Meiji Japan and The Imperial Rule: A Symbiotic Encounter
Abstract
To speak of Meiji Ishin, one would normally come across many pieces of literature that mention the return of the Emperor to the centre of politics and administration in comparison to the previous Tokugawa administration (1603-1868). Yet one crucial question comes up from this is that as to why the Meiji insurgencies decided to bring the Emperor to the front and how this act would benefit their cause? In addressing such a crucial point, this paper attempts to revisit the essentiality of the Imperial factor in pushing forward the Meiji Ishin in the country during the 19th Century. It seeks to examine and investigate the motives that prompted the Meiji insurgencies to use the ‘imperial factor’ in their struggle in facing the Shogunate administration. In so doing, the study uses a method of content analysis to examine the significance of the ‘Imperial factor’ based on analysis of both Japanese and Western literature alike. The study suggests that Japanese Meiji insurgencies who later took up the charge of transforming Japan as a modern and strong nation-state economically and militarily must have realized that only with the support of the Japanese monarchy that this revolution could be strengthened and legitimized against the Shogunate forces and most importantly they could effectively push their reforms agenda in the country.
References
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British Library. (2021). Chronicles of Japan of 720. Retrieved from https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-chronicles-of-japan
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Burks, A. W. (1985). The modernizers: Overseas students, foreign employees, and Meiji Japan. Boulder: Westview Press.
Chang, Richard T. (1970). From prejudice to tolerance: A study of the Japanese image of the west 1826-1864. Tokyo: Sophia University.
Chamberlain, Basil Hall. (2012.). Kojiki: Records of ancient matters. Tuttle Publishing.
Checkland, O. (1989). Britain's encounter with Meiji Japan, 1868-1912. London: Macmillan Press
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Dickins, F. V. & Lane-Poole, S. (1984). The life of sir Harry Parkes (Vol. 11). London: Macmillan and Co.
Fait, O. K. (1990). The clash of interests: The transformation of Japan in 1861-1881 in the eyes of the local anglo-saxon press. Oulu: The Historical Assoc, of Northern Finland.
Flottman, Augustus. (2012). The Meiji education system: Developing the emperor’s ideal subject [Undergraduate honours thesis]. The University of Colorado.
Fujitani, Takashi. (1996). Splendid monarchy: Power and pageantry in modern Japan. Berkeley, University of California Press.
Frazer, James G. (1955). The golden bough. (Vol. 3). London: Macmillan and Co.
Gluck, C. (1985). Japan’s Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period (Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Goto-Jones, Christopher. (2008). The way of revering the emperor: Imperial philosophy and bushido in modern Japan. In Ben-Ami Shillony (Ed.), The emperors of modern Japan (pp. 23-54). Netherlands: Brill.
Gubbins, J. H. (1911). The Progress of Japan 1853-1871. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Gubbins, J. H. (1922). The making of modern Japan. London: Seeley, Service & Co. Ltd.
Hayashi, Fusao. (1973). Tenno no kigen (The origin of the emperor). Tokyo: Roman.
Heldt, Gustav. (2014). The Kojiki: An account of ancient matters. Columbia University Press.
Hoare, J. E. (1994). Japan's treaty ports and foreign settlements: The uninvited guests 1858-1899. Folkestone, Kent: Japan Library.
Howe, C. (1996). The origins of Japanese trade supremacy: Development and technology in Asia from 1540 to the pacific war. London: Hurst & Co.
Humphreys, Leonard A. (1995). The way of the heavenly sword. The Japanese army in the 1920s. California: Stanford University Press.
Inglehart, R. (1997). Modernization and postmodernization. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Univ. Press.
Irokawa, D. (1985). The culture of the Meiji period. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Univ. Press.
Japan Reference. (2020). Record of Ancient Matters of 712. Retrieved from
https://jref.com/articles/kojiki-records-of-ancient-matters.507/
Jansen, M. B. (1980). Japan and its world: Two Centuries of Change. Princeton University Press.
Jansen, M. B. (1989). The Cambridge History of Japan. vol. 5: The Nineteenth Century (Vol. 5). Cambridge University Press.
Jansen, M. B., & Rozman, G. (2014). Japan in transition, from Tokugawa to Meiji. Princeton University Press.
Jones, H. J. (1980). Live machines: Hired foreigners and Meiji Japan. Paul Norbury Publications.
Keene, D. (2005). Emperor of Japan: Meiji and his world, 1852-1912. Columbia University Press: New York.
Lehmann, Jean-Pierre. (1982). The roots of modern Japan. Palgrave Macmillan.
Magarey, D. (2020). Saigo Takamori: Japanese samurai. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saigo-Takamori
Masamoto, Kitajima & Hurst, G. Cameron. (2020). Japan from 1850 to 1945: The Meiji restoration. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/place/Japan/The-opening-of-Japan
Michio Nagai. M. (2005). Westernization and japanization: The early Meiji transformation of education. In Donald H. Shively (Ed.), Tradition and modernization in Japanese culture (pp. 53-94). New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2005.
Mori, K. (1979). The Emperor of Japan: A Historical Study in Religious Symbolism. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 6(4), 522–565. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30233221
Nakamura, T., & Feldman, R. A. (1983). Economic growth in prewar Japan. Yale University Press.
Norman, E. H. (1940). Japan’s emergence as a modern state: Political and economic problems of the Meiji period. New York: Institute of Pacific Relations.
Obispo, Joanna Luisa. (2017). Japan’s fukoku Kyohei: A continuous pursuit of economic and military powers. Ugong,9, 56-80. Ohno, K. (2019). Meiji Japan: Progressive learning of western technology. In Arkebe Oqubay and Kenichi Ohno (Eds.), How nations learn: Technological learning, industrial policy, and catch-up (pp. 85-106). Oxford University Press
Ohno, Kenichi. (2018). The history of Japanese economic development: Origins of private dynamism and policy competence. Routledge.
Presseisen, Ernst. (1965). Before aggression: Europeans train the Japanese Army. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Princeton University Press. (1969). Kojiki: Translated with an intro. and notes by Donald L. Philippi.
Ramseyer, J. Mark, and Rosenbluth, Frances M. (1995). The politics of oligarchy: institutional choice in imperial Japan. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sagers, J. (2001). Power, legitimacy, and the Japanese emperor (2001). Retrieved from https://www.asianstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/power-legitimacy-and-the-japanese-emperor.pdf
Shillony, Ben-Ami. (Ed.). (2008). The Emperors of modern Japan. Netherlands: Brill.
Shively, Donald, H. (1971). The Japanization of the middle Meiji. In Donald H. Shively (Ed.), Tradition and modernization in Japanese Culture (pp. 92-138). New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Silbermann, B. S., and Harootunian, H. D. (Eds.). (1966). Modern Japanese leadership: Transition and change. Tucson, Arizona: Univ. of Arizona Press.
Sims, R. L. (1991). A political history of modern Japan 1868-1952. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Ltd.
Smith, T. C. (1955). Political change and industrial development in Japan: Government enterprise, 1868-1880. California: Stanford Univ. Press.
Soviak, Eugene. (1971). On the nature of western progress: The journal of the Iwakura embassy.” In Donald H. Shively (Ed.), Tradition and modernization in Japanese Culture (pp. 25-52). New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Sugiyama, Shinya. (1988). Japan’s industrialization in the world economy 1859-1899: Export trade and overseas competition. London: The Athlone Press.
Sumikawa, S. 1999. The Meiji Restoration: Roots of Modern Japan. Retrieved from https://www.lehigh.edu/~rfw1/courses/1999/spring/ir163/Papers/pdf/shs3.pdf
Takii, K., Manabu, T., Murray, P., & Fister, P. (2014). Itō Hirobumi Japan's first prime minister and father of the Meiji Constitution. Routledge.
Tames, Richard. (1991). Encounters with Japan. New York: St. Martin’s Press.\
Theodore De Bary, W., Ryusaku Tsunoda, R., Keene, D. (1964). Sources of Japanese tradition. (Vol. 2). Columbia University Press: New York
Tsuzuki, Chushichi. (2000). The pursuit of power in modern Japan 1825-1995. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Umegaki, Michio. (1998). After the restoration: The beginning of Japan’s modern state. New York: New York Univ. Press
Uyehara, G. E. (1910). The political development of Japan 1867-1909. London: Constable & Co. Ltd.
Wahyuni, Dina. (2012). The research design maze: Understanding paradigms, cases, methods, and methodologies. Journal of Applied Management Accounting Research, 10(1), 69- 78.
Wakamori, Taro. (1973). Tennosei no rekishi shinri (The historical psychology of the emperor-system). Tokyo: Kabunda.
Webb, H. (1968). The Japanese Imperial Institution in the Tokugawa Period (New York: Columbia University Press.
White, Marilyn Domas & Marsh, Emily E. (2006). Content analysis: A flexible methodology. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2142/3670
Adams, T. F. M. (1964). A financial history of modern Japan. Tokyo: Research Ltd.
Akagi, Roy Hidemichi. (1936). Japan's foreign relations 1542-1936: A short history. Tokyo: The Hokuseido Press.
Akita, G. (1967). Foundations of constitutional government in modern Japan 1868-1900. Massachusetts: Harvard Univ. Press.
Akita, George. (2020). Ito Hirobumi: Prime minister of Japan. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ito-Hirobumi Earl.
Alcock, R. (1863). The capital of the tycoon: A narrative of a three years' residence in Japan. London: Longman.
Aston, W. G. (1997). Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to Ad 697. Ganesha Pub.
Beasley, W. G. (1973). The Meiji restoration. London: Oxford Univ. Press.
Beasley, W. G. (1963). The modern history of Japan. Tokyo: Charles E. Turtle.
Beasley, W. G. (1987). Japanese imperialism 1894-1945. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Beasley, W. G. (1995). Japan encounters the barbarian: Japanese travellers in America and Europe. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Breen, J. (1996). The Imperial Oath of April 1868: Ritual, Politics, and Power in the Restoration. Monumenta Nipponica, 51(4), 407–429. https://doi.org/10.2307/2385417
British Library. (2021). Chronicles of Japan of 720. Retrieved from https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-chronicles-of-japan
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2021, September 22). Ōkubo Toshimichi. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Okubo-Toshimichi
Brown, Alexander D. (2005). Meiji Japan: A unique technological experience. Student Economic Review, 19, 71-83.
Burks, A. W. (1985). The modernizers: Overseas students, foreign employees, and Meiji Japan. Boulder: Westview Press.
Chang, Richard T. (1970). From prejudice to tolerance: A study of the Japanese image of the west 1826-1864. Tokyo: Sophia University.
Chamberlain, Basil Hall. (2012.). Kojiki: Records of ancient matters. Tuttle Publishing.
Checkland, O. (1989). Britain's encounter with Meiji Japan, 1868-1912. London: Macmillan Press
Cobbing, Andrew. (1998). The Japanese discovery of victorian Britain: Early travel encounters in the far west. Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library.
Cobbing, A., Ohta, A., Checkland, O, and Breen, J. (1998). The Iwakura mission in Britain,1872. London: STICERD, London School of Economics.
Conroy, H. (1960). The Japanese seizure of Korea: 1868-1910. A study of realism and idealism in international relations. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press.
Cortazzi, H. (Ed.). (1982). A diplomat's wife in Japan, sketches at the turn of the century. Tokyo: Weatherhill.
Crowley, James B. (1966). From closed door to empire: The formation of the Meiji military establishment. In Bernard S. Silberman & Harry Harootunian (Eds.), Modern Japanese leadership: Transition and change (pp. 276-277). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Daniels, G. (1996). Sir Harry Parkes: British representative in Japan 1865-83. Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library.
Devere B. Sidney. (1962). Ōkubo Toshimichi: His political and economic policies in early Meiji Japan. The Journal of Asian Studies, 21 (2), 183-197.
Dickins, F. V. & Lane-Poole, S. (1984). The life of sir Harry Parkes (Vol. 11). London: Macmillan and Co.
Fait, O. K. (1990). The clash of interests: The transformation of Japan in 1861-1881 in the eyes of the local anglo-saxon press. Oulu: The Historical Assoc, of Northern Finland.
Flottman, Augustus. (2012). The Meiji education system: Developing the emperor’s ideal subject [Undergraduate honours thesis]. The University of Colorado.
Fujitani, Takashi. (1996). Splendid monarchy: Power and pageantry in modern Japan. Berkeley, University of California Press.
Frazer, James G. (1955). The golden bough. (Vol. 3). London: Macmillan and Co.
Gluck, C. (1985). Japan’s Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period (Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Goto-Jones, Christopher. (2008). The way of revering the emperor: Imperial philosophy and bushido in modern Japan. In Ben-Ami Shillony (Ed.), The emperors of modern Japan (pp. 23-54). Netherlands: Brill.
Gubbins, J. H. (1911). The Progress of Japan 1853-1871. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Gubbins, J. H. (1922). The making of modern Japan. London: Seeley, Service & Co. Ltd.
Hayashi, Fusao. (1973). Tenno no kigen (The origin of the emperor). Tokyo: Roman.
Heldt, Gustav. (2014). The Kojiki: An account of ancient matters. Columbia University Press.
Hoare, J. E. (1994). Japan's treaty ports and foreign settlements: The uninvited guests 1858-1899. Folkestone, Kent: Japan Library.
Howe, C. (1996). The origins of Japanese trade supremacy: Development and technology in Asia from 1540 to the pacific war. London: Hurst & Co.
Humphreys, Leonard A. (1995). The way of the heavenly sword. The Japanese army in the 1920s. California: Stanford University Press.
Inglehart, R. (1997). Modernization and postmodernization. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Univ. Press.
Irokawa, D. (1985). The culture of the Meiji period. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Univ. Press.
Japan Reference. (2020). Record of Ancient Matters of 712. Retrieved from
https://jref.com/articles/kojiki-records-of-ancient-matters.507/
Jansen, M. B. (1980). Japan and its world: Two Centuries of Change. Princeton University Press.
Jansen, M. B. (1989). The Cambridge History of Japan. vol. 5: The Nineteenth Century (Vol. 5). Cambridge University Press.
Jansen, M. B., & Rozman, G. (2014). Japan in transition, from Tokugawa to Meiji. Princeton University Press.
Jones, H. J. (1980). Live machines: Hired foreigners and Meiji Japan. Paul Norbury Publications.
Keene, D. (2005). Emperor of Japan: Meiji and his world, 1852-1912. Columbia University Press: New York.
Lehmann, Jean-Pierre. (1982). The roots of modern Japan. Palgrave Macmillan.
Magarey, D. (2020). Saigo Takamori: Japanese samurai. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saigo-Takamori
Masamoto, Kitajima & Hurst, G. Cameron. (2020). Japan from 1850 to 1945: The Meiji restoration. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/place/Japan/The-opening-of-Japan
Michio Nagai. M. (2005). Westernization and japanization: The early Meiji transformation of education. In Donald H. Shively (Ed.), Tradition and modernization in Japanese culture (pp. 53-94). New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2005.
Mori, K. (1979). The Emperor of Japan: A Historical Study in Religious Symbolism. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 6(4), 522–565. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30233221
Nakamura, T., & Feldman, R. A. (1983). Economic growth in prewar Japan. Yale University Press.
Norman, E. H. (1940). Japan’s emergence as a modern state: Political and economic problems of the Meiji period. New York: Institute of Pacific Relations.
Obispo, Joanna Luisa. (2017). Japan’s fukoku Kyohei: A continuous pursuit of economic and military powers. Ugong,9, 56-80. Ohno, K. (2019). Meiji Japan: Progressive learning of western technology. In Arkebe Oqubay and Kenichi Ohno (Eds.), How nations learn: Technological learning, industrial policy, and catch-up (pp. 85-106). Oxford University Press
Ohno, Kenichi. (2018). The history of Japanese economic development: Origins of private dynamism and policy competence. Routledge.
Presseisen, Ernst. (1965). Before aggression: Europeans train the Japanese Army. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Princeton University Press. (1969). Kojiki: Translated with an intro. and notes by Donald L. Philippi.
Ramseyer, J. Mark, and Rosenbluth, Frances M. (1995). The politics of oligarchy: institutional choice in imperial Japan. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sagers, J. (2001). Power, legitimacy, and the Japanese emperor (2001). Retrieved from https://www.asianstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/power-legitimacy-and-the-japanese-emperor.pdf
Shillony, Ben-Ami. (Ed.). (2008). The Emperors of modern Japan. Netherlands: Brill.
Shively, Donald, H. (1971). The Japanization of the middle Meiji. In Donald H. Shively (Ed.), Tradition and modernization in Japanese Culture (pp. 92-138). New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Silbermann, B. S., and Harootunian, H. D. (Eds.). (1966). Modern Japanese leadership: Transition and change. Tucson, Arizona: Univ. of Arizona Press.
Sims, R. L. (1991). A political history of modern Japan 1868-1952. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Ltd.
Smith, T. C. (1955). Political change and industrial development in Japan: Government enterprise, 1868-1880. California: Stanford Univ. Press.
Soviak, Eugene. (1971). On the nature of western progress: The journal of the Iwakura embassy.” In Donald H. Shively (Ed.), Tradition and modernization in Japanese Culture (pp. 25-52). New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Sugiyama, Shinya. (1988). Japan’s industrialization in the world economy 1859-1899: Export trade and overseas competition. London: The Athlone Press.
Sumikawa, S. 1999. The Meiji Restoration: Roots of Modern Japan. Retrieved from https://www.lehigh.edu/~rfw1/courses/1999/spring/ir163/Papers/pdf/shs3.pdf
Takii, K., Manabu, T., Murray, P., & Fister, P. (2014). Itō Hirobumi Japan's first prime minister and father of the Meiji Constitution. Routledge.
Tames, Richard. (1991). Encounters with Japan. New York: St. Martin’s Press.\
Theodore De Bary, W., Ryusaku Tsunoda, R., Keene, D. (1964). Sources of Japanese tradition. (Vol. 2). Columbia University Press: New York
Tsuzuki, Chushichi. (2000). The pursuit of power in modern Japan 1825-1995. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Umegaki, Michio. (1998). After the restoration: The beginning of Japan’s modern state. New York: New York Univ. Press
Uyehara, G. E. (1910). The political development of Japan 1867-1909. London: Constable & Co. Ltd.
Wahyuni, Dina. (2012). The research design maze: Understanding paradigms, cases, methods, and methodologies. Journal of Applied Management Accounting Research, 10(1), 69- 78.
Wakamori, Taro. (1973). Tennosei no rekishi shinri (The historical psychology of the emperor-system). Tokyo: Kabunda.
Webb, H. (1968). The Japanese Imperial Institution in the Tokugawa Period (New York: Columbia University Press.
White, Marilyn Domas & Marsh, Emily E. (2006). Content analysis: A flexible methodology. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2142/3670
Published
2022-05-01
How to Cite
MANSOR MAJDIN, Mohamad Firdaus.
Meiji Japan and The Imperial Rule: A Symbiotic Encounter.
Asian Journal of Research in Education and Social Sciences, [S.l.], v. 4, n. 1, p. 306-316, may 2022.
Available at: <https://myjms.mohe.gov.my/index.php/ajress/article/view/18113>. Date accessed: 13 oct. 2024.
Section
Articles
