(no subject)
H.D. Harootunian, Toward Restoration: The Growth of Political Consciousness in Tokugawa Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970)
Well, this book certainly lives up to its title - kind of reminded me of one of Leo Ou-fan Lee's earlier works, the ones that are now 'collectors editions' that cost obscene amounts of money.
The idea here is that late Tokugawa thinkers had no justification (based on thought) for changing the status quo radically, so they had to reconfigure and reshape traditional elements - combining and recombining - until they found a formula that could justify the events of '68. I'm having a hell of a time remembering the specific people Harootunian deconstructs, but the illustrations of what motivated (some) people, and how these various schools were linked together or set in opposition to one another.
How anyone could look at the Tokugawa-Meiji transition and perceive it as smooth and relatively unbumpy is beyond me; the moniker of "the bloodless revolution" is obvious hyperbole to make a point, but the turmoil found even in intellectual circles is amazing! So they weren't (necessarily) taking to the streets and killing each other, but still.
Harootunian contends that the Restoration was a Revolution. From the 'moral' Mito school whose prime concern was the proper implementation of the five relationships (and sort of a 'la la la la, we can't HEAR you' denial of current realities), which shifted after Perry arrived, Harootunian moves to the more revolutionary thinkers, the ones who in some cases turned Mito thinking on its head. Still, even among the 'revolutionary' thinkers, you have a wide variety of concerns and opinions - hard to pin them as a unified group (sectionalism was encouraged, actually, and it seems that post-ishin Japan isn't precisely what a lot of these men were after).
One of the most interesting comments, on created history:
Maki chose the remotest antiquity, when the warrior families had not yet appeared and Chinese civilization had not come to Japan. It was mythical rather than historical, nativist rather than Confucian, allowing Maki to stress permanent elements of a national personality without fear of restrictive historical associations ... Both he and [the 'restorers of 1868'], by their retrieval of a mythic past (historicized for credibility), sough to emphasize the power of myth, promising identity and a fresh start unhampered by history. (306-7)
Well, this book certainly lives up to its title - kind of reminded me of one of Leo Ou-fan Lee's earlier works, the ones that are now 'collectors editions' that cost obscene amounts of money.
The idea here is that late Tokugawa thinkers had no justification (based on thought) for changing the status quo radically, so they had to reconfigure and reshape traditional elements - combining and recombining - until they found a formula that could justify the events of '68. I'm having a hell of a time remembering the specific people Harootunian deconstructs, but the illustrations of what motivated (some) people, and how these various schools were linked together or set in opposition to one another.
How anyone could look at the Tokugawa-Meiji transition and perceive it as smooth and relatively unbumpy is beyond me; the moniker of "the bloodless revolution" is obvious hyperbole to make a point, but the turmoil found even in intellectual circles is amazing! So they weren't (necessarily) taking to the streets and killing each other, but still.
Harootunian contends that the Restoration was a Revolution. From the 'moral' Mito school whose prime concern was the proper implementation of the five relationships (and sort of a 'la la la la, we can't HEAR you' denial of current realities), which shifted after Perry arrived, Harootunian moves to the more revolutionary thinkers, the ones who in some cases turned Mito thinking on its head. Still, even among the 'revolutionary' thinkers, you have a wide variety of concerns and opinions - hard to pin them as a unified group (sectionalism was encouraged, actually, and it seems that post-ishin Japan isn't precisely what a lot of these men were after).
One of the most interesting comments, on created history:
Maki chose the remotest antiquity, when the warrior families had not yet appeared and Chinese civilization had not come to Japan. It was mythical rather than historical, nativist rather than Confucian, allowing Maki to stress permanent elements of a national personality without fear of restrictive historical associations ... Both he and [the 'restorers of 1868'], by their retrieval of a mythic past (historicized for credibility), sough to emphasize the power of myth, promising identity and a fresh start unhampered by history. (306-7)