capital of Japan until the Meiji Restoration.
The Emperor Kanmu was able to build the capital of Japan with the help of discontented members of the clans who opposed the Tenno system, but it was too late to restore the Imperial system, because the Manorial System had already been established, and manorial land lords had had the right of “no tax or no-entrance principle” supported by the legal system of those days. This result could be called “Japanese version of Magna Carta.”
This right provided the basis for democratization after the Pacific War. This is because the right could also give rise to the traditional “Right of Resistance” established by manor land lords (the latter 9th century). Thanks to this right, the post-war democratization by GHQ measure was relatively easily accepted by the Japanese civilians.
In fact, even after the Meiji Regime was established and introduced neo-Confusianism, the general public, some of whom belonged to the former Samurai class, could protest against the power of the government, not by direct violence, but by the legal procedures, such as the requirement of establishing the National Diet.
Before the Meiji Restoration, Samurai Regime (Tokugawa Bakfu) could not rule any other people, who resided in the other manor lands’ territories. Shogun, the ruler of Tokugawa Regime, was only the chairperson of assemblies of the Samurai landlords within the territories of the Tokugawa Household.
By the way, China and Korea established the absolute Imperial systems. Therefore, the empires in two countries could govern all the public directly through their bureaucratic system. All peoples in those countries had to absolutely obey emperors’ orders. The interesting point of these countries was every civilian had the equal right to take the qualification test to become a beureaucrat. However, they had no Right of Resistance at all. This lack of Right of Resistance is still seen in communist China and communist North Korea.
I think that, in terms of imperial systems, these countries far exceeded Japan. In return, however, it is very difficult for them to establish democratic legal system. These two countries have historically lacked the legal tradition of the Right of Resistance to rulers from the sides of the common people, some of whom have tried to protest against the present regimes’ have been oppressed every time they attempt to democratize the countries.
The Tenno System, which the Empress Jitoh established, continued until the Meiji Restoration (1868). However, Emperors after the Meiji Restoration until 1945 came to be “defined” as absolute dictators of the country and all the public in the nation had to obey the orders defined by the Meiji Regime.
Here, I would like to discuss the political situation of the Meiji Period making use of well documented historical facts. The distinctive political system of the Meiji Era was the beginning of the advent of the bureaucratic governmental system. All the lords of the manors returned their territories to the Emperor Meiji (November 11th, 1867). You would be surprised at the reasons why such an unbelievable process occurred.
One reason was that the last Shogun, Yoshinobu Tokugawa understood the threat of colonization which occurred in China to some extent. How could this last Shogun come to understand a little about the “necessity” of returning political power to Tennno? There was a key person who realized the importance of modernization of Japan. This samurai’s name was Kaishu Katsu (1823-1893). This wise vassal was a low ranking vassal (Hatamoto) of the Shogun, but whose wisdom led him to acquire the real political power in the Tokugawa Regime.
Still, during the reign of Tokugawa Regime before the Meiji Restoration, Kaishu Katsu sailed to San Francisco (1860) to study and observe American culture and technology. He sailed in the first steam engine ship, Kanrinmaru, built for the Shogunate by the Dutch. From Kaishu’s choice to visit the United States of America over the other European Super Powers, you could tell how close the United States was to Japan in those days. From this point of view, it was a great honor that Douglas MacArthur reminded the Japanese people of “the friendly relationship between the both counties.”
When Kaishu Katsu went to the United States of America, Yukichi Fukuzawa was hired as an interpreter. He later became the founder of Keio University. As a result of his visit to the United States, Kaishu Katsu realized that the Tokugawa Regime had no power to modernize Japan. The whole system of Tokugawa Regime became inflexible in the course of enjoying 300-year long peaceful isolationism. Kaishu Katsu came to conclude the necessity of the new system which energized to modernize Japan. Kaishu Katsu persuaded Yoshinobu Tokkugawa to surrender to the Emperor’s Army (1868). According to the historical document, he said to Yoshinobu Tokugawa, “It is not the time to have the civil war in Japan.”
Another key person to modernize Japan was Nariakira Shimazu, who governed the southernmost region of Japan, the domain of Satsuma. The domain of Satsuma is now called Kagoshima Prefecture. He studied the tremendous industrial power of the Western World. He studied Western civilization very hard and built modern factories such as an iron smelting furnace, a shipyard, a Roman glass factory and so on. He wanted to modernize his domain.
Another key person, Takamori Saigo, was a charismatic leader. He was a subject of one of the greatest landlords, Nariakira Shimazu, described above. Takamori Saigo showed the great ability when he was very young and was patronized and instructed by Nariakira Shimazu. Even though Saigo was born in a low-class local swordsman family, Nariakira loved his talent and started to teach the necessity of modernizing Japan. Takamori Saigo absorbed Nariakira’s ideas and dreams of making Japan a strong country and preventing the western powers from colonizing Japan.
Takamori Saigo became the Major General of the Tenno’s Army, and won a lot of battles against the Tokugawa Shogunate Army. His army finally reached the capital of the Tokugawa Regime in Edo, now called Tokyo. His army surrounded the Castle of Edo and was about to attack it.
Fortunately for Japan, Kaishu Katsu persuaded Yoshinobu Tokugawa, the last Shogun, to surrender to the Tenno’s Army. Yoshinobu delegated authority to Kaishu to negotiate surrender to Takamori Saigo at Edo Castle. Takamori Saigo accepted Kaishu’s proposal (1868). Japan could avoid a disastrous civil war and the destruction, so commonly resulting from any kind of wars. Japan experienced dangerous situations in every stage of her history, but there appeared great leaders to keep Japan a peaceful country except for World War II.
Now, I would like to go back to the main topic of Shinto. The regrettable thing is a lot of historians and political analysts have been making up stories about Shinto. They have been on TV and have told these false stories. The lamentable fact is that the number of the researchers who have real knowledge about Shinto is so small and the majority of the researchers of Shinto have seldom tried to pursue the real origin of Shinto.
As a result, in the Western nations, the wrong impressions have been created about Japanese people, culture, and religion including Shinto and its political history. At the same time, this kind of misunderstanding has been caused by the major media, as well.
One example is that mass media treats the system of the succession to the throne of Tenno (the Emperor) as a traditional legal custom throughout history. However, the current system of the succession to the throne itself was created after the Meiji Restoration. The right of succession to the throne did not go to the first eldest son of Tenno traditionally. In most cases, the throne was not inherited after the death of Tenno as it was in Chinese empires.
In spite of this fact, in the history books and relevant news stories, the Japanese researchers and correspondents never discuss the topic according to the facts. They have made up the system of the succession to the throne according to Dr. Origuchi’s theory and have never studied the traditional succession ceremony. Could it be their job or business? What do you think is the role of journalism and research work? I would like to question many researchers and journalists as to this topic.
A lot of students of 1950s to early 70s boycotted or disrupted the lectures at their own universities, and never studied during their university years. Furthermore, the extreme left-wing Japanese radicals or communists in those days, later became political journalists or researchers and started to write their own point of view in