‘Modernization’ and Industrialization in Japan Whereby ...

101比治山大学現代文化学部紀要，第18号，2011Bul. Hijiyama Univ. No.18, 2011

Abstract

This paper follows the preceding one (2010) in which I discussed some entanglement and

comparison of ideas between William Morris and So-etsu Yanagi. In order to have a better

understanding on the concept of Mingei in contrast to the British counterpart, some proper

socioeconomic background including the events during and following the Meiji era is represented.

In Japanese history, the events of 1868, the transfer of power from the Tokugawa shogunate to

the Meiji emperor, are known as the Meiji Restoration. These happenings radically altered

fundamental aspects of the country’s politics, economy and society, while Japan was undergoing

major changes to be regarded as the beginning of her modern era. In the light of so-called

modernization the Restoration remained to be in many ways no more than the pivotal point in a

process of historical transformation lasting several decades. During the era the country was

transformed into one of the most powerful nations in the modern world. The Restoration meant, in

this sense, both a fundamental transfer of political power and the inception of a wide-reaching

program of modernization to a certain extent. On one hand, the ‘revolution’ used to be taken

responsible for the modernization and Westernization of Japan. Nevertheless, many historians, on

the other hand, including Marxists became widely critical of the Restoration and the “absolutist”

society which had resulted from it.

It is true that Mingei including all kinds of handicraft product had to be in a difficult situation

undergoing severe declining pressure all through the times. But the socioeconomic background

peculiar to Mingei and other handicrafts was quite different from that ever observed in Britain.

Keywords: industrialization, modernization, Meiji Restoration, Mingei idea

A So-called Industrialization and Modernization

Capitalism

Plentiful examples of capitalism in the pre-modern era exist but, typically, capitalist exchanges

were restrained not only by political and religious control but also by the unripe development of

productive power as the whole. Capitalism provided the principal, but not the only means of

industrialization, and should not be confused with it. What has impressed students of modernity is

the huge and largely unregulated dominance of capitalist enterprise across political and cultural

frontiers.

‘Modernization’ and Industrialization in JapanWhereby Mingei Idea took Shape

佐　中　忠　司

Tadashi SANAKA

In reference to attributes of capitalism defined by Karl Marx, the most essential feature is the

production relations of capitalism. A typical system of substantial capitalism consists of wage-labour

and commodity production for sale, exchange, and profit, rather than for the immediate need of the

producers and their neighbourhood as was so often the case prior to the advent of the so-called

industrialization. Under capitalism, labour power itself becomes a commodity to be transacted in the

market. In this sense, wage labour and market exchange are the defining characteristic of

capitalism. More precision can be gained by specifying types of capitalism according to either

qualitative or quantitative factors.1

Qualitative classification aims to reflect the extensive variation in the scale of capital

accumulation and in the concentration of the economic power of capital.2

Expansion of the wealth of a society lay in expansion of its productive powers. That capital is

not, first and foremost, a sum of money, was the great discovery of early political economy. Capital

consists of tools, machinery, plant, and any of other humanly made material or equipment which, not

being used for immediate consumption, contributes to or enhance productive work. The latter, for

example machines and tools, yields a profit circulating further under the substantial control by

capitalists. According to Karl Marx, capital accumulation supplies the dynamics specific to the

capitalist mode of production, or modern capitalist system. It depends on the exploitation of workers

through the extraction of surplus value.

So-called mode of production is the essential characteristic of a society or social formation,

based on the socio-economic system predominant within it-for example capitalism, or socialism. This

was conventionally defined in terms of the interaction of the relations and forces of production; that

is, the system of ownership of the means of production, and the level of development of the latter. In

societies being in transition from one to the other or in a case of subordinate modes being surviving

佐　中　忠　司102

1 Thus mercantile capitalism is a system of trading for profit, typically in commodities produced by non-capitalist

production methods. Agrarian capitalism is exemplified by the activities of the British landowning gentry during the

17th and 19th centuries. The agrarian revolution they oversaw transformed a system of production for subsistence

into the production of cash crops for the market, the surplus being made possible by reformed and mechanized

cultivation. Industrial capitalism is capitalism’s classic or stereotypical form. It entails manufacture by means of a

factory system with an intricate division of labour within and between work processes; the creation of designated

workplaces and factories; de-skilling of traditional handicraft skills; and the routinization of work tasks. Financial or

pecuniary capitalism subordinates the capitalist productive process to the circulation of money and monetary assets

and hence to the accumulation of money profits as such. It presupposes highly development banking system, an

equity market, and corporate holdings of wealth through share ownership.-State capitalism occurs where some

element of government-created or government-led enterprise had been necessary to initiate both industrialism and

capitalism. ‘capitalism’ John Scott & Gordon Marshal, Oxford Dictionary of Sociology, 2005, p. 52.2 Petty accumulation is a network of individual producers or artisans, typically found at the outset of capitalist history,

but far from uncommon in the modern (especially the developing) world. Formally, it means that the owner of

capital is also the worker, and the system is normally classless. Entrepreneurial capitalism exists when capital

accumulation makes possible a division between owners and employees. The entrepreneurial business class typical of

this phase consists, in theory, of individuals who wholly or substantially own and also control (manage) their

undertakings. Corporate or monopoly capitalism is the outgrowth of shareholding, limited individual liability, and the

concentration of capital into large impersonally owned monopolistic or oligopolistic holdings through banks and

finance houses. It is identified with the growth of corporations and a division of labour, supposedly through

shareholding, between owners and managers. (do.)

or even being maintained by the dominant one through a process of‘articulation’ of modes

production, more than one mode of production could be observed. For example, from the later half

of Meiji era to the end of Taisho, this seemed to be the case in Japan. Here I will come back later a

little more in detail.

Industrialism

So-called representative industrialism was, certainly, observed in the changes that took place in

Britain during and after the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and 19th centuries. England, thus,

provided with a prototype for the industrialism, the transition in methods of production, at the time.

Setting out from agrarian societies into industrial states, a number of nations in Western Europe and

North America also followed the precedent. Along with such technological components as the

mechanization of labour and the reliance upon inanimate sources of energy in particular, the process

of industrialization entailed profound socioeconomic developments. Industrialization has been

responsible for the vastly increased wealth-creating capacity of modern societies compared with

dated traditional systems.3

The term industrial should therefore be applied to modern methods of raising productivity in

agriculture and other industrial sectors,4 due to mainly such factors as division of labour, application

of scientific methods, factory system and mechanization, socially and geographically mobile labour-

force and so on.

Factory system had several advantages over older systems (i.e., putting-out system, domestic

system or cottage industry). It provided employment for every member of a craft worker’s family

and gave jobs to skilled workers who had no capital to start businesses for themselves. They brought

workers together under one roof and supplied them with spinning wheels and looms or with the

implements of other trades. These establishments were factories. They gave the merchant a large

supply of manufactured articles at a low price. It enabled him to order the particular kinds of items

that he needed for his markets. A few merchants who had enough capital had gone a step further.

For centuries the craft guilds and the government in England had controlled commerce and

industry down to the smallest detail. The merchants were in the van of developing a commerce

which increased the demand for more goods. The expansion in trade had made it possible to

accumulate capital to use in industry. A cheaper system of production had grown up which was

largely free from regulation. Gradually, people had come to believe that it was better to let business

be regulated by the free play of supply and demand rather than by laws (the doctrine of laissez-

faire).

In due course of time, the English government for the most part kept its hands off and left

business free to adopt the new inventions and the methods of production which were best suited to

‘Modernization’ and Industrialization in Japan Whereby Mingei Idea took Shape 103

3 The freeing of the labourer from feudal and customary obligations created a free market in labour, with a pivotal role

for a specific social type, the entrepreneur. Cities drew large numbers of people off the land, massing workers in the

new industrial towns and factories. Industrialization Encyclop-dia Britannica Article, 2010.4 It is important to add that industrialism is not the same thing as capitalism, for although capitalism was the first and

principal agent of industrialization, it is not the only one. Capitalism pre-dated industrialization and arguably varies

more in fundamental form over time and from society to society. ‘industrialism, industrialization’ John Scott &

Gordon Marshal (ibid.), p. 304.

them. The most important of the machines that ushered in the Industrial Revolution were invented

in the last third of the 18th century. Their invention was not commercially practical, but it was the

first step toward solving the problem of machine spinning.

Modernization

The term of modernity is used to refer to the characteristic stage in the history of social

relations, dating roughly from the end of the 18th century, that is often characterized by the

democratic and industrial revolutions. In the traditional forms of society customs and relations had

been built primarily upon small scale, homogeneous and closely regulated communities. Deep-rooted

superstitions, beliefs, morals, and norms existed alongside repressive laws and serve punishments

for going against to the convention in those days. Modernity is, thus, typically contrasted with

traditional forms of socioeconomic conditions of the historical development.

The transition from tradition to modernity also involved a mass migration from the countryside

to newly expanding cities, a rapid growth in production for exchange, the rise of the money

economy, and the development of specialized division of labour. Much the same might be said of

several other features of modernity, which are variously attributed to capitalism or industrialization,

including the indefinite expansion of markets, the growth of the money economy and the calculating

outlook behind scientific rationalism, and the industrial spirit itself.

In a typical pattern such as the case of British capitalism, its specific historical conditions of

primitive accumulation (the first formation of prerequisites) preceded the capitalistic development.

Primitive accumulation began with the bourgeois land-reform and came to an end with the industrial

revolution. The decisive establishment of the schemes of reproduction, the inner articulation of

capital, landownership and wage-labour played a crucial role in its establishment.5

In Japan, however, an unprecedented case took place and the development, on the whole, had

turned out somewhat being out of or even in a reversal of the ordinary.

The Meiji Restoration radically changed all aspects of the country’s politics, economy and

society. Historians’ preoccupations were, accordingly, the nature of the Japanese constitution and

the problem of the courses of modernization peculiar to Japan together with the overwhelming and

confusing problems of impoverished farmers observed all over the country.6


5 The industrial revolutions in the developed capitalist nations mean the summing-up of the specific historical

conditions of their respective primitive accumulations and, in turn, the setting-up of the specific courses of their

respective capitalist accumulations in which the specific reproduction-movement of the national articulation of

capital, landownership and wage-labour goes on. Oshima Yuichi, “Yamada’s Steep Path to Analysis of Japanese

Capitalism”, Tochi-Seido Shigaku [The Journal of Potitical Economy and Economic History] 24(2), 1-19, 1982.6 Even then, among theorists, there was no agreed interpretation, and assessment of whether or not the restoration

was a bourgeois revolution became a crucial factor in the so-called Japanese capitalism debate. Researchers of the

restoration became increasingly interested in economic causation and structure, and then from the 1920s historians

increasingly tried to fit the Restoration within the framework of critical historiography. J. E. Hunter (ed.), Concise

Dictionary of Modern Japanese History, Kodansha International Ltd., 1984.

B Meiji Restoration in the Historical Perspective of Industrialization and Modernization in Japan

Putting an end to centuries of control by the shoguns, the Meiji emperor also discontinued the

ancient land system to break up vast holdings of formerly powerful lords and to begin an era of

major political, economic, and social change known as the Meiji period (1868-1912). He remained in

power until his death on July 30, 1912. Meiji welcomed ‘modernization’ and created a new school

system. A new constitution went into effect in 1889, and the Diet, Japan’s national assembly, opened

in 1890.

It is true that he made dramatic reforms in his reign, but he carefully maintained Japan’s

cultural traditions bound by evil customs which were deemed to be incompatible with genuine

modernity and/or humanity. Thus, strengths and weaknesses of these reforms are open to further

discussion from the view point of democracy and industrialism. However, modernity itself could be

out of step with capitalism or industrialism of individual countries as was the case in Japanese

history.

Modernity and political issues

The official ideology of emperor system of in prewar days was a mixture of Shinto and

Confucian elements, whereby the emperor achieved the position of highest authority with the idea of

an unbroken imperial line of divine descent to act as the axis of a unified Japanese state. This

authority was used subsequently to promote a national unity, which would survive the rapid changes

taking place since the Restoration.7

The leading figures of the restoration, mostly young samurai from feudal domains historically

hostile to Tokugawa authority, were motivated greatly by growing domestic problems and the threat

of foreign encroachment. All feudal class privileges were formally abolished with dismantling the old

feudal regime. These were largely accomplished by 1871, when the domains were officially

discontinued and replaced by a prefecture system. A national army was organized without much

delay, which was further strengthened soon thereafter by a universal conscription law (being

enforced 1873).

In 1889 the constitution, presented as a gift from the emperor to the people, was officially

promulgated. The constitution gave absolutely strong executive powers to the emperor and a privy

council. Legislative powers were exercised by a two-house parliament, or Diet. While the upper

house, the House of Peers, consisted mainly of the new nobility created in 1884,8 the lower house, the

House of Representatives, was elected by male taxpayers over 25 years of age. A prime minister


7 The emperor’s position was legally established by the Meiji constitution, which declared his inviolability and allowed

him wide powers, limiting those of such organs as the diet and cabinet(do.) The official ideology stressed loyalty and

piety within the family, and this was transferred upward to the nation, which was regarded as one large family

(kazoku kokka-family state) presided over by the emperor to whom loyalty at all levels was promoted. These ideas

were increasingly reinforced after the Manchurian Incident [1931] (do.)

8 The peerage of the time was subdivided into five ranks; prince (kô), marquis (kô), count (haku), viscount (shi),

and baron (dan). In addition to the existing nobility, rank was also given to those regarded as having given

outstanding service to the country. They therefore received political privileges as of right, which they continued to

exercise throughout the prewar period.

headed a cabinet whose members, nevertheless, were individually responsible to the emperor alone.

Peasants and labourers

During the Meiji period the agricultural sector was a source of labour, capital, and a potential

market for industrialization, and it provided exports, especially raw silk (by 1913 one-third of total

export by value) in the early stages of industrialization.9 Of those industries that did develop,

textiles were the most important. The farm economy in general suffered over and over again. The

depression gave independent farmers, as well as tenant farmers, a severe level of debt.

Tenant-farmer disputes increased in number, and there was an overall growth in social unrest.

Peasants, distrustful of the oppressive regime and dissatisfied by its agrarian policies, would take

part in revolts and sometimes be thrown into turmoil. Newly-enacted laws permitted the private

ownership of land, and agricultural production under relatively poor remedy had reached a plateau,

and domestic food supplies were no longer adequate as a whole. Imports of rice had to be increased

greatly. By the late 1920s and early 1930s the countryside faced hard times.10

Due to the still-underdeveloped economy, Japanese government of those days realized the need

for increased production. The government established the Yawata (Yahata) Iron Works in

particular, which started production in 1901, and it for long retained its dominance of pig iron

production assisted by state sponsorship and subsidy.11

In reference to modernization and industrialization for Japan, measures were devised to deal

with the rapid changes in the situation and expansion began to take place in the traditional

industries. The expansionary impetus passed to light industry partly to form a capitalistic style in

their infancy. From then on, in the period after World War I especially, manufacturing and heavy

industry under the types of capitalist enterprise expanded rapidly.12 Particularly, from the mid-

1930s the industrial structure was distorted to cope with the war effort. Japan had always been

vulnerable in terms of raw material supply, and this problem became acute in the years following

1937, leading to her coercive overseas expansionism. Since the beginning of industrialization,

military motives and expenditure, on the whole, influenced the deep-rooted pattern of Japan’s

peculiar industrialization.

Throughout this period there was no antimonopoly policy in Japan. Since the Meiji Restoration


9 During the Meiji period the availability of cheap labour (despite local shortages), the size of the international market,

and government-created demand helped expansion, but even 1900 some 70% of the population gained its income

from agriculture (do.)10 The difficulty of subsistence farming and heavy taxes created economic distress, leading to an increase in tenancy

(by 1910 over 40% of land was tenanted) and fragmentation of land holdings (do.)11 Production expanded considerably during the 1920s although private growth was slow and the industry remained

dominated by Yawata and a few zaibatsu-owned companies. Diversification and expansion in the 1930s was greater.

…Total government control followed in the war and lasted until 1945 (do.)12 Throughout this period of crisis, bankruptcies of small and medium-sized enterprises were common in almost all

economic activities. There was also a push for the concentration of capital, resulting in a striking growth in the

power of the industrial and financial combines known as zaibatsu. The Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, and Yasuda

zaibatsu developed into conglomerates between 1909 and 1920, and in the following decade they expanded their

affiliated enterprises and established positions of firm dominance over the Japanese economy. Japan: Profile of

Nation, Kodansha International, 1995, pp. 122-3.

the overriding concern of the nation’s leaders had been Japan’s national survival in the face of the

political and economic threat both at home and abroad. The zaibatsu dominated industry in this

period, exercising an oligopolistic control over a wide range of industries such as manufacturing,

mining, and transportation, as well as finance and overseas trade. In due course of industrialization

in Japan, the so-called dual structure had developed within the manufacturing industry itself. Deep-

rooted economic discrepancy between the relatively small number of firms with capital-intensive

productive methods and vast number of low-capital, labour-intensive small firms and family

concerns had developed. The “dual structure”－the high proportion of smaller-scale business13 in

dependency relationships with larger firms－has continued to be a key character of the Japanese

economy in the post-World War II period.

Economic and social changes paralleled the political transformation of the period in full conflict

with each other. The highest priority went to the development of munitions industries including

transportation, and communications14 and strategic purposes were in effect the primary goal of the

government at the time. The new government also carried out policies to unify the monetary and tax

systems, with the agricultural tax reform of 1873 providing its primary source of income. While the

economy remained widely dependent on deteriorative agriculture through the exaction of harsh and

unjust taxes, forcible measures for the foundations of industrial economy in Japan were implemented

with strong government involvement. Certain types of private enterprises were subsidized and large

factories were built being equipped with the newly imported technology. Carrying the banner for

“wealthy country and strong arms” (fukoku-kyo-hei) with a spirit of emulation, the ruling classes

sought to create a nation-state capable of catching up with Western powers.

Behind the rapid growth in the industrial sector was the sluggish development of agriculture,

which continued to be characterized by a pre-modern tenancy system with small farms averaging

less than 1 hectare (2.47 acres). The cities remained relatively prosperous, however, and industry

continued to grow. Employees of the zaibatsu (large urban business combines, similar to cartels)

enjoyed secure jobs and rising wages. In commerce and industry, alongside the emerging large

modern enterprises, numerous small enterprises and cottage industries continued to exist.15

The growth of labour unions and peasant movements led to the rise of a left-wing political

movement in the 1920s, but the Peace Preservation Law was passed in 1925 to curb pro-communist

activities.16

Nearby Russia had become a communist state in 1917, and China had acquired a new and


13 In 1920s, 60 percent of the nation’s manufacturing labour force was employed by firms with fewer than 10 workers.

The Kodansha Bilingual Encyclopedia of Japan, Kodansha International Ltd., 1998, p.320.14 The first railroad was built in 1872, and by 1890 there were more than 1,400 miles (2,250 km) of rail. The telegraph

linked all major cities by 1880. Private firms were also encouraged by government financial support and aided by the

institution of a European-style banking system in 1882. ‘Meiji Restoration’ Encyclop-dia Britannica Article, 2010.

Apart from non-productive industries, such as communications, the government retained control over the core of

the munitions industry. It also later played a crucial part in the developmænt of heavy industry by founding the

Yawata Iron Works, which dominated iron and steel production up to 1945. J. E. Hunter (ed.), (ibid.)15 This dual structure, as the inevitable result of the persistence of feudalism in Japan as evidenced by the landlord-

dominated agrarian economy and the emperor system, has continued to be a central feature of the Japanese

economy of the times. Despite the modernization of important industries, the income level of the common people

remained low. Japan: Profile of Nation (ibid.), p.122.

vigorous communist party. At the same time, a growing popular rights movement, encouraged by

the introduction of liberal Western ideas, called for the creation of a constitutional government and

wider participation through deliberative assemblies. The emergence of party government was

accompanied by a flourishing of democratic ideas. Intellectuals like Sakuzo Yoshino advocated

greater attention to the needs of the common man. Some social-welfare legislation was approved,

and in 1925 universal male suffrage was instituted.

To sum up the basic structure of pre-war Japanese capitalism, it was composed of the

‘lilliputian’ scales of peasant farming under the domination of semi-feudal landownership, the pre-

modern capital-labour relations, the conjunctive domination of zaibatsu-concerns organized in the

patriarchal system and of military bureaucracy formed in the absolutistic type. With reference to

the national specificity of capitalist development, this basic structure of pre-war Japanese capitalism

has been summed up succinctly as “military semi-feudal structural system”.17

Education and ideology

After the Taisho- political crisis the ideas of liberal thinkers were beginning to spread among

people. Gaining increasing popularity, their emphasis on the importance of the individual and of

democracy was reflected in demands for the greater participation of the people in politics, for

universal suffrage, reform of the House of Peers, and arms limitation. The so-called“democracy”of the Taisho period18 was often contrasted with the“fascism”of the Sho-wa period. In conjunction

with the peculiar pattern of Japanese capitalist development, the nature of the relationship between

these two phenomena remained a matter of historical controversy.

The fundamental concept of so-called Kokutai consisted in, first, the existence of the emperor

as the highest power in the state and, second, the statement of morality of filial piety and loyalty,

which governed the relationship between the emperor and his people which made the nation an

organic whole.19 It is on the basis of these principles that gave concrete forms to the concept of the

kokutai as a nationalist imperial state, where individualism was extremely difficult and undesirable

as well, and selfless devotion to the state was deemed to be the supreme virtue. Advocates of

kokusuishugi were also motivated by an attempt to maintain traditional national characteristics, and


16 It was argued that the Meiji Restoration had been an incomplete bourgeois revolution and elements of feudal

agrarian relations in the countryside did persist, but the existence of such factors as the dominance of financial

capital and the “semiproletarianization” of the peasantry by the 1920s meant that Marxists should work toward a

socialist revolution in Japan. The dispute was largely brought to a halt by the suppression of the late 1930s. J. E.

Hunter (ed.), (do.)17 Oshima Yuichi, (ibid.)18 The term Taisho- democracy is used to refer to the generally liberal trends apparent in the years following the

accession of the Taishoo- emperor in 1912, which were marked by a relative decline in the political dominance of such

elites as the genro-, the military, and the Privy Council, and a relative increase in that of the Diet and the political

parties. J. E. Hunter (ed.), (ibid.)19 As early as the 1890s Christianity was criticized irreconciliable with the Kokutai, and the idea was increasingly

emphasized after the Russo-Japanese War by conservatives wishing to stress Japan’s unique traditions. But the

whole concept of Kokutai and these different attitudes were fundamental to political activity. However, it was only in

the 1930s that the differences erupted into open theoretical controversy, although the contradictions had certainly

existed previously. J. E. Hunter (ed.), (ibid.)

they became increasingly opposed to modernization and hostile to all that it embraced, including

left-wing and social movements.

The government censorship in Japan had reportedly been widespread all the prewar period

through from the beginning of the Edo period until the end of World War II. It was as a whole aimed

at the suppression of antigovernment and anti-imperial ideas and activities, as well as Christian

thought in the Edo period and socialism in the 20th century. The emperor, his sanctity and the

imperial system had been the focus of protection. Socialism and communism rather than Christianity

and anti-Confucian scholasticism, came to be seen as subversive ideologies. Under the 1889 Meiji

Constitution and other statues, the Japanese media were severely restricted before World War II.

Newspapers, in particular, fell under a separate system of censorship,20 which began shortly after

the first modern newspapers appeared in the 1860s.

In order to create a modern educational system and to get soldiers widely literate, compulsory

universal education was instituted in 1872 prior to the attainment of national industrialization. It is

reported that nearly 95 percent of Japanese school-age children were in school by 1905, and Japan

soon achieved one of the highest literacy rates in the world.

Under the slogan of “Civilization and Enlightenment” (Bunmei Kaika), various efforts at so-

called modernization required advanced Western science and technology. Western culture and

fashion, from current intellectual trends to clothing and architecture, was widely promoted and the

object of envy. Wholesale Westernization was somewhat checked in the 1880s, however, when a

renewed appreciation of traditional Japanese values emerged with the strong Japanese spirit. Such

was the case in the development of a modern educational system which, though influenced by

Western theory and practice, stressed the traditional values of samurai, absolute loyalty to the

emperor and allegiance with social order. Much same tendency prevailed in art and literature, where

Western styles were first imitated, and then a more selective blending of Western and Japanese

tastes was actively pursued.

Japanese imperialism and militarism

In the West, industrialization spread, so too did the socialist and labour movements. In Japan


20 The government utilized prepublication censorship under imperial authorization during periods of crisis, such as the

Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, and a censorship agency was installed

in the Arm Ministry (Rikugunsho-). Taisho- period (1912-1926). This was the period of great social ferment, and the

government was heavy- handed in its attempts to prevent the spread of democratic and socialist opposition.

Immediately after Japan entered World War I in 1914, the military ministers announced the implementation of prior

censorship and issued standards for newspaper articles. The Peace Preservation Law of 1925 (Chian Iji Ho-)

systemized the repression of both socialism and the movement for Korean independence. It was later expanded to

include religious groups and intellectuals, in 1928 the death penalty was added for certain violations of the law. An

Ideological Prosecution System (Shiso- Keiji) was established, and a Special Higher Police force (Tokubetsu Ko-to-

Keisatsu) began to deal with ideological offenses throughout Japan. Early Showa years (1926-1936). Systematic

censorship was thus created, and a policy of thorough control was enacted. The Publication Law was revised to

include harsher penalties and incorporate recordings under its provisions. All censorship came under the jurisdiction

of the Home Ministry. In 1936 an information and propaganda committee was formed within the cabinet. JAPAN

An Illustrated Encyclopedia, Kodansha, 1993, pp. 170-1.

this was not the case, as the government took active steps to suppress them at home. The Public

Order and Police Law of 1900 (Chian Keisatsu Ho-) and statutes of this kind21 were largely effective

in suppressing organized union activity by government surveillance before World War I. A police

organization was created in 1911 to investigate and control the activities of political groups and to

prevent the spread of ideologies regarded by the government as a threat to public order. Also known

as the “Peace Police” (Chian Keisatsu) or the “Thought Police” (Shiso Keisatsu), the Tokko

achieved great notoriety as the eyes and ears of the powerful Home Ministry until the end of World

War II.

The Special Higher Police achieved greatest power in the period after the passage of the Peace

Preservation Law of 1925(Chian Iji Ho-)22, which was directed against communists and anarchists,

suppressed the more radical elements within the labour movement. The regulations severely

hindered the liberal movement for a time. Using this broad law, and cooperating with the Ministry of

Justice, the Tokko launched a sustained campaign to destroy the Japan Communist Party in a wave

of mass artists and prosecutions (March 15th Incidence). This growth had implications for socialists,

liberals, Christians, and radicals within indigenous religion sects as well: they, too, became targets

for ideological suppression in the deteriorating international and domestic political climate of the

1930s. The activities of the Special Higher Police continued until the organization was abolished by

Occupation authorities in October 1945.

By the 1890s Japan’s rapid reform, as above mentioned, had somehow made it the most

powerful nation in Asia. Using its growing economic and military powers, Japan sought to build an

empire of its own. To achieve this objective she fought two major wars. Japan was well on its way to

becoming a modern industrial nation.

By the early 20th century, the goals of the Meiji Restoration had seemingly been accomplished.

Japan, thus, managed to gain respect in the eyes of the Western world, appearing for the first time


21 Public Meeting Regulations 1880 (Shu-kai Jo-rei): Political societies and public meetings had to be registered in

advance with the police. Outdoor meetings and contract between political associations were forbidden, as well as

political activity by teachers, soldiers, and students. J. E. Hunter (ed.), Concise Dictionary of Modern Japanese

History, Kodansha International Ltd., 1984. Peace Regulations 1882 (Hoan Jo-rei): The regulations forbade the

existence of secret societies or meetings, gave the police authority to ban any mass meeting and the circulation of

“dangerous”literature, and, most importantly, allowed the Home Ministry to expel all those judged to be plotting or

inciting a disturbance or to be a danger to public from within a radius of 3 ri (7 2/3 miles) of the imperial palace in

Tokyo (do.) Peace Police Law 1900 (Chian Keisatsu Ho-) : It was aimed primarily at antigovernment groups, in

particular the nascent labour movement. Its provisions included a ban on political activity by soldiers, police, priests,

women, and minors (article 5); a ban on secret associations; the right of the Home Ministry to prohibit any

association; compulsory registration of political societies and meetings with police; the right of the police to forbid,

attend, or disband meetings, discussions, and demonstrations; and a ban on labor organization and strike activity

(article 17) (do.)22 Peace Preservation Law 1925 (Chian Iji Ho-): The law was clearly aimed at the more extreme left-wing movements,

but the vagueness of its wording and possibility of loose interpretation meant that altogether some tens of thousands

of people were arrested in its name, including many liberals. A 1928 amendment by emergency imperial decree made

the lawﾕs provisions much harsher, including allowing the death penalty to be imposed, and a 1941 revision

broadened its scope to include such things as preventive arrest. The law was rescinded in October 1945. J. E. Hunter

(ed.), (do.)

on the international scene as a major world power. In 1910 Japan annexed Korea and in September

1931 the imperialistic army engineered a complete takeover of Manchuria. In 1932 a puppet state,

renamed Manchukuo, was established there. Japan held onto them until 1945, the end of World War II.

As things had grown more and more serious at home and aboard, ultranationalist military

officers and civilians began to attack leading government officials in Japan. Prime Minister Tsuyoshi

Inukai was assassinated in 1932. Although a rebellion by military extremists in February 1936 was

defeated, the political parties were losing control of the government. Cabinets were increasingly

dominated by militarists, and Japanese military involvement on the Asian mainland rapidly

expanded. In 1940 Japanese troops were deployed into French Indochina and signed the Tripartite

Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

Concluding Remarks

At the stage of industrial capitalist development, medieval goods and customs had almost gone

in Britain. Historical products in the country were almost washed away into the open sea amid

modern commercial floods. In Japan, however, the corresponding stage was extremely retarded, and

many products and social conventions remained untouched in those days. Particularly, within the

range of countryside, many staples and daily necessities in streets were produced in the traditional

fashion.23

That is, manufacturing system was still of much feudal nature and medieval artisans played

unavoidable important roles in the economy, of which their products and circulation of handicrafts

consisted main stem of the country of the times. In other words, here modern wage earners were

scarcely observed at this stage, with certain exceptional cases in large state-run enterprises and

strategic big private companies in Japan. As far as daily necessities among ordinary people are

concerned, the problem of modern wage-earners as worker did not matter at all. That is perhaps

why Yanagi did not pay any sincere attention to the life and labour of working people, except the

anonymous artisans with absolute self devotion to ‘the Other Power’, borrowed idea from traditional

Japanese Buddhism. The idea itself might possibly sound an Aesopian language he consciously or

unconsciously applied in order to cleverly escape the established rigid censorship of the times.

While carrying on their work, artisans have to fulfil, so to speak, coupled functions at the same

time, i.e. spiritual devotion and concrete physical activity. There lies a big difference between Morris

and Yanagi in the way of tackling with the matters, probably due to the actual stages of

modernization and industrialism in each country. Morris focused on the both sides by referring to

the joy of labour and life of people. Yanagi, however, put the stress exceedingly on spirituality

among those people involved not only as artisan but also as consumer of Mingei.


23 From the beginning to the middle of the Meiji period,.... a great deal of attention was paid to traditional crafts and

they were used as part of the government’s economic strategy to balance international trade. ...For Japan, whose

technological level was far behind the West, the significance of handicrafts lay in the fact that they were considered

to be original export products. Yuko Kikuchi, ‘The Myth of Yanagi’s Originality: The Formation of Mingei Theory

in its Social and Historical Context’, The Design History Society. Journal of Design History Vol. 7 No. 4, 1994, p. 256.

It is true that W. Morris and S. Yanagi are both medievalists in a sense, and they share a

number of overlapping facets of their socioeconomic aspects against the evil of capitalist

development itself.24 None the less the crux of the matter they tackled with seems not necessarily to

be of the same kind. Morris tried to retrieve ‘joyful labour’, ‘the fulfilment of the creative

potentialities of the labourer’ and The Earthly Paradise to the citizen of modern time as the core of

his issues. He finally made himself a socialist in order to get the historical solution for the core

problems materialized. On the other hand, Yanagi putted the beauty of daily necessities

manufactured in the medieval fashion to the heart of the matter. In this respect, he had hardly

exceeded the boundary of aestheticism (beauty of usefulness) based on the medieval spirit and

fashion. It comes across to us that his Mingei idea is the reflection of the times he was inevitably

engaged in and his proper talent and keen idea as to human feelings as well.

National sovereign resided solely in the emperor. The power of the emperor was carried out

through his strong bureaucratic government. The casual profanity of people might have led to

capital punishment on a charge of lese majesty as the case may be. The orders and wishes they

shared were unilaterally conveyed to vassals and subjects all over the country. They used to put a

number of pressures on the life of the people by resorting to coercive measures. It was eventually

required the nation to obey the authorities without question. People in general were deprived of their

civil liberties including fundamental human rights. The measures taken by the police to maintain law

and order became more and more oppressive during the period. In a sense, the political climate was

not only less modernized but also remained positively absolutist and expansionist as well.

Thought police exerted strict control over ideas and prohibited people from movements

involving internal and external thoughts without official approval. At the time once regarded as

heresy, people could be taken as if they dared to fly in the face of Providence. Some

unconventionality involving ideological issues might have led to the crime of espousing dangerous

ideas and/or political offense. People had to go through many hardships to learn how to get along

safe in life. “It’s no use kicking against the pricks.” Many of them used to swallow whatever they

were asked to do almost without thinking, because they could not help it. The truth of the matter is

that ‘modernization’ in Japan was in this sense almost nothing but superficial.

Although there were some sort of breaks with the stimulus of the Russian revolution and more

liberal environment of Taisho Democracy, the side effects of the High Treason Incident25 lasted

eventually until after World War II.

The concept of Mingei and the relevant movement are quite an achievement, but they are the


24 Industrialization had only just begun in Japan so it was still too early to see the ills of industrial civilization.

...Although the terminologies were different, Yanagi’s application of Western concepts derived from Morris is easily

recognizable (do.)

25 High Treason Incident During May-June 1910 several hundred socialists and anarchists throughout Japan were

interrogated by the police. An anarchist plot to assassinate Emperor Meiji that led to mass arrests of left-wing

activists in 1910 and culminated in the execution of Ko-toku Shusi and 11 other alleged conspirators in 1911. In the

secret trial December 1910-January 1911 most of the defendants denied the existence of such a plot. In defence,

moreover, it was argued that Katsura government’s suppression of socialism was itself responsible for the growth of

any extremist plots that might exist. After a preliminary investigation conducted by government prosecutors, in

which hundreds of left-wing activists and sympathizers were interrogated. Of these 26 were brought to trial on

historical evidence of products under the particular socioeconomic conditions of the times rather

than mere ‘application of Western concepts derived from Morris’ or ‘oriental orientalism’. Yanagi

was critical about the expansionist policy implemented by the governments of the time, and he was

sometimes placed under the close surveillance by the authority. However, it seemed that he somehow

got around various kinds of the suppressive steps, from which the common people seemed to have

hardly liberated themselves. Without his beneficial family background, he might have been deprived

of his lucky foothold in his profession. His father Naruyoshi Yanagi was Rear Admiral, Marq. and

Member of the House of Peers. Fortunately he was perhaps blessed both with his own talent and

aristocratic descent. Yanagi’s keen insight into Mingei was matched by aesthetic achievements

concerning handicraft objects of the medieval time.

He devoted much of his energy to the aesthetic discovery of daily necessities rather than the

mainstream of traditional viewpoint of beauty. He also showed himself as a passionate defender of

the masses’ belongings and of certain aspects of their humanities as artisan, who had been deprived

and distained throughout the age of feudalism. He had progressive ideas ahead of his time and tried

to stick to his conviction in order to accomplish his object with dauntless courage. He was a

discerning person rather than a copycat of Arts and Crafts movement in the West.

(This work was supported by a JSPS Asia Core program.)

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佐中　忠司（地域文化政策学科）

（2011. 10. 24 受理）


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