Meiji period in the context of "National Crafts Museum (Japan)"

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing (Japanese: 農林水産, nōrinsuisan) form the primary sector of industry of the Japanese economy together with the Japanese mining industry. Together, they account for 1.3% of gross national product; only 20% of Japan's land is suitable for cultivation, and the agricultural economy is highly subsidized.

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing dominated the Japanese economy until the 1940s, but thereafter declined into relative unimportance (see Agriculture in the Empire of Japan). In the late 19th century (Meiji period), these sectors had accounted for more than 80% of employment. Employment in agriculture declined in the prewar period, but the sector was still the largest employer (about 50% of the work force) by the end of World War II. It was further declined to 23.5% in 1965, 11.9% in 1977, and to 7.2% in 1988. The importance of agriculture in the national economy later continued its rapid decline, with the share of net agricultural production in GNP finally reduced between 1975 and 1989 from 4.1% to 3% In the late 1980s, 85.5% of Japan's farmers were also engaged in occupations outside farming, and most of these part-time farmers earned most of their income from nonfarming activities.

The Fuhanken Sanchisei (府藩県三治制; "Fu, Han and Ken three-tiered Governance System") was the subnational government structure in early Meiji Japan. It lasted from the Boshin War, the start to the Meiji Restoration, in 1868 until the replacement of all remaining feudal domains (-han) with prefectures (-ken) in 1871. During this period, prefectures, urban prefectures (府, fu) and rural prefectures (県, ken), controlled by the new central government, and daimyō Domains (藩, han), still under their pre-restoration feudal rulers, formed the primary administrative subdivisions of the country. The exact numbers varied continually as adjustments to the feudal territorial divisions, mergers and splits started to take up pace, but very roughly there were about >250 -han and about <50 -fu/-ken in total during this time.

As the political borders changed all the time, ancient ritsuryō provinces, essentially static except for some modernizing adjustments in the North where the giant provinces of Mutsu and Dewa (both Tōsan Circuit) were split up and a new circuit (Hokkai Circuit) with 10 provinces was added on Ezo, remained the primary geographic frame of reference even in Meiji Japan until around the turn of the century – just as they had been throughout the late Middle Ages and early modern period.

Yasukuni Shrine (Japanese: 靖国神社 or 靖國神社, Hepburn: Yasukuni Jinja; lit. 'Peaceful Country Shrine') is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Japan, from the Boshin War of 1868–1869, to the two Sino-Japanese Wars, 1894–1895 and 1937–1945 respectively, and the First Indochina War of 1946–1954. The shrine's purpose has been expanded over the years to include those who died in the wars involving Japan spanning from the entire Meiji and Taishō periods, and the earlier part of the Shōwa period.

The shrine lists the names, origins, birthdates and places of death of 2,466,532 people. Among those are 1,066 convicted war criminals from the Pacific War, twelve of whom were charged with Class A crimes (the planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of the war). Eleven were convicted on those charges, with the twelfth found not guilty on all such charges, though he was found guilty of Class B war crimes. The names of two more men charged with Class A war crimes are on the list, but both died before they could be sentenced (one died during trial and one before trial), so they were never convicted.

Yūrakuchō (有楽町) is a business district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan, situated in between the Ginza and Hibiya Park, southeast of the Tokyo Imperial Palace. The district takes its name from Oda Nagamasu (1547–1622), who was also known as Yūraku (有楽). Oda Nagamasu built his mansion here on land granted by Tokugawa Ieyasu near the Sukiya-bashi Gate of Edo Castle. The place name dates from the Meiji period.

Yūrakuchō is served by several train and subway stations, including Hibiya Station (Toei Subway and Tokyo Metro lines) and Yūrakuchō Station (JR East and Tokyo Metro lines).

The Imperial Court in Kyoto was the nominal ruling government of Japan from 794 AD until the Meiji period (1868–1912), after which the court was moved from Kyoto (formerly Heian-kyō) to Tokyo (formerly Edo) and integrated into the Meiji government. Upon the court being moved to Kyoto from Nagaoka by Emperor Kanmu (737–806), the struggles for power regarding the throne that had characterized the Nara period diminished. Kyoto was selected as the location for the court because of its "proper" amount of rivers and mountains which were believed to be the most auspicious surroundings for the new capital. The capital itself was built in imitation of Chang'an, the Chinese capital of the Tang dynasty, closely following the theories of yin-yang. The most prominent group of people within the court was the civil aristocracy (kuge) which was the ruling class of society that exercised power on behalf of the emperor.

Kyoto's identity as a political, economic, and cultural centre started to be challenged in the post-1185 era with the rise of the shogunate system which gradually seized governance from the emperor. Minamoto no Yoritomo was the first to establish the post of the shōgun as hereditary, receiving the title in 1192. After Yoritomo launched the shogunate, true political power was in the hand of the shōguns, who were mistaken several times for the emperors of Japan by representatives of Western countries. The Kamakura shogunate (or Kamakura bakufu) would go on to last for almost 150 years, from 1185 to 1333.

The Tosa Domain (土佐藩, Tosa-han) was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, controlling all of Tosa Province in what is now Kōchi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. It was centered around Kōchi Castle, and was ruled throughout its history by the tozama daimyō Yamauchi clan. Many people from the domain played important roles in events of the late Edo period including Nakahama Manjirō, Sakamoto Ryōma, Yui Mitsue, Gotō Shōjirō, Itagaki Taisuke, Nakae Chōmin, and Takechi Hanpeita. Tosa Domain was renamed Kōchi Domain (高知藩, Kōchi-han) during the early Meiji period until it was dissolved in the abolition of the han system in 1871 and became Kōchi Prefecture.

The history of literature of the early modern period (16th, 17th and partly 18th century literature), or early modern literature, succeeds Medieval literature, and in Europe in particular Renaissance literature.

In Europe, the Early Modern period lasts roughly from 1550 to 1750, spanning the Baroque period and ending with the Age of Enlightenment and the wars of the French Revolution. The Early Modern period in Persia corresponds to the rule of the Safavid dynasty. In Japan, the "Early Modern period" (Edo period) is taken to last down to 1868 (the beginning of Industrialization during the Meiji period). In India, the Mughal era lasts until the establishment of the British Raj in 1857. The Ottoman Empire underwent various attempts of modernization from 1828 (Tanzimat).

The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan's rapid modernization during the Meiji period, fought in numerous conflicts including the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, World War I, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and World War II, and became a dominant force in Japanese politics. Initially formed from domain armies after the Meiji Restoration, it evolved into a powerful modern military influenced by French and German models. The IJA was responsible for several overseas military campaigns, including the invasion of Manchuria, involvement in the Boxer Rebellion, and fighting across the Asia-Pacific during the Pacific War. Notorious for committing widespread war crimes, the army was dissolved after Japan's surrender in 1945, and its functions were succeeded by the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force.
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The small group of Hachijō dialects (八丈方言, Hachijō hōgen), natively called Shima Kotoba (島言葉; [ɕima kotoba], "island speech"), are, depending on classification, either the most divergent form of Japanese, or comprise a branch of Japonic languages (alongside mainland Japanese, Northern Ryukyuan, and Southern Ryukyuan). Hachijō is currently spoken on two of the Izu Islands south of Tokyo (Hachijō-jima and the smaller Aogashima) as well as on the Daitō Islands of Okinawa Prefecture, which were settled from Hachijō-jima in the Meiji period. It was also previously spoken on the island of Hachijō-kojima, which is now abandoned. Based on the criterion of mutual intelligibility, Hachijō may be considered a distinct Japonic language, rather than a dialect of Japanese.

Hachijō is a descendant of Eastern Old Japanese, retaining several unique grammatical and phonetic features recorded in the Azuma-dialect poems of the 8th-century Man'yōshū and the Fudoki of Hitachi Province. Hachijō also has lexical similarities with the dialects of Kyushu and even the Ryukyuan languages; it is not clear if these indicate that the southern Izu islands were settled from that region, if they are loans brought by sailors traveling among the southern islands, or if they might be independent retentions from Old Japanese.

Bunkyō (文京区, Bunkyō-ku) is a special ward in the Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. Situated in the middle of the ward area, Bunkyō is a residential and educational center. Beginning in the Meiji period, literati like Natsume Sōseki, as well as scholars and politicians have lived there. Bunkyō is home to the Tokyo Dome, Judo's Kōdōkan, and the University of Tokyo's Hongo Campus.

It was formed in 1947 as a merger of Hongo and Koishikawa wards following Tokyo City's transformation into Tokyo Metropolis. The modern Bunkyo ward exhibits contrasting Shitamachi and Yamanote geographical and cultural division. The Nezu [ja] and Sendagi [ja] neighborhoods in the ward's eastern corner are attached to the Shitamachi area in Ueno. On the other hand, the remaining areas of the ward typically represent Yamanote districts.

Buddhism was first established in Japan in the 6th century CE. Most of the Japanese Buddhists belong to new schools of Buddhism which were established in the Kamakura period (1185－1333). During the Edo period (1603–1868), Buddhism was controlled by the feudal Shogunate. The Meiji period (1868–1912) saw a strong response against Buddhism, with persecution and a forced separation between Buddhism and Shinto (Shinbutsu bunri).

The largest sects of Japanese Buddhism are Pure Land Buddhism with 22 million believers, followed by Nichiren Buddhism with 10 million believers, Shingon Buddhism with 5.4 million, Zen Buddhism with 5.3 million, Tendai Buddhism with 2.8 million, and only about 700,000 for the six old schools established in the Nara period (710－794).

The National Treasure (国宝, kokuhō) refers to Tangible Cultural Properties designated by Japanese law as: “having exceptionally high value”. It applies to buildings, artworks, and crafts; selected from Important Tangible Cultural Properties by the Agency for Cultural Affairs (a special body of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology). A Tangible Cultural Property is considered to be of historic or of artistic value, classified either as buildings and structures or as fine-arts and crafts. Each National Treasure must demonstrate outstanding workmanship, high value for world cultural history, or exceptional value for scholarship.

Approximately 20% of the National Treasures are structures such as castles, Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, or residences. The remaining 80% include paintings, scrolls, sutras, calligraphy, sculptures in wood, bronze, lacquer or stone, as well as crafts such as pottery, lacquerware, metalworks, swords, textiles, and archaeological artifacts. The items span the period from ancient to early modern Japan before the Meiji period, including pieces of the world's oldest pottery from the Jōmon period and 19th-century documents and writings. The designation of the Akasaka Palace in 2009, the Tomioka Silk Mill in 2014, and the Kaichi School added three modern, post-Meiji Restoration National Treasures.

Count Gotō Shōjirō (後藤 象二郎; 13 April 1838 – 4 August 1897) was a Japanese samurai and politician during the Bakumatsu and early Meiji period of Japanese history. He was a leader of Freedom and People's Rights Movement (自由民権運動, jiyū minken undō) which would evolve into a political party.

Nakae Chōmin (中江 兆民; December 8, 1847 – December 13, 1901) was the pen-name of a journalist, political theorist and statesman in Meiji-period Japan. His real name was Nakae Tokusuke (中江 篤助). His major contribution was the popularization of the egalitarian doctrines of the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Japan. As a result, Nakae is thought to have been a major force in the development of liberalism in early Japanese politics.

Tani Tateki (谷 干城; 18 March 1837 – 13 May 1911) was a statesman and lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army in Meiji period Japan. He was also known as Tani Kanjō.

Osahito (統仁; 22 July 1831 – 30 January 1867), posthumously honored as Emperor Kōmei (孝明天皇, Kōmei-tennō), was the 121st emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Kōmei's reign spanned the years from 1846 through 1867, corresponding to the final years of the Edo period.

During his reign there was much internal turmoil as a result of Japan's first major contact with the United States, which occurred under Matthew C. Perry in 1853 and 1854, and the subsequent forced re-opening of Japan to Western nations, ending a 220-year period of national seclusion. Emperor Kōmei did not care much for anything foreign, and he opposed opening Japan to Western powers. His reign would continue to be dominated by insurrection and partisan conflicts, eventually culminating shortly after his death in the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate and the Meiji Restoration in the beginning of the reign of his son and successor Emperor Meiji.

Josiah Conder (28 September 1852 – 21 June 1920) was a British-French architect who was hired by the Meiji Japanese government as a professor of architecture for the Imperial College of Engineering and became architect of Japan's Public Works. He started his own practice after 1888.

Conder designed numerous public buildings in Tokyo, including the Rokumeikan, which became a controversial symbol of Westernisation in the Meiji period. He educated young Japanese architects, notably Tatsuno Kingo and Katayama Tōkuma, earning him the nickname "father of Japanese modern architecture."