Asakawa Kan’ichi: Japan’s Radical Change 5

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 I have described who Asakawa Kan’ichi was in one of my blogposts [1]. I also described his view toward the history of Japan where he perceives that Japan has had five radical changes in 1300 years between the 7th and the 19th centuries. I attempted to extract what he conveyed [2]-[5] from his last writings [6]. This blog is on the fifth.

Fig. Mathew Perry arrives. 

Wikipedia site:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Commodore-Perry-Visit-Kanagawa-1854.jpg

This is in the public domain

The shogunate had no choice but open the country to the West. 


Fig. Japan 1868 CE

Source: google earth modified by the author


Fig. Meiji Restoration.

 View of a steam locomotive on the railway on the coast of Yokohama (Yokohama Kaigan Tetsudo Jokisha Zu). At the time of the opening of Yokohama station. Ships are in the background. Drawn by Utagawa Hiroshige III 1874.

Date  1874

Source        Hessische Kulturstiftung https://www.hkst.de/en/maecenas/moderne-zeiten/

Author Utagawa Hiroshige III

This is in the public domain.

Asakawa Kan’ichi (1873 –1948) was a Professor of History at Yale, peace advocate, and a curator at Yale Library. He was born in Japan as the son of a samurai, however, he spent most of his time in America.

Fig. Asakawa Kan’ichi

“Kan’ichi Asakawa Papers (MS 40). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.”

https://japanesehistory.yale.edu/about

[1] https://japanlatebloomer.blogspot.com/2024/02/asakawa-kanichi-from-samurai-to-yale.html

[2] https://japanlatebloomer.blogspot.com/2024/02/asakawa-kanichi-japans-radical-change-1.html

[3] https://japanlatebloomer.blogspot.com/2024/02/asakawa-kanichi-japans-radical-change-2.html

[4] https://japanlatebloomer.blogspot.com/2024/02/i-have-previously-described-historian.html

[5] https://japanlatebloomer.blogspot.com/2024/02/asakawa-kanichi-japans-radical-change-4.html

[6] Asakawa, K., “Shinsei Nihon no Tenbo”, in Yabuki, S., “Haisen, Okinawa and Tenno (Defeat, Okinawa and Emperor)”, Kadensha, Tokyo, 2014

 


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