

Exploring a tumultuous time in Japanese 19th-century history, when the country began to emerge from self-imposed exile, this study profiles activists such as Sakamoto Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro, who played an important role in the development of a unified nation state.



The Meiji Restoration of mid-nineteenth-century Japan was the outgrowth of upheaval as vital as the American Civil War or the French Revolution, and marked the beginnings of Japan as a forward-looking, unified state. The author tells the story of this crucial period of Japanese...


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.

The Meiji Restoration of mid-nineteenth-century Japan was the outgrowth of upheaval as vital as the American Civil War or the French Revolution, and marked the beginnings of Japan as a forward-looking, unified state. The author tells the story of this crucial period of Japanese...