BOOK THE SIXTH
YEDO PERIOD (1603–1867)
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY—"TAIKŌKI"
The student of Japanese history, in any of its branches, should note well the two dates which stand at the head of this chapter. They mark the beginning and end of that wonderful political organisation known as the Tokugawa Shōgunate. The first is the date of the establishment of his capital at Yedo by Tokugawa Iyeyasu, and the second that of the abolition of the office of Shōgun, and the resumption of sovereign authority by the Mikado after many centuries of abeyance. During this period a great wave of Chinese influence passed over the country, deeply affecting it in every conceivable way. Not only the constitution of the Government, but the laws, art, science, material civilisation, and, most of all, the thought of the nation as expressed in its philosophy and literature, bear profound traces of Chinese teaching and example. This wave has not wholly subsided even now, but it has ceased to be of importance, except, perhaps, in determining the moral standards of the nation, and 1867 is a
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