Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (170 page)

42
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 623.

43
. Ibid., 1, p. 927.

44
. For an account of the creation, international relations, and fall of Enomoto’s government, see Ishii,
Ishin
, pp. 204–49.

45
. William Elliot Griffis,
The Mikado
, p. 182. I have not identified the protagonists of this attempt.

46
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, pp. 422–24.

47
. Griffis,
Mikado
, p. 184.

48
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, pp. 603–4.

49
. Ishii,
Boshin
, p. 149.

50
. Ishii says that if the peasant revolts in the northeast had been directed against the government, the result of the war between the government and the rebels of the Nagaoka Domain would have been hard to predict, but they were directed against the
sh
ō
ya
instead (
Ishin
, p. 149).

51
. For example, on August 12, 1868, he personally presented Prince Yoshiaki, who was about to leave for Aizu, as commanding general of the punitive expeditionary force, with the brocade pennant that symbolized imperial authorization (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 754). Again, on August 22 he sent an envoy to the north with a personal message meant to comfort the troops and ordinary people suffering because of the fighting. Saké and food were also sent to the military as a gift of the emperor (p. 757). Similar gifts intended to “comfort” the troops continued as long as the fighting lasted.

Chapter 18

1
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 794.

2
. The globe in fact figured prominently in the coronation ceremonies (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 805).

3
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 796. The prayers were not answered, for it rained heavily during the ceremonies.

4
. The imperial regalia consisted of a sword, a mirror, and a
magatama
jewel. The mirror was normally enshrined at Ise, but the other two treasures were in the emperor’s possession.

5
. A wooden stick to which were attached strips of paper or cloth. A priest waved the stick before a person in order to drive off baleful influences.

6
. Literally, a reader of the
senmy
ō
. A
senmy
ō
was an imperial command, written in words of purely Japanese origins. The
senmy
ō
-shi
on this occasion was Reizei Tametada.

7
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 812. This poem of felicitation is number 344 in the
Kokinsh
ū
.

8
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 812.

9
. Ibid., 1, p. 804. The term
tench
ō
was part of the formula
tench
ō
chiky
ū
, wishing the emperor life as long as the heavens and as lasting as the earth. After the adoption of the solar calendar in 1873, Tench
ō
-setsu came to be celebrated on November 3, converting the day of Meiji’s birth in 1852 from the lunar to the solar calendar. However, in 1868 the birthday according to the solar calendar was No-vember 6. Sir Ernest Satow wrote, “November 6th was celebrated with much pomp and ceremony as being the Mikado’s birthday” (
A Diplomat in Japan
, p. 386).

10
. The reasons for this decision were not stated. Probably, as Japanese became familiar with the Western system of designating years, the Japanese system of frequently changed
neng
ō
came to seem inefficient.

11
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 787.

12
. Ibid., 1, p. 814.

13
. Satow wrote in his diary, “On the 23rd [of August 1868] I dined with Komatsu [Tatewaki] and Nakai [Hiroshi] to meet Okubo, the Satsuma statesman who had suggested the removal of the Capital from Ki
ō
to to Ozaka earlier in the year. I have no doubt that the final decision to make Yedo the centre of government, and to change its name to T
ō
ki
ō
or Eastern Capital was largely his work” (
A Diplomat
, p. 380). In February 1868,
Ō
kubo stated his reasons for advocating a move of the capital to
Ō
saka. He later came to prefer T
ō
ky
ō
(T
ō
yama Shigeki,
Tenn
ō
to kazoku
, pp. 6–8).

14
. Satow,
A Diplomat
, p. 366.

15
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 838.

16
. Ibid., 1, p. 839.

17
. Ibid., 1, p. 847. Tada K
ō
mon gives another anecdote strikingly similar in content (
Iwakura-k
ō
jikki
, 2, p. 570). On November 6, when the emperor’s palanquin reached Ishibe, a station on the T
ō
kaid
ō
, Date Munenari, going to a rice field by the side of the road, picked five stalks and offered them to the emperor with the following poem:
kimi mimase
/
itsuki no ame no
/
furisugite
/
kariho no ine no
/
torimi sukunaki
. Both anecdotes and poems have the same meaning: they were intended to inform the emperor, who had never before seen peasants toiling in the fields, of the hardships they suffered because of the poor harvest.

18
. Tada, ed.,
Iwakura
, 2, p. 572.

19
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 852. The point of the poem is the pun on Arai, the name of a nearby town, and
arai
, meaning “rough.” Although the name suggests a rough crossing, it was actually smooth.

20
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 865.

21
. Ibid., 1, pp. 865–66.

22
. This was the opinion of Iwakura Tomomi (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 906).

23
. Kinoshita Hy
ō
,
Meiji shiwa
, p. 3.

24
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 906.

25
. Ibid., 1, pp. 905, 913. On February 20, 1869, the dispatch of Akitake to the north was called off, on the grounds that rebel forces had suffered such severe setbacks that their submission was imminent; but plans for his going to Hokkaid
ō
had advanced so far that Akitake petitioned to be allowed to leave as planned. He in fact left early the next month (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 11).

26
. Kinoshita,
Meiji shiwa
, p. 12.

27
. Satow,
A Diplomat
, p. 404.

28
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 915.

29
. Ibid., 1, pp. 917–19.

30
. Taki K
ō
ji’s
Tenn
ō
no sh
ō
z
ō
, an extremely interesting account of how the image of the emperor was presented to the people, describes the variety of colored prints (
nishikie
) produced in conjunction with the emperor’s journey to the east. These prints sold quite well, especially those showing the emperor entering T
ō
ky
ō
, and provided the common people with a kind of political experience (pp. 9–11).

Chapter 19

1
. It would be more accurate to say “the second year of Meiji” rather than 1869. The discrepancy between the lunar and the solar calendar is particularly noticeable at New Year, for the first day of the lunar calendar was February 11 by the solar calendar.

2
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 4.

3
. At this time most imperial pronouncements were written by Tamamatsu Misao (1810–1872) (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 19).

4
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 7. The text of their charges against Yokoi is in Morikawa Tetsur
ō
,
Meiji ansatsu shi
, p. 29. One of the assassins, Ueda Tatsuo, was particularly incensed because Yokoi had been seen wandering around the Tsukiji foreign quarter wearing Western clothes and a foreign-style hat.

5
. For the development of practical learning in China and Japan, see Wm. Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom,
Principle and Practicality
, pp. 189–511.

6
. H. D. Harootunian,
Toward Restoration
, p. 335.

7
. George B. Sansom,
The Western World and Japan
, p. 283.

8
. Translated by Paul Varley as
A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns
.

9
. Diary entry, October 9, 1868, in Sidney DeVere Brown and Akiko Hirota, trans.,
The Diary of Kido Takayoshi
, p. 105.

10
. The
gij
ō
Nakamikado Tsuneyuki sent a message to this effect to Iwakura Tomomi on May 10, 1869. He stated that the emperor was now riding every other day and urged that he confine his riding to the prescribed six days a month (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 109).

11
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 30.

12
. German (rather than English or French) was chosen presumably because of the close influence of German law on the evolving new Japanese law. Kat
ō
Hiroyuki, one of the emperor’s mentors, had studied German and become fluent in that language (“Yo ga jidoku ni measarishi koro,” p. 38 [
Taiy
ō
18, p. 13]).

13
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 27.

14
. Ibid., 2, p. 44.

15
. For details, see Kat
ō
Hitoshi, “Meiji tenn
ō
o-tsubone go-rakuin den.”

16
. In “Meiji,” Kat
ō
discussed the claims made by various persons who believe that they are Meiji’s illegitimate descendants, but he was reluctant to admit the validity of these claims.

17
. Diary entry, May 19, 1874, in Brown and Hirota, trans.,
Diary
, 3, p. 32.

18
. Diary entry, August 20, 1875, in ibid., p. 199.

19
. Diary entry, October 13, 1876, in ibid., p. 375.

20
. Takashima Tomonosuke, “Jimmu irai no eishu,” p. 33, quoted in Asukai Masamichi,
Meiji taitei
, p. 148.

21
. Quoted in Kat
ō
, “Meiji,” p. 60.

22
. Hinonishi Sukehiro,
Meiji tenn
ō
no go-nichij
ō
, p. 81. Hinonishi also described how after the emperor had been drinking at Count Hijikata’s house, he had trouble walking and had to lean on Hinonishi. Unfortunately, Hinonishi was not very tall, and he found it extremely difficult to keep the heavy emperor under control. They had almost reached their destination when both men fell down (p. 83).

23
. Charles Lanman,
Leading Men of Japan
, p. 18.

24
. B
ō
j
ō
Toshinaga,
Ky
ū
ch
ū
goj
ū
nen
, pp. 14, 16.

25
. Takatsuji Osanaga, “Go-y
ō
ji no shink
ō
,” p. 30.

26
. Kat
ō
, “Yo ga jidoku no measareshi koro,” p. 38.

27
. Ibid.

28
. Ariji Shinanonoj
ō
, “Y
ū
s
ō
, kattatsu, saishin, kiken no wataraseraru,” p. 52.

Chapter 20

1
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 10.

2
. Tada K
ō
mon, ed.,
Iwakura-k
ō
jikki
, 2, pp. 688–89;
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 31.