The Charter Oath Sets the New Government’s Principles

The new government was fighting the Boshin War and still depended on court nobles and domain leaders. It needed to state what imperial rule would undertake beyond defeating its opponents. The Charter Oath supplied five principles, developed through successive drafts by Yuri Kimimasa, Fukuoka Takachika and Kido Takayoshi.

The first clause called for broad meetings and decisions through public discussion. The next two called for united effort in government and for people, from officials and warriors to commoners, to pursue their aims without discontent. The fourth rejected harmful inherited customs; the fifth sought knowledge throughout the world to strengthen imperial rule. None specified an electoral system or a completed set of ministries.

On April 6, 1868—the fourteenth day of the third month in the Japanese calendar—the emperor appeared in the Shishinden at Kyoto. Nobles and lords occupied places assigned by rank. After offerings and imperial worship, Sanjō Sanetomi read the ceremonial text and oath. Participants then approached, bowed before the deities and throne, and signed their pledge. Those absent could sign afterward.

The principles and associated imperial message were circulated. Public commands also continued: the Five Notice Boards prohibited Christianity, collective coercive petitions and flight, while ordering protection of foreigners. The government’s appeal to deliberation did not immediately remove inherited restrictions on inhabitants.

Later institutions gave the promise different forms. In 1869 the Kōgisho received one appointed member from each domain, empowered to propose measures. In 1875 a further proclamation announced constitutional development and new deliberative and judicial bodies. Assembly campaigners cited these promises in demanding a national legislature. The oath remained useful because later participants could argue over how its principles should be carried out.

Background — Principles for a Government at War

The restoration government was still at war in spring 1868. Its army drew on domains, and the government’s officers came from court and warrior backgrounds. A statement of principles could set common purposes while the organization of national government remained in formation.

Yuri Kimimasa prepared an initial draft. Fukuoka Takachika revised it, and Kido Takayoshi further shaped the version issued as five articles. Drafting was a sequence of contributions, separate from the emperor’s role in pledging the final principles.

The text put deliberation first. It asked that government decisions be made through public discussion, followed by united effort and opportunities for people in different stations to pursue their aims. It supplied standards to appeal to without naming the membership or procedure of a legislature.

Its last two clauses addressed custom and knowledge. Harmful inherited practices could be discarded, and knowledge sought worldwide, in order to strengthen imperial rule. Reform and learning were thus commitments within the new government’s imperial framework.

The contributors brought different domain experience into the new government: Yuri from Fukui, Fukuoka from Tosa and Kido from Chōshū. The successive drafts joined these contributions without making any one man the sole author of the final oath. The emperor's pledge supplied authority to the resulting principles, rather than proving that he had written each article.

The breadth of the terms made agreement possible while leaving decisions ahead. Deliberation required a later choice of participants; common effort did not abolish rank; rejection of harmful customs required judgments about which practices to change. Worldwide learning named a direction, without selecting a foreign model or committing funds to a particular institution. These were standards through which the coalition could defend reform, not a constitution already completed during the war.

Course — Drafting, Ceremony and Public Commands

The surviving draft known as Giji no tai taii makes revision tangible. Fukui's archive describes Yuri's written text with Fukuoka's additions and corrections. Draft, final wording and ceremonial protocol answer different questions: how the statement was revised, what it promised and how participants pledged adherence. The draft's existence does not establish a verbatim account of every discussion among its contributors.

The ceremony took place on April 6 at the Kyoto palace’s Shishinden. The original protocol assigned nobles and lords to the main hall and other court ranks to adjacent spaces. Officials prepared offerings and the place for worship before the emperor appeared.

Following imperial worship, Sanjō Sanetomi read the ceremonial text. The oath was presented and proclaimed in the sacred proceedings. The emperor’s concluding statement pledged him to lead the country’s unprecedented change and called on others to work together.

Nobles and lords then approached individually, bowed before the deities and throne, and added their names to the pledge. Absent officials could sign afterward. The procedure expressed adherence to an imperial commitment; it was not a vote by representatives elected by inhabitants.

The first three articles addressed public discussion, united government effort and the aims of officials, warriors and commoners. The fourth and fifth addressed harmful custom and worldwide knowledge. Their wording left the institutions that would implement each commitment to subsequent decisions.

The oath and a companion imperial message were circulated beyond the ceremony. The Five Notice Boards separately set rules for the population: hierarchy remained, Christianity was prohibited, and association, coercive petitioning and flight were restricted. The boards also forbade attacks on foreigners. Principles of reform coexisted with specific commands retaining older controls.

The sacred setting and the subsequent signatures also limited what the procedure meant. Officers prepared the ceremony; Sanjō read within it; nobles and lords then approached and signed. Those named participants supplied adherence through their positions, while absent officers could add signatures afterward. A count of signatures would not measure consultation with inhabitants, and the order of worship and signing was not a legislative vote. The original date was the fourteenth day of the third lunar month, corresponding to April 6, 1868.

Outcome — An Imperial Pledge and Its Immediate Limits

The government had issued a statement connecting imperial rule to deliberation, cooperation and reform. Its concluding call for shared effort gave the five articles the form of a pledge to carry forward, rather than a list of institutions already completed.

The signatures recorded adherence by nobles, lords and officials. Commoners appeared in the principles but did not elect the ceremony’s participants. The oath did not prescribe suffrage, define individual constitutional rights or abolish the domain governments.

The ceremony also brought court and warrior participants into the same imperial proceedings. Its original protocol specifies where they sat, how they approached and how they signed. Participation was organized through rank and official status, even as the language invited broader discussion.

The public notices show the limits of the immediate settlement. An inhabitant still faced prohibitions on Christian practice and collective coercive petitioning. To know what changed in 1868 requires reading the aspirational oath alongside the government’s enforceable commands.

The result joined proposed change to continuity at the throne. Seeking knowledge abroad and discarding harmful custom were commitments sworn in sacred imperial proceedings. That form let reform be presented as the work of restored imperial rule, although domain governments and the civil war still remained. Neither the final clauses nor Kido's participation proves that the later Imperial Diet had already been designed.

For an inhabitant, the notice boards were a separate and more specific encounter with government orders. The language about commoners pursuing their aims did not cancel the ban on Christian practice or restrictions on coercive collective petitions. The contrast concerned simultaneously issued principles and commands, not merely a later failure to carry out the oath.

Impact — Appointed Councils and Assembly Demands

The Kōgisho in 1869 gave deliberation a defined arrangement: each domain sent one member. Members had to be at least twenty-five, could propose measures and were assigned four-year terms. The body soon became the Shūgiin. Domain appointment supplied participation without a popular election.

In 1875, a further constitutional-government proclamation followed the Osaka conference and the return of Kido and Itagaki Taisuke to government. It announced a Senate, a Supreme Court and a conference of local governors. Deliberation and institutional reform proceeded through additional decisions after the oath.

People’s Rights campaigners could cite the oath and the 1875 proclamation in demands for a national assembly. The same promise used to justify appointed bodies could support criticism that consultation remained too narrow. Its later use depended on political organizing as well as on the text.

The oath’s worldwide-knowledge clause authorized learning in general. It named no particular railway, school system or military program. Subsequent reformers had to choose institutions, personnel and funding; the five articles provided commitments under which those choices could be defended or challenged.

The appointed council makes one interpretation of deliberation visible: a domain selected its member, and that member could propose measures. The 1875 bodies supplied another arrangement through a Senate, a court and governors' consultation. Assembly advocates could nevertheless use the same promises to demand participation beyond appointed officials. The enduring issue was who would deliberate and by what authority, rather than whether the five clauses had no political use because they named no parliament.