Lecture reading 4 - The Central Government

Question 1

What were samurai divided into?

Answer 1

Shi and sotsu.

Question 2

What were all the officials?

Answer 2

Shi.

Question 3

Describe higher shi.

Answer 3

Well-to-do, aristocrats of society, and held the most important positions.

Question 4

When did middle-ranking samurai become involved in policy-making?

Answer 4

During the early nineteenth century.

Question 5

What did ‘kuni’ refer to before the arrival of Perry?

Answer 5

The domains.

Question 6

What changed about the Japanese perception of ‘kuni’ after the arrival of Perry?

Answer 6

They thought of Japan as their ‘kuni’.

Question 7

Although Perry arrived in 1853, what year was there actually any change in politics or tradition and why?

Answer 7

1858 with the signing of the commercial treaty.

Question 8

What was the difference between China and Japan’s imperial institutions?

Answer 8

China: heavenly mandate bestowed upon the emperor and could be taken away.
Japan: emperor was the mandate of heaven - unit made up of heaven and the emperor was ultimate source of legitimacy.

Question 9

What did Townsend Harris do in 1858?

Answer 9

Persuaded the bakufu to sign a commercial treaty despite court disapproval.

Question 10

What did the 1858 signing of a commercial treaty cause?

Answer 10

Seen as a ‘disobedient act’. Outpouring of sonnou sentiments and beginning of anti-bakufu agitation.

Question 11

What did the bakufu do in response to the anti-bakufu sentiments?

Answer 11

Saw agitation as subversion and carried out a purge in 1858-9, punishing/executing samurai critics and forcing dissident samurai to abdicate.

Question 12

When did the bakufu swing towards compromise?

Answer 12

After the chief councillor responsible for the purge was assassinated.

Question 13

What effect did the 1858 court-bakufu rift have on domains and which two in particular were the first to act?

Answer 13

Domains emerged as mediators, Satsuma and Choshu in particular created a role in national politics for their own domain under the guise of helping the court and bakufu patch up their differences.

Question 14

How much of Japan was under the bakufu domain?

Answer 14

About a quarter.

Question 15

Why was Choshu in a desperate situation and how did it resolve this?

Answer 15

Civil was in 1864-65 and existence threatened by second bakufu expedition in 1866.

Resolved by carrying out huge reforms and organising irregular militia as rifle companies, one of which was led by Ito Hirobumi. Recruitment of commoners and more attention paid to ability.

Question 16

Who controlled these new troops in Satsuma and Choshu and why were they so powerful?

Answer 16

Kido, Okubo, Saigo, and associates, due to ties with commanders of rifle companies and to loyalists in other domains, as well as connections to court nobles.

Question 17

How did these leaders end up in a commanding position at the court in Kyoto?

Answer 17

Subsequent victory of Choshu and Satsuma in larger civil war in Japan.

Question 18

Describe the base of the new court government in late summer of 1868.

Answer 18

1. New government itself was in Kyoto, consisting of emperor, Iwakura, Kido, and pool of nobles, daimyo, and samurai.
2. Outpost was military headquarters in Edo. Run by Okubo and Sanjo.
3. Main base of new central government was armies fighting in the northeast.
4. Domains of Satsuma and Choshu secured home bases of new regime.

Question 19

What was positive about the domains to the transition to the new government?

Answer 19

Self-rule characteristic of Tokugawa government lasted throughout transition. Many domains inactive yet stable so government did not have to immediately assume responsibility for all of Japan.

Question 20

What was the obstacle in the way of the new government?

Answer 20

Autonomy of domains.

Question 21

Who called the shots in the new government and who were key figures?

Answer 21

Samurai leaders, especially of Choshu and Satsuma. Key figures Okubo and Kido, leaders of their respective domain cliques within central government.

Question 22

What constituted the remaining shards of the Tokugawa regime and what did the government fear about it?

Answer 22

Alliances of thirty-one northeastern domains and the bakufu forces that had fled to Hakodate, Hokkaido.

Fear from government leaders that other domains with ties to Tokugawa house might join northeastern alliance or become a neutral bloc.

Question 23

How was this fear prevented?

Answer 23

Government gave influential daimyo high posts in government under the facade of power-sharing.

Question 24

What did the government do with the emperor?

Answer 24

Paraded him about the country as a visible symbol of its legitimacy and national character.

Question 25

What happened in from March-July 1869?

Answer 25

March: new leaders from Choshu, Satsuma, Tosa and Saga persuaded their former daimyo to petition the court to accept ‘return’ of lands and people, moving towards central administration.

July: all daimyo ordered to return lands and people to emperor.

Question 26

What were the three features of the imperial government?

Answer 26

1. Religion used as a bulwark of state authority. Ministry-level Office of Shinto Affairs raised in status to become highest in the state, even more so than the Dajokan. ‘Saisei itchi’ (‘Unity of Religion and Politics’). However, this office had little power and was downgraded after the abolishment of domains.
2. Emergence of strong government at centre. ‘Tennou shinsai’ (‘Personal Rule by Emperor’) - in practice all decisions made by a handful of leaders but all decisions ratified by the emperor.
3. Return to form and nomenclature of Nara court - where emperors sometimes rules - including system of nine court ranks with upper and lower grades.

Question 27

What did Satsuma and Choshu possess that the other domains did not have?

Answer 27

Effective military power.

Question 28

How many troops, and from which three domains, were called upon to make an ‘imperial army’ (central government army)?

Answer 28

Satsuma, Choshu, and Tosa.

Question 29

What happened to some of the officials in the government?

Answer 29

Government was reorganised and nobles and daimyo relieved of their posts.

Question 30

What happened to the domains?

Answer 30

Turned into prefectures and daimyo ordered to live in Tokyo to avoid any uprisings.

Question 31

Describe the 1873 crisis.

Answer 31

Plan for an expedition to Korea to punish them for refusing to acknowledge Japan’s new government because they were in a tributary relationship with China that they did not want to jeopardise. Government was divided on the issue, and Saigo Takamori was particularly enthusiastic about this expedition.

However, Japan was too weak to engage in any foreign adventures, and the emperor endorsed the peace party’s views. Several officials resigned in protest including Saigo and Eto.

Question 32

What two problems did the government finances face in 1873 and how were they resolved?

Answer 32

1. Problem: land tax (main source of government revenue) was paid two-thirds in grain, which fluctuated in value according to the market, and only one third in cash.
   Solution: convert land tax into monetary tax.
2. Problem: government paid almost a third of revenue as samurai stipends.
   Solution: formation of a conscript army and abolition of samurai.

Question 33

What were the effects of the solutions of the government’s two problems?

Answer 33

1. Farmers were issued with land certificates that made the land their property.
2. Samurai were paid off in long-term bonds at a very reduced rate and ended up impoverished.

The late Tokugawa peasantry became farmers, and samurai were destroyed. intent of reforms was financial, but effect was a social revolution.