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genro
2 reference results for: Genro
Columbia Encyclopedia
genro [ Jap.,=elder statesmen], a group that exercised collective leadership in Japan from the end of the Meiji period until c.1932. After the Meiji restoration (1868), Westernizers from the former Choshu and Satsuma domains came to power, abolishing feudalism and modernizing society. Weakened in number by death and political disagreement, surviving members of this oligarchy (among them Hirobumi Ito, Aritomo Yamagata, Kaoru Inouye, and Masayoshi Matsukata) consolidated power (1881) and established a cabinet form of government (1885). They drafted the Constitution of 1889, creating a diet (1890) to check the cabinet, but making selection of the prime ministers an imperial prerogative. In practice, the oligarchs selected the prime ministers and made many decisions that were constitutionally reserved for the emperor. The term genro, or elder statesmen, came into use in this period. For two decades this small group provided stable leadership, ruling actively as premiers and cabinet ministers until 1901, when they relinquished the premiership to protégés. The political crisis of 1912 over the selection of Taro Katsura as premier was a severe challenge to their authority. Retiring further into the background, the remaining genro in 1918 asked Takashi Hara, the Seiyukai party leader, to form the first party cabinet. Kimmochi Saionji, who survived as the last genro from 1924 until his death in 1940, continued to select premiers until 1932 when this power passed to a new group consisting of former prime ministers and court officials.
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Wikipedia
was an unofficial designation given to certain retired elder Japanese statesmen, considered the "founding fathers" of modern Japan, who served as informal extraconstitutional advisors to the emperor, during the Meiji and Taisho periods in Japanese history.

The institution of genrō originated with the traditional council of elders (Rōjū) common in the Edo period; however, the term genrō appears to have been coined by a newspaper only in 1892. The term is sometimes confused with the Genroin (Chamber of Elders), a legislative body which existed from 1875-1890; however, the genrō were not related to the establishment of that body or its dissolution.

Experienced leaders of the Meiji Restoration were singled out by the Emperor as genkun, and asked to act as Imperial advisors. With the exception of Saionji Kinmochi, all the genrō were from medium or lower ranking samurai families, four each from Satsuma and Chōshū, the two former domains that had been instrumental in the overthrow of the former Tokugawa shogunate in the Boshin War of the Meiji Restoration of 1867-1868. The genrō had the right to select and nominate Prime Ministers to the Emperor for approval.

The first seven genrō were all formerly members of the Sangi (Imperial Council) which was abolished in 1885. They are also sometimes known to historians as the Meiji oligarchy, although not all of the Meiji oligarchs were genrō.

The institution expired in 1940, with the death of the last of the genrō, Saionji Kinmochi.

List of genrō

Name Origin
1 Itō Hirobumi Chōshū
2 Kuroda Kiyotaka Satsuma
3 Ōyama Iwao Satsuma
4 Inoue Kaoru Chōshū
5 Saigō Tsugumichi Satsuma
6 Matsukata Masayoshi Satsuma
7 Yamagata Aritomo Chōshū
8 Katsura Tarō Chōshū
9 Saionji Kinmochi kuge

References

  • Gordon, Andrew (2003). A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195110617.
  • Jansen, Marius B. (2000). The Making of Modern Japan. Belknap Press. ISBN 0674009916.
  • Omura, Bunji (1937, 2004 reprint). The Last Genro: Prince Saionji, Japan's "Grand Old Man". Kegan Paul. ISBN 0710309171.

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Last updated on Friday June 27, 2008 at 07:35:40 PDT (GMT -0700)
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