Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (166 page)

12
. The text is in Tada, ed.,
Iwakura
, 2, p. 44; the translation, in Beasley, ed. and trans.,
Select Documents
, p. 310.

13
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 480. The text is in Tada, ed.,
Iwakura
, 2, pp. 44, 45; the translation, in Beasley, ed. and trans.,
Select Documents
, pp. 310–11.

14
. The text is in Tada, ed.,
Iwakura
, 2, p. 47; the translation, in Beasley, ed. and trans.,
Select Documents
, p. 319.

15
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 481. Nakayama Tadayasu continued to give the young emperor lectures on the Japanese classics, and other men lectured on Chinese works (pp. 500, 507).

16
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 497. Meiji also had instruction from Takatsuji Osanaga and Nagatani Nobuatsu in the Chinese classics (pp. 500, 508). The one Chinese classic mentioned by name was the
Shu Ching
(Book of History).

17
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 474.

18
. Ibid., 1, p. 481.

19
. Ibid., 1, p. 484.

20
. On December 17 the American minister resident, R. B. Van Valkenburgh, sent a message conveying the thanks of President Andrew Johnson for the Japanese efforts (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 549).

21
. At this time her name was Masako, but it was changed to Haruko, the name by which she was known abroad. For the sake of uniformity, I shall call her Haruko throughout.

22
. Horaguchi Michihisa,
Sh
ō
ken k
ō
taik
ō
, p. 9.

23
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, pp. 502–3.

24
. Ibid., 1, p. 504.

25
. Ibid., 1, pp. 504–5. A
ny
ō
go
was ranked immediately below empress.

26
. According to the Japanese calendar, it was on the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth month of the previous year. A full description of the marriage ceremonies is in
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, pp. 941–44.

27
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, pp. 940–41.

28
. She was known as
jung
ō
, meaning literally, “next after the empress.”

29
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 943.

Chapter 13

1
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 495.

2
. Ibid., 1, pp. 497, 500. The text states that in extreme cases husbands and wives separated and relatives broke off relations, estranged by the change in circumstances.

3
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 511.

4
. Ibid., 1, p. 656.

5
. Ibid., 1, p. 681.

6
. Ibid., 1, p. 682. Sir Ernest Satow describes Sir Harry Parkes’s meeting with Got
ō
Sh
ō
jir
ō
and Date Munenari (Muneki) on May 22, 1868: “With the latter we had a discussion about the recently published edict against Christianity; it revived the ancient prohibition, but in less stringent terms. Daté admitted that the wording was objectionable, and said that he had caused it not to be exhibited on the public notice-boards at Ozaka and Hi
ō
go. He had tried to get the expression (translated ‘evil’ or ‘pernicious’ sect) altered, but said it would be impossible to suppress the proscription of Christianity altogether …. Afterwards I had a long talk with Nakai [Hiroshi] on this subject, and suggested that instead of specifically mentioning Christianity the decree should merely forbid ‘pernicious sects’ in general. It was clear that the Japanese Government would not be induced to revoke the law completely, for that would be to give a free hand to the Roman Catholic missionaries at Nagasaki, who had already made themselves obnoxious by the active manner in which they had carried on their proselytism” (
A Diplomat in Japan
, p. 368).

7
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 3, p. 42.

8
. Ishii Takashi,
Boshin sens
ō
ron
, p. 1.

9
. For Oguri’s advocacy of
Tokugawa zettai shugi
, see Ishii Takashi,
Bakumatsu hiun no hitobito
, pp. 188–221.

10
. Ishii,
Boshin
, p. 21.

11
. Terajima Munenori (also known as Matsuki K
ō
an, 1832–1883) was an exception to this generalization. During the brief “war” between Satsuma and the British, he deliberately became a prisoner in order to travel abroad. His knowledge of the rest of the world, especially of India and China, convinced him that the only way Japan could resist colonization at the hands of foreign powers was by unifying the country under one ruler, the emperor (Ishii,
Boshin
, p. 22). After the outbreak of the war between the shogunate and Ch
ō
sh
ū
in the summer of 1866, Fukuzawa Yukichi presented a memorandum expressing his hope that after Ch
ō
sh
ū
was crushed (with the aid of foreign troops if necessary), the feudal system would be changed; he hoped the shogun would establish an absolutist regime (p. 29).

12
.
Yonaoshi
often took the form of people dancing in the streets and crying, “
Ii ja nai ka
.” Here is Satow’s description of one such manifestation: “Some difficulty was experienced in making our way through the crowds of people in flaming red garments dancing and shouting the refrain
ii ja nai ka
. They were so much taken up with their dancing and lantern-carrying that we passed along almost unnoticed” (
A Diplomat
, p. 289).

13
. Ishii,
Boshin
, p. 38.

14
.
Ō
hashi Akio,
Got
ō
Sh
ō
jir
ō
to kindai Nihon
, p. 76. For the meeting of the two men, see Marius B. Jansen,
Sakamoto Ry
ō
ma and the Meiji Restoration
, pp. 265–66.

15
. For Sakamoto’s proposals, see Jansen,
Sakamoto
, pp. 295–96, and
Ō
hashi,
Got
ō
, p. 91.

16
. Ishii,
Boshun
, p. 61. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, pp. 501–2.
Ō
hashi gives a somewhat different paraphrase (
Got
ō
, pp. 95–96). See also Jansen,
Sakamoto
, pp. 300–301.

17
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 516.

18
. Ibid., 1, p. 518.

19
. The name is also read Yamanouchi; Y
ō
d
ō
was the
g
ō
by which he was commonly known, but his personal name was Toyonobu.

20
.
Ō
hashi,
Got
ō
, pp. 99–101.

21
. The text is in
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 520.

22
. Satow was shown a copy of this proposal by Got
ō
Sh
ō
jir
ō
and Nakai Hiroshi (called K
ō
z
ō
by Satow): “They produced a copy of the Tosa memorial of last month, advising the Tycoon to take the step he had since adopted, and proposing various reforms. Of these the most important were the establishment of an assembly composed of two houses, the erection of schools of science and literature in the principal cities, and the negotiation of new treaties with foreign powers” (
A Diplomat
, p. 284).

23
. The text is in
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, pp. 521–22. See also Jansen,
Sakamoto
, pp. 312–17.

24
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, pp. 519–20.

25
. The text is in ibid., 1, p. 525. It is reproduced photographically in Ishii,
Boshin
, p. 67.

26
. Yoshinobu is called Minamoto rather than Tokugawa because the Tokugawa family claimed to be descended from the Minamoto, the shoguns during the Kamakura period.

27
. The court was still in mourning for K
ō
mei.

28
. I have followed the interpretation of the text given in Ishii,
Boshin
, pp. 66–67. Not everything is clear, but this is the general sense.

29
. They were Nakayama Tadayasu,
Ō
gimachisanj
ō
Sanenaru, and Nakamikado Tsuneyuki.

30
. Ishii,
Boshin
, p. 70. For Iwakura’s relations with Tamamatsu, see Tada K
ō
mon, ed.,
Iwakura-k
ō
jikki
, 2, pp. 59–62.

31
. Tada, ed.,
Iwakura
, 2, p. 70.

32
. Ishii,
Boshin
, p. 71.

33
. Although the second edict was dated the day after the first, they both were sent on the same day (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 526). Katamori was the Ky
ō
to
shugo
and Sadanori, the Ky
ō
to
shoshidai
.

34
. Tada, ed.,
Iwakura
, 2, pp. 84–85. According to Iwakura, the emperor directed the three nobles who had signed the edicts to wait and see what happened now that Yoshinobu had announced his intention of yielding political power to the throne. Despite Iwakura’s words, the young emperor was unlikely to have made this decision by himself.

35
. Conrad Totman wrote, “Mindful of our evidence that Edo had been making substantial progress in restoring Tokugawa power and prestige, Yoshinobu’s decision of 10/12 commands attention and prompts a query: Why did he make it?” (
The Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu
, pp. 381–82). After offering various possible answers in terms of immediate and long-range causes, Totman concluded, “In sum, then, given the very worrisome context, Yoshinobu’s ambiguity of purpose, his ambivalence about governing, the relatively concessive orientation of those about him, the absence of forceful countervailing pressure, the limited objectives of the Tosa proposal, and the very real likelihood that it would peter out in any case as its predecessors had done—given all these considerations, Yoshinobu’s decision was not so surprising after all” (p. 386).

36
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 527.

37
. Elizabeth Longford,
Queen Victoria
, p. 61.

38
. Ashikaga Takauji assumed the office of shogun in 1338, and the last Ashikaga shogun, Yoshiaki, resigned in 1588. This means that there were fifteen years without a shogun between 1588 and 1603, but during most of this period Toyotomi Hideyoshi was shogun in all but name.

39
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 560. For a fuller account, see Tada, ed.,
Iwakura
, 2, p. 60.

40
. Satow,
A Diplomat
, p. 324. The original text (in
kambun
) is in
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 595. The message was delivered to the ministers of six countries by Higashikuze Michitomi. The use of the plural in the translation is, of course, the royal “we.” For an analysis of a similar, but far from identical, imperial proclamation announcing that the emperor had abolished the office of shogun and that he would decide both internal and external matters once they have passed meetings of
d
ō
mei reppan
, see also Sasaki Suguru,
Boshin sens
ō
, pp. 17–18.

Chapter 14

1
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 541.

2
. Income was calculated in terms of rice; a
koku
was about 5.1 bushels.

3
.
Ō
hashi Akio,
Got
ō
Sh
ō
jir
ō
to kindai Nihon
, p. 118.

4
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 1, p. 532. They seem to have had some success: Asahiko was deprived of his title
shinn
ō
in September 1868 for having attempted to help the Tokugawa family restore its control over the government (p. 793).