1877

Meiji 10 (明治十年)

Timeline of 1877

• 1877/1/24-7/30 The Meiji Emperor travels to Kyoto and Nara to pay respects at the mausolea of Emperors Kômei and Jimmu.
• 1877/3 Kôchi ueekata and several other Ryukyuan officials who snuck out of Ryûkyû the previous December arrive in Fuzhou.
• 1877/5 Edward Sylvester Morse departs the US for Japan.
• 1877/12 He Ruzhang arrives in Tokyo to serve as the new Resident Diplomatic Minister from China.

Satsuma Rebellion

• 1877/2/20 Saigô Takamori is declared a rebel by the Meiji government.
• 1877/2/22 Saigô's army of roughly 42,000 attempts to oust the Imperial garrison at Kumamoto castle.
• 1877/3 Saigô's siege of Kumamoto castle is lifted.
• The rebels retreat to Kagoshima and are in the end eventually defeated by Imperial forces, who have superior numbers and equipment, if not superior military ability.
• 1877/9/24 Battle of Shiroyama - Saigô Takamori dies and the Rebellion ends.

Other Events of 1877

• Ainu lands are made the property of the State.
• Felice Beato sells his photography business in Japan to the Austrian photographer Baron Raimund von Stillfried-Ratenicz and his German partner Hermann Andersen.
• Josiah Conder arrives in Japan, and starts the architecture division of the Kôbu gakkô (Imperial College of Engineering).
• The Hokkaido Development Commission Provisional Sapporo Museum is established.
• The first Domestic Industrial Exposition (Naikoku Kangyô Hakurankai) is held.
• The Meiji Emperor performs a formal tour of parts of eastern Tôhoku. A continuation of the tour into the Tôkai and Hokuriku regions is delayed until the following year on account of the Satsuma Rebellion.
• Nomura Fumio's Marumaru Chinbun is first issued.
• Kôno Bairei becomes head of the Shijô school upon the death of his master Shiokawa Bunrin.
• Kumamoto castle is destroyed.
• Kyoto and Kobe are connected by rail.
• Edward Sylvester Morse is invited to organize the Dept of Zoology at the new Tokyo Imperial University.
• Edward Sylvester Morse introduces Darwin's theories on natural selection and "the origin of species" to Japan.
• Edward Sylvester Morse leads the excavation of the Ômori shellmound, the first formal modern archaeological excavation of a site in Japan.
• Muslim rebellions in northwest China, ongoing since 1862, are finally quelled.
• One hundred eight men and women from the Philippines are shipwrecked or castaway on Ishigaki Island.
• An official Qing Chinese embassy is established in Tokyo.
• Tanba Kameyama castle is torn down.
• Tokugawa Iesato leaves for England, for study.
• Tokyo Imperial University is established, with four faculties: a Faculty of Law, one of Medicine, one of Literature, and one of Physical Sciences.
• Tottori castle is demolished.

Births and Deaths

• 1877/9/24 Saigô Takamori commits suicide. Numerous others also die in the battle of Shiroyama.
• 1877/9/30 Former governor of Kagoshima prefecture Ôyama Tsunayoshi is executed.
• Enomoto Takeaki dies.
• Kazu-no-Miya dies.
• Kido Takayoshi dies.
• Shijô school head Shiokawa Bunrin dies (b. 1808).

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