Timeline Japan thru 1940
Return to home
Travel to Japan
Asuka Period: http://www.japanesehistory.org/asuka-timeline.html
History: http://www.emulateme.com/history/japahist.htm
Today in Japanese History: http://www.asiaobserver.org/category/japan/on-this-day-in-japan-history
USLC: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/jptoc.html
Yamato is the ancient name of Japan and essentially means “big harmony."
(Econ, 8/9/08, p.14)
Japan is about the same size as California or Montana.
(SSFC, 10/9/05, Par p.27)(Econ, 11/14/09, p.78)
30,000BCE The Ainu were the aboriginal inhabitants of the Japanese islands back to this time. They had European features, wavy hair and thick beards before they intermarried with the Japanese.
(SFC, 8/23/97, p.A10)
20,000BC Some scientists believe that ancient people from Siberia crossed the Bering land bridge about this time and began their southward migration into the Americas. In 2001 skull measurements indicated that members of the Jomon-Ainu of Japan made the first crossings.
(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A13)(SFC, 7/31/01, p.A4)
10k-300BC The Jomon culture is associated with the introduction of rice agriculture and the use of metal and probably came from the Asian mainland.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34)(WSJ, 9/25/01, p.A16)
5,500-4,000BC The Sannai Maruyama site in northern Honshu uncovered postholes of houses and longhouses, graves, figurines and animal remains.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.72)
660BC This is the mythical date of the ascension of Japan's first emperor, Jimmu Tenno. He is said to have been descended from Amaterasu, the sun goddess, who came from the eye of the god Izanagi.
(HN, 2/11/97)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.42)
400BC Korean farmers about this time brought rice to Japan.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.66)
400BC- 250AD The Yayoi culture is identified by its pottery. Mongoloid people from Korea entered Japan and mixed with the older Jomon populations.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34,38)
171BC There was a major wave of migration to Japan from the Korean Peninsula. The migration of other peoples from mainland Asia around this time brought metal tools, rice and new farming techniques. Computer modeling in 2011 showed a that the migration also had significant impact on linguistic development.
(AP, 5/5/11)
57CE The King of Nakoku sent an envoy to the Eastern Han capital Loyang, the 1st recorded envoy to China from Japan.
(www.museum.city.fukuoka.jp)
239 In Japan Queen Himiko (Pimiko, Queen of Wa) of the Kingdom of Yamataikoku sent an envoy to China.
(www.gias.snu.ac.kr/wthong/)
250-710CE The Japanese Kofun period. Mongoloid people from Korea continued to enter Japan and mixed with the older Jomon populations.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.38)
300-400CE Historian Egami Namio in 1948 proposed the "horserider" thesis that cited equestrian goods and foreign culture elements as evidence that the ancestors of the Japanese imperial line had migrated from Korea about this time and conquered the northern part of Kyushu.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.36)
300-645 Yamato Period of Japan. The Yamato clan had taken root in the Nara basin and gave rise to the people called “Japanese."
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(Hem, 9/04, p.41)
400-500AD Two imperial tombs of this time in Miyazaki Prefecture, Kyushu, are held by legend to belong to Ninigi, grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu and his wife.
(AM, Jul/Aug '97 p.12)
500-700CE Chronicles of the 8th century record the peaceful arrival of immigrants from Korea in the 6th and 7th centuries.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.38)
538-552 Introduction of Buddhism to Japan from Korea.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
538-600 Buddhist missionaries introduced the art of flower arranging to Japan. The 1st school of flower arranging, ikenobo, was founded by Ono no Imoko in the early 7th century. Ikebana became the umbrella name for the schools of flower arranging.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, Z1 p.2)
574 Prince Shotoku was born in Japan. He later brought the Kongo family from Korea to Osaka and had them build a Buddhist temple. The temple took 15 years to build and the Kongo family became established as the premier temple builders in Japan.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R46)
578 The family business Kongo Gumi was founded in Japan by a Korean in Osaka to build Buddhist temples. The company continued to flourish in 2010 as general builder.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.104)(Econ, 11/20/10, SR p.9)
592-710 The Asuka Period of Japanese history.
(www.japan-101.com)
593-622AD The Regency of Prince Shotoku on Japan.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
699 En no Ozunu appeared in the official Japanese national log of events or the 'Shoku Nihongi.' It is in this year that En was banished from society, following the charge that he "misused his magical powers to control people." It is believed that En No Gyoja was historically known as En no Ozunu. The Japanese ascetic En-no-Gyoja founded the Shugendo religion on Mount Omine (5,640 feet). He blended aspects of tantric Buddhism, Shintoism, Taoism, Confucianism and Japanese shamanism.
(SSFC, 10/2/05, p.E4)(http://tinyurl.com/8s4gm)
604 In Japan a 17 article constitution was promulgated by Prince Shotoku (574-622). It was a Confucian document that focused more on ethics and virtue than on the basic laws by which the state was to be run. [see 702]
(www.theosophy.org/tlodocs/teachers/PrinceShotoku.htm)
607 Ono no Imoko was sent as an envoy from Japan to the Sui court in China.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
645AD Downfall of the Soga Clan in Japan.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
658 Hirafu Abe went to meet with the Ainu on Hokkaido after he had defeated an indigenous tribe called Emishi in the northeast region of Honshu.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 217)
c670 A Japanese inventor based the first design of a folding fan on the structure of a bat's wing.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, Z1 p.2)
700-800 The Tanka (short song) poetry form emerged in Japan about this time. The unrhymed verse formalized to 31 syllables arranged in a 5 line pattern of 5-7-5-7-7. In 2005 it became popular on cell phones.
(WSJ, 10/4/05, p.A1)
700-800 In Japan a priest in the 8th century discovered the mineral hot springs at Yamashiro Onsen.
(WSJ, 7/19/05, p.A1)
702 Japan's first civil and penal code was promulgated. [see 604CE]
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
710 The Fujiwara clan established the Kasuga Shrine in Nara, Japan.
(Hem, 9/04, p.46)
710-784 The Nara Period of Japan. Japan’s 1st permanent capital arose in the Nara basin.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(Hem, 9/04, p.41)
712AD The publication of Kojiki in Japan, the Record of Ancient Matters. The work was compiled by the court to strengthen its control over various noble lineages. Fictitious rulers were inserted to project the nation's founding back to 660BC
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34)
718 The Japanese inn Hoshi Ryokan was founded in Komatsu.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.104)(SFC, 4/14/06, p.D1)
720 The Nihon Shoki (the Chronicle of Japan), the oldest recorded Japanese document, was published. It was compiled by the court to strengthen its control over various noble lineages.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R46)
752AD The dedication of the Great Buddha of Todai Temple in Nara.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
c752 Emperor Shomu built a great Buddhist temple and started a collection from the gifts that were brought to its dedication. Rulers for the next 12 centuries added to the collection.
(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A20)
764-770 Empress Shotoku had a million miniature pagodas made in thanks for regaining control of the throne. Sacred text was placed in each one and distributed to the 10 most important temples.
(WSJ, 7/27/00, p.A20)
778 In Japan the Kiyomizu-dera Buddhist temple was founded in Kyoto. Its main hall (Hondo) was built in 1633 without a single nail.
(SSFC, 3/16/14, p.P4)
794 The capital of Japan was moved from Nara to Kyoto and the new Imperial Palace was built there. It remained there until 1868.
(Hem., 2/96, p.57-58)(Hem, 9/04, p.41)
794-1185 The Heian Period in Japan. The kimono originated in this period. Prof. Helen McCullough (d.1998) of UC Berkeley and her husband translated "A Tale of Flowering Fortunes," whose notes and appendixes made it an encyclopedia of Heian court life. She published 11 volumes of studies and translations of classical Japanese poetry that included: "The Tale of the Heike" and "The Great Mirror."
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(SFC, 2/7/97, p.D1)(SFC, 4/23/98, p.B4)
795-1185 The Heian period was a time of elegant and refined rice papers.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.A20)
894 Japan abolishes the sending of envoys to China.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
c900-1000 The Japanese discovered the wasabe root growing near mountain streams and began incorporating it into their cuisine.
(SFC, 6/3/98, Z1 p.6)
995-1027 Heyday of the Fujiwara Clan in Japan.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
c1000-1100 A Buddhist shrine was constructed in Uji, Japan. In 1968 the Byodo-In Temple at the foot of the Koolaus Mountains on Oahu, Hawaii, was built as a replica of the 900-year-old shrine.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.20)
1002-1019 In Japan Lady Murasaki Shikibu wrote her classic court novel "The Tale of Genji." The novel "Genji Monogatari" (Genji the Shining One) was later considered the world's 1st novel. The long work explored the imperial court of the Heian period through the life and many loves of Genji, son of the emperor's favorite concubine. Arthur Waley made an English translation in 6 installments between 1925 and 1933. Edward Seidensticker made a translation in 1976. Royall Tyler made a new translation in 2001. In 2000 Liza Dalby authored her novel "The Tale of Murasaki."
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A20)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(WSJ, 7/5/00, p.A20)(WSJ, 11/16/01, p.W14)(SFEC, 7/16/00, BR p.3)
c1100-1200 Nichiren Daishonin, the son of a fisherman in Awa, established a new sect of Buddhism. In 1930 the Soka Gakkai (value-creation society) was founded in Tokyo based on his teachings.
(WSJ, 4/23/99, B1)
1129 Aug 21, The warrior Yoritomo was made Shogun without equal in Japan.
(HN, 8/21/98)
1169-1181 The heyday of the Kiyomori Clan in Japan.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
1180-1185 War between the Taira and Minamoto clans in Japan.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
1181 Aug 4, A supernova was seen in Cassiopeia. Chinese and Japanese astronomers observed a supernova. The star 3C58 was later identified as the heart of the explosion in the constellation Cassiopeia. In 2002 it was thought to be composed of quarks.
(MC, 8/4/02)(SFC, 4/11/02, p.A2)
1185-1333 The Kamakura Period of Japan. A sect known as Pure Land Buddhism began to enjoy great popularity.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(SFC, 3/14/03, p.D1)
1191 Zen Buddhism, guided by the Dao (The Way) arrived to Japan from China.
(Hem., 2/96, p.58)
1192 The founding of the Kamakura Shogunate in Japan.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
c1200-1300 Nichiren was 13th-century Japanese monk and reformer. He founded a Buddhist school and wrote: "When great evil occurs, great good will follow."
(WSJ, 3/28/02, p.A20)
1233 The royal family began to stain their teeth black in a fashion statement.
(WSJ, 9/2/99, p.A12)
1253 Dogen Zenji (b.1200), Japanese founder of the Soto School of Zen Buddhism, died. In 2010 Zenji’s masterwork “Treasury of the True Dharma Eye" was translated into English.
(SFC, 10/29/10, p.E1)
1264 According to Marco Polo, Kublai Khan in this year sent a large body of troops to attack Japan, then known as the island of Zipangu. The two officers in charge, named Abbacatan and Vonsancin, failed to cooperate and the adventure failed. [see 1274]
(TMPV, P.255)
1274 The first Mongol invasion of Japan. [see 1264]
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
1281 Aug 14, During the second Mongol attempt to conquer Japan, Kublai Khan's invading fleet disappeared in typhoon off of Japan. A Mongol army of 45,000 from Korea had joined an armada with 120,000 men from southern China landing at Hakozaki Bay. The typhoon destroyed their fleet leaving them to death or slavery.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(EWH, 4th ed., p.369)(MC, 8/14/02)
c1330 Retired Emp. Go-Fushimi authored a plea to the god of the Kamo shrine for help in gaining the thrown for his son, Prince Tokihito. Tokihito got to reign after a short delay when Go-Daigo refused to step down. Two years later Go-Daigo got the thrown back.
(SFC,12/15/97, p.E3)
1333 The Kamakura Shogunate of Japan falls.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
1333-1573 The Ashikaga (or Muromachi) Period of Japan. The Chinese Kara-yo style of architecture evolved during this period.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(Hem., 2/96, p.58)
1334 Emperor Go-Daigo of Japan temporarily regained power.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(SFC,12/15/97, p.E3)
1334-1615 In 1961 George Sansom authored "A History of Japan, 1334-1615."
(ON, 7/01, p.5)
1338 The founding of the Ashikaga Shogunate in Japan.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1368-1644 China extended its hegemony over the Ryukyu Islands legitimating 3 kings in exchange for submission to the Ming emperor.
(NH, 9/01, p.56)
1372 The 1st Ryukyuan emissaries reached Nanjing and presented tribute to the Ming emperor.
(NH, 9/01, p.56)
1392-1910 The Choson Dynasty ruled over this period.
(Hem., Oct. '95, p.17)
1422 Mar 30, Ketsugan, a Zen teacher, performed exorcisms to free the Aizoji temple.
(MC, 3/30/02)
1429 The kingdom of Ryukyu was unified under the court at Shuri (later part of Naha, Okinawa).
(NH, 9/01, p.56)
1449 Ashikaga Yoshimasa (14) inherited the office of Shogun, the chief military and civic leader of feudal Japanese society. His leadership focused on the arts and depleted the national treasury, which led to social and political anarchy.
(ON, 7/01, p.3)
1457 Koshamain, an Ainu chieftain on Hokkaido, led a rebellion against Japanese encroachment, but it was put down by Nobuhiro Takeda.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
1467 May, The 11-year Onin War began in Kyoto. In 1967 H. Paul Valery authored "The Onin War."
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(ON, 7/01, p.5)
1478 The Onin War ended after rival warlords died of natural causes. Shogun Yoshimasa disinherited his brother and abdicated in favor of his son.
(ON, 7/01, p.5)
1482 The Ginkaku Temple, also known as the Silver Pavilion was built in Kyoto, Japan. The Shogun who built it died before its completion and it remains without silver.
(Hem., 2/96, p.58)
1490 Ashikaga Yoshimasa, former shogun (1449-1478), died at age 55.
(ON, 7/01, p.5)
1532 A 2,100 lb. bell was cast in Japan. It was later shipped to San Francisco and placed in the Asian Art Museum. It was rung every New Year 108 times after a Buddhist tradition, once for each of the mortal desires that plague mankind.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.A15)
1536 Toyotomi Hideyoshi (d.1598), Japan’s unifier and folk hero, was born in a village called Nakamura in Owari province.
(www.samurai-archives.com/hideyoshi.html)
1539 Japanese trading monopolies ended in favor of a free market.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1542 Antonio da Mota, Portuguese explorer, became the first European to enter Japan.
(TL-MB, p.16)
1542 Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (d.1616) was born. Japan was united under his rule around 1600.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.D1)
1543 Portuguese ships landed on the Japanese Island of Tanega. The first European visitors to Japan introduced muskets and baked bread.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(TL-MB, p.16)
1549 Aug 15, Francis Xavier, Portuguese Jesuit missionary, landed in Kagoshima, Japan, and began spreading the Catholic faith there.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(ON, 11/02, p.8)(MC, 8/15/02)(AP, 1/28/14)
1558-1637 Hon'ami Koetsu, art collector, calligrapher and ceramist in Kyoto.
(WSJ, 9/21/00, p.A24)
1560 In Japan a foundry began making pots and developed to become Nabeya B-tech Kaisha (NBK), a 21st century maker of high-precision machine parts.
(Econ, 3/8/08, p.72)
1568 Nobunaga Oda seized Kyoto. General Oda Nobunaga, Japanese leader who seized Kyoto and destroyed the power of the feudal lords, introduces a dynamic period of centralization and expansion.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(TL-MB, p.21)
1568 Lord Oda Nobunaga destroyed the town of Sakai after the town council resisted a military tax.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R51)
1568 A theater was built on Miyajima Island.
(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.T11)
1568-1600 The Azuchi-Momoyama Period.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1570 The Japanese opened the port of Nagasaki to overseas trade.
(TL-MB, p.22)
1573 Japan’s Ashikaga shogunate ended after 237 years with Shogun Yoshiake routed in his challenge of ruler Nobunaga Oda.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1573-1615 The Momoyama period of Japan. It coincided with the ascendancy of 3 warlords and represented a time of temporary peace with the opening of the country to Western influence.
(WSJ, 9/25/96, p.A20)
1575 A battle was fought that arrayed 3,000 guns against men on horseback using stirrups. The gun force won and changed the course of Japanese fighting.
(WSJ, 6/9/99, p.A27)
1582 Nobunaga was assassinated. Nobunaga, ruler of Japan, was assassinated by Akechi Mitsuhide. He was succeeded by Hideyoshi, who killed Mitsuhide and carried on the work of breaking feudal power.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215) (TL-MB, p.23)
1583 Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598), Japan’s unifier and folk hero, laid the foundation for Osaka Castle. It was completed in 1587. Civil war and fire destroyed the castle several times. The castle was rebuilt in 1931 and refurbished in 1997.
(Hem, 9/04, p.41)
1585 Toyotomi Hideyoshi was appointed civil dictator.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1586 In Japan Kabuki theater began. [see 1603]
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1587 Jul 25, Japanese shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi banned Christianity in Japan and ordered all Christians to leave. Although the order was not immediately enforced. A decade later, the crackdown began, and 26 Christians were crucified.
(HN, 7/25/98)(AP, 11/21/08)
1587 Osaka Castle, Japan, whose foundation had been laid by Hideyoshi in 1583 was completed with the help of 30,000 workers.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1590s A six paneled screen painting by Kano Eitoku depicted mythological Chinese lions.
(WSJ, 9/25/96, p.A20)
1592 Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent an army to invade Korea after Korea refused to help him invade China. This set off a war that lasted 6 years.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/455711)
1592 Korea defenders led by Gen. Jeong Mun-bu scored a victory over an invading Japanese army at Bukgwan. A monument with a description of the fight was raised a century later. During the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905 a Japanese general shipped the monument to Japan where it was set in the Yasukuni shrine. It was recognized by a South Korean in 1978 and in 2005 Shinto priests agreed to return it to Seoul.
(Econ, 10/15/05, p.46)
1592-1598 Korean Adm. Yi Sun Sin (1545-1598) employed his ironclad "turtle ships" to fight off an invasion by Japan. Hundreds of Japanese vessels were sunk during the prolonged Japanese invasion.
(www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/455711)
1597 Sep 28, The Mimizuka, or Ear Mound, was dedicated in Kyoto. In it was buried the collected ears and noses of victims from the Japanese invasion of Korea that began in 1592.
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.A25)
1597 Oct 26, Korea’s Admiral Yi Sun-shin (Yi Sun sin), with a fleet of 13 ships, beat back the Japanese Navy, with a fleet of hundreds of ships, at the Battle of Myeongnyang. In 2014 the South Korean film “Roaring Currents," a depiction of the battle, was released and became the country’s most popular film of all time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Myeongnyang)(Econ, 10/4/14, p.47)
1597 In Nagasaki 26 Japanese and Western Christians were crucified. These martyrs were beatified in 1627 and became saints in 1862, among the 42 people from Japan who have been canonized, or reached sainthood.
(SSFC, 8/10/03, p.C11)(AP, 11/21/08)
1598 Sep 18, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (b.1536), Japan’s unifier and folk hero, died. His death left two main rivals for power, Ishida Mitsunari and Tokugawa Ieyasu.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyotomi_Hideyoshi)
1599 The Takeda family, which controlled Hokkaido, changed its name to Matsumae, built a castle by that name and allied itself with Ieyasu Tokugawa, who was on the verge of establishing his Shogunate.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 218)
1600 Apr 19, The Dutch ship Liefde, piloted by Will Adams, reached Japan with a crew of 24 men. 6 of the crew soon died. 4 other ships in the expedition were lost.
(ON, 11/02, p.8)
1600 Oct 21, Tokugawa leyasu defeated his enemies in the battle of Sekigahara and affirmed his position as Japan's most powerful warlord. The win enabled Ieyasu to found a 265-year ruling dynasty.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sekigahara)(Econ, 10/31/09, p.54)
1600s The ancient art of Sumo wrestling became a professional sport.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1600-1867 The Tokugawa (or Edo) Period.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1600-1868 The cosmopolitan Edo period, the heyday of the woodblock print.
(WSJ, 4/24/96, A-12)
1602 Japan's Shogun Ieyasu seized the Dutch ship Liefde and granted its crew allowances to live in Japan.
(ON, 11/02, p.9)
1603 Kabuki theater started when a shrine maiden named Okuni traveled to Kyoto and performed a dance of ecstasy dressed in men's clothing while chanting Buddha's name. [see 1586]
(SFC, 7/12/01, p.A23)
1603 In Japan the wooden Nihonbashi bridge, half way between Edo Bay and Edo Castle, was built. In 1911 it was replaced by a stone version.
(Econ, 10/7/06, p.52)
1603 The Nijo Castle was built in Kyoto, Japan, as a residence for the Shogun. The castle's Ninomaru Palace was famous for its "nightingale" (creaking) floors that warn of intruders.
(Hem., 2/96, p.60)
1603 Tokyo replaced Kyoto as the administrative center of Japan.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R51)
1603-1868 The founding and era of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34)
1605 Dec 27, English sea captain John Davis was killed by Japanese pirates whose ship he had captured off the coast of Sumatra. In 1889 Clements Markham authored “A Life of John Davis, the Navigator, 1550-1605, Discoverer of Davis Straits."
(ON, 11/05, p.9)
1605 Japan's Shogun Ieyasu allowed some of the Dutch crew of the ship Liefde to return home, but kept Will Adams in Japan. Adams soon married Magoma Oyuki, a young noblewoman.
(ON, 11/02, p.10)
1608 Shogun Ieyasu ordered Will Adams to go to the Philippines to invite the Spanish Gov. Don Diego Vevero y Velasco to compete with the Portuguese for trade with Japan.
(ON, 11/02, p.10)
1609 Forces from the Japanese feudal domain of Satsuma invaded the Ryukyu Islands and took the king hostage. Heavy tribute was soon demanded.
(NH, 9/01, p.56)
1609 Spanish ships began visiting Japan and Spanish Dominicans began missionary work.
(ON, 11/02, p.10)
1610 Retired-Japanese Samurai Hachirobei Mitsui pawned a couple of his swords and started a ribbon and kimono shop. It grew to become the world's oldest department store, Tokyo's Mitsukoshi.
(SFC, 7/7/96, zone 1 p.5)
1613 A fleet of 3 English ships arrived in Japan in response to letters from Will Adams to the English East India Company.
(ON, 11/02, p.10)
1614 Japan sent samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga to Europe via Acapulco to to request the right to trade directly with New Spain (Mexico).
(Econ, 11/15/14, SR p.8)
1614 Shogun Ieyasu ordered all Christian missionaries to leave Japan. All Christian churches were closed and Japanese people were forbidden to practice Christianity on pain of death.
(ON, 11/02, p.10)
1615 Jun 4, The Tokugawa Shogun captured Osaka Castle and eliminated Hide-yoshi's heirs. The fortress of Osaka, Japan, fell to shogun Leyasu after a six month siege.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(HN, 6/4/98)
1615 Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu granted land to Hon'ami Koetsu (1558-1637), a calligraphy artist. The property was named Takagamine and became a colony for artists united by their adherence to Buddhism.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.D3)
1615-1868 The Edo period. [see 1600-1868]
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.C1)
1616 Shogun Ieyasu (b.1642), Japanese general and statesman, died.
(WUD, 1994 p.759)(ON, 11/02, p.10)
1618 Kana Takanobu (b.1571), Japanese artist, died.
(NYT, 10/8/04, p.B35)
1620 Will Adams, English-Dutch-Japanese ship pilot, died in Japan. In 1956 P.G. Rogers authored "The First Englishman in Japan."
(ON, 11/02, p.10)
1627 Japan banned contact with foreigners and closed its ports except for limited trade with Holland. [see 1639]
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1628-1695 Enku was an artist-priest who took a vow to sculpt 120,000 images of the Buddha.
(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)
1629 Women performers were banned in Kabuki theaters to prevent prostitution and were replaced by young boys. The ban spawned a new breed of male actors.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(SFC, 6/14/05, p.B3)
c1630 The widow of a samurai set up a business that grew to become the Kikkoman Corp., the world’s leading maker of soy sauce.
(WSJ, 12/27/99, p.A1)(Econ, 12/18/04, p.105)
1636 Westerners in Japan were sequestered on the man-made island of Dejima in Nagasaki's harbor as the government cracked down on all things foreign. The island later disappeared in land reclamation projects.
(SSFC, 8/10/03, p.C11)
1637 Gekkeikan began making sake in Kyoto, Japan. The company began supplying the imperial household in 1909.
(SSFC, 9/26/04, p.D12)
1637-1638 The Christians of Shimabara, Japan rebel.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1639 Japan was closed to the outside world except for a Dutch trading post.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1639 Jesuit Father Petro Kassui Kibe, a convert to Christianity, was captured, tortured and martyred in Tokyo. He had initially managed to escape persecution and traveled to Rome, where he became a Jesuit and was ordained to the priesthood. He then returned to Japan to minister to other oppressed Christians. The 188 other martyrs included four Jesuit priests, other priests, brothers and nuns, lay men and women, all killed in different cities between 1603 and 1639 after the Japanese government outlawed Christianity. In 2007 Pope Benedict XVI approved recognition of their martyrdom.
(www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0603392.htm)(AP, 6/2/07)
1641 Japan designated an artificial island in Nagasaki harbor as the only place that foreigners could live.
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.47)
1644-1694 Matsuo Basho, Japanese poet. His work include "The Narrow Road to the Deep North" (Oku no Hosomichi). One of his poems celebrated the entrancing cry of the cicada.
(SFC, 11/28/96, p.C16)(WUD, 1994, p.124)(SFC, 7/29/97, p.C3)(Econ, 7/5/14, p.67)
1653 Chikamatsu Monzaemon (d.1725), Kyoto and Osaka playwright, was born.
(SFC, 6/20/05, p.C1)
1658-1716 Ogata Korin, artist. The artist created the cartoonish "Gods of Wind and Thunder."
(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)
1661 In Japan the Takanoshi family started producing food seasonings and became known for its soy sauce.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1673 In Japan the Mitsukoshi store introduced fixed prices.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.58)
1685-1768 Hakuin Ekaku, Zen painter. His work included "Side View of Daruma."
(SSFC, 9/23/01, DB p.48)
c1690 "The Narrow Road" by Basho Matsuo (1644?-1694) was written during a 1,500 mile journey through the Japanese countryside. It was a 64-page collection of prose and haiku poems and became a Japanese classic. A manuscript of the work was found in 1996.
(SFC, 11/28/96, p.C16)(WUD, 1994, p.124)
1700 Jan 27, A tsunami hit Honshu Island, Japan. It was later estimated that wave was triggered by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake in California.
(CW, Spring ‘99, p.32)
1671-1743 Kaigetsudo Ando (d.1743), Japanese artist, was born. He is also called Okazaki Genshichi.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9044336)
1702 Dec 14, In Japan 47 samurai stormed the palace of a high-ranking lord in Edo and beheaded him. They were ordered to commit seppuku, a ritual suicide by disembowelment. Stone monuments at the Sengakuji temple marked the graves of the 47 ronin (samurai with no master).
(SFC, 1/14/15, p.A5)
1702 Omori Yoshikiyo, Japanese ehon artist, created his work “Trailing Willows," which depicted the working women in the government sanctioned pleasure quarter of Kyoto.
(WSJ, 1/4/07, p.B11)
1702 Meijin Dosaku, go-master to the shogun of Japan, died. He was the 4th head of the Honimbo go school and is held by many Japanese to have been the game’s greatest player.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.129)
1702 Basho Matsuo, poet, died.
(SFC, 11/28/96, p.C16)
1703 Dec 30, Tokyo was hit by Earthquake and some 37,000 people died.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1703 A pair of lovers committed suicide in Osaka. The story of the courtesan and young merchant was quickly depicted in the Kabuki play “The Love suicides at Sonexaki" by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725).
(SFC, 6/20/05, p.C5)
1704 Feb 19, In Japan Kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjuro I (b.1660, the first of the Danjuro line, was murdered by a rival on stage.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichikawa_Danj%C5%ABr%C5%8D_I)(Econ, 2/16/13, p.44)
c1705 Yodoya Tatsugora, Japanese merchant, died. He was a member of the 5th generation of a family that became rich as silk traders and rice merchants. The Shogunate claimed that his wealth was unbecoming and confiscated it. Many government officials owed him money.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)
1707 A sunrise ritual was begun in Nagano where a gong announced the call to worship.
(SFC, 2/6/98, p.A1)
1707 Mount Fuji erupted.
(SFC, 2/14/98, p.A12)
1708 The Great Buddha Hall at Nara’s Todaiji Temple, the world’s largest wooden structure, was rebuilt at two thirds of the original scale.
(Hem, 9/04, p.46)
1710 "The Narrow Road" by Basho Matsuo was first published.
(SFC, 11/28/96, p.C16)
1714 In Japan Ando Kaigetsudo (1671-1743) was banished to the island of Oshima. He was the founder of the Kaigetsudo school of ukiyo-e (scenes of the transient world of daily life) painters and print designers.
(SSFC, 11/20/05, p.M1)(www.ready-to-hang.com/LCP_ArtNotes/Kaigetsudo_Ando_Bio.htm)
1716-1800 Ito Jakuchu, artist. He created the "Vegetable Parinirvana," a hanging scroll that recasts the Buddha as a languishing radish surrounded by other vegetable onlookers.
(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)
1717 Ono Pharmaceutical was founded by Ichibei Fushimiya as an apothecary in Osaka, Japan. In 1947 Ono Pharmaceutical was established. Its shares listed on the Osaka Securities Exchange in 1962 and the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1963.
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.72)
1719 Chikamatsu Monzaemon created his Kabuki Theater masterpiece "Shankun: The Exile on Devil's Island."
(SFEC, 9/8/96, DB p.7)
1720 The world's 1st futures exchange began in Osaka with trade in 3-months forward contracts in rice.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R51)
1721-1785 Reigen Eto, Zen painter. His work included "White-Robbed Kannon."
(SSFC, 9/23/01, DB p.48).
1730 The first legally recognized futures market opened in Japan.
(Wired, 9/96, p.36)
1755 Watanabe Shiko (b.1683), Japanese painter based in Kyoto, died.
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.E12)
1759 Soga Shohaku (1730-1781), Japanese artist, created his “Hanshan and Shide" about this time.
(SFC, 1/14/06, p.E1)
1760 Oct 21, Katsushika Hokusai (d.1849), Japanese printmaker, was born. Hokusai was a master designer of color woodblock prints. His paintings included 36 views of Mt. Fuji done when he was 70.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.E3)(WSJ, 11/3/98, p.A20)(Econ, 6/4/11, p.54)
1762 Gosakuramachi ascended Japan’s throne. She ruled until 1770 and as of 2006 was Japan's last woman ruler.
(AP, 9/6/06)(http://tinyurl.com/rcnhc)
1776 Ike Taiga (b.1723), Japanese painter based in Kyoto, died.
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.E1)
1780 A Japanese whaling ship ran aground near the western end of the Aleutian Islands. Rats from the ship reached the nearest island giving it the name Rat Island. The incident introduced the non-native Norway rat, also known as the brown rat, to Alaska. The rats terrorized all but the largest birds on the island. In the Fall of 2008 poison was dropped onto the island from helicopter-hoisted buckets for a week and a half. By mid 2009 there were no signs of living rats and some birds had returned.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.43)(Reuters, 6/12/09)
1781 Chobei Takeda I (32) started a business selling traditional Japanese and Chinese medicines in Doshomachi, Osaka. In 1925 it was incorporated as Chobei Takeda & Co., Ltd., with capital of 5.3 million yen and Chobei Takeda V as president. The Company changed its name to Takeda Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. in 1943. Its English name was changed to Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd. in 1961.
(Econ, 11/20/10, SR p.9)
1781 Soga Shohaku (b.1730), Japanese artist, died.
(SFC, 1/14/06, p.E1)
1783 Mount Asama, one of Japan's largest and most active volcanoes, had a major eruption.
(AP, 9/15/04)
1783 Yosa Buson (b.1716), Japanese painter based in Kyoto, died. His work included “Landscapes on silver Ground" (1782).
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.E1)(SFC, 1/14/06, p.E10)
1783-1786 Japan suffered one of its worst famines in history when exceptional cold destroyed the rice harvest. As many as 1 million people died. Most of the impact for this was due to the eruptions of the Laki volcano in Iceland beginning in June, 1783.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.134)
1788 A great fire destroyed much of the wooden city of Kyoto, Japan.
(WSJ, 1/25/06, p.D10)(www.city.kyoto.jp/koho/eng/historical/chronology.html)
1790 Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800), Japanese painter, created his "Compendium of Vegetable and Insects."
(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)(SFC, 1/14/06, p.E1)
1790 A bronze Buddha was cast in Japan. In 1945 it was donated by the Gump family to the city of San Francisco. It resides in the Japanese Tea Garden and was in need of $81,000 worth of repairs.
(SFC, 12/30/96, p.A11)
1793 Apr 1, The volcano Unsen on Japan erupted killing about 53,000.
(OTD)
1795 Kitagawa Utamoro, Japanese artist, made his woodblock print "Oiran" about this time.
(WSJ, 4/24/96, A-12)
1795 Maruyama Okyo (b.1733), Japanese painter based in Kyoto, died. His work included a 50 mile scene in "Both Banks of the Yodo River" and “Landscape With Pavilions in Snow" (1787).
(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)(SFC, 12/8/05, p.E1)(SFC, 1/14/06, p.E10)
1797-1858 Utagawa Hiroshige, artist, made numerous color woodblock prints.
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.C1)
1799 Nagasawa Rosetsu (b.1754), Japanese painter based in Kyoto, died. His work included “Monkey on a Rock."
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.E1)(SFC, 1/14/06, p.E10)
1800 Ito Jakuchu (b.1716), Japanese painter based in Kyoto, died.
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.E12)
1800-1900 Tokyo was called Edo and served as the shogun's power seat.
(SFEC, 8/9/98, p.T5)
1811 Matsumura Gekkei (b.1752) also known as Goshun, Japanese painter based in Kyoto, died.
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.E1)
1813 The Tokujo-maru, a Japanese ship with a cargo of rice for Edo, was blown off course. Three surviving crew members were picked up 18 months later by a British ship off the coast of California.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.64)
1816 Two British naval ships under Captain Basil Hall landed at Okinawa, in the Ryukyu archipelago, which was then known as Loo-Choo. In 1818 Hall published an account of his voyage: “Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea, and the Great Loo-Choo Island."
(Econ, 10/29/05, p.44)(www.polybiblio.com/bibliotrek/BT000004..html)
1820 Keisai Eisen, artist, pictured an intricately coifed woman that later appeared on the cover of a French magazine and inspired Van Gogh's 1887 "Courtesan."
(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)
1820 An American whaling ship from Brighton, Massachusetts, was later believed to be the first to enter Japanese waters.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.64)
1822 Utagawa Kunisada, Japanese artist, painted "The Popular Type."
(WSJ, 4/24/96, A-12)
1824-1860 Yanagawa Shigenobu II, Japanese printmaker, was active. His work included the color woodcut “Kuroho" (1832-1836).
(www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/shigenobu_ii_yanagawa.html)
1825 Japan issued an edict that spelled out what would happen to uninvited guests. “Should any foreigners land anywhere, they must be arrested or killed."
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.63)
1830 Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Japanese artist, created his famous woodblock print “Beneath the Wave of Kanagawa" about this time.
(Econ, 6/4/11, p.54)
1830-1840 Hokusai (1760-1849) made his "Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji during this decade. The wood blocks included "Under the Wave of Kanagawa," "The Back of Mt. Fuji from Minobu River," and "Winter Loneliness." The last was inspired by a poem of Minamoto no Muneyuki Ason. Another series was titled "A Tour of Japanese Waterfalls.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.E3)
1831 Takashsimaya was founded in Kyoto, Japan, as a kimono shop. It grew to become the nation's largest department store chain.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1833 Aoki Mokubei (b.1767), Japanese poet and potter, died.
(NYT, 10/8/04, p.B35)
1834 A crippled Hojun-maru junk, blown off course with 3 Japanese castaways, washed ashore on Cape Flattery in Washington state. Makah Indians seized the cargo, enslaved the sailors and then sold them to the Hudson’s Bay Company.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.64)
1835 Ryoma Sakamoto was born. He became a samurai dedicated to toppling the feudal government.
(WSJ, 6/14/00, p.A1)
1836 Jun 10, Yamaoka Tesshu, Japanese swordsman, was born.
(HN, 6/10/98)
1839 Spring, A craze for costume dancing swept Kyoto for a few weeks.
(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)
1841 William Whitfield, captain of the whaling ship John Howland, from Fairhaven, Mass., picked up 5 castaways from Japan’s Torishima Island, including a boy named Manjiro, who returned with Whitfield to Fairhaven. Manjiro later returned to Japan, and translated Nathaniel Bowditch’s “The New American Navigator," known to mariners as the “seaman’s bible." In 1854 Manjiro acted as interpreter with Commodore Perry and in 1860 joined the 1st Japanese embassy to America.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.66)
1848 Jul 1, Ranald MacDonald (1824-1894), a Chinook-Scottish sailor, separated from an American whaling ship and arrived at Rishiri Island off Hokkaido, Japan. He was imprisoned for virtually his whole 10-month stay. In 2003 Frederik L. Schodt authored "Native American in the Land of the Shogun: Ranald MacDonald and the Opening of Japan."
(SSFC, 7/12/03, p.M3)(Econ, 12/22/07, p.63)
1849 Katsushika Hokusai (b.1760), Japanese printmaker, died.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.E3)(WSJ, 11/3/98, p.A20)(HN, 10/21/00)
1853 Jul 3, Commodore Matthew Perry reached Japan. [see Jul 8]
(MC, 7/3/02)
1853 Jul 7, Japan opened its ports to trade with the West after 250 years of isolation. [see July 8]
(HN, 7/7/01)
1853 Jul 8, An expedition led by Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Edo Bay, Uraga, Japan, on a mission to seek diplomatic and trade relations with the Japanese. Perry sailed his flagship USS Susquehanna into Edo Bay. He soon forced Japan to open its ports with his big gunboats, the steam-powered “Black Ships."
(AP, 7/8/97)(SFEC, 1/25/98, Z1 p.2)(ON, 11/04, p.9)
1853 Jul 14, Commodore Matthew Perry met with Prince Toda and Prince Ido at ceremony at Kurihama, Japan, and presented a letter from former Pres. Fillmore to Emperor Osahito requesting trade relations. Fillmore's term of office had already expired by the time the letter was delivered.
(ON, 11/04, p.12)(AP, 7/14/07)
1853 Aug, Japan’s Chief Shogun Ieoshi died.
(ON, 11/04, p.12)
1854 Feb 11, Commodore Matthew Perry pulled into Edo Bay, Japan, 12 months early with 9 warships to begin talks for a treaty.
(ON, 11/04, p.12)
1854 Mar 8, US Commodore Matthew C. Perry landed at Yokohama on his 2nd trip to Japan. Within a month, he concluded a treaty with the Japanese. In 2003 Christopher Benfey authored "The Great Wave: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics and the Opening of Old Japan."
(AP, 3/8/98)(SSFC, 5/18/03, p.M6)
1854 Mar 31, Chief Shogun Iyesada, following negotiations with Commodore Perry, approved the Treaty of Kanagawa on behalf of Emperor Osahito. This forced Japan to open its ports to foreign trade.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(ON, 11/04, p.12)
1854 Dec 23, The 8.4 Ansei Tokai Quake struck Japan. The epicenter ranged from Suruga Bay to the deep ocean, but destroyed houses as far away as in Edo. The accompanying tsunami caused damage along the entire coast from the Boso Peninsula in modern-day Chiba prefecture to Tosa province (modern-day Kochi prefecture).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansei_Great_Earthquakes)
1854 Dec 24, The 8.4 Ansei Nankai Quake struck Japan. Over 10,000 people from the Tokai region down to Kyushu were killed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansei_Great_Earthquakes)
1855 Nov 11, The 6.9 Ansei Edo earthquake hit near Edo (Tokyo), Japan. Some 8,000 casualties resulted with about 14,000 structures destroyed.
(www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/g/j/gjs4/2008_Shaken%20and%20Rectified.pdf)(Econ, 7/4/09, p.39)
1855 Japan acquired some of the Kurile Islands (Kuril Islands), a chain of 56 islands that extended 744 miles from Hokkaido to Russia's Kamchatka peninsula. The Treaty of Commerce, Navigation and Delimitation established the border between Iturup and Urup. This border confirmed that Japanese territory stretched south from Iturup and Russian territory stretched north of Urup. Sakhalin remained a place where people from both countries could live.
(SFC, 8/14/01, p.A7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuril_Islands)
1858 Jul 29, Japan signed a treaty of commerce and friendship with the United States.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(HN, 7/29/98)
1858 Utagawa Hiroshige (b.1797), one of the greatest Japanese artists, died of cholera in Edo. His "53 Stages on the Tokaido" Road, first published in 1863-4 as an accordion-like album, influenced French and American painters from Paul Cezanne to James McNeill Whistler.
(AP, 6/28/05)(http://tinyurl.com/92q4b)
1859 Nov 21, Shoin Yoshida (1830), Japanese intellectual who inspired Meiji reformers, died. “Once a man’s will is set, he can triumph through any obstacle."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshida_Sh%C5%8Din)(Econ, 6/28/14, p.12)
1860 Mar 17, The Japanese ship Kanrin Maru, under Admiral Yoshitake Kimura, entered the Golden Gate after a 37-day voyage, on a diplomatic mission to San Francisco. It was the first Japanese ship to cross the Pacific. 3 sailors died while the ship was in SF. It set sail to return to Japan on May 8.
(SFC, 3/17/10, p.C2)(http://www.kanrin-maru150.com/)
1860 Mar 29, The USS Powhatan arrived in San Francisco as part of a diplomatic mission from Japan. It carried official envoys including Niimi Buzennokami, the first Japanese ambassador to the US.
(SFC, 3/17/10, p.C2)(www.kanrin-maru150.com/)
1860 Apr 25, The first Japanese ambassador to the US, Niimi Buzennokami, and his 74-man staff arrived in Washington to present their credentials to Pres. James Buchanan.
(www.trivia-library.com/b/world-history-1860.htm)
1862-1922 Mori Ogai, Japanese writer. His work included "The Wild Goose."
(MT, Fall '96, p.15)
1864 Sep 5, British, French & Dutch fleets attacked Japan in Shimonoseki Straits.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1864 The Oura Catholic Church was built in Nagasaki in honor of the 26 Japanese and Western Christians crucified there in 1597.
(SSFC, 8/10/03, p.C11)
1867 Apr 25, Tokyo was opened for foreign trade.
(HN, 4/25/98)
1867 Jan 8, Japan’s Emperor Osahito died. The Tokugawa Shogunate gave up power as a revolutionary movement overthrew Shogun Iyesada. Rebels introduced a representative government under the name of Emperor Maiji (1852-1912). Ryoma Sakamoto, a samurai, helped topple the feudal government system. Ryoma means Dragon Horse.
(www.uq.net.au/~zzhsoszy/states/japan/japan.html)(ON, 11/04, p.12)(WSJ, 6/14/00, p.A1)
1867 Nov 15, Ryoma Sakamoto, the rebel who helped topple Japan’s feudal government system, was assassinated. In 1966 Ryotaro Shiba authored the historical novel "Ryoma on the Move" in 8 paperback volumes. Between 1987 and 1996 a comic series on Ryoma ran in magazines and a 23-volume compilation was later made.
(http://tinyurl.com/yglqgbs)(WSJ, 6/14/00, p.A1,16)(Econ, 12/4/10, p.55)
1868 Jan 3, Emperor Meiji ascended the throne and assumed power. The Meiji Restoration re-established the authority of Japan's emperor and heralded the fall of the military rulers known as shoguns. The feudal clan system was abolished and industrialism was started. Japan opened itself up to the West, thereby obtaining the benefits of western technology. With the erosion of the Tokugawa bakufu system and international pressure to open the country, the boy emperor Mutsuhito—later known by the name Meiji—became the political leader replacing the Tokugawa shogunate. The social and political changes during the Meiji period (1868-1912) had begun in the late Tokugawa period, but were only formalized with the creation of the Meiji constitution in 1889.
(V.D.-H.K.p.243,286)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(AP, 1/3/98)(HNQ, 11/21/00)
1868 Jul 4, In Japan the last Tokugawa armies were defeated at the Battle at Ueno.
(Maggio, 98)
1868 In Japan women were allowed to climb Mt. Fuji.
(SFC, 9/12/13, p.A4)
1868 It was forbidden to be born or to die on Japan’s Miyajima Island until the Meiji Restoration.
(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.T11)
1868 In Japan Ryoma Sakamoto, the rebel who helped topple the feudal government system in 1967, was assassinated. In 1966 Ryotaro Shiba authored the historical novel "Ryoma on the Move" in 8 paperback volumes. Between 1987 and 1996 a comic series on Ryoma ran in magazines and a 23-volume compilation was later made.
(WSJ, 6/14/00, p.A1,16)
1868-1912 The Meiji Period. [1867-1912]
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34)
1869 Sep 10, A Baptist minister invented the rickshaw in Yokohama, Japan. The jinrikisha, or rickshaw, was developed as a cheap alternative to horse power in 1870. In 1998 Tony wheeler wrote "Chasing Rickshaws" with photographs by Richard I'Anson.
(SFEC, 10/11/98, p.T9)(MC, 9/10/01)
1869 Japan’s Yasukuni shrine was dedicated to the Japanese who died in wars since 1853. The name, which means “peaceful country," was bestowed by Emperor Meiji in 1879.
(Econ, 10/8/05, Survey p.15)
1869 In Yokohama Baptist missionary Jonathan Scobie put together the first jinriksha to cart around his invalid wife.
(SFC, 5/24/97, p.E3)
1870 In Japan Yataro Iwasaki began Mitsubishi as a steamship company. He ran the ships of the Tosa clan from an island in southern Japan.
(WSJ, 7/15/97, p.A16)(Econ, 5/29/04, p.67)(Econ, 11/20/10, p.7)
1870 Baseball was brought to Japan by American missionaries.
(http://tinyurl.com/6xjluk)(Econ, 3/29/08, p.83)
1871 Jun 27, The yen became the new form of currency in Japan.
(HN, 6/27/98)
1872 Aug 23, The 1st Japanese commercial ship visited SF carrying tea.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1872 A Japanese government decree struck down ancient conventions that kept women off many of the country’s mountains. In 2004 a 1,300-year tradition against women climbers on Mount Omine continued.
(SSFC, 9/5/04, p.A2)
1873 Jun 29, China’s Emperor Tongzhi held the first imperial audience with foreign diplomats in 80 years. Japan’s foreign minister asked for compensation for an attack on sailors from the Ryukyu islands by aborigines on Taiwan. China disavowed responsibility.
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.72)
1873 Oji Paper was founded in Japan. In 2006 it was Japan’s biggest paper company.
(Econ, 8/12/06, p.51)
1875 Joseph Neesima founded Doshisha Univ. in Kyoto, Japan. He had previously acquired an American education at Amherst College after defying a ban on travel abroad.
(SFC, 4/18/06, p.B5)
1875 Russia recognized Japan's control over the 4 southernmost Kurile Islands.
(SFC, 1/19/99, p.A8)
1877 Oct 6, Edward S. Morse (1839-1925), educator gave the first lecture on evolution in Japan. He introduced modern ideas in archaeology and zoology to Japan at Tokyo Univ.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34)
1877 The rebellion of Satsuma province was quelled.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1877 Saigo Takamori slits his belly in ritual suicide rather than surrendering to Tokyo's hated minions. The hilltop monument named Shiroyama in Kagoshima, Kyushu, Japan, was dedicated to him.
(NG, Jan. 94, p.116)
1878 May 15, The Tokyo Stock Exchange, Japan’s 1st public trading institution, formed.
(WSJ, 3/15/07, p.C1)
1879 Mar 25, Japan invaded the kingdom of Liuqiu (Ryukyu) Islands, formerly a vassal of China. The Ruykyuan monarchy was abolished and the islands were annexed to create the Okinawa Prefecture. Prior to this Okinawa had paid tribute to both Japan and China. Okinawa became imperial Japan’s first colony.
(SSFC, 3/11/01, Par p.5)(NH, 9/01, p.56)(Econ, 12/22/12, p.55)
1879 In Japan the Asahi Shimbun newspaper was founded.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.A19)
1879 The Tenshodo store, located in the heart of Ginza, the busiest high-end shopping district in Tokyo, was founded.
(AP, 1/2/10)
1880 Japan’s Yokohama Specie Bank was founded. It became the Bank of Tokyo in 1946. Following later mergers it became part of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group in 2005.
(WSJ, 9/23/08, p.C1)
1881 Shibata Zeshin made a book of lacquer paintings on paper, a medium that he alone mastered.
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A20)
1881 The Asahi Shimbun newspaper became jointly owned by Ryuhei Murayama and Riichi Ueno.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.A19)
1882 Jigoro Kano (1860-1938), founder of judo, opened his first judo school, the Kodokan, in Tokyo. Some 40 years later he added a women’s section.
(SFC, 7/25/11, p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kan%C5%8D_Jigor%C5%8D)
1882 The central Bank of Japan was established.
(SFC, 3/26/98, p.B2)
1883 Tokonami Seisei, self-taught artist, painted "Volcano."
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A20)
1884 Apr 4, Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese Naval commander, was born. He masterminded the attack on Pearl Harbor.
(HN, 4/4/99)
1884 Dec 30, Tojo Hideki, Japanese Prime Minister during WWII, was born.
(HN, 12/30/98)
1884 Japan reportedly discovered the Senkaku islands. In 1895 it ascertained that the Senkaku islands were “terra nullius," controlled or claimed by no one, and annexed them.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.53)
1884 Kanehiro Takaki linked the Japanese sailor’s diet of polished rice to the disease beriberi. He found that the addition of mild and vegetables to their diet eliminated the disease.
(MT, Fall ‘96, p.4)
1885 Feb 9, The 1st Japanese arrived in Hawaii.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1885 Apr 18, The Sino-Japanese war ended.
(HN, 4/18/98)
1885 Dec 22, Ito Hirobumi began serving as the first prime minister of Japan. He also served as the 5th (1892-96), 7th (1898) and 10th (1900-1901) PM of Japan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%C5%8D_Hirobumi)
1885 The first Shakespeare production in Japan was a Kabuki adaptation of a Japanese novel inspired by a Charles Lamb narrative based on "The Merchant of Venice."
(SFC,12/23/97, p.E6)
1887 Toyohara Chikanobu created his woodblock print "Excursion to View Cherry Blossoms by the Sumida River."
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.C1)
1887-1895 A group of five uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, known as Senkaku by Japan, or Diaoyu by China, belonged to the province of Taiwan.
(Econ, 5/18/13, p.50)
1888 Jul, Mount Bandai erupted and left 461 people dead.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A17)
1889 The first real constitution was promulgated.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1889 Nintendo of Japan was founded by the great-grandfather of President Hiroshi Yamauchi to produce hand-painted Japanese flower cards. A book about Nintendo was later written by David Sheff.
(Hem, 4/96, p.29)(SFC, 10/11/97, p.A19)
1889-1961 Soetsu Yanagi, Japanese artist. The philosophically inclined aesthete and writer created the concept of folk art and promoted its taste among the Japanese.
(SFC, 4/28/96, B-7)
1890 Jun 10, Sessue Hayakawa, Japanese actor (Bridge on River Kwai, Hell to Eternity), was born.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1890 Oct 30, Japan’s Emperor Meiji issued the Imperial Rescript on Education to illustrate the moral principles that each citizen was to follow.
(Econ, 1/22/05, p.39)(www.danzan.com/HTML/ESSAYS/meiji.html)
1890 Nov 29, The Imperial Diet, forerunner of Japan's national legislature, opened its first session, four days after its members were summoned by Emperor Meiji.
(AP, 11/29/99)
1890 The Imperial Hotel opened as a 3-story wooden Victorian that became a showcase for Western ways. A 2nd art deco version was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. A 3rd modern version with towers was built in 1968.
(www.imperialhotel.co.jp)(SFEC, 12/5/99, p.T3)
1890's Cultured pearls were developed in Japan.
(WSJ, 5/14/96, p.A-17)
1891 Oct 28, An earthquake struck Mino-Owari, Japan and killed 7,300.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1891-1921 Japanese dishes imported the US during this period were marked with only the word “Nippon." After 1921 US law required the name of the exporting country to be in English.
(SFC, 3/16/05, p.G4)
1893 Kokichi Mikimoto invented a method of culturing pearls. He opened a pearl-growing farm to attract tourist customers and hired ama (female pearl divers) to pretend to dive for the cultured pearls.
(MT, Sum. '98, p.4)
1893 China’s Empress Dowager Cixi bestowed on a doctor in the imperial household the right to collect a prized medicinal herb on the Diaoyu islands, known to Japan as the Senkaku islands.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.53)
1894 Jul 23, Japanese troops took over the Korean imperial palace in Seoul.
(AP, 7/23/97)(HN, 7/23/98)
1894 Jul 25, Japanese forces sank the British steamer Kowshing which was bringing Chinese reinforcements to Korea.
(HN, 7/25/98)
1894 Aug 1, The First Sino-Japanese War erupted, the result of a dispute over control of Korea; Japan's army routed the Chinese.
(AP, 8/1/04)
1894 Sep 15, Japan defeated China in the Battle of Ping Yang (Pyongyang).
(http://24.1911encyclopedia.org/C/CH/CHINKIANG.htm)
1894 A ship of the Tsar's navy visited Tokyo on the occasion of the 25th wedding anniversary of Emperor Meiji. It was the last Russian ship to visit until 1997.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A12)
1894-1895 Japan went to war against China.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1895 Apr 17, China and Japan signed the peace treaty of Shimonoseki. This followed a war over control of the Korean peninsula. Taiwan and the islands that it controlled were taken over by Japan (see May 8).
(HN, 4/17/98)(Econ, 1/15/05, Survey p.4)(Econ, 5/18/13, p.50)
1895 Apr 23, Russia, France, and Germany forced Japan to return the Liaodong peninsula to China.
(HN, 4/23/99)
1895 May 8, China ceded Taiwan to Japan under the Apr 17 Treaty of Shimonoseki. This followed a war over control of the Korean peninsula. Japan began administering the Senkaku Islands between Okinawa and Taiwan following the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Japanese occupation ended in 1945. The US took over after WW II but returned them to Japan in 1972. China later disputed Japanese control of the islands.
(SFEC, 10/8/96, A8)(Econ, 1/15/05, Survey p.4)(SSFC, 2/18/07, p.G5)(Econ, 9/25/10, p.54)
1895 The Heian Shrine was built in Kyoto, Japan as a 2/3 replica of the Imperial Palace. It was built to commemorate the 1,100th anniversary of Kyoto and exhibits regal Heian architecture.
(Hem., 2/96, p.57)
1895 Japan’s Nara National Museum was established.
(Hem, 9/04, p.46)
1896 Jun 15, The Meiji Sanriku tsunami struck Japan and caused some 27,000 deaths.
(CW, Spring ‘99, p.28)(http://eklektikos.org/Science.html)
1897 Japan’s Kyoto National Museum was established.
(Hem, 9/04, p.46)
1898 Oct 17, Shinichi Suzuki (d.1998), music teacher, was born.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1898 Lafcadio Hearn, renowned writer on Japan, authored “Exotics and Retrospective." One chapter on insect musicians listed prices for the 12 most popular singing insects.
(NH, 3/1/04, p.70)
1899 Jun 11, Yasonari Kawabata (d.1972), Japanese novelist (Thousand Cranes)(Nobel 1968), was born in Osaka.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1899 Japan passed a statute that discriminated against the northern Ainu people. It described them as aborigines in need of assimilation. The law was repealed in 1997.
(SFC, 5/9/97, p.E3)(Econ, 7/12/08, p.54)
1900 Jul, Mount Adatara erupted and left 72 people dead.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A17)
1900 Aug 14, International forces from 8 nations, including 2,000 US Marines and Japanese troops, entered Beijing to put down the Boxer Rebellion, which was aimed at purging China of foreigners and foreign influence.
(AP, 8/14/01)(Econ, 12/18/10, p.75)
1901 Mar 17, Eisaku Sato, premier of Japan (Nobel 1974), was born.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1901 Apr 29, Hirohito, emperor of Japan (1926-1989), was born.
(HN, 4/29/99)(MC, 4/29/02)
1901 Nov 25, Japanese Prince Ito arrived in Russia to seek concessions in Korea.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1902 cMar 19, Japan formed an alliance with England.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1902 Mar 20, France and Russia acknowledged the Anglo-Japanese alliance, but asserted their right to protect their interests in China and Korea.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1902 Aug, Mount Izu-Torishima erupted and left 125 people dead.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A17)
1904 Jan 6, A Japanese railway in Korea refused to transport Russian troops.
(HN, 1/6/99)
1904 Feb 4, Russia offered Korea to Japan and defended its right to occupy Manchuria.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1904 Feb 6, Japan's foreign minister severed all ties with Russia, citing delaying tactics in negotiations over Manchuria.
(HN, 2/6/99)
1904 Feb 8, The Russo-Japanese War began. In a surprise attack at Port Arthur, Korea, the Japanese disabled seven Russian warships. During the war, Russia suffered a series of stunning defeats to Japan; the fighting ended with an agreement mediated by President Theodore Roosevelt, who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
(HN, 2/7/97)(AP, 2/8/04)
1904 Feb 9, Japanese troops landed near Seoul, Korea, after disabling two Russian cruisers.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1904 Feb 10, Russia and Japan declared war on each other.
(HN, 2/10/97)
1904 Feb 23, Japan guaranteed Korean sovereignty in exchange for military assistance.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1904 Mar 7, The Japanese bombed the Russian town of Vladivostok.
(HN, 3/7/98)
1904 Mar 15, Three hundred Russians were killed as the Japanese shelled Port Arthur in Korea.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1904 Mar 24, Vice Adm. Tojo sank seven Russian ships as the Japanese strengthened their blockade of Port Arthur.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1904 Aug 6, The Japanese army in Korea surrounded a Russian army retreating to Manchuria.
(HN, 8/6/98)
1904 Aug 24, In the field battle at Liaoyang, China, some 200,000 Japanese faced 150,000 Russians. The Japanese defeated the Russians in October.
(MC, 8/24/02)(PC, 1992, p.654)
1904 Sep 19, Gen. Nogi assaulted Port Arthur: 16,000 Japanese casualties.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1904 Sep 26, Lafcadio Hearn (b.1850), Greece-born, Irish-American travel writer, died in Japan. He moved to Japan in 1890 and is especially well-known for his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories, such as “Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things" (1904). In 2009 Christopher Benfey edited “Lafcadio Hearn: American Writings."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafcadio_Hearn)
1904 Nov 28, The pivotal capture by the Japanese of 203 Meter Hill overlooking Port Arthur occurred during the bloodiest battle of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. The battle of November 28-December 5, 1904, resulted in Japanese forces taking the strategic 203 Meter Hill, allowing them to bombard and sink the Russian fleet in the harbor at Port Arthur. Russia surrendered the city of Port Arthur to Japan on January 1, 1905.
(HNQ, 9/20/99)
1904 Dec 5, Japanese destroyed Russian fleet at Port Arthur in Korea.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1904 Dec 16, Japanese warships quit Port Arthur in order to cut off the Russian Baltic fleet's advance.
(HN, 12/16/98)
1904 In Japan Nippon Toki Kaisha Ltd. began manufacturing Noritake porcelain.
(SFC, 3/3/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 11/9/05, p.G9)
1904-1905 Japan went to war against Russia.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1905 Jan 2, After a six-month siege, Russians surrendered Port Arthur to the Japanese.
(HN, 1/2/99)
1905 Jan 27, Russian General Kuropatkin took the offensive in Manchuria. The Japanese under General Oyama suffered heavy casualties.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1905 Feb 21, The Mukden campaign of the Russo-Japanese War, began. In one of the largest battles ever fought up to that time, some 750,000 Japanese and Russian soldiers engaged in the battle for Mukden in the Russo-Japanese War. The 3-week battle pitted 400,000 Japanese and 350,000 Russians stretched over a front extending more than 90 miles. More than 100,000 were left dead or injured as the Russians began a retreat toward Harbin on March 9.
(HN, 2/21/98)(HNQ, 4/23/99)
1905 Feb 22, Japan 1st claimed the volcanic islets they called Takeshima, located between Japan and Korea, where they are known as Tokdo (Dokdo). Japan illegally incorporated Dokdo as its territory through an administrative measure of one of its prefectures.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.42)(Econ, 4/9/05, p.14)
1905 Feb 27, Japanese pushed Russians back in Manchuria, and cross the Sha River.
(HN, 2/27/98)
1905 Mar 10, Japanese Army captured Mukden, later Shenyang, China.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1905 Apr 16, A Japanese baseball team from Waseda Univ. in Tokyo came to the West Coast for a 3-month 26-game tour. They played their opening game against Stanford and lost 9-1. Their manager, Prof. Iso Abe, is called the "father of modern baseball in Japan." They won 9 of their 26 games.
(SFC, 10/31/96, p.C1)
1905 May 27, Japanese fleet destroyed the Russian East Sea fleet in Straits of Tushima. [see May 28]
(MC, 5/27/02)
1905 May 28, A Japanese fleet under Adm. Heihachiro Togo defeated a Russian fleet under Adm. Zinovi Petrovich Rozhestvensky in the Battle of Tsushima. The Russian fleet lost 22 ships out of 38 to the Japanese in the Battle of Tsushima Straits. In 2002 Constantine Pleshakov authored "The Tsar’s Last Armada: The Epic Voyage to the Battle of Tsushima."
(WSJ, 9/6/00, p.A27)(ON, 5/04, p.9)
1905 Jun 8, US Pres. Theodore Roosevelt offered to act as a mediator in the Russo-Japanese War.
(AP, 6/8/05)
1905 Jun 10, Japan and Russia agreed to peace talks brokered by President Theodore Roosevelt.
(HN, 6/10/98)
1905 Jul 29, US Secretary of War William Howard Taft, under the approval of Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, and PM of Japan Katsura Taro signed the Taft-Katsura Agreement, which reinforced American and Japanese influence and spelled doom for Korean sovereignty. Japan agreed not to interfere in the ongoing US rape of the Philippines in return for the US agreement not to interfere with Japan’s forthcoming rape of Korea.
(AH, 10/07, p.56)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft-Katsura_Agreement)
1905 Sep 5, The Russian-Japanese War ended as representatives of the combating empires, meeting in New Hampshire, signed the Treaty of Portsmouth. Japan achieved virtually all of its original war aims.
(AP, 9/5/97)(HN, 9/5/98)
1905 Japan imposed protectorate status on Korea. Hirobumi Ito was installed in Seoul as resident general and took charge of all governmental affairs. Japan named Durham White Stevens as the foreign advisor to Kojong.
(AH, 10/07, p.56)
1905 Chinese revolutionary Song Jiaren met with Sun Yat-Sen in Tokyo and became a founding member of the Revolutionary Alliance, a forerunner of the Nationalist Party.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.67)
1906 Oct 11, The San Francisco school board ordered the segregation of Oriental schoolchildren, inciting Japanese outrage. To counter local prejudice David Starr Jordan, Stanford’s 1st president, David Pike Bowie, a San Mateo Japanophile, and Japanese General Consul Kisaburo Ueno soon formed a chapter of the Japan Society to foster bilateral understanding. The order was later rescinded at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt, who promised to curb future Japanese immigration to the United States.
(HN, 10/11/98)(SFC, 10/29/05, p.B7)(AP, 10/11/06)
1906 Nov 17, Soichiro Honda, founder and CEO of Honda Motor Co., was born in Japan.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1907 Jan 23, Hediki Yukawa, Japanese physicist (Nobel 1949), was born.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1907 Feb 18, In SF according to an agreement between Mayor Schmidt, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt and the SF School Board, Japanese children under 16 were to be admitted to the city’s public schools, skilled and unskilled laborers from Japan were to be banned from entering the US and American laborers were to be excluded from Japan.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, DB p.58)
1907 Mar 14, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an executive order designed to prevent Japanese laborers from immigrating to the United States as part of a "gentlemen's agreement" with Japan.
(AP, 3/14/07)
1907 Mar 22, Russians troops completed the evacuation of Manchuria in the face of advancing Japanese forces.
(HN, 3/22/97)(AP, 3/22/99)
1907 In Korea the Righteous Army under the command of Yi In-yeong massed 10,000 troops to liberate Seoul and defeat the Japanese. The Army came within 12 km of Seoul but could not withstand the Japanese counter-offensive. The Righteous Army was no match for two infantry divisions of 20,000 Japanese soldiers backed by warships moored near Inchon. The doomed revolt ultimately left some 14,000 Koreans dead as well as 160 Japanese.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righteous_army)(AH, 10/07, p.57)
1908 Feb 24, Japan officially agreed to restrict immigration to the U.S.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1908 Mar 16 The Chinese released the Japanese steamship Tatsu Maru.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1908 Mar 23, In San Francisco Durham White Stevens (56), Japan’s foreign advisor to Korea, was shot by a Korean nationalist. Stevens died 2 days later from internal injuries. Chang In Hwan and Chun Myung Un had attacked Stevens as he approached the ferry landing. Chun was released from prison in June, 1908, and fled the country. Chang was convicted of 2nd degree manslaughter and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was paroled after 10 years.
(AH, 10/07, p.54-58)
1908 Apr 5, Japanese Army reached the Yalu River as the Russians retreated.
(HN, 5/5/97)
1908 Jun, Japanese immigration to Brazil began when 781 Japanese arrived on the ship Kasato Maru. Nearly 800 Japanese set sail on the "Kasato Maru" ship from Kobe in search of better living conditions and arrived at Santos Port only to find a grueling life working on farmland.
(SFC, 7/4/00, p.A8)(AFP, 4/24/08)
1909 Oct 26, Hirobumi Ito (b.1841), Japan’s resident general in Seoul, was gunned down in Harbin in Russian-controlled Manchuria by Korean nationalist Chang Ahn Gun (aka Ahn Jung-geun).
(http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/INV_JED/ITO_HIROBUMI_PRINCE_1841_1909_.html)(Econ, 11/23/13, p.48)
1908 George Trumbull Ladd, president of Yale Univ., authored “In Korea with Marquis Ito." Ladd endorsed Japan’s protectorate status over Korea whose people he described as hopelessly corrupt and incompetent.
(AH, 10/07, p.57)
1908 Monosodium glutamate (MSG) was isolated from seaweed. Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda identified umami, a taste imparted by glutamic acid and associated with monosodium glutamate. Umami was later recognized as a fifth fundamental taste.
(SFC, 10/11/97, p.E3)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.71)
1909 In the Kando convention Japan gave China a chunk of Korean Manchuria in return for concessions.
(Econ, 3/31/07, SR p.8)
1909 Michio Suzuki started a loom works. The company made its first motorcycle in 1954.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1910 Jan 21, Japan rejected the American proposal to neutralize ownership of the Manchurian Railway.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1910 Mar 23, Akira Kurosawa, Japanese film director (Living, Rashomon, The Seven Samurai), was born in Tokyo, Japan.
(HN, 3/23/01)(SS, 3/23/02)
1910 Jun 24, The Japanese army invaded Korea.
(HN, 6/24/98)
1910 Aug 22, Japan annexed Korea following 5 years as a protectorate and ruled for 35 years.
(WSJ, 10/14/95, p.A-1)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(AP, 8/22/06)
1910 Kida Sadakichi wrote "The Teaching of National History."
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34)
1910 Namikawa Sosuke (b.1847), top Japanese cloisonné artist, died.
(WSJ, 9/24/04, p.W10)(www.widener.edu/?pageId=436&vobId=1040&pm=566)
1910-1945 Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula.
(SFC, 4/22/98, p.A11)
1911 The Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra (To-Phil) was formed.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.A1)
1912 Mar 27, The first cherry blossom trees, a gift from Japan, were planted in Washington, D.C. First Lady Helen Herron Taft and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted two Yoshina cherry trees on the northern bank of the Potomac Tidal Basin, near the Jefferson Memorial. The event was held in celebration of a gift, by the Japanese government, of 3,020 trees to the US government for planting along Washington's Potomac River.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1912 Jul 30, Emperor Meiji died. Under Meiji the country had moved from a preindustrial state to a leading modern power. His son Yoshihito followed his father to the throne. With him the Meiji era ended officially and the Taisho era began.
(WSJ, 8/30/00, p.A24)(www.artelino.com/articles/emperor_meiji.asp)
1912 Sep 28, The SS Kichemaru disappeared in a storm off the Japanese coast and 1,000 died.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1912 The Sumitomo Bank was founded.
(WSJ, 10/15/99, p.A10)
1912-1926 The Taisho Period was named after the reign of Emperor Taisho, the father of Hirohito.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(WSJ, 1/29/02, p.A18)
1914 Jan, Mount Sakurajima erupted and left 58 people dead.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A17)
1914 Aug 23, The Emperor of Japan sided with the Allies and declared war on Germany in World War I.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(AP, 8/23/97)(HN, 8/23/98)
1914 Nov 7, Japan attacked a German concession on Chinese peninsula of Shanghai.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1914 In western Japan the Takarazuka Revue, a female musical theater troupe, was founded.
(SFEC, 9/8/96, DB p.55)
1914 Japan occupied the Caroline Islands and received a League of Nations mandate over them in 1920.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Islands)
1914-1996 Masao Maruyama, prof. of political science at the Univ. of Tokyo (1950-1971). He formed the pillar of postwar anti-establishment thought.
(SFC, 8/20/96, p.A18)
1915 Jan 15, Japan claimed economic control of China.
(MC, 1/15/02)
1915 Japan demanded major concessions from China.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1915 In Japan Tokuji Hayakawa developed an improved mechanical pencil. His company became known as the Sharp Corp.
(Econ, 3/5/11, p.71)(http://tinyurl.com/4thh7ke)
1916 Jan 3, Three armored Japanese cruisers were ordered to guard the Suez Canal.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1917 Feb 28, AP reported that Mexico and Japan would ally with Germany if US enters WW I.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1917 Nov 2, In the Lansing-Ishii Agreement the US recognized Japan's privileges in China. US Sec. of State Robert Lansing and Viscount Ishii Kikujiro of Japan, a special envoy to Washington, worked to resolve tensions and conflicts between Japan and the US during WW I. The Lansing-Ishii Agreement was formally annulled in April 1923. Japan and the U.S. continued to disagree on their respective roles in the Pacific.
(www.fact-index.com/l/la/lansing_ishii_agreement.html)
1917 In Japan the Nikon Corporation was established.
(PR, Neopath Corp., 7/2/96)
1917 The 2 main soy sauce families of Noda, the Mogi and Takanashi, banded together to form Noda Shoyu Co. Ltd. and became the premier soy sauce maker in Japan. In 1980 the company was renamed Kikkoman.
(SFC, 1/3/00, p.B7)
1917 In Japan the Toyo Toki (Oriental Ceramic) company was founded and introduced Western-style sit-down lavatories to Japan. The company, later know as Toto, grew to become one of the world’s biggest bathroom and kitchen ceramics companies in the world.
(Econ, 7/25/09, p.66)
1918 Jul 12, A Japanese battleship exploded in the Bay of Tokayama and some 500 people were killed.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1918 Japan's first parliamentary cabinet was formed.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1919 Mar 1, The Korean coalition proclaimed their independence from Japan.
(HN, 3/1/98)
1919 May 4, Some 3,000 young scholars from 13 colleges and universities rallied at Tiananmen Square to protest the loss of Shandong province to the Japanese under the Versailles Treaty at the Paris Peace Conference. German concessions in China were bequeathed to Japan. Among the protestors were people who helped form the Communist Party.
(SFC, 6/25/98, p.A8)(WSJ, 5/17/99, p.A21)(Econ, 5/3/08, p.13)
1919 Japan’s Mitsubishi Bank was founded. In 1996 it joined with the Bank of Tokyo and in 2005 became part of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
(WSJ, 9/23/08, p.C1)
1919 The Japanese firm Olympus was founded as a microscope maker.
(Econ, 10/22/11, p.78)
1920 Apr 5, Japanese forces landed in Vladivostok.
(HN, 5/5/97)
1921 Jan 26, Akio Morita (d.1999), CEO of Sony Corp., was born in Kasugaya, Japan.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1921 Nov 4, Takasji Hara, premier of Japan, was murdered.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1921 Nov 25, Hirohito became regent of Japan.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1921 US law required that the name of exporting countries be marked in English on all imported wares. Prior to this Japanese porcelain was marked “Nippon."
(SFC, 7/20/05, p.G4)
1922 Feb 6, The Washington Disarmament Conference came to an end with signature of final treaty forbidding fortification of the Aleutian Islands for 14 years. The US, UK, France, Italy & Japan signed the Washington naval arms limitation.
(AP, 12/29/97)(HN, 2/6/99)(MC, 2/6/02)
1922 The Imperial Hotel, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opened in Tokyo. It withstood the 1923 earthquake.
(SSFC, 10/9/05, p.M6)
1923 Sep 1, The Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by the Great Kanto earthquake that claimed 99,000-143,000 lives. The 7.9-8.3 quake off Tokyo's shoreline killed some 99,300 people.
(AP, 9/1/97)(www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/eq/faq/world.htm)
1923 Sep, In Japan an orgy of opportunistic anti-Korean slaughter followed the Sep 1 Great Kanto earthquake.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.59)
1923 Japan’s Norinchukin Bank was set up as a quasi-public institution to manage the deposits of millions of farmers, fisherman and forest workers. By 2006 it was Japan’s 4th largest commercial bank with assets of $525 billion.
(Econ, 2/18/06, p.72)
1924 Feb 26, Noboru Takeshita, Japanese PM (1987-89), was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1924 Jun 26, Crown Prince Hirohito (22) married the daughter of Prince Kuniyoshi Kuni, Nagako (20).
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A20)
1924 In Japan Matsutaro Shoriki, chief of Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police, acquired the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. By 1937 its circulation rose from 58,000 to 800,000 becoming the largest newspaper in Tokyo.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.60)
1925 Mar 2, Japan's House of Representatives recognized male suffrage.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1925 Mar 12, Leo Esaki, [Esaki Reona], physicist (Tunnel effect-Nobel 1973), was born in Japan.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1925 The Nomura brokerage house was established in Osaka, Japan. In 1927 it opened an office in NYC.
(WSJ, 6/8/06, p.C3)
1926 May, Mount Tokachidake erupted and left 144 people dead.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A17)
1926 Dec 25, Hirohito became emperor of Japan, succeeding his father, Emperor Yoshihito (Emperor Taisho) to the Chrysanthemum Throne. Hirohito was formally enthroned almost two years later. This marked the beginning of the "bright peace" or Showa Period (1926-1989).
(AP, 12/25/97)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)
1926 Nozaki Nobuchika, Japanese scholar, authored “Explanatory Notes on Auspicious Designs," a work on the symbolism of Chinese art.
(WSJ, 11/22/06, p.D8)
1926-1989 The Showa Period.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)
1927 Mar 7, Earthquake measuring 8 on Richter scale struck Tango, Japan.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1927 Nov, The US received 58 Japanese dolls sent by the Japanese government in exchange for 12,739 blue-eyed dolls sent by American children to the children of Japan.
(SFC, 7/24/97, p.A17)
1927 Goto Shu'ichi wrote "Japanese Archaeology."
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.35)
1927 The Japan Sumo Association (JSA) was founded.
(Econ, 2/16/08, p.50)
1927 Chio Uno (1898-1996) scandalized Japanese society by cutting her hair short. In 1935 she wrote "Confessions of Love" based on the many love affairs of painter Seiji Togo. She also wrote "Ohan" and in 1936 founded Style, Japan’s first fashion magazine. She was awarded a title by the emperor and named a "person of cultural merit" in 1990.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A21)
1927 Japan's Imperial Aeronautics Association launched a competition for a non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean. The Ashi Shimbun newspaper offered a $25,000 prize.
(ON, 1/03, p.10)
1927 Japan’s Nippon Trust Bank and Mitsubishi Trust Bank were founded. They joined together in 2001 and in 2005 became part of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
(WSJ, 9/23/08, p.C1)
1928 Nov 10, Japanese Emperor Hirohito was enthroned, almost two years after his ascension.
(AP, 11/10/07)
1928 Nov 19, The 1st issue of Time magazine featured Japanese Emperor Hirohito on cover.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1928 In 1928 the Japanese army unilaterally instigated armed clashes in China's Manchuria region to justify full-scale intervention.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1929 The Univ. of Mich. men's baseball team under Fielding H. Yost (1871-1946) won 11 of 13 games on its first tour of Japan and brought back a Japanese suit of armor as an award from Meiji Univ.
(MT, Sum. '98, p.24)
1930 Apr 22, The United States, Britain and Japan signed the London Naval Treaty, which regulated submarine warfare and limited shipbuilding.
(AP, 4/22/97)
1930 Nov 14, Right-wing militarists attempted to assassinate Japanese Premier Hamagushi.
(HN, 11/14/98)
1930 Nov 25, Earthquake killed 187 in Shizouka, Japan.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1930 Dec 14, US Customs agents in San Francisco seized $56,000 worth of opium from the Japanese liner Asama Maru as festivities marked the liner’s 1st year of trans-Pacific service.
(SFC, 12/9/05, p.F6)
1930 The Soka Gakkai, Values Creation Society, was founded on Buddhist principles. By 1999 the organization was present in 8 million Japanese households.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A25)
1930 Lt. Col. Kingoro Hashimoto formed the Sakurakai (Cherry Society), dedicated to establishing a military-controlled social structure in Japan. Consisting mostly of midlevel officers, the Cherry Society planned a March 1931 coup d'etat that was aborted because of internal disagreement. In 1937, Hashimoto tried to trigger war with Britain by shelling a Royal Navy gunboat in Chinese waters.
(HNQ, 1/5/01)
1930 Minoru Shirota, a Japanese researcher, discovered Lactobacillus casei shirota.
(Econ Sp, 12/13/03, p.11)
1930 In Taiwan hundreds of indigenous Seediq people, led by Mauna Rudao, revolted against Japanese overlords. Over a hundred Japanese were killed in what came to be known as the Wushe incident. This triggered a brutal Japanese response. The story was brought to life in the 2011 Taiwanese film “Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale," directed by Wei Te-sheng.
(Econ, 9/17/11, p.40)
1931 Feb 12, Japan's first television broadcast was a baseball game.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1931 May 18, Japanese pilot Seiji Yoshihara crashed his plane in the Pacific Ocean while trying to be the first to cross the ocean nonstop. He was picked up seven hours later by a passing ship.
(HN, 5/18/99)
1931 Aug, Clyde Panghorn and Hugh Herndon landed at Japan's Tachikawa Airport and were arraigned for landing illegally. They paid fines of $1,050 apiece to be released.
(ON, 1/03, p.10)
1931 Sep 18-1931 Sep 19, The Mukden Incident was initiated by the Japanese Kwangtung Army in Mukden. It involved an explosion along the Japanese-controlled South Manchurian Railway. It was soon followed by the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the eventual establishment of the Japanese-dominated state of Manchukuo. The neutrality of the area, and the ability of Japan to defend its colony in Korea, was threatened in the 1920s by efforts at unification of China. Within three months Japanese troops had spread out throughout Manchuria. The occupation ended at the conclusion of the Second World War in 1945.
(HNQ, 11/27/98)
1931 Sep 19, Japan invaded Manchuria and established a puppet state called Manchukuo, which lasted until the end of WWII. Nobosuke Kishi, later PM of Japan, oversaw the development of Japanese-occupied Manchuria in the 1930s.
(SSFC, 9/23/12, p.A4)(Econ, 5/18/13, p.26)
1931 Sep 28, In Peking some 200,000 demonstrators demanded a declaration of war on Japan.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1931 Oct 4, Aerial circus star Clyde Pangborn and playboy Hugh Herndon, Jr. set off in Miss Veedol to complete the first nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean from Sabishiro Beach in Misawa City, Japan. A young boy gave Panghorn 5 apples from Misawa City.
(ON, 1/03, p.10)(www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7495)
1931 Oct 5, Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, Jr. belly landed Miss Veedol, a Bellanca CH-200 monoplane, in Wenatchee, Wa., to complete the first nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean from Japan. They won a $25,000 prize from the Japanese Ashi Shimbun newspaper. Panghorn sent apple cuttings from Wenatchee's Richard Delicious apples to Japan which were soon distributed across Japan.
(ON, 1/03, p.10)(www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7495)
1931 Nov 20, Japan and China rejected the League of Council terms for Manchuria at Geneva.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1931 Dec 9, Japanese army attacked the Chinese province of Jehol.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1931 Ten years of comparative peace ended when Japan attacked and seized Manchuria to ensure a supply of natural resources. The Japanese army invaded Manchuria without its own government's consent.
(TMC, 1994, p.1931)(SFC, 7/18/96, p.E6)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A22)(HN, 2/18/98)
1931 A US all-star baseball team came to Japan and played before capacity crowds. It was organized by sportswriter Fred Lieb and National League umpire "Beans" Reardon.
(www.ebbets.com/product/USTourOfJapan1931Ballcap/Ballcaps)(Econ, 12/22/12, p.60)
1932 Jan 2, Japanese forces in Manchuria set up a puppet government known as Manchukuo.
(HN, 1/2/99)
1932 Jan 28, The Japanese attacked Shanghai, China, and declared martial law.
(HN, 1/28/99)
1932 Feb 20, Japanese troops occupied Tunhua, China.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1932 May 15, Japan’s PM Tsuyoshi Inukai (b.1855) and his family were assassinated by young right-wing naval officers. His son Ken Inukai, watching a Sumo wrestling match with Charlie Chaplin, survived.
(WSJ, 8/3/06, p.D5)
1932 Dec 8, Japan told the League of Nations that it had no control over her designs in China.
(HN, 12/8/98)
1932 The Japanese silent film "I was Born, But..." (Umarete wa Mita Keredo) was produced. It was directed by Yasuhiro Ozu. Tow little boys rebel when they discover that their father has to kowtow to his boss.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, DB p.50)
1932-1945 In 1994 Sheldon H. Harris (d.2002), historian, authored the book: "Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-1945, and the American Cover-Up."
(SFC, 9/9/02, p.A22)
1932-1968 The Chisso Corporation, located in Kumamoto Japan, dumped an estimated 27 tons of mercury compounds into Minamata Bay. The name Minamata Disease was coined in 1956 to identify villagers suffering dizzy spells with troubles walking and speaking. Growing numbers fell into convulsions, wasted away and died.
(www.american.edu/TED/MINAMATA.HTM)
1933 Jan 3, The Japanese took Shuangyashan, China, killing 500 in the process.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1933 Jan 21, The League of Nations rejected Japanese terms for settlement with China.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1933 Feb 17, The League of Nations censured Japan in a worldwide broadcast. The rise of militaristic nationalism led Japan down the road to Pearl Harbor and World War II.
(HN, 2/17/98)
1933 Feb 24, The League of Nations told the Japanese to pull out of Manchuria.
(www.indiana.edu/~league/1933.htm)
1933 Mar 2, Most powerful earthquake in 180 years hit Japan.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1933 Mar 27, Japan left the League of Nations.
(www.indiana.edu/~league/1933.htm)
1933 Nov 29, Japan began the persecution of communists.
(MC, 11/29/01)
1933 Dec 23, Akihito, emperor of Japan (1989- ), was born.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1933 Dec 27, Stalin called Japan a grave danger.
(HN, 12/27/98)
1933 Crown Prince Akihito was born.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A20)
1933 In Japan Kazuma Tateisi founded the OMRON Corporation. By 2006 its automated control technologies approached the level of human knowledge and judgement.
(Econ, 10/8/05, Survey p.2)(Econ, 12/24/05, p.54)
1933 Japan left the League of Nations.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)
1933 Japan’s Sanwa Bank was founded. In 2001 it joined with Tokai Bank Tokyo Trust Bank to form UFJ Holdings. In 2005 it became part of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
(WSJ, 9/23/08, p.C1)
1934 May 29, Heihachiro Tojo, Japanese Admiral (Russian-Japanese War), died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1934 Sep 21, A typhoon struck Honshu Island, Japan, and killed 4,000.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1934 Nov 2, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, and Connie Mack headlined the roster of 15 stars who visited Japan to display their baseball skills.
(http://miscbaseball.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/babe-ruths-visit-to-japan-in-1934/)
1934 Nov 23, U.S. and Britain agreed on a 5-5-3 naval ratio with both countries allowed to build five million tons of naval ships while Japan can only build three; Japan denounced the treaty.
(HN, 11/23/98)
1934 Dec 6, American Ambassador Davis said Japan was a grave security threat in the Pacific.
(HN, 12/6/98)
1934 Dec 29, Japan renounced the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
(AP, 12/29/97)
1934 Japan began exporting three-wheelers (tuk-tuks) to Thailand.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw)
1934-1991 Shiro Kuramata, Japanese designer. His work was marked by the use of disparate materials, the play of light and solid, and a sense of the antic.
(WSJ, 9/17/97, p.A12)
1935 Jan 27, The League of Nations majority favored depriving Japan of mandates.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1935 Jan 31, The Soviet premier told Japan to get out of Manchuria.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1935 Mar 22, Russia sold the Chinese Eastern Railway to Japan.
(HN, 3/22/97)
1935 Sep 1, Seiji Ozawa, conductor (Boston Symphony Orchestra), was born in Hoten, Manchuria (now Shenyang, Liaoning, China).
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Ozawa-Seiji.htm
(MC, 9/1/02)
1935 Nov 9, Japanese troops invaded Shanghai, China.
(HN, 11/9/98)
1935 Chio Uno wrote "Confessions of Love" based on the many love affairs of painter Seiji Togo. She also wrote "Ohan."
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A21)
1935 In Japan the Tsukji fish market opened in Tokyo. It grew to become the largest fish market in the world. In 2004 Ted Bestor authored “Tsukji: The Fish market at the Center of the World."
(Econ, 4/5/08, p.70)
1936 Jan 15, In London, Japan quit all naval talks after being denied equality.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1936 Feb 26, Japanese military troops marched into Tokyo to conduct a coup and assassinate political leaders.
(HN, 2/26/99)(SC, 2/26/02)
1936 Feb 28, The Japanese Army restored order in Tokyo and arrested officers involved in a coup.
(HN, 2/28/99)
1936 Mar 19, The USSR signed a pact of assistance with Mongolia against Japan.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1936 May 21, In Japan police arrested a Tokyo a geisha named Sada Abe (31), charging that she knifed to death her unfaithful lover, Kichizo Ishida, and cut off his genitals, which she carried around in her sash for 3 days before being caught.
(SFEC,12/21/97, Z1 p.5)
1936 Nov 15, Nazi Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Komintern pact.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1936 Nov 22, 1,200 were killed in a battle between Japanese and Mongolians in China.
(HN, 11/22/98)
1936 Dec 12, Chang Hsueh-liang (d.2001 at 101), a northern military commander (aka Zhang Xueliang), kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek to force him into an alliance to repel Japanese forces. The Xi’an incident coup ended after 2 weeks. The incident led the Nationalists and the Communists to make peace so that the two could form a united front against the increasing threat posed by Japan. Chang was later court-martialed and sentenced to prison. He was taken to Taiwan in 1949 and kept under house arrest.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.B2)(Econ, 5/9/09, p.86)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi%27an_Incident)
1936 Dec 12, Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek declared war on Japan.
(MC, 12/12/01)
1936 Chio Uno and founded Style, Japan's first fashion magazine. She was awarded a title by the emperor and named a "person of cultural merit" in 1990.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A21)
1936 Soetsu Yanagi founded the Japan Folk Arts Museum in Tokyo.
(SFC, 4/28/96, B-7)
1937 Jul 7, A conflict between troops of China and Japan came to be known as the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. The incident occurred near the Marco Polo Bridge outside of Beijing and eventually escalated into warfare between the two countries and was the prelude to the Pacific side of World War II.
(HNQ, 9/22/99)
1937 Jul 29, Ryutaro Hashimoto was born.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A20)
1937 Jul 29, Japanese troops occupied Peking and Tientsin. [see Aug 8]
(MC, 7/29/02)
1937 Aug 8, The Japanese Army occupied Beijing, China.
(HN, 8/8/98)
1937 Aug 12, Kenichie Horie (23), a Japanese auto parts salesman, sailed into the San Francisco Bay aboard a 19-foot sloop, “The Mermaid," after a 90 voyage from Japan. He hailed a Coast Guard patrol boat and was towed to the St. Francis Yacht Harbor.
(SSFC, 8/12/12, DB p.42)
1937 Aug 13, Japanese attacked Shanghai.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1937 Aug 14, China declared war on Japan.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1937 Aug 25, Japanese fleet blockaded the Chinese coast.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1937 Sep 25, In China Lin Biao masterminded the ambush and annihilation of more than 1,000 Japanese troops, at Pingxiangguan pass in Shanxi province.
(AP, 7/16/07)
1937 Dec 1, Japan recognized Spain's Franco govt.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1937 Dec 12, Japanese aircraft sank the U.S. gunboat Panay on China's Yangtze River, during the battle for Nanking in the Sino-Japanese War. Japan later apologized and paid $2.2 million dollars in reparations.
(AP, 12/12/97)(MC, 12/12/01)
1937 Dec 13, The Japanese army occupied Nanking, China. A group of Japanese soldiers forced their way into the family home of Xia Shuqin (8) in Nanjing, and killed seven of her family members. Xia and her 4-year-old sister were seriously injured but escaped. According to Chinese media, a US missionary then serving as the chairman of the International Commission of the Red Cross in Nanjing filmed the killings of Xia's family members. In 2006 a Chinese court has awarded Xia Shuqin $200,000 in compensation after ruling in her favor against two Japanese historians, who claimed she fabricated her account of the atrocity.
(HN, 12/13/98)(AP, 8/23/06)
1937 Dec 14, Japanese troops conquered and plundered Nanjing. Japan established a puppet Chinese government at Peking, now called Beijing.
(MC, 12/14/01)(AP, 12/14/02)
1937 Dec-Jan, John Rabe (1882-1950), a German businessman for Siemens living in China, recorded the 2-month terror of the Japanese "Rape of Nanking" in his diary. The Japanese sacked and pillaged the city. They raped at least 20,000 women and killed at least 50,000 people. Rabe established a neutral safe zone for hundreds of thousands of Chinese refugees. Noncombatant deaths may have reached 300,000. Reporter Tillman Durdin (d.1998 at 91) filed reports for the New York times. Later Iris Chang wrote "The Rape of Nanking."
(SFC, 12/13/96, p.B1)(SFEC, 2/22/98, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 7/10/98, p.D3)
1937 Dec-Feb, In the Japanese "Rape of Nanjing" more than 200,000 people were killed. Japanese soldiers raped and killed tens of thousands of Chinese women during their invasion of China. [photo from Nanjing] In 1997 Iris Chang (29) published "The Rape of Nanking: the Forgotten Holocaust of world War II." The largest execution of prisoners took place north of Nanking near Mufu Mountain where 57,000 civilians and soldiers were gunned down.
(WSJ,2/6/97,p.A14)(SFEC, 12/1/96, p.C4)(WSJ, 12/29/97, p.A9)(SFEC, 7/26/98, Z1 p.1,4)
1937 Korean guerrillas allegedly led by Kim Il Sung clashed with Japanese colonizer in the Battle of Bocheonbo.
(WSJ, 1/14/03, p.A10)
1937-1945 Japan initiated a war with China that lasted to 1945. In 2013 Rana Mitter authored “China’s Waqr With Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival."
(Econ, 6/22/13, p.83)
1938 Feb 12, Japan refused to reveal naval data requested by the U.S. and Britain. The rise of militaristic nationalism led Japan down the road to Pearl Harbor and World War II.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1938 Feb 23, Twelve Chinese fighter planes dropped bombs on Japan. The China Air Task Force was a scrappy but beleaguered fill-in that fought both the Japanese and supplied shortcomings until the Fourteenth Air Force was formed.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1938 Jun 17, Japan declared war on China.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1938 Jul 16, Tokugawa Soyeshima sent a telegram to the Olympic Committee saying that Japan would not be able to host the 1940 Winter Olympics due to fighting with China.
(WSJ, 2/8/02, p.A1)
1938 Sep 27, League of Nations declared Japan the aggressor against China.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1938 Oct 21, Japanese troops occupied Canton.
(WUD, 1994, p.1682)(MC, 10/21/01)
1938 Oct 25, Hankow, temporary capital of China, fell to the Japanese. The Chinese again moved their capital, this time to Chungking in the mountains above the Yangtze River.
(WUD, 1994, p.1682)(DoD, 1999, p.452)
1938 Dec, San Francisco longshoremen announced that the picketing of ships loading scrap iron for Japan would be discontinued in favor of a nationwide campaign for the declaration of an embargo against Japan.
(SSFC, 12/15/13, DB p.42)
1938 Chinese leaders intentionally broke levees on the Yellow River to prevent the Japanese military from advancing. More than 500,000 people, Japanese and Chinese, died in the resulting flood. Chinese army commander Xiong Xianyu kept a diary on the levee action.
(Econ, 6/22/13, p.83)(http://tinyurl.com/kxkkrdc)
1938 US War Plan Orange-3 was a contingency plan for a war in which the US faced Japan as its sole enemy. The plan was one of the "color" war plans for projected conflicts in which the US engaged a single enemy at one time. The plan originated in the early 1900s and underwent numerous revisions, with War Plan Orange-3 completed in 1938. It was based on the premise of a Japanese surprise attack and envisioned a primarily naval war. Elements of the Orange Plans were incorporated in the later Rainbow war plans.
(HNQ, 4/19/00)
1939 Feb 10, Japan occupied the Chinese island of Hainan located off the coast of French Indochina (modern day Vietnam).
(HN, 2/10/97)
1939 Feb 24, Hungary signed an anti-Communist pact with Italy, Germany and Japan.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1939 Mar 31, Britain and France agreed to support Poland if Germany threatened to invade. Seven French islands were annexed by Japan.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1939 May, In Manchuria a Japanese punitive attack failed and combined Soviet and Mongolian forces wiped out a 200-man Japanese unit. This marked the beginning of the conflict called the Nomonhan Incident by Japanese, the Battle of Khalkhin Gol by Russians.
(http://tinyurl.com/ml2j3oh)
1939 Aug 20, Russian offensive under Gen. Zhukov against Jap invasion in Mongolia.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1939 Aug 30, Isoroku Yamamoto was appointed supreme commander of the Japanese fleet.
(MC, 8/30/01)
1939 Aug, The Soviet Union and Japan fought a massive tank battle at Khalkhin-Gol on the Mongolian border. It was the largest armored battle in the world until that point. By the end of the month the Soviets claimed victory over the Japanese army at the Khalkhyn Gol river. This helped fend off a possible Japanese invasion of Russia with Nazi Germany in 1941.
(http://tinyurl.com/mx9xowj)
1939 Sep 15, The Soviet Union and Japan agreed to a cease-fire in Manchuria (later Mongolia), which took effect the following day.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Khalkhin_Gol)
1939 Sep 22, Junko Tabei, Japan, the 1st woman to climb Mount Everest, was born.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1939 The Japanese film "The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums" by Kenji Mizoguchi was produced.
(SFEC, 9/29/96, DB p.63)
1940 Mar 30, The Japanese set up a puppet government called Manchuko in Nanking, China.
(HN, 3/30/98)
1940 Apr 22, Rear Adm. Joseph Taussig testified before US Senate Naval Affairs Committee that war with Japan is inevitable.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1940 Jul, Jan Zwartendijk, a Dutch diplomat, and Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat, worked together to save some 2,000 thousand Polish Jews, who had fled to Lithuania by issuing them visas for Japan, China and the Dutch colonies in South America. Zwartendijk wrote out the so called Curacao visas, while Sugihara issued the transit visas. The Sugihara family was later captured by the Russians and placed in a concentration camp for 1 1/2 years.
(www.remember.org/witness/righteous.html)(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A13)(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A16)
1940 Jul, Mount Mijakejima erupted and left 11 people dead.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A17)
1940 Aug 1, The idea of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was formally announced by Japan’s Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yosuke, in a press interview, but had already existed in various forms for many years. Japan urged the nations of the region to unite in one economic sphere, ousting the colonial powers and enjoying economic prosperity together. The concept was used to justify Japan's seizure of raw materials from throughout Southeast Asia to further its drive for economic, political and military domination of East Asia. The Sphere was intended to include, in addition to Japan, China, Manchukuo, Southeast Asia and the Pacific mandates islands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_East_Asia_Co-prosperity_Sphere)(HNQ, 2/8/00)(Econ, 4/11/09, p.43)
1940 Aug 30, Senpo Chinne Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat in Lithuania, received orders from Japan to stop issuing visas immediately. He disobeyed the order and continued issuing visas until the end of the month when the consulate closed. In all Sugihara issued visas to some 3,500 Jewish refugees.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A13)(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A16)
1940 Aug, US Army cryptoanalysts under William F. Friedman succeeded in breaking Japan's top secret Purple Code, which was used for diplomatic communications.
(WSJ, 12/7/99, p.A24)
1940 Sep 26, Japanese troops attacked French Indochina.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1940 Sep 27, Nazi-Germany, Italy & Japan signed a formal alliance called Tripartite Pact, a 10 year military and economic alliance strengthening the Axis alliance.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1940 Japanese warplanes dropped plague-infected fleas over southwest China. In 2001 Chinese doctors testified in a Tokyo trial and said at least 109 people died as a result. In 2002 a symposium of historians reported that the Japanese killed at least 440,000 Chinese in the 1930s and 1940s by dropping disease carrying fleas and cholera-coated flies from planes.
(WSJ, 1/25/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/22/07, p.B12)
1940-1941 Japan extended war into Southeast Asia.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)
Go to 1941
Return to home
Travel to Japan
Asuka Period: http://www.japanesehistory.org/asuka-timeline.html
History: http://www.emulateme.com/history/japahist.htm
Today in Japanese History: http://www.asiaobserver.org/category/japan/on-this-day-in-japan-history
USLC: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/jptoc.html
Yamato is the ancient name of Japan and essentially means “big harmony."
(Econ, 8/9/08, p.14)
Japan is about the same size as California or Montana.
(SSFC, 10/9/05, Par p.27)(Econ, 11/14/09, p.78)
30,000BCE The Ainu were the aboriginal inhabitants of the Japanese islands back to this time. They had European features, wavy hair and thick beards before they intermarried with the Japanese.
(SFC, 8/23/97, p.A10)
20,000BC Some scientists believe that ancient people from Siberia crossed the Bering land bridge about this time and began their southward migration into the Americas. In 2001 skull measurements indicated that members of the Jomon-Ainu of Japan made the first crossings.
(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A13)(SFC, 7/31/01, p.A4)
10k-300BC The Jomon culture is associated with the introduction of rice agriculture and the use of metal and probably came from the Asian mainland.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34)(WSJ, 9/25/01, p.A16)
5,500-4,000BC The Sannai Maruyama site in northern Honshu uncovered postholes of houses and longhouses, graves, figurines and animal remains.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.72)
660BC This is the mythical date of the ascension of Japan's first emperor, Jimmu Tenno. He is said to have been descended from Amaterasu, the sun goddess, who came from the eye of the god Izanagi.
(HN, 2/11/97)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.42)
400BC Korean farmers about this time brought rice to Japan.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.66)
400BC- 250AD The Yayoi culture is identified by its pottery. Mongoloid people from Korea entered Japan and mixed with the older Jomon populations.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34,38)
171BC There was a major wave of migration to Japan from the Korean Peninsula. The migration of other peoples from mainland Asia around this time brought metal tools, rice and new farming techniques. Computer modeling in 2011 showed a that the migration also had significant impact on linguistic development.
(AP, 5/5/11)
57CE The King of Nakoku sent an envoy to the Eastern Han capital Loyang, the 1st recorded envoy to China from Japan.
(www.museum.city.fukuoka.jp)
239 In Japan Queen Himiko (Pimiko, Queen of Wa) of the Kingdom of Yamataikoku sent an envoy to China.
(www.gias.snu.ac.kr/wthong/)
250-710CE The Japanese Kofun period. Mongoloid people from Korea continued to enter Japan and mixed with the older Jomon populations.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.38)
300-400CE Historian Egami Namio in 1948 proposed the "horserider" thesis that cited equestrian goods and foreign culture elements as evidence that the ancestors of the Japanese imperial line had migrated from Korea about this time and conquered the northern part of Kyushu.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.36)
300-645 Yamato Period of Japan. The Yamato clan had taken root in the Nara basin and gave rise to the people called “Japanese."
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(Hem, 9/04, p.41)
400-500AD Two imperial tombs of this time in Miyazaki Prefecture, Kyushu, are held by legend to belong to Ninigi, grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu and his wife.
(AM, Jul/Aug '97 p.12)
500-700CE Chronicles of the 8th century record the peaceful arrival of immigrants from Korea in the 6th and 7th centuries.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.38)
538-552 Introduction of Buddhism to Japan from Korea.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
538-600 Buddhist missionaries introduced the art of flower arranging to Japan. The 1st school of flower arranging, ikenobo, was founded by Ono no Imoko in the early 7th century. Ikebana became the umbrella name for the schools of flower arranging.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, Z1 p.2)
574 Prince Shotoku was born in Japan. He later brought the Kongo family from Korea to Osaka and had them build a Buddhist temple. The temple took 15 years to build and the Kongo family became established as the premier temple builders in Japan.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R46)
578 The family business Kongo Gumi was founded in Japan by a Korean in Osaka to build Buddhist temples. The company continued to flourish in 2010 as general builder.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.104)(Econ, 11/20/10, SR p.9)
592-710 The Asuka Period of Japanese history.
(www.japan-101.com)
593-622AD The Regency of Prince Shotoku on Japan.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
699 En no Ozunu appeared in the official Japanese national log of events or the 'Shoku Nihongi.' It is in this year that En was banished from society, following the charge that he "misused his magical powers to control people." It is believed that En No Gyoja was historically known as En no Ozunu. The Japanese ascetic En-no-Gyoja founded the Shugendo religion on Mount Omine (5,640 feet). He blended aspects of tantric Buddhism, Shintoism, Taoism, Confucianism and Japanese shamanism.
(SSFC, 10/2/05, p.E4)(http://tinyurl.com/8s4gm)
604 In Japan a 17 article constitution was promulgated by Prince Shotoku (574-622). It was a Confucian document that focused more on ethics and virtue than on the basic laws by which the state was to be run. [see 702]
(www.theosophy.org/tlodocs/teachers/PrinceShotoku.htm)
607 Ono no Imoko was sent as an envoy from Japan to the Sui court in China.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
645AD Downfall of the Soga Clan in Japan.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
658 Hirafu Abe went to meet with the Ainu on Hokkaido after he had defeated an indigenous tribe called Emishi in the northeast region of Honshu.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 217)
c670 A Japanese inventor based the first design of a folding fan on the structure of a bat's wing.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, Z1 p.2)
700-800 The Tanka (short song) poetry form emerged in Japan about this time. The unrhymed verse formalized to 31 syllables arranged in a 5 line pattern of 5-7-5-7-7. In 2005 it became popular on cell phones.
(WSJ, 10/4/05, p.A1)
700-800 In Japan a priest in the 8th century discovered the mineral hot springs at Yamashiro Onsen.
(WSJ, 7/19/05, p.A1)
702 Japan's first civil and penal code was promulgated. [see 604CE]
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
710 The Fujiwara clan established the Kasuga Shrine in Nara, Japan.
(Hem, 9/04, p.46)
710-784 The Nara Period of Japan. Japan’s 1st permanent capital arose in the Nara basin.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(Hem, 9/04, p.41)
712AD The publication of Kojiki in Japan, the Record of Ancient Matters. The work was compiled by the court to strengthen its control over various noble lineages. Fictitious rulers were inserted to project the nation's founding back to 660BC
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34)
718 The Japanese inn Hoshi Ryokan was founded in Komatsu.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.104)(SFC, 4/14/06, p.D1)
720 The Nihon Shoki (the Chronicle of Japan), the oldest recorded Japanese document, was published. It was compiled by the court to strengthen its control over various noble lineages.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R46)
752AD The dedication of the Great Buddha of Todai Temple in Nara.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
c752 Emperor Shomu built a great Buddhist temple and started a collection from the gifts that were brought to its dedication. Rulers for the next 12 centuries added to the collection.
(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A20)
764-770 Empress Shotoku had a million miniature pagodas made in thanks for regaining control of the throne. Sacred text was placed in each one and distributed to the 10 most important temples.
(WSJ, 7/27/00, p.A20)
778 In Japan the Kiyomizu-dera Buddhist temple was founded in Kyoto. Its main hall (Hondo) was built in 1633 without a single nail.
(SSFC, 3/16/14, p.P4)
794 The capital of Japan was moved from Nara to Kyoto and the new Imperial Palace was built there. It remained there until 1868.
(Hem., 2/96, p.57-58)(Hem, 9/04, p.41)
794-1185 The Heian Period in Japan. The kimono originated in this period. Prof. Helen McCullough (d.1998) of UC Berkeley and her husband translated "A Tale of Flowering Fortunes," whose notes and appendixes made it an encyclopedia of Heian court life. She published 11 volumes of studies and translations of classical Japanese poetry that included: "The Tale of the Heike" and "The Great Mirror."
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(SFC, 2/7/97, p.D1)(SFC, 4/23/98, p.B4)
795-1185 The Heian period was a time of elegant and refined rice papers.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.A20)
894 Japan abolishes the sending of envoys to China.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
c900-1000 The Japanese discovered the wasabe root growing near mountain streams and began incorporating it into their cuisine.
(SFC, 6/3/98, Z1 p.6)
995-1027 Heyday of the Fujiwara Clan in Japan.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
c1000-1100 A Buddhist shrine was constructed in Uji, Japan. In 1968 the Byodo-In Temple at the foot of the Koolaus Mountains on Oahu, Hawaii, was built as a replica of the 900-year-old shrine.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.20)
1002-1019 In Japan Lady Murasaki Shikibu wrote her classic court novel "The Tale of Genji." The novel "Genji Monogatari" (Genji the Shining One) was later considered the world's 1st novel. The long work explored the imperial court of the Heian period through the life and many loves of Genji, son of the emperor's favorite concubine. Arthur Waley made an English translation in 6 installments between 1925 and 1933. Edward Seidensticker made a translation in 1976. Royall Tyler made a new translation in 2001. In 2000 Liza Dalby authored her novel "The Tale of Murasaki."
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A20)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(WSJ, 7/5/00, p.A20)(WSJ, 11/16/01, p.W14)(SFEC, 7/16/00, BR p.3)
c1100-1200 Nichiren Daishonin, the son of a fisherman in Awa, established a new sect of Buddhism. In 1930 the Soka Gakkai (value-creation society) was founded in Tokyo based on his teachings.
(WSJ, 4/23/99, B1)
1129 Aug 21, The warrior Yoritomo was made Shogun without equal in Japan.
(HN, 8/21/98)
1169-1181 The heyday of the Kiyomori Clan in Japan.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
1180-1185 War between the Taira and Minamoto clans in Japan.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
1181 Aug 4, A supernova was seen in Cassiopeia. Chinese and Japanese astronomers observed a supernova. The star 3C58 was later identified as the heart of the explosion in the constellation Cassiopeia. In 2002 it was thought to be composed of quarks.
(MC, 8/4/02)(SFC, 4/11/02, p.A2)
1185-1333 The Kamakura Period of Japan. A sect known as Pure Land Buddhism began to enjoy great popularity.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(SFC, 3/14/03, p.D1)
1191 Zen Buddhism, guided by the Dao (The Way) arrived to Japan from China.
(Hem., 2/96, p.58)
1192 The founding of the Kamakura Shogunate in Japan.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
c1200-1300 Nichiren was 13th-century Japanese monk and reformer. He founded a Buddhist school and wrote: "When great evil occurs, great good will follow."
(WSJ, 3/28/02, p.A20)
1233 The royal family began to stain their teeth black in a fashion statement.
(WSJ, 9/2/99, p.A12)
1253 Dogen Zenji (b.1200), Japanese founder of the Soto School of Zen Buddhism, died. In 2010 Zenji’s masterwork “Treasury of the True Dharma Eye" was translated into English.
(SFC, 10/29/10, p.E1)
1264 According to Marco Polo, Kublai Khan in this year sent a large body of troops to attack Japan, then known as the island of Zipangu. The two officers in charge, named Abbacatan and Vonsancin, failed to cooperate and the adventure failed. [see 1274]
(TMPV, P.255)
1274 The first Mongol invasion of Japan. [see 1264]
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
1281 Aug 14, During the second Mongol attempt to conquer Japan, Kublai Khan's invading fleet disappeared in typhoon off of Japan. A Mongol army of 45,000 from Korea had joined an armada with 120,000 men from southern China landing at Hakozaki Bay. The typhoon destroyed their fleet leaving them to death or slavery.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(EWH, 4th ed., p.369)(MC, 8/14/02)
c1330 Retired Emp. Go-Fushimi authored a plea to the god of the Kamo shrine for help in gaining the thrown for his son, Prince Tokihito. Tokihito got to reign after a short delay when Go-Daigo refused to step down. Two years later Go-Daigo got the thrown back.
(SFC,12/15/97, p.E3)
1333 The Kamakura Shogunate of Japan falls.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
1333-1573 The Ashikaga (or Muromachi) Period of Japan. The Chinese Kara-yo style of architecture evolved during this period.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(Hem., 2/96, p.58)
1334 Emperor Go-Daigo of Japan temporarily regained power.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(SFC,12/15/97, p.E3)
1334-1615 In 1961 George Sansom authored "A History of Japan, 1334-1615."
(ON, 7/01, p.5)
1338 The founding of the Ashikaga Shogunate in Japan.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1368-1644 China extended its hegemony over the Ryukyu Islands legitimating 3 kings in exchange for submission to the Ming emperor.
(NH, 9/01, p.56)
1372 The 1st Ryukyuan emissaries reached Nanjing and presented tribute to the Ming emperor.
(NH, 9/01, p.56)
1392-1910 The Choson Dynasty ruled over this period.
(Hem., Oct. '95, p.17)
1422 Mar 30, Ketsugan, a Zen teacher, performed exorcisms to free the Aizoji temple.
(MC, 3/30/02)
1429 The kingdom of Ryukyu was unified under the court at Shuri (later part of Naha, Okinawa).
(NH, 9/01, p.56)
1449 Ashikaga Yoshimasa (14) inherited the office of Shogun, the chief military and civic leader of feudal Japanese society. His leadership focused on the arts and depleted the national treasury, which led to social and political anarchy.
(ON, 7/01, p.3)
1457 Koshamain, an Ainu chieftain on Hokkaido, led a rebellion against Japanese encroachment, but it was put down by Nobuhiro Takeda.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
1467 May, The 11-year Onin War began in Kyoto. In 1967 H. Paul Valery authored "The Onin War."
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(ON, 7/01, p.5)
1478 The Onin War ended after rival warlords died of natural causes. Shogun Yoshimasa disinherited his brother and abdicated in favor of his son.
(ON, 7/01, p.5)
1482 The Ginkaku Temple, also known as the Silver Pavilion was built in Kyoto, Japan. The Shogun who built it died before its completion and it remains without silver.
(Hem., 2/96, p.58)
1490 Ashikaga Yoshimasa, former shogun (1449-1478), died at age 55.
(ON, 7/01, p.5)
1532 A 2,100 lb. bell was cast in Japan. It was later shipped to San Francisco and placed in the Asian Art Museum. It was rung every New Year 108 times after a Buddhist tradition, once for each of the mortal desires that plague mankind.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.A15)
1536 Toyotomi Hideyoshi (d.1598), Japan’s unifier and folk hero, was born in a village called Nakamura in Owari province.
(www.samurai-archives.com/hideyoshi.html)
1539 Japanese trading monopolies ended in favor of a free market.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1542 Antonio da Mota, Portuguese explorer, became the first European to enter Japan.
(TL-MB, p.16)
1542 Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (d.1616) was born. Japan was united under his rule around 1600.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.D1)
1543 Portuguese ships landed on the Japanese Island of Tanega. The first European visitors to Japan introduced muskets and baked bread.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(TL-MB, p.16)
1549 Aug 15, Francis Xavier, Portuguese Jesuit missionary, landed in Kagoshima, Japan, and began spreading the Catholic faith there.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(ON, 11/02, p.8)(MC, 8/15/02)(AP, 1/28/14)
1558-1637 Hon'ami Koetsu, art collector, calligrapher and ceramist in Kyoto.
(WSJ, 9/21/00, p.A24)
1560 In Japan a foundry began making pots and developed to become Nabeya B-tech Kaisha (NBK), a 21st century maker of high-precision machine parts.
(Econ, 3/8/08, p.72)
1568 Nobunaga Oda seized Kyoto. General Oda Nobunaga, Japanese leader who seized Kyoto and destroyed the power of the feudal lords, introduces a dynamic period of centralization and expansion.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(TL-MB, p.21)
1568 Lord Oda Nobunaga destroyed the town of Sakai after the town council resisted a military tax.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R51)
1568 A theater was built on Miyajima Island.
(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.T11)
1568-1600 The Azuchi-Momoyama Period.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1570 The Japanese opened the port of Nagasaki to overseas trade.
(TL-MB, p.22)
1573 Japan’s Ashikaga shogunate ended after 237 years with Shogun Yoshiake routed in his challenge of ruler Nobunaga Oda.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1573-1615 The Momoyama period of Japan. It coincided with the ascendancy of 3 warlords and represented a time of temporary peace with the opening of the country to Western influence.
(WSJ, 9/25/96, p.A20)
1575 A battle was fought that arrayed 3,000 guns against men on horseback using stirrups. The gun force won and changed the course of Japanese fighting.
(WSJ, 6/9/99, p.A27)
1582 Nobunaga was assassinated. Nobunaga, ruler of Japan, was assassinated by Akechi Mitsuhide. He was succeeded by Hideyoshi, who killed Mitsuhide and carried on the work of breaking feudal power.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215) (TL-MB, p.23)
1583 Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598), Japan’s unifier and folk hero, laid the foundation for Osaka Castle. It was completed in 1587. Civil war and fire destroyed the castle several times. The castle was rebuilt in 1931 and refurbished in 1997.
(Hem, 9/04, p.41)
1585 Toyotomi Hideyoshi was appointed civil dictator.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1586 In Japan Kabuki theater began. [see 1603]
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1587 Jul 25, Japanese shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi banned Christianity in Japan and ordered all Christians to leave. Although the order was not immediately enforced. A decade later, the crackdown began, and 26 Christians were crucified.
(HN, 7/25/98)(AP, 11/21/08)
1587 Osaka Castle, Japan, whose foundation had been laid by Hideyoshi in 1583 was completed with the help of 30,000 workers.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1590s A six paneled screen painting by Kano Eitoku depicted mythological Chinese lions.
(WSJ, 9/25/96, p.A20)
1592 Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent an army to invade Korea after Korea refused to help him invade China. This set off a war that lasted 6 years.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/455711)
1592 Korea defenders led by Gen. Jeong Mun-bu scored a victory over an invading Japanese army at Bukgwan. A monument with a description of the fight was raised a century later. During the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905 a Japanese general shipped the monument to Japan where it was set in the Yasukuni shrine. It was recognized by a South Korean in 1978 and in 2005 Shinto priests agreed to return it to Seoul.
(Econ, 10/15/05, p.46)
1592-1598 Korean Adm. Yi Sun Sin (1545-1598) employed his ironclad "turtle ships" to fight off an invasion by Japan. Hundreds of Japanese vessels were sunk during the prolonged Japanese invasion.
(www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/455711)
1597 Sep 28, The Mimizuka, or Ear Mound, was dedicated in Kyoto. In it was buried the collected ears and noses of victims from the Japanese invasion of Korea that began in 1592.
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.A25)
1597 Oct 26, Korea’s Admiral Yi Sun-shin (Yi Sun sin), with a fleet of 13 ships, beat back the Japanese Navy, with a fleet of hundreds of ships, at the Battle of Myeongnyang. In 2014 the South Korean film “Roaring Currents," a depiction of the battle, was released and became the country’s most popular film of all time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Myeongnyang)(Econ, 10/4/14, p.47)
1597 In Nagasaki 26 Japanese and Western Christians were crucified. These martyrs were beatified in 1627 and became saints in 1862, among the 42 people from Japan who have been canonized, or reached sainthood.
(SSFC, 8/10/03, p.C11)(AP, 11/21/08)
1598 Sep 18, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (b.1536), Japan’s unifier and folk hero, died. His death left two main rivals for power, Ishida Mitsunari and Tokugawa Ieyasu.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyotomi_Hideyoshi)
1599 The Takeda family, which controlled Hokkaido, changed its name to Matsumae, built a castle by that name and allied itself with Ieyasu Tokugawa, who was on the verge of establishing his Shogunate.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 218)
1600 Apr 19, The Dutch ship Liefde, piloted by Will Adams, reached Japan with a crew of 24 men. 6 of the crew soon died. 4 other ships in the expedition were lost.
(ON, 11/02, p.8)
1600 Oct 21, Tokugawa leyasu defeated his enemies in the battle of Sekigahara and affirmed his position as Japan's most powerful warlord. The win enabled Ieyasu to found a 265-year ruling dynasty.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sekigahara)(Econ, 10/31/09, p.54)
1600s The ancient art of Sumo wrestling became a professional sport.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1600-1867 The Tokugawa (or Edo) Period.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1600-1868 The cosmopolitan Edo period, the heyday of the woodblock print.
(WSJ, 4/24/96, A-12)
1602 Japan's Shogun Ieyasu seized the Dutch ship Liefde and granted its crew allowances to live in Japan.
(ON, 11/02, p.9)
1603 Kabuki theater started when a shrine maiden named Okuni traveled to Kyoto and performed a dance of ecstasy dressed in men's clothing while chanting Buddha's name. [see 1586]
(SFC, 7/12/01, p.A23)
1603 In Japan the wooden Nihonbashi bridge, half way between Edo Bay and Edo Castle, was built. In 1911 it was replaced by a stone version.
(Econ, 10/7/06, p.52)
1603 The Nijo Castle was built in Kyoto, Japan, as a residence for the Shogun. The castle's Ninomaru Palace was famous for its "nightingale" (creaking) floors that warn of intruders.
(Hem., 2/96, p.60)
1603 Tokyo replaced Kyoto as the administrative center of Japan.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R51)
1603-1868 The founding and era of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34)
1605 Dec 27, English sea captain John Davis was killed by Japanese pirates whose ship he had captured off the coast of Sumatra. In 1889 Clements Markham authored “A Life of John Davis, the Navigator, 1550-1605, Discoverer of Davis Straits."
(ON, 11/05, p.9)
1605 Japan's Shogun Ieyasu allowed some of the Dutch crew of the ship Liefde to return home, but kept Will Adams in Japan. Adams soon married Magoma Oyuki, a young noblewoman.
(ON, 11/02, p.10)
1608 Shogun Ieyasu ordered Will Adams to go to the Philippines to invite the Spanish Gov. Don Diego Vevero y Velasco to compete with the Portuguese for trade with Japan.
(ON, 11/02, p.10)
1609 Forces from the Japanese feudal domain of Satsuma invaded the Ryukyu Islands and took the king hostage. Heavy tribute was soon demanded.
(NH, 9/01, p.56)
1609 Spanish ships began visiting Japan and Spanish Dominicans began missionary work.
(ON, 11/02, p.10)
1610 Retired-Japanese Samurai Hachirobei Mitsui pawned a couple of his swords and started a ribbon and kimono shop. It grew to become the world's oldest department store, Tokyo's Mitsukoshi.
(SFC, 7/7/96, zone 1 p.5)
1613 A fleet of 3 English ships arrived in Japan in response to letters from Will Adams to the English East India Company.
(ON, 11/02, p.10)
1614 Japan sent samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga to Europe via Acapulco to to request the right to trade directly with New Spain (Mexico).
(Econ, 11/15/14, SR p.8)
1614 Shogun Ieyasu ordered all Christian missionaries to leave Japan. All Christian churches were closed and Japanese people were forbidden to practice Christianity on pain of death.
(ON, 11/02, p.10)
1615 Jun 4, The Tokugawa Shogun captured Osaka Castle and eliminated Hide-yoshi's heirs. The fortress of Osaka, Japan, fell to shogun Leyasu after a six month siege.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(HN, 6/4/98)
1615 Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu granted land to Hon'ami Koetsu (1558-1637), a calligraphy artist. The property was named Takagamine and became a colony for artists united by their adherence to Buddhism.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.D3)
1615-1868 The Edo period. [see 1600-1868]
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.C1)
1616 Shogun Ieyasu (b.1642), Japanese general and statesman, died.
(WUD, 1994 p.759)(ON, 11/02, p.10)
1618 Kana Takanobu (b.1571), Japanese artist, died.
(NYT, 10/8/04, p.B35)
1620 Will Adams, English-Dutch-Japanese ship pilot, died in Japan. In 1956 P.G. Rogers authored "The First Englishman in Japan."
(ON, 11/02, p.10)
1627 Japan banned contact with foreigners and closed its ports except for limited trade with Holland. [see 1639]
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1628-1695 Enku was an artist-priest who took a vow to sculpt 120,000 images of the Buddha.
(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)
1629 Women performers were banned in Kabuki theaters to prevent prostitution and were replaced by young boys. The ban spawned a new breed of male actors.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(SFC, 6/14/05, p.B3)
c1630 The widow of a samurai set up a business that grew to become the Kikkoman Corp., the world’s leading maker of soy sauce.
(WSJ, 12/27/99, p.A1)(Econ, 12/18/04, p.105)
1636 Westerners in Japan were sequestered on the man-made island of Dejima in Nagasaki's harbor as the government cracked down on all things foreign. The island later disappeared in land reclamation projects.
(SSFC, 8/10/03, p.C11)
1637 Gekkeikan began making sake in Kyoto, Japan. The company began supplying the imperial household in 1909.
(SSFC, 9/26/04, p.D12)
1637-1638 The Christians of Shimabara, Japan rebel.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1639 Japan was closed to the outside world except for a Dutch trading post.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1639 Jesuit Father Petro Kassui Kibe, a convert to Christianity, was captured, tortured and martyred in Tokyo. He had initially managed to escape persecution and traveled to Rome, where he became a Jesuit and was ordained to the priesthood. He then returned to Japan to minister to other oppressed Christians. The 188 other martyrs included four Jesuit priests, other priests, brothers and nuns, lay men and women, all killed in different cities between 1603 and 1639 after the Japanese government outlawed Christianity. In 2007 Pope Benedict XVI approved recognition of their martyrdom.
(www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0603392.htm)(AP, 6/2/07)
1641 Japan designated an artificial island in Nagasaki harbor as the only place that foreigners could live.
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.47)
1644-1694 Matsuo Basho, Japanese poet. His work include "The Narrow Road to the Deep North" (Oku no Hosomichi). One of his poems celebrated the entrancing cry of the cicada.
(SFC, 11/28/96, p.C16)(WUD, 1994, p.124)(SFC, 7/29/97, p.C3)(Econ, 7/5/14, p.67)
1653 Chikamatsu Monzaemon (d.1725), Kyoto and Osaka playwright, was born.
(SFC, 6/20/05, p.C1)
1658-1716 Ogata Korin, artist. The artist created the cartoonish "Gods of Wind and Thunder."
(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)
1661 In Japan the Takanoshi family started producing food seasonings and became known for its soy sauce.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1673 In Japan the Mitsukoshi store introduced fixed prices.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.58)
1685-1768 Hakuin Ekaku, Zen painter. His work included "Side View of Daruma."
(SSFC, 9/23/01, DB p.48)
c1690 "The Narrow Road" by Basho Matsuo (1644?-1694) was written during a 1,500 mile journey through the Japanese countryside. It was a 64-page collection of prose and haiku poems and became a Japanese classic. A manuscript of the work was found in 1996.
(SFC, 11/28/96, p.C16)(WUD, 1994, p.124)
1700 Jan 27, A tsunami hit Honshu Island, Japan. It was later estimated that wave was triggered by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake in California.
(CW, Spring ‘99, p.32)
1671-1743 Kaigetsudo Ando (d.1743), Japanese artist, was born. He is also called Okazaki Genshichi.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9044336)
1702 Dec 14, In Japan 47 samurai stormed the palace of a high-ranking lord in Edo and beheaded him. They were ordered to commit seppuku, a ritual suicide by disembowelment. Stone monuments at the Sengakuji temple marked the graves of the 47 ronin (samurai with no master).
(SFC, 1/14/15, p.A5)
1702 Omori Yoshikiyo, Japanese ehon artist, created his work “Trailing Willows," which depicted the working women in the government sanctioned pleasure quarter of Kyoto.
(WSJ, 1/4/07, p.B11)
1702 Meijin Dosaku, go-master to the shogun of Japan, died. He was the 4th head of the Honimbo go school and is held by many Japanese to have been the game’s greatest player.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.129)
1702 Basho Matsuo, poet, died.
(SFC, 11/28/96, p.C16)
1703 Dec 30, Tokyo was hit by Earthquake and some 37,000 people died.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1703 A pair of lovers committed suicide in Osaka. The story of the courtesan and young merchant was quickly depicted in the Kabuki play “The Love suicides at Sonexaki" by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725).
(SFC, 6/20/05, p.C5)
1704 Feb 19, In Japan Kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjuro I (b.1660, the first of the Danjuro line, was murdered by a rival on stage.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichikawa_Danj%C5%ABr%C5%8D_I)(Econ, 2/16/13, p.44)
c1705 Yodoya Tatsugora, Japanese merchant, died. He was a member of the 5th generation of a family that became rich as silk traders and rice merchants. The Shogunate claimed that his wealth was unbecoming and confiscated it. Many government officials owed him money.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)
1707 A sunrise ritual was begun in Nagano where a gong announced the call to worship.
(SFC, 2/6/98, p.A1)
1707 Mount Fuji erupted.
(SFC, 2/14/98, p.A12)
1708 The Great Buddha Hall at Nara’s Todaiji Temple, the world’s largest wooden structure, was rebuilt at two thirds of the original scale.
(Hem, 9/04, p.46)
1710 "The Narrow Road" by Basho Matsuo was first published.
(SFC, 11/28/96, p.C16)
1714 In Japan Ando Kaigetsudo (1671-1743) was banished to the island of Oshima. He was the founder of the Kaigetsudo school of ukiyo-e (scenes of the transient world of daily life) painters and print designers.
(SSFC, 11/20/05, p.M1)(www.ready-to-hang.com/LCP_ArtNotes/Kaigetsudo_Ando_Bio.htm)
1716-1800 Ito Jakuchu, artist. He created the "Vegetable Parinirvana," a hanging scroll that recasts the Buddha as a languishing radish surrounded by other vegetable onlookers.
(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)
1717 Ono Pharmaceutical was founded by Ichibei Fushimiya as an apothecary in Osaka, Japan. In 1947 Ono Pharmaceutical was established. Its shares listed on the Osaka Securities Exchange in 1962 and the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1963.
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.72)
1719 Chikamatsu Monzaemon created his Kabuki Theater masterpiece "Shankun: The Exile on Devil's Island."
(SFEC, 9/8/96, DB p.7)
1720 The world's 1st futures exchange began in Osaka with trade in 3-months forward contracts in rice.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R51)
1721-1785 Reigen Eto, Zen painter. His work included "White-Robbed Kannon."
(SSFC, 9/23/01, DB p.48).
1730 The first legally recognized futures market opened in Japan.
(Wired, 9/96, p.36)
1755 Watanabe Shiko (b.1683), Japanese painter based in Kyoto, died.
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.E12)
1759 Soga Shohaku (1730-1781), Japanese artist, created his “Hanshan and Shide" about this time.
(SFC, 1/14/06, p.E1)
1760 Oct 21, Katsushika Hokusai (d.1849), Japanese printmaker, was born. Hokusai was a master designer of color woodblock prints. His paintings included 36 views of Mt. Fuji done when he was 70.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.E3)(WSJ, 11/3/98, p.A20)(Econ, 6/4/11, p.54)
1762 Gosakuramachi ascended Japan’s throne. She ruled until 1770 and as of 2006 was Japan's last woman ruler.
(AP, 9/6/06)(http://tinyurl.com/rcnhc)
1776 Ike Taiga (b.1723), Japanese painter based in Kyoto, died.
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.E1)
1780 A Japanese whaling ship ran aground near the western end of the Aleutian Islands. Rats from the ship reached the nearest island giving it the name Rat Island. The incident introduced the non-native Norway rat, also known as the brown rat, to Alaska. The rats terrorized all but the largest birds on the island. In the Fall of 2008 poison was dropped onto the island from helicopter-hoisted buckets for a week and a half. By mid 2009 there were no signs of living rats and some birds had returned.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.43)(Reuters, 6/12/09)
1781 Chobei Takeda I (32) started a business selling traditional Japanese and Chinese medicines in Doshomachi, Osaka. In 1925 it was incorporated as Chobei Takeda & Co., Ltd., with capital of 5.3 million yen and Chobei Takeda V as president. The Company changed its name to Takeda Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. in 1943. Its English name was changed to Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd. in 1961.
(Econ, 11/20/10, SR p.9)
1781 Soga Shohaku (b.1730), Japanese artist, died.
(SFC, 1/14/06, p.E1)
1783 Mount Asama, one of Japan's largest and most active volcanoes, had a major eruption.
(AP, 9/15/04)
1783 Yosa Buson (b.1716), Japanese painter based in Kyoto, died. His work included “Landscapes on silver Ground" (1782).
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.E1)(SFC, 1/14/06, p.E10)
1783-1786 Japan suffered one of its worst famines in history when exceptional cold destroyed the rice harvest. As many as 1 million people died. Most of the impact for this was due to the eruptions of the Laki volcano in Iceland beginning in June, 1783.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.134)
1788 A great fire destroyed much of the wooden city of Kyoto, Japan.
(WSJ, 1/25/06, p.D10)(www.city.kyoto.jp/koho/eng/historical/chronology.html)
1790 Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800), Japanese painter, created his "Compendium of Vegetable and Insects."
(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)(SFC, 1/14/06, p.E1)
1790 A bronze Buddha was cast in Japan. In 1945 it was donated by the Gump family to the city of San Francisco. It resides in the Japanese Tea Garden and was in need of $81,000 worth of repairs.
(SFC, 12/30/96, p.A11)
1793 Apr 1, The volcano Unsen on Japan erupted killing about 53,000.
(OTD)
1795 Kitagawa Utamoro, Japanese artist, made his woodblock print "Oiran" about this time.
(WSJ, 4/24/96, A-12)
1795 Maruyama Okyo (b.1733), Japanese painter based in Kyoto, died. His work included a 50 mile scene in "Both Banks of the Yodo River" and “Landscape With Pavilions in Snow" (1787).
(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)(SFC, 12/8/05, p.E1)(SFC, 1/14/06, p.E10)
1797-1858 Utagawa Hiroshige, artist, made numerous color woodblock prints.
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.C1)
1799 Nagasawa Rosetsu (b.1754), Japanese painter based in Kyoto, died. His work included “Monkey on a Rock."
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.E1)(SFC, 1/14/06, p.E10)
1800 Ito Jakuchu (b.1716), Japanese painter based in Kyoto, died.
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.E12)
1800-1900 Tokyo was called Edo and served as the shogun's power seat.
(SFEC, 8/9/98, p.T5)
1811 Matsumura Gekkei (b.1752) also known as Goshun, Japanese painter based in Kyoto, died.
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.E1)
1813 The Tokujo-maru, a Japanese ship with a cargo of rice for Edo, was blown off course. Three surviving crew members were picked up 18 months later by a British ship off the coast of California.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.64)
1816 Two British naval ships under Captain Basil Hall landed at Okinawa, in the Ryukyu archipelago, which was then known as Loo-Choo. In 1818 Hall published an account of his voyage: “Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea, and the Great Loo-Choo Island."
(Econ, 10/29/05, p.44)(www.polybiblio.com/bibliotrek/BT000004..html)
1820 Keisai Eisen, artist, pictured an intricately coifed woman that later appeared on the cover of a French magazine and inspired Van Gogh's 1887 "Courtesan."
(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)
1820 An American whaling ship from Brighton, Massachusetts, was later believed to be the first to enter Japanese waters.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.64)
1822 Utagawa Kunisada, Japanese artist, painted "The Popular Type."
(WSJ, 4/24/96, A-12)
1824-1860 Yanagawa Shigenobu II, Japanese printmaker, was active. His work included the color woodcut “Kuroho" (1832-1836).
(www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/shigenobu_ii_yanagawa.html)
1825 Japan issued an edict that spelled out what would happen to uninvited guests. “Should any foreigners land anywhere, they must be arrested or killed."
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.63)
1830 Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Japanese artist, created his famous woodblock print “Beneath the Wave of Kanagawa" about this time.
(Econ, 6/4/11, p.54)
1830-1840 Hokusai (1760-1849) made his "Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji during this decade. The wood blocks included "Under the Wave of Kanagawa," "The Back of Mt. Fuji from Minobu River," and "Winter Loneliness." The last was inspired by a poem of Minamoto no Muneyuki Ason. Another series was titled "A Tour of Japanese Waterfalls.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.E3)
1831 Takashsimaya was founded in Kyoto, Japan, as a kimono shop. It grew to become the nation's largest department store chain.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1833 Aoki Mokubei (b.1767), Japanese poet and potter, died.
(NYT, 10/8/04, p.B35)
1834 A crippled Hojun-maru junk, blown off course with 3 Japanese castaways, washed ashore on Cape Flattery in Washington state. Makah Indians seized the cargo, enslaved the sailors and then sold them to the Hudson’s Bay Company.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.64)
1835 Ryoma Sakamoto was born. He became a samurai dedicated to toppling the feudal government.
(WSJ, 6/14/00, p.A1)
1836 Jun 10, Yamaoka Tesshu, Japanese swordsman, was born.
(HN, 6/10/98)
1839 Spring, A craze for costume dancing swept Kyoto for a few weeks.
(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)
1841 William Whitfield, captain of the whaling ship John Howland, from Fairhaven, Mass., picked up 5 castaways from Japan’s Torishima Island, including a boy named Manjiro, who returned with Whitfield to Fairhaven. Manjiro later returned to Japan, and translated Nathaniel Bowditch’s “The New American Navigator," known to mariners as the “seaman’s bible." In 1854 Manjiro acted as interpreter with Commodore Perry and in 1860 joined the 1st Japanese embassy to America.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.66)
1848 Jul 1, Ranald MacDonald (1824-1894), a Chinook-Scottish sailor, separated from an American whaling ship and arrived at Rishiri Island off Hokkaido, Japan. He was imprisoned for virtually his whole 10-month stay. In 2003 Frederik L. Schodt authored "Native American in the Land of the Shogun: Ranald MacDonald and the Opening of Japan."
(SSFC, 7/12/03, p.M3)(Econ, 12/22/07, p.63)
1849 Katsushika Hokusai (b.1760), Japanese printmaker, died.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.E3)(WSJ, 11/3/98, p.A20)(HN, 10/21/00)
1853 Jul 3, Commodore Matthew Perry reached Japan. [see Jul 8]
(MC, 7/3/02)
1853 Jul 7, Japan opened its ports to trade with the West after 250 years of isolation. [see July 8]
(HN, 7/7/01)
1853 Jul 8, An expedition led by Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Edo Bay, Uraga, Japan, on a mission to seek diplomatic and trade relations with the Japanese. Perry sailed his flagship USS Susquehanna into Edo Bay. He soon forced Japan to open its ports with his big gunboats, the steam-powered “Black Ships."
(AP, 7/8/97)(SFEC, 1/25/98, Z1 p.2)(ON, 11/04, p.9)
1853 Jul 14, Commodore Matthew Perry met with Prince Toda and Prince Ido at ceremony at Kurihama, Japan, and presented a letter from former Pres. Fillmore to Emperor Osahito requesting trade relations. Fillmore's term of office had already expired by the time the letter was delivered.
(ON, 11/04, p.12)(AP, 7/14/07)
1853 Aug, Japan’s Chief Shogun Ieoshi died.
(ON, 11/04, p.12)
1854 Feb 11, Commodore Matthew Perry pulled into Edo Bay, Japan, 12 months early with 9 warships to begin talks for a treaty.
(ON, 11/04, p.12)
1854 Mar 8, US Commodore Matthew C. Perry landed at Yokohama on his 2nd trip to Japan. Within a month, he concluded a treaty with the Japanese. In 2003 Christopher Benfey authored "The Great Wave: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics and the Opening of Old Japan."
(AP, 3/8/98)(SSFC, 5/18/03, p.M6)
1854 Mar 31, Chief Shogun Iyesada, following negotiations with Commodore Perry, approved the Treaty of Kanagawa on behalf of Emperor Osahito. This forced Japan to open its ports to foreign trade.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(ON, 11/04, p.12)
1854 Dec 23, The 8.4 Ansei Tokai Quake struck Japan. The epicenter ranged from Suruga Bay to the deep ocean, but destroyed houses as far away as in Edo. The accompanying tsunami caused damage along the entire coast from the Boso Peninsula in modern-day Chiba prefecture to Tosa province (modern-day Kochi prefecture).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansei_Great_Earthquakes)
1854 Dec 24, The 8.4 Ansei Nankai Quake struck Japan. Over 10,000 people from the Tokai region down to Kyushu were killed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansei_Great_Earthquakes)
1855 Nov 11, The 6.9 Ansei Edo earthquake hit near Edo (Tokyo), Japan. Some 8,000 casualties resulted with about 14,000 structures destroyed.
(www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/g/j/gjs4/2008_Shaken%20and%20Rectified.pdf)(Econ, 7/4/09, p.39)
1855 Japan acquired some of the Kurile Islands (Kuril Islands), a chain of 56 islands that extended 744 miles from Hokkaido to Russia's Kamchatka peninsula. The Treaty of Commerce, Navigation and Delimitation established the border between Iturup and Urup. This border confirmed that Japanese territory stretched south from Iturup and Russian territory stretched north of Urup. Sakhalin remained a place where people from both countries could live.
(SFC, 8/14/01, p.A7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuril_Islands)
1858 Jul 29, Japan signed a treaty of commerce and friendship with the United States.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(HN, 7/29/98)
1858 Utagawa Hiroshige (b.1797), one of the greatest Japanese artists, died of cholera in Edo. His "53 Stages on the Tokaido" Road, first published in 1863-4 as an accordion-like album, influenced French and American painters from Paul Cezanne to James McNeill Whistler.
(AP, 6/28/05)(http://tinyurl.com/92q4b)
1859 Nov 21, Shoin Yoshida (1830), Japanese intellectual who inspired Meiji reformers, died. “Once a man’s will is set, he can triumph through any obstacle."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshida_Sh%C5%8Din)(Econ, 6/28/14, p.12)
1860 Mar 17, The Japanese ship Kanrin Maru, under Admiral Yoshitake Kimura, entered the Golden Gate after a 37-day voyage, on a diplomatic mission to San Francisco. It was the first Japanese ship to cross the Pacific. 3 sailors died while the ship was in SF. It set sail to return to Japan on May 8.
(SFC, 3/17/10, p.C2)(http://www.kanrin-maru150.com/)
1860 Mar 29, The USS Powhatan arrived in San Francisco as part of a diplomatic mission from Japan. It carried official envoys including Niimi Buzennokami, the first Japanese ambassador to the US.
(SFC, 3/17/10, p.C2)(www.kanrin-maru150.com/)
1860 Apr 25, The first Japanese ambassador to the US, Niimi Buzennokami, and his 74-man staff arrived in Washington to present their credentials to Pres. James Buchanan.
(www.trivia-library.com/b/world-history-1860.htm)
1862-1922 Mori Ogai, Japanese writer. His work included "The Wild Goose."
(MT, Fall '96, p.15)
1864 Sep 5, British, French & Dutch fleets attacked Japan in Shimonoseki Straits.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1864 The Oura Catholic Church was built in Nagasaki in honor of the 26 Japanese and Western Christians crucified there in 1597.
(SSFC, 8/10/03, p.C11)
1867 Apr 25, Tokyo was opened for foreign trade.
(HN, 4/25/98)
1867 Jan 8, Japan’s Emperor Osahito died. The Tokugawa Shogunate gave up power as a revolutionary movement overthrew Shogun Iyesada. Rebels introduced a representative government under the name of Emperor Maiji (1852-1912). Ryoma Sakamoto, a samurai, helped topple the feudal government system. Ryoma means Dragon Horse.
(www.uq.net.au/~zzhsoszy/states/japan/japan.html)(ON, 11/04, p.12)(WSJ, 6/14/00, p.A1)
1867 Nov 15, Ryoma Sakamoto, the rebel who helped topple Japan’s feudal government system, was assassinated. In 1966 Ryotaro Shiba authored the historical novel "Ryoma on the Move" in 8 paperback volumes. Between 1987 and 1996 a comic series on Ryoma ran in magazines and a 23-volume compilation was later made.
(http://tinyurl.com/yglqgbs)(WSJ, 6/14/00, p.A1,16)(Econ, 12/4/10, p.55)
1868 Jan 3, Emperor Meiji ascended the throne and assumed power. The Meiji Restoration re-established the authority of Japan's emperor and heralded the fall of the military rulers known as shoguns. The feudal clan system was abolished and industrialism was started. Japan opened itself up to the West, thereby obtaining the benefits of western technology. With the erosion of the Tokugawa bakufu system and international pressure to open the country, the boy emperor Mutsuhito—later known by the name Meiji—became the political leader replacing the Tokugawa shogunate. The social and political changes during the Meiji period (1868-1912) had begun in the late Tokugawa period, but were only formalized with the creation of the Meiji constitution in 1889.
(V.D.-H.K.p.243,286)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(AP, 1/3/98)(HNQ, 11/21/00)
1868 Jul 4, In Japan the last Tokugawa armies were defeated at the Battle at Ueno.
(Maggio, 98)
1868 In Japan women were allowed to climb Mt. Fuji.
(SFC, 9/12/13, p.A4)
1868 It was forbidden to be born or to die on Japan’s Miyajima Island until the Meiji Restoration.
(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.T11)
1868 In Japan Ryoma Sakamoto, the rebel who helped topple the feudal government system in 1967, was assassinated. In 1966 Ryotaro Shiba authored the historical novel "Ryoma on the Move" in 8 paperback volumes. Between 1987 and 1996 a comic series on Ryoma ran in magazines and a 23-volume compilation was later made.
(WSJ, 6/14/00, p.A1,16)
1868-1912 The Meiji Period. [1867-1912]
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34)
1869 Sep 10, A Baptist minister invented the rickshaw in Yokohama, Japan. The jinrikisha, or rickshaw, was developed as a cheap alternative to horse power in 1870. In 1998 Tony wheeler wrote "Chasing Rickshaws" with photographs by Richard I'Anson.
(SFEC, 10/11/98, p.T9)(MC, 9/10/01)
1869 Japan’s Yasukuni shrine was dedicated to the Japanese who died in wars since 1853. The name, which means “peaceful country," was bestowed by Emperor Meiji in 1879.
(Econ, 10/8/05, Survey p.15)
1869 In Yokohama Baptist missionary Jonathan Scobie put together the first jinriksha to cart around his invalid wife.
(SFC, 5/24/97, p.E3)
1870 In Japan Yataro Iwasaki began Mitsubishi as a steamship company. He ran the ships of the Tosa clan from an island in southern Japan.
(WSJ, 7/15/97, p.A16)(Econ, 5/29/04, p.67)(Econ, 11/20/10, p.7)
1870 Baseball was brought to Japan by American missionaries.
(http://tinyurl.com/6xjluk)(Econ, 3/29/08, p.83)
1871 Jun 27, The yen became the new form of currency in Japan.
(HN, 6/27/98)
1872 Aug 23, The 1st Japanese commercial ship visited SF carrying tea.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1872 A Japanese government decree struck down ancient conventions that kept women off many of the country’s mountains. In 2004 a 1,300-year tradition against women climbers on Mount Omine continued.
(SSFC, 9/5/04, p.A2)
1873 Jun 29, China’s Emperor Tongzhi held the first imperial audience with foreign diplomats in 80 years. Japan’s foreign minister asked for compensation for an attack on sailors from the Ryukyu islands by aborigines on Taiwan. China disavowed responsibility.
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.72)
1873 Oji Paper was founded in Japan. In 2006 it was Japan’s biggest paper company.
(Econ, 8/12/06, p.51)
1875 Joseph Neesima founded Doshisha Univ. in Kyoto, Japan. He had previously acquired an American education at Amherst College after defying a ban on travel abroad.
(SFC, 4/18/06, p.B5)
1875 Russia recognized Japan's control over the 4 southernmost Kurile Islands.
(SFC, 1/19/99, p.A8)
1877 Oct 6, Edward S. Morse (1839-1925), educator gave the first lecture on evolution in Japan. He introduced modern ideas in archaeology and zoology to Japan at Tokyo Univ.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34)
1877 The rebellion of Satsuma province was quelled.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1877 Saigo Takamori slits his belly in ritual suicide rather than surrendering to Tokyo's hated minions. The hilltop monument named Shiroyama in Kagoshima, Kyushu, Japan, was dedicated to him.
(NG, Jan. 94, p.116)
1878 May 15, The Tokyo Stock Exchange, Japan’s 1st public trading institution, formed.
(WSJ, 3/15/07, p.C1)
1879 Mar 25, Japan invaded the kingdom of Liuqiu (Ryukyu) Islands, formerly a vassal of China. The Ruykyuan monarchy was abolished and the islands were annexed to create the Okinawa Prefecture. Prior to this Okinawa had paid tribute to both Japan and China. Okinawa became imperial Japan’s first colony.
(SSFC, 3/11/01, Par p.5)(NH, 9/01, p.56)(Econ, 12/22/12, p.55)
1879 In Japan the Asahi Shimbun newspaper was founded.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.A19)
1879 The Tenshodo store, located in the heart of Ginza, the busiest high-end shopping district in Tokyo, was founded.
(AP, 1/2/10)
1880 Japan’s Yokohama Specie Bank was founded. It became the Bank of Tokyo in 1946. Following later mergers it became part of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group in 2005.
(WSJ, 9/23/08, p.C1)
1881 Shibata Zeshin made a book of lacquer paintings on paper, a medium that he alone mastered.
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A20)
1881 The Asahi Shimbun newspaper became jointly owned by Ryuhei Murayama and Riichi Ueno.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.A19)
1882 Jigoro Kano (1860-1938), founder of judo, opened his first judo school, the Kodokan, in Tokyo. Some 40 years later he added a women’s section.
(SFC, 7/25/11, p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kan%C5%8D_Jigor%C5%8D)
1882 The central Bank of Japan was established.
(SFC, 3/26/98, p.B2)
1883 Tokonami Seisei, self-taught artist, painted "Volcano."
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A20)
1884 Apr 4, Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese Naval commander, was born. He masterminded the attack on Pearl Harbor.
(HN, 4/4/99)
1884 Dec 30, Tojo Hideki, Japanese Prime Minister during WWII, was born.
(HN, 12/30/98)
1884 Japan reportedly discovered the Senkaku islands. In 1895 it ascertained that the Senkaku islands were “terra nullius," controlled or claimed by no one, and annexed them.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.53)
1884 Kanehiro Takaki linked the Japanese sailor’s diet of polished rice to the disease beriberi. He found that the addition of mild and vegetables to their diet eliminated the disease.
(MT, Fall ‘96, p.4)
1885 Feb 9, The 1st Japanese arrived in Hawaii.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1885 Apr 18, The Sino-Japanese war ended.
(HN, 4/18/98)
1885 Dec 22, Ito Hirobumi began serving as the first prime minister of Japan. He also served as the 5th (1892-96), 7th (1898) and 10th (1900-1901) PM of Japan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%C5%8D_Hirobumi)
1885 The first Shakespeare production in Japan was a Kabuki adaptation of a Japanese novel inspired by a Charles Lamb narrative based on "The Merchant of Venice."
(SFC,12/23/97, p.E6)
1887 Toyohara Chikanobu created his woodblock print "Excursion to View Cherry Blossoms by the Sumida River."
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.C1)
1887-1895 A group of five uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, known as Senkaku by Japan, or Diaoyu by China, belonged to the province of Taiwan.
(Econ, 5/18/13, p.50)
1888 Jul, Mount Bandai erupted and left 461 people dead.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A17)
1889 The first real constitution was promulgated.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1889 Nintendo of Japan was founded by the great-grandfather of President Hiroshi Yamauchi to produce hand-painted Japanese flower cards. A book about Nintendo was later written by David Sheff.
(Hem, 4/96, p.29)(SFC, 10/11/97, p.A19)
1889-1961 Soetsu Yanagi, Japanese artist. The philosophically inclined aesthete and writer created the concept of folk art and promoted its taste among the Japanese.
(SFC, 4/28/96, B-7)
1890 Jun 10, Sessue Hayakawa, Japanese actor (Bridge on River Kwai, Hell to Eternity), was born.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1890 Oct 30, Japan’s Emperor Meiji issued the Imperial Rescript on Education to illustrate the moral principles that each citizen was to follow.
(Econ, 1/22/05, p.39)(www.danzan.com/HTML/ESSAYS/meiji.html)
1890 Nov 29, The Imperial Diet, forerunner of Japan's national legislature, opened its first session, four days after its members were summoned by Emperor Meiji.
(AP, 11/29/99)
1890 The Imperial Hotel opened as a 3-story wooden Victorian that became a showcase for Western ways. A 2nd art deco version was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. A 3rd modern version with towers was built in 1968.
(www.imperialhotel.co.jp)(SFEC, 12/5/99, p.T3)
1890's Cultured pearls were developed in Japan.
(WSJ, 5/14/96, p.A-17)
1891 Oct 28, An earthquake struck Mino-Owari, Japan and killed 7,300.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1891-1921 Japanese dishes imported the US during this period were marked with only the word “Nippon." After 1921 US law required the name of the exporting country to be in English.
(SFC, 3/16/05, p.G4)
1893 Kokichi Mikimoto invented a method of culturing pearls. He opened a pearl-growing farm to attract tourist customers and hired ama (female pearl divers) to pretend to dive for the cultured pearls.
(MT, Sum. '98, p.4)
1893 China’s Empress Dowager Cixi bestowed on a doctor in the imperial household the right to collect a prized medicinal herb on the Diaoyu islands, known to Japan as the Senkaku islands.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.53)
1894 Jul 23, Japanese troops took over the Korean imperial palace in Seoul.
(AP, 7/23/97)(HN, 7/23/98)
1894 Jul 25, Japanese forces sank the British steamer Kowshing which was bringing Chinese reinforcements to Korea.
(HN, 7/25/98)
1894 Aug 1, The First Sino-Japanese War erupted, the result of a dispute over control of Korea; Japan's army routed the Chinese.
(AP, 8/1/04)
1894 Sep 15, Japan defeated China in the Battle of Ping Yang (Pyongyang).
(http://24.1911encyclopedia.org/C/CH/CHINKIANG.htm)
1894 A ship of the Tsar's navy visited Tokyo on the occasion of the 25th wedding anniversary of Emperor Meiji. It was the last Russian ship to visit until 1997.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A12)
1894-1895 Japan went to war against China.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1895 Apr 17, China and Japan signed the peace treaty of Shimonoseki. This followed a war over control of the Korean peninsula. Taiwan and the islands that it controlled were taken over by Japan (see May 8).
(HN, 4/17/98)(Econ, 1/15/05, Survey p.4)(Econ, 5/18/13, p.50)
1895 Apr 23, Russia, France, and Germany forced Japan to return the Liaodong peninsula to China.
(HN, 4/23/99)
1895 May 8, China ceded Taiwan to Japan under the Apr 17 Treaty of Shimonoseki. This followed a war over control of the Korean peninsula. Japan began administering the Senkaku Islands between Okinawa and Taiwan following the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Japanese occupation ended in 1945. The US took over after WW II but returned them to Japan in 1972. China later disputed Japanese control of the islands.
(SFEC, 10/8/96, A8)(Econ, 1/15/05, Survey p.4)(SSFC, 2/18/07, p.G5)(Econ, 9/25/10, p.54)
1895 The Heian Shrine was built in Kyoto, Japan as a 2/3 replica of the Imperial Palace. It was built to commemorate the 1,100th anniversary of Kyoto and exhibits regal Heian architecture.
(Hem., 2/96, p.57)
1895 Japan’s Nara National Museum was established.
(Hem, 9/04, p.46)
1896 Jun 15, The Meiji Sanriku tsunami struck Japan and caused some 27,000 deaths.
(CW, Spring ‘99, p.28)(http://eklektikos.org/Science.html)
1897 Japan’s Kyoto National Museum was established.
(Hem, 9/04, p.46)
1898 Oct 17, Shinichi Suzuki (d.1998), music teacher, was born.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1898 Lafcadio Hearn, renowned writer on Japan, authored “Exotics and Retrospective." One chapter on insect musicians listed prices for the 12 most popular singing insects.
(NH, 3/1/04, p.70)
1899 Jun 11, Yasonari Kawabata (d.1972), Japanese novelist (Thousand Cranes)(Nobel 1968), was born in Osaka.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1899 Japan passed a statute that discriminated against the northern Ainu people. It described them as aborigines in need of assimilation. The law was repealed in 1997.
(SFC, 5/9/97, p.E3)(Econ, 7/12/08, p.54)
1900 Jul, Mount Adatara erupted and left 72 people dead.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A17)
1900 Aug 14, International forces from 8 nations, including 2,000 US Marines and Japanese troops, entered Beijing to put down the Boxer Rebellion, which was aimed at purging China of foreigners and foreign influence.
(AP, 8/14/01)(Econ, 12/18/10, p.75)
1901 Mar 17, Eisaku Sato, premier of Japan (Nobel 1974), was born.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1901 Apr 29, Hirohito, emperor of Japan (1926-1989), was born.
(HN, 4/29/99)(MC, 4/29/02)
1901 Nov 25, Japanese Prince Ito arrived in Russia to seek concessions in Korea.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1902 cMar 19, Japan formed an alliance with England.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1902 Mar 20, France and Russia acknowledged the Anglo-Japanese alliance, but asserted their right to protect their interests in China and Korea.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1902 Aug, Mount Izu-Torishima erupted and left 125 people dead.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A17)
1904 Jan 6, A Japanese railway in Korea refused to transport Russian troops.
(HN, 1/6/99)
1904 Feb 4, Russia offered Korea to Japan and defended its right to occupy Manchuria.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1904 Feb 6, Japan's foreign minister severed all ties with Russia, citing delaying tactics in negotiations over Manchuria.
(HN, 2/6/99)
1904 Feb 8, The Russo-Japanese War began. In a surprise attack at Port Arthur, Korea, the Japanese disabled seven Russian warships. During the war, Russia suffered a series of stunning defeats to Japan; the fighting ended with an agreement mediated by President Theodore Roosevelt, who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
(HN, 2/7/97)(AP, 2/8/04)
1904 Feb 9, Japanese troops landed near Seoul, Korea, after disabling two Russian cruisers.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1904 Feb 10, Russia and Japan declared war on each other.
(HN, 2/10/97)
1904 Feb 23, Japan guaranteed Korean sovereignty in exchange for military assistance.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1904 Mar 7, The Japanese bombed the Russian town of Vladivostok.
(HN, 3/7/98)
1904 Mar 15, Three hundred Russians were killed as the Japanese shelled Port Arthur in Korea.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1904 Mar 24, Vice Adm. Tojo sank seven Russian ships as the Japanese strengthened their blockade of Port Arthur.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1904 Aug 6, The Japanese army in Korea surrounded a Russian army retreating to Manchuria.
(HN, 8/6/98)
1904 Aug 24, In the field battle at Liaoyang, China, some 200,000 Japanese faced 150,000 Russians. The Japanese defeated the Russians in October.
(MC, 8/24/02)(PC, 1992, p.654)
1904 Sep 19, Gen. Nogi assaulted Port Arthur: 16,000 Japanese casualties.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1904 Sep 26, Lafcadio Hearn (b.1850), Greece-born, Irish-American travel writer, died in Japan. He moved to Japan in 1890 and is especially well-known for his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories, such as “Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things" (1904). In 2009 Christopher Benfey edited “Lafcadio Hearn: American Writings."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafcadio_Hearn)
1904 Nov 28, The pivotal capture by the Japanese of 203 Meter Hill overlooking Port Arthur occurred during the bloodiest battle of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. The battle of November 28-December 5, 1904, resulted in Japanese forces taking the strategic 203 Meter Hill, allowing them to bombard and sink the Russian fleet in the harbor at Port Arthur. Russia surrendered the city of Port Arthur to Japan on January 1, 1905.
(HNQ, 9/20/99)
1904 Dec 5, Japanese destroyed Russian fleet at Port Arthur in Korea.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1904 Dec 16, Japanese warships quit Port Arthur in order to cut off the Russian Baltic fleet's advance.
(HN, 12/16/98)
1904 In Japan Nippon Toki Kaisha Ltd. began manufacturing Noritake porcelain.
(SFC, 3/3/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 11/9/05, p.G9)
1904-1905 Japan went to war against Russia.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1905 Jan 2, After a six-month siege, Russians surrendered Port Arthur to the Japanese.
(HN, 1/2/99)
1905 Jan 27, Russian General Kuropatkin took the offensive in Manchuria. The Japanese under General Oyama suffered heavy casualties.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1905 Feb 21, The Mukden campaign of the Russo-Japanese War, began. In one of the largest battles ever fought up to that time, some 750,000 Japanese and Russian soldiers engaged in the battle for Mukden in the Russo-Japanese War. The 3-week battle pitted 400,000 Japanese and 350,000 Russians stretched over a front extending more than 90 miles. More than 100,000 were left dead or injured as the Russians began a retreat toward Harbin on March 9.
(HN, 2/21/98)(HNQ, 4/23/99)
1905 Feb 22, Japan 1st claimed the volcanic islets they called Takeshima, located between Japan and Korea, where they are known as Tokdo (Dokdo). Japan illegally incorporated Dokdo as its territory through an administrative measure of one of its prefectures.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.42)(Econ, 4/9/05, p.14)
1905 Feb 27, Japanese pushed Russians back in Manchuria, and cross the Sha River.
(HN, 2/27/98)
1905 Mar 10, Japanese Army captured Mukden, later Shenyang, China.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1905 Apr 16, A Japanese baseball team from Waseda Univ. in Tokyo came to the West Coast for a 3-month 26-game tour. They played their opening game against Stanford and lost 9-1. Their manager, Prof. Iso Abe, is called the "father of modern baseball in Japan." They won 9 of their 26 games.
(SFC, 10/31/96, p.C1)
1905 May 27, Japanese fleet destroyed the Russian East Sea fleet in Straits of Tushima. [see May 28]
(MC, 5/27/02)
1905 May 28, A Japanese fleet under Adm. Heihachiro Togo defeated a Russian fleet under Adm. Zinovi Petrovich Rozhestvensky in the Battle of Tsushima. The Russian fleet lost 22 ships out of 38 to the Japanese in the Battle of Tsushima Straits. In 2002 Constantine Pleshakov authored "The Tsar’s Last Armada: The Epic Voyage to the Battle of Tsushima."
(WSJ, 9/6/00, p.A27)(ON, 5/04, p.9)
1905 Jun 8, US Pres. Theodore Roosevelt offered to act as a mediator in the Russo-Japanese War.
(AP, 6/8/05)
1905 Jun 10, Japan and Russia agreed to peace talks brokered by President Theodore Roosevelt.
(HN, 6/10/98)
1905 Jul 29, US Secretary of War William Howard Taft, under the approval of Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, and PM of Japan Katsura Taro signed the Taft-Katsura Agreement, which reinforced American and Japanese influence and spelled doom for Korean sovereignty. Japan agreed not to interfere in the ongoing US rape of the Philippines in return for the US agreement not to interfere with Japan’s forthcoming rape of Korea.
(AH, 10/07, p.56)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft-Katsura_Agreement)
1905 Sep 5, The Russian-Japanese War ended as representatives of the combating empires, meeting in New Hampshire, signed the Treaty of Portsmouth. Japan achieved virtually all of its original war aims.
(AP, 9/5/97)(HN, 9/5/98)
1905 Japan imposed protectorate status on Korea. Hirobumi Ito was installed in Seoul as resident general and took charge of all governmental affairs. Japan named Durham White Stevens as the foreign advisor to Kojong.
(AH, 10/07, p.56)
1905 Chinese revolutionary Song Jiaren met with Sun Yat-Sen in Tokyo and became a founding member of the Revolutionary Alliance, a forerunner of the Nationalist Party.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.67)
1906 Oct 11, The San Francisco school board ordered the segregation of Oriental schoolchildren, inciting Japanese outrage. To counter local prejudice David Starr Jordan, Stanford’s 1st president, David Pike Bowie, a San Mateo Japanophile, and Japanese General Consul Kisaburo Ueno soon formed a chapter of the Japan Society to foster bilateral understanding. The order was later rescinded at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt, who promised to curb future Japanese immigration to the United States.
(HN, 10/11/98)(SFC, 10/29/05, p.B7)(AP, 10/11/06)
1906 Nov 17, Soichiro Honda, founder and CEO of Honda Motor Co., was born in Japan.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1907 Jan 23, Hediki Yukawa, Japanese physicist (Nobel 1949), was born.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1907 Feb 18, In SF according to an agreement between Mayor Schmidt, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt and the SF School Board, Japanese children under 16 were to be admitted to the city’s public schools, skilled and unskilled laborers from Japan were to be banned from entering the US and American laborers were to be excluded from Japan.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, DB p.58)
1907 Mar 14, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an executive order designed to prevent Japanese laborers from immigrating to the United States as part of a "gentlemen's agreement" with Japan.
(AP, 3/14/07)
1907 Mar 22, Russians troops completed the evacuation of Manchuria in the face of advancing Japanese forces.
(HN, 3/22/97)(AP, 3/22/99)
1907 In Korea the Righteous Army under the command of Yi In-yeong massed 10,000 troops to liberate Seoul and defeat the Japanese. The Army came within 12 km of Seoul but could not withstand the Japanese counter-offensive. The Righteous Army was no match for two infantry divisions of 20,000 Japanese soldiers backed by warships moored near Inchon. The doomed revolt ultimately left some 14,000 Koreans dead as well as 160 Japanese.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righteous_army)(AH, 10/07, p.57)
1908 Feb 24, Japan officially agreed to restrict immigration to the U.S.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1908 Mar 16 The Chinese released the Japanese steamship Tatsu Maru.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1908 Mar 23, In San Francisco Durham White Stevens (56), Japan’s foreign advisor to Korea, was shot by a Korean nationalist. Stevens died 2 days later from internal injuries. Chang In Hwan and Chun Myung Un had attacked Stevens as he approached the ferry landing. Chun was released from prison in June, 1908, and fled the country. Chang was convicted of 2nd degree manslaughter and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was paroled after 10 years.
(AH, 10/07, p.54-58)
1908 Apr 5, Japanese Army reached the Yalu River as the Russians retreated.
(HN, 5/5/97)
1908 Jun, Japanese immigration to Brazil began when 781 Japanese arrived on the ship Kasato Maru. Nearly 800 Japanese set sail on the "Kasato Maru" ship from Kobe in search of better living conditions and arrived at Santos Port only to find a grueling life working on farmland.
(SFC, 7/4/00, p.A8)(AFP, 4/24/08)
1909 Oct 26, Hirobumi Ito (b.1841), Japan’s resident general in Seoul, was gunned down in Harbin in Russian-controlled Manchuria by Korean nationalist Chang Ahn Gun (aka Ahn Jung-geun).
(http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/INV_JED/ITO_HIROBUMI_PRINCE_1841_1909_.html)(Econ, 11/23/13, p.48)
1908 George Trumbull Ladd, president of Yale Univ., authored “In Korea with Marquis Ito." Ladd endorsed Japan’s protectorate status over Korea whose people he described as hopelessly corrupt and incompetent.
(AH, 10/07, p.57)
1908 Monosodium glutamate (MSG) was isolated from seaweed. Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda identified umami, a taste imparted by glutamic acid and associated with monosodium glutamate. Umami was later recognized as a fifth fundamental taste.
(SFC, 10/11/97, p.E3)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.71)
1909 In the Kando convention Japan gave China a chunk of Korean Manchuria in return for concessions.
(Econ, 3/31/07, SR p.8)
1909 Michio Suzuki started a loom works. The company made its first motorcycle in 1954.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1910 Jan 21, Japan rejected the American proposal to neutralize ownership of the Manchurian Railway.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1910 Mar 23, Akira Kurosawa, Japanese film director (Living, Rashomon, The Seven Samurai), was born in Tokyo, Japan.
(HN, 3/23/01)(SS, 3/23/02)
1910 Jun 24, The Japanese army invaded Korea.
(HN, 6/24/98)
1910 Aug 22, Japan annexed Korea following 5 years as a protectorate and ruled for 35 years.
(WSJ, 10/14/95, p.A-1)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(AP, 8/22/06)
1910 Kida Sadakichi wrote "The Teaching of National History."
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34)
1910 Namikawa Sosuke (b.1847), top Japanese cloisonné artist, died.
(WSJ, 9/24/04, p.W10)(www.widener.edu/?pageId=436&vobId=1040&pm=566)
1910-1945 Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula.
(SFC, 4/22/98, p.A11)
1911 The Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra (To-Phil) was formed.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.A1)
1912 Mar 27, The first cherry blossom trees, a gift from Japan, were planted in Washington, D.C. First Lady Helen Herron Taft and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted two Yoshina cherry trees on the northern bank of the Potomac Tidal Basin, near the Jefferson Memorial. The event was held in celebration of a gift, by the Japanese government, of 3,020 trees to the US government for planting along Washington's Potomac River.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1912 Jul 30, Emperor Meiji died. Under Meiji the country had moved from a preindustrial state to a leading modern power. His son Yoshihito followed his father to the throne. With him the Meiji era ended officially and the Taisho era began.
(WSJ, 8/30/00, p.A24)(www.artelino.com/articles/emperor_meiji.asp)
1912 Sep 28, The SS Kichemaru disappeared in a storm off the Japanese coast and 1,000 died.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1912 The Sumitomo Bank was founded.
(WSJ, 10/15/99, p.A10)
1912-1926 The Taisho Period was named after the reign of Emperor Taisho, the father of Hirohito.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(WSJ, 1/29/02, p.A18)
1914 Jan, Mount Sakurajima erupted and left 58 people dead.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A17)
1914 Aug 23, The Emperor of Japan sided with the Allies and declared war on Germany in World War I.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(AP, 8/23/97)(HN, 8/23/98)
1914 Nov 7, Japan attacked a German concession on Chinese peninsula of Shanghai.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1914 In western Japan the Takarazuka Revue, a female musical theater troupe, was founded.
(SFEC, 9/8/96, DB p.55)
1914 Japan occupied the Caroline Islands and received a League of Nations mandate over them in 1920.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Islands)
1914-1996 Masao Maruyama, prof. of political science at the Univ. of Tokyo (1950-1971). He formed the pillar of postwar anti-establishment thought.
(SFC, 8/20/96, p.A18)
1915 Jan 15, Japan claimed economic control of China.
(MC, 1/15/02)
1915 Japan demanded major concessions from China.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1915 In Japan Tokuji Hayakawa developed an improved mechanical pencil. His company became known as the Sharp Corp.
(Econ, 3/5/11, p.71)(http://tinyurl.com/4thh7ke)
1916 Jan 3, Three armored Japanese cruisers were ordered to guard the Suez Canal.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1917 Feb 28, AP reported that Mexico and Japan would ally with Germany if US enters WW I.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1917 Nov 2, In the Lansing-Ishii Agreement the US recognized Japan's privileges in China. US Sec. of State Robert Lansing and Viscount Ishii Kikujiro of Japan, a special envoy to Washington, worked to resolve tensions and conflicts between Japan and the US during WW I. The Lansing-Ishii Agreement was formally annulled in April 1923. Japan and the U.S. continued to disagree on their respective roles in the Pacific.
(www.fact-index.com/l/la/lansing_ishii_agreement.html)
1917 In Japan the Nikon Corporation was established.
(PR, Neopath Corp., 7/2/96)
1917 The 2 main soy sauce families of Noda, the Mogi and Takanashi, banded together to form Noda Shoyu Co. Ltd. and became the premier soy sauce maker in Japan. In 1980 the company was renamed Kikkoman.
(SFC, 1/3/00, p.B7)
1917 In Japan the Toyo Toki (Oriental Ceramic) company was founded and introduced Western-style sit-down lavatories to Japan. The company, later know as Toto, grew to become one of the world’s biggest bathroom and kitchen ceramics companies in the world.
(Econ, 7/25/09, p.66)
1918 Jul 12, A Japanese battleship exploded in the Bay of Tokayama and some 500 people were killed.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1918 Japan's first parliamentary cabinet was formed.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1919 Mar 1, The Korean coalition proclaimed their independence from Japan.
(HN, 3/1/98)
1919 May 4, Some 3,000 young scholars from 13 colleges and universities rallied at Tiananmen Square to protest the loss of Shandong province to the Japanese under the Versailles Treaty at the Paris Peace Conference. German concessions in China were bequeathed to Japan. Among the protestors were people who helped form the Communist Party.
(SFC, 6/25/98, p.A8)(WSJ, 5/17/99, p.A21)(Econ, 5/3/08, p.13)
1919 Japan’s Mitsubishi Bank was founded. In 1996 it joined with the Bank of Tokyo and in 2005 became part of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
(WSJ, 9/23/08, p.C1)
1919 The Japanese firm Olympus was founded as a microscope maker.
(Econ, 10/22/11, p.78)
1920 Apr 5, Japanese forces landed in Vladivostok.
(HN, 5/5/97)
1921 Jan 26, Akio Morita (d.1999), CEO of Sony Corp., was born in Kasugaya, Japan.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1921 Nov 4, Takasji Hara, premier of Japan, was murdered.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1921 Nov 25, Hirohito became regent of Japan.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1921 US law required that the name of exporting countries be marked in English on all imported wares. Prior to this Japanese porcelain was marked “Nippon."
(SFC, 7/20/05, p.G4)
1922 Feb 6, The Washington Disarmament Conference came to an end with signature of final treaty forbidding fortification of the Aleutian Islands for 14 years. The US, UK, France, Italy & Japan signed the Washington naval arms limitation.
(AP, 12/29/97)(HN, 2/6/99)(MC, 2/6/02)
1922 The Imperial Hotel, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opened in Tokyo. It withstood the 1923 earthquake.
(SSFC, 10/9/05, p.M6)
1923 Sep 1, The Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by the Great Kanto earthquake that claimed 99,000-143,000 lives. The 7.9-8.3 quake off Tokyo's shoreline killed some 99,300 people.
(AP, 9/1/97)(www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/eq/faq/world.htm)
1923 Sep, In Japan an orgy of opportunistic anti-Korean slaughter followed the Sep 1 Great Kanto earthquake.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.59)
1923 Japan’s Norinchukin Bank was set up as a quasi-public institution to manage the deposits of millions of farmers, fisherman and forest workers. By 2006 it was Japan’s 4th largest commercial bank with assets of $525 billion.
(Econ, 2/18/06, p.72)
1924 Feb 26, Noboru Takeshita, Japanese PM (1987-89), was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1924 Jun 26, Crown Prince Hirohito (22) married the daughter of Prince Kuniyoshi Kuni, Nagako (20).
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A20)
1924 In Japan Matsutaro Shoriki, chief of Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police, acquired the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. By 1937 its circulation rose from 58,000 to 800,000 becoming the largest newspaper in Tokyo.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.60)
1925 Mar 2, Japan's House of Representatives recognized male suffrage.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1925 Mar 12, Leo Esaki, [Esaki Reona], physicist (Tunnel effect-Nobel 1973), was born in Japan.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1925 The Nomura brokerage house was established in Osaka, Japan. In 1927 it opened an office in NYC.
(WSJ, 6/8/06, p.C3)
1926 May, Mount Tokachidake erupted and left 144 people dead.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A17)
1926 Dec 25, Hirohito became emperor of Japan, succeeding his father, Emperor Yoshihito (Emperor Taisho) to the Chrysanthemum Throne. Hirohito was formally enthroned almost two years later. This marked the beginning of the "bright peace" or Showa Period (1926-1989).
(AP, 12/25/97)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)
1926 Nozaki Nobuchika, Japanese scholar, authored “Explanatory Notes on Auspicious Designs," a work on the symbolism of Chinese art.
(WSJ, 11/22/06, p.D8)
1926-1989 The Showa Period.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)
1927 Mar 7, Earthquake measuring 8 on Richter scale struck Tango, Japan.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1927 Nov, The US received 58 Japanese dolls sent by the Japanese government in exchange for 12,739 blue-eyed dolls sent by American children to the children of Japan.
(SFC, 7/24/97, p.A17)
1927 Goto Shu'ichi wrote "Japanese Archaeology."
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.35)
1927 The Japan Sumo Association (JSA) was founded.
(Econ, 2/16/08, p.50)
1927 Chio Uno (1898-1996) scandalized Japanese society by cutting her hair short. In 1935 she wrote "Confessions of Love" based on the many love affairs of painter Seiji Togo. She also wrote "Ohan" and in 1936 founded Style, Japan’s first fashion magazine. She was awarded a title by the emperor and named a "person of cultural merit" in 1990.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A21)
1927 Japan's Imperial Aeronautics Association launched a competition for a non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean. The Ashi Shimbun newspaper offered a $25,000 prize.
(ON, 1/03, p.10)
1927 Japan’s Nippon Trust Bank and Mitsubishi Trust Bank were founded. They joined together in 2001 and in 2005 became part of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
(WSJ, 9/23/08, p.C1)
1928 Nov 10, Japanese Emperor Hirohito was enthroned, almost two years after his ascension.
(AP, 11/10/07)
1928 Nov 19, The 1st issue of Time magazine featured Japanese Emperor Hirohito on cover.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1928 In 1928 the Japanese army unilaterally instigated armed clashes in China's Manchuria region to justify full-scale intervention.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1929 The Univ. of Mich. men's baseball team under Fielding H. Yost (1871-1946) won 11 of 13 games on its first tour of Japan and brought back a Japanese suit of armor as an award from Meiji Univ.
(MT, Sum. '98, p.24)
1930 Apr 22, The United States, Britain and Japan signed the London Naval Treaty, which regulated submarine warfare and limited shipbuilding.
(AP, 4/22/97)
1930 Nov 14, Right-wing militarists attempted to assassinate Japanese Premier Hamagushi.
(HN, 11/14/98)
1930 Nov 25, Earthquake killed 187 in Shizouka, Japan.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1930 Dec 14, US Customs agents in San Francisco seized $56,000 worth of opium from the Japanese liner Asama Maru as festivities marked the liner’s 1st year of trans-Pacific service.
(SFC, 12/9/05, p.F6)
1930 The Soka Gakkai, Values Creation Society, was founded on Buddhist principles. By 1999 the organization was present in 8 million Japanese households.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A25)
1930 Lt. Col. Kingoro Hashimoto formed the Sakurakai (Cherry Society), dedicated to establishing a military-controlled social structure in Japan. Consisting mostly of midlevel officers, the Cherry Society planned a March 1931 coup d'etat that was aborted because of internal disagreement. In 1937, Hashimoto tried to trigger war with Britain by shelling a Royal Navy gunboat in Chinese waters.
(HNQ, 1/5/01)
1930 Minoru Shirota, a Japanese researcher, discovered Lactobacillus casei shirota.
(Econ Sp, 12/13/03, p.11)
1930 In Taiwan hundreds of indigenous Seediq people, led by Mauna Rudao, revolted against Japanese overlords. Over a hundred Japanese were killed in what came to be known as the Wushe incident. This triggered a brutal Japanese response. The story was brought to life in the 2011 Taiwanese film “Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale," directed by Wei Te-sheng.
(Econ, 9/17/11, p.40)
1931 Feb 12, Japan's first television broadcast was a baseball game.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1931 May 18, Japanese pilot Seiji Yoshihara crashed his plane in the Pacific Ocean while trying to be the first to cross the ocean nonstop. He was picked up seven hours later by a passing ship.
(HN, 5/18/99)
1931 Aug, Clyde Panghorn and Hugh Herndon landed at Japan's Tachikawa Airport and were arraigned for landing illegally. They paid fines of $1,050 apiece to be released.
(ON, 1/03, p.10)
1931 Sep 18-1931 Sep 19, The Mukden Incident was initiated by the Japanese Kwangtung Army in Mukden. It involved an explosion along the Japanese-controlled South Manchurian Railway. It was soon followed by the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the eventual establishment of the Japanese-dominated state of Manchukuo. The neutrality of the area, and the ability of Japan to defend its colony in Korea, was threatened in the 1920s by efforts at unification of China. Within three months Japanese troops had spread out throughout Manchuria. The occupation ended at the conclusion of the Second World War in 1945.
(HNQ, 11/27/98)
1931 Sep 19, Japan invaded Manchuria and established a puppet state called Manchukuo, which lasted until the end of WWII. Nobosuke Kishi, later PM of Japan, oversaw the development of Japanese-occupied Manchuria in the 1930s.
(SSFC, 9/23/12, p.A4)(Econ, 5/18/13, p.26)
1931 Sep 28, In Peking some 200,000 demonstrators demanded a declaration of war on Japan.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1931 Oct 4, Aerial circus star Clyde Pangborn and playboy Hugh Herndon, Jr. set off in Miss Veedol to complete the first nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean from Sabishiro Beach in Misawa City, Japan. A young boy gave Panghorn 5 apples from Misawa City.
(ON, 1/03, p.10)(www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7495)
1931 Oct 5, Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, Jr. belly landed Miss Veedol, a Bellanca CH-200 monoplane, in Wenatchee, Wa., to complete the first nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean from Japan. They won a $25,000 prize from the Japanese Ashi Shimbun newspaper. Panghorn sent apple cuttings from Wenatchee's Richard Delicious apples to Japan which were soon distributed across Japan.
(ON, 1/03, p.10)(www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7495)
1931 Nov 20, Japan and China rejected the League of Council terms for Manchuria at Geneva.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1931 Dec 9, Japanese army attacked the Chinese province of Jehol.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1931 Ten years of comparative peace ended when Japan attacked and seized Manchuria to ensure a supply of natural resources. The Japanese army invaded Manchuria without its own government's consent.
(TMC, 1994, p.1931)(SFC, 7/18/96, p.E6)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A22)(HN, 2/18/98)
1931 A US all-star baseball team came to Japan and played before capacity crowds. It was organized by sportswriter Fred Lieb and National League umpire "Beans" Reardon.
(www.ebbets.com/product/USTourOfJapan1931Ballcap/Ballcaps)(Econ, 12/22/12, p.60)
1932 Jan 2, Japanese forces in Manchuria set up a puppet government known as Manchukuo.
(HN, 1/2/99)
1932 Jan 28, The Japanese attacked Shanghai, China, and declared martial law.
(HN, 1/28/99)
1932 Feb 20, Japanese troops occupied Tunhua, China.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1932 May 15, Japan’s PM Tsuyoshi Inukai (b.1855) and his family were assassinated by young right-wing naval officers. His son Ken Inukai, watching a Sumo wrestling match with Charlie Chaplin, survived.
(WSJ, 8/3/06, p.D5)
1932 Dec 8, Japan told the League of Nations that it had no control over her designs in China.
(HN, 12/8/98)
1932 The Japanese silent film "I was Born, But..." (Umarete wa Mita Keredo) was produced. It was directed by Yasuhiro Ozu. Tow little boys rebel when they discover that their father has to kowtow to his boss.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, DB p.50)
1932-1945 In 1994 Sheldon H. Harris (d.2002), historian, authored the book: "Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-1945, and the American Cover-Up."
(SFC, 9/9/02, p.A22)
1932-1968 The Chisso Corporation, located in Kumamoto Japan, dumped an estimated 27 tons of mercury compounds into Minamata Bay. The name Minamata Disease was coined in 1956 to identify villagers suffering dizzy spells with troubles walking and speaking. Growing numbers fell into convulsions, wasted away and died.
(www.american.edu/TED/MINAMATA.HTM)
1933 Jan 3, The Japanese took Shuangyashan, China, killing 500 in the process.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1933 Jan 21, The League of Nations rejected Japanese terms for settlement with China.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1933 Feb 17, The League of Nations censured Japan in a worldwide broadcast. The rise of militaristic nationalism led Japan down the road to Pearl Harbor and World War II.
(HN, 2/17/98)
1933 Feb 24, The League of Nations told the Japanese to pull out of Manchuria.
(www.indiana.edu/~league/1933.htm)
1933 Mar 2, Most powerful earthquake in 180 years hit Japan.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1933 Mar 27, Japan left the League of Nations.
(www.indiana.edu/~league/1933.htm)
1933 Nov 29, Japan began the persecution of communists.
(MC, 11/29/01)
1933 Dec 23, Akihito, emperor of Japan (1989- ), was born.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1933 Dec 27, Stalin called Japan a grave danger.
(HN, 12/27/98)
1933 Crown Prince Akihito was born.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A20)
1933 In Japan Kazuma Tateisi founded the OMRON Corporation. By 2006 its automated control technologies approached the level of human knowledge and judgement.
(Econ, 10/8/05, Survey p.2)(Econ, 12/24/05, p.54)
1933 Japan left the League of Nations.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)
1933 Japan’s Sanwa Bank was founded. In 2001 it joined with Tokai Bank Tokyo Trust Bank to form UFJ Holdings. In 2005 it became part of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
(WSJ, 9/23/08, p.C1)
1934 May 29, Heihachiro Tojo, Japanese Admiral (Russian-Japanese War), died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1934 Sep 21, A typhoon struck Honshu Island, Japan, and killed 4,000.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1934 Nov 2, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, and Connie Mack headlined the roster of 15 stars who visited Japan to display their baseball skills.
(http://miscbaseball.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/babe-ruths-visit-to-japan-in-1934/)
1934 Nov 23, U.S. and Britain agreed on a 5-5-3 naval ratio with both countries allowed to build five million tons of naval ships while Japan can only build three; Japan denounced the treaty.
(HN, 11/23/98)
1934 Dec 6, American Ambassador Davis said Japan was a grave security threat in the Pacific.
(HN, 12/6/98)
1934 Dec 29, Japan renounced the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
(AP, 12/29/97)
1934 Japan began exporting three-wheelers (tuk-tuks) to Thailand.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw)
1934-1991 Shiro Kuramata, Japanese designer. His work was marked by the use of disparate materials, the play of light and solid, and a sense of the antic.
(WSJ, 9/17/97, p.A12)
1935 Jan 27, The League of Nations majority favored depriving Japan of mandates.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1935 Jan 31, The Soviet premier told Japan to get out of Manchuria.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1935 Mar 22, Russia sold the Chinese Eastern Railway to Japan.
(HN, 3/22/97)
1935 Sep 1, Seiji Ozawa, conductor (Boston Symphony Orchestra), was born in Hoten, Manchuria (now Shenyang, Liaoning, China).
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Ozawa-Seiji.htm
(MC, 9/1/02)
1935 Nov 9, Japanese troops invaded Shanghai, China.
(HN, 11/9/98)
1935 Chio Uno wrote "Confessions of Love" based on the many love affairs of painter Seiji Togo. She also wrote "Ohan."
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A21)
1935 In Japan the Tsukji fish market opened in Tokyo. It grew to become the largest fish market in the world. In 2004 Ted Bestor authored “Tsukji: The Fish market at the Center of the World."
(Econ, 4/5/08, p.70)
1936 Jan 15, In London, Japan quit all naval talks after being denied equality.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1936 Feb 26, Japanese military troops marched into Tokyo to conduct a coup and assassinate political leaders.
(HN, 2/26/99)(SC, 2/26/02)
1936 Feb 28, The Japanese Army restored order in Tokyo and arrested officers involved in a coup.
(HN, 2/28/99)
1936 Mar 19, The USSR signed a pact of assistance with Mongolia against Japan.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1936 May 21, In Japan police arrested a Tokyo a geisha named Sada Abe (31), charging that she knifed to death her unfaithful lover, Kichizo Ishida, and cut off his genitals, which she carried around in her sash for 3 days before being caught.
(SFEC,12/21/97, Z1 p.5)
1936 Nov 15, Nazi Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Komintern pact.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1936 Nov 22, 1,200 were killed in a battle between Japanese and Mongolians in China.
(HN, 11/22/98)
1936 Dec 12, Chang Hsueh-liang (d.2001 at 101), a northern military commander (aka Zhang Xueliang), kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek to force him into an alliance to repel Japanese forces. The Xi’an incident coup ended after 2 weeks. The incident led the Nationalists and the Communists to make peace so that the two could form a united front against the increasing threat posed by Japan. Chang was later court-martialed and sentenced to prison. He was taken to Taiwan in 1949 and kept under house arrest.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.B2)(Econ, 5/9/09, p.86)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi%27an_Incident)
1936 Dec 12, Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek declared war on Japan.
(MC, 12/12/01)
1936 Chio Uno and founded Style, Japan's first fashion magazine. She was awarded a title by the emperor and named a "person of cultural merit" in 1990.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A21)
1936 Soetsu Yanagi founded the Japan Folk Arts Museum in Tokyo.
(SFC, 4/28/96, B-7)
1937 Jul 7, A conflict between troops of China and Japan came to be known as the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. The incident occurred near the Marco Polo Bridge outside of Beijing and eventually escalated into warfare between the two countries and was the prelude to the Pacific side of World War II.
(HNQ, 9/22/99)
1937 Jul 29, Ryutaro Hashimoto was born.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A20)
1937 Jul 29, Japanese troops occupied Peking and Tientsin. [see Aug 8]
(MC, 7/29/02)
1937 Aug 8, The Japanese Army occupied Beijing, China.
(HN, 8/8/98)
1937 Aug 12, Kenichie Horie (23), a Japanese auto parts salesman, sailed into the San Francisco Bay aboard a 19-foot sloop, “The Mermaid," after a 90 voyage from Japan. He hailed a Coast Guard patrol boat and was towed to the St. Francis Yacht Harbor.
(SSFC, 8/12/12, DB p.42)
1937 Aug 13, Japanese attacked Shanghai.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1937 Aug 14, China declared war on Japan.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1937 Aug 25, Japanese fleet blockaded the Chinese coast.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1937 Sep 25, In China Lin Biao masterminded the ambush and annihilation of more than 1,000 Japanese troops, at Pingxiangguan pass in Shanxi province.
(AP, 7/16/07)
1937 Dec 1, Japan recognized Spain's Franco govt.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1937 Dec 12, Japanese aircraft sank the U.S. gunboat Panay on China's Yangtze River, during the battle for Nanking in the Sino-Japanese War. Japan later apologized and paid $2.2 million dollars in reparations.
(AP, 12/12/97)(MC, 12/12/01)
1937 Dec 13, The Japanese army occupied Nanking, China. A group of Japanese soldiers forced their way into the family home of Xia Shuqin (8) in Nanjing, and killed seven of her family members. Xia and her 4-year-old sister were seriously injured but escaped. According to Chinese media, a US missionary then serving as the chairman of the International Commission of the Red Cross in Nanjing filmed the killings of Xia's family members. In 2006 a Chinese court has awarded Xia Shuqin $200,000 in compensation after ruling in her favor against two Japanese historians, who claimed she fabricated her account of the atrocity.
(HN, 12/13/98)(AP, 8/23/06)
1937 Dec 14, Japanese troops conquered and plundered Nanjing. Japan established a puppet Chinese government at Peking, now called Beijing.
(MC, 12/14/01)(AP, 12/14/02)
1937 Dec-Jan, John Rabe (1882-1950), a German businessman for Siemens living in China, recorded the 2-month terror of the Japanese "Rape of Nanking" in his diary. The Japanese sacked and pillaged the city. They raped at least 20,000 women and killed at least 50,000 people. Rabe established a neutral safe zone for hundreds of thousands of Chinese refugees. Noncombatant deaths may have reached 300,000. Reporter Tillman Durdin (d.1998 at 91) filed reports for the New York times. Later Iris Chang wrote "The Rape of Nanking."
(SFC, 12/13/96, p.B1)(SFEC, 2/22/98, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 7/10/98, p.D3)
1937 Dec-Feb, In the Japanese "Rape of Nanjing" more than 200,000 people were killed. Japanese soldiers raped and killed tens of thousands of Chinese women during their invasion of China. [photo from Nanjing] In 1997 Iris Chang (29) published "The Rape of Nanking: the Forgotten Holocaust of world War II." The largest execution of prisoners took place north of Nanking near Mufu Mountain where 57,000 civilians and soldiers were gunned down.
(WSJ,2/6/97,p.A14)(SFEC, 12/1/96, p.C4)(WSJ, 12/29/97, p.A9)(SFEC, 7/26/98, Z1 p.1,4)
1937 Korean guerrillas allegedly led by Kim Il Sung clashed with Japanese colonizer in the Battle of Bocheonbo.
(WSJ, 1/14/03, p.A10)
1937-1945 Japan initiated a war with China that lasted to 1945. In 2013 Rana Mitter authored “China’s Waqr With Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival."
(Econ, 6/22/13, p.83)
1938 Feb 12, Japan refused to reveal naval data requested by the U.S. and Britain. The rise of militaristic nationalism led Japan down the road to Pearl Harbor and World War II.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1938 Feb 23, Twelve Chinese fighter planes dropped bombs on Japan. The China Air Task Force was a scrappy but beleaguered fill-in that fought both the Japanese and supplied shortcomings until the Fourteenth Air Force was formed.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1938 Jun 17, Japan declared war on China.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1938 Jul 16, Tokugawa Soyeshima sent a telegram to the Olympic Committee saying that Japan would not be able to host the 1940 Winter Olympics due to fighting with China.
(WSJ, 2/8/02, p.A1)
1938 Sep 27, League of Nations declared Japan the aggressor against China.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1938 Oct 21, Japanese troops occupied Canton.
(WUD, 1994, p.1682)(MC, 10/21/01)
1938 Oct 25, Hankow, temporary capital of China, fell to the Japanese. The Chinese again moved their capital, this time to Chungking in the mountains above the Yangtze River.
(WUD, 1994, p.1682)(DoD, 1999, p.452)
1938 Dec, San Francisco longshoremen announced that the picketing of ships loading scrap iron for Japan would be discontinued in favor of a nationwide campaign for the declaration of an embargo against Japan.
(SSFC, 12/15/13, DB p.42)
1938 Chinese leaders intentionally broke levees on the Yellow River to prevent the Japanese military from advancing. More than 500,000 people, Japanese and Chinese, died in the resulting flood. Chinese army commander Xiong Xianyu kept a diary on the levee action.
(Econ, 6/22/13, p.83)(http://tinyurl.com/kxkkrdc)
1938 US War Plan Orange-3 was a contingency plan for a war in which the US faced Japan as its sole enemy. The plan was one of the "color" war plans for projected conflicts in which the US engaged a single enemy at one time. The plan originated in the early 1900s and underwent numerous revisions, with War Plan Orange-3 completed in 1938. It was based on the premise of a Japanese surprise attack and envisioned a primarily naval war. Elements of the Orange Plans were incorporated in the later Rainbow war plans.
(HNQ, 4/19/00)
1939 Feb 10, Japan occupied the Chinese island of Hainan located off the coast of French Indochina (modern day Vietnam).
(HN, 2/10/97)
1939 Feb 24, Hungary signed an anti-Communist pact with Italy, Germany and Japan.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1939 Mar 31, Britain and France agreed to support Poland if Germany threatened to invade. Seven French islands were annexed by Japan.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1939 May, In Manchuria a Japanese punitive attack failed and combined Soviet and Mongolian forces wiped out a 200-man Japanese unit. This marked the beginning of the conflict called the Nomonhan Incident by Japanese, the Battle of Khalkhin Gol by Russians.
(http://tinyurl.com/ml2j3oh)
1939 Aug 20, Russian offensive under Gen. Zhukov against Jap invasion in Mongolia.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1939 Aug 30, Isoroku Yamamoto was appointed supreme commander of the Japanese fleet.
(MC, 8/30/01)
1939 Aug, The Soviet Union and Japan fought a massive tank battle at Khalkhin-Gol on the Mongolian border. It was the largest armored battle in the world until that point. By the end of the month the Soviets claimed victory over the Japanese army at the Khalkhyn Gol river. This helped fend off a possible Japanese invasion of Russia with Nazi Germany in 1941.
(http://tinyurl.com/mx9xowj)
1939 Sep 15, The Soviet Union and Japan agreed to a cease-fire in Manchuria (later Mongolia), which took effect the following day.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Khalkhin_Gol)
1939 Sep 22, Junko Tabei, Japan, the 1st woman to climb Mount Everest, was born.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1939 The Japanese film "The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums" by Kenji Mizoguchi was produced.
(SFEC, 9/29/96, DB p.63)
1940 Mar 30, The Japanese set up a puppet government called Manchuko in Nanking, China.
(HN, 3/30/98)
1940 Apr 22, Rear Adm. Joseph Taussig testified before US Senate Naval Affairs Committee that war with Japan is inevitable.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1940 Jul, Jan Zwartendijk, a Dutch diplomat, and Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat, worked together to save some 2,000 thousand Polish Jews, who had fled to Lithuania by issuing them visas for Japan, China and the Dutch colonies in South America. Zwartendijk wrote out the so called Curacao visas, while Sugihara issued the transit visas. The Sugihara family was later captured by the Russians and placed in a concentration camp for 1 1/2 years.
(www.remember.org/witness/righteous.html)(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A13)(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A16)
1940 Jul, Mount Mijakejima erupted and left 11 people dead.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A17)
1940 Aug 1, The idea of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was formally announced by Japan’s Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yosuke, in a press interview, but had already existed in various forms for many years. Japan urged the nations of the region to unite in one economic sphere, ousting the colonial powers and enjoying economic prosperity together. The concept was used to justify Japan's seizure of raw materials from throughout Southeast Asia to further its drive for economic, political and military domination of East Asia. The Sphere was intended to include, in addition to Japan, China, Manchukuo, Southeast Asia and the Pacific mandates islands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_East_Asia_Co-prosperity_Sphere)(HNQ, 2/8/00)(Econ, 4/11/09, p.43)
1940 Aug 30, Senpo Chinne Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat in Lithuania, received orders from Japan to stop issuing visas immediately. He disobeyed the order and continued issuing visas until the end of the month when the consulate closed. In all Sugihara issued visas to some 3,500 Jewish refugees.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A13)(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A16)
1940 Aug, US Army cryptoanalysts under William F. Friedman succeeded in breaking Japan's top secret Purple Code, which was used for diplomatic communications.
(WSJ, 12/7/99, p.A24)
1940 Sep 26, Japanese troops attacked French Indochina.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1940 Sep 27, Nazi-Germany, Italy & Japan signed a formal alliance called Tripartite Pact, a 10 year military and economic alliance strengthening the Axis alliance.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1940 Japanese warplanes dropped plague-infected fleas over southwest China. In 2001 Chinese doctors testified in a Tokyo trial and said at least 109 people died as a result. In 2002 a symposium of historians reported that the Japanese killed at least 440,000 Chinese in the 1930s and 1940s by dropping disease carrying fleas and cholera-coated flies from planes.
(WSJ, 1/25/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/22/07, p.B12)
1940-1941 Japan extended war into Southeast Asia.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)
Go to 1941
