Choshu in the Meiji Restoration

Studies of Modern Japan

by Albert M. Craig

When Commodore Perry arrived in Japan to open the country to Western trade in 1853, he found a medieval amalgam of sword-bearing samurai, castle towns, Confucian academies, peasant villages, rice paddies, upstart merchants, bath houses, and Kabuki. Fifteen years later, Japan was on its way to becoming the only non-Western nation in the nineteenth century with a modern centralized bureaucratic state and industrial economy. This book is a study of the Meiji Restoration that changed the face of Japan. Prominent historian Albert M. Craig tells its story through that of the domain of Choshu―whose role in the formation of modern Japan was not unlike that of Prussia in Germany―during the fifteen crucial years between 1853 and 1868. Whereas previous studies have stressed the role of discontented lower samurai and frustrated rich merchants and peasants in this transition, claiming that they provided the motive power behind the political movements of the Restoration period, this work sharply challenges these earlier interpretations. Craig instead emphasizes the vitality of traditional values in Japan's early reaction to the West and foregrounds the critical contribution of the old society to the formation of the new Meiji state. Choshu in the Meiji Restoration is a seminal work for scholars and students of Japanese history.

Genres: Japan, History, Nonfiction, Japanese History

456 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1978

Reviews

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This probably shouldn't have been my introduction to the Bakumatsu and Meiji Restoration. Since it was, there was a lot I missed. Still, learned a lot about a time period I had never seriously read on before.

[Dan Cowden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in college, when I was studying a lot of Asian history. I'd known that Choshu had played a significant role in the Meiji Restoration, but not much more than that. I found this by browsing the appropriate shelves in the school library, and it had more detail on how Choshu and its samurai reacted to Perry's forcible opening of Japan than I was expecting. Or rather, what happened when Perry opened Japan was a bigger deal than I was expecting, with more second and third-order effects, which eventually caused the Meiji Restoration.

Professor Craig (this was his masters or doctorate thesis, I believe) goes into fantastic detail about the economic, social, educational, and military background of Choshu, including details about what the Mori family had ruled before the Battle of Sekigahara (where they opposed Tokugawa Ieyasu), and the downsizing the Mori clan suffered as a result, arguing that this had predisposed the Mori clan of 1850 to opposing the Shogunate. There's also a lot of detail about the economic situation in Choshu, and how that played into the situation, as well as the Mori clan leadership's willingness to send young samurai to schools to gain a European-style education and begin modernization.

Not that everything went smoothly for the Mori clan, as their agitation in favor of deposing the Shogun was noticed. Prof. Craig covers the Mori clan's abortive attempt to depose the Shogunate around 1863 and subsequent backlash against them from the Shogunate, as well as the later alliance with Setsuna and the final uprising against the Shogunate.

This book has a great deal of information packed into it. I recall it not being terribly easy to read, unfortunately, but when working for a degree in history one gets accustomed to dry texts. And stiff wording is a small price to pay for the wealth of information in this volume. It is not a book for those with a casual interest in the subject of the Meiji Restoration, but invaluable for the more serious student.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book is rather specific, it features information not easily found elsewhere. For anyone with more than a passing interest in the Meiji Restoration, this book will be extremely useful. Focused but fantastic at what it sets out to do.