History of Modern Japan — By: Heidi Schave

During the 20th century, the birth of the modern age introduced new technological advancements that accelerated the growth of industrialization and changed many world societies from agriculture-based industries to capitalist giants. The empire of Japan became one of the leading Asian countries to adapt proficiently to modernity, and in turn became the dominant eastern rival to the western powers. It is commonly believed that the industrial and military success of modern Japan is due to the Meiji Restoration’s “westernization” of Japanese culture and that the rise of modern Japan was birthed from a dismissal of ancient Japanese traditions. However, it was the marriage between western technology and early Japanese traditions that accelerated Japan’s transition from an agricultural nation to an industrial power. Although Japan did experience social and cultural turmoil during this period, the triumph of modern Japan is linked to the distinct blending of Japanese tradition and western ideas. Japan’s cultural heritage allowed it to successfully harness social tensions that stem from modernity, and without the customs of their heritage, Japan would have not transcended so quickly into an industrial authority.

Japan’s sudden interest in “western ideas” was explored diligently by the new Meiji Empire, which overthrew the Tokugawa period of rule between the dates 1860 through 1868.[1] During this regime, the question of the “western challenge” became a concern for Japan. The Meiji Empire attempted to use the knowledge of the west in order to secure Japan’s place in the modern age. During the Tokugawa period, it was customary to expel any foreign ideologies or influences. The exploitation of China by the British Navy during the Opium War, between the years1839–1842[2], contributed to the many xenophobic fears regarding the encroachment of the western “barbarians.” The majority of the Meiji political leaders felt that in order to defeat the more technologically advanced “barbarians,” they would have to possess an intimate knowledge of western nations. Historian W.G. Beasley comments on this philosophy:

It is not surprising that this brought complaints from those who believed that Japan’s own culture was thereby being undermined… In the eyes of government, indeed, political unity required a dash of cultural conservatism. We have already seen it expressed in the Meiji constitution and in state-sponsored ideology.[3]

The Meiji government assimilated the culture and the knowledge of the West into Japanese society. This infusion of new technology helped launch Japan into the modern age. Although the past traditions of Japanese culture seemed to be shunned during this period, these inherited customs allowed Japan to assimilate and adapt quickly to western military and technological advancements. Thus, during the course of the 20th century, Japan achieved the military strength and imperial excellence that it sought so vigorously.

Historian Mark Ravina explores the cultural conflicts during the Meiji period in The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori. Ravina traces how the burdens of the changing age of modernity infringed on the previous Japanese ruling class, the Samurai. His study presents the history and demise of the Tokugawa period, and how many Samurai rebelled against the newly imposed government due to their ideology. It is during this transition that a strong cultural connection to ancient Japanese traditions is witnessed. The Last Samurai uses the life, political ambitions, and eccentric death of Saigo Takamori to illustrate why the Meiji government turned the death of a traitor into a cultural icon. Ravina uses biographical and historical accounts to identify a correlation between the tradition of the Samurai and the new Meiji rule. He attempts to illustrate why the Meiji government altered its position on the preservation of historical customs in their quest to modernize Japan. This assimilation of past Samurai ideologies into the new Meiji state helped Japan immensely in the modern age.

The Last Samurai provides an excellent account of the changing cultural heritage of Japan during the Tokugawa period. It reveals the cultural influences that the Samurai warrior class had in cultivating ancient Japanese traditions. The culture of the Samurai was a based upon strict codes of honor. In this class structure, each region had a ruling lord whom individual samurai pledged allegiance. A samurai was educated in military discipline and Confucian classics,[4] which illustrates the extreme sense of a loyalty that a samurai felt towards his lord. This notion would later prove problematic to the Meiji government because its leaders stressed loyalty only to the Empire. The centralization of the Empire in Japanese politics was aided by a new political ideology, the institute of “Mito.” Mito created tension for the Samurai because it placed them in jeopardy and preached xenophobic attitudes towards any western presence. Ravina comments on the effects of Mito ideology: “Based on their belief in the sanctity of the emperor, Mito scholars favored minimal contact with the West and argued for strict enforcement on the Shogun’s ban on trade. Their hostility to western trade stemmed from a spiritual contamination.” [5] A large majority of the Samurai class did not feel that a relationship with the West would be beneficial to Japan. However, the strict spiritual and warrior ideologies contained in teachings such as Mito help illustrate the discipline and diligence which Japan demonstrated while embracing western culture. Ironically, the ideologies of the Samurai created the political atmosphere that Japan required in order to combat the modern age. Japan’s national honor does not allow for failure and this determination was directly inherited from Samurai principles.

In studying the ideologies and life of Saigo Takamori, Ravina provides insight into how Japan’s transition into the modern age occurred at such an accelerated pace. The majority of the high-ranking politicians in both the Tokugawa and Meiji offices were from the Samurai classes and their rich cultural traditions and belief structures contributed to the creation of a modern state by exemplifying its need for a strong military presence. The impending threat of the West became evident to Saigo:

For Saigo, Perry’s fleet was the first physical evidence of an advanced civilization outside of Asia. The “black ships” were, in all likelihood, the first large-scale foreign objects Saigo had ever seen. Saigo had envisioned a foreign threat, but now it was tangibly before him.[6]

Although the initial reaction against the West was the expulsion of its influence from Japan, The Last Samurai successfully demonstrates how the traditions of the Samurai warrior class would later help create Japan’s modern army. Samurai, like Saigo, were opposed to Western advancement, but they knew that without the harnessing of new technology, Japan would not stand successfully on its own. Ravina proves the discourse between ancient traditions and the modern crisis with this argument. Saigo was a man of honor and his honor would later distinguish him as Japan’s most-admired national hero.

The Meiji rulers later applied the same Samurai diligence during their assimilation of western technology, which would later establish Japan as a leading world power. Saigo himself was ambivalent towards the creation of the Meiji state because its doctrines contradicted existing Samurai principles. The creation of a centralized army posed a threat to the largely dispersed Samurai armies. The Samurai became further insulted in 1876[7] when the Meiji government banned Samurai warriors from carrying weapons in public. Ravina comments on this transition:

The turmoil of 1870 had convinced Kido and Okubo that Japan needed radical political centralization. Without the destruction of daimyo power the imperial government would be unable to pursue radical reform and unable to meet the daunting challenge of Western imperialism.”[8]

The Last Samurai is a vivid and often elaborate recollection of the political turmoil that the Tokugawa period faced in the years following the Meiji Restoration. Ravina illustrates this turmoil by using Saigo’s writings that demonstrate his confusion towards his political loyalties and ambitions. The story of Saigo is that of a man whose national loyalties became burdened with the crushing weight of the modern world. Ravina uses Saigo’s life and death to demonstrate the collapse of one political institution and its rebirth into another.

The Last Samurai presents a concise study of the changing cultural atmosphere of Japan prior to modernization. It is a well-executed biographical study of the changing society within postindustrial Japan. Ravina uses the death of Saigo to illustrate the cultural assimilation that was achieved during the Meiji reign. Saigo perishes at the hands of the Meiji government during a Samurai revolt that he organized. In traditional Samurai death, the head of the fallen warrior is removed from the body. The remains of Saigo were never located and the whereabouts became a legend. The Last Samurai demonstrates the frailty of Japanese culture by examining how Saigo Takamori would become pardoned and embraced heroically by a government he died trying to resist. This astonishing revelation illustrates how Japanese traditional culture became tied to the rise of its industrial strength. The success of modern Japan was not solely based upon the removal of traditional customs, but its strength can be attributed to the embrace of modern thought and the resurrection of Japanese tradition. Ravina provides insight into this notion: “Nothing, declared Eto, including Marxism, anarchism, modernization theory, and postmodernism, had given the Japanese a more powerful ideology than Saigo.”[9] Once again, the fusion of past ideologies, in combination with Japan’s eagerness to modernize, created a balance between past and present.

Another historian who discusses the cultural relationship between modern Japan and its traditions is Carol Gluck in Japan’s Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period. Gluck provides an in-depth exploration into the distinct Japanese society of the Meiji period. Gluck argues that culture shares a distinct relationship with society and that the myths and traditions of modern Japan were birthed from the Meiji era in an attempt to steer Japanese society smoothly into the modern age. In short, the Meiji Empire created a modern Japanese culture that incorporated the social pressures of modernization. Japan’s Modern Myths uses a variety of sources, predominantly political, to illustrate how modern thought became ingrained into society. Gluck’s study is another example of how the structure of modern Japan, although borrowing from western models, still incorporated ancient cultural beliefs within its doctrines to create national pride and unity.

Japan’s Modern Myths is an outline of the Meiji Empire’s attempt to forge “modern myths” in order to quell social tensions and redirect Japan as it transformed from an agrarian nation into an industrial one. It focuses on the development of the Meiji government and the drafting of the Constitution, which helped define Japan as a modern nation to the western world. The development of the Constitution was also a way for the government to appease the power struggle inherited from the Tokugawa rule. One of the goals of the Meiji legislation was to encourage the authority of the Emperor over the Japanese people in order to gain national unity. In this way, the Emperor was seen as a national symbol for Japan, but did not possess supreme rule. This was achieved by the assimilation of past Confucian morals, Shinto religion and Samurai traditions into a western social model. Before the Restoration, the vast countryside of Japan held regional loyalties to various Samurai lords. Also, the customs of the agrarian Japanese were more culturally rigid than urban Japan. As Japan became a modern state, the unity of the people was crucial in order to meet the demands of a constitutional monarchy. Gluck alludes to the importance of this thought:

National spirit, national thought, national doctrine, national essence, nationality–this outburst of nation-mindedness included explorations of national character, reasserting of indigenous ways, and projections of Japan into the world order as nineteenth-century west defined it.[10]

The bureaucratic parties within the Meiji cabinets masterminded Japan’s sense of national unity. These bureaucrats, who were often ex-samurai elite, realized the importance of patriotism in the modern world. They used their political influence to help create propaganda and passed education reforms to develop a nationalistic pride. Gluck identifies these crucial measures that allowed Japanese society to become modern. Ironically, the national pride that was being developed in order to quell internal pressures of a modern society resembled the tradition of honor. The Meiji government created a new national identity that incorporated past cultural trends, not just western ideas, and this blending helped Japan transition into the industrial age.

The hope of the Meiji government was to create unity amongst the people of Japan by introducing new cultural elements into society that highlighted the importance of the Emperor. This notion was very important for Japan because the effects of modernity were altering the demographics of the country. The change in demographics made it apparent to the Meiji government that unifying the population was of great importance. The mass migrations to the cities created social tensions that did not exist before Japan’s rapid industrialization period. Gluck comments on this transition:

Urbanization, for example, appeared as a threatening development, not because cities–any more than labor disputes–were modern inventions, but again because of changes in scale. In the late 1890’s especially during the post-Russo-Japanese War years, more and more people moved to cities, attracted by the opportunities for work and education, for social success, and economic survival.[11]

Rapid industrialization gave birth to new conflicts. Japan’s modern age created the rise of a middle class that demanded more political rights, such as male suffrage, and a labor struggle among the industrial workers. In order to deal with these tensions, the introduction of “modern myths”, which would inspire national pride, was crucial in order for society to make a smooth transition into the modern age. Once again, the Meiji Empire created Japan’s modern myths, yet it did not abolish ancient culture by redirecting it in order to gain support of the people.

Japan’s Modern Myths provides a solid foundation to the realistic internal crisis which developed during the Meiji Restoration. Gluck presents a successful study of the internal pressures which led to the creation of the modern Japanese ideological structure. The pressures of the modern age had introduced to Japanese social tensions that did not previously exist within the country. The government required new ways to counteract the burdens perpetrated by modernity. Since Japan proved to be such a vital conductor of modern technology, a way to smooth the developing social tensions was urgently needed. Gluck comments on this crisis:

Confronted with a modernity that threatened to shake the social foundations of the nation, the ideologues turned to the verities of the past-the village and the family, social harmony and communal custom-to cure civilization of its fevers so that society as they envisioned it yet might survive.[12]

Japan’s Modern Myths is so successful in its analysis of Meiji ideology because it recognizes the fundamental importance of rural Japanese culture and customs. It also identifies the internal and external elements, which molded the “mythical” structure and helped with its creation. The use of these traditions, merged with Western ideas, gave Japan’s modern myths their strength. By assimilating the country’s traditions with the new national unity methods, Japanese society smoothly transcended into a modern one. The myths developed in the Meiji ideology suggest a merge of Western thought and ancient Japanese values. It is this combination that Gluck views as an origin for the Meiji period’s distinct ideological traits.

The influence of modernity over the agrarian culture of Japan is discussed by Thomas C. Smith in The Agrarian Origins of Modern Japan. Smith argues that Japan’s agrarian society and culture were significantly altered by industrialization. According to Smith, such changes aided the Meiji Restoration because they are examples of traditional Japanese culture molding to the demands of a developing Japan. Smith studies the relationship between the pre-existing Tokugawa peasant hierarchies and how the shift in Japan’s economy restructured the countryside. The Agrarian Origins is a very detailed account of the history and customs of Japan’s agricultural society and is well documented with a variety of sources, predominately from village administration documents, which were diligently recorded during the Tokugawa and early Meiji eras. In his study, the relationship between rural culture and modernity is visually outlined, and the Meiji Restoration’s assimilation of rural culture during the “westernization” of Japan can be observed.

The Agrarian Origins provides a detailed history of the customs and social structures of Japanese agrarian villages. In these farming centers, a very complex social structure was preserved that consisted of an advanced system of family obligation cultivated by Japan’s land culture. The societies that developed within rural Japan were rigidly structured and village life and labor became a close-netted system of land inheritance and servant obligation. Due to the introduction of new farming technology in the late Tokugawa period, tension emerged within the village social hierarchy because it disrupted the system of labor and land exchange by creating new demands in the economic market. Smith comments on this predicament, “True, trade with the outside world was continually diminishing the power of custom and magic in village life, breathing into farming a new spirit of enterprise.”[13] The social customs of villages became changed as modern industry had a large impact on the everyday life of farmers. Economic development created a shift from tenant to labor farming. This change affected traditional customs because it rearranged the social structure of the village. It was these changes in rural society that were later incorporated into the Meiji’s Restoration modern ideologies. They illustrate how the modern age changed the relationship between the rural elite and their farming communities.

A wage-labor system was another way the economic growth in the farming industry disrupted the traditional social hierarchy of the villages. The new farming technology that was introduced, such as fertilizer, added to new economic demands which arose from the growing capitalist centers in Japan’s cities. As farm production increased, so did the demands of the products in the import-export markets. Also as cities developed and grew, so did their demand for food production. This economic boom also began to create a middle-class and many of the rural population migrated to the cities in search of higher wages. Smith alludes to this crisis:

Not only was there sufficient social mobility to disturb traditional patterns of social relations, but the distance between social strata was becoming greater and communication accordingly more difficult.[14]

This shift in population illustrates the growth of Japan’s modern industrial society. The Agrarian Origins is a testimony to the modern assimilation of rural customs because it illustrates the effect that industrialization played in disrupting the social hierarchy in agrarian Japan. It also demonstrates why the Meiji Restoration became so eager to create a new Japanese culture. Modernization was rapidly reshaping society throughout Japan. In order to transcend rural Japan smoothly into the modern era, it became imperative that a culture be manicured which would mirror the traditional world of the peasantry while also encouraging modern cultural pursuits.

The importance of Smith’s work is that it illustrates the deeply ingrained traditional values that encompassed the agrarian population of Japan. These interknit customs are a fundamental part of Japan’s society. The introduction of the industrial age may have shifted the structure of rural societies, but traditional customs and values were an integral part of the agrarian framework and could not be removed. Smith supports this notion, “Japan’s new leaders found the answer to this problem in translating these goals into a traditional language of loyalty and obligation. This was the language of feudal and family ethics expressing ideas central to the experience of all Japanese.”[15] Once again, the importance of balancing old customs with new modern ideologies was essential for the success of industrial Japan. The Agrarian Origins is a reliable study of the cultural heritage of the Japanese peasantry. It successfully proves that the effects of modernization stimulated the growth of the farm industry and caused dissent within its existing social hierarchy. However, it also proves that industrial growth did not obliterate past customs from agrarian centers, but only altered them to quickly adopt and withstand the changing pressures of modern society.

The merging of traditional Japanese culture and the ideologies of western culture can be witnessed in the changing styles of landscapes and architecture after the Meiji Restoration. Historian Jordan Sand provides a through study of this cultural phenomenon in House and Home in Modern Japan: Architecture, Domestic Space, and Bourgeois Culture, 1880–1930. Sand argues that the effects of Japan’s westernization are reflected in a new style of architecture which affiliated around the growing middle-class within Japan’s growing industrial society. Such structural change in Japan, especially in single-family dwellings, illustrates the cultural discourses associated with modernity as Japan began to alter their existing architecture. This period of architectural “alternation” incorporated both Japanese traditional elements as well as the infusion of western extremities. It is during this period in which the effects of westernization are most visible in Japan. The new structures erected during this period were mostly western in design. More importantly, the traditional customs were not excluded from the structures, only blended together. In essence, modernity redirects culture by creating external forces which propagate consumerism, a very western complex in origin.

House and Home is a well-researched exploration of the cultural reshaping of modern Japan. Sand uses a variety of sources, including several popular magazines, to illustrate how the changing architectural environment also changed the structure of Japanese society. The growth of industry in Japan created a middle-class and it was this growing population which became most receptive to cultural change. This growth of the bourgeoisie placed new demands for traditional homes. Following the western model for success, wealth was now measured by the possession of intellectual property. Unlike, the past, the new middle-class home did not cater to “extended” families, but were now strictly nuclear in nature. An example of this transition is the altering of the Japanese family meal. It became in fashion for families to practice a traditional western meal style, neglecting their previous model. Although the younger generations of Japan eagerly participated in such trends, this redirection of culture was not accepted without criticism. Sand comments on this phenomenon:

This was no less a matter of orchestration, however, since establishing a fixed practice of family dining meant synchronizing mealtimes and sharing an eating place, a fundamental change of habit for many families. Barriers of status in samurai and elite commoner households had commonly been maintained by segregating member’s meals, and these customs persisted after the Restoration.[16]

Although many magazines and other media agents encouraged the popularization of the western mealtime, the majority of Japanese society resisted this disruption of tradition. The fusion of West and East is present in the rearranging of family customs. Western culture was not abundantly welcomed throughout Modern Japan, but came to exist through Japan’s own interpretation of western customs. This assimilation of cultures is a common theme during the Meiji Restoration. The architectural and social structures borrowed from the West, could only succeed with a compromise between past and present.

The adaptation of Western style homes also changed the social structure of Japan. In the past, the “lady of the house” had a variety of servants to assist her with domestic chores. The new Japanese society borrowed from western philosophy and created discourse in the social environment of Japan because it reconstructed the role which women were suppose to follow in household affairs. The modern woman was expected to be in charge of all domestic chores. This new ideology was introduced into Japanese society by the aid of weekly magazines designed to target woman audiences. With such new “expectations” also came the demand for modernistic objects for home décor. Western homes, especially during the Victorian era, were cluttered and filled with unnecessary objects, which supposedly projected one’s status. The rising pressures of modernity were endangering the humble and eloquent traditional Japanese method of interior design. However, the décor of traditional Japanese homes were not sacrificed to the West’s ideas regarding design. Instead, a distinct and blended version of design emerged from Japanese modern society. Sand discusses this reaction:

The dialectic between native and Western that constituted Meiji bourgeois taste reinterpreted native aesthetic traditions as much as it accommodated imported ones. Even at the height of the high-society boom for Western fashions in the 1880’s, natives impulses, often expressed by the leaders of Western fashions themselves, brought to the fore some native style or art form to show that Japan was at least a match in aesthetic terms for the enlightened west.[17]

The ideology of consumerism was incorporated into Japan’s growing desire for material objects. The rash of department stores that cropped up and filled the streets of industrial Japan illustrates this. However, the assimilation of western décor by Japan resulted in a design pattern which was distinctly Japanese in character. Even though the styles of the West were in Vogue, the presence of Japanese traditional culture refused to be removed from popular culture.

The westernization of Japan during the Meiji Restoration and the influence which western culture played in Japanese artistry is miraculously portrayed throughout House and Home. The delicate blending of traditional culture and new western technology helped sculpt modern Japanese’s society. It was this balance between the two systems of ideology that allowed for the pressures of modernity to be tolerated, thus preventing severe social turmoil. The accelerated industrial success of Japan can be partially credited to this process. The rising middle-class was willing to incorporate western technology and customs into their lives, and the preservation of fundamental Japanese traditional philosophies helped construct a society that was open to modern development. Sand offer’s an explanation for this cultural fusion:

The irony of the cultural consumers’ condition lay not merely in the gap between dreams and realty but in the fact that the popular media conveying images of cosmopolitan modernity established metropolitan Japan’s position squarely within it, yet made secure “middle-class” arrival for the empire’s consumer-subjects seem even more distant.[18]

House and Home delivers an accurate account of the West’s influence over modern Japan, but it also serves as a reminder that past customs were not disregarded during this period. Once again, the assimilation of both eastern and western ideologies contributed to the successful rise of modern Japan by cultivating a centered, balanced society prepared for significant change.

As Japan’s society developed in the 20th century, the country emerged from the modern age with the achievements of a sophisticated system of military and imperialistic superiority. It was this military development which designated Japan as a fierce rival to the allied forces during World War II. Historians argue that Japan’s dominance over the Pacific can be accredited to an inflated sense of “nationalism” which allowed its government to become classified as totalitarian or a fascist state during the War. In historian Ben-Ami Shillony’s Politics and Culture in Wartime Japan, an overview of Japan’s cultural and inner political world during the war is presented. Shillony argues that wartime Japan did not fall into the perimeters of fascism or totalitarianism. During World War II, Japan possessed a unique government that was vastly different from the political definition of its allies. More importantly, Shillony discusses the cultural atmosphere in wartime Japan and, once again, the patterns of a distinct Meiji and Western ideology are present. It was the fusion of Japanese tradition and western ideas introduced during the Meiji Restoration that created Japan’s heightened nationalistic state. The mentality of nationalism created a strong patriotic movement within Japan and it was this element, mixed with modern technology, which helped create a military giant during World War II.

Politics and Culture provides a well-researched and fascinating illustration of the cultural atmosphere developing within wartime Japan. Ironically, the fierce patriotic movement present in Japan during this time is aimed at promoting anti-western sentiment. By examining the reaction by the Japanese people towards western enemies, a cultural paradigm is developed. If Japanese culture, as witnessed in House and Home, contains elements of western philosophies, then a declaration of war with the West can lead to a cultural discourse. Shillony does prove in his study that there was little Japanese opposition towards the war. However, he does allude to this unique cultural dilemma, “However, expelling Western influence from Japan was easier said than done. After four generations of intensive contact with the West and exposure to Western ideas, Japanese society could not extricate itself from European and American culture.”[19] In acknowledgement of this crisis, the Japanese government limited the attack on western art and entertainment. Western ideology had become firmly embedded in Japanese culture and this realization became a nuisance for Japan’s war department. If part of modern Japanese society was created by the West, viewing the Europe and the United States as enemies could prove challenging. World War II created a distinct dilemma for Japanese culture. Europe and the United States may have been Japan’s sworn enemies, but they were also their influencers. Western technology and culture were no strangers to the Japanese.

Due to the strong nationalism present in World War II, the people of Japan did support and honor their country. Such “nationalism” is another example of Japan’s distinct modern culture. Japan’s successful adoption of technology allowed for the creation of its massive and impressive navy and military. Politics and Culture partially accredits Japan’s military success to the presence of traditional samurai customs. Shillony comments on this presence:

The senior position of the Japanese military, rooted in samurai tradition and reaffirmed by the Meiji Constitution, was greatly enhanced by the international crisis of the 1930s and 1940s, for which the army and navy of Japan themselves were partially responsible.[20]

Ancient Japanese traditions were not removed from Japan’s culture during the Meiji Restoration, but survived. It is the continuous presence of these rich traditions and practices that contributed to Japan’s heightened nationalism. The mixture of past and present traditions created a society that cultivated an awareness of self-worth. Without the infusion of western technology with ancient tradition, Japan’s elevated nationalism during World War II may not have been so effective in producing successful military and imperialistic campaigns.

Politics and Culture is a well-executed study into the inner political and social forces which shaped the Japanese state during World War II. Shillony does prove that the Japanese government during wartime did not fully subscribe to fascist or totalitarian principles, but remained removed from such political affiliations. However, Politics and Culture does make important connections between the different factors which encompassed Japanese culture during the War. In reviewing these cultural aspects, the relationship between the West and ancient Japan is illustrated. Shillony also identifies this connection, “Western culture, although denigrated and vilified, continued to exert a fascination, and these pro-western feelings, which could not be erased, were soon to surface from the ashes of defeat.”[21] In essence, the culture of modern Japan embodies both ideologies of the East and West, and this makes Japanese culture very distinctive in the modern age.

Japan’s harnessing of industrialization was one of the most accelerated and advanced examples of the modern era. No other Asian nation modernized so quickly and became a rival force to the West in such a short period of time. The modern age introduced to the world social turmoil, as a new class structure arose from the profits introduced by the capitalist system. By examining the cultural historiography of Japan, a severe dissent within modern society was avoided by the Meiji Restoration’s introduction of a distinct cultural blending of Japanese tradition and western ideologies. The transition of Japan from an agrarian society to an industrialized one was not without its flaws, but the government’s insight into the importance of tradition and technology made the transition smoother. The Meiji Restoration did not eradicate the presence of ancient traditions from society, but fluidly blended them into Japan’s modern culture. It was this cultural assimilation which allowed Japan to modernize so proficiently. Modern Japanese culture, birthed from industrialization, is not simply borrowed from the West, but is distinctly Japanese in nature. It is a complex and extraordinary fusion of ancient and modern ideologies, and commands praise as an example of human triumph over the obstacles installed by modernization.

[1] Beasley W.G., The Rise of Modern Japan (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990), 47.

[2] Ravina Mark, The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, INC., 2004), 54.

[3] Beasley, 85.

[4] Ravina,30.

[5] Ibid., 60.

[6] Ibid.,57.

[7] Ibid., 198.

[8] Ibid., 168.

[9] Ibid., 213.

[10] Gluck Carol, Japan’s Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1985), 23.

[11] Ibid,.33.

[12] Ibid,.178.

[13] Smith Thomas C., The Agrarian Origins of Modern Japan (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1959), 85.

[14] Ibid.,175.

[15]Ibid.,205.

[16] Sand Jordan, House and Home: Architecture, Domestic Space, and Bourgeois Culture, 1880–1930 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003), 33.

[17] Ibid.,100.

[18] Ibid.,227.

[19] Shillony Ben-Ami, Politics and Culture in Wartime Japan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 143.

[20] Ibid.,172.

[21] Ibid.,177.