Image 1.6 SAMURAI IN TOKUGAWA JAPAN, NINETEENTH CENTURY1 Japan was the nonwestern country that most successfully adapted Western technology and institutions to their culture and indeed achieved a level of development equal to that of the major Western countries. Previously, however, during two centuries of isolation, noble warriors called samurai ruled behind the façade of the empire of the Tokugawa Dynasty. Then, in 1853, American gunboats sailed into Tokyo Bay and demanded that the country open to commercial relations. While some samurai warlords opposed the abandonment of tradition and the opening up to Westerners, samurai warlords loyal to the imperial family toppled the government and returned the emperor to power in 1867 in what came to be known as the Meiji Restoration. Only four decades later, Japan seized Taiwan and Korea and became the first non-­‐European power to challenge a European power when they defeated Russia. Below is a hand-­‐colored photograph of samurai from before the Meiji Restoration. For the image’s original Internet location, click here. 1 Image originally housed at Flickr: Commons. Provided here courtesy of the Public Domain Review.