Jansen tells the story of the Restoration in the career and thought of Sakamoto Ryoma and, to a lesser extent, Nakaoka Shintaro, each an example of the new type of political leader: idealistic, individualistic, and patriotic.

Jansen tells the story of the Restoration in the career and thought of Sakamoto Ryoma and, to a lesser extent, Nakaoka Shintaro, each an example of the new type of political leader: idealistic, individualistic, and patriotic.

"With his easily readable and entertaining style, Hillsborough does a great job of elucidating the complex customs that ruled Edo Period life and politics. --The Japan Times"

This volume examines the Meiji Restoration through a global history lens to re-interpret the formation of a globally-cast, Japanese nation-state.

Set in Meivi Restoration Era (mid-19th century Japan) during the last years of Tokugawa Shogunate, this is the first English language literary biography of samurai Sakamoto Ryoma, a founder of modern Japan.

The samurai radicals who overthrew the last shogun in 1868 promised to restore ancient and pure Japanese ways. Foreign observers were terrified that Japan would lapse into violent xenophobia. But the new Meiji government took an opposite course. It copied best practices from around the world, building a powerful and modern Japanese nation with the help of European and American advisors. While revering the Japanese past, the Meiji government boldly embraced the foreign and the new. What explains this paradox? How could Japan's 1868 revolution be both modern and traditional, both xenophobic and cosmopolitan? To Stand with the Nations of the World explains the paradox of the Restoration through the forces of globalization. The Meiji Restoration was part of the global "long nineteenth century" during which ambitious nation states like Japan, Britain, Germany, and the United States challenged the world's great multi-ethnic empires--Ottoman, Qing, Romanov, and Hapsburg. Japan's leaders wanted to celebrate Japanese uniqueness, but they also sought international recognition. Rather than simply mimic world powers like Britain, they sought to make Japan distinctly Japanese in the same way that Britain was distinctly British. Rather than sing "God Save the King," they created a Japanese national anthem with lyrics from ancient poetry, but Western-style music. The Restoration also resonated with Japan's ancient past. In the 600s and 700s, Japan was threatened by the Tang dynasty, a dynasty as powerful as the Roman empire. In order to resist the Tang, Japanese leaders borrowed Tang methods, building a centralized Japanese state on Tang models, and learning continental science and technology. As in the 1800s, Japan co-opted international norms while insisting on Japanese distinctiveness. When confronting globalization in 1800s, Japan looked back to that "ancient globalization" of the 600s and 700s. The ancient past was therefore not remote or distant, but immediate and vital.

Assassination--in Japanese, ansatsu or "dark murder"--was instrumental in the samurai-led revolution known as the Meiji Restoration, by which the shogun's military government was overthrown and the Imperial monarchy restored in 1868. The ideology and moral philosophy of the men behind the revolution--including bushidō or "the way of the warrior"--informed their actions and would become the foundation of the emperor-worship of World War II. This first-ever account in English of the assassins who drove the revolution details one of the most volatile periods in Japanese history--also known as "the dawn of modern Japan."

The Meiji Restoration of 1868 is most often seen as a glorious event marking the overthrow of Tokugawa feudalism and the beginning of Japan's modern transformation. Yet it had its dark side. The Aizu domain in northeastern Japan had staunchly supported the old regime. For this it was attacked by the new government's forces from Choshu and Satsuma in the autumn of 1868. Its castle town was burned to the ground, and during a month-long siege, whole families perished. After defeat, the domain was abolished and its samurai population exiled to barren terrain in the far north. Shiba Goro was born into an Aizu samurai family in 1859. He was just ten years old at the time of the attack, which claimed most of his family. In the cruel world of exile, he lived with his father on the edge of starvation, struggling to survive. Eventually making his way to Tokyo, he became a servant, and though born in an enemy domain, gained entrance to a military school of the new regime. Shiba's abilities were recognized, and he rose through the officer ranks to become a full general - a singular distinction for an Aizu samurai in an army dominated by former samurai of the Choshu domain. Remembering Aizu tells of Shiba's earlier years. It is an extraordinary story that provides insights and material for a social history of the Restoration and its aftermath. But above all, it is a vividly rendered personal account of courage and determination, loss and remembrance.