Meiji Restoration
Event in History
Meiji Restoration has come up in 1 episode across 1 podcast in TMT, including The Rest Is History. 2 people have made recorded remarks about it.
What people said
Tom HollandEnglish actor cast as Telemachus
Holland says that by the end of 1876 the samurai had lost their caste status, stipends, military monopoly, right to wear swords and distinctive hairstyle.
“By the end of 1876, pretty much everything that had made the samurai distinctive for centuries and centuries and centuries has gone”
The Rest Is History: 658. Dawn of the Samurai: The Shadow of the Sword (Part 1) (Apr 5, 2026) · Listen from 19:17
Dominic SandbrookBritish historian, author and co-host of The Rest Is History
Sandbrook characterises the Meiji Restoration as the moment Japan renounced a stultifying cult of the past and embraced modernity.
“it's the moment that Japan doesn't renounce the past, but it renounces maybe to some degree the stultifying cult of the past and throws itself into the pursuit of modernity”
The Rest Is History: 658. Dawn of the Samurai: The Shadow of the Sword (Part 1) (Apr 5, 2026) · Listen from 18:23
Podcasts
- The Rest Is History · 1 episode
Episodes
658. Dawn of the Samurai: The Shadow of the Sword (Part 1)The Rest Is History · Apr 5, 2026 · 1 h 3 min
Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook trace the origins of Japan's samurai, from the Tokugawa shogunate and the Bushido myth back to the 10th-century warlord Taira no Masakado.