by Donald Keene
20. Meiji tennō ki, 2, p. 696.
21. Princess Sumiko, the third daughter of Emperor Ninkō, was a member of the Katsuranomiya family; this high-ranking princely family came to an end with her death in 1881.
22. Meiji tennō ki, 2, p. 700.
23. Ibid., 2, p. 711.
24. Asukai Masamichi, Meiji taitei, p. 150.
25. Meiji tennō ki, 2, p. 719.
26. I am thinking of Philemon and Baucis, but also of such Japanese examples as the receptions given in humble cottages to Saimyōji nyūdō Tokiyori, who had a habit of visiting people in disguise.
27. So reported in Meiji tennō ki, 2, p. 726, which further says that similar reports were transmitted from the other places visited by the emperor as exemplifying the people’s worship of the imperial house.
28. Meiji tennō ki, 2, pp. 727–28. In recognition of Saigō Takamori’s unique qualities of leadership, the emperor appointed him as a marshal soon after his return to Tōkyō (p. 733).
29. Meiji tennō ki, 2, pp. 735–37.
30. Ibid., 2, pp. 744–47. The Japanese would profit by this gratitude during their negotiations with the Chinese in February 1873.
31. Mōri Toshihiko, Meiji rokunen seihen, p. 40.
32. William Elliot Griffis, The Mikado, p. 226.
33. For an account of Dickins as a scholar of Japanese literature, see Kawamura Hatsue, F. V. Dickins. In 1866 Dickins published a translation of the collection of poetry Hyakunin isshu.
34. Mōri, Meiji rokunen, pp. 52–54.
35. The text is in ibid., pp. 54–55. See also Meiji tennō ki, 2, pp. 767–68.
36. For a brief description of the Wakan and the reasons for its existence, see Kamigaitō Ken’ichi, Amenomori hōshū, pp. 90–93. A somewhat more detailed description is in Kang Bom-sok, Seikanron seihen, pp. 16–19. Kan makes interesting comparisons between the Wakan and the Dutch “factory” on Deshima.
37. The Korean government was informed in January 1869 by Higuchi Tetsushirō, a senior officer of the Tsushima clan sent as its envoy by the Japanese government, of the restoration of imperial rule and the termination of the shogunate (Meiji tennō ki, 2, p. 944; see also Kang, Seikanron, p. 11).
38. Asukai Masamichi, “Saigō Takamori wa heiwa shugisha datta ka,” p. 109. He states that from the Korean standpoint, the Meiji government had overthrown by force the government of the Tokugawa shoguns and was therefore a usurper. The Koreans also considered that the use of such words as kō (emperor) and choku (rescript) by the new government was an unsanctioned use of words that were properly used only of the Chinese emperor. Kido Takayoshi wrote in his diary that he favored sending an envoy to Korea to question officials about their discourtesy. “If they do not acknowledge their fault, let us proclaim it publicly and launch an attack on their territory to extend the influence of our Divine Land across the seas to cover their territory” (diary entry, January 26, 1869, in Sidney DeVere Brown and Akiko Hirota, trans., The Diary of Kido Takayoshi, 1, p. 167). See also Kang, Seikanron, p. 11.
39. Meiji tennō ki, 2, p. 741.
40. Ibid., 2, p. 742. There were seven articles in all; others dealt with such matters as the return to Japan of Japanese officials who were not essential to the station, the discontinuance of the annual ship from Tsushima, and the return of castaways to Korea.
41. Kido, who was in London at the time, had read in the New York newspapers that Korea had detained one Japanese envoy and expelled another. He wrote in his diary, “The stupidity and obstinacy of that country is detestable.” He added, “Moreover, when our trade with the West is beginning to flourish, Asian countries which lie near us must make a successful advance toward civilization or else we cannot fully achieve our future purposes.” He implied that if the Koreans were unwilling to modernize their ways, this would be detrimental to Japanese interests and that war might be the only course open to the Japanese (diary entry, September 1, 1872, in Brown and Hirota, trans., Diary, 2, p. 206).
42. Meiji tennō ki, 2, p. 755.
43. The text of the mikotonori is in ibid., 2, p. 756. It opens with a declaration of the emperor’s authority as the heir to the 10,000 ages of unbroken imperial authority and the vast area he ruled. The edict goes on to state why the Ryūkyū king was being honored. His country shared the same customs and language with Japan and was long tributary to Satsuma. The king himself had demonstrated his loyalty. Finally, it commanded the han-ō to give due weight to the responsibilities of his domain and to assist the imperial house.
44. Meiji tennō ki, 2, p. 781. For the text of the rescript, see Tōyama Shigeki, Tennō to kōzoku, pp. 31–32. At the same time, the twenty-four hours of a day were made uniform in length; previously the hours of light and dark were of different lengths.
Chapter 24
1. Meiji tennō ki, 2, p. 9. Only two ladies were presented, the wives of the American and Russian ministers, but this established a precedent.
2. Meiji tennō ki, 3, p. 6. This was essentially the schedule established after the major changes in the palace on September 15, 1871 (Ikujirō, Meiji tennō, 1, pp. 113–14). The lectures on Kokushi sanron, a collection of historical essays on emperors from Jimmu to Goyōzei published by Yamagata Taika in 1839, would be delivered by Fukuba Bisei and Motoda Nagazane; those on Saikoku risshi hen, by Fukuba Bisei, Katō Hiroyuki, and Motoda Nagazane; and those on poetry, by Sanjōnishi Suetomo and Fukuba Bisei.
3. Meiji tennō ki, 3, p. 28.
4. A photograph of the text of the jōyu (imperial order) is in Wayne C. McWilliams, “East Meets East,” p. 241. For a yomikudashi version, see Meiji tennō ki, 3, p. 38.
5. These details of Soejima’s orders were given by the emperor to Sanjō Sanetomi, the prime minister, for transmission to Soejima (Meiji tennō ki, 3, pp. 38–39).
6. Acting on LeGendre’s suggestion, Soejima proposed occupying the southern part of Taiwan. He believed this could be obtained by negotiations with China and that possession of the southern part of the island would make it possible to obtain the rest of the island by diplomatic means in four or five years (McWilliams, “East Meets East,” p. 243).
7. The interpreters, Tei Nagayasu and Hirai Yoshimasa, spoke both Chinese and English. Both served in the Foreign Ministry. Tei was of Chinese origin.
8. According to Soejima, the plan worked: when the two warships arrived in Shanghai, he was referred to by Chinese officials as the “great Japanese general Soejima” (“Soejima Haku keireki gūdan,” p. 24).
9. Meiji tennō ki, 3, p. 39. The Kanrin maru, which traveled to San Francisco in 1860, was not, strictly speaking, a warship.
10. “Soejima Haku,” p. 24. The content of their talk is not known.
11. McWilliams quotes letters from the American consul in Tientsin to Frederick Low, the American minister in Peking (“East Meets East,” p. 248).
12. McWilliams quotes a letter from LeGendre to General O. E. Babcock dated July 2, 1873 (“East Meets East,” p. 248).
13. McWilliams quotes part of a letter sent on May 7, 1873, from the American consul in Tientsin to Low, the American minister in Peking: “The fact that the Japanese had seemingly identified themselves with the foreigners … was so entirely at variance with the viceroy’s own ideas of Oriental superiority that he could not resist giving his cousins from the ‘Rising Sun’ a left-handed slap for submitting to or seeking after the guidance of western barbarians” (“East Meets East,” pp. 248–49).
14. This account is derived from “Soejima Haku,” p. 25.
15. Ibid., p. 17.
16. Ibid., pp. 17–18.
17. “Shinkoku to no shū kō jōki tsūshō shōtei teiketsu ni kansuru ken,” pp. 147–48, quoted in McWilliams, “East Meets East,” p. 256. This diary, referred to as “Shi shin nikki” by McWilliams, is found in Nihon gaikō monjo, 6.
18. From “Shinkoku,” p. 152, quoted in McWilliams, “East Meets East,” p. 258.
19. From “Shinkoku,” p. 166, quoted in McWilliams, “East Meets East,” p. 259.
> 20. “Soejima Haku,” p. 29; McWilliams, “East Meets East,” p. 265.
21. He was the first foreign envoy to be granted an audience with the emperor since 1793, some eighty years earlier, when Lord Macartney was received.
22. Kose Susumu and Nakamura Hiroshi, Motoda Tōya, Soejima Sōkai, p. 158.
23. “Soejima Haku,” p. 32. However, he was given only a nineteen-gun salute, according to “Shinkoku,” p. 198.
24. The text of the letter is in “Soejima Haku,” p. 33. See also McWilliams, “East Meets East,” p. 273.
25. Kose and Nakamura, Motoda, p. 159.
26. Taewon’gun was the title given to the father of a reigning king who had not himself reigned, but it is often used to refer to one particular man, Yi Ha-ung, the father of King Kojong. The taewon’gun had placed his second son on the throne but governed behind the scenes, rather in the manner of the insei in late Heian Japan.
27. The document is referred to by the Japanese as the Tōraifu denreisho. Tōraifu (or Tong-nai-pu in Korean) was the district where the Wakan was situated.
28. The full text is in Meiji tennō ki, 3, p. 115. See also Tada Kōmon, ed., Iwakura-kō jikki, 3, pp. 45–46. This volume (pp. 1–90) contains other documents relative to relations between Japan and Korea.
29. Kang Bom-sok, Seikanron seihen, pp. 44–46. The merchants in question were sent by the Mitsui Gofukuten. The names of three employees of Mitsui who were planning to go to the Wakan to engage in trade are given in a letter sent by the gaimu daijō, Hanabusa Yoshikata, to Murayama Shigeru, dated January 21, 1873 (p. 45).
30. Meiji tennō ki, 3, p. 116.
31. Ibid., 3, p. 116.
32. Ibid., 3, pp. 117–18.
33. Soejima had not yet returned from China at the time of the debate. Kido and Ōkubo had returned from Europe, but Kido was (really) ill and could not attend the Court Council. Ōkubo, not being a sangi, was not qualified to attend. Iwakura was still abroad. Among those supporting the proposal were the three sangi Itagaki Taisuke, Gotō Shōjirō, and Etō Shimpei.
34. Meiji tennō ki, 3, p. 118. Saigō would repeat this prediction in the letter he sent on August 17 to Itagaki Taisuke, in which he wrote, “I need hardly say that it [his proposal to send an envoy to Korea] is at the same time a far-reaching scheme which will divert abroad the attention of those who desire civil strife, and thereby benefit the country” (Ryūsaku Tsunoda, Wm. Theodore de Bary, and Donald Keene, trans., Sources of Japanese Tradition, p. 657; original in Ōkawa Nobuyoshi, Dai Saigō zenshū, 2, p. 756).
35. Meiji tennō ki, 3, pp. 118–19. Soejima (who returned to Japan on July 23) expected to be sent to Korea, only to encounter Saigō’s determination to become the envoy.
36. Meiji tennō ki, 3, pp. 111–12, 114. The royal party traveled by train from Shimbashi to Kanagawa and from there by horse-drawn carriage. The journey took two days.
37. Kang, Seikanron, pp. 54–55. The Koreans had previously (in 1868) repulsed attacks by French and American warships (Tsunoda Fusako, Mimpi ansatsu, pp. 58–59, 66, 80–81).
38. Tsunoda et al., trans., Sources of Japanese Tradition, pp. 655–56; original in Ōkawa, Dai Saigō, 2, pp. 736–38.
39. Tsunoda et al., trans., Sources of Japanese Tradition, p. 656; original in Ōkawa, Dai Saigō, 2, pp. 751–52. See also Kang, Seikanron, pp. 131–32.
40. Kang, Seikanron, p. 129. The doctors thought that Saigō’s corpulence was the cause of his high blood pressure and prescribed strong laxatives, five or six times a day, in order to reduce his weight. It can easily be imagined how this must have weakened him.
41. Kang, Seikanron, pp. 135–36, 150. In later years, Ōkuma Shigenobu, describing the reasons that different men advocated seikan, said that Saigō was looking for a place to die (Kose and Nakamura, Motoda, p. 168).
42. Mōri Toshihiko, Meiji rokunen seihen, pp. 117–18, 127–31.
43. Saigō’s exalted reputation is difficult for non-Japanese to understand. His personality and appearance and the legends that have grown up around him seem to have induced Japanese to condone both his attitude at this time and his later rebellion against the government, but it is doubtful if many Koreans share this admiration.
44. Diary entry, September 3, 1873, in Sidney DeVere Brown and Akiko Hirota, trans., The Diary of Kido Takayoshi, 2, pp. 370–71. See also Kang, Seikanron, pp. 167–73.
45. He asked that Itō Hirobumi also be made a sangi, but Itō was an officer of the second rank, and an appointment to sangi would have involved jumping over the first rank, which was deemed impossible. Ōkubo also asked, as a condition of becoming a sangi, that Sanjō and Iwakura swear that once they made up their minds on seikan they would not waver! (Mōri, Meiji rokunen, p. 166).
46. Meiji tennō ki, 3, pp. 139–41; Kose and Nakamura, Motoda, pp. 164–65. Although Kido was a sangi, his absence from the sessions prevented him from voting.
47. Meiji tennō ki, 3, pp. 143–44, 147–49.
48. Ibid., 3, p. 150.
49. Kose and Nakamura state that the four men, concerned about how their resignations would be interpreted abroad, decided they were “somehow or other” ill (Motoda, p. 167).
50. It has been suggested that even those most opposed to intervention in Korea were essentially in favor of it but had special reasons for their opposition at this point. Kido is said to have favored seikan but thought it would be too expensive under the stringent financial conditions in Japan at the time (Mōri, Meiji rokunen, p. 144). Ōkubo is said not to have been unduly worried about sending Saigō as an ambassador (Kang, Seikanron, p. 192); he is even said to have told Soejima that he would have agreed to seikan if he had first been given fifty days in which to create the Ministry of the Interior (Kose and Nakamura, Motoda, p. 167). But it is difficult to reconcile the claim that Ōkubo was essentially sympathetic to seikan with his detailed statement on why he opposed the Korean expedition (Tsunoda et al., trans. Sources of Japanese Tradition, pp. 658–62; original in Kiyozawa Kiyoshi, Ōkubo Toshimichi, pp. 28–31).
Chapter 25
1. Meiji tennō ki, 3, p. 130.
2. Ibid., 3, pp. 65–66. Meiji limited the expenditures to not more than 50,000 yen.
3. Meiji tennō ki, 3, p. 70.
4. Ibid., 3, pp. 57–58.
5. For the photograph and an account of the circumstances, see Taki Kōji, Tennō no shōzō, pp. 116–18. Meiji tennō ki, 2, p. 739, states that “previously” Uchida had taken photographs of the emperor and empress which were presented to the empress dowager on September 9, 1872. The empress dowager, in turn, had her photograph taken by Uchida on October 9. On October 17 Uchida presented to the emperor the total of seventy-two photographs he had taken of him, the empress, and the empress dowager. Some show the emperor in sokutai, others in nōshi. There was also a photograph taken (at some time before February 1873) showing the emperor on horseback. These photographs, with two or three exceptions, have never been published and are known to me only by the descriptions in Meiji tennō ki.
6. However, the emperor himself seems not to have disliked the photographs. He presented one to Soejima Taneomi on March 9, 1873, when the latter was about to leave for China (Meiji tennō ki, 3, p. 39). He also gave a copy to his aunt, Princess Chikako, on March 20 (p. 42). The same photograph (or another taken at the same time) was sent to Japanese legations abroad for display (Taki, Tennō, pp. 118–19).
7. The emperor’s uniform was determined on June 3 after a study of the uniforms worn by other monarchs. For details, see Meiji tennō ki, pp. 77–78.
8. Ibid., 3, p. 47. On the morning of the day on which the emperor’s hair was to be cut, he had a court lady arrange his hair and powder his face lightly as usual. He went to his study where, by his command, the chamberlain Ariji Shinanojō put scissors to his locks. The chief chamberlain Yoneda Torao and the chamberlain Kataoka Toshikazu took turns in cutting the emperor’s hair. When he reappeared in the ōoku, the palace ladies were surprised and dismayed by his changed appearance.
9. Th
e photograph is reproduced in Taki, Tennō, p. 121. His description of the photograph is on p. 118. Two portraits were taken on this occasion, one full-length and the other half-length (Meiji tennō ki, 3, p. 134). The duke of Genoa, who was then in Japan, was presented with a large-sized example of the full-length photograph. A copy of the same photograph was subsequently sent to each prefecture. The half-length photograph has not been published.
10. It was known as the rusuban seifu because so many of the top leaders were abroad with the Iwakura mission.
11. Meiji tennō ki, 3, p. 42.
12. For a description of this uprising, see ibid., 3, pp. 73–74.
13. Ibid., 3, p. 87. Another armed revolt occurred later in June in Meitō Prefecture (Nagoya). This was similar in character to the one in Hōjō Prefecture, arising from a misunderstanding of the term ketsuzei. The leaders of this revolt were punished with extreme severity, and more than 16,890 suffered some form of punishment (pp. 93–94).
14. Meiji tennō ki, 3, p. 181.
15. For a detailed account of the incident, see Tada Kōmon, ed., Iwakura-kō jikki, 3, pp. 94–96, and Meiji tennō ki, 3, p. 189. John Russell Young, a member of General Grant’s party, who met Iwakura in 1879, noted that “Iwakura has a striking face, with lines showing firmness and decision, and you saw the scar which marked the attempt of an assassin to cut him down and slay him” (Around the World with General Grant, 2, p. 527).
16. For the text of the sentence passed on eight of the nine assailants, see Kurihara Ryūichi, Zankanjō, pp. 366–67.
17. For the program advocated by the Yūkoku-tō, see Sonoda Hiyoshi, Etō Shimpei to Saga no ran, p. 144. Another of the points was a rejection of Christianity as a pollution of the religions of Japan. Immediately after the attempted assassination of Iwakura, the Yūkoku-tō drew up a new statement of purpose but did not express opposition to seikan (p. 145).