execution

E. From shishi to westernizers

sonno-joi and terrorism

Choshu v. Great Britain, 1863

learning from the West to defeat the West