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shogun

(Encyclopedia)shogun shōˈgŭnˌ [key], title of the feudal military administrator who from the 12th cent. to the 19th cent. was, as the emperor's military deputy, the actual ruler of Japan. The title itself, Sei-...

zaibatsu

(Encyclopedia)zaibatsu zīˈbätso͞o [key] [Jap.,=money clique], the great family-controlled banking and industrial combines of modern Japan. The leading zaibatsu (called keiretsu after World War II) are Mitsui, M...

samurai

(Encyclopedia)samurai säˌmo͞orīˈ [key], knights of feudal Japan, retainers of the daimyo. This aristocratic warrior class arose during the 12th-century wars between the Taira and Minamoto clans and was consoli...

Tokugawa

(Encyclopedia)Tokugawa tōˌko͞ogäˈwä [key], family that held the shogunate (see shogun) and controlled Japan from 1603 to 1867. Founded by Ieyasu, the Tokugawa regime was a centralized feudalism. The Tokugawa ...

Ito, Hirobumi

(Encyclopedia)Ito, Hirobumi hērōˈbo͞omē ēˈtō [key], 1841–1909, Japanese statesman, the outstanding figure in the modernization of Japan. As a young Choshu samurai, he was a xenophobe. In 1863 he visited E...

Okuma, Shigenobu

(Encyclopedia)Okuma, Shigenobu shēgāˈnōbo͞o ōˈko͞omä [key], 1838–1922, Japanese statesman. He was an early supporter of the emperor and entered the Meiji government as finance minister in 1869. In 1876 h...

Hokkaido

(Encyclopedia)Hokkaido hōkīˈdō [key], island, c.30,130 sq mi (78,040 sq km), N Japan, separated from Ho...

hara-kiri

(Encyclopedia)hara-kiri härˈə-kērˈē, hărˈə– [key] [Jap.,=belly-cutting], the traditional Japanese form of honorable suicide, also known by its Chinese equivalent, seppuku. It was practiced by the Japanes...

daimyo

(Encyclopedia)daimyo dīˈmyô [key] [Jap.,=great name], the great feudal landholders of Japan, the territorial barons as distinguished from the kuge, or court nobles. Great tax-free estates were built up from the ...

Tokyo

(Encyclopedia)Tokyo tōˈkēō [key], city (1990 pop. 8,163,573), capital of Japan and of Tokyo prefecture, E central Honshu, at the head of Tokyo Bay. The Tokyo-Yokohama metropolitan area is the world's most popul...

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