Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (22 page)

Although the shogunate at first kept Iemochi’s death a secret, someone had to take command of the expeditionary force. On September 8 Tokugawa Yoshinobu was chosen. Just before he was to set out for the front, Yoshinobu received word that Kokura, a stronghold of the shogunate in northern Ky
ū
sh
ū
, had fallen. This news made him decide to suspend hostilities in the war with Ch
ō
sh
ū
. He sent word of this decision to the chancellor, who relayed it to the emperor. As might be expected, K
ō
mei was extremely displeased and insisted that Yoshinobu carry out his mission. On September 24 Yoshinobu went before the emperor to explain the futility of the situation. Only then did the emperor accept the decision to cease hostilities.

On September 28, a month after Iemochi died, his death was officially announced, providing an excellent pretext for discontinuing the war with Ch
ō
sh
ū
on the following day.
³⁶
A war that had brought neither glory nor advantage to anyone had ended not with a bang but a whimper. But it had changed forever the Japanese conception of martial conflict.

Chapter 11

The death of Tokugawa Iemochi came as a blow to Emperor K
ō
mei. He had enjoyed the young man’s company and for a time believed that together they could realize the ideal of
k
ō
bu gattai
. If the emperor had been able to forget this ideal and to accommodate himself to the newer ideal of restoration of imperial rule, he would surely have been more fortunate. He would have had the support of the great majority of not only the nobles but also the samurai class, but he refused to abandon his old convictions. To the exasperated men around him, he seemed maddeningly obstinate, but his extreme reluctance to change was an instance of conservatism in the strict sense; each concession caused him pain and chagrin. After the defeat of the shogunate armies in the war against Ch
ō
sh
ū
, the emperor was in the ironic position of using every means at his disposal to oppose those who sought to make him the undisputed ruler of Japan.

On October 8, 1866, soon after Tokugawa Yoshinobu announced the cessation of hostilities in the war with Ch
ō
sh
ū
, a group of twenty-two nobles presented a petition to the court requesting an audience with the emperor. They said it was to communicate to him their heartfelt convictions at a time of national emergency. The nobles were led by Nakamikado Tsuneyuki (1820–1891) and
Ō
hara Shigetomi (1801–1879), but it was Iwakura Tomomi who, behind the scenes, planned this collective appeal.

Iwakura had been living in enforced retreat outside Ky
ō
to ever since being accused in 1862 of having plotted with the shogunate to send Kazunomiya to Edo; but he was a born machinator, and it did not take him long to reestablish old contacts. He had frequent visitors, notably those of the
sonj
ō
faction, who kept him informed of the latest developments.
¹
Impressed by the bold stand of
Ō
gimachisanj
ō
Sanenaru during the discussion before the emperor on the advisability of continuing the Ch
ō
sh
ū
war, Iwakura conceived the idea of having a group of nobles present their collective views to the emperor, in this way lending weight to their opposition to K
ō
mei’s unwavering allegiance to the shogunate.

Iwakura, who was strongly in favor of the proposal presented by Satsuma for ending the conflict with Ch
ō
sh
ū
, drew up a program for creating a court government that would be amenable to the proposal. The nobles would open by asking that the court administration exclude Chancellor Nij
ō
Nariyuki and others whose attitudes they found objectionable, such as Prince Asahiko, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, and Matsudaira Katamori. Next they would ask that nobles at present living in enforced seclusion be allowed to return to the court. Finally they would ask that Konoe Tadahiro be reappointed as chancellor. The ultimate purpose of these (and other) remonstrances would be to restore imperial rule, profiting by the confusion that had been created in the shogunate by the shogun’s death.
²

In response to the nobles’ petition for an audience, the emperor appeared along with the chancellor Nij
ō
Nariyuki, Prince Asahiko, and other dignitaries.
Ō
hara Shigetomi, a senior member of the court, stepped forward to present the requests of the assembled nobles to the emperor. He asked, by way of preliminary, that the daimyos of the various domains be summoned in the near future by the court to hear the emperor’s commands, in this way bypassing the shogunate. The three requests he made were not exactly the same as Iwakura’s: that nobles who had been imprisoned or confined to their quarters because of their involvement in political incidents be set free, that the army formed to punish Ch
ō
sh
ū
be disbanded, and that the Court Council be reorganized.
³

Ō
hara spoke without circumlocution, both because of his upright character, for which he was known at the court, and because at the age of sixty-five, he may have believed he had little to lose. All the same, this kind of courage had not often been witnessed at the Japanese court.

K
ō
mei’s response was predictable: he demanded in a rage why he was being bothered by such insignificant matters. What, he asked, did the assembled nobles mean by referring to this as a national crisis? The real crisis had occurred in the winter of the previous year when he had been forced to consent to the treaties. If the nobles were now so deeply moved by patriotism as to ask for an audience with him, why did they not offer their advice at that time, when it was genuinely needed? They had remained silent and did not say one word. How dare they burst in on him in this way? This could only be considered a case of lèse-majesté.
⁴

The chancellor, a mild-mannered man, intervened, blaming himself for having aroused the emperor’s wrath. He explained that the unhappy state of the times had impelled
Ō
hara to make his plea. Why would a man speak so bluntly unless he were deeply moved by concern for the country? Nij
ō
Nariyuki concluded by saying that he himself could not escape blame because as chancellor, he stood highest among the nobles.
⁵

Ō
hara answered comfortingly, assuring the chancellor that he was not at fault; but when Prince Asahiko spoke in terms similar to Nij
ō
Nariyuki’s, apologizing for his failure to offer good advice,
Ō
hara turned on him and said, “Yes, you really are to blame. You should resign and apologize to the whole country.”

He then addressed the emperor: “Your Majesty, if I might have your reply, I will leave immediately.” The emperor answered that he would be willing to speak to
Ō
hara alone a few days hence. Obviously the prospect of another mass meeting was unwelcome. Prince Asahiko suggested that the emperor detain
Ō
hara and ask him to speak his mind in full, but the emperor said he needed more time to consider the three proposals. He dismissed the nobles, but after conferring with Prince Asahiko and others, he agreed to summon the daimyos and to meet with
Ō
hara on October 11. This information was passed on to the twenty-two nobles, who were still waiting for an answer, and they left at two in the morning.

Perhaps we should see behind the events of that day the hand of Iwakura Tomomi, who had decided that imperial rule could not be restored as long as Nij
ō
Nariyuki and Prince Asahiko were still in power. Iwakura had used
Ō
hara in his attempt to get rid of the two men, but he still had to contend with the emperor. On October 12 Nij
ō
Nariyuki, faced with impeachment at the hands of the nobles, resigned, alleging ill health. The emperor refused to accept his resignation. Prince Asahiko also expressed a wish to be relieved of his post, saying that he was unequal to the heavy responsibilities, but the emperor calmed the prince’s anger and persuaded him to remain. These steps halted further action for the time being, for any attempt to push charges against Nij
ō
and Asahiko would be construed as an attack on the emperor himself.

Invitations to the conference were sent out on October 15 to twenty-four daimyos, urging them to take part in a discussion of matters of national importance in the presence of the emperor. Only three daimyos (plus the heirs of two others) had appeared in Ky
ō
to by November, the rest claiming to be too ill to attend. So little enthusiasm was displayed that the conference seems not to have taken place.

On November 25 the emperor issued a decree punishing Nakamikado Tsuneyuki,
Ō
hara Shigetomi, and the rest of the twenty-two nobles who had petitioned him, declaring they were guilty of lèse-majesté. Nakamikado and
Ō
hara were confined to their residences, and the others were ordered to refrain from attending court.
Ō
gimachisanj
ō
Sanenaru, who was suspected of aiding the derelict nobles, was also ordered to remain in his house. The emperor had resorted to these measures in the hopes of stifling the nobles’ opposition to his policies.

On January 10, 1867, the emperor conferred on Tokugawa Yoshinobu the title of barbarian-quelling great general, a gesture showing that his loyalty to the concept of
k
ō
bu gattai
had not changed. This proved to be one of the last acts of his reign. A week later, on January 16, he attended a performance of
kagura
dances at the palace sanctuary, even though he had been feeling unwell for some days. The court doctors said his illness was nothing worse than a cold and not sufficient reason to miss the dances, but before the performance was over, he felt so poorly that he left. From this point on, his illness worsened. Two days later, he took to his bed with a high fever. On January 20, the physicians announced that he had smallpox. On investigation it was discovered that a page named Fujimaru had caught smallpox but, after a long illness, had finally been cured. Fujimaru had begun to appear at the court again, and it was suspected that the emperor had caught the sickness from him.
⁶

According to the courtier Higashikuze Michitomi, a friend from childhood days, K
ō
mei was blessed with an exceptionally fine physique. He was very strong and had never been sick before.
⁷
It probably seemed unlikely to those who knew him that he would fall prey to illness. Even today, scholars are divided between those who believe K
ō
mei died of smallpox and those who believe he was poisoned. No one disputes the fact that he contracted smallpox, but it is strange that the source of his smallpox should have been a boy who had recovered and was presumably no longer infectious. Again, it is strange that the emperor was the only person at the court to contract the disease, especially because his contacts with Fujimaru were casual. These are a few of the mysteries relating to the death of the emperor at the early age of thirty-six.

We can trace the course of K
ō
mei’s illness from the letters and diaries written by people who attended him, including Nakayama Tadayasu and Nakayama Yoshiko, the grandfather and mother of Prince Mutsuhito. The day after the emperor suffered his first attack of illness while watching
kagura
, he developed a fever, and he began to suffer from delirium and sleeplessness, as well as from a loss of appetite. On January 20, spots appeared on his hands, which on the next day spread to his face. The palace physicians diagnosed the illness as smallpox, and this was reported under the signatures of fifteen doctors.
⁸
The illness followed its normal course, and after several days during which the emperor could swallow only mouthfuls of hot water, there was a noticeable change for the better, followed by steady improvement each day. On January 24 it was officially reported that the emperor had suffered an extremely light case of smallpox.
⁹
It seemed that he was well on the road to complete recovery, and the priest Tankai, who had been commanded to recite prayers for seventeen days for the emperor’s recovery, was allowed to return to his temple.
¹⁰

A party was even scheduled to celebrate the emperor’s recovery; but on January 30 he suffered a violent bout of vomiting and diarrhea. Different accounts mention the purple spots that appeared on K
ō
mei’s face on that day, and the blood that issued from the “nine apertures.” He died in agony a short while later.
¹¹