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Japan The Meiji Restoration
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
(see Opposition to the Meiji Oligarchy
, this ch.).
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
(see Militarism Before 1945
, ch. 8). Foreign military systems were
studied, foreign
advisers were brought in, and Japanese cadets sent abroad
to
European and United States military and naval schools.
Data as of January 1994
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