Part II of "The Asian Century" from which video was edited is available in the Curriculum Resources section of the library under the call number: VID.C 1952.03M476R.

Click here for the text of the version shown in class which will help you to fill out this study guide.

I would advise that rather than printing this sheet from the browser, that you copy it into a word processor and create empty lines in which to answer the questions.

• What were the four classes from bottom to top?
1. ______________
2. ______________
3. ______________
4. ______________

• What had Tokugawa society been "built for"? ________
• Why did history "get away from it"? That is:
• What had happened to feudalism, which had originally been a military system?
• What happened to the economy and what was the significance of this for the merchant class and the samurai class?
• Why was this a "society about to explode"?

• Why did the Shogun give sanctions to Americans, and then to the British, Russians, etc., forcing unequal Treaties --- extraterritoriality, controlled tarrifs?

• Where were the centers of anti-Western, nativist reaction?

• Who were Shi-shi? Why were they furious and how did they express their indignation?

• What was the response of the Westerners?

• Who was the radical teacher from Choshu who found the solution to the problem of Western domination that "would change forever the history of Japan"?__________

• What did he do?
• What was new slogan that represented his new idea? ________________________________

• Who was his student and what idea did he accept as necessary before Japan should try and confront the barbarians?

• What was the experience of the future reformers in the West and in China?

• How did the experience of China propel the Shi-Shi into action?

• In what regions was their action centered?___________________
• What did they do?_______________________________________

• What is the significance of the date 1867 and Saigo Takamori?

• Who was Meiji and what did he become?

• Who did the real governing? What gave them the power?

• What was the reaction of the country-side to the Meiji Restoration and what did the bureaucrats do about it?

• How was the farmers' problem solved?
• What was the wider problem and what was the "first, hardest thing that they had to do"? How did they do it?
• What was the reaction of Saigo and what was the result?
• What was the slogan of the new era and what did it mean?

• Why may they restoration of the absolute power of the Emperor be seen as a means of promoting democratization?

• What was the notion of Fukuzawa Yukichi and how was this evidenced among the new generation of youth?

• What changes did this new era see in the way of life, particularly in the cities?

• What was the role of the farmers in this new era? Whyd did they endure their hardships?

• What is the significance of Professor Diukichi Irukawa's discoveries in a small mountain village fifty miles from Tokyo?

• Who was his idol_______________ and what kind of government had he created that Ito used as a model for Japan?
• How does the classical puppetry of Bunraku illustrate the kind of government built by Ito?
• What is the key position in this?
• What gradually happened to the Meiji constitution?
• Now that Meiji bureaucrats had secured their power, what did they move to do?

• What was the new slogan?_____________________
• How was it to be paid for?

• From what sector did modernization initially come?

• What happened?
• How was the Zaibatsu an answer to this problem?
• What was the bureaucracy's relationship with the Zaibatsu? Compare with organized capitalism in Germany.

What were the positive and negative sides of rapid modernization?

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