Bakumatsu: The End of the Samurai Era

Bakumatsu — literally "the end of the curtain" — names the fifteen years between Commodore Perry's black ships (1853) and the Meiji Restoration (1868). It is the period in which Japan stopped being one thing and started being another.

Articles in this series

• Why Did Japan Close Its Borders for 250 Years?
• Why Sakamoto Ryōma Is Still Japan's Hero
• The Black Ships: What Perry Did and What Japan Did Next