Education and “Civilisation” – Education in the discourse on Meiji transition

Abstract

The ambivalent character of the Meiji transition (Meiji ishin) is well reflected in the terms frequently used to designate the era in Western literature: “Meiji revolution” and “Meiji restoration”. One of the most typical manifestations of this tension is observable in the discourse on the systematic transformation of the educational system; that is, in the tension between Confucian traditions and “Westernising” tendencies of reform. In the present study, based on the writings of the leading thinkers of the era (especially Mori Arinori and the Meiji Six Society), I will examine the aims set by Meiji intellectuals in the 1870s in the field of education.