Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (200 page)

51
. For the charges against K
ō
toku, see Nishio,
K
ō
toku Sh
ū
sui
, pp. 276–77.

52
. The prison authorities, with a curious show of delicacy, executed Kanno Suga, the one woman involved, on January 25, a day after the men.

53
. Yoshida Seiichi quotes Masamune Hakuch
ō
: “If someone should ask me whether, in view of the gravity of the incident, I personally did not feel secret indignation deep down in my heart, feel loathing for the government and the judges, curse life itself, lose all interest in food and all capacity to sleep soundly at night, I would have to reply that I experienced nothing even remotely resembling such emotions” (
Kindai bungei hy
ō
ron shi: Taish
ō
hen
, pp. 48–49).

Nagai Kaf
ū
, though, wrote some years later, “Of all the worldly incidents I have ever seen or heard about, none has ever inspired such unspeakable disgust as this one. As a writer, I should not have kept silent about this question of ideology …. But I, like the other writers of the day, did not say one word. I felt extremely ashamed to be a writer. I was assailed by unbearable pangs of conscience” (
Nagai Kaf
ū
sh
ū
, 1, p. 319).

Katayama Sen declared that “the decision passed on KMtoku and the others was fair, and there are no points to criticize. It is unfortunate, however, that the trial was not open to the public. Socialist party members in various countries have criticized the case in their party organs, and in extreme instances they have even argued that the Japanese government’s refusal to open the trial shows that contrary to tendencies elsewhere in the world, it intends to eradicate the Socialist Party. This shows their complete ignorance of our country’s laws and the true facts of the case” (quoted in
ō
hara,
Katayama Sen
, p. 68). Also, “The Japanese government is definitely not persecuting socialism; the persons who died on the gallows were all active anarchists” (p. 69).

Chapter 61

1
. Ian H. Nish,
The Anglo-Japanese Alliance
, p. 377.

2
. Kurobane Shigeru,
Nichiei d
ō
mei no kiseki
, 1, p. 207.

3
. For the terms of the treaty, see
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, pp. 628–30. The concession made by the Japanese is in article 4.

4
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, p. 584.

5
. Ibid., 12, pp. 637–38.

6
. Ibid., 12, p. 555. Prime Minister Katsura on May 30 announced the establishment of a foundation to be called the Onshi zaidan saseikai. In addition to the money given by the emperor, funds had been obtained from volunteers throughout the country. When the emperor was informed of the name of the organization, he objected that funds had come not only from himself but from many other people. At his suggestion, the first four characters of the name (Imperial Gift Foundation) were always to be given in small print (p. 612).

7
. See chapter 30.

8
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, p. 593.

9
. Ibid., 12, p. 689.

10
. The photograph taken at this time, and three similar photographs taken at maneuvers in Nara, Tochigi, and Okayama Prefectures, are reproduced in
Meiji tenn
ō
no go-sh
ō
z
ō
, pp. 20–21.

11
. Two or three other snapshots of the emperor are preserved from this period, but they were taken at so great a distance that they do not clearly show his features.

12
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, pp. 702–3.

13
. Ibid., 12, pp. 744–45.

14
. Ibid., 12, pp. 705–6.

15
. Ibid., 12, pp. 718, 719.

16
. Ibid., 12, p. 730.

17
. Ibid., 12, p. 731.

18
. Minamoto Ry
ō
en, “Nogi taish
ō
no jisatsu to sono seishinshiteki haikei,” p. 17. The three grandsons were the future Emperor Sh
ō
wa and Princes Chichibu and Takamatsu.

19
. Early biographers of Nogi lavished praise on his work at the Gakush
ū
-in, calling him “Pestalozzi with a sword” (quoted in Minamoto, “Nogi,” p. 17). But see the different opinion of a more recent biographer, Matsushita Yoshio,
Nogi Maresuke
, pp. 193, 197. Matsushita also called attention to an incident that occurred during the Grand Maneuvers of 1908 (p. 195). On the final day, Nogi was suddenly replaced by another general as commander of the “Southern Army.” He had ignored an order from the supervisor of the maneuvers (General Oku) to withdraw, saying that the Southern Army was not losing and there was no reason to withdraw. This independence of spirit was not prized.

20
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, p. 673. Nogi was subsequently given a lesser post as supervisor of maneuvers carried out between the Fourth and Sixteenth Divisions (p. 683).

21
. Sixty by Japanese count; fifty-nine by Western count. In Japan and China the completion of sixty years was considered very important because it meant that the person had lived through one whole cycle.

22
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, p. 733. Takasaki Masakaze died not long afterward, on February 28, 1912.

23
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, pp. 734–35.

24
. B
ō
j
ō
Toshinaga,
Ky
ū
ch
ū
goj
ū
nen
, p. 23.

25
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, pp. 803–4.

26
. Ibid., 12, p. 805.

27
. Ibid., 12, p. 813. See also B
ō
j
ō
,
Ky
ū
ch
ū
, p. 23.

28
. Hinonishi Sukehiro,
Meiji tenn
ō
no go-nichij
ō
, pp. 71–72.

29
. Ibid., p. 160.

30
. Quoted in Suematsu Kench
ō
, “Go-jiseiryoku no o-tsuyokarishi sentei heika,” p. 325.

31
. Quoted in Hinonishi,
Meiji tenn
ō
, p. 75.

32
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, p. 819. Both the accession of the new emperor and the announcement of the new reign-name (
geng
ō
) were unprecedentedly prompt. Meiji waited for more than a year and a half before changing the reign-name Kei
ō
to Meiji. Kume Kunitake (among others) criticized the unseemly haste with which the
neng
ō
was changed (“Sentei h
ō
gyo ni saishite yo no kans
ō
,” p. 317).

33
. B
ō
j
ō
,
Ky
ū
ch
ū
, pp. 49–50.

34
. A special issue of the magazine
Taiy
ō
, published in September 1912, was devoted entirely to reminiscences of the late emperor.

35
. Makino Nobuaki, “Go-Shinsei shoki no tsuioku,” p. 48.

Chapter 62

1
. Hinonishi Sukehiro wrote that although the emperor’s clothes never fitted him, this never bothered him (
Meiji tenn
ō
no go-nichij
ō
, p. 89). This statement was questioned by the compilers of
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, who recorded that a European tailor came from Yokohama to take the emperor’s measurements in the spring of 1872 (2, p. 666). The measurements taken at this time, even if accurate, would not have been of much use after the emperor grew stouter, and the tailors probably had to guess what changes had occurred.

2
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, p. 828.

3
. Asukai Masamichi,
Meiji taitei
, p. 29. Fujinami does not figure prominently in
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
or other accounts of Meiji’s life, perhaps because his relations with the emperor were informal and private.

4
. Erwin Baelz wrote that “in aspect Emperor Mutsuhito was, for a Japanese, tall and stately” (
Awakening Japan
, trans. Eden Paul and Cedar Paul, p. 395).

5
. Asukai,
Meiji taitei
, p. 33.

6
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, pp. 830–31. See also Asukai,
Meiji taitei
, pp. 48–49; he noted that Chigusa Kotoko seems not to have left a diary, and it was therefore uncertain whether or not this was actually the emperor’s wish.

7
. Asukai pointed out that although the capital of Japan had never officially been moved from Ky
ō
to to T
ō
ky
ō
, when the emperor traveled to Ky
ō
to, it was stated that he had “gone” there, not that he had “returned” (
Meiji taitei
, pp. 46–47). According to the KMshitsu tempan, promulgated in 1889 at the same time as the constitution, coronation ceremonies and the
daij
ō
sai
were to be carried out in Ky
ō
to. In fact, however, the
daij
ō
sai
, a ceremony the emperor performed only once in his lifetime, took place in 1871 in T
ō
ky
ō
. The emperor, although fond of Ky
ō
to, accepted the reality of T
ō
ky
ō
as the capital; but he may have felt that when his worldly duties had come to an end, he was entitled to be buried in the place he chose.

8
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 12, p. 831.

9
. Ibid., 12, p. 833.

10
. Mochizuki Kotar
ō
, ed.,
Sekai ni okeru Meiji tenn
ō
, 2, p. 11;
Times
(London), July 30, 1912.

11
. Mochizuki, ed.,
Sekai ni okeru Meiji tenn
ō
, 2, p. 37.

12
. Ibid., 2, pp. 118–19; original Japanese text, in ibid., 1, pp. 228–89. It is not clear when It
ō
made this statement.

13
. Mochizuki, ed.,
Sekai ni okeru Meiji tenn
ō
, 2, p. 119; original Japanese text, in ibid., 1, p. 229.

14
. Ibid., 2, p. 119.

15
. Ibid., 1, p. 687.

16
. Ibid., 1, pp. 599–600.

17
. Ibid., 2, p. 1205;
Kuo Kuang Hsin-wen
(Peking), August 2, 1912.

18
. Mochizuki, ed.,
Sekai ni okeru Meiji tenn
ō
, 2, p. 1206.

19
. Ibid., 2, p. 1233. The translator (from Chinese into Japanese) added a note to the effect that the reporter was still imbued with the superiority complex of the Chinese.

20
. Mochizuki, ed.,
Sekai ni okeru Meiji tenn
ō
, 2, p. 1211.

21
. Ibid., 2, p. 175.

22
. Quoted in Asukai,
Meiji taitei
, pp. 31–32. See also Carol Gluck,
Japan’s Modern Myths
, p. 220. The Japanese text is in Tokutomi Roka, “Meiji tenn
ō
no h
ō
gyo no zengo,” in
Mimizu no tawagoto
, in
Meiji bungaku zensh
ū
, 42, p. 338. Gluck gives an excellent account of the atmosphere surrounding the emperor’s funeral. See also the description by Ubukata Toshir
ō
, a newspaper reporter who covered the events of the funeral, in his
Meiji taish
ō
kenbun shi
, pp. 189–211.

23
.
S
ō
seki zensh
ū
, 20, p. 398. Natsume SMseki’s diary entry was inspired by a newspaper extra that for the first time revealed the seriousness of the emperor’s illness.

24
. “Meiji tenn
ō
h
ō
t
ō
no ji,” in
S
ō
seki zensh
ū
, 26, p. 312. S
ō
seki praised especially the emperor’s devotion to education. The emperor’s death and Nogi’s
junshi
figure importantly in S
ō
seki’s novel
Kokoro
.