Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (172 page)

24
. Ibid., pp. 72–74.

25
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 295. On this occasion, battalions of infantry, artillery, and cavalry from three domains were for the first time organized as a single regiment. Because the troops of each of the three domains were trained differently (in accordance with English, French, or Dutch practice) and attired in different uniforms, they presented a somewhat heterogeneous appearance.

26
. Baron Alexander de Hubner,
Promenade autour du monde
, 2, p. 10. For a brief account of Hubner’s audience with Emperor Meiji, see
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 516.

27
. Among the entries in
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, mentioning Meiji’s eating of Western food during the first years of his reign: on the twelfth day of the eighth month of the third year of Meiji, he ate Western food at the Enrykan; on the twenty-first day of the eleventh month of the fourth year of Meiji, he ate a Western lunch; on the fourth day of the twelfth month of the fourth year of Meiji, both the emperor and the empress, at the recommendation of a court physician, drank milk for the first time, and on the seventeenth day of the twelfth month of the fourth year of Meiji, the long-standing ban on the eating of animal flesh was lifted, and the emperor began to eat beef and mutton.

28
. William Elliot Griffis,
The Mikado
, p. 194. Griffis wrote disparagingly of the troops of Satsuma’s Shimazu Sabur
ō
who appeared in the capital in May 1872: “When he and his band of two hundred Samurai arrived they seemed most sadly medieval and obsolete. All wore high clogs, long red scabbarded swords, had the front and sides of their noddles shaved, went bareheaded and often bare armed, and in general looked like a pack of antiquated ruffians. They found themselves so stared at, and indeed so looked upon as men behind the times that they actually begged their lord to allow them to take off their killing tools” (p. 238).

29
. For a description of the photograph, see
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 599. The photograph is reproduced in the front matter of
Taiy
ō
, September 1912. It has recently been rediscovered (
Asahi Shimbun
, May 25, 2001, p. 20).

A few foreigners, on the other hand, took to wearing Japanese clothes. Sir Harry Parkes wrote of Peshine Smith, “an American lawyer of some eminence” who was serving as an adviser to the Japanese Foreign Affairs Ministry, that he “did his best to bring his employers into ridicule by going about in a Japanese split jacket and loose trousers with a couple of swords stuck in his girdle, and declaring in public ‘that not one foreigner in ten in Japan was murdered who ought to have been murdered’” (quoted in F. V. Dickins and S. Lane-Poole,
The Life of Sir Harry Parkes
, 2, p. 193).

30
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 527.

31
. Ibid., 2, p. 324.

32
. Ibid., 2, p. 522.

33
. Eiichi Kiyooka, trans.,
The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa
, pp. 225, 226. See also Nagao Kazuo,
Ansatsusha
, p. 12.

34
. A brief but useful chronology of
Ō
mura’s life is in Ezaki Masanori, “
Ō
mura Masujir
ō
,” p. 74.

35
. The fighting is described in gory detail in Nagao,
Ansatsusha
, pp. 16–20.

36
. Morikawa Tetsur
ō
,
Meiji ansatsu shi
, p. 35.

37
. Hirosawa was sleeping with his mistress when he was killed, and some thought that jealousy, rather than politics, had led to the murder. Sasaki Takayuki, an adviser of the emperor, wrote in his diary that he suspected someone close to Kido Takayoshi of the crime but gave no reason (Kurihara Ry
ū
ichi,
Zankanj
ō
, p. 363). Hirosawa, like Kido, was from Ch
ō
sh
ū
.

38
. Kurihara,
Zankanj
ō
, p. 362. Meiji raised Hirosawa’s rank posthumously and gave 3,000
ry
ō
to his family (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 392). When the emperor stated that Hirosawa was the “third minister” to be assassinated, he was presumably referring indirectly to Yokoi Sh
ō
nan and
Ō
mura Masujir
ō
.

Chapter 22

1
. During the period since
hanseki h
ō
kan
had been adopted, various domains (
han
) had memorialized the throne, asking that they be abolished and replaced by prefectures (
ken
) (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, pp. 499–501). The four daimyos summoned on this occasion were men who had offered detailed reasons why they wished their domain to be abolished. The Tokushima daimyo Hachisuka Mochiaki deplored the lack of unity within the country caused by the existence of the domains and thought it advisable that all domain soldiers be placed under the command of the Ministry of War. Similar petitions were made by the daimyos of the Nagoya, Kumamoto, and Tottori Domains (pp. 404–5). On May 17, 1881, the Marugame daimyo Ky
ō
goku Akiyuki asked permission to abolish the domain and replace it with a prefecture; this was granted on May 28 (p. 446). The Mito Domain governor Kuki Takayoshi went even further: he not only asked that domain officials be dismissed and their powers transferred to the court, but advocated gradually turning the samurai of the domain into farmers and merchants. He also favored abolishing the distinctions of
kazoku
(nobles) and
shizoku
(samurai) (pp. 470–71, 500). The daimyos of
Ō
mizo and Tsuwano successfully petitioned to be incorporated within larger domains (pp. 478, 483). These developments, though not typical of the country as a whole, indicate that the atmosphere was conducive to
haihan chiken
.

2
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 498.

3
. William Elliot Griffis,
The Mikado
, p. 181.

4
. Ibid., pp. 190–91.

5
. Kinoshita Hy
ō
,
Meiji shiwa
, pp. 50–51. See also my
Dawn to the West
, 1, p. 41. The poem is forty lines long.

6
. Shiba Ry
ō
tar
ō
,
Meiji to iu kokka
, p. 111. He states that until the 1920s the bureaucracy and academia were occupied by members of the samurai class because they quickly realized that they could escape from their economic predicament only by education. He further states that it was not until the end of the Taish
ō
era that the samurai class began to influence the merchant and agricultural classes.

7
. In 1868, when it was arranged for the ministers of foreign countries to visit the Shishinden, the ladies of the
ō
oku
, led by Meiji’s mother, Nakayama Yoshiko, protested violently, weeping and screaming, enraged by the prospect of the emperor’s meeting foreigners. Higashikuze Michitomi sent for the principal female officials and persuaded them to cease their opposition. But Nakayama Yoshiko got her father, Nakayama Tadayasu, to ask for a delay on the grounds that a doctor had said the emperor had a fever. Iwakura asked another doctor to examine the emperor, who was pronounced well. The meeting took place as scheduled (Asukai Masamichi,
Meiji taitei
, p. 123).

8
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, pp. 504–5.

9
. Ibid., 2, pp. 505–6.

10
. For an account of the officers of the court who were dismissed and their successors, see ibid., 2, p. 506. Murata was appointed as
kunai daij
ō
.

11
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 507. Three were appointed as
gon no tenji
, the title given to the emperor’s concubines.

12
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 509. See also Asukai,
Meiji taitei
, p. 142.

13
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 175. A
kuni
was a large area corresponding to a prefecture, and a
gun
was a subprefecture.

14
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 267.

15
. Ibid., 2, p. 463.

16
. Ibid., 2, pp. 463–64.

17
. Ibid., 3, p. 30. They met in T
ō
ky
ō
rather than in the north. Soejima proposed buying Sakhalin for 200,000 yen, but Biutsov countered by offering to give the Japanese the Kurile Islands in return for obtaining sole possession of Sakhalin. Neither budged in his stand. Perhaps to break the deadlock, Soejima said that Japan would yield all of Sakhalin to the Russians provided they would sign an agreement permitting Japanese troops free passage across their territories in the event that Japan engaged in military action on the Asian continent. Biutsov replied that he was not authorized to discuss such matters, and there the matter was dropped.

18
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 31. The text of Kuroda’s memorandum is in “Soejima Haku keireki g
ū
dan” (part 3), pp. 23–24.

19
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, pp. 444–45.

20
. Ibid., 2, pp. 327, 333. Itagaki Taisuke was originally selected to head the four-man team of observers but declined because of domain duties. The senior member was
Ō
yama Iwao, a cousin of Saig
ō
Takamori, who later became minister of war and commanding general of the Second Army during the Sino-Japanese War. Another member, Shinagawa Yajir
ō
, who remained in Europe for five years, later rose to be minister of the interior.

21
. Takashima Tomonosuke, “Jimmu irai no eishu,” p. 34. Watanabe Ikujir
ō
wrote, however, that the German minister (not a ship’s captain) showed and explained the photographs (
Meiji tenn
ō
, 1, p. 129).

22
. Watanabe Ikujir
ō
,
Meiji tenn
ō
, 1, p. 129.

23
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 666.

24
. Ibid., 2, p. 582. For a fuller description of the departure, see Kume Kunitake,
Bei
ō
kairan jikki
, 1, pp. 42, and Tanaka Akira,
Iwakura shisetsudan
, pp. 8–10.

25
. This would be in October 1872, but it was generally believed that reconsideration would be possible on July 1, 1872 (Tanaka,
Iwakura
, p. 41). Similar treaties had been signed with Holland, Russia, England, France, Portugal, Prussia, Switzer-land, Belgium, Italy, and Denmark. When trade treaties were later signed with Sweden-Norway, Spain, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, they followed the American model, and the Japanese were unable to eliminate the objectionable features (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 547).

26
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, pp. 548–50.

27
.
Ō
kubo Toshiaki,
Iwakura shisetsu no kenky
ū
, pp. 257–58.
Ō
kubo reproduces sections from William Elliot Griffis,
Verbeck of Japan
. Although he considered himself to be an American (technically, he was a stateless person), Verbeck was born and educated in Holland. In 1859 he was sent by the Dutch Reformed Church to Nagasaki, where in addition to proselytizing, he taught English, law, politics, economics, and Western technology. (His original university degree was in engineering.) His pupils included It
ō
Hirobumi,
Ō
kubo Toshimichi,
Ō
kuma Shigenobu, and Soejima Taneomi.

28
. It is not clear what Iwakura meant by “your chief officers.”

29
.
Ō
kubo,
Iwakura
, p. 254. The authenticity of Verbeck’s claim was bolstered by the discovery in the Gardner A. Sage Library of the Reformed Church in New Brunswick, New Jersey, of a copy in Verbeck’s hand of his original proposal, sent to
Ō
kuma on June 11, 1869 (Tanaka,
Iwakura
, p. 28).

30
.
Ō
kubo,
Iwakura
, p. 257.

31
. M
ō
ri Toshihiko,
Meiji rokunen seihen
, p. 23. M
ō
ri mentions that Mori Arinori, then in Washington, D.C., overestimated the friendliness of the Americans and believed that it was an opportune time for treaty revision. His sentiments were shared by It
ō
Hirobumi (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 659). Mori was detested by members of the mission because he openly criticized Japan in front of the Americans. Kido Takayoshi’s diary contains such passages as “In recent days Mori’s behavior has been appalling. By contrast, Americans understand our feelings very well, and know our customs. But, our students who are now studying in the United States lack a deep understanding of our country’s traditional ways. They admire American customs without knowing the tradition on which they themselves stand. They advocate liberty and republicanism so thoughtlessly that I can hardly bear to listen to their light-hearted frivolous ideas. It is talked about that Mori, who is the Minister of our country here, scorns the customs of his own land indiscriminately in the presence of foreigners” (diary entry, April 15, 1872, in Sidney DeVere Brown and Akiko Hirota, trans.,
The Diary of Kido Takayoshi
, 2, pp. 149–50).