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This thesis reviews Yasukuni’s symbolic power and transformation from its foundation in 1869 to contemporary times in order to analyze the potent and variant meanings of the Yasukuni symbol. The paramount importance of the site is to ritualize the war dead, whether for national, personal, or religious purposes. While examining the shrine’s many functions, this paper does not try to defend or obscure the serious causal effects of the shrine’s symbolic power but to situate the intentions and controversies in a historical context to see how Yasukuni became what it is, and how it remains important to the Japanese. Beyond looking at Yasukuni through its many controversies (mondai), this thesis explains how the shrine has been important and continues to be a highly active ritual site with deep cultural and religious meaning. In order to understand current Japanese opinions of the significance of Yasukuni shrine, fieldwork was undertaken from June 2011 to October 2012. Research was conducted primarily in the Kanagawa prefecture of Japan. The Kanagawa prefecture, close to the Tokyo area, facilitated repeat visits to the shrine. / text

Henry Black was born in Adelaide in 1858, but arrived in Japan in 1864 after his father became editor of the Japan Herald. In the late 1870s, Henry Black addressed meetings of members of the Freedom and People�s Rights Movement. His talks were inspired by nineteenth-century theories of natural rights. That experience led to his becoming a professional storyteller (rakugoka) affiliated with the San�y� school of storytelling (San�yuha). Black�s storytelling (rakugo) in the 1880s and 1890s was an attempt by the San�y�ha to modernise rakugo. By adapting European sensation fiction, Black blended European and Japanese elements to create hybridised landscapes and characters as blueprints for audiences negotiating changes synonymous with modernity during the Meiji period. The narrations also portrayed the negative impacts of change wrought through emulation of nineteenth-century Britain�s Industrial Revolution. His 1894 adaptation of Oliver Twist or his 1885 adaptation of Mary Braddon�s Flower and Weed, for example, were early warnings about the evils of child labour and the exploitation of women in unregulated textile factories. Black�s kabuki performances parallel politically and artistically inspired attempts to reform kabuki by elevating its status as an art suitable for imperial and foreign patronage. The printing of his narrations in stenographic books (sokkibon) ensured that his ideas reached a wide audience. Because he was not an officially hired foreigner (yatoi), and his narrations have not entered the rakugo canon, Black has largely been forgotten. A study of his role as a mediator of modernity during the 1880s and 1890s shows that he was an agent in the transfer to a mass audience of European ideas associated with modernity, frequently ahead of intellectuals and mainstream literature. An examination of Black�s career helps broaden our knowledge of the role of foreigners and rakugo in shaping modern Japan.

Henry Black was born in Adelaide in 1858, but arrived in Japan in 1864 after his father became editor of the Japan Herald. In the late 1870s, Henry Black addressed meetings of members of the Freedom and People�s Rights Movement. His talks were inspired by nineteenth-century theories of natural rights. That experience led to his becoming a professional storyteller (rakugoka) affiliated with the San�y� school of storytelling (San�yuha). Black�s storytelling (rakugo) in the 1880s and 1890s was an attempt by the San�y�ha to modernise rakugo. By adapting European sensation fiction, Black blended European and Japanese elements to create hybridised landscapes and characters as blueprints for audiences negotiating changes synonymous with modernity during the Meiji period. The narrations also portrayed the negative impacts of change wrought through emulation of nineteenth-century Britain�s Industrial Revolution. His 1894 adaptation of Oliver Twist or his 1885 adaptation of Mary Braddon�s Flower and Weed, for example, were early warnings about the evils of child labour and the exploitation of women in unregulated textile factories. Black�s kabuki performances parallel politically and artistically inspired attempts to reform kabuki by elevating its status as an art suitable for imperial and foreign patronage. The printing of his narrations in stenographic books (sokkibon) ensured that his ideas reached a wide audience. Because he was not an officially hired foreigner (yatoi), and his narrations have not entered the rakugo canon, Black has largely been forgotten. A study of his role as a mediator of modernity during the 1880s and 1890s shows that he was an agent in the transfer to a mass audience of European ideas associated with modernity, frequently ahead of intellectuals and mainstream literature. An examination of Black�s career helps broaden our knowledge of the role of foreigners and rakugo in shaping modern Japan.

Originally presented as the author's Thesis (Habilitationsschrift)--Universität, Trier, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 454-486) and index.

The thesis is concerned with three so-called "incidents of intense violence" (gekka jiken) that occurred between late 1882 and late 1884: the Fukushima, Kabasan, and Chichibu incidents. All three revolts occurred simultaneous to, and were connected with, the rise and fall of the "freedom and popular rights movement" (jiyu minken undo), especially with its principal institutional expression, the Jiyuto or "Liberal Party." One of the most important of the connections between the revolts and the Jiyuto is that of their overlapping leadership. For the most part, local Jiyuto leaders served as the leaders of these three revolts. Due to this fact, and the other equally important one of the critical extent to which the local Jiyuto leaders embraced the ideological principles of the national Jiyuto—as opposed to the pragmatic, perhaps cynical, approach toward these principles taken by the national leadership—the "natural right" basis of the Liberal's ideology and its corresponding endorsement of the "right of revolution" filtered down to the farmers, hunters, day-labourers and others who participated in these incidents. Notions of "natural right" were used as guiding principles to govern the aims of their revolutionary organisations and as explanations to justify their attempts to overthrow the government. Popular songs, poems, the courtroom testimony of those participants arrested, the content of their revolutionary manifestos, their statements of aims as presented in their organisational charters, the content of lectures given in peasant villages, by local Jiyuto organisers, and the like attest to the beginnings of a strong liberal-democratic undercurrent existing in the early 1880's among Japan's common people (heimin). These findings call into question the conclusions regarding the early failure of democracy in Japan reached by such noted Western scholars as E. H. Norman, Robert Scalapino, and Nobutaka Ike. This is due partly to the fact that each of these scholars analysed Japan's politics of this period almost exclusively at the level of national, elite figures and thereby ignored the impact that the popular rights movement had upon local politics and rural folk. By neglecting local politics, the above-mentioned scholars prematurely drew the conclusion that Japan's common people acted as a collective Atlas who patiently bore the burdens of modernisation upon their peasant backs in obedient silence. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

In 1868, the Meiji government decided to establish a military system that would improve not only the fighting capacity but also the military discipline of Japan's army. On the one hand the Meiji leaders rebuilt Japan's army with inspiration from Western models, initially the French. On the other hand they adopted from Western countries modern military justice system, that helped to shape gradually the Japanese navy and army in the 19th century.;This thesis delves deep into the introduction and evolution of the military justice system in the Meiji era, in an effort to explain how it helped reshape military discipline within the Imperial Japanese Army. Utilizing a range of primary sources, it studies the creation and enforcement of the military justice system from a military history rather than legal history perspective. It is hoped that this thesis reveals the crucial role that the military justice system played in Japan's military modernization during this period. The findings also explain why military discipline of the Imperial Japanese Army began to decline again after the Russo-Japanese War.

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This thesis deals with the characterization of Japan and Japanese people by Swedish travelers during the Meiji period. It seeks to answer what aspects of Japanese people two Swedish travelers chose to highlight, and how these aspects were presented in their travelogues. This thesis also has a second aim. By applying Edward Said’s theory of orientalism, it wants to answer if Swedish travelogues were influenced by western 19th century ideas of colonialism and imperialism. Finally, the third question deals with the question if these travelogues fit the general European discourse regarding Japan. The results show that the two Swedish travelers present many different parts of the Japanese; topics such as nature, industry and the character its inhabitants were all accounted for. Most of these different aspects were presented in a positive light, and this seems to hold true for the general perception of the country. It also shows that the travelogues fits in with the general Swedish perception of Japan; that it is a country inhabited by intelligent people that are considered to be highly civilized. However, it is still implied that the Japanese are not considered to be true equals, despite the travelers' claim that they are excelling in many areas compared to Europeans. The Japanese discourse is therefore one of admiration and also of a subtle feeling of superiority, though the latter is not as overt in its presentation as it was with orientalism.

The present study provides an analysis of two different but interrelated historical dimensions. The first dimension, the founding process of Japanese Protestantism, is analysed in its wider historical context on the basis of contemporary scholarship, particuhirly Japanese. A second dimension: the ongoing historiographical interpretation of the founding process, is analysed from the foundation period itse1f up to 1945, against its contemporary historical background. The analytical approach takes account of the forms of history writing as weil as its contents, in an overall comparative perspective applied to the Japanese and the Western material. In the çonclusion the interpretative trends which are identified through the analysis of the second, historiographical dimension, are related to trends in contemporary interpretationof the foundation period. The conclusion thus focus on the relationship between prewar and postwar interpretation of Japanese Protestant beginnings.