The Meiji Restoration

The Meiji Restoration was a major turning point in Japanese history. Japan was forced to modernise to survive the age of imperialism, and the idea of modernism became popular in society. The wave of modernism spread to the court as well, with European-derived modernist architecture becoming the mainstream in facilities, clothing in public places changing to Western clothes, and Western-style food including meat served. In addition, although it had been an unwritten rule that emperors were not to be seen due to their nobility, from the modern era onwards, photographs were used as a publicity strategy, following the example of Western monarchs. At the same time, the rapid modernisation of the country was a crisis, and voices of anti-modernism grew. Rituals were rather removed from elements of foreign origin, and institutions were created by princes to study the classics and national history. 122nd Emperor Meiji also held negative views on cultural modernism. It is even apparent that in the Imperial Family, while modernism was promoted in public, and in private there was a rather strong anti modernist movement, albeit to the extent that it was not against the law. This duality is of great interest when considering the trend of restorationism that has continued since the Edo period during modernisation.
This paper discusses modernism at the court during the transition to modernity between the early modern and modern periods, from the perspective of modernism and anti-modernism in the public and private spheres, using methods from political and religious history.