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Five Charter Oath
The was promulgated on 6 April 1868 in Kyoto Imperial Palace. The Oath outlined the main aims and the course of action to be followed during Emperor Meiji's reign, setting the legal stage for Japan's modernization. This also set up a process of urbanization as people of all classes were free to move jobs so people went to the city for better work. It remained influential, though less for governing than inspiring, throughout the Meiji era and into the twentieth century, and it can be considered the first constitution of modern Japan. Rules As the name implies, the text of the Oath consists of five clauses: Origin and subsequent influence The first draft of the Oath was written by junior councilor Yuri Kimimasa in January 1868, containing progressive language that spoke to the frustrations that the radical but modestly born Meiji leaders had experienced in "service to hereditary incompetents".Jansen (2002), p. 338. Yuri's language was moderated by his colleague Fukuoka Takachika ...
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Chōshū Domain
The , also known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871.Deal, William E. (2005) ''Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan,'' p. 81 The Chōshū Domain was based at Hagi Castle in Nagato Province, in the modern city of Hagi, located in the Chūgoku region of the island of Honshu. The Chōshū Domain was ruled for its existence by the '' tozama'' ''daimyō'' of the Mōri, whose branches also ruled the neighboring Chōfu and Kiyosue domains and was assessed under the '' Kokudaka'' system with peak value of 369,000 ''koku''. The Chōshū Domain was the most prominent anti-Tokugawa domain and formed the Satchō Alliance with the rival Satsuma Domain during the Meiji Restoration, becoming instrumental in the establishment of the Empire of Japan and the Meiji oligarchy. The Chōshū Domain was dissolved in the abolition of the han system in 1871 by the Meiji government and its territory was absorbed ...
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Miriam Kochan
Miriam Louise Kochan (; 5 October 1929 – 1 January 2018) was an English history writer and translator of French. A economics graduate of the University College of the South West, she was the first female graduate of the Reuters news agency, working as sub-editor of the Reuters Economic Services from 1950 to 1954. Kochan was the translator of some 20 books that were originally published in French and she was the author of six books on popular history. In 1970, she introduced the bat mitzvah class for girls who were aged 12 and over in the British orthodox Jewish community and taught at Carmel College, Oxfordshire. Early life Kochan was born in Hendon, North London, on 5 October 1929. She was the daughter of the guide lecturer Martin Buchler and his wife Bessie Buchler (), who were both the children of rabbis from Central and Eastern Europe. Kochan's paternal grandfather was the rabbi Adolf Büchler, who was the principal of Jews' College, while her maternal grandfather was a to ...
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Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ..., and affiliated with Columbia University. Founded in 1893, it is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fields of literary and cultural studies, history, social work, sociology, religion, film, and international studies. History Columbia University Press was founded in May 1893. In 1933, the first four volumes of the ''History of the State of New York'' were published. In the early 1940s, the Press' revenues rose, partially thanks to the ''Encyclopedia'' and the government's purchase of 12,500 copies for use by the military. Columbia University Press is notable for publishing r ...
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Donald Keene
Donald Lawrence Keene (June 18, 1922 – February 24, 2019) was an American-born Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature. Keene was University Professor emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University, where he taught for over fifty years. Soon after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, he retired from Columbia, moved to Japan permanently, and acquired citizenship under the name Kīn Donarudo (キーン ドナルド) which is essentially his birth name in the Japanese name order. This was also his poetic and occasional nickname, spelled in the ''ateji'' form . Early life and education Donald Lawrence Keene was born on June 18, 1922, in Flatbush, Brooklyn. His father was an international trade businessman while his stay-at-home mother raised both Keene and his elder sister. In July 1931, amid the economic crisis of the Great Depression, a 9-year-old Keene begged his father to allow him to accomp ...
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Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The press maintains offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Harvard Square, and in London, England. The press co-founded the distributor TriLiteral LLC with MIT Press and Yale University Press. TriLiteral was sold to LSC Communications in 2018. Notable authors published by HUP include Eudora Welty, Walter Benjamin, E. O. Wilson, John Rawls, Emily Dickinson, Stephen Jay Gould, Helen Vendler, Carol Gilligan, Amartya Sen, David Blight, Martha Nussbaum, and Thomas Piketty. The Display Room in Harvard Square, dedicated to selling HUP publications, closed on June 17, 2009. Related publishers, imprints, and series HUP owns the Belknap Press imprint (trade name), imprint, which it inaugurated in May 1954 with the publication of the ''Harvard Guide to ...
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Marius Jansen
Marius Berthus Jansen (April 11, 1922 – December 10, 2000) was an American academic, historian, and Emeritus Professor of Japanese History at Princeton University.Princeton University, Office of Communications"Professor Marius Berthus Jansen, scholar of Japanese history, dies,"December 13, 2000. Biography Jansen was born in Vleuten in the Netherlands to Gerarda and Bartus Jansen, a florist who moved his family to Johnston, Rhode Island in the fall of 1923. Jansen grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Princeton in 1943, having majored in European history of the Renaissance and Reformation. The same year, he began serving in the Army, studying Japanese and working in the Occupation of Japan. He completed his PhD in history at Harvard in 1950, studying Japan with Edwin O. Reischauer and China with John K. Fairbank. His dissertation dealt with the interactions of the two countries and was published as ''The Japanese and Sun Yat Sen'' in 1954. He was a member of the Counc ...
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Seventeen-article Constitution
The is, according to the '' Nihon Shoki'' of 720, a document authored by Prince Shōtoku in 604. It was adopted in the reign of Empress Suiko. The emphasis of the document is not so much on the basic laws by which the state was to be governed, such as one may expect from a modern constitution, but rather it was a highly Buddhist and Confucian document that focused on the morals and virtues that were to be expected of government officials and the emperor's subjects to ensure a smooth running of the state, where the emperor was to be regarded as the highest authority. It is one of the earliest constitutions in history. Contents The first article calls for harmony ( ''wa'') to be valued, a response to the lack of peace in Japan at the time. The second article places the Buddhist faith ahead of the authority of the emperor. Validity The degree to which the document matches the definition of a "constitution" is debated. While it introduces principles of governance much like the ...
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Five Public Notices
The were five officials bulletins posted on 7 April 1868 aimed at the common people, and which constituted the first decrees put out by the Meiji government of the Empire of Japan. Significance The Charter Oath, which was released the day before the Five Public Notices, was simply shown to the ''kugyō'' and the ''daimyō'' and was decreed in the public journal of the ''daijō-kan'' on sale in cities. By contrast, the Five Public Notices were made public for nearly the entire country. The content of the notices continued the system of the Tokugawa shogunate, including policies such as observing loyalty to the monarchy and the head of one's family, and prohibitions on forming factions and on "the evil religion of Christianity". On the other hand, since the Meiji government was already in the process of ordering the scrapping of the feudal notice board system, the Five Public Notices symbolized the reach of the new government’s authority. For instance, because the Notices were n ...
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Humanity Declaration
The is an imperial rescript issued by Hirohito, the emperor of Japan, as part of a New Year's statement on 1 January 1946 at the request of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers. In the rescript, which started with his citation of the Five Charter Oath of 1868, the Emperor denied the concept of his divinity, which would eventually lead to the promulgation of the new Constitution, under which the Emperor is "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people".Emperor, Imperial Rescript Denying His Divinity (Professing His Humanity)
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The Declaration

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Kokutai
is a concept in the Japanese language translatable as "system of government", "sovereignty", "national identity, essence and character", "national polity; body politic; national entity; basis for the Emperor's sovereignty; Japanese constitution" or nation. Etymology ''Kokutai'' originated as a Sino-Japanese loanword from Chinese ''guoti'' (; "state political system; national governmental structure"). The Japanese compound word joins and . According to the ''Hanyu Da Cidian'', the oldest ''guoti'' usages are in two Chinese classic texts. The 2nd century BC ''Guliang zhuan'' () to the Spring and Autumn Annals glosses ''dafu'' () as ''guoti'' metaphorically meaning "embodiment of the country". The 1st century AD ''Book of Han'' history of Emperor Cheng of Han used ''guoti'' to mean "laws and governance" of Confucianist officials. Before 1868 The historical origins of ''kokutai'' go back to pre-1868 periods, especially the Edo period ruled by the Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1 ...
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Hirohito
, Posthumous name, posthumously honored as , was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, from 25 December 1926 until Death and state funeral of Hirohito, his death in 1989. He remains Japan's longest-reigning emperor as well as one of the world's List of longest-reigning monarchs, longest-reigning monarchs. As emperor during the Shōwa era, Hirohito oversaw the rise of Japanese militarism, List of territories acquired by the Empire of Japan, Japan's expansionism in Asia, the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II, and the postwar Japanese economic miracle. Hirohito was born during the reign of his paternal grandfather, Emperor Meiji, as the first child of the Crown Prince Yoshihito and Crown Princess Sadako (later Emperor Taishō and Empress Teimei). When Emperor Meiji died in 1912, Hirohito's father ascended the throne, and Hirohito was proclaimed crown prince and heir apparent in 1916. In 1921, he made an official visit ...
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