Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (145 page)

Probably the event of 1907 that most directly and strongly affected Meiji was the death in October of his mother, Nakayama Yoshiko. This was not her first illness. Dr. Erwin Baelz mentioned in his diary for November 28, 1893, that he had examined the emperor’s mother, who was then suffering from a stomach ailment. On January 20, 1900, he wrote about a more serious illness:

Had good luck with the emperor’s mother. When the old lady was at her worst, with high fever and pneumonia, and the court chamberlain asked me whether she had any chance, I said that there was hope she would pull through if she could last two days more. My words were evidently misreported to the emperor. When, two days later, Dr. Oka appeared to give his report, he found the emperor watch in hand. The emperor nodded to him saying: “I know, it’s all right, she is saved.” Dr. Oka, speechless with astonishment, said he did not quite understand, but he was delighted to be able to inform His Majesty that there really was a shade of improvement. The emperor rejoined: “Baelz said she would recover if only she could live forty-eight hours longer. He knew!” Oka begged permission to say that perhaps my words had been a little misrepresented. But the emperor stuck to his opinion.

Actually, the mother is better.
³³

This anecdote, though Dr. Baelz tells it with humor, is touching because the emperor so rarely revealed his emotions. He was obviously extremely concerned about his mother’s illness, and when Baelz said that there was hope she might recover if she lasted two days more, the emperor’s anxiety made him interpret this as meaning that if his mother lasted two days more, her recovery was certain. Dr. Oka’s description of Meiji waiting, watch in hand, for the forty-eighth hour to pass, is particularly appealing, for at that moment he seemed to have forgotten he was an emperor and behaved merely like a son.

On October 4, 1907, the emperor received word from Dr. Oka that he was treating Nakayama Yoshiko for pneumonia and that her condition was serious. The empress immediately decided to pay a visit, but first she sent the
tenji
Yanagihara Naruko to wait on the stricken woman. Her reasons for choosing Naruko were not stated, but perhaps it was because Naruko, like Yoshiko, would one day be the mother of an emperor.

The empress herself was so impatient to leave for Yoshiko’s residence that she did not wait for a proper escort to be composed. The emperor, too, as soon as he heard of Yoshiko’s illness, commanded the surgeon general, Viscount Hashimoto Tsunatsune, to devote himself entirely to treating his mother, regardless of what this might involve. However, Yoshiko was over seventy and her illness was severe, and although Dr. Hashimoto exhausted every remedy at his disposal, her condition grew worse each day. There was no hope for her recovery. Finally, the doctor reported to the emperor that he had no way to cure her illness. The emperor looked extremely upset, and those around him could only gaze at him with apprehension.

The morning he received word of how serious his mother’s condition was, the emperor was seated at the breakfast table. Pointing at the milk that he was served every morning at breakfast, he said to the empress, “They say Ichii [Nakayama Yoshiko’s title] can’t get down food or drink. But maybe she could swallow this.” He took one of the three bottles on the table, each containing about half a pint, and gave it to the empress. As soon as the empress reached the mother’s sickroom, she took out the milk and offered it to Yoshiko, also repeating the emperor’s words. Yoshiko, overcome with emotion, drank the milk to the last drop.

The anecdote rings true even in the crucial detail, not explicitly mentioned, that the emperor was not free to visit his mother on her deathbed. He had gone to the side of his official mother, the empress dowager, and revealed then the depth of his affection, but he could not visit his real mother because her status was insufficiently elevated. Obviously, no one could have prevented him from visiting his mother if he so chose. It is unlikely there would even have been words of remonstrance. But Meiji could not violate what he believed to be the proper behavior for an emperor; he was in effect the prisoner of his conscience. Years earlier, Dr. Baelz had written in his diary that although the emperor ceremoniously visited his official mother several times a year, he was not free to visit his real mother because she was only a subject. “Strange flowers of etiquette!” had been his comment.
³⁴
The emperor could not violate the code of etiquette, however much he may have yearned to see his mother once again before she died.

Early on the morning of October 5 Nakayama Yoshiko died in her seventy-third year. On the twelfth the emperor and empress gave 30,000 yen for funeral expenses and supplemented this with a gift of 15,000 yen in recognition of her services. The crown prince and princess gave 10,000 yen, and the four imperial princesses gave another 5,000 yen.

The funeral took place on October 14. The emperor sent Chamberlain H
ō
j
ō
Ujiyasu to mourn in his place at Nakayama Yoshiko’s bier. Later that day, Ujiyasu went to the Gokoku-ji, a Shingon temple associated with the imperial family, to offer prayers. The emperor also offered the Gokoku-ji
tamagushi
(wands of
sakaki
, the sacred tree of Shint
ō
), to be placed before the Buddhist altar. On the previous day he had sent a set of seven ritual implements (
shinsen
) for offering food and drink to the Shint
ō
gods. The combination of Shint
ō
offerings and a Buddhist altar suggests that the separation of Buddhism and Shint
ō
, promulgated early in the emperor’s reign, had broken down. Perhaps the mixture of the two religions was unavoidable because Shint
ō
funerals were unpopular.
³⁵

The ties between the imperial family and Buddhism had become tenuous, but they could not be completely broken, as the imperial tombs (including Emperor K
ō
mei’s) were at Senny
ū
-ji in Ky
ō
to. Two
gon no tenji
who had died giving birth to offspring of Emperor Meiji had been buried at Gokoku-ji, and all the other concubines of the emperor would eventually be buried within the precincts of a Buddhist temple. There was also a secular element present at Nakayama Yoshiko’s funeral: by command of the emperor, a battalion of infantry served as an honor guard in the funeral procession.

Nakayama Yoshiko’s surviving letters suggest that although she came from a distinguished noble family, she was not an educated woman. She probably did not attempt to understand the extraordinary changes that had occurred in Japan since her son had become emperor. But by all accounts she showed no hesitation about speaking her mind to the emperor if ever she disapproved of anything he did. He followed her advice, seeming to fear her stern rebukes, but his attitude was not solely one of respect: the affection he formed for Yoshiko as a child continued throughout his life. In her old age, she frequently visited the palace for the pleasure of seeing her son, and although he rarely enjoyed meeting anyone, he was always glad to see her.
³⁶

In November 1907, after a considerable hiatus, the emperor resumed one of his favorite activities, observing army maneuvers. They were held this year in Tochigi Prefecture. The emperor traveled to the site by train, at each stop on the way granting an audience (through the windows of his train compartment) to local officials who had come to welcome him. It was a festive occasion for all who rejoiced over the changes that had occurred in their lives in the forty years of the emperor’s reign. In every village there were strings of paper lanterns, flags, red and white bunting, white sand spread for the emperor to tread on, and arches of green leaves.

The maneuvers, concluded at a command from the emperor, were followed by a banquet attended by 4,800 nobles, ministers, and military. The emperor, in a good mood, offered saké to some sixty of them.
³⁷

On December 7 Prince Yi Eun arrived in Shimonoseki, escorted by It
ō
Hirobumi. The prince was met by Chamberlain Iwakura Tomosada, who accompanied him to T
ō
ky
ō
, which they reached on December 15 after a stop in Ky
ō
to. Prince Takehito rode in the same carriage with the young Korean prince to the Shiba Detached Palace, where he was to stay. That afternoon, Yi Eun visited the imperial palace. The emperor went as far as the entrance to the Phoenix Hall to welcome him. In conversation with the emperor and empress, the prince said that he had come, by command of the Korean emperor and empress, to study in Japan. He asked for guidance in all matters.

After lunch the Korean prince offered the emperor, empress, and crown prince presents from his country including a jade flute, a tiger skin, and a porcelain vase with a design of cranes and clouds. On December 20 the emperor, returning the visit, called on Yi Eun at the Shiba Detached Palace. He told the prince that he regretted his stay in Japan would be so short
³⁸
but said he hoped the prince would make the most of his time. So saying, he personally gave the prince a gold watch with the imperial crest, saying that he should use it to mark the time of his studies. The prince looked delighted.

On December 19 an envoy arrived from the emperor of Korea to thank the emperor for having sent General Hasegawa Yoshimichi as his deputy at the time of his coronation. The envoy, the uncle of the Korean emperor, brought a letter from him expressing in arcane phraseology his admiration for Emperor Meiji and his desire for a continuing friendship between the two countries. The Korean emperor clearly did not realize that within a few years, he would lose his crown to the monarch he had praised in such fulsome language.

Chapter 58

Although 1908 opened with traditional rituals, the emperor’s participation was minimal. On January 6 three lectures were delivered in his presence; the first was devoted to the Code of Hammurabi (Western learning), the second to Chu Hsi’s commentary on the
Doctrine of the Mean
(Chinese learning), and the third to a passage from the
Kojiki
(Japanese religion.) The emperor probably listened attentively, whether or not the lectures were engrossing, but he probably found the following day more to his taste.

It began with a visit from Yi Eun, the Korean crown prince, who had come to the palace (along with various Korean and Japanese dignitaries) to offer New Year greetings. The emperor gave Yi Eun a toy horse, a silver anchor, and various ornaments, and the empress gave him a gilt French figurine holding a clock.
¹
These gifts, unlike the fresh fish or saké more commonly offered by their majesties to devoted subjects, regardless of their age or preferences, were obviously intended to please a boy of eleven. The emperor may have treated this foreign prince with greater consideration than his own children because he believed it was required by international courtesy; but perhaps his kindness indirectly expressed his regret that his own son was not more like Yi Eun.

On January 20 his son, Yoshihito, the crown prince, left T
ō
ky
ō
for the mild coast of Hayama, where he would take refuge from the T
ō
ky
ō
cold. The empress, also in delicate health, went for the same reason to Numazu, staying there from January 12 to April 14. The emperor was pleased that Yi Eun remained in T
ō
ky
ō
, diligently attending to his studies regardless of the cold. When Yi Eun visited the palace on January 29, the emperor told him,

I have been greatly pleased to learn that Your Highness has enjoyed perfect health ever since taking up residence in T
ō
ky
ō
, despite the differences in climate and surroundings. Your studies of the Japanese language advance day by day, and I am sure that you have noted many things here that are unlike those in your own country. I hope you will show ever greater diligence in your studies and achieve even better results.
²

At this time the emperor also sent a message to Emperor Sunjong, informing him that he was doing everything possible to ensure that the Korean prince did well in his studies.
³
On February 9 Yi Eun moved from the Shiba Detached Palace to his own house in Toriizaka Street. This was the occasion for more gifts from the emperor, the empress, and the crown prince. In May the emperor sent Yi Eun a cricket bat and a bookcase.
⁴

The Japanese and the Korean courts exchanged messages on Yi Eun’s progress in his studies, and occasionally a Korean official visited Japan to confirm that the prince’s education was proceeding satisfactorily. The Japanese made every effort to convince the Koreans that Yi Eun was happy and benefiting from his stay in Japan, part of their long-range plan to bring Japan and Korea even closer.