Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (58 page)

In this and other controversies of the time, the emperor showed a firmness indicating that his period of youthful inexperience had come to an end. Naturally, before making decisions he consulted with his ministers, notably Kido, but the decisions were his own.

On November 1 it was decided at a meeting at Sanj
ō
’s house, attended by Minister of the Right Iwakura Tomomi and the councillors, to send an envoy to Korea and to station an envoy extraordinary and a minister plenipotentiary in China in order to be better informed about the situation. Mori Arinori was appointed to the latter post on November 10 with orders to ascertain through the intermediary of the Chinese government why the Koreans had attacked Japanese, who were merely looking for fresh water.

On December 9 an envoy was appointed to proceed to Korea. Kido had repeatedly asked to be sent, but just at this time he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, and Lieutenant General and Councillor Kuroda Kiyotaka was chosen in his place. Sanj
ō
’s instructions to Kuroda described the grievous insult to the Japanese flag but said that the Japanese government did not despair of improving relations with Korea, that it was possible that the incident at Kangwha had been the decision of a provincial official and was not by order of the Korean government. It was essential to determine who had made the decision. If the Koreans were willing to open friendly relations with Japan and allow trade, the envoy was authorized to accept this concession in lieu of reparations for the attack on the
Un’y
ō
. If, however, the Korean government refused to accept responsibility for the attack at Kangwha and showed no signs of sincerely wishing to resume the traditional friendship between the two countries, the envoy was authorized to take appropriate measures.
³²

Kuroda sailed for Korea on January 6, 1876, with two warships, three transports, and three companies of marines, some 800 men in all,
³³
the maximum the Japanese navy could provide by way of escort. The badly equipped little fleet was by no means as impressive as the ships Commodore Perry had brought to Japan on a similar mission twenty-three years earlier. In case negotiations broke down, secret plans were made for army reinforcements. Leaves for army personnel were canceled, and General Yamagata traveled to Shimonoseki to prepare for a possible military expedition.

The Japanese ships anchored off Kanghwa, a distance of some twenty miles from Seoul. On January 16 the Japanese military paraded to the Treaty House on Kanghwa, where they were met by two Korean commissioners. Kuroda at first thought that there was little hope of arriving at an agreement with the Koreans because of the prevailing unsettled conditions. He asked for reinforcements, but the Court Council refused his request, judging that a premature display of military strength might place an obstacle in the path of peaceful negotiations, by making the Koreans dread the Japanese.

The first meeting between representatives of the two countries lasted for four days. The negotiations were conducted with ritual politeness on both sides but consisted mainly of repetitions of familiar arguments. The Japanese wanted to know why their attempts to secure a treaty of peace and friendship had been consistently rebuffed; the Koreans in return wanted to know why the Japanese had used titles for their emperor that put him on an equal footing with the emperor of China, thereby placing Korea in a subordinate position. After denying any intent of asserting suzerainty over Korea, the Japanese asked why their ship had been fired on at Kanghwa. The Koreans answered that because the Japanese marines were dressed in European-style uniforms, they were mistaken for either French or Americans.
³⁴
They failed to apologize, saying merely that the provincial officials had not recognized that the ships were Japanese. The Japanese delegates then demanded why the Korean government had not informed its provincial officials of the flags flown by Japanese ships and insisted that this required an apology. The Korean commandant replied that he was charged only with receiving the Japanese visitors; he was not authorized to make an apology.

The negotiations dragged on, interrupted by periods of consultation between the Korean commissioners and their government in Seoul, but on February 27, 1876, a treaty of friendship was at last signed between Japan and Korea.
³⁵
After the signing ceremony, the Japanese offered presents to the Koreans, not only the traditional bolts of silk, but a cannon, a six-shooter, a pocket watch, a barometer, and a compass. The gifts (with the exception of the silk) were strikingly like those the Americans had given the Japanese when the first treaty between the two nations was signed, and the treaty itself had almost identical significance: Japan was “opening” Korea, the hermit nation, to diplomatic relations and to trade.
³⁶
One Western scholar later commented,

As the Western Powers had done with herself, so did she now, without one particle of compunction, induce Korea to sign away her sovereign rights of executive and tariff autonomy, and to confer on Japanese residents within her borders all the extraterritorial privileges which were held to violate equity and justice when exercised by Europeans in Japan.
³⁷

When word of the signing of the treaty reached the diplomatic community in T
ō
ky
ō
, the ministers of the various countries asked for an audience with the emperor so that they might express their congratulations. The emperor invited them to a banquet at the Shiba Detached Palace, where each minister had the opportunity to convey joy over the signing of the treaty and hopes for greater and greater friendship between Japan and Korea.
³⁸

In the meanwhile small changes were affecting the lives of most Japanese almost daily, far more than events in Korea. On March 12, for example, Sunday was officially established as the day of rest. The government hesitated to take this step, for it feared that people might suppose it was out of deference to Christianity. But it was essential to bring Japan into line with the enlightened countries of the West, and in the end the government risked being called subservient to the Christians. A month later, Saturday afternoons were also designated as holidays.

On March 29 a decree was issued prohibiting all persons (except members of the armed forces and the police in uniform) from carrying swords. Violators of this order would have their swords confiscated. For years a debate had been waged over whether samurai should be permitted to wear swords in the old tradition or forbidden as an anomaly in modern Japan. It was at last resolved, no doubt bringing comfort to Europeans, who were always made nervous by the sight of a sword.

On April 4 the emperor, empress, and empress dowager visited Iwakura Tomomi’s house, where they were entertained with performances of n
ō
. Although n
ō
had been performed at the palace in Ky
ō
to and the empress dowager in particular was devoted to the art, it had long been associated with the shogunate. In keeping with the Confucian tradition that a well-run government honors “rites and music” (
reigaku
), the shogunate had chosen n
ō
as its “music” and patronized it. With the fall of the shogunate, the future of n
ō
had become doubtful. Some actors followed the Tokugawa family to “exile” in Shizuoka, but not finding audiences for their plays, most turned to other occupations. Only a handful attempted to maintain n
ō
in T
ō
ky
ō
. Daimyos still resident in the city on occasion requested performances as part of the entertainment offered their guests, but after the daimyos returned to the provinces, the n
ō
actors no longer had patrons. It is true that when the duke of Edinburgh visited Japan, performances of n
ō
(the first since the Restoration) were presented for his pleasure, but the actors could not wait hopefully for another royal visitor from abroad; they needed income to sustain their families, and none was forthcoming.

H
ō
sh
ō
Kur
ō
(1837–1917), probably the most distinguished actor of the day, requested permission in 1870 to retire from the stage and debated whether to become a merchant or a farmer. N
ō
was performed in only two theaters—in Ky
ō
to, where the Kong
ō
School maintained its theater, and in T
ō
ky
ō
, where in 1872 Umewaka Minoru (1827–1909) built a theater at his house in Asakusa. Performances at both theaters were rare.

The performances at Iwakura’s house were thus of great importance in the revival of n
ō
. During his travels in America and Europe, Iwakura had been invited on various occasions to the opera which, he was informed, was the most notable variety of European drama. (His hosts probably invited him to the opera because they hoped that even if he could not understand the words, he might at least enjoy the music.) Seeing opera abroad made Iwakura recall the n
ō
, and after he returned to Japan, he asked two members of his embassy to plan a revival of the n
ō
as a suitable entertainment to offer to foreign visitors.

The actors who appeared before the emperor on this occasion included Umewaka Minoru and H
ō
sh
ō
Kur
ō
. In addition to members of the imperial family, four former daimyos, Sanj
ō
Sanetomi, Kido Takayoshi,
Ō
kubo Toshimichi,
Ō
kuma Shigenobu, It
ō
Hirobumi, Yamagata Aritomo, and other major figures in the government also attended. After the planned program of
Kokaji
,
Hashi Benkei
, and
Tsuchigumo
had ended, H
ō
sh
ō
Kur
ō
, at the emperor’s request, performed
Kumasaka
. The emperor, it was reported, looked highly pleased. At the dinner of Western food offered afterward by Iwakura, the emperor favored him and the other ministers and councillors with saké poured by his own hand.

This was the first time the emperor had seen n
ō
in T
ō
ky
ō
. He seems to have been genuinely fond of it. Sometimes, when in a particularly good mood, he used to sing passages from the plays, and he even taught his court ladies how to sing them.
³⁹
His enthusiasm for n
ō
was undoubtedly an important factor in the preservation of this art at a time when its future looked bleak. From then on, whenever the emperor visited the residences of principal officers of the state or members of the nobility, he was generally entertained with performances of n
ō
.

Meiji’s next visit to the house of an adviser took place soon afterward, on April 14. On his way back to the palace from Asukayama, where he had gone to admire the cherry blossoms and to inspect a paper factory, he stopped at the villa of Kido Takayoshi in Somei Village.
⁴⁰
Summoning Kido into his presence, the emperor uttered these words of praise: “You, Takayoshi, ever since the inception of the Restoration, have dedicated yourself to national duties, and now the country is fortunately enjoying peace. This is due to your accomplishments and those of your colleagues. We have personally paid you a visit and are delighted to be able to share pleasures together.”
⁴¹

He gave Kido 500 yen in gold, a large Satsuma ware vase, a pair of silver cups, and three cases of imported wine. He granted Mrs. Kido an audience, strolled in Kido’s garden, and then joined in eating a box lunch with the other guests. This was the first time an emperor had ever visited the house of someone of the samurai class. Kido naturally was delighted.
⁴²

The emperor’s plan of traveling to all parts of the country, announced years earlier, had been temporarily postponed as the result of various emergencies—the controversy over sending an envoy to Korea, the Saga insurrection, the expedition to Taiwan, and, most recently, the incident at Kanghwa Island—but now that these crises had been surmounted, the desirability of an imperial tour of the north of Japan was again urged.

On the whole the country was at peace, although peasant revolts (such as one in Wakayama early in May) were signs of residual discontent. In May, Kido submitted a lengthy memorial to the throne opening with the bold declaration that governments were established for the sake of the people but that the people were not under obligation to serve the government. He went on to describe the situation that had prevailed before the Restoration. During the 700 and more years since rule was delegated to the military, the people had always been oppressed by the government, but when the emperor, with supreme benevolence of intent, proclaimed the Restoration, he swept away the accumulation of evil practices. Truly, Kido commented, this must be accounted a great blessing for the people.
⁴³

Having read this far, one might expect that Kido would go on to urge even stronger steps to eliminate practices lingering from the rejected past. Instead, he warned against excessive changes. For example, with the establishment of prefectures in place of domains, officials had been appointed who were not necessarily natives of the locality they administered. They were therefore less solicitous when dealing with local problems than officials who were familiar with the persons involved and who would be anxious not to acquire a bad reputation that would be inherited by their children and grandchildren.