ABSTRACT
Early Meiji was a period in which the vogue for Western things was widespread and the tide of “civilization and enlightenment” swept through all facets of Japanese life. From about the middle of the 1880s, however, the frantic pursuit of Western things began to abate and a more critical, discriminating look at Western culture and institutions came to be taken. This kind of swing of the pendulum was to be expected, for after fairly extensive exposure to Western civilization, the people were beginning to develop more discriminating tastes and faculties.
