May 19, 2025 • 39 mins
Emperor Meiji of Japan’s reign began in 1867, and it marks a time of significant change in the country’s history. After the emperor and his consort died in the early 20th century, the Meiji Jingu shrine was built to memorialize them.
Research:
- Atsushi, Kawai. “Prefectures, Power, and Centralization: Japan’s Abolition of the Feudal Domains.” Nippon.com. Aug. 27, 2021. https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/g01159/
- Bernard, Rosemary. “Shinto and Ecology: Practice and Orientations to Nature.” Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. https://fore.yale.edu/World-Religions/Shinto/Overview-Essay
- Cali, Joseph and John Dougill. “Shinto Shrines: A Guide to the Sacred Sites of Japan's Ancient Religion: A Guide to the Sacred Sites of Japan’s Ancient Religion.” University of Hawaii Press. 2015.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Charter Oath". Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 Mar. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/event/Charter-Oath
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Meiji". Encyclopedia Britannica, 31 Jan. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Meiji
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Treaty of Shimonoseki". Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 Apr. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/event/Treaty-of-Shimonoseki
- Furukawa, Hisao. “Meiji Japan'sEncounterwith Modernization” Southeast Asian Studies. Vol, 33, No. 3. December 1995. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/tak/33/3/33_KJ00000131881/_pdf
- Huffman, James. “Land Tax Reform Law of 1873.” About Japan. https://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/content.cfm/land_tax_reform_law_of_1873#sthash.qp6fLxcO.dpbs
- Huffman, James. “The Meiji Restoration Era, 1868-1889.” Japan Society. June 11, 2021. https://japansociety.org/news/the-meiji-restoration-era-1868-1889/
- Meiji Jingu site: https://www.meijijingu.or.jp/en/
- “The Meiji Restoration and Modernization.” Asia for Educators. Columbia University Weatherhead East Asia Institute. https://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1750_meiji.htm
- “Discover Meiji Jingu: A Shrine Dedicated to the Spirits of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken.” Google Arts and Culture. https://artsandculture.google.com/story/discover-meiji-jingu-a-shrine-dedicated-to-the-spirits-of-emperor-meiji-and-empress-shoken/OQVBs7hVH09QJw
- Meyer, Ulf. “The Spirit of the Trees.” World Architects. Feb. 3, 2021. https://www.world-architects.com/en/architecture-news/products/the-spirit-of-the-trees#:~:text=The%20Meiji%20Shrine%20is%20the%20most%20prominent,in%20Japan's%20capital%20for%20this%20hatsum%C5%8Dde%20worship.&text=The%20famous%20architect%20Ito%20Chuta%20designed%20the,Japan's%20shrine%20a%20touch%20of%20national%20identity.
- “Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 6, 1910.” United States Department of State. Office of the Historian. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1910/d705
- “Russo-Japanese War: Topics in Chronicling America.” Library of Congress. https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-russo-japanese-war
- Steele, Abbey, et al. “Constraining the Samurai: Rebellion and Taxation in Early Modern Japan.” International Studies Quarterly. 2017. 61, 352–370. https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/pegroup/files/constraining_the_samurai_9.15.pdf
- “The United States and the Opening to Japan, 1853.” U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/opening-to-japan
- Wojtan, Linda S. “Rice: It's More Than Food In Japan.” Stanford Program on International and Cross-cultural Education. November 1993. https://spice.fsi.stanford.ed
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Frye and I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Wilson. I just got bay from Japan, you did, where
I was a little longer than planned due to some
travel delays, but that's fine.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
It's a lovely place and we visited some sites. I
was there for a Star Wars convention, and then we
tacked on additional days to do other things. And I
will confess that I did not because I was kind
of scrambling to make sure we had enough of this
show's episodes and the other shows I work on all
(00:45):
in the can. I did very little planning for this trip,
so I was like, whatever y'all want to do. I
went with my husband and my best friend, and I
let them pick the itinerary, which was actually great, and
we went to a lot of cool places. Listen, you
may recall that when we travel internationally, my husband is
ever on the lookout for was a John Wick filmed here,
(01:08):
let me go and then we go but in this
and we did do that in Japan. But one of
the things that my best friend picked was visiting the
Meiji Jingu Shrine, which was very, very cool, And it
was kind of funny because as we were walking along,
there's quite a long walk to get from the city
(01:29):
street into the shrine, this beautiful walk. We'll talk about
it a little at the end, and we were discussing
how old it was or was not, And of course
I am ever like, hey, we have magic boxes in
our pockets, why don't we look this up? And we
were all surprised that it was much newer than we thought,
so because it doesn't feel new at all. And I
was like, this is fascinating, and I want to talk
(01:51):
about the whole story of this, which means that we
have to talk about Emperor Meiji, which is also just
an interesting story about an important and transitional part of
Han's history. Yeah. I'm not a Japanese or Asian studies scholar,
but I have sure read a lot of books, and
I had a fourteen hour plane ride back to do
some of that. So and it's in one case, you.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Know, I'm just going to make direct quotes because it
involves spiritual things that I would feel uncomfortable trying to parse, right,
not having been a part of it in any way ever,
accepted this visit to this shrine. So that's what's up,
and we're going to talk about this little part of
Japan's history. Yeah, So to talk about the Meiji Jingu Shrine,
(02:37):
we first need to talk about who Emperor Meiji was.
Emperor Meiji's reign began in eighteen sixty seven. Of course,
this is going to be an incredibly abbreviated version of
that whole reign. We could not talk about the entirety
of it in an episode. Meiji is the name he
took as emperor. He was born Mutsuhito on No. Eighteen
(03:00):
fifty two. He was the second son of the preceding
Emperor Kolme. Cole May's first son had died in infancy.
During Koleme's reign, the emperor had largely been a figurehead,
and Japan was mainly governed by the Tokugawa Shogunate. It
was during the time of Coome that Japan, which had
(03:22):
been mostly closed to foreigners, particularly foreigners from outside of
Asia for about two hundred and fifty years, was opened
up more Under Commodore Matthew Perry's arrival and request, he
showed up a sort of a famous story at this point,
backed up by a show of naval power, so at
that point the country opened its ports to the US.
(03:44):
The Treaty of Kanagawa was signed on March thirty first
of eighteen fifty four, and while it was not a
commercial treaty, it was really lopsided in favor of the
United States. It made it possible for the US to
make more finance strategic moves with Japan.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So when Emperor Kome died in eighteen sixty seven, fourteen
year old Meiji inherited the throne of a nation that
was already in the midst of a great deal of change,
both externally on the world stage, but also internally as
its identity was evolving as a result of those external
changes and exposure to new influences. Kome had not been
(04:28):
in favor of modernizing to align with Western ideologies, including
the dissolution of the shogunate and feudal ruling structure, but
his son Meiji favored modernization and he made a lot
of changes to Japan's governmental organization. And though he was
emperor from the time his father died, it wasn't until
(04:49):
eighteen sixty eight when the last Tokagawa shogun resigned after
a bit of a power struggle that the role of
emperor was actually seen as head of the country. This
this important change and the taking of the name Meiji
by the emperor is known as the Meiji Restoration, and
it also signaled a lot more massive changes ahead.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So there were a lot of reasons that a lot
of people in Japan opposed these kinds of changes. And
it's pretty easy from our Western perspective to boil this
down in such a way that it makes it seem
like the like pre modernization age was primitive or backwards,
and there are a lot of Western texts that seemed
(05:32):
to want to frame it in this way. But Japan
had a really complex structure of governance and it was
incredibly stable for a long time. Writing for the journal
Southeast Asian Studies in nineteen ninety five, Hissaufruukawa explained quote
under its seclusionist policy, Japan had achieved a balance among
(05:52):
its disparate types of leadership, the imperial court, the nobility,
and the shogun. Under the shogunate aland system of shared government,
which rested on a rice stipend system, the clans functioned
rather like one hundred or more self supporting companies competing
economically with each other. A controlling organization of shogunate daimyo
(06:15):
and clan executives, samurai village headman and nago servant peasants
ran a complicated and subtle administrative organization. Not only commercial capital,
but also industrial capital was sufficiently available. So thinking about
this stability, it becomes more apparent why there would be
(06:35):
some consternation and resistance to adopting practices and ideas from
Western culture. In eighteen sixty eight, the young Emperor Meiji
made a number of big changes, and one was that
Edo was renamed Tokyo, which means Eastern Capital, and the
imperial residence was moved there. Kyoto had been the imperial
(06:58):
capital up to that point, but the move to Tokyo
meant that the capital city, which sits on Tokyo Bay,
which opens out into the Pacific Ocean, had a better
position as an international shipping port. Another change was that
he enacted the Charter Oath of five Principles written by
a young group of samurai sometimes called the Meiji Oligarchs,
(07:19):
who had fought to overthrow the shogunate, and these principles
were designed to westernize and modernize the country and really
make it a player on the global stage. This was
a short document and it reads in its entirety as follows.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Quote. By this oath, we set up as our aim
the establishment of the national wheel on a broad basis,
and the framing of a constitution and laws. One deliberative
assemblies shall be widely established in all matters decided by
public discussion. Two, All classes high and low shall unite
(07:54):
in vigorously carrying out the administration of affairs of state.
The common people, no less than the civil and military
officials shall each be allowed to pursue his own calling,
so that there may be no discontent. Four evil customs
of the past shall be broken off, and everything based
(08:14):
upon the just laws of nature. Five Knowledge shall be
sought throughout the world so as to strengthen the foundations
of imperial rule.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
So two things. We just mentioned that a group of
samurai wrote that document, not the Emperor, not even one
of his close advisors, and that's indicative of how his
reign played out. He ruled in a sort of indirect way,
with a lot of input from various sectors. Second, if
that language in the charter sounds kind of nebulous to you.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
You are not alone.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
It was two people in Japan at the time as well.
It promises freedoms to the people, but it was also
carefully crafted to ensure that restrictions could still be laid out,
and the fourth point in particular offered some leeway. Quote
evil customs of the past are not clearly defined, and
neither was what would or would not be considered okay
(09:10):
according to the quote just laws of nature, and there
were restrictions. Political parties were not allowed, nor was rioting
to protest the governments.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, I didn't put it in the outline, but that
phrase about being according to the just laws of nature
falled very much in line with what we'll talk about
in a bit, which was making shinto the national religion.
And in reaction to the new government, which was seen
as being led by a bunch of young upstarts, which
it really was compared to the country's prior leadership, there
(09:43):
was a conflict which came to be known as the
Boshin War or the Boushin Civil War. The name Boshin
refers to the year that the war started, and this war,
which had a lot of other influences and a long
lead up could certainly be its own episode, but in
terms of Meijie's rule, the conflict lasted a year and
a half, and it reflected the turmoil of the nation
(10:05):
and a lot of fear about Japan losing that stability
it had enjoyed for centuries. Ultimately, the shogunut was defeated
in eighteen seventy one, the feudal system was abolished completely.
The massive nature of this shift cannot be overstated. It
changed a seven century practice of feudal domains run by
(10:27):
local daimyo into a prefecture system that rolled up under
the umbrella of the country's central government. But though the
Meiji government got rid of the feudal system, it was
not as though the entire previous organizational structure and its
leadership was just thrown out entirely. In many cases, the
feudal lords who had been in power became governors under
(10:49):
this new structure, and there were still efforts to create
new forces that were hoping to push back on the
Meiji government. So there was ongoing conflict and ongoing fails
to be like, let's reverse things and go back to
the old way, and that led to ongoing concerns about
rebellions and possible added civil wars as the transition known
(11:09):
as the Meiji Reformation played out.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Coming up, we'll talk about some additional changes to life
in Japan during the Meiji period, but first we will
pause or a sponsor break. The Meiji period, named for
its progressive emperor, saw other massive shifts in the way
(11:35):
Japan was run. As we mentioned each of these, just
know that, just like the transition from the shogunate system,
none of these were universally accepted or instantly implemented, and
they all have their own very bumpy stories. A new
school system was established in eighteen seventy two through the
Education System Order, and this plan created a national standardization
(11:59):
for education, and it made education universal throughout Japan, so
that all children would receive an education in the population
overall would see an increase in intellectual understanding and pursuits.
In addition to education for all, the government sought to
equalize the nation by declaring that the class system that
(12:20):
had so long determined the course of the country was
no longer in play. All classes were considered equal. The samurai,
who had already lost their status in this change, were
also banned from carrying their swords. Soon, many men who
had been part of the samurai class started seeking out
new professions. A national army was established in eighteen seventy two,
(12:44):
with a conscription requirement that meant that all men, regardless
of class, had to serve for three years. Again, not
everyone liked these changes. While a lot of citizens saw
an increase in their standing, others lost theirs and an
effort to equalize, and samurai in particular felt like the
(13:05):
rug had really been pulled out from under them.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah, there's a lot of complexity and nuance to that,
because there were samurai that wanted the shogunate system changed
and eradicated. But it wasn't like they were like, and
we'll get rid of all of it. Like, there's more
nuance to it.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I feel like we have talked about the transition from
the samurai class to an army before, and I could
not tell you which episode that was in.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
I don't know either. But another massive reform came in
the form of taxation. So taxation was not a new
concept in Japan. But as we referenced in the passage
that Tracy read earlier prior to Meiji's term as emperor,
most of those taxes were paid in rice by the
landowners who grew it. Taxation on other items was paid
(13:55):
in cash, but an estimated ninety percent of the people
of Japan were involved in growing rice in the nineteenth century,
so the rice tax was the dominant part of the economy.
Rice was and still is incredibly culturally significant and even sacred.
So this was an important transition, not just from a
(14:15):
logistical sense of providing food for the country, but also
as a community gesture, providing for one another with a
resource that was cultivated and tended by the people. Rice
also had become a signifier of success and wealth. A
man with a full grain store was considered rich, and
the plant was used beyond its food possibilities. There are
(14:38):
parts of it used to create mats, to make paste,
et cetera. So people were all in on this whole
system that for a very long time had been about
how much rice do you have and how much rice
do we pay so that everyone in the country eats,
and that was all changing. The Land Tax Reform Law
of eighteen seventy three changed this entire system by moving
(15:01):
it to a cash based system with tax rates based
on land holdings. The intention was.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
That This new system would get rid of inconsistencies that
had been part of the feudal system, with different regions
having completely different rates and different collection practices, and it
was also intended to once again modernize the country. Everyone
in the developed world used cash and to make deals
with other countries, rice had to be sold or converted.
(15:32):
But with cash taxation, money was going directly into the
government's holdings and that could be leveraged for national growth
and development projects. Unfortunately, this tax was really difficult for
the farmers of Japan, and although it was revised to
try to help the situation, agricultural communities really continued to struggle.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, if you're using one currency and that has been
your currency, and you are essentially making that currency and
then people go no, no, we need different currency that
you don't necessarily have on hand and have not built
up any kind of store of that's a really difficult shift.
And we've talked about that shift in other parts of
the world too, when when people who didn't generally have
(16:16):
access to currency were suddenly expected to pay things in currency. Yeah,
it's like it's like if tomorrow everyone said in the US,
by the way, we're only accepting putting as payment. You
can get a hold of pudding, but it would just
be such an odd and different way of handling it
that it would be very, very difficult even if you
had access to putting. I know that's a weird comparison,
(16:40):
but that's that's the best I can do at the moment.
So a cabinet style of government was also adopted under
Meiji in eighteen eighty five. This was not the first
reorganization of government under Meiji's rule, but it became a
significant and more lasting system designed to get rid of
many of the inefficiencies of structures. So the cabinet established
(17:03):
the role of prime Minister, who reports directly to the Emperor,
and multiple ministers of state who report to the Prime minister.
This government was further refined in the Meiji Constitution, which
was created in eighteen eighty nine, and that new constitution
called for the establishment of a bi cameral parliament. In
addition to the prime minister and cabinet of ministers, it
(17:26):
also gave command of the country's military forces to the emperor.
They had not really had huge military forces before this,
they were being built up. In eighteen ninety one, the
bicameral legislature called for in the Constitution, known as the Diet,
was officially established the House of Peers. The upper house
consisted of officials who were appointed to their positions, while
(17:49):
the lower House of Representatives was made up of elected officials.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
In addition to all of these and other reforms, Emperor Meiji,
using the national arms that was established early in his time,
made Japan a significant military presence on the world stage.
The first major example of this was the First Sino
Japanese War, which started in eighteen ninety four. China had
(18:15):
long had a presence in Korea, and Korea was not
part of China, but was subordinate to this larger nation.
Korea was made dependent on China for a lot in
a lot of ways for centuries, but as Japan westernized,
it also started to take a more active interest in
Korean resources. As Japan industrialized, its leaders started to realize
(18:39):
they could get things like coal and iron from Korea,
which was nearby, rather than from farther away resources. So
from Japan's perspective, Korea offered a lot of economic possibility.
Just as the United States had kind of forced Japan's
hand in the mid eighteen hundreds move to open Japan's
(19:00):
ports to North American trade. Japan made a similar move
in Korea, and Japan also urged Korea to kind of
get out from under China's shadow when it came to
relationships with other countries, specifically its relationship with Japan.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
The very abbreviated version of what happened next is that
Japan's involvement in Korea's status led to a division within Korea,
and China supported the groups that wanted Japan to mind
its business. In eighteen eighty four, this led to an
attempted coup in Korea known as the gaps And Coup,
with China stepping in to stop it and ensure the
(19:39):
safety of the Korean monarch. The conflict did not escalate
to war because China and Japan signed an agreement that
they would both get their troops out of Korea. But
ten years later, the leader of that eighteen eighty four coup,
Kim Akkun, who was still in support of a Korean
relationship with Japan, was a assassinated quartered and his body
(20:02):
was publicly displayed to deter anyone else from joining the
pro Japan movement within Korea. Soon, China had moved troops
into Korea again to quell rebellions that sprang up in
the wake of this assassination, and Japan, noting that this
was a violation of their eighteen eighty four agreement, sent
(20:23):
its own troops in response. The war ran from August
eighteen ninety four to March eighteen ninety five, and in
that time Japanese forces had bested the Chinese forces at
sea and had invaded China on land. Chinese leadership finally
asked for an end to the war, and in the
Treaty of Shimonoseki, gave Korea its independence from China, seated
(20:47):
Taiwan and other territory to Japan, opened its ports to
Japanese trade, and agreed to pay a steep indemnity to Japan.
But after another decade, japan interest in Korea once again
led to war, this time with Russia. There's another parallel
here as well. Russia had moved into Manchuria following the
(21:11):
lease of the modern day Port of Lusha in China,
which was called Port Arthur at the time. Japan was
not pleased with this, and Russia eventually agreed to withdraw
military forces from Manchuria after Japan made it clear that
their presence there was perceived as a problem, but Russia
did not withdraw troops, so Japan launched a surprise attack
(21:34):
of Port Arthur on February eighth, nineteen oh four. This
started an eighteen month conflict that overlapped with the nineteen
oh five Revolution in Russia, leaving that country stretched really
thin not in a good position to engage with Japan. Eventually,
President Theodore Roosevelt got involved to negotiate a treaty. That agreement,
(21:57):
the Treaty of Portsmouth, was signed on September fifth of
nineteen oh five, and Roosevelt would later receive a Nobel
Peace Prize for this effort. Emperor Meiji's government was not
done with plans for Korea, though, the result of the
Russo Japanese War was that Japan got control over the
China Sea, which gave the country total access to Korea.
(22:19):
In nineteen ten, Japan began colonial rule of Korea after
the signing of the Japan Korea Annexation Treaty. This treaty,
which was controversial then and has continued to be controversial
since even after it has been revoked, begins with a
proclamation that makes it sound like Korea is a big mess,
and that Japan is somehow doing the country a favor
(22:42):
by stepping in. It's a lot to read, but I
want to include the whole thing because it's the language
is really really to me. Kind of startling quote. Notwithstanding
the earnest and laborious work of reforms in the administration
of Korea in which the governments of Japan and Korea
engaged for more than four years since the conclusion of
(23:03):
the Agreement of nineteen oh five, the existing system of
government in that country has not proved entirely equal to
the duty of preserving public order and tranquility, and in addition,
the spirit of suspicion and misgiving dominates the whole peninsula.
In order to maintain peace and stability in Korea, to
(23:23):
promote the prosperity and welfare of Koreans, and at the
same time, to ensure the safety and repose of foreign residents,
it has been made abundantly clear that fundamental changes in
the actual regime of government are absolutely essential. The governments
of Japan and Korea being convinced of the urgent necessity
of introducing reforms responsive to the requirements of the situation
(23:47):
and a furnishing sufficient guarantee for the future have with
the approval of His Majesty, the Emperor of Japan and
His Majesty the Emperor of Korea, concluded through their planetpotentiaries
a tree providing for complete annexation of Korea to the
Empire of Japan. By virtue of that important act, which
(24:08):
shall take effect on its promulgation on August twenty ninth,
nineteen ten, the Imperial Government of Japan shall undertake the
entire government and administration of Korea.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
The first article of the treaty states, quote, His Majesty
the Emperor of Korea makes the complete and permanent session
to his Majesty the Emperor of Japan of all rights
of sovereignty over the whole of Korea. And then the
rest lays out various ways that the Emperor of Japan
will govern Korea. There's also one article that reads, quote,
(24:43):
the Government of Japan will, so far as circumstances permit,
employ in the public service of Japan and Korea, those
Koreans who accept the new regime loyally and in good faith,
and who are duly qualified for such service. There is
obviously a whole history with Japan and Korea, much of
(25:06):
it deeply upsetting.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Following this, yes, and in some cases before this too,
but like following this especially.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yeah, that whole idea of loyalty is going to come
up here in a moment, and we're going to get
to the shrine soon, but first we will hear from
the sponsors that keep the show going. While the Meiji
Restoration began with a sort of promise of equality for all,
(25:39):
as it evolved in the forty five years of the
emperor's reign, the focus started to become one of nationalist
pride and the necessity of devotion to the emperor. This
shift had started with the reforms of education and taxation
that sought to make the people of the country more
prepared for a new era in gauging with the rest
(26:00):
of the world. But even in those early reforms, it
also included a lot of requirements of loyalty to the emperor,
and as Japan fought and won in military conflicts with
major global powers, that sense of nationalism really crept in.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Emperor Meiji died in Tokyo on July thirtieth, nineteen twelve.
His consort, Empress Shokun, died two years after that, they
were entombed outside of Kyoto, but the diet through a resolution,
established a plan to memorialize Meiji and his empress and
to enshrine their kami, which is sort of like their
(26:40):
spiritual essence in Tokyo. The site was chosen because it
was at the time a park that featured an iris
garden that the couple really loved. This park was built
on land that had been part of a daimyo's holdings
in the era prior to the Meiji governmental restructuring, and
it was taken by the government in Meiji's time to
(27:03):
be turned into the Yoyogi Imperial Garden. It was at
Meiji's order that the iris garden be planted in the
park to delight Empress Shoken because irises were her favorite flower.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Emperor Meiji and Empress shokn are important figures because they
were the first modern imperial rulers of Japan, But as
we've mentioned, Meiji was not operating as the final word
in Japan's government, or even always as the primary decision
maker in the changes that the country underwent during his time,
but he represents the moment of modernization and a new
(27:40):
age of Japanese identity, and though many of the reforms
enacted during his reign had really problematic consequences later on,
including some of the issues with Korea that Tracy and
I had referenced just a moment ago, he was still
recognized as ushering in a lot of significant change and
bringing Japan out of isolation is thinking and into the
(28:02):
global community.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Meiji Jingu is a Shinto shrine, which makes sense as
Shinto has made the state religion during the Meiji reign.
We would never in any way consider ourselves experts on Shinto,
so as an explainer we are quoting from the Meiji
Jingu website quote. Shinto is Japan's ancient original religion and
(28:28):
it is deeply rooted in the way of Japanese life.
Shinto has no founder, no holy book, and not even
the concept of religious conversion. But Shinto places value in
harmony with nature and virtues such as mago koro sincere heart.
In Shinto, something divine is regarded as kami, divine spirit,
and it is believed that there is an unlimited number
(28:51):
of kami. Kami can be found in mythology, in nature,
and in human beings. From ancient times Japanese have felt
awe and gratitude towards such kami and enshrined them to
Shinto shrines. Shinto is such a part of Japanese culture
that it almost transcends the idea of religion and becomes
a more cultural practice. Writing for the Yale Forum for
(29:15):
Religion and Ecology, Rosemary Bernard noted, quote, it is impossible
to consider the topic of Shinto and ecology without making
reference to the broader issue of Japanese cultural attitudes to
the natural environment. This is because what one might describe
as Shinto beliefs are often values that are entrenched in
Japanese folk culture in general, and which find expression in
(29:39):
other areas beyond religion, from socio political organization to esthetics
and so on.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
So the setup of the park and the shrine is
really incredible for a number of reasons. So for one,
it offers this almost surreal complete sense of isolation and serenity,
even though it is is right in the middle of
the city, just steps from Harajuku Station. It's about a
ten minute walk from the station to the entrance to
(30:07):
the park. Once you enter the park area, which is
far larger than the original park, it's about one hundred
and seventy three acres in size. You are completely surrounded
by trees as you make your way to the shrine's
try gates, which separate the secular part of the grounds
from the sacred section, and before you pass through the
final gate, you pass through a font called the temezuya,
(30:30):
where you wash your hands and rinse your mouth with
water to be purified.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
The trees at the shrine have their own story because
the Meiji Jingu Shrine is surrounded by a man made forest,
and the trees that make up that forest were donated
by the people of Japan from all over the country,
with an estimated two hundred and forty five species represented.
Holli saw several write ups that said there were one
hundred thousand trees, but a twenty fifteen book on Shinto
(30:59):
shrines written by Joseph Kelly and John Dougill gave the
number of trees as one hundred and seventy thousand, so
maybe that smaller number was more of the starting point
when the shrine was completed in nineteen twenty. When you
look at photos of the site from when it was
first dedicated, you can see how much this forest has grown.
(31:20):
In old aerial photos you can clearly see all the
buildings with just the trees planted around them, but in
photos today it is just a mass of green foliage
with small glimpses of the structures peeking through.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
The shrine was designed by one of Japan's famous architects, Ittochuta,
in a traditional Shinto style, and work began on the
structure in nineteen fifteen. The main materials used were Japanese
cypress and copper, and the site is really a full complex.
In addition to the main shrine, there's also an ambulant
(31:53):
office where visitors can purchase omamori to bring good fortune.
There's a museum that includes various treasures related to the
shrine into Emperor Meiji, and a secondary annex of the museum.
There is also a sacred music hall known as the Kaguradin.
There is a cafe and a martial arts dojo. Not
(32:14):
all of these buildings, of course, were original to the site.
In fact, none of the current buildings are from the
original nineteen twenty opening. During World War.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
II, almost all of the buildings at Meiji Jengu burns
and air raids. Surprisingly, the forests survived, though in nineteen
fifty eight, after a public fundraising effort generated enough money
to rebuild, the shrine was reconstructed using the original plans.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
There was also a lot of other stuff going on
in Japan in the time between World War two and
nineteen fifty eight when this rebuilt, but at this point
I just wanted to focus on the shrine. It is
very very easy to find photos of the Meiji Jingu
Shrine online and in because it is very beautiful. It
attracts a lot of tourists in addition to people visiting
(33:05):
for their own spiritual reasons. But there are no photographs
allowed beyond the outer worship hall, so if you're in
the inner worship hall praying, there are no photographs in there.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
So this shrine is very easy to visit. The shrine
grounds are free to enter and are open every day
from sunrise to sunset. Some of the buildings, like the museum,
have days when they're closed. The inner garden, where the
Empress's irises were planted, has an entry fee of five
hundred yen that goes toward upkeep. Visitors to the main
(33:37):
shrine can make a small offering of a coin bow twice,
clap their hands twice and bow again to show reverence.
You can also purchase votive tablets called Emma for five
hundred yen and write wishes and hopes and just gratitude
on them. You can hang them around a camphor tree
at the main shrine. There's also a letter verse of
(34:00):
this ritual in which you can write your sentiment onto
it and then tuck money into the letter to place
it in an offering box.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
These offerings are given each morning by the people of
the shrine to the spirits.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
It's quite lovely. I really found it a very moving experience.
But that is, you know, a very abbreviated version of
the Meiji of Meiji period and the shrine. It's kind
of interesting because when you're at the shrine, you don't
get all of unless you go in the museum. You're
not getting all of the information about Emperor Meiji. Presumably
(34:39):
to people of Japan the connection is obvious, but to turists,
I feel like they may not always understand exactly like
what is going on and why those people were chosen
to have a shrine built to memorialize them. So if
you go to Japan, highly recommend it. Do you have
listener mail for us.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
I do. I do because of thank God, my listener
mail is a little bit behind recent episodes, but we'll
get caught up. But I wanted to read this because
I loved it, and I really love the pet pictures
in it. This is from our listener, Anita, who writes,
Dear Tracy and Holly, thank you so much for bringing
such wonderful history vignettes to life with your delightful personalities,
(35:18):
thoughtful reflections and contextualization and humor. I've been listening on
and off for about ten years and always enjoy hearing
your voices and learning new things. I'm writing to tell
you about several books I'm reading connected to your topics. First,
I was completely floored by your recent show about the
Lost Cause. I had never known that this take on
the Civil War was a concerted effort to reframe reconstruction
(35:41):
and motivations for the war, etc. I am from South
Carolina and distinctly remember being taught in middle school in
the nineteen nineties that slavery was not, in fact the
reason for the Civil War, and that the teacher expected
us to put states' rights as the top motivator on
our test. I also clearly remember the text books, highlighting
the vocabulary for carpetbaggers and scallowags in the description of
(36:05):
Northerners coming to the South during reconstruction to take advantage
of poor Southerners. I think on some level, I always
knew that people from other states got different versions of history,
but your thorough treatment of the Lost Cause was truly
the first time this all came together for me. Y'all
suggested books to read that treated the Civil War and
Reconstruction with richer perspectives. I can't recall if you specifically
(36:28):
recommended this book, but I was inspired to start reading
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
to get a fresh take on US history. I also
have been enjoying Baking in the American South by Anne Burn.
The book is beautifully photographed, and the stories behind the
recipes are enchanting and informative about their history and local origin.
(36:48):
I truly enjoyed the episode where you interviewed Anne Burn
and find the book equally delightful. The chocolate chip cookie
recipe is amazing, and someday I will master cornbread if
I can ever remember not to use one percent milk
instead of whole or buttermilk, just as in Aside. I
can't get enough of Van Burne. I love her so much,
and that book is spectacular. I know I've said it before,
(37:10):
but it bears repeating. I'm now, Anita says on the
episode about Kurt Vonnegut, which is quite timely because I
just finished Cat's Cradle. She's just tied to our stories
in her reading as pet tax, I'm attaching photos of
my rescue pup, Juno, an Australian cattle dog mix who
loves to eat grits, and heard my daughters around the house.
(37:33):
Thank you again. I love the show. Okay, I'm obsessed
with Juno. I'm obsessed with this dog.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
This dog is so stick and cute.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
I can't I can't. I can't function in the face
of this cute puppy face. It's got one of those faces.
He's a black and tan coat. He has these adorable
stand up ears. The eyes are gorgeous. Juno, You're a gem.
We can just tell. I love it. I love it.
(38:05):
Although now I realize that Anita did not specify whether
Juno was boy or a girl, so I called Juno him.
I don't know. Juno, You're beautiful. Though telling you that
dog Weaponiz is cute. It's the very best.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
If you would like to write to us, send us
pictures of your painfully adorable pets.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
And remember I like them all. So have you got
pet spiders? Send in my way? You can do that
at History podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. I don't know
if Tracy wants pictures of spiders. Maybe put spiders in
all caps on any emails that might include them so
she can make that choice. I'll be looking at him.
You can also subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio
(38:46):
app or wherever it is you listen to your favorite show.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Frye and I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Wilson. I just got bay from Japan, you did, where
I was a little longer than planned due to some
travel delays, but that's fine.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
It's a lovely place and we visited some sites. I
was there for a Star Wars convention, and then we
tacked on additional days to do other things. And I
will confess that I did not because I was kind
of scrambling to make sure we had enough of this
show's episodes and the other shows I work on all
(00:45):
in the can. I did very little planning for this trip,
so I was like, whatever y'all want to do. I
went with my husband and my best friend, and I
let them pick the itinerary, which was actually great, and
we went to a lot of cool places. Listen, you
may recall that when we travel internationally, my husband is
ever on the lookout for was a John Wick filmed here,
(01:08):
let me go and then we go but in this
and we did do that in Japan. But one of
the things that my best friend picked was visiting the
Meiji Jingu Shrine, which was very, very cool, And it
was kind of funny because as we were walking along,
there's quite a long walk to get from the city
(01:29):
street into the shrine, this beautiful walk. We'll talk about
it a little at the end, and we were discussing
how old it was or was not, And of course
I am ever like, hey, we have magic boxes in
our pockets, why don't we look this up? And we
were all surprised that it was much newer than we thought,
so because it doesn't feel new at all. And I
was like, this is fascinating, and I want to talk
(01:51):
about the whole story of this, which means that we
have to talk about Emperor Meiji, which is also just
an interesting story about an important and transitional part of
Han's history. Yeah. I'm not a Japanese or Asian studies scholar,
but I have sure read a lot of books, and
I had a fourteen hour plane ride back to do
some of that. So and it's in one case, you.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Know, I'm just going to make direct quotes because it
involves spiritual things that I would feel uncomfortable trying to parse, right,
not having been a part of it in any way ever,
accepted this visit to this shrine. So that's what's up,
and we're going to talk about this little part of
Japan's history. Yeah, So to talk about the Meiji Jingu Shrine,
(02:37):
we first need to talk about who Emperor Meiji was.
Emperor Meiji's reign began in eighteen sixty seven. Of course,
this is going to be an incredibly abbreviated version of
that whole reign. We could not talk about the entirety
of it in an episode. Meiji is the name he
took as emperor. He was born Mutsuhito on No. Eighteen
(03:00):
fifty two. He was the second son of the preceding
Emperor Kolme. Cole May's first son had died in infancy.
During Koleme's reign, the emperor had largely been a figurehead,
and Japan was mainly governed by the Tokugawa Shogunate. It
was during the time of Coome that Japan, which had
(03:22):
been mostly closed to foreigners, particularly foreigners from outside of
Asia for about two hundred and fifty years, was opened
up more Under Commodore Matthew Perry's arrival and request, he
showed up a sort of a famous story at this point,
backed up by a show of naval power, so at
that point the country opened its ports to the US.
(03:44):
The Treaty of Kanagawa was signed on March thirty first
of eighteen fifty four, and while it was not a
commercial treaty, it was really lopsided in favor of the
United States. It made it possible for the US to
make more finance strategic moves with Japan.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So when Emperor Kome died in eighteen sixty seven, fourteen
year old Meiji inherited the throne of a nation that
was already in the midst of a great deal of change,
both externally on the world stage, but also internally as
its identity was evolving as a result of those external
changes and exposure to new influences. Kome had not been
(04:28):
in favor of modernizing to align with Western ideologies, including
the dissolution of the shogunate and feudal ruling structure, but
his son Meiji favored modernization and he made a lot
of changes to Japan's governmental organization. And though he was
emperor from the time his father died, it wasn't until
(04:49):
eighteen sixty eight when the last Tokagawa shogun resigned after
a bit of a power struggle that the role of
emperor was actually seen as head of the country. This
this important change and the taking of the name Meiji
by the emperor is known as the Meiji Restoration, and
it also signaled a lot more massive changes ahead.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So there were a lot of reasons that a lot
of people in Japan opposed these kinds of changes. And
it's pretty easy from our Western perspective to boil this
down in such a way that it makes it seem
like the like pre modernization age was primitive or backwards,
and there are a lot of Western texts that seemed
(05:32):
to want to frame it in this way. But Japan
had a really complex structure of governance and it was
incredibly stable for a long time. Writing for the journal
Southeast Asian Studies in nineteen ninety five, Hissaufruukawa explained quote
under its seclusionist policy, Japan had achieved a balance among
(05:52):
its disparate types of leadership, the imperial court, the nobility,
and the shogun. Under the shogunate aland system of shared government,
which rested on a rice stipend system, the clans functioned
rather like one hundred or more self supporting companies competing
economically with each other. A controlling organization of shogunate daimyo
(06:15):
and clan executives, samurai village headman and nago servant peasants
ran a complicated and subtle administrative organization. Not only commercial capital,
but also industrial capital was sufficiently available. So thinking about
this stability, it becomes more apparent why there would be
(06:35):
some consternation and resistance to adopting practices and ideas from
Western culture. In eighteen sixty eight, the young Emperor Meiji
made a number of big changes, and one was that
Edo was renamed Tokyo, which means Eastern Capital, and the
imperial residence was moved there. Kyoto had been the imperial
(06:58):
capital up to that point, but the move to Tokyo
meant that the capital city, which sits on Tokyo Bay,
which opens out into the Pacific Ocean, had a better
position as an international shipping port. Another change was that
he enacted the Charter Oath of five Principles written by
a young group of samurai sometimes called the Meiji Oligarchs,
(07:19):
who had fought to overthrow the shogunate, and these principles
were designed to westernize and modernize the country and really
make it a player on the global stage. This was
a short document and it reads in its entirety as follows.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Quote. By this oath, we set up as our aim
the establishment of the national wheel on a broad basis,
and the framing of a constitution and laws. One deliberative
assemblies shall be widely established in all matters decided by
public discussion. Two, All classes high and low shall unite
(07:54):
in vigorously carrying out the administration of affairs of state.
The common people, no less than the civil and military
officials shall each be allowed to pursue his own calling,
so that there may be no discontent. Four evil customs
of the past shall be broken off, and everything based
(08:14):
upon the just laws of nature. Five Knowledge shall be
sought throughout the world so as to strengthen the foundations
of imperial rule.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
So two things. We just mentioned that a group of
samurai wrote that document, not the Emperor, not even one
of his close advisors, and that's indicative of how his
reign played out. He ruled in a sort of indirect way,
with a lot of input from various sectors. Second, if
that language in the charter sounds kind of nebulous to you.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
You are not alone.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
It was two people in Japan at the time as well.
It promises freedoms to the people, but it was also
carefully crafted to ensure that restrictions could still be laid out,
and the fourth point in particular offered some leeway. Quote
evil customs of the past are not clearly defined, and
neither was what would or would not be considered okay
(09:10):
according to the quote just laws of nature, and there
were restrictions. Political parties were not allowed, nor was rioting
to protest the governments.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, I didn't put it in the outline, but that
phrase about being according to the just laws of nature
falled very much in line with what we'll talk about
in a bit, which was making shinto the national religion.
And in reaction to the new government, which was seen
as being led by a bunch of young upstarts, which
it really was compared to the country's prior leadership, there
(09:43):
was a conflict which came to be known as the
Boshin War or the Boushin Civil War. The name Boshin
refers to the year that the war started, and this war,
which had a lot of other influences and a long
lead up could certainly be its own episode, but in
terms of Meijie's rule, the conflict lasted a year and
a half, and it reflected the turmoil of the nation
(10:05):
and a lot of fear about Japan losing that stability
it had enjoyed for centuries. Ultimately, the shogunut was defeated
in eighteen seventy one, the feudal system was abolished completely.
The massive nature of this shift cannot be overstated. It
changed a seven century practice of feudal domains run by
(10:27):
local daimyo into a prefecture system that rolled up under
the umbrella of the country's central government. But though the
Meiji government got rid of the feudal system, it was
not as though the entire previous organizational structure and its
leadership was just thrown out entirely. In many cases, the
feudal lords who had been in power became governors under
(10:49):
this new structure, and there were still efforts to create
new forces that were hoping to push back on the
Meiji government. So there was ongoing conflict and ongoing fails
to be like, let's reverse things and go back to
the old way, and that led to ongoing concerns about
rebellions and possible added civil wars as the transition known
(11:09):
as the Meiji Reformation played out.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Coming up, we'll talk about some additional changes to life
in Japan during the Meiji period, but first we will
pause or a sponsor break. The Meiji period, named for
its progressive emperor, saw other massive shifts in the way
(11:35):
Japan was run. As we mentioned each of these, just
know that, just like the transition from the shogunate system,
none of these were universally accepted or instantly implemented, and
they all have their own very bumpy stories. A new
school system was established in eighteen seventy two through the
Education System Order, and this plan created a national standardization
(11:59):
for education, and it made education universal throughout Japan, so
that all children would receive an education in the population
overall would see an increase in intellectual understanding and pursuits.
In addition to education for all, the government sought to
equalize the nation by declaring that the class system that
(12:20):
had so long determined the course of the country was
no longer in play. All classes were considered equal. The samurai,
who had already lost their status in this change, were
also banned from carrying their swords. Soon, many men who
had been part of the samurai class started seeking out
new professions. A national army was established in eighteen seventy two,
(12:44):
with a conscription requirement that meant that all men, regardless
of class, had to serve for three years. Again, not
everyone liked these changes. While a lot of citizens saw
an increase in their standing, others lost theirs and an
effort to equalize, and samurai in particular felt like the
(13:05):
rug had really been pulled out from under them.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah, there's a lot of complexity and nuance to that,
because there were samurai that wanted the shogunate system changed
and eradicated. But it wasn't like they were like, and
we'll get rid of all of it. Like, there's more
nuance to it.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I feel like we have talked about the transition from
the samurai class to an army before, and I could
not tell you which episode that was in.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
I don't know either. But another massive reform came in
the form of taxation. So taxation was not a new
concept in Japan. But as we referenced in the passage
that Tracy read earlier prior to Meiji's term as emperor,
most of those taxes were paid in rice by the
landowners who grew it. Taxation on other items was paid
(13:55):
in cash, but an estimated ninety percent of the people
of Japan were involved in growing rice in the nineteenth century,
so the rice tax was the dominant part of the economy.
Rice was and still is incredibly culturally significant and even sacred.
So this was an important transition, not just from a
(14:15):
logistical sense of providing food for the country, but also
as a community gesture, providing for one another with a
resource that was cultivated and tended by the people. Rice
also had become a signifier of success and wealth. A
man with a full grain store was considered rich, and
the plant was used beyond its food possibilities. There are
(14:38):
parts of it used to create mats, to make paste,
et cetera. So people were all in on this whole
system that for a very long time had been about
how much rice do you have and how much rice
do we pay so that everyone in the country eats,
and that was all changing. The Land Tax Reform Law
of eighteen seventy three changed this entire system by moving
(15:01):
it to a cash based system with tax rates based
on land holdings. The intention was.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
That This new system would get rid of inconsistencies that
had been part of the feudal system, with different regions
having completely different rates and different collection practices, and it
was also intended to once again modernize the country. Everyone
in the developed world used cash and to make deals
with other countries, rice had to be sold or converted.
(15:32):
But with cash taxation, money was going directly into the
government's holdings and that could be leveraged for national growth
and development projects. Unfortunately, this tax was really difficult for
the farmers of Japan, and although it was revised to
try to help the situation, agricultural communities really continued to struggle.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, if you're using one currency and that has been
your currency, and you are essentially making that currency and
then people go no, no, we need different currency that
you don't necessarily have on hand and have not built
up any kind of store of that's a really difficult shift.
And we've talked about that shift in other parts of
the world too, when when people who didn't generally have
(16:16):
access to currency were suddenly expected to pay things in currency. Yeah,
it's like it's like if tomorrow everyone said in the US,
by the way, we're only accepting putting as payment. You
can get a hold of pudding, but it would just
be such an odd and different way of handling it
that it would be very, very difficult even if you
had access to putting. I know that's a weird comparison,
(16:40):
but that's that's the best I can do at the moment.
So a cabinet style of government was also adopted under
Meiji in eighteen eighty five. This was not the first
reorganization of government under Meiji's rule, but it became a
significant and more lasting system designed to get rid of
many of the inefficiencies of structures. So the cabinet established
(17:03):
the role of prime Minister, who reports directly to the Emperor,
and multiple ministers of state who report to the Prime minister.
This government was further refined in the Meiji Constitution, which
was created in eighteen eighty nine, and that new constitution
called for the establishment of a bi cameral parliament. In
addition to the prime minister and cabinet of ministers, it
(17:26):
also gave command of the country's military forces to the emperor.
They had not really had huge military forces before this,
they were being built up. In eighteen ninety one, the
bicameral legislature called for in the Constitution, known as the Diet,
was officially established the House of Peers. The upper house
consisted of officials who were appointed to their positions, while
(17:49):
the lower House of Representatives was made up of elected officials.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
In addition to all of these and other reforms, Emperor Meiji,
using the national arms that was established early in his time,
made Japan a significant military presence on the world stage.
The first major example of this was the First Sino
Japanese War, which started in eighteen ninety four. China had
(18:15):
long had a presence in Korea, and Korea was not
part of China, but was subordinate to this larger nation.
Korea was made dependent on China for a lot in
a lot of ways for centuries, but as Japan westernized,
it also started to take a more active interest in
Korean resources. As Japan industrialized, its leaders started to realize
(18:39):
they could get things like coal and iron from Korea,
which was nearby, rather than from farther away resources. So
from Japan's perspective, Korea offered a lot of economic possibility.
Just as the United States had kind of forced Japan's
hand in the mid eighteen hundreds move to open Japan's
(19:00):
ports to North American trade. Japan made a similar move
in Korea, and Japan also urged Korea to kind of
get out from under China's shadow when it came to
relationships with other countries, specifically its relationship with Japan.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
The very abbreviated version of what happened next is that
Japan's involvement in Korea's status led to a division within Korea,
and China supported the groups that wanted Japan to mind
its business. In eighteen eighty four, this led to an
attempted coup in Korea known as the gaps And Coup,
with China stepping in to stop it and ensure the
(19:39):
safety of the Korean monarch. The conflict did not escalate
to war because China and Japan signed an agreement that
they would both get their troops out of Korea. But
ten years later, the leader of that eighteen eighty four coup,
Kim Akkun, who was still in support of a Korean
relationship with Japan, was a assassinated quartered and his body
(20:02):
was publicly displayed to deter anyone else from joining the
pro Japan movement within Korea. Soon, China had moved troops
into Korea again to quell rebellions that sprang up in
the wake of this assassination, and Japan, noting that this
was a violation of their eighteen eighty four agreement, sent
(20:23):
its own troops in response. The war ran from August
eighteen ninety four to March eighteen ninety five, and in
that time Japanese forces had bested the Chinese forces at
sea and had invaded China on land. Chinese leadership finally
asked for an end to the war, and in the
Treaty of Shimonoseki, gave Korea its independence from China, seated
(20:47):
Taiwan and other territory to Japan, opened its ports to
Japanese trade, and agreed to pay a steep indemnity to Japan.
But after another decade, japan interest in Korea once again
led to war, this time with Russia. There's another parallel
here as well. Russia had moved into Manchuria following the
(21:11):
lease of the modern day Port of Lusha in China,
which was called Port Arthur at the time. Japan was
not pleased with this, and Russia eventually agreed to withdraw
military forces from Manchuria after Japan made it clear that
their presence there was perceived as a problem, but Russia
did not withdraw troops, so Japan launched a surprise attack
(21:34):
of Port Arthur on February eighth, nineteen oh four. This
started an eighteen month conflict that overlapped with the nineteen
oh five Revolution in Russia, leaving that country stretched really
thin not in a good position to engage with Japan. Eventually,
President Theodore Roosevelt got involved to negotiate a treaty. That agreement,
(21:57):
the Treaty of Portsmouth, was signed on September fifth of
nineteen oh five, and Roosevelt would later receive a Nobel
Peace Prize for this effort. Emperor Meiji's government was not
done with plans for Korea, though, the result of the
Russo Japanese War was that Japan got control over the
China Sea, which gave the country total access to Korea.
(22:19):
In nineteen ten, Japan began colonial rule of Korea after
the signing of the Japan Korea Annexation Treaty. This treaty,
which was controversial then and has continued to be controversial
since even after it has been revoked, begins with a
proclamation that makes it sound like Korea is a big mess,
and that Japan is somehow doing the country a favor
(22:42):
by stepping in. It's a lot to read, but I
want to include the whole thing because it's the language
is really really to me. Kind of startling quote. Notwithstanding
the earnest and laborious work of reforms in the administration
of Korea in which the governments of Japan and Korea
engaged for more than four years since the conclusion of
(23:03):
the Agreement of nineteen oh five, the existing system of
government in that country has not proved entirely equal to
the duty of preserving public order and tranquility, and in addition,
the spirit of suspicion and misgiving dominates the whole peninsula.
In order to maintain peace and stability in Korea, to
(23:23):
promote the prosperity and welfare of Koreans, and at the
same time, to ensure the safety and repose of foreign residents,
it has been made abundantly clear that fundamental changes in
the actual regime of government are absolutely essential. The governments
of Japan and Korea being convinced of the urgent necessity
of introducing reforms responsive to the requirements of the situation
(23:47):
and a furnishing sufficient guarantee for the future have with
the approval of His Majesty, the Emperor of Japan and
His Majesty the Emperor of Korea, concluded through their planetpotentiaries
a tree providing for complete annexation of Korea to the
Empire of Japan. By virtue of that important act, which
(24:08):
shall take effect on its promulgation on August twenty ninth,
nineteen ten, the Imperial Government of Japan shall undertake the
entire government and administration of Korea.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
The first article of the treaty states, quote, His Majesty
the Emperor of Korea makes the complete and permanent session
to his Majesty the Emperor of Japan of all rights
of sovereignty over the whole of Korea. And then the
rest lays out various ways that the Emperor of Japan
will govern Korea. There's also one article that reads, quote,
(24:43):
the Government of Japan will, so far as circumstances permit,
employ in the public service of Japan and Korea, those
Koreans who accept the new regime loyally and in good faith,
and who are duly qualified for such service. There is
obviously a whole history with Japan and Korea, much of
(25:06):
it deeply upsetting.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Following this, yes, and in some cases before this too,
but like following this especially.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yeah, that whole idea of loyalty is going to come
up here in a moment, and we're going to get
to the shrine soon, but first we will hear from
the sponsors that keep the show going. While the Meiji
Restoration began with a sort of promise of equality for all,
(25:39):
as it evolved in the forty five years of the
emperor's reign, the focus started to become one of nationalist
pride and the necessity of devotion to the emperor. This
shift had started with the reforms of education and taxation
that sought to make the people of the country more
prepared for a new era in gauging with the rest
(26:00):
of the world. But even in those early reforms, it
also included a lot of requirements of loyalty to the emperor,
and as Japan fought and won in military conflicts with
major global powers, that sense of nationalism really crept in.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Emperor Meiji died in Tokyo on July thirtieth, nineteen twelve.
His consort, Empress Shokun, died two years after that, they
were entombed outside of Kyoto, but the diet through a resolution,
established a plan to memorialize Meiji and his empress and
to enshrine their kami, which is sort of like their
(26:40):
spiritual essence in Tokyo. The site was chosen because it
was at the time a park that featured an iris
garden that the couple really loved. This park was built
on land that had been part of a daimyo's holdings
in the era prior to the Meiji governmental restructuring, and
it was taken by the government in Meiji's time to
(27:03):
be turned into the Yoyogi Imperial Garden. It was at
Meiji's order that the iris garden be planted in the
park to delight Empress Shoken because irises were her favorite flower.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Emperor Meiji and Empress shokn are important figures because they
were the first modern imperial rulers of Japan, But as
we've mentioned, Meiji was not operating as the final word
in Japan's government, or even always as the primary decision
maker in the changes that the country underwent during his time,
but he represents the moment of modernization and a new
(27:40):
age of Japanese identity, and though many of the reforms
enacted during his reign had really problematic consequences later on,
including some of the issues with Korea that Tracy and
I had referenced just a moment ago, he was still
recognized as ushering in a lot of significant change and
bringing Japan out of isolation is thinking and into the
(28:02):
global community.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Meiji Jingu is a Shinto shrine, which makes sense as
Shinto has made the state religion during the Meiji reign.
We would never in any way consider ourselves experts on Shinto,
so as an explainer we are quoting from the Meiji
Jingu website quote. Shinto is Japan's ancient original religion and
(28:28):
it is deeply rooted in the way of Japanese life.
Shinto has no founder, no holy book, and not even
the concept of religious conversion. But Shinto places value in
harmony with nature and virtues such as mago koro sincere heart.
In Shinto, something divine is regarded as kami, divine spirit,
and it is believed that there is an unlimited number
(28:51):
of kami. Kami can be found in mythology, in nature,
and in human beings. From ancient times Japanese have felt
awe and gratitude towards such kami and enshrined them to
Shinto shrines. Shinto is such a part of Japanese culture
that it almost transcends the idea of religion and becomes
a more cultural practice. Writing for the Yale Forum for
(29:15):
Religion and Ecology, Rosemary Bernard noted, quote, it is impossible
to consider the topic of Shinto and ecology without making
reference to the broader issue of Japanese cultural attitudes to
the natural environment. This is because what one might describe
as Shinto beliefs are often values that are entrenched in
Japanese folk culture in general, and which find expression in
(29:39):
other areas beyond religion, from socio political organization to esthetics
and so on.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
So the setup of the park and the shrine is
really incredible for a number of reasons. So for one,
it offers this almost surreal complete sense of isolation and serenity,
even though it is is right in the middle of
the city, just steps from Harajuku Station. It's about a
ten minute walk from the station to the entrance to
(30:07):
the park. Once you enter the park area, which is
far larger than the original park, it's about one hundred
and seventy three acres in size. You are completely surrounded
by trees as you make your way to the shrine's
try gates, which separate the secular part of the grounds
from the sacred section, and before you pass through the
final gate, you pass through a font called the temezuya,
(30:30):
where you wash your hands and rinse your mouth with
water to be purified.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
The trees at the shrine have their own story because
the Meiji Jingu Shrine is surrounded by a man made forest,
and the trees that make up that forest were donated
by the people of Japan from all over the country,
with an estimated two hundred and forty five species represented.
Holli saw several write ups that said there were one
hundred thousand trees, but a twenty fifteen book on Shinto
(30:59):
shrines written by Joseph Kelly and John Dougill gave the
number of trees as one hundred and seventy thousand, so
maybe that smaller number was more of the starting point
when the shrine was completed in nineteen twenty. When you
look at photos of the site from when it was
first dedicated, you can see how much this forest has grown.
(31:20):
In old aerial photos you can clearly see all the
buildings with just the trees planted around them, but in
photos today it is just a mass of green foliage
with small glimpses of the structures peeking through.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
The shrine was designed by one of Japan's famous architects, Ittochuta,
in a traditional Shinto style, and work began on the
structure in nineteen fifteen. The main materials used were Japanese
cypress and copper, and the site is really a full complex.
In addition to the main shrine, there's also an ambulant
(31:53):
office where visitors can purchase omamori to bring good fortune.
There's a museum that includes various treasures related to the
shrine into Emperor Meiji, and a secondary annex of the museum.
There is also a sacred music hall known as the Kaguradin.
There is a cafe and a martial arts dojo. Not
(32:14):
all of these buildings, of course, were original to the site.
In fact, none of the current buildings are from the
original nineteen twenty opening. During World War.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
II, almost all of the buildings at Meiji Jengu burns
and air raids. Surprisingly, the forests survived, though in nineteen
fifty eight, after a public fundraising effort generated enough money
to rebuild, the shrine was reconstructed using the original plans.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
There was also a lot of other stuff going on
in Japan in the time between World War two and
nineteen fifty eight when this rebuilt, but at this point
I just wanted to focus on the shrine. It is
very very easy to find photos of the Meiji Jingu
Shrine online and in because it is very beautiful. It
attracts a lot of tourists in addition to people visiting
(33:05):
for their own spiritual reasons. But there are no photographs
allowed beyond the outer worship hall, so if you're in
the inner worship hall praying, there are no photographs in there.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
So this shrine is very easy to visit. The shrine
grounds are free to enter and are open every day
from sunrise to sunset. Some of the buildings, like the museum,
have days when they're closed. The inner garden, where the
Empress's irises were planted, has an entry fee of five
hundred yen that goes toward upkeep. Visitors to the main
(33:37):
shrine can make a small offering of a coin bow twice,
clap their hands twice and bow again to show reverence.
You can also purchase votive tablets called Emma for five
hundred yen and write wishes and hopes and just gratitude
on them. You can hang them around a camphor tree
at the main shrine. There's also a letter verse of
(34:00):
this ritual in which you can write your sentiment onto
it and then tuck money into the letter to place
it in an offering box.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
These offerings are given each morning by the people of
the shrine to the spirits.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
It's quite lovely. I really found it a very moving experience.
But that is, you know, a very abbreviated version of
the Meiji of Meiji period and the shrine. It's kind
of interesting because when you're at the shrine, you don't
get all of unless you go in the museum. You're
not getting all of the information about Emperor Meiji. Presumably
(34:39):
to people of Japan the connection is obvious, but to turists,
I feel like they may not always understand exactly like
what is going on and why those people were chosen
to have a shrine built to memorialize them. So if
you go to Japan, highly recommend it. Do you have
listener mail for us.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
I do. I do because of thank God, my listener
mail is a little bit behind recent episodes, but we'll
get caught up. But I wanted to read this because
I loved it, and I really love the pet pictures
in it. This is from our listener, Anita, who writes,
Dear Tracy and Holly, thank you so much for bringing
such wonderful history vignettes to life with your delightful personalities,
(35:18):
thoughtful reflections and contextualization and humor. I've been listening on
and off for about ten years and always enjoy hearing
your voices and learning new things. I'm writing to tell
you about several books I'm reading connected to your topics. First,
I was completely floored by your recent show about the
Lost Cause. I had never known that this take on
the Civil War was a concerted effort to reframe reconstruction
(35:41):
and motivations for the war, etc. I am from South
Carolina and distinctly remember being taught in middle school in
the nineteen nineties that slavery was not, in fact the
reason for the Civil War, and that the teacher expected
us to put states' rights as the top motivator on
our test. I also clearly remember the text books, highlighting
the vocabulary for carpetbaggers and scallowags in the description of
(36:05):
Northerners coming to the South during reconstruction to take advantage
of poor Southerners. I think on some level, I always
knew that people from other states got different versions of history,
but your thorough treatment of the Lost Cause was truly
the first time this all came together for me. Y'all
suggested books to read that treated the Civil War and
Reconstruction with richer perspectives. I can't recall if you specifically
(36:28):
recommended this book, but I was inspired to start reading
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
to get a fresh take on US history. I also
have been enjoying Baking in the American South by Anne Burn.
The book is beautifully photographed, and the stories behind the
recipes are enchanting and informative about their history and local origin.
(36:48):
I truly enjoyed the episode where you interviewed Anne Burn
and find the book equally delightful. The chocolate chip cookie
recipe is amazing, and someday I will master cornbread if
I can ever remember not to use one percent milk
instead of whole or buttermilk, just as in Aside. I
can't get enough of Van Burne. I love her so much,
and that book is spectacular. I know I've said it before,
(37:10):
but it bears repeating. I'm now, Anita says on the
episode about Kurt Vonnegut, which is quite timely because I
just finished Cat's Cradle. She's just tied to our stories
in her reading as pet tax, I'm attaching photos of
my rescue pup, Juno, an Australian cattle dog mix who
loves to eat grits, and heard my daughters around the house.
(37:33):
Thank you again. I love the show. Okay, I'm obsessed
with Juno. I'm obsessed with this dog.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
This dog is so stick and cute.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
I can't I can't. I can't function in the face
of this cute puppy face. It's got one of those faces.
He's a black and tan coat. He has these adorable
stand up ears. The eyes are gorgeous. Juno, You're a gem.
We can just tell. I love it. I love it.
(38:05):
Although now I realize that Anita did not specify whether
Juno was boy or a girl, so I called Juno him.
I don't know. Juno, You're beautiful. Though telling you that
dog Weaponiz is cute. It's the very best.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
If you would like to write to us, send us
pictures of your painfully adorable pets.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
And remember I like them all. So have you got
pet spiders? Send in my way? You can do that
at History podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. I don't know
if Tracy wants pictures of spiders. Maybe put spiders in
all caps on any emails that might include them so
she can make that choice. I'll be looking at him.
You can also subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio
(38:46):
app or wherever it is you listen to your favorite show.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
Stuff You Missed in History Class News
Hosts And Creators
Holly Frey
Tracy Wilson
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