Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (163 page)

27
. Takebe,
Kazunomiya
, p. 53.

28
. Ibid., p. 54.

29
. Ishii,
Bakumatsu
, p. 62.

30
.
Ō
ya S
ō
ichi zensh
ū
, 23, p. 259; Takebe,
Kazunomiya
, p. 55.

Chapter 7

1
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 144.

2
. Ibid., 1, p. 244.

3
. For a description of the activities of the Russians on Tsushima, see George Alexander Lensen,
The Russian Push Toward Japan
, pp. 448–51. Lensen’s account is based mainly on Russian sources.

4
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 243.

5
. Ibid., 1, pp. 242–43. Konishi Shir
ō
emphasized the importance of the resistance to the Russians by the inhabitants of Tsushima (
Kaikoku to j
ō
i
, p. 226). If they had not battled to save their land from the Russian invaders, the affair would not have ended so easily with the British action.

6
.
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 4, pp. 243–47. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 243. The Tsushima daimyo was S
ō
Yoshiaki (1847–1902).

7
. A large-scale mission was dispatched to Europe in 1862. For a study of this mission, see Haga T
ō
ru,
Taikun no shisetsu
, and my
Modern Japanese Diaries
.

8
.
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 3, pp. 611–16. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, pp. 255–56.

9
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, pp. 256, 257.

10
. There was confusion and even alarm in the shogunate when it was discovered that the treaty was not solely with Prussia but with other states of what would shortly be the North German Confederation. The Japanese thought they had been tricked into signing a treaty with several countries (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, pp. 234–35;
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 3, pp. 488–89).

11
. For Kazunomiya’s letter, see
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 3, pp. 489–90. See also Takebe Toshio,
Kazunomiya
, p. 66.

12
. The name Chikako was given to her by K
ō
mei after she had been proclaimed an imperial princess (
naishinn
ō
) in May 1861 (
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 559).

13
. A letter sent by Kazunomiya to K
ō
mei at this time has been preserved. It includes the words “For the sake of peace in the country I have no choice but to accept, though it is truly hateful” (Takebe,
Kazunomiya
, p. 60).

14
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 267. Nakayama also fell out of favor, but Imadegawa Saneaya (1832–1864) rapidly recovered from the disgrace and was appointed in 1863 as the imperial messenger to the tomb of Emperor Jimmu, where he prayed for the expulsion of the barbarians.

15
. The number of men in the procession has been variously estimated. A frequently cited source stated that there were 7,896 men, 280 horses, 7,440 futon, 1,380 pillows, 8,060 rice bowls, 5,210 soup bowls, 1,040 trays, and 2,110 plates (Takebe,
Kazunomiya
, p. 83; Konishi,
Kaikoku to j
ō
i
, p. 214). Additional guards were supplied at various places en route.
Ō
ya S
ō
ichi estimated the escort as 20,000 men (
Ō
ya S
ō
ichi zensh
ū
, 23, p. 278).

16
.
Ō
ya
, 23, p. 278. The
enkiri enoki
was in Itabashi, just north of Edo.

17
. A section of the text of their manifesto is in
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 3, pp. 764–65.

18
. The letter was an outright forgery (
Ō
ya
, 23, p. 276).

19
. According to the rumor, Townsend Harris had decided to get rid of K
ō
mei as an obstruction to opening the country and had suborned And
ō
to commit the deed. The two scholars (Hanawa Jir
ō
and Maeda Kensuke) whom he allegedly had employed were both assassinated in January 1863 (
Ō
ya
, 23, p. 276).

20
. Fujita Satoru,
Bakumatsu no tenn
ō
, p. 190.

21
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 273. The poem contains two wordplays:
tachi
is both “sword” (a reference to the gift K
ō
mei has received) and “nature” (of the patriotic donor);
saya
is both “scabbard” and “brightly.”

22
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, pp. 282–83.

23
. Ibid., 1, p. 300.

24
. The four “villains” (
kan
) were Koga Takemichi, Iwakura Tomomi, Chigusa Aribumi, and Tominok
ō
ji Hironao. The two “ladies” (
hin
) were Imaki Shigeko and Horikawa Motoko. All six were in some way connected with Kazunomiya’s betrothal to the shogun.

25
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 312.

Chapter 8

1
. The text of the message (in Chinese) is in
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 4, p. 195. A rather free translation into Japanese is in
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 312.

2
. The hall of audiences (
ō
hiroma
) was in three tiers. The bottom level (
gedan
) was the level of an ordinary tatami; the middle level (
ch
ū
dan
) was the height of two layers of tatami; and the upper level (
j
ō
dan
) was three tatami high.

3
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 312.

4
. Ibid., 1, pp. 320–21. See also
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 4, pp. 353–54.

5
. Nakagawanomiya (1824–1891) was born the son of Fushiminomiya Kuniie. He had several childhood names and acquired more when he was sent as an acolyte in 1831 to the Honn
ō
-ji. In 1836 he was transferred to the Ichij
ō
-in, an abbacy of the K
ō
fuku-ji in Nara, to study (with still another name) under his uncle, the superior of the temple. That year, at the age of twelve, he was adopted by Emperor Nink
ō
and succeeded his uncle as the superior, although he was not formally inducted as a priest until 1838. He moved by imperial command in 1852 to the Sh
ō
ren-in, a major Tendai temple in Ky
ō
to, and was accordingly known as Sh
ō
ren-no-miya Son’yu, the name most commonly found in documents of the late Tokugawa period. (He was also known as Awatanomiya or Awataguchinomiya from the location of the temple). Among those who gathered around him were Umeda Unpin, Ikeuchi Daigaku, Maki Izumi, Hashimoto Sanai, and Sakuma Sh
ō
zan, and various others who were either murdered or purged in the Ansei incident. These men were attracted not only by the prince’s advocacy of
j
ō
i
but also by his noble character, attested to by his followers’ writings. His popularity with the
shishi
did not escape the notice of the shogunate, and at the time of the Ansei purge, he was condemned to perpetual confinement at the Sh
ō
koku-ji, where he spent more than two years in a tiny, dilapidated hut (
Ō
nishi Gen’ichi, “Ishin kaiten no k
ō
bo to Kuni-no-miya Asahiko Shinn
ō
,” p. 79). This treatment of the prince enraged the
shishi
, and obtaining his release became their first objective (p. 86). Some even spoke of making the prince the
seii taish
ō
gun
of an army that would overthrow the shogunate, although the prince remained to the end a believer in
k
ō
bu gattai
(p. 82). Sanguinary plans for disposing not only of shogunate officials but of all foreigners were pushed forward with the expectation that the prince would lead the attacks (p. 87). The prince was released from confinement and allowed to return to the laity in 1862 as part of the amnesty declared in honor of the marriage of the shogun and Kazunomiya (p. 98). Only then did he become known as Nakagawanomiya. After the Restoration his enemies still did not relent, and he was exiled to Hiroshima on what seems to have been a trumped-up accusation. His last years were spent as the lord custodian of the Great Shrine at Ise.

While at the K
ō
fuku-ji, the prince studied both the literary and the martial arts, especially spearmanship. In Nara he made an important acquaintance, Kawaji Toshiakira, an official of the shogunate who prominently figured in efforts to open the country, even though the prince remained throughout an advocate of
j
ō
i
.

6
. Fujita Satoru referred to the prince as “the right arm of Emperor K
ō
mei” (
Bakumatsu no tenn
ō
, p. 219).

7
. Kurihara Ry
ū
ichi,
Zankanj
ō
, p. 107.

8
. For a text of the accusation directed against the Ashikaga shoguns, see ibid., p. 115. For an excellent account in English of this event, see Anne Walthall, “Off with Their Heads! The Hirata Disciples and the Ashikaga Shoguns.”

9
. Walthall, “Off with Their Heads,” pp. 162–68. The official responsible for apprehending these men was Matsudaira Katamori (1835–1893), who had been appointed as the Ky
ō
to
shugo
in 1862. This action brought the young, little-known daimyo of Aizu to the attention of the court. His determination to catch the culprits was inspired by the symbolic importance of the act: in beheading the statues of long-ago shoguns they were threatening the present shogun.

10
.
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 4, p. 455. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 325.

11
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 325. It is said that Iemitsu was accompanied by 307,000 men. It is hard to take this literally, but probably this was the impression conveyed by the throng of escorts he brought with him in the hopes of thoroughly impressing the court.

12
. As mentioned previously, he had in fact been forced by the conflagration that destroyed the palace in 1854 to leave the Gosho and take refuge elsewhere.

13
. His decision to make this pilgrimage seems to have been the result of repeated petitions offered to the throne by M
ō
ri Sadahiro (1839–1896), the heir of M
ō
ri Takachika, the daimyo of Hagi. Sadahiro said that it was not fitting at a time of crisis for the emperor to remain shut up in his palace and urged him to worship not only at the two Kamo Shrines but also at the Senny
ū
-ji and the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 327).

14
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, pp. 326–27.

15
. Yoshimura Toratar
ō
(1837–1863), a
shishi
from Tosa, wrote a letter to his parents describing the scene: “When the imperial palanquin came close, I naturally was overcome with tears. I prostrated myself, but more than that I cannot say. I later heard from others that more than four hundred thousand people—men and women, old and young—had gathered this day along the roads, hoping to catch a glimpse of his countenance inside the beaded curtains, and all of them were weeping” (quoted in Nishijima Ry
ō
sabur
ō
,
Nakayama Tadamitsu ansatsu shimatsu
, p. 39).

16
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 330. Nakayama Tadamitsu in his capacity as chamberlain served his nephew Mutsuhito.

17
.
K
ō
mei tenn
ō
ki
, 4, pp. 592–93. See also Ishii Takashi,
Bakumatsu hiun no hitobito
, pp. 68–69.

18
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, pp. 330–31.