This paper examines : (1) the profile of Okada Torajiro (the "Founder") (2) the first appearance and development of the Okada Method, (3) the evolution and spread of the Okada Method and (4) the relationship between breathing and sitting and the further evolution of the technique. During the Meiji era, the three major schools of exercise were : (1) the Okada breathing/sitting method (the "Okada Method"), (2) the Futaki breathing method and 3) the Fujita breath-mind harmonizing method. Such exercise methods were better suited to the Japanese lifestyle, which, unlike Western exercises focused more upon breathing and meditation, than physical stamina and strength. Unfortunately, due to the fact that these exercises were taught entirely outside of the education system, no record of formal research exists. In fact, the Founder never wrote a manual on the method that bears his name. As a result, some aspects of the Okada Method cannot be specifically attributed to the Founder, and consequently one must examine the method using related resources. The Okada Method, constructed from related writings is divided into breathing and sitting methods. The sitting method is the primary exercise, which is then combined with the breathing method, completing the exercise. The breathing method, also called "reverse breathing" or "chest-type breathing" involves filling the chest on inhalation and pushing out the abdomen on exhalation, rather than the more common contraction of the abdomen, hence the term "reverse breathing". A further complication of the fact that no definitive work is attributable to the author of the Okada Method is that variations of the method exist. For example, hand and leg positioning in the sitting method vary according to the author of the text. The differences, however, subtle and are cause for little concern, as the essence of the breathing and sitting method are uniform.

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In this paper, by focusing upon three Cabinets-the first Okuma Cabinet (the first party Cabinet in Japan), the second Yamagata Cabinet and the fourth Itoh Cabinet, the author attempts to examine how the relationship between the politico-bureaucracy and the cabinets changed. Though many historians have focused on the same era, they give less attention to this change than is warranted. By discovering a new source material related to the Rinji Seimu Chosakai (Special commission for policy affairs research), the author has paved the way to examining such change. He makes the following three points. The first deals with the Kenseito party and its internal conflict. While the Shinpo faction intended to intervene structurally in the bureaucracy, the Jiyu faction intended to cooperate with the bureaucrats to extend its power. This confliction ultimately led up to the collapse of the Okuma Cabinet. Secondly, the second Yamagata Cabinet managed to get along with the Jiyu faction, compromising with them even about the blueprint for a government. Finally, such change in the relationship between the cabinets and the bureaucracy led to the restructuralizing of the Seiyukai party, which was made up of the the Itoh and Jiyu factions and shifted in the relation to bureaucracy. The Seiyukai party tried to wield its influence upon bureaucrats and tried to implants partisan spirit among them. Later on, this effort led to the participation of bureaucrats in party affairs.

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The present paper attempts to identify one aspect of government politics in Japan following the end of the 1st Sino-Japanese War through a discussion of the independence gained by governors of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) from the Ministry of Finance. At the time it was established in 1882 under the Finance Ministry of Matsukata Masayoshi 松方正義, the BOJ was strictly controlled by the Ministry until the appointment in 1889 of Kawada Koichiro 川田小一郎, who after the Sino-Japanese War rose to the position of main policy-maker for the Bank and engineered its independence from the Finance Ministry based on the concept of "trust". In this way, the power base of the BOJ governorship can be found not only in the Banks' relationship with the Finance Ministry, but also from its relationship to the postwar national economy that was experiencing a substantial expansion in investment demand. In actuality, the BOJ was able to tackle in earnest the issues involved in building a national monetary network through the process of returning the banks established under the 1872 National Banking Act to the private sector, which began in 1883. However, the BOJ's economic enhancement, which was enabled by its political prominence, could not ultimately respond to the demand for capital funds in Japan's remotest regions and thus drew a great deal of discontent within the banking industry. The expansion of the unique role of the BOJ as a central bank deeply involved in financial policy-making due to the great economic recovery following the War also prepared the mechanism by which great expectations boomeranged into bitter criticism of the very fundamentals upon which the BOJ stood. The political consequence of this mechanism was the issue of how the BOJ was to be taxed. From the end of 1897, when the first postwar depression began and the political importance of the Ministry of Finance increased in the midst of demands for fiscal austerity measures, it was the Kensei Party's Cabinet 隅板内閣 that had to face the issue of how to control the BOJ, which Finance Minister Inoue Kaoru 井上馨 had failed to solve under the third Ito Hirobumi Government. The Kensei Party's successful solution involved balancing demands for aggressive monetary policy with demands for the decentralization of the banking industry through a plan to establish banks large enough to compete with Japan's central bank. It was in this way that taxing the BOJ was legitimized and the central bank made a part of the fiscal issues of the day. Consequently, the power base of the BOJ governorship was dismantled from the economic side through an offensive waged by a political party intervening in fiscal policy-making through the legislative process, and so on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War, fiscal and monetary policy-making was once more consolidated under the control of the Ministry of Finance.

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Oda Tokuno (1860–1911, Ikuta Tokuno before February 1891), a priest of the Shinshu Otani sect of Buddhism, arrived at Bangkok as the first Japanese student to study Thai Buddhism on 21st March 1888. His dispatch to Bangkok was decided suddenly after Phya Bhaskarawongse (1849–1920) and Japanese leading 3 monks exchanged their views on Buddhism at Rokumeikan, Tokyo on 10–11 February 1888. Phya Bhaskarawongse was sent to Tokyo by King Chualongkorn as the ambassador to exchange the instruments of ratification of the Declaration of Amity and Commerce. Not only was he the best intellectual of Siam at that period, he was familiar with Thai Buddhism and European Buddhist studies.

In 1878 Phya Bhaskarawongse compiled and published ธรรมวินยานุศาสน (Thammawinayānusāsana, Handbook for Buddhist Beginners), probably the first printed handbook of Thai Buddhism.

During the time of Tokuno’s stay in Siam, there were no Buddhist schools established and very few published books on Buddhism. Buddhist canons were still written in palm leaf in Khmer script. The King’s project of publishing Tripitaka in Thai script just started. Phra Wajirayan Bhikkhu (later King Rama Ⅳ) devised Ariyaka alphabet to write Pali text, however it was used only by a small number of Thammayut monks and did not spread widely. Phra Sasanasophon (Sa Pussathewo, 1813–1900, the abbot of Wat Rachapradit since 1865, The Supreme Patriarch of Thai Sangha from 1893 to 1900), a high disciple of Phra Wajirayan Bhikkhu, devised the method of writing Pali texts in Thai script and published a book, มคธภาสานุรูปสฺยามักฺขรวิธิ (Siamese orthography for Magadha (Pali) language) in 1869/70 at the publisher in front of Wat Rachapradit, probably the first Thai book published by Thai publisher.

Both authors of early printed Thai Buddhist books, Rev. Phra Sasanasophon and Phya Bhaskarawongse played important roles in the King Chulalongkorn’s project to publish Tripitaka in Thai script which started on 22nd Dec. 1887 by the King’s address and completed in October 1893.

Oda Tokuno returned to Japan 3 years before printed Tripitaka appeared.

In Siam, Tokuno learned Thai language first at Phra Tamnak Suankularb School in the grand palace. At the same time he endeavored to read the Modern Buddhist by Henry Alabaster (1836–1884) comparing with a Thai book “Sadaeng Kitchanukit” lithographically printed on 21st Nov. 1867 by Chaophya Thiphakorawong (1813–1870). As the Modern Buddhist was a partial English translation of “Sadaeng Kitchanukit”, this comparison was helpful for Tokuno to understand Thai Buddhism.

After returned to Kobe, Japan on 17th July 1890, Oda Tokunou published a Japanese book on Situations of Buddhism in Siam (Shyam Bukkyo Jijo) in February 1891. It is most systematically written introduction to Thai Buddhism in Japanese until today. Its only shortcoming is to idealize and describe the state of Thai Buddhism more than reality. The reason is probably because he did not ordain as a Theravada monk and were not familiar with real lives and practices of monks in Thai monasteries.

Phya Bhaskarawongse offered Tokuno to ordain in Thammayut order by his patronage. However Tokuno declined it and did not return to Bangkok again.

He belonged to Rev. Kaien Atsumi’s faction in Otani sect and struggled with Ishikawa Shundai’s faction fiercely. He was ousted from Otani sect under Ishikawa administration in November 1898, but restored monkhood status in April 1901.

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