The Role of the Emperor in Meiji Japan

Within this historical context the Meiji leaders realized that they needed to arms the concept of the Imperial Will in order to say effectively. During the Age of Imperialism, members of the Satsuma and Choshu, two of the very powerful clans in japan, were parts of the opposition to foreign imperialism. This opposition believed that the only way that japan could survive the encroachment of the foreigners was to rally around the emperor moth. The supporters of the imperial government, cognise as imperialists, claimed that the Tokugawa Shogunate had doomed its imperial mandate to bring out the Imperial Will because it had capitulated to Western powers by allowing them to readable up Japan to trade. During this time the ideas of the imperialists gained increasing support among Japanese citizens and intellectuals who taught at newly established schools and wrote revisionist history books that claimed that historically the Emperor had been the ruler of Japan. The fact that the Tokugawas policy of opening up Japan to the western world ran counter to beliefs of the Emperor and was unpopular with the public make the Tokugawa vulnerable to attack from the imperialists. The imperialists pressed their attack both militarily and from within the Court of Kyoto.

The Japanese public and the Shoguns supporters soon felt that they had lost the Imperial Will. The end of the Tokugawa regime shows the power of the symbolism and myths skirt the imperial institution. The head of the Tokugawa clan died in 1867 and was replaced by the son of a lord who was a champion of Japanese historical studies and who agreed with the imperialists claims about restoring the Emperor. In 1867, the new shogun handed over all his power to Emperor Komeo in Kyoto. Shortly after handing over power to Emperor Komeo, the Emperor died and was replaced by his son who became the Meiji Emperor, which officially started the Meiji period (1868-1911). The Meiji Emperor was... If you want to swallow a full essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

If you want to get a full essay, wisit our page: write my paper