Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912

by Donald Keene

Book Overview

When Emperor Meiji began his rule, in 1867, Japan was a splintered empire, dominated by the shogun and the daimyos, who ruled over the country's more than 250 decentralized domains and who were, in the main, cut off from the outside world, staunchly antiforeign, and committed to the traditions of the past. Before long, the shogun surrendered to the emperor, a new constitution was adopted, and Japan emerged as a modern, industrialized state. Despite...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 023112340X
• ISBN13: 9780231123402
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 928 Pages
• Weight: 3.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.2" x 6.5" x 9.6"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Superb, but...

As other reviewers note, this is a wonderful biography of Emperor Meiji. It is well written, seemingly deeply sourced, and a great source to learn about Japanese history at one of its true turning points. Other reviewers have pointed out its strengths (comprehensiveness, scholarship, clarity), and Keene himself confesses its greatest weakness: the nearly impenetrable mysteries surrounding Meiji, his personality, and sentiments. That said, this book is simply not user-friendly. The sixty-three chapters are untitled, which would be pardonable if they were grouped into parts, but they are not. Thus, for a book of 725 odd pages of dense type, the table of contents is utterly worthless. Moreover, the 135 pages of end-notes are a bear to navigate. (Jansen's "Making of Modern Japan" is an exemplar of how to handle end-notes.) Other editorial oddities include a few non-sequitur index entries and a few typos (notably in the reproduction of the Charter Oath on p. 139: "deliberate assemblies" instead of "deliberative assemblies"). This is a magisterial work, and a must-read for those interested in Meiji Japan, or Japan in general, but I wish it were easier to use for research.

The best book on the subject

This has to be the best book on the Meiji emperor currently in English. Professor Keene has assembled enough primary and secondary material to form as complete a picture of the Meiji emperor as is likely to exist for a long time. This book is an esential source book for anyone seeking to understand the man or his era. Professor Keene has a fascinating subject to explore in this book. If Augustus can be said to have found Rome to be city of mud huts and left strutures of marble behind, the Meiji emperor was born into a backward feudal nation and left when it had become a world power. Unlike Augustus, he cannot claim all of the credit for this achievement. There were many talented and visionary politicians who came to power during the period. However, the environment to foster the rise of Japan as a world power was certainly fostered by the emperor's departure from the traditional role of the Japanese emperor, a position which under the preceeding Shogunate period could be said to resemble that of a national high priest. What is fascinating about this book is how Japan became a modern country. Persons who look at things like how modernity and change affects rising nation states will certainly find this book fascinating. At anyone of several periods throughout this period, Japan could have found efforts to modernize halted and it returning to the status of a rather unimportant Asian power. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I will suggest that this is not really the best book to begin a study of Japanese history. Somethings are not fully explained and the significance of certain individuals not perfectly introduced. I would suggest reading a survey history of Japan before reading this one. However despite this shortcoming, Professor Keene has composed the definative text.

just one sour note...

I really don't have nothing more positive to add compared to two previous reviews which speak for itself. The book proves to be everything they stated. However, I would like to add this train of thought which may sound bit negative but something for author to considered in the future. For one, it needs a map. Imperial Japan isn't one of these geographical places many Americans really know about. Maps and diagrams would have been greatly helpful. Second, more photos of historical characters in the book. It would be nice to have faces to go with the names - most who were total unknown to most Americans. I am surprised considering the research involved in this book that Mr. Keene could not add more photos even although he writes about them in the book. Otherwise, the previous two reviews proves to be very accurate. Top notch book that combined biographical as well as historical evolution of the Meiji Emperor and his reign.

Less about Meiji than "His World" yet still *excellent*

Author Donald Keene begins "Emperor of Japan" by introducing an interesting paradox: How is it that the Meiji emperor is one of the most revered figures in Japanese history, yet so little is known about the emperor as an individual? The aim of "Emperor of Japan" is to shed some light on the life of the Meiji emperor while placing him in the context of his times. Keene, however, only partially succeeds in this regard due to several problems he himself highlighted. The Meiji emperor kept no diary but wrote thousands of poems, although few revealed his true thoughts; official court chronicles kept a detailed record on the emperor's activities but all were concerned with events (i.e. the emperor did this and that); and eyewitness accounts by relatives and advisors-although extremely valuable-were sometimes contradictory or inaccurate.Despite such formidable obstacles, Keene nevertheless does an incredible job of bringing Meiji to life by pulling as much sources together and making educated speculations on the implications of Meiji's day-to-day activities. Meiji was a diligent emperor who understood the gravity of his position and the responsibilities it entailed by taking a more active role than his predecessors in discussing and examining state matters with his officials. He had toured Japan a number of times during his reign, out of the conviction that an emperor should be closer to his people. He was open to adopting western ways but remained a traditionalist, as exemplified by his distrust of western medicine and his preference for hearing lectures on Confucian philosophy. He placed great value on education, as shown by his propensity to tour schools and offer dictionaries as gifts to pupils and his obsession with his son's (and the future Taisho emperor) education and curriculum.The real strength of the book, in this reader's opinion, is the detailed account of Japan's march towards modernity from the end of the Tokugawa shogunate through the first decade of the 20th century. Readers will get an extremely detailed account of the Meiji Restoration, the political disputes that led to the Satsuma Rebellion, Meiji and his advisors' thoughts on the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, and Japan's search for a viable and more modern system of governance. Individuals like Saigo Takamori and Ito Hirobumi come to life in Keene's account.I recommend this book for anyone who familiar with modern Japanese history and is interested in reading this narrative on the life and times of a well-known-yet poorly understood-individual.

A superb biography of one of Japan's greatest emperors

Through the slow, steady accumulation of the tiniest details, Donald Keene has built an extraordinary and masterful portrait of Emperor Meiji of Japan. Meiji ruled at a time when significant changes were talking place in Japan: its opening to the West, its modernization, and perhaps most importantly, the transfer of governing power from the Shogunate to the Emperor.Meiji's life exemplified these changes: he was the first emperor to travel regularly outside of the imperial palace and the capital city. He was the first emperor to take a train ride. He was the first emperor to shake a foreign dignitary's hand. Although few details exist of Meiji's personal thoughts, Keene has built up this detailed portrait through a close examination of court records and through analysis of the numerous "tanka" or poems that Meiji penned.As the indexer of this book, I was privileged to spend a number of weeks with this text and can attest to the immense scholarly effort it represents. This is surely the highlight of Keene's career as one of this country's foremost experts on Japan and Japanese culture. I highly recommend this work to anyone interested in Japan and its transition to a modern nation.