+

The Genro and the Meiji Constitution

notes from Beasley, Borthwick, Gluck, Najita, Tinios

+The Meiji Emperor (1852 – 1912)

Mutsuhito

16 years old in 1868

Meiji is the title of the reign, it means “enlightened rule”

+Growing up in Public 1872, 1873,

1888Idea Taken from Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan

+Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835 – 1901)

‘The Teacher’

Learned Dutch, then English

Travelled to Europe and the USA

Helped to set up Tokyo University (1877)

Wrote ‘Conditions in the West’ and ‘An Encouragement of Learning’

Fukuzawa Yukichi with Theodora Alice in San Francisco, 1860 (wikimedia commons)

Kido Takayoshi aka Kido Koin (1840 – 1900)

“The Pen”

In charge of government structures, reforms, and replacing the daimyo with prefectures and governors

+Okubo Toshimichi (1830 – 1878)

“The Despot”

In charge of finance, and confiscating the assets of the old ruling class

He is known as “Japan’s Bismarck”

Okubo Toshimichi (wikimedia commons)

+Saigo Takamori (1828 – 1877)

“The Sword”

In charge of the reorganization of the armed forces. Conscripts were to replace the samurai

Eventually Saigo disowned the reforms and led the Satsuma rebellion, 1877

Featured loosely, in “The Last Samurai”

+Yamagata Aritomo (1838 – 1922)

Organized a volunteer army in war against the shogun

He was impressed with the strength of the conscript armies in France and Germany

Introduced the Conscription Ordinance, 1873, which replaced the samurai with a modern army

(wikimedia commons)

Murin-an Garden, Kyoto, Japan

A masterpiece classical Japanese garden. Designed by Yamagata Aritomo

+Matsukata Masayoshi (1835 – 1924)

Designed the land reforms of 1871

As finance minister 1881-1885 he implemented Matsukata Economics

Slashed government spending, increased taxes and sold government enterprises

Promoted private enterprise – helped founding of zaibatsu

+Zaibatsu

Japanese business conglomerate

Characterised by family ownership, high degree of diversification

‘political merchants’ like Iwasaki Yataro (Mitsubishi) grew powerful businesses as a result of ties to the Meiji government.

Artist Yoko Ono (wikimedia commons)

+Ito Hirobumi (1841 – 1909)

Ito toured Europe in search of a suitable constitution for Japan

In 1889 the new constitution was announced – “Constitution Ito”

Ito was the first prime minister (1885 – 1888) and on three further occasions (between 1892 and 1901)

Ito was assassinated by a Korean nationalist in Harbin, China (1909)

+Stepping Stones* to the Constitution

* A key feature of Japanese garden design

Consultative assemblies of governors in Tokyo (1875)

Prefectural Assemblie

s(1878)

The Imperial Promise(1881

)The

creation of a cabinet system (1885)

Gradual elevation

of the emperor to ‘above the

clouds’

Meiji Constitution (1889)

+

Responses to the Meiji ConstitutionYour thoughts, please

+Responses to the Meiji Constitution

Constitution represents a forward step

Male suffrage based on property rights

Basic individual freedoms

Bicameral legislature

Many prerogatives left to Emperor

Military control in hands of Emperor

Frank Gibney (quoted in Pacific Century)

Amazon.ca

+Responses to the Meiji Constitution

The political settlement following the restoration was characterised by great tension and turmoil, resulting from a struggle between rival forces strongly committed to different modes of achieving national greatness

Meiji Constitution not aimed at a democratic ethic ‘but was an embodiment of the restorationist aspiration for a comprehensive and predictable legal system that would provide a final justification for the dissolution of the old order and the ushering in of a new and strong Japan’

Tetsuo Najita

Japan: The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (pp 82 – 86)

Picture: University of Chicago

+Responses to the Meiji Constitution

Violence against the ‘new order’ was unconstitutional

Loyalism now an unassailable virtue

‘The privileges just mentioned…were not aimed at supporting the ideal of human liberty…but the prerogative of all to participate in the creation of a strong society’

Tetsuo Najita

Japan: The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (pp 82 – 86)

http://www.bibliovault.org/thumbs/978-0-226-56803-4-frontcover.jpg

+Responses to the Meiji Constitution

Constitution contains no ‘social contract’

Role of the Emperor formulated in terms of ‘mystical absolutism’ and no constitutional procedure by which the Emperor could ‘act’

Walter Beasley

Cambridge History of Japan (pp 664 – 665)

+Responses to the Meiji Constitution

‘…what is now called the Emperor system did not emerge in earnest until around 1890’

The Oligarchs promised a constitution in 1881…then ‘spent much of the next nine years making…provisions to ensure that the beginning of parliamentary government would not mean the end of their bureaucratic dominance.’

Carol Gluck

Japan's Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period

http://ajw.asahi.com

+Responses to the Meiji Constitution

The Constitution only provided the legal framework… ’It was the first general election and opening of the Diet in 1890 that marked political change’

Ito: assert the authority of the sovereign against political parties. The Imperial House as the ‘axis of the nation’ (1888)

Emperor’s role ‘strictly ceremonial’

Carol Gluck

Japan's Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period

Amazon.co.uk

+Responses to the Meiji Constitution

Obligations: military service, school attendance, payment of taxes

Rights: suffrage for the few

Constitution would contain the opposition but an elected national assembly now existed…and may be a source of future change

Andrew Gordon

A Modern History of Japan (p.70)

+Yamagata Aritomo, 1880

“It is true that the Meiji Restoration’s achievements are outstanding…[but these gains] are nothing compared to the question of Japan’s relationship with other countries, which in turn is tied to Japan’s rise and fall”