On the 3rd of January 1868, a young emperor named Mutsuhito, who would come to be known as Emperor Meiji, declared that political power was being restored to the Imperial House, effectively ending over two centuries of rule by the Tokugawa shogunate. This event, known as the Meiji Restoration, was not merely a change of government but a fundamental restructuring of Japanese society that would transform a feudal island nation into a global industrial power within a single generation. The restoration marked the beginning of an era where Japan would rapidly adopt Western technology, production methods, and political ideas, all while maintaining a distinct national identity rooted in the Emperor's authority. The political landscape of Japan had been defined by the Tokugawa shogunate since 1603, a system of feudal autonomy where the shogun held actual power while the Emperor remained a figurehead in Kyoto. The shogunate's control was built on a rigid social hierarchy that placed the Emperor and his court at the top, followed by the shogun, daimyo, and samurai, with farmers, artisans, and merchants at the bottom. This structure, known as feudal autonomy, allowed the shogun to grant extensive control to various daimyo over their own domains, provided they paid homage through irregular taxation and systems like alternate attendance. The total population of samurai families in the 19th century numbered around 5 to 6 percent of the 30 million people, with roughly 1 in 50 being an upper samurai and the rest divided between middle and lower ranks. The influence of the Tokugawa shogunate was built on the distribution and management of land, measured in koku, the amount of rice a given area could produce. By 1650, the shogun directly controlled land producing roughly 4.2 million koku of rice, with his direct retainers and vassals controlling a combined total of 12.9 million koku out of a national 26 million koku. The remaining 9.8 million koku, just under 38 percent, was parceled out between about 100 rival daimyo, the descendants of those who had fought against the Tokugawa at the Battle of Sekigahara. Many of the strongest daimyo domains were located in western Japan away from centers of power, with the shogun often controlling government offices but with smaller provinces to incentivize them to preserve the system. The Neo-Confucian tenets of authority encouraged a series of descending subordinations, but unlike in China, its adoption by the samurai came to inform an ethic that was distinct from the structural organization of the Tokugawa state, allowing it to coexist with Western scientific methods. Historian William G. Beasley argues that there was a tension between this official state ideology that encouraged enlightened meritocratic rule and the rigid class structure that prevented the lower and middle ranking samurai bureaucrats from advancing their position. When exacerbated by foreign and domestic crises, and in spite of official attempts to begin promoting samurai to offices beyond their inherited position, the social bonds between these systems weakened, leading to reformist and revolutionary attitudes among the samurai. Merchant classes, that had been flourishing economically in developing mass culture and communication, were forbidden to translate their influence into political power.
The arrival of Commodore Matthew C. Perry's fleet in Uraga, Kanagawa, on the 8th of July 1853, shattered Japan's two-century-old policy of national isolation known as sakoku, forcing the Tokugawa shogunate to confront the reality of Western military and technological superiority. Perry, appointed to command the American expedition in 1852, was initially reluctant to take the command, but American interests in Japan derived from ambitions to capitalize on the China trade and to ensure the protection of shipwrecked seamen, especially those of the essential and lucrative whaling industry. Their goal was to set up ports of free trade, and a place to secure provisions, including a coal pit for steam-ships. The first visit took Perry to Uraga, Kanagawa, where after entering Tokyo Bay, his consultations with the governor of Uraga led to him handing over documents requesting an end to Japanese isolation. This exchange took place in a ceremony at Kurihama on the 14th of July. Less than a year later, Perry returned in threatening large warships to conclude the treaty. His return in February was sooner than expected, partly because he had heard of a Russian mission in Nagasaki also seeking to negotiate a treaty. The shogunate attempted to conduct the talks at Uraga due to its further distance from Edo, but Perry insisted on Kanagawa. The talks were conducted between Perry and Hayashi Akira for 23 days. In 1854, the Convention of Kanagawa was signed. It opened up two treaty ports, Shimoda and Hakodate, ensured the safety of American seamen, and gave permission for American ships to buy their own provisions. As part of the treaty, Townsend Harris was appointed the first American consul to Japan. The treaty excluded any mention of the right to trade, which was considered a positive outcome by the shogunate's negotiators. However, Japan was now in a position where it had to sign similar treaties with Britain and Russia, effectively ending Japanese isolationism. The anti-treaty faction was horrified at the extent of the concessions made by Abe Masahiro to Perry in the Convention of Kanagawa. Even reformers who had advocated for compromise were upset at the magnitude of concessions made. From the Mito School, Fujita Yūkoku's disciple Aizawa Seishisai extended his teacher's ideas, writing the New Theses in 1825. Advocating a will to resist, Aizawa believed a policy of revere the Emperor, expel the barbarian would create a unity and resolution among the people. The shogunate would be responsible for subordinating the interests of the Tokugawa family to those of the Japanese people, by revering the Emperor as a symbol of the national polity or national community. The positions of opening Japan and taking up arms against foreign powers were not mutually exclusive, and believers both in revere the Emperor, expel the barbarian and rich nation, strong army realized the advantages of Western technology for the purpose of repelling the foreigners. In 1855, Abe resigned as senior shogunate official and was replaced by Hotta Masayoshi. An outcome of this decision was the estrangement of Tokugawa Nariaki from the senior council, as Hotta continued to drive in a reformist direction. In 1855, the Nagasaki Naval Training Centre was founded with Katsu Kaishū serving in an important administrative function, and the individual domains were encouraged to build their own shipyards. Japan reluctantly expanded its treaties to France, Britain, the Netherlands and Russia. Negotiating treaties with Dutch Commissioner Donker Curtius in 1856 and 1857, a trade agreement was reached that opened Nagasaki and Hakodate to free trade open to all merchants; import duties of 35 percent were levied on private goods, but it marked a considerable change from the prior Dutch enclave on Dejima. Harris' arrival in Japan as American consul heralded new treaty negotiations. Leveraging his position by instilling a fear of British and French imperialism, who were in the process of fighting the Second Opium War, he pursued negotiations with Hotta, and in 1857 was granted an audience with Tokugawa Iesada. In 1858, the Treaty of Amity and Commerce was confirmed, with provisions allowing for ambassadorial residence in Edo, extraterritoriality, the toleration of Christianity, and the opening of five ports for free trade between 1859 and 1863. These treaties have become known as the unequal treaties. With the provisions of the treaties unpopular among both reformist and reactionary samurai, Hotta sought to silence critics by seeking the approval of Emperor Kōmei, the outcome of which he considered a certainty. However, members of the Court were themselves influenced by Mito School writings and by the time Hotta reached Kyōto, they had been directly petitioned by anti-treaty samurai, including Tokugawa Nariaki. The Emperor and his court expressed disfavour with the Harris Treaty, passing a resolution that encouraged Hotta to once more consult with the shogunate. This open rebuff caused Hotta's downfall. Although Hotta was forced from office, shogunate policy remained the same, and on the 4th of June 1858, Ii Naosuke was appointed shogunate official. Ii was conscious of going against the wishes of the Emperor and his Court, but decided to approve the treaty regardless, and it was signed on the 29th of July. Then Tokugawa Iesada died on the 14th of August. Prior to his death it was stipulated that he would be succeeded by Tokugawa Iemochi, a child of twelve years old. It was an appointment that had been contested between factions of the shogunate, with Tokugawa Nariaki favoring his own son Tokugawa Yoshinobu as candidate for shogunate official. In 1860, the Treaty of Amity and Commerce was ratified during the Japanese Embassy to the United States.
The Purge and the Assassination
Aware of how unpopular the treaty was, Ii Naosuke took his prerogative to be the restoration of strong, centralized shogunate governance. In pursuit of this aim, he enacted the Ansei Purge wherein over one hundred political enemies were punished, with eight killed, and many more were forced into house arrest. This was a use of force by the shogunate that had not been seen in centuries. His success in recentring political authority with the shogunate culminated in Manabe Akikatsu successfully petitioning for retrospective imperial support for the treaties from Emperor Kōmei. The principle ideology of conservative reform, unity of Court and shogunate, referenced the unity of Court and shogunate, and was an ideological element committed to softly renegotiating the political relationship between the Tokugawa, the Emperor, and the samurai. As part of this relationship, Tokugawa Iemochi was arranged to marry the Emperor's sister, Kazunomiya. As Ii continued to centralize power around the shogunate, one of the people caught in his purges was the samurai intellectual Yoshida Shōin. A pupil of Sakuma Shōzan, Yoshida was what came to be known as a man of spirit, a samurai who was filled with reverence for the Imperial Court at Kyōto in which lay the essential quality of national purity. This was an ideological fusion based on Mito School Shintō studies of Neo-Confucian principles of loyalty and the Shintō revival of the early 19th century, with samurai believing loyalty to the Emperor to be of the utmost importance. They saw the shogunate as becoming increasingly self-interested, with the shogunate unwilling to intervene in mediating open disagreement between the Imperial Court and the shogunate over the issue of the foreign threat. The crisis of 1858 had changed Yoshida's perspective, where before he had been open to conciliation between the Court and shogunate, he now believed the shogunate should take direct action in response to the actions of the shogunate and the foreign powers. Yoshida's increasingly extreme teachings lost him the support of influential samurai, as well as his own pupils, including Kido Takayoshi and Takasugi Shinsaku. He was executed in 1859 for planning the assassination of Manabe Akikatsu. The culmination of unrest among lower-ranking samurai in response to the heavy-handed exercise of authority by the shogunate occurred when Ii was assassinated in 1860. This action engendered a new violent consciousness centered on the principle of revere the Emperor, expel the barbarian. Later that same year, Tokugawa Nariaki died while still under confinement. Jansen writes that, in the aftermath of the killing, many lower and middle-ranking samurai began to see a means to effect changes to their personal and collective position. In Satsuma Domain, a loyalist group under Okubo Toshimichi moved towards conciliation with the domain officials, concerning themselves with persuading the shogunate to break with the shogunate cause; Saigō Takamori would join this group upon return from his exile in 1862. In Tosa Domain, Takechi Hanpeita met with Kido Takayoshi and Kusaka Genzui who shared their martyred teacher's philosophy. Formalizing his leadership over a group of local samurai in October 1861, the loyalist party, among whom was counted Sakamoto Ryōma, although he left in 1862, did not view their loyalty to the Emperor as contradictory to their traditional feudal loyalties. The samurai loyalists achieved some success in national politics, successfully renegotiating the conditions of shogunate to favor the Imperial Court through their cooperation with the Chōshū government. Samurai were promoted in these regions, Okubo in Satsuma Domain, and Kido in Chōshū, both of whom were seen to be a moderating force against extremists, but they did not represent a majority view of domain officials. Despite the politics of Chōshū Domain being decidedly more moderate than the advice of the Chōshū loyalists in Kyōto, the regent of Satsuma Domain, Shimazu Hisamitsu, was angry at the amount of influence Chōshū Domain samurai were having on Court politics. During a mission to Kyōto regarding the position of the Imperial Court in the political authority of the shogunate to order the expulsion of the foreigners, the retainers of Shimazu Hisamitsu's procession killed a British merchant who attempted to cross through the procession. Subsequent British threats for satisfaction drew Shimazu's attention away from Court politics, and thus in March 1863, the Imperial Court issued the order to expel barbarians. When the deadline for the order to expel the barbarians came, Chōshū Domain decided to open fire on the foreign powers in their waters, starting what became known as the Shimonoseki campaign. In August, British frustrations with Satsuma inaction regarding the recompense they were seeking boiled over, leading to the bombardment of Kagoshima. The expulsion order coupled with military action led not only to a deterioration of relations with the foreign powers, but also issued a challenge to shogunate authority. The resultant military failure of Satsuma and Chōshū to repel the foreign powers led the Imperial Court to backtrack, affirming the administrative role of the shogunate. However, the announcements to strengthen the authority of the shogunate did so at the expense of the interests of the samurai who sought to reform the structure of governance. The Shimonoseki agreement to end the foreign attacks signed by the shogunate in October 1864 signaled a shift in policy that prioritized dealing with the foreign powers in a nonantagonistic manner. The shogunate would marshal its influence against the Imperial Court whenever they agitated for a policy of revere the Emperor, expel the barbarian. Similarly, the burgeoning anti-Tokugawa movement was shifting ideological emphasis away from direct expulsion towards rich nation, strong army as a way to deal with the threat posed by the foreign powers. Indicative of this is that, just prior to this time, Sakamoto Ryōma met Katsu Kaishū intending to assassinate him for his perceived pro-foreign beliefs, what occurred instead was a conversation wherein Ryōma became convinced by Kaishū's plan for rearmament, following Kaishū when he later established the Kobe Naval Training Centre in 1863. As shogunate power began to be challenged, a split emerged between the foreign powers; France, represented by Léon Roches favored bolstering the Tokugawa to deal with internal strife, whereas Britain's minister Harry Parkes increasingly began to favor dealing with the southwest domains of Satsuma and Chōshū.
The Alliance of the West
A period of conservative reaction against the shogunate followed the military failures of 1863 and 1864. It was during this period of backlash against the shogunate ideology of the loyalists that Takechi Hanpeita was arrested and compelled to commit seppuku by the shogunate of Tosa Domain Yamauchi Yōdō. Following the death of Tokugawa Nariaki in 1860, Mito Domain had been dominated by upper-ranking conservative samurai who favored conciliation with the Tokugawa shogunate, but a power struggle developed from the belief that the shogunate's pro-foreign tendencies were threatening the Imperial Court's expulsion edict. With news of uprisings in Yamato and Tajima, in May 1864 pro-samurai loyalists declared the Mito Rebellion in defiance of the shogunate. Beasley identifies two principal lessons from the military defeat of the Mito Rebellion, the requirement of one of the great domains to support the movement and the division within the social structure of Restoration politics. The samurai, being predominantly lower-ranking samurai of the rural elite, were abandoned by the local peasantry, poorer farmers either abandoned or joined the shogunate forces in attacking the loyalists. Similarly, the tepid support for shogunate in the case of Mito or the criticism of shogunate in Yamato and Tajima the revolts of the lower-ranking samurai by the more moderate middle-ranking samurai, shifted the emphasis towards a political method more in conformity with the needs of feudal society. By the spring of 1864, Satsuma Domain policy had shifted to moderation, seeking the removal of shogunate influence from the Court and its domain government, as part of this policy they worked with the shogunate to violently suppress the shogunate in Kyōto. As a result, Chōshū became the last refuge for samurai loyalists. A power struggle over the domain's politics soon followed, as did a contest between shogunate and domain political power. In Chōshū, the remnant samurai organized themselves into militias, such as the Shinsengumi led by Takasugi Shinsaku, to assist the domain's army in the event of attack by the shogunate or foreign powers. The militias supported the moderate Sufu Masanosuke when he was forced from office by domain conservatives, and secured positions for other loyalists, including Takasugi and Kido Takayoshi, exerting their power over the government. When the Imperial Court issued edicts that reneged on the prior order to expel the barbarians, many in the militias wished to march on Kyōto to regain access to the Emperor. Despite opposition from Takasugi, the extremists won out, but the resulting Hamaguri Gate Rebellion was a political failure, leading to the death of Kusaka Genzui. The shogunate quickly moved to declare Chōshū Domain in rebellion, launching the punitive First Chōshū expedition with the cooperation of Satsuma Domain forces under Saigō Takamori in the autumn of 1864. Despite the shogunate advocating for the execution of Chōshū's samurai Mōri Takachika, the result of the settlement was relatively generous to Chōshū, due in part to the intervention of Katsu Kaishū and Saigō. As such, when the expedition disbanded, the Chōshū militias submitted a memorandum to the domain government chastising them for acquiescing to the shogunate's demands. Then, in early 1865 Takasugi launched an attack on the domain government. The samurai under Yamagata Aritomo joined the attack, and the domain government quickly ousted the conservatives who had been restored to power following the shogunate's punitive expedition. The loyalists advocated for turning from a position of foreign expulsion towards rich nation, strong army, with Itō Hirobumi, Inoue Kaoru and Omura Masujirō joining Takasugi and Kido in seeking to open the port of Shimonoseki for trade in order to import foreign weapons. Beasley identifies three issues in Japanese politics until this point: that of foreign policy, that of Tokugawa authority, and that of feudal discipline. In reducing the importance of shogunate sentiment in Chōshū, the first issue was no longer divisive; the incorporation or destruction of samurai loyalists by the domain governments across Japan had solved many problems related to the third issue; this left the question of shogunate power at the center of national politics. Until this point, Satsuma Domain's cooperation with the shogunate in the Hamaguri Gate Rebellion and subsequent punitive expedition had been a point of tension and mistrust with Chōshū Domain. However, continued shogunate designs to destroy Chōshū pushed Saigō Takamori to reject the prerogatives of the Tokugawa, he appealed to the domain regent Shimazu Hisamitsu and began buying weaponry from the British. Meanwhile, Sakamoto Ryōma assisted Chōshū loyalists to bypass the shogunate's prohibition on domain weapons trade by setting up connections to British merchants via his firm in Nagasaki. From here he laid the logistical and diplomatic foundations for cooperation between the two domains. On the 7th of March 1866, Sakamoto successfully brought together Kido Takayoshi and Saigō Takamori to formalize an alliance between Satsuma and Chōshū. Planning for the Second Chōshū expedition sought to end the possibility of domain resistance to Tokugawa authority. When hostilities became inevitable by the summer of 1866, Chōshū moved quickly to repulse or forestall any shogunate operations. When the shogunate sent out requests among Chōshū's neighboring domains to assist in shogunal efforts, the domains offered noncommittal or hostile responses. Many of the samurai were suspicious of shogunate aims and were concerned about encroaching French influence in the shogunate's capability to build a centralized state. Satsuma regent Shimazu Hisamitsu expressed a widely held belief in a memorial to the Imperial Court that accused the shogunate of seeking a draconian settlement with Chōshū that risked the safety of the country at large. The simultaneous death of Tokugawa Iemochi caused the shogunate to seek a truce. Shortly following the success of Chōshū against the shogunate, Court noble Iwakura Tomomi suggested the Emperor agitate openly for full imperial restoration, but the Court remained cautious of overplaying their hand. At the same time, the shogunate had their own designs for restructuring the system of feudal autonomy that did not fully correspond with his proposal. Emperor Kōmei died in February 1867, leaving the teenager Mutsuhito to ascend to the throne as Emperor Meiji. Offers for a mediated settlement were proposed by the new shogunate Tokugawa Yoshinobu; but when they were ignored the shogunate instituted a series of reforms to the military, administration, and finance. These serious efforts at reform sparked worries among some in the anti-Tokugawa alliance, and in 1867, Saigō and Okubo Toshimichi both wrote to Shimazu to indicate their support for returning the country's administration to the power of the Emperor. At the urging of Saigō and Okubo, four daimyo, Date Munenari, Matsudaira Yoshinaga, Yamauchi, and the regent Shimazu, sent to negotiate with the shogunate over the opening the port at Kobe and the policy towards Chōshū repudiated the compromise they made with Tokugawa Yoshinobu. In late June, they publicly disputed the shogunate's account in the Imperial Court when Tokugawa attempted to take advantage of a fractured opposition to assert the traditional authority of the shogunate. As plans formalized among the anti-Tokugawa alliance, Sakamoto drafted an Eight Point Plan that would serve as the foundation of restoration politics. It included provisions for expanding the military, reform of the law, establishing a bicameral legislature, and the return of political power to the Imperial Court. As a representative of Tosa Domain, Sakamoto was seeking to position himself between the Satchō alliance and the shogunate and submitted his proposals to the Tosa Domain government, which became the basis for plans submitted to the shogunate to persuade him to resign his powers.
The War for the Throne
With the domains preparing to use military force to remove the shogunate government, the Tosa Domain memorandum was submitted to Tokugawa Yoshinobu at a time when some of the shogunate's advisors were advocating for similar reforms. Seeking to maintain his title and influence, on the 8th of November 1867, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the 15th Tokugawa shogunate official, decided to renounce the administrative functions of his office and returned the power to the Imperial Court. The following day, the Court received the memorandum, but also sent a rescript authorizing the domain governments to use military force to oust the shogunate. Ten days later on the 19th of November, Tokugawa also resigned the title of shogunate official. As Tokugawa remained inert in temporarily exercising his authority, the Court was divided, while the shogunate continued planning for a violent confrontation. Iwakura Tomomi, Saigō Takamori, and Okubo Toshimichi spent the months of November and December organizing a coup d'état within the divided Imperial Court, with the aim to strip the Tokugawa house of their lands held in fief. This would prevent them from dominating the future council of shogunate. The suspicion and disorder that accompanied the shogunate's resignation led to violence in Kyōto, during which Sakamoto Ryōma was assassinated. Tosa Domain had sponsored the shogunate's abdication request, but Satsuma and Chōshū officials were intent on establishing their domains at the center of a new system. The requirement for Satsuma and Chōshū to demonstrate they were acting in accordance with the wishes of the Emperor led them to formulate the 3rd of January proclamation, making the Imperial Court's anti-shogunate stance official. In analyzing how the Tokugawa shogunate collapsed so suddenly, Jansen indicates that the division of the shogunate's network of feudal relations had its attention split between focus on the Imperial Court and individual preoccupation with domain affairs. The office of shogunate suffered an erosion of authority as domain bureaucrats began exercising their power over policy to promote their leadership over other domains; this evolved into a program realized by individual personalities and military force. In the early hours of the 3rd of January 1868, domain troops seized control of the Imperial Palace from the shogunate while Iwakura simultaneously received official approval from the Emperor for these actions. Prior to a hastily summoned meeting organized by Iwakura, the Emperor granted permission to announce a decree that would accept Tokugawa Yoshinobu's resignation as shogunate official and resume the political functions of the Imperial House. Among those in attendance were Matsudaira Shungaku and Nakayama Tadayasu, while adherents to the shogunate, including many Court officials, were prevented from attending. Tokugawa rule was thus ended by the Emperor's declaration of the restoration of his authority. Despite the new government being in a state of precarity, public placards and street demonstrations were often loyalist in tone. The restructuring of the relationship between Court and shogunate that this pronouncement represented was materialized in the abolition of prior offices, to be replaced with a Chief Executive, Prince Arisugawa, Senior Councillors, and Junior Councillors. Many of the first office holders were directly specified in the meeting, with Chōshū Domain remaining absent from receiving official placements as the shogunate had not yet been pardoned. Following the proclamation, the newly formed council was split over how to treat Tokugawa Yoshinobu. Tokugawa registered his intention to negotiate and decided to withdraw to Osaka Castle on the 6th of January. This move to mediate between Court and shogunate temporarily weakened the position of Satsuma officials in the council. The pardoning and accession of Chōshū Domain officials rallied support and cooperation from other domains and loyalist groups. Both sides were becoming belligerent, some Satsuma samurai provoked riots against the Tokugawa in Edo. Upon hearing this, Tokugawa's loyal vassals persuaded him to take up arms against the council. Recognizing that the Court had made a mistake in allowing Tokugawa autonomy, Okubo contacted Iwakura and the Satchō military officers to take action before Tokugawa could re-establish his influence among the shogunate. On the 27th of January, the Battle of Toba-Fushimi took place, in which Chōshū and Satsuma's forces defeated the Tokugawa's army. Seeking to avoid a full civil war, Tokugawa retreated to Edo by sea and refused to counter-attack. An Imperial decree on the 31st of January blamed the Tokugawa for starting hostilities and Osaka Castle surrendered three days later. The army moved to take Edo during late February, then on the 1st of March, Prince Arisugawa was made supreme commander of the Imperial forces during the campaign. The Court, seeking improved relations with the foreigners, issued orders that brought their military conduct in alignment with international standards, and on the 23rd of March the Dutch minister Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek and the French minister Léon Roches became the first European envoys to receive a personal audience with Meiji. Seeking a negotiated settlement, Tokugawa wrote to Saigō Takamori and elevated Katsu Kaishū to a position with the authority to represent the Tokugawa house. In April, Katsu and Saigō met to discuss the conditions that would be faced by Tokugawa. Both sides agreed to Tokugawa surrendering himself, his castle, and military force. Iwakura took this agreement and stipulated that Tokugawa Yoshinobu resign as head of the family and surrender all but 700,000 koku of his lands, a deal that Tokugawa accepted on the 3rd of May. Some Emperor loyalists were unsatisfied with what they considered to be lenient conditions, meanwhile, troops of the Northern Alliance from Aizu and Sendai challenged the authority of Satsuma and Chōshū Domain exercised over the Emperor. The Alliance was defeated by early November, but remnants of the old shogunate navy under Enomoto Takeaki escaped to Hokkaidō, where they attempted to set up a breakaway Republic of Ezo. Forces loyal to the Emperor ended this attempt in May 1869 with the Battle of Hakodate. Seeking to end further hostilities and unify the country, Tokugawa Yoshinobu was pardoned on the 1st of November 1869, after which many of the Tokugawa loyalists, including Enomoto and Nagai Naoyuki, were also pardoned. This extension of clemency ended the antagonistic relationship between the Court and shogunate. The capital of Edo was renamed Tokyo on the 3rd of September 1868. The Emperor took up residence in the city in 1869. To Beasley, the result of the Boshin War reflected a victory of the political program of the samurai and the modernizing technological reforms of progressive samurai. Until their victory over the Tokugawa, the supporters of the Imperial Court, chiefly Satsuma and Chōshū, were not seeking to change the institutions of power but displace those wielding it. The issues facing the new government sought conceptual and pragmatic solutions that led to the development of a centralized absolutism. National unity brought about by political change was considered a necessary objective to fulfill by members of the new government.
The Charter and the Sword
Drawn up by figures largely from the southwestern domains, the Charter Oath of 1868 was intended as a document to reassure non-Restorationist domains that they would be consulted about decisions concerning objectives of the government. However, the final draft went further and directly indicated the policy objectives of the new Imperial government. The Oath was issued on the 6th of April 1868. The provisions of the Charter Oath called for the rejection of past political administration, for the country to be enriched, and the adoption of Western technology. The emphasis of the Charter Oath was on the confirmation of the Emperor's authority, harnessing national potential to confirm the new government. The Oath did not specify a progressive agenda or specific form of governance, but confirmed the new government under a system of centralized national sovereignty. The abolition of the domains began from a desire to centralize authority and enforce political decisions within the multi-domain alliance that had brought the Restoration about. Starting in June 1868, the enforcement of some shogunate decrees concerning a prohibition on individual domains from forming alliances and issuing coinage were reinstated. The lands of the shogunate and his shogunate supporters were seized and reorganized into prefectures and provinces, placing them under the authority of the new Meiji government. Other individual domains were initially left untouched, but were required to change their administration: to promote men of talent, thereby forcing the samurai to give up much of their authority over their own domains and send one representative to a consultative assembly in the new imperial capital. Facing consternation from conservative samurai, Kido Takayoshi and Itō Hirobumi agreed that Japan would require the samurai to surrender their lands in order to create a centralized army and bureaucracy. To overcome these concerns, Itō drafted a proposal that provided access to titles, stipends, and positions in the new administration to those samurai and their retainers who willingly surrendered their domains. Consulting with members of the domain governments, the mixed reception the proposal received pushed members of the Meiji government, including Okubo Toshimichi and Itagaki Taisuke, to force progress by acting unilaterally on behalf of their shogunate. The document submitted to the Imperial Court on the 5th of March 1869 put the lands of Satsuma, Chōshū, Tosa, and Hizen at the disposal of the Emperor. The shogunate still remained broadly opposed to any plan that would cause them to cede their territory, many simply hoped to substitute the Emperor for the shogunate. Iwakura drafted a compromise proposal in July 1869, in it the samurai were to retain their land under the title of governor or vice-governor. 10 percent of their domain revenues would be sent to the Court, with the rest spent on administrative costs, while they were to obey Imperial directives on matters of general policy. The upper strata was reformed to unify the samurai and members of the Court into a new aristocracy. In an attempt to shore up government support, Kido Takayoshi, Sanjō Sanetomi, and Iwakura Tomomi sought to redress the imbalance of influence exerted by progressive reformers. Over the course of 1870 and 1871, they conducted missions to various daimyo of the former anti-shogunate alliance, and reached a collective decision that it was necessary to abolish the domains. Domestic tensions within the domain alliance and the broader samurai class meant the debate over the abolition of the domains threatened both national unity and government unity. Kido, Saigō, and Okubo resisted this threat by re-organizing the government to concentrate power among themselves. Kido and Saigō became the only two Councillors while Okubo became Minister of Finance. Through the promotion of Okuma Shigenobu and Itō Hirobumi to ensure the support of their respective domains, the samurai in Tokyo were summoned in August 1871, whereupon they were informed of the decision taken to abolish the domains without consultation. In return they were to keep a small portion of their income and gain access to the new aristocracy. These new aristocrats were ordered to move to Tokyo, separated from their former domains, in January 1872, the 302 domains were formally reorganized into 72 prefectures. According to Beasley, this process dissolved the feudal system even as a parallel social system arose to replace it, domain regional power began to exert control in the centralizing bureaucracy as controllers of that bureaucracy, whereas before the regional governments had instead been objects of shogunate policy. The 1869 regulations on the allocation of domain revenues and the position of the samurai class largely undermined the power of hereditary position, as they had aimed to universalize the restructuring of the political and bureaucratic systems governing the domains. The promotion of efficiency and men of talent coincided with a severe cut to stipends that adversely affected the socioeconomic position of many lower and middle ranking samurai that had supported loyalist aims. Moral conservatives were also growing increasingly concerned at these changes, which they saw as the adoption of foreign practices. From 1870, several samurai among the western domains, chiefly Chōshū, Satsuma, and Kagoshima, began to voice their discontent with traditional organizational structures being folded into the new modernizing administration; political violence erupted and several modernizers were assassinated, including Omura Masujirō. Later, in 1874, the samurai were given the option to convert their stipends into government bonds. Finally, in 1876, this commutation was made compulsory. To reform the military, the government instituted nationwide conscription in 1873, mandating that every male would serve for four years in the armed forces upon turning 21 years old, followed by three more years in the reserves. One of the primary differences between the samurai and peasant classes was the right to bear arms; this ancient privilege was suddenly extended to every male in the nation. Furthermore, samurai were no longer allowed to walk about town bearing a sword or weapon to show their status. This led to a series of riots from disgruntled samurai. One of the major riots was the one led by Saigō Takamori, the Satsuma Rebellion, which eventually turned into a civil war. This rebellion was, however, put down swiftly by the newly formed Imperial Japanese Army, trained in Western tactics and weapons, even though the core of the new army was the Tokyo police force, which was largely composed of former samurai. This sent a strong message to the dissenting samurai that their time was indeed over. There were fewer subsequent samurai uprisings and the distinction became all but a name as the samurai joined the new society. The ideal of samurai military spirit lived on in romanticized form and was often used as propaganda during the early 20th-century wars of the Empire of Japan. However, it is equally true that the majority of samurai were content despite having their status abolished. Many found employment in the government bureaucracy, which resembled an elite class in its own right. The samurai, being better educated than most of the population, became teachers, gun makers, government officials, and/or military officers. While the formal title of samurai was abolished, the elitist spirit that characterized the samurai class lived on. The oligarchs also embarked on a series of land reforms. In particular, they legitimized the tenancy system which had been going on during the Tokugawa period. Despite the shogunate's best efforts to freeze the four classes of society in place, during their rule villagers had begun to lease land out to other farmers, becoming rich in the process. This greatly disrupted the clearly defined class system which the shogunate had envisaged, partly leading to their eventual downfall.
The New Nation's Rise
Besides drastic changes to the social structure of Japan, in an attempt to create a strong centralized state defining its national identity, the government established a dominant national dialect, called Tokyo dialect, that replaced local and regional dialects and was based on the patterns of Tokyo's samurai classes. This dialect eventually became the norm in the realms of education, media, government, and business. The Meiji Restoration, and the resultant modernization of Japan, also influenced Japanese self-identity with respect to its Asian neighbors, as Japan became the first Asian state to modernize based on the Western model, replacing the traditional Confucian hierarchical order that had persisted previously under a dominant China with one based on modernity. Adopting Enlightenment ideals of popular education, the Japanese government established a national system of public schools. These free schools taught students reading, writing, and mathematics. Students also attended courses in moral training which reinforced their duty to the Emperor and to the Japanese state. By the end of the Meiji period, attendance in public schools was widespread, increasing the availability of skilled workers and contributing to the industrial growth of Japan. The opening up of Japan not only consisted of the ports being opened for trade, but also began the process of merging members of the different societies together. Examples of this include western teachers and advisors immigrating to Japan and Japanese nationals moving to western countries for education purposes. All these things in turn played a part in expanding the people of Japan's knowledge on western customs, technology and institutions. Many people believed it was essential for Japan to acquire western spirit in order to become a great nation with strong trade routes and military strength. The Meiji Restoration accelerated the industrialization process in Japan, which led to its rise as a military power by the year 1895, under the slogan rich nation, strong army. There were a few factories set up using imported technologies in the 1860s, principally by Westerners in the international settlements of Yokohama and Kobe, and some local lords, but these had relatively small impacts. It was only in the 1870s that imported technologies began to play a significant role, and only in the 1880s did they produce more than a small output volume. In Meiji Japan, raw silk was the most important export commodity, and raw silks exports experienced enormous growth during this period, overtaking China. Revenue from silk exports funded the Japanese purchase of industrial equipment and raw materials. Although the highest quality silk remained produced in China, and Japan's adoption of modern machines in the silk industry was slow, Japan was able to capture the global silk market due to standardized production of silk. Standardization, especially in silkworm egg cultivation, yielded more consistency in quality, particularly important for mechanized silk weaving. Since the new sectors of the economy could not be heavily taxed, the costs of industrialization and necessary investments in modernization heavily fell on the peasant farmers, who paid extremely high land tax rates, about 30 percent of harvests as compared to the rest of the world, double to seven times of European countries by net agricultural output. In contrast, land tax rates were about 2 percent in Qing China. The high taxation gave the Meiji government considerable leeway to invest in new initiatives. During the Meiji period, powers such as Europe and the United States helped transform Japan and made them realize a change needed to take place. Some leaders went out to foreign lands and used the knowledge and government writings to help shape and form a more influential government within their walls that allowed for things such as production. Despite the help Japan received from other powers, one of the key factors in Japan's industrializing success was its relative lack of resources, which made it unattractive to Western imperialism. The farmer and the samurai classification were the base and soon the problem of why there was a limit of growth within the nation's industrial work. The government sent officials such as the samurai to monitor the work that was being done. Because of Japan's leaders taking control and adapting Western techniques it has remained one of the world's largest industrial nations. The rapid industrialization and modernization of Japan both allowed and required a massive increase in production and infrastructure. Japan built industries such as shipyards, iron smelters, and spinning mills, which were then sold to well-connected entrepreneurs. Consequently, domestic companies became consumers of Western technology and applied it to produce items that would be sold cheaply in the international market. With this, industrial zones grew enormously, and there was a massive migration to industrializing centers from the countryside. Industrialization additionally went hand in hand with the development of a national railway system and modern communications. The majority of Japanese castles were partially or completely dismantled in the late 19th century in the Meiji restoration by the national government. Since the feudal system was abolished and the fiefs, han, theoretically reverting to the emperor, the national government saw no further use for the upkeep of these now obsolete castles. The military was modernized and some parts of the castles were converted into modern military facilities with barracks and parade grounds, such as Hiroshima Castle. Others were handed over to the civilian authorities to build their new administrative structures. Some however were explicitly saved from destruction by interventions from various persons and parties such as politicians, government and military officials, experts, historians, and locals who feared a loss of their cultural heritage. In the case of Hikone Castle, even though the government ordered its dismantling, it was saved by orders from the emperor himself. Nagoya Castle and Nijo Castle, due to their historical and cultural importance and sheer size and strategic locations, both became official imperial detached palaces, before they were turned over to the local authorities in the 1930s. Others such as Himeji Castle survived by luck. During the Meiji restoration's shinbutsu bunri, tens of thousands of Japanese Buddhist religious idols and temples were smashed and destroyed. Japan then closed and shut down tens of thousands of traditional old Shinto shrines in the Shrine Consolidation Policy and the Meiji government built the new modern 15 shrines of the Kenmu restoration as a political move to link the Meiji restoration to the Kenmu restoration for their new State Shinto cult. Under the Meiji Restoration, the practices of the samurai classes, deemed feudal and unsuitable for modern times following the end of sakoku in 1853, resulted in a number of edicts intended to modernize the appearance of upper class Japanese men. With the Dampatsurei Edict of 1871 issued by Emperor Meiji during the early Meiji Era, men of the samurai classes were forced to cut their hair short, effectively abandoning the chonmage hairstyle. During the Meiji Restoration, the practice of cremation and Buddhism were condemned and the Japanese government tried to ban cremation but were unsuccessful, then tried to limit it in urban areas. The Japanese government reversed its ban on cremation and pro-cremation Japanese adopted western European arguments on how cremation was good for limiting disease spread, so the Japanese government lifted their attempted ban in May 1875 and promoted cremation for diseased people in 1897. Even before the Meiji Restoration, the Tokugawa shogunate government hired German diplomat Philipp Franz von Siebold as diplomatic advisor, Dutch naval engineer Hendrik Hardes for Nagasaki Arsenal and Willem Johan Cornelis, Ridder Huijssen van Kattendijke for Nagasaki Naval Training centre, French naval engineer François Léonce Verny for Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, and Scottish civil engineer Richard Henry Brunton. Most of them were appointed through government approval with two or three years contract, and took their responsibility properly in Japan, except some cases. Then many other foreign specialists were hired. Despite the value they provided in the modernization of Japan, the Japanese government did not consider it prudent for them to settle in Japan permanently. After their contracts ended, most of them returned to their country except some, like Josiah Conder and W. K. Burton. The Meiji Constitution of 1889 would remain in place until the Allied occupation of Japan after the end of World War II. The Meiji Restoration was the political process that laid the foundation for the institutions of the Empire of Japan, and would have far-reaching consequences in East Asia as Japan pursued colonial interests against its neighbors.