《Blast From The Past》Chapter 3: Mori Arinori

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Mori Arinori, (born Aug. 23, 1847, Kagoshima, Satsuma province, Japan—died Feb. 12, 1889, Tokyo), one of the most influential and iconoclastic proponents of Western ideas in during the late 19th century.

Mori early developed an interest in Western studies, and in 1865 he was among the first Japanese to go abroad (to the University of London) for an . He returned to Japan after the in 1868 and in 1870 was invited to join the new imperial government. He was appointed an investigator of parliamentary and educational systems and deputy minister to the .

In 1873 Mori, together with 15 other prominent intellectuals—including Fukuzawa Yukichi—formed the Meirokusha ("Sixth Year of Meiji Society"), to popularize Western ideas. Mori, one of the most vigorous westernizers of the group, wore Western clothing, engaged in ballroom dancing, and even advocated the writing of Japanese in the .

After the Meirokusha was dissolved in 1875, Mori continued to serve in the new government, where he gained increasing influence. In 1885 he was appointed the first minister of education. As such, he helped develop a new centralized educational system, including an eight-year program; a four-year middle school course; and higher levels of education up to and including a new national university. These schools not only educated the elite in Western subjects but also indoctrinated the general populace with Confucian and patriotic fervour. Mori's iconoclasm, however, resulted in his death; he was assassinated by a religious fanatic after he allegedly desecrated the , one of the holy places of the Shintō religion.

Meiji statesman

He was the first Japanese ambassador to the United States, from 1871-1873. During his stay in the United States, he became very interested in western methods of education and western social institutions. On his return to Japan, he organized the Meirokusha, Japan's first modern intellectual society.

Mori was a member of the Meiji Enlightenment movement, and advocated freedom of religion, secular education, equal rights for women (except for voting), international law, and (most drastically), the abandonment of the Japanese language in favor of English.

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In 1875, he established the Shoho Koshujo (Japan's first commercial college), the predecessor of Hitotsubashi University. Thereafter, he successively served as ambassador to Qing Dynasty China, Senior Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, ambassador to Great Britain, member of Sanjiin (legislative advisory council) and Education Ministry official.

He was recruited by Itō Hirobumi to join the first cabinet as Minister of Education and continued in the same post under the Kuroda administration from 1886 to 1889. During this period, he enacted the "Mori Reforms" of Japan's education system, which included six years of compulsory, co-educational schooling, and the creation of high schools for training of a select elite. Under his leadership, the central ministry took greater control over school curriculum and emphasized Neo-Confucian morality and national loyalty in the lower schools while allowing some intellectual freedom in higher education.

He has been denounced by post-World War II liberals as a reactionary who was responsible for Japanese elitist and statist educational system, while he was equally condemned by his contemporaries as a radical who imposed unwanted westernization on Japanese society at the expense of Japanese culture and tradition, for example. He advocated the use of English. He was also a known Christian.Smith 1997, p. 88

Mori was stabbed by an ultranationalist on the very day of promulgation of the Meiji Constitution in 1889, and died the next day. The assassin was outraged by Mori's alleged failure to follow religious protocol during his visit to Ise Shrine two years earlier; for example, Mori was said to have not removed his shoes before entering and pushed aside a sacred veil with a walking stick.Smith 1997, pp. 87–88

Mori Arinori's family members:

Children: Hiroko Mori, Akira Mori

Grandchildren: Arimasa Mori, Ayako Sekiya

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