This one requires a bit of history…

In 1603 徳川家康 Tokugawa Ieyasu through political
and military maneuvering managed to unite the many 藩
han (autonomous regions within Japan ruled by 大名
daimyou) under his overseeing control. While each
大名 daimyou had control over their area, they all had to
report to the 将軍 shougun (Tokugawa). Tokugawa drove
out Christianity (by murdering them!), closed the country from foreign
influence, and gave Japan 200 years or so of relative peace.

However by the mid 1800’s the 徳川幕府 Tokugawa
Bakufu (Tokugawa Shogunate) had lost much of its control over many
of the hans especially the vehemently anti-Bakufu western Satsuma and
Choshu clans. With peace being the norm for so long, samurai now had little
to do but to work hand to mouth and seek causes for which to be employed.
Seeing more and more foreign influence in Japan – especially after Commodore
Perry’s famous black ships – these 浪人 rounin
began to use the slogan 「尊皇攘夷」 sonnou joui
(revere the emperor and expel the barbarians) to get at the Bakufu for
being so weak on keeping foreigners out of the country as well as other
grievances.

Eventually the Satsuma and Choshu anti-Bakufu activists realized they
needed the barbarian technology and couldn’t, with their current strength,
prevent the foreigners from doing what they did in other countries – colonization.
So many dropped the 攘夷 slogan and replaced it with
the seemingly opposite 開国. At least for ‘now’
let’s open the country, learn from the barbarians and when we are strong
enough we can expel them once and for all. Of course this never happened
exactly according to plan.

Returning to our little history lesson…

After the fall of the Tokugawa Bakufu(Tokugawa
慶喜 Yoshinobu abdicated power to the emperor
at 二条城 nijoujou
Nijo Castle in 1868 – if you are ever in Kyoto, by all means go to
二条城. You can see the actual room where one era gave
way to another!) Japan went full force to modernize the country.
One aspect of the 明治維新 meiji ishin Meiji
Restoration (no, it wasn’t about making chocolate) was to tear down the
class structure that had been so central to Bakufu policy. The Samurai
, farmer and merchant were at least in theory equals in the Meiji era.
Perhaps as a way to enforce this, samurai no longer had the right to wear
a sword in public. Also the law was to be upheld not by a samurai class
but by officials of the new government. This law is called 廃刀令
haitourei

A bit about the Emperor’s toys　

The real 三種の神器 sanshu no jingi are the emperor’s
3 sacred and somewhat legendary items: 1) mirror, 2) a sword and 3) a
jewel.

昭和30年代 is from 1955-1965 and its 三種の神器
represent the 3 newly essential appliances afforded by the booming economy
of that era. The ‘real’ 昭和３０年代の三種の神器 were actually
a 1) Refrigerator, 2) B/W TV and 3) Washing machine.

The tamagocchi was a big hit in the 90’s. It was (I guess you can still
buy them…) an electronic pet which required your constant attention
day and night or else it died. It was shaped like an egg, henｃe the たまご

To read about the Showa 30 nendai no sanshu no jingi, (in Japanese) please
click here.