Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (176 page)

9
. Yamakawa Michiko, “Kindan no jokan seikatsu kais
ō
ki,” p. 196.

10
. Yamakawa Michiko,
Jokan
, p. 16.

11
. Kat
ō
, “Meiji,” p. 60. The senior court lady (
jokanch
ō
) during much of Meiji’s lifetime, Takakura Kazuko, seems to have been a redoubtable figure. She would inform the
gon no tenji
she had chosen as the emperor’s companion for the night, “
Ky
ō
wa, anata
” (It’s your turn today).

12
. When Yamakawa Michiko entered the emperor’s service in 1909, Ogura Fumiko and Sono Sachiko were the only two women who shared the emperor’s bed.

13
. Yamakawa, “Kindan no jokan,” p. 196. She quotes an unnamed aged woman who served Yanagihara Naruko for many years. The woman recalled that Naruko’s hysteria was such that not only the other palace ladies but even the nurses ran from her.

14
. Yanagihara Naruko was one of seven
gon no tenji
portrayed by the ukiyoe artist Tsukioka Yoshitoshi in a series of prints published in 1878. All the women are beautiful in much the same way, but Naruko’s picture offended the Ministry of the Imperial Household because her pose recalled those of the courtesans Yo-shitoshi so often depicted. (The print is reproduced in
Impressions
, no. 21, 1999.) It is said that consequently, ukiyoe artists were henceforth forbidden to depict the emperor in their prints, but if such an order was actually issued, it was frequently disobeyed in later years.

15
. For details, see
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 623.

16
. Ibid., 3, p. 405.

17
. Ibid., 3, p. 406. The expression was derived from the Chinese historical work
Tso Chuan
. If China fell, Japan would feel the Siberian cold from Russia.

18
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 407.

19
.
Ō
kubo Toshiaki,
Iwakura Tomomi
, pp. 218–19.

20
. The emperor gave Sanj
ō
a memorandum urging Saig
ō
to return and, as a loyal subject, to take part in reviving the spirits of the people and planning for a prosperous and militarily strong country (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, pp. 427–28).

21
. Genr
ō
-in was a translation of “Senate.” It was expected to perform legislative and advisory functions. The Taishin-in was the highest judicial court.

22
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, pp. 425–26.

23
. Ibid., 3, p. 436.

24
. Ibid., 3, pp. 444–45. The treaty was signed on May 7 by Enomoto Takeaki, representing Japan, and Duke Alexander Gorchakov.

25
. The decision was issued by the czar on May 29 (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 453). Despite this welcome development, many Japanese continued to believe that Russian expansion in East Asia was the chief menace to Japanese security.

26
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 473.

27
. Iwakura, exasperated by Shimazu Hisamitsu’s obsessive insistence on what Iwakura considered to be trifles, decided not to meet him again (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 498). Hisamitsu nursed a secret plan for correcting the woes of the time: it was to adopt the policy of Emperor Hsüan Tsung of the T’ang dynasty who, after putting down a rebellion, had strictly forbidden luxury and had commanded that all elegant things be burned (p. 500). When Iwakura heard of this “secret plan,” he merely laughed.

28
. For Korean interpretations of the incident and its place in the chain of events leading to the treaty between Japan and Korea, see Kan Je-on,
Ch
ō
sen no j
ō
i to kaika
, pp. 140–42, 163–71.

29
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, pp. 496–97. Other sources give somewhat different dates. The place where the boat from the
Un’y
ō
attempted to land was directly in front of the main gun emplacements on the island, an obvious challenge to the Korean defenders (Kan,
Ch
ō
sen
, p. 164).

30
. For press coverage in Japan of the incident (which undoubtedly affected public opinion), see Kinebuchi Nobuo,
Nikkan k
ō
sh
ō
shi
, pp. 30–48.

31
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, pp. 520–22.

32
. Ibid., 3, pp. 541–42.

33
. Woonsang Choi,
The Fall of the Hermit Kingdom
, p. 6.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 568, gives two platoons, not three companies, of marines. The two warships were the
Nisshin
and M
ō
shun
.

34
. Choi,
Fall of the Hermit Kingdom
, pp. 6–7.

35
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 569.

36
. A translation of the treaty is in Choi,
Fall of the Hermit Kingdom
, pp. 124–27. It was in twelve articles. The fourth article provided that trade should be continued at the Wakan at Pusan without restricting it to the Tsushima Domain. Two other ports would be opened “for commercial intercourse with Japanese subjects.”

37
. Joseph H. Longford,
The Evolution of New Japan
, p. 105.

38
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 578.

39
. Ibid., 3, pp. 584–85.

40
. The site of the villa, near the present Komagome Station, is marked by a stone pillar with an inscription commemorating Meiji’s visit.

41
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 590.

42
. Kido Takayoshi noted in his diary, “I am the first
shizoku
whose villa His Majesty has chosen to visit. Nine years ago I was summoned into the Imperial Presence, the first man without court rank to be honored with an Imperial audience” (diary entry, April 11, 1876, in Sidney DeVere Brown and Akiko Hirota, trans.,
The Diary of Kido Takayoshi
, 3, p. 281).

43
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 606.

44
. Diary entry, May 19, 1876, in Brown and Hirota, trans.,
Diary
, 3, p. 297.

45
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 599.

46
. The journey is described in great detail in a series of accounts given in Yoshino Sakuz
ō
,
Meiji bunka zensh
ū
, 1, pp. 341–572. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, pp. 614–81.

47
. Kishida Gink
ō
, “T
ō
hoku go-junk
ō
ki,” p. 342;
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 616.

48
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 646. The portrait of Hasekura is no doubt the one now displayed in the Sendai Museum.

49
. On July 11, however, much to Kido’s relief, the emperor walked some 100 yards down a steep hill (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 664).

Chapter 27

1
. Shinp
ū
is the
on
reading of characters usually pronounced
kamikaze
. The members took this name for their organization by way of signifying that they, like the “divine wind” that had foiled the Mongol invasion, would protect Japan from harm.

2
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 709. The ideal of the Jitsugaku-t
ō
, derived from its mentor, Yokoi Sh
ō
nan, was the creation of an American-style democracy.

Despite the prominent activity of its samurai nationalists, Kumamoto was also known for its Christian thought. In 1876, the same year as the Shinp
ū
ren rebellion, the “Kumamoto Band,” a group of thirty-five young men who had been converted to Christianity by L. L. Janes, an American teacher, swore an oath to save their country through Christianity. For more about Janes, see F. G. Notehelfer,
American Samurai
.

3
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 710. For the text of the manifesto composed (and read aloud to Shinp
ū
ren members) by Kaya Harukata, see Araki Seishi,
Shinp
ū
ren jikki
, p. 138. Among other charges, the government was attacked for seeking to ingratiate itself with the foreigners by forbidding the wearing of swords, secretly promoting the dissemination of Christianity, and intending to sell land to foreigners.

4
.
Ō
taguro had become the chief priest of the Shinkai daijing
ū
in 1875 as the result of the policy of Yasuoka Ry
ō
suke, the governor of Kumamoto Prefecture, of appointing members of the Shinp
ū
ren as priests of the principal Shinto shrines. The rite of divination (as performed by
Ō
taguro) was known as
ukei
. In order to obtain an oracle from the gods, three alternative courses of action were inscribed on slips of paper which were then inserted in a hollow tube. The tube was shaken, and whichever slip dropped from the tube was taken to be the will of the gods. All of the Shinp
ū
ren’s important decisions were made in this manner, and the answer vouchsafed by the gods was absolutely followed, even if it disappointed the inquirer by denying support for some action.
Ō
taguro had several times been forbidden by the gods to attack the government forces before he at last receiving a command sanctioning action (Shiba Ry
ō
tar
ō
,
Tobu ga gotoku
, 6, pp. 227–28).

For the importance of
ukei
in the spiritual thought of the Shinp
ū
ren, see Araki,
Shinp
ū
ren jikki
, pp. 35–36. The mentor of the Shinp
ū
ren, Hayashi
Ō
en (1798–1870), wrote a study of the practice of
ukei
, tracing its origins back to the dispute between Amaterasu
Ō
mikami and Susano-o no mikoto, described in the
Kojiki
, over his failure to obey her command.

5
. Members of the Shinp
ū
ren detested Buddhist priests and regarded them as unclean because their religion had originated outside Japan and was therefore alien.

6
. These and other equally amusing examples of Shinp
ū
ren fanaticism are given in Kobayakawa Hideo,
Kesshi Kumamoto keishint
ō
, pp. 22–23. The author, although generally sympathetic to the Shinp
ū
ren, described such actions as “sick” (
by
ō
teki
).

7
. Mishima Yukio gives a highly dramatic account of the Shinp
ū
ren, from the time
Ō
taguro first sought permission from the gods to stage his uprising until the final defeat (
Homba
, pp. 458–504). Mishima’s account cannot be accepted as historical evidence, but he had evidently read widely in the surviving materials.

8
. Shiba,
Tobu
, 7, p. 42.

9
. Their name, meaning “shield and castle unit,” indicated their determination to protect their lord (presumably the emperor) from all enemies.

10
. They evidently did not know that the rebellion in Kumamoto had failed.

11
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 712.
H
ō
koku
means literally “repaying [one’s] country.”

12
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 713.

13
. Ibid., 3, p. 715.
Junkoku
means “to die for one’s country.”

14
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, pp. 742–44.

15
. Diary entry, January 4, 1877, in Sidney DeVere Brown and Akiko Hirota, trans.,
The Diary of Kido Takayoshi
, 3, p. 419. For the text of the emperor’s brief announcement, see
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 4, p. 4.

16
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 4, p. 6.