Japan opens up to the world

Print depicting Commodore Matthew Perry offering a railroad to the Japanese in 1853, by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) • WWW.BRIDGEMANART.COM

“Having directly experienced the transition period of modern Japan makes a man feel prematurely aged; for although he now lives in modern times where the atmosphere buzzes with discussions about bicycles, bacilli and “spheres of influence”, he can nevertheless evoke a Middle Ages which is not so distant. The good old samurai who initiated the writer of these lines into the mysteries of the Japanese language braided his hair and carried two swords. This remnant of feudalism rests today in paradise. »

This quote from the introduction that Basil H. Chamberlain wrote in 1907 for his book Things Japanese sums up the Meiji era well:a period of upheaval during which Japan emerged from an almost feudal way of life to become one of the most evolved nations in the world. A deep and rapid transformation, which still surprises and disconcerts today, but which must be understood to better understand today's Japan.

Sakoku and the shogunal regime

From the 17 ^th century, Japan closed its borders to both foreigners and its own nationals. The former could not go to the Japanese islands, and the latter could not leave them. This isolation (the sakoku ) began in 1639, when Christian missionaries were expelled from the country by order of Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of a dynasty of shoguns, or military leaders, who ruled the country throughout this period, the emperor retaining only strictly symbolic.

During the sakoku , Japan lived for more than 200 years in a kind of pleasant archaism in certain aspects, while developing a cultural specificity still perceptible today. It is a mysterious, almost secret country, away from the Western world and its political and commercial tentacles, except for a small enclave near Nagasaki, the island of Dejima, where Dutch traders have been authorized to s 'install. But Japan's isolation is not viewed favorably by Western nations, which seek to establish themselves commercially in the Far East.

To break this isolation, the United States sent Commodore Perry and a small fleet, the legendary "black ships", which threatened to fire on the capital Edo (now Tokyo) if Japan did not agree to sign an agreement. commercial. The latter resists, but quickly understands that he has no other choice but to make a pact. In 1854, Japan therefore signed a treaty of friendship and commerce which forced it to open the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to foreign traffic and to allow merchants to establish their trading posts there.

The Emperor's restoration

The opening to trade provoked political instability in the following years, which ended with the accession to the imperial throne, on February 3, 1867, of the young prince Mutsuhito, who took the name of Meiji, the "enlightened government". Mutsuhito understands that it is the very essence of Japan that must change, which means an upheaval in its social and political structure, and a similarity with Western nations. Japan must no longer be feudal, and a parliamentary system must be established, with all the consequences that implies. It is with this objective that he chooses to take real power. On November 9 of that same year, the last Tokugawa shogun resigned from office, paving the way for what is called the "restoration", which essentially consisted of making the emperor the sole ruler of the country and the major organ of its accelerated westernization.

The ability to change and adapt is an extraordinary quality of the Japanese people. In his famous book The Chrysanthemum and the Saber , anthropologist Ruth Benedict underlines a particular trait of Japanese soldiers:if they were very faithful to the values ​​of their homeland, they collaborated without flinching with the enemy army if they were taken prisoner. Some authors establish a link between the origin of this peculiarity and the Japanese chess game, the shogi , where each player can put back into play, for his benefit, the pieces taken from the opponent. Be that as it may, it is indisputable that the Meiji period represents a miracle of adaptation to Western ways on the part of a nation that had remained aloof from the world for 200 years.

The Meiji period represents a miracle of adaptation to Western ways by a nation that had remained aloof from the world for 200 years.

The calendar is one of the first changes to be implemented. In 1873, Meiji adopted the Gregorian calendar, used in the West, for the whole country. Until then, Japan counted the years by resetting the counters to zero with each new emperor. The Chinese-inspired calendar followed with 12 moons, or months, to which an extra moon was added, in certain years, in order to make an adjustment. The concept of a week did not exist, and the year began on the first day of spring. Japan has kept some traces of this calendar; this is the case with schooling, where classes start in April and end in January.

To carry out most of these changes, British, French, German and North American advisers were hired to create a legal and political system similar to what exists in the West. A Constitution, a health care system and a modern army are developed. The privileges of the class constituted by the samurai are abolished, and a term is fixed for returning the katana , Japanese swords. The proud and austere warriors surrender their weapons with disconcerting ease, after their lords have surrendered their lands to the control of the central government. In the streets of the cities, the stalls are literally full of weapons which, if they previously embodied the soul of the samurai, are now nothing more than scrap metal to be melted down.

Samurai, between glory and misery

No social class escapes change. The daimyo lords lose their feudal territories and must occupy other functions in order to survive. Some, such as Satsuma, Choshu or Hizen, formed political pressure groups, while others, in addition to their political role, established business links and eventually created some of the major Japanese groups such as Mitsubishi. The nobles (kuge ) keep their titles and have charges in administration and taxes.

Samurai know varying fates. Stripped of their weapons and the external symbols of their rank, they initially receive a rent identical to that which they received from their daimyo . When this pension ends, they are well integrated into the new system and occupy important positions in the government. Others, on the other hand, sink into poverty, which they try to hide from the rest of society. It is not uncommon for these samurai to continue to live in their dilapidated houses, in the shadows, like obsolete weapons no longer usable in a modern world.

Traders are the class benefiting the most from the changes. The new ports become centers with an overflowing commercial and tourist activity, and Japan is quickly included in the very recent circuit of international globetrotters (tourists). The country mainly exports products such as silk, lacquer, porcelain, wood, furniture, works of art... At first, Westerners despised Japanese merchants, whom they considered unreliable, but the latter are quickly gaining an excellent reputation.

Daily life transformed

In general, the daily life of the Japanese is changing radically. Public spaces become the scene of curious scenes. If the Japanese continued to dress exclusively in the Japanese way until the second half of the 19 ^th century, that is to say to wear the kimono, the haori (kimono jacket) and the zori (wooden and rope sandals), the streets are suddenly filled with men in suits and ties, leather shoes and bowler hats. If the Japanese used to eat with chopsticks, they are now starting to use a fork and a knife; if they used to live in wooden houses with tatami mats on the floor, they are now building permanent houses. Hairstyles change, as do food and hobbies. Trains and trams invade the cities and the country, and the stations are transformed into shopping centers. The children wear uniforms copied from those of the Prussian army to go to school, and the women abruptly switch from wooden sandals to high-heeled pumps.

Japan is changing, but not completely. The Japanese resort to this Western style for certain operations, at certain times and in certain circles, reserving the Eastern and Japanese style for other occasions. We again observe this immense faculty of adaptation and dynamism.

The status of women also changed under Meiji. The role of wife and mother is emphasized, paradoxically making her lose rights compared to previous eras. With this new status, she finds herself almost totally subordinate to her husband, whereas in the past things could go very differently, especially in the upper classes. Even education, intended for all, is reductive for women, since they can no longer study like men, and the purpose of education is family and social activities, called ryousaikenbo , or the formation of good wives and mothers.

The emergence of universities

Until then, the Japanese education system was entrusted to Buddhist temples and clans. Meiji creates military and civilian schools of commerce, industry, foreign languages; many of these schools soon become universities. He also plans to send Japanese students to study in European countries. One of them, Natsume Soseki, a great Japanese novelist of this period, was able to capture the bubbling, divided and tormented spirit of this era like no one else. The author of Botchan and I am a cat was the best representative of this East-West duality born with Meiji:he studies in England, but he hates living there; he writes poetry in Japanese dress, but wears Western clothes to work and speaks English.

The professors hired by the Japanese government were all Anglo-Saxon. Some of them, fine observers, are the chroniclers of this time. We particularly distinguish Lafcadio Hearn, better known in Japan under the name of Koizumi Yakumo. Hearn was a tireless traveler, finally settling in Japan in 1890. Around 1904, the year of his death, he wrote some of the most beautiful pages ever written by a Westerner on Japan. He marries Koizumi Setsu, daughter of an impoverished samurai family. In Matsue, a traditional town in the west of Japan, Hearn discovers the secret recesses of ancient Japan and its people, and writes the chronicle of a country in danger of disappearance, the Japan of wabi , the art of the humble and the unfinished. However, Hearn believed more in an evolution of Japan than in a revolution:"It was not a transformation that was carried out, but the access of old aptitudes to new structures", he affirms in his essay entitled The Genius of Japanese Civilization .