by Donald Keene
12. Yonaoshi often took the form of people dancing in the streets and crying, “Ii ja nai ka.” Here is Satow’s description of one such manifestation: “Some difficulty was experienced in making our way through the crowds of people in flaming red garments dancing and shouting the refrain ii ja nai ka. They were so much taken up with their dancing and lantern-carrying that we passed along almost unnoticed” (A Diplomat, p. 289).
13. Ishii, Boshin, p. 38.
14. Ōhashi Akio, Gotō Shōjirō to kindai Nihon, p. 76. For the meeting of the two men, see Marius B. Jansen, Sakamoto Ryōma and the Meiji Restoration, pp. 265–66.
15. For Sakamoto’s proposals, see Jansen, Sakamoto, pp. 295–96, and Ōhashi, Gotō, p. 91.
16. Ishii, Boshun, p. 61. See also Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 501–2. Ōhashi gives a somewhat different paraphrase (Gotō, pp. 95–96). See also Jansen, Sakamoto, pp. 300–301.
17. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 516.
18. Ibid., 1, p. 518.
19. The name is also read Yamanouchi; Yōdō was the gō by which he was commonly known, but his personal name was Toyonobu.
20. Ōhashi, Gotō, pp. 99–101.
21. The text is in Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 520.
22. Satow was shown a copy of this proposal by Gotō Shōjirō and Nakai Hiroshi (called Kōzō by Satow): “They produced a copy of the Tosa memorial of last month, advising the Tycoon to take the step he had since adopted, and proposing various reforms. Of these the most important were the establishment of an assembly composed of two houses, the erection of schools of science and literature in the principal cities, and the negotiation of new treaties with foreign powers” (A Diplomat, p. 284).
23. The text is in Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 521–22. See also Jansen, Sakamoto, pp. 312–17.
24. Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 519–20.
25. The text is in ibid., 1, p. 525. It is reproduced photographically in Ishii, Boshin, p. 67.
26. Yoshinobu is called Minamoto rather than Tokugawa because the Tokugawa family claimed to be descended from the Minamoto, the shoguns during the Kamakura period.
27. The court was still in mourning for Kōmei.
28. I have followed the interpretation of the text given in Ishii, Boshin, pp. 66–67. Not everything is clear, but this is the general sense.
29. They were Nakayama Tadayasu, Ōgimachisanjō Sanenaru, and Nakamikado Tsuneyuki.
30. Ishii, Boshin, p. 70. For Iwakura’s relations with Tamamatsu, see Tada Kōmon, ed., Iwakura-kō jikki, 2, pp. 59–62.
31. Tada, ed., Iwakura, 2, p. 70.
32. Ishii, Boshin, p. 71.
33. Although the second edict was dated the day after the first, they both were sent on the same day (Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 526). Katamori was the Kyōto shugo and Sadanori, the Kyōto shoshidai.
34. Tada, ed., Iwakura, 2, pp. 84–85. According to Iwakura, the emperor directed the three nobles who had signed the edicts to wait and see what happened now that Yoshinobu had announced his intention of yielding political power to the throne. Despite Iwakura’s words, the young emperor was unlikely to have made this decision by himself.
35. Conrad Totman wrote, “Mindful of our evidence that Edo had been making substantial progress in restoring Tokugawa power and prestige, Yoshinobu’s decision of 10/12 commands attention and prompts a query: Why did he make it?” (The Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu, pp. 381–82). After offering various possible answers in terms of immediate and long-range causes, Totman concluded, “In sum, then, given the very worrisome context, Yoshinobu’s ambiguity of purpose, his ambivalence about governing, the relatively concessive orientation of those about him, the absence of forceful countervailing pressure, the limited objectives of the Tosa proposal, and the very real likelihood that it would peter out in any case as its predecessors had done—given all these considerations, Yoshinobu’s decision was not so surprising after all” (p. 386).
36. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 527.
37. Elizabeth Longford, Queen Victoria, p. 61.
38. Ashikaga Takauji assumed the office of shogun in 1338, and the last Ashikaga shogun, Yoshiaki, resigned in 1588. This means that there were fifteen years without a shogun between 1588 and 1603, but during most of this period Toyotomi Hideyoshi was shogun in all but name.
39. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 560. For a fuller account, see Tada, ed., Iwakura, 2, p. 60.
40. Satow, A Diplomat, p. 324. The original text (in kambun) is in Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 595. The message was delivered to the ministers of six countries by Higashikuze Michitomi. The use of the plural in the translation is, of course, the royal “we.” For an analysis of a similar, but far from identical, imperial proclamation announcing that the emperor had abolished the office of shogun and that he would decide both internal and external matters once they have passed meetings of dōmei reppan, see also Sasaki Suguru, Boshin sensō, pp. 17–18.
Chapter 14
1. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 541.
2. Income was calculated in terms of rice; a koku was about 5.1 bushels.
3. Ōhashi Akio, Gotō Shōjirō to kindai Nihon, p. 118.
4. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 532. They seem to have had some success: Asahiko was deprived of his title shinnō in September 1868 for having attempted to help the Tokugawa family restore its control over the government (p. 793).
5. Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 531–32. Iwakura was accompanied on this occasion by Nakaoka Shintarō.
6. For details, see Marius B. Jansen, Sakamoto Ryōma and the Meiji Restoration, pp. 343–44, and Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 545–46. It is not clear who sent the assassins, although it has been suggested it was probably a “hit squad” of the shogunate.
7. Construction had started on October 19 (Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 516). The shogunate had raised the needed money by levying a tax of 3 percent on each 100 koku of village income throughout the country (p. 528).
8. Paper currency, valid for two years, was issued by the shogunate on December 14 (Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 548). These questions were four of eight specific points raised at this time (pp. 532–33).
9. Tokugawa Yoshinobu’s recollections of the inexperienced court are related in Ōkubo Toshiaki, Sekimukai hikki, p. 271.
10. Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 532–33. The text of the edict is on p. 534.
11. Sir Ernest Satow, A Diplomat in Japan, p. 285. Satow dates this impression December 7, 1867.
12. Ishii Takashi, Boshin sensō ron, p. 74.
13. This description of the contents of Nishi’s Gidai sōan is derived from ibid., pp. 75–76.
14. Quoted in ibid., p. 77.
15. The term in Japanese is taikun no monaruki (Ishii, Boshin, p. 78).
16. In Boshin, Ishii favored the former view. Sasaki Suguru expressed the later interpretation in Boshin sensō, pp. 11–12. A similar view was expressed in Haraguchi Kiyoshi, Boshin sensō, p. 45.
17. The text of the proclamation and other details are given in Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 557–60. See also Ishii, Boshin, p. 86. The three titles, all created at this time, were short-lived. The office of sōsai, established in January 1869 and abolished in May, was a supervisory post filled by a prince. It was one of the three highest posts (sanshoku).The office of gijō, created at the same time, was an administrative office filled by a prince, a kōshaku, or a daimyo. At first it was one of the sanshoku, but after the sanshoku were abolished, four gijō were appointed to supervisory posts. The office of san’yo (counselors), created in January 1868 as the third of the sanshoku, was filled by nobles, daimyos, and retainers with supervisory duties over all branches of the government. It was abolished in August 1869.
18. This summary of Yōdō’s statement is a conflation of materials in Shibusawa Eiichi, Tokugawa Yoshinobu-kō den, 4, p. 127, and Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 561. The most detailed account of the meeting is found in Tada Kōmon, ed., Iwakura-kō jikki, 2, pp. 157–61. Ishii, not citing sources, wrote that Yōdō “roared” (dogō) his anger over the underhanded way in whichōsei fukkō had been brought about. Ishii attributed
Yōdō’s overbearing manner to chronic alcoholism (Boshin, pp. 86–87).
19. Tada, ed., Iwakura, 2, p. 159.
20. Ibid., 2, p. 159. See also Shibusawa, Tokugawa, 4, p. 127.
21. This probably meant that he would suffer a reduction of one degree in his court rank, not that he would totally deprived of rank. Yoshinobu’s court rank was junior second rank. The return of land was expected to bring the government 2 million koku of Yoshinobu’s income of 4 million koku, but Yoshinobu later told envoys of the court that the shogunate’s income was not, as supposed, 4 million koku but only 2 million koku (Shibusawa, Tokugawa, 4, p. 132; Ōkubo Toshiaki, Iwakura Tomomi, p. 207).
22. Tada, ed., Iwakura, 2, pp. 159–60; Shibusawa, Tokugawa, 4, pp. 127–28. Iwakura began his impassioned address by conceding that Tokugawa Ieyasu’s benefits to the country had not been insignificant, but he deplored the many offenses of Ieyasu’s successors and especially the shogunate’s actions since the arrival of the foreigners in 1853.
23. Tada, ed., Iwakura, 2, p. 160; Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 562; Sasaki, Boshin sensō, p. 14. Ōkubo’s speech, as summarized in Shibusawa, Tokugawa, 4, p. 128, does not call for subjugating Yoshinobu if he failed to obey the court.
24. Tada, ed., Iwakura, 2, p. 160.
25. Ōkubo, Iwakura, p. 208. Similar accounts are in Mōri Toshihiko, Iwakura To-momi, p. 83; Inoue Kiyoshi, Saigō Takamori, 2, p. 52; and Ikai Takaaki, Saigō Takamori, p. 22. Neither Meiji tennō ki nor Iwakura-kō jikki mentions Saigō’s remark.
26. This is the view of Ishii, who wonders whether Gotō did not see the post of san’yo flickering before his eyes (Boshin, p. 88). Gotō was in fact appointed as a san’yo on the twelfth day of the twelfth month, along with fourteen other men from five domains—Satsuma, Owari, Aki, Echizen, and Tosa (Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 565).
27. Shibusawa, Tokugawa, 4, p. 132. See also Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 562–63, and Tada, ed., Iwakura, 2, p. 162.
28. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 569. Satow wrote, “He [Yoshinobu] began by explaining his policy, vindicating his retirement from Kiōto, and expressing his determination to abide by the decisions of a general council. His reply to the particular question asked by the ministers was that foreigners should not trouble themselves about the internal affairs of Japan, and that until the form of government was settled he regarded the conduct of Foreign Affairs as his own function” (A Diplomat, p. 304).
29. Apparently a reference to Iwakura, Sanjō, and others who were exiled during the reign of Emperor Kōmei.
30. The summary and translation represent a conflation of Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 571–72, and Tada, ed., Iwakura, 2, pp. 187–88. The latter purportedly presents Yoshinobu’s text as composed, but it is too prolix to be quoted here.
31. Boshin was the cyclical designation for the year 1868.
32. For details, see Shibusawa, Tokugawa, 4, pp. 167–68. In a more recent account, Ikai Takaaki attributes the incidents to Sagara Sōzō, acting under orders from Saigō (Saigō Takamori, p. 25). See also Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 581, where Saigō and Ōkubo Toshimichi are jointly given responsibility. Not all the incidents were the work of rōnin; some were committed by bandits who only pretended to be rōnin (Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 574).
33. Rumors circulated at this time that the rōnin, taking advantage of this and other fires they had set, had abducted the widows of two previous shoguns (Iemochi and Iesada), and carried them off to Satsuma (Inoue, Saigō, 2, p. 61). Because Tenshō-in, the widow of Iesada, had originally been from Satsuma, it was also rumored that she was in contact with Satsuma samurai and had helped them burn the castle (Shibusawa, Tokugawa, 4, pp. 168–69). Satow heard the same rumor: “The Satsuma people had contrived to set a part of the castle on fire, and carried off Tenshō-In Sama, a princess of theirs who had married the last Tycoon but one. Thereupon the government people attacked all the Satsuma yashikis in Yedo and burnt them, and the occupants getting on board their steamer put to sea” (A Diplomat, p. 309). Note that in this citation Satow refers to the supporters of the shogun as “the government.”
34. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 575. The English seem not to have been impressed by the uniforms. Satow described a similar drill: “Their uniform was in imitation of European style, black trousers with red stripes down the side, and black coats; happy the soldier who could muster a pair of boots, the rest had only straw sandals. On their heads they had hats of papier-maché, either conical or of dish-cover shape, with two horizontal red bands. They used the English infantry drill, with the quaint addition of a shout to indicate the discharge of their firearms” (A Diplomat, p. 263).
35. Inoue, Saigō, 2, p. 59.
36. Ibid., 2, p. 65.
37. The memorandum consisted of eight points, mainly dealing with where the emperor should be moved, who should accompany him, who should remain in Kyōto, and so on. For the text, see Tada, ed., Iwakura, 2, pp. 231–32.
38. Inoue, Saigō, 2, p. 65. See also Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 583. Asukai Masamichi provides an additional twist: the imperial palanquin would be sent off toward Hiei-zan, to make the shogun’s forces suppose the emperor had escaped in that direction (Meiji taitei, p. 117).
39. For example, in 1159 Emperor Nijō, disguised as a woman, left his palace to seek safety with Taira no Kiyomori at Rokuhara. The incident is described in Heiji monogatari.
40. Sasaki, Boshin, p. 23.
41. Ishii, Boshin, p. 66.
42. A sword bestowed by the emperor on the commander of an army when he sets out to do battle.
43. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 585. The shogun was known as seii taishōgun (great general, conqueror of barbarians),” but in this instance the commanding general was charged with conquering the east, the stronghold of the Tokugawa shoguns.
44. Sasaki, Boshin, p. 26.
45. Satow gives a brief but unflattering description of Yoshiaki: “Just after leaving the prince’s residence we were stopped in the road to let Ninnaji no Miya pass. He was on horseback, a stoutish, swarthy, thick-lipped young man, with his hair just beginning to sprout; for until recently he had been in the Buddhist priesthood” (A Diplomat, p. 357).
46. In a letter dated April 7, 1867, to Tsuchimochi Masateru, Saigō characterized himself as ikusa zuki—someone who loves war (Ikai, Saigō, p. 28).
47. Sasaki, Boshin, p. 27.
48. It has been claimed that Yoshinobu mistakenly boarded the American ship, unable to distinguish it in the dark from the Kaiyō maru, but it is generally agreed that he knew it was the Iroquois (Ishii, Boshin, pp. 106–7).
49. Shibusawa, Tokugawa, 4, p. 190; Sasaki, Boshin, p. 30.
Chapter 15
1. Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 595–96.
2. Sir Ernest Satow, A Diplomat in Japan, p. 324.
3. The text is in Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 596. See also Ishii Takashi, Boshin sensō ron, p. 114. Satow stated that “a notification, signed by Iwashita, Itō and Terashima, as officers of the Foreign Department, was placarded about the town, informing the people that the Mikado would observe the treaties, and enjoining on them proper behaviour towards foreigners” (A Diplomat, p. 326). He may have been referring to a separate document, sent on February 16 to the ministers of the different countries.
4. Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 600–601. The intended recipient of the letter, Hashimoto Saneyana (1834–1885), had already left for the east. Princess Chikako’s messenger found him at Kuwana. Hashimoto, extremely moved by the letter, gave it to the messenger to take back to Kyōto and show it to the san’yo Madenokōji Hirofusa for consideration by the Court Council.
5. Ishii, Boshin, pp. 120–1.
6. Ibid., p. 123.
7. Ibid., p. 124.
8. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 618. Kōgen was the Buddhist name of the ninth son of Fushiminomiya Kuniie. He was more commonly known at this time as Prince Yo-shihisa or Rinnōjinomiya.
9. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 603. ōention of a monarch mingling with the common people probably refers to Queen Victoria, though it was also true of King Louis Philippe.
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10. Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 602–3.
11. Ibid., 1, p. 611. The only previous time he had left the Gosho was when a fire consumed most of the palace.
12. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 627.
13. Ibid., 1, p. 628.
14. Satow, A Diplomat, p. 337.
15. Ibid., pp. 347, 353; Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 630.
16. Satow, A Diplomat, p. 347. Satow’s colleague A. B. Mitford (later Lord Redesdale) was of a different opinion. He heard from the French officers who were present “to witness the horror” that “when the first condemned man came out he plunged the dirk into his stomach with such force that his entrails protruded; he held them up in his hand and began singing verses of hatred and revenge against the detested foreigners who were polluting the sacred soil of the Land of the Gods till death stopped his ghastly song” (Redesdale, Memories of Lord Redesdale, p. 446). According to what Mitford heard, after eleven men had died in this way, “the French could hold out no longer, and Captain du Petit Thouars prayed the nine remaining men might be spared.”
17. The term is better known in the West as harakiri. Purists in Japanese prefer kappuku. But regardless of name, the act consisted of drawing a dagger deeply across the abdomen to reveal that the intestines were free of impurity.
18. Satow described the incident in Kōbe during which members of the Bizen Domain under Taki Zenzaburō’s command fired on foreigners, killing an American sailor (A Diplomat, pp. 319–20, 344). Taki subsequently was ordered to commit seppuku.
19. Satow, A Diplomat, pp. 346–47.
20. Roches was the senior diplomatic officer in terms of service in Japan. Van Pols-broek, although of lesser rank, may have been granted an audience ahead of Parkes because of the long-standing relationship between Japan and Holland.