strong political figures in the new government, gradually left the political scene and became merely an element in the growing capitalist class of Japan.
In settling with the Daimyo, the government also gave them titles of nobility in the new peerage it was creating. The old Daimyo were divided into five noble ranks in accordance with the size of their old fiefs, with the last Tokugawa Shogun becoming a Prince and the lesser Daimyo receiving the lowest rank of Baron. Another large element in the nobility was composed of the former courtier families from Kyoto, who had little political influence and were relatively poor. The dominant role in the new aristocracy was in time actually taken by the bright young samurai from the western fiefs, who rewarded one another for their services to the nation with titles of nobility.
Freeing Japan from the control of a small and relatively weak group of Daimyo was a far easier task than stripping the many and vigorous samurai of the social, economic, and political privileges which had made them the dominant class of feudal Japan. Choshu had already pointed the way toward depriving the samurai of their status as an aristocratic caste of warriors, and the new government felt itself strong enough in the winter of 1872–73 to introduce universal military service. Under the able leadership of young officers, such as Yamagata of Choshu, an army of peasants was recruited, first on the French and then on the German model because of the military superiority Germany demonstrated in the Franco-Prussian War.
The loss of his cherished position as a warrior-aristocrat was hard enough on the samurai, but a more seri-