The Peasant Class in Meiji Japan

Life for the samurai shifted drastically from the Tokugawa Era into the Meiji Restoration, but how were the commoners, like the peasant class, treated when the new government was ushered in? In class, Professor Miller mentioned that at the beginning of the Meiji Period, life for many outside of the major domains was not too different than before. Individuals still reported to their local governments and farming was still a major export market in the country. My paper seeks to explore the shift in Japanese culture for the peasants from the Tokugawa Era to the Meiji Restoration period. This paper will largely target the society outside of major contentious regions like Satsuma and Choshu, which experienced major riots throughout the restoration period. For regions outside of these contentious areas, how was life experienced? While not touched on within the primary sources, my paper will use the region of Kawasaki as a key area to focus on when examining the social and economic shifts from the Tokugawa period through the Meiji Restoration in regards to the peasant class. Unlike the powerful regions of Satsuma and Choshu, Kawasaki was within political proximity to Tokyo and did not experience as many of the institutional uprisings as the other regions. The book on Kawasaki, written by Neil Waters, will prove as a powerful resource to provide a thorough description of life as a peasant. My paper will highlight many of the social, economic, and political changes that the peasants dealt with during the end of the Tokugawa period and the Meiji restoration.[1]