The was promulgated on 6 April 1868 in
Kyoto Imperial Palace
The is the former palace of the Emperor of Japan. Since the Meiji Restoration in 1869, the Emperors have resided at the Tokyo Imperial Palace, while the preservation of the Kyoto Imperial Palace was ordered in 1877. Today, the grounds are open t ...
. The Oath outlined the main aims and the course of action to be followed during
Emperor Meiji's reign, setting the legal stage for Japan's modernization. This also set up a process of urbanization as people of all classes were free to move jobs so people went to the city for better work. It remained influential, if less for governing than inspiring, throughout the
Meiji era and into the twentieth century, and can be considered the first
constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When ...
of modern Japan.
Rules
As the name implies, the text of the Oath consists of five clauses:
Origin and subsequent influence
The first draft of the Oath was written by junior councilor
Yuri Kimimasa
Viscount was a statesman in Meiji period Japan.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Yuri Kimimasa" in . During the Meiji Restoration he used the alias
Life and career
Yuri was a '' samurai'' born in Fukui, Echizen Province (present-da ...
in January 1868, containing progressive language that spoke to the frustrations that the radical but modestly born Meiji leaders had experienced in "service to hereditary incompetents."
[Jansen (2002), p. 338.] Yuri's language was moderated by his colleague
Fukuoka Takachika
Viscount was a Japanese statesman of the Meiji period.
Early life
Fukuoka was born in Tosa District in present-day Kōchi Prefecture, and served the Yamauchi daimyō of Tosa as a domain official. Together with fellow Tosa ''samurai'' Gotō ...
in February to be "less alarming," and
Kido Takayoshi prepared the final form of the Oath, employing "language broad enough to embrace both readings."
The Oath was read aloud by
Sanjō Sanetomi
Prince was a Japanese Imperial court noble and statesman at the time of the Meiji Restoration. He held many high-ranking offices in the Meiji government.
Biography
Born in Kyoto, Sanjō was the son of ''Naidaijin'' Sanjō Sanetsumu. He hel ...
in the main ceremonial hall of the
Kyoto Imperial Palace
The is the former palace of the Emperor of Japan. Since the Meiji Restoration in 1869, the Emperors have resided at the Tokyo Imperial Palace, while the preservation of the Kyoto Imperial Palace was ordered in 1877. Today, the grounds are open t ...
in the presence of the Emperor and more than 400 officials. After the reading, the
nobles
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The characteri ...
and ''
daimyō
were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...
s'' present signed their names to a document praising the Oath, and swearing to do their utmost to uphold and implement it. Those not able to attend the formal reading afterwards visited the palace to sign their names, bringing the total number of signatures to 767.
The purpose of the oath was both to issue a statement of policy to be followed by the post-
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...
government in the Meiji period, and to offer hope of inclusion in the next regime to pro-Tokugawa domains. This second motivation was especially important in the early stages of the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
as a means to keep domains from joining the Tokugawa remnant in the
Boshin War
The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a clique seeking to seize political power in the name of the Imperi ...
. Later, military victory "made it safe to begin to push court nobles and ''daimyō'' figureheads out of the way".
The promise of reform in the document initially went unfulfilled: in particular, a parliament with real power was not established until 1890, and the
Meiji oligarchy
The Meiji oligarchy was the new ruling class of Meiji period Japan. In Japanese, the Meiji oligarchy is called the .
The members of this class were adherents of ''kokugaku'' and believed they were the creators of a new order as grand as that est ...
from
Satsuma Satsuma may refer to:
* Satsuma (fruit), a citrus fruit
* ''Satsuma'' (gastropod), a genus of land snails
Places Japan
* Satsuma, Kagoshima, a Japanese town
* Satsuma District, Kagoshima, a district in Kagoshima Prefecture
* Satsuma Domain, a sou ...
,
Chōshū,
Tosa and
Hizen
was an old province of Japan in the area of the Saga and Nagasaki prefectures. It was sometimes called , with Higo Province. Hizen bordered on the provinces of Chikuzen and Chikugo. The province was included in Saikaidō. It did not incl ...
retained political and military control well into the 20th century. In general, the Oath was purposely phrased in broad terms to minimize resistance from the ''daimyōs'' and to provide "a promise of gradualism and equity":
The Oath was reiterated as the first article of the constitution promulgated in June 1868, and the subsequent articles of that constitution expand the policies outlined in the Oath. Almost eighty years later, in the wake of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
,
Emperor Hirohito
Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...
paid homage to the Oath and reaffirmed it as the basis of
"national polity" in his
Humanity Declaration
The , also known as the , , and ''Imperial Rescript Denying His Divinity'', is an imperial rescript issued by the Emperor Shōwa as part of a New Year's statement on 1 January 1946 at the request of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (al ...
. The ostensible purpose of the rescript was to appease the American occupiers with a renunciation of imperial divinity, but the emperor himself saw it as a statement of the existence of democracy in
Meiji era.
[Dower, 1999, pp. 314, 317.]
See also
*
Five Public Notices
*
Seventeen-article constitution
The is, according to the '' Nihon Shoki'' of 720, a document authored by Prince Shōtoku in 604. It was adopted in the reign of Empress Suiko. The emphasis of the document is not so much on the basic laws by which the state was to be governed, suc ...
Notes
References
*
*
*
Jansen, Marius B. (2000). ''The Making of Modern Japan.'' Cambridge:
Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...
.
OCLC 44090600*
Keene, Donald (2002). ''Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912.'' New York:
Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fiel ...
.
OCLC 46731178*
Further reading
*
*
*
*
Breen, John, "The Imperial Oath of April 1868: ritual, power and politics in Restoration Japan," ''Monumenta Nipponica,'' 51, 4 (1996)
*
*
{{good article
Meiji Restoration
Emperor Meiji
Defunct constitutions
1868 in Japan
Oaths