Modernization of Japan and its effects on traditional performance arts

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With the gradual decline of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the restoration of the Imperial title, Japan began its second phase of foreign borrowing by entering ‘secondary civilization,’ or industrial society (Suzuki, 1995 p.773). Beginning in the late Tokugawa period, the power of the shogun and the damiyos progressively began diminishing under political pressure and the deteriorating financial condition of the nation. Dissatisfied with the conditions, the people began leaning towards the restoration of the nation as an Empire, which occurred in 1867-68 with the resignation of Tokugawa Yoshinobu (15th Tokugawa Shogun), marking the beginning of the Meiji Restoration. The transfer of power to the Emperor proceeded smoothly, indicating the beginning of Japan’s radical influence and changes from the west. At the beginning of the Meiji period, Japan was primarily an agricultural nation with a weak military and scarce technological development still largely traditional in nature. Power was transferred into the hands of noble samurai that had opposed Tokugawa rule, acting in the name of the Em...

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