ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how the ethos of the novels mirrored values put forward in government textbooks of the day. It describes the historical, social, and political mechanisms that led to the creation of Japan’s national curriculum. The use of reconstructed Shinto rites at the accession ceremony for the Meiji Tenno and the crossing of Japan indicate how novel the concept of a political sovereign was for most people. By the end of the Meiji era, despite military success, the authority of the Japanese government and the imperial institution it created appeared vulnerable. Fukuzawa Yukichi argued that Japan needed to embrace Western scientific culture if it was to thrive as a nation state in the modern age. Japanese citizens had to identify with each other as much as their government, whilst distinguishing themselves from other peoples as a nation. The paternalistic diagnosis of Japanese society gives an indication as to why ‘vocal literature’ became an essential element in the Monbusho syllabus.
