 The
Meiji Period
Those people who
wanted to end Tokugawa rule did not envision a new
government or a new society; they merely sought the
transfer of power from Edo to Kyoto while retaining all
their feudal prerogatives. Instead, a profound change
took place. The emperor emerged as a national symbol of
unity in the midst of reforms that were much more
radical than had been envisioned.
The first reform was
the promulgation of the Charter Oath in 1868, a general
statement of the aims of the Meiji leaders to boost
morale and win financial support for the new government.
Its five provisions consisted of establishment of
deliberative assemblies, involvement of all classes in
carrying out state affairs, freedom of social and
occupational mobility, replacement of "evil
customs" with the "just laws of nature,"
and an international search for knowledge to strengthen
the foundations of imperial rule. Implicit in the
Charter Oath was an end to exclusive political rule by
the bakufu and a move toward more democratic
participation in government. To implement the Charter
Oath, an eleven-article constitution was drawn up.
Besides providing for a new Council of State,
legislative bodies, and systems of ranks for nobles and
officials, it limited office tenure to four years,
allowed public balloting, provided for a new taxation
system, and ordered new local administrative rules.
The Meiji government
assured the foreign powers that it would abide by the
old treaties negotiated by the bakufu and
announced that it would act in accordance with
international law. Mutsuhito, who was to reign until
1912, selected a new reign title- -Meiji, or Enlightened
Rule--to mark the beginning of a new era in Japanese
history. To further dramatize the new order, the capital
was relocated from Kyoto, where it had been situated
since 794, to Tokyo (Eastern Capital), the new name for
Edo. In a move critical for the consolidation of the new
regime, most daimyo voluntarily surrendered
their land and census records to the emperor,
symbolizing that the land and people were under the
emperor's jurisdiction. Confirmed in their hereditary
positions, the daimyo became governors, and the
central government assumed their administrative expenses
and paid samurai stipends. The han were
replaced with prefectures in 1871, and authority
continued to flow to the national government. Officials
from the favored former han, such as Satsuma,
Choshu, Tosa, and Hizen, staffed the new ministries.
Formerly out-of-favor court nobles and lower-ranking but
more radical samurai replaced bakufu
appointees, daimyo, and old court nobles as a
new ruling class appeared.
Inasmuch as the Meiji
Restoration had sought to return the emperor to a
preeminent position, efforts were made to establish a
Shinto-oriented state much like the state of 1,000 years
earlier. An Office of Shinto Worship was established,
ranking even above the Council of State in importance.
The kokutai ideas of the Mito school were
embraced, and the divine ancestry of the imperial house
was emphasized. The government supported Shinto
teachers, a small but important move. Although the
Office of Shinto Worship was demoted in 1872, by 1877
the Home Ministry controlled all Shinto shrines and
certain Shinto sects were given state recognition.
Shinto was at last released from Buddhist administration
and its properties restored. Although Buddhism suffered
from state sponsorship of Shinto, it had its own
resurgence. Christianity was also legalized, and
Confucianism remained an important ethical doctrine.
Increasingly, however, Japanese thinkers identified with
Western ideology and methods.
The Meiji oligarchy,
as the new ruling class is known to historians, was a
privileged clique that exercised imperial power,
sometimes despotically. The members of this class were
adherents of kokugaku and believed they were
the creators of a new order as grand as that established
by Japan's original founders. Two of the major figures
of this group were Okubo Toshimichi (1832-78), son of a
Satsuma retainer, and Satsuma samurai Saigo Takamori
(1827-77), who had joined forces with Choshu, Tosa, and
Hizen to overthrow the Tokugawa. Okubo became minister
of finance and Saigo a field marshal; both were imperial
councillors. Kido Koin (1833- 77), a native of Choshu,
student of Yoshida Shoin, and coconspirator with Okubo
and Saigo, became minister of education and chairman of
the Governors' Conference and pushed for constitutional
government. Also prominent were Iwakura Tomomi
(1825-83), a Kyoto native who had opposed the Tokugawa
and was to become the first ambassador to the United
States, and Okuma Shigenobu (1838-1922), of Hizen, a
student of Rangaku, Chinese, and English, who held
various ministerial portfolios, eventually becoming
prime minister in 1898.
To accomplish the new
order's goals, the Meiji oligarchy set out to abolish
the Tokugawa class system through a series of economic
and social reforms. Bakufu revenues had
depended on taxes on Tokugawa and other daimyo
lands, loans from wealthy peasants and urban merchants,
limited customs fees, and reluctantly accepted foreign
loans. To provide revenue and develop a sound
infrastructure, the new government financed harbor
improvements, lighthouses, machinery imports, schools,
overseas study for students, salaries for foreign
teachers and advisers, modernization of the army and
navy, railroads and telegraph networks, and foreign
diplomatic missions.
Difficult economic
times, manifested by increasing incidents of agrarian
rioting, led to calls for social reforms. In addition to
the old high rents, taxes, and interest rates, the
average citizen was faced with cash payments for new
taxes, military conscription, and tuition charges for
compulsory education. The people needed more time for
productive pursuits while correcting social abuses of
the past. To achieve these reforms, the old Tokugawa
class system of samurai, farmer, artisan, and merchant
was abolished by 1871, and, even though old prejudices
and status consciousness continued, all were
theoretically equal before the law. Actually helping to
perpetuate social distinctions, the government named new
social divisions: the former daimyo became
nobility, the samurai became gentry, and all others
became commoners. Daimyo and samurai pensions
were paid off in lump sums, and the samurai later lost
their exclusive claim to military positions. Former
samurai found new pursuits as bureaucrats, teachers,
army officers, police officials, journalists, scholars,
colonists in the northern parts of Japan, bankers, and
businessmen. These occupations helped stem some of the
discontent this large group felt; some profited
immensely, but many were not successful and provided
significant opposition in the ensuing years.
Additionally, between
1871 and 1873, a series of land and tax laws were
enacted as the basis for modern fiscal policy. Private
ownership was legalized, deeds were issued, and lands
were assessed at fair market value with taxes paid in
cash rather than in kind as in pre-Meiji days and at
slightly lower rates.
Undeterred by
opposition, the Meiji leaders continued to modernize the
nation through government-sponsored telegraph cable
links to all major Japanese cities and the Asian
mainland and construction of railroads, shipyards,
munitions factories, mines, textile manufacturing
facilities, factories, and experimental agriculture
stations. Much concerned about national security, the
leaders made significant efforts at military
modernization, which included establishing a small
standing army, a large reserve system, and compulsory
militia service for all men. Foreign military systems
were studied, foreign advisers were brought in, and
Japanese cadets sent abroad to European and United
States military and naval schools.
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