In the mid 1800s, when Western powers began demanding trade and diplomatic relations with Japan, some in Japan were more opposed to foreign impositions than others. Many if not most Japanese saw their homeland as having been founded by their supreme god, the Sun Goddess, and, seeing Japan as connected to the will of the gods, they saw Japan as the "divine land" and as superior to other nations. Some among the Japanese saw foreign mannerisms as stupid and referred to foreigners as barbarians. They considered foreigners arrogant in making demands upon the Japanese and believed that the foreigners had to be driven away for the honor of Japan and the preservation of all that was dear.
Since 1603 Japan had been ruled by the Tokugawa family, a military rule from Edo (present-day Tokyo), the male family leader holding the title of Shogun. The Tokugawa family was Buddhist, as was Japan's emperor, who had become a figurehead, surrounded by a few advisors and bureaucrats at his palace in the city of Kyoto.
The challenge to Tokugawa rule was from feudalistic territorial lords (daimyo), rulers of the 250 or so fiefdoms (han) that divided Japan. The Tokugawa dominated the lords militarily, and the shogun had checkpoints (seki) at strategic locations along Japan's main roads to prevent any activity hostile to Tokugawa rule. It was a military superiority benefiting from a monopoly on the main ingredient in gunpowder – saltpeter – available only through imports from abroad, with the Tokugawa shogun in control of importations. The result for Japan was a couple of centuries of stability and no major civil wars.
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