Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (37 page)

On October 23 it was announced that the
neng
ō
had been changed from the fourth year of Kei
ō
to the first year of Meiji and that henceforth there would be only one
neng
ō
for an entire reign.
¹⁰
The name Meiji was derived from a passage in the
I Ching
, the ancient Chinese book of divination: “The sage, facing south, listens to the world; facing the
light
, he
governs
.” The day before the new
neng
ō
was announced, the emperor himself had visited the sanctuary (
naishidokoro
) where he drew lots to determine the new
neng
ō
from among several names submitted by scholars. Although he probably did not realize it at the time, the emperor had also chosen the name by which posterity would know him; earlier emperors were known by a place-name from the site of their residence or (as was true of Meiji’s father and grandfather) by a posthumously chosen title. The name Meiji, interpreted as meaning “enlightened rule,” came to seem an accurate description of his reign. Names like those of his father and grandfather, auspicious though they were, would have been less appropriate to the era.

Once the coronation was out of the way, the next task ahead of the young sovereign was his visit to T
ō
ky
ō
. This journey had been announced as far back as September 19 in a proclamation stating that the emperor made no distinction in importance among “all lands within the seas, east and west.” For this reason, he had given Edo the new name T
ō
ky
ō
—“Eastern Capital.” The stated reason for the journey was the desire he had long entertained of comforting the people of the east who had suffered from the warfare that had raged since the spring of that year.
¹¹
The visit seemed so important to Iwakura Tomomi that he insisted on having the date of the emperor’s departure officially announced on the day after the coronation. He submitted on October 13 a proposal naming who would accompany the emperor to T
ō
ky
ō
and who would remain in Ky
ō
to to run the government and defend the city during the emperor’s absence.

There were protests against overhastiness, as some people felt that Prince Asahiko’s plot and the escape of the shogunate’s fleet were evidence that the eastern region had not yet been completely pacified. But Et
ō
Shimpei (1834–1874), who is credited with originating the plan of moving the capital to T
ō
ky
ō
, stressed the urgency of an imperial visit. He argued that the people of the eastern region had long been accustomed to receiving benefits from the shogun and were as yet unfamiliar with the emperor’s benevolent influence. With the fall of the Tokugawa family, these people felt as if they had been deprived of their master and did not know where to turn. If, because of fear of the rebel fleet, the emperor’s journey to T
ō
ky
ō
were delayed, the regime would lose credibility both at home and abroad and might, by missing a unique opportunity, do itself irreparable harm. The combination of Et
ō
’s eloquence and Iwakura’s political acumen carried the day for those who favored a visit in the immediate future.
¹²

Opposition nevertheless continued to be heard, not only from those who were worried because the northern provinces had not been completely pacified, but also from those who, remembering the huge expenses incurred by the government ever since the fighting at Toba and Fushimi, feared that the cost of the journey of the emperor and his entourage would represent a serious drain on the country’s already straitened finances. The people of Ky
ō
to also were apprehensive lest the journey to T
ō
ky
ō
be the prelude to a move of the capital to that city. (It was known that the
san’yo
Ō
kubo Toshimichi favored such a move.)
¹³

The inhabitants of T
ō
ky
ō
were eager for an imperial visit, the sooner the better. Now that the shogunate had been dismantled, the city had lost its political importance, and it was feared that it might fall into neglect. This fear was not confined to the people of T
ō
ky
ō
. Sir Ernest Satow wrote in his diary,

Now that the
daimi
ō
s
whose wants had been supplied by the merchants and shopkeepers had left for their country homes, the population would naturally decrease. It was a sad thing that Yedo should decline, for it was one of the handsomest cities in the Far East. Though it contained no fine public buildings, its position on the seashore, fringed with the pleasure gardens of the
daimi
ō
s
, and the remarkable huge moats surrounding the castle, crowned with cyclopean walls and shaded by the picturesque lines of pine-tree, the numerous rural spots in the city itself, all contributed to produce an impression of greatness.
¹⁴

Satow’s elegiac tone indicates that he expected the city to lose its greatness and even its physical beauty now that the shogun and the daimyos had left. The samurai quarters seemed lonely or even dead. The only way T
ō
ky
ō
could recover its importance was by being chosen as the capital of Japan. This was precisely what
Ō
kubo intended, and when he returned on October 28 to Ky
ō
to from T
ō
ky
ō
, where he had been serving as an adviser to the commanding general of the Eastern Expeditionary Army, he argued so vehemently in favor of an immediate imperial visit to T
ō
ky
ō
that the Court Council at last set a date for the emperor’s departure, November 6. During the following week, there was good news from the northeast: on November 1 the Sendai domain surrendered to government forces.

The emperor’s palanquin left the capital for T
ō
ky
ō
as scheduled. That morning at eight the emperor went to the Hall of State Ceremonies, where he boarded his palanquin. He carried with him the sacred mirror, one of the three emblems of his authority. He was accompanied by a procession of more than 3,300 people headed by Iwakura Tomomi, Nakayama Tadayasu, and various daimyos. Kat
ō
Akizane, the daimyo of Mizuguchi, served as guardian of the sacred mirror. The procession was seen off from the D
ō
gi Gate of the palace by the dowager empress and Princess Sumiko. Nobles and daimyos living in Ky
ō
to lined up outside the southern gate to watch the emperor depart. Along the streets of the capital, old and young, men and women, bowed in worship as the imperial palanquin passed. No action was taken to clear the roads in the path of the procession, but even without the usual admonitions, the bystanders were reverent and orderly. The sound of hands clapping in worship continued without a break.
¹⁵

The procession moved eastward to Awata-guchi where it stopped briefly at the Sh
ō
ren-in, an imperial Tendai temple, long enough for the emperor to have lunch. The emperor afterward transferred to a board palanquin, a relatively modest palanquin used by the imperial family on long journeys. The procession went by Keage Slope to Yamashina on the other side of Higashiyama. On the way the emperor worshiped from afar the tomb of Emperor Tenchi. At about two that afternoon the procession reached
Ō
tsu, where the emperor established his temporary residence at the official inn. The sacred mirror was installed in another building.

At this point Acting Middle Counselor
Ō
hara Shigetomi came galloping up. He urged that the imperial palanquin return to Ky
ō
to. He reported that on November 2, in the midst of the festival of the Toyouke Great Shrine, the shrine’s torii had spontaneously fallen over, and the priests, interpreting this as a warning from the Great Goddess Amaterasu, had sent a swift messenger to Ky
ō
to to inform the court.
Ō
hara had been opposed from the start to the emperor’s journey to the east and resorted to this expedient in the hopes of obstructing the procession. Iwakura, however, was unmoved; he promised to offer special prayers and sent
Ō
hara back to Ky
ō
to.
¹⁶

That day (and this would be true of every stop on the journey to T
ō
ky
ō
) the emperor directed an official to see that offerings were made at all Shint
ō
shrines along the way. In addition, money was given to very old people, filial children, chaste wives, loyal servants, and people who had contributed to public enterprises. Persons who were ill, who had met with accidents, or who were in desperate poverty were also comforted with monetary gifts. The money involved in all this largesse came to a large sum, but fortunately most of the journey’s expenses were paid by rich merchants of Ky
ō
to and
Ō
saka.

The procession moved steadily ahead along the T
ō
kaid
ō
, the highway linking Ky
ō
to and T
ō
ky
ō
. News arrived of the surrender of the Aizu domain on November 8, of the Sh
ō
nai domain on November 9, of the Nagaoka domain on November 19, and of the Morioka domain on November 22. The only resistance to the imperial government that remained was by Enomoto Takeaki in Ezo.

What did the young emperor think of this first ambitious journey? He seems not to have recorded his feelings in poems, soon to become his chief means of expression, but there are occasional clues to what had particularly impressed him. On October 12 he stopped his palanquin to watch peasants reaping the rice harvest. Iwakura asked a peasant for some rice ears, which he offered to the emperor for his inspection, and the Owari daimyo presented the emperor with this
tanka
:

The emperor, it is recorded, gave cakes to the peasants, by way of comforting them.
¹⁷

On November 14, at Shiomizaka on the Shizuoka coast, the emperor caught his first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. This was probably the first time in recorded history an emperor had actually seen the ocean. Although the emperor kept his reactions to himself, Kido Takayoshi exclaimed that from this day forth the imperial glory would shine across the seas.
¹⁸
The next day when the emperor crossed Lake Hamana, the surface of the lake was perfectly calm, and the emperor, it is said, looked exceedingly pleased. Iwakura composed a
tanka
on this occasion that he modestly did not include in his own account of the journey:

There were other moments of interest along the way. At the
Ō
i River, known as the widest and most difficult to cross in Japan, a plank bridge had been constructed to facilitate the emperor’s crossing. At the Abe River there was a boat-bridge, an even more novel experience for the emperor. But the most memorable event for him was seeing Mount Fuji on November 20. This was probably the first time an emperor had seen this mountain, so celebrated in Japanese literature. Meiji commanded each of the members of his escort to compose a poem about Fuji by the time his palanquin arrived in T
ō
ky
ō
.

The emperor arrived in T
ō
ky
ō
on November 26. He was met at Shinagawa by Commander in Chief Prince Taruhito, Sanj
ō
Sanetomi, and the governor of T
ō
ky
ō
Prefecture and was escorted into the city by princes of the blood, nobles, and daimyos all attired in formal costume and wearing swords. This impressive display was at the suggestion of Iwakura Tomomi, who believed that the people of the Kant
ō
region, having long lived under a despotic regime, had fallen into savage ways and that the best way to control their fierceness and soften their dispositions was to expose them to the costumes and etiquette of the court.
²⁰

The emperor’s procession stopped briefly at Z
ō
j
ō
-ji where he changed from his traveling palanquin to the phoenix palanquin (
h
ō
sha
). The procession entered Edo Castle by the Wadakura Gate, musicians leading the way. At two that afternoon the emperor entered the castle, which henceforth would be known as T
ō
ky
ō
Castle and considered to be the royal seat. Tens of thousands of people watched the procession with expressions of awe, weeping to think that this day they had beheld the ruler of their country.
²¹