Rethinking Samurai Mobilisation in the Meiji Restoration

Abstract

The combined forces of Choshu, Tosa, and Satsuma overthrew the Tokugawa Shogunate in the late 1868s, dismantling the political order that had existed for over two centuries. Many scholars have come to a consensus that the Meiji Restoration was spearheaded by magnate lords and the aristocratic samurai class. As a result, the Meiji restoration has been characterized as an aristocratic revolution, while contemporary European revolutions and uprisings of the 19th century have been characterised as being the product of popular mass mobilisation. 

However, this article argues that this existing view fails to appreciate the significance of a novel form of political mobilisation in late 19th century Japan. Namely, that young samurai of marginal elite status increasingly organised and became involved in national politics. This revised analysis of how the Meiji Restoration was carried out suggests this process of samurai mobilisation began before Perry arrived through the Tokugawa ‘Promotion of Talent’, was accelerated by his arrival, and facilitated the wave of Shishi political violence noted by many historians in the early 1860s. Moreover, far from being inconsequential, this Shishi activism not only badly shook Tokugawa authority, but also enabled the coordination between the different groups which ultimately provided the necessary forces to overthrow the Tokugawa regime.