H381 THE MEIJI REVOLUTION
The 5 "articles" of the Charter Oath point the direction in which Japan's leadership group believed Japan had to go. There was hardly anything resembling unanimity on issues and policies, but a consensus had emerged among various players that Japan should overcome “national humiliation” by foreign powers by building a “rich country with a strong army ( fukoku kyohei ). This antiforeign sentiment had been transformed from a crude form of explusionism ( jô-i ) to a commitment to strengthning Japan by mastering western technology and adopting western institutions and practices. Patriotic slogans like sonnô-jôi were all fine and dandy to motivate patriots and Loyalists, but it was not apractical strategy moving forward. Radical nationalism surrendered to realpoitik. Probably we can see that most of the policies the young Meiji government adopted were driven by utterly pragmatic strategies and goals.
McClain's approach in Ch. 5 “New Beginnings” is to talk first about
1. The Revolutionary Settlement - which is outlined below
2. Beating Back the Opposition - where he talks about the early samurai rebellions against the Meiji government
3. Learning about the West –the 1860 Kanrinmaru trip which included Fukuzawa and Oguri
4. The Iwakura Mission—it was the total sum of cultural values, social organization, and educational practices that made West strong
5. Intellectuals and Educators—Niijima Jô; Civilization and Enlightenment, Nakamura Masanao; Fukuzawa Yukichi.
6. Fostering Civilization and Enlightenment; bunmei-kaika = was an encouraging alternative to the "failed expectations" mindset that had weighed people down before 1868.
NOTE: This "worldview" was very popular and appropriate to the 1860s and 1870s. But as we will see when we read about Taoka Reiun, there were voices in the late 1880s and 1890s that questioned whether bunmei-kaika was sufficient, whether it was adequate.
1. First order of business = to consolidate control over all Japan and to build a strong centralized government = Centralization of State, strengthening of Central Government controls
1868 Reconstituted an old Imperial Council, The Dajôkan or Grand Council of State (see McClain pp, 157ff) as the chief planning policy-making body in the new government. Saigô, Okubo, Kido, Iwakura (from the Court), Ito and Yamagata were all Councillors in this body. Here is a complete list:
From the Court
Sanjô Sanetomi (1837-1891)
Iwakura Tomomi (1825-1883)
From Satsuma
Okubo Toshimichi (1830-1878) - pragmatic, ruthless, very rational leader; argues against Saigô's plan to invade Korea; assassinated by dissident samurai in 1878
Terashima Munenori (1833-1893)
Godai Tomoatsu (1835-1885)
Saigô Takamori (1828-1877) - fiery samurai leaves government in 1873, leads major Satsuma Rebellion against Meiji govt; killed
Kuroda Kiyotaka (1840-1900)
Matsukata Masayoshi ((1837-1924) - succeeds Okuma as Finance Minister; tough-minded
From Chôshû
Takasugi Shinsaku (1839-1867) - a shishi activist, student of Yoshida Shoin;
sent secretly to Shanghai in 1862; witness to end of Taiping Rebellion and saw power of Western imperialism; built Kiheitai modern "mixed" military units of samurai and peasants in Chôshû; died of TB at 26; succeeded by Yamagata Aritomo in building the Kiheitai
Kido Koin (1833-1877) - articulate leader, principal drafter of "Charter Oath"? Also died young of TB.
Omura Masujiro ((1824-1869) - military man; assassinated by dissident samurai
Itô Hirobumi (1841-1909) - key leader; first Prime Minister; served many times; eventually forms his own political party
Inoue Kaoru (1835-1915
Yamagata Aritomo (1833-1871)-"father" of Japanese military and police; strong man;
studied with Yoshida Shoin and trained wth Takasugi Shinsaku; served as PM but did not really care for politics or parties; more of an authoritarian
Hirosawa Saneomi (1833-1871)
From Tosa
Itagaki Taisuke (1837-1919) - left government 1873 with Saigo and launched "popular rights movement" to challenge the monopoly of power the Sat-Cho "clique"; forms Jiyutô or Liberty Party
Gôtô Shojirô (1837-1897) - also left government in 1873; active in political "party" and "popular rights movement" with Itagaki.
Sakamoto Ryôma (1835-1867)
- pivotal figure in joining Satsuma and Chôshû; has ideas for a Constitution. a bi-cameral legiaslature; but killed by a bakufu paramilitary unit just before the Restoration
From Hizen
Etô Shimpei (1834-1874) - led a rebellion of 3,000 samurai against Meiji government in 1874 and was killed
Okuma Shigenobu (1838-1922) - becomes Finance Minister but forced out of govt over Constitution issue in 1881; forms his own "Progressive Party"
Soejima Taneomi (1828-1905) - also joined with Goto from Tosa to be active in political party movement
2. Surrender of Domain Registers 1869
3. Abolition of Domains 1871 ---> first 72----> then 48 Prefectures
4. New Education System 1872
Universal, compulsory education through elementary school
1877 attendance rates still low--below 27% but by the 1890s = 98%!
5. Universal Conscription System 1873
Conscript Army--Yamagata had learned that an educated and mobilized population behind the gov't was key to Western strength
3 yrs active, 4 yrs reserves; undermined role of samurai!
Emperor's image as father of nation, focus of loyalty cultivated
Posed in Western military attire as a role model
6. 1872 National Banking Act
7. Agrarian Settlement/Land Tax 1873
Monetary values assessed and assigned to the land;
New Land Tax at 3% of Assessed Value of Land--so not tied to size of the harvest--payable in cash, not kind/crop; provided stable revenue base for new government but there were inequities---> rural violence
7. Iwakura Mission and Korean War Issue 1873
Also the Meiji 6 Society ( Meirokusha ) was founded to introduce and discuss new ideas and texts from the west--political economy, education, philosophy, women's position, religion, etc.
McClain points out how also read and debated in the 1870s were the ideas of John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, Herbert Spencer, Alexis de Tocqueville, Francois Guizot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. (175)
Nakamura Masanao translates Samuel Smiles' Victorian manual on how to succeed through diligence and hard work, Self Help, which was very popular among dissatisfied samurai. See here for some comments. Also works by Herbert Spencer, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, etc.
Bunmei kaika (文明開化) or "Civilization and Enlightenment"
All of this activity surrounding the introduction of new ideas and philosophies fits under the rubric of bunmei kaika (文明開化) or "Civilization and Enlightenment." Japanese enjoy their phrases like this and "Rich Country, Strong Army"(fukoku-kyohei 富国強兵 ) which had originally been coined to describe what some of the domains were doing in the 1860s. In this instance, the "country" referred not to Japan the nation--which did not yet exist--but to the feudal han or domain.
Fukuzawa was central in this group and its activities and his name will forever be associated with bunmei kaika (文明開化). He thought of himself as an "enlightenment" thinker like Voltaire whose mission was to show his countrymen the way, the correct path to follow. Fukuzawa became very popular and incredibly well-known when his Conditions in the West was serialized between 1867-1870 after his return from his 1860 voyage to America. Known as Seiyō jijō (西洋事情 in Japanese, "Conditions in the West,"was published in three volumes in 1866, 1868, and 1870). It was here that he coined the term bunmei kaika when he wrote that history shows us "that life has been dark and closed, and that it advances in the direction of civilization and enlightenment." He wanted Japanese to grasp the idea that a certain "spirit" pervaded western societies and he considered it to be "the spirit of civilization." This book was very popular selling over 150,000 copies initially as Japanese readers were interested to read his descriptions of western societies and their various institutions.
In the early 1870s he also wrote his very popular Encouragement of Learning or "Gakumon no susume," which opens with the lines: "Heaven did not create men above men, nor set men before men..." which is very close to saying that all men are created equal. Some argue that when Fukuzawa composed these lines, "men" meant to him pretty much exclusively men from the samurai class.
He also translated works of Brown University president F. Wayland, a conservative ethicist; H. T. Buckle, Francois Guizot, while his colleague Nakamura Masanao translated Samuel Smiles’ Self Help, which became incredibly popular, and also On Liberty by J.S. Mill, a very influential text. Later, Fukuzawa translated Herbert Spencer, Jean-jacques Rousseau, and Charles Darwin.
He founded his own school, the Keio Academy which evolved into today's Keio University, one of the top private universities in Japan. Fukuzawa urged his readers not just to probe the external dimensions of western civilization—schools, hospitals, weapons, libraries, workhouses, orphanages, etc—but also that intangible spirit which drove western civilization—the spirit of civilization. This lay in the achievement oriented individualism that celebrated hard work, diligence, perseverance, etc. as described in Self Help. (McClain, 177-78).
These kinds of translations helped provide the context for the very earliest political organizations which were founded in Tosa and were called Risshisha or "Self Help" Societies. They were designed to attract samurai who were discontented with their post-restoration role, especially after pensions were commuted--see below. But, interestingly, the activists in Tosa were more drawn to natural rights theories like Rousseau and Mill. From the humble beginning of "self-help societies" began the political oppposition movement known as the "popular rights movement"which demanded things like a constitution and representative government. In the end, how did Fukuzawa position himself in relation to "popular rights"? Did he unequivocally support basic civil rights for Japanese citizens? Did he back the movement at crucial pointsd? Or was his stance more conservative?
8. Commutation of Samurai Pensions 1876
Gov't first offered to commute samurai stipends into gov't bonds; then made it compulsory in 1876;
Also outlawed the top knot and the wearing of two swords
Samurai rebellions resulted:
1874 Etô Shimpei in Saga Prefecture (formerly Hizen) rallied 3,000 samurai to join him; Okubo personally led the expeditionary force sent against him. Eto eventually captured and executed.
1876 Maebara Issei from Chôshû rebelled; lots of support ("What have 1 million samurai done wrong?") but no match for the new government
1877 Saigô Takamori and the "Satsuma Rebellion" -- last of the armed samurai rebellions v. Meiji government -- some 15,000 samurai taking on seom 34,000 imperial troops led by Yamagata Artitomo.
Others chose Political Opposition Groups 1874
Itagaki/Tosa/ Jiyutô - Ueki Emori and Nakae Chômin provide the underpinnings of Natural Rights Theory
Okuma/ Kaishintô - Progressive party; more urban than Jiyutô
Perhaps it is no concidence that when leftwing ideologies like Marxism, Socialism and Anarchism began to appeal to Japanese, among the leading figures in this group of leftwing activists was another person from Tosa, Kôtoku Shûsui, who studied for five years under Nakae Chômin, who was most closely linked to French thought, especially Rousseau. Nakae had studied in France himself. Also from Tosa, from Kochi City, was Taoka Reiun whom we will study later; he was a close friend of Kôtoku and became a literary and social critic who called into question the whole appeal of bunmei-kaika. Towards the end of his life, he looked back at the Meiji Restoration and made very clear where he thought Japan took some wrong directions.
9. So, by 1877 Death of Kido, from Illness (TB) and Saigo in his thwarted rebellion;
1878 Okubo Assassinated on his way to a meeting at the Imperial Palace; not far from the historic spot where Ii Naosuke was similarly assaulted and killed.
But the new government survives first succession crisis after the deaths of 3 of its strongest leaders; Itô Hirobumi, Yamagata Aritomo and Okuma Shigenobu were all experienced and ready to take over the reins of power.
11. Date for a Constitution set--by 1890. In fact, the Constitution was promulgated in February of 1889