ABSTRACT
In the debate on the role of Japan as a model for Asian modernization, a central issue is how traditional, social and cultural practices have been transformed in the process of modernization. Insights into the process by which acculturation took place may be gained by the exploration of the way some Meiji intellectuals embraced Western values, as well as by the consideration of the related question of syncretists' approach to their revisionist Bushido in the Meiji period. In this regard the work and thought ofUchimura Kanzo (1860-1930) is of special interest. Such an exploration suggests that there are elements of immutable values underpinning the Japanese psyche that constitute a dominant current in Japanese society, and that should be regarded as remaining essentially traditional. It will embrace the view of a Japanese model of modernity that in the syncretic process has Japan retaining some of the aspects of traditional sociocultural structures but readily abandoning others, to the extent that the abandonment primarily constitutes not a total elimination, but often a submersion, or revitalization of the traditional.
