| Abstrakt: |
Social thought in the broadest sense has never been lacking in Japan, the researches of Japanese scholars have incontestably shown that not only was the mainland heritage of Confucian and like ideologies zealously perpetuated, but those in addition new departures bearing a strictly indigenous stamp were abundant. This holds true for that earlier period when sociologists were open to culture contacts of all sorts, and for the later era of feudal isolation and xenophobia as well. Unfortunately, however, Japanese treatises in this field have not been translated and Occidental scholars have made almost no researches of their own, so that they are compelled to pass over what is undoubtedly a most interesting body of social lore with this bare reference. It is now a commonplace to say that no nation in recorded history underwent so sudden a transition from agrarian feudalism to highly developed industrialism as did Japan after the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Keeping at least equal pace with the march of material culture went a host of new ideas from England, Germany, France, and the U.S. that challenged and in many instances overcame the sway of ancient lore and immemorial usage. |
