Meiji Period Beginnings 1868-1911
During the final days of the Tokugawa shogunate, the perceived threat of foreign encroachment, especially since the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry and the signing of the Kanagawa Accord led to increased prominence to the development of nationalist ideologies. Some prominent daimyo promoted the concept of fukko (a return to the past), while others promoted osei (the Emperor's supreme authority). The terms were not mutually exclusive, merging into the sonno joi (Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians) concept, which in turn was a major driving force in starting the Meiji Restoration.
The Meiji Constitution of 1889 defined allegiance to the State as the citizen's highest duty. While the Constitution itself contained a mix of political Western practices and traditional Japanese political ideas, government philosophy increasingly centered on promoting social harmony and a sense of the uniqueness of the Japanese people (kokutai).
Read more about this topic: Japanese Nationalism
Famous quotes containing the words period and/or beginnings:
“If there is any period one would desire to be born in, is it not the age of Revolution; when the old and the new stand side by side, and admit of being compared; when the energies of all men are searched by fear and by hope; when the historic glories of the old can be compensated by the rich possibilities of the new era?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“[Many artists], even the greatest ones, are not sure of their own existence. So they search for proof, they judge, they condemn. It strengthens them, it is the beginnings of existence. They are alone!”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)