Emperor of Japan

by Donald Keene

  2. The price of rice doubled between 1877 and 1880, and other commodity prices also soared (Gotō, Jiyū minken, p. 135).

  3. Meiji tennō ki, 4, pp. 832–36.

  4. Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 228.

  5. Ibid., 5, p. 229.

  6. Ibid., 5, p. 231. See also Sakamoto Kazuto, Itō Hirobumi to Meiji kokka keisei, pp. 42–43.

  7. Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 309. Ōkuma was obviously much influenced by the British parliamentary system, which was a lingering source of antagonism between him and statesmen who preferred the Prussian model.

  8. Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 310. There was, of course, nothing new in Ōkuma’s proposals; he was merely describing how the British Parliament functioned. However, the concept of a government run in response to the wishes of the people (or, at any rate, the electorate) was still quite unfamiliar to the Japanese. I have omitted some of Ōkuma’s explanatory details.

  9. Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 313.

  10. Gotō, Jiyū minken, p. 162.

  11. Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 314. For Iwakura’s version of the events and the text of Itō’s letter, see Tada Kōmon, ed., Iwakura-kō jikki, 3, pp. 698–700. Iwakura says that he asked Ōkuma if his views on the matter were the same as Itō’s, as expressed in Itō’s memorial presented on December 14, 1880. Ōkuma replied that the differences were minor. A few days later, Iwakura met Sanjō and suggested that Ōkuma’s proposals be shown to Itō in order to verify whether or not his views were more or less the same as Ōkuma’s. Sanjō agreed and obtained the document from the emperor. When Itō read it, he was dismayed and asked to resign his post as councillor. I have followed the account in Meiji tennō ki, based on many contemporary sources.

  12. Sakamoto, Itō Hirobumi, p. 44.

  13. Meiji tennō ki, 5, pp. 318–19.

  14. Sasaki Takayuki, Hogo Hiroi, 10, pp. 152–53. See also Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 319; the wording is somewhat dissimilar, but the meaning is essentially the same as in Sasaki’s account.

  15. Braisted, trans., Meiroku zasshi, p. 90.

  16. Gotō, Jiyū minken, p. 45. The generals were Yamada Akiyoshi, Torio Koyata, and Miura Gorō.

  17. Meiji tennō ki, 4, p. 464.

  18. Gotō, Jiyū minken, pp. 144–45. Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 47, briefly mentions the proclamation of the sixteen regulations but does not enter into details. It mentions, however, that Sasaki Takayuki (with the support of Iwakura Tomomi and Ōki Takato) had earlier opposed adoption of the regulations because of the public anger they were likely to arouse, but their advice was not taken.

  19. Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 602.

  20. Various dates are given for the formation of the Jiyū-tō. Some sources state that it was on December 15, 1880, when delegates of the Kokkai kisei dōmei met in Tokyo. At this gathering, Ueki Emori delivered an address in which he proposed changing the name of the organization to Jiyū-tō. He met with considerable opposition but, in the end, succeeded getting a vote in favor of a promise to form the Jiyū-tō. On this occasion, a program for the party in four articles was drawn up. It was agreed to meet again the following October (Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 235; Yonehara Ken, Ueki Emori, p. 96).

  A more frequently given date is October 29, 1881, when the Kokkai kisei dōmei and the Jiyū-tō merged to form (the augmented) Jiyū-tō. This marked a more formal establishment of the party than the agreement reached in December 1880. Its announced program remained the same (Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 566; Gotō, Jiyū minken, pp. 173–74).

  21. Gotō, Jiyū minken, p. 171.

  22. Yonehara, Ueki Emori, p. 24.

  23. He was sent to a military academy in Tokyo after the domain school in Kōchi was abolished. The instruction at the academy was largely in French. Ueki dropped out of the school, possibly because he could not learn French. For details of his early life, see Yonehara, Ueki Emori, pp. 17–26.

  24. This school of Confucianism prescribed a combination of knowledge and action.

  25. Yonehara, Ueki Emori, p. 32.

  26. Ibid., pp. 44, 52.

  27. Ibid., p. 56.

  28. Diary entry, February 2, 1881, in Ueki Emori shū, 7, p. 258.

  29. Diary entry, March 13, 1884, in ibid., 7, p. 338.

  30. Diary entry, August 2, 1879, in ibid., 7, p. 205.

  31. Yonehara, Ueki Emori, p. 14. See also Ienaga Saburō, Ueki Emori kenkyū, p. 300.

  32. Sonezaki Mitsuhiro, Ueki Emori to onnatachi, p. 53.

  33. Yonehara, Ueki Emori, p. 112. The entry in his diary concerning his writing of the constitution is simplicity itself: “Nihon koku kempō wo sō su” (I drafted a constitution for Japan) (diary entry, August 28, 1881, in Ueki Emori shū, 7, p. 273).

  34. The date chosen followed the recommendation of Sanjō Sanetomi and the councillors from Satsuma. Iwakura had proposed a delay of seven years before opening a parliament, and Ōki Takatō had recommended a delay of thirty years. For the text of the emperor’s message, see Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 547. He stated that he had long desired to establish a constitutional form of government and mentioned the gradual steps that he had caused to be taken in this direction, such as the establishment of the Genrō-in in 1875 and the opening of assemblies at the prefectural level in 1878. He said that the opening of a parliament in 1890 would represent the realization of long-standing wishes.

  35. See the excerpts from Baba’s diary in Hagihara Nobutoshi, Baba Tatsui, pp. 145–46. Hagihara points out that the diary was written in 1885, after Baba had broken with Itagaki Taisuke, so his account of the formation (and especially of his relations with Itagaki) should be read with caution. See also Yonehara, Ueki Emori, pp. 117–18.

  36. According to Ōhashi Akio, Itagaki (who was off on a speaking tour of the Tōhoku region when the vote was taken) wished Gotō to become the sōri, and the meeting actually chose him, but Gotō declined the post (Gotō Shōjirō to kindai Nihon, p. 217).

  37. Watanabe Ikujirō, Ōkuma Shigenobu, p. 93. Translation from Ryūsaku Tsunoda, Wm. Theodore de Bary, and Donald Keene, Sources of Japanese Tradition, p. 693. When he wrote about those who claimed their party stood for “respect for the emperor,” Ōkuma may have been thinking of the Rikken teiseitō (Constitutional Imperial Rule Party). This right-wing political party favored a constitution bestowed by the emperor rather than one originating with the people. It was founded in March 1882 by Fukuchi Gen’ichirō (Ōchi). For a concise statement of Fuku-chi’s views as of 1880, see “Kokuyaku kempō kaigi wo hiraku no gi,” in Fukuchi Ōchi shū, pp. 364–66. The party, supported largely by the Shinto and Buddhist clergy, was disbanded in September 1883 but, like other political parties, died only to be revived again and again, breathing its last in 1940.

  38. Ōhashi comments that (despite the fame of this outcry), it is not known whether it was actually pronounced (Gotō, pp. 221–22). The assailant was an elementary-school teacher who had been influenced by the harsh criticism of Itagaki published in the Tkyō nichinichi shimbun (edited by Fukuchi Ōchi). It was reported that because the local doctors knew that the governor of Gifu was anti-Jiyū-tō, they declined to treat Itagaki’s wounds, fearing this might stigmatize them as pro-Jiyū-tō. He was treated instead by Gotō Shimpei, a physician who later became a prominent political figure.

  39. Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 687. At first it was suggested that he send the chief chamberlain, Tokudaiji Sanetsune, as chokushi, but the emperor disagreed, saying that an ordinary chamberlain would be more appropriate. This suggests a certain coldness toward Itagaki, but the governor of Gifu (notoriously anti-Jiyū-tō) was far colder. He acted as if he knew nothing of the incident and refrained even from asking about Itagaki’s condition. This enraged supporters of the Jiyū-tō, who claimed that the attempted assassination had been instigated by the government. Some of Itagaki’s followers believed that he should not have accepted the 300 yen that the emperor gave to Itagaki to comfort him, but he, reproving them, declared that it was out of the question for a mere subject to decline a gift bestowed by the emperor. It was only after the governor heard of
the emperor’s gift that he sent someone to ask about Itagaki’s condition.

  40. Ōhashi, Gotō, p. 223.

  41. The interpreter, Imamura Kazuo, had studied in France and was a competent interpreter of French. Shortly before, he had been appointed by Inoue to a position in the government (Ōhashi, Gotō, p. 229).

  42. Ōhashi, Gotō, pp. 227–28.

  43. Ibid., p. 236. The account of Spencer’s reaction to Itagaki’s theories is found in a letter sent by Mori Arinori, then Japanese minister in London, to Itō.

  44. Ōhashi, Gotō, pp. 237–38.

  Chapter 36

  1. Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 600. The word gunjin naturally also included the navy as well as the army.

  2. Meiji tennō ki, 5, pp. 601–2.

  3. Ibid., 5, p. 608.

  4. Ibid., 5, pp. 617–18.

  5. A tiny figurine of the bodhisattva Monju (Manjushiri), said to have been Meiji’s personal talisman (nenjibutsu), is preserved at Sennyū-ji, the Shingon temple in Kyōto closely associated with the imperial family. (For a photograph, see Kōzoku no mitera, p. 36.) The connection with Shingon Buddhism may have disposed him favorably toward rebuilding a pagoda on Mount Kōya. He gave only 50 yen toward rebuilding the Saikyō-ji, an important Tendai temple (Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 651). Meiji was not the only member of the imperial family to make donations to temples: the empress dowager and the empress gave 500 yen toward rebuilding a building at the Tōfuku-ji, a Rinzai Zen temple in Kyōto (p. 690).

  6. In Royal Bounty, Frank Prochaska describes the gift giving of British royalty (mainly in the nineteenth century) to schools, hospitals, orphanages, and miscellaneous charities. On occasion, Meiji gave money to schools and hospitals. On August 5, 1881, at the time of an epidemic, he donated the very large sum of 70,000 yen from his private purse to Tōkyō Prefecture for hygiene and disease prevention (Meiji tennō ki, 4, pp. 736–37). On July 27, 1882, during a cholera epidemic, he gave another 1,000 yen for epidemic relief (Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 747). He even more frequently bestowed largesse on religious or scientific organizations. On February 3, 1882, for example, the emperor agreed to give the Kōten kōkyū -sho—a newly formed school for the study of the Japanese classics, Shinto, rites and music, martial arts, etc.—an annual grant of 2,400 yen for ten years (Meiji tennō ki, 5, pp. 624–25).

  7. Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 633.

  8. The emperor’s personal property was a matter often considered. In theory, the entire land of Japan was the emperor’s land, but there were no documents to prove this. With the end of the prohibition on selling land in 1872, even commoners came to hold title over land. In 1876 Kido Takayoshi had realized the importance of the imperial household’s having a suitable amount of wealth. If the princes and members of the imperial family could not afford to live in a style proper to their station, how could they preserve their dignity? Kido declared that in no other country of the world did the royal family possess so little wealth (Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 644).

  9. Meiji tennō ki, 5, pp. 640–41.

  10. Reference is being made to the restrictions on foreigners traveling in the interior of the country. They might be issued passports on application for “health, botanical research, or scientific investigation.” Isabella L. Bird, who traveled in 1878 from Tōkyō to Hokkaidō with a passport obtained by the intercession of Sir Harry Parkes, recited the conditions for travel stipulated in English on the cover of the passport: its bearer must not light fires in woods; attend fires on horseback; trespass on fields, enclosures, or game preserves; scribble on temples, shrines, or walls; drive fast on a narrow road; or disregard notices of “No thoroughfare.” He must “conduct himself in an orderly and conciliating manner towards the Japanese authorities and people”; he “must produce his passport to any officials who may demand it,” under pain of arrest, and, while in the interior, “is forbidden to shoot, trade, to conclude mercantile contracts with Japanese, or to rent houses or rooms for a longer period than his journey requires” (Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, pp. 33–34).

  11. Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 657.

  12. Ibid., 5, p. 658.

  13. Ibid., 5, pp. 683–84.

  14. Ibid., 5, pp. 712–13.

  15. Ibid., 5, p. 743. See also Hugh Cortazzi, “Sir Harry Parkes,” p. 15.

  16. Cortazzi, “Sir Harry Parkes,” p. 15. His source, quoted here, is F. V. Dickins and

  S. Lane-Poole, The Life of Sir Harry Parkes, 2, pp. 319–22.

  17. Min is invariably used as if it were her personal name, but it was the name of her family, rather as if Marie Antoinette were known as Queen Hapsburg.

  18. Woonsang Choi, The Fall of the Hermit Kingdom, p. 17; Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 746; Katano Tsugio, Richō metsubō, p. 56.

  19. Katano, Richō, p. 57.

  20. Tsunoda Fusako, Minbi ansatsu, p. 115. Although this work is in the form of a novel, it obviously is the product of serious research.

  21. For a somewhat different description of these events, see Hilary Conroy, The Japanese Seizure of Korea, p. 102.

  22. Tsunoda, Minbi, p. 121. See also Choi, Fall of the Hermit Kingdom, p. 18, and Kibaik Lee, A New History of Korea, trans. Edward W. Wagner, p. 273.

  23. He is known by this title, which was reserved for a monarch’s father who had not occupied the throne. His personal name was Yi Ha-ung.

  24. Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 750.

  25. Ibid., 5, p. 752.

  26. Chemulpo was the old name for Inch’on, the port of Seoul.

  27. Meiji tennō ki, 5, pp. 759–62, 766–67.

  28. Ibid., 5, p. 771. The immediate cause of Hanabusa’s leaving Seoul is given variously. According to Choi, it was because, when Hanabusa demanded redress for damage suffered by the Japanese, the taewon’gun had “retorted that if the Japanese insisted on an indemnity the Korean government would feel obliged to levy a tax on all Japanese merchants doing business in Korea” (Fall of the Hermit Kingdom, p. 18). Katano states that when the allotted three days had passed, Hanabusa was informed that an answer would not be forthcoming because of the funeral of Queen Min (Richō, p. 68). In a rage that this internal matter had taken precedence over his mission, he screamed that he had abandoned hope for peacefully solving the crisis. According to Choi Suk-wan, the Korean court was shocked by Hanabusa’s demands, especially the limit of three days in which to reply (Nisshin sensō e no dōtei, p. 33). Hong Sun-mok, who had been delegated by the king to respond to Hanabusa, had tried to secure a delay because of pressing state business, but Hanabusa, interpreting this as a sign of unwillingness to negotiate seriously, left for Inch’on after sending the king a final message on August 22.

  29. Katano, Richō, pp. 61–63.

  30. Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 800.

  31. Ibid., 5, p. 818, 838.

  32. Ibid., 5, p. 840; Lee, New History, p. 276.

  33. This was the view of Iwakura Tomomi (Meiji tennō ki, 5, p. 841).

  Chapter 37

  1. The gagaku musicians were better treated by the government, no doubt because their music was directly related to court ceremonies. They were guaranteed lifetime employment at salaries sufficient to pay for their living expenses (Meiji tennō ki, 6, p. 299).

  2. Kotoko was the third daughter of the nobleman Chigusa Aritō.

  3. Meiji tennō ki, 6, pp. 105–6.

  4. Asada Sōhaku (1815–1894), a doctor of Chinese medicine (kampōyaku), had served as palace physician (ōoku no jii) at the end of the Tokugawa period.

  5. Hashimoto Tsutatsune (1845–1909) had studied Western medicine with Matsumoto Ryōjun and later with the Dutch physician A. Bauduin in Nagasaki. In 1870 he became the medical officer of the Army Ministry (hyōbushō), which sent him to Germany for study. In 1885 he became surgeon general of the Japanese army.

  6. They were Itō Hōsei (1832–1898) and Iwasa Jun (1836–1912), both trained in Dutch medicine. Itō Hōsei studied Dutch medicine at first with the celebrated Itō Gem-boku and later with Pompe van Meerdevoort in Nagasaki. He also studied at the University of Utrecht
, returning to Japan shortly after the Restoration (Meiji tennō ki, 6, p. 68). Iwasa studied with both Pompe and Bauduin in Japan and in 1884 traveled to Europe to study.

  7. In December 1884 Prince Yoshihito suffered from what may have been influenza. The emperor was extremely worried, and when he heard that Nakayama Tadayasu (the boy’s great-grandfather) and Nakayama Yoshiko (his grandmother) were both praying to the gods and buddhas for his recovery, he sent word urging them to continue their prayers. It took Yoshihito about a month to recover completely (Meiji tennō ki, 6, p. 316).

  8. The emperor’s beriberi may have been caused by a vitamin deficiency, probably not yet recognized in Japan as a cause of the disease.

  9. For example, from April 16 to 20 the emperor observed the spring maneuvers of units of the Imperial Guards at Hannō in Saitama Prefecture and vicinity (Meiji tennō ki, 6, pp. 37–42).

  10. Rudolf von Gneist (1816–1895) was more liberal in his political ideas than Itō stated when recommending him. Gneist was indebted to British democracy in forming his philosophy of government.

  11. Stein (1815–1890) was a professor at the University of Vienna. He was conservative in his political views, opposing universal suffrage and party government. His influence was particularly strong on the framers of the Japanese constitution.

  12. Meiji tennō ki, 6, pp. 14–15.

  13. Ibid., 6, p. 121. He received the substantial salary of 2,000 yen.

  14. For example, the ancient rituals of the Kamo and Otokoyama festivals were revived after falling into desuetude at the time of the Restoration. Iwakura Tomomi was the moving spirit behind the revival; it was part of his plan to preserve Kyōto (Meiji tennō ki, 6, pp. 56, 111). The first revival of the festival in accordance with the old rites took place on May 15, 1884 (p. 206).