Given the extraordinary rise in activism not only from within the popular rights movement but also from within the Emperor- aligned establishment, it is not hard to comprehend that Ito- Hirobumi felt hemmed in and surrounded by hostile forces in 1880 (and in many regards he literally was). The “revolt” by O–kuma in 1881 was after all one more instance of political opportunism sprouting in the wake of O–kubo Toshimichi’s demise but it came from within the circle that was supposed to be on his side. Accordingly, Ito- could understandably feel entitled to act swiftly and ruthlessly in dealing with it.
As had been the case following the sort of political resolution that was achieved through the abolition of the domains in 1871, Ito- struck out on a bold move to take the initiative by absenting himself and undertaking an investigative tour—this time in Europe. Given that so much attention has been heaped on the liberal democratic movement, it is understandable that the presumption prevails that it was the sense of threat from the more radical parliamentary reform advocates such
as Itagaki Taisuke and O–kuma Shigenobu that drove him overseas to develop a more fully wrought intellectual response. That was certainly true to a certain extent, but the objections that Ito- made to the radical parliamentary reformers hardly needed a tour of Europe to be clarified. On the contrary, it was the need to come up with something to con- vince his conservative colleagues, allies and foes alike, that an alterna- tive to the crude direct rule advocated by them existed and that it was likely to have greater credibility and be more durable.
When Ito- set out for Europe in the March of 1882, he had a form of “insurance” prior to his departure—a special proclamation made by the Emperor, at Ito-’s behest, which enjoined soldiers to serve loyally and maintain discipline. In the month immediately following Ito-’s depar- ture, O–kuma established the Rikken Kaishinto- (Constitutional Reform Party). Thereafter, Ito-’s de facto “caretaker”, Yamagata Aritomo, was forced to deal with a surge in agitation through the popular press that led in April of 1883 to heavy- handed circumscription of the press through new legislation.38
However, from the August of 1882, Ito- had finally found a cogent scholar and commentator on constitutional issues in Europe who also had an eye for practical administration—Lorenz von Stein. Von Stein, far from being a member of the Prussian jurisprudential school, was in fact an outcast and in exile in Vienna. Consequently, Ito- was embark- ing on an extended program of “education” through a series of lectures and consultations delivered by von Stein and a record of those initial encounters still exists. The essence of von Stein’s approach was a certain social organicism which was increasingly becoming an intrinsic element in Germanic social thought through the broad influence of Haeckel and Bluntschli. Most importantly, von Stein advocated the most extreme caution in experimenting in Western representative institutions and constitutional arrangements given that they were themselves relatively new in European experience and only arrived at after an extremely drawn- out period of gestation. It was with a sense of triumph that Ito- could write back to Yamagata to announce that he had found the ideal ammunition to fend off the radicals and, one mustn’t forget, win over the traditionalists who would not have a bar of any institutional arrange- ments that were not the practical equivalents of institutions that had not functioned in Japanese society since the period of the Ancient Court.39
From the February of 1883, Ito- traveled to London where he stayed for two months. During this time, he consolidated his lecture notes and apparently consulted another great contemporary social thinker, Herbert Spencer.40 Spencer’s social evolutionism was of a more thor-
Germanic counterparts, yet he offered more or less identical comments on the proposed constitutional reforms for Japan—Japan must not attempt to move too far from its existing social and political configura- tion as any excessively radical departure would be bound to fail through the lack of requisite experience and social development. After a brief visit to Russia, he departed from Napoli for Japan on 26 June.
While Ito- was in transit, the government was struck by the loss of Iwakura Tomomi who had been unwell for some time. In one sense, it meant that a key advocate of Emperor- centered government was now out of picture, yet it remains true that Iwakura and Ito- had worked well together since the inception of the Restoration, and the death of Iwakura meant the loss of an important avenue of influence within the aristocracy.
As already alluded to, Yamagata had felt it necessary in Ito-’s absence to clamp down on the popular press. Yet, if anything, the general tenor of public order was heading in an unfavorable direction with the radical wing of Itagaki’s Liberal Party getting embroiled in violent acts of political agitation, the most famous being the Chichibu Incident of October 1884 where an alliance of Liberal Party activists and discontented peasants rose in Saitama demanding a decrease in taxation and clashed with the local police. It was quelled by the military in ten days. In a more arcane vein, there was also a plot by radical Liberals to engage in an armed robbery to finance an insurgency—the Nagoya Incident. This was foiled and three of those accused were executed while another 23 were given indefinite sentences of imprisonment.41
At the same time, issues related to Korean–Japanese relations were also resurfacing, this time with intensified conflict over a broader area. The “Jingo” Incident as mentioned earlier, drew the Japanese government into direct conflict with China over Korean self- determination. This had the rather curious effect of drawing popular rights activism into avenues of anti- Chinese sentiment and the promotion of Korean “independ- ence”, naturally with a very strong input from Japan. In the November of 1885, O–i Kentaro was arrested as part of a 123-man contingent that was planning to cross over to Korea and fight against the Chinese. This would have been an enormous embarrassment to the government given its diplomatic resolution of the conflict with China earlier in the year.42