Emperor Meiji personally implemented the Meiji Restoration, why does it feel like a tool man?

As we all know, it was because of the Meiji Restoration that Japan embarked on a completely different development path from modern China, thus taking the lead in entering modernization among Asian countries.

When talking about the turbulent era of the Meiji Restoration, people usually think of the great masters who emerged in the torrent, such as Sakamoto Ryoma, Saigo Takamori, Fukuzawa Yukichi, ito Hirobumi, etc., and rarely think of Emperor Meiji himself first, even if the reform itself is named after the emperor himself.

Some people say that in Japanese history, the existence of the emperor was very low, and even more so in the more than two hundred years of the Tokugawa shogunate's rule, so it is logical that the meiji emperor has a low sense of existence.

However, the Meiji Restoration achieved the revival of the monarchy, and the emperor regained the real power that had been suspended by the shogunate for a long time, and it was reasonable to say that this situation should be reversed.

Take a look at how the Tokugawa shogunate lost centuries of its foundation.

After the arrival of the black ship, the shogunate profoundly realized that with its backward equipment and army, it was impossible to resist the strong guns and cannons of the Western powers, so it constantly signed unequal treaties with foreign countries that humiliated the country, such as opening ports, allowing the powers to have extraterritorial jurisdiction, and ceding tariff autonomy, similar to modern China after the Opium War.

After the Meiji Restoration, it took considerable effort for Japan to abolish these unequal treaties.

Recognizing that the Tokugawa shogunate was no longer able to maintain Japan's independence, there were growing calls within Japan for the shogunate to transfer power, most notably Satsuma, Choshu, and Tosa.

These clans learned the West the most thoroughly in the wave of modernization, not only advanced in military equipment, but also with many open-minded people, including Sakamoto Ryoma and Saigo Takamori and others.

So does asking the shogunate to transfer power mean overthrowing the shogunate and establishing a new regime?

Essentially, but not formally, these people thought of the emperor.

They demanded that the shogunate return power to the emperor, that is, to achieve "the retrospection of the monarchy".

It's incredible to say.

In Japan's more than a thousand years of written history, since the appearance of the emperor, very few people have thought of overthrowing the emperor, and then becoming the emperor themselves, even if the power is monopolized, they will still retain this monarch in name only.

This is very different from China, China has the tradition of civilian emperors, from Chen Sheng shouted out "the prince will have a kind of Hu", the dynasties change frequently, everyone can be an emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhao Kuangyin, etc. are very typical civilian emperors.

This time, the Japanese still thought of the emperor. They wanted to use the emperor to establish a new type of government, but the new wine had to be served in old bottles, that is, not abolishing the monarch, but implementing a new policy, that is, the Meiji Restoration.

That's how Emperor Meiji was thrust onto the stage of history.

In other words, at the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, the emperor was a passive character. It was not the Emperor who wielded considerable power and his own strong will to take the initiative to crush the shogunate, but Saigo Takamori and these people pushed him forward.

Therefore, it can be said that at the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, the emperor could not get rid of the fate of playing a tool man.

Although Emperor Meiji came to the stage of history as a tool man, in fact, during his forty years on the throne, Emperor Meiji had a high sense of existence.

Among them, emperor Meiji's personal factors are very large.

As a monarch, he was a "Ming Jun", and in that era of alternating between the old and the new, his learning ability, way of thinking, and political strategy were all first-class.

Although history cannot be assumed, I still wonder if Meiji at that time was a dimwitted monarch, would Japan's modernization be a different story?

If the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty after the Opium War was a "Ming Jun" like Kang Yongqian, could China's modernization take fewer detours?

To put it further, the War of War between the Japanese-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, which were waged during the reign of Meiji, was probably the greatest responsibility of the Emperor's Ministers of War and Navy Ministers.

At that time, the militancy in Japan was high, and every Japanese wanted to improve Japan's international status and gain practical benefits by fighting with foreigners. To some extent, these major ministers were also in this mood, but Emperor Meiji acquiesced to their approach, and after the war began, he was even more involved in the planning of the war.

History cannot assume that although the reforms of the Meiji Restoration prompted Japan to achieve rapid modernization, they inevitably embarked on the terrible path of militarism, and until now they have deeply affected Japan's domestic politics, and it has to be said that it is also a tragedy.

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