Liquidation of the feudal system samurai class the very potential needed to : Although the Meiji government officials were radical revolution­ aries, they could not abolish the feudal system, Marxian style. And this was not only due to their respect for the feudal class whose members they were. The only army the government had initially, was composed of these very samurai whose privileges

doi:10.4324/9781315019925-29

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Liquidation of the feudal system samurai class the very potential needed to

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ABSTRACT

Many samurai entered agriculture - migrating to Hokkaido, taking up tea growing or engaging in silk worm rearing. Shizuoka's tea plantations owe much to samurai initiative of those years; that area absorbed many samurai who had been bakufu retainers. Other samurai tried their luck with some business where their unbusinesslike behaviour made them proverbial. They were no match for the experienced merchants and lost out in competi tion. The Revised Banking Act of 1876 provided an excellent opportunity for samurai to invest their bonds into national banks, and we find plenty of samurai as eager promoters of national banks. In education and administration, however, samurai found their most congenial occupations. There they were the closest to the former occupations, and with their honesty and respect for authority they made valuable contributions to the modernisation of Japan.