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Meiji Restoration

The Meiji Restoration (Japanese: 明治維新, romanizedMeiji Ishin), referred to at the time as the Honorable Restoration (御一新, Goisshin), and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ruling emperors before the Meiji Restoration, the events restored practical abilities and consolidated the political system under the Emperor of Japan.[2] The goals of the restored government were expressed by the new emperor in the Charter Oath.

Date

3 January 1868

Japan

Overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate

The Restoration led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure and spanned both the late Edo period (often called the Bakumatsu) and the beginning of the Meiji era, during which time Japan rapidly industrialized and adopted Western ideas and production methods.

Foreign influence[edit]

In 1853, Commodore Matthew C. Perry arrived in Japan. A year later Perry returned in threatening large warships with the aspiration of concluding a treaty that would open up Japanese ports for trade.[1] Perry concluded the treaty that would open up two Japanese ports (Shimoda and Hakodate) only for material support, such as firewood, water, food, and coal for U.S. ships. The Convention of Kanagawa was signed in 1854 and this opened up trade between the United States and Japan. Later, Japan reluctantly expanded its trade deals to France, Britain, the Netherlands and Russia due to American pressure. These treaties signed with Western powers came to be known as Unequal Treaties as Japan lost control over its tariffs while Western powers took control over Japanese lands. In 1858, Townsend Harris, ambassador to Japan, concluded the treaty, opening Japanese ports to trade. Figures like Shimazu Nariakira concluded that "if we take the initiative, we can dominate; if we do not, we will be dominated", leading Japan to "throw open its doors to foreign technology."


After the humiliation of the Unequal Treaties, the leaders of the Meiji Restoration (as this revolution came to be known), acted in the name of restoring imperial rule to strengthen Japan against the threat of being colonized, bringing to an end the era known as sakoku. The word "Meiji" means "enlightened rule" and the goal was to combine "modern advances" with traditional "eastern" values. (和魂洋才, Wakonyosai)[2] The main leaders of this were Itō Hirobumi, Matsukata Masayoshi, Kido Takayoshi, Itagaki Taisuke, Yamagata Aritomo, Mori Arinori, Ōkubo Toshimichi, and Yamaguchi Naoyoshi.

Imperial restoration[edit]

The foundation of the Meiji Restoration was the 1866 Satsuma-Chōshū Alliance between Saigō Takamori and Kido Takayoshi, leaders of the reformist elements in the Satsuma and Chōshū Domains at the southwestern end of the Japanese archipelago. These two leaders supported the Emperor Kōmei (Emperor Meiji's father) and were brought together by Sakamoto Ryōma for the purpose of challenging the ruling Tokugawa shogunate (bakufu) and restoring the Emperor to power. After Kōmei's death on 30 January 1867, Meiji ascended the throne on February 3. This period also saw Japan change from being a feudal society to having a centralized nation and left the Japanese with a lingering influence of modernity.[3]


In the same year, the koban was discontinued as a form of currency.

Bakumatsu

Datsu-A Ron

Four Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu

Land Tax Reform (Japan 1873)

Modernization of Japanese Military 1868–1931

Meiji Constitution

Akamatsu, Paul (1972). Meiji 1868: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Japan. New York: Harper & Row. p. 1247.

(1972). The Meiji Restoration. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Beasley, William G.

Beasley, William G. (1995). The Rise of Modern Japan: Political, Economic and Social Change Since 1850. New York: St. Martin's Press.

"The Imperial Oath of April 1868: ritual, power and politics in Restoration Japan", Monumenta Nipponica, 51,4 (1996)

Breen, John

(1961). Chōshū in the Meiji Restoration. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Craig, Albert M.

Earl, David M. Emperor and Nation in Japan (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1972), on Yoshida: "Attitude toward the Emperor/Nation", pp. 161–192. Also pp. 82–105.

Toward Restoration (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970), "Introduction", pp. 1–46; on Yoshida: chapter IV "The Culture of Action – Yoshida Shōin", pp. 184–219.

Harry D. Harootunian

; Gilbert Rozman, eds. (1986). Japan in Transition: From Tokugawa to Meiji. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Jansen, Marius B.

Jansen, Marius B. (1961). Sakamoto Ryōma and the Meiji Restoration. Princeton: Princeton University Press.  413111. Especially chapter VIII: "Restoration".

OCLC

Jansen, Marius B.: "The Meiji Restoration", in: Jansen, Marius B. (ed.): The Cambridge history of Japan, Volume 5: The nineteenth century (New York: Cambridge UP, 1989), pp. 308–366.

Jansen, Marius B. (2000). The Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Karube, Tadashi (2019). . Tokyo: Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture. Archived from the original on 28 September 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2019.

Toward the Meiji Revolution: The Search for "Civilization" in Nineteenth-Century Japan

McAleavy, Henry. "The Meiji Restoration" History Today (Sept. 1958) 8#9 pp. 634–645

McAleavy, Henry. "The Making of Modern Japan" History Today (May 1959) 9#5 pp 297–30

(1997). East Asia: A New History. New York: Addison Wesley Longman.

Murphey, Rhoads

(2002). A Diplomat in Japan. ICG Muse. ISBN 4-925080-28-8.

Satow, Ernest Mason

Strayer, Robert W. (2013). Ways of the World with Sources Vol. 2 (2nd ed.), pp 950(?).

The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press), chapter 3: "Restorationism in Late Tokugawa", pp. 43–68.

Najita Tetsuo

Totman, Conrad (1988). "From Reformism to Transformism, bakufu Policy 1853–1868", in: T. Najita & V. J. Koshmann, Conflict in Modern Japanese History (New Jersey: Princeton University Press), pp. 62–80.

Wall, Rachel F. (1971). Japan's Century: An Interpretation of Japanese History since the Eighteen-fifties. London: The Historical Association.

on the About Japan, A Teacher's Resource website

Essay on The Meiji Restoration Era, 1868–1889

from famous 19th-century Japanese and European photographers

A rare collection of Japanese Photographs of the Meiji Restoration