Fukuzawa's experience in Meiji Japan, however, is sharply contrasted by the life story of Kayano Shigeru. Kayano was born on the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido and was a member of Japan's ethnic minority, the Ainu, which are often compared to Native Americans of North and South America. While Fukuzawa Yukichi was one of the most influential individuals in inciting the sweeping changes of the Meiji period, Kayano Shigeru by contrast directly experienced the restoration as one of its imperialization victims. So, while the Meiji restoration was ultimately the event that enabled the nation of Japan to successfully compete with the international powers of the world, the individuals it affected within the countries borders experienced it as both winners and losers.
Of those people who had a positive experience as a result of the Meiji Restoration, one was Fukuzawa Yukichi. Fukuzawa was born in 1835 in Osaka into the family of a low ranking samurai. He was thus destined to become a lower member of the samurai class himself due to the freezing of the social orders which was instituted in 1591 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and permanently locked all Japanese families into the caste which they belonged to at that time. Fukuzawa's father did not care for his profession as a samurai and knew that his son would be destined to the same fate, for this reason he made plans to enter his son into a monastery for a profession in the priesthood where he envisioned Yukichi's best chances for advancement in life to be (Fukuzawa 6). His father died before he saw his plans for his son realized, but he did pass on to Yukichi his distain for the feudal system as is illustrated well in a quote from his autobiography, "To me, indeed, the feudal system is my father's mortal enemy which I am honor-bound to destroy" (6). Surely, his family upbringing had a great deal to do with his drive to eliminate the feudal code, but their were many other reasons for his desire to help his nation along into the Meiji period and the modern world.
