Professor Matsuzaki Reimagines Violence and Statebuilding in Meiji Japan

Kashmala Khan ’29

Staff Writer

During common hour on Nov. 20, Associate Professor of Political Science Reo Matsuzaki delivered a compelling and revisionist look at Japan’s Meiji period (1868-1912) in a talk titled “The Gangs of Tokyo: Violence, Party Politics, and the Making of Modern Japan.” Common hour occurs on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and is a period when no classes are held in order to welcome lectures, panels, and meetings. The lecture itself was part of the Faculty Research Series, which presents research work conducted by faculty members at Trinity College. Matsuzaki aimed to reform long-standing assumptions about Japan’s modernization by describing how the early Japanese regime was far less orderly and disciplined than typically portrayed; it also explained that the state’s foundations were deeply enmeshed with violence and political performativity. 

The research itself stemmed from a collaboration between Matsuzaki and Kaz Osawa ’27. Matsuzaki told the Tripod that Osawa first engaged with the topic in POLS 318: “Statebuilding,” where he researched gambling networks and stumbled upon the sōshi gangs discussed in the talk. With support from a summer independent research grant, he spent part of his summer collecting archival material in Japan. Matsuzaki outlined that this collaboration “is a model of how students can end up doing innovative research on campus with faculty.”

The lecture commenced with a review of the two dominant academic interpretations through which the Meiji state-building can be reviewed: the Weberian model, which casts Japan as a rational bureaucracy with a monopoly on violence, and the Foucauldian model, which illustrates the dispersed surveillance and discipline across various public and private spheres. While both perspectives encapsulate some elements of the picture, Prof. Matsuzaki postulated that they obscure a critical reality: the Meiji state was “porous,” as it selectively enforced laws and deliberately tolerated violence and illegality when advantageous or serving partisan interests.  

The slides from the presentation showcased the dramatic expansion of policing and the development of seemingly effective statecraft/bureaucratic apparatus. However, a striking peculiarity was that serious crimes still went undetected. The Japanese state allowed entire spheres of life to operate outside of formal oversight whilst displaying a performance of control. 

The crux of the discussion were the sōshi, who were initially young political activists that had evolved into armed gangs used by rival parties during Japan’s early interactions with parliamentary elections. Beginning in the late 1880s, politicians from the Liberal Party (Jiyūtō) and the Constitutional Reform Party (Kaishintō) recruited their own sōshi groups, which escalated tensions and violence. Prof. Matsuzaki highlighted that, during the 1890 election, these gangs openly engaged in voter intimidation tactics and used concealed sword-canes.

Despite its growing police force, the government often allowed sōshi violence to perpetuate, especially when it was targeted towards opposition factions instead of the state itself. Public scrutiny eventually compelled the state to act, yet rather than eliminating the gangs, officials helped reorganise them into the “ingaidan,” who were nominally party auxiliaries that in reality continued to perform intimidation and violence simply under a different label.

Matsuzaki painted this aspect of the Meiji regime as a strategy of performative law enforcement. The police created a facade of strict oversight by briefly detaining gang members for minor infractions, but releasing them afterwards without charges. Meanwhile, sōshi themselves played along with the pretense by disguising political rallies as “sporting events” or dressing in costume to evade bans. These performances sustained the illusion of an order state whilst allowing the state to pursue their personal political goals. 

In his concluding slides, Matsuzaki postulated that Meiji Japan illustrates a broader lesson of how statebuilding is inseparable from regime-building, and political power is often consolidated through performativity and toleration. Prof. Matsuzaki emphasised that these lessons reflect his overall research agenda, including his award-winning work on “facade fictions” and forthcoming articles on political simulation. 

The event drew considerable engagement from students and faculty, with around 50 audience members in attendance.