as only 15 all the power of the new restored Emperor fell not in his hands but instead in the hands of his close advisors. These advisers such as PrinceSaionji, Prince Konroe, and members of the Satsuma and Choshu clans who had been members of the imperialist movement eventually wound up involving into the Meiji Bureaucracy and Genro of the Meiji Era.Footnote9 Once in control of the government the Meiji Leaders and advisors to the Emperor reversed their policy of hostility to Foreigners.Footnote10 They did this because after Emperor Komeo (who was strongly opposed to contact with the west) died in 1867 the Meiji Emperor's advisors were no longer bound by his Imperial Will. Being anti-western also no longer served the purposes of the Meiji advisors. Originally it was a tool of the imperialist movement that was used to show that the Shogun was not acting out the Imperial Will. Now that the Shogun and Komeo Emperor were dead there was no longer a reason to take on anti-foreign policies. The choice of the imperial thrown by the imperialists as a point for Japan to rally around could not have been more wise. Although the imperial institution had no real power it had universal appeal to the Japanese public. It was both a mythic and religious idea in their minds.Footnote11 It provided the Japanese in this time of chaos after coming in contact with foreigners a belief in stability (according to Japanese myth the imperial line is a unbroken lineage handed down since time immortal), and it provided a belief in the natural superiority of Japanese culture.Footnote12 The symbolism of the Emperor helped ensure the success of the restorationists because it undercut the legitimacy of the Shogunate's rule, and it strengthened the Meiji rulers who claimed to act for the Emperor. What is a great paradox about the Imperialist's claims to restore the power of the Emperor is that the Meiji rulers did notrestore the Emperor to power except sy...
