demoralized for all purposes of resistance to the military class. The Satsuma insurgents, on the contrary, represented the flower of the samurai, long trained for this very struggle, and led by men whom the nation regarded as its bravest captains. The result dispelled all doubts about the fighting quality of the people at large.
Concurrently with these events the government diligently endeavoured to equip the country with all the paraphernalia of Occidental civilization. It is easy to understand that the master-minds of the era, who had planned and Steps of Progress. carried out the Restoration, continued to take the lead in all paths of progress. Their intellectual superiority entitled them to act as guides; they had enjoyed exceptional opportunities of acquiring enlightenment by visits to Europe and America, and the Japanese people had not yet lost the habit of looking to officialdom for every initiative. But the spectacle thus presented to foreign onlookers was not altogether without disquieting suggestions. The government’s reforms seemed to outstrip the nation’s readiness for them, and the results wore an air of some artificiality and confusion. Englishmen were employed to superintend the building of railways, the erection of telegraphs, the construction of lighthouses and the organization of a navy. To Frenchmen was entrusted the work of recasting the laws and training the army in strategy and tactics. Educational affairs, the organization of a postal service, the improvement of agriculture and the work of colonization were supervised by Americans. The teaching of medical science, the compilation of a commercial code, the elaboration of a system of local government, and ultimately the training of military officers were assigned to Germans. For instruction in sculpture and painting Italians were engaged. Was it possible that so many novelties should be successfully assimilated, or that the nation should adapt itself to systems planned by a motley band of aliens who knew nothing of its character and customs? These questions did not trouble the Japanese nearly so much as they troubled strangers. The truth is that conservatism was not really required to make the great sacrifices suggested by appearances. Among all the innovations of the era the only one that a Japanese could not lay aside at will was the new fashion of dressing the hair. He abandoned the queue irrevocably. But for the rest he lived a dual life. During hours of duty he wore a fine uniform, shaped and decorated in foreign style. But so soon as he stepped out of office or off parade, he reverted to his own comfortable and picturesque costume. Handsome houses were built and furnished according to Western models. But each had an annex where alcoves, verandas, matted floors and paper sliding doors continued to do traditional duty. Beefsteaks, beer, “grape-wine,” knives and forks came into use on occasion. But rice-bowls and chopsticks held their everyday place as of old. In a word, though the Japanese adopted every convenient and serviceable attribute of foreign civilization, such as railways, steamships, telegraphs, post-offices, banks and machinery of all kinds; though they accepted Occidental sciences, and, to a large extent, Occidental philosophies; though they recognized the superiority of European jurisprudence and set themselves to bring their laws into accord with it, they nevertheless preserved the essentials of their own mode of life and never lost their individuality. A remarkable spirit of liberalism and a fine eclectic instinct were needed for the part they acted, but they did no radical violence to their own traditions, creeds and conventions. There was indeed a certain element of incongruity and even grotesqueness in the nation’s doings. Old people cannot fit their feet to new roads without some clumsiness. The Japanese had grown very old in their special paths, and their novel departure was occasionally disfigured by solecisms. The refined taste that guided them unerringly in all the affairs of life as they had been accustomed to live it, seemed to fail them signally when they emerged into an alien atmosphere. They have given their proofs, however. It is now seen that the apparently excessive rapidity of their progress did not overtax their capacities; that they have emerged safely from their destructive era and carried their constructive career within reach of certain success, and that while they have still to develop some of the traits of their new civilization, there is no prospect whatever of its proving ultimately unsuited to them.
After the Satsuma rebellion, nothing disturbed the even tenor
of Japan’s domestic politics except an attempt on the part of
some of her people to force the growth of parliamentary
government. It is evident that the united
Development of Representative Government.
effort made by the fiefs to overthrow the system
of dual government and wrest the administrative
power from the shōgun could have only one logical
outcome: the combined exercise of the recovered
power by those who had been instrumental in recovering it.
That was the meaning of the oath taken by the emperor at the
Restoration, when the youthful sovereign was made to say
that wise counsels should be widely sought, and all things
determined by public discussion. But the framers of the
oath had the samurai alone in view. Into their consideration
the common people—farmers, mechanics, tradesmen—did
not enter at all, nor had the common people themselves
any idea of advancing a claim to be considered. A
voice in the administration would have been to them an embarrassing
rather than a pleasing privilege. Thus the first deliberative
assembly was composed of nobles and samurai only. A
mere debating club without any legislative authority, it was
permanently dissolved after two sessions. Possibly the problem
of a parliament might have been long postponed after that
fiasco, had it not found an ardent advocate in Itagaki Taisuke
(afterwards Count Itagaki). A Tosa samurai conspicuous as a
leader of the restoration movement, Itagaki was among the advocates
of recourse to strong measures against Korea in 1873, and
his failure to carry his point, supplemented by a belief that a
large section of public opinion would have supported him had
there been any machinery for appealing to it, gave fresh impetus
to his faith in constitutional government. Resigning office on
account of the Korean question, he became the nucleus of
agitation in favour of a parliamentary system, and under his
banner were enrolled not only discontented samurai but also
many of the young men who, returning from direct observation
of the working of constitutional systems in Europe or America,
and failing to obtain official posts in Japan, attributed their
failure to the oligarchical form of their country’s polity. Thus
in the interval betweeen 1873 and 1877 there were two centres of
disturbance in Japan: one in Satsuma, where Saigō figured
as leader; the other in Tosa, under Itagaki’s guidance. When
the Satsuma men appealed to arms in 1877, a widespread apprehension
prevailed lest the Tosa politicians should throw in their
lot with the insurgents. Such a fear had its origin in failure to
understand the object of the one side or to appreciate the sincerity
of the other. Saigō and his adherents fought to substitute
a Satsuma clique for the oligarchy already in power.
Itagaki and his followers struggled for constitutional institutions.
The two could not have anything in common. There was consequently
no coalition. But the Tosa agitators did not neglect
to make capital out of the embarrassment caused by the Satsuma
rebellion. While the struggle was at its height, they addressed
to the government a memorial, charging the administration with
oppressive measures to restrain the voice of public opinion,
with usurpation of power to the exclusion of the nation at large,
and with levelling downwards instead of upwards, since the
samurai had been reduced to the rank of commoners, whereas
the commoners should have been educated up to the standard
of the samurai. This memorial asked for a representative
assembly and talked of popular rights. But since the document
admitted that the people were uneducated, it is plain that there
cannot have been any serious idea of giving them a share in the
administration. In fact, the Tosa Liberals were not really contending
for popular representation in the full sense of the term.
What they wanted was the creation of some machinery for
securing to the samurai at large a voice in the management of
state affairs. They chafed against the fact that, whereas the
efforts and sacrifices demanded by the Restoration had fallen
