The Meiji Era and the Role of Kido Koin in the Modernization of Nineteenth-century Japan

Résumé du document

The great changes of the Meiji era have been significantly impacted by the life of Kido. The similarity can be drawn through various phases. Firstly, Kido was identified as one of the leaders who was powerful enough in 1868 to restore the crown as ?emperor' and retain the central position of Japan and thereby initiate the revolutionary changes of the Meiji restoration. Secondly, Kido's personal life can be considered as a reflection of a microcosm of the Meiji period. In this essay, I will begin by focusing on a particular view point to a general view point. In this regard, part one of the essay will be devoted to the character of Kido Kôin only. It will focus on the way in which his life reflected the major developments of the Meiji era. Subsequently in the second part, I will analyze the general elements of change and continuity in the age of Meiji, highlighting the measures implemented by Kido.

Extraits

[...] The Meiji Era and the Role of Kido Kôin in the Modernization of Nineteenth-century Japan In many ways the life of Kido Kôin represents the great changes of the Meiji era. First, because Kido was one of the leaders who took power in 1868 to restore the emperor as the center of Japan and initiate the revolutionary changes of the ‘Meiji restoration'. Secondly, his personal life can be seen as a microcosm of the Meiji period. In this essay, I will proceed from a particular to a general point of view: a first part will be devoted to the character of Kido Kôin only, focusing on the way in which his life reflected the major developments of the Meiji era. [...]

[...] Of greater importance with respect to political and social change, though, was the abolition of the status system: by 1876 the economic privileges of the samurai had come to an end. Can we say, as Gordon argues, that the expropriation an entire social class' amounted to a ‘social revolution'[8]? Obviously, there are important historiographical differences in the interpretation of modern Japan. As we have seen in the course, although this measure undoubtedly was a major change in Japan's social history, it proved unable to abolish all old social distinctions and the ‘social revolution' was by no means complete. [...]

[...] Gordon, A Modern History of Japan: from Tokugawa Times to the Present (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003) - O. Mori, The Wild Geese (Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1959) Charter Oath, April 7th 1868, in W. W. McLaren, Japanese Government Documents (Bethesda: University Publications of America, 1979) [2]A. Gordon, A Modern History of Japan: from Tokugawa Times to the Present (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003) Gordon Gordon Gordon Bulk pack: Ito Hirobimi, the constitution of 1889” (1889), pp. 666- 671 Bulk Pack: Okubo Toshimichi, “Views on constitutional government” (1873), p.666 Gordon Prof. [...]

[...] Never before in Japanese history had the political centralization of power been so great. The cabinet system inaugurated in 1885, the Meiji constitution of 1889, and the election of the first deliberative Diet in 1890 are other crucial reforms of this period, The regime was also bureaucratized and in 1887 a system of civil service examinations was put in place.[5] At the same time, the constitution was very different from those of most Western countries: whereas Western constitutions were often the consequence of popular sovereignty (or at least a compromise between a monarch and a people), the Japanese constitution was an “imperial which implies that sovereignty remained solely in the emperor's hands. [...]

[...] Those military victories and the focus on Japan being a modernized country were critical in the context of Japanese nation- state building. In conclusion, if we want to understand the character of Kido Kôin, we have to keep in mind the fact that his life was a microcosm of the early Meiji period, a period of great transition for Japan. Indeed, it is worth noticing that he was by his status a man of the past, a man of the Tokugawa period (being a great privileged aristocrat in the Chôshû domain) but by his political views a man of the Meiji era, a man motivated by the greater interest of the country and that interest was modernity. [...]