Bakumatsu

The Bakumatsu (幕末), literally translated without historical context as "Curtain Call", refers to the radical social movement which occurred at the end of the Edo period. It has no specific dates, but historians generally agree the rough time frame is 1853~1869. Prior to these years, Japan had largely remained in political isolation for over a century and the Tokugawa shogunate remained the supreme military regime. Foreign trade was strict, only allowed a specific checkpoints beyond the main islands.

Due to the brutal Christian war and suspicions of foreign traders, it was illegal to study Western thought or practices —besides ancient texts or Confucianism from China— because they were considered a "threat to society". Scholars who were caught teaching or practicing them could have been incarcerated, striped of their wealth, banished, or executed. As more intrepid scholars were persecuted —even with these laws in place— the shogunate and politicians were discretely seeking to somehow exploit European practices. They approached anything European with mild interest, many believing the rest of the world to be a curious but unwanted venture. Their interests were piqued when the treasured teachings of China lost in the First Opium War, and a cry for reform began to echo with a handful of politicians.

Many incidents of foreign sailors docking on Japan's shores were swiftly dealt with by the shogunate, asking travelers to answer the imperial court's questions before being dismissed from the island nation. However, Western ideologies and culture went beyond the discreet interest of scholars and politicians once American "black ships" docked near Edo. Matthew Perry and his crew drew the attention of the nation when his ships lingered in the south. People were shaken by the foreign visit and the shogunate's apparent ineptitude to deal with them, causing a radical spark of nationalism to rivet throughout the country. Political ideologies and activists emerged as a result, and groups became severely divided to protect their ideals. The main focus of these ideals strongly compared ancient Japanese customs with the dilemma of accepting European practices.

Ultimately, the violent outbreak of ideals resulted in bloody and deadly wars. The shogunate exhausted its resources to deal with them, and the. Emperor Meiji's ascension to the throne allowed the formal acceptance of Harry Parkes and European technology, giving the government's suppression forces a severe advantage over any other insurgents. As the samurai caste were being modernized, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, a lover of the Western world himself, was convinced by this and other reasons to step down as the ruling power and rule as shogun in name only. With the shogun weakened, the emperor was no longer a puppet figure head and the new era, the Meiji period was established. The final stand against the imperial government ended with the Battle of Hakodate.

Ideologies
The Bakumatsu has several contrasting ideologies during its brief time period, many of which have been given simple terms by contemporary historians for recognition. These are the ones which appear frequently within Koei titles of the era.