Asian Studies Seminar Series: Fabian Drixler In brief Date - 24 September 2025Venue - Room LG.09, 40 George SquareSpeaker - Professor Fabian Drixler (Yale University)Title - 1868: The Year Japan was Expected to Split in Two About the eventWe tend to take Japan’s existence as a unified country for granted. Yet Japan has not always looked like an unbreakable monolith.In 1868, an alliance of southwestern domains seized the young emperor and went to war against the Tokugawa regime, which had governed the country since 1600 from its power base in the east. Both sides were armed with modern rifles.The potential for a Japanese version of the horrors of the American Civil War (700,000 military deaths) or the Paraguayan War (up to half a million deaths) was real. Decision-makers on both sides of the conflict believed that Japan was in danger of “shattering like a tile,” the fragments never to be reassembled. Among the scenarios they outlined was a return to the Warring States period of the sixteenth century, in which warlords battled each other for survival and supremacy. But they also identified the possibility of a single fracture line, breaking Japan into Westlands and Eastlands.The fear of permanent fracture explains decisions that are otherwise puzzling: that the last shogun surrendered Edo without a fight, and that the victors moved the emperor and capital to that city, the seat of their vanquished foe. Japan was set on the path to unity by the belief that the emergence of multiple states was the more likely outcome.About the speakerFabian Drixler is Professor of History and Chair of the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University. He is a historian of Japan with particular interests in the Tokugawa and Meiji periods, historical demography, climate history, historical cartography, and regional identities.In recent years, he has collaborated with political scientists to help make Luke Roberts’ field-changing discovery in Tokugawa history (the concepts of omote and naishō) part of the conceptual toolkit of social scientists who do not specialize in Japan. Since 2019, he has led Yale’s interdisciplinary Digital Tokugawa Lab, whose main project so far is a digital atlas of early modern Japan.How to attendThis event is free to attend and open to all. No registration is required, simply turn up on the day.Are you interested in studying with us?We are the only university in Scotland to offer full undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in both Chinese and Japanese, as well as postgraduate programmes in Korean Studies and East Asian Studies. Find out more about Asian Studies at Edinburgh Tags Asian Studies Sep 24 2025 16.15 - 18.00 Asian Studies Seminar Series: Fabian Drixler An in-person talk by Professor Fabian Drixler (Yale University) titled '1868: The Year Japan was Expected to Split in Two'. Room LG.09 40 George Square University of Edinburgh EH8 9JX Find the venue: 40 George Square
Asian Studies Seminar Series: Fabian Drixler In brief Date - 24 September 2025Venue - Room LG.09, 40 George SquareSpeaker - Professor Fabian Drixler (Yale University)Title - 1868: The Year Japan was Expected to Split in Two About the eventWe tend to take Japan’s existence as a unified country for granted. Yet Japan has not always looked like an unbreakable monolith.In 1868, an alliance of southwestern domains seized the young emperor and went to war against the Tokugawa regime, which had governed the country since 1600 from its power base in the east. Both sides were armed with modern rifles.The potential for a Japanese version of the horrors of the American Civil War (700,000 military deaths) or the Paraguayan War (up to half a million deaths) was real. Decision-makers on both sides of the conflict believed that Japan was in danger of “shattering like a tile,” the fragments never to be reassembled. Among the scenarios they outlined was a return to the Warring States period of the sixteenth century, in which warlords battled each other for survival and supremacy. But they also identified the possibility of a single fracture line, breaking Japan into Westlands and Eastlands.The fear of permanent fracture explains decisions that are otherwise puzzling: that the last shogun surrendered Edo without a fight, and that the victors moved the emperor and capital to that city, the seat of their vanquished foe. Japan was set on the path to unity by the belief that the emergence of multiple states was the more likely outcome.About the speakerFabian Drixler is Professor of History and Chair of the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University. He is a historian of Japan with particular interests in the Tokugawa and Meiji periods, historical demography, climate history, historical cartography, and regional identities.In recent years, he has collaborated with political scientists to help make Luke Roberts’ field-changing discovery in Tokugawa history (the concepts of omote and naishō) part of the conceptual toolkit of social scientists who do not specialize in Japan. Since 2019, he has led Yale’s interdisciplinary Digital Tokugawa Lab, whose main project so far is a digital atlas of early modern Japan.How to attendThis event is free to attend and open to all. No registration is required, simply turn up on the day.Are you interested in studying with us?We are the only university in Scotland to offer full undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in both Chinese and Japanese, as well as postgraduate programmes in Korean Studies and East Asian Studies. Find out more about Asian Studies at Edinburgh Tags Asian Studies Sep 24 2025 16.15 - 18.00 Asian Studies Seminar Series: Fabian Drixler An in-person talk by Professor Fabian Drixler (Yale University) titled '1868: The Year Japan was Expected to Split in Two'. Room LG.09 40 George Square University of Edinburgh EH8 9JX Find the venue: 40 George Square
Sep 24 2025 16.15 - 18.00 Asian Studies Seminar Series: Fabian Drixler An in-person talk by Professor Fabian Drixler (Yale University) titled '1868: The Year Japan was Expected to Split in Two'.
