ABSTRACT
The Meiji Revolution was one of the great revolutions in modern history. It was a great revolution because it dissolved the aristocracy with little bloodshed or sacrifice. Moreover, it resulted after 1890 in a constitutional monarchy that afforded basic civil rights – a system comparable to those established in the West after the French Revolution. Yet it is largely forgotten today. The Meiji Revolution seldom appears in books that analyse revolutions or comparative history.1
