The Meiji Restoration
Japan as a Global Nation

This volume examines the Meiji Restoration through a global history lens to re-interpret the formation of a globally-cast, Japanese nation-state.

Robert Hellyer (Edited by), Harald Fuess (Edited by)

9781108745475, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 October 2022

300 pages, 18 b/w illus. 4 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.44 kg

'scholars with a research interest in the nineteenth century will find a great deal of value in the chapters of this volume, as will those seeking to spruce up their survey lectures on modern Japanese history with new insights and discoveries, … the chapters offer ample evidence of the value of foregrounding the global forces that helped shape Japan's emergence as a modern nation/empire.' Daniel Botsman, Monumenta Nipponica

In world history, the Meiji Restoration of 1868 ranks as a revolutionary watershed, on a par with the American and French Revolutions. In this volume, leading historians from North America, Europe, and Japan employ global history in novel ways to offer fresh economic, social, political, cultural, and military perspectives on the Meiji Restoration and the subsequent creation of the modern Japanese nation-state. Seamlessly mixing meta- and micro-history, the authors examine how the Japanese state and Japanese people engaged with global trends of the early nineteenth century. They also explore the internal military conflicts that marked the 1860s and the process of reconciliation after 1868. They conclude with discussions of how new political, cultural, and diplomatic institutions were created as Japan emerged as a global nation, defined in multiple ways by its place in the world.

Introduction Robert Hellyer and Harald Fuess
Part I. Global Connections: 1. Japan and the world conjuncture of 1866 Mark Metzler
2. Western whalers in 1860s Hakodate: how the Nantucket of the North Pacific connected Restoration-era Japan to global flows Noell H. Wilson
3. Small town, big dreams: a Yokohama merchant and the transformation of Japan Simon Partner
4. The global weapons trade and the Meiji Restoration: dispersion of means of violence in a world of emerging nation-states Harald Fuess
Part II. Internal Conflicts: 5. Mountain demons from Mito – the arrival of civil war in Echizen in 1864 Maren Ehlers
6. 'Farmer-soldiers' and local leadership in late Edo period Japan Brian Platt
7. A military history of the Boshin War H?ya T?ru
8. Imai Nobuo: a Tokugawa stalwart's path from the Boshin War to personal reinvention in the Meiji nation-state Robert Hellyer
Part III. Domestic Resolutions: 9. Settling the frontier and defending the North: the 'farmer-soldiers' in Hokkaido's colonial development and national reconciliation Steven Ivings
10. Locally ancient and globally modern: Restoration discourse and the tensions of modernity Mark Ravina
11. Ornamental diplomacy: Emperor Meiji and the monarchs of the modern world John Breen
12. The restoration of the ancient capitals of Nara and Kyoto and international cultural legitimacy in Meiji Japan Takagi Hiroshi.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], Globalization [JFFS], Military history [HBW], Revolutions, uprisings, rebellions [HBTV], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Asian history [HBJF]