竹越與三郞와 1890년대 전반기 일본의 역사상

Takekoshi Yosaburo and Japan s Historical Imagery in the Early 1890s

The beginning of the 1890s was a critical threshold in the development of Japan into a modern nation-state. With the enact of the Meiji constitution in 1889, Japan established the parliamentary system. At the same time, new ideas and trends began to dominate the society. In line with the opening of an era of the so-called Meiji 20s, new trends appeared in the writings of Japanese history. Modern Japan s historical narratives began with the publication of Taguchi Uchiki s Nihon kaika shosi in the late 1870s which reflected the spirits of the Popular Rights Movement. By the late 1880s, however, the idea of the nation gained importance. The publication of the first volume of Shin nihonshi by Takekoshi Yosaburo in 1891 was an answer to such changes. Takekoshi s Shin nishonshi depicted the formation of Meiji Japan s from the late Tokugawa period to the establishment of the constitution. In the process, Takekoshi presented a history of the Japanese people as a nation. In short, Shin nishonshi was an important step toward the formation of the modern historiography of Japan s nation-state.