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Old 2010-12-19, 13:24   Link #1630
TinyRedLeaf
Moving in circles
 
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChainLegacy View Post
Can someone explain to me why the emperor suddenly became this important leadership figure during the imperial Japan era, despite the fact that prior to that point the emperor really didn't matter? Or is this just a case of the textbooks overemphasizing the emperor's role? Historically he was usually just a figurehead.
The emperors reign; they seldom ever got the chance to rule, not even the Meiji emperor, the restored monarch of modern Japan.

The history behind the Meiji Restoration is well documented and easily available on the Internet, so I don't think there's much need to rehash it here.

The real answer to your question, if I may hazard a thesis, is that the Japanese have always felt this deep need for symbols to legitimise power (take, for example, the symbolic power of a name chop, an outdated device, to be sure, but still significant nonetheless in modern Japanese business protocol).

During the reign of the Nara and Heian emperors, true power resided with the Fujiwara family, who ruled in the monarchs' name. Shortly after the Minamoto established the first shogunate, true power went to the Hojo regents, who pulled the strings of government in the shoguns' name.

In the latter days of the Tokugawa shogunate, true power lay in the hands of the shogun's closest advisers, who controlled the vast bureaucracy that effectively ruled the country. And when full extent of the shogunate's weakness became exposed at last by the arrival of Perry's "black boats", it became plainly apparent that there would be no room for shoguns in the "new Japan" envisioned by the disenchanted samurai of Satsuma and Chosu.

Hence, the restoration of the emperor. The new rulers of Japan, the Meiji oligarchs, needed a new figurehead for the times. That's all there is to it. The greater goal, make no mistake, is to restore Japan's national pride, and the emperor is merely the symbol of it. Nothing more, nothing less.

'Tis only an accident of history that the oligarchs won the rebellion. Had they lost, the shoguns would still reign (but not truly rule). After centuries of working in a strictly hierarchical society, it seems that the Japanese — even the most ambitious among them — had long since got used to the idea that, unless they are born into the station, they cannot seize what is not rightfully theirs.

They can, on the other hand, effectively hold the ruler hostage, and call the shots from the shadows instead. Indeed, this seems almost like the preferred way to rule — through the status and prestige of pliable figureheads. Even today, true political power in Japan does not reside with the politicians in the open, but with the people we do not actually see.
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