causes and consequences," says Bishop Stubbs, "not the collection of
a multitude of facts and views, but the piecing of links of a perfect
chain."

I shall therefore not dwell upon the details of the events which
led to the downfall of the Shogunate, but immediately enter into an
inquiry concerning the causes.

Three causes led to the final overthrow of the Shogunate:

I. The Revival of Learning. The last half of the eighteenth and
the first half of the present century witnessed in Japan an unusual
intellectual activity. The long peace and prosperity of the country
under the rule of the Tokugawa dynasties had fostered in every way the
growth of literature and art. The Shoguns, from policy or from taste,
either to find a harmless vent for the restless spirit of the
Samura or from pure love of learning, have been constant patrons of
literature. The Daimios, too, as a means of spending their leisure
hours when they were not out hawking or revelling with their
mistresses, gave no inattentive ear to the readings and lectures of
learned men. Each Daimioate took pride in the number and fame of her
own learned sons. Thus throughout the country eminent scholars arose.
With them a new era of literature dawned upon the land. The new
literature changed its tone. Instead of the servility, faint
suggestiveness, and restrained politeness characteristic of the
literature from the Gen-hei period to the first half of the Tokugawa
period, that of the Revival Era began to wear a bolder and freer
aspect. History came to be recorded with more truthfulness and
boldness than ever before.