Changes

==Society==

==Society==

The [[samurai]] class was abolished along with the system of feudal domains (''han'') in [[1871]]. The wearing of swords in public was [[Haito edict|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 [[samurai]] class was abolished along with the system of feudal domains (''han'') in [[1871]]. Former samurai were now termed ''[[shizoku]]'' or ''[[sotsu]]'' depending on their previous rank, and the wearing of swords in public was [[Haito edict|banned]] in [[1876]]. Former ''daimyô'', along with [[kuge|court aristocrats]], [[Sho Dynasty|Ryukyuan royalty]], and a few others became a new European-style aristocracy, called the ''[[kazoku]]''. But for all categories of peasants and commoners, status categories and legal divisions were eliminated, with the vast majority of the population becoming ''heimin'' ("regular citizens"), and all [[sumptuary regulations]] and other restrictions on hairstyle, fashion, and so forth, were eliminated as well, with a few gender-related exceptions. Restrictions on occupations were similarly lifted. While the outcaste groups known as ''[[eta]]'' and ''[[hinin]]'' were officially abolished, those people, now under the term ''[[burakumin]]'', continued to suffer from discrimination.<ref>Gordon, 65.</ref>

The government implemented a system of [[Meiji education|nationwide public education]] which gradually came into fruition over the course of the period, based on a combination of Western knowledge (e.g. sciences, geography, economics) and [[Neo-Confucianism|Neo-Confucian]] moral education. 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.<ref>Schirokauer, et al, 187-188.</ref>

The government implemented a system of [[Meiji education|nationwide public education]] which gradually came into fruition over the course of the period, based on a combination of Western knowledge (e.g. sciences, geography, economics) and [[Neo-Confucianism|Neo-Confucian]] moral education. 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.<ref>Schirokauer, et al, 187-188.</ref>