by Donald Keene
The next day Yoshinobu visited Rinnōjinomiya and formally requested him to go to Kyōto. Kakuōin Gikan, the intendant of the Rinnō-ji, answering in place of the prince, reminded Yoshinobu that Rinnōjinomiya’s father was now very old and if he went to Kyōto, 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 Rinnōjinomiya 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 Kyōto and was now on his way to Edo with his army. He repeated the request that Rinnōjinomiya 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 Tesshū (1836–1888) also sent a letter to Gikan. The persistence of Yoshinobu and the others reflected their belief that if Rinnōjinomiya went to Kyōto 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 Kyōto 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, Chōshu, and Ōmura domains, as well as an emissary of the commanding general, met with Gikan. He was asked why the prince was traveling to Kyōto and why he was accompanied by so many soldiers. After a few more questions, the emissary commanded Rinnōjinomiya 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 Rinnōjinomiya 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
The soldiers approached the prince’s palanquin and tried poking at the door with their bayonets and the butt end of their lances. When the palanquin reached the house where the prince was to rest, there were so many soldiers swarming around the building that the prince’s party took refuge in a temple. They set out once again, but more soldiers were on the road than before, and they were twice as disrespectful as the previous lot. The prince’s retinue had expected to eat lunch at a temple in Hakone, and food for this purpose had been packed that morning, but this temple also proved to be full of soldiers, and they moved on, still hungry. By now it was growing dark, and the rain showed no sign of letting up. A man who had been sent ahead to Mishima came back with word that soldiers were in the house where the prince expected to spend the night, and there was nowhere else to stay. The prince finally found a temple where he could pass the night. The chest containing food and tableware that had been sent to Mishima in anticipation of his staying there had to be sent back. The prince did not eat dinner until cockcrow.20 His men slept that night in the open, not bothering to remove their traveling clothes.
The prince reached Shizuoka on March 29 after the long, harrowing journey. He was invited to stay at the temple Sōji-in but declined because he had heard that priests of the Shintō shrine near the Sōji-in had formed a band of partisans who were said to have a particular aversion for Rinnōjinomiya. It is puzzling that they should have entertained strong feelings against a man whose life had been spent almost entirely in seclusion, but word may have reached these Shintō priests that the prince was traveling at the behest of the former shogun.
On March 30 Rinnōjinomiya proceeded to Prince Taruhito’s headquarters and was received in audience. He presented Yoshinobu’s petition, stated that the former shogun was now living in retreat in Ueno, and asked that his punishment be lightened. Prince Taruhito replied that it was because of Yoshinobu’s gross acts of treason that an imperial command had been issued to punish him and that there was no way now to alter these plans. Members of his staff asserted that even if it was true that Yoshinobu had professed submission to the court and was living in a monastery, that was not sufficient reason to call off the expedition. They declared that the excuses for past behavior he made in his petition were proof he still had not admitted his guilt.21
Rinnōjinomiya answered that he was pleading not only because he wished to save Yoshinobu but also because he feared it would disturb the emperor’s peace of mind if he knew that the people of Edo were suffering because the city had been attacked by the imperial army. This line of argument seems to have moved the officers, and despite their doubts, they agreed to consider his plea.
Rinnōjinomiya had a second meeting with Prince Taruhito on April 5. He asked what Yoshinobu must do to prove that he was really sincere in his submission. Taruhito referred him to his staff officers; although he was the commander in chief, they apparently made the decisions on military strategy. The officers’ answer was simple: Yoshinobu must surrender his castle and his fleet. This seemed reasonable to the prince, and he informed Prince Taruhito that he would send a messenger to Yoshinobu to report their reply. He would himself continue his journey to Kyōto, as originally planned. Taruhito objected, saying that Rinnōjinomiya’s mission had already been accomplished, and he had no need to go to Kyōto.22 He directed the prince to return to Edo and urged him to inform Yoshinobu personally of the conditions of surrender. Rinnōjinomiya left for Edo two days later.
There is no documentary evidence for Rinnōjinomiya’s feelings at this time, but it is likely that as a prince of the blood, he was angered by both the ill treatment he had received at the hands of the Satsuma soldiers and the peremptory tone with which Taruhito had ordered him to return to Edo. Such feelings of bitterness, added to the resentment he already felt over the expedition against Tokugawa Yoshinobu led by Satsuma and Chōshū, may explain his subsequent willingness to associate with those who were still resisting the imperial army.23
Soon after the prince’s return to Edo, he was approached by leaders of the Shōgitai, a band of supporters of the Tokugawa family formed on March 4 at the Kan’ei-ji in Ueno, the family temple of the Tokugawas. Kakuōin Gikan was an ardent supporter of the Shōgitai, and his influence probably induced the prince to cooperate (at least passively) with the organization. Men from many domains eagerly inscribed their names in blood on the roster of the Shōgitai, vowing to clear Tokugawa Yoshinobu’s reputation and to destroy Satsuma, which they denounced as the embodiment of evil.24
During the period before the imperial troops occupied the city of Edo, the Shōgitai was authorized by the former shogunate to patrol the streets and may have in fact helped maintain order; but once the government troops arrived, the Shōgitai turned to provoking incidents and sometim
es to robbery. Prince Taruhito ordered the Shōgitai to disband, and officers of the former shogunate, including Katsu Kaishū and Yamaoka Tesshū, supported him, saying that the actions of the Shōgitai in fact imperiled Yoshinobu; but their words had no effect. Gikan snarled at Yamaoka that the order was in the name of the court, but it was the doing of Satsuma and Chōshū. He accused Yamaoka of being the dupe of Satsuma and declared that it was entirely natural that Ueno should be defended by men who honored not merely the former shogun but the whole Tokugawa family going back to the time of Ieyasu. He ended by denouncing Yamaoka as an “ingrate of a false retainer.”25
The presence of Rinnōjinomiya at Ueno made it difficult for the government forces to stage an attack on the stronghold of the Shōgitai, as it would have been extremely awkward if he were hurt or killed in the fighting. They therefore persuaded the prince’s father to send him a letter asking him to return to Kyōto to pay his respects to the emperor. The members of the Shōgitai were enraged to learn this, sure that the prince’s departure would be the signal for an all-out attack on the Kan’ei-ji. They sent the prince a message informing him that if he tried to leave Ueno, every single member of the organization would commit seppuku before the main temple gate, and the prince would have to step over their dead bodies in order to leave.26
The citizens of Edo also implored the prince not to go to Kyōto, believing that his presence was the only thing deterring the imperial troops from setting the city on fire. The prince wavered, one day deciding to remain in Ueno, only to change his mind the next. Some of the priests urged him to go to Kyōto where he would be safe, others opposed his going, fearing that once back in Kyōto he would be compelled to return to the laity, a loss to the Tendai sect. The commander in chief ordered the prince to leave Ueno immediately so that the attack on the Shōgitai could commence, but Gikan intercepted the letter.
Finally Prince Taruhito could wait no longer. At dawn on June 6 the government army opened its attack. The fighting was fierce, but the outnumbered Shōgitai was compelled to fall back, and early that afternoon Satsuma troops took the temple’s Black Gate. That morning as usual, the prince went to the hall of worship to read the sutras. When the sound of gunfire was heard, the other priests tried to persuade him to leave, but he would not go until he had completed his reading. In the meantime, the priests produced some nondescript clothes they had prepared for an emergency, and the prince put them on in place of his priest’s robes.
Where was he to flee? He and the few priests with him wandered that day from place to place, afraid of capture. It seems not to have occurred to the prince to give himself up to the government troops, preferring (it would seem) any hardship to surrender. At one place a merchant who had long benefited from the patronage of the Kan’ei-ji offered to guide them to safety:
They followed him into a farmhouse. It consisted of one small room, and was not a place where the prince could be asked to stay. When they opened the storeroom they saw agricultural tools, straw, dried grass, all piled up. In one corner there was a board floor, about nine feet square, and in front of it a dirt floor. They installed the prince on the boards, and the priests sat reverently before him on the dirt floor. When the prince said he was cold, they borrowed two dirty and stained quilts. The prince, noticing the hesitance of the priests, told them not to worry. He took the quilts and threw them over his head. It was three in the morning. There were so many mosquitoes that the prince was unable to sleep the whole night long.27
The next morning an attendant priest made breakfast for the prince. The dishes were dirty and cracked, but he made rice balls and some unpleasant-smelling miso soup. “The prince said that were it not for such circumstances, he would never have known the taste of the soup of the common people. He forced himself to drink a mouthful, then put it aside with a smile.”28
The prince was able to accept with a smile the hardships of his flight, but parties of government troops were searching the area for remnants of the Shōgitai, and the commander in chief ordered that anyone knowing the whereabouts of Rinnōjinomiya report it immediately. Troops were sent to surround and search the residence of the daimyo of Kishū, for it was thought that the prince might take refuge with his sister, the daimyo’s wife. These actions convinced the priest of the temple where the prince had taken refuge that Prince Taruhito was not to be trusted. He urged the prince to flee by sea to the north and arranged for the prince, in disguise, to be escorted to Shinagawa, where he could board a ship of Enomoto Takeaki’s fleet.29
Late that night the prince and others in his party were rowed out to the Chōgei maru, where they were courteously received. Enomoto came to the ship from his flagship, the Kaiyō maru. Speaking privately to the prince, Enomoto asked if he wished to go to Taruhito’s headquarters. If so, he would send an escort with the prince, men ready to give up their lives. But if the prince was absolutely determined to go to the north, he would obey his command. The prince replied that his temple in Ueno had been destroyed by flames and he had nowhere to go. Everywhere in Edo was dangerous. Even if he took refuge with Taruhito, he would not be safe. For this reason he would prefer to go to the north, where there were branches of his temple that had not been affected by the warfare. There he would wait for the imperial army to pacify the entire country. Enomoto agreed to do as the prince asked, but he asked him to write a declaration affirming that this was indeed his choice.30 This suggests that Enomoto foresaw that Rinnōjinomiya might become the head of a faction contesting rulership of the country with Emperor Meiji.
According to one unverifiable source, the prince’s declaration was cast in the form of an imperial edict in which he appointed Enomoto and his staff to important positions in his newly created court.31 If this actually happened, it indicates that the prince had taken on the attributes of an emperor.32
The documentary evidence gives a confusing impression of Rinnōjinomiya. Afraid of becoming involved in the warfare, he escaped to the north to await the victory of the imperial forces. But the north was the center of shogunate activity, and it is hard to reconcile his seeming innocence with his subsequent cooperation with the rebels. Whether or not he chose to recognize it, the presence of a member of the imperial family enabled the rebels to raise the brocade pennant of legitimacy.33
A league of antigovernment domains in the north and northeast had been formed in May, and an oath of allegiance was signed on June 22.34 When Rinnōjinomiya appeared a month later, he was asked to be the “symbol” of the league. The members hoped he would serve as its military leader, but he, as a priest, declined. On August 5 he was chosen to be the “leader.” At a meeting of the league that day, a seven-point statement defining the prince’s status was drawn up. The first three points were as follows:
1. His Highness will temporarily reside at Shiroishi Castle.
2. His expenses will be met with the income from former shogunate lands in Ōu.
3. The Shōgitai will continue to protect him.
Rinnōjinomiya moved to Shiroishi Castle on August 30. At the gathering of the various domains, he served as the leader of the league in both name and reality.35 The daimyos of the Sendai and Yonezawa domains were chosen as his viceroys (sōtoku), and lesser appointments were made, in effect setting up a rival court to the one in Kyōto. According to a document written by Kikuchi Yōsai (1788–1878),36 the nengō was changed that day in the north to the first year of Taisei, and Rinnōjinomiya was enthroned as the emperor Tōbu.37 It is not clear how much credence should be given to this document, which is not supported by other evidence, but its existence suggests that such a development seemed plausible.
The prince remained in the north until the fighting ended. On October 22, 1868, when the league had lost most of its members and the end was in sight, he wrote an apology declaring that he deeply repented of his actions toward the court.38 Rumors circulated that partisans of the league were planning to spirit the prince away aboard a ship bound for foreign parts, and orders were given to maintain a strict watch
, but in fact he remained in Sendai (and later in Shiroishi) until he left on November 30 for Tōkyō. In the following month, it was decided that Rinnōjinomiya had violated his moral obligations and, for this reason, would be left in the charge of his father. He was to proceed immediately to Kyōto and give himself to penitence.”39 On November 17, 1869, he was released from penitence and restored to his position as an imperial prince. The court showed great leniency toward a prince who, willingly or not, had been a central figure in a revolt against imperial authority. That same year he went abroad, at first to the United States and England and later to Germany, where he studied military science.40 He was named Kitashirakawanomiya in 1872, and it was by that name he was known during the rest of his career. He died of illness in Taiwan in 1895 while serving as general of the Household Guards Division.
Prince Asahiko, another controversial member of the imperial family, was exiled to Hiroshima on October 1, 1868, because of his involvement in a plot to overthrow the government. He had already been confined to his house because of suspicious activities in the previous year, but in August 1868 an informant disclosed that the prince was plotting to restore the Tokugawa family. He planned to send Enomoto Takeaki with his fleet to various places where soldiers would be landed, raising the standard of revolt.41 An investigation found him guilty, and he was deprived of his title of prince of the blood, his rank, and his status as an adopted son of Emperor Ninkō. However, his punishment was gradually lightened, and in February 1872, he was pardoned and his status restored.42
