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117-684: Rangaku ( Kyūjitai : 蘭學 , English: Dutch learning ), and by extension Yōgaku ( Japanese : 洋学 , " Western learning ") , is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima , which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the country was closed to foreigners from 1641 to 1853 because of the Tokugawa shogunate 's policy of national isolation ( sakoku ). Through Rangaku, some people in Japan learned many aspects of

234-467: A magnification of 60, and allowed him to make very detailed studies of sun spots and lunar topography. Four of his telescopes remain to this day. Microscopes were invented in the Netherlands during the 17th century, but it is unclear when exactly they reached Japan. Clear descriptions of microscopes are made in the 1720 Nagasaki Night Stories Written ( 長崎夜話草 , Nagasaki Yawasō ) and in

351-464: A book named Odd Devices of the Far West ( 遠西奇器述 , Ensei Kiki-Jutsu ) in 1845, which was finally published in 1854 as the need to spread Western knowledge became even more obvious with Commodore Perry ’s opening of Japan and the subsequent increased contact with industrial Western nations. The book contains detailed descriptions of steam engines and steamships. Kawamoto had apparently postponed

468-549: A century. They do not significantly differ in accuracy with modern ones, just like contemporary maps of European lands. The description of the natural world made considerable progress through Rangaku; this was influenced by the Encyclopedists and promoted by von Siebold (a German doctor in the service of the Dutch at Dejima). Itō Keisuke created books describing animal species of the Japanese islands, with drawings of

585-464: A conflict arose among the shugo daimyo as to whether Yoshimi or Yoshihisa would be the next shogun. The Hatakeyama and Shiba clans were also divided into two opposing factions over succession within their own clans, and Hosokawa Katsumoto and Yamana Sōzen , who were father-in-law and son-in-law, were politically at odds with each other. In 1467, these conflicts finally led to the Ōnin War between

702-462: A descendant of the Taira clan , was approached for the position of shogun a month before his death. The shogun's officials were collectively referred to as the bakufu ( 幕府 , IPA: [baꜜkɯ̥ɸɯ] ; "tent government") ; they were the ones who carried out the actual duties of administration, while the imperial court retained only nominal authority. The tent symbolized the shogun's role as

819-512: A manual of physical sciences in 1810 – Kyūri-Tsū ( 窮理通 , roughly "On Natural Laws") – based on a combination of thirteen Dutch books, after learning Dutch from just one Dutch-Japanese dictionary. Electrical experiments were widely popular from around 1770. Following the invention of the Leyden jar in 1745, similar electrostatic generators were obtained for the first time in Japan from the Dutch around 1770 by Hiraga Gennai . Static electricity

936-483: A member of the sekkan family , as the fourth shogun. In 1232, the Goseibai Shikimoku was enacted, the first codified law by a warrior class government in Japan. In 1246, Hojo Tokiyori became the fifth shikken , and in 1252 he installed Prince Munetaka as the sixth shogun. The appointment of a member of the imperial family as shogun made the shogun more and more like a puppet. After retiring from

1053-547: A near-photographic quality. Entomology was extremely popular, and details about insects, often obtained through the use of microscopes ( see above ), were widely publicized. In a rather rare case of "reverse Rangaku" (that is, the science of isolationist Japan making its way to the West), an 1803 treatise on the raising of silk worms and manufacture of silk , the Secret Notes on Sericulture ( 養蚕秘録 , Yōsan Hiroku )

1170-399: A new palace and established four new administrative bodies. However, the nobles who had long been out of politics and the newly appointed samurai were unfamiliar with administrative practices, and the court was unable to handle the drastic increase in lawsuits. Emperor Go-Daigo gave high positions and rewards only to the nobles, and the warriors began to swear allegiance to Ashikaga Takauji, who

1287-500: A raid, defeating many of his enemies, but eventually ran out of strength and was killed. The Azuchi-Momoyama period refers to the period when Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi were in power. They and Tokugawa Ieyasu are the three unifiers of Japan. The name "Azuchi-Momoyama" comes from the fact that Nobunaga's castle, Azuchi Castle , was located in Azuchi, Shiga , and Fushimi Castle , where Hideyoshi lived after his retirement,

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1404-522: A simplified and a traditional form: In 2010, 67 hyōgai kanji were added to the Jōyō Kanji List; 2 of them have a traditional and a simplified form: Kokuji are characters that were created in Japan and were not taken over from China. Some of them, e.g. 腺 , are now also used in Chinese, but most of them are not. The Jōyō Kanji List currently contains 9 kokuji ( 働 and 畑 are kyōiku kanji): 匁

1521-451: A subset of the characters in use (the tōyō kanji) and excluded characters used in proper names. Therefore, kyūjitai are still used in personal names in Japan today (see jinmeiyō kanji ). In modern Japanese, kyūjitai that appear in the official spelling of proper names are sometimes replaced with the modern shinjitai form. In the 2,136 Jōyō Kanji ( 常用漢字 ) , there are 364 pairs of simplified and traditional characters (for example, 亜

1638-448: A thorough medical education they helped with the naturalistic studies of von Siebold. The Rangaku movement became increasingly involved in Japan's political debate over foreign isolation, arguing that the imitating of Western culture would strengthen rather than harm Japan. The Rangaku increasingly disseminated contemporary Western innovations. In 1839, scholars of Western studies (called 蘭学者 " rangaku-sha ") briefly suffered repression by

1755-620: A trading post in Hirado from 1609 till 1641 before they had to move to Dejima), and their movements were carefully watched and strictly controlled, being limited initially to one yearly trip to give their homage to the shōgun in Edo . They became instrumental, however, in transmitting to Japan some knowledge of the Industrial and Scientific Revolution that was occurring in Europe: In 1720

1872-487: Is no consensus among the various authors since some sources consider Tajihi no Agatamori the first, others say Ōtomo no Otomaro , other sources assure that the first was Sakanoue no Tamuramaro , while others avoid the problem by just mentioning from the first Kamakura shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo . Originally, the title of sei-i taishōgun ("Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force Against

1989-674: Is often said that one must be of the Minamoto lineage to become a shogun, but this is not true. While it is true that the Minamoto lineage was respected as a lineage suitable for the position of shogun, the fourth and fifth shoguns of the Kamakura shogunate were from the Fujiwara lineage (although their mothers were from the Minamoto lineage), and the sixth through ninth shoguns were from the imperial lineage. Oda Nobunaga , who claimed to be

2106-492: Is often translated generalissimo and is also used for such military leaders of foreign nations by the Japanese. Though shogun ( 将軍 ) now predominantly refers to the historical position sei-i taishōgun ( 征夷大将軍 ) in Japanese, this term simply means "a general" in other East Asian languages, such as Chinese ( simplified Chinese : 将军 ; traditional Chinese : 將軍 ; pinyin : jiāngjūn ; Jyutping : zoeng1 gwan1 ). In fact, since sei-i taishōgun ( 征夷大将軍 )

2223-446: Is the 1787 publication of Morishima Chūryō ’s Sayings of the Dutch ( 紅毛雑話 , Kōmō Zatsuwa , lit. "Red Hair Chitchat") , recording much knowledge received from the Dutch. The book details a vast array of topics: it includes objects such as microscopes and hot air balloons ; discusses Western hospitals and the state of knowledge of illness and disease; outlines techniques for painting and printing with copper plates ; it describes

2340-481: Is the abbreviation of the historical title sei-i taishōgun ( 征夷大将軍 ): Thus, a literal translation of sei-i taishōgun would be 'Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force Against the Barbarians'. The term originally referred to the general who commanded the army sent to fight the tribes of northern Japan, but after the twelfth century, the term was used to designate the leader of the samurai . The term

2457-421: Is the simplified form of 亞 ). The kanji 弁 is used to simplify three different traditional kanji ( 辨 , 瓣 , and 辯 ). Within the jōyō kanji, there are 62 characters the old forms of which may cause problems displaying: Kyōiku kanji (26): Secondary-school kanji (36): These characters are Unicode CJK Unified Ideographs for which the old form (kyūjitai) and the new form (shinjitai) have been unified under

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2574-567: The Asahi-Maru , were designed and built, mainly based on Dutch books and plans. Some were built within a mere year or two of Perry's visit. Similarly, steam engines were immediately studied. Tanaka Hisashige , who had made the Myriad year clock , created Japan's first steam engine, based on Dutch drawings and the observation of a Russian steam ship in Nagasaki in 1853. These developments led to

2691-579: The Edict to Repel Foreign Ships . The edict was eventually repealed in 1842. Rangaku ultimately became obsolete when Japan opened up during the last decades of the Tokugawa regime (1853–67). Students were sent abroad, and foreign employees ( o-yatoi gaikokujin ) came to Japan to teach and advise in large numbers, leading to an unprecedented and rapid modernization of the country. It is often argued that Rangaku kept Japan from being completely uninformed about

2808-562: The Heiji rebellion and became the first samurai-born aristocratic class, eventually becoming daijō-daijin ( 太政大臣 , Chancellor of the Realm) , the highest position of the aristocratic class, and the Taira clan monopolized important positions at the imperial court and wielded power. The seizure of political power by Taira no Kiyomori was the first instance of the warrior class leading politics for

2925-603: The Hōjō clan and kanrei ( 管領 ) of the Hosokawa clan . In addition, Taira no Kiyomori and Toyotomi Hideyoshi were leaders of the warrior class who did not hold the position of shogun, the highest office of the warrior class, yet gained the positions of daijō-daijin ( 太政大臣 , Chancellor of the Realm) and kampaku ( 関白 , Imperial Regent) , the highest offices of the aristocratic class. As such, they ran their governments as its de facto rulers. The office of shogun

3042-496: The Protestant Reformation , the Netherlands were a free state , attracting leading thinkers such as René Descartes . Altogether, thousands of such books were published, printed, and circulated. Japan had one of the largest urban populations in the world, with more than one million inhabitants in Edo , and many other large cities such as Osaka and Kyoto , offering a large, literate market to such novelties. In

3159-591: The Satsuma fief building Japan's first steam ship, the Unkō-Maru  [ ja ] (雲行丸), in 1855, barely two years after Japan's first encounter with such ships in 1853 during Perry's visit. In 1858, the Dutch officer Kattendijke commented: There are some imperfections in the details, but I take my hat off to the genius of the people who were able to build these without seeing an actual machine, but only relied on simple drawings. Following Commodore Perry's visit,

3276-541: The Taira clan became Kokushi ( 国司 ) , or overseers of various regions, and accumulated wealth by taking samurai from various regions as their retainers. In the struggle to succeed Emperor Toba, former Emperor Sutoku and Emperor Go-Shirakawa , each with his samurai class on his side, fought the Hōgen rebellion , which was won by Emperor Go-Shirakawa, who had Taira no Kiyomori and Minamoto no Yoshitomo on his side. Later, Taira no Kiyomori defeated Minamoto no Yoshitomo in

3393-644: The Three Sacred Treasures (Imperial regalia , 三種の神器). On the other hand, Ashikaga Takauji installed Emperor Kōmyō as the new emperor without the Three Sacred Treasures in 1336. Ashikaga Takauji tried to make peace with Emperor Go-Daigo, but the negotiations failed when Emperor Go-Daigo refused. Emperor Go-Daigo moved to Yoshino , and the country entered the Nanboku-cho period (1336-1392), in which two emperors existed at

3510-403: The daimyo of various regions fought to expand their own power. Daimyo who became more powerful as the shogunate's control weakened were called sengoku daimyo ( 戦国大名 ) , and they often came from shugo daimyo , shugodai ( 守護代 , deputy shugo) , and kokujin or kunibito ( 国人 , local masters) . In other words, sengoku daimyo differed from shugo daimyo in that sengoku daimyo

3627-590: The elekiteru is described as a machine that allows one to take sparks out of the human body, to treat sick parts. Elekiterus were sold widely to the public in curiosity shops. Many electric machines derived from the elekiteru were then invented, particularly by Sakuma Shōzan . Japan's first electricity manual, Fundamentals of the elekiteru Mastered by the Dutch ( 阿蘭陀始制エレキテル究理原 , Oranda Shisei Erekiteru Kyūri-Gen ) by Hashimoto Soukichi ( ja:橋本宗吉 ), published in 1811, describes electrical phenomena, such as experiments with electric generators, conductivity through

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3744-572: The scientific and technological revolution occurring in Europe at that time, helping the country build up the beginnings of a theoretical and technological scientific base, which helps to explain Japan's success in its radical and speedy modernization following the forced American opening of the country to foreign trade in 1854. The Dutch traders at Dejima in Nagasaki were the only Europeans tolerated in Japan from 1639 until 1853 (the Dutch had

3861-457: The 13th shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru , the shogun already had few direct fiefs and direct military forces, and his sphere of influence was limited to a few lands around Kyoto, losing both economic and military power. As a result, Ashikaga Yoshiteru was often chased out of Kyoto by the sengoku daimyo Miyoshi Nagayoshi and his forces, and was finally killed in an attack by the forces of Miyoshi Yoshitsugu and Matsunaga Hisahide . Ashikaga Yoshiteru

3978-744: The 1787 Sayings of the Dutch . In 1805, almost twenty years later, the Swiss Johann Caspar Horner and the Prussian Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff , two scientists of the Kruzenshtern mission that also brought the Russian ambassador Nikolai Rezanov to Japan, made a hot air balloon out of Japanese paper ( washi ) and made a demonstration of the new technology in front of about 30 Japanese delegates. Hot air balloons would mainly remain curiosities, becoming

4095-521: The 1787 book Saying of the Dutch . Although Europeans mainly used microscopes to observe small cellular organisms, the Japanese mainly used them for entomological purposes, creating detailed descriptions of insects . Magic lanterns, first described in the West by Athanasius Kircher in 1671, became very popular attractions in multiple forms in 18th-century Japan. The mechanism of a magic lantern, called "shadow picture glasses" ( 影絵眼鏡 , Kagee Gankyō )

4212-434: The 17th century high-ranking officials ordered telescopes, clocks, oil paintings, microscopes, spectacles, maps, globes, birds, dogs, donkeys, and other rarities for their personal entertainment and for scientific studies. Although most Western books were forbidden from 1640, rules were relaxed under shōgun Tokugawa Yoshimune in 1720, which started an influx of Dutch books and their translations into Japanese. One example

4329-486: The 5th shogun, died of illness at the age of 19, so the 6th shogun was chosen from among Yoshimochi's four brothers, and to ensure fairness, a lottery was held. The sixth shogun was Ashikaga Yoshinori . However, he was not educated to be a shogun, and his temperamental and despotic behavior caused resentment, and he was assassinated by Akamatsu Mitsusuke during the Kakitsu Rebellion . This led to instability in

4446-458: The Ashikaga shogunate system. Ashikaga Yoshimasa , the 8th shogun, tried to strengthen the power of the shogun, but his close associates did not follow his instructions, leading to political chaos and increasing social unrest. Since he had no sons, he tried to install his younger brother Ashikaga Yoshimi as the ninth shogun, but when his wife Hino Tomiko gave birth to Ashikaga Yoshihisa ,

4563-520: The Barbarians") was given to military commanders during the early Heian period for the duration of military campaigns against the Emishi , who resisted the governance of the Kyoto -based imperial court. Sakanoue no Tamuramaro (758–811) was a Japanese general who fought against the Emishi tribes of northern Japan (settled in the territory that today integrates the provinces of Mutsu and Dewa). Tamarumaro

4680-411: The Dutch delegation, established exchanges with Japanese students. He invited Japanese scientists to show them the marvels of Western science, learning, in return, much about the Japanese and their customs. In 1824, von Siebold began a medical school in the outskirts of Nagasaki. Soon this Narutaki-juku ( 鳴滝塾 ) grew into a meeting place for about fifty students from all over the country. While receiving

4797-647: The Dutch, and then analyzed and translated into Japanese. Great debates occurred between the proponents of traditional Chinese medicine and those of the new Western learning, leading to waves of experiments and dissections . The accuracy of Western learning made a sensation among the population, and new publications such as the Anatomy ( 蔵志 , Zōshi , lit. "Stored Will") of 1759 and the New Text on Anatomy ( 解体新書 , Kaitai Shinsho , lit. "Understanding [of the] Body New Text") of 1774 became references. The latter

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4914-524: The Eastern Army, led by Hosokawa Katsumoto and including Hatakeyama Masanaga , Shiba Yoshitoshi, and Ashikaga Yoshimi, and the Western Army, led by Yamana Sōzen and including Hatakeyama Yoshinari, Shiba Yoshikado, and Ashikaga Yoshihisa.　In 1469, the war spread to the provinces, but in 1473, Hosokawa Katsumoto and Yamana Sōzen, the leaders of both armies, were dead, and in 1477, the war ended when

5031-631: The Edo shogunate in the Bansha no goku ( 蛮社の獄 , roughly "imprisonment of the society for barbarian studies") incident, due to their opposition to the introduction of the death penalty against foreigners (other than Dutch) coming ashore, recently enacted by the Bakufu . The incident was provoked by actions such as the Morrison Incident , in which an unarmed American merchant ship was fired upon under

5148-538: The Expeditionary Force Against the Barbarians") , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor , shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamakura period and Sengoku period when the shoguns themselves were figureheads, with real power in the hands of the shikken ( 執権 ) of

5265-599: The Fujiwara regime. Taira no Masakado , who rose to prominence in the early 10th century, was the first of the local warrior class to revolt against the imperial court. He had served Fujiwara no Tadahira as a young man, but eventually won a power struggle within the Taira clan and became a powerful figure in the Kanto region . In 939, Fujiwara no Haruaki , a powerful figure in the Hitachi province , fled to Masakado. He

5382-534: The Japanese clockmakers at the start of the isolationist period in Japanese history , which began in 1641. As the length of an hour changed during winter, Japanese clock makers had to combine two clockworks in one clock. While drawing from European technology they managed to develop more sophisticated clocks, leading to spectacular developments such as the Universal Myriad year clock designed in 1850 by

5499-512: The Japanese representatives. Among them was a small telegraph and a small steam train complete with tracks. These were promptly studied by the Japanese as well. Essentially considering the arrival of Western ships as a threat and a factor for destabilization, the Bakufu ordered several of its fiefs to build warships along Western designs. These ships, such as the Hōō-Maru , the Shōhei-Maru , and

5616-542: The Jōyō Kanji List, is given in parentheses. The Jinmeiyō Kanji List also contains 631 additional kanji that are not elements of the Jōyō Kanji List; 18 of them have a variant: The following 5 kanji were removed from the Jōyō Kanji List in 2010, but were preserved as jinmeiyō kanji. They have no simplified form. 勺 and 匁 are kokuji . Of the 196 new jōyō kanji, 129 were already on the Jinmeiyō Kanji List; 10 of them are used in names of Japanese prefectures, and

5733-407: The Nagasaki area. With the establishment of a permanent post for a surgeon at the Dutch trading post Dejima, high-ranking Japanese officials started to ask for treatment in cases when local doctors were of no help. One of the most important surgeons was Caspar Schamberger , who induced a continuing interest in medical books, instruments, pharmaceuticals, treatment methods etc. During the second half of

5850-496: The Netherlands continued to have a key role in transmitting Western know-how to Japan for some time. The Bakufu relied heavily on Dutch expertise to learn about modern Western shipping methods. Thus, the Nagasaki Naval Training Center was established in 1855 right at the entrance of the Dutch trading post of Dejima , allowing for maximum interaction with Dutch naval knowledge. From 1855 to 1859, education

5967-480: The Realm) , reaching their peak at the end of the 10th century under Fujiwara no Michinaga and Fujiwara no Yorimichi . Later, in the mid-11th century, Emperor Go-Sanjo weakened the power of the sesshō and kampaku by presiding over politics himself, and when the next emperor, Shirakawa , abdicated and became a cloistered emperor and began a cloistered rule , the sesshō and kampaku lost their real political authority and became nominal, effectively ending

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6084-489: The Southern court, ending the 58-year Nanboku-cho period. Yoshimitsu continued to hold power after passing the shogunate to his son Ashikaga Yoshimochi in 1395, becoming daijō-daijin ( 太政大臣 , Chancellor of the Realm) , the highest rank of the nobility, and remaining in power until his death in 1408. In 1428, Ashikaga Yoshimochi , the fourth shogun, was ill and the question of his succession arose. Ashikaga Yoshikazu ,

6201-485: The Taira clan from Kyoto, and although initially welcomed by the hermit Emperor Go-Shirakawa, he became estranged and isolated due to the disorderly military discipline and lack of political power under his command. He staged a coup, overthrew the emperor's entourage, and became the first of the Minamoto clan to assume the office of Sei-i Taishōgun (shogun) . In response, Minamoto no Yoritomo sent Minamoto no Noriyori and Minamoto no Yoshitsune to defeat Yoshinaka, who

6318-507: The Unicode standard. Although the old and new forms are distinguished under the JIS X 0213 standard, the old forms map to Unicode CJK Compatibility Ideographs which are considered by Unicode to be canonically equivalent to the new forms and may not be distinguished by user agents. Therefore, depending on the user environment, it may not be possible to see the distinction between old and new forms of

6435-408: The areas they controlled. The shugo shared their newfound wealth with the local samurai, creating a hierarchical relationship between the shugo and the samurai, and the first early daimyo ( 大名 , feudal lords) , called shugo daimyo ( 守護大名 ) , appeared. Ashikaga Yoshimitsu , the third shogun, negotiated peace with the Southern court, and in 1392 he reunited the two courts by absorbing

6552-502: The ban on Dutch books was lifted and the Japanese purchased and translated scientific books from the Dutch, obtained from them Western curiosities and manufactures (such as clocks, medical instruments, celestial and terrestrial globes, maps and plant seeds) and received demonstrations of Western innovations, including of electrical phenomena, as well as the flight of a hot air balloon in the early 19th century. While other European countries faced ideological and political battles associated with

6669-512: The better-known Western innovations of Long , Wells and Morton , with the introduction of diethyl ether (1846) and chloroform (1847) as general anaesthetics. In 1838, the physician and scholar Ogata Kōan established the Rangaku school named Tekijuku . Famous alumni of the Tekijuku include Fukuzawa Yukichi and Ōtori Keisuke , who would become key players in Japan's modernization. He

6786-710: The book contains a detailed description of the electric battery invented by Volta forty years earlier in 1800. The battery itself was constructed by Udagawa in 1831 and used in experiments, including medical ones, based on a belief that electricity could help cure illnesses. Udagawa's work reports for the first time in details the findings and theories of Lavoisier in Japan. Accordingly, Udagawa made scientific experiments and created new scientific terms, which are still in current use in modern scientific Japanese, like " oxidation " ( 酸化 , sanka ) , " reduction " ( 還元 , kangen ) , " saturation " ( 飽和 , hōwa ) , and " element " ( 元素 , genso ) . Japan's first telescope

6903-479: The book's publication due to the Bakufu 's prohibition against the building of large ships. Modern geographical knowledge of the world was transmitted to Japan during the 17th century through Chinese prints of Matteo Ricci 's maps as well as globes brought to Edo by chiefs of the VOC trading post Dejima. This knowledge was regularly updated through information received from the Dutch, so that Japan had an understanding of

7020-522: The characters. In particular, all Unicode normalization methods merge the old characters with the new ones. In the revised version of jōyō kanji, 5 kanji were removed (but preserved as jinmeiyō kanji), and 196 more kanji were added into Jōyō Kanjihyō of originally 1945 kanji; 6 of these new kanji have a traditional and a simplified form. They are underlined in the following list. The Jinmeiyō Kanji List contains 212 traditional characters still used in names. The modern form ( shinjitai ), which appears in

7137-399: The critical phase of Western scientific advancement during the 18th and 19th century, allowing Japan to build up the beginnings of a theoretical and technological scientific base. This openness could partly explain Japan's success in its radical and speedy modernization following the opening of the country to foreign trade in 1854. From around 1720, books on medical sciences were obtained from

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7254-605: The exemption of books on nautical and medical matters. Initially, a small group of hereditary Japanese–Dutch translators labored in Nagasaki to smooth communication with the foreigners and transmit bits of Western novelties. The Dutch were requested to give updates of world events and to supply novelties to the shōgun every year on their trips to Edo . Finally, the Dutch factories in Nagasaki, in addition to their official trade work in silk and deer hides, were allowed to engage in some level of "private trade". A small, lucrative market for Western curiosities thus developed, focused on

7371-438: The first shikken ( 執権 , Regent) and assuming actual control of the shogunate. Hojo Yoshitoki later assassinated Minamoto no Yoriie. However, Hojo Tokimasa lost influence in 1204 when he killed Hatakeyama Shigetada , believing false information that his son-in-law Shigetada was about to rebel, and lost his position in 1205 when he tried to install his son-in-law Hiraga Tomomasa as the fourth shogun. Hojo Yoshitoki became

7488-682: The first time a systematic analysis of Dutch grammar, went on to translate the Dutch edition of Introductio ad Veram Physicam of the British author John Keil on the theories of Newton (Japanese title: Rekishō Shinsho ( 暦象新書 , roughly: "New Text on Transitive Effects") , 1798). Shizuki coined several key scientific terms for the translation, which are still in use in modern Japanese; for example, " gravity " ( 重力 , jūryoku ) , "attraction" ( 引力 , inryoku ) (as in electromagnetism ), and " centrifugal force " ( 遠心力 , enshinryoku ) . A second Rangaku scholar, Hoashi Banri ( ja:帆足万里 ), published

7605-605: The forces of Emperor Go-Daigo, turned to the emperor's side and attacked Rokuhara Tandai . Then, in 1333, Nitta Yoshisada invaded Kamakura and the Kamakura shogunate fell, and the Hōjō clan was destroyed. Around 1334–1336, Ashikaga Takauji helped Emperor Go-Daigo regain his throne in the Kenmu Restoration . Emperor Go-Daigo rejected cloistered rule and the shogunate and abolished the sesshō and kampaku in favour of an emperor-led government. He also began building

7722-477: The geographical world roughly equivalent to that of contemporary Western countries. With this knowledge, Shibukawa Shunkai made the first Japanese globe in 1690. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, considerable efforts were made at surveying and mapping the country, usually with Western techniques and tools. The most famous maps using modern surveying techniques were made by Inō Tadataka between 1800 and 1818 and used as definitive maps of Japan for nearly

7839-467: The growing fame of Ashikaga Takauji and ordered Nitta Yoshisada and others to defeat Ashikaga Takauji. In response, Takauji led a group of samurai against the new government and defeated the imperial court forces. This ended Emperor Go-Daigo's new regime in 1336 after only two years. After the failure of the Kenmu Restoration, Emperor Go-Daigo fled to Enryaku-ji Temple on Mount Hiei with

7956-422: The help of samurai called gokenin ( 御家人 ) , lords in the service of the shogunate. However, since the war was a war of national defense and no new territory was gained, the shogunate was unable to adequately reward the gokenin , and their dissatisfaction with the shogunate grew. In 1285, during the reign of Hojo Sadatoki , the ninth shikken and eighth tokusō , Adachi Yasumori and his clan, who had been

8073-492: The human body, and the 1750 experiments of Benjamin Franklin with lightning . In 1840, Udagawa Yōan published his Opening Principles of Chemistry ( 舎密開宗 , Seimi Kaisō ) , a compilation of scientific books in Dutch, which describes a wide range of scientific knowledge from the West. Most of the Dutch original material appears to be derived from William Henry ’s 1799 Elements of Experimental Chemistry . In particular,

8190-423: The imperial court was in charge of politics. From the mid-9th century to the mid-11th century, the Fujiwara clan controlled political power. They excluded other clans from the political center and monopolized the highest positions in the court, such as sesshō ( 摂政 , Imperial Regent for Minor Emperors) , kampaku ( 関白 , Imperial Regent fo Adult Emperors) , and daijō-daijin ( 太政大臣 , Chancellor of

8307-587: The incentive for his mechanist theories of organisms , and Frederick the Great , who loved playing with automatons and miniature wargames . Many were developed, mostly for entertainment purposes, ranging from tea-serving to arrow-shooting mechanisms. These ingenious mechanical toys were to become prototypes for the engines of the industrial revolution. They were powered by spring mechanisms similar to those of clocks . Mechanical clocks were introduced into Japan by Jesuit missionaries or Dutch merchants in

8424-832: The inventor Tanaka Hisashige , the founder of what would become the Toshiba corporation. Air pump mechanisms became popular in Europe from around 1660 following the experiments of Boyle . In Japan, the first description of a vacuum pump appear in Aochi Rinsō ( ja:青地林宗 )’s 1825 Atmospheric Observations ( 気海観瀾 , Kikai Kanran ) , and slightly later pressure pumps and void pumps appear in Udagawa Shinsai ( 宇田川榛斎(玄真) )’s 1834 Appendix of Far-Western Medical and Notable Things and Thoughts ( 遠西医方名物考補遺 , Ensei Ihō Meibutsu Kō Hoi ) . These mechanisms were used to demonstrate

8541-500: The kanji 韓 that appears in the name of South Korea ( 韓国 Kankoku ). Four of these kanji have both a simplified and a traditional form: Hyōgai kanji are kanji that are elements of neither the Jōyō Kanji List nor the Jinmeiyō Kanji List. In Hyōgai Kanji Jitaihyō ( 表外漢字字体表 ) , traditional characters are recognized as printed standard style ( 印刷標準字体 ) while the simplified characters are recognized as simple conventional style ( 簡易慣用字体 ). Here are some examples of hyōgai kanji that have

8658-415: The large cities some shops, open to the general public, specialized in foreign curiosities. The first phase of Rangaku was quite limited and highly controlled. After the relocation of the Dutch trading post to Dejima , trade as well as the exchange of information and the activities of the remaining Westerners (dubbed "Red-Heads" ( kōmōjin )) were restricted considerably. Western books were prohibited, with

8775-424: The main vassals of the Kamakura shogunate, were destroyed by Taira no Yoritsuna, further strengthening the ruling system of the tokusō , which emphasized blood relations. As tokusō's ruling system was strengthened, the power of the title of naikanrei ( 内管領 ) , tokusō' s chief retainer, increased, and when tokusō was young or incapacitated, naikanrei took control of the shogunate. Taira no Yoritsuna during

8892-504: The makeup of static electricity generators and large ships ; and it relates updated geographical knowledge . Between 1804 and 1829, schools opened throughout the country by the Shogunate (Bakufu) as well as terakoya (temple schools) helped spread the new ideas further. By that time, Dutch emissaries and scientists were allowed much more free access to Japanese society. The German physician Philipp Franz von Siebold , attached to

9009-514: The mechanism of air guns, in which oil was continuously supplied through a compressed air mechanism. Kunitomo developed agricultural applications of these technologies, such as a giant pump powered by an ox , to lift irrigation water. The first flight of a hot air balloon by the brothers Montgolfier in France in 1783, was reported less than four years later by the Dutch in Dejima, and published in

9126-565: The military's field commander but also denoted that such an office was meant to be temporary. Nevertheless, the institution, known in English as the shogunate ( / ˈ ʃ oʊ ɡ ə n eɪ t / SHOH -gə-nayt ), persisted for nearly 700 years, ending when Tokugawa Yoshinobu relinquished the office to Emperor Meiji in 1867 as part of the Meiji Restoration . The term shogun ( 将軍 , lit.   ' army commander ' )

9243-510: The necessity of air for animal life and combustion, typically by putting a lamp or a small dog in a vacuum, and were used to make calculations of pressure and air density. Many practical applications were found as well, such as in the manufacture of air guns by Kunitomo Ikkansai , after he repaired and analyzed the mechanism of some Dutch air guns which had been offered to the shōgun in Edo . A vast industry of perpetual oil lamps ( 無尽灯 , Mujintō ) developed, also derived by Kunitomo from

9360-559: The next 700 years. However, when Taira no Kiyomori used his power to have the child of his daughter Taira no Tokuko and Emperor Takakura installed as Emperor Antoku , there was widespread opposition. Prince Mochihito , no longer able to assume the imperial throne, called upon the Minamoto clan to raise an army to defeat the Taira clan, and the Genpei War began. In the midst of the Genpei War, Minamoto no Yoshinaka expelled

9477-527: The object of experiments and popular depictions, until the development of military usages during the early Meiji period . Knowledge of the steam engine started to spread in Japan during the first half of the 19th century, although the first recorded attempts at manufacturing one date to the efforts of Tanaka Hisashige in 1853, following the demonstration of a steam engine by the Russian embassy of Yevfimiy Putyatin after his arrival in Nagasaki on August 12, 1853. The Rangaku scholar Kawamoto Kōmin completed

9594-475: The political system he developed with a succession of shoguns as the head became known as a shogunate. Hojo Masako 's (Yoritomo's wife) family, the Hōjō , seized power from the Kamakura shoguns. In 1199, Yoritomo died suddenly at the age of 53, and the 18-year-old Minamoto no Yoriie took over as second shogun. To support the young Yoriie, the decisions of the shogunate were made by a 13-man council, including Hojo Tokimasa and his son Hojo Yoshitoki , but this

9711-465: The present day because when the Japanese government adopted the simplified forms, it did not ban the traditional forms. Thus, traditional forms are used when an author wishes to use them and the publisher agrees. Unlike in the People's Republic of China , where all personal names were simplified as part of the character simplification reform carried out in the 1950s, the Japanese reform only applied to

9828-405: The prevailing theory was that the year was 1185, when Yoritomo established the shugo ( 守護 ) , which controlled military and police power in various regions, and the jitō ( 地頭 ) , which was in charge of tax collection and land administration. Japanese history textbooks as of 2016 do not specify a specific year for the beginning of the Kamakura period, as there are various theories about

9945-414: The promulgation of the tōyō kanji list in 1946, kyūjitai were known as seiji ( 正字 , 'proper/correct characters') or seijitai ( 正字體 ). Even after kyūjitai were officially marked for discontinuation with the promulgation of the tōyō kanji list, they were used in print frequently into the 1950s due to logistical delays in changing over typesetting equipment. Kyūjitai continue in use to

10062-450: The reign of Hojo Sadatoki, and Nagasaki Takatsuna and Nagasaki Takasuke during the reign of Hojo Takatoki , the fourteenth shikken and ninth tokusō , were naikanrei who took control of the Kamakura shogunate. 　In other words, Japanese politics was a multiple puppet structure: Emperor, shogun, shikken, tokusō, and naikanrei. In response to gokenin' s dissatisfaction with the shogunate, Emperor Go-Daigo planned to raise an army against

10179-773: The same time in two different imperial courts, the Southern Court in Yoshino and the Northern Court in Kyoto. In 1338, Ashikaga Takauji , like Minamoto no Yoritomo, a descendant of the Minamoto princes, was awarded the title of sei-i taishōgun by Emperor Kōmyō and established the Ashikaga shogunate , which nominally lasted until 1573. The Ashikaga had their headquarters in the Muromachi district of Kyoto, and

10296-531: The second shikken , and the shogunate was administered under the leadership of Hojo Masako . In 1219, the third shogun, Minamoto no Sanetomo, was assassinated for unknown reasons. In 1221, war broke out for the first time in Japan between the warrior class government and the imperial court, and in this battle, known as the Jōkyū War , the shogunate defeated former Emperor Go-Toba . The shogunate exiled former Emperor Go-Toba to Oki Island for waging war against

10413-563: The shikkens, he used his position as head of the Hojo clan's main family, tokusō ( 得宗 ) , to dominate politics, thus shifting the source of power in the shogunate from the shikken to tokusō . During the reign of Hojo Tokimune , the eighth shikken and seventh tokusō , the shogunate twice defeated the Mongol invasion of Japan in 1274 and 1281. The shogunate defeated the Mongols with

10530-462: The shogun a puppet of the Hosokawa clan . Hosokawa Takakuni , who came to power later, installed Ashikaga Yoshiharu as the 12th shogun in 1521. In 1549, Miyoshi Nagayoshi banished the 12th shogun and his son Ashikaga Yoshiteru from Kyoto and seized power. From this point on, the Miyoshi clan continued to hold power in and around Kyoto until Oda Nobunaga entered Kyoto in 1568. By the time of

10647-413: The shogunate, but his plan was leaked and he was exiled to Oki Island in 1331. In 1333, Emperor Go-Daigo escaped from Oki Island and again called on gokenin and samurai to raise an army against the shogunate. Kusunoki Masashige was the first to respond to the call, sparking a series of rebellions against the shogunate in various places. Ashikaga Takauji , who had been ordered by the shogunate to suppress

10764-509: The shogunate. The shogunate learned its lesson and set up an administrative body in Kyoto called the Rokuhara Tandai ( 六波羅探題 ) to oversee the imperial court and western Japan. After the sudden death of Hojo Yoshitoki in 1224, Hojo Yasutoki became the third shikken , and after the death of Hojo Masako in 1225, the administration of the shogunate returned to a council system. In 1226, Hojo Yasutoki installed Kujo Yoritsune ,

10881-423: The sixteenth century. These clocks were of the lantern clock design, typically made of brass or iron , and used the relatively primitive verge and foliot escapement . These led to the development of an original Japanese clock, called Wadokei . Neither the pendulum nor the balance spring were in use among European clocks of the period, and as such they were not included among the technologies available to

10998-469: The stars. After 1640, the Dutch continued to inform the Japanese about the evolution of telescope technology. Until 1676 more than 150 telescopes were brought to Nagasaki. In 1831, after having spent several months in Edo where he could get accustomed with Dutch wares, Kunitomo Ikkansai (a former gun manufacturer) built Japan's first reflecting telescope of the Gregorian type. Kunitomo's telescope had

11115-409: The term bakufu to the shogunate government was therefore heavy with symbolism, connoting both the explicitly military character of the shogunal regime and its (at least theoretically) ephemeral nature. Historically, similar terms to sei-i taishōgun were used with varying degrees of responsibility, although none of them had equal or more importance than sei-i taishōgun . Some of them were: There

11232-462: The time during which they ruled is also known as the Muromachi period . Between 1346 and 1358, the Ashikaga shogunate gradually expanded the authority of the shugo ( 守護 ) , the local military and police officials established by the Kamakura shogunate, giving the shugo jurisdiction over land disputes between gokenin ( 御家人 ) and allowing the shugo to receive half of all taxes from

11349-458: The western lords, including Hatakeyama Yoshinari and Ōuchi Masahiro , withdrew their armies from Kyoto. The war devastated Kyoto, destroying many aristocratic and samurai residences, Shinto shrines , and Buddhist temples, and undermining the authority of the Ashikaga shoguns, greatly reducing their control over the various regions. Thus began the Sengoku period , a period of civil war in which

11466-486: The year the Kamakura shogunate was established. Minamoto no Yoritomo seized power from the central government and aristocracy and by 1192 established a feudal system based in Kamakura in which the private military, the samurai , gained some political powers while the Emperor and the aristocracy remained the de jure rulers. In 1192, Yoritomo was awarded the title of sei-i taishōgun by Emperor Go-Toba and

11583-623: Was a compilation made by several Japanese scholars, led by Sugita Genpaku , mostly based on the Dutch-language Ontleedkundige Tafelen of 1734, itself a translation of Anatomische Tabellen (1732) by the German author Johann Adam Kulmus . In 1804, Hanaoka Seishū performed the world's first general anaesthesia during surgery for breast cancer ( mastectomy ). The surgery involved combining Chinese herbal medicine and Western surgery techniques, 40 years before

11700-405: Was able to rule the region on his own, without being appointed by the shogun. In 1492, Hosokawa Masamoto , the kanrei ( 管領 ) , second in rank to the shogun in the Ashikaga shogunate, and the equivalent of Shikken ( 執権 ) in the Kamakura shogunate, staged a coup, banished the 10th shogun, Ashikaga Yoshitane , from Kyoto, and installed Ashikaga Yoshizumi as the 11th shogun, making

11817-513: Was brought to Europe by von Siebold and translated into French and Italian in 1848, contributing to the development of the silk industry in Europe. Plants were requested by the Japanese and delivered from the 1640s on, including flowers such as precious tulips and useful items such as the cabbage and the tomato . When Commodore Perry obtained the signature of treaties at the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854, he brought technological gifts to

11934-459: Was described using technical drawings in the book titled Tengu-tsū ( 天狗通 ) in 1779. Karakuri are mechanized puppets or automata from Japan from the 18th century to 19th century. The word means "device" and carries the connotations of mechanical devices as well as deceptive ones. Japan adapted and transformed the Western automata, which were fascinating the likes of Descartes , giving him

12051-560: Was directed by Dutch naval officers, before the transfer of the school to Tsukiji in Tokyo , where English educators became prominent. ky%C5%ABjitai However, in Japan fewer and less drastic simplifications were made. An example is the character for "electric", which is still the traditional form of " 電 " in Japan, but has been simplified to 电 in mainland China (pronounced "diàn" in Chinese, and "den" in Japanese). Prior to

12168-518: Was effectively dismantled shortly afterwards when one of the key members lost his political position and two others died of illness. When Minamoto no Yoriie fell ill in 1203, a power struggle broke out between the Hojo clan and Hiki Yoshikazu , and Hojo Tokimasa destroyed the Hiki clan . Tokimasa then installed the 12-year-old Minamoto no Sanetomo as the third shogun, puppeting him while himself becoming

12285-476: Was in practice hereditary, although over the course of the history of Japan several different clans held the position. The title was originally held by military commanders during the Heian period in the eighth and ninth centuries. When Minamoto no Yoritomo gained political ascendency over Japan in 1185, the title was revived to regularize his position, making him the first shogun in the usually understood sense. It

12402-516: Was independent of the imperial court and called himself the Shinnō ( 新皇 , New Emperor) . In response, the imperial court sent a large army led by Taira no Sadamori to kill Masakado. As a result, Masakado was killed in battle in February 940. He is still revered as one of the three great onryō ( 怨霊 , vengeful spirits) of Japan. During the reigns of Emperor Shirakawa and Emperor Toba ,

12519-460: Was killed within a year of becoming shogun. In 1185, the Taira clan was finally defeated in the Battle of Dan-no-ura , and the Minamoto clan came to power. There are various theories as to the year in which the Kamakura period and Kamakura shogunate began. In the past, the most popular theory was that the year was 1192, when Minamoto no Yoritomo was appointed sei-i taishōgun ( 征夷大将軍 ) . Later,

12636-481: Was known as a great swordsman and was a student of Tsukahara Bokuden , who was known as one of the strongest swordsmen. According to Yagyū Munenori , a swordsmanship instructor in the Tokugawa Shogunate, Ashikaga Yoshiteru was one of the five best swordsmen of his time. According to several historical books, including Luís Fróis ' Historia de Japam , he fought hard with naginata and tachi during

12753-572: Was located in Momoyama. Although the two leaders of the warrior class during this period were not given the title of sei-i taishōgun ( 征夷大将軍 , shogun) , Oda Nobunaga was given a title almost equal to it, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi a higher one. This era began when Oda Nobunaga expelled Ashikaga Yoshiaki from Kyoto and destroyed the Ashikaga shogunate. Adopting an innovative military strategy using tanegashima ( 種子島 , matchlock gun) and an economic policy that encouraged economic activity by

12870-526: Was offered by the English captain John Saris to Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1614, with the assistance of William Adams , during Saris's mission to open trade between England and Japan. This followed the invention of the telescope by Dutchman Hans Lippershey in 1608 by a mere six years. Refracting telescopes were widely used by the populace during the Edo period , both for pleasure and for the observation of

12987-459: Was originally a specific type of general, this is an example of semantic widening . The shogunate's administration was known as the bakufu ( 幕府 ) , literally meaning "government from the curtain ". In this context, "curtain" is a synecdoche for a type of semi-open tent called a maku , a temporary battlefield headquarters from which a samurai general would direct his forces, and whose sides would be decorated with his mon . The application of

13104-400: Was produced by the friction of a glass tube with a gold-plated stick, creating electrical effects. The jars were reproduced and adapted by the Japanese, who called it " Elekiteru " ( エレキテル , Erekiteru ) . As in Europe, these generators were used as curiosities, such as making sparks fly from the head of a subject or for supposed pseudoscientific medical advantages. In Sayings of the Dutch ,

13221-401: Was removed from the Jōyō Kanji List in 2010, but is still used as jinmeiyō kanji. The Jinmeiyō Kanji List currently contains 16 kokuji: Sh%C5%8Dgun Shogun ( English: / ˈ ʃ oʊ ɡ ʌ n / SHOH -gun ; Japanese : 将軍 , romanized :  shōgun , pronounced [ɕoːɡɯɴ] ), officially sei-i taishōgun ( 征夷大将軍 , " Commander-in-Chief of

13338-571: Was the author of 1849's Introduction to the Study of Disease ( 病学通論 , Byōgaku Tsūron ) , which was the first book on Western pathology to be published in Japan. Some of the first scholars of Rangaku were involved with the assimilation of 17th century theories in the physical sciences . This is the case of Shizuki Tadao ( ja:志筑忠雄 ) an eighth-generation descendant of the Shizuki house of Nagasaki Dutch translators, who after having completed for

13455-521: Was the first general to bend these tribes, integrating their territory to that of the Yamato State . For his military feats he was named sei-i taishōgun and probably because he was the first to win the victory against the northern tribes he is generally recognized as the first shogun in history. (Note: according to historical sources Ōtomo no Otomaro also had the title of sei-i taishōgun). The shoguns of this period had no real political power, and

13572-471: Was wanted for tyranny by Fujiwara no Korechika , a Kokushi ( 国司 , imperial court official) who oversaw the province of Hitachi province, and Fujiwara no Korechika demanded that Masakado hand over Fujiwara no Haruaki. Masakado refused, and war broke out between Masakado and Fujiwara no Korechika, with Masakado becoming an enemy of the imperial court. Masakado proclaimed that the Kanto region under his rule

13689-418: Was willing to give up his personal fortune to give them such rewards. During the Kenmu Restoration, after the fall of the Kamakura shogunate in 1333, another short-lived shogun arose. Prince Moriyoshi (Morinaga), son of Go-Daigo, was awarded the title of sei-i taishōgun . However, Prince Moriyoshi was later put under house arrest and, in 1335, killed by Ashikaga Tadayoshi . Emperor Go-daigo did not like

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