Culture
Rising sun - Tokyo and Japan -
The turning point for the city of Edo, actually for all of Japan, was the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry's armada of - Black ship- at Edo-wan (now known as Tokyo bay) in 1853.
Perry's US Navy expedition demanded, in the name of US president Millard Fillmore, that Japan open itself to foreign trade.
Other western powers were quick to follow the US in demanding the Japanese open treaty ports and end the policy of isolation.
The coming of Westerners heralded a far-reaching social revolution against which the antiquated Tokugawa regime was powerless.
In 1867-1868, faced with widespread antigovernment feeling and accusations that the regime had failed to prepare Japan for the treat of the West, the last Tokugawa shogun resigned and power reverted to Emperor Meiji.
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