To Stand with the Nations of the World: Japan's Meiji Restoration in World History by Mark Ravina (review)

In this expansive analysis of Japan's transformation in the mid-nineteenth century, Mark Ravina departs from more conventional studies grounded in historical, political, and economic perspectives to examine his subject through a wide historical lens. The novelty of his approach to the Meiji Restoration is especially apparent in the initial chapters, whose broad sweep takes in earlier phases of radical change such as the introduction of the Tang model of government in the seventh and eighth centuries and the national transformation initiated by Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the latter sixteenth century. Ravina sees these historical precedents as illustrative of Japan's profound capacity to innovate in the face of external stimuli and, moreover, pursue a proactive and beneficial diplomatic strategy with its neighbors. This perspective is noteworthy because the relative stasis and seeming withdrawal of Japan from world affairs under the Tokugawa government belies a deeper capacity for adaptation and international engagement that has in fact been more persistent than is commonly recognized.

The Restoration needs, according to the author, to be reconsidered in terms of these deeper and more persistent propensities. In their most general form they reveal themselves as, first, a capacity to innovate while nonetheless maintaining a deep sense of continuity from the past, and, second, a readiness to engage with the world—albeit with the express aim of enshrining the uniqueness of Japanese culture and society. Coining new terms, Ravina refers to these two propensities as, respectively, "radical nostalgia" and "cosmopolitan chauvinism." Though not intuitively a comfortable fit within conventional parlance, academic or otherwise, these phrases suggest an important conceptual modification to the conventional Japanese catchphrases that have most often been applied in this context—ōsei fukko (restoration of imperial rule) and wakon yōsai (Japanese spirit, Western learning). The book under review aims in large part to explicate how the author's new terminology facilitates a more nuanced analysis of Japan's development in the buildup and aftermath of the Restoration of 1868.

One of the great merits of this book is its commentary integrating institutional developments with broader historical and social trends. Chapter 2, on the demise of the Tokugawa shogunate, is a prime example. The discussion is at its most persuasive where it focuses on the inherent tension between the daimyo and the Tokugawa regime based in Edo. Ravina explains that stability was predicated on a degree of delegation by the shogunate to the domains (indicating a loss of direct control) coupled with a system of compulsory attendance by the daimyo in Edo. The latter kept people in their place, but at a cost to all concerned that made contributions in the national interest unattractive. This key relationship evolved through a series of reforms late in the Tokugawa era, and Ravina's explanation of these dynamics provides valuable detail and insight. The encroachment of Western imperial powers exposed the shogunate's lack of bureaucratic, military, or diplomatic means to maintain the status quo. The unraveling of the shogunal system became increasingly apparent, it seems, to astute observers including those within the shogunate, but the solution to the threat lay beyond the shogunate's grasp so long as it adhered to its founding principles.

Discussion of the preconditions of the modern "nation-state," a term Ravina uses frequently, also figures prominently in this early part of the book, and indeed it structures the commentary on how figures both within the Tokugawa government and among the anti-Tokugawa forces came to understand the need to create both an integrated state apparatus and a people that could subscribe directly to it. Ravina convincingly articulates how these deeper commonalities of understanding could bring erstwhile opponents together following the Restoration despite their having been mortal enemies during the conflicts preceding and leading up to the Boshin War in 1868. Though Ravina articulates this fundamental theme well, this part of the book...