| Preface to the English Translation | vii |
| Editor's Introduction | ix |
| Introduction | 3 |
| Japan: A Very Strange Country | 3 |
| The Emperor System as a "Weight Upon the Eyes," | 9 |
| The Limits and Scope of the Problem | 15 |
I | The Creation of A Grass-Roots Culture | 19 |
| The Silent Folk World | 19 |
| First Stirring | 25 |
| Subtle Transformations Toward Modernity | 29 |
| A Sickness of Soul | 40 |
| The Impact of the Restoration on Mountain Villages | 44 |
II | The Impact Of Western Culture | 51 |
| The Approach of Reform Bureaucrats | 51 |
| Advocates of Enlightenment and the People | 59 |
| The Cultural Gulf Between Japan and the West | 68 |
III | Wandering Pilgrims | 76 |
| Restoration Youth | 76 |
| A Spiritual Journey | 84 |
| Grass-Roots Self-Government | 92 |
| Substitution and Restatement | 102 |
| Creating a People's Constitution | 108 |
| Swan Song | 113 |
IV | Poetry in Chinese and Revolutionary Thought | 123 |
| Onuma Chinzan and Mori Shunto | |
| Two Contrasting Undercurrents | 123 |
| Historical Consciousness and Poetic Spirit | 131 |
| The Life of Local Men of Letters | 139 |
| Politics and Literature | 143 |
V | The Heights and Depths of Popular Consciousness | 151 |
| The Voices of the Inarticulate | 151 |
| The Thoughts of Unknown Soldiers | 159 |
| Mountain Village Communes | 164 |
| Abandoning Conventional Morality | 171 |
| The Clash of Ideas at the Lower Social Level | 181 |
| From Peak to Valley | 191 |
VI | Carriers of Meiji Culture | 196 |
| The Establishment of the Japanese Intellectual Class | 196 |
| Opening the Eye to the Inner Life | 207 |
| Views of Civilization | 212 |
VII | Meiji Conditions of Nonculture | 219 |
| Desperate Farming Villages in the Meiji Era | 219 |
| Consciousness in the Lower Depths | 224 |
| The Age of the Lost Ideal | 234 |
VIII | The Emperor System as a Spiritual Structure | 245 |
| Introduction | 245 |
| The Legacy of Kokutai | 247 |
| The Emperor and the People | 251 |
| A Tradition Without Structure | 260 |
| Maruyama's Interpretation of Kokutai | 267 |
| The Kyodotai | 273 |
| The "Family-State" (Kazoku Kokka) | 280 |
| "Domicide" (Iegoroshi) | 287 |
| A Soldier's Feelings | 293 |
| The Power of National Education | 299 |
| Conclusion | 309 |
| Index of Names Cited | 313 |