Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (95 page)

On February 1, 1888, the emperor appointed
Ō
kuma Shigenobu as foreign minister. As we have seen,
Ō
kuma’s predecessor, Inoue Kaoru, had had to resign as the result of opposition to his plans for treaty revision, but he hoped that
Ō
kuma might succeed in his place.
⁸
The main problem in making the appointment lay in persuading Kuroda Kiyotaka, an adviser to the cabinet, to accept a man with whom relations had been strained ever since the scandal over the sale of Hokkaid
ō
Development Office properties.

It
ō
Hirobumi, the prime minister, agreed to help persuade Kuroda. He had his own reservations about
Ō
kuma: although
Ō
kuma’s party, the Kaishin-t
ō
(Constitutional Reform Party), was less radical than the Jiy
ō
-t
ō
, it advocated changes of which It
ō
disapproved.
⁹
Nonetheless, surmounting his political antipathy, It
ō
urged Kuroda to support
Ō
kuma. His persuasion was effective, for one day Kuroda suddenly appeared at
Ō
kuma’s residence, apologized for what had happened in the past, and promised to cooperate with him in the future.
¹⁰

Ō
kuma was moved by Kuroda’s gesture, but he was reluctant to enter the cabinet because of the possible adverse effects on the Kaishin-t
ō
. He stipulated conditions for accepting the post: the establishment, within seven or eight years of the convening of the Diet, of a cabinet composed of members of parliament; agreement that the qualifications for voters in the election of the new parliament should not be set higher than those for voters in local elections; and assurance that orderly and steady progress would be made.
¹¹
Ō
kuma also asked that if his conditions were met, they would be publicly announced. For some months It
ō
was so reluctant to accept these conditions that he continued to serve as foreign minister, but eventually a compromise was reached and
Ō
kuma took office.

Ō
kuma was no less determined than Inoue Kaoru to end extraterritoriality. His modified version of Inoue’s proposals included the controversial permission to foreigners to travel, reside, and own property in the interior of Japan. However, under his plan the role of foreign judges would be limited, and the authoritative version of the new civil codes would be the Japanese, not the English, text.
¹²
These concessions did not placate opponents of treaty revision within the government, and criticism was levied at
Ō
kuma’s proposals through 1888 and much of 1889.

In the meantime, on April 28, 1888, the emperor created the Privy Council (S
ū
mitsu-in). His edict stated, “Whereas We deem it expedient to consult personages who have rendered signal service to the State, and to avail Ourselves of their valuable advice on matters of state, We hereby establish Our Privy Council which shall henceforth be an institution of Our Supreme counsel.”
¹³

The main function of this body was to discuss matters relating to the enactment of a constitution.
¹⁴
Members of the Privy Council would be senior persons (over forty years old) who had performed conspicuous service to the state. The council would consist of some fifteen members, including the president and vice president. When the constitution came into force, the Privy Council would serve as both an intermediary between the government and the Diet and an advisory body to the emperor.

It
ō
was the chief proponent of the Privy Council. He firmly believed that the constitution must be considered to be a gift bestowed by the emperor, whose authority was inviolable and whose decisions were final. The Privy Council would guide him, especially when a conflict occurred between the government and the Diet—for example, on whether to replace a minister or to dissolve the Diet.

To emphasize the importance of the newly formed body, It
ō
resigned as prime minister to become the president of the Privy Council. At It
ō
’s suggestion, Kuroda Kiyotaka was appointed as his successor. Although reluctant to lose It
ō
as prime minister, the emperor granted him permission to move to the Privy Council, probably because It
ō
was the only person who could control the discussions.
¹⁵
Meetings of the Privy Council would be enhanced by the presence of the emperor, who attended every session except when he was ill. He listened carefully to the proceedings without ever once saying a word, although after-ward he occasionally sent for speakers to ask questions.
¹⁶
During the summer months, the room where the discussions took place sometimes became unbearably hot, but Meiji, apparently unaffected by the heat, listened tirelessly.

Why did the emperor willingly spend so many hours listening to debates that must often have been inept and repetitious? Perhaps, in contrast to the boredom of the annual court rituals and the countless meetings with foreign visitors, he had at last found something that engaged his attention. The discussions may have helped him understand his role in the future of Japan.

In April 1888 It
ō
presented to the Privy Council a draft of a constitution. As far back as 1884 he had been asked by the court to study the framing of a constitution, and he had met with Inoue Kowashi, It
ō
Miyoji, and Kaneko Kentar
ō
, as well as with K. F. H. Rösler, the German adviser to the
daj
ō
kan
(later, professor of law at T
ō
ky
ō
Imperial University); but other duties had kept him from making progress. In 1886 he began to work seriously on drawing up a constitution. It
ō
divided the different aspects of the task among his three associates, delegating to Inoue chief responsibility for the actual writing.

It
ō
had studied constitutional law in Vienna, and his views probably reflected what he had learned there about the importance of an “axis” (
kijiku
) to constitutional governments. In his speech delivered to the Privy Council on June 18, 1888, It
ō
mentioned that in Europe, where the seeds of constitutional government had germinated in antiquity and had steadily grown over the centuries, people were at home with this form of government. Moreover, religion, the axis of the European nations, deeply penetrated their peoples and unified them. Buddhism and Shint
ō
, the religions of Japan, were too weak to affect people’s hearts and so could not serve as axes; the only axis the Japanese possessed was the imperial family. It
ō
declared that a realization of this truth was always in the minds of the men framing the constitution. Out of respect for the sovereign’s prerogatives, they had striven to avoid restricting his actions in any way. The prerogatives of the sovereign thus formed the axis of the draft constitution that It
ō
and his colleagues had prepared.
¹⁷

Discussions of the constitution continued at a leisurely pace through the rest of the year. Other issues, such as efforts to end extraterritoriality, were not forgotten, but little progress was made until November, when a treaty was signed with Mexico that gave Mexicans the right to live in the interior and buy property, but not extraterritoriality. This was the first treaty signed by the Japanese on the basis of equality between the two contracting powers, but no other country followed Mexico’s example. Although vigorously protested by the British and French, who claimed that the most-favored-nation clause in their treaties signed with Japan automatically extended to them any privileges enjoyed by Mexico, the treaty had no immediate effect, as at the time there was only one Mexican in Japan.
¹⁸

The new palace was completed toward the end of the year, and the imperial family was scheduled to move there on January 11, 1889. Since 1873, Meiji and his court had lived in a crowded “temporary palace.” The emperor’s dislike for extravagance had made him reluctant even to consider the construction of a new palace, but he at last yielded to the argument that Japan’s prestige demanded a more suitable residence for its monarch.

The palace, built at great cost, was intended to convey the grandeur of the Japanese crown, and visiting foreigners for the most part were impressed.
¹⁹
The east wing of the palace was reserved for the emperor’s appearances as a public figure, when he sat on a gilded throne receiving foreign guests. The west wing, his private quarters, was in Japanese style. At the back were Shint
ō
shrines where he performed ritual observances. The buildings, connected by Japanese-style passageways, had gardens around them.

Meiji seems to have been totally indifferent to the appearance of the new palace. Viscount Hinonishi recalled, for example, that artificial flowers decorating the corridors would hang there for three or four years at a time until they had lost their original color. The emperor seems not to have noticed them. By the time of his death, the blossoms had become so dirty they had to be burned.
²⁰
The palace was wired for electricity, which was used in state rooms, but the emperor refused to allow electric lights in his private quarters, fearing that a short circuit might cause a conflagration. But the use of candles blackened the ceilings, contributing to the palace’s rather forlorn appearance, especially in the emperor’s later years.

The move to the new palace took the form of a procession from the temporary palace. The emperor and empress, accompanied by princes of the blood and members of the cabinet and other dignitaries, set out at ten in the morning, arriving an hour later. Schoolchildren along the course of the procession sang the national anthem,
Kimi ga yo
, and music was otherwise provided by military bands. When the procession reached the Double Bridge over the moat surrounding the palace grounds, there were daytime fireworks, and enormous crowds of people shouted, “Banzai!”

The emperor’s health was better in 1889 than in the previous year, although illness sometimes kept him from attending to state business. This was one of the most hectic years of his reign because his decisions were constantly being sought. A particularly difficult decision concerned Lieutenant General Tani Tateki. Although Tani was undoubtedly an able man, he was contentious and had quarreled with both It
ō
Hirobumi and Inoue Kaoru, leading (as we have seen) to his resignation as minister of agriculture and commerce. He had now been out of office for a year and a half. The government, suspicious of what he might be secretly planning, sent detectives to spy on him.

The emperor feared that Tani might join with other dissidents and, following in the footsteps of Et
ō
Shimpei and Saig
ō
Takamori, might even start a rebellion. He believed that the best plan would be to neutralize Tani by including him in the Privy Council. In December 1888 he directed Motoda Nagazane to visit Tani and find out whether he was willing to serve in the Privy Council. Tani refused any appointment and would not be budged.

In the attempt to persuade him to change his mind, Soga Sukenori, who was Prince Yoshihito’s tutor
²¹
and an old friend of Tani’s, visited him repeatedly in the company of Motoda. But even though Tani wept with emotion on learning that the emperor ardently wished him to accept an appointment, he said that he could not break his promise to his comrades. Tani had assured them that he planned to expound antigovernmental views from a seat in the upper house,
²²
and so if he joined the government at this stage, his friends would no longer trust him. He insisted that his opposition to the government was not a sign of disrespect toward the imperial household, that members of the Japanese opposition (unlike German socialists or Russian anarchists) were loyal to the throne. He asked that the government call off its detectives.
²³

Deliberations continued in the Privy Council. It
ō
proposed in January 1889 that the draft constitution be translated into a European language so that council members might benefit from the opinions of foreign legal experts. He realized that no matter how carefully the new constitution was framed, a certain amount of criticism was unavoidable, but he was determined to avoid leaving future generations an obviously flawed document. Even at this stage, he still had modifications to offer; for example, at his last-minute suggestion, the constitution specified that succession to the throne be restricted to male heirs.
²⁴

On February 5 the Privy Council adopted the Imperial House Act, the Imperial Constitution, the Diet Act, the Rules for Election of Members of the House of Representatives, and the House of Peers Act. Copies of each were made, two for presentation to the emperor.
²⁵
Six days later, on February 11, the anniversary of Emperor Jimmu’s accession, the emperor promulgated the Imperial House Act and the Imperial Constitution at a ceremony held in the Hall for State Ceremonies. In the formal statement addressed to his ancestors read on this occasion, he attributed to their guidance the momentous events of this day. He vowed to abide by the provisions of the constitution. Immediately afterward, he worshiped at the Imperial Ancestors’ Shrine and again read his address.