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 PMo 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 shippingo Presented 30 of its ships free of charge. Mitsubishi received an operating subsidy

Government invested heavily in industrial development State acquired country’s 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 deficit incurred through foreign trade.

Late Tokugawa Japan had profited 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 country’s resources with an eye to finding some sort of plan for economic development.

Major Problem: unequal treaties which limited Japan’s power to protect infant industrieso 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”

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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 one’s 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 Japan’s foreign trade deficit

o Government income was reduced because of inflation, 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 fluctuations in prices, all aimed at making huge speculative profits 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 pre–Satsuma 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 firms 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 Scientific 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 efficiency 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

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Opening Stages was associated with Tosa’s 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 friendso 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 profit 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 group’s members.

the government, worried about shizoku discontent, did everything it could to checkmate the movement by persuading Itagaki to accept political office 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 Risshisha’s successor, which called itself the “Public Society of Patriots.

Members of Genroin (consultative body) drafted the constitutiono 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, people’s 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 Taoism’s formless but freely moving spirit. Jiyuto (Liberal Party): Itagaki’s 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 partyo Okuma Shigenobu: organized the pol. Party

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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 Emperoro 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 practiceo Drew urban interests o Leadership could be traces to Fukuzawa Yukichi’s Keio Academy

Jiyuto:influence by the language and enthusiasm of the French Revolutiono Headed by Itagaki. Much of this party’s 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 People’s 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 constitutiono Took a position as schoolteacher in Itsukiachi school.o Under his direction Chiba turned the school into a branch of the People’s Rights

movemento 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

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As Matsukata deflation tightened its hold on the country, the People’s 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 Japan’s 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 arm’s length except for such trade was essential.

Observation from the political competitiono first 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 deflecting 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 influence they had lost, villagers as protection from arbitrary administrators, and tenants as justification 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 codification of the Meiji Constitution.

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3. Ito Hirobumi and the Meiji Constitution

Ito Hirobumio Farmer’s son, had the most modest parentageo 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 Germanyo Consulted with scholar Rudolph von Gneist and Lorenz von Stein who gave him a

crash course in constitutional theoryo 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 ordero 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 Ito’s 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

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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

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 emperoro Ito sought shelter in the possible emphasis on antiquity and divinityo “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 discussiono 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 constitution’s 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

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Ito’s 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 post–World 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 Government’s 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

Japan’s military newness was one of its strongest featureso Japan’s new army considered itself to be the embodiment of the spirit of new ageo 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 emperoro Princes of blood were also expected to take up military careerso 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

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Imperial Precepts to Soldiers and Sailorso 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 Emperor’s 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 retiredo 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 nation’s power, resorting to arms when necessary to execute national policy, as in the case of first-class European powers. Japan’s aim in maintaining armed forces is not that of the second-class nations but that of the first-class powers

Yamagata on Local Govenrment and National Police Systemo Peopel’s 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. Yamagata’s approach: control, order, and uniformity were the goals. Local Self government was an important part of Yamagata’s 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 nationo 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.

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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 officialso 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 Tokyo’s political troublemakers.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 Arinorio Became the disciple of a religious teacher named Thomas Lake Harris—founder of a

utopian groupo When bakufu fell, Mori returned home to seve in the new government.o He was curious, impressionable, rash and supremely self-confidento Premature advocacy to ban samurai swords cost him his positon for a timeo Angered conservatives by suggesting that Japan substitute English for Japaneseo 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

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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

instio Replacement of domain schools oriented toward samurai by newly established official

schools that fostered and rewarded talent wherever it was foundo 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. 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 attendance—and hence of literacy—rose 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 People’sRights 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 emperor’s 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 Motoda’s 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

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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.

o Nishimura’s 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 rightso 1880 ordinance: illegal for teachers to attend political meeting or lectures

Mori, increasingly dismayed by what he regarded as the superficiality of Japan’s 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 institutiono “The best way is to focus on the state aloneo Education was not only for pupils, but for the sake of the countryo Followed Harris’ emphases on “Discipline, Friendship, and Obedience to God” for Mori’s

slogan for Japan’s normal schools 3 ordinances

Firsto 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 Yukichi’s 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 University’s 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

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o Structure of Middle Schools 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.

Thirdo 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.

Mori’s 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 ideologyo 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; Motoda’s 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 Japan’s 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 reflect on the nature of that leadership.

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

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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 peerageo from the cabinet by the powers accorded by the Privy Council, lord privy seal, and

imperial household ministero from civilian interference by the direct command he had over the armed serviceso from Diet squabbles by sweeping grants of land and securities that created immense

wealth and independenceo from representative institutions by his prerogatives to appoint the cabineto from popular disorder by the ubiquitous presence of his policeo from disloyalty by rescripts that identified his rule with morality and justiceo 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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