Meiji era intellectual

generate a one-sentence description for a given conceptual class.
# Response Format
Return only the sentence: "Description: [one-sentence description of the conceptional class]"

Class: Meiji era intellectual

A Meiji era intellectual is a thinker, writer, or educator in late 19th- to early 20th-century Japan who actively engaged with Western ideas and modern science to reinterpret, reform, and sometimes defend Japanese traditions during a period of rapid modernization and nation-building.