Emperor Komei (22 July 1831 – 30 January 1867) was the Emperor of Japan from 1846 to 1867, succeeding Emperor Ninko and preceding Emperor Meiji.
Biography[]
Osahito was born on 22 July 1831, and at the age of 15 he succeeded his father Emperor Ninko as the Emperor of the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan. His first shogun was Tokugawa Ieyoshi, and in 1853 Ieyoshi agreed to open up Japan to foreign trade in the Treaty of Peace and Amity with United States Commodore Matthew Perry. Komei issued the "Order to Expel the Barbarians", which rallied Japanese resistance against the foreigners in the country. However, the murder of western officials and soldiers led to the combined British, French, and American bombardment of Japan in a campaign in the Shimonoseki Straits and at Kagoshima. The Tokugawa Shogunate's allowance of the foreigners to industrialize Japan led to a split between Emperor Komei and the traditional samurai and the shogun and his modernized forces. In 1864, a civil war began between supporters of the Emperor and the Shogun in the Boshin War. Komei died during the war after catching smallpox, and his successor Emperor Meiji would become the Emperor after the restoration in 1869.