A Look At The Meiji Restoration of 1868

As a history nerd, I’ve spent a lot of time blogging about old Japanese history, but I wanted to talk about an oft-ignored yet fascinating period in Japanese history: the Meiji Restoration of 1868. This is called the meiji-ishin in Japanese (明治維新).

I was thinking about this lately while enjoying the excellent historical podcast Grey History, covering the French Revolution. The French Revolution of 1789 was a violent upheaval, with many unexpected twists and turns, of the old social order, but in the end led to the modern French republic we know today.

In some ways, the Meiji Restoration had similarities to the French Revolution, but also stark differences. Both were started by widespread dissatisfaction with a static, old order, both led to revolutionary changes that overthrew the old order and modernization of a feudal nation, but they had different conditions and led to different outcomes.

I am no expert on French history, but let me at least cover a bit of background on pre-Meiji history of Japan before the Restoration.

The Edo Period

After a century of warfare that tore Japan apart, the conflict finally ended under a single warlord: Tokugawa Ieyasu (德川家康, 1543 – 1616). Japan was unified around the year 1600, and the new Shogun established a new regime, a bakufu (幕府), based in the town of Edo (江戸). Edo eventually became Tokyo later, but at the time it was a provincial castle town.

Ieyasu wasn’t the first to unite Japan, but he made unification stick because he developed a better, more effective administration. Rival warlords were reduced to fiefdoms with only one castle each, and required to abide in Edo every other year. To avoid succession issues, Ieyasu created three cadet branch families (the gosanké 御三家) to provide heirs as a backup, in order of seniority:

1. Owari (尾張)
2. Kii (紀伊)
3. Mito (水戸)

In addition to suppressing and regulating the warlords, politically powerful Buddhist temple complexes were brought to heel and regulated, while everyone in Japan was ordered to register with one temple or another. This helped the Tokugawa Bakufu to regulate temples, and keep an eye on followers by extension.

Outsiders were locked out of Japan (sakoku 鎖国) except for some very limited contact with the Dutch, and only at one port (Deshima) and only once a year. Every one else, especially Christian missionaries were banned from entry upon pain of death.

And finally, society itself. Using Confucian principles, most of society was organized into four general castes (士農工商, shinōkōshō):

• Samurai – both as administrators and warriors
• Peasants
• Artisans
• Merchants

Of note, the ancient aristocracy of the Fujiwara family, and the Emperor were above this hierarchy, but also sidelined by military government to be pure figureheads. It was a repressive military government by any definition, but it also kept Japan from tearing itself apart for 260+ years.

The problem is that it didn’t adapt to changing conditions.

Over two centuries worth of critical changes happened, both within Japan and outside, that made the regime increasingly unstable.

First, despite the caste system, real wealth and power gradually changed hands. The samurai class, despite being at the top of the hierarchy, were locked into the same pay structure for two centuries, while the merchant class in Japan profited off the stability and economic prosperity. Many samurai families spiraled into debt, and unable to increase their income because their families were doing the same hereditary roles they had generations earlier. Some low-ranking samurai worked menial jobs on the side just to survive, including peasant work.

Second, while Japan was stable, and isolated from Western colonial powers, those same colonial powers grew from being ragtag explorers to powerful maritime empires in two centuries. Science and technology rapidly developed, while Japan fell further and further behind. While some scholars in Japan imported such learnings through Dutch-imported books (rangaku, 蘭学), it wasn’t nearly enough to keep up.

The Tokugawa system prioritized stability, and it succeeded, but the price was centuries of enforced isolation and stagnation.

The Fall of the Tokugawa Bakufu

The downfall of the Tokugawa bakufu, to quote Hemingway, came slowly, then suddenly.

Due to prolonged economic depression, followed by encroachment by increasingly assertive Western powers, as well as old rivarlies from centuries before, the Tokugawa grip on power rapidly weakened. The infamous “black ships” of US Commodore Perry who strode nearly unchallenged by Shogunate forces, and demanded treaty rights in 1854 proved damaged the Tokugawa Shogunate’s reputation among rival warlords.

Before long, domains in western Japan such as Choshu, Satsuma and Tosa were sharpening their knives and working to overthrow the Shogunate. They wanted to accomplish two things:

1. Restore the Emperor back to power after being sidelined by the Tokugawa Shoguns for centuries.
2. Expel the foreigners who were increasingly encroaching on Japan.

This final period of Tokugawa history, the so-called Bakumatsu Period (幕末, “end of the Bakufu) is pretty fascinating, but complicated, and too much to go into here. Suffice to say, the Tokugawa forces were unable to contain unrest, and eventually civil war broke out between the Tokugawa and the enemy fiefdoms. The war was swift and Tokugawa forces fought bravely, but ultimately failed. The last Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu wanted to end further bloodshed and abdicated, allowing the rebel forces to take control.

From here, the young Emperor Meiji was escorted to the new capitol of Tokyo (東京, lit. “Eastern Capital”) and a new era began which we now call the Meiji Era.

How the Meiji Era Unfolded

Compared to the isolated Edo Period, the Meiji Period was very different. The new oligarchs of the Meiji regime, those former warlords of Choshu, Satsuma and Tosa fiefdoms, recognized that against Western powers, the Japanese military had no chance. They were just too far behind technologically. So, they dropped the “expel the foreigners” slogan and adopted a new one: strengthen the nation.

This led to an intense, rapid Westernization of the country. The old feudal order was abolished, and old samurai were compelled to give up their titles and swords. Most did this eagerly, because it allowed them the freedom to invest in modern businesses and get lucrative positions in the new government. Some did not. The old fiefdoms were reorganized into “prefectures” along the French model, and the army was reorganized into a modern military. Japan adopted a constitution based on the Prussian model, which had a strong, central monarchy. Problems with this constitution arose decades later,¹ but this was the first constitution that Japan ever had.

Like monarchies in the West, Japan was now a modern, constitutional monarchy, and sought to renegotiate trade arrangements on equal terms. In this respect, Japan was successful.

In addition to changes in government, the entire country went through a rapid modernization. Western technology such as railroads, telegraphs, and steam technology proliferated the country. Modern, forward-thinking Japanese chose to adopt Western dress and actively sought to learn English (Dutch was no longer a prestige language).

In the same way, Western words were actively adopted into Japanese and are now standard vocabulary now. For example:

• Arubaito (アルバイト) – From German “arbeit” to work. Means a part-time job. Shortened to baito in modern slang (バイト).
• Zubon (ズボン) – from French jabon (pants). Also means pants, especially slacks, in Japanese.
• Kōhī (コーヒー) – from Dutch/Flemish koffie. Means coffee, obviously.²
• Gasorin (ガソリン) – from English “gasoline”.

Speaking of words written in katakana script, the Meiji Period also shows an unusual trend in writing everything in katakana. The Constitution shown above is a mix of katakana script and older-style kanji. You can see similar patterns in books fo the time, or even signs, such as this sign found at the Great Buddha of Kamakura:

Finally, a lot of old traditional Japanese practices were frowned upon at this time as Japan sought to project an image of modernity and Western-style culture.

How Does This Relate to the French Revolution?

I realize that comparing two different historical events a century apart, across two very different cultures is a tricky subject, but it is worth noting a few things.

First, the old order in both societies was based on a backward, feudal system with a hierarchical social structure. The French, similar to other European states, had the Three Estates of the Ancien Régime, and Japan had the four social orders of Shinōkōshō.

Both societies experienced widespread frustration at regime, not just by poor peasants, but also by middle-class intellectuals, and powerful declarations to modernize the country along enlightened principles. In France, you can see examples of this in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen by men such as Marquis de Lafayette and Abbé Sieyès, and in the case of Japan great writers such as Sakamoto Ryoma and Fukuzawa Yukichi. Ryoma in particular was inspired by the United States Declaration of Independence.³

Both changes ushered in a rapid era of modernization as well as a violent but doomed conservative reaction, and both introduced constitutions to countries that didn’t have them previously, as well as a more heightened awareness of national identity that didn’t exist previously.

But there are also big differences. The French Revolution was, among other reasons, driven by primarily internal challenges (starvation, taxation, etc), while the Meiji Restoration was due in part as an effort to protect Japan from foreign aggression in addition to internal issues. The French Revolution faced no such external threat until at least a year or two after it unfolded.

Finally, another interesting contrast is that France increasingly diminished the power of the sovereign (Louis XVI), while in Japan, the sovereign (Emperor Meiji) started with little power during the Edo Period but had his power restored by loyalists. France became a Republic, but Japan is a constitutional Monarchy.

This is a really quick overview, but it’s fascinating how these two events in history overlap and also differ.

¹ Basically, the army answered to the Emperor, not to the civilian government. This worked well enough until the army decided to do what it wanted in mainland Asia, with no civilian oversight.

² When I first met remember my in-laws, I remember trying to explain (in my poor Japanese at the time) that coffee was correct pronounced “Kah-fee”, not “koh-hee” as in Japanese. Thinking back, I didn’t realize that the Japanese word descended, not from English, but from Dutch. I always kind of felt bad about that.

³ A century later, after Vietnam became independent from French colonial power in 1945, Ho Chi Minh famously read aloud the Declaration of Independence of Vietnam, but observers at the time noted its similarities to the US Declaration. Similarly, French Revolutionaries often drew inspiration from the American Revolution as well. As an American, it’s sometimes easy forget what a significant moment in history the American Revolution was, and its message of revolution and Enlightenment thinking at a time of backwards, feudal thinking…. or reactionary thinking in the modern era.