Emperor of Japan

by Donald Keene

  11. The decree was particularly severe on men from Tosa (KMchi) because they led the opposition to the Satsuma–Chōshū government.

  12. Sakamoto, Kōtoku Shūsui, pp. 50–51; Nishio, Kōtoku Shūsui, pp. 27–28.

  13. Nishio, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 28.

  14. Sakamoto, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 55. After graduation, KMtoku left employment with Nakae, who gave KMtoku the gagō of Shūsui, a name with poetic rather than political overtones.

  15. Sakamoto, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 60. See also Nishio, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 46. By this time, KMtoku had left the Jiyū shimbun because of discontent over working for a mouthpiece of the government and was at the Chūō shimbun, where he worked chiefly as a translator.

  16. Sakamoto, Kōtoku Shūsui, pp. 102–4. On p. 102, he gives a list of all the lectures delivered to the society.

  17. Ibid., p. 99.

  18. This is the opinion of Sakamoto, but Nishio believed that KMtoku made his start as a socialist in 1897 (Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 48).

  19.Ōhara Satoshi, Katayama Sen no shisō to taigyaku jiken, p. 15.

  20. He attended Hopkins Academy in Oakland, Maryville College, Grinnell College, Andover Theological Seminary, and Yale Divinity School.

  21. Ōhara, Katayama sen, p. 16. For works such as R. Ely’s Social Aspects of Christianity that strongly influenced Katayama, see pp. 18–19.

  22. Sakamoto pointed out that KMtoku’s book was published a year before John Hob-son’s study of imperialism and fifteen years before Lenin’s (Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 125).

  23. Sakamoto, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 127. See also Notehelfer, Kōtoku Shūsui, pp. 85–87.

  24. Nishio, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 69. Yamakawa’s articles brought him a sentence of four years in prison for lèse-majesté.

  25. For the twenty-eight demands framed by Abe Isoo, see Sakamoto, Kōtoku Shūsui, pp. 74–75.

  26. Suematsu had studied in England, where he published a partial translation of Genji monogatari.

  27. Sakamoto, Kōtoku Shūsui, pp. 134, 135.

  28. Ibid. The first poem, Inishie no / fumi miru tabi ni / omou kana / ono ga osamuru / kuni wa ika ni to (Shinshū Meiji tennō gyoshū, 1, p. 50), was composed before 1878. The second poem, Aya nishiki / torikasanete mo / omou kana / samusaōwan / sode mo naki mi wo, does not appear in this collection.

  29. Sakamoto, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 140; Nishio, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 82.

  30. For a summary of the contents of the book, see Nishio, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 86.

  31. Sakamoto, Kōtoku Shūsui, pp. 152–53. Until this time, three gifted writers had regularly published antiwar editorials—KMtoku, Uchimura Kanzō, and Sakai To-shihiko. Other newspapers had for some time been prowar, but the Yorozu chōhō held out until it became clear that Russia would not fulfill its promise of withdrawing troops from Manchuria. The founder and editor of the Yorozu chōhō, Kuroiwa Ruikō, decided that in the interests of national unity, he would support the government’s prowar policy. This decision prompted KMtoku, Sakai, and Uchimura to resign from the newspaper.

  32. All together, sixty-four issues were published, the last on January 29, 1905. The first issue sold 8,000 copies, but the average sale of later issues was about 4,000 copies (Nishio, Kōtoku Shūsui, pp. 96–97).

  33. Sakamoto, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 160.

  34. Ibid., p. 163.

  35. Ibid., p. 164.

  36. Nishio, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 135.

  37. Sakamoto, Kōtoku Shūsui, pp. 168–69.

  38. Nishio, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 136.

  39. For details, see Sakamoto, Kōtoku Shūsui, pp. 170, 171.

  40. Her name was Mrs. Fritz. For the little that is known about her, see Notehelfer, Kōtoku Shūsui, pp. 124–27.

  41. Sakamoto, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 173.

  42. Nishio, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 153.

  43. Donald Keene, Modern Japanese Diaries, p. 444. The source is Shioda Shōhei, Kōtoku Shūsui no nikki to shokan, p. 235.

  44. Nishio, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 177.

  45. Ibid., pp. 189–94, 202–3, 204.

  46. For a vivid account of the Red Flag incident, see Sakamoto, Kōtoku Shūsui, pp. 202–6.

  47. Nishio, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 220.

  48. Sakamoto, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 215.

  49. Miyashita chose this day, the emperor’s birthday, to try out his homemade bomb, hoping that the sound of the explosion would not be noticed amid the fireworks set off in celebration (Nishio, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 245).

  50. There were rumors to the effect that Miyashita had been betrayed to the police by the disgruntled husband of a woman with whom he had had relations or by a police spy in the movement.

  51. For the charges against Kōtoku, see Nishio, Kōtoku Shūsui, pp. 276–77.

  52. The prison authorities, with a curious show of delicacy, executed Kanno Suga, the one woman involved, on January 25, a day after the men.

  53. Yoshida Seiichi quotes Masamune Hakuchō: “If someone should ask me whether, in view of the gravity of the incident, I personally did not feel secret indignation deep down in my heart, feel loathing for the government and the judges, curse life itself, lose all interest in food and all capacity to sleep soundly at night, I would have to reply that I experienced nothing even remotely resembling such emotions” (Kindai bungei hyōron shi: Taishō hen, pp. 48–49).

  Nagai Kafū, though, wrote some years later, “Of all the worldly incidents I have ever seen or heard about, none has ever inspired such unspeakable disgust as this one. As a writer, I should not have kept silent about this question of ideology …. But I, like the other writers of the day, did not say one word. I felt extremely ashamed to be a writer. I was assailed by unbearable pangs of conscience” (Nagai Kafū shū, 1, p. 319).

  Katayama Sen declared that “the decision passed on KMtoku and the others was fair, and there are no points to criticize. It is unfortunate, however, that the trial was not open to the public. Socialist party members in various countries have criticized the case in their party organs, and in extreme instances they have even argued that the Japanese government’s refusal to open the trial shows that contrary to tendencies elsewhere in the world, it intends to eradicate the Socialist Party. This shows their complete ignorance of our country’s laws and the true facts of the case” (quoted in ōhara, Katayama Sen, p. 68). Also, “The Japanese government is definitely not persecuting socialism; the persons who died on the gallows were all active anarchists” (p. 69).

  Chapter 61

  1. Ian H. Nish, The Anglo-Japanese Alliance, p. 377.

  2. Kurobane Shigeru, Nichiei dōmei no kiseki, 1, p. 207.

  3. For the terms of the treaty, see Meiji tennō ki, 12, pp. 628–30. The concession made by the Japanese is in article 4.

  4. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 584.

  5. Ibid., 12, pp. 637–38.

  6. Ibid., 12, p. 555. Prime Minister Katsura on May 30 announced the establishment of a foundation to be called the Onshi zaidan saseikai. In addition to the money given by the emperor, funds had been obtained from volunteers throughout the country. When the emperor was informed of the name of the organization, he objected that funds had come not only from himself but from many other people. At his suggestion, the first four characters of the name (Imperial Gift Foundation) were always to be given in small print (p. 612).

  7. See chapter 30.

  8. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 593.

  9. Ibid., 12, p. 689.

  10. The photograph taken at this time, and three similar photographs taken at maneuvers in Nara, Tochigi, and Okayama Prefectures, are reproduced in Meiji tennō no go-shōzō, pp. 20–21.

  11. Two or three other snapshots of the emperor are preserved from this period, but they were taken at so great a distance that they do not clearly show his features.

  12. Meiji tennō ki, 12, pp. 702–3.

  13. Ibid., 12, pp. 744–45.

  14. Ibid., 12, pp. 705–6.

  15. Ibid., 12, pp. 718, 719.

  16. Ibid., 12, p. 730.

  17. Ibid., 12, p
. 731.

  18. Minamoto Ryōen, “Nogi taishō no jisatsu to sono seishinshiteki haikei,” p. 17. The three grandsons were the future Emperor Shōwa and Princes Chichibu and Takamatsu.

  19. Early biographers of Nogi lavished praise on his work at the Gakushū-in, calling him “Pestalozzi with a sword” (quoted in Minamoto, “Nogi,” p. 17). But see the different opinion of a more recent biographer, Matsushita Yoshio, Nogi Maresuke, pp. 193, 197. Matsushita also called attention to an incident that occurred during the Grand Maneuvers of 1908 (p. 195). On the final day, Nogi was suddenly replaced by another general as commander of the “Southern Army.” He had ignored an order from the supervisor of the maneuvers (General Oku) to withdraw, saying that the Southern Army was not losing and there was no reason to withdraw. This independence of spirit was not prized.

  20. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 673. Nogi was subsequently given a lesser post as supervisor of maneuvers carried out between the Fourth and Sixteenth Divisions (p. 683).

  21. Sixty by Japanese count; fifty-nine by Western count. In Japan and China the completion of sixty years was considered very important because it meant that the person had lived through one whole cycle.

  22. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 733. Takasaki Masakaze died not long afterward, on February 28, 1912.

  23. Meiji tennō ki, 12, pp. 734–35.

  24. Bōjō Toshinaga, Kyūchū gojūnen, p. 23.

  25. Meiji tennō ki, 12, pp. 803–4.

  26. Ibid., 12, p. 805.

  27. Ibid., 12, p. 813. See also Bōjō, Kyūchū, p. 23.

  28. Hinonishi Sukehiro, Meiji tennō no go-nichijō, pp. 71–72.

  29. Ibid., p. 160.

  30. Quoted in Suematsu Kenchō, “Go-jiseiryoku no o-tsuyokarishi sentei heika,” p. 325.

  31. Quoted in Hinonishi, Meiji tennō, p. 75.

  32. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 819. Both the accession of the new emperor and the announcement of the new reign-name (gengō) were unprecedentedly prompt. Meiji waited for more than a year and a half before changing the reign-name Keiō to Meiji. Kume Kunitake (among others) criticized the unseemly haste with which the nengō was changed (“Sentei hōgyo ni saishite yo no kansō,” p. 317).

  33. Bōjō, Kyūchū, pp. 49–50.

  34. A special issue of the magazine Taiyō, published in September 1912, was devoted entirely to reminiscences of the late emperor.

  35. Makino Nobuaki, “Go-Shinsei shoki no tsuioku,” p. 48.

  Chapter 62

  1. Hinonishi Sukehiro wrote that although the emperor’s clothes never fitted him, this never bothered him (Meiji tennō no go-nichijō, p. 89). This statement was questioned by the compilers of Meiji tennō ki, who recorded that a European tailor came from Yokohama to take the emperor’s measurements in the spring of 1872 (2, p. 666). The measurements taken at this time, even if accurate, would not have been of much use after the emperor grew stouter, and the tailors probably had to guess what changes had occurred.

  2. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 828.

  3. Asukai Masamichi, Meiji taitei, p. 29. Fujinami does not figure prominently in Meiji tennō ki or other accounts of Meiji’s life, perhaps because his relations with the emperor were informal and private.

  4. Erwin Baelz wrote that “in aspect Emperor Mutsuhito was, for a Japanese, tall and stately” (Awakening Japan, trans. Eden Paul and Cedar Paul, p. 395).

  5. Asukai, Meiji taitei, p. 33.

  6. Meiji tennō ki, 12, pp. 830–31. See also Asukai, Meiji taitei, pp. 48–49; he noted that Chigusa Kotoko seems not to have left a diary, and it was therefore uncertain whether or not this was actually the emperor’s wish.

  7. Asukai pointed out that although the capital of Japan had never officially been moved from Kyōto to Tōkyō, when the emperor traveled to Kyōto, it was stated that he had “gone” there, not that he had “returned” (Meiji taitei, pp. 46–47). According to the KMshitsu tempan, promulgated in 1889 at the same time as the constitution, coronation ceremonies and the daijōsai were to be carried out in Kyōto. In fact, however, the daijōsai, a ceremony the emperor performed only once in his lifetime, took place in 1871 in Tōkyō. The emperor, although fond of Kyōto, accepted the reality of Tōkyō as the capital; but he may have felt that when his worldly duties had come to an end, he was entitled to be buried in the place he chose.

  8. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 831.

  9. Ibid., 12, p. 833.

  10. Mochizuki Kotarō, ed., Sekai ni okeru Meiji tennō, 2, p. 11; Times (London), July 30, 1912.

  11. Mochizuki, ed., Sekai ni okeru Meiji tennō, 2, p. 37.

  12. Ibid., 2, pp. 118–19; original Japanese text, in ibid., 1, pp. 228–89. It is not clear when Itō made this statement.

  13. Mochizuki, ed., Sekai ni okeru Meiji tennō, 2, p. 119; original Japanese text, in ibid., 1, p. 229.

  14. Ibid., 2, p. 119.

  15. Ibid., 1, p. 687.

  16. Ibid., 1, pp. 599–600.

  17. Ibid., 2, p. 1205; Kuo Kuang Hsin-wen (Peking), August 2, 1912.

  18. Mochizuki, ed., Sekai ni okeru Meiji tennō, 2, p. 1206.

  19. Ibid., 2, p. 1233. The translator (from Chinese into Japanese) added a note to the effect that the reporter was still imbued with the superiority complex of the Chinese.

  20. Mochizuki, ed., Sekai ni okeru Meiji tennō, 2, p. 1211.

  21. Ibid., 2, p. 175.

  22. Quoted in Asukai, Meiji taitei, pp. 31–32. See also Carol Gluck, Japan’s Modern Myths, p. 220. The Japanese text is in Tokutomi Roka, “Meiji tennō no hōgyo no zengo,” in Mimizu no tawagoto, in Meiji bungaku zenshū, 42, p. 338. Gluck gives an excellent account of the atmosphere surrounding the emperor’s funeral. See also the description by Ubukata Toshirō, a newspaper reporter who covered the events of the funeral, in his Meiji taishō kenbun shi, pp. 189–211.

  23. Sōseki zenshū, 20, p. 398. Natsume SMseki’s diary entry was inspired by a newspaper extra that for the first time revealed the seriousness of the emperor’s illness.

  24. “Meiji tennō hōtō no ji,” in Sōseki zenshū, 26, p. 312. Sōseki praised especially the emperor’s devotion to education. The emperor’s death and Nogi’s junshi figure importantly in Sōseki’s novel Kokoro.

  25. An emergency session of the Diet appropriated 1,545,389 yen for funeral expenses (Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 832). A detailed account of the funeral is found on pp. 838–43.

  26. Ubukata, Meiji Taishō kenbun shi, p. 207.

  27. Men from Yase, a section of Kyōto near Mount Hiei, were called from ancient times Yase no dōji. They were known as dōji, or “boys,” because they did not shave their front locks. They traditionally served as palanquin bearers for the chief abbot of the Enryaku-ji, the Tendai monastery on Mount Hiei, and for the imperial family.

  28. This description summarizes the account of the funeral in Meiji tennō ki, 12, pp. 838–43. SMseki composed a haiku on the funeral procession: ogosoka ni / taimatsu furiyuku ya / hoshizukiyo (Sōseki zenshū, 24, p. 84).

  29. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 844.

  30. In the diary he kept during the Satsuma Rebellion, Nogi made no mention of having lost the regimental flag. Perhaps at the time it did not seem so important to him (Asukai, Meiji taitei, pp. 254). For the text of a part of Nogi’s farewell note, see p. 248.

  31. Yamaji Aizan, Nogi taishō, pp. 305–6, quoted in Minamoto Ryōen, “Nogi taishō no jisatsu to sono seishinshiteki haikei,” p. 15. This moment was witnessed by only a few people, including Chief Chamberlain Tokudaiji and the jijū bukan, General Okami. They kept it secret, but after Nogi’s death, Okami revealed what the emperor had said. Minamoto’s article is an excellent study of the background of Nogi’s suicide (Kokoro, December 1963).

  32. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 845. However, some who heard the first report of Nogi’s suicide did not believe it. Ubukata at first supposed that the report was nothing more than a bad joke (Meiji Taishō kenbun shi, pp. 214–15). Mori Ōgai “half believed” the news (Asukai, Meiji taitei, p. 247).

  33. Matsushita Yoshio, Nogi Maresuke,
p. 213.

  34. Quoted in Minamoto, “Nogi Taishō,” pp. 16, 17.

  35. Mushakōji Saneatsu zenshū, 1, p. 495. In his miscellaneous writings of the period, Mushakōji returned again and again to the subject of Nogi’s suicide, always viewing it unfavorably.

  36. Shiga Naoya zenshū, 10, p. 636. See also Asukai, Meiji taitei, p. 277. Shiga noted three days later in his diary that the poet Yoshii Isamu had called Nogi’s suicide “one of the most disagreeable events of recent days.”

  37. Harada Norio, Nihon kanshi sen, pp. 246–47. After studying kanshi with Soejima Taneomi, Nagai Ussai had lived for a long time in China, where he was better known than in Japan.

  38. Quoted in Asukai, Meiji taitei, p. 279.

  39. Meiji tennō ki, 12, pp. 846–47.

  Chapter 63

  1. His birthday was officially proclaimed as a national holiday in 1927, but in 1948 (during the American Occupation) the holiday was renamed Culture Day.

  2. Hinonishi Sukehiro, Meiji tennō no go-nichijō, p. 109.

  3. Ibid., pp. 125, 151.

  4. For his ancestor worship, see, for example, Bōjō Toshinaga, Kyūchū gojūnen, pp. 34–35.

  5. Chamberlain Hinonishi recorded that during the Russo-Japanese War, the emperor had lost all interest in amusements and devoted himself entirely to state business. His only recreation was listening to the phonograph (Hinonishi, Meiji tennō, p. 124). According to Chamberlain Bōjō, the emperor’s phonograph was a very old-fashioned model with a horn that played wax cylinders (Kyūchū gojūnen, p. 40). The recordings were “healthy pieces,” presumably meaning that they were not popular songs but stirring ballads.

  6. Erwin Baelz, Awakening Japan, trans. Eden Paul and Cedar Paul, p. 97. The “Inouye” mentioned was Inoue Kaoru, an advocate of modern ways.

  7. Hinonishi, Meiji tennō, p. 46.

  8. Ibid., p. 52. The medaka is a killifish.

  9. Hinonishi, Meiji tennō, p. 53.

  10. After the death of her beloved consort, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria so gave herself to grief that for five years she refused to open Parliament. The Times published an editorial urging her “to think of her subjects’ claims and the duties of her high station, and not to postpone them longer to the indulgence of an unavailing grief” (quoted in Giles St. Aubin, Queen Victoria, p. 344).