The emperor Meiji
After the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate, the Meiji emperor became the formal head of a new imperial government under whose reign Japan was transformed from an isolated feudal society into a modern, industrialized global power.
Meiji Restoration
Japanese history
Meiji Restoration, in Japanese history, the political revolution in 1868 that brought about the final demise of the Tokugawa shogunate (military government)âthus ending the Edo (Tokugawa) period (1603â1867)âand, at least nominally, returned control of the country to direct imperial rule under Mutsuhito (the emperor Meiji). The Meiji Restoration initiated a process of political centralization, social restructuring, and economic transformation that modernized Japan. It enabled the country to emerge as an industrialized power capable not only...