I’m no expert in Japan history, but I’ve noticed quite a few historical inaccuracies posted on this list recently. This is my attempt to respond to these comments and questions. I thought it might be helpful if I posted some comments, and some history books for people to read, for those who might be interested.
First, a correction on Tokugawa history. When Matthew Perry (that’s Commodore Perry, not Chandler of “Friends”) arrived in his proverbial black ships in 1853 and 1854, Japan was ruled under the Tokugawa shogunate, not the emperor. The emperor, living in Kyoto, was barely more than a powerless figurehead. The shoguns in Tokyo, and their deputies, the kanrei and the associated bureaucrats ran the show. The emperor was generally just a rubber-stamper. In fact, (with the exception of two minor short-lived restoration incidents in 1221 and 1333) the emperor in Japan held very little direct political power for almost the entire millenium. Ever since the Yoritomo Minamoto took the reigns as the first shogun around 1185, and established his camp at Kamakura, the emperor became a figurehead. Lip service was paid to the emperor as the big cheese, but everyone knew the emperor had little to do with actual power. (For an account of how Yoritomo established the first shogunate, see Jeffrey Mass’s “Yoritomo and the founding of the first bakufu”.)
With the arrival of Perry, pressure was massive to reform, and the Tokugawa shogunate took the heat. A movement began to restore the emperor to power. That emperor was Meiji, and as the emperor in Japan had not really ruled for 800 plus years, the Meiji restoration was a historical event in Japan of major import. Out with the shoguns and in with the emperor. For the story on how the last shogun got kicked out, read Shiba Ryotaro’s “the Last Shogun”, a historical account of the last Tokugawa shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu.
The rights and privileges of samurai legally enshrined in law were gradually removed and eliminated in the Meiji period. And eventually the samurai class was kaput. And many of those who had strongly pushed for the restoration of the emperor were distraught when Meiji implemented such dramatic reforms ending the privileges of the samurai. One such individual was Saigo Takamori. In Mark Ravina’s bio of the man, you can read about how he first fought for the Meiji restoration, then regretted what he had done, and rebelled against Meiji with a band of followers. The Tom Cruise movie "the Last Samurai" is a wildly inaccurate recreation of the life of Saigo Takamori.
I would also disagree with my friend who, in response to a question about why so few comments on the Meiji era, suggested that the Meiji era was not so interesting as prior periods of Japan history. The Meiji era is absolutely fascinating. A country which the Tokugawa attempted to (mostly) legally close to outside influence and contact, after the Meiji restoration, went the exact opposite way and became like a sponge of learning and acquiring the technological know-how of the Europe and North America, and in short order turned itself into a major power capable of kicking Russian arse in the Russo-Japan war of 1904-05. I would suggest instead that the reason that there are so few comments about Meiji era on this “samurai history” list is because the samurai class became defunct during the Meiji era.
Other books I would highly recommend: Lamers bio of Oda Nobunaga, “Japonius Tyrannus”. Mary Elizabeth Berry’s “Hideyoshi”. Donald Keene’s “Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavillon”. Berry's book on Hideyoshi is particularly fascinating. I give it five stars.
Other historical tidbits: many in the warrior class in Japan, particularly in the Ashikaga periods and the Sengoku periods, practiced wakashudo若衆道, in which an adult warrior or daimyo kept a boy-lover. It was also known as nanshoku 男色. Not all daimyo or samurai did this, but a lot of very prominent leaders did so, including macho tough guys, Nobunaga and Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and Minamoto Yoshitomo. The practice in Japan was very similar to the practice in ancient Greece where the older adult male was meant to be a sort of general mentor to his boy. The practice in pre-modern and early modern Japan was very different from what we would consider normal homosexuality today. In modern terms this type of sexual behavior seems very unethical, and predatory, but it was very common for a thousand years in Japan until the middle of the Tokugawa period. So much for samurai never doing anything dishonorable. Here are a few websites with more info.
http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/japan.html
http://www.stthomasu.ca/~parkhill/cj01/irepam.htm
http://www.androphile.org/preview/Culture/Japan/japan.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanshoku
Another set of historical tidbits: Christianity in Japan, and the brutal persecution and torture of the Christians by the Tokugawa shogunate. So much AGAIN for samurai never doing anything dishonorable. The history of the Jesuits in Japan, and then the abolition and persecution of Christianity is a fascinating, albeit morbid subject. Even more interesting is the story of the kakure kirishitan, the hidden Christians. Check out the following sites, and also, Endo Shusaku's fantastic historical novel "Silence"沈黙, about the Jesuit priests who were tortured and renounced Christianity under torture of the dreaded hanging pit, 穴吊り.
http://www.baobab.or.jp/~stranger/mypage/endo.htm
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0452.html
If anyone sees any errors in any of my comments, please feel free to correct me, because, as I said, I am not an expert on Japan history, just an amateur lover of Japan history. I hope these comments were of interest and useful to some.
Regards,
Mike