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*[[Samurai]] class was converted to ''[[shizoku]]'' and ''[[sotsu]]'' in [[1869]]. In [[1872]], many lower-ranking sotsu were reduced to regular citizens (heimin). - Andrew Gordon, ''A Modern History of Japan'', Oxford University Press (2013), 65.

*[[Samurai]] class was converted to ''[[shizoku]]'' and ''[[sotsu]]'' in [[1869]]. In [[1872]], many lower-ranking sotsu were reduced to regular citizens (heimin). - Andrew Gordon, ''A Modern History of Japan'', Oxford University Press (2013), 65.

*Generally speaking in the [[Bakumatsu period]], the British were nominally neutral but actually worked to aid the rebelling provinces, while the French supported the shogunate. This can be seen, for example, in how Satsuma and the shogunate both, separately, ended up working with the British and French, respectively, to get Pavilions at the Paris World's Fair in 1867.

*The Exhibitions Department of the government (hakubutsu kyoku), in preparation for the 1873 Vienna World's Fair, stated that traditional styles (古風) of Japanese painting would make Japan look bad on the world stage. That Japanese painting had yet to achieve the right level of detail and refinement, and that Japanese efforts at depicting realistic scenery (真景) remained poor. - Foxwell, Making Modern Japanese-Style Painting, 7.

**Overall, this was the dominant attitude in Japanese art in the early years of the Meiji period - at least among those with their eyes towards what would make Japan look good in Western eyes, and what would sell in Western markets. They felt that they had to adapt to Western modes and styles, in order to accommodate Western desires for detail, realism, and so forth. They would discover, however, that for the most part, Western collectors & art critics wanted Japanese art to look Japanese - to be different from Western art, and to have its own distinctive motifs, style, etc. (Foxwell, 1-2.)

*[[Yarazamori gusuku]] - demolished by the Americans in the early postwar. - plaques at Onoyama Park.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/9529342472/sizes/l]

*[[Yarazamori gusuku]] - demolished by the Americans in the early postwar. - plaques at Onoyama Park.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/9529342472/sizes/l]