Changes

==''Kinsei''==

==''Kinsei''==

Howell identifies Uchida Ginzô, author of the [[1903]] book ''Nihon kinseishi'', as the first to propose the term ''kinsei'' 近世, today widely translated as "early modern," as a distinct historical period. Up until then, when the term was used, it was used in a more general sense to mean "recent times" or "current times." Uchida proposed defining the ''kinsei'' period as beginning with the death of [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] in [[1616]] and ending with the arrival of [[Commodore Perry]] in [[1853]], marking these as the end, and beginning, respectively, of periods of transition. In other words, he saw 1616 as marking, very roughly, the beginning of a period when the many changes of the 1570s to 1610s (i.e. unification of Japan by [[Oda Nobunaga]], [[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]], and Ieyasu, the end of the violence and disunity of the [[Sengoku period]], and the establishment of a new ''status quo'' under the Tokugawa shogunate) were largely over and settled. Similarly, like many scholars today, Uchida used 1853 as a rough dividing point to mark the beginning of a period of significant changes, beginning around 1853 and ending with - or continuing through - the [[abolition of the han|abolition of the domains]] in [[1871]]. Though it would not be until the 1950s that historians began using the term ''kindai'' 近代 to identify a specific, defined, "modern" historical period following ''kinsei'', Uchida nevertheless drew this same distinction - a dividing line at around 1853, 1868, or 1871 - terming what was then his contemporary period of "modern" history ''saikinsei'' 最近世, i.e. categorizing the two periods as "recent times" and "the most recent times," or "modern times" and "the most modern times."<ref>Howell, p5.</ref>

Howell identifies Uchida Ginzô, author of the [[1903]] book ''Nihon kinseishi'', as the first to propose the term ''kinsei'' 近世, today widely translated as "early modern," as a distinct historical period. Up until then, when the term was used, it was used in a more general sense to mean "recent times" or "current times." Uchida proposed defining the ''kinsei'' period as beginning with the death of [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] in [[1616]] and ending with the arrival of [[Commodore Perry]] in [[1853]], marking these as the end, and beginning, respectively, of periods of transition. In other words, he saw 1616 as marking, very roughly, the beginning of a period when the many changes of the 1570s to 1610s (i.e. unification of Japan by [[Oda Nobunaga]], [[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]], and Ieyasu, the end of the violence and disunity of the [[Sengoku period]], and the establishment of a new ''status quo'' under the Tokugawa shogunate) were largely over and settled. Similarly, like many scholars today, Uchida used 1853 as a rough dividing point to mark the beginning of a period of significant changes, beginning around 1853 and ending with - or continuing through - the [[abolition of the han|abolition of the domains]] in [[1871]]. Though it would not be until the 1950s that historians began using the term ''[[kindai]]'' 近代 to identify a specific, defined, "modern" historical period following ''kinsei'', Uchida nevertheless drew this same distinction - a dividing line at around 1853, 1868, or 1871 - terming what was then his contemporary period of "modern" history ''saikinsei'' 最近世, i.e. categorizing the two periods as "recent times" and "the most recent times," or "modern times" and "the most modern times."<ref>Howell, p5.</ref>

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