KURASHIKI, Okayama Prefecture A feudal warlord was so incensed by the temerity of the United States in the 19th century to dispatch warships to Japan and demand the isolated country open its ports to foreign trade that he plotted to seize one of the vessels and kill the high-ranking delegates on board, a letter from the period shows.
Ikkō-ikki was a name given to peasants' revolts in 15th and 16th century Japan. Most of the organizers and leaders of the revolt were Buddhist priests of
Empire of Japan, historical Japanese empire founded on January 3, 1868, when supporters of the emperor Meiji overthrew Yoshinobu, the last Tokugawa shogun. Power would remain nominally vested in the imperial house until the defeat of Japan in World War II and the enactment of Japan’s postwar constitution on May 3, 1947.
The period that came to be known as the Meiji Restoration has as its focal point the coronation of the boy emperor Mutsuhito, who took as his reign name Meiji, or “Enlightened Rule.” With the ascent of Meiji, the throne replaced the Tokugawa bakufu, or shogunate, as the