A new book asks what made Japan Westernise rapidly during the Meiji era in the late 19th century

On 26 November 1868, a splendid procession wound through the massive gates of Edo Castle with musicians stepping out in front. At the centre, shouldered by sixty close-packed bearers, was the imperial palanquin topped by a golden phoenix, carrying the 16-year-old Emperor Mutsuhito. The imperial regalia – mirror, sword and jewel – were carried before him.

Ten thousand people lined the streets to kneel in respectful silence as he passed. Edo was renamed Tō-kyō, “Eastern Capital”, and Edo Castle became the Imperial Palace. The government declared a holiday and 2500 casks of royal sake were distributed around the city. And straightaway things started to change. Japan plunged into the modern world with unprecedented speed.

Edo had been an eastern Venice, a city of canals, where people walked or went by palanquin or boat. In no time rickshaws were hurtling through the streets, drawn by runners who yelled at pedestrians to clear the way. Buildings mushroomed, not of wood but of brick and stone. One of the first was the Tsukiji Hotel in the foreign settlement, another Mitsui House, a tiered five-storey confection, built by the shopkeeping and money-exchanging Mitsui family.

With the fall of the shogunate the lords returned to their homes in...

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