The Meiji Coup d’État

  • Alistair D. Swale
Chapter

Abstract

The dire position of the Bakufu brought about by the miscarriage of the “punitive” campaign against the Chōshù Clan in mid-1866 was to be compounded by the unexpected death of the Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi at only 21 years of age. Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu was the clearly preferred successor to the Shogun, but it was not an accession that could simply be rubber-stamped, especially since it would require the consolidating of support within the various branches of the Tokugawa Clan and, even more importantly, it would require the formal assent of the Emperor Kōmei.

Keywords

National Culture Imperial Force National Administration Supreme Authority Imperial Government 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. 1.
    Kasahara Hidehiko, Ōkubo Toshimichi, Meiji Ishin no Kosei, Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 2005, pp. 50–2.Google Scholar
  2. 2.
    Ōkubo Toshimichi, Ōkubo Toshimichi Nikki (hereafter Nikki), vol. 1, Nihon Shiseki Kyokai, 1927, p. 398.Google Scholar
  3. 3.
    Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, Meiji Ishinshi Shiryō Senshū, vol. 1 (hereafter Shiryō Senshū 1), Tokyo University, 1970, pp. 303–7.Google Scholar
  4. 6.
    Matsuo Masahito (ed.), Meiji Ishin to Bunmei Kaika, Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 2004, pp. 8–13.Google Scholar
  5. 11.
    Hugh Cortazzi, Mitford’s Japan: Memories and Recollections 1866–1906, Japan Library, 2002. Also noted with alarm in Ōkubo’s diary, Nikki, pp. 441–3.Google Scholar
  6. 17.
    Albert Craig, “The Central Government” in Jansen and Rozman (eds), Japan in Transition from Tokugawa to Meiji, Princeton University Press, 1985, pp. 54–5.Google Scholar
  7. 19.
    Matsumoto Kenichi, Kaikoku Ishin: 1853–1871, Chuo Koronsha, 1998, pp. 319–28.Google Scholar
  8. 30.
    A. D. Swale, The Political Thought of Mori Arinori: A Study in Meiji Conservatism, Japan Library, 2000, pp. 48–68.Google Scholar
  9. Ivan Parker Hall, Mori Arinori, Harvard University Press, 1973, pp. 132–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. 31.
    M. B. Jansen and G. Rozman (eds), 1985, pp. 76–7. Susan Hanley, Everyday Things in Premodern Japan, University of California Press, 1997, p. 167.Google Scholar
  11. 32.
    Helen Hardacre, Shinto and the State, 1868–1988, Princeton University Press, 1989, pp. 21–41.Google Scholar
  12. 33.
    Takii Kazuhiro, Bunmeishi no Naka no Meiji Kempō, 2003, pp. 20–1.Google Scholar
  13. 34.
    Hall, I.P., Mori Arinori, Harvard University Press, 1973, pp. 178–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. 35.
    Swale, A. “America: The First Stage in the Quest for ‘Enlightenment’”, in The Iwakura Mission in America and Europe: A New Assessment, Ian Nish (ed.), Curzon Press, 1998, pp. 21–22.Google Scholar
  15. 36.
    Kume Kunitake, The Iwakura Embassy, 1871–73: A True Account of the Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary’s Journey of Observation Through the United States of America and Europe (editors-in-chief, Graham Healey, Chushichi Tsuzuki), Japan Documents, 2003, vol. I, pp. 52–7, pp. 210–2, pp. 328–32.Google Scholar
  16. 43.
    Art Directors’ Club of Tokyo (eds), Nihon no Kōkoku Bijutsu—Meiji, Taishō, Shōwa, vol. III, Pakkeeji, Bijutsu Shuppansha, 1968, pp. 75–91.Google Scholar
  17. 44.
    Itō Yukio, Meiji Tennō: Mura Kumo wo fuku Kaze ni haresomete, Minerva Shobo, 2006, pp. 180–4.Google Scholar
  18. 47.
    Nakanome Tōru, in Yamamuro Shinichi and Nakanome Toru (eds), Meiroku Zasshi, Iwanami Shoten, 1999, pp. 433–7.Google Scholar
  19. 50.
    In his classic work on the shizoku, Fukuchi Shigetaka methodically enumerates the areas where the shizoku continued to exert a most profound influence over Japanese society; see, Fukuchi Shigetaka, Shizoku to Shizoku Ishiki: Kindai Nihon wo Okoseru Mono• Horobosu Mono, Shujunsha, 1956.Google Scholar
  20. 52.
    Ōkubo, Nikki, pp. 203–7. Also see Iwata Masakazu, Ōkubo Toshimichi: The Bismarck of Japan, University of California Pess, 1964, p. 162.Google Scholar
  21. 59.
    Ōkubo Toshimichi, Ōkubo Tōshimichi Monjō, Nihon Shiseki Kyokai, 1962, vol. V, p. 183.Google Scholar
  22. 61.
    Yamamuro Shinichi, Hōsei Kanryō no Jidai: Kokka no Seikei to Chi no Rekitei, Bokutakusha, 1988, pp. 178–94.Google Scholar
  23. 65.
    See Oda Yasunori, Ishin Kaika to Toshi Osaka, Seibundo, 2001, pp. 242–54.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Alistair D. Swale 2009

Authors and Affiliations

  • Alistair D. Swale
    • 1
  1. 1.University of WaikatoNew Zealand

Personalised recommendations