Grassroots - Soumou

The term has evolved from the meaning of a patch of grass or a thicket to refer to private citizens who are not in government service. It was from the second half of the 18th century that people who stood outside the bureaucratic system began to consciously think of themselves as grassroots, and were expected to act in a loyal manner to work to rebuild the system when it was in crisis. In the 19th century, the grassroots consciousness spread to wealthy farmers living in rural areas, and during the Ansei period at the end of the Edo period, Yoshida Shoin and others preached the grassroots uprising theory (kukkiron) as a political uprising, and patriots began to appear all over the country. Grassroots patriots were mainly samurai who had escaped from their feudal domains and wealthy farmers, and many of them belonged to the sonno joi faction. In the 1860s (Man'en to Keio era), the group started to organize themselves into groups (kusomanshotai) as they were becoming increasingly devoted to Tenchu ​​(divine punishment), and they staged uprisings such as the Tenchu-gumi Incident (the Yamato Gojo Incident) and the Ikuno Incident, but were defeated politically during the Meiji Restoration.

[Takagi Shunsuke]

“Shunsuke Takagi, History of the Meiji Restoration Movement” (1974, Keiso Shobo)”

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

草むら、やぶの意味から転じて仕官しないで民間にいる在野の人をさす。官僚支配体制からはみでた人が意図的に草莽を意識するようになるのは18世紀後半からで、体制の危機に際してそのたて直しに励むという忠誠に出る行動が期待された。19世紀になると、草莽の意識は地方に住む豪農層に広まり、幕末の安政期には吉田松陰らが政治的決起論としての草莽崛起論(くっきろん)を唱え、各地に志士が輩出するようになった。草莽の志士は、脱藩浪士と豪農層出身者を中心とし、多くは尊王攘夷派に属した。1860年代（万延～慶応）には、天誅に莽走する段階から集団化して隊を結成し（草莽諸隊）、天誅組の変（大和五条の変）や生野の変をはじめとする蜂起事件を起こすが、明治維新に際して政治的には敗北した。

［高木俊輔］

『高木俊輔著『明治維新草莽運動史』（1974・勁草書房）』

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