Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (34 page)

Japanese descriptions of audiences granted by the emperor at this time are relatively rare, no doubt out of deference.
Ō
kubo Toshimichi, who was summoned by the emperor on May 1 to his temporary residence at the Higashi Honganji, mentioned in his diary the tears of joy and gratitude he shed at the thought that he, a mere samurai, should have been accorded the extraordinary favor of an audience. He was so overcome that he spent the rest of the day drinking.
¹⁹
On May 9 Kido Takayoshi and Got
ō
Sh
ō
jir
ō
were also summoned to the Higashi Honganji for an audience with the emperor. Kido wrote in his diary,

His Majesty inquired of us about the current situation in the country and of the general state of things in the nations overseas….

For several hundred years there has been no instance of a common subject without a court rank being granted an audience by the emperor. I am moved to tears by his favor. I only regret that the great enterprise of the Restoration has not yet been carried out completely. In the afternoon the emperor viewed the sumo matches from behind his bamboo screen.
²⁰

There is also an account, contained in a letter written by Yokoi Sh
ō
nan (1809–1869) to his family, of his impressions of the emperor during an audience on July 13:

His face is long, and his coloring is rather dark. His voice is loud. He is of slender build. As for his looks, I suppose one might say they are about average. But he makes a most imposing figure, and I am overjoyed that I should have seen so extraordinary a person.
²¹

Meiji’s life while in
Ō
saka was much less formal than in the Gosho. He probably enjoyed the relative freedom, although even here his studies continued. On May 4 he witnessed from behind bamboo blinds an exhibition of Japanese fencing. This was followed by lectures on the
Great Learning, Sun Tzu
, and
San Lüeh
;
²²
the latter two are studies of the art of warfare. On May 9 the emperor heard a lecture on
Sun Tzu
, and from then on there were daily lectures (which senior nobles might also attend) on Japanese and Chinese classics. The emperor’s education remained one of the principal concerns of those closest to him.

The emperor’s visit to
Ō
saka served the purpose of turning him into a visible presence at least to his advisers and to select foreigners. But once Tokugawa Yoshinobu submitted to punishment, it was felt that the emperor’s duties as commander in chief of the army had ended, and plans were made for his return to Ky
ō
to. This did not please
Ō
kubo Toshimichi, who wanted the capital moved to
Ō
saka and who was afraid that back in Ky
ō
to the emperor would be as remote from his people as in the past.
²³

The emperor left
Ō
saka on May 28 and, traveling more quickly than on the way out, reached Ky
ō
to the following day. When his palanquin entered the palace gates,
gagaku
musicians and dancers performed
Genj
ō
raku
, a work conveying joy over an emperor’s return.

That day the weather was brilliantly clear, and the common people swarmed to get a glimpse of the emperor’s return. The brocade pennants that had flown above the palace gates, signifying the emperor’s personal command of the army, were removed. The emperor could enjoy his first triumphal return.

Chapter 17

Shortly after the emperor’s return to Ky
ō
to from
Ō
saka, a proclamation was issued announcing his personal assumption of all state affairs:
¹

In keeping with his tender years, His Majesty has hitherto lived in the rear palace,
²
but pursuant to his recent oath, and it being also his wish, he will henceforth live in the front part of the palace. He will proceed to his study every morning about eight,
³
preside there over all state affairs, and direct the
hosh
ō
⁴
to submit reports. At times, when it seems appropriate, he may also visit the Hall of Eight Views.
⁵
In his leisure time he will study the literary and martial arts. He will retire to his private quarters about four in the afternoon. Such is the daily schedule of arrangements he has graciously proclaimed.

Yokoi Sh
ō
nan, a councillor (
san’yo
) of the new government, expressed in the letter (already quoted) his profound admiration for the emperor’s dedication to duty. He described how Meiji at his levee, seated on a “throne” (
gyokuza
)—two tatami high placed in the middle of an eight-mat room—gave himself completely to state business. A tobacco tray by his side was the only article of furniture.
⁶
Two or three
kinj
ū
⁷
waited on him, about six feet away, and ministers were seated in attendance on the other side of the threshold.
Gij
ō
and
san’yo
came forward to make reports, either singly or together. Yokoi commented that nothing so impressive had been seen for more than a thousand years.
⁸

A reorganization was announced at this time, establishing three branches of the government—executive, legislative, and judicial. Obviously those who planned this new system of government had been influenced by American or European examples,
⁹
but the stated goal of the reorganization was not the imitation of foreign practices but the implementation of the Charter Oath in Five Articles. Although surely no one expected (or desired) that in the near future a democracy would be created with equal opportunities for all to rise in the government (only princes of the blood, nobles, and daimyo were eligible to become first-rank officials), the way was opened for samurai and even commoners of ability to rise to positions of the second rank.
¹⁰
Officials were to be elected by ballot to serve a term of four years before rotation,
¹¹
and the reelection of officials would be permitted. All persons, regardless of rank—whether daimyos or mere farmers or merchants—would be expected to contribute to the costs of the new government and enable it to maintain an army and internal security; persons of rank were expected to pay one-thirtieth of their income in taxes.

Many other regulations were promulgated at this time, some very specific on minor points, others in the nature of general admonitions, and all conceived in the expressed hope of building a modern state that would not be inferior to the advanced countries of the West.

The fighting had by no means ended, especially in the northeast and north of the country. High-ranking nobles were dispatched as commanding generals to areas of unrest, even if nothing in their training (or future careers) suggested competence in military matters. For example, Saionji Kinmochi (1849–1940), a man known for his liberal thought but not for his knowledge of warfare, was appointed as commanding officer of the northern provinces on June 15 and left for his post in Echigo the next day. Probably (like other generals chosen from the nobility) he was only a figurehead, but the appointment of such men indicated that it was still believed that martial ability went hand in hand with the traditional education in the Confucian classics.
¹²

The most enigmatic figure among the nobles who became involved in the fighting at this time was Prince Yoshihisa. He was born in 1847, the ninth son of Fushiminomiya Kuniie. In 1858 at the age of eleven, he was ordained as a priest at the Rinn
ō
-ji, a imperial temple of the Tendai sect at Ueno in Edo, where he was given the Buddhist name of K
ō
gen.
¹³
In 1867 he was appointed as the abbot of the temple, an exalted position for someone of his years. Under other circumstances he might have spent the rest of his life in prayer and meditation, but Tokugawa Yoshinobu, who had left Edo Castle to live at the Kan’ei-ji in Ueno after announcing his submission to the wishes of the court, asked K
ō
gen to go to Ky
ō
to and intercede on his behalf with the emperor.
¹⁴

Rinn
ō
jinomiya, as K
ō
gen was known, was first approached on March 3, 1868, by an emissary who suggested that he plead with Prince Taruhito on Yoshinobu’s behalf, but he refused. He gave his reasons: having become a priest as a mere child, he was unacquainted with worldly matters and was incapable, at a time of national crisis, of interceding for Yoshinobu. Moreover, although he was accustomed to praising the Buddha and reading the sutras, he had no experience in dealing with people and trying to persuade them. He concluded by saying that if it was necessary that someone go, it should not be himself but a substitute.
¹⁵

The next day Yoshinobu visited Rinn
ō
jinomiya and formally requested him to go to Ky
ō
to. Kaku
ō
in Gikan, the intendant of the Rinn
ō
-ji, answering in place of the prince, reminded Yoshinobu that Rinn
ō
jinomiya’s father was now very old and if he went to Ky
ō
to, it might prove difficult to leave his father. This would surely cause anxiety among the people of Edo. Gikan also urged Yoshinobu to send someone else.
¹⁶
Mention of “anxiety” among the people of Edo if Rinn
ō
jinomiya failed to return to their city suggests that he was popular or at least well known, perhaps because of his close connections with the court.

Yoshinobu acquiesced that day, but on March 5 he summoned Gikan and informed him that Prince Taruhito, the supreme commander of the imperial forces, had left Ky
ō
to and was now on his way to Edo with his army. He repeated the request that Rinn
ō
jinomiya go to the court personally and on the following day sent him a letter to this effect. On March 7 a group of shogunate officials headed by Yamaoka Tessh
ū
(1836–1888) also sent a letter to Gikan. The persistence of Yoshinobu and the others reflected their belief that if Rinn
ō
jinomiya went to Ky
ō
to and asked for an audience with the emperor, his position was such that he could not be refused. This was, they thought, Yoshinobu’s best chance of obtaining the emperor’s pardon. The prince at last agreed on March 9 to undertake the mission and set the date of his departure for March 13. He would be accompanied by a retinue similar in number to those who normally accompanied him on his processions, some sixty men including not only priests and samurai but a physician, a legal adviser, a secretary, a cook, three tea servers, and various flunkies including palanquin bearers. All the same, this was a very small procession for someone of his status.
¹⁷

About ten in the morning of March 13 the prince’s palanquin left Ueno. He was seen off by the families of his retainers, young and old, who grieved over the parting and worried lest he be detained in Ky
ō
to and not return. The people of Edo, seeing the palanquin pass by, bowed with tears in their eyes, moved by the prince’s unselfishness in going to the capital to plead for the Tokugawa family.

The procession reached Odawara on March 17, two days behind schedule, but the prince was feeling so unwell that he could not continue the journey. Two days later, an advance party of the imperial army entered Odawara, and men from the Satsuma, Ch
ō
shu, and
Ō
mura domains, as well as an emissary of the commanding general, met with Gikan. He was asked why the prince was traveling to Ky
ō
to and why he was accompanied by so many soldiers. After a few more questions, the emissary commanded Rinn
ō
jinomiya to remain in Odawara until the general decided what action he would take. He also insisted that the soldiers of the prince’s bodyguard return to Edo. The prince, obeying the command, sent back all members of his retinue except for priests.
¹⁸

On March 26 a samurai from Satsuma informed Rinn
ō
jinomiya that the commanding general would arrive the next day in Shizuoka and asked him to proceed there. The prince left Odawara before daybreak in a heavy rain. As he and his party were passing through Hakone Yumoto Village, they encountered a party of Satsuma soldiers on their way to Odawara. The soldiers began to sing boisterously a song mocking the prince: “Why is the prince going to the capital when it’s raining cats and dogs?
toko ton yare, ton yare na
.”
¹⁹