ABSTRACT
The ultimate Meiji slogan of "Enrich the country, strengthen the army" was actually originated in Satsuma by the young Okubo Toshimichi, who was in charge of that clan's modernization plans. Patriots of the pre-Meiji period were revolutionaries. They read intensively and talked even more so, but they were far from being theorists. These were people who had been raised at the academies of swordsmanship and samurai discipline. The Meiji Restoration was the pivotal event in modern Japanese history; it is the starting point for any discussion of major developments that followed in the Meiji period and beyond. The Meiji leaders could call upon a body of samurai and commoners whose literacy was comparable to that of advanced, contemporaneous European countries. The capstone of the Meiji transformation was the establishment of constitutional government. Yamagata Aritomo saw it as such and called it the "Third Restoration." Perhaps this was the most revolutionary innovation.
