What if the Modern period in Japan started not as an inevitable stage, but as a moment containing random decision and accidental events that function more as a break/departure from the historical evolutionism?  Therefore, instead of looking for a cohesive link that had emerged from the pre-modern stages and grown into maturity in the modern era, can we consider the current mainstream thoughts in the modern era (Meiji & Taisho mainly) survived from contingency?
maybe that is what Foucault said about the history; a deconstructive view of history not as a link but as fragments, i don’t know.