Editing Charter Oath (section)

==Origin and subsequent influence==
The first draft of the Oath was written by junior councilor [[Yuri Kimimasa]] in January 1868, containing progressive language that spoke to the frustrations that the radical but modestly born Meiji leaders had experienced in "service to hereditary incompetents".<ref name="Jansen 2002, p. 338">Jansen (2002), p. 338.</ref> Yuri's language was moderated by his colleague [[Fukuoka Takachika]] in February to be "less alarming", and [[Kido Takayoshi]] prepared the final form of the Oath, employing "language broad enough to embrace both readings".<ref name="Jansen 2002, p. 338"/> The Oath was read aloud by [[Sanjō Sanetomi]] in the main ceremonial hall of the [[Kyoto Imperial Palace]] in the presence of the Emperor and more than 400 officials. After the reading, the [[kuge|nobles]] and ''[[daimyō]]s'' present signed their names to a document praising the Oath, and swearing to do their utmost to uphold and implement it. Those not able to attend the formal reading afterwards visited the palace to sign their names, bringing the total number of signatures to 767.<ref>Keene, Meiji and His World, page 140</ref>

The purpose of the oath was both to issue a statement of policy to be followed by the post-[[Tokugawa shogunate]] government in the Meiji period, and to offer hope of inclusion in the next regime to pro-Tokugawa domains. This second motivation was especially important in the early stages of the [[Meiji Restoration|Restoration]] as a means to keep domains from joining the Tokugawa remnant in the [[Boshin War]]. Later, military victory "made it safe to begin to push court nobles and ''daimyō'' figureheads out of the way".{{attribution needed|date=December 2016}}<ref>Jansen (2002), 342.</ref>

The promise of reform in the document initially went unfulfilled: in particular, a parliament with real power was not established until 1890, and the [[Meiji oligarchy]] from [[Satsuma han|Satsuma]], [[Chōshū Domain|Chōshū]], [[Tosa Domain|Tosa]] and [[Hizen Domain|Hizen]] retained political and military control well into the 20th century. In general, the Oath was purposely phrased in broad terms to minimize resistance from the ''daimyōs'' and to provide "a promise of gradualism and equity":{{attribution needed|date=December 2016}}<ref>Jansen (2002), p. 339</ref>

{{quotation|"Deliberative councils" and "public discourse" were, after all, terms that had been applied to cooperation between lords of great domains. That "all classes" were to unite indicated that there would continue to be classes. Even "commoners" were to be treated decently by "civil and military" officers, the privileged ranks of the recent past. No one was likely to be in favor of the retention of "evil customs"; a rather Confucian "Nature" would indicate the path to be chosen. Only in the promise to "seek knowledge throughout the world" was there a specific indication of change; but here, too, late Tokugawa activists had deplored the irrationality of Japan's two-headed government as the only one in the world. Moreover the search would be selective and purposeful, designed to "strengthen the foundations of imperial rule".<ref>Jansen (2002), p. 339.</ref>}}

The Oath was reiterated as the first article of the constitution promulgated in June 1868, and the subsequent articles of that constitution expand the policies outlined in the Oath.<ref>De Bary ''et al.'', pp. 672–673.</ref> Almost eighty years later, in the wake of the [[World War II|Second World War]], [[Hirohito|Emperor Shōwa]] paid homage to the Oath and reaffirmed it as the basis of [[kokutai|"national polity"]] in his [[Humanity Declaration|Imperial Rescript on National Revitalization]].<ref>De Bary ''et al.'', p. 1029. Jansen (2002), p. 339.</ref> The ostensible purpose of the rescript was to appease the American occupiers with a renunciation of imperial divinity, but the emperor himself saw it as a statement of the existence of democracy during the [[Meiji era]].<ref>Dower, 1999, pp. 314, 317.</ref>