The Acceptance Of Christianity And Its Influence Of The Meiji Era In Japan

The Christianity was introduced into Japan by Francisco Xavier—a missionary of Rome Church of Jesus in 1549.Soon after this,Toyotomi Hideyoshi took policy to prohibit this religion until Tokugawa Shogunate carried out thorough suppression on its believers.Therefore,the Christianity in Japan was hard hit and its believers were almost completely annihilated.In modern times,western countries developed into capitalist countries by means of industrial revolution.Out of needs in capital accumulation,they began to seek expansion in overseas colonies and turned their eyes on East Asia.As a result,Japan attracted western countries'attentions,and became the target that they fight for.For this reason,Japan was unable to continue maintaining the peace and tranquility adorned by country closing policy,and it was forced to carry out the country opening policy,thus putting an end to the introverted status.Various countries began to build embassies in Japan;missionaries came to Japan to make full preparations for religion preaching again.On the other hand,even though Tokugawa Shogunate pined its hope on maintaining feudal governance by establishing triangle model through country closing,religion prohibition and the Tokugawa Regime,it lost advantages of country closing because of country opening.The coming of missionaries shook the religion prohibition again.Besides,the disadvantages of the Tokugawa Regime intensified contradictions between it and other regimes,the movement to overthrow the Shogunate was carried out in Japan.Therefore,the Meiji Government stepped on the historical stage in place of Tokugawa Shogunate.Out of the intention to build a new Japan which can match western countries,at the time of introducing advanced subjects,systems,science and technology,the new government which firmly believed advanced capitalism civilization was still on high alert of Christianity.However,in the crack between pressure of western countries and demand of self reform,the Meiji Government had to change its altitude toward Christianity from prohibition to tacit approval and then to public recognition.However,once Japan realized rapid development by introduction of western civilization,the power of nationalism in Japan was increasingly stronger.The idea of natural rights,freedom and equality advocated by Christianity was rejected for its hindrance to the establishment of the Japanese emperor's absolutism system by government.The altitude of Meiji Government turned to prevent the expansion of Christianity power from previous acceptance,and then the government tried to strike Christianity by means of executing the anti-Christian education.The thesis is based on historical facts,and the specific investigations and analyses are carried out on the acceptance of Christianity and its influence of the Meiji era in Japan from aspect of accepting foreign thoughts.The Meiji era is the ideological trend of trying to build modern country,and trying to establish the Japanese emperor's absolutism system which led the mainstream in society alternately.There is no doubt that the analyses of development status in this era is an important means to grasp the vein of social development in modern times of Japan.The discussion in the thesis is carried out in three chapters.In the first chapter,it is discussed that the acceptance of Christianity was out of demands in building modem country according to four significant historical facts such as country opening policy in Japan,abolishment of prohibition announcement,Freedom and People's Rights Movement as well as Europeanization policy etc.Japan that was forced by western countries to implement country opening policy had targeted at developing into modern capitalist country and concentrated on introducing achievements of western civilization.But in process of introduction,it was impossible to eliminate the Christianity which deeply rooted in their spirits in any event.Therefore,the government had no choice but to accept existence of Christianity through abolishing prohibition announcement and adopt Europeanization policy to publicly recognize Christianity with salutatory attitude at the time of suppressing Freedom and People's Rights Movement launched by citizens.In the second chapter,the establishment of Japanese emperor's absolutism system by government which used means in four historical facts such as State Shinto,Meiji Constitution and Imperial Rescript on Education,disrespect event of Uchimura Kanzo,the twelfth order of Japanese Ministry of Education etc.are discussed.The Meiji Government also implemented the State Shinto policy so as to seek integration of citizens' spirits.However,for the reason that this policy was inconsistent with the principles of separation of religion from politics as well as religious freedom in modern political ideas,the government turned to use Meiji Constitution and Imperial Rescript on Education to cultivate the anti-Christian spirit.As a result,the disrespect event of Uchimura Kanzo came into being,the debate on religion and education in that event became increasingly fiercer and the public opinion began to incline to repel the Christianity.At the same time,the government took this opportunity to publish the twelfth order of Japanese Ministry of Education so as to expand the persecution means from the level of personal belief to surveillance of mission schools.After process of acceptance and rejection,the Christianity had not accomplished its localization in the end,but had a profound influence on Japanese society.In the third chapter,the breadth and depth of the influence that Christianity had on Japanese society in acceptance process are discussed by focusing on three aspects such as transition of Japanese calendar,exploitation of women education,revolution of ethics and customs etc.In the end,a summary is made for characteristics shown on the acceptance of Christianity in Japan's Meiji era and a conclusion is drawn from two base lines such as acceptance and rejection.The Christianity with main receivers of upper and middle class of society fails in realizing its localization in Japan.Even so,its influence on Japanese society is profound and could be found in Japanese daily lives.