2id DUBOIS— JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. [April 21, 



was the Shogunate? He was a military commander-in-chief, who 

 had won his arbitrary power — or held it — as the strongest of the 

 feudal barons. He was de facto ruler of Japan, his government 

 being centered at Yeddo (now Tokio). The ruler de jure was the 

 Mikado whose position was that of a sort of deified headship and an 

 inert nominality. 



The Shogunate began with the house of Tokugawa in 1603. It 

 ended by the voluntary resignation of Prince Tokugawa Keiki in 

 1868 in the interest of national preservation and progress. For 

 nearly two and a half centuries the Shogunate was the personifica- 

 tion of a military supremacy in one of the most complete and exact- 

 ing feudal systems known to history. 



It was the Shogun lyesada who became the treaty maker of 

 1854. It was the Ten-shi, or Mikado, the ruler de jure, Komei, 

 who, under pressure from the Shogun's opposers, rallied his nerves 

 to the extent of refusing to ratify these treaties even though he ulti- 

 mately gave way. But he had a large official and popular backing. 

 In fact the double-headed rulership had become a source of strife 

 which threatened to disrupt the country. The opening of the door 

 to the foreigner and the introduction of foreign methods were fast 

 becoming the national dispute. 



In spite of the expulsion of all foreigners, except a few severely 

 restricted Hollanders, and the massacre of Christians in the seven- 

 teenth century, in spite of a universal espionage and lips sealed to 

 foreigners, in spite of barbaric military standards and codes of 

 honor — spears and swords outranking firearms — the scent of 

 western enlightenment gradually penetrating the air quickened a 

 new consciousness of unrealized power. Feudal rule had for some 

 years given rise to murmurs and calls were heard for a full restora- 

 tion of the Ten-shi, or Mikado, to real power. So lyesada's treaties 

 were made a plausible ground of opposition to the Shogunate even 

 by the progressive clans who had introduced a number of foreign 

 inventions. For the purpose of getting rid of the Shogunate the 

 slogan of these very progressionists was the expidsion of the alien. 



The Shogun adhered to his policy of admitting the alien (first 

 forced by Perry) but as soon as the progressive clans succeeded in 



