Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (199 page)

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Authors: Donald Keene

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BOOK: Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912
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23
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, pp. 452–53.

24
. Ibid., 12, pp. 453–54.

25
. Katano Tsugio,
Rich
ō
metsub
ō
, p. 293.

26
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, p. 457.

27
. Ibid., 12, p. 460.

28
. Ibid., 12, pp. 464–65.

29
. When Yi Wan-yong informed Sunjong in August of Japan’s decision to annex Korea, he listened at first to Yi’s explanation without showing any reaction. He seemed incapable of judging the situation correctly, but when Yi had finished, Sunjong opened his toothless mouth and gave a look of disgust, his mute reaction (Katano,
Rich
ō
metsub
ō
, p. 289).

30
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, pp. 467–68.

31
. Ibid., 12, pp. 469–70.

32
. Kinebuchi,
Nikkan
, p. 289. Enma was the king of hell. “Don Saig
ō
” was an imitation of the usage in Kagoshima, with
don
both a shortened form of
dono
and an equivalent of the Spanish
don
.

33
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, p. 503. Ch’angdok was the name of the palace in Seoul where the former emperor Sunjong was living.

34
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, p. 500.

35
. Katano,
Rich
ō
, p. 294.

Chapter 60

1
. The first was on evidence in classical texts of ancestor worship in Greece and Rome; the second, on a passage in the
I Ching
; and the third, on the
kunibiki
episode in the
Izumo fudoki
.

2
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, p. 544.

3
. Ibid., 12, pp. 545–46.

4
. Hinonishi Sukehiro, who served the emperor as a chamberlain from 1886 to 1912, stated that “seven or eight years” after 1895 “he stopped reading the newspapers altogether” (
Meiji tenn
ō
no go-nichij
ō
, p. 53).

5
. Alexander was killed on March 13, 1881; Umberto, on July 29, 1900; and Carlos, on February 1, 1908. Although the assassins in each case said they were anarchists, they were killers hired by political enemies of the kings (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, p. 15).

6
. A bomb was thrown at Alfonso XIII on the way from the church where he had just been married, on May 30, 1906. He was unhurt (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 11, p. 565).

There were at least seven attempts on the life of Queen Victoria. The first was on June 10, 1840, when she and her consort, Prince Albert, were out on a drive in an open carriage: “Suddenly she heard an explosion and at the same time felt Albert’s arms flung round her…. She smiled at his excitement but next moment saw ‘a little man on the footpath with his arms folded over his breast, a pistol in each hand….’ As he aimed at her and fired again she ducked” (Elizabeth Long-ford,
Queen Victoria
, p. 151). The would-be assassin was tried for high treason, a crime punishable by death, but he was eventually sent to an asylum. On July 27, 1850, Queen Victoria was struck violently on the head by a retired lieutenant and knocked unconscious. The assailant was sent abroad as a convict for seven years. The sixth attempt, on February 28, 1872, had the most modern overtones: the assassin intended not to kill the queen but to frighten her into signing a document ordering the release of certain political prisoners (pp. 390–91). The last attempt on the queen’s life was on March 2, 1882. The would-be assassin, who aimed a fully loaded revolver, was sent to a lunatic asylum (p. 446). The motives of all the would-be assassins were vague and confused, which was the reason that they were sent to asylums.

7
. His major translation was of
La Conqu
ē
te du pain
by Prince Peter Kropotkin, completed not long before he was executed. The Japanese translation was made from an English translation.

8
. Nishio Y
ō
tar
ō
,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 9. K
ō
toku’s original text is reproduced photographically in the front matter. If this was really his composition and calligraphy at the age of seven, he was unusually precocious. KMtoku wrote
kanshi
(poems in Chinese) to the end of his life. For an account in English of K
ō
toku’s early life, see F. G. Notehelfer,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, pp. 8–20.

9
. Sakamoto Taketo,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 78. See also Nishio,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 8.

10
. Nishio,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 20.

11
. The decree was particularly severe on men from Tosa (KMchi) because they led the opposition to the Satsuma–Ch
ō
sh
ū
government.

12
. Sakamoto,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, pp. 50–51; Nishio,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, pp. 27–28.

13
. Nishio,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 28.

14
. Sakamoto,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 55. After graduation, KMtoku left employment with Nakae, who gave KMtoku the
gag
ō
of Sh
ū
sui, a name with poetic rather than political overtones.

15
. Sakamoto,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 60. See also Nishio,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 46. By this time, KMtoku had left the
Jiy
ū
shimbun
because of discontent over working for a mouthpiece of the government and was at the
Ch
ū
ō
shimbun
, where he worked chiefly as a translator.

16
. Sakamoto,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, pp. 102–4. On p. 102, he gives a list of all the lectures delivered to the society.

17
. Ibid., p. 99.

18
. This is the opinion of Sakamoto, but Nishio believed that KMtoku made his start as a socialist in 1897 (
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 48).

19
.
Ō
hara Satoshi,
Katayama Sen no shis
ō
to taigyaku jiken
, p. 15.

20
. He attended Hopkins Academy in Oakland, Maryville College, Grinnell College, Andover Theological Seminary, and Yale Divinity School.

21
.
Ō
hara,
Katayama sen
, p. 16. For works such as R. Ely’s
Social Aspects of Christianity
that strongly influenced Katayama, see pp. 18–19.

22
. Sakamoto pointed out that KMtoku’s book was published a year before John Hob-son’s study of imperialism and fifteen years before Lenin’s (
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 125).

23
. Sakamoto,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 127. See also Notehelfer,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, pp. 85–87.

24
. Nishio,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 69. Yamakawa’s articles brought him a sentence of four years in prison for lèse-majesté.

25
. For the twenty-eight demands framed by Abe Isoo, see Sakamoto,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, pp. 74–75.

26
. Suematsu had studied in England, where he published a partial translation of
Genji monogatari
.

27
. Sakamoto,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, pp. 134, 135.

28
. Ibid. The first poem,
Inishie no / fumi miru tabi ni / omou kana / ono ga osamuru / kuni wa ika ni to
(
Shinsh
ū
Meiji tenn
ō
gyosh
ū
, 1, p. 50), was composed before 1878. The second poem,
Aya nishiki / torikasanete mo / omou kana / samusa
ō
wan / sode mo naki mi wo
, does not appear in this collection.

29
. Sakamoto,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 140; Nishio,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 82.

30
. For a summary of the contents of the book, see Nishio,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 86.

31
. Sakamoto,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, pp. 152–53. Until this time, three gifted writers had regularly published antiwar editorials—KMtoku, Uchimura Kanz
ō
, and Sakai To-shihiko. Other newspapers had for some time been prowar, but the
Yorozu ch
ō
h
ō
held out until it became clear that Russia would not fulfill its promise of withdrawing troops from Manchuria. The founder and editor of the
Yorozu ch
ō
h
ō
, Kuroiwa Ruik
ō
, decided that in the interests of national unity, he would support the government’s prowar policy. This decision prompted KMtoku, Sakai, and Uchimura to resign from the newspaper.

32
. All together, sixty-four issues were published, the last on January 29, 1905. The first issue sold 8,000 copies, but the average sale of later issues was about 4,000 copies (Nishio,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, pp. 96–97).

33
. Sakamoto,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 160.

34
. Ibid., p. 163.

35
. Ibid., p. 164.

36
. Nishio,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 135.

37
. Sakamoto,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, pp. 168–69.

38
. Nishio,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 136.

39
. For details, see Sakamoto,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, pp. 170, 171.

40
. Her name was Mrs. Fritz. For the little that is known about her, see Notehelfer,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, pp. 124–27.

41
. Sakamoto,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 173.

42
. Nishio,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 153.

43
. Donald Keene,
Modern Japanese Diaries
, p. 444. The source is Shioda Sh
ō
hei,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui no nikki to shokan
, p. 235.

44
. Nishio,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 177.

45
. Ibid., pp. 189–94, 202–3, 204.

46
. For a vivid account of the Red Flag incident, see Sakamoto,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, pp. 202–6.

47
. Nishio,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 220.

48
. Sakamoto,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 215.

49
. Miyashita chose this day, the emperor’s birthday, to try out his homemade bomb, hoping that the sound of the explosion would not be noticed amid the fireworks set off in celebration (Nishio,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, p. 245).

50
. There were rumors to the effect that Miyashita had been betrayed to the police by the disgruntled husband of a woman with whom he had had relations or by a police spy in the movement.

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