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What Kind of Revolution? Yet, if the Meiji Restoration was a "revolutionary change", can we call it a "revolution"? Hall, for one, seems to question the use of such a term to describe the events surrounding the change of regime: The Japanese political "revolution" had hardly been a revolution at all, for it had been contained within the old power holding group, the samurai class, and it relied upon strong continuities in loyalty symbols and political values. Japan had carried out what was essentially a controlled political reaction, and as some have put it, experienced its modernisation "from the top". (Hall, 1970, p.247) Certainly, historians are agreed that the popular masses in Japan did not play any significant role in the "revolution". Commoners did participate in the armies of both sides - "but only under elite control" (Trimberger, 1978, p 17). They fought as foot-soldiers if they were peasants, or they provided finance...

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