Changes

The final Tokugawa shogun, [[Tokugawa Yoshinobu]], declared his resignation and the abolition of the shogunate while in Kyoto, having never stepped foot in Edo as shogun. For the first time in over a thousand years, the Imperial Court was moved, this time from Kyoto to Edo, newly renamed as [[Tokyo]], marking the end of the Edo period and the beginning of the [[Meiji Period]].

The final Tokugawa shogun, [[Tokugawa Yoshinobu]], declared his resignation and the abolition of the shogunate while in Kyoto, having never stepped foot in Edo as shogun. For the first time in over a thousand years, the Imperial Court was moved, this time from Kyoto to Edo, newly renamed as [[Tokyo]], marking the end of the Edo period and the beginning of the [[Meiji Period]].

For the first decade or two of the Meiji Period, the architects of the new nation were conflicted as to the role Kyoto should play in the new Imperial nation, and in particular in discourses of the nation. It was perhaps not until [[1877]]-[[1878]] that top-ranking officials, as well as the [[Meiji Emperor]] himself, began to propose and implement plans to actively preserve Kyoto as a site and symbol of the traditional Japanese and lofty, spiritual, Imperial past. The Emperor made a personal gift in 1877 of funds to the [[Kyoto prefecture|Kyoto prefectural]] government to be used for the preservation of the city, and while passing through Kyoto on one of his [[Six Great Imperial Tours]] the following year, made a statement calling for the preservation of the city, which had already begun to decline since his departure for Tokyo. Around this time, too, certain officials or perhaps the Emperor himself first suggested that accession ceremonies and certain other Imperial rituals continue to be performed in Kyoto, even as the Imperial capital was moved to Tokyo, in order to maintain the significance of the city, and to draw upon that history to enhance the power and legitimacy of the Imperial institution.<ref>Takashi Fujitani, ''Splendid Monarchy'', UC Press (1998), 56.</ref> These efforts continued into the 1880s as efforts began, concurrently, to shape Tokyo into a political center evocative of particular discourses of modernity, and of Imperial power and engagement.<ref>Fujitani, 33-34.</ref>

For the first decade or two of the Meiji Period, the architects of the new nation were conflicted as to the role Kyoto should play in the new Imperial nation, and in particular in discourses of the nation. It was perhaps not until [[1877]]-[[1878]] that top-ranking officials, as well as the [[Meiji Emperor]] himself, began to propose and implement plans to actively preserve Kyoto as a site and symbol of the traditional Japanese and lofty, spiritual, Imperial past. The Emperor made a personal gift in 1877 of funds to the [[Kyoto prefecture|Kyoto prefectural]] government to be used for the preservation of the city, and while passing through Kyoto on one of his [[Six Great Imperial Tours]] the following year, made a statement calling for the preservation of the city, which had already begun to decline since his departure for Tokyo. Around this time, too, certain officials or perhaps the Emperor himself first suggested that accession ceremonies and certain other Imperial rituals continue to be performed in Kyoto, even as the Imperial capital was moved to Tokyo, in order to maintain the significance of the city, and to draw upon that history to enhance the power and legitimacy of the Imperial institution.<ref>Takashi Fujitani, ''Splendid Monarchy'', UC Press (1998), 56.</ref> As [[Iwakura Tomomi]] emphasized, Kyoto was the only one of the ancient [[capitals of Japan|capitals]] remaining intact, and as the [[Meiji Restoration]] drew its legitimacy from the Imperial past and claimed to be restoring that same Imperial institution to power, the maintenance and usage of the symbolic power of Kyoto's historic sites was essential to discourses of Imperial legitimacy and a unified national history.<ref>Fujitani, 59.</ref> Efforts to preserve, restore, and reshape Kyoto into the ideal(ized) lofty, ancient, traditional, Imperial capital continued into the 1880s as efforts began, concurrently, to shape Tokyo into a political center evocative of particular discourses of modernity, and of Imperial power and engagement.<ref>Fujitani, 33-34.</ref>

==Culture==

==Culture==