Meiji period

Statue of Emperor Meiji at Naminoue Shrine in Okinawa, identified as kokka (国家), or, "The State."

• Dates: 1868-1912
• Other Names: 近代 (kindai)
• Japanese: 明治時代 (Meiji jidai)

The Meiji period, spanning the years from 1868 to 1912, saw dramatic changes in myriad aspects of politics, economy, culture, and society, and marked the emergence of the modern nation-state of Japan.

The period, which began with the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate and establishment of a new Imperial government in the Meiji Restoration of 1868, ended with the death of the Meiji Emperor in 1912, marking the beginning of the Taishô period, under his successor, the Taishô Emperor.

This was a bright time for Japan, with countless developments worthy of celebration, in terms of economics, technology, and infrastructure, as well as in cultural fields, as Japan burst onto the world scene demanding to be recognized as a modern country, and as a world power. From electricity and railroads to oil paintings and novels, from newspapers and photographs to red brick buildings and top hats, from popular elections to public education, the Meiji period represents perhaps the most rapid and successful national modernization effort in the world.

However, Japan also began along the path of ultranationalism and imperialism in the Meiji period, annexing Ezo (Hokkaidô) in 1869, the Ryûkyû Islands in 1879, Taiwan in 1895, and Korea in 1905-1910. While there is an argument to be made for the potential of Meiji Japan to have developed into a more peaceful liberal democracy, and while historians do continue to debate regarding the character and significance of the short-lived Taisho Democracy of the 1910s-20s, there are also strong connections to be drawn between the political structure and nationalist rhetoric of the Meiji period, and the ultra-nationalism, militarism, and imperialism of the 1930s-1940s.

Politics

Following the Meiji Restoration which overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate, a new Imperial government under the Meiji Emperor was established, patterned after the constitutional monarchies and democracies of the West. After much consideration and debate, a Constitution was written up, and promulgated in 1889.

That said, though the history of this period is often, necessarily, simplified, the Meiji government did not, in fact, have a set plan from the beginning, which they then smoothly laid out step-by-step, addressing all the key problems in good order and good time. Quite to the contrary, during that time from 1868 until the promulgation of the Constitution in 1889, things were quite unstable. There was much disagreement within the government, and without. The Restoration could have fallen apart, or gone in a dramatically different direction, at any of numerous points. One such threat came from violent rebellions by former samurai (shizoku) who rose up against the government in Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Hagi, and Kagoshima in the 1870s. These rebellions were mostly spurred by the dismantling of samurai privileges, and their successful suppression by the Imperial Japanese Army was an important step in the cementing of the new government's authority.

The Imperial Japanese Army emerged from the implementation of a new system of military conscription in 1872-1873, following the abolition of the samurai class in 1871. This was the first citizen army in Japan, and the first in service of the modern Japanese nation-state. It was originally based chiefly on a French model, but was reorganized in 1878 with inspiration from Prussian practices. The Imperial Japanese Navy was established concurrently, based largely on the model of the British Royal Navy.

• Abolition of Han. As part of the dismantling of the feudal system, the central government took control of most of the country's castles. Many were demolished at this time. Some were turned over to governmental or military purposes. Many former daimyô clans relocated to secondary residences, turning these into primary family mansions; the Hotta mansion which survives in Sakura, Chiba prefecture, and the Shimazu clan's Iso mansion at Sengan'en in Kagoshima are examples of this. Many domain mansions in Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka, though not seized by the government, were abandoned or sold. The existence of so many large compounds, now able to be turned over to other purposes, proved a boon to the development of these modern cities, as many were converted into public schools, government buildings, public parks, and the like.

• Genro, etc.
• Iwakura Embassy
• Seikanron
• Satsuma Rebellion & other shizoku rebellions
• The Emperor declared in 1881 that he would establish a national legislature in 1889. That same year, he received King Kalakaua of Hawaii, and Princes Albert and George of the United Kingdom as formal state guests, the first foreign royals to visit Japan in such a capacity. Former US President Ulysses S. Grant had visited two years earlier, in 1879, and helped advise the Emperor both in building a new, modern, democratic country, and also in diplomatic negotiations with China, successfully avoiding war at that time over control of Okinawa and Taiwan. These tensions, sparked by an 1871 incident on Taiwan, led to the deployment of Japanese troops to Taiwan in 1874, and ultimately to Japan unilaterally abolishing the Ryûkyû Kingdom and annexing its territory as Okinawa prefecture, over Beijing's objections, in 1879. Tensions over Taiwan (and influence in Korea) were allayed for a time, but would later come to war with China in 1894-1895; Japanese victory in that war made Taiwan a Japanese colony.

An ukiyo-e woodblock print triptych by Toyohara Chikanobu depicting the promulgation of the Meiji Constitution in a formal ceremony which took place in the Throne Room of the Tokyo Imperial Palace.

After much discussion and debate, the first Japanese Constitution was promulgated on February 11, 1889. The promulgation was accompanied by extensive ceremonies, beginning with very private rites performed by the Emperor alone deep within the palace, ostensibly continuing an ancient tradition, followed by a modern/Western-style political ceremony in which the Constitution was formally promulgated with many government officials and journalists in attendance; this was then followed in turn by a public procession and celebration in the streets of Tokyo. All three combined, as reported in newspapers, participated in by the public, and otherwise noted as a national holiday and significant historical moment, have been described as "Japan's first modern national ceremony." Fashioned after modern state ceremonies in the West, this displayed to the Japanese people and the world that Japan was a modern country, and it served as precedent and model for many national ceremonies later in the Meiji period, all the way down to the 1940s.

Under this Constitution, which remained in force until 1945, the Emperor wielded ultimate sovereignty, and all political power and land ownership stemmed from him. The Emperor had the power to declare war, conclude treaties, make policy in a wide range of fields, to dissolve the legislature and call for new elections, and to veto the decisions of the legislature at his discretion. The Privy Council and Cabinet ministers, a group which included many genrô ("senior statesmen," chiefly the architects of the Restoration and of the Constitution), were thus able to rule as oligarchs, making many decisions themselves, and simply seeking the Emperor's official approval. The only power reserved exclusively to the legislature was the power to approve the annual government budget; however, even this power was weakened by stipulations that if the legislature failed to approve a new budget, the current year's budget would simply be re-adopted for the next year. The Imperial family themselves were not bound or governed by the terms of the Constitution, but rather by a separate document, the Imperial House Law.

Based on borrowings from Prussian, British, and US forms of government, the Constitution created a national imperial government with the Emperor at the top, and a bicameral legislature called the Imperial Diet. The Upper House, the House of Peers, consisted of members of the newly formed hereditary aristocracy, most of whom were former daimyô or court nobles. The Lower House, the House of Representatives, was popularly elected, with the first elections being held in 1890. Initially, however, as in many Western countries, suffrage was limited to wealthy landowners, who it was believed could be trusted to be well-informed enough, politically engaged enough, to vote responsibly. In the first set of elections, some 450,000 men, or 1.1% of the total Japanese population, were eligible to vote. Universal male suffrage would not be extended in Japan until 1925, and women's suffrage not until 1946.

For the first five years or so, The Jiyûtô ("Freedom Party") and Kaishintô ("Progressive Party"), both of which were opposed to the basic structure of the government, won the majority of seats in the Diet time and again. Members of the genrô ("senior statesmen," incl. some of the architects of the Restoration, and of the Constitution), or other arms of the Imperial institution had to intervene a number of times in order to end deadlocked situations, and to get a government budget passed. The Diet was dissolved, and new elections called, several times. As in many other aspects of Meiji politics and culture, the Japanese victory in the Sino-Japanese War of 1895 brought a shift towards greater patriotic unity and support for the government.

By 1899, the treaty ports system was terminated, and treaty revision finally attained. With the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902, Japan even more fully joined the ranks of the world powers. There remained, however, some continuing sense of inequality, however, which would later grow and contribute to the rise of militarism and ultranationalism in the 1930s-40s.

Economics

In terms of commerce, industry, and infrastructure, the country modernized perhaps more quickly than any country ever has. Railroads, electricity, gaslamps, steamships, and countless other technological advances which began to be introduced in the Bakumatsu era spread, quickly becoming ubiquitous. Banks, factories, import-export companies, and the first zaibatsu and keiretsu conglomerates, among other sorts of modern corporate businesses abounded, and Japan quickly became a competitive force on the world stage. Modern technologies for factory mass production became widespread, particularly for the production of textiles. For the entire Meiji period, textiles accounted for roughly half of all of Japan's exports.

The government hired some 3,000 foreigners to serve as advisors and teachers in guiding these infrastructure efforts, and in teaching the first generation of Japanese experts at the newly established Imperial universities. The majority by far were experts in engineering and architecture, and were employed by the Ministry of Education. Numerous iconic new modern buildings were constructed at this time, combining modern Western style, methods, and materials with Japanese traditional elements.

Much of these economic changes were driven by individual entrepreneurs, including many of the former merchant class (such as the founders of Mitsukoshi, Takashimaya, etc.), and also many of the former samurai class; for example, the Shimazu clan shifted their family wealth into the Shimazu Corporation, and low-ranking samurai Iwasaki Yatarô founded Mitsubishi. But much of this economic modernization and growth was also fueled by the government, which promoted nationalist slogans such as bunmei kaika (文明開化, "civilization and enlightenment"), fukoku kyôhei (富国強兵, "prosperous country, strong military"), wakon yôsai (和魂洋才, "Japanese spirit, Western technique"), and shokusan kôgyô (殖産興業, promotion of industry).

Meanwhile, the government began printing & minting new currency in 1868, establishing the yen as the new Japanese currency in 1871, and establishing the Bank of Japan in 1882.

Society

The samurai class was abolished in 187X, and the system of feudal domains (han) in 1871. The wearing of swords in public was banned in 1876. Though all were now meant to be relatively equal, as Imperial subjects, no longer divided into Confucian classes of merchants, peasants, and artisans, a new aristocracy was formed to include the former daimyô, court nobles, and others.

The government implemented a system of nationwide public education which gradually came into fruition over the course of the period. A national curriculum was aimed at suppressing regional difference and creating a unified, national, "Japanese" culture. The Ministry of Education began efforts in 1872 to establish schools across the country; in addition to this, a significant portion of the education budget in the first decades of the Meiji period was devoted to bringing in foreign teachers, and to funding students to study overseas. Building schools, training and hiring (native Japanese) teachers, and so forth took some time, and as late as 1902, the country was still only partially on the way to the goals that had been set in 1872, in terms of the number of schools in operation. As for the content and character of the national curriculum, 1890 was a turning point in this as in many things. The Imperial Rescript on Education issued that year is a short document which declared a set of nationalist core principles, and which served from that point forward as the foundation of a curriculum of moral education emphasizing filial piety, nationalist zeal or patriotism, reverence for the Emperor, and personal sacrifice for the sake of the nation.

Culture

Everyday culture changed dramatically, from food to fashion to architecture, as Western styles were adopted. Much was retained, of course, or evolved into new modern forms without being discarded entirely; still, modernity came quickly, especially in the big cities, in these respects.

A national culture was born for the first time. Public education, nationwide newspapers, and the abolition of the feudal system & centralization of government under Tokyo, along with numerous other factors fueled the development of a single national culture. Regional culture was celebrated, but it was also suppressed. The government promoted, as it still does today, the distinctive sights and scenery of each region, and regional products (meibutsu, e.g. Aomori apples and Kagawa udon). But, it also promoted the idea that provincial dialects, and many other aspects of regional culture, were backwards, and un-modern. Through a singular nationwide public education curriculum and other methods, the government encouraged the development of a singular, modern, national culture and identity.

In response to this, however, a number of scholars, writers, and artists perceived the loss of regional folk traditions as an existential threat to Japanese identity. They argued that Japanese identity was grounded fundamentally in folk traditions, including especially folk arts (mingei) such as pottery and textiles, and that this was being actively destroyed by the nationalization and modernization efforts; as Japan modernized, they found in Hokkaidô, Okinawa, Korea, and Taiwan what they claimed was an earlier, truer form of Japanese culture, which was being lost and which needed to be recovered. While their efforts certainly did serve to revive or preserve many folk traditions which might otherwise have been lost, it is important to note that the Mingei movement was not in fact rescuing these traditions as they truly had been in ages past, but rather was re-inventing, re-conceptualizing these arts; the Mingei vision of Japanese culture, history, and identity was an invented tradition no less so than the more official and mainstream efforts to promote National arts.

Through participation in World's Fairs, the establishment of Imperial (National) Museums in the 1880s, the establishment of a system of National Treasures, and the promotion of particular art forms, among other means, the government worked to prove to the Japanese people, and to the world, that Japan was modern, civilized, and possessed just as worthy a tradition and history as any other great nation. Many new art forms, such as Nihonga (neo-traditional painting) and yôga (Western-style oil painting), the novel & other forms of "modern" literature, and new forms of theatre, were born out of this, while many older art forms, such as Noh, kabuki, shamisen music, Japanese dance, and tea ceremony, were formalized or re-invented as "national traditions." Others, such as ukiyo-e, simply continued along, changing and developing but not being re-conceptualized entirely. Artists such as Kobayashi Kiyochika designed ukiyo-e propaganda prints which served to report on national events, such as the promulgation of the Constitution, and the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars. By the end of the period, however, ukiyo-e had fallen away, and had been replaced by modern print forms such as shin hanga ("new prints") and sôsaku hanga ("creative prints"). Photography, postcards, newspapers, and a variety of other modern arts & cultural forms also developed and became widespread in the Meiji period.

The city of Kyoto was intentionally shaped into a symbol of Japan's great, noble, past, and numerous historical figures (such as Kusunoki Masashige) were revived and celebrated as national heroes. Nitobe Inazô invented and promoted the notion of bushido as a corollary to Europe's great tradition of chivalry. A European-style aristocratic peerage, complete with titles equivalent to Baron, Duke, and Marquis, was implemented, and many classical government positions were given equivalent European names; for example, the post of Naidaijin was named Lord of the Privy Seal, and was, at least partially, patterned in its new, modern incarnation, after the position of Lord of the Privy Seal in European courts.

For the first decade or two of the period, the Meiji government made little concerted effort to guide the (re)building and shaping of Tokyo and Kyoto, and in fact for the first several years of the period the government remained undecided as to which city would be the official capital, or whether they might have multiple capitals. Even after it was decided that Tokyo would be the national, Imperial, capital, for many years little coordinated effort was made to reshape the city into a national symbol and modern capital in the Western/modern mode. The Imperial family moved from Kyoto into a set of buildings in the nishi-no-maru (western bailey) of Edo castle as early as 1869, but it was only in the late 1880s and 1890s (albeit with a few earlier exceptions) that the government begin to build grand boulevards, triumphal arches, massive public parks, and statues of national heroes. And it was only in 1889 that the Tokyo Imperial Palace itself was (re)built, the modern imperial palace created out of the former shogunal castle. Similarly, the old imperial capital of Kyoto was largely left to simply fall into disrepair from 1868 until the 1880s, before the government decided to make a concerted effort to shape Kyoto into a powerful symbol of Japan's illustrious past. Beginning in the 1880s, the Kyoto Imperial Palace was repaired, and much of its grounds transformed into a public park, with many other sites in the city attracting government attention and support as well. Historian Takashi Fujitani writes of a "museumification of Kyoto" which was effected at this time, transforming the city into something "not unlike a public museum in its display of objects that were to be appreciated as the true representations of history."

State Shinto was also developed, along with a complex set of rituals, tradition, and national ideology surrounding the Emperor. However, like much else in this period, this developed over time. Though many of the earliest Meiji period documents express adulation of the emperor, continuing the sonnô jôi and kokugaku rhetoric which preceded them, it was only after the 1895 victory over the Chinese that the ultranationalist forms of "emperor-worship" emblematic of the 1930s-1940s began to settle into place. Shinto was divided into State Shinto, with hierarchies of national shrines being created; Sect Shinto, in which networks of related shrines were counted as separate from the national hierarchies; and local folk practices. Numerous shrines were formally designated as chief shrine for their prefecture, and shrines were also established in the colonies. Buddhism was at the same time very briefly but very powerfully suppressed, in a policy known as haibutsu kishaku. Where Buddhism and Shinto had previously been closely intertwined, Buddhism was now extricated from shrines, to make them more purely Shinto sites. A great many temples were closed in 1869-1870 or so, and a great many Buddhist artworks, icons, and artifacts were either sold to foreign collectors or were destroyed.

The massive cultural and societal shifts into modernity also brought significant linguistic developments. Firstly, the shift from woodblock printing to movable type meant a standardization of the characters (kana and kanji). Where woodblock printing previously emulated handwriting, in which each character might be abbreviated, calligraphically, in a number of ways, modern type (along with modern public education) now formalized both the kana and kanji into the forms we know today. Second, numerous new terms were coined and incorporated into the language, to refer to modern technologies, Western cultural and intellectual concepts, and modern political and social structures. The term tetsudô (鉄道, lit. "iron road") was coined, for example, to refer to railroads, and the terms jitensha (自転車, "self turning vehicle") and denwa (電話, "electric talk") for bicycles and telephone respectively. New words were coined to refer to "philosophy" (哲学, tetsugaku), "literature" (文学, bungaku), "economics" (経済, keizai), and "politics" (政治, seiji), as understood in their particular modern/Western forms. The concept of "art," that is, high art, especially as divided into "visual arts" and "performing arts," similarly had not previously existed in Japan, and so the terms bijutsu 美術 and geijutsu 芸術 were coined. Meanwhile, numerous new fields only first emerging in the West as well at that time, such as anthropology (人類学, jinruigaku), needed to be termed in Japanese. New political structures and concepts such as the "citizen" (国民, kokumin), the Imperial subject (皇民, kômin), and the Nation/State (国家, kokka), as well as "society" (社会, shakai), "freedom" or "liberty" (自由, jiyû), and "people's rights" (民権, minken), similarly came into being at this time. A great many of these terms were then adopted into Chinese.

History was also reconceptualized at this time, as Meiji discourse constructed a "national" history, one in which "Japan" had always existed as a single unit under an unbroken line of Emperors, and in which the Tokugawa period was repressive and backwards, and the Meiji period one of progress and modernity. In the course of writing this history, numerous terms were either coined anew, or appropriated from the Chinese classics, and applied retroactively, anachronistically, to the past. It was in these histories that the feudal domains of the Edo period were first called han, that the emperors were for the first time invariably called tennô, and that the term bakufu (lit. "tent government") was adopted as the chief, standard term for the three shogunates.