Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (192 page)

29
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 9, p. 218.

30
. Ibid., 9, p. 225.

31
. Ibid., 9, p. 233.

32
. Ibid., 9, p. 260.

33
. Ibid., 9, p. 345.

34
. Donald Keene,
Dawn to the West
, 1, p. 90.

35
. Hinonishi,
Meiji tenn
ō
, p. 98. I am reminded of the story of the emperor
Ō
jin, related in the
Kojiki
. When he stood on a hill and, looking out over a village, noticed that no smoke was coming from the chimneys, he realized that the people did not have enough money to cook food. He accordingly remitted taxes. When next he stood on the hill and surveyed the village, he was happy to see smoke rising from the chimneys, a sign that it was now prosperous.

Chapter 49

1
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 9, pp. 360–61.

2
. Ibid., 9, p. 363.

3
. Ibid., 9, p. 364.

4
. Ibid., 9, p. 370.

5
. Ibid., 9, pp. 371–72.

6
. Ibid., 9, pp. 384–85.

7
. The Yamashita Club was a faction that favored industrial interests. It did not have a strong party organization and was dissolved at the time of the sixth general election.

8
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 9, p. 425.

9
. Ibid., 9, p. 445.

10
. Ibid., 9, p. 451.

11
. Presumably he cited Spain and Greece as examples of countries torn by internal warfare.

12
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 9, p. 454.

13
. Ibid., 9, p. 455.

14
. Ibid., 9, pp. 457–58.

15
. This probably refers to an incident in December 1887. Various secret matters were leaked to the press and stirred up agitation among
s
ō
shi
who demanded a reduction of taxes, freedom of speech and assembly, and a recovery from the errors of foreign policy. Their anger had been aroused in particular by Inoue Kaoru’s plan to allow foreign judges to sit in Japanese courts and to allow foreigners to live in the interior. Yamagata, the interior minister in the first It
ō
cabinet, issued security regulations in seven articles prohibiting secret associations, outdoor assemblies, disturbance of the peace, and so on. Ozaki Yukio was one of more than 570 persons who were banished from Tokyo because of their participation in the agitation (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 6, pp. 856–58).

16
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 9, p. 460. The emperor is said to have been heartened at this time by a long attack on democracy if democracy meant that a nation’s sole raison d’être was private interests and private benefits. The attack was made by Nomura Yasushi, a member of several cabinets, who believed that party politics were incompatible with the monarchy.

17
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 9, p. 467.

18
. Ibid., 9, p. 474.

19
. Ibid., 9, p. 475. Although harshly appraised in these words, Hamao Arata was in fact a distinguished educator who twice served as president of Tokyo University.

20
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 9, p. 489.

21
. Ibid., 9, p. 491.

22
. Ibid., 9, p. 492.

23
. Ibid., 9, p. 514.

24
. Shimba Eiji,
Itagaki Taisuke
, p. 296. Shimba wrote that Itagaki’s philosophy of freedom and people’s rights had completely “faded.”

25
. Shimba,
Itagaki
, p. 297. Shimba believed that the plot against Ozaki was ultimately the work of Hoshi TMru. Hoshi, who had been dismissed in 1892 from his post as chairman of the Sh
ū
giin, was at this time minister to the United States but, hearing of the formation of a coalition cabinet under
Ō
kuma and Itahaki, had rushed back to Japan without permission, eager to be close to the action.

26
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 9, p. 517.

27
. Ibid., 9, p. 527.

28
. Ibid., 9, p. 531.

29
. Ibid., 9, p. 540.

30
. Ibid., 9, p. 441. For mentions of worry over the crown prince’s health, see pp. 393, 412, 414, 418, 544.

31
. Ibid., 9, p. 405.

32
. Ibid., 9, p. 537.

33
. He was given a physical examination on November 11. The doctor reported that there was no change in the moist rale in his left chest, that his gastroenteritis was improving, and that his appetite was better (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 9, p. 544).

34
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 9, p. 548.

35
.
Shinsh
ū
Meiji tenn
ō
gyosh
ū
, 1, p. 318.

Chapter 50

1
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 11, p 586.

2
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 9, pp. 595–96. The source seems to be a recorded conversation with Tanaka Mitsuaki.

3
. Hinonishi Sukehiro,
Meiji tenn
ō
no go-nichij
ō
, p. 53. This anecdote appears in various forms in the different accounts based on Hinonishi’s conversations. The version quoted is from the 1976 (Shingakusha ky
ō
y
ū
kan) edition. Another version appears in the 1953 (Sokokusha) edition, pp. 54–55. Morita Seigo suggested, giving amusing examples, that newspapers were much freer at this time to carry gossip about the emperor than in later years (
Meijijin monogatari
, pp. 37–54).

4
.
Shinsh
ū
Meiji tenn
ō
gyosh
ū
, 2, p. 719. The word
niibumi
is a “pure” Yamato pronunciation of
shimbun
.

5
. They included the dinner offered on July 26, 1905, to William Howard Taft, the heaviest man ever to become president of the United States (
Tenn
ō
-ke no ky
ō
en
, pp. 84–85).

6
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 9, pp. 613–14. A
k
ō
shaku
, sometimes translated as “duke” or “prince,” ranked above a marquis. Many of the
k
ō
shaku
were former daimyos.

7
. It was attended by Tokudaiji Sanetsune, Hijikata Hisamoto, Tanaka Mitsuaki, Kagawa Keiz
ō
, and Kawaguchi Takesada.

8
. One physician, Oka Genkei, was sure that Sachiko was suffering from tuberculosis and intemperately attacked the proposed marriage. Years later, when the crown prince, married to another woman, had his second son, Oka went to congratulate the emperor. He commented that if the crown prince had married his original fiancée, there wouldn’t have been such a celebration. The emperor interrupted him angrily, saying that Sachiko’s failure to have a child even after a year of marriage was not necessarily her fault (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 9, p. 615).

9
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 9, p. 751. When Sasaki Takayuki at this time (January 1900) asked the emperor’s permission to have the princesses taught French, the emperor refused, saying it was too early. Perhaps his refusal was occasioned by irritation with the crown prince’s fondness for that language.

10
. These and other European decorations were awarded to the crown prince between December 1897 and March 1900, presumably in connection with his coming of age. In October 1900 he also received a royal decoration from Siam. The Japanese frequently bestowed decorations on foreigners, even those with minimal connections with Japan. For example, Europeans who had been kind to members of Japanese royalty when they traveled abroad often received first-class decorations. Decorations were also bestowed on foreign monarchs; for example, the dowager empress of China was awarded the
kun itt
ō
h
ō
kansh
ō
(
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 9, p. 652). Again, after the crown prince received the Order of the Elephant, one of the most distinguished in Europe, the emperor responded by giving the Prince Waldemar of Denmark, who had brought the decoration to Japan, the
daikun’i kikka daijush
ō
.

11
. James E. Hoare, “Extraterritoriality in Japan,” p. 97.

12
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 9, pp. 694, 761.

13
. Erwin Baelz,
Awakening Japan
, trans. Eden Paul and Cedar Paul, pp. 119–20. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 9, p. 758.

14
. Kat
ō
Hitoshi, “Meiji tenn
ō
o-tsubone go-rakuin den,” p. 67.

15
. Taish
ō
referred to his mother as
nii
, her rank after he became emperor. When there were leftovers from the palace table, he would often say, “
Nii ni yare
” (give them to Nii) (Kat
ō
, “Meiji,” p. 66).

16
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 9, p. 811.

17
. Ibid., 9, pp. 813–14.

18
. Ibid., 9, p. 823.

19
. So called because many of the insurgents practiced boxing and other martial sports before participating in the fighting.

20
. In addition to the foreign troops who suppressed the Boxers, about 170,000 Russian troops invaded Manchuria at this time.

21
. On June 19 the Chinese government declared war on the allies, who, however, continued to insist that they were not fighting a war but were engaged solely in a mission to rescue their nationals.

22
. The Boxers had roots going back to the eighteenth century when the Eight Diagram Sect was formed as a secret religious and martial organization. The purpose of this secret society (and similar ones) was the overthrow of the Ch’ing (Manchu) dynasty and the restoration of the Ming. For a description of the study of the origins of the Boxer sect by Lao Nai-hsüan, see Chester C. Tan,
The Boxer Catastrophe
, pp. 43–44.

23
. Kobayashi Kazumi,
Giwadan sens
ō
to Meiji kokka
, p. 55. He gives these figures for those killed: 188 Protestant missionaries, 5,000 Chinese Protestants, 5 Catholic bishops, 48 Catholic priests, and 18,000 Chinese Catholics. He claims, however, that many were killed not by the Boxers but by Chinese troops after the Manchu government joined with the Boxers in the summer of 1900. In addition, several German and Japanese diplomats were killed in the early stages of the rebellion.

24
. This sect gained notoriety for the sexual promiscuity it encouraged, but scholars who are favorably inclined toward the nineteenth-century rebellions in China have interpreted even such sexual excesses as having prepared the ground for the liberation of women from the feudal restraints of Confucianism (Kobayashi,
Giwadan
, pp. 7–8).

25
. The first such instance in Shantung seems to have occurred in 1886 when a French priest, with the aid of Chinese Christian converts, destroyed a Taoist shrine (Kobayashi,
Giwadan
, p. 66).

26
. For the disruption of village life, see Kobayashi,
Giwadan
, pp. 36–38, 43–44. Kobayashi mentions in particular the loss of tradition—the locally worshiped gods, heroes, public-spirited men, legendary men of super ability—and the loss of the beliefs, rites, and votive theatricals that accompanied these traditions (p. 43).

27
. Kobayashi,
Giwadan
, pp. 50, 58.
Ō
yama Azusa describes the red turbans and red sashes worn into battle by believers; the sashes carried such inscriptions as “The Justice and Peace Sacred Band will raise the Ch’ing and destroy the foreigners” (
Pekin r
ō
j
ō
, Pekin r
ō
j
ō
nikki
, p. v).