1994 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A research of the formative process of the Meiji Government.
| Project/Area Number |
05610271
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
Japanese history
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| Research Institution | KOCHI UNIVERSITY |
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Principal Investigator |
HUKUTI Atushi HUMANITIES., KOCHI UNIVERSITY professor, 人文学部, 教授 (00109711)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1993 – 1994
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| Keywords | Satu-Cho-Do / clanship / westernization / frivolous civilization / gradualism / constitutional government |
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| Research Abstract |
In this research, focusing on mutual relations and trend of the major powers of in politics, fundamental issues on the formative process of the Meiji Government are dealt with. Especially, it is aimed to understand those issues comprehensively and structurally through investigation into the character and true state of the three major political groups called Satsuma, Choshu and Tosa, and also into their mutual relationship. In order to have deeper understanding of the structure and characteristics in their movements, the Seikanron-Seihen (the political change originated in the controversy over whether to conquer Korea), the Osaka Conference, and the Seinan War are examined in due order. As a result, the change of thought and behavior of a leader of the Choshu group, Takayoshi Kido becomes the focus of our discussion. Between the 4th year of Keio, when he entered government service, and the 4th year of Meiji, when the government established prefectures in place of feudal domains, Kido ca
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n be seen as a leader of the Kaimei-ha, the group of people who are eager to promote westernization of Japan. Coming home from the trip to America and Europe, however, he came to emphasize the danger of radical westernization and insisted on gradualism in everything until he died in the 10th year of Meiji. He proposed introduction of constitutional and parliamentary government and civilization of the nation through a slow-and-steady education. He also asserted that steady cultivation of the financial resources of the people and establishment of the foundation of industrialization should have priority over positive foreign policy. Those assertions of his caused the confrontation between he and Toshimichi Okubo, who tried to take power politics. The thesis under the title of "The Meiji Government and Kido Takayoshi"in Research Reports of Kochi University is the fruit of the consideration to this change of Kido's political view and, as its background, the formative process of the nature and power structure of the Meiji Government in its early stage. Less
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