Concept
Meiji era
Overview
The Meiji era (明治時代, Meiji jidai) was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era dominated the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization by Western imperial powers to the new paradigm of a modern, industrialized nation state and emergent great power, influenced by Western scientific, technological, philosophical, political, legal, and aesthetic ideas. As a result of such wholesale adoption of radically different ideas, the changes to Japan were profound, and affected its social structure, culture, internal politics, economy, military, and foreign relations. The period corresponded to the reign of Emperor Meiji. It was preceded by the Keiō era and was succeeded by the Taishō era, upon the accession of Emperor Taishō following his father's death.
The rapid modernization during the Meiji era was not without its opponents, as the rapid changes to society caused many disaffected traditionalists from the former Shōgun military warlords and samurai classes to rebel against the Meiji government during the 1870s, most famously Saigō Takamori, who led the Satsuma Rebellion. However, there were also former samurai who remained loyal while serving in the Meiji government, such as Itō Hirobumi and Itagaki Taisuke.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
The outcome was that the clans of Satsuma and Choshu acquired control of the Mikado, made his exaltation the symbol of resistance to the foreigner (with whom the Shogun had concluded unpopular treaties), and secured the support of the country by being the champions of nationalism. Under extraordinarily able leaders, a policy was adopted which has been pursued consistently ever since, and has raised Japan from being…
Bertrand Russell, The Problem of China
States what Meiji era is.
But there is another form of class distinction besides the one described. The natural division of labor in the agricultural families permitted at a certain point of prosperity the introduction of foreign labor power. This was particularly the case in countries where the old common ownership of the soil had disappeared or where at least the old system of common cultivation had become supplanted by the cultivation of…
Friedrich Engels, Landmarks of Scientific Socialism
Close in meaning to Meiji era; the term itself is not named.
A determined push from left or right is sufficient to move the proletariat, for a certain period, to one or the other side. We saw this in 1914, when, under the united pressure of imperialist governments and Socialist patriotic parties, the working class was all at once thrown out of its equilibrium and hurled on to the path of imperialism. We have since seen how the experience of the war, the contrasts between its…
Leon Trotsky, Dictatorship vs. Democracy
Close in meaning to Meiji era; the term itself is not named.
Philosophers who discussed Meiji era
Related ideas
- Feudalism
- Industrial Revolution
- Isolationism
- Edo period
- Korea
- Eastern Orthodoxy
- Empire of Japan
- State-owned enterprise
- Western world
- North Korea
- Nation state
- Qing dynasty
- South Korea
- Meiji Restoration
- Shinto
- Samurai
- Tokyo
- Constitution of the United States
- Joseon
- World War II
- Presidencies and provinces of British India
- World War I
- Christianity
- Representative democracy
Place in the tradition
Part of Japanese philosophy.