Emperor of Japan

by Donald Keene

  2. For the poem (and translation), see chapter 5.

  3. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 167. The bream (tai) is still a gift of good augury because its name is a homophone of part of the word medetai, “felicitous.”

  4. Watanabe Ikujirō, Meiji tennō, 1, p. 85. Watanabe is quoting Tadayasu nikki. The characters naka and yama made up the surname of his mother’s family, which may be why he chose them, but he also would have learned these two simple characters at the start of his study of calligraphy.

  5. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 212. He began the sodoku reading of The Great Learning on September 14, 1860, and completed reading this text on December 23. He began studying the Doctrine of the Mean on December 28 (p. 231), and he began the sodoku reading of the Analects on July 23, 1861 (p. 257).

  6. Kimura Ki, Meiji tennō, p. 91. Kimura apparently acquired this information during a conversation with Uramatsu Tarumitsu.

  7. Watanabe Ikujirō, Meiji tennō, 1, p. 86. See also Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 245, where it mentions how Sachinomiya sometimes tricked his mother into believing he had completed his assignment.

  8. Both poems are in Meiji tennō gyoshū, 2, p. 714. The first is quoted in Watanabe Ikujirō, Meiji tennō, 1, p. 86. The “bamboo horse” (takeuma) of the second verse probably meant “stilts.”

  9. Watanabe Ikujirō, Meiji tennō, 1, p. 84.

  10. Kimura Teinosuke, “Meiji tennō no go-yōji,” pp. 22–23.

  11. Watanabe Shigeo, Meiji tennō, pp. 4–5.

  12. Ibid., pp. 5–6.

  13. According to the account by Prince Takahito, by the end of 1857, when Meiji was five years old, he had begun to compose tanka (Watanabe Ikujirō, Meiji tennō, 1, p. 86).

  14. Kimura Ki, Meiji tennō, p. 92. Meiji read such works as Genpei seisuiki, Taiheiki, and Taikōki.

  15. Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 199–202.

  16. Ibid., 1, p. 221.

  17. Ibid., 1, p. 223.

  18. Ibid., 1, p. 228.

  19. Ibid., 1, pp. 206–7. For a paraphrase of Kōmei’s response, see also Kōmei tennō ki, 3, pp. 379–80. Kōmei mentioned that because Kazunomiya was born of a different mother, she did not have to obey his commands.

  20. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 218. See also Takebe Toshio, Kazunomiya, pp. 39–41.

  21. Brief summary in Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 218; for the full text, see Kōmei tennō ki, 3, p. 410.

  22. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 218. See also Takebe, Kazunomiya, pp. 44–45.

  23. Takebe claims that the promise to get rid of the foreigners was not the shogunate’s real intent but was forced on it by Kōmei’s insistence on specific plans for jōi (Kazunomiya, p. 46).

  24. Ishii Takashi, Bakumatsu hiun no hitobito, p. 60. Ishii believed that the opposition of Kazunomiya’s mother, Kangyō-in, and her uncle, Hashimoto Saneakira, had strengthened her resistance to the marriage.

  25. Takebe, Kazunomiya, p. 48.

  26. According to Ishii, a henchman of Konoe Hisatada (the chancellor) named Shimada Sakon hinted to Kazunomiya that if she persisted in her refusal, her mother and uncle would be severely punished (Bakumatsu, p. 61). He also induced her nurse to persuade Kazunomiya to accept. Takebe says that two retainers of the chancellor had plotted to get a relative of Kazunomiya’s nurse to inform the nurse that the court had decided to punish mother and uncle and, in this way, shake Kazunomiya’s resolve (Kazunomiya, pp. 51–52). In any case, it seems likely that underhanded methods were employed in the hopes of persuading Kazunomiya to agree to marry the shogun.

  27. Takebe, Kazunomiya, p. 53.

  28. Ibid., p. 54.

  29. Ishii, Bakumatsu, p. 62.

  30. Ōya Sōichi zenshū, 23, p. 259; Takebe, Kazunomiya, p. 55.

  Chapter 7

  1. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 144.

  2. Ibid., 1, p. 244.

  3. For a description of the activities of the Russians on Tsushima, see George Alexander Lensen, The Russian Push Toward Japan, pp. 448–51. Lensen’s account is based mainly on Russian sources.

  4. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 243.

  5. Ibid., 1, pp. 242–43. Konishi Shirō emphasized the importance of the resistance to the Russians by the inhabitants of Tsushima (Kaikoku to jōi, p. 226). If they had not battled to save their land from the Russian invaders, the affair would not have ended so easily with the British action.

  6. Kōmei tennō ki, 4, pp. 243–47. See also Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 243. The Tsushima daimyo was Sō Yoshiaki (1847–1902).

  7. A large-scale mission was dispatched to Europe in 1862. For a study of this mission, see Haga Tōru, Taikun no shisetsu, and my Modern Japanese Diaries.

  8. Kōmei tennō ki, 3, pp. 611–16. See also Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 255–56.

  9. Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 256, 257.

  10. There was confusion and even alarm in the shogunate when it was discovered that the treaty was not solely with Prussia but with other states of what would shortly be the North German Confederation. The Japanese thought they had been tricked into signing a treaty with several countries (Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 234–35; Kōmei tennō ki, 3, pp. 488–89).

  11. For Kazunomiya’s letter, see Kōmei tennō ki, 3, pp. 489–90. See also Takebe Toshio, Kazunomiya, p. 66.

  12. The name Chikako was given to her by Kōmei after she had been proclaimed an imperial princess (naishinnō) in May 1861 (Kōmei tennō ki, 3, p. 559).

  13. A letter sent by Kazunomiya to Kōmei at this time has been preserved. It includes the words “For the sake of peace in the country I have no choice but to accept, though it is truly hateful” (Takebe, Kazunomiya, p. 60).

  14. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 267. Nakayama also fell out of favor, but Imadegawa Saneaya (1832–1864) rapidly recovered from the disgrace and was appointed in 1863 as the imperial messenger to the tomb of Emperor Jimmu, where he prayed for the expulsion of the barbarians.

  15. The number of men in the procession has been variously estimated. A frequently cited source stated that there were 7,896 men, 280 horses, 7,440 futon, 1,380 pillows, 8,060 rice bowls, 5,210 soup bowls, 1,040 trays, and 2,110 plates (Takebe, Kazunomiya, p. 83; Konishi, Kaikoku to jōi, p. 214). Additional guards were supplied at various places en route. Ōya Sōichi estimated the escort as 20,000 men (Ōya Sōichi zenshū, 23, p. 278).

  16. Ōya, 23, p. 278. The enkiri enoki was in Itabashi, just north of Edo.

  17. A section of the text of their manifesto is in Kōmei tennō ki, 3, pp. 764–65.

  18. The letter was an outright forgery (Ōya, 23, p. 276).

  19. According to the rumor, Townsend Harris had decided to get rid of Kōmei as an obstruction to opening the country and had suborned Andō to commit the deed. The two scholars (Hanawa Jirō and Maeda Kensuke) whom he allegedly had employed were both assassinated in January 1863 (Ōya, 23, p. 276).

  20. Fujita Satoru, Bakumatsu no tennō, p. 190.

  21. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 273. The poem contains two wordplays: tachi is both “sword” (a reference to the gift Kōmei has received) and “nature” (of the patriotic donor); saya is both “scabbard” and “brightly.”

  22. Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 282–83.

  23. Ibid., 1, p. 300.

  24. The four “villains” (kan) were Koga Takemichi, Iwakura Tomomi, Chigusa Aribumi, and Tominokōji Hironao. The two “ladies” (hin) were Imaki Shigeko and Horikawa Motoko. All six were in some way connected with Kazunomiya’s betrothal to the shogun.

  25. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 312.

  Chapter 8

  1. The text of the message (in Chinese) is in Kōmei tennō ki, 4, p. 195. A rather free translation into Japanese is in Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 312.

  2. The hall of audiences (ōhiroma) was in three tiers. The bottom level (gedan) was the level of an ordinary tatami; the middle level (chūdan) was the height of two layers of tatami; and the upper level (jōdan) was three tatami high.

  3. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 312.

  4. Ibid., 1, pp. 320–21. See also Kōmei tennō ki, 4, pp. 353–54.

  5. Nakagawanomiya (1824–1891
) was born the son of Fushiminomiya Kuniie. He had several childhood names and acquired more when he was sent as an acolyte in 1831 to the Honnō-ji. In 1836 he was transferred to the Ichijō-in, an abbacy of the Kōfuku-ji in Nara, to study (with still another name) under his uncle, the superior of the temple. That year, at the age of twelve, he was adopted by Emperor Ninkō and succeeded his uncle as the superior, although he was not formally inducted as a priest until 1838. He moved by imperial command in 1852 to the Shōren-in, a major Tendai temple in Kyōto, and was accordingly known as Shōren-no-miya Son’yu, the name most commonly found in documents of the late Tokugawa period. (He was also known as Awatanomiya or Awataguchinomiya from the location of the temple). Among those who gathered around him were Umeda Unpin, Ikeuchi Daigaku, Maki Izumi, Hashimoto Sanai, and Sakuma Shōzan, and various others who were either murdered or purged in the Ansei incident. These men were attracted not only by the prince’s advocacy of jōi but also by his noble character, attested to by his followers’ writings. His popularity with the shishi did not escape the notice of the shogunate, and at the time of the Ansei purge, he was condemned to perpetual confinement at the Shōkoku-ji, where he spent more than two years in a tiny, dilapidated hut (Ōnishi Gen’ichi, “Ishin kaiten no kōbo to Kuni-no-miya Asahiko Shinnō,” p. 79). This treatment of the prince enraged the shishi, and obtaining his release became their first objective (p. 86). Some even spoke of making the prince the seii taishōgun of an army that would overthrow the shogunate, although the prince remained to the end a believer in kōbu gattai (p. 82). Sanguinary plans for disposing not only of shogunate officials but of all foreigners were pushed forward with the expectation that the prince would lead the attacks (p. 87). The prince was released from confinement and allowed to return to the laity in 1862 as part of the amnesty declared in honor of the marriage of the shogun and Kazunomiya (p. 98). Only then did he become known as Nakagawanomiya. After the Restoration his enemies still did not relent, and he was exiled to Hiroshima on what seems to have been a trumped-up accusation. His last years were spent as the lord custodian of the Great Shrine at Ise.

  While at the Kōfuku-ji, the prince studied both the literary and the martial arts, especially spearmanship. In Nara he made an important acquaintance, Kawaji Toshiakira, an official of the shogunate who prominently figured in efforts to open the country, even though the prince remained throughout an advocate of jōi.

  6. Fujita Satoru referred to the prince as “the right arm of Emperor Kōmei” (Bakumatsu no tennō, p. 219).

  7. Kurihara Ryūichi, Zankanjō, p. 107.

  8. For a text of the accusation directed against the Ashikaga shoguns, see ibid., p. 115. For an excellent account in English of this event, see Anne Walthall, “Off with Their Heads! The Hirata Disciples and the Ashikaga Shoguns.”

  9. Walthall, “Off with Their Heads,” pp. 162–68. The official responsible for apprehending these men was Matsudaira Katamori (1835–1893), who had been appointed as the Kyōto shugo in 1862. This action brought the young, little-known daimyo of Aizu to the attention of the court. His determination to catch the culprits was inspired by the symbolic importance of the act: in beheading the statues of long-ago shoguns they were threatening the present shogun.

  10. Kōmei tennō ki, 4, p. 455. See also Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 325.

  11. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 325. It is said that Iemitsu was accompanied by 307,000 men. It is hard to take this literally, but probably this was the impression conveyed by the throng of escorts he brought with him in the hopes of thoroughly impressing the court.

  12. As mentioned previously, he had in fact been forced by the conflagration that destroyed the palace in 1854 to leave the Gosho and take refuge elsewhere.

  13. His decision to make this pilgrimage seems to have been the result of repeated petitions offered to the throne by Mōri Sadahiro (1839–1896), the heir of Mōri Takachika, the daimyo of Hagi. Sadahiro said that it was not fitting at a time of crisis for the emperor to remain shut up in his palace and urged him to worship not only at the two Kamo Shrines but also at the Sennyū-ji and the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine (Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 327).

  14. Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 326–27.

  15. Yoshimura Toratarō (1837–1863), a shishi from Tosa, wrote a letter to his parents describing the scene: “When the imperial palanquin came close, I naturally was overcome with tears. I prostrated myself, but more than that I cannot say. I later heard from others that more than four hundred thousand people—men and women, old and young—had gathered this day along the roads, hoping to catch a glimpse of his countenance inside the beaded curtains, and all of them were weeping” (quoted in Nishijima Ryōsaburō, Nakayama Tadamitsu ansatsu shimatsu, p. 39).

  16. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 330. Nakayama Tadamitsu in his capacity as chamberlain served his nephew Mutsuhito.

  17. Kōmei tennō ki, 4, pp. 592–93. See also Ishii Takashi, Bakumatsu hiun no hitobito, pp. 68–69.

  18. Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 330–31.

  19. Nishijima, Nakayama, pp. 22–24, 34.

  20. By “advocate of justice,” he probably meant someone devoted to the sonjō cause (Nishijima, Nakayama, p. 34).

  21. Nishijima, Nakayama, p. 35.

  22. Ibid., p. 49.

  23. There are at least eight different theories as to the day in the eleventh moon when the assassination occurred (Nishijima, Nakayama, p. 197). Nishijima gives the names of men sent by the Zokurontō, the anti-jōi faction then dominant within the domain, to kill Tadamitsu (p. 201).

  Chapter 9

  1. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 331.

  2. Kōmei tennō ki, 4, pp. 707–10. See also Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 335.

  3. Yoda Yoshiie, “Kindai tennōsei seiritsu no zentei,” p. 10. He quotes a passage to this effect from the letter sent by Kōmei to Konoe Tadahiro dated April 7, 1859. For the full text of the letter, see Kōmei tennō ki, 2, pp. 787–89.

  4. Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 338–39. In the end, Shimazu Mochihisa accepted the British demands and paid more than 6 million ryō in gold by way of indemnity.

  5. Meiji tennō ki, 1, pp. 340–41. For a much fuller account of Ikeda Yoshinori’s views, see Kōmei tennō ki, 4, p. 741.

  6. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 341.

  7. Ibid., 1, p. 344.

  8. Ibid., 1, p. 345. Far richer documentation and fuller quotation from Kōmei’s message are found in Kōmei tennō ki, 4, pp. 791–820. For example, Prince Nakagawa recalled to an interviewer that Kōmei had said he could not take command of any army that attacked the shogunate, because Princess Chikako (the former Kazunomiya) was now a Tokugawa, and if he attacked the Tokugawa family, he would have to kill her. This would be unforgivable to the late emperor, the father of Chikako, and to her relations. If a time came when such an attack was necessary, he would attack, but the time would have to be right. From all he had heard, it was too early to open an attack, if only because adequate weapons were still not available. He had therefore decided to defer temporarily assuming personal command (Kōmei tennō ki, 4, p. 791). It is not clear when Nakagawa made this statement. Probably it was years after the events, and slips of memory and inventions may have colored his recollection.

  9. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 345. The seven nobles left behind a brief message stating that just when the great enterprise of restoring imperial power was moving toward a successful conclusion, traitors had disturbed the imperial mind with their machinations. Unable to tolerate this, the seven signers had decided to go to the west where they would raise an army. They appealed to all patriots to join them (Kurihara Ryūichi, Zankanjō, p. 178).

  10. They included Ehon Asakusa Reigenki, Ehon Sangokuki Yōfuden, Ehon Taikōki, Ehon Hikoyama Reigenki, Genpei seisuiki zue, and Ashikabi sōshi.

  11. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 353.

  12. The nengō was changed from the fourth year of Bunkyū to the first year of Genji on the twentieth of the second month because this was a “revolutionary” year. A full list of the twenty-four nengō recommended at the time is in
Kōmei tennō ki, 5, pp. 84–88. One of the recommended nengō was Meiji.

  13. The text is in Kōmei tennō ki, 5, p. 20; the translation, in W. G. Beasley, ed. and trans., Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy, pp. 263–64.

  14. The text is in Kōmei tennō ki, 5, p. 20; the translation, in Beasley, ed. and trans., Select Documents, p. 264.

  15. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 376. For details, see Kōmei tennō ki, 5, pp. 226–30, esp. p. 230. Kido Takayoshi, who was in another part of the building, barely managed to escape.

  16. These plans were learned by the Shinsengumi from Furutaka Shuntarō (1829–1864), a loyalist-activist (kinnō shishi) whom they captured and tortured. They also learned the names of the people involved (Fukuchi Shigetaka, Kōmei tennō, pp. 182–83; Tōyama Shigeki, ed., Ishin no gunzō, p. 55).

  17. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 337. Hikone was the seat of the Ii family, powerful fudai daimyos, which was probably why it seemed like a suitable and easily defensible place for the emperor to reside.

  18. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 377. The statement left at the Gion Shrine by the assassins, explaining why they killed Shōzan, mentioned his study of Western learning, his advocacy of foreign trade and opening the ports, and his collaboration with the “villainous” Aizu and Hikone Domains. He was accused also of plotting with Prince Nakagawa to move the capital to Hikone (Kurihara, Zankanjō, pp. 247–48). There seem to have been grounds for the belief that a removal of the capital was being planned.

  19. Ishii Takashi, Bakumatsu hiun no hitobito, p. 84. This description is from Nakayama Tadayasu’s diary, quoted in Kōmei tennō ki, 5, p. 302.

  20. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 378.

  21. This description is from Higashibōjō Tadanaga’s diary, quoted in Kōmei tennō ki, 5, p. 305. See also Ishii, Bakumatsu, p. 85.

  22. Meiji tennō ki, 1, p. 379.

  23. Ibid., 1, p. 380. See also Kōmei tennō ki, 5, p. 303.

  24. Ninagawa Shin, Meiji tennō, p. 21. Ōya Sōichi was perhaps the first to state that the prince had been so frightened by the sound of gunfire that he fainted (Ōya Sōichi zenshū, 23, pp. 30–32). But as Asukai Masamichi pointed out, this statement originated in a misreading of the text of Nakayama Tadayasu nikki (Meiji taitei, p. 97).