...Elizabeth Tripler Nock Abstract One of the most noteworthy incidents in the history of Japan's transition from a feudal regime to a modern state was the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877. The province of Satsuma is situated in the southernmost portion of the island of Kyushu, and Kagoshima is the capital...

...Robert K. Sakai Abstract The Shimazu daimyo of Satsuma-han maintained indirect contact with the China mainland throughout most of the Tokugawa period. This contact was possible despite the seclusion policy of the Tokugawa government which prohibited Japanese from going abroad and the policy...

...Robert K. Sakai Abstract Historians have pondered over the phenomenon of the propitious appearance in Japan of numerous statesmen in the critical mid-nineteenth century. Perhaps more startling is the number of able leaders who came from Kagoshima, a modest-sized city of the Satsuma fief. Men who...

...Thomas M. Huber The Status System and Social Organization of Satsuma: A Translation of the Shūmon Tefuda Aratame Jōmoku . Analyzed and translated by Torao Haraguchi , Robert K. Sakai , Mitsugu Sakihara , Kazuko Yamada , and Masato Matsui . Honolulu : University Press of Hawaii...

... in disputes between the councillors and to advise the Emperor on which was the stronger side when his decision was necessary to resolve a deadlock. Sanjō and Iwakura were court nobles with long ties with Satsuma and Chōshū, whose armies had fought and won the Restoration war of 1868–9, and whose leaders...

... developed nothing but a small and rather primitive sugar industry. Satsuma, the only Japanese fief directly involved in overseas trade for most of the Tokugawa period, never became an industrial area and is even now one of the economically more backward regions of Japan. Professor Sakai's article shows...

... the Belgian legation. Under a diary entry of November 29, 1893, the wife of the Belgian minister wrote, “Our new home is a house of historical interest. One of the first houses constructed on European principles—if not indeed the first—it was built in the early days of the Restoration by the Satsuma samurai...

... his Restoration with the reforms attempted by Mizuno Tadakuni in the Tempo area in the 1840's, and he ends it with the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. The new wave of peasant rebellions of the Tempo years, and the measures the government took in attempting to reassert its control over all forms of economic...

... significant and positive acts of the Restoration was the decision of Tokugawa Keiki not to resist the Satsuma and Ch5shu forces in 1868. But in his handling of political agents the historian is concerned with more than the individual alone. Though, in the first instance, the producers of the political events...

..., and the Satsuma and Saga rebellions, but much of it remained and was now without military outlets for expression. Instead, it was diverted to demands for popular rights and parliamentary government. The Western concepts of liberty and equality met a favorable response among anti-government segments...

... Ōmura was singled out among the many great Chōshū generals for the post of vice-minister of military affairs ( hyōbu-taiyū ), while the equally illustrious Saigō Takamori of Satsuma was rewarded with the command of the imperial army. It should be noted that the direction of the Bureau of Naval...

.... It is, to my tastes, a perfectly balanced analysis of Saigo¯ the human being, Saigo¯ the historical actor, and Saigo¯ the cultural legend. Ravina s biography also serves as an excellent study of the nineteenth-century history of the Satsuma domain and of bakumatsu-era politics. Although it is written...

...; I tend to concur with some other wry observers in noting a trend toward the "Japanization" of the West. SUNY-Buffalo ERWIN H. JOHNSON The Status System and Social Organization of Satsuma: A Translation of the Shimon Tefuda Aratame Jomoku. ANA- LYZED AND TRANSLATED BY TORAO HARAGUCHI, ROBERT K. SAKAI...

..., Ivan Hall tries to capture the elusive Mori and to resolve the paradoxes of his life. The book traces Mori's life from his boyhood and youth in Satsuma, through his travels as one of the young students sent abroad by Satsuma in 1867 and his rise in a series of official posts (mainly diplomatic), to his...

.... However, the Osaka Conference was a critical event, despite its seemingly disappointing results. Above all, it marks the achievement of a new understanding between the Satsuma and Choshu leaders that left an enduring mark upon the character and structure of the government. Previously, Satsuma and Choshu...

... educational system, holding the line against incipient democratic forces. In this enormous biography, perhaps the most complete in any language, Ivan Hall tries to capture the elusive Mori and to resolve the paradoxes of his life. The book traces Mori's life from his boyhood and youth in Satsuma, through his...

..., Chōshū, and Satsuma. H e returned home the undisputed leader of Tosa loyalists. For a brief period in 1862 and 1863 he controlled, as much as any one controlled, the turbulent extremists in Kyoto and Edo. But at the point of his greatest success he overplayed his hand. His lord, Yamauchi Yōdō, proved...

.... Reforms in some outer domains, such as Satsuma but not Choshū, met with greater success. Rising international and domestic tensions from 1860 to 1866, the focus of chapter 2, prompted both shogunal and domain officials to begin prioritizing the mobilization of fighting men over the preservation of warrior...

...). BOOK REVIEWS JAPAN 723 Caiman's arguments are several. He sees the testing ground for Japan's colonial policies in the colonization of Hokkaido, presaging what was in store for Korea. He says the economic battles waged there among the activists of the four great domains of Satsuma, Choshu, Saga...

... D-2 20 Satsuma A-5 21 Tango B-4 22 Tosa B-4 23 Tsushimi A-4 24 Yamashiro C-3 25 Yamato C-4 Z723 B Map 1 N CN X t-1 13 n a O LAND TENURES IN EARLY MODERN JAPAN 427 allocated; no family had inviolable rights to a specific piece of land; redistribution of wealth generally was not a main focus of most...