Remembering Restoration Heroes in Modern Japan

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 2009

Publisher

Association for Asian Studies

Source Publication

Education About Asia

Source ISSN

1090-6851

Abstract

Just as the American Civil War lives on in historical fiction, television series, and movies, so too does the Meiji Restoration of 1868 continue to evoke memories of heroism, pride, and tragedy. In the centuries preceding the Restoration, Japan had been split into domains ruled by military lords (daimyō), with the head of the Tokugawa family as the country’s nominally leading warrior (shogun). During this time, the emperor and court nobles lived in Kyoto, but they possessed little political power. In the first half of the nineteenth century, domestic politics, economic problems, social change, and pressures from the West weakened the Tokugawa regime. These trends coincided with a new intellectual movement that recognized the importance of the emperor in Japanese history. Several powerful daimyō used the newfound legitimizing force of the emperor to overthrow the Tokugawa regime, “restoring” him as the symbolic ruler of Japan in 1868. Portrayals of these nation-defining events change throughout time, reflecting the views of society during specific historical moments. Whether in the call for greater political participation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, reaction to Japan’s growing imperial aspiration in the 1920s and 30s, celebrating the economic boom of the 1960s, or expressing apprehension during the troubled 1990s, people have looked to the Meiji Restoration for models and solutions to contemporary problems. The following essay traces several major themes in the portrayal of three Meiji Restoration heroes. Two of the most popular heroes in Japan, Saigō Takamori and Sakamoto Ryōma, were supporters of the Meiji emperor and powerful daimyō who opposed the Tokugawa shogunate. As samurai, Saigō and Sakamoto participated in pro-imperial, anti-shogunate activities during the 1860s, and they have a long history of being appropriated by writers and academics in Japan since the nineteenth century. Saigō’s image resurfaced often before World War II, a time when the implications of his actions were felt the most. On the other hand, much of post-war historical memory has moved away from the “great men” of history, focusing instead on men of humbler origins, like Sakamoto. As a counter to the pro-Meiji heroes, I offer the case of a Tokugawa bureaucrat named Oguri Tadamasa. His popularity is a recent phenomenon, owing to the efforts of citizens in Gunma Prefecture, where he has been commemorated as a local hero for over a century.

Comments

Education About Asia, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Spring 2009): 43-49. Publisher link.

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