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A plan for manufacturing arms and ammunition was also laid down. In this work it was, of course, necessary to specially instruct workmen. The art of medicine could not be neglected, as it had been under the feudal system, and a school for surgeons was established. Thus, regular courses in the branches of infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineering, transport, and surgery were carefully initiated and received with enthusiasm. For the instruction of under-officers, educational institutions were founded in the various corps.

In 1883 the army was reconstructed and increased to 200,000 men, which were to make six shidan of national forces and one shidan of the Imperial bodyguard. Even after this reorganization the strength of the standing army was still far short of what was first intended in 1873—400,000 men. This was owing to the fact that the national funds had to be distributed among various urgent requirements. The construction of forts for coast defence, the extension of military education, the establishment of arsenals—one in Tokyo and another in Osaka—and also of powder factories, claimed considerable sums of the money available.

In 1896 the Imperial army again underwent a change after the Chino-Japanese War. At last, by this reorganization, the military strength, as at first projected in 1871, was realized, after a long and patience-trying period. The standing army now numbers 500,000 men, who are formed into twelve shidan (divisions) of mixed command and one division of the Imperial Bodyguard.

Returning to the time when the system of conscription was first introduced, it must be remembered that it was one of the vital portions of the works undertaken after the Restoration. It meant that the 400,000 families of the shizoku had to abandon their hereditary rights and duties as soldiers, together with their hereditary fees, given in rice. Certain sums were allotted to them from the national finances in proportion to the amount of fees which they used to receive. All the daimyos, or feudal lords, had also to give up their dominions; their castles and fortifications were placed under the care of the War Department. It was the abolition of the long-existing feudalism in Japan—a great revolution. The most influential class of the people under this system were the shizoku, and the people who suffered most in honour and in interest under the new régime were the shizoku.

As a consequence of this, in 1874 the shizoku of Hizen broke forth in rebellion—known as the Saga affair—and in 1876 Maibara, an ex-retainer of the daimyo Mori, revolted against the Government with many followers. In the same year many of the shizoku of Chikuzen also rose in insurrection. Fortu-