Foreigners in the service of the government: An invitation to remain anonymous: The introduction of knowledge and Guido Hulbecki in the shadow of prohibition (early Meiji period, late 1860s-early 1870s)

Foreigners in the service of the government: An invitation to remain anonymous: The introduction of knowledge and Guido Hulbecki in the shadow of prohibition (early Meiji period, late 1860s-early 1870s)

In the early Meiji period, Japan was in a transitional period in which, while the political system was renewed, many of the ideas and institutions remained within the framework of the Edo period. Christianity, in particular, was under strict guard as a prohibited religion, and high bills of prohibition remained in place. Under such circumstances, the government's public hiring of Guido Fulbecchi, a missionary, was likely to cause public outcry and political turmoil in Japan. Therefore, the government chose a form of employment that recognized his abilities but ostensibly did not make him a government employee, deliberately separating the real from the nominal. Hulbecki was not given a government position, but became deeply involved in the formation of the modern state through education, translation, and ideological advice. He himself did not put proselytizing front and center, offering Christianity not as a faith but as knowledge for understanding the ethics and logic of West
ern society. This careful treatment symbolizes the pragmatism of the early Meiji state, which sought to introduce Western knowledge while managing ideological conflicts.