Problems of local control by the central government in the early stage of the Meiji Period still remain unclear. This paper discusses a period from the establishment of the Meiji government to the abolition of feudal domains and establishment of prefectures to elucidate details of local government and relations between problems of local rule and the political process of the new government. Firstly, this paper specifically covers matters which have been rarely discussed, such as functions of the Ministry of Home Affairs (民部官) and the role of the Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, Saneomi Hirosawa (), and describes how government agencies for local rule were set up in the initial stage of the Meiji Period, and other particular aspects of the agencies. The ministry's measures for ruling prefectures derived from an idea of Saneomi Hirosawa, who strove to establish a prefectural government in Kyoto. In explaining the character of these measures, this paper makes it clear that the measures included enlightened spects while promoting centralized rule. As examples, the ministry's establishment of prefectural assemblies and its administrative inspectors sent to local governments are cited. Secondly, this paper describes difficulties in local rule by the new government under pressure from Europe and the United States and intra-government conflicts over local rule. It is pointed out that Saneomi Hirosawa's idea played an important role in the separation, especially the separation of the Home Affairs Ministry from the Finance Ministry in July 1870. Furthermore, it is explain that behind separation there were intra-governmental conflicts over local rule and criticism by local administrators against the two ministries. Thirdly, this paper touches upon the role that problems of local rule played in the abolition of feudal domains and establishment of prefectures in 1871, and other reforms before and after that. It explains that Toshimichi Okubo (大久保利通), who took the initiative in the 1871 reforms, intended to curb the considerable influence of the Finance Ministry for a stable Government while strengthening the authority of the Imperial Court. The basic political course of the new Meiji government was centralization under financial pressure. Based on the analysis in this paper, however, I believe the government's internal confusion, caused by problems of local rule and subsequent reforms of government agencies, characterize the new Meiji regime during its process of establishment.

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In March Cf 1868, the Meiji government's regulations against Christianity were made public. These new regulations in terms of content were inherited directly from the Bakufu. This decision was due to the complicated state of national affairs which included attacks on the government by the remnants of the Bakufu army and the ongoing clashes between foreigners and anti-foreigners. However, once these regulations were issued as law, the government had to preserve them, lest any change weaken its own authority and become a source of criticism against the government by those elements opposed to the new Meiji regime. The exiling of the thirty-four hundred Christians from Urakami Village in Nagasaki was the largest concession the Meiji government could make to foreign countries. This decision was implemented in December of 1869 despite delays resulting from the war. At first, the regulations concerning Christianity had no connection with the plan to make Shinto the established religion. However, this link was made during the government's efforts to retain the anti-Christian regulations. Accordingly, though the government promised generous treatment to foreigners after the Urakami villagers had been exiled, the government did not have any concrete plans to carry out its promise. Only in the fall of 1870 did Christianity become a subject of lively debate in the government, and that was simply because there was a fear of a problem possibly taking place in Kagoshima, the home of many important people in the government. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which had been receiving a constant stream of protests from foreign countries, understood that the problem of Christianity in Japan was an important one in foreign affairs. Yet, it had little power in the government and so did not participate in the making of government policy decisions concerning this issue. Nonetheless, the Foreign Ministry had continued to appeal to the government to keep the promises it had made to other countries. In the spring of 1871 the central government's suppression of the rebel forces ended in success. In July of the same year the "han" system was dissolved and replaced by the "ken" system of local government. As the government continued to centralize power and to institute organizational changes in the governmental system, it then began to show its willingness to change its policy by its handling of the Imari Incident in Saga and its release of those Urakami villagers who had given up their belief in Christianity. Also emerging at this time were demands for the end of any anti-Christian regulations by members of Japanese governmental missions in Europe and America. In February of 1872 when the government's concern over the discontented elements in Japan had come to an end, the enforcing of anti-Christian regulations also came to an end. In this way we can see that while the Meiji government's policy towards Christianity was a concern of Japanese foreign policy, essentially it was influenced more by domestic political factors and changes during this Period.

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Taizo Masaki, the first president of Tokyo Shokko Gakko (Tokyo Industrial School), is most prominently mentioned in “Yoshida Torajiro”, a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson. From 1876 to 1881, Masaki was in Great Britain supervising Japanese students. In the summer of 1878, he met Stevenson at Edinburgh, and told him about the Japanese anti-Shogunate revolutionary Shoin Yoshida, who was Masaki's teacher when he was a young boy. It is not clear, however, what precisely Masaki's main work in Britain involved. In this article, his history and achievements there will be described.
Masaki was born on October 24, 1846 as the third son of Jiemon Masaki, a high ranking samurai in Choshu. Choshu was a hotbed or revolutionary activity against the centralized federal Shogunate regime, and many of his family were likewise revolutionaries, later assuming a number of important roles in the Meiji Revolution. Furthermore, there were many great revolutionaries and statesmen around him including Kaoru Inoue, Takayoshi Kido and Saneomi Hirosawa. Thus, the formation of Masaki's character doubtlessly was affected by them. When he was about thirteen years old, he attended Yoshida's private school, Shokason-Juku. He became the page of Motonori Mori, the Prince of the Daimyo Lord of Choshu. The Daimyo was cut off from the progressive camp, and so Masaki acted as his mesenger.
After the Meiji Revolution of 1871, Masaki was dispatched to Great Britain to study modern mintage technology. In fact, however, he studied chemistry at University College in London. At this time, he met R. W. Atkinson and invited him to go to Japan as a professor of Tokyo Kaisei Gakko. In 1874, Masaki returned to Japan with Atkinson, and worked as an assistant professor for Atkinson for about two years at Tokyo Kaisei Gakko. He taught basic chemistry, including analytical chemistry and chemical experimentation. He was the first Japanese to teach modern Western chemistry in a Japanese university.
In June, 1878, Masaki went to Great Britain again as the supervisor of new students newly selected for study abroad from Tokyo Kaisei Gakko, and stayed there for 5 years. In 1881, he came back from Britain, and became the first president of Tokyo Shokko Gakko (presently Tokyo Institute of Technology). For nine years, he worked earnestly to establish the first Western-style industrial school in Japan. In 1890, Masaki was transferred to the Foreign Office, and went to Honolulu as the consul general of Hawaii. But his life in Hawaii was not long. He returned to Japan in December 1892, and retired from public service for reasons of his health, and he died on April 5, 1896.
Masaki's main accomplishment in Britain can be classified in terms of three categories. First, he took care of the Japanese students in Europe. We can read his annual reports from Britain, which describe the activities of his students. Secondly, he was able to find good teachers for new schools or universities in Japan. One of these was famous physicist Sir J. A. Ewing. In Edinburgh, along with Ewing, he also met Stevenson. It was during this time, that he gave Stevenson his account of his teacher Shoin Yoshida. Thirdly, he conducted research in the area of modern education in Europe. He worte many articles in Japanese educational journals, including translated articles or lectures and his own reports of experience in Great Britain.
Taizo Masaki's achievements in Great Britain were important to education, particularly industrial education in early Meiji Era.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the local policy adopted by the Ishin Government and the process of its implementation. We shall approach this subject by studying the dispute between the Okuma and Okubo factions in the early Meiji Over the financial aspects of the local policy. Bad harvests brought financial difficulties to the government and destitution to the farmers in the early Meiji. The government was thereby coofronted with problems in executing its local policy. Okuma's local policy emphasized tax collection and the concentration of taxes in the national treasury, while Okubo's local policy stressed "benevolent government" (jin-sei), the reduction of and exemption from taxes, and the cutting of government expenses. The Okubo clique appointed most of the local governors and important local officials and established local government institutions according to the design of Hirosawa. But, Okuma's party established a base for the execution of its policy by combining the Home Ministry with the Finance Ministry. Naturally, it then attempted to collect and concentrate taxes, as set by its program. But, such a program faced serious obstacles. The local administration organization by designed Hirosawa had not yet won popular acceptance, though it had already the germ of a new method to rule the people. So Okuma's tax policy continued with the result that farmers riots occurred frequently. Consequently, Okubo severely lambasted Okuma for not breaking up the Home Ministry from the Finance Ministry. After his tax policy had been frustrated, Okuma compromised by separating the two ministries. But, he still imposed his tax policy and also created the Ministry of Industry (Kobu-sho). Thus, the dispute between Okuma and Okubo was due tb the former's stress on the formation of capital because of the western impact and the latters stress on the formation of a political base. Okuma implemented his policy to overcome the government's financial difficulties and form a secure financial basis to let the country handle the western impact through such policies as the encouragement of industry. After the arrival of the West Japan was obliged to have a policy to handle the western impact. This policy demanded a financial base that led to a resolute policy of tax collection by the local governments for the central government. This approach, however, brought about riots by the farmers and further financial difficulties for the government. That, in short, is the conclusion found and proved in this paper.

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This aim of this article is to clarify the purpose and enactment process of the three pieces of legislation (Sanshinpo 三新法) passed in 1878, which comprised the first attempt in modern Japan to institutionally integrate local governance, focusing on the ideas of Matsuda Michiyuki, the policymaker of the Ministry of Interior, who was deeply involved in the enactment of the legislation. The research done to date on this legislation has focused attention on its simultaneous respect for tradition and introduction of innovative institutions, while attempting to link it to the civil unrest threatening the government since 1876 in the form of local peasant uprisings. However, due to a serious dearth of source materials, the purpose of enacting the legislation has yet to be clarified. Here the author turns to the papers of Matsuda Michiyuki in an attempt to shed light on Matsuda's career as a local administrator, during which he formed the ideas that became the basis of the 1878 legislation, and to clarify exactly how those ideas influenced the enactment of the legislation after Matsuda entered the Ministry of Interior. The author's findings are as follows. 1) During his career as a local administrator Matsuda aimed at the establishment of a constitutional government in which the bureaucracy and the people held rights and responsibilities autonomously, in accordance with the vision contained in the founding documents (seitaisho 政体書) of the Meiji Government. Then during his governorship of Shiga Prefecture, Matsuda attempted to articulate the idea of local governance consisting of two proposals for institutional reform-one suited to the status quo and one purely idealistic-based on the organizational principle of national interest and the Western idea of public and private law. 2) After entering the Ministry of Interior, it became clear that such an idea of local governance clashed with that of the Legislative Bureau, forcing Matsuda to bring his idea in line with the Bureau with the help of British legal institutions. 3) While this revised concept did become the government's legislative proposal, its definition of "administration" was seen to suffer from ambiguity. However, since the Bureau wanted the broadest discretion possible regarding "administrative" affairs, such ambiguity could not be resolved, resulting in the new legislation becoming complicated with characteristics of both Matsuda's and the Bureau's ideas.

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Ninjun Takasugi was a granduncle of the great revolutionist Shinsaku Takasugi. Because Heibei Tagami adopted Ninjun as his heir, however, his final name was Uheida Tagami. In the late period of Edo era, Uheida was one of the advanced scholars of the Dutch language in Choshu which had a very progressive Daimyo. He translated many Dutch military books, mainly concerned with modern artillery, and introduced modern technologies to the Shogunate and his home province of Choshu. His translations played an important part in the period of the Meiji Restoration; however, his life and work have not been fully studied or recognized yet. In this article, his life will be reviewed and his achievement in Meiji Restoration will be discussed based on a recently discovered translation by him of an artillery book.
In 1817, Uheida was born as the third son of Kozaemon Takasugi who was great grandfather of Shinsaku Takasugi in Hagi the capital of Choshu. Details of his younger days are not cleared. At first, he entered the Meirin-kan, the academy of Choshu. He studied conventional Japanese curriculums in this school. Then he went to Nagasaki and studied the fundamentals of the Dutch language and artillery. When he was 30 years old (1847), he went to Edo, the capital of old Japan and was admitted into the private school of Genboku Ito who was one of the most famous Dutch-style medical doctors of that period. In this school, many students gathered and studied the Dutch language. In a short time he became the supervisor of students instead of his teacher Genboku, because his ability to understand the Dutch language in the area of military technology was on a par with his teacher Genboku. He translated many Dutch military books for the Shogunate and for Daimyo Nabeshima of Saga. “The Shore artillery defence” is the only work of his which still remains. We found it at Nagasaki Library's Aokata-Bunko. He finished this work in August, 1849. This book was not just a simple translation of one Dutch textbook. In this textbook, he introduced four modern Dutch military textbooks, and explained the defence method of sea shore by artillery. We can imagine that when Nabeshima the Daimyo of Saga constructed his artillery bases on Saga shore, this work of Uheida was very useful to him.
In 1851, Uheida came back to his home province Choshu. In this time, the pressures to reopen Japan to foreign countries became greater. Finaly, through American navy admiral Matthew C. Perry this happened in 1854. After this time Japan experienced a great revolutionary period. As Choshu was a hotbed for revolutionary activity against the centralized federal Shogunate, Uheida acted as a modern millitary specialist at Choshu. He introduced modern Western style technologies to Choshu's military preparation. Unfortunately he did not see much of the results of the Restoration, because he died in 1869, the second year of new Meiji Era.
Uheida Tagami is not too famous as a Western-style Dutch scholar of late Edo period. His period of Dutch scholarship was short : however, he acted as a military specialist and made his mark upon the war between the Shogunate and Choshu, or new Meiji government.

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By examining with whom and how frequently Okubo Toshimichi met with different people during the December 1867 (Keio 3)-March 1877 (Meiji 10) period, the author has come to the following conclusions about Okubo's political relationships. First, his political relations with court nobles and feudal lords (daimyo) who had held high places in the traditional hierarchy of status and authority, including Iwakura Tomomi and Sanjo Sanetomi, became gradually estranged. The decline of the influence of nobles and feudal lords in politics and the contrasting rise of Okubo's influence can be regarded as causes of that trend. Second, Okubo's relations with those who came from the same Kagoshima clan were very intimate throughout this period. After around January 1876, however, he came to rely slightly less on these relations, because with his rise in politics it became more and more possible for him to win over competent officials directly without using intermediaries based on factional ties. Third, those who came from the Yamaguchi, Saga and Kochi clans worked in cooperation with Okubo during the period of the Boshin Wars. After the Boshin Wars antagonism between Okubo and Kido Takayoshi increased. At the same time opposition to the government led by these two men increased from those outside the government. Many men from these three clans played important roles in this arena of political rivalry, and it seems that the inclination towards supporting Okubo was comparatively strong among those from Saga compared to the other two clans. As his relations with the Kido group improved from around December 1870 and the centralization of the government increased, the number of officials from the three clans who attempted to secure closer relations with Okubo increased gradually. However, this trend was also influenced by Okubo's rivalry with the Kido group, the Saigo group and others in the government. Especially after the debate on the expedition to Korea, the status of Okubo rose while the strength of those who had opposed him declined and officials from the three clans tried to consolidate their relations with Okubo. Fourth, clans other than Kagoshima, except for the above-mentioned three, had relatively few persons of importance in the government. Few from such clans played important roles in the political rivalries after the Boshin Wars to 1871. On the whole the relationships between Okubo and those from such clans were not intimate. But as his political status rose rapidly after the expedition to Korea debate, many of them developed closer relationships with him as officials in the middle rank. Fifth, those who had intimate political relations with Okubo shifted, from those who held a high rank in pre-Restoration organizations to those in lower ranks.

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