Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (162 page)

5
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 121.

6
. Ibid., 1, p. 121.

7
. Erwin Baelz,
Awakening Japan
, trans. Eden Paul and Cedar Paul, p. 124.

8
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 124.

9
. This was a small building situated north of the Tsune goten, or ordinary palace of the emperor. From 1840 it was more often called T
ō
g
ū
goten, or Crown Prince’s Palace, but in this instance the older name was used, perhaps because Sachinomiya had not yet been designated as crown prince.

10
. Baelz,
Awakening Japan
, p. 101.

11
. Diary entry, September 16, 1901, in ibid., p. 144.

12
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 126.

13
. While still living in the Nakayama household, Meiji was vaccinated by command of his grandfather, Nakayama Tadayasu (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 454). For the spread of vaccination elsewhere in the country, see my
Travelers of a Hundred Ages
, p. 382, where the diarist Iseki Takako (1785–1845) gives her favorable opinion of vaccination, introduced by Dutch doctors in Nagasaki.

14
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 129.

15
. Ibid., 1, pp. 127–28. This is a translation from the Japanese translation of the original letter written in Dutch.

16
. For an account of the demonstrations around the Gosho, see Fujita Satoru,
Bakumatsu no tenn
ō
, pp. 55–70.

17
. Gosakuramachi is reported to have distributed 30,000 apples, one to a person, on the afternoon of a single day (Fujita,
Bakumatsu
, p. 60).

18
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 130. For more detailed reports, see also
Komei tenn
ō
ki
, 2, pp. 644–45.

19
. The text is in Cosenza, ed.,
Complete Journals
, pp. 573–74. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 131.

20
. At the time, there was probably no one who could interpret directly from English to Japanese or vice versa; instead, Harris’s words were translated into Dutch by Heusken and then from Dutch into Japanese by a Japanese who had been trained in Dutch, the only European language in which Japanese were fluent. For an account of Heusken (especially concerning his death), see Reinier Hesselink, “The Assassination of Henry Heusken.”

21
. Cosenza, ed.,
Complete Journals
, p. 412. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 136.

22
. For a description of the audience in Harris’s words, see Cosenza, ed.,
Complete Journals
, pp. 468–80.

23
. Ibid., p. 475. The Japanese text of the shogun’s remarks is reproduced photographically on p. xxx.

24
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, pp. 137–38. Harris’s version of the meeting with Hotta, although it follows the same lines, is much less specific; there is no mention made, for example, of possible British and French territorial ambitions. See also
The Cambridge History of Japan
, vol. 5, p. 278.

25
.
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 708;
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 140. Harris’s version is contained in Cosenza, ed.,
Complete Journals
, pp. 496–500.

26
. This translation follows
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
1, p. 142. The original letter is much more extensive (
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 2, pp. 725–26).

27
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 139. The poem was discovered after her death among Nakayama Yoshiko’s effects with a note in her handwriting giving the time of composition. For the poem, see chapter 5.

Chapter 5

1
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 143.

2
. Ibid., 1, p. 142. The original letter is in
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 730.

3
. The letter is translated in full in W. G. Beasley, ed. and trans.,
Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy
, pp. 180–81.

4
. This title has been variously translated as “regent,” “chancellor,” “president of the councillors,” and the like. The meaning of the term changed with time, but the position was essentially that of the senior “elder,” the most powerful adviser of the shogun.

5
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 148. The text of letter is in
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 2, p. 856.

6
. The text is in
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 892. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 150. This was only one of several similar
semmy
ō
composed by K
ō
mei on this occasion.

7
. The English text is in Mario Emilio Cosenza, ed.,
The Complete Journals of Townsend Harris
, pp. 578–84.

8
. He mentions in the letter
san shinn
ō
(three princes of the blood) but gives only two names, Fushimi and Arisugawa. Fushimi referred to Fushiminomiya Sadanori; Arisugawa, to Arisugawanomiya Takahito and his son Taruhito. All three men had been adopted by the emperor Nink
ō
and had subsequently been given the title of
shinn
ō
, apparently in order to ensure continuance of the imperial line, even though their connections with the blood line of the imperial family were distant (Asukai Masamichi,
Meiji taitei
, pp. 77, 207).

9
.
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 2, pp. 923–24.

10
. T
ō
yama Shigeki, ed.,
Ishin no gunz
ō
, pp. 56–57.

11
. A treaty with France was signed in the ninth month.

12
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 153.

13
. He wrote in a letter dated November 1 to the minister of the left (Konoe Tadahiro) that he was too exhausted to meet Manabe (
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 102).

14
.
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 3, pp. 155, 156.

15
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 170.

16
. The text is in
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 227. A summary is in
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 171.

Chapter 6

1
. The 100,000
tanka
he composed were written on scraps of paper and then transcribed onto more suitable paper by a court lady. Afterward, the original manuscript was destroyed (Hanabusa Yoshimoto, “Sentei Heika ni kansuru tsuioku,” p. 322). The only comment made on Meiji’s handwriting by members of the court was that it was extremely difficult to decipher (Hinonishi Sukehiro,
Meiji tenn
ō
no go-nichij
ō
, pp. 54–55, 181, 187).

2
. For the poem (and translation), see chapter 5.

3
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 167. The bream (
tai
) is still a gift of good augury because its name is a homophone of part of the word
medetai
, “felicitous.”

4
. Watanabe Ikujir
ō
,
Meiji tenn
ō
, 1, p. 85. Watanabe is quoting
Tadayasu nikki
. The characters
naka
and
yama
made up the surname of his mother’s family, which may be why he chose them, but he also would have learned these two simple characters at the start of his study of calligraphy.

5
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 212. He began the
sodoku
reading of
The Great Learning
on September 14, 1860, and completed reading this text on December 23. He began studying the
Doctrine of the Mean
on December 28 (p. 231), and he began the
sodoku
reading of the
Analects
on July 23, 1861 (p. 257).

6
. Kimura Ki,
Meiji tenn
ō
, p. 91. Kimura apparently acquired this information during a conversation with Uramatsu Tarumitsu.

7
. Watanabe Ikujir
ō
,
Meiji tenn
ō
, 1, p. 86. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 245, where it mentions how Sachinomiya sometimes tricked his mother into believing he had completed his assignment.

8
. Both poems are in
Meiji tenn
ō
gyosh
ū
, 2, p. 714. The first is quoted in Watanabe Ikujir
ō
,
Meiji tenn
ō
, 1, p. 86. The “bamboo horse” (
takeuma
) of the second verse probably meant “stilts.”

9
. Watanabe Ikujir
ō
,
Meiji tenn
ō
, 1, p. 84.

10
. Kimura Teinosuke, “Meiji tenn
ō
no go-y
ō
ji,” pp. 22–23.

11
. Watanabe Shigeo,
Meiji tenn
ō
, pp. 4–5.

12
. Ibid., pp. 5–6.

13
. According to the account by Prince Takahito, by the end of 1857, when Meiji was five years old, he had begun to compose
tanka
(Watanabe Ikujir
ō
,
Meiji tenn
ō
, 1, p. 86).

14
. Kimura Ki,
Meiji tenn
ō
, p. 92. Meiji read such works as
Genpei seisuiki
,
Taiheiki
, and
Taik
ō
ki
.

15
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, pp. 199–202.

16
. Ibid., 1, p. 221.

17
. Ibid., 1, p. 223.

18
. Ibid., 1, p. 228.

19
. Ibid., 1, pp. 206–7. For a paraphrase of K
ō
mei’s response, see also
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 3, pp. 379–80. K
ō
mei mentioned that because Kazunomiya was born of a different mother, she did not have to obey his commands.

20
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 218. See also Takebe Toshio,
Kazunomiya
, pp. 39–41.

21
. Brief summary in
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 218; for the full text, see
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 410.

22
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 218. See also Takebe,
Kazunomiya
, pp. 44–45.

23
. Takebe claims that the promise to get rid of the foreigners was not the shogunate’s real intent but was forced on it by K
ō
mei’s insistence on specific plans for
j
ō
i
(
Kazunomiya
, p. 46).

24
. Ishii Takashi,
Bakumatsu hiun no hitobito
, p. 60. Ishii believed that the opposition of Kazunomiya’s mother, Kangy
ō
-in, and her uncle, Hashimoto Saneakira, had strengthened her resistance to the marriage.

25
. Takebe,
Kazunomiya
, p. 48.

26
. According to Ishii, a henchman of Konoe Hisatada (the chancellor) named Shimada Sakon hinted to Kazunomiya that if she persisted in her refusal, her mother and uncle would be severely punished (
Bakumatsu
, p. 61). He also induced her nurse to persuade Kazunomiya to accept. Takebe says that two retainers of the chancellor had plotted to get a relative of Kazunomiya’s nurse to inform the nurse that the court had decided to punish mother and uncle and, in this way, shake Kazunomiya’s resolve (
Kazunomiya
, pp. 51–52). In any case, it seems likely that underhanded methods were employed in the hopes of persuading Kazunomiya to agree to marry the shogun.