Chapter 12 Building the Meiji State

1. Matsukata Economics

Economics: central concern of the government

Matsukata Masayoshi: finance minister beginning in 1981
o Described as the slowest most obtuse Meiji PM
o His personal staying power and clout of the financial web that formed around him
referred to as Matsukata Zaibatsu guaranteed immense influence throughout his
life.
Major preoccupation of Meiji Government: create a sound fiscal base for its needs
Suppression of Samurai Uprising government printed increasing quantities of yen
Government monopolies transferred trading and finance companies operated by
merchant firms
Inflation: decline in real income for urban workers and samurai and their bond
Land became a capital asset
o Farmers stood to profit as th eyen value of their crops increased
Ward off foreign investors
o Did not favour foreign aid like the World bank
Railway network fr Tokyo to Yokohama: single foreign loan of Meiji govt
Coastal Trades
o Government was worried about faster foreign shipping
o Presented 30 of its ships free of charge. Mitsubishi received an operating subsidy
Government invested heavily in industrial development
State acquired countrys forests and major mines
o Local residents were in distress, their customary rights were no longer of interest
to new officials
Cottonspinning plants: that had been started in unsuccessful efforts to reverse the
growing decit incurred through foreign trade.
Late Tokugawa Japan had proted from European demand for silkworm eggs and tea, but
as the European silkworm blight was conquered and the superior quality of foreign
textiles and thread became apparent the trade surplus of the past was soon reversed.
o Government countered this through the import of cotton spinning plants
Government ordered sweeping surveys
o Categorized and catalogued the countrys resources with an eye to finding some
sort of plan for economic development.
Major Problem: unequal treaties which limited Japans power to protect infant industries
o Ito Hirobumi: British hosts and statesmen, he warned, would champion free
trade in their talks, but it was important that the Japanese be prepared to counter
their arguments
o Government was ordered to set aside Confucian morality in working toward the
goal of a modern civilization

Defensive tax: increase in import tariff. (To lower domestic price and increase foreign
goods price)
Lowered tax on domestic goods but high on goods like silk, textiles, alcohol and tobacco
stimulate their own production
Enriching ones country is an indispensible mean
Developing countries needs to protect their industries
o But due to the unequal treates Japan failed to do so
Matsukata: was convinced that it was necessary to adapt protectionist policies
Austerity: only course to follow to lower Japans foreign trade deficit
o Government income was reduced because of ination, government bonds were
being discounted, and the value of land was rising rapidly
bubble economy: farmers, who were the only ones to profit from these circumstances,
took on luxurious habits . . . imports from foreign countries were increased. Merchants,
dazzled by the extreme uctuations in prices, all aimed at making huge speculative prots
and gave no heed to productive undertakings
o solution: austerity
Matsukata Deflation: Government expenditure was drastically reduced, and government
industries were sold off to private interests. New taxes were imposed and the note issue
was brought back to preSatsuma Rebellion levels.
o In terms of purely economic rationality, the process transferred resources to the
government, to the banking system, and to stronger and more competitive
elements of both urban and rural economy.
o In human terms, it took a toll on small farmers
sale of government enterprises
o Emergence conglomerates, or zaibatsu: gave rms like Mitsui, Mitsubishi,
Sumitomo, and Yasuda a commanding position that led to an oligopoly in control
of markets
fukoku kyo hei (rich country, strong army)
o Scientic thought and technology began to be applied to production, per capita
productivity accompanied population growth, and the changes were made in full
consciousness of the pressures and possibilities posed by international contacts
Matsukata decade did not bring striking improvements in industrial efciency or
individual well-being, but it did see the development of a substructure that was probably
essential for later economic change.

2. The Struggle for Political Participation

Intensification of a struggle for political participation that began as a movement of

disgruntled samurai
Opening Stages was associated with Tosas Itagaki Taisuke: left Meiji Government (same
time with Saigo)

Itagaki and Goto Shojiro, with the cooperation of Soejima Taneomi and Eto Shinpei of
Saga, submitted a petition that argued that the handling of the Korean issue, proved the
need for the council chamber that had been promised in the Charter Oath.
How is the government made strong?
o The establishment of a council chamber chosen by the people will create a
community of feeling between the government and the people, and they will
mutually unite into one body. Then and only then will the country become strong
Themes in the document prepared by Itagaki and his friends
o One is that of rights, an assumption that requires no defense.
o A second is that participation will bring unity and a common purpose; far from
becoming partisan, politics will be single-minded.
o The third is the note of progress that pervades the document; Japan can do things
more rapidly than the West did, since it can prot from that example
Risshisha: society organized by Itagaki and his followers
o Risshisha arranged its activities through representative elections of the sort its
leaders urged on the government, and they also sponsored mutual aid and
education for the former samurai, now shizoku, who made up the groups
members.
the government, worried about shizoku discontent, did everything it could to checkmate
the movement by persuading Itagaki to accept political ofce again
New press laws and a steadily more effective police organization exerted enough pressure
on those advocating representative institutions for them to adopt names like that of
Risshishas successor, which called itself the Public Society of Patriots.
Members of Genroin (consultative body) drafted the constitution
o Ito and Iwakura, rejected the result as unsatisfactory because it seemed to divide
authority between emperor and legislature and had no provision for imperial
ordinances that would have the force of law
Minken, peoples rights, became linked with jiyu , freedom, to give its name to the jiyu
-minken movement that dominated and very nearly transformed Japanese life in the early
1880s
o Jiyu: had overtones of Taoisms formless but freely moving spirit.
Jiyuto (Liberal Party): Itagakis petition to organize a party
o Local tax laws (part of Matsukata Deflation) angered regional entrepreneurs and
gave meaning to calls for participation in decisions
o Reporters were drawn to the movement.
o Government responded with harsher press and police provisions
Rikken Kaishinto: second political party
o Okuma Shigenobu: organized the pol. Party
Became known in submitting a constitution far more radical than the
others (When Prince Arisguwa requested for a submission of ideas for a
constitution)

Wanted to bypass the Satsuma-Choshu group by denunciating the selling

of government assets in Hokkaido

Rescript from the Young Emperor

o ta constitution would be drawn up at his command, with elections to be held for a
Parliament to meet in 1890.
o Systems of government differ in different countries, but sudden and unusual
changes cannot be made without great inconvenience . . . We perceive that the
tendency of Our people is to advance too rapidly, and without that thought and
consideration which alone can make progress enduring, and We warn Our
subjects, high and low, to be mindful of Our will, and that those who may
advocate sudden and violent changes, thus disturbing the peace of Our realm, will
fall under Our displeasure. (Slow Political Change)
Rikken Kaishinto : was stongly influenced by English constitutional thought and practice
o Drew urban interests
o Leadership could be traces to Fukuzawa Yukichis Keio Academy
Jiyuto:influence by the language and enthusiasm of the French Revolution
o Headed by Itagaki. Much of this partys leadership was made up of former
shizoku
Teiseito: Imperial party funded by the government
Gulf between parties were often personal than ideological
Itsiukiachi
o Discovery of material that would bring a fresh look at the Freedom and Peoples
Rights (jiyu-minken)
o People from this village, petioned the establishment of a parliament and draft of a
204 article constituion
Evidence of political consciousness in remote mountain villages.
Modern consciousness was advancing among responsible rural committees in Japan
o Impact of West served as a catalyst to this movement
Chiba Takusaburo
o School teacher who drafted the 204 article constitution
o Took a position as schoolteacher in Itsukiachi school.
o Under his direction Chiba turned the school into a branch of the Peoples Rights
movement
o For him, jiyu-mnken movement provided an outlet of hope for the regeneration of
Japanese politics and society in an age of confusion and decay and an escape from
an autocratic control of the institutional life by Satsuma and Choshu
As Matsukata deflation tightened its hold on the country, the Peoples Rights Moevement
began to be associated with rural distress
o Force of 5000 to 10000 people revolted in the Chichibu district of Saitama near
Tokyo

o Rebels styled themselves as the Debtors and Tenants Party derided as trouble
makes
o Rebels broadly represented the countryside population
Jiyu-Minken movement spread to lower orders of society and revolutionized for a time,
ordinary people of the countryside
Mainline Jiyuto and Kaishinto wanted no part of this rebellion both parties took steps to
dissolve their organization
Obersevers thoughts: rash for a country at Japans stage of development to even think of
constitutional government
Herbert Spencer (system builder, admired by most Meiji) warned Japanese of social
fragmentation under rapid modernization, and his advice that Japan keep foreigners at
arms length except for such trade was essential.
Observation from the political competition
o rst relates to the virtually universal agreement that there should be a constitution,
and hence a representative system, of some sort. This conviction pervaded society
from the Itsukaichi villagers to the men who wrote council chamber into the
Charter Oath.

Can it be said that the Tokugawa parcelized jurisdiction, with

representation, however tenuous, at the center, contributed to this?
It is also true that the powerful nations of the world ,had representative
institutions.
o The central government in Tokyo saw a parliament as a device for deecting
suspicion of its Satsuma-Choshu narrowness, while those not at the center saw it
as a way of sharing in that power.
o Second, one is impressed by the speed with which these convictions spread
through Japanese society.
the power structure saw a constitution as insulating the throne from
partisanship, Tosa and Saga dissidents saw it as an avenue back to the
inuence they had lost, villagers as protection from arbitrary
administrators, and tenants as justication for peasant revolt.
Nevertheless the momentum that carried things forward made Itagaki, the
original standard bearer, virtually irrelevant by the time of his death. What
slowed and then almost stopped that momentum was the codication of
the Meiji Constitution.

3. Ito Hirobumi and the Meiji Constitution

Ito Hirobumi
o Farmers son, had the most modest parentage
o More inclined to collaboration and comprise than Okubo.

o Central figure in the ouster of Okuma from the government

After imperial rescript of a parliament, ITho headed the commission to study the
governmental institutions of other countries.
o Principal investigations were carried in on Germany
o Consulted with scholar Rudolph von Gneist and Lorenz von Stein who gave him a
crash course in constitutional theory
o Germany that time taking form under the direction of Otto von Bismarck.
German Scholar, Herman Roesler recruited to come to Japan as adviser to the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs
o Became special counsellor to Inoue Kowashi
Although a number of constitutional provisions in the final product followed the Prussian
Constitution, it should not be concluded that the goal was to create an East Asia Prussian
Roesler was highly critical of Prussian satism, argued for social monarchy
o Voting and taxng rights were the central feautures of the constitutional order
o Opposed to separation of powers practiced in Western Europe, ultimate power
should be united in the monarch.
o Social Monarchy: sought to counter both factionalism and autocracy
Ito upon his return in Japan determined to protect imperial institution from radicalism.
o First step: formalize a divide between emperor and commoner by creating a new
peerage:
Koshaku (Prince/Duke) 11 daimyo and 7 court nobles
Shishaku (Marquis) 24 daimyo and 9 nobles
Koshaku (written in diff. Chines character; Count/Marquis) 73 daimyo,
30 nobles
Shishaku (diff Chinese Char.; Viscount) 325 daimyo, 91 nobles
Danshaku (Baron) 74 daimyo, no nobles
o Many though it was strange to institute new peerage in the age of modernization
Itos reason was bc there was a danger that people might slip into
republicanism. The peerage provided the opportunity to take advantage
of the fact that the last flow of feudal reverence for the Emperor has not
died out
o Function of the peerage was to people an anticipated House of peers in the future
Diet
o Second step: separate Emperor from the Heian period Council of State
Emperor was directly above three ministers, councillors were below
ministers and special responsibilities were allocated to a lower rank
o Two problems re: second step councillors had shrunk in number and
responsibility was diffused.
Move of cabinet system brought Japan in line with the Western Countries,
o Under cabinet system
Court was protected by separate bureaucracies: imperial household and the
lord keeper of the privy seal
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Prime Minister
Ito was the first prime minster.
o Collected ministers evenly divided between Choshu and Satsuma, with one slot
each for Tosa and former bakufu official and diplomat Enomoto Tekeaki
Central problem: way the power should be reserved for the emperor
o Ito sought shelter in the possible emphasis on antiquity and divinity
o In Japan the power of religion is slight, and there is none that could serve as the
axis [alternatively pivot, foundation, or cornerstone] of the state.
o In Japan, it is only the imperial house that can become the axis of the state. It is
with this point in mind that we have placed so high a value on imperial authority
and endeavoured to restrict it as little as possible.
April 1888: constitution and Imperial House law had been completed.
o Work continued to be secret, and council members were not trusted with copies of
the documents under discussion
o Secrecy was due to the organization of Political Parties of a Grand Alliance.
Which was inflamed by an unruly encounter at Nagasaki in which Chinese sailors
had rioted against Japanese police.
Ito: introduced discussion of the constitutions need to bolster the imperial institution as
the fulcrum, or foundation, of government.
o If they failed to build such a rampart, he warned, politics will fall into the hands
of the uncontrollable masses; and then the government will become powerless,
and the country will be ruined. To preserve its existence and to govern the people,
the state must not lose the use of the administrative power
With the consent of the Diet
o Sparked debate with Mori Arinori arguing that it would weaken the sovereign
power of the throne and that the Diet was merely advisory.
o Ito defended his proposed phrase: if we want to establish a constitutional
government we have to give the right of decision to the Diet. Without the consent
of the Diet, budgets or laws cannot be determined. This is the essence of
constitutional government.
February 11 1889: Draft was made official by an imperial promulgation

Itos greatest work had been accomplished. He probably had the broadest vision of the
Meiji leadership group. It is for the constitution that he is best known. His picture,
together with the Diet building, appeared on the basic thousand-yen note of postWorld
War II Japan.

4. Yamagata Aritomo and the Imperial Army

Yamagata Aritomo indicated the locus of the power in the state control structure as it took
form unlike Ito who shadowed critical points in political power structure.
Yamagata, though army centered at first, left a strong imprint on domestic government
and police organization
Satsuma-Choshu Domination in the army were referred to as the Meiji Governments
hanbatsu (domain clique)
o Sharp clashes bet. Satsuma and Choshu over the question of military direction but
was united by their shared determination to prevent the erosion of what they had
achieved outside political partisans
Japans military newness was one of its strongest features
o Japans new army considered itself to be the embodiment of the spirit of new age
o Meiji regarded French theory and structure of military as preeminent.
o All domains follow the French model for their land forces, English model for their
naval forces. And in the 1880s land forces turned to the German models
Conscription Act of 1872
o Yamagata commanded the Choshu mixed commoner-samurai units in the
Restoration warfare and, himself of insignificant status in the samurai hierarchy
o Saw this conscription as a way to educate future generations in citizenship. Goal
was to be a nation of great civil and military university.
First conscription law permitted exemptions for those who could pay and
for the first sons, and consequently recruited a plebeian and largely
illiterate cohort.
Imperial Army and Navy belonged to the emperor
o Princes of blood were also expected to take up military careers
o Tie between ruler and army was seen as the best defense against localism, class
anatagonsim and disruption
It was important for the emperor to refrain from exercising his power and delegate it to
experienced professionals.
o Gave high command direct access to the ruler, strengthened the hand of the
military in domestic affairs.
Yamagata was explicit in instructions to the military to stay out of Politics
Imperial Precepts to Soldiers and Sailors
o Rescript that had been prepared and designed to serve as the moral guidance for
the modern armed forces, its reminded soldiers and sailors that it was not
impetuous bravery that counted, but prudence, self-control, and disciplined
loyalty.
Emperor was uncomfortable with Choshu dominance. Proposed for a reshuffle of posts
and reorganization in 1885 and let it be known tha the favoured higher posts for four
outsiders.
o Emperors suggestion had the support of Ito and Kaouru but the issue became
entangled wih the army was resisting Matsukata cutbacks. Ito and Kaouru found it

necessary to back the high command in order to get its approval for budget
restrictions
o In result of compromise: four outsider generals lost heir chance and retired
o Four outsiders favoured a small and defensive military force.
o Katsura Taro and Kawakami Soroku prevailed in a joint memorandum:
Nations maintain an army for two reasons. First, to defend themselves
against enemy attack or to preserve their independence. Second, to display
the nations power, resorting to arms when necessary to execute national
policy, as in the case of rst-class European powers. Japans aim in
maintaining armed forces is not that of the second-class nations but that of
the rst-class powers
Yamagata on Local Govenrment and National Police System
o Peopels Rights Movements was growing in power, countryside was resisting the
new tax structure (Matsukata Deflation).
o Establishment of institutions that could be insulated from and counter expressions
of popular discontent is the answer.
Yamagatas approach: control, order, and uniformity were the goals.
Local Self government was an important part of Yamagatas plans
o Conscription and Local self-governance was directly related: both represented
service to the state; both bound the people to the central government,
strengthening unity and contributing to stability.
Law No. 1 of the nation
o Advocated and secured the election of lower-echelon officials, while at the same
time he ruled out their participation in political parties.
o City mayors, district heads and prefectural governors were to be appointed
directly or indirectly by the govt.
Establishment of Kempeitai or Gendermarie
o Originally restriced to military concerns with added functions nlike the censorship
of books permitted in the barracks, it would exercise increasing power over civil
life in the militarist Japan that lay ahead.
Meiji police system from French model turned to German model.
o Emphasized training institutes that were set up in every prefecture. Formal
training and a sense of professionalism were emphasized.
o Police system concentrated at the center was extended in to the countryside.
o Police posts through the country increased.
There was also a legislation that extended the power of the police in daily life.
o 1886 regulations forbade the petitioning of public officials
o Those planning any kind of public meeting had to provide the details, reasons,
and names of those attending to the police
Peace Preservation Ordinance of 1887
o Designed to eliminate Tokyos political troublemakers.
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o Home minister now forbade all secret societies and assemblies. He could halt any
meeting or assembly and can also expel from a seven and a half mile radius of the
imperial palace anyone likely to create public disturbance.
5. Mori and Meiji Education

Mori Arinori
o Became the disciple of a religious teacher named Thomas Lake Harris
founder of a utopian group
o When bakufu fell, Mori returned home to seve in the new government.
o He was curious, impressionable, rash and supremely self-confident
o Premature advocacy to ban samurai swords cost him his positon for a
time
o Angered conservatives by suggesting that Japan substitute English for
Japanese
o Favoured equal rights for women in marriage
Asked Fukuzawa to arrange a marriage ceremony with
contractual equality
Mori was appointed Minister of Education in the first cabinet organized by Ito
Hirobumi
o Pre-World War II Educ. System: lower schools rigidly centralized and
emperor centered, upper reaches less controlled, focused on scholarly
inquiry and struggling for autonomy.
Fundamental Code of Education (1872)
o Learning is the key to success in life, and no man can afford to neglect
it.
o Ignorance leads man astray, makes him destitute, disrupts his family
and in the end destroys his life.
o Dept. Of Educ. Will establish an educational system and will revise the
regulations from time to time, and in the future there will be no
community with an illiterate family/person
o Envisioned grid of 8 university district, each of which would be divided
into 32 middle school districts. Each in turn would have 210 primary
schools.
o France was the model for administrative organization
Builders of Meiji Education System (3 major ingredients)
o Centralization of a single system for what had been a great variety of
regional and local insti
o Replacement of domain schools oriented toward samurai by newly
established official schools that fostered and rewarded talent wherever
it was found
o Substitution of single national grid for the discontinuous and
unpredictable public and private schools
Popular education was to be the major goal of state policy, financial
limitations made for attempts at local support and local variety.

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Diffusion of Literacy
o For most local officials: essence of the new school law boiled down to
establishing public elementary schools and increasing attendance in
them
Study suggest that In more developed parts of Japan, where a variety of
schools already existed, progress was slow, but in more remote and
backward domains rates of attendanceand hence of literacyrose
dramatically.
There was a tug of war between central authorities and communities in which
village schools, had developed with the support and allegiance of the
localelite, and communities resisted and negotiated with the new agents of
centralization.
In the 1880s Meiji government planners became concerned about content
and control.
Not a few educational institutions were set up as a result of the
PeoplesRights Movement
o Conservatives like Motoda Eifu, Confucian tutor to the Meiji emperor,
deplored such schools as political discussion groups, extended
their fears to the general reliance on foreign learning
o Devoted impressive proportions of its budget in hiring foreign teachers
and sending students abroad
Even before this, official enthusiasm for foreign language instruction had
begun to ebb as more emphasis was placed on ethics and Japanese literature
in order to build a nation of soldier-subjects.
Debate sparked between army leaders who felt like the main business of the
school should be to prepare ordinary people to become emperors soldiers.
o Not everyone agreed to this, but everyone did agree that the health of
the new state depended upon the development of patriotic
participation
Fukuzawa Yukichi argued the need for an education that would build
independence and foster practicality.
Motoda: sought to prescribe learning for the country an leaned toward a more
open and varied course
Ito responded to the rescript Motoda had prepared, saw to it that Motodas
post of Confucianism tutor to the emperor was abolished
But direction of the Ministry of Education changed to conservative hands;
o morals were put at the head of the curriculum, and a new directive for
elementary school teachers issued in 1881 made it clear that Loyalty
to the Imperial House, love of country, filial piety toward parents,
respect for superiors, faith in friends, charity toward inferiors, and
respect for oneself constitute the Great Path of human morality.
New concern for Confucianism led to the appointment of Nishimura Shigeki as
head of the Compilation Board of the Ministry of Education.

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Nishimuras writing became the bases for courses on ethics that

were regarded as the center of the curriculum
Schools were to be walled off from the agitation for political rights
o 1880 ordinance: illegal for teachers to attend political meeting or
lectures
Mori, increasingly dismayed by what he regarded as the superficiality of
Japans early political party movement. Increasingly, he thought it important
for Japan to base institutions and practice on its own tradition.
Mori returned to Japan (fr London): concerned with the role of education in
nation building, and with the primacy of state over personal interests. Also
more nationalist and was convinced of the importance of the imperial
institution for education in Japan in the future.
o More pragmatist, convinced of the utility and centrality of the
institution
o The best way is to focus on the state alone
o Education was not only for pupils, but for the sake of the country
o Followed Harris emphases on Discipline, Friendship, and Obedience to
God for Moris slogan for Japans normal schools
3 ordinances
First
o Imperial University: emerged from a congeries of educational
institutions that went back to the Tokugawa School of Western learning
In attraction and quality, it was pressed by a number of private
schools: Fukuzawa Yukichis Keio, Waseda by Ikuma.
Graduates of these schools played important roles in political
agitations, journalism and private enterprise
Mori distanced the university form competition and named it
Imperial University
Its graduates qualified for posts in the bureaucracy without
having to take the exams
Second university was established in Kyoto and Imperial
University became Tokyo Imperial University , stood at the
pinnacle of the education system
Top graduates were honoured by the emperor and assured
prestigious careers. Costs were subsidized by the government
Universitys faculty: section heads were direct imperial
appointed, university president honoured with imperial
appointment to the House of Peers
Imperial University students were not drawn from the
Restoration centers but instead represented a new and national
meritocracy that would govern Japan after the passing of the
early Meiji generation.
Second
o Structure of Middle Schools
o

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developed between an elite track, in Special Higher Schools,

which prepared students for the Imperial University, and
ordinary secondary education.
The first-named were directly under the supervision of the
ministry and financed entirely by the central government, while
the ordinary schools were the charge of prefectures in which
they were located.
Primary education: should be devoted to strengthening pupils
awareness of and support of the state, and it was reasonable to
expect patriotic parents to pay the costs.

Third
o 1880 Ordinance: forbidding teacher and student attendance at political
meetings.
To counter politicization, provided for a structure of normal
schools; one elite institution, situated in Tokyo, trained teachers
for provincial normal schools, while in those schools graduates
were obligated to serve ten years as teachers after graduation.
Emphasized a distinction between the relative freedom of
scholarship at higher levels and the uniformity of instruction
at lower.
He was convinced of the need for physical as well as mental
training. Unfortunately he chose to meet this need through the
use of army drill masters, who had the additional attraction of
coming free of charge.
Moris Opposition to Confucian character building did not long survive hi.
o Motoda Eifu and his associates had their way with Imperial Rescript
onEducation: became cornerstone of Meiji ideology
o Emperor himself informed the new minister of education that since
Japanese was easily led astray and confused by foreign doctrines, it
was essential to define the moral basis of the nation for them.
o In form the document was a compromise; Motodas wish that it make
explicit reference to Confucius was rejected, but the Confucian
relations were enumerated and credited to Japanese tradition.
Imperial Rescript on Education brought that process to an end with its
assertion that a national essence, whose values had been manifested in
Japans antiquity, should be the foundation for future action and belief.

6. Summary: The Meiji Leaders

The face of what the Meiji leaders accomplished it is interesting to reect on

the nature of that leadership.
o The first thing to note is that, although they specialized, they were also
generalists.

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Yamagata doubled as interior minister, Mori and Ito as

diplomats, Itagaki as general, Matsukata as local official. No one
of them was essential to the process we have described.
o Meiji leaders were a disparate group but they agreed on essentials and
pulled together when their collectivity was threatened.
Meiji Leaders were pragmatists, and the deisgn of the Meiji State took form as
it gre.
At every point the historian is impressed by the vigor of debate and the
readiness of men to speak their minds.
o In this respect the Meiji men were rather different from those who
followed them, for their successors formative years came in structured
bureaucracies and they came to the table with a deep consciousness
of the importance of the military or political group they represented.
No Meiji leader ever wrote or spoke of what had been accomplished without
crediting it to the virtues of the sovereign
Mutsuhito (Young Emperor) was at the center of the plans as they developed:
o protected from the future politics of the lower house of the Diet by the
new peerage
o from the cabinet by the powers accorded by the Privy Council, lord
privy seal, and imperial household minister
o from civilian interference by the direct command he had over the
armed services
o from Diet squabbles by sweeping grants of land and securities that
created immense wealth and independence
o from representative institutions by his prerogatives to appoint the
cabinet
o from popular disorder by the ubiquitous presence of his police
o from disloyalty by rescripts that identified his rule with morality and
justice
o from himself by a protective screen of officials who spoke and acted in
his name and saw in him the ultimate justification for their role.

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