Encyclopedia of Japanese History

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List of Tables

Table 1Cabinet Positions Held by Abe Nobuyuki 12

Table 2Abe Nobuyuki's Cabinet 13

Table 3Cabinet Positions Held by Adachi Kenzō 15

Table 4Data on Akita Prefecture 19

Table 5Cabinet Positions Held by Araki Sadao 28

Table 6Cabinet Positions Held by Ashida Hitoshi 31

Table 7Ashida Hitoshi's Cabinet 32

Table 8 i-ro-ha Alphabet, 1-7 Checkerboard Cipher 81

Table 9 Checkerboard Cipher Using Waka Poem 82

Table 10Creating a Pseudo-Random Number from Two Other Numbers 92

Table 11 Portraits on Japanese Bills 94

Table 12 Dates of Use for Japanese Bills 95

Table 13 Cabinet Positions Held by Gotō Shinpei 114

Table 14 Cabinet Positions Held by Gotō Shōjirō 115

Table 15 Cabinet Positions Held by Hamaguchi Osachi 117

Table 16 Hamaguchi Osachi's Cabinet 118

Table 17 Cabinet Positions Held by Hara Kei 119

Table 18 Hara Kei's Cabinet 120

Table 19 Cabinet Positions Held by Hatoyama Ichirō 121

Table 20 Cabinet Positions Held by Hayashi Senjūrō 122

Table 21 Hayashi Senjūrō's Cabinet 122

Table 22 Cabinet Positions Held by Hayashi Tadasu 123

Table 23 Cabinet Positions Held by Hiranuma Kiichirō 127

Table 24Hiranuma Kiichirō's Cabinet 128

Table 25 Cabinet Positions Held by Hirota Kōki 129

Table 26 Hirota Kōki's Cabinet 130

Table 27 Cabinet Positions Held by Inoue Junnosuke 142

Table 28 Cabinet Positions Held by Inoue Kaoru 143

Table 29 Cabinet Positions Held by Inoue Kowashi 143

Table 30 Cabinet Positions Held by Inukai Tsuyoshi 144

Table 31 Inukai Tsuyoshi's Cabinet 144

Table 32Domains in Ise Province 145

Table 33 Cabinet Positions Held by Itagaki Taisuke 147

Table 34 Cabinet Positions Held by Itō Hirobumi 148

Table 35 Itō Hirobumi's First Cabinet 148

Table 36 Itō Hirobumi's Second Cabinet 151

Table 37 Itō Hirobumi's Third Cabinet 151

Table 38Itō Hirobumi's Fourth Cabinet 152

Table 39Cabinet Positions Held by Katō Takaaki 169

Table 40 Katō Takaaki's First Cabinet 169

Table 41Katō Takaaki's Second Cabinet 170

Table 42 Cabinet Positions Held by Katō Tomosaburō 170

Table 43 Katō Tomosaburō's Cabinet 171

Table 44Cabinet Positions Held by Katsura Tarō 172

Table 45 Katsura Tarō's First Cabinet 173

Table 46Katsura Tarō's Second Cabinet 173

Table 47Katsura Tarō's Third Cabinet 174

Table 48 Cabinet Positions Held by Kido Kōichi 177

Table 49Cabinet Positions Held by Kobiyama Naoto 181

Table 50Cabinet Positions Held by Kodama Gentarō 181

Table 51Cabinet Positions Held by Kodama Hideo 182

Table 52Cabinet Positions Held by Koiso Kuniaki 184

Table 53Koiso Kuniaki's Cabinet 185

Table 54Kōke Families 186

Table 55Cabinet Positions Held by Kōno Togama 188

Table 56Cabinet Positions Held by Komura Jūtarō 188

Table 57Cabinet Positions Held by Konoe Fumimaro 189

Table 58Konoe Fumimaro's First Cabinet 190

Table 59Konoe Fumimaro's Second Cabinet 191

Table 60Konoe Fumimaro's Third Cabinet 192

Table 61Cabinet Positions Held by Kuroda Kiyotaka 198

Table 62Kuroda Kiyotaka's Cabinet 198

Table 63Filmography of Kurosawa Akira 201

Table 64Cabinet Positions Held by Kurusu Takeo 201

Table 65Cabinet Positions Held by Machida Chūji 203

Table 66Cabinet Positions Held by Maeda Yonezō 205

Table 67Cabinet Positions Held by Makino Nobuaki 205

Table 68Cabinet Positions Held by Matsuda Masahisa 206

Table 69Cabinet Positions Held by Matsukata Masayoshi 207

Table 70Matsukata Masayoshi's First Cabinet 208

Table 71Matsukata Masayoshi's Second Cabinet 209

Table 72Cabinet Positions Held by Matsumoto Jōji 210

Table 73Cabinet Positions Held by Matsumura Kenzō 210

Table 74 Leaders of the Meiji Restoration 213

Table 75Filmography of Mifune Toshirō 215

Table 76Cabinet Positions Held by Minami Hiroshi 217

Table 77Cabinet Positions Held by Mitsuchi Chūzō 225

Table 78Cabinet Positions Held by Mizuno Rentarō 229

Table 79Cabinet Positions Held by Mochizuke Keisuke 229

Table 80Cabinet Positions Held by Motoda Hajime 232

Table 81Cabinet Positions Held by Murase Naokai 233

Table 82Cabinet Positions Held by Murata Shōzō 233

Table 83Cabinet Positions Held by Mutsu Munemitsu 237

Table 84Cabinet Positions Held by Nagai Ryūtarō 238

Table 85Cabinet Positions Held by Nakahashi Tokugorō 247

Table 86Cabinet Positions Held by Nakajima Chikuhei 247

Table 87Cabinet Positions Held by Narahashi Wataru 248

Table 88Cabinet Positions Held by Nishio Suehiro 252

Table 89Cabinet Positions Held by Noda Uichi 253

Table 90Cabinet Positions Held by Noda Utarō 253

Table 91Cabinet Positions Held by Ogata Taketora 260

Table 92Cabinet Positions Held by Ohara Naoshi 260

Table 93Cabinet Positions Held by Okada Keisuke 262

Table 94Okada Keisuke's Cabinet 262

Table 95Cabinet Positions Held by Okada Ryōhei 263

Table 96Cabinet Positions Held by Okano Keijirō 263

Table 97Cabinet Positions Held by Ōki Enkichi 264

Table 98Cabinet Positions Held by Ōki Takatō 265

Table 99Cabinet Positions Held by Okuda Yoshindo 266

Table 100Cabinet Positions Held by Ōkuma Shigenobu 266

Table 101Ōkuma Shigenobu's First Cabinet 267

Table 102Ōkuma Shigenobu's Second Cabinet 267

Table 103Cabinet Positions Held by Ōura Kanetake 272

Table 104Cabinet Positions Held by Ōyama Iwao 272

Table 105 Notable Hired Foreigners 274

Table 106Cabinet Positions Held by Saigō Tsugumichi 296

Table 107Cabinet Positions Held by Saionji Kinmochi 297

Table 108Saionji Kinmochi's First Cabinet 298

Table 109Saionji Kinmochi's Second Cabinet 299

Table 110Cabinet Positions Held by Saitō Makoto 299

Table 111Saitō Makoto's Cabinet 300

Table 112Cabinet Positions Held by Saitō Takao 301

Table 113Cabinet Positions Held by Sakurauchi Yukio 302

Table 114Cabinet Positions Held by Sasamori Junzō 305

Table 115Cabinet Positions Held by Satō Eisaku 305

Table 116Satō Eisaku's First Cabinet 305

Table 117Satō Eisaku's Second Cabinet 305

Table 118East and West Armies at Sekigahara 308

Table 119Cabinet Positions Held by Sengoku Mitsugu 309

Table 120Cabinet Positions Held by Shibata Kamon 310

Table 121Cabinet Positions Held by Shidehara Kijūrō 311

Table 122Shidehara Kijūrō's Cabinet 312

Table 123Cabinet Positions Held by Shigemitsu Mamoru 313

Table 124Cabinet Positions Held by Shimada Toshio 315

Table 125Cabinet Positions Held by Shiono Suehiko 317

Table 126Shōgunates 319

Table 127Cabinet Positions Held by Sone Arasuke 340

Table 128Cabinet Positions Held by Suematsu Kenchō 341

Table 129Cabinet Positions Held by Sugiyama Gen 342

Table 130Cabinet Positions Held by Suzuki Kantarō 343

Table 131Suzuki Kantarō's Cabinet 344

Table 132Cabinet Positions Held by Suzuki Kisaburō 344

Table 133Cabinet Positions Held by Suzuki Teiichi 345

Table 134Cabinet Positions Held by Suzuki Yoshio 345

Table 135Cabinet Positions Held by Takahashi Korekiyo 347

Table 136Takahashi Korekiyo's Cabinet 347

Table 137Cabinet Positions Held by Takarabe Takeshi 349

Table 138Cabinet Positions Held by Takashima Tomonosuke 349

Table 139Cabinet Positions Held by Takeda Giichi 350

Table 140Cabinet Positions Held by Taketomi Tokitoshi 352

Table 141Cabinet Positions Held by Tanabe Harumichi 353

Table 142Cabinet Positions Held by Tanaka Giichi 353

Table 143Tanaka Giichi's Cabinet 354

Table 144Cabinet Positions Held by Terauchi Masatake 359

Table 145Terauchi Masatake's Cabinet 359

Table 146Yonai Mitsumasa's Cabinet 385

Table 147Cabinet Positions Held by Yoshida Zengo 386

Table 148Chronological List of Emperors 393

Table 149Emperors of the Northern Court 393

Table 150Prime Ministers, 1885 to Present 398

Table 151Alphabetical List of the Prefectures 401

Table 152Provinces and Corresponding Prefectures 405

Table 153Chronological List of Nengō 413

Table 154 List of Nengō of the Northern Court 414

Table 155List of the Kamakura Shōgun 415

Table 156List of the Ashikaga Shōgun 415

Table 157List of the Tokugawa Shōgun 416

Frontmatter

Credits

Several pages are included (and possibly modified) from the content available at www.wikipedia.org. These include but are not limited to:

History

This encyclopedia started as a web site back in 1998. As I added more and more pages, the limitations of html for a large project began to show, so in late 2000 I switched everything over to LaTeX. With the 0.3.3 release, the format has again changed – this time to the OpenOffice.org XML-based format.

This work was originally published under the Open Content License but I republished it under the GNU Free Documentation License in March 2001. Please see the copyright section and the GNU License at the back of the book for more details.

About

Please direct questions, bug reports (factual mistakes in the text, for example), or suggestions concerning this work to Chris Spackman (spackman@openhistory.org). The newest version will always be available at www.openhistory.org.

This encyclopedia is continually under development and anyone is welcome to contribute.

Note on Dates (Important! Please READ THIS!!)

Some of the sources from which this encyclopedia is compiled are Japanese and use Japanese dates for events. Unfortunately, the Japanese used a less-than-perfect lunar calendar until the 1870s. As a result, the dates listed for events from more than about 130 years ago can seem misleading when compared with dates for the same event from an American or other `Western' source. So, for example, Bryant (and probably everyone else in America) lists the Battle of Sekigahara as taking place in October while Japanese sources say that it took place in September. In time I hope to have both dates listed, but that is not going to happen soon.

As a convenience, I have converted phrases like “fifth day of the second month” to “5 February''.

Sources

Janet Hunter's Encyclopedia of Modern History [hunter_1984] for people and events from modern history.

Stephen Turnbull's Samurai Sourcebook [turnbull_1998] for the Sengoku Period and samurai in general.

E. Papinot's Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan [papinot_1972] is a bit dated but has wonderfully detailed information on topics that tend to get ignored these days.

Most if not all of the data for prefecture entries is from Noritaka Yagasaki's Japan: Geographical Perspectives on an Island Nation [yagasaki_1997].

There are several very helpful tables at the back of New Nelson's Kanji Encyclopedia, which I have used to double and triple check a lot of the data about nengo and emperors.

Changes

0.3.3 to 0.3.4

Changed:

New:

Abe Family (Mikawa) – Azukizaka, Battle of (1564)

Abe Family (Mikawa)

Abe Family (Mutsu)

Abe Family (Suruga)

Abe Hirafu

Abe Hirafu was a governor of Koshi. He fought against the aboriginal inhabitants of Japan (called, at that time, ebisu, which basically just means 'barbarian'). This was in 658. Three years later, in 661, he led an expedition into Korea to help Kudara, a Japanese colony / protectorate / ally on the Korean peninsula.

Note that the early dates on this info means that everything is suspect (more than usual) and should be double and triple checked.

Abe Hirafu might be the anscestor of one or more of the Abe clans, as well as the Ando and Akita clans.

Abe Iso

Christian Socialist from Fukuoka Prefecture. Studied at Doshisha University and abroad. Became a Unitarian preacher. Taught at Tokyo College from 1899.

Abekawa River

Abe Masakatsu

Masakatsu was an important member of the Abe clan of Mikawa. He served Tokugawa Ieyasu until his (Masakatsu's) death in 1600 (just coincidence, or did he die at Sekigahara?). In 1590, Ieyasu gave him Ichihara (in Izu), worth 5,000 koku.

Abe Masatsugu

Abe Masatsugu was the eldest son of Masakatsu. After Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu promoted him to daimyō status.

Abe Muneto

Abe Nakamaro

Abe Nobuyuki

Soldier and Politician from Ishikawa Prefecture. Put on reserve list with rank of general in 1936.

Prime Minister from 30 Aug. 1939. Took over from Hiranuma Kiichirō (pg. 127) and was replaced by Yonai Mitsumasa (pg. 384) in January of 1940.

Cabinet Positions

Cabinet

Abeno Plain

A plain in Settsu. Abeno was the scene of several battles during the Warring States period.

Abe Sadato

Abe Seimei

Abe Yoritoki

Abolition of the Domain

Cabinet	Position	From	To
Hamaguchi	Hanretsu	Jun 16, 1930	Dec 10, 1930
Hamaguchi	War	Jun 16, 1930	Dec 10, 1930
Abe	Foreign Affairs	Aug 30, 1939	??
Abe	Prime Minister	Aug 30, 1939	Jan 16, 1940

Name	Position	From	To
Godō Takuo	Agriculture & Forestry	Aug 30, 1939	Oct 16, 1939
Sakai Tadamasa	Agriculture & Forestry	Oct 16, 1939	Jan 16, 1940
Endō Ryūsaku	Chief of Cabinet Secretariat	Aug 30, 1939	Jan 16, 1940
Karasawa Toshiki	Chief of Legislative Bureau	Aug 30, 1939	Jan 16, 1940
Kanemitsu Tsuneo	Colonization	Aug 30, 1939	Jan 16, 1940
Godō Takuo	Commerce & Industry	Aug 30, 1939	Jan 16, 1940
Nagai Ryūtarō	Communications	Aug 30, 1939	Jan 16, 1940
Kawarada Kakichi	Education	Aug 30, 1939	Jan 16, 1940
Aoki Kazuo	Finance	Aug 30, 1939	Jan 16, 1940
Abe Nobuyuki	Foreign Affairs	Aug 30, 1939	XXX
Nomura Kichisaburō	Foreign Affairs	XXX	Jan 16, 1940
Ohara Naoshi	Home Affairs	Aug 30, 1939	Jan 16, 1940
Miyagi Chōgorō	Justice	Aug 30, 1939	Jan 16, 1940
Yoshida Zengo	Navy	Aug 30, 1939	Jan 16, 1940
Abe Nobuyuki	Prime Minister	Aug 30, 1939	Jan 16, 1940
Nagai Ryūtarō	Railways	Aug 30, 1939	Nov 29, 1939
Nagata Hidejirō	Railways	Nov 29, 1939	Jan 16, 1940
Hata Shunroku	War	Aug 30, 1939	Jan 16, 1940
Ohara Naoshi	Welfare	Aug 30, 1939	Nov 29, 1939
Akita Kiyoshi	Welfare	Nov 29, 1939	Jan 16, 1940

Starting in July of 1871, the system of independent han (feudal domains) was abolished and a new system of semi-independent regional governments was introduced.

In an attempt to wipe out feudalism in Japan, the new Meiji government abolished hundreds of feudal domains or han. In their place it established a new local government scheme based on geographically defined prefectures. This system is still in effect today, although the number and boundaries of the prefectures has changed over time.

The han were ruled by the daimyō. While theoretically owing allegiance to both the Shōgun and the Emperor, the daimyō were for the most part independent in their han. However, over the years of since the establishment of the Tokugawa Shōgunate, most domain had run up serious debts (due in part to the construction and sankin kotai demands of the Tokugawa rulers) and this one carrot the new Meiji leaders used to entice the daimyō to willing “return” their domains to the Emperor. In exchange for recognising the Emperor's legal control of their land, the central government would take on the domain's debt and would often appoint the ex-daimyō governor of the province (ken). It wasn't a bad deal but after the daimyō of Satsuma and Chōshū proved their loyalty to the Emperor by returning their domains, the smaller daimyō didn't really have much choice.

See Also

Abukumagawa River

Abutsu

Achi no Omi

Adachi Family

A family of samurai who were descended from Fujiwara Yamakage (pg XXX). They are presented here because of their successes during the Minamoto---Taira wars and their subsequent affiliation with the Hōjō Family (pg XXX).

Adachi Kagemori

A warrior of the Adachi family, Kagemori was the son of Morinaga. He served with Minamoto Yoriie but became a monk when Minamoto Sanetomo died. This did not stop him from joining the Hōjō Family for the Shōkyū War, however.

See Also

Minamoto Sanetomo (pg XXX), Minamoto Yoriie (pg XXX), Hōjō Family (pg XXX), Shōkyū War (pg XXX), Hōjō Tsunetoki (pg XXX), Hōjō Tokiyori (pg XXX)

Adachi Kenzō

Cabinet Posts

See Also

Kumamoto National Party (pg XXX), Rikken Doshikai (pg XXX), Kenseikai (pg XXX), Minseito (pg XXX), Kokumin Domei (pg XXX).

Adachi Morinaga

Adachi Morinaga was a warrior who fought for Minamoto Yoritomo (pg XXX) against the Taira (pg XXX).

Adachi Yasumori

Adachi Yoshikage

Aichi Prefecture

Aikoku Kōtō

Aizawa Seishi

Aizu-han

Ajiki

Akabashi Moritoki

Akagawa Fusanobu

Akagawa Motoyasu

Akai Naomasa

Akamatsu Family

Akamatsu Mitsusuke

Akamatsu Norifusa

Akamatsu Norimura

Akamatsu Norisuke

Akamatsu Soshu

Akamatsu Suefusa

Akamatsu Yoshinori

Akamatsu Yoshisuke

Akashi Morishige

Morishige fought against Tokugawa Ieyasu at Sekigahara. He surrendered to Kuroda Nagamasa.

Later, he fought for the Toyotomi at Ōsaka Castle. Somehow managed to escape the fall of the castle.

See Also

Ukita Hideie (pg XX), Sekigahara, Battle of (pg XX), Kuroda Nagamasa (pg XX), Toyotomi Family (pg XX), Ōsaka, Siege of (pg XX)

Akaza Naoyasu

Akaza Naoyasu fought at Sekigahara under Ōtani Yoshitsugu, but switched to the Eastern side during the battle.

Akazome Emon

Akechi Castle

Akechi Family

Akechi Mitsuharu

Akechi Mitsuhide's cousin. Mitsuharu was present for his cousin's coup, but missed the Battle of Yamazaki.

He battled Hori Hidemasa at Uchidehama, lost and fled. He committed hari-kiri and supposedly wrote a poem with his own blood before dieing.

See Also

Akechi Mitsuhide (pg XX), Yamazaki, Battle of (pg XX), Hori Hidemasa (pg XX), Uchidehama, Battle of (pg XX)

Akechi Mitsuhide

When they found out about the assassination, both Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu rushed to be the first to avenge Nobunaga and take his place. Hideyoshi got to Mitsuhide first.

Mitsuhide began serving Oda Nobunaga in 1566 and recieved Sakamoto (in Ōmi, 100,000 koku) in 1571.

In 1579, he captured Yakami Castle from Hatano Hideharu by taking Hideharu's mother hostage. This accomplished Mitsuhide's goal but unfortunately, Nobunaga had the woman executed (crucified?). Naturally this did not make the Hatano family happy and a short while later several of Hideharu's (ex-?) retainers murdered Akechi Mitsuhide's mother!

Mitsuhide blamed Nobunaga for his mother's death and the attack at Honnōji in 1582 was his revenge.

Mitsuhide survived for 13 days, until he was defeated by Hideyoshi at the Battle of Yamazaki.

See Also

Oda Nobunaga (pg XX), Honnōji, Seige of (pg XX), Toyotomi Hideyoshi (pg XX), Tokugawa Ieyasu (pg XX), Hatano Hideharu (pg XX), Akechi Mitsuharu (pg XX), Yamazaki, Battle of (pg XX), Uchidehama, Battle of (pg XX)

Akechi Mitsukuni

Akimoto Family

Akimoto Nagatomo

Akimoto Takatomo

Akimoto Yasutomo

Aki Province

Akita Castle

Akita City

Akita Family

Akita Kiyoshi

Cabinet	Position	From	To
1st Katō	Communications	May 31, 1925	Aug 2, 1925
2^nd Katō	Communications	Aug 2, 1925	Jan 30, 1926
1st Wakatsuki	Communications	Jan 30, 1926	Apr 20, 1927
1st Wakatsuki	Home Affairs	Dec 16, 1926	Mar 15, 1927
Hamaguchi	Home Affairs	Jul 2, 1929	Apr 14, 1931
2^nd Wakatsuki	Home Affairs	Apr 14, 1931	Dec 13, 1931

Welfare Minister in Abe Nobuyuki's cabinet, from 29 November 1939 to 16 January 1940

Akita Prefecture

Akita Sanesue

Sanesue served Tokugawa Ieyasu and received Shishido (in Hitachi, 50,000 koku) in 1602.

Akita Toshisue

Toshisue was the son of Sanesue. He also served the Tokugawa and received Miharu (in Mitsu, 50,000 koku) in 1645.

Akiyama Nobutomo

Akizuki Castle

Tanenaga served under Kuroda Nagamasa during the Korean campaign. He sided with Ishida Mitsunari at the battle of Sekigahara but managed to keep his fief (which was?) after the battle.

See Also

Akizuki Tanezane

Tanezane lost to the Ōtomo (the who, what, when, where, and why is still to be researched). Sometime after that he joined the Shimazu (as an ally or a vassal?) and fought with them against Hideyoshi in Kyūshū.

Amakazu Kagemochi

Kagemochi was a famous general for the Uesugi family. Among other things, he fought at the Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima (1561).

Amako Family

A samurai family that fought the Mōri family. They mostly lost. The Mōri had been one of their vassals.

See Also

Amako Haruhisa

Mostly a failure (he lost a lot of battles and a lot of territory) but regained some ground after Sue Harukata killed Ōuchi Yoshitaka.

See Also

Amako Katsuhisa

Lost to Mōri Terumoto in 1571 (where? what battle?) and fled to the island of Oki.

Later returned from Oki and captured Tajima and Inaba provinces. Defended Kozuki castle for Hideyoshi against the Mōri.

Katsuhisa was attacked by Kobayakawa Takakage and Kikkawa Motoharu (at Kozuki castle?), was defeated and committed suicide.

See Also

Nunobeyama, Battle of, Mōri Terumoto, Tajima Province, Inaba Province, Kōzuki, Seige of, Kobayakawa Takakage, Kikkawa Motoharu

Amako Kunihisa

Amako Okihisa

Amako Tsunehisa

Amako Yoshihisa

Yoshihisa was the son of Amako Katsuhisa (pg XXX). He continued the family fight against the Mōri.

While besieged in Toda Castle, Yoshihisa had a retainer, Moriyama Hisakane executed. This caused most of his remaining men to desert. With no hope of holding the castle, Yoshihisa fled and became a monk.

Amakusa Shirō

A leader of the Shimabara Rebellion, Shirō led the defence of Hara Castle and died when it fell.

See Also

Amano Takashige

Amano Yasukage

Amari Nobuyasu

Amari Toriyasu

Ama shōgun

Area:	11,612 km² (1995)
Capital:	Akita City (pg. 19)
Population:	1,220,000 (1996)

“Ama shōgun” refers to Hōjō Masako, who was the wife of Minamoto Yoritomo, and the power behind the Kamakura shōgunate after his death. She became a nun in 1199. Ama shōgun roughly means the “Nun shōgun.”

See Also

Ama

Ama is a term used to refer to nuns. In English it would be something like “nun” or “sister.”

American Black Chamber

“Black Chamber” was the name used in Europe for the government section involved in codebreaking and illicit reading of private (especially diplomatic) communications. The American govenment did not set up it's own black chamber until after World War I.

The American Black Chamber (actually the Cipher Bureau) was a group of codebreakers working for the United States government (with funding from the Army and the State Department) between July 1917 and October 1929, headed by Herbert O. Yardley (pg 379). Cracking Japanese codes was a priority. Kahn ([kahn_2004], pg 62) states:

The most important target was Japan. Its belligerence toward China jeopardized America's Open Door policy. Its emigrants exacerbated American racism. Its naval growth menaced American power in the western Pacific. Its commercial expansion threatened American dominance of Far Eastern markets.

After close to a year, Yardley and his staff finally managed to break the Japanese codes and were still reading Japanese diplomatic traffic when Washington hosted the Washington Naval Conference in 1921. The information the the Cipher Bureau provided the American delegation was instrumental in getting the Japanese side to agree to a 10:6 ratio instead of the 10:7 ratio the Japanese wanted. This was the hight of Yardley's cryptanalytic career.

The Japanese Navy was not happy with the treaty and when several years later Yardley described the whole incident in his book The American Black Chamber (pg. 23), the Japanese were not amused.

Despite their success at the Washington Conference, the truth of the matter is that Yardley and his codebreakers were not as good as Yardley believed them to be. Japanese government codes were rediculously weak in the early 1920s. The real difficulty probably lay in the Japanese language, not the Japanese codes – for several months after its founding, the American Black Chamber had no one with a good command of Japanese. British codebreakers at the time considered Japanese codes hardly worth the name.

Unfortunately, for the men and women of the Cipher Bureau the flow of diplomatic telegrams dried up as companies became less willing to break the law to help the government. In Washington, William Friedman was actively exploring cryptographic frontiers for the Army – the Cipher Bureau was becoming irrelevant. However, it was moral indignation that finally doomed the bureau. Henry L. Stimpson was Secretary of State under President Hoover. When he found out about the Cipher Bureau, he was furious and withdrew funding, summing up his argument with “Gentlemen do not read each other's mail.”

The Cipher Bureau closed its doors for good on 31 October 1929 – just two days after the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began.

Sources and Suggested Reading

See Also

American Black Chamber, The

A book by Herbert O. Yardley (pg 379), published in 1931, dealing with American efforts to read the communications of other countries. A large part of it is devoted to describing how Yardley and his codebreakers managed to read Japanese government codes and the advantage this gave to the American side at the Washington Naval Conference.

Sources and Suggested Reading

See Also

Anarchism

Kōtoku Shūsui led the anarchist movement until his death in 1911. It continued under Ōsugi Sakae until his murder in 1923. Both men were anarcho-syndicalists and advocated direct action by workers.

Anarchists were at odds with other socialist groups. With the success of the Russian Revolution and the death of Ōsugi, communist groups took control of the labor unions away from the anarcho-syndicalists.

See Also

Anayama Nobukimi

Ando Chikasue

Ando Morinari

Ando Shigenaga

Ando Shigenobu

Anegakoji Family

Anegakoji Koretsuna

Anegakoji Yoshiyori

Anegawa, Battle of

Oda Nobunaga, with Tokugawa Ieyasu and Inaba Ittetsu, fought the combined forces of Asai Nagamasa and Asakura Yoshikage. Tokugawa forces engaged the Asakura while Oda forces dealt with the Asai.

The Tokugawa forces finished off the Asakura and then turned and hit the Asai's right flank. Inaba had been held in reserve, came forward and hit the Asai left flank.

See Also

Oda Nobunaga (pg. X), Tokugawa Ieyasu (pg. X), Inaba Ittetsu (pg. X), Asai Nagamasa (pg. X), Asakura Yoshikage (pg. X)

An'ei

Angen

Ankan-tennō

The Emperor Ankan was the 27th imperial ruler of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. No firm dates can be assigned to this emperor or to his reign, but he is believed to have ruled the country during the early 6th century CE.

According to the Kojiki, Ankan was the elder son of the Emperor Keitai. Ankan became emperor at age 66 and died four years later. No significant events were recorded during his reign.

Ankokuji Ekei

Ankō-tennō

Anna

Annei-tennō

Ansei Purge

A purge, in 1858--1859, of over 100 people from the bakufu, various han, and the Imperial court. Eight of those `purged' were also executed. It was carried out by Ii Naosuke in an effort to quiet opposition to his handling of the question of shōgunal succession and the signing of the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce.

(Todo: Add more details on the succession dispute and the people who were purged.)

See Also

Ansei

Ansei Treaties

Antei

Antoku-tennō

There were two nengō during his reign, Yōwa (pg XREF) which lasted from 1181 to 1182 and Juei (pg XREF), from 1182 to 1183.

Anwa

Aoki Kazuo

Finance Minister in Abe Nobuyuki's cabinet, from 30 August 1939 to 16January 1940.

Aoki Shigekane

Aomori City

Aomori Prefecture

Aoyama Tadanari

Aoyama Yukinari

Arahata Kanson

Mr. Arahata participated in many of the socialist movements in his career. He started as a socialist, became an syndico-anarchist and eventually a communist and ended up serving in the Diet as a representative of the postwar Japan Socialist Party.

He joined the Heiminsha in 1904 and was among those arrested for the Red Flag Incident of 1908.

He was on the Central Executive Committee of the Japan Socialist Party from 1946 to 1948.

See Also

Heiminsha (pg. X), Red Flag Incident (pg. X), Kindai Shiso (pg. X), Ōsugi Sakae (pg. X), Japan Communist Party (pg. X), Rono Faction (pg. X), Japan Socialist Party (pg. X), Socialism (pg. X), Anarchism (pg. X),

Araki Murashige

Araki Sadao

Sadao was a leading member of the “Imperial Way Faction” (Kodoha). He was put on the reserve list as a result of the February 26 Uprising.

Cabinet Positions

See Also

February 26 Revolt (pg. X), Imperial Way Faction (pg. X), War Crimes, Class A (pg. X),

Arima Harunobu

Arima Naozumi

Arima Tadayori

Arima Toyouji

Arima Yoshisada

Arquebus

Asahina Yasutomo

Asai Family

Asai Hisamasa

The son of Asai Sukemasa. Lost to the Sasaki and retired in favor of his son Nagamasa.

Asai Nagamasa

Son of Asai Hisamasa, from whom he took over in (year??). Nagamasa successfully battled both Rokkaku Yoshitaka and Saitō Tatsuoki.

Married Oda Nobunaga's sister but later joined the Asakura family and the monks of Mt. Hiei against Nobunaga. Nagamasa was defeated by Oda and Tokugawa Ieyasu at the battle of Anegawa in 1570.

In 1573, Oda laid siege to Nagamasa's castle at Odani. Unfortunately for Nagamasa, he was there at the time. He committed suicide and in exchange, Oda spared Nagamasa's family (which of course included his---Nobunaga's---own sister).

See Also

Asai Hisamasa (pg. X), Rokkaku Yoshitaka (pg. X), Saitō Tatsuoki (pg. X), Oda Nobunaga (pg. X), Tokugawa Ieyasu (pg. X), Odani, Seige of (pg. X), Asakura Family (pg. X), Anegawa, Battle of (pg. X),

Asai Sukemasa

Asakura Family

Asakura Hirokage

Asakura Kageakira

Asakura Kagetake

Asakura Nobumasa

Asakura Norikage

Asakura Sadakage

Asakura Takakage

Asakura Toshikage

Asakura Yoshikage

Asano Family

Asano Nagaakira

Asano Nagamasa

Asano Naganori

Asano Nagatsune

Asano Shoichirō

Businessman. From a samurai family in the Toyama region. Purchased Fukagawa Cement Works from the government in 1884, with help from Shibusawa Eiichi. Diversified his business interests, which eventually became a minor zaibatsu. Without a bank, it remained minor.

See Also

Asano Yukinaga

Asari Umanosuke

Ashida Hitoshi

Was Prime Minister from 10 March 1948 to 15 October 1948. He replaced Katayama Tetsu and was replaced by Yoshida Shigeru.

Cabinet Positions

Cabinet

See Also

Ashigaru

Cabinet	Position	From	To
Inukai	War	Dec 13, 1931	May 26, 1932
Saitō	War	May 26, 1932	Jan 23, 1934
1^st Konoe	Education	May 26, 1938	Jan 5, 1939
Hiranuma	Education	Jan 5, 1939	Aug 30, 1939

Cabinet	Position	From	To
Shidehara	Welfare	Oct 9, 1945	May 22, 1946
Katayama	Foreign Affairs	Jun 1, 1947	Mar 10, 1948
Ashida	Foreign Affairs	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Ashida Hitoshi	Prime Minister	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948

Name	Position	From	To
Ashida Hitoshi	Prime Minister	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Nagae Kazuo	Agriculture & Forestry	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Suzuki Yoshio	Attorney General	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Tomabechi Gizō	Chief of Cabinet Secretariat	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Mizutani Chōzaburō	Commerce & Industry	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Tomoyoshi Eiji	Communications	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Hitotsumatsu Sadayoshi	Construction	Jul 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Morito Tatsuo (sp?)	Education	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Kitamura Tokutarō	Finance	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Ashida Hitoshi	Foreign Affairs	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Katō Kanjū	Labor	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Nomizo Masaru	State: Chairman of the Local Finance Committee	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Funada Kyōji	State: Director of Administrative Management Agency	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Kurusu Takeo	State: Director of Central Economic Investigation Agency	Aug 1, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Kurusu Takeo	State: Director of Economic Stabilization Board & Director of Price Board	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Funada Kyōji	State: Director of Reparations Agency	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Hitotsumatsu Sadayoshi	State: President of Construction Board	Mar 10, 1948	Jul 9, 1948
Nishio Suehiro	State: Without Portfolio	Mar 10, 1948	Jul 6, 1948
Tomabechi Gizō	State: Without Portfolio	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Okada Seiichi	Transport	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948
Takeda Giichi	Welfare	Mar 10, 1948	Oct 15, 1948

Their root is believed to be that of shimobe (下部), who served by the side of government officials during Heian period. Ashigaru (literally “light-foot”, but the word most likely stems from “light armored”) were the lowest-class warriors, either the low-class buke (noble) or commoners who had joined or been impressed to the daimyo's army.

The ashigaru were foot soldiers—the cavalry was the territory of the samurai. They might have been armed with katana or just with spears (yari) unless they served as handlers of catapults. In the 1500s, they were also armed with arquebuses. As battles became more complex and forces larger, ashigaru were rigorously trained so that they would hold their ranks in the face of enemy fire.

Ashigaru armor consisted of conical hats (jingasa) made of lacquered hardened leather, breastplates and occasionally greaves protecting the legs. Some also donned small banners on their back during battle for identification purposes, called sashimono. They needed to bring provisions for themselves until reaching local gathering points and from this point on, were provided with provisions from the daimyo's warehouses.

At first the ashigaru were mercenaries or adventurers who were paid only in loot, but eventually some of them became part of local armies as retained warriors. Those who were given control of ashigaru were called ashigarugashira (足軽頭), (literally "ashigaru head"), and were provided with an annual stipend of 200 to 500 koku.

In the Sengoku period some of them rose to greater prominence. The most famous of these was Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who also raised many of his warrior followers to samurai status. Yamauchi Katsutoyo was one of these. He started as an ashigaru and was made a samurai and later became a daimyo.

Ashikaga Chachamaru

Ashikaga Masatomo

Ashikaga Shōgunate

The Ashikaga Shōgunate was founded by Ashikaga Takauji in 1338. It lasted in theory until 1573 although in reality the Shōgun had lost control of most of the country long before that.

This period is also known as the Muromachi period and gets its name from the Muromachi area of Kyōto where the third shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu established his residence.

In part because the founder of the Ashikaga shōgunate, Ashikaga Takauji, did so by siding with the Emperor against the previous Kamakura Shōgunate, the Ashikaga shared more of the governmental authority with the Imperial government than the Kamakura had. However, most of the regional power still remained with the provincial daimyō, and the military power of the shōgunate depended largely on their loyalty to the Ashikaga. As the daimyō increasingly feuded among themselves in the pursuit of power, that loyalty grew increasingly strained, until it erupted into open warfare in the late Muromachi period, also known as the Sengoku Period.

The Ashikaga shōgunate was destroyed in 1573 when Oda Nobunaga drove the 15th and last Ashikaga shōgun Yoshiaki out of Kyōto. Afterwards, Yoshiaki sought and received protection from the Mōri Family in western Japan. The Ashikaga family still exists today.

See Also

Ashikaga Takauji (pg. X), Ashikaga Yoshiaki (pg. X), Oda Nobunaga (pg. X), List of Ashigaka Shōgun (pg. X),

Ashikaga Tadayoshi

Ashikaga Takauji

Turned against the Hōjō and took Rokuhara (who, what, and where?). For which he was granted Musashi, Shimōsa, Hitachi.

Defeated Hōjō Tokiyuki and took Kamakura. Declared himself shōgun. Lost to Nitta Yoshisada in Mikawa and Suruga.

Beat someone in the mountains in Hakone which helped him rally other daimyō to his cause. Later took Kyōto. Lost Kyōto to Kitabatake Akiie, Nitta Yoshisada, and Kusunoki Masashige (among others). Lost again near Hyōgo and fled to Kyūshū.

Defeated Kikuchi Taketoshi at Tatara-hama in Chikuzen. Returned to Honshū and defeated Nitta and Kusunoki at Minato-gawa.

Entered Kyōto, deposed Go-Daigo and installed Kōmyō as Emperor. Go-Daigo fled and established the southern court. Takauji spent the rest of his life fighting against samurai loyal to the southern emperor.

Ashikaga Takauji established the Ashigaka shōgunate, which lasted, in theory, until 1573. In practice, the Ashikaga shōgun lost much of their power long before then.

Ashikaga Yoshiakira

Ashikaga Yoshiaki

Yoshiaki was installed in 1567 as the 15^th Ashikaga Shōgun by Oda Nobunaga. Yoshiaki was not quite as tame as Nobunaga thought however – he conspired with Takeda Shingen to free himself from Oda's control. Nobunaga deposed Yoshiaki in 1673 and didn't bother replacing him, which is a pretty good indication of just how powerless / meaningless the Shōgunate had become.

Ashikaga Yoshiharu

Powerless. Controlled by the daimyō. Eventually forced to flee. (Why? From whom? To where?)

Ashikaga Yoshihide

Chosen (by whom?) as a two year old to replace Yoshiteru, but did not get Oda Nobunaga's support. With such a powerful daimyō against him, Yoshihide had no hope of ever getting to rule (never mind his age). His handlers fled, taking him with them of course, and Yoshihide died at the tender age of four.

Who was behind him, pulling the strings in his name? Seriously, there is no way a two year old was deciding anything. Was it his mother or a grandparent? A cousin or some faction at court? Obviously he had to have had some support from a few daimyō, but which ones and why?

Ashikaga Yoshihisa

Ashikaga Yoshikatsu

Ashikaga Yoshikazu

Ashikaga Yoshimasa

The 8^th Ashikaga shōgun. Son of Ashikaga Yoshinori, who was the 6^th Ashikaga shōgun.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu

Ashikaga Yoshimochi

Ashikaga Yoshinori

Ashikaga Yoshitane

Yoshitane lost (to whom?) at Shōgakuji in 1491 (?). He fled and was replaced by Ashikaga Yoshizumi (page XXX).

Ashikaga Yoshiteru

Was attacked by Miyoshi Chōkei and Matsunaga Hisahide, lost and committed suicide.

Ashikaga Yoshizumi

Ashina Family

Ashina Morikiyo

Ashina Morishige

Ashina Moritaka

Ashina Moriuji

Aso Family

Aso Hisashi

Aso Koretoyo

Atagi Fuyuyasu

Atagi Nobuyasu

Atobe Katsusuke

Atsuji Sadahise

Awaji Province

The island of Awaji, between Honshū and Shikoku. Today it is part of Hyōgo Prefecture.

See Also

Ayukawa Kiyonaga

Ayukawa Yoshisuke

Azuchi-Momoyama Period

The Azuchi-Momoyama period is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1568 to 1600. The period marks the governance of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The name Azuchi-Momoyama comes from the names of their respective castles in Kyōto, Azuchi and Momoyama.

The Azuchi-Momoyama period began out of the late Muromachi Period, known also as the Sengoku period, in 1568 when the armies of Nobunaga entered Kyōto and reestablished the Ashikaga Shogunate under the 15th and last shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki. The puppet shogunate lasted for 5 years until Nobunaga drove Yoshiaki of the capital in 1573.

In 1582, Nobunaga was assassinated in a coup by retainer Akechi Mitsuhide at Honnou Temple in Kyōto. Nobunaga's retainer Hashiba Hideyoshi, the later Toyotomi Hideyoshi, vanquished Mitsuhide at the Battle of Yamazaki and consolidated his own power in Kyōto to eventually conquer all of Japan by 1590.

When Toyotomi Hideyoshi died in 1598, his retainer Tokugawa Ieyasu sought to subjugate the Toyotomi. After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Ieyasu held supreme power over Japan beginning the Edo period, and finally in 1603 received the title of shogun officially establishing the Tokugawa Shogunate in Edo.

Reunification, 1573-1600

Between 1560 and 1600, powerful military leaders arose to defeat the warring daimyo and unify Japan. Three major figures dominated the period in succession: Oda Nobunaga (1534-82), Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-98), and Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616), each of whom emerged as a major overlord with large military forces under his command. As their power increased, they looked to the imperial court in Kyōto for sanction. In 1568 Nobunaga, who had defeated another overlord's attempt to attack Kyōto in 1560, marched on the capital, gained the support of the emperor, and installed his own candidate in the succession struggle for shogun. Backed by military force, Nobunaga was able to control the bakufu.

Initial resistance to Nobunaga in the Kyōto region came from the Buddhist monks, rival daimyo, and hostile merchants. Surrounded by his enemies, Nobunaga struck first at the secular power of the militant Tendai Buddhists, destroying their monastic center at Mount Hiei near Kyōto and killing thousands of monks in 1571. By 1573 he had defeated the local daimyo, banished the last Ashikaga shogun, and ushered in what historians call the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1573-1600), named after the castles of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi. Having taken these major steps toward reunification, Nobunaga then built a seven-story castle surrounded by stone walls at Azuchi on the shore of Lake Biwa. The castle was able to withstand firearms and became a symbol of the age of reunification. Nobunaga's power increased as he enfeoffed the conquered daimyo, broke down the barriers to free commerce, and drew the humbled religious communities and merchants into his military structure. He secured control of about one-third of the provinces through the use of large-scale warfare, and he institutionalized administrative practices, such as systematic village organization, tax collection, and standardized measurements. At the same time, other daimyo, both those that Nobunaga had conquered and those beyond his control, built their own heavily fortified castles and modernized their garrisons. In 1577 Nobunaga dispatched his chief general, Hideyoshi, to conquer twelve western Honshu provinces. The war was a protracted affair, and in 1582, when Nobunaga led an army to assist Hideyoshi, he was assassinated.

After destroying the forces responsible for Nobunaga's death, Hideyoshi was rewarded with a joint guardianship of Nobunaga's heir, who was a minor. By 1584 Hideyoshi had eliminated the three other guardians, taken complete control of Kyōto, and become the undisputed successor of his late overlord. A commoner by birth and without a surname, Hideyoshi was adopted by the Fujiwara family, given the surname Toyotomi, and granted the title kanpaku, representing civil and military control of all Japan. By the following year, he had secured alliances with three of the nine major daimyo coalitions and continued the war of reunification in Shikoku and northern Kyushu. In 1590, with an army of 200,000 troops, Hideyoshi defeated his last formidable rival, who controlled the Kanto region of eastern Honshu. The remaining contending daimyo capitulated, and the military reunification of Japan was complete.

All of Japan was controlled by the dictatorial Hideyoshi either directly or through his sworn vassals, and a new national government structure had evolved: a country unified under one daimyo alliance but still decentralized. The basis of the power structure was again the distribution of territory. A new unit of land measurement and assessment--the koku--was instituted. One koku was equivalent to about 180 liters of rice; daimyo were by definition those who held lands capable of producing 10,000 koku or more of rice. Hideyoshi personally controlled 2 million of the 18.5 million koku total national assessment (taken in 1598). Tokugawa Ieyasu, a powerful central Honshu daimyo (not completely under Hideyoshi's control), held 2.5 million koku.

Despite Hideyoshi's tremendous strength and the fear in which he was held, his position was far from secure. He attempted to rearrange the daimyo holdings to his advantage by, for example, reassigning the Tokugawa family to the conquered Kanto region and surrounding their new territory with more trusted vassals. He also adopted a hostage system for daimyo wives and heirs at his castle town at Osaka and used marriage alliances to enforce feudal bonds. He imposed the koku system and land surveys to reassess the entire nation. In 1590 Hideyoshi declared an end to any further class mobility or change in social status, reinforcing the class distinctions between cultivators and bushi (only the latter could bear arms). He provided for an orderly succession in 1591 by taking the title taiko, or retired kanpaku, turning the regency over to his son Hideyori. Only toward the end of his life did Hideyoshi try to formalize the balance of power by establishing certain administrative bodies: the five-member Board of Regents (one of them Ieyasu), sworn to keep peace and support the Toyotomi, the five-member Board of House Administrators for routine policy and administrative matters, and the three-member Board of Mediators, who were charged with keeping peace between the first two boards.

Momoyama art (1573-1615), named after the hill on which Hideyoshi built his castle at Fushima, south of Kyōto, flourished during this period. It was a period of interest in the outside world, the development of large urban centers, and the rise of the merchant and leisure classes. Ornate castle architecture and interiors adorned with painted screens embellished with gold leaf reflected daimyo power and wealth. Depictions of the "southern barbarians"--Europeans--were exotic and popular.

In 1577 Hideyoshi had seized Nagasaki, Japan's major point of contact with the outside world. He took control of the various trade associations and tried to regulate all overseas activities. Although China rebuffed his efforts to secure trade concessions, Hideyoshi succeeded in sending commercial missions to present-day Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. He was suspicious of Christianity, however, as potentially subversive to daimyo loyalties and he had some missionaries crucified.

Hideyoshi's major ambition was to conquer China, and in 1592, with an army of 200,000 troops, he invaded Korea, then a flourishing wealthy kingdom that enjoyed an alliance with China. His armies quickly overran the peninsula before losing momentum in the face of a combined Korean-Chinese force and crushing naval defeats suffered due to Admiral Yi Sun-sin's efforts. During peace talks, Hideyoshi demanded a division of Korea, freetrade status, and a Chinese princess as consort for the emperor. The equality with China sought by Japan was rebuffed by the Chinese, and peace efforts ended. In 1597, a second invasion was begun, but it abruptly ended with Hideyoshi's death in 1598.

Sources and Suggested Readings

See Also

Azukizaka, Battle of (1542)

See Also

Oda Nobunaga (pg. X), Imagawa Yoshimoto (pg. X), Azukizawa, Battle of (1564) (pg. X),

Azukizaka, Battle of (1564)

The second battle of Azukizaka took place in 1564, when Tokugawa Ieyasu sought to combat the growing threat of the Ikko-ikki, a sect of warrior monks who were strongly against samurai rule. The Ikki consisted of samurai, monks, and peasants, many of whom were vassals of Tokugawa.

As the battle wore on, a number of samurai from the Ikki forces switched sides, deciding that their feudal obligation to Tokugawa was stronger than their loyalty to the Ikki; it was only because of this that Tokugawa was able to win the battle.

See Also

Ben no Naishi

Benten

Bessho Family

Bessho Harusada

Bessho Nagaharu

Bessho Toyoharu

Bifuku Mon-in

Bingo Province

A province on the Inland Sea side of western Honshū, in what is today Hiroshima Prefecture. Bingo bordered on Bitchū, Hōki, Izumo, Iwami, and Aki Provinces.

See Also

Hiroshima Prefecture (pg. X), Aki Province (pg. X), Bitchū Province (pg. X), Hōki Province (pg. X), Iwaki Province (pg. X), Izumo Province (pg. X), Mimasaka Province (pg. X)

Bingo no Saburo

Bishamon

Bitatsu-tennō

Bitchū Province

A province on the Inland Sea side of western Honshū, in what is today Okayama Prefecture. Bitchū bordered on Hōki, Mimasaki, Bizen, and Bingo Provinces.

See Also

Okayama Prefecture (pg. X), Bingo Province (pg. X), Bizen Province (pg. X), Hōki Province (pg. X), Mimasaka Province (pg. X)

Bitō Family

Bitō Nishu

Bizen Province

A province on the Inland Sea side of Honshū, in what is today Okayama Prefecture. Bizen borders on Mimasaki, Harima, and Bitchū Provinces.

See Also

Okayama Prefecture (pg. X), Bitchū Province (pg. X), Harima Province (pg. X), Mimasaka Province (pg. X),

Bojo Family

See Also

Bomon Kiyotada

A member of the kuge class. Son of Fujiwara Toshisuke, Kiyotada worked against Ashikaga Takauji at the court.

Bon

The festival of the dead. Some parts of Japan celebrate Bon (also Obon) in mid-July, others in mid-August.

The spirits of the dead are believed to return to earth at Bon. During this holiday, which generally lasts about three days, many people return to their hometowns to visit their families and say hello to their ancestors.

Boshin War

The Boshin War was fought between supporters of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the new Imperial forces.

Discontent between the shogunate and the reformist sonnō-jōi movement had been brewing for years. In November 1866, Emperor Meiji had given the rebellious provinces of Satsuma and Choshu the right to overthrow the shogunate; however, reigning Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu deftly sidestepped this by resigning his post (but not his power) the next day.

Events came to a head on January 3, 1868 when the emperor declared his own restoration to full power, and the war started seven days later when Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu declared the declaration "illegal" and attacked Kyoto, the seat of the emperor. Despite a 3:1 numerical advantage and training by French military advisors, the first significant battle near Toba and Fushimi led to a rout of the 15,000-strong shogunate forces, and Yoshinobu was forced to flee to Edo. Saigo Takamori led the victorious imperial forces north and east through Japan, eventually leading to the unconditional surrender of Edo in May 1868.

After Yoshinobu's surrender, most of Japan accepted the emperor's rule, but a core of shogunate supporters led by the Aizu clan continued the resistance. After a protracted month-long battle, Aizu finally admitted defeat on September 23, leading to the mass suicide of the Byakkotai (White Tiger Corps) young warriors. A month later, Edo was renamed Tokyo, and the Meiji Era started.

In a final chapter to the war, navy official Enomoto Takeaki had fled to Hokkaido with the remnants of the shogun's navy and a handful of faithful French military advisors (especially Jules Brunet) and attempted to establish the Republic of Ezo there, but this too was crushed by Meiji forces in May 1869, bringing the war to an end.

Buddhism

Bukkyo in Japanese. One of the two main religious influences on Japanese culture (Shintō is the other).

The man known as the Buddha lived around 550 B.C. in India and before he died he started a religion whose impact on Asia cannot be measured. Although it eventually died out in its native India, Buddhism spread to Nepal, Tibet, China, Korea, and Japan, as well as the countries of South East Asia. Buddhism was already over a thousand years old when it reached Japan and had changed considerably in those years.

The Buddha was concerned with just one thing --- how to end suffering. Indians back then, like many today, believed that all living things are reborn in a constant cycle of birth and death. The Buddha also believed this and concluded that if we could break free from this cycle, we could end the suffering that goes with living. His Four Noble Truths sum it up better than I can:

The Eight Fold Path describes the proper way to live to achieve enlightenment. It is not an easy path, and in theory it could take you several lifetimes to finally transcend the cycle of birth and death. The path demands great sacrifice and discipline. Obviously such a seemingly pessimistic and difficult religion is going to have some public relations problems. Joe (and Jane) Layman doesn't have enough spare time to spend hours sitting on his butt meditating. Neither are most people real interested in giving up married life. So why has Buddhism been so popular? The answer is simple: in Tibet and China it mixed with local shamanistic ideas and practices to become a “Big Vehicle” offering rituals and prayers to comfort the common people and offer them some hope of salvation in this lifetime. The Buddha himself was deified. Eventually there were a multitude of schools (sects) in East Asia each stressing some element of the Buddha's teachings or those of popular priests after him. In Southeast Asia Buddhism was not exposed to Tibetan or Chinese practices and so has remained much closer to original Buddhism. The Buddhism which cameinto Japan was of the “Big Vehicle” sort. Each class found a school of Buddhism that suited its outlook and station. Thus, the imperial court was drawn to sects heavy in ritual and philosophy. Commoners generally went for the simpler sects which promised them salvation.

The samurai found Zen Buddhism perfectly suited to their needs --- the need to die at anytime without any hesitation.

Bukeyashiki

aka “Samurai District'', the Bukeyashiki is an area in Kanazawa with old samurai houses from the Tokugawa Period.

See Also

Bukko Kokushi

Bukkyo

Bummei

Bumpō

Bun'an

Bunchū

Bun'ei

Bungo Province

A province in eastern Kyūshū, which bordered on Buzen, Hyūga, Higo, Chikugo, and Chikuzen Provinces. Today the area is Ōita Prefecture.

See Also

Buzen Province (pg. X), Chikugo Province (pg. X), Chikuzen Province (pg. X), Higo Province (pg. X), Hyūga Province (pg. X), Ōita Prefecture (pg. X)

Bunji

Bunkan

Bunka

Bunki

Bunkyū

Bunnan

Bun'ō

Bunreki

Bunroku

Bunryaku

Bunsei

Bunshō

Buntoku-tennō

Bunwa

Bunya Family

Buretsu-tennō

Buson

Butsu Sorai

Buzen Province

A province in northern Kyūshū, which bordered on Bungo and Chikuzen Provinces. Today the area is a part of Fukuoka Prefecture.

Domains (feifs) include Nakatsu, worth 120,000 koku and held by Kuroda Nagamasa prior to the Battle of Sekigahara (he was moved to a bigger domain after that battle).

See Also

Bungo Province (pg. X), Chikuzen Province (pg. X), Fukuoka Prefecture (pg. X), Kuroda Nagamasa (pg. X), Sekigahara, Battle of (pg. X)

Chang Tso-lin – Currency

Chang Tso-lin

Chang was a warlord in Northern China. He was assassinated by officers of the Japanese Kwantung army.

Chian

Chiba City

Chiba Family

Chiba Kanetane

Chiba Prefecture

Chiba Sadatane

Chiba Sanetane

Chiba Shigetane

Chiba Takatane

Chiba Tanenao

Chiba Toshitane

Chiba Tsunetane

Chikamatsu Monzaemon

Chikugo Province

An old province in the area that is today part of Fukuoka Prefecture, on Kyūshū. Chikugo bordered on Hizen, Chikuzen, Bungo, and Higo Provinces.

See Also

Bungo Province (pg. X), Chikuzen Province (pg. X), Fukuoka (pg. X), Higo Province (pg. X), Hizen Province (pg. X), Kyūshū (pg. X),

Chikusa Family (daimyō)

Chikusa Family (kuge)

Chikusa Tadaharu

Chikusa Tadamoto

Chikusa Takamichi

Chikuzen Province

Province in the area that is today part of Fukuoka Prefecture on Kyūshū. Chikuzen bordered on Buzen, Bungo, Chikugo, and Hizen.

Domains (feifs) include Najima, worth 520,000 koku and granted to Kuroda Nagamasa after the Battle of Sekigahara.

See Also

Bungo Province (pg. X), Buzen Province (pg. X), Chikugo Province (pg. X), Fukuoka (pg. X), Hizen Province (pg. X), Kuroda Nagamasa (pg. X), Kyūshū (pg. X), Sekigahara, Battle of (pg. X),

Chiryaku

Chitsu

Cho Densu

Chōgen

Chōhō

Chōji

Chōjō

Chōkan

Chōkei-tennō

Chōkyō

Chōkyū

Chōreki

Chōroku

Chōryaku

Chōshō

Chōsokabe Family

Chōsokabe Kunichika

Chōsokabe Morichika

Was on the losing side at Sekigahara. He later joined the defenders at Osaka Castle, for which he was beheaded after the castle fell.

Chōsokabe Motochika

Chōsokabe Nobuchika

Chōtoku

Cho Tsugutsura

Cho Tsuratatsu

Chōwa

Chūai-tennō

Chūkyō-tennō

Class `A' War Crimes

Comfort Women

The term “comfort women” is a euphemism for women serving in military brothels in Japanese-occupied countries during World War II. Many surviving women have testified to being tricked, coerced, or forced into serving the Imperial Japanese Army during its occupation of Korea, China, and much of South East Asia.

In the Japanese language, ianfu (comfort woman) is a euphemism for prostitute. However, now it specifically refers to jūgun-ianfu (従軍慰安婦, “military comfort women”) – those women who served in Japanese military brothels during World War II in Japanese colonies and war areas. Many of these “comfort women” were forced, coerced, or tricked into sexual service for the Japanese military. According to research by Dr. Hirohumi Hayasi, a professor at Kantō-Gakuin Daigaku, comfort women included Chinese, Malays, Thais, Filipinos, Indonesians, Burmese, Vietnamese, Indians, Dutch, Japanese, Koreans and natives of the Pacific islands. Estimates of the number of comfort women during the war range from 20,000 to 300,000. Most of the brothels where comfort women served were located in Japanese military bases, usually in occupied areas in mainland Asia.

Brothels as Part of Japanese Military Policy

One of the ironies of Japanese military brothel system was that part of the reason the system was introduced was to prevent Japanese soldiers from committing rape. The Japanese military considered that, unless soldiers were provided with access to brothels, the soldiers might rape woman in areas under Japanese control, which might undermine support for Japanese rule. Another reason for the system was to keep the medical inspection of the prostitutes directly under the control of the military, thus preventing the spread of STDs among soldiers. A third reason was to provide sex as part of recreation to raise the morale of troops; a fourth was to bring the brothels directly to the front line so as to remove the need to grant leave to soldiers.

Initially, a conventional method of procuring prostitutes was used. Middlemen procured prostitutes within Japan and from Japanese colonies in Korea, Taiwan and Manchuria. Some were recruited by advertising in newspapers. Most of those who became comfort women by answering advertisements were already prostitutes and offered their services voluntarily. However, many were tricked into service or their families were forced to sell them due to economic hardship. Some who became confort women were kidnapped by the middlemen, especially in Japanese colonies (as opposed to Japan proper). Japanese women who served in overseas brothels are known as karayukisan and they often become managers of these military brothels.

However, the supply from these sources soon dried up, especially from Japan, where the Ministry of Foreign Affairs resisted issuing visas for Japanese comfort women. They believed the presence of Japanese prostitutes in colonial areas would tarnish the image of the empire. Soon, the military sought women directly from local sources. This is when the rampant abuse of the system occurred. Although in urban areas the usual methods – middlemen and existing brothels – might be sufficient, at the front lines or in the countryside (where middlemen or brothels were not sufficient to meet demand) the army directly demanded that the local leaders procure women for their brothels.

Responsibility and Compensation

Japan regards all World War II compensation claims to be settled, with the single exception of North Korea, with which it has not signed any treaty for war time settlement. These treaties settle all claims at the government level. However, as is the case with most treaties concerning the War, they do not cover civilian claims.

Japan regards South Korea's official compensation claim as having been settled by the Treaty on Basic Relations and Agreement of Economic Cooperation and Property Claims between Japan and the Republic of Korea in 1965.

In 1990 the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery, with help from Japanese organizations, filed suit, demanding apologies and compensation. Independently several comfort women also filed suit, in the Tokyo District Court. More suits followed in the ensuing years. However, it was widely expected from the beginning that the court would reject all of these claims on the basis of the statutes of limitation or on the basis that the state is immune from civil suits in court on the matter of wartime conduct. Nevertheless, these suits have helped to revive and keep alive the issue of comfort women in Japan as well as in the international media.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone stated in his memoirs, published in 1978, that he set up a comfort house for his troops when he was a navy lieutenant in charge of accounting. Nevertheless, up until 1992, the Japanese government denied any official connection to the wartime brothels. In June 1990, the Japanese government declared that they were run by private contractors. However, since 1992, when the historian Yoshimi Yoshiaki discovered incriminating documents in the archives of Japan's National Defense Agency indicating that the military was directly involved in running the brothels (by, for example, selecting the agents who recruited or coerced women into service), Japan's official position has been one of admitting “moral but not legal” responsibility.

In 1995, a Japanese semi-governmental “Asia Women's Fund” was set up for atonement in the form of material compensation and to provide each surviving comfort woman with an unofficial signed apology from the prime minister. Because of their unofficial nature, many comfort women have rejected these payments and continue to seek an official apology and compensation.

Following official admission of a military connection to the brothels in 1992, the debate has shifted to consideration of evidence and testimony of coercive recruitment of comfort women during the war. In a number of mock trials (without cross-examination), surviving women have testified of being subjected to coercion and rape.

The Japanese Debate Over Comfort Women

The popular conception of “comfort women” outside Japan is that all comfort women were kidnapped by Japanese soldiers to serve as sex slaves under direct order from the Japanese military or the government. This simplified picture misses certain important aspects of the issue. Military comfort women were part of the military brothel system which was not uniquely Japanese. As with any other military brothels, procurement was largely done through middlemen. The issue is extremely controversial in regard to the case of Korea.

From 1991 to 1992, the Asahi Shimbun, one of the major daily newspapers in Japan, ran a series about military comfort women. This is regarded as the start of the comfort women controversy in Japan, which coincided with the re-examination of other wartime atrocities such as the Nanking Massacre. Such re-examinations were prominent through out 1990s. In this series the Asahi Shimbun published excerpts of the book published in 1983 by Kiyosada Yosida, Watashi no Sensō Hanzai – Chōsenjin Renkō Kōsei Kiroku (My War Crime: The Record of the Forced Removal of Koreans), in which the author confesses to forcibly procuring women from Jeju Island in Korea under the direct order of the Japanese military. In 1992, the paper also published the discovery of documents in the archives of Japan's National Defense Agency indicating that the military was directly involved in selecting the agents who recruited these women into service.

That article implied that the document is a smoking gun, proving the government's complicty in the forcible kidnapping of women. The publication of the article was just five days before Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa paid a visit to South Korea. Miyazawa made a formal apology during that visit. However, the investigation by Hata Ikuhiko subsequently discovered that the entire Jeju Island episode documented in Yoshida's book to be fiction, which the author of the book later admitted. Moreover, the supposedly incriminating documents proving the military's involvement in selecting the agents in fact showed that the military issued such directives to prevent abuse, in response to reports of complaints from the colonial police force about the methods employed by these agents. And it was shown that some of these women were sold by their parents to these agents as bonded labour, a practice not uncommon at the time both in Japan and in Korea.

These revelations severely damaged the credibility of the movement advocating for comfort women in Japan – though subsequent research proved that Japanese soldiers in the frontline had in fact forced women to work at military brothels. Moreover, the existence of middlemen does not change the fact that many women were coerced or sold against their wills. However, the context in which such acts were carried out would change the nuance of the moral responsibility.

A common defense heard in Japan is that there is no document to show that Japanese military hierarchy did order those middlemen to procure comfort women by force, that the purpose of military brothel system was to prevent rape, and that the military issued the directive to select agents so that these agents would not get involved in illegal methods of procurement. Moreover, the existence of middlemen makes it difficult for ex-comfort women to pursue compensation claims. Prostitution and bonded labour were legal at the time and if the coercion was done by the middlemen much of blame, whether legal or moral, can be shifted to them.

Furthermore, it is difficult this long after the alleged crimes for those who claim to have been kidnapped by Japanese soldiers to prove their allegations. While it is easy to believe that such crimes took place, it is another thing entirely to prove in a court of law that any specific instance occurred. As is the case for the Japanese war guilt issue, focusing on the existence of middlemen allows those who wish to deny responsibility to deflect part of blame back to the Korean or Chinese if not to the actual victims themselves. Many of these agents were locals, not Japanese, and some comfort women were sold to middlemen by their parents for economic reasons. Some community leaders who provided comfort women under threat from Japanese army had to use tricks or coercion. Pointing to the complicity of locals allows those who wish to deny guilt to claim that Japan merely took advantage of what locals were already doing as an accepted practice at that period.

There is much debate over how much blame should be placed on the military hierarchy, or for that matter, the Japanese government. Though those who wish to deny official responsibility might admit that abuse at a local level might have occurred on an individual basis, it is common for them to blame the entire matter on mere failure of oversight, confused policy in regard to a "suspected" guerilla force, and a lack of resources at the front line. For example, former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone stated in his memoir published in 1978 that when he was a navy lieutenant he set up a comfort house for about 3000 of his troops. When criticised about this matter, he refused to admit any responsibility, insisting that he was never aware that the women were forced into service.

Military Brothels, Human Trafficking, and Sexual Slavery in Context

One criticism of the general reporting on the issue of comfort women in Western countries is that this reporting has subtly obscured the idea of the military brothel, making it appear that the concept of comfort women is uniquely Japanese. Military brothels are not at all unique, though the direct involvement of soldiers in procurement, as was sometimes the case in the Japanese military during World War II, is rare in the 20th century.

British, French and German forces have all utilised such institutions for the same reason the Japanese military did: to prevent STDs, to maintain the morale of the troops, and to allow soldiers to have sex near the front line. During the occupation of Japan, the U.S. army utilised military brothels set up by the Japanese government known as the Recreation and Amusement Association. Many Japanese women worked there under pressure because of economic hardship or coerced through the use of debt bondage. South Korea had a similar system during the Korean War and the Vietnam War. There were brothels for the exclusive use of U.S. soldiers inside certain camps in Vietnam War. Even U.N. peace keeping forces attract prostitution – there were increases in prostitutes in Cambodia and in Bosnia once U.N. forces moved in. There was one highly publicised case in which members of the U.N. peacekeeping force were accused of direct involvement in procurement of sex slaves for a local brothel in Bosnia. Setting up such an institution in an economically deprived area is bound to involve a degree of forced prostitution, but the use of agents for procurement and management of brothels has allowed the military to be shielded from the issue of sexual slavery and human trafficking.

References

* Tanaka, Yuki Japan's Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution During World War II and the US Occupation, London, Routledge: 2002. ISBN 0415194016.

* Yoshimi, Yoshiaki Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II, Columbia University Press, 2001. (mentioned RAA too) ISBN 023112032X

* Molasky, Michael S. American Occupation of Japan and Okinawa, Routledge, 1999. ISBN 0415191947 ISBN 0415260442

* Wakabayasi, Bob Tadasii "Comfort Women: Beyond Litigious Feminism" in issue 58:2 of Monumenta Nipponica: A review of these books and a history and historiography of the issue, from a view critical of the above books.

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Constitution of 1889

CONSTITUTION OF THE EMPIRE OF JAPAN, 1889

We, the Successor to the prosperous Throne of Our Predecessors, do humbly and solemnly swear to the Imperial Founder of Our House and to Our other Imperial Ancestors that, in pursuance of a great policy co-extensive with the Heavens and with the Earth, We shall maintain and secure from decline the ancient form of government.

In consideration of the progressive tendency of the course of human affairs and in parallel with the advance of civilization, We deem it expedient, in order to give clearness and distinctness to the instructions bequeathed by the Imperial Founder of Our House and by Our other Imperial Ancestors, to establish fundamental laws formulated into express provisions of law, so that, on the one hand, Our Imperial posterity may possess an express guide for the course they are to follow, and that, on the other, Our subjects shall thereby be enabled to enjoy a wider range of action in giving Us their support, and that the observance of Our laws shall continue to the remotest ages of time. We will thereby to give greater firmness to the stability of Our country and to promote the welfare of all the people within the boundaries of Our dominions; and We now establish the Imperial House Law and the Constitution. These Laws come to only an exposition of grand precepts for the conduct of the government, bequeathed by the Imperial Founder of Our House and by Our other Imperial Ancestors. That we have been so fortunate in Our reign, in keeping with the tendency of the times, as to accomplish this work, We owe to the glorious Spirits of the Imperial Founder of Our House and of Our other Imperial Ancestors.

We now reverently make Our prayer to Them and to Our Illustrious Father, and implore the help of Their Sacred Spirits, and make to Them solemn oath never at this time nor in the future to fail to be an example to our subjects in the observance of the Laws hereby established.

Imperial Rescript on the Promulgation of the Constitution

Whereas We make it the joy and glory of Our heart to behold the prosperity of Our country, and the welfare of Our subjects, We do hereby, in virtue of the Supreme power We inherit from Our Imperial Ancestors, promulgate the present immutable fundamental law, for the sake of Our present subjects and their descendants.

The Imperial Founder of Our House and Our other Imperial ancestors, by the help and support of the forefathers of Our subjects, laid the foundation of Our Empire upon a basis, which is to last forever. That this brilliant achievement embellishes the annals of Our country, is due to the glorious virtues of Our Sacred Imperial ancestors, and to the loyalty and bravery of Our subjects, their love of their country and their public spirit. Considering that Our subjects are the descendants of the loyal and good subjects of Our Imperial Ancestors, We doubt not but that Our subjects will be guided by Our views, and will sympathize with all Our endeavors, and that, harmoniously cooperating together, they will share with Us Our hope of making manifest the glory of Our country, both at home and abroad, and of securing forever the stability of the work bequeathed to Us by Our Imperial Ancestors.

Preamble (or Edict) (Joyu)

Having, by virtue of the glories of Our Ancestors, ascended the throne of a lineal succession unbroken for ages eternal; desiring to promote the welfare of, and to give development to the moral and intellectual faculties of Our beloved subjects, the very same that have been favored with the benevolent care and affectionate vigilance of Our Ancestors; and hoping to maintain the prosperity of the State, in concert with Our people and with their support, We hereby promulgate, in pursuance of Our Imperial Rescript of the 12th day of the 10th month of the 14th year of Meiji, a fundamental law of the State, to exhibit the principles, by which We are guided in Our conduct, and to point out to what Our descendants and Our subjects and their descendants are forever to conform.

The right of sovereignty of the State, We have inherited from Our Ancestors, and We shall bequeath them to Our descendants. Neither We nor they shall in the future fail to wield them, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution hereby granted.

We now declare to respect and protect the security of the rights and of the property of Our people, and to secure to them the complete enjoyment of the same, within the extent of the provisions of the present Constitution and of the law.

The Imperial Diet shall first be convoked for the 23rd year of Meiji and the time of its opening shall be the date, when the present Constitution comes into force.

When in the future it may become necessary to amend any of the provisions of the present Constitution, We or Our successors shall assume the initiative right, and submit a project for the same to the Imperial Diet. The Imperial Diet shall pass its vote upon it, according to the conditions imposed by the present Constitution, and in no otherwise shall Our descendants or Our subjects be permitted to attempt any alteration thereof.

Our Ministers of State, on Our behalf, shall be held responsible for the carrying out of the present Constitution, and Our present and future subjects shall forever assume the duty of allegiance to the present Constitution.

I. THE EMPEROR

Article 1. The Empire of Japan shall be reigned over and governed by a line of Emperors unbroken for ages eternal.

Article 2. The Imperial Throne shall be succeeded to by Imperial male descendants, according to the provisions of the Imperial House Law.

Article 4. The Emperor is the head of the Empire, combining in Himself the rights of sovereignty, and exercises them, according to the provisions of the present Constitution.

Article 5. The Emperor exercises the legislative power with the consent of the Imperial Diet.

Article 6. The Emperor gives sanction to laws, and orders them to be promulgated and executed.

Article 7. The Emperor convokes the Imperial Diet, opens, closes, and prorogues it, and dissolves the House of Representatives.

Article 8. The Emperor, in consequence of an urgent necessity to maintain public safety or to avert public calamities, issues, when the Imperial Diet is not sitting, Imperial ordinances in the place of law.

(2) Such Imperial Ordinances are to be laid before the Imperial Diet at its next session, and when the Diet does not approve the said Ordinances, the Government shall declare them to be invalid for the future.

Article 9. The Emperor issues or causes to be issued, the Ordinances necessary for the carrying out of the laws, or for the maintenance of the public peace and order, and for the promotion of the welfare of the subjects. But no Ordinance shall in any way alter any of the existing laws.

Article 10. The Emperor determines the organization of the different branches of the administration, and salaries of all civil and military officers, and appoints and dismisses the same. Exceptions especially provided for in the present Constitution or in other laws, shall be in accordance with the respective provisions (bearing thereon).

Article 12. The Emperor determines the organization and peace standing of the Army and Navy.

Article 15. The Emperor confers titles of nobility, rank, orders and other marks of honor.

Article 16. The Emperor orders amnesty, pardon, commutation of punishments and rehabilitation.

Article 17. A Regency shall be instituted in conformity with the provisions of the Imperial House Law.

(2) The Regent shall exercise the powers appertaining to the Emperor in His name.

II. RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF SUBJECTS

Article 18. The conditions necessary for being a Japanese subject shall be determined by law.

Article 19. Japanese subjects may, according to qualifications determined in laws or ordinances, be appointed to civil or military or any other public offices equally.

Article 20. Japanese subjects are amenable to service in the Army or Navy, according to the provisions of law.

Article 21. Japanese subjects are amenable to the duty of paying taxes, according to the provisions of law.

Article 22. Japanese subjects shall have the liberty of abode and of changing the same within the limits of the law.

Article 23. No Japanese subject shall be arrested, detained, tried or punished, unless according to law.

Article 24. No Japanese subject shall be deprived of his right of being tried by the judges determined by law.

Article 25. Except in the cases provided for in the law, the house of no Japanese subject shall be entered or searched without his consent.

Article 26. Except in the cases mentioned in the law, the secrecy of the letters of every Japanese subject shall remain inviolate.

Article 27. The right of property of every Japanese subject shall remain inviolate.

(2) Measures necessary to be taken for the public benefit shall be any provided for by law.

Article 28. Japanese subjects shall, within limits not prejudicial to peace and order, and not antagonistic to theirduties as subjects, enjoy freedom of religious belief.

Article 29. Japanese subjects shall, within the limits of law, enjoy the liberty of speech, writing, publication, public meetings and associations.

Article 30. Japanese subjects may present petitions, by observing the proper forms of respect, and by complying with the rules specially provided for the same.

Article 31. The provisions contained in the present Chapter shall not affect the exercises of the powers appertaining to the Emperor, in times of war or in cases of a national emergency.

Article 32. Each and every one of the provisions contained in the preceding Articles of the present Chapter, that are not inconflict with the laws or the rules and discipline of the Army and Navy, shall apply to the officers and men of the Army and of the Navy.

III. THE IMPERIAL DIET

Article 33. The Imperial Diet shall consist of two Houses, a House of Peers and a House of Representatives.

Article 34. The House of Peers shall, in accordance with the ordinance concerning the House of Peers, be composed of the members of the Imperial Family, of the orders of nobility, and of those who have been nominated thereto by the Emperor.

Article 35. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members elected by the people, according to the provisions of the law of Election.

Article 38. Both Houses shall vote upon projects of law submitted to it by the Government, and may respectively initiate projects of law.

Article 39. A Bill, which has been rejected by either the one or the other of the two Houses, shall not be brought in again during the same session.

Article 40. Both Houses can make representations to the Government, as to laws or upon any other subject. When, however, such representations are not accepted, they cannot be made a second time during the same session.

Article 42. A session of the Imperial Diet shall last during three months. In case of necessity, the duration of a session may be prolonged by the Imperial Order.

Article 43. When urgent necessity arises, an extraordinary session may be convoked in addition to the ordinary one.

(2) The duration of an extraordinary session shall be determined by Imperial Order.

Article 44. The opening, closing, prolongation of session and prorogation of the Imperial Diet, shall be effected simultaneously for both Houses.

(2) In case the House of Representatives has been ordered to dissolve, the House of Peers shall at the same time be prorogued.

Article 45. When the House of Representatives has been ordered to dissolve, Members shall be caused by Imperial Order to be newly elected, and the new House shall be convoked within five months from the day of dissolution.

Article 46. No debate can be opened and no vote can be taken in either House of the Imperial Diet, unless not less than one-third of the whole number of Members thereof is present.

Article 47. Votes shall be taken in both Houses by absolute majority. In the case of a tie vote, the President shall have the casting vote.

Article 48. The deliberations of both Houses shall be held in public. The deliberations may, however, upon demand of the Government or by resolution of the House, be held in secret sitting.

Article 49. Both Houses of the Imperial Diet may respectively present addresses to the Emperor.

Article 51. Both Houses may enact, besides what is provided for in the present Constitution and in the Law of the Houses, rules necessary for the management of their internal affairs.

Article 52. No Member of either House shall be held responsible outside the respective Houses, for any opinion uttered or for any vote given in the House. When, however, a Member himself has given publicity to his opinions by public speech, by documents in print or in writing, or by any other similar means, he shall, in the matter, be amenable to the general law.

Article 53. The Members of both Houses shall, during the session, be free from arrest, unless with the consent of the House, except in cases of flagrant delicts, or of offenses connected with a state of internal commotion or with a foreign trouble.

Article 54. The Ministers of State and the Delegates of the Government may, at any time, take seats and speak in either House.

IV. THE MINISTERS OF STATE AND THE PRIVY COUNCIL

Article 55. The respective Ministers of State shall give their advice to the Emperor, and be responsible for it.

(2) All Laws, Imperial Ordinances, and Imperial Rescripts of whatever kind, that relate to the affairs of the state, require the countersignature of a Minister of State.

Article 56. The Privy Councillors shall, in accordance with the provisions for the organization of the Privy Council, deliberate upon important matters of State when they have been consulted by the Emperor.

V. THE JUDICATURE

Article 57. The Judicature shall be exercised by the Courts of Law according to law, in the name of the Emperor.

Article 58. The judges shall be appointed from among those, who possess proper qualifications according to law.

(2) No judge shall be deprived of his position, unless by way of criminal sentence or disciplinary punishment.

Article 59. Trials and judgments of a Court shall be conducted publicly. When, however, there exists any fear, that such publicity may be prejudicial to peace and order, or to the maintenance of public morality, the public trial may be suspended by provisions of law or by the decision of the Court of Law.

Article 60. All matters that fall within the competency of a special Court, shall be specially provided for by law.

Article 61. No suit at law, which relates to rights alleged to have been infringed by the illegal measures of the administrative authorities, and which shall come within the competency of the Court of Administrative Litigation specially established by law, shall be taken cognizance of by Court of Law.

VI. FINANCE

Article 62. The imposition of a new tax or the modification of the rates (of an existing one) shall be determined by law.

(2) However, all such administrative fees or other revenue having the nature of compensation shall not fall within the category of the above clause.

(3) The raising of national loans and the contracting of other liabilities to the charge of the National Treasury, except those that are provided in the Budget, shall require the consent of the Imperial Diet.

Article 63. The taxes levied at present shall, in so far as they are not remodelled by a new law, be collected according to the old system.

Article 64. The expenditure and revenue of the State require the consent of the Imperial Diet by means of an annual Budget.

(2) Any and all expenditures overpassing the appropriations set forth in the Titles and Paragraphs of the Budget, or that are not provided for in the Budget, shall subsequently require the approbation of the Imperial Diet.

Article 66. The expenditures of the Imperial House shall be defrayed every year out of the National Treasury, according to the present fixed amount for the same, and shall not require the consent thereto of the Imperial Diet, except in case an increase thereof is found necessary.

Article 67. Those already fixed expenditures based by the Constitution upon the powers appertaining to the Emperor, and such expenditures as may have arisen by the effect of law, or that appertain to the legal obligations of the Government, shall be neither rejected nor reduced by the Imperial Diet, without the concurrence of the Government.

Article 68. In order to meet special requirements, the Government may ask the consent of the Imperial Diet to a certain amount as a Continuing Expenditure Fund, for a previously fixed number of years.

Article 69. In order to supply deficiencies, which are unavoidable, in the Budget, and to meet requirements unprovided for in the same, a Reserve Fund shall be provided in the Budget.

Article 70. When the Imperial Diet cannot be convoked, owing to the external or internal condition of the country, in case of urgent need for the maintenance of public safety, the Government may take all necessary financial measures, by means of an Imperial Ordinance.

(2) In the case mentioned in the preceding clause, the matter shall be submitted to the Imperial Diet at its next session, and its approbation shall be obtained thereto.

Article 71. When the Imperial Diet has not voted on the Budget, or when the Budget has not been brought into actual existence, the Government shall carry out the Budget of the preceding year.

Article 72. The final account of the expenditures and revenues of the State shall be verified and confirmed by the Board of Audit, and it shall be submitted by the Government to the Imperial Diet, together with the report of verification of the said board.

(2) The organization and competency of the Board of Audit shall of determined by law separately.

VII. SUPPLEMENTARY RULES

Article 73. When it has become necessary in future to amend the provisions of the present Constitution, a project to the effect shall be submitted to the Imperial Diet by Imperial Order.

(2) In the above case, neither House can open the debate, unless not less than two-thirds of the whole number of Members are present, and no amendment can be passed, unless a majority of not less than two-thirds of the Members present is obtained.

Article 74. No modification of the Imperial House Law shall be required to be submitted to the deliberation of the Imperial Diet.

(2) No provision of the present Constitution can be modified by the Imperial House Law.

Article 75. No modification can be introduced into the Constitution, or into the Imperial House Law, during the time of a Regency.

Article 76. Existing legal enactments, such as laws, regulations, Ordinances, or by whatever names they may be called, shall, so far as they do not conflict with the present Constitution, continue in force.

(2) All existing contracts or orders, that entail obligations upon the Government, and that are connected with expenditure, shall come within the scope of Article 67.

Constitution of 1946

Japan is a constitutional monarchy. The current constitution was largely written by the Occupation authorities in 1945--1946. It replaced Japan's original constitution, which many people feel had flaws that made it unsuitable for a modern democracy. The original constitution was promulgated in 1889 (see page X.

THE CONSTITUTION OF JAPAN, 1946

We, the Japanese people, acting through our duly elected representatives in the National Diet, determined that we shall secure for ourselves and our posterity the fruits of peaceful cooperation with all nations and the blessings of liberty throughout this land, and resolved that never again shall we be visited with the horrors of war through the action of government, do proclaim that sovereign power resides with the people and do firmly establish this Constitution. Government is a sacred trust of the people, the authority for which is derived from the people, the powers of which are exercised by the representatives of the people, and the benefits of which are enjoyed by the people. This is a universal principle of mankind upon which this Constitution is founded. We reject and revoke all constitutions, laws, ordinances, and rescripts in conflict herewith.

We, the Japanese people, desire peace for all time and are deeply conscious of the high ideals controlling human relationship, and we have determined to preserve our security and existence, trusting in the justice and faith of the peace-loving peoples of the world. We desire to occupy an honored place in an international society striving for the preservation of peace, and the banishment of tyranny and slavery, oppression and intolerance for all time from the earth. We recognize that all peoples of the world have the right to live in peace, free from fear and want.

We believe that no nation is responsible to itself alone, but that laws of political morality are universal; and that obedience to such laws is incumbent upon all nations who would sustain their own sovereignty and justify their sovereign relationship with other nations.

We, the Japanese people, pledge our national honor to accomplish these high ideals and purposes with all our resources.

I. THE EMPEROR

Article 1. The Emperor shall be the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people, deriving his position from the will of the people with whom resides sovereign power.

Article 2. The Imperial Throne shall be dynastic and succeeded to in accordance with the Imperial House law passed by the Diet.

Article 3. The advice and approval of the Cabinet shall be required for all acts of the Emperor in matters of state, and the Cabinet shall be responsible therefor.

Article 4. The Emperor shall perform only such acts in matters of state as are provided for in this Constitution and he shall not have powers related to government.

(2) The Emperor may delegate the performance of his acts in matters of state as may be provided by law.

Article 5. When, in accordance with the Imperial House law, a Regency is established, the Regent shall perform his acts in matter of state in the Emperor's name. In this case, paragraph one of the article will be applicable.

Article 6. The Emperor shall appoint the Prime Minister as designated by the Diet.

(2) The Emperor shall appoint the Chief Judge of the Supreme Court as designated by the Cabinet.

Article 7. The Emperor, with the advice and approval of the Cabinet, shall perform the following acts in makers of state on behalf of the people:

(i) Promulgation of amendments of the constitution, laws, cabinet orders and treaties;

(v) Attestation of the appointment and dismissal of Ministers of State and other officials as provided for by law, and of full powers and credentials of Ambassadors and Ministers;

(vi) Attestation of general and special amnesty, commutation of punishment, reprieve, and restoration of rights;

(viii) Attestation of instruments of ratification and other diplomatic documents as provided for by law;

Article 8. No property can be given to, or received by, the Imperial House, nor can any gifts be made therefrom, without the authorization of the Diet.

II. RENUNCIATION OF WAR

Article 9. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a mean of settling international disputes.

(2) In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

CHAPTER III. RIGHTS ANO DUTIES OF THE PEOPLE

Article 10. The conditions necessary for being a Japanese national shall be determined by law.

Article 11. The people shall not be prevented from enjoying any of the fundamental human rights. These fundamental human rights guaranteed to the people by this Constitution shall be conferred upon the people of this and future generations as eternal and inviolate rights.

Article 12. The freedoms and rights guaranteed to the people by this Constitution shall be maintained by the constant endeavor of the people, who shall refrain from any abuse of these freedoms and rights and shall always be responsible for utilizing them for the public welfare.

Article 13. All of the people shall be respected as individuals. Their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness shall, to the extent that it does not interfere with the public welfare, be the supreme consideration in legislation and in other governmental affairs.

Article 14. All of the people are equal under the law and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic or social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status or family origin.

(3) No privilege shall accompany any award of honor, decoration or any distinction, nor shall any such award be valid beyond the lifetime of the individual who now holds or hereafter may receive it.

Article 15. The people have the inalienable right to choose their public officials and to dismiss them.

(2) All public officials are servants of the whole community and not of any group thereof.

(3) Universal adult suffrage is guaranteed with regard to the election of public officials.

(4) In all elections, secrecy of the ballot shall not be violated. A voter shall not be answerable, publicly or privately, for the choice he has made.

Article 16. Every person shall have the right of peaceful petition for the redress of damage, for the removal of public officials, for the enactment, repeal or amendment of law, ordinances or regulations and for other matters, nor shall any person be in any way discriminated against sponsoring such a petition.

Article 17. Every person may sue for redress as provided by law from the State or a public entity, in case he has suffered damage through illegal act of any public official.

Article 18. No person shall be held in bondage of any kind. Involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime, is prohibited

Article 20. Freedom of religion is guaranteed to all. No religious organization shall receive any privileges from the State nor exercise any political authority.

(2) No person shall be compelled to take part in any religious acts, celebration, rite or practice.

(3) The state and its organs shall refrain from religious education or any other religious activity.

Article 21. Freedom of assembly and association as well as speech, press and all other forms of expression are guaranteed.

(2) No censorship shall be maintained, nor shall the secrecy of any means of communication be violated.

Article 22. Every person shall have freedom to choose and change his residence and to choose his occupation to the extent that it does not interfere with the public welfare.

(2) Freedom of all persons to move to a foreign country and to divest themselves of their nationality shall be inviolate.

Article 24. Marriage shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes and it shall be maintained through mutual cooperation with the equal rights of husband and wife as a basis.

(2) With regard to choice of spouse, property rights, inheritance, choice of domicile, divorce and other matters pertaining to marriage and the family, laws shall be enacted from the standpoint of individual dignity and the essential equality of the sexes.

Article 25. All people shall have the right to maintain the minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living.

(2) In all spheres of life, the State shall use its endeavors for the promotion and extension of social welfare and security, and of public health.

Article 26. All people shall have the right to receive an equal education correspondent to their ability, as provided by law.

(2) All people shall be obligated to have all boys and girls under their protection receive ordinary educations as provided for by law. Such compulsory education shall be free.

(2) Standards for wages, hours, rest and other working conditions shall be fixed by law.

Article 28. The right of workers to organize and to bargain and act collectively is guaranteed.

(2) Property rights shall be defined by law, in conformity with the public welfare.

(3) Private property may be taken for public use upon just compensation therefor.

Article 31. No person shall be deprived of life or liberty, nor shall any other criminal penalty be imposed, except according to procedure established by law.

Article 33. No person shall be apprehended except upon warrant issued by a competent judicial officer which specifies the offense with which the person is charged, unless he is apprehended, the offense being committed.

Article 34. No person shall be arrested or detained without being at once informed of the charges against him or without the immediate privilege of counsel; nor shall he be detained without adequate cause; and upon demand of any person such cause must be immediately shown in open court in his presence and the presence of his counsel.

Article 35. The right of all persons to be secure in their homes, papers and effects against entries, searches and seizures shall not be impaired except upon warrant issued for adequate cause and particularly describing the place to be searched and things to be seized, or except as provided by Article 33.

(2) Each search or seizure shall be made upon separate warrant Issued by a competent judicial officer.

Article 36. The infliction of torture by any public officer and cruel punishments are absolutely forbidden.

Article 39. In all criminal cases the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial tribunal.

(2) He shall be permitted full opportunity to examine all witnesses, and he shall have the right of compulsory process for obtaining witnesses on his behalf at public expense.

(3) At all times the accused shall have the assistance of competent counsel who shall, if the accused is unable to secure the same by his own efforts, be assigned to his use by the State.

(2) Confession made under compulsion, torture or threat, or after prolonged arrest or detention shall not be admitted in evidence.

(3) No person shall be convicted or punished in cases where the only proof against him is his own confession.

Article 39. No person shall be held criminally liable for an act which was lawful at the time it was committed, or of which he has been acquitted, nor shall he be placed in double jeopardy.

Article 40. Any person, in case he is acquitted after he has been arrested or detained, may sue the State for redress as provided by law.

IV. THE DIET

Article 41. The Diet shall be the highest organ of state power, and shall be the sole law-making organ of the State.

Article 42. The Diet shall consist of two Houses, namely the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors.

Article 43. Both Houses shall consist of elected members, representative of all the people.

Article 44. The qualifications of members of both Houses and their electors shall be fixed by law. However, there shall be no discrimination because of race, creed, sex, social status, family origin, education, property or income.

Article 45. The term of office of members of the House of Representatives shall be four years. However, the term shall be terminated before the full term is up in case the House of Representatives is dissolved.

Article 46. The term of office of members of the House of Councillors shall be six years, and election for half the members shall take place every three years.

Article 47. Electoral districts, method of voting and other matters pertaining to the method of election of members of both Houses shall be fixed by law.

Article 48. No person shall be permitted to be a member of both Houses simultaneously.

Article 49. Members of both Houses shall receive appropriate annual payment from the national treasury in accordance with law.

Article 50. Except in cases provided by law, members of both Houses shall be exempt from apprehension while the Diet is in session, and any members apprehended before the opening of the session shall be freed during the term of the session upon demand of the House.

Article 51. Members of both Houses shall not be held liable outside the House for speeches, debates or votes cast inside the House.

Article 53. The Cabinet may determine to convoke extraordinary sessions of the Diet. When a quarter or more of the total members of either house makes the demand, the Cabinet must determine on such convocation.

Article 54. When the House of Representatives is dissolved, there must be a general election of members of the House of Representatives within forty (40) days from the date of dissolution, and the Diet must be convoked within thirty (30) days from the date of the election.

(2) When the House of Representatives is dissolved, the House of Councillors is closed at the same time. However, the Cabinet may in time of national emergency convoke the House of Councillors in emergency session.

(3) Measures taken at such session as mentioned in the proviso of the preceding paragraph shall be provisional and shall become null and void unless agreed to by the House of Representatives within a period of ten (10) days after the opening of the next session of the Diet.

Article 55. Each House shall judge disputes related to qualifications of its members. However, in order to deny a seat to any member, it is necessary to pass a resolution by a majority of two-thirds or more of the members present.

Article 56. Business cannot be transacted in either House unless one third or more of total membership is present.

(2) All matters shall be decided, in each House, by a majority of those present, except as elsewhere provided in the Constitution, and in case of a tie, the presiding officer shall decide the issue.

Article 57. Deliberation in each House shall be public. However, a secret meeting may be held where a majority of two-thirds or more of those members present passes a resolution therefor.

(2) Each House shall keep a record of proceedings. This record shall be published and given general circulation, excepting such parts of proceedings of secret session as may be deemed to require secrecy.

(3) Upon demand of one-fifth or more of the members present, votes of the members on any matter shall be recorded in the minutes.

(2) Each House shall establish its rules pertaining to meetings, proceedings and internal discipline, and may punish members for disorderly conduct. However, in order to expel a member, a majority of two-thirds or more of those members present must pass a resolution thereon.

Article 59. A bill becomes a law on passage by both Houses, except as otherwise provided by the Constitution.

(2) A bill which is passed by the House of Representatives, and upon which the House of Councillors makes a decision different from that of the House of Representatives, becomes a law when passed a second time by the House of Representatives by a majority of two-thirds or more of the members present.

(3) The provision of the preceding paragraph does not preclude the House of Representatives from calling for the meeting of a joint committee of both Houses, provided for by law.

(4) Failure by the House of Councillors to take final action within sixty (60) days after receipt of a bill passed by the House of Representatives, time in recess excepted, may be determined by the House of Representatives to constitute a rejection of the said bill by the House of Councillors.

(2) Upon consideration of the budget, when the House of Councillors makes a decision different from that of the House of Representatives, and when no agreement can be reached even through a joint committee of both Houses, provided for by law, or in the case of failure by the House of Councillors to take final action within thirty (30) days, the period of recess excluded, after the receipt of the budget passed by the House of Representatives, the decision of the House of Representatives shall be the decision of the Diet.

Article 61. The second paragraph of the preceding article applies also to the Diet approval required for the conclusion of treaties.

Article 62. Each House may conduct investigations in relation to government, and may demand the presence and testimony of witnesses, and the production of records.

Article 63. The Prime Minister and other Ministers of State may, at any time, appear in either House for the purpose of speaking on bills, regardless of whether they are members of the House or not. They must appear when their presence is required in order to give answers or explanations.

Article 64. The Diet shall set up an impeachment court from among the members of both Houses for the purpose of trying judges against whom removal proceedings have been instituted.

V. THE CABINET

Article 66. The Cabinet shall consist of the Prime Minister, who shall be its head, and other Ministers of State, as provided for by law.

(3) The Cabinet, in the exercise of executive power, shall be collectively responsible to the Diet.

Article 67. The Prime Minister shall be designated from among the members of the Diet by a resolution of the Diet. This designation shall precede all other business.

(2) If the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors disagrees and if no agreement can be reached even through a joint committee of both Houses, provided for by law, or the House of Councillors fails to make designation within ten (10) days, exclusive of the period of recess, after the House of Representatives has made designation, the decision of the House of Representatives shall be the decision of the Diet.

Article 68. The Prime Minister shall appoint the Ministers of State. However, a majority of their number must be chosen from among the members of the Diet.

Article 69. If the House of Representatives passes a non-confidence resolution, or rejects a confidence resolution, the Cabinet shall resign en masse, unless the House of Representatives is dissolved with ten (10) days.

Article 70. When there is a vacancy in the post of Prime Minister, or upon the first convocation of the Diet after a general election of members of the House of Representatives, the Cabinet shall resign en masse.

Article 71. In the cases mentioned in the two preceding articles, the Cabinet shall continue its functions until the time when a new Prime Minister is appointed.

Article 72. The Prime Minister, representing the Cabinet, submits bills, reports on general national affairs and foreign relations to the Diet and exercises control and supervision over various administrative branches.

Article 73. The Cabinet, in addition to other general administrative functions, shall perform the following functions:

(iii)Conclude treaties. However, it shall obtain prior or, depending on circumstances, subsequent approval of the Diet;

(iv) Administer the civil service, in accordance with standards established by law;

(vi) Enact cabinet orders in order to execute the provisions of this Constitution and of the law. However, it cannot include penal provisions in such cabinet orders unless authorized by such law.

(vii)Decide on general amnesty, special amnesty, commutation of punishment, reprieve, and restoration of rights.

Article 74. All laws and cabinet orders shall be signed by the competent Minister of state and countersigned by the Prime Minister.

Article 75. The Ministers of state, during their tenure of office, shall not be subject to legal action without the consent of the Prime Minister. However, the right to take that action is not impaired hereby.

VI. JUDICIARY

Article 76. The whole judicial power is vested in a Supreme Court and in such inferior courts as are established by law.

(2) No extraordinary tribunal shall be established, nor shall any organ or agency of the Executive be given final judicial power.

(3) All judges shall be independent in the exercise of their conscience and shall be bound only by this Constitution and the laws.

Article 77. The Supreme Court is vested with the rule-making power under which it determines the rules of procedure and of practice, and of matters relating to attorneys, the internal discipline of the courts and the administration of judicial affairs.

(2) Public procurators shall be subject to the rule-making power of the Supreme Court.

(3) The Supreme Court may delegate the power to make rules for inferior courts to such courts.

Article 78. Judges shall not be removed except by public impeachment unless judicially declared mentally or physically incompetent to perform official duties. No disciplinary action against judges shall be administered by any executive organ or agency.

Article 79. The Supreme Court shall consist of a Chief Judge and such number of judges as may be determined by law; all such judges excepting the Chief Judge shall be appointed by the Cabinet.

(2) The appointment of the judges of the Supreme Court shall be reviewed by the people at the first general election of members of the House of Representatives following their appointment, and shall be reviewed again at the first general election of members of the House of Representatives after a lapse of ten (10) years, and in the same manner thereafter.

(3) In cases mentioned in the foregoing paragraph, when the majority of the voters favors the dismissal of a judge, he shall be dismissed.

(5) The judges of the Supreme Court shall of retired upon the attainment of the age as fixed by law.

(6) All such judges shall receive, at regular stated intervals, adequate compensation which shall not be decreased during their terms of office.

Article 80. The judges of the inferior courts shall be appointed by the Cabinet from a list of persons nominated by the Supreme Court. All such judges shall hold office for a term of ten (10) years with privilege of reappointment, provided that they shall be retired upon the attainment of the age as fixed by law.

(2) The judges of the inferior courts shall receive, at regular stated intervals, adequate compensation which shall not be decreased during their terms of office.

Article 81. The Supreme Court is the court of last resort with power to determine the constitutionality of any law, order, regulation or official act.

(2) Where a court unanimously determines publicity to be dangerous to public order or morals, a trial may be conducted privately, but trials of political offenses, offenses involving the press or cases wherein the rights of people as guaranteed in Chapter III of this Constitution are in question shall always be conducted publicly.

VII. FINANCE

Article 83. The power to administer national finances shall be exercised as the Diet shall determine.

Article 84. No new taxes shall be imposed or existing ones modified except by law or under such conditions as law may prescribe.

Article 85. No money shall be expended, nor shall the State obligate itself, except as authorized by the Diet.

Article 86. Cabinet shall prepare and submit to the Diet for its consideration and decision a budget for each fiscal year.

Article 87. In order to provide for unforeseen deficiencies in the budget, a reserve fund may be authorized by the Diet to be expended upon the responsibility of the Cabinet.

(2) The Cabinet must get subsequent approval of the Diet for all payments from the reserve fund.

Article 88. All property of the Imperial Household shall belong to the State. All expenses of the Imperial Household shall be appropriated by the Diet in the budget.

Article 89. No public money or other property shall be expended or appropriated for the use, benefit or maintenance of any religious institution or association or for any charitable, educational benevolent enterprises not under the control of public authority.

Article 90. Final accounts of the expenditures and revenues of State shall be audited annually by a Board of Audit and submitted by the Cabinet to the Diet, together with the statement of audit, during the fiscal year immediately following the period covered.

(2) The organization and competency of the Board of Audit shall determined by law.

Article 91. At regular intervals and at least annually the Cabinet shall report to the Diet and the people on the state of national finances.

VIII. LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

Article 92. Regulations concerning organization and operations of local public entities shall be fixed by law in accordance with the principle of local autonomy.

Article 93. The local public entities shall establish assemblies as their deliberative organs, in accordance with law.

(2) The chief executive officers of all local public entities, the members of their assemblies, and such other local officials as may be determined by law shall be elected by direct popular vote within their several communities.

Article 94. Local entities shall have the right to manage their property, affairs and administration and to enact their own regulations within law.

Article 95. A special law, applicable to one local public entity, cannot be enacted by the Diet without the consent of the majority of the voters of the local public entity concerned, obtained in accordance with law.

IX. AMENDMENTS

Article 96. Amendment to this Constitution shall be initiated by the Diet, through a concurring vote of two-thirds or more of all the members of each House and shall thereupon be submitted to the people for ratification which shall require the affirmative vote of a majority of all votes cast thereon, at special referendum or at such election as the Diet shall specify.

(2) Amendments when so ratified shall immediately be promulgated by the Emperor in the name of the people, as an integral part of this Constitution.

X. SUPREME LAW

Article 97. The fundamental human rights by this Constitution guaranteed to the people of Japan are fruits of the age-old struggle of man to be free; they have survived the many exacting tests for durability and are conferred upon this and future generations in trust, to be held for all time inviolate.

Article 98. This Constitution shall be the supreme law of the nation and no law, ordinance, imperial rescript or other act of government, or part thereof, contrary to the provisions hereof, shall have legal force or validity.

(2) The treaties concluded by Japan and established laws of nations shall be faithfully observed.

Article 99. The Emperor or the Regent as well as Ministers of State, members of the Diet, judges, and all other public officials have the obligation to respect and uphold this Constitution.

XI. SUPPLEMENTARY PROVISIONS

Article 100. This Constitution shall be enforced as from the day when the period of six months will have elapsed counting from the day of its promulgation.

(2) The enactment of laws necessary for the enforcement of this Constitution the election of members of the House of Councillors and the procedure for the convocation of the Diet and other preparatory procedures for the enforcement of this Constitution may be executed before the day prescribed in the preceding paragraph.

Article 101. If the House of Councilors is not constituted before the effective date of this Constitution, the House of Representatives shall function as the Diet until such time as the House of Councilors shall be constituted.

Article 102. The term of office for half the members of the House of Councillors serving in the first term under this Constitution shall be three years. Members falling under this category shall be determined in accordance with law.

Article 103. The Ministers of State, members of the House of Representatives, and judges in office on the effective date of this Constitution, and all other public officials, who occupy positions corresponding to such positions as are recognized by this Constitution shall not forfeit their positions automatically on account of the enforcement of this Constitution unless otherwise specified by law. When, however, successors are elected or appointed under the provisions of this Constitution, they shall forfeit their positions as a matter of course.

See Also

Cryptology

The combined science of making and breaking codes, ciphers, and other methods of secret communication (hereafter refered to generally as codes, unless otherwise stated). The science of making codes is called “cryptography” and that of breaking them is called “cryptanalysis”.

There is not much cryptological history in Japan – prior to the twentieth century, only a few simple codes were used and there seems to have been no practice of cryptanalysis at all.

There seems to be almost no cryptology in Japan before the Warring States Period (senkokujidai), during which Uesugi Kenshin and Oda Nobunaga are believed to have used simple substitution ciphers. In the context of world cryptological history, this is very late. Julius Caesar reportedly used a substition cipher and even before that the Spartans of Greek were using a transposition cipher with a wooden stick as the key. Thus people in the Mediterranean had used both major ciphers systems (transposition and substitution) over 1,500 years before Uesugi was born.

Little is known about what steps the Meiji government took to secure their communications. From the Taishō Period, however, there is a bit more information. It is not until the Shōwa Period, however, that the Imperial Japanese Army decides to actively improve its cryptological abilities.

Superficially, they were successful. In reality, they were improving their abilities in the old-fashioned, pre-First World War, traditional cryptology. Unfortunately, the enemy they were fighting in China from the mid-1930s was also using traditional cryptological systems. This likely gave the Army the impression that their training was worthwhile. Unfortunately, the skills the Army honed in China would be of limited assistance in the Second World War, when Japan faced several enemies, all of whom were soon at the forefront of modern cryptology.

Japanese Cryptology From the 1500s to Meiji

Senkokujidai Daimyō

The cipher system that Uesugi used is basically a simple substitution usually known in English as a Polybius square or “checkerboard.” The i-ro-ha alphabet contains forty-eight letters, so a seven-by-seven square is used, with one of the cells left blank. The rows and columns are labeled with a number or a letter. In Table 8, the numbers start in the top left, as does the i-ro-ha alphabet. In practice these could start in any corner.

To encipher, find the plaintext letter in the square and replace it with the number of that row and column. So using the square above, kougeki becomes 55 43 53 63 or 55 34 35 36 if the correspondents decided ahead of time on column-row order. The problem of what to do in the case of letters such as “ga,” “de,” and “pe” that do not appear in the i-ro-ha alphabet is avoided by using the base form of the letter instead – as above where “kougeki” becomes “koukeki.''² Technically, this is a serious flaw because some messages may have two or more equally valid decipherments. To avoid this the encipherer may have had to rephrase messages.

The column and row headers do not have to be numbers. One common variation is to use letters. This was common in European cryptography and is found in the Uesugi cipher as well. However, the Japanese cipher had a twist that never seems to have been used in the West; using a the last 14 letters of a waka poem to fill in the row and column headers. Table 9 is from page 162 of [takagawa_2003] and gives an example of this, using “tsurenakumieshiakinoyufukure.''

This system of using a “checkerboard” to convert an alphabet into numbers or letters was described by Polybius over 2000 years ago. There are three main advantages to this system. First, converting letters into numbers allows for various mathematical transformations which are not possible or not as easy with letters – super-enciphering for example. Second, the checkerboard system reduces the total number of characters. Whether converting to numbers or letters, the Polybius square reduces 25 English letters³ to five characters. Uesugi's square reduces to seven. This reduction makes crytanalysis slightly more difficult than simple one-to-one substitution. Another benefit of the reduction in the number of letters is that it reduces the chance of error in communicating the message. The letters of the German ADGFX system in World War I were chosen because in morse code they are quite distinct and thus it was unlikely that an error in the morse code transmission would accidently turn one letter into another. This would have been important for a sengoku daimyō, for instance, if he experimented with sending coded messages over long distances by torches, flags, poles, or similar system.

Finally, although the checkerboard system doubles the length of messages, breaking each plaintext letter into two ciphertext letters allows for separate transformations on each of the halves. However, this does not seem to have been used much in American or European cryptology and Japanese cryptologists apparently did not use it at all.

It is not known how or even if Uesugi actually used the seven-by-seven checkerboard system. The scarcity of evidence makes it impossible to draw any firm conclusions but tentatively it seems that senkoku period daimyō did not have much use for cryptology. Of course it is possible that they did have their “black chambers” and that those chambers were shrouded in such secrecy that no hint of their existence escaped. This seems unlikely however. Several daimyō compiled codes of conduct or books of advice on governing for their offspring. Had cryptology been an important factor in the success of such men, they might be expected to pass that advantage along to their successor. The fact that they did not do so, in writing at least, does not prove anything but, in light of the other evidence – and lack of it – does make the existence of black chambers of the European sort seem unlikely.

The history of cryptology in Japan shows two things. First, the fact that substitution ciphers existed makes the failure of the Japanese to improve on the substitution cipher or to invent the transposition cipher much harder to explain. Second, the lack of a strong cryptographic tradition suggests – almost requires – a correspondingly weak cryptanalytic tradition. In fact there seems to be no cryptanalysis in Japanese history before the late 1800s.

re	ku	fu	yu	no	ki	a
e	a	ya	ra	yo	chi	i	tsu
hi	sa	ma	mu	ta	ri	ro	re
mo	ki	ke	u	re	nu	ha	na
se	yu	fu	i	so	ru	ni	ku
su	me	ko	no	tsu	wo	ho	mi
n	mi	e	o	ne	wa	he	e
	shi	te	ku	na	ka	to	shi

The Bakumatsu and Early Meiji Periods

World War I As Turning Point

David Kahn identifies World War I as a major turning point for institutional cryptology. Before the war, breaking codes was an individual endeavor – one person wresting with the messages until one of them broke. After the war, successful cryptology against major nation states required large-scale organization.

Japanese cryptology does not seem to have been affected at all by the Great War. The government continued using insecure codes of the sort they had been using since the Meiji Restoration. As a result, in 1921 Japanese diplomacy suffered a major defeat at the Washington Naval Conference. Weak codes were the primary cause of that defeat.

The American “Black Chamber” and the Two-Letter Code

The American “Black Chamber” under Herbert O. Yardley broke Japanese diplomatic codes in 1919 – less than a year after starting operations – and the Black Chamber cryptanalysts were still reading Japanese diplomatic traffic in 1921 when the Washington Naval Conference took place. Thanks to Yardley's book The American Black Chamber, the failure of Japanese cryptography at the Conference is well known. Yardley's book gives a valuable look into the quality of the codes employed by the Japanese government in the years leading up to, and during, the Conference and thus is worth looking at in some detail.

Judging from Yardley's description of the codes he and his cryptanalysts broke, Japanese codes in 1919 were weak and barely deserved to be called “codes”. He might have exaggerated the difficulty of breaking the Japanese codes – British codebreakers thought Japanese codes at that time were so weak you almost didn't need a cryptanalyst.⁴

Analysis of the Two-Letter Code

The two-letter code Japanese diplomats were using in 1919 consisted of two English-letter groups. This allows for a maximum of 676 (26*26) groups. That is far too small for a diplomatic code in 1819 much less 1919. Worse, the Japanese cryptographers did not use all of the available groups because Yardley says that the groups were either vowel-consonant or consonant-vowel, with “y” counting as both. If Yardley is correct about this, it means that the Japanese cryptographers limited themselves to only 252 of the 676 possible groups.⁵ After using anywhere from 54 to 100 groups for the kana and ten groups for the numbers zero to nine, there were at most 188 unassigned code groups remaining.

Yardley made his original break into the code by realizing that wi ub po mo il re re os ok bo was a i ru ra n do do ku ri tsu (Ireland independence).⁶ The doubled re re suggests the do do of airurando dokuritsu. This guess is confirmed when he discovers that the recovered groups re ub bo work elsewhere for do i tsu (Germany).

The initial break into the code is further confirmed when as fy ok makes sense as o wa ri (stop). This is exactly how one breaks a simple substitution cipher --- letter frequencies and repetitions in the text suggest possible plaintext letters. The cryptanalyst plugs in those letters and sees what yields meaningful text and what does not. Meaningful text suggests new letters to try and the cryptanalyst starts the cycle over again.

As can be seen from the description of Yardley's original break into the code, groups were assigned to kana like “do” and “bo” which in Japanese are not part of the regular alphabet but are created from other kana by adding pronunciation marks. Providing for these non-alphabet kana would require at least another 25 and possibly as many as 60 more code groups – hence the range given above for code groups for the kana – leaving only about 150 groups for words, phrases, and names. French cryptanalysts were making and breaking bigger, better codes in the 1700s.⁷ One suspects the Japanese language gave Yardley more trouble than the code itself did.

Thus the Japanese diplomatic code in use in 1919 was extremely weak and fundamentally flawed: a diplomatic code that does not contain code groups for common geopolitical names and phrases but requires them to be spelled out cannot be considered strong. Spelling out “stop” is further evidence that the code was not well designed. Even if the Japanese cryptographers devoted their 188 groups to the 188 most common phrases, the fact that they only had 188 groups to work with meant that most of their encoded messages would actually be simple-substitution enciphered messages of the sort that people had been solving for hundreds of years.

Code Improvements in the Nineteen Twenties and Thirties

According to Yardley, the Japanese codes his Black Chamber broke in 1919 were improved by a Polish cipher expert about a year later. His exact words are [italics in original]:⁸

Now the Japanese had no intention of permitting us to rest on our laurels, for from 1919 until the spring of 1920 they introduced eleven different codes.

We learned that they had employed a Polish cipher expert to revise their code and cipher systems. It took all our skill to break the new codes that this man produced, but by now we had developed a technique for the solution of Japanese codes that could read anything. Theoretically the Japanese codes were now more scientifically constructed; practically they were easier to solve than the first code, although some of them contained as many as twenty-five thousand kana, syllables and words.

The Polish cryptographer seemed to specialize on army codes, for the Japanese Military Attaché's codes suddenly became more difficult than those of any other branch of the Japanese Government.

Yardley was right about a Polish expert visiting Japan but he was mistaken about the timing. The Japanese army did bring in a Polish expert, Jan Kowalefsky, but he did not arrive in Japan until September of 1924. If Japanese codes improved significantly between 1919 and 1924, as Yardley claims, the improvements were the work of Japanese cryptologists.

An interesting possibility, which is ripe for further research, is that Japanese cryptologists studied one or more of the books on codes and ciphers that were occasionally published in Europe and America. For example, Parker Hitt's 1916 book Manual for the Solution of Military Ciphers was hugely popular, selling around 16,000 copies in America. Also, Japanese military attachés might have been aware that Winston Churchill, in his 1923 The World Crisis, admitted that Britain had read German naval messages during World War I.

It is possible that Yardley is simply wrong and Japanese codes did not improve significantly between 1919 and 1924. Kahn found that one improvement Yardley mentions – three letter code groups mixed in with two letter groups – was not actually present in the Japanese telegram that Yardley claimed it was.⁹

Japanese cryptographers supposedly improved their codes through sectioning – breaking the message into parts and rearranging them prior to encoding. This buries stereotypical openings and closings, which makes it harder for cryptanalysts to make initial breaks into a code by guessing at probable words. The technique is known as bisecting, trisecting, tetrasecting, etc. depending on how many pieces the text is broken into. Sectioning was not a new or revolutionary technique in the 1910s. [Although proof of this would be nice.]

If, as Yardley claims, some Japanese codes did have as many as 25,000 code groups at the time of the Washington Naval Conference, it would indicate a healthy appreciation of cryptological realities. Cryptographers have long known that bigger codes are better – all else being equal, a 25,000 group code is stronger than a 2,500 group code. In fact, many commercial code books as far back as the 1850s had 50,000 groups – but government bean counters are often reluctant to pay for the production of large codebooks. Thus accountants limited the size and thus strength of government and military codes for many years. To be fair, the secure production, storage, and distribution of codebooks is not easy nor is it cheap.

However, it seems unlikely that the Japanese government was using codebooks with 25,000 groups in the early 1920s. Jumping from the weak code used for the Washington Naval Conference to a book code of 25,000 in just a few years seems too fast, especially without some external indication that there codes had been compromised. Further, as shown below, even in 1926 the Army's top cryptologist was developing a cipher system that had only about 2,500 groups and those were actually just 10 charts of about 250 groups each.

Thus, the likely situation between the Washington Naval Conference an the mid-1920s is not that of a Polish officer helping to make Japanese codes much more secure. Rather, Japanese cryptographers were working to bring their codes up to the level of other major governments.

The Polish cipher expert, Jan Kowalefsky, might not have helped improve Japanese codes before the Washington Naval Conference but he did have a strong influence on Japanese cryptography between the conference and World War II. He trained what seems to be the first generation of professional Japanese cryptographers.

Jan Kowalefsky

Japanese authors have identified two events that influenced the Japanese army's decision to invite a foreigner to improve their cryptology.

The first was an incident during the Siberian Intervention. The Japanese army came into possession of some Soviet diplomatic correspondence, but their cryptanalysts were unable decipher the messages. Someone suggested asking the Polish military to try cryptanalyzing them. It took the Poles less than a week to break the code and read the messages.¹⁰

The second event also involved a failure to decipher intercepts. Starting in 1923, the Army began intercepting European and American diplomatic radio communications. Interception was difficult but the task of deciphering intercepted messages proved too much for the Army cryptanalysts.¹¹

These two failures convinced the leaders of the Japanese army that they needed some outside help and for geopolitical reasons, they decided to turn to the Polish military. Poland had fought the Soviet Union in 1920 and the Japanese believed the Poles would be receptive to the idea of teaching someone on the Soviet Union's opposite flank how to read Soviet codes.

Learning from Warsaw and Then in Warsaw

The Japanese Army could not have asked for more distinguished teachers. Polish cryptanalysts would later break early versions of the German Enigma machine in 1932 and their work jump-started the French and British efforts to break later, more complicated, Enigma machines. In the 1920s and 1930s it is accurate to say that Polish cryptanalysts were some of the best in the world.

The arrangements were made and on 7 September 1924, Captain Jan Kowalefsky arrived in Yokohama.¹² Kowalefsky taught a three month joint Army-Navy course¹³ to at least seven officers: four from the Army and three from the Navy.¹⁴

When the course finished, someone suggested that the novice cryptologists get some practical experience working with the Polish cryptologists in Poland.¹⁵ The Japanese students would go to Poland with their teacher. Arrangements were made and a study-abroad program of sorts was started. Five officers left for Poland with Kowalefsky late in 1924 (Taishō 13).¹⁶ They spent a year working in the Polish Army's Bureau of Ciphers before returning to Japan and taking up positions in the Japanese Army Cipher Department.¹⁷

Takagawa and Hiyama both assert that each year for about the next fourteen (until Shōwa 14) years, two Japanese Army officers traveled to Warsaw for a year of cryptological training.¹⁸ Neither Smith nor Budiansky mentions Kowalefsky or anything about Japanese officers studying in Poland. Yardley mentions the “Polish expert” working for the Army but gets the timing wrong. In English, only Kahn actually gives this expert a name and provides some more details.

Discrepencies

Interestingly, Kahn writes that Kowalefsky had been in Japan from about 1920, when he was supposedly helping improve Japanese codes, and was still there in 1925 to teach at a new Navy code school. That is, Kahn has Kowalefsky working for the Navy, not the Army. Japanese sources make it clear that both Army and Navy officers attended Kowalefsky's three month course, so some confusion is possible. However, Yardley wrote, correctly, that Kowalefsky worked for the Army but was wrong about the year since he claimed that the Polish expert had arrived in 1920. Yardley's error might explain why Kahn had Kowalefsky arriving in the wrong year but nothing in Yardley suggests that Kowalefsky ever worked for the Navy.

Although they do mention Kowalefsky (if not by name) neither Kahn nor Yardley mentions anything about Japanese cryptologists training in Poland or even Kowalefsky returning home. Thus, probably the most widely read English books on cryptological history are possibly missing a large and important part of the development of professional cryptology in Japan – if the Japanese sources are correct. If the Japanese sources for this history can be confirmed, it would be an important addition to the understanding of Japanese cryptology leading up to World War II. Polish cryptanalysts were very good and if they tutored the Japanese for almost fifteen years, it makes the Japanese failure to break most of the Allied codes during the war much more interesting.

The Two-Letter, Ten-Chart Code

Hyakutake Harukichi was among the first group of Japanese officers to study in Poland and on his return was made the chief of the code section of the third department of the army general staff. This was in 1926. Naturally enough, one of his first concerns was strengthening Army codes. He started by designing a new system to replace a four-letter code used by military attachés that had been in use since around 1918. The replacement was the two-letter, ten-chart code that Yardley mentions but mistakenly attributes to Kowalefsky in about 1920.¹⁹ Yardley gives the following description of Hyakutake's new system and its effectiveness:²⁰ ZZZ

This new system was elaborate and required ten different codes. The Japanese would first encode a few words of their message in one code, then by the use of an ``indicator'' jump to another code and encode a few words, then to still another code, until all ten had been used in the encoding of a single message.

Messages encoded in this manner produced a most puzzling problem, but after several months of careful analysis, I discovered the fact that the messages were encoded in ten different systems. Having made this discovery, I quickly identified all the ``indicators.'' From this point on it was not difficult to arrive at a solution.

Yardley also describes the Japanese system of sectioning their messages but does not make it clear if this applies to the two-letter, ten-chart code. Takagawa's description of Hyakutake's code does not mention any sectioning but otherwise closely matches Yardley's account.\footnote{Takagawa p. 178-180} It is possible then that sectioning was not a part of Hyakutake's new system. Which code systems involved sectioning and when the systems were used is not clear. Interestingly, Michael Smith mentions in \booktitle{The Emperor's Codes} that British codebreakers were surprised by the appearance of sectioning in Japanese codes around 1937.\footnote{Smith, p. 55} The British had been reading some Japanese codes since at least as far back as the Washington Naval Conference. If they did not see sectioning in Army codes until 1937, in which code did Yardley see sectioning during his time at America's Black Chamber? Further research is necessary to answer that question.

It is clear from Yardley's description that Hyakutake's new system was not very effective. The system used 10 charts, each with 26 rows and columns labeled from \textsc{a} to \textsc{z}. This gives 626 two-letter code groups. Most words and phrases will not be in the code and must be spelled out in kana. In this respect it is similar to, but larger than, the first Japanese code that Yardley broke in 1919. The difference is that this time however there were ten codes instead of just one.

Basically, Hyakutake created a poly-code system where the code changes every few words. This is just a code version of a polyalphabetic substitution cipher. Polyalphabetic ciphers use several different enciphering alphabets and change between them at some interval, usually after every letter. The strength of a polyalphabetic cipher comes from how many alphabets it uses to encipher, how often it switches between them, and how it switches between them (at random or following some pattern for example). The Vigenere is probably the most famous example of a polyalphabetic substitution cipher.\footnote{Kahn, p. 146--149} The famous cipher machines of World War II encipher in a polyalphabetic system. Their strength came from the enormous number of well-mixed alphabets that they used and the fairly random way of switching between them.

With a bit of luck, experienced cryptanalysts have been able to break polyalphabetic ciphers for centuries. From the late 1800s they did not even need luck --- Auguste Kerckhoffs published a general solution for polyalphabetic ciphers in 1883 in his book \booktitle{La Cryptographie militaire}.\footnote{Kahn, p. 233}

So although Hyakutake's new code system was original,\footnote{I cannot find any references to any other system of this nature.} the fundamental idea underlying the system was well known, as were its weaknesses. With only 626 code groups, it is more cipher than code. As mentioned above, the ten different code charts just make it a polyalphabetic cipher --- one with only ten ``alphabets.'' Methods like Kerckhoffs' superimposition\footnote{Kahn, p. 236--238} can be used to convert several polyalphabetically encoded messages into ten monoalphabetically encoded message chucks. Chunks which are very easily solved. It is not surprising that the members of Yardley's Black Chamber broke the code in a few months.

The use of ten charts may had been an illusory complication --- rather than improve the security of the code, it probably made the code weaker. If, instead of ten different code groups for 626 terms, Hyakutake had used the ten charts (with slight modification to make each group unique) to provide code groups for closer to six thousand terms, the code would have been much stronger.

Including more terms means that fewer have to be spelled out in kana --- which is the whole point of using a code. Further, the reduction in duplication allows more flexibility in assigning homophones. Instead of ten groups for each letter, word, or phrase, each could receive homophones based on its frequency of occurrence. For example, the cryptographer can assign an appropriately large number of homophones to high-frequency letters and words like ``n,'' ``shi,'' and ``owari'' and only one or two code groups to lower frequency elements.

Likewise, if code groups were used to indicate a switch to a new chart, this could also have weakened the code unnecessarily. In fact, Yardley specifically mentions it as making the codes easier to cryptanalyze. Generally speaking, substitution systems switch alphabets as often as possibly because that provides the best security. Their strength lies in how many alphabets they use and how randomly they switch between them.

So switching charts after every couple of words is not as secure as switching after every word. Also important for security is how the cryptographer switches between the charts. If Hyakutake's system required the code clerk to switch codes charts pseudo-randomly, that would provide more security than requiring a set sequence of changes. This is more important if the charts are derived from one another in some predictable manner. If, for example, the plaintext \texttt{battle engaged} is \textsc{aa} on chart one, \textsc{ab} on chart 2, and \textsc{ac} on chart 3, then switching between the charts in order will pose much less difficulty for the cryptanalyst than using the charts in a more random order.

Regular polyalphabetic substitution ciphers often rely on code words to determine alphabet changes. Each letters of the code work references a different alphabet. With the ten charts of Hyakutake's system, a code number would be easy to use for pseudo-random changes --- ``301934859762'' means encode the first word or phrase with the third table, the second word or phrase with the tenth (zeroth) table, etc. The thirteenth word or phrase would be encoded with the third table again. Of course to give maximum security this code number needs to be changed frequently.

Unfortunately, there is no information on how tables were changed except for Yardley's vague ``until all ten had been used in the encoding of a single message,'' quoted above.\footnote{Yardley, p. 184} This unfortunately says nothing of the order the charts are used in.

Hara Hisashi's Pseudo-Random Number Code

Hara Hisashi became head of the code section of the Seventh Division sometime after 1932 and was later transfered to the Third Section of the Army General Staff.\footnote{Takagawa, p. 180} Sometime between then and 1940, Hara devised a system that used a pseudo-random number additive to superencipher the three number code the Army already had in service.

Neither Takagawa nor Hiyama provide details about when this three-number code system was adopted for Army communications. A three-number code has a maximum of $10^3$, or 1000 groups --- which is still too small for a strategic code and a far cry from the 25,000 that Yardley claims some Japanese codes had in the 1920s. However, it was a two-part code --- an important improvement.

Two-Part Codes

Code books contain two lists --- one of code groups and one of plaintext letters, words, and phrases. Someone encoding a message looks up the words in the plaintext list and substitutes the corresponding code group. Obviously it is important for that person's sanity that the plaintext be in some sort of order so words can be looked up easily. Since the system is similar for decoding --- look up the code group and substitute the plaintext --- it is equally important to have the code groups in order as well. With a one-part code, both lists are in alphabetical (or numerical) order. This means that you can encode and decode using the same book.

It also makes it easier for the enemy to break the code because once they realize they are dealing with a one-part code, they can use known groups to draw conclusions about unknown groups. For example, if the enemy knows that \textsc{aabbc} is \texttt{Antwerp} and \textsc{aabbz} is \texttt{available}, they will know that \textsc{aabbm} cannot be \texttt{Tokyo}.

A two-part code mixes the lists, making the code stronger by avoiding the problem described above. The drawback is that you now need two books. One, for encoding, has the plaintext in order to make encoding easy and the other, for decoding, has the code groups in order. Hence the name ``two-part'' code. The increase in security usually outweighs the increase in size and extra security concerns.

Antoine Rossignol invented the two-part code around 1650 or so.\footnote{Kahn, p. 160--161} The idea could hardly be considered new or secret by the 1900s, so again it is surprising to see Japanese cryptographers taking so long to begin using a common cryptographic method.

Random Numbers

The ``one-time pad'' system is only cipher system that is totally secure. It uses random numbers to encode the plaintext. If the numbers are truly random and the encoder never reuses those numbers, the encoded message cannot be broken. Fortunately for cryptologists, random numbers are very difficult to come up with and creating, distributing, and managing pads for more than a handful of correspondents is beyond the capabilities of even most governments.

Using random numbers for cryptography was first done around 1917 for securing teletype communications. It proved unfeasible for the reasons mentioned above. By the mid-1920s however, the German government was using one-time pads for diplomatic correspondence.\footnote{Kahn, p. 402--403} They had learned their lessons from World War I and were determined not to let it happen again.

Hara devised a system that used random numbers to superencipher Japanese army codes. Possibly because of the logistical difficulties inherent in the one-time pad system, Hara's system used tables of pseudo-random numbers. The encipherer had to indicate where in the table he (or much less likely at the time, she) did this by hiding the row and column headers from the table in the message.

This system is not new. Diplomats and armies started superenciphering with additives sometime during or soon after the First World War and by the 1920s it was common. German diplomats in Paris were using, shortly after the First World War, a codebook of 100,000 groups superenciphered \emph{twice} from a book of 60,000 additive groups!\footnote{Budiansky, p. 55} It would be very surprising if after five to ten years of training with the Poles, Japanese Army cryptologists were not already familiar with superenciphering with additive tables.

Superencipherment is fairly strong. It can be, and was, broken, but it is very hard to do. With the exception of the one-time pad, which will keep its secrets until the end of time, any code or cipher can be broken. All that is required is sufficient material. All that can be expected of a code or cipher system is that by the time the enemy breaks it, the information in the message is no longer useful. This is just a cryptographic fact of life.

Hara's pseudo-random code system, like every additive system other than the one-time pad, can be broken. Eventually someone, somewhere will use overlapping parts of the additive charts. The first thing the cryptanalyst does is identify where in the message the starting point of the chart (the ``indicator'') is hidden --- this allows the messages that are enciphered with the same sections of the number charts to be lined up and the additives stripped off.\footnote{Budiansky, p. 78--81, has an interesting example of the process.}

Hara's Pseudo-Random Number Generator

Perhaps realizing the gap between theory and practice, Hara devised a small system for generating pseudo-random numbers that could be used by units whose charts were outdated and which could not be supplied with new ones. This suggests that the cryptographers had real world experience with cryptology under battlefield conditions.

The system is simple, as it no doubt was intended to be. It requires a small chart of random numbers. Instead of using the numbers as additives, the encipherer uses two or more of them to create a much longer number. That number is then used to superencipher the message. Figure 3 shows how this is done; the numbers are taken from Takagawa.\footnote{Takagawa, p. 181}

When the numbers are added, any tens units are dropped. Thus 8 + 9 = 7. If the encipherer uses a six-digit number and a five-digit number, the resulting pseudo-random number will repeat after 30 digits. Hiyama gives an example of this system using a seven-digit and a five-digit number, which repeats after 35 digits.\footnote{Hiyama, p. 242}

This pseudo-random number system is much weaker than the usual system of superencipherment but as an emergency backup system it would have been adequate and certainly better than using a transposition or simple substitution cipher. Like any other cipher system, breaking a pseudo-random number system just requires a sufficient amount of intercepted ciphertext.

The State of Japanese Army Cryptology around 1941

Hyakutake's two-letter, ten-chart system was exceedingly weak. It might have made a decent tactical field code --- it is simple to use, requires only the paper charts and a pencil, and is easily changed. As a code for military attachés around the globe, however, Hyakutake's system was much too weak. It was basically a slightly improved version of the Foreign Ministry's two-letter code that Yardley broke in 1919 and possibly not as strong as the four-letter code it replaced.

Kahn, Smith, and Budiansky all make it clear that superenciphering and using pseudo-random additives were nothing new even in the 1920's --- Kahn says that enciphered code was ``the customary method for diplomatic communications.''\footnote{Kahn, p. 402} A system using random numbers to superencipher messages was not revolutionary in the 1930s.

Thus, Hara's system was not new and does not seem to have been any better than similar systems long in use in other countries. Nevertheless, devising and implementing the Army's system was an important accomplishment and it is possible that Hara was responsible for it. An interesting topic for further research would be why this system was chosen instead of machine ciphers. Was the random number system chosen for non-cryptological reasons? Were the Army cryptanalysts good enough to understand that random numbers were more secure, when used correctly, than cipher machines?

There were several books available that hint at ways to break cipher machines. William Friedman's \booktitle{The Index of Coincidence and Its Applications to Cryptography} was revolutionary; the addition of advanced mathematical, especially statistical, methods to the cryptological toolkit made traditional cryptographic systems obsolete and machine systems breakable.\footnote{Kahn p. 376} So it is possible that the Japanese cryptanalysts knew that cipher machines were, in theory at least, breakable.

The Polish military realized early on that machine enciphering would change the science of cryptology and from 1929 employed mathematicians to work on cryptanalysis. However, as the goal of Japanese-Polish cryptographic cooperation was to train the Japanese side to break Russian codes, there would have been no need for the Polish cryptologists to reveal methods of breaking machines the Russians were not using. Teaching the Japanese the latest and greatest methods would not be of any use against Russian codes and would only risk the Germans finding out and changing their codes. The Poles thus had a strong incentive to teach the Japanese just as much as they needed to know.

The Japanese army was aware of machine systems; at the Hague in 1926, a Japanese military attaché saw a demonstration of the Model B1 cipher machine from Aktiebolaget Cryptograph.\footnote{Kahn, p. 425} In fact, in the early 1930s, both the Japanese Navy and the Foreign Ministry switched to machine systems for their most secret messages. The fact that those systems seem to have been developed in Japan suggests that there were knowledgeable cryptographers in Japan. Which suggests that perhaps there were other, non-cryptographic reasons why the Army continued to use chart and book based systems. Perhaps further research into the cultural and institutional aspects of inter-war cryptology in Japan could uncover those reasons.

Conclusions

Several curious facts stand out in this cursory overview of Japanese cryptological history. One is that the Japanese government did not bring in an outside expert to help with their codes until 1924. Considering all the other \jpnterm{gaikokujin oyatoi} (hired foreigners) brought in to assist with ``modernization'' in the Meiji Period, it is striking that such an important field as cryptology would be ignored.

This suggests that the Japanese government in the first decades of the twentieth century did not really understand the importance of cryptology for protecting communications. Such an attitude would hardly have been limited to Japan in the 1910s or 1920s --- despite their success at the Washington Naval Conference, and later public chastisement by Yardley, American codes remained weak right up to the early 1940s. However, even America, thanks to its ties to Europe, had a cryptological history and a reserve of talented people who understood the problems and the solutions. Japan does not seem to have had anyone like Yardley, much less a William Friedman.

The Japanese Army cryptologists, despite training with the Polish military for over ten years, originally developed substandard codes. Hara's system shows significant improvement and demonstrates an understanding of cryptography at at least the same level as practiced by other major world powers in the early 1940s.

Currency

Bills

Coins

Yen	Graphic (page #)	Size (mm)
10000	Fukuzawa Yukichi ()	76x160
10000	Fukuzawa Yukichi ()	76x160
10000	Shōtoku-tennō ()	84x174
5000	Nitobe Inazo ()	76x155
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5000	Shōtoku-tennō ()	80x169
2000	Shurei-mon ()	76x154
1000	Natsume Soseki ()	76x150
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1000	Itō Hirobumi ()	76x164
1000	Itō Hirobumi ()	76x164
1000	Shōtoku-tennō ()	76x164
500	Iwakura Tomomi ()	72x159

Yen	From	To	Serial No.
10000	Nov 1, 1984	present	Black
10000	Dec 1, 1993	present	Brown
10000	Dec 1, 1958	Jan 4, 1986
5000	Nov 1, 1984	present	Black
5000	Dec 1, 1993	present	Brown
5000	Oct 1, 1957	Jan 4, 1984
2000	Jul 19, 2000	present
1000	Nov 1, 1984	present	Black
1000	Nov 1, 1990	present	Blue
1000	Dec 1, 1993	present	Brown
1000	Apr 3, 2000	present	Dark Green
1000	Nov 1, 1963	Jan 4, 1986	Black
1000	Jul 1, 1976	Jan 4, 1986	Blue
1000	Jan 7, 1950	Jan 4, 1965
500	Nov 1, 1969	Apr 1, 1994

Daido Masashige – Dutch Learning

Daidoji Masashige

Daidō

Daiei

Daigo-tennō

Daiji

Daimyō

Title given to powerful lords. Literally means `big names' in English. During the Tokugawa shōgunate, any lord who controlled lands that produced more than 10,000 koku was considered a daimyō.

See Also

Daitsuji-yama

Dan Takuma

Studied mining in the U.S. and taught at Tokyo University after his return. Later worked at the government-owned Miike coal mine; joined Mitsui when they bought the mine from the government. He rose in the Mitsui ranks and eventually was in charge of all of their mining operations.

Assassinated by Hishinuma (Yonuma?) Goro, a member of the Blood League (double check that), on 5 March 1932.

See Also

Blood League (pg. X), Hishinuma Goro (pg. X), Iwakura Mission (pg. X), Miike Coal Mine (pg. X), Mining (pg. X), Mitsui (pg. X), Tokyo University (pg. X),

Date Family

Date Harumune

Date Masamune

Date Munenari

A tozama daimyō who held Uwajima (100,000 koku, pg XXX). He was a reformer who implimented several European ideas in his military and han administration. Originally influential in the Meiji government, Date faded away after the abolition of the han.

Date Shigezane

Date Tadamune

Date Terumune

Diet

Dodo Family

Doihara Kenji

Doi Kiyonaga

Doi Sanehira

Doi Toshikatsu

Doi Toshimasa

Doolittle Raid

On the morning of 18 April 1942, 16 B-25 bombers took off from the United States aircraft carrier Hornet. Their target: Japan. Thirteen of them dropped their loads on Tokyo while the remaining three attacked Nagoya. Physical damage was slight but the attacks did shock many Japanese, who had assumed their was no way the enemy could get to them.

On the surface the Doolittle raid was a suicide mission – there was absolutely no way the planes could get back to the Hornet and even if they could, the B-25 was not really a carrier-based plane. Taking off proved possible but landing on a carrier was not an option. In view of this, the official plan called for the pilots to head for friendly bases in China after attacking Japan. A couple of planes even made it.

Doshisha University

Dutch Learning

Dutch learning is a general term for Western science and medicine that filtered into Japan through the Dutch during the Tokugawa period.

During the period of sakoku, “Western” was closely associated with “Christian” and since Christianity was banned the effect was that most everything Western was banned. As time went on, the Japanese fell technologically further and further behind the West. The Dutch at Dejima tried to make the Bakufu aware of this. In general the Bakufu wasn't interested---although Shōgun Yoshimune did loosen restrictions on foreign books in 1720. Several samurai took an interest in learning some of the more obviously practical arts from the Dutch. In medicine, for example, it was an easy thing to compare a real corpse with the drawings in Western medical books and those in Chinese / Japanese medical books. The Western ones were more accurate and the cures contained in them could soon be seen to be more effective. More abstract pursuits also had some followers.

Echigo Province – Etō Shinpei

Echigo Province

A province in north-central Japan, on the Sea of Japan side. It bordered on Uzen, Iwashiro, Kōtsuke, Shinano, and Etchū. Today the area is known as Niigata Prefecture.

(IIRC, Niigata includes Sado Island but Echigo did not --- must double check this)

See Also

Etchū Province (pg. X), Iwashiro Province (pg. X), Kōzuke Province (pg. X), Niigata Prefecture (pg. X), Shinano Province (pg. X), Uzen Province (pg. X),

Echizen Province

A province in central Honshū, on the Sea of Japan side. It borders on Kaga, Hida, Mino, Ōmi, and Wakasa. The area is today part of Fukui Prefecture.

See Also

Fukui Prefecture (pg. X), Hida Province (pg. X), Kaga Province (pg. X), Mino Province (pg. X), Ōmi Province (pg. X), Wakasa Province (pg. X),

Edo

The Tokugawa shōgunate was centered in Edo. As a result, what had been a small village eventually became, during the Tokugawa period, one of the biggest cities in the world.

After the Meiji Restoration (pg XXX), the leaders of the new imperial government moved the Emperor into Tokugawa castle in Edo and renamed the city Tokyo, the `Eastern Capital'.

Ehime Prefecture

Eichō

Eien

Eihō

Eiji

Eikan

Eikyō

Eikyū

Eiman

Einin

Eiroku

Eiryaku

Eisai

Eisai was a monk who went to China more than once and is credited with introducing tea to Japan. He was also responsible for building and directing several Buddhist temples of the Zen school.

Eishō

Eiso

Eitoku

Eiwa

Ejiri Castle

Embun

Emperors

Many of the emperors prior to about 500 A.D. are mythological. The Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan entry for the `Nihon-ki' (pg 448) has a good summary of how unreliable the info on early emperors is.

Empō

Enchō

Endo Motonobu

Engen

Engi

Enjoji Nobutane

Enkei

Also known as Enkyō. See that entry on page XXX for more information. (but there isn't much there at the moment)

Enkyō (1308)

Enkyō (1744)

Enkyū

En'ō

Enryaku

Entoku

En'yū-tennō

Etchū Province

A province in central Honshū, on the Sea of Japan side. It bordered Echigo, Shinano, Hida, Kaga, and Noto. The area is today Toyama Prefecture.

See Also

Echigo Province (pg. X), Hida Province (pg. X), Kaga Province (pg. X), Noto Province (pg. X), Shinano Province (pg. X), Toyama Prefecture (pg. X),

Etō Shinpei

A samurai from Saga (pg XXX), Shinpei held posts in the Meiji government. He resigned over the invasion of Korea.

In 1874, Shinpei led Saga samurai against the government in the Saga Rebellion (pg XXX).

Feminism – Fuwa Mitsuharu

Feminism

Five-Powers Treaty

Treaty negotiated by France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, and the United States at the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-1922.

The Five-Powers Treaty dealt with naval arms limitations. There were to be no new capital ships constructed for ten years – with the exception that each power could convert two battle cruisers under construction into aircraft carriers. Aircraft carriers could be no bigger than 27,000 tons. (The two converted-battle-cruiser aircraft carriers could be up to 33,000 tons.)

The size of navies was limited. The ratio for capital ships was 10:10:6:6:6 for Great Britain, The United States, France, Japan, and Italy.

See Also

Formosa Expedition

Four-Powers Treaty

Treaty negotiated by France, Great Britain, Japan, and the United States at the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-1922.

The Four-Powers Treaty confirmed the status-quo in the Pacific with respect to each countries possessions.

See Also

Fujita Denzaburo

Fujiwara Family

Fujiwara Hidesato

Fujiwara Kaneie

Fujiwara Michinaga

Fujiwara Morosuke

Fujiwara no Sadaie

Fujiwara Uona

Fujiwara Yamakage

Fujiwara Yorinaga

Fujiwara Yoritsugu

Fujiwara Yoritsune

Fujiwara Yoshikado

Fukagawa Cement Works

Fukahara Hirotoshi

Fukahori Sumikata

Fukuchi Gen'ichiro

Fukuda Hideko

Fukuda Takeo

Graduated from Tokyo University. Worked for the Finance Ministry. Elected to the Diet in 1952. Served in various cabinets and became prime minister on 24 December 1976. His cabinet lasted until 7 December 1978.

Fukui City

Fukui Prefecture

Fukumoto Kazuo

A Marxist intellectual who was influential in the Japanese communist movement in the mid-1920's.

Fukuoka City

Fukuoka Prefecture

Fukushima City

Fukushima Masanobu

Fukushima Masanori

Fukushima Masashige

Fukushima Masayori

Fukushima Prefecture

Fukuzawa Yukichi

Studied Western science in Nagasaki. Studied in Ōsaka under Ogata Kōan from 1854. Later taught in Tokyo---his school eventually became Keiō University.

Went abroad several times. Wrote Seiyō Jijō (Conditions in the West) which was hugely popular. Also wrote The Encouragement of Learning, An Outline of a Theory of Civilization, (Japanese titles?) among many books and articles.

See Also

Fuma Kotaro

Furukawa Ichibei

Businessman. Bought the Ashio copper mine from the government in 1877. Eventually he was in control of a minor zaibatsu.

Furuta Shigekatsu

Received Matsuzaka (37,000 koku) in Ise from Hideyoshi (when?). In 1600, Ieyasu awarded him someplace worth 60,000 koku.

See Also

Ise Province (pg. X), Sekigahara, Battle of (pg. X), Tokugawa Ieyasu (pg. X), Toyotomi Hideyoshi (pg. X),

Furuta Shigenari

A minor daimyō in charge of 10,000 koku which he received sometime after 1600. He lost his domain because he communicated with the Toyotomi during the Seige of Ōsaka Castle.

See Also

Ōsaka, Siege of (pg. X), Tokugawa Ieyasu (pg. X), Toyotomi Family (pg. X), Fushimi Castle (pg. X),

Fushimi, Seige of

Fushimi-tennō

Futamata, Seige of

The castle is on a cliff above the Tenryūgawa. The defenders got water from the river by lowering buckets into the river from a protected tower.

The castle was owned by the Tokugawa and beseiged by Takeda Katsuyori (pg XXX). Katsuyori floated large, unmanned rafts down the river and into the tower. These weakened the tower enough that it eventually collapsed, depriving the defenders of their water supply. The defenders surrendered soon after.

Futo, Battle of

Fuwa Katsumitsu

Fuwa Mitsuharu

Gamō Hideyuki – Gyoki

Gamō Hideyuki

The son of Gamō Ujisato. Christian. Was moved to Utsunomiya (180,000 koku) in Shimotsuke after his father died in 1595. In 1600, he was given Wakamatsu, worth 600,000 koku. This had been part of his father's fief.

See Also

Gamō Ujisato (pg. X), Shimotsuke (pg. X), Utsunomiya-han (pg. X), Wakamatsu-han (pg. X),

Gamō Katahide

See Also

Gamō Ujisato

Son of Gamō Katahide and father of Gamō Hideyuki. His wife was a daughter of Oda Nobunaga. Christian.

Was daimyō of Matsusaka (120,000 koku) in Ise Province but was ordered to Aizu (420,000 koku) in Mutsu as part of a plan to bring the northeastern daimyō under Hideyoshi's control. To this end, Ujisato and Asano Nagamasa defeated and killed Kunohe Masazane (when? where?). As a reward for his successful service, Ujisato was granted extra lands and was eventually in control of more than one million koku.

See Also

Aizu-han (pg. X), Asano Nagamasa (pg. X), Gamō Hideyuki (pg. X), Gamō Katahide (pg. X), Ise Province (pg. X), Kunohe Masazane (pg. X), Ōkōchi Castle (pg. X), Matsusaka-han (pg. X), Mutsu Province (pg. X), Toyotomi Hideyoshi (pg. X),

Gembun

Gemmei-tennō

Genchū

Gen'ei

Genji

Genkei

Genki

Genkō (1321)

Genkō (1331)

Genkyō

Genkyū

Genna

Gennin

Gen'ō

Genreki

Genroku

Genro

``Elder Statesmen''. A term applied to the leaders of the Meiji government. Includes men such as Ito Hirobumi and ???. Saonji Kinmochi is considered the last Genro.

Genryaku

Genshō-tennō

Gentoku

Genwa

Gifu City

Gifu Prefecture

Ginkakuji

Godaigo-tennō

Godai Tomoatsu

Studied in the West 1865 to 1866. Joined the Meiji government but soon left and went into business. Godai was active in metals, mining, and railways, among other interests.

Godō Takuo

Agriculture & Forestry Minister from Aug 30, 1939 to Oct 16, 1939 in Abe Nobuyuki's cabinet.

Gofukakusa-tennō

Gofushimi-tennō

Gohanazono-tennō

Gohorikawa-tennō

Goichijō-tennō

Gokameyama-tennō

Gokashiwabara-tennō

Gokomatsu-tennō

Reigned 11 April 1382 to 1392 as the emperor of the Northern Court and continued as emperor when the courts reunited until abdicating on 29 Aug. 1412.

Gokōmyō-tennō

Gomizunō-tennō

Gomomozono-tennō

Gomurakami-tennō

Gonara-tennō

Gonijō-tennō

Goreizei-tennō

Gosaga-tennō

Gosai-tennō

Gosakuramachi-tennō

Gosanjō-tennō

Goshirakawa-tennō

Gosuzaku-tennō

Gotoba-tennō

Goto Family (Haruma)

Gotō Family (Hizen)

Goto Moriharu

Goto Motokuni

Gotō Mototsugu

Gotō Shinpei

Head of Sanitation Bureau (part of the Home Ministry) from 1890 to 1892 and again from 1895 to 1898.

Cabinet Positions

See Also

Gotō Shōjirō

Samurai from Tosa. Gotō studied at Kaiseitō and was influenced by Sakamoto Ryōma. He was active in the Meiji government but quit in 1873 over disagreements about whether or not to invade Korea.

Cabinet Positions

See Also

Itō Hirobumi (pg. X), Kaiseitō (pg. X), Korea, Invasion of (pg. X), Matsukata Masayoshi (pg. X), Tosa-han (pg. X), Yamagato Aritomo (pg. X),

Goto Sumikuro

Goto Takaaki

Gotō Ujifusa

The son of Gotō Mototsugu. Served Kuroda Nagamasa. Was loyal to Toyotomi Hideyori and died at Ōsaka Castle.

See Also

Gotō Mototsugu (pg. X), Kuroda Nagamasa (pg. X), Ōsaka, Seige of (pg. X), Toyotomi Hideyori (pg. X),

Gotsuchimikado-tennō

Gouda-tennō

Goyōzei-tennō

Great Kansai Earthquake

Cabinet	Position	From	To
2^nd Katsura	Communications	Jul 14, 2008	Aug 30, 1911
3^rd Katsura	Communications	Dec 21, 1912	Feb 20, 1913
Terauchi	Home Affairs	Oct 9, 1916	Apr 23, 1918
Terauchi	Foreign Affairs	Apr 23, 1918	Sep 29, 1918
2^nd Yamamoto	Home Affairs	Sep 2, 1923	Jan 7, 1924

Cabinet	Position	From	To
Kuroda	Communications	03/22/89	12/24/89
1^st Yamaguchi	Communications	12/24/89	05/06/91
1^st Matsukata	Communications	05/06/91	08/08/92
2^nd Itō	Agriculture and Commerce	08/08/92	01/22/94

Two great earthquakes shook Japan in the 20th century: the Great Kanto Earthquake (pg 116) in 1923 and the Great Kansai Earthquake in 1995. The latter occurred on 17 January 1995.

Great Kanto Earthquake

Two great earthquakes shook Japan in the 20th century: the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 and the Great Kansai Earthquake (pg 116) in 1995. The former occurred on 1 September and started (as is not unusual with earthquakes) fires that killed more people than did the quake itself. An estimated 100,000 people died and as many as two million were left homeless.

Rumours spread that various unpopular groups were taking advantage of the chaos to start fires and otherwise increase the general misery. The rumours were just that – rumours, but many people, including the authorities, used them as an excuse to crack down on the groups. Hundreds of Koreans, Socialists, Anarchists, and some others were murdered – either by mobs or by the police.

Gunma Prefecture

Gyoki

Habu Yoshiharu – Hyūga Province

Habu Yoshiharu

Hakuchi

Hakuchō

Hakuhō

Hamada Hikozo

Hamaguchi Osachi

Cabinet Positions

Cabinet

Hanazono-tennō

Hanzei-tennō

Hara Castle

A castle in Hizen Provence. During the Shimabara Rebellion, (who-was-it-again?) besieged the rebellious peasants there.

See Also

Hara Kei

Hara, Seige of

The main battle of the Shimabara Rebellion. The defenders held out against incredible odds but eventually the food runs out and grass will not sustain an army.

Harbin

Harima Province

A province in the area that is today Hyōgo Prefecture. Harima bordered on Tajima, Tamba, Settsu, Bizen, and Mimasaka.

See Also

Bizen Province (pg. X), Hyōgo Prefecture (pg. X), Mimasaka Province (pg. X), Settsu Province (pg. X), Tajima Province (pg. X), Tamba Province (pg. X),

Harris, Townsend

``Plenipotentiary Minister and Consul” of the United States, Harris arrived in Japan in August of 1856. Two years later, in 1858, he signed a treaty (the ansei treaties, yes?).

Hashimoto Kingoro

Hashimoto Ryūtarō

Prime Minister from 11 January 1996 to 7 November 1996 and from 7 November 1996 to 30 July 1998.

Hatakeyama Family

Hatano Hideharu

Hata Tsutomu

Prime Minister from 28 April 1994 to 30 June 1994. Replaced by Murayama Tomiichi (pg XXX).

Hatoyama Ichirō

Hayashi Senjūrō

Cabinet Positions

Cabinet

Hayashi Yūzō

Cabinet Positions

Heco, Joseph

Hayashi Tadasu

Heian Period

The Heian period is the last division of classical Japanese history and runs from 794 to 1185. The Heian period was preceded by the Nara period and began in 794 after the movement of the imperial capital to Heiankyō (present-day Kyōto) by the 50th emperor Kammu. It is considered a high point in Japanese culture that later generations have always admired. Also, the period is also noted for the rise of the samurai class, which would eventually take power and start the feudal period of Japan.

Nominally, sovereignty lay in the emperor but in fact power was wielded by the Fujiwara nobility. However, to protect their interests in the provinces, the Fujiwara and other noble families required guards, police and soldiers. The warrior class made steady gains throughout the Heian period. As early as 939, Taira no Masakado threatened the authority of the central government, leading an uprising in the eastern province of Hitachi, and almost simultaneously, Fujiwara no Sumitomo rebelled in the west. Still, military takeover was centuries away.

The entry of the warrior class into court influence was a result of the Hogen disturbance. At this time Taira Kiyomori revived the Fujiwara practices by placing his grandson on the throne to rule Japan by regency. The Taira clan was overthrown in the Gempei War and the Minamoto because the power behind the throne. Thus the Heian period ends in 1185 when Minamoto Yoritomo established a bakufu, the Kamakura shōgunate, in Kamakura.

This period saw the flowering of the Shingon school of esoteric Buddhism, founded by Kukai, as well as the Jodo Shinshu, or True Pure Land, school, founded by Shinran.

Heian period literature

Cabinet	Position	From	To
1^st Katō	Finance	Jun 11, 1924	Aug 2, 1925
2^nd Katō	Finance	Aug 2, 1925	Jan 30, 1926
1^st Wakatsuki	Finance	Jan 30, 1926	Jun 3, 1926
1^st Wakatsuki	Home Affairs	Jun 3, 1926	Dec 16, 1926
1^st Wakatsuki	Home Affairs	Mar 15, 1927	Apr 20, 1927
Hamaguchi	Prime Minister	Jul 2, 1929	Apr 14, 1931

Name	Position	From	To
Hamaguchi Osachi	Prime Minister	Jul 2, 1929	Apr 14, 1931
Machida Chūji	Agriculture & Forestry	Jul 2, 1929	Apr 14, 1931
Suzuki Fujiya	Chief of Cabinet Secretariat	Jul 2, 1929	Apr 14, 1931
Kawasaki Takukichi	Chief of Legislative Bureau	Jul 2, 1929	Apr 14, 1931
Matsuda Genji	Colonization	Jul 2, 1929	Apr 14, 1931
Tawara Magoichi	Commerce & Industry	Jul 2, 1929	Apr 14, 1931
Koizumi Matajirō	Communications	Jul 2, 1929	Apr 14, 1931
Kobashi Ichita	Education	Jul 2, 1929	Nov 29, 1929
Tanaka Ryūzō	Education	Nov 29, 1929	Apr 14, 1931
Inoue Junnosuke	Finance	Jul 2, 1929	Apr 14, 1931
Shidehara Kijurō	Foreign Affairs	Jul 2, 1929	Apr 14, 1931
Abe Nobuyuki	Hanretsu	Jun 16, 1930	Dec 10, 1930
Adachi Kenzō	Home Affairs	Jul 2, 1929	Apr 14, 1931
Watanabe Chifuyu	Justice	Jul 2, 1929	Apr 14, 1931
Takarabe Takeshi	Navy	Jul 2, 1929	Oct 3, 1930
Abo Kiyokazu	Navy	Oct 3, 1930	Apr 14, 1931
Egi Tasuku	Railways	Jul 2, 1929	Apr 14, 1931
Ugaki Kazushige	War	Jul 2, 1929	Jun 16, 1930
Abe Nobuyuki	War	Jun 16, 1930	Dec 10, 1930
Ugaki Kazushige	War	Dec 10, 1930	Apr 14, 1931

Cabinet	Position	From	To
4^th Itō	Communications	Dec 22, 1900	Jun 2, 1901
1^st Saionji	Home Affairs	Jan 7, 1906	Jul 14, 1908
1^st Saionji	Communications	Jan 14, 1908	Mar 25, 1908
2^nd Saionji	Home Affairs	Aug 30, 1911	Dec 21, 1912
1^st Yamamoto	Home Affairs	Feb 20, 1913	Apr 16, 1914
Hara	Prime Minister	Sep 29, 1918	Nov 13, 1912
Hara	Justice	Sep 29, 1918	May 15, 1920

Name	Position	From	To
Hara Kei	Prime Minister	Sep 29, 1918	Nov 13, 1921
Yamamoto Tatsuo	Agriculture AND Commerce	Sep 29, 1918	Nov 13, 1921
Takahashi Mitsutake	Chief of Cabinet Secretariat	Sep 29, 1918	Nov 13, 1921
Yokota Sennosuke	Chief of Legislative Bureau	Sep 29, 1918	Nov 13, 1921
Noda Utarō	Communications	Sep 29, 1918	Nov 13, 1921
Nakahashi Tokugorō	Education	Sep 29, 1918	Nov 13, 1921
Takahashi Korekiyo	Finance	Sep 29, 1918	Nov 13, 1921
Uchida Kōsai	Foreign Affairs	Sep 29, 1918	Nov 13, 1921
Tokonami Takejirō	Home Affairs	Sep 29, 1918	Nov 13, 1921
Hara Kei	Justice	Sep 29, 1918	May 15, 1920
Ōki Enkichi	Justice	May 15, 1920	Nov 13, 1921
Katō Tomosaburō	Navy	Sep 29, 1918	Nov 13, 1921
Motoda Hajime	Railways	May 15, 1920	Nov 13, 1921
Tanaka Giichi	War	Sep 29, 1918	Jun 9, 1921
Yamanashi Hanzō	War	Jun 9, 1921	Nov 13, 1921

Cabinet	Position	From	To
Tanaka	Chief of Cabinet Secretariat	Apr 20, 1927	Jul 2, 1929
Inukai	Education	Dec 13, 1931	May 26, 1932
Saitō	Education	May 26, 1932	Mar 3, 1934
1^st Hatoyama	Prime Minister	Dec 10, 1954	Mar 19, 1955
2^nd Hatoyama	Prime Minister	Mar 19, 1955	Nov 22, 1955
3^rd Hatoyama	Prime Minister	Nov 22, 1955	Dec 23, 1956

Cabinet	Position	From	To
Saitō	War	Jan 23, 1934	Jul 8, 1934
Okada	War	Jul 8, 1934	Sep 5, 1935
Hayashi	Foreign Affairs	Feb 2, 1937	Mar 3, 1937
Hayashi	Prime Minister	Feb 2, 1937	Jun 4, 1937
Hayashi	Education	Feb 2, 1937	Jun 4, 1937

Name	Position	From	To
Hayashi Senjūrō	Prime Minister	Feb 2, 1937	Jun 4, 1937
Yamazaki Tatsunosuke	Agriculture & Forestry	Feb 2, 1937	Jun 4, 1937
Ōhashi Hachirō	Chief of Cabinet Secretariat	Feb 2, 1937	Jun 4, 1937
Kawagoe Takeo	Chief of Legislative Bureau	Feb 2, 1937	Jun 4, 1937
Yūki Toyotarō	Colonization	Feb 2, 1937	Jun 4, 1937
Godō Takuo	Commerce & Industry	Feb 2, 1937	Jun 4, 1937
Yamazaki Tatsunosuke	Communications	Feb 2, 1937	Feb 10, 1937
Kodama Hideo	Communications	Feb 10, 1937	Jun 4, 1937
Hayashi Senjūrō	Education	Feb 2, 1937	Jun 4, 1937
Yūki Toyotarō	Finance	Feb 2, 1937	Jun 4, 1937
Hayashi Senjūrō	Foreign Affairs	Feb 2, 1937	Mar 3, 1937
Satō Naotake	Foreign Affairs	Mar 3, 1937	Jun 4, 1937
Kawarada Kakichi	Home Affairs	Feb 2, 1937	Jun 4, 1937
Shiono Suehiko	Justice	Feb 2, 1937	Jun 4, 1937
Yonai Mitsumasa	Navy	Feb 2, 1937	Jun 4, 1937
Godō Takuo	Railways	Feb 2, 1937	Jun 4, 1937
Nakamura Kōtarō	War	Feb 2, 1937	Feb 9, 1937
Sugiyama Gen	War	Feb 9, 1937	Jun 4, 1937

Cabinet	Position	From	To
1^st Ōkuma	Communications	Jun 30, 1898	Nov 8, 1898
4^th Itō	Agriculture & Commerce	Oct 19, 1900	Jun 2, 1901

Cabinet	Position	From	To
1^st Saionji	Foreign Affairs	May 19, 1906	Aug 30, 1906
1^st Saionji	Foreign Affairs	Sep 18, 1906	Jul 14, 1908
2^nd Saionji	Communications	Aug 30, 1911	Dec 21, 1912

Although written Chinese remained the official language of the Heian period imperial court, the introduction and wide use of kana saw a boom in Japanese literature. Despite the establishment of several new literary genre such as the novel and narrative monogatari (物語) and essays, literacy was only common among the court and Buddhist clergy.

The lyrics of the modern Japanese national anthem, "Kimi Ga Yo," were written in the Heian period, as was The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, one of the first novels in Japanese. Murasaki Shikibu's contemporary and rival Sei Shonagon's revealing observations and musings as an attendant in the Empress' court were recorded collectively as The Pillow Book in the 990s. The famous Japanese poem known as the iroha was also written during the Heian period.

The Rise of the military class

Under the early courts, when military conscription had been centrally controlled, military affairs had been taken out of the hands of the provincial aristocracy. But as the system broke down after 792, local power holders again became the primary source of military strength. Shoen holders had access to manpower and, as they obtained improved military technology (such as new training methods, more powerful bows, armor, horses, and superior swords) and faced worsening local conditions in the ninth century, military service became part of shoen life. Not only the shoen but also civil and religious institutions formed private guard units to protect themselves. Gradually, the provincial upper class was transformed into a new military elite based on the ideals of the bushi (warrior) or samurai (literally, one who serves; see The Bushido Code , ch. 8).

Bushi interests were diverse, cutting across old power structures to form new associations in the tenth century. Mutual interests, family connections, and kinship were consolidated in military groups that became part of family administration. In time, large regional military families formed around members of the court aristocracy who had become prominent provincial figures. These military families gained prestige from connections to the imperial court and court-granted military titles and access to manpower. The Fujiwara, Taira, and Minamoto were among the most prominent families supported by the new military class.

Decline in food production, growth of the population, and competition for resources among the great families all led to the gradual decline of Fujiwara power and gave rise to military disturbances in the mid-tenth and eleventh centuries. Members of the Fujiwara, Taira, and Minamoto families – all of whom had descended from the imperial family – attacked one another and claimed control over conquered land. They used this land to reward, and thus ensure the loyalty of, their retainers.

The Fujiwara controlled the throne until the reign of Emperor Go-Sanjo (1068-73), the first emperor not born of a Fujiwara mother since the ninth century. Go-Sanjo, determined to restore imperial control through strong personal rule, implemented reforms to curb Fujiwara influence. He also established an office to compile and validate estate records with the aim of reasserting central control. Many shoen were not properly certified, and large landholders, like the Fujiwara, felt threatened with the loss of their lands. Go-Sanjo also established the Incho, or Office of the Cloistered Emperor, which was held by a succession of emperors who abdicated to devote themselves to behind-the-scenes governance, or insei (cloistered government).

The Incho filled the void left by the decline of Fujiwara power. Rather than being banished, the Fujiwara were mostly retained in their old positions of civil dictator and minister of the center while being bypassed in decision making. In time, many of the Fujiwara were replaced, mostly by members of the rising Minamoto family. While the Fujiwara fell into disputes among themselves and formed northern and southern factions, the insei system allowed the paternal line of the imperial family to gain influence over the throne. The period from 1086 to 1156 was the age of supremacy of the Incho and of the rise of the military class throughout the country. Military might rather than civil authority dominated the government.

A struggle for succession in the mid-twelfth century gave the Fujiwara an opportunity to regain their former power. Fujiwara Yorinaga sided with the retired emperor in a violent battle in 1158 against the heir apparent, who was supported by the Taira and Minamoto. In the end, the Fujiwara were destroyed, the old system of government supplanted, and the insei system left powerless as bushi took control of court affairs, marking a turning point in Japanese history. Within a year, the Taira and Minamoto clashed, and a twenty-year period of Taira ascendancy began. The Taira were seduced by court life and ignored problems in the provinces. Finally, Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-99) rose from his headquarters at Kamakura (in the Kanto region, southwest of modern Tokyo) to defeat the Taira, and with them the child emperor they controlled, in the Gempei War (1180-85).

See Also

Echizen Province (pg. X), Etchū Province (pg. X), Gifu Prefecture (pg. X), Hida Province (pg. X), Kaga Province (pg. X), Mino Province (pg. X), Shinano Province (pg. X),

Higashikuni Naruhiko

Higashiyama-tennō

Higo Province

A province in the area that is today Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. Higo bordered on Chikugo, Bungo, Hyūga, Ōsumi, and Satsuma.

See Also

Bungo Province (pg. X), Chikugo Province (pg. X), Hyūga Province (pg. X), Kumamoto Prefecture (pg. X), Kyūshū (pg. X), Ōsumi Province (pg. X), Satsuma Province (pg. X),

Himeji Castle

Castle in Hyōgo Prefecture (Harima Province). Originally build around 1350 by Akamatsu Sadanori. Over the years it changed hands many times. Toyotomi Hideyoshi took Himeji castle for Oda Nobunaga in 1577.

During the Tokugawa Period, a succession of daimyō were moved in and out of the castle.

See Also

Akamatsu Sadanori (pg. X), Harima Province (pg. X), Oda Nobunaga (pg. X), Toyotomi Hideyoshi (pg. X),

Himiko

In ancient Chinese texts, Himiko is mentioned as the queen of Japan, but just who she was and where she ruled is still a bit of a mystery.

Hinin

Outcastes. The lowest class in pre-Meiji Japanese society. The class officially ceased to exist in 1871, but unoffical discrimination did not end overnight.

Hiranuma Kiichirō

Cabinet Posts

Cabinet

Hiratsuka Raicho

Hirohito

Hirose Saihei

Hiroshima, Bombing Of

The United States military dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, on 6 August 1945.

Hiroshima City

Hiroshima was the first city --- Japanese or otherwise --- to suffer a nuclear bombing. The only other city to have a nuclear weapon used on it is Nagasaki, in Nagasaki Prefecture.

See Also

Hiroshima, Bombing of (pg XXX), Nagasaki, Bombing of (pg XXX), Nagasaki City (pg XXX)

Hiroshima Prefecture

Hirota Kōki

Cabinet Positions

Cabinet

Hisaakira

See Also

Gofukakusa-tennō (pg. X), Hōjō Sadatoki (pg. X), Koreyasu (pg. X), Table of Shōgun (pg. X)

Hitachi Province

A province which bordered on Iwashiro, Iwaki, Shimōsa, and Shimotsuku Provinces. Today the area is Ibaraki Prefecture.

See Also

Ibaraki Prefecture (pg. X), Iwaki Province (pg. X), Iwashiro Province (pg. X), Shimōsa Province (pg. X), Shimotsuku Province (pg. X),

Hiyama Castle

Hizen Province

A province which bordered on Chikuzen and Chikugo. Today the area is part of Nagasaki Prefecture.

See Also

Chikugo Province (pg. X), Chikuzen Province (pg. X), Korea, Invasion of (pg. X), Shimabara Rebellion (pg. X),

Hōan

Hōei

Hōen

Hōgen

Hōgen Insurrection

Cabinet	Position	From	To
2^nd Yamamoto	Justice	Sep 6, 1923	Jan 7, 1924
Hiranuma	Prime Minister	Jan 5, 1939	Aug 30, 1939
2^nd Konoe	Minister of State	Dec 6, 1940	Dec 21, 1940
2^nd Konoe	Home Affairs	Dec 21, 1940	Jul 18, 1941
3^rd Konoe	Minister of State	Jul 18, 1941	Oct 18, 1941

Name	Position	From	To
Hiranuma Kiichirō	Prime Minister	Jan 5, 1939	Aug 30, 1939
Sakurauchi Yukio	Agriculture & Forestry	Jan 5, 1939	Aug 30, 1939
Tanabe Harumichi	Chief of Cabinet Secretariat	Jan 5, 1939	Apr 7, 1939
Kurosaki Teizō	Chief of Legislative Bureau	Jan 5, 1939	Aug 30, 1939
Ōta Kōzō	Chief of Cabinet Secretariat	Apr 7, 1939	Aug 30, 1939
Koiso Kuniaki	Colonization	Apr 7, 1939	Aug 30, 1939
Hatta Yoshiaki	Colonization	Jan 5, 1939	Apr 7, 1939
Hatta Yoshiaki	Commerce & Industry	Jan 5, 1939	Aug 30, 1939
Shiono Suehiko	Communications	Jan 5, 1939	Apr 7, 1939
Tanabe Harumichi	Communications	Apr 7, 1939	Aug 30, 1939
Araki Sadao	Education	Jan 5, 1939	Aug 30, 1939
Ishiwata Sōtarō	Finance	Jan 5, 1939	Aug 30, 1939
Arita Hachirō	Foreign Affairs	Jan 5, 1939	Aug 30, 1939
Konoe Fumimaro	Hanretsu	Jan 5, 1939	Aug 30, 1939
Kido Kōichi	Home Affairs	Jan 5, 1939	Aug 30, 1939
Shiono Suehiko	Justice	Jan 5, 1939	Aug 30, 1939
Yonai Mitsumasa	Navy	Jan 5, 1939	Aug 30, 1939
Maeda Yonezō	Railways	Jan 5, 1939	Aug 30, 1939
Itagaki Seishirō	War	Jan 5, 1939	Aug 30, 1939
Hirose Hisatada	Welfare	Jan 5, 1939	Aug 30, 1939

Cabinet	Position	From	To
Saitō	Foreign Affairs	Sep 14, 1933	Jul 8, 1934
Okada	Foreign Affairs	Jul 8, 1934	Mar 9, 1936
Hirota	Foreign Affairs	Mar 9, 1936	Apr 2, 1936
Hirota	Prime Minister	Mar 9, 1936	Feb 2, 1937
1^st Konoe	Foreign Affairs	Jun 4, 1937	May 26, 1938

Name	Position	From	To
Hirota Kōki	Prime Minister	Mar 9, 1936	Feb 2, 1937
Shimada Toshio	Agriculture & Forestry	Mar 9, 1936	Feb 2, 1937
Fujinuma Shōhei	Chief of Cabinet Secretariat	Mar 9, 1936	Feb 2, 1937
Tsugita Daizaburō	Chief of Legislative Bureau	Mar 9, 1936	Feb 2, 1937
Nagata Hidejirō	Colonization	Mar 9, 1936	Feb 2, 1937
Kawasaki Takukichi	Commerce & Industry	Mar 9, 1936	Mar 27, 1936
Ogawa Gōtarō	Commerce & Industry	Mar 28, 1936	Feb 2, 1937
Tanomogi Keikichi	Communications	Mar 9, 1936	Feb 2, 1937
Ushio Keinosuke	Education	Mar 9, 1936	Mar 25, 1936
Hirao Hachisaburō	Education	Mar 25, 1936	Feb 2, 1937
Baba Eiichi	Finance	Mar 9, 1936	Feb 2, 1937
Hirota Kōki	Foreign Affairs	Mar 9, 1936	Apr 2, 1936
Arita Hachirō	Foreign Affairs	Apr 2, 1936	Feb 2, 1937
Ushio Keinosuke	Home Affairs	Mar 9, 1936	Feb 2, 1937
Hayashi Raizaburō	Justice	Mar 9, 1936	Feb 2, 1937
Nagano Osami	Navy	Mar 9, 1936	Feb 2, 1937
Maeda Yonezō	Railways	Mar 9, 1936	Feb 2, 1937
Terauchi Hisaichi	War	Mar 9, 1936	Feb 2, 1937

Disturbance that took place in 1156 between forces raised by Fujiwara Yorinaga (pg 103) and the troops of the Minamoto and Taira families. Named for the nengō during which it took place.

The disturbance took place after a dispute over who would succeed the Emperor Konoye. The Fujiwara Regent, Fujiwara Tadamichi, supported one of the retired Emperor Toba's sons but Yorinaga did not. In the end, the Emperor Toba's son ascended the throne as Emperor Go-Shirakawa. Yorinaga was denied a position of tutor to the heir and took up the cause of Sutoku. He raised troops and set up defences in a palace in the capital. The rebels were attacked there by soldiers supporting the new emperor, including men from both the Taira and Minamoto families.

The importance of the Hōgen Insurrection lies in the fact that warriors had been called on to ratify, in a way, a succession to the throne. They were now the main power in the county. For the next thirty years, the military houses would fight among themselves for control of the country.

Hōji

Hōjō Family

See Also

Hojoji

Hōjō Masako

Hōjō Masako married Minamoto Yoritomo. She became a nun after he died but remained the power behind the shōgun until her death in 1225.

Hōjō Tokiyori

Hōjō Tsunetoki

Hōjō Ujikuni

Hōjō Ujiteru

Hōjō Ujiyasu

Fought many battles against the Uesugi, Imagawa, the Takeda, the Ota, the Mogami, and the Ashikaga Families. Not all at once of course.

See Also

Hōjō Ujikuni (pg. X), Hōjō Ujiteru (pg. X), Hōjō Ujitsuna (pg. X), Uesugi Kagetora (pg. X), Uesugi Kenshin (pg. X),

Hōjō Yasutoki

Hōki Province

A province in the area that is today Tottori Prefecture. Hoki bordered on Inaba, Mamasaka, Bitchū, Bingo, and Izumo Provinces.

See Also

Bingo Province (pg. X), Bitchū Province (pg. X), Inaba Province (pg. X), Izumo Province (pg. X), Mimasaka Province (pg. X), Tottori Prefecture pg. XXX

Hōki

Hokkaidō Prefecture

The largest prefecture in Japan and also the most northerly. Known in Tokugawa times as Ezo.

Honda Sōichirō

Honnōji, Seige of

Akechi Mitsuhide attacked Oda Nobunaga at the Honnōji, a temple in Kyōto. Mitsuhide was one of Nobunaga's generals and surprise was complete. Nobunaga only had his bodyguards with him and committed suicide.

See Also

Honshū

One of the four main islands of Japan. Honshū is the main island in that most of the population of the country lives there and most of the most important cities are located in Honshū.

See Also

Hōreki

Hori Chikamasa

Hori Chikasada

Hori Chikayoshi

Daimyō of Zōō (Echigo, 40,000 koku). Dispossessed in 1610 but two years later he was given Mōka in Shimotsuke. In 1627 he received Karasuyama, also in Shimotsuke.

Hori Family

Hori Hideharu

Became daimyō of Kasugayama (where? how many koku?) on 1590. In 1598, received Takata (350,000 koku) in Echigo.

See Also

Echigo Province (pg. X), Hori Hidemasa (pg. X), Kasugayama-han (pg. X), Takata-han (pg. X)

Hori Hidemasa

Horikawa-tennō

See Also

Horio Family

Horio Tadaharu

Horio Tadauji

Horio Yoshiharu

Hori Tadatoshi

Hori Toshishige

Hoshi Toru

Hosokawa Akiuji

Hosokawa Family

Hosokawa Harumoto

Hosokawa Jōzen

Hosokawa Katsumoto

Hosokawa Kiyouji

Hosokawa Masamoto

Hosokawa Mitsumoto

Hosokawa Mochiyuki

Hosokawa Morihiro

Prime Minister from 9 August 1993 to 28 April 1994. Replaced by Hata Tsutomu (pg XXX).

Hosokawa Sumimoto

Hosokawa Ujihara

Hosokawa Yoriharu

Hosokawa Yorimoto

Hosokawa Yoriyuki

Hōtoku

Hotta Family

Hotta Masaharu

Hotta Masamine

Hotta Masamori

Hotta Masamutsu

Hotta Masanaga

Hotta Masanaka

Hotta Masanobu

Hotta Masataka

Hotta Masatomo

Hotta Masatora

Hotta Masatoshi

Hotta Masayasu

House of Peers

Hozumi Nobushige

Hyōgo Prefecture

Hyūga Province

A province on the east coast of Kyūshū. Today Miyazaki Prefecture. Hyūga bordered on Bungo, Higo, Ōsumi, and Satsuma Provinces.

See Also

Bungo Province (pg. X), Higo Province (pg. X), Kyūshū (pg. X), Miyazaki Prefecture (pg. X), Ōsumi Province (pg. X), Satsuma Province (pg. X),

Ibaraki Castle – Izu Province

Ibaraki Castle

Ibaraki Prefecture

Ibara Saikaku

Ichijō Fusaie

Ichijō Kanesada

Ichijō Nobutatsu

Ichijō-tennō

Ichijō Uchimasa

Ichikawa Danjūro

The hereditary name of the head of a group (family?) of kabuki actors. There have been at least 12 generations of them. The first was Ebizō, also known as Saigyū.

Ichikawa Fusae

Iga Province

A province in the area that is today Mie Prefecture. Iga bordered on Ise, Ōmi, Yamato, and Yamashiro Provinces.

See Also

Ise Province (pg. X), Mie Prefecture (pg. X), Ōmi Province (pg. X), Yamato Province (pg. X), Yamashiro Province (pg. X),

Ihara Saikaku

Prolific and popular author during the Tokugawa period. Among other works, he penned: Five Women Who Loved Love, The Life of an Amorous Man, The Life of an Amorous Woman, and This Scheming World.

Ii Naosuke

A high ranking official in the Tokugawa government. Naosuke was responsible for the government's signing of treaties with the United States, Britain, France, and later other counties.

Naosuke's actions caused great resentment and won him many enemies. He was assassinated on 3 March 1860 by 17 Mitō rōnin.

Ikeda Hayato

Prime Minister from 19 July 1960 to 8 December 1960, 8 December 1960 to 9 December 1963, and 9 December 1963 to 9 November 1964.

Ikeda Nobuteru

Served Oda Nobuhide, Oda Nobunaga and then Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Received a fief in Settsu and Amagasaki Castle from Nobunaga in 1579. Killed at the Battle of Nagakute.

See Also

Amagasaki Castle (pg. X), Nagakute, Battle of (pg. X), Oda Nobunaga (pg. X), Settsu Province (pg. X), Toyotomi Hideyoshi (pg. X),

Iki Province

A province in the area that is today Nagasaki Prefecture. Iki is an island between Hizen Province and the island of Tsushima.

See Also

Hizen Province (pg. X), Mongol Invasions (pg. X), Nagasaki Prefecture (pg. X), Tsushima Province (pg. X),

Ikkō-Ikki

Imagawa Family

Imagawa Yoshimoto

Lost Terabe castle in 1558 when Suzuki Shigeteru left him for Oda Nobunaga and Yoshimoto's vassal Tokugawa Ieyasu was unable to retake the castle.

Yoshimoto was killed in 1560 at the battle of Okehazama, by the forces of Oda Nobunaga.

See Also

Tokugawa Ieyasu (pg. X), Oda Nobunaga (pg. X), Terabe, Seige of (pg. X), Suzuki Shigeru (pg. X), Okehazama, Battle of (pg. X),

Imahama Castle

Imperial Rule Assistance Political Association

Imperial Way Faction

The Kodoha or “Imperial Way Faction” was an informally organized right wing association of mostly junior and field grade Imperial Army officers who sought to dismantle party influence in Japanese politics and “restore” the Emperor as an absolute ruler with the army as his main instrument of policy. Heavily influenced by such “Asia for the Asians” political philosophers as Gondo Seikei (1868-1937), Kita Ikki (1883-1937), Okawa Shumei (1886-1957) and the ideology of the Kokyrukai (Amur River or “Black Dragon” Society) political and criminal organization, the Kodoha officers, over 80% of whom were from rural farming and fishing communities, viewed the democratic process and Western-influenced materialism of urban Japanese society at the time as an emasculation and apostasy of traditional values, and they were prepared to use violence to rectify this situation. The Kodoha was effectively crippled as a serious player in the Japanese political power game after a failed coup d'etat attempt by Kodoha officers in February 1936, but not before the theories of its spiritual leader General Sadao Araki had poisoned Japanese educational policy with fanatical militarism, and even more disastrously, not before many of its less-conspicuous members were already well ensconced in fast-track elite course niches that would put them in influential policy-making positions during the crucial Pacific War years.

Sources and Suggested Reading

Inaba Ittetsu

Inaba Province

A province in the area that is today Tottori Prefecture. Inaba bordered on Harima, Hōki, Mimasaka, and Tajima Provinces.

See Also

Harima Province (pg. X), Hōki Province (pg. X), Mimasaka Province (pg. X), Tajima Province (pg. X), Tottori Province pg. XXX

Ingyō-tennō

Ino Tadataka

Inoue Akira

Inoue Bunda

Inoue Junnosuke

Cabinet Positions

Inoue Kaoru

Cabinet Positions

Inoue Kowashi

Cabinet Positions

Inoue Nissho

Inoue Tetsujiro

Inukai Tsuyoshi

Prime Minister from 13 December 1931 to 15 May 1932. His cabinet lasted until 26 May 1932.

Ioji

Ioji-yama

A mountain in Mikawa Province. In 1575, Takeda Katsuyori and Oda Nobunaga fought part of the Battle of Nagashino on Ioji-yama.

See Also

Mikawa Province (pg. X), Nagashino, Battle of (pg. X), Oda Nobunaga (pg. X), Takeda Katsuyori (pg. X),

Ise Province

A province in the area that is today Mie Prefecture. Ise bordered on Iga, Kii, Mino, Ōmi, Owari, Shima, and Yamato Provinces.

Domains

See Also

Furuta Shigekatsu (pg. X), Iga Province (pg. X), Kii Province (pg. X), Matsuzaka-han (pg. X), Mie Prefecture (pg. X), Mino Province (pg. X), Ōmi Province (pg. X), Shima Province (pg. X), Yamato Province (pg. X),

Ishibashi Tanzan

Ishida Baigan

Ishida Mitsunari

Cabinet	Position	From	To
2^nd Yamamoto	Finance	Sep 2, 1923	Jan 7, 1924
Hamaguchi	Finance	Jul 2, 1929	Apr 14, 1931
2^nd Wakatsuki	Finance	Apr 14, 1931	Dec 13, 1931

Cabinet	Position	From	To
1^st Itō	Foreign Affairs	Dec 22, 1885	Sep 16, 1887
2^nd Itō	Home Affairs	Aug 8, 1892	Oct 15, 1894
2^nd Itō	Prime Minister (Acting)	Nov 28, 1892	Feb 6, 1893
3^rd Itō	Finance	Jan 12, 1898	Jun 30, 1898

Cabinet	Position	From	To
1^st Itō	Chief of Legislative Bureau	Feb 7, 1888	Apr 30, 1888
Kuroda	Chief of Legislative Bureau	Apr 30, 1888	Dec 24, 1889
1^st Yamagata	Chief of Legislative Bureau	Dec 24, 1889	May 6, 1891
2^nd Itō	Education	Mar 7, 1893	Aug 29, 1894

Cabinet	Position	From	To
1^st Ōkuma	Education	Oct 27, 1898	Nov 8, 1898
2^nd Yamamoto	Education	Sep 2, 1923	Sep 6, 1923
2^nd Yamamoto	Communications	Sep 2, 1923	Jan 7, 1924
1^st Katō	Communications	Jun 11, 1924	May 30, 1925
Inukai	Foreign Affairs	Dec 13, 1931	Jan 14, 1932
Inukai	Prime Minister	Dec 13, 1931	May 15, 1932
Inukai	Home Affairs	Mar 16, 1932	Mar 25, 1932

Name	Position	From	To
Inukai Tsuyoshi	Prime Minister	Dec 13, 1931	May 15, 1932
Yamamoto Teijirō	Agriculture & Forestry	Dec 13, 1931	May 26, 1932
Mori Kaku	Chief of Cabinet Secretariat	Dec 13, 1931	May 26, 1932
Shimada Toshio	Chief of Legislative Bureau	Dec 13, 1931	May 26, 1932
Hata Toyosuke	Colonization	Dec 13, 1931	May 26, 1932
Maeda Yonezō	Commerce & Industry	Dec 13, 1931	May 26, 1932
Mitsuchi Chūzō	Communications	Dec 13, 1931	May 26, 1932
Hatoyama Ichirō	Education	Dec 13, 1931	May 26, 1932
Takahashi Korekiyo	Finance	Dec 13, 1931	May 26, 1932
Inukai Tsuyoshi	Foreign Affairs	Dec 13, 1931	Jan 14, 1932
Yoshizawa Kenkichi	Foreign Affairs	Jan 14, 1932	May 26, 1932
Nakahashi Tokugorō	Home Affairs	Dec 13, 1931	Mar 16, 1932
Inukai Tsuyoshi	Home Affairs	Mar 16, 1932	Mar 25, 1932
Suzuki Kisaburō	Home Affairs	Mar 25, 1932	May 26, 1932
Suzuki Kisaburō	Justice	Dec 13, 1931	Mar 25, 1932
Kawamura Takeji	Justice	Mar 25, 1932	May 26, 1932
Ōsumi Mineo	Navy	Dec 13, 1931	May 26, 1932
Tokonami Takejirō	Railways	Dec 13, 1931	May 26, 1932
Araki Sadao	War	Dec 13, 1931	May 26, 1932

Fief	Koku	Controlled by:	From	To
Matsuzaka	37000	Furuta Shigekatsu	1600

Mitsunari was the prime mover behind the anti-Tokugawa coalition (the Western Army) that lost the Battle of Sekigahara. Mitsunari was a better schemer than general or diplomat and this caused some friction in the coalition. At the very least Mitsunari's personality hurt morale among the commanders of the Western army and conceivably contributed to their defeat.

See Also

Ishihara Kanji

Ishii Kikujiro

Ishikawa Prefecture

One of the 47 major administrative units in modern Japan. Ishikawa is located along the Sea of Japan side, right about in the middle. The Noto Peninsula (page XXX), which is part of Ishikawa, juts out into the Sea of Japan and makes it very easy to find Ishikawa on a map.

Ishikawa Sanshiro

Ishiwara Kanji

Ishiyama Hongan-ji

Seat of the Ikkō sect after the Honganji in Kyotō was destroyed. It took Oda Nobunaga ten years to finally reduce this stronghold.

Ishizawa Taizo

Itagaki Seishirō

Itagaki Taisuke

Cabinet Positions

Itai-Itai-Byō

A Mitsui (chemical?) plant in Gifu Prefecture released cadmium into a river and said cadmium eventually made people in Toyama sick. Doctors understood cadmium to be the cause of the illness in 1957. A movement for redress was started in 1963 and eventually 183 people were recognized by the government as suffering from the disease.

Itami Castle

Itō Hirobumi

Born into a low ranking Chōshū samurai family in 1841. Originally held anti-foreign views but later became anti to bakufu.

Held a variety of posts in the Meiji government. Was a member of the Iwakura Mission. By 1881 he was one of the most powerful men in the government and the 1881 political crisis further cemented his power.

Visited Europe in 1882 “to study Western Constitutions” (many people believe he had already decided on the German model). Upon his return, he lead the creation of the peerage system and the cabinet system.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1	i	ro	ha	ni	ho	he	to
2	chi	ri	nu	ru	wo	wa	ka
3	yo	ta	re	so	tsu	ne	na
4	ra	mu	u	i¹	no	o	ku
5	ya	ma	ke	fu	ko	e	te
6	a	sa	ki	yu	me	mi	shi
7	e	hi	mo	se	su	n

re	ku	fu	yu	no	ki	a
e	a	ya	ra	yo	chi	i	tsu
hi	sa	ma	mu	ta	ri	ro	re
mo	ki	ke	u	re	nu	ha	na
se	yu	fu	i	so	ru	ni	ku
su	me	ko	no	tsu	wo	ho	mi
n	mi	e	o	ne	wa	he	e
	shi	te	ku	na	ka	to	shi

831728	8	3	1	7	2	8	8	3	1	7	2	8	8	3	1
96837	9	6	8	3	7	9	6	8	3	7	9	6	8	3	7
Result	7	9	9	0	9	7	4	1	4	4	1	4	6	6	8

Cabinet	Position	From	To
2^nd Itō	Home Affairs	Apr 14, 1896	Sep 18, 1896
2^nd Matsukata	Home Affairs	Sep 18, 1896	Sep 20, 1896
1^st Ōkuma	Home Affairs	Jun 30, 1898	Nov 8, 1898

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1	i	ro	ha	ni	ho	he	to
2	chi	ri	nu	ru	wo	wa	ka
3	yo	ta	re	so	tsu	ne	na
4	ra	mu	u	i¹	no	o	ku
5	ya	ma	ke	fu	ko	e	te
6	a	sa	ki	yu	me	mi	shi
7	e	hi	mo	se	su	n

re	ku	fu	yu	no	ki	a
e	a	ya	ra	yo	chi	i	tsu
hi	sa	ma	mu	ta	ri	ro	re
mo	ki	ke	u	re	nu	ha	na
se	yu	fu	i	so	ru	ni	ku
su	me	ko	no	tsu	wo	ho	mi
n	mi	e	o	ne	wa	he	e
	shi	te	ku	na	ka	to	shi

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1	i	ro	ha	ni	ho	he	to
2	chi	ri	nu	ru	wo	wa	ka
3	yo	ta	re	so	tsu	ne	na
4	ra	mu	u	i¹	no	o	ku
5	ya	ma	ke	fu	ko	e	te
6	a	sa	ki	yu	me	mi	shi
7	e	hi	mo	se	su	n

re	ku	fu	yu	no	ki	a
e	a	ya	ra	yo	chi	i	tsu
hi	sa	ma	mu	ta	ri	ro	re
mo	ki	ke	u	re	nu	ha	na
se	yu	fu	i	so	ru	ni	ku
su	me	ko	no	tsu	wo	ho	mi
n	mi	e	o	ne	wa	he	e
	shi	te	ku	na	ka	to	shi