Japanese History
Reading the Meiji transition through Japan’s archives
Follow the difference between proposals, institutions, and outcomes using the National Diet Library’s document collection.
People, periods, and evidence
Japanese history: people, periods, and evidence
Explore Japan’s past through material culture, changing institutions, and the documents that help us reconstruct them.
Start with a broad reading map, then explore Edo society and the Meiji transition through museum objects and archival documents. Each guide links to the sources behind its claims and includes a reading exercise.
Japanese History
Japanese history: a starting map from Jomon to Meiji
Follow changes in evidence, government, and culture without treating every period as a single national story.
Japanese History
Edo society beyond the samurai: reading cities, art, and exchange
Use objects and institutional context to see more than a warrior-centered picture of Tokugawa Japan.
A connected reading path
Begin with Japanese history: a starting map from Jomon to Meiji. Follow the Edo guide to practice reading objects in context, then use the Meiji guide to distinguish proposals, institutions, and outcomes in political documents.
These introductory articles draw on the Tokyo National Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Japan’s National Diet Library. They do not claim original excavation, archival discovery, or translation of unpublished materials.
Explore our Prehistory section for dating methods and evidence, or the History archive for other periods and societies.