JULY 14, 1853, was the birthday of New Japan. It was the day when Commodore Perry and his suite first landed on the shore of Yedo Bay at Kurihama, near Uraga, and when Japanese authorities received, in contravention of their own laws, an official communication from Millard Fillmore, President of the United States.

It may be true that, even if Perry had not come, Japan would have been eventually opened, because internal public opinion was shaping itself against the policy of seclusion; but we care little for what “might have been.” It is, of course, true that Perry did not fully carry out the purpose of his expedition until the following year, when he negotiated a treaty of friendship; but the reception of the President’s letter was the crucial point; it was the beginning of the end of old Japan. The rest followed in due course of time. When Japanese authorities broke their own laws, the downfall of the old system was inevitable. Mark those words in the receipt—“in opposition to the Japanese law.” That was a clear confession that the old policy of seclusion and its prohibitions could no longer be strictly maintained. A precedent was thus established, of which other nations were not at all slow to avail themselves.

But although New Japan was not born until the second half of the nineteenth century, it suits the purpose of this book a little better, even at the expense of possible repetition, to take a survey in this chapter of that entire century, in order that the real progress of Japan may thereby be more clearly revealed in all its marvellous strides.

Of course, the employment of the Gregorian calendar in Japan is of comparatively recent occurrence, so that it would be quite proper to divide up the century according to the old Japanese custom of periods, or eras,82 of varying length. This system was introduced from China and has prevailed since 645 A. D. A new era was always chosen “whenever it was deemed necessary to commemorate an auspicious or ward off a malign event.” It is interesting, by the way, to notice that, immediately after Commodore Perry’s arrival (1853), the name of the period was changed for a good omen! Hereafter these eras will correspond with the reigns of the emperors.

But it is really more intelligible to divide the history of the century into six periods of well-determined duration. Each one of these periods, moreover, may be accurately named in accord with the distinguishing characteristic of that period. It must, however, be clearly understood that these distinctions are not all absolute, but rather relative. It is also possible, without an undue stretch of the imagination, to trace, in the order of the periods, the general progress that has marked the history of New Japan. These periods are as follows:—

It is of special interest for Americans to notice that the third and fourth periods are almost contemporaneous with the periods of Civil War and Reconstruction in the United States.

We now take up each period in detail.