The Historigraphy of the Meiji Restoration

FAIN: FB-10474-70

George S. Elison
Indiana University (Bloomington, IN 47405-7000)

ABSTRACT: Study of modern Japanese reactions to the Meiji Restoration, the restoration of Imperial Rule in 1868 which marked the beginning of Japan's modern era. Throughout the century since the event, Japanese scholars have produce a vast body of interpretative material. The interpreting voices have been discordant and dogmatic. Modern Japanese historians have been obsessed with the need to explain the Restoration's meaning and their views of the Restoration have had a direct bearing upon their attitutdes toward the society in which they live. Fellow's study to explore relationship between historians' views of the Restoration and their attitudes toward contemporary problems. Fellow to work in collaboration with Professor George Macklin Wilson of Indiana University. Two-volume work.