Abstract
February the 11th, 1889, marked a great step forward in Japan’s march towards the status of a ‘civilized nation’ as it formally became a Constitutional monarchy. But it was also marred by an act of extraordinary violence—Mori Arinori, the Minister for Education, was preparing to leave his residence to travel to the palace when an unexpected visitor arrived requesting to see him. The young man, upon seeing Mori descend the stairs, immediately attacked the Minister, delivering the eventually fatal wounds before being himself killed by Mori’s bodyguard. This Minister of State was assassinated on a day that should have most emphatically underscored a grand achievement of the Meiji government—a constitutionally based representative system of government that was intended to reinforce Japan’s credentials as an equal amongst the world powers. The ostensible motive for the assassination was an alleged act of indiscretion at the Ise Shrine a year earlier, which was construed as an insult to the Imperial Household. The assassin was not without public sympathy, his funeral attracting more attendees than Mori’s. This combination of events was reflective of the profoundly contradictory nature of Japan’s seemingly meteoric trajectory of modernization and progress. Japan was to go on to consolidate social and political advances, but on the domestic front there lurked a persistent contradiction between the greatness of Empire, and the apparent unwillingness of the populace to stay completely in step with their rulers.
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Notes
- 1.
Swale (2000, 183).
- 2.
Fraser (1995, 8–36).
- 3.
Swale (2009, pp. 160–162).
- 4.
For the most comprehensive account of Yoshitoshi’s career and impact on the community of artists in late Meiji Japan see Sugawara Mayumi, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi Den: Bakumatsu Meiji no Hazama ni, Chuō Kōron Bijutsu Shuppan, 2018.
- 5.
Tsuchiya (2002, 183–185).
- 6.
Mertz (2003, 212–213).
- 7.
- 8.
Rinbara (1993, 42–43).
- 9.
Rinbara (ibid., 44–45), Yamada and Rinbara (2003, 550–551).
- 10.
McGuinness (2000, 1–18).
- 11.
Beckson (1981, pp. i–xxi).
- 12.
Krobb (2004, 547–562).
- 13.
Amano (2013).
- 14.
Brecher (2012, 803–817).
- 15.
Brecher (ibid., 809–811); see also Jones and Inouye (2017), for translations.
- 16.
Brecher (ibid., 808), Fraleigh (2016).
- 17.
Foxwell (op. cit., 47–51).
- 18.
Brecher (op. cit., 811–812).
- 19.
Brecher (ibid, 812–813).
- 20.
Buckland (2013, 259–276).
- 21.
Satō (2011, 324–341).
- 22.
Swale (2022, 1–8).
- 23.
- 24.
Bassoe (2018) is one of a remarkably limited set of scholarly writings on Izumi Kyōka despite his significance.
- 25.
Keene (1971, 161–166).
- 26.
Kornicki (1998).
- 27.
Maeda (2004, 223–233).
- 28.
Gordon (2003, 94–103).
- 29.
Smith (1998, 587–613).
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Swale, A. (2023). Introduction: The Genesis of Late Meiji Culture. In: A Cultural History of Late Meiji Japan. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43646-8_1
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