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Title: Makers of Japan
Author: J. Morris
Release Date: May 6, 2023 [eBook #70710]
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAKERS OF JAPAN ***
MAKERS OF JAPAN
[Illustration: HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY THE TENNŌ OF JAPAN]
MAKERS OF JAPAN
BY
J. MORRIS
MEMBER OF THE JAPAN SOCIETY; AUTHOR OF “WHAT WILL JAPAN DO?”
“ADVANCE, JAPAN!” “JAPAN AND ITS TRADE,” ETC. ETC.
WITH TWENTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS
[Illustration: A·C·McCLURG & CO]
LONDON
METHUEN & CO.
CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1906
PREFACE
Modern Japan dates from the advent on the coast of Idzu province of the
American squadron under Commodore Perry in 1853. Prior to that time,
however, more than one attempt, predestined to failure, had been made to
bring about the abolition of the feudal system, the agitators, in nearly
every case, paying the penalty of their boldness with their lives. Among
the more famous of these heroes were Fujita Toko, Yoshida Shoin, and
Sakuma Shozan,—patriots who shone during the first half of the nineteenth
century. They were in advance of their age. They lived in the days of the
Tokugawa Shogunate, when old ideas on the subject of foreign intercourse
still were uppermost. It was dangerous to advocate, as these men did, a
policy of complete reconstruction on an imperialistic basis, yet they had
the courage of their opinions, and with might and main advocated recourse
to Occidental arts and sciences for the express object of rendering
their country strong to resist aggression in every form. Their memory
is held by all their fellow-countrymen in the very highest respect, not
more for their self-sacrifice than for the real benefits that are seen
to have accrued to the people from their foresight. One lost his life in
a terrible earthquake another was executed by order of the Sho-gun, and
the third was stabbed to death by _Ro-nins_, or “Wave-men,” the turbulent
spirits of an epoch of social and political unrest. All three are
esteemed as martyrs in the cause of progress. And although the country
was not reopened, after its voluntary seclusion of two centuries and a
half, until the treaty with the United States which Perry negotiated
became operative in 1854, many surreptitious efforts had been made to
obtain a footing in the Japanese empire, between the time of the East
India Company’s withdrawal in 1623 and the appearance of the “black
ships” of the American squadron in Kurihama Bay. The Portuguese had found
their way to the isles of Japan as early as 1542, and might have remained
there indefinitely had they not aimed at the acquisition of political
power, as well as at the spread of the Christian religion. Expulsion
followed persecution, and the sins of the Portuguese were visited on
all foreigners indiscriminately, access to the Land of the Rising Sun
being from that date denied to all aliens alike, save a few Dutchmen who
were permitted on somewhat humiliating conditions to remain at Nagasaki
for purposes of trade. Will Adams, sailor and shipwright, of Limehouse,
London, passed the last twenty years of his life at Yedo, and died on the
6th of May 1620, while still in the service of the Shogun Iyemitsu, and
contemporarily with him there dwelt for a time at Hirado, a tiny island
on the west coast of Kiu-shiu, between which and the mainland flow the
“Spex Straits,” a certain Captain John Saris, founder of the East India
Company’s depot there. These men were in reality the first to obtain a
footing on Japanese soil as representatives of England. Adams died and
was buried near Yokohama, and Saris returned to London, on the retirement
of his Company, for the time being, from the Japanese trade.
There came also to the Japanese ports at various times travellers from
Russia, including an embassy under M. Resanoff, whalers from the United
States, and several British warships and merchantmen. The _Eclipse_
of Boston, Mass., was at Nagasaki as early as 1807, and the British
man-of-war _Phaeton_ called at that port the following year. M. Golownin
spent two years in captivity to the feudal lord of Matsumaye in Yeso, in
1811-1813, and the famous Dr Von Siebold was able to pass four years,
from 1825 to 1829, in the Shogun’s capital of Yedo, or as it was then
commonly spelt, Jeddo. The King William who reigned in Holland in 1844
contrived, it is said, to have his autograph letter presented in that
year to the supposed ruler of Japan, in reality the Shogun, urging the
opening of Japan to foreign intercourse. There was an American whaler in
Yedo Bay in 1845, and two such vessels were wrecked soon afterwards on
the Japanese coasts, their crews being well treated by the inhabitants.
Five years before Commodore Perry landed at Uraga there had been some
American vessels in Yedo Bay under Commodore Biddle, and a British ship,
the _Mariner_, found her way thither in 1849. By such means more and
more had come to be known of Japan and its people, though in a vague,
disjointed fashion, among the dwellers in the Occident, despite the
existence of Iyemitsu’s edict prohibiting travel. Still, the rule was
very strictly enforced, and even those subjects of the Japanese Emperor
who had chanced to be carried off to America in vessels by which they
had been saved when shipwrecked in their own junks were not permitted to
return to their own country until after its formal opening to commerce
in 1854. Some who had thus involuntarily quitted their native land as
children were scarcely able to speak their mother tongue on their return,
though well acquainted with English, which they had acquired in the
interval. Needless to say, they speedily recovered the use of Japanese as
a language and became of immense service to their country as interpreters
at a time when very few who knew English were to be met with there. Much
more was known in those days of Dutch than of any other foreign tongue,
as works in Dutch had been procured of the “Oranda-jin”—as the Hollanders
were termed—then dwelling in Nagasaki, and had been most diligently
studied, not less for the sake of learning the language than of absorbing
the information on scientific matters which those works were fitted to
convey.
Concurrently with the growth of a desire for the restoration of the true
imperial rule there had been a revival of learning, and Confucianism,
long in decay by reason of the greater attachment of the masses to the
tenets of Buddhism, began again to take hold of the popular mind. Chinese
literature had become once more the study of the educated classes, and
a demand arose for everything introduced from China which was only
equalled, perhaps, by that created a half-century later for things
European. In proportion as Buddhism lost its hold of the people the
ancient Shinto religion, which is based upon the veneration of ancestors,
and is directly connected with the patriotic devotion of the subjects
of the Ten-shi to the Imperial house, acquired fresh strength, to the
complete overthrow of the Buddhistic faith and its disestablishment as
a State religion. Under the Tokugawa regime it had attained to immense
power and influence, but with the conviction gaining ground everywhere
that the best interests of the country were to be served only by the
assumption of the active duties of sovereignty by the real monarch
instead of his delegate, the cult of Shinto triumphed and the Buddhistic
religion, though by no means extinguished, took second place in the
estimation of his Majesty’s loyal subjects. But this was not until nearly
eighteen years had elapsed from the date of Perry’s arrival at Uraga,
and in the interval the country underwent innumerable vicissitudes, the
effects in reality of the sharp divergences of opinion which the proposal
to throw open the country to foreign trade and intercourse created. There
were two parties in the State—viz. the Jo-I or party of exclusion, and
the Kai-koku or party of admission. _Jo_ signifies expulsion,—to thrust
from one,—and _I_ means a barbarian. _Kai-koku_, on the other hand, was
literally “to open the country,” and the distinction between the two
parties was therefore most marked. Eventually the Jo-I party became the
O-Sei or party of Imperial Government, in opposition to the Baku-fu,
_lit._: Military Curtain government, by which was meant the government
of the Shogun. Naturally all those who were opposed from one cause or
another to the prolongation of the prevailing system of government by the
Shogun ranged themselves under the banner of the Jo-I, whether actually
hostile to aliens or not, but when the cry for expulsion had served its
purpose the promoters of the movement against the Bakufu were willing
enough that it should be abolished, in favour of a term which more aptly
expressed the real objects and desires of the party so constituted. It is
a fact that many of Japan’s foremost statesmen were originally members
of the Jo-I organisation, though it certainly is not from that to be
inferred that they were at any period of their careers downright hostile
to foreigners. The famous motto was adopted essentially as a matter of
policy.
Anxieties were multiplied for the Baku-fu when an Englishman, who formed
one of a party out riding on the highroad between Yokohama and Yedo,
was cut down and killed by swordsmen belonging to the retinue of the
Prince of Satsuma. That was in September 1862, and it brought matters
to a climax. The British Charge d’Affaires, Colonel Neale, demanded
instant reparation, but though indemnities were paid to Mr Richardson’s
relatives, both by the Shogun’s government and the daimio of Satsuma, the
actual assailants escaped justice.
A little while prior to this outrage the chiefs of Satsuma and Choshiu
had united in a league for the “subjugation and expulsion of the
Barbarians,” and as loyal retainers of their respective lords many of
the men who have since been most prominent in the establishment of a new
Japan were greatly embarrassed, for while their convictions led them to
the adoption of every art and science that was likely to render Japan a
strong nation, their strict obedience to their chieftain’s views would
have entailed the complete abandonment of their hopes of profiting by the
experience and knowledge of the Occident, since it would have involved
a return to conditions which had prevailed in the years preceding
1853. Those Choshiu men in particular, who were known to favour the
introduction of Western arts, went, therefore, with their lives in their
hands, and one to whom reference will be made at a later stage, bears
to this day the marks of cuts which he received in an attempt made upon
his life by some of his fellow-clansmen, whose ideas on the subject of
foreign intercourse were not identical with his own. I allude to Count
Inouye, whose cheek was sliced by an antagonist’s weapon whilst he was
stoutly defending himself against an altogether unexpected onslaught by
a Yamaguchi samurai. The alliance of the two great Southern daimios for
the repudiation of the treaties and the expulsion of aliens was not of
a lasting character, nor was it intended, perhaps, that it should live
long, for the object, no doubt, was to exert pressure on the Shogun
rather than to wage war on the strangers. Nevertheless the attitude
assumed towards foreigners, to be consistent, could not be other than one
of hostility for the time being, and accordingly we find the lords of the
two provinces named drifted soon afterwards into open defiance of the
Occidentals’ naval power and the actions of Kagoshima and Shimonoseki,
the first as a consequence of the daimio’s refusal to punish his people
for the Richardson murder, and the second as the result of persistency
in firing on passing European vessels, ensued, in 1863 and 1864. How far
the feudatories named were indulging their own caprices in thus defying
the Western powers, and how far they sought merely to carry out what
they conceived to be their Emperor’s wishes, cannot now be known, but
that they were amply warranted by Imperial orders in impeding the entry
of aliens is proved by the Emperor Komei having sent a high official
of the Court to Yedo with a letter to instruct the Shogun to expel all
foreigners. This remarkable despatch conveyed the Emperor’s desire
that the Shogun would forthwith proceed to Kioto to take counsel with
the court nobles and thereupon despatch orders to the various clans,
throughout the empire, to the effect that by dint of all their strength
they should combine to thrust out the barbarians and restore tranquillity
to the land. Though the Shogun did not go to Kioto just then, it was
not through disobedience to his Imperial master’s commands, and it is
probable that had not the trouble with the Satsuma procession occurred
on the Tokaido, near Tsurumi village (where there is now a railway
station), and had not Richardson’s life been forfeited, the Shogun would
have felt himself obliged to take measures to enforce the Emperor’s order
for the foreigners’ expulsion. That the Emperor Komei was very much
in earnest about the matter is to be inferred from the fact that the
official charged with the conveyance of the message to the Shogun was
accompanied by the Prince of Satsuma, at the imperial desire, and it
was when the Satsuma chieftain was returning to his own province after
the execution of the Emperor’s instructions to escort his messenger to
Yedo that the deplorable affair occurred at Tsurumi, and the Satsuma clan
was plunged into direct antagonism with the subjects of foreign powers.
The failure on the part of the Shogun to punish it, not from lack of
inclination, but from military inability to perform the task, resulted
in the bombardment of Kagoshima by the British squadron in the following
summer. It deserves mention that, despite their avowed antipathy to the
admission of foreigners to their country, the Satsuma clansmen were
ready at that early date to avail themselves of Western appliances to
the utmost, and on the principle that to retain her position among the
nations Japan must adopt all the arts and sciences that would help her
to become strong to hold her own, they had bought guns, and ships, of
modern type, and proceeded to make the best use of both, as far as their
limited experience could serve them, immediately that the British admiral
entered the Bay of Kagoshima with his fleet. They did not wait for him to
open fire: they took the initiative themselves, and with unquestionable
courage and skill. Satsuma has, indeed, from the very beginning of the
new regime been prominent in both the army and the navy, and though it
must always be a matter of extreme difficulty to draw distinctions where
the clansmen were without exception prompt to wield the sword on slight
provocation in defence of their own or the national honour, the men of
Satsuma ever bore the reputation under the old regime of being a warlike
and indomitable race.
After 1863 their attitude towards the strangers speedily became less
hostile, and they imported machinery for a cotton mill, bought more
steamers, and in every way evinced a resolve to lose no further time
in vain efforts to sweep back the tide that they saw was steadily and
irresistibly advancing. On the contrary, they perceived that it would
be to their advantage to float with it, for the clans that might be
the first to arm themselves on the foreign model, and likewise most
prompt to adapt themselves to changed circumstances, by copying the
European methods of warfare, would be the first to profit by the military
supremacy they could hardly fail to acquire over the others. Gradually
the notion of expelling foreigners lost ground, so the way was paved for
a better understanding with the nations of the Occident. And the trend
of opinion in Satsuma was quickly seen to be communicating itself to
Choshiu, where the feudal chieftain Mori, after his defeat at Shimonoseki
by the combined fleet under Admiral Kuper, was willing to enter into
peaceful relations with the subjects of other powers, and exhibited
every disposition to be on terms of friendship for the future. It is
recorded of the lord Mori that in 1864 he declared his readiness to admit
foreigners to the ports in his barony of Choshiu, within a few months
only of the actual engagement between his forts and the combined fleet,
and the daimio’s attitude may have been modified by the representations
of Ito and Inouye, who although they failed to impress on him the
futility of opposing the allied squadrons may nevertheless have in some
degree led their chieftain to recognise the benefits that would accrue
to a speedy adoption of modern weapons and the arts of the Occident, as
conferring exceptional strength on those who might be content to sink
their prejudices and avail themselves of the improved appliances which
lay ready to their hands. At all events it seems to be fair to assume
that the supremacy of the Satsuma and Choshiu clans in the councils of
the state which in later years became so noticeable as to excite the
jealousy of others had its origin in the willingness evinced by the
daimios of those clans to listen to the recommendations of patriotic
samurai who owned allegiance to them. What is true of Satsuma and Choshiu
is of course equally true of the other clans prominent in the struggle
for the revival of imperial rule, namely Hizen and Tosa. In the course
of this work it will be fitting that I should invite attention to the
individual share which each of those who are classed as Makers of Japan
actually took in the most remarkable undertaking of recent years, though
in the earlier phases of the Restoration struggle they were merely units
of the clans to which most of them belonged. And fame rests with those
Southern clans since it was by their combined action and unity of purpose
that the Emperor Mutsuhito was invested, almost from the first, with that
direct sovereign government of his subjects which for so many centuries
had been denied to his predecessors on the throne, and which is now so
conspicuously predominant in the relations that exist in Japan between
the monarch and his dutiful and contented people.
With the assent of the Emperor Komei in 1865 to the Treaties made by the
Shogun began brighter days for Japan, and if it must be owned that the
benefits were at first unrecognised, and that considerable opposition
was in some quarters manifested to the innovations proposed, matters had
advanced so far, prior to the accession to the throne of the present
sovereign, that there was hope of the total abolition of feudalism, and
the inauguration of an essentially new regime. The world has never ceased
to marvel at the ease with which this stupendous alteration was effected.
In other lands when a revolution has been brought about it usually has
been only at a vast cost in human life. True, the northern and southern
clans fought in Japan, but the strife was not of long duration, nor was
it of a particularly sanguinary character in comparison with the terrible
slaughter that has often accompanied revolution elsewhere. It left behind
it no traces of animus to disturb the harmony of the future among the
subjects of the Japanese Emperor. That these magnificent results were
attained, and that Japan has never one inch receded from the position
that she took up nearly forty years ago, are facts that may in a large
degree be ascribed to the prudence, genius, and statesmanlike capacity of
many of those pioneers in thought and action of whose careers these pages
are intended to form a brief, and necessarily most imperfect, record.
In the preparation of this volume my object has been to convey
(_a_) A general impression of Japan and her people;
(_b_) The workings of reform, as exemplified in the lives of
some of her patriots.
In the several chapters devoted to the history of these Makers of Japan
I have sought to explain the part which each played in the introduction
of reforms, and to portray the situation in Japan now that those measures
for which they were responsible may be said to have taken full effect. In
brief, the aim has been to supply History through the medium of Biography.
I cannot do better, perhaps, than quote a sentence or two which recently
fell from the lips of one of Japan’s greatest statesmen, Count Okuma, and
whose career is briefly recorded in the following pages:—
“Now that peace has crowned the tremendous efforts which Japan
made in the War with Russia the effect upon herself will be
that she will be able to make still greater progress in the
paths of civilisation, and the true spirit of the Japanese
nation will have more room to display itself. Japan has never
been an advocate of war, and will never draw her sword from its
sheath unless compelled to do so by the pressure of foreign
powers. She fought to secure peace, not for the sake of making
war, and was only too glad to lay down her weapons as soon as
peace was obtainable, and to devote herself to the promotion of
interests of a nobler kind. The eminence of Japan is ascribable
to no mere mushroom growth; it has its roots in the past, and
her progress is to be explained by natural causes which anyone
may comprehend who cares to study her history attentively.
The late war was not one of race against race, or of religion
against religion, and the victory of Japan points to the
ultimate blending into one harmonious whole of the ancient and
modern civilisations of East and West.”
My thanks are due to His Excellency Viscount Hayashi and the members of
the Japanese Embassy in London, by all of whom the most kindly interest
has been taken in my work, and from whom I have received most valuable
aid in its preparation. Also to Baron Suyematsu, who assisted me greatly
with his personal reminiscences and who revised the chapter on Marquis
Ito, his father-in-law. I have also to record my indebtedness to the
Editor and Mr S. Imai of the _Osaka Mainichi Shimbun_, from whom I
received material help in regard to the history of those earlier Makers
of Japan who flourished in the first half of the Nineteenth Century. I
have availed myself of every opportunity of consulting the writings of
Messrs Black and Rein, and the works on Japan and its affairs by Count
Matsukata, Sir R. Alcock, Sir E. Reed, Sir Robert K. Douglas, Messrs
Hearn, Clement, and many others, and I have taken my figures for the most
part from Japanese official publications. When in 1895 I wrote “Advance,
Japan!” I ventured to predict the rise of Japanese influence in China and
that Japan would be “the lever to set the Chinese mass in motion” though
her efforts would “tend towards the consolidation of the Chinese Empire
rather than to its disintegration.” That work was translated in 1904 into
Russ avowedly in order that the Tsar’s people might learn something of
the nation they were fighting. In 1898 I had written “What will Japan
do?” and had based the story on a firm conviction that she would defeat
Russia when the inevitable contest should occur, the date I ventured to
assign for the outbreak of hostilities being, as it turned out, three
years too soon. That little volume was at once translated into Japanese.
If in the attempt that I have now made to assign to the chief personages
their due positions in respect of their nation’s stirring history, I
have in the smallest degree succeeded in conveying useful information
concerning our allies and their country to the people of the Occident,
I shall not have laboured in vain, and in submitting my work in all
humility—conscious of its many defects and shortcomings—to the judgment
of the public, my one hope is that it may be of some slight service to
those who may honour me by perusing its pages.
J. M.
CONTENTS
PAGE
I. HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN 1
II. PRINCE TOKUGAWA KEIKI: THE LAST OF THE SHOGUNS 53
III. FUJITA TOKO 97
IV. SAKUMA SHURI (OTHERWISE SHOZAN) 101
V. YOSHIDA TORAJIRO (OTHERWISE SHO-IN) 114
VI. MARQUIS ITO 119
VII. PRINCE IWAKURA TOMOMI 154
VIII. PRINCE SANJO SANETOMI 163
IX. COUNT INOUYE KAORU 170
X. VISCOUNT OKUBO TOSHIMICHI 184
XI. COUNT GOTO SHOJIRO 195
XII. MARSHAL SAIGO TAKAMORI 202
XIII. FIELD-MARSHAL MARQUIS YAMAGATA 219
XIV. COUNT OKUMA SHIGENOBU 246
XV. FIELD-MARSHAL MARQUIS OYAMA 255
XVI. FUKUSAWA YUKICHI 268
XVII. MARQUIS KIDO KOIN 273
XVIII. COUNT ITAGAKI 279
XIX. COUNT MATSUKATA MASAYOSHI 284
XX. ADMIRAL VISCOUNT ENOMOTO 299
XXI. ADMIRAL TOGO HEIHACHI 306
XXII. BARON EICHI SHIBUSAWA 315
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
H.M. THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN _Frontispiece_
THE GEKU SHRINE AT ISÉ _to face page_ 8
THE ARMS MUSEUM AT TOKIO ” ” 32
THE EX-SHOGUN AND FAMILY ” ” 53
(_From a Photograph by the Kinkodo Co.,
Tokio_)
THE INTERIOR OF SHIBA TEMPLE ” ” 84
FUJITA, SAKUMA, AND YOSHIDA ” ” 97
MARQUIS ITO ” ” 119
JAPANESE SCHOOL AT SEOUL ” ” 136
PRINCE IWAKURA TOMOMI ” ” 154
PRINCE SANJO SANETOMI ” ” 163
COUNT INOUYE KAORU ” ” 170
VISCOUNT OKUBO TOSHIMICHI ” ” 184
COUNT GOTO SHOJIRO ” ” 195
MARSHAL SAIGO TAKAMORI ” ” 202
MARQUIS YAMAGATA ” ” 219
COUNT AND COUNTESS OKUMA ” ” 246
(_From a Photograph by the Kinkodo Co.,
Tokio_)
MARQUIS OYAMA ” ” 255
FUKUSAWA YUKICHI ” ” 268
MARQUIS KIDO ” ” 273
COUNT ITAGAKI ” ” 279
COUNT MATSUKATA ” ” 284
(_From a Photograph by Elliott & Fry_)
ADMIRAL ENOMOTO ” ” 299
ADMIRAL TOGO ” ” 306
BARON SHIBUSAWA ” ” 315
MAKERS OF JAPAN
I
HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN
At the head of the list of Makers of Modern Japan stands by right the
name of the illustrious ruler, not merely in virtue of his imperial
position, but of the supreme efforts which throughout his reign of
thirty-eight years to the present time he has made to raise the status of
his country among nations and to confer upon his subjects the blessings
of enlightened government. His Majesty Mutsuhito, son of the Emperor
Komei, succeeded to the throne of Japan in February 1867, when he was
fourteen years and three months old, was crowned on the 13th October
1868, married the Princess Haruko on the 9th February 1869, and has issue
a son (the Crown Prince Yoshi-hito) and four daughters, the Princesses
Tsune, Kane, Fumi, and Yasu.
The Crown Prince was born on the 31st August 1879, and was installed in
this dignity on the Emperor’s birthday, 3rd November 1889, came of age
and took his seat in the Upper House, in 1897, married on the 10th of May
1900 the Princess Sadako, daughter of Prince Kujo, and has issue two sons.
The personal name of the sovereign is rarely written or spoken in Japan,
it being regarded almost as a discourtesy to allude to the ruler as
other than the Ten-shi, the son of the heavens, or more elegantly as the
Tenno, the heaven-sent Emperor. The theory of the supernatural origin
of the imperial dynasty ceased to have weight with the educated classes
long ago, but that in no way lessens the respect and affection which his
subjects have for their sovereign. It was at his express command that
they divested themselves of every vestige of superstition concerning his
traditional semi-divine descent, and when they ascribe to his personal
virtues their success in war, as they commonly do, it is but evidence
of their conviction that it is an immeasurable benefit to themselves,
and ensures success in their undertakings, to have as their monarch one
who is in every sense a man to be esteemed for his high sense of honour,
his love of truth and justice, and his innate appreciation of the duties
devolving upon him as having inherited the proud title of “an Emperor who
owns allegiance only to heaven.” There were, in the years which have gone
by, some Emperors who sadly failed to realise the necessity of setting a
good example to their subjects, in Japan as elsewhere, but the memory of
those monarchs is not revered. The present ruler has won throughout his
reign the love of his people for the purity of his life, the untiring
attention which he bestows on the affairs of his country, the supreme
magnanimity he has ever displayed in his treatment of those who by the
force of circumstances have been placed in a position of hostility, not
to his rule, for that is impossible in Japan, but to his Cabinet, and
above all for the readiness that he has invariably evinced in time of
national anxiety to enter into his people’s feelings and to subordinate
his personal comfort to his paramount duties as an active sovereign. Had
it still been the custom for monarchs to head their forces in the field
his Majesty Mutsuhito, as all his loyal and dutiful subjects know, would
have mounted his charger and led his hosts to battle with as great a
zest as did ever one of his predecessors on the throne in the fighting
days of old. That happiness being denied him, he sat at his desk in his
headquarters at Hiroshima for sixteen hours a day while his troops, for
eight months, waged war a decade ago with the Chinese in Manchuria and
Shantung.
It may be useful here to explain that the title of Mikado by which his
Majesty is perhaps best known to Europeans, although undeniably an
appellation of great antiquity and in no degree derogatory, is in little
use in Japan itself. Literally it signifies the “honourable gateway” or
“entrance,” and though in ancient times the designation, when applied
to a ruler who dispensed justice from a seat at the entrance to his
pavilion, may have been more or less an appropriate title, it may be
also that as years went by the preference of the people for some term
that should more definitely convey the idea of the sovereign’s supremely
exalted origin, according to then popular belief, led to the gradual
adoption, in official documents, of the title of Tenno, and in common
conversation of that of Ten-shi, terms which are in general use at the
present day. The perpetuation of the term Mikado among foreigners, though
almost obsolete among the inhabitants of the Ten-shi’s realms, is on a
par with the retention of the name “Japan” as that of the country itself,
it being a survival of the “Jipangu” of Marco Polo, who thus alluded to
it in writing an account of his travels. Marco Polo’s book was prepared
in 1299 at Genoa, and Jipangu was doubtless the traveller’s rendering of
the Ji-pên-kwoh of the Chinese, the name by which Japan is known to that
nation to-day, and by which Marco Polo heard the island Empire spoken of
some 600 years ago. To the Ten-shi’s subjects their land is Ni-hon-koku,
or Sun-origin Land, a term that is fairly translated, perhaps, as the
Land of Sunrise. Ji-pên-kwoh, in Chinese, has precisely the same meaning,
and the three ideographs employed are identical in Chinese and Japanese,
the difference being one of pronunciation only. Though the dwellers in
Nihon know as a rule by this time what is meant by Japan they always
speak of their land as Nihon or Nipon, and though they know to whom
strangers allude as the Mikado, they refer to his Majesty as the Ten-shi
or Tenno. Nevertheless, the terms in use abroad, though they have less to
recommend them on the score of accuracy, either for country or ruler, bid
fair to survive for generations.
In Japan there are four Imperial families in which are vested the rights
of succession to the throne in case of the failure of the direct line
of the sovereign. These families are the Arisugawa, Katsura, Fushimi,
and Kanin. The throne has ten times been occupied by a woman, but it was
ever an inflexible rule that she should choose a prince-consort from
among these four Shinnō, or Imperial families, and the relationship of
these families to the throne well illustrates the principle of adoption
which prevails throughout Japan in all classes, from the Imperial circle
down to the home of the humblest peasant. Adoption there confers all the
rights, privileges, and obligations of blood relationship, and it was
on this basis that the late Prince Taruhito, who played so important a
part in the making of Modern Japan, and is often referred to elsewhere
in this volume, came to occupy the position of uncle to the reigning
monarch. Prince Taruhito, who for the first three decades of the Meiji
era was the Commander-in-chief of the Japanese army, and died towards the
close of the Chino-Japanese war of 1894-5, was adopted as a son by the
Emperor Ninko, who reigned from 1817 to 1846 (grandfather to the present
Emperor), and he thus became a brother of the Emperor Komei, who was
the real son of Ninko. The Emperor Komei sat on the throne from 1846 to
January 1867, and was succeeded by his only son the reigning Sovereign
Mutsuhito. The late Prince Arisugawa was therefore uncle by adoption only
of the present Emperor, and curiously enough that is in one sense the
relationship which actually exists between the present Prince Arisugawa,
who recently visited our shores, and the present Emperor, for the prince
is the younger brother by birth of the late Prince Taruhito, who, having
no children of his own, adopted his brother as his son and heir. Prince
Taruhito having adopted his brother as his son, however, the brother then
became the reigning monarch’s cousin, and, as adoption confers absolute
rights, it is in the light of cousinship that we must regard the personal
relation of Prince Takehito Arisugawa to the occupant of the throne. In
reality it is difficult to institute anything like a fair comparison,
for in Europe our family relationships do not precisely correspond to
those that exist in the Japanese Empire, and any effort at explanation
of the actual status attained by the system of adoption, as it prevails
there, must fail to convey an accurate idea of the true position. Still
it will now be understood, as adoption brings with it full privileges,
how Prince Takehito, the prince who served as a midshipman in the British
navy, and is generally known as Prince Arisugawa, was for some years the
heir-presumptive to the Japanese throne. The Emperor Ninko having left
two sons,—though one was his son by adoption,—recourse would have been
had to the line of the adopted son had the present occupant of the throne
remained without a direct heir. The Crown Prince was not born until 1879,
but the direct succession is now, it would seem, amply secured, as he has
sons of his own.
The equivalent of “his Majesty” in Japanese is “Hei-ka,” so that the
full expression employed in speaking of the monarch is Tenno Hei-ka,
but there are additional titles not in general use, as is the case not
only in Japan and neighbouring countries but among most European as well
as Asiatic States. The same is true of the land over which the Ten-shi
rules, for it has borne fully as many names as have at various periods
the British Isles, and it was remarked at the time that the _Albion_ and
the _Shikishima_ battleships were being built side by side at Blackwall
that these vessels carried the ancient names of the countries to which
they belonged, for Shikishima is a poetical title,—implying Isles of
Prosperity,—for Japan, and is employed there in very much the same way as
Albion is with us.
The Emperor of Japan has no family name, for, apart from the theory
of his semi-divine descent, his house dates back to a period in the
world’s history when the dwellers on this globe were fewer in number, and
surnames had not been brought into use in the Orient. Thus it has a claim
to respect in virtue of the unparalleled duration of the dynasty such as
is possessed by no other reigning family in the world. His subjects are
justly proud of the fact, and likewise of the circumstance that he rules
over a people who have remained unconquered through the ages, in assured
tenure of the land bequeathed to them by their ancestors.
The profound respect, verging upon adoration, paid in Japan to the
occupant of the Throne is ascribable to an absolute conviction, pervading
the minds of all classes of his Majesty’s subjects, that their ruler is
a monarch who personally studies the welfare, the happiness, and real
comfort, of his people. The feeling that the sovereign takes an almost
paternal interest in the well-being of those whom he governs is so
universal in Japan as practically to constitute a feature of Japanese
national life. It is shared by all, rich and poor, young and old, the
noble and the lowly. In theory the throne is above criticism. In the
present era it is so in practice. In the long history of the Land of
the Rising Sun, there have been instances in which the sovereigns have
conspicuously fallen short of the standard of perfection, but in Japanese
eyes the failure to attain the ideal has been due not to the errors
of the individual so much as to his environment. There seems to be no
room in the Japanese mind for the conception of a ruler who has not the
amelioration of the lot of his loyal subjects always at heart, and if
they were to be confronted with direct proof to the contrary they would
cling to the belief that their sovereign must have been the victim of
circumstances. The people’s attachment to the throne never wanes, or
can wane, but if it happens that he who occupies that exalted position
is a sovereign for whom they are able to develop an intense affection,
owing to his personal characteristics, so much closer must the bonds be
drawn, so immeasurably in advance of all previous experience will be the
enthusiasm evinced for his cause by those who may be privileged to serve
him afloat or ashore.
The present Emperor has on more than one occasion, indeed, expressed
the wish that his subjects would cease to attribute to his family a
supernatural origin, and although it was inevitable that at the period of
his accession he should be regarded as Pope as well as Emperor, in virtue
of the connection that had from time immemorial existed between the
throne and the Shinto faith, insomuch that Shintoism was to all intents
and purposes the State religion of Japan, he took the earliest possible
opportunity of investing his cousin, then the Uyeno-no-miya, or High
Priest of Uyeno temples, with the spiritual functions appertaining to
the Sovereign’s office, and announcing his own intention of ruling Japan
purely as a secular monarch. Under the title of Kita Shirakawa-no-miya
this prince two years later left the temples and entered the newly
raised army, with the rank of major. General Kita Shirakawa-no-miya died
some years ago, but his brother Higashi Fushimi-no-miya, who likewise
was a Shinto priest at the outset of his career, was entrusted with the
imperial brocade banner and ordered to chastise the rebels in the war
of the Restoration in 1868, and he subsequently distinguished himself
as a military officer in many hard-fought fields. He some years ago
visited London as the representative of the Ten-shi and was present at
St Paul’s on the day that Queen Victoria gave thanks for the recovery
from a severe illness of the Prince of Wales, our present King Edward
VII. With the resignation by the prince Kita Shirakawa-no-miya of his
priestly office the direct relationship of the imperial family to
Shintoism ceased, though by the deification of former rulers of the
country, and the retention for untold years of the position of head
of the church by the reigning sovereign, the union had seemed to be
indissoluble. Shinto is now only a cult, but it embodies the principle
on which the moral teaching of the Japanese substantially is based, and
it still has for its chief function the performance of rites in memory
of the imperial ancestors. Shintoism has neither creed nor dogma,—it
inculcates patriotism and loyalty. It enjoins upon all the virtue of
courage, the cultivation of the strictest sense of honour, and the
universal practice of courtesy and consideration. The essence of Shinto
(_lit._: “the way of the gods”) is the spirit of filial piety, and,
to quote the late Lafcadio Hearn, it implies the “zest of duty, the
readiness to surrender life for a principle. It is religion, but religion
transmuted into ethical instinct. It is the whole emotional life of the
race,—the Soul of Japan.” In its best and purest form, according to the
highest authorities, it consisted of ancestor-worship combined with
reverence for the forces of nature. There was the natural respect for the
memory of ancestors, national or individual, added to the awe inspired
by the phenomena of nature, in the tempest and the earthquake, the
lightning’s flash and the thunder’s crash. The beneficent influence of
the summer sun on the ripening corn led those who lived by agriculture
to value the blessing as the gift of a goddess, and they revered her as
“Ama-no-terasu,” the splendour of the skies, and regarded her as the
special ancestress of their adored ruler. Thus, as one authority has
remarked, to those Japanese whose first idea of duty is loyalty to the
Emperor,—and this means the nation at large,—Shinto becomes a system of
patriotism exalted to the rank of a religion. The common people still
regard it in that light, and continue to worship and pray at its temples,
though officially it was secularised six years ago and placed under the
control of a Bureau of Shrines, as distinct from the Bureau of Religions,
which takes cognisance of matters affecting the Buddhist and Christian
faiths. In 1899 the officials of the Isé shrines, which are the oldest in
the Empire, and in which are preserved the three sacred emblems of the
monarchy,—the mirror, sword, and jewel of antiquity,—symbolical of regal
power, and looked upon as coeval with the dynasty itself,—took measures
to define their position as heads of a secular organisation. They then
described Shintoism as “a mechanism for keeping generations in touch with
generations, and preserving the continuity of the nation’s veneration for
its ancestors.” But throughout the length and breadth of the land the
sight of a Shinto shrine will continue to prompt the passer-by to pause
for a moment in his journey, to fold his hands in silent prayer, to cast
a coin into the capacious moneybox, and to bow the head in submission to
a higher will, no matter whether the rites of Shinto worship be for the
future viewed in the light of a religion or only as a cult.
[Illustration: THE GEKU SHRINE AT ISÉ]
Marco Polo’s references to “Jipangu,” as we have seen, were not based on
his personal observations but on information derived from the Chinese,
and though he travelled widely in China, accompanied by his brother, he
never set foot on Japanese soil. That an island empire existed to the
east of them, however, had been known to the Chinese for centuries, and
Kublai Khan had unsuccessfully sought to bring it into subjection only
a short time prior to the Polos’ arrival at his Court in 1275. It is
probable that Christopher Columbus, when setting sail from Palos in 1492,
hoped to reach “Jipangu,” of which he had doubtless heard through the
publicity given to Marco Polo’s travels, by sailing westward, and it is
possible that Columbus imagined that he had found his way to some part
of an Eastern continent when he discovered America. The first traveller
to actually land in Japan was Fernao Mendes Pinto, in 1542, seven years
before the Jesuit Missionary Francisco Xavier arrived there. Pinto was
favourably received in Bungo, a province of Kiushiu, the large island in
the south-west of Japan, and arrangements were made for a vessel to visit
Bungo with foreign produce, every other year. Pinto belonged to Coimbra,
in Portugal, and thus it is to that power that is due the honour of its
subjects having been the first to visit Japanese shores. Pinto’s ship
was the only survivor of three which started from Lisbon on a voyage of
adventure, and it was from her crew that the Japanese first acquired a
knowledge of the use of firearms. The Bungo province gives its name to
the narrow channel that here divides the islands of Kiushiu and Shikoku,
which is exceptionally rich in historical associations, for if tradition
be in this instance correct it was in one of its many little bays that
the vessel conveying the ancestor of the Ten-shi, the first Emperor Jimmu
Tenno, dropped anchor over 2500 years ago. Where Jimmu Tenno came from
remains an absolute mystery, but it seems to be fairly established that
he brought with him a mighty host, armed for conquest, and that he had
early encounters with the tribes then inhabiting the south and west of
Hondo, the main island. One of these was the Yamato tribe, which probably
at that remote period dwelt in what is now Iwami, and its occupancy of
the coast facing the peninsula of Korea, might be taken to imply that its
people originally crossed the water from that kingdom, though it would
not of necessity follow that the men of Yamato were identical in race
with the dwellers in Korea at the present day. Fighting his way along the
borders of the Inland Sea, the invading chieftain Jimmu Tenno ultimately
reached the neighbourhood of what is now Kioto, and set up his capital
in that region. It is not improbable that he brought with him many
members of the Yamato tribe that he had subjugated, and this may account
for the presence to this day in that part of Japan of numberless families
possessing the characteristics in a marked degree of what is termed the
Yamato race,—in other words, the elongated features and intellectual
aspect as distinguished from the round chubby countenances of the
majority of the men and women of the hei-min, or common stock, which
forms so large a percentage of the entire population. The Yamato people
may have emigrated in the first place from Manchuria, passing through
Korea on their way to Japan, and though it may be condemned as fanciful
the idea is perhaps not altogether groundless that in seeking to recover
Manchuria in recent years from the grip of the Muscovite the Japanese may
in reality have been striving, though few were aware of it, to deliver
their own ancestral home from the presence of the Western intruder.
Jimmu Tenno began to reign as Emperor of Japan in 667 B.C., being
then, it is supposed, about thirty-five years of age. Ancient Japanese
tradition no doubt assigned to him a supernatural origin, and it is not
difficult to trace in the unexpected advent on Japanese soil of the
conqueror and his knights the germ of such a belief, supported as it
probably was by martial prowess to a degree with which the then peaceful
inhabitants of the Japanese chain of islands were totally unfamiliar. The
peoples of the adjoining mainland of Asia—that is to say, the Chinese and
the Manchus, as well as the Koreans—were appreciably in advance, it is
to be presumed, in the arts of war, of any of the islanders of that age,
and the invaders, as Jimmu Tenno and his men must have been, of Southern
Japan, seven centuries before the Christian era, may have been regarded,
and not altogether unnaturally, as beings descended from another
planet. The Emperor Jimmu’s mother was a daughter, we are told, of the
Sun-Goddess and the Sea-God (the Japanese Neptune) and in this myth may
be traced a notable parallel to that concerning Romulus, the founder and
first King of Rome, whose father was reputed to have been Mars, the god
of war. Romulus founded Rome just eighty-six years before Jimmu became
the founder of the dynasty of Japanese emperors, but there the parallel
ends, for while Rome became a republic in less than 250 years, and
underwent endless vicissitudes, a direct descendant of Jimmu occupies the
imperial throne of Japan to-day.
In the older histories of Japan one may read how the Isles of Sunrise
came into existence, and the legend is pretty enough to merit recognition
in lands other than that to which it especially applies. When all
was chaos on this globe, very far back in its nebulous stage of
existence,—when the purer elements were ascending to form its skies,
and the impure were gathering to form its earth,—the god Izanagi, with
his august spouse the goddess Izanami beside him, was standing on the
ethereal arch that spans the higher heavens, bearing in his hand the
jewel-spear. Suddenly he thrust the weapon downward and with it probed
the watery expanse beneath. As he drew it forth from Ocean, drops of foam
and brine fell from its point, and in congealing formed an island. That
island is called “Foam-land” (Awaji), in the centre of what is now Japan,
and it bars the passage from the eastward to the picturesque “Inland
Sea.” In it Izanagi and Izanami took up their abode, and gradually formed
the other islands of the group. The Sun-goddess and the Sea-god were
their children, and Ama-no-terasu, the “Splendour of the Skies,” was
their grand-daughter, and became the parent of Jimmu Tenno, the first
Emperor of Japan.
In the month of July 1853, there appeared to the astonished gaze of the
inhabitants of the little fishing village of Uraga, situated on the
Pacific coast within ten miles of the entrance to the Gulf of Tokio, a
squadron of “black ships,” as the children termed the war vessels, the
like of which they had never before seen or even heard of, and not long
afterwards a boat was rowed ashore and a party of officers landed. For
230 years there had been no communication with strangers, the edicts
of the Shogun Iyeyasu and his successors in the office having expressly
prohibited all intercourse, for reasons which need not be given here,
and the open defiance of the law of the land implied by the visit of the
Americans filled the villagers with consternation. It was discovered
that the unwelcome guests had brought a letter for the reigning monarch
of Japan, and this the head man of the place agreed to forward to the
proper officials. Commodore Perry happened to reach Japan at a time
when the feudal lords of the various provinces had become jealous of
the long-continued supremacy of the Tokugawa line of Shoguns, deputies
of the crown who had for two and a half centuries practically ruled the
country, in the name of the monarchs who had remained in seclusion at
the palace of Kioto while their lieutenants governed the land from Yedo.
The movement in favour of the re-establishment of the direct rule of the
Emperor, in place of the semi-regal authority which had been exercised by
the descendants of Iyeyasu, the first Shogun of the Tokugawa line, had
begun to take definite shape some years previously, as we shall discover
when we consider the history of Fujita, Sakuma, and Yoshida,—patriots
who flourished earlier in the nineteenth century,—and the advent of
the American visitors served but to accentuate the difficulties of the
situation for the Yedo potentate, who was placed on the horns of a
dilemma. If he yielded to the demands of the Americans that the nation
which had so long been hidden from the rest of the world should emerge
from its retirement and admit foreigners within its gates, he would incur
the wrath of the ultra-Conservative party among the nobility of his own
land. If he refused to comply with the American President Fillmore’s
amiable suggestions, Japan might yet share the fate of China, and a
forcible invasion of his Imperial master’s dominions, which would be
equally disastrous to himself as being responsible for the exclusion of
the “barbarians,” was almost certain to occur. The Shogun took the advice
of those who advocated the making of treaties with men whom they were not
then strong enough in Japan to effectually exclude, and the thin end of
the wedge was inserted by the conclusion of the compact,—at first nothing
more than a promise of friendship,—between Japan and the United States of
America.
Under the provisions of the American treaty then negotiated by Perry, the
United States acquired the right of establishing a legation at Shimoda.
This is a small town at the tip of the Idzu promontory, which extends in
a southern direction from the province of Sagami, and it is sixty-five
miles as the crow flies south-west of Yokohama. Over a building which had
previously been a Buddhist temple the Stars and Stripes were hoisted at
Shimoda in September 1856, and America’s accredited envoy, Mr Townsend
Harris, resided there for many months, being the first of the diplomatic
representatives of foreign powers to dwell in the newly awakened Land
of Sunrise, and the first to arrange a treaty of commerce. Under the
arrangement made with Commodore Perry there were to be two seaports
opened to the reception of American vessels, where they might obtain
coal, provisions, wood, and water. One of these ports was Shimoda, the
other was Hakodate, in the northern island of Yeso. The treaty provided
for hospitable behaviour towards shipwrecked crews,—a matter in which,
had the instincts of the Japanese nation at large been appreciated as
they are to-day it would perhaps have been deemed superfluous to make
any stipulations—and it also included certain regulations for conducting
trade and for the residence of consuls or agents, at the places named.
The stay of the American agent at Shimoda was not of long duration, for
on the opening of the capital, as a place wherein the representatives
of other powers could most fittingly dwell, Mr Harris removed to that
city. But it should not be lost sight of that Shimoda was for a time the
official headquarters of the American Legation in Japan, and a place
where the population was more or less accustomed to see foreigners long
before the rest of the country,—save the trading ports of Yokohama,
Kobé, Nagasaki, and three other places on the coast opened later—was
available to strangers. The British treaty, made the same year by
Admiral Stirling, was on similar lines. It was not until the Earl of
Elgin concluded the treaty of 1858 that powers were obtained for the
residence of the foreign ministers in Yedo, though it had been agreed
that a third port,—that of Nagasaki,—should be opened to trade. The
Elgin treaty in addition provided for the establishment of open ports at
Kanagawa, Niigata, and Hiogo. But Kanagawa being a town situated on the
highroad along which in those days it was usual for the feudal lords and
their immense retinues to travel, and the feeling in many quarters being
decidedly inimical to foreigners, it was deemed inexpedient to make it a
focus of animosity due to the strangers’ settlement therein for purposes
of trade whilst it might remain the recognised resting-place for imperial
and other processions making the journey to and from Kioto and Yedo.
Accordingly it was agreed that the little fishing village of Yokohama,
_lit._: “the beach across the way,” on the other side of the bay of
Kanagawa, which is itself a mere indentation of the coastline of the Gulf
of Tokio, should become the actual place of residence of the foreign
community. From this small beginning in 1859 the port speedily grew to be
the centre of a vast and profitable trade, and its population now numbers
194,000, of whom 2100 are foreigners exclusive of Chinese. It is claimed
for Kobé, a port in the channel separating Shikoku from Hondo, that it
has eclipsed the older port of Yokohama in respect of its commerce, and
it is in some things better situated for trade, particularly with the
tea-producing districts. Kobé was originally a village adjoining Hiogo,
which was the port that it was settled by treaty should be thrown open,
and as a matter of fact it is divided from Hiogo only by a creek, a few
feet wide. The port is now officially styled Kobé-Hiogo, and to all
intents and purposes the two places are one.
Not only did the dai-mios of the western provinces modify their views
on the subject of the admission of strangers but the reigning Emperor
Komei himself ceased to contend at the last against that influx which
if it could not be successfully resisted might very possibly, it was
thought, be turned to good account in preparing the nation to combat
other encroachments of a less pacific character in the days to come. It
may well be that this resolution was arrived at in full view of events
that were taking place in the extreme north of the Empire, where Russia
was little by little feeling her way towards Yeso, and had already seized
the moment of Japan’s preoccupation in respect of domestic concerns to
establish herself in the island of Sakhalin, between which and Yeso
only a narrow strait, twenty-five miles wide, existed to bar the path
of the settlers to the virgin soil and luxuriant forests of “Hokkaido,”
Japan’s “North Sea Circuit.” At all events the Emperor Komei about this
time signified his willingness that the engagements which the Shogun had
entered into with the powers of the Occident should be recognised and
adhered to.
The Shogun Iyemochi, who had been wedded to the Emperor’s sister four
years previously, but who had not during the intervening time wholly
succeeded in overcoming his imperial master’s reluctance to ratify
the treaties which his predecessor in the Shogunate Iyesada had made,
was in 1864 residing at the castle of Osaka,—the stronghold built by
the renowned Hideyoshi (the Tai-ko or generalissimo) at the close of
the Sixteenth Century,—and was thus within a few hours’ journey of
the imperial residence. His visit to Kioto that year (1864) had been
marked by the Ten-shi’s favour despite the remembrance of his failure
to induce the aliens to quit Japan’s shores, and no more had been heard
of the proposition that he should forthwith expel the barbarians and
restore peace to the country. The vital change in the sovereign’s ideas
is believed to have been brought about mainly by the advice of the lord
of the Satsuma province, who, as was to be seen, had changed his own
opinion very considerably after the naval engagement at Kagoshima of
the previous year. There can be no doubt that the influence of Shimadzu
Saburo was largely instrumental in bringing about a reconciliation
between the Emperor and the Shogun, and for the moment harmonious
relations were re-established. The personal quarrel which arose with
the lord Mori of Choshiu would have been a more serious matter for
the Shogun had the Satsuma lord been ready to throw in his lot with
Iyemochi’s opponents, and whatever may have been the feeling on the point
at Hagi the disinclination of Satsuma to join the Choshiu clansmen in
the attack on Kioto may be held to have turned the scale against Mori.
It was not long before the two clans were actually united, however, in a
successful attempt to demolish the Shogunate altogether. It is thought
that when Iyemochi obeyed the summons of the Ten-shi to visit Kioto
with, in the first place, the avowed object of concerting measures for
the expulsion of aliens, he took the fatal step of subordinating his
own party’s policy to that of the Court party, and thereby hastened the
downfall of the Tokugawa family, for the strength of the Shogunate had
lain in the assertion of its prerogatives as inheriting the privileges
of its founder, the law-giver Iyeyasu, and who re-established it in the
beginning of the Seventeenth Century.
But to return to the events of 1864, it was with excellent judgment and
an intuitive perception of the favourable turn which affairs were then
taking that Sir Harry Parkes, the British Minister, who had succeeded
Sir Rutherford Alcock, seized the precise moment to despatch two members
of his Legation staff, Messrs Mitford and Satow,—the present Lord
Redesdale, and Sir Ernest Satow, now British representative at Peking,—to
see the Shogun and personally endeavour to arrive at some satisfactory
arrangement concerning the opening of the remaining ports to trade for
which sanction had been obtained by the provisions of the Elgin treaty.
The visit ended with complete satisfaction to the negotiators, and when
the four powers directly concerned—viz. Holland, France, the United
States, and Britain—urged officially on the Shogun the desirability of
speedily opening Hiogo (Kobé) he agreed to write a letter to his imperial
master suggesting that this should be done. The Emperor Komei at first
refused but ultimately gave his consent. It was settled that Hiogo, and
with it Osaka, should be opened to foreign trade and residence on and
from the 1st of January 1868, which was five years later than had been
contemplated by the framers of the Elgin treaty, but under the then
existing circumstances it was highly creditable to the delegates to have
achieved so much.
The defeat of the Choshiu men in their earlier attempt to capture
Kioto had had the effect of inducing them to study the art of war as
practised in the Occident, and when Iyemochi, in consonance with the
imperial command, sought to chastise Baron Mori, and promptly marched
his troops through the provinces bordering the Inland Sea as far as
Nagato, he found himself confronted by a superior force of riflemen,
armed after the modern fashion, who, though they lacked everything in
the way of military uniform, had acquired sufficient knowledge of drill
and co-operation to render them doughty opponents for any force that
the Shogun could place in the field against them at that stage of the
national development. The men who bore rifles were not in pre-Restoration
days regarded as the highest in rank among soldiers, for the Japanese
had of old a predilection for the personal combat, hand to hand, and
were prone to despise warfare of the kind in which a missile was hurled
at the foe from a comparatively safe distance. Thus the swordsman
ranked highest in Japanese estimation down to a very recent period,—but
the Choshiu riflemen proved by their able use of modern firearms that
a power such as had been before unknown in relation to implements of
strife lay in the weapons that they so coolly and dexterously handled to
the complete discomfiture of their enemies. And thus was laid, it may
be supposed, the foundation of that high standard of superiority which
the Choshiu troops have since attained as regards their ability to wage
war on modern principles. They developed a natural aptitude for the
employment of firearms from a date long prior to the present Emperor’s
reign, and for some years were the only force in Japan that might be said
to have adopted western armaments, with perhaps the sole exception of a
force of foreign-drilled infantry (some 800 in all), belonging to the
Shogun, under Kubota Sentaro, which took part on behalf of the Japanese
authorities in a review and sham fight that was held at Kanasawa, near
Yokohama, on the 21st March 1866, at a time when it was needful to have a
few British troops in the town for purposes of defence against a possible
sudden descent of some recalcitrant dai-mio’s followers.
The Shogunate was tottering to its fall when it sought in June 1865 to
suppress the Choshiu rising, and signally failed to do so. Only a few
months later the Shogun Iyemochi died (August 1866), and was succeeded
by Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu, a scion of the Mito branch of the Tokugawa
family, and who is in more modern times alluded to as the Prince Keiki.
The letters of which the Japanese pronunciation would be Yoshinobu are,
when given their approximate Chinese sounds, to be read as Keiki, hence
the two renderings of the Shogun’s name. Tokugawa signifies the “river
of abundance,” and Keiki or Yoshinobu mean “goodness and joy,” the
signification of the characters remaining unaltered, of course, whichever
may be the system of pronunciation adopted. Shortly after Keiki’s
accession to the Shogun’s seat the trouble in Choshiu was brought to an
end by the lord Mori’s submission. Into the cause of that there is no
need to enter here as it will be found to have been fully discussed in
the chapter on the career of Marshal Yamagata. Peace was only nominally
restored, for the reason that greater events were in preparation, and the
country was now on the eve of those marvellous changes which ushered in
the era of Meiji,—the period of Enlightened Rule,—by which his present
Majesty chose that his reign should be known to posterity. The Emperor
Komei’s decease followed very quickly upon that of the Shogun Iyemochi.
Keiki had been Shogun only four months when Komei Tenno died and was
succeeded by his son Mutsuhito, who happily still reigns over an adoring
and devoted people, distinguished among the nations of the earth for
their unfaltering attachment to the imperial throne and for the intense
loyalty and patriotism they display towards its wise and benevolent
occupant. It happened that at the moment when the Emperor Mutsuhito came
to the throne Japan was torn by conflicting political views on the
subject of the advisability of re-opening the country to foreign trade
and intercourse, after having been closed to foreigners down to 1854 from
a date early in the Seventeenth Century. The treaties which the Shogun
had entered into with the representatives of Foreign Powers, during
the lifetime of the Emperor Komei, still gave anything but unalloyed
satisfaction to one section, and that a very numerous and implacable
one, of the body politic, and the land was a prey to the most bitter
dissensions. A large proportion of the so-termed anti-foreign party was
sincere in its outcry for the expulsion of foreigners only so far as it
might be the means to an end. No doubt there were thousands in Japan at
that time who were genuinely hostile to strangers, and honestly believed
that the land would be well rid of the intruders, but it is nevertheless
true that these patriots, as they unquestionably deemed themselves,
were exploited by the Reformers whose main ambition it was to see the
country again governed by the Ten-shi himself, and not, as had so long
been the rule, by his lieutenant the Shogun. It is due to the curious and
altogether anomalous state of affairs that then existed that we have in
the Makers of Modern Japan many men who at one time belonged to the party
which openly advocated the expulsion of all aliens. Whatsoever may have
been their real feelings at the time towards strangers, it is evident
that their first care was to put an end to the dual system of control
from Kioto and Yedo, and to restore the supreme power to the hands of the
Ten-shi.
It is due to the memory of the Emperor Komei, though no great change was
accomplished in his reign, to acknowledge the foresight he displayed in
having his son and heir educated on liberal lines, thoroughly fitted for
the duties of active sovereignty over his people, so that when the moment
arrived for a revolution in the system of administration the youthful
monarch was equipped with knowledge regarding the outer world and its
chequered history that had never been acquired by his august predecessors
on the imperial throne, coupled with broad and noble ideas of government
far in advance of his years. The stirring events of 1867 and 1868
therefore found his Majesty not unprepared for the tasks devolving upon
him. His training had indeed been almost Spartan in its rigour and
simplicity, among the family of the Court noble to whose care he had
been entrusted. Strict discipline is rather the rule than the exception
in Japan in regard to the education of princes, and in the youth of the
Emperor Mutsuhito there was no departure from established custom,—on the
contrary, the Emperor his father had enjoined upon the noble charged with
the heir-apparent’s education the necessity of making him a hardy rather
than a delicate youth, and he was encouraged, therefore, to take delight
in horsemanship and manly sports, the ancient game of da-kiu (Japanese
polo) being much played in the palace grounds at that period. It is even
said that he smelt powder before he was twelve years old, for the battle
between the Choshiu men and the Shogun’s forces already mentioned took
place in Kioto close to the imperial residence, and bullets flew in all
directions among the palace buildings. As an equestrian his majesty
shines conspicuously, for he is an accomplished rider, and takes a keen
delight in the field manœuvres which in peace time are annually carried
out in one part or another of his dominions. On these occasions it is
no uncommon thing for the Emperor to be in the saddle day after day for
a week together, and it may well be that to the profound study that he
is well known by his troops to make, at all times, of the needs of his
army, must in part be ascribed the firm belief of officers and men that
they win battles by virtue of his beneficent interest in their welfare.
He enjoys following his troops in their prolonged marches, when carrying
out their regular training, and never hesitates to mount his charger
in the roughest weather, on the principle that what his men are asked
to do in the sense of exposure to the elements, he is ready himself to
undertake. Alike under the hottest sun or the most drenching rain, he
takes his stand on some eminence to watch them defile before him, utterly
regardless of personal comfort or of danger to his health. In this he
but evinces his complete repugnance to a life of luxurious ease, and it
is to be said of his whole career, both prior to his accession to the
throne of his ancestors and since, that he has never spared himself in
any one particular, but has been a hard worker from his boyhood, with
little or no disposition to indulge in play or relaxation of any kind
save the mental recreation involved in the daily composition of a stanza
of poetry. At another page will be found almost literal reproductions
of some of his Majesty’s latest efforts in this direction, inspired,
no doubt, by the circumstances of the terrible struggle in Manchuria,
wherein so many thousands of his warriors have sacrificed their lives for
the empire of which he is the revered head.
To return to the Emperor’s early life, he is ever ready to avow himself
indebted to the ability and wisdom of his tutors, foremost among whom
were the Princes Sanjo and Iwakura, whose part in the making of the Japan
of to-day is elsewhere referred to in detail. They were Court nobles
(kuge), and both are long since dead, but it was to their teaching in
great measure, aided by that of other gifted counsellors, that was due
the strikingly complete emancipation of his mind from old-fashioned
ideas, and his adoption of the principles of government upon sound and
progressive lines. His Majesty began his reign with a declaration, wholly
spontaneous, that he would as soon as practicable create a deliberative
assembly for the discussion of public affairs, that personal freedom
should be secured to all his subjects, that whatever evil or pernicious
customs were in existence should be abolished, and that a new system,
based on the study of the experience of foreign nations, particularly as
regarded the defence of the Empire, should be forthwith inaugurated. This
was the substance of his Majesty’s Coronation oath, as it was termed, and
is the Magna Charta of the rights and privileges of the Japanese people.
The sovereign voluntarily repeated this promise at a Meeting of the
feudal princes and barons assembled at the Palace in Kioto in April 1869,
two years after his accession to the throne. But the interval had been
occupied in effecting that radical change in the system of administration
which has been the wonder of the world, and in quelling an insurrection
which was the direct outcome of the abolition of the Shogun’s office,
though personally the holder thereof had discouraged the rebellion as
far as he could by resigning his post. The Emperor had accepted that
renunciation of his rights by the Shogun Keiki, but the adherents of the
Shogunate had fought on in spite of their titular leader’s withdrawal.
In after years the sovereign, as we shall find, magnanimously abolished
the decree which had in 1868 declared the Shogun to be in rebellion,
and wholly absolved him from any intentional disobedience. But for the
time being there was civil war in the Land of Sunrise, and the history
of those unhappy eighteen months subsequent to the Emperor’s accession
must briefly be told, though, as is the case with regard to the strife
of the early sixties, in the United States of America, the memory of
those terrible days when clan fought against clan in Japan has ceased to
trouble the Ten-shi’s subjects, and those who once were sworn enemies
are and have for many years past been good friends. The events of 1867
were especially important in respect of the influence that they were
to exert on the future of the country. In the first place the powerful
Satsuma clan had obtained a conspicuously influential position in the
councils of the Empire. The prime mover in this had been Shimadzu Saburo,
who was the real father of the feudal lord of the province, but as the
previous daimio, who in reality was Shimadzu’s brother, had adopted the
young prince as his son, it followed under the Japanese laws concerning
adoption that the father became uncle to his own child. In the course of
the violent controversy which had arisen Shimadzu had most vehemently
opposed the Shogun, and accordingly he was classed among those who
were averse to the opening of the treaty ports to foreign trade, but
in reality he was not unfavourable to the admission of aliens, and was
actually willing that the entire province of Satsuma should be open to
foreign enterprise. To this suggestion, however, the Shogun had offered
objections.
Satsuma had benefited by its trade with Nagasaki, the only port that
had remained accessible to vessels from Europe during the long seclusion
of the nation from Western intercourse. In the year 1866 the British
Minister, Sir Harry Parkes, had accepted an invitation to visit the
headquarters of the Satsuma clan, three years after the bombardment of
the town of Kagoshima by Admiral Kuper’s squadron. The Minister made the
voyage in the warship _Princess Royal_, accompanied by the _Serpent_
and the _Salamis_, and the young prince of Satsuma came off to welcome
his guest in a magnificent state barge. Sir Harry Parkes, on landing at
Kagoshima on the 27th July, found that adjoining the daimio’s palace
within the castle walls were a foundry and well-equipped workshops,
and that at the foundry they had succeeded in casting a number of very
serviceable cannon, and quantities of shot and shell. Near by was a
glass works, and in one of the workshops was a steam lathe. These facts
afford strong testimony to the progressive spirit manifested even at
that period by the Satsuma clan, and the appreciation of the value of
Western appliances which had thus early in the history of the Restoration
struggle prompted the samurai of Satsuma to fit themselves to attain a
commanding position among the supporters of the Ten-shi, as opposed to
those who favoured the regime of the Shogunate.
The inability of the Shogun’s forces to subdue the Choshiu samurai had
placed the Shogun himself in a position that was obviously intolerable.
Not only was one of the most powerful of the feudal lords openly
antagonistic to the Shogunate but it was known for a fact that the
Satsuma clan was virtually allied to Choshiu in this effort to repudiate
the Shogun’s right to exact obedience from the great feudatories. It
is to the infinite credit of Tokugawa Keiki that at this crisis in his
country’s affairs he recognised the need of a more centralised and
uniform system of administration,—one in which the real power and control
should be vested in the person of the Ten-shi. He resigned the office
which had been in his family for 264 years, and begged that he might be
permitted to retire into private life. The Emperor Mutsuhito accepted the
voluntary surrender by the Shogun of his time-honoured privileges and
in doing so opened a new chapter in the record of the Japanese Empire.
The manifesto was in the sovereign’s own words and was substantially as
follows:—
It has pleased Us, at his request, to dismiss the Shogun.
Henceforward We shall exercise supreme authority, in both the
internal and the external affairs of the nation. For the term
“Tycoon” (meaning Shogun) which has hitherto been employed in
the Treaties must henceforth be substituted that of Emperor.
To this historic document were appended the great seal of “Dai Nihon”
and the signature in the monarch’s own caligraphy—_Mutsuhito_—it being,
perhaps, the first time in all Japanese history that the personal name
of the ruler had been used officially during his lifetime. The retiring
Shogun left the capital and for a brief period took up his abode in the
castle of Osaka. But it was to the chief town of Suruga province, midway
between Tokio and Kioto, that he finally withdrew, and thereafter lived
the unobtrusive life of a country gentleman on a small estate which
the Emperor bestowed upon him. In this way, in the perfect seclusion
of Shidzu-oka (_lit._: the Hill of Peace) he was able to wholly divest
himself of political connections, and was now and then to be seen setting
out on a fishing excursion with perhaps but one attendant, preferring the
quietude of his existence apart from the cares of State, and revelling in
his emancipation from the pomp and circumstance of that Court of which
for a brief interval he had been the acknowledged and puissant head.
Never, perhaps, did a potentate more completely renounce his rights, nor
so absolutely efface himself on doing so, in the history of mankind, but
he has had his reward in the confidence and favour of the real sovereign
whose deputy he had been, and from whom he has received in recent years
the highest honours. He has the rank of Prince under the new regime,
while Prince Tokugawa Iyesato, the head of the Tokugawa family, has also
been raised to the same rank, and holds office as President of the
House of Peers. Thus the family of Tokugawa, which from the close of
the Sixteenth Century until 1868 virtually ruled Japan, retains, by the
magnanimity of the Emperor, a status among the nobility of the land that
is unsurpassed by any princely or ducal house, and actually boasts the
possession among its ranks of two princes, since his Majesty thought fit
in 1900 to request his former Shogun to visit Tokio, and then and there
conferred upon him the title which he now holds, declaring at the same
time that he was perfectly absolved of all participation in the events
of 1867-8, which would no longer blot the record. There has been nothing
in the personal relations of his Majesty with his dutiful and supremely
loyal people which has more endeared him to them than his extreme
generosity, and inasmuch as there were necessarily among all classes of
his subjects many thousands—even hundreds of thousands—who had in their
early days been proud to own allegiance to the Shogun and the Tokugawa
house, the sovereign’s attitude has been more widely appreciated than it
is possible, perhaps, for strangers to the country to comprehend.
The surrender of his privileges by the Shogun in 1868 was resented by
the bulk of his adherents, and though they were compelled to retreat
towards the north before the determined advance of the Satsuma, Choshiu,
Hizen, and Tosa men, under the command of Saigo Takamori, whose notable
history will be found elsewhere in this volume, the struggle lasted for
many months. In support of the Tokugawa side the stoutest resistance
was maintained by the Aidzu clan, whose chieftain dwelt in the castle
of Wakamatsu, midway, or nearly so, between the capital and the straits
of Tsugaru which separate the northern island of Hokkaido or Yeso from
Hondo, the mainland. The prince of Aidzu had been guardian of the “Nine
Gates” of the Ten-shi’s palace at Kioto under the Tokugawa regime,
until the _coup d’état_ of the 3rd January 1868, by which his opponents
contrived to secure the person of the young Emperor, whereupon an
imperial edict appeared appointing, instead of the Aidzu men, the clans
of Satsuma, Tosa, and Geishiu, as guardians of the Gates. Loyalty to
the old regime led the Aidzu chieftain to oppose as far as he was able
the deposition of the Shogun, until he was made aware that Keiki’s
resignation had been accepted by the Emperor.
Clan jealousy was of course responsible to a very great extent for the
opposition of the northern feudatories to the proposed changes, and
in the broad sense of the term this was a conflict in which the south
waged war on the north. For according to that spirit of loyalty to a
chief which prevailed then and, happily for Japan, still prevails,
throughout the Ten-shi’s realms, in spite of his subjects having taken
for a model the matter-of-fact latter-day civilisation of the Occident,
it was permissible to regard the Shogun’s voluntary submission as an act
prompted solely by a desire to spare the lives of his followers, and as
such one of which they were not obliged to take cognisance, for although
there was no act of self-sacrifice in which they were not ready to join
if it could be proved to be needful in their country’s interests, they
held themselves to be in no way bound by a promise or declaration that
their chief had been compelled, as they deemed it, to make under the
pressure of circumstances. They regarded the Shogun as the victim of a
political combination, and were indisposed on that account to yield to
the ambitious dominance of the clansmen of the south. The Aidzu men,
therefore, continued to oppose a solid front to the Kioto party, and in
the vicinity of Wakamatsu itself many desperate contests took place. All
the males of a family, from the father to the youngest son, are known in
some cases to have taken the field in defence, as they believed, of their
lord’s interests, and warfare of that determined character which those
who have watched the career of the Japanese soldier of to-day can fully
comprehend lasted in the north of Japan until late in 1868. During the
preceding summer there was a fierce engagement at sea, close to the town
of Hakodate, which resulted in the defeat of the Shogun’s squadron, at
that time commanded by Admiral Yenomoto. Ultimately a general amnesty was
proclaimed, and the ships which remained under the Tokugawa flag were
handed over to the newly-formed department of the imperial navy.
But before this came to pass, incredible as it may seem, an attempt was
made, it was declared, to establish in Yeso some sort of republic, and
the signatures to the remarkable document in which proclamation was made
of the intentions of the promoters of this scheme included that of Otori
Keisuke (now Baron), who later represented his nation with distinction as
its Minister to the Court of Seoul. On board one of the vessels commanded
by Admiral Yenomoto, moreover, in the engagement at Hakodate, was a young
officer who in his later years has been the recipient of the highest
honours in recognition of the splendid services rendered to his country
in the course of a distinguished diplomatic career.
Strictly speaking, though the proceedings have been described at
various times as tantamount to an effort to establish a republic it is
impossible that the idea can ever have been entertained of overthrowing
the authority of the Ten-shi, whose rule is based on principles which
are in the minds of all his subjects immutable and indestructible.
What the advocates of a republic for Yeso had in view could in reality
have been but the setting up of an independent administration for the
northern island, distinct from that of the Central government which it
was proposed to provide for the whole Empire at Tokio. But the Shogunate
Republic in Yeso, had it ever taken actual shape, would have been nothing
more than a local administration owning allegiance to the sovereign power
at Kioto, and it would have been more an imperial dependency than a
republic.
The Shogun, at the time that he tendered his resignation of his office,
had urged upon his imperial master the advisability of convening a
meeting of daimios at the capital of Kioto, and his advice was taken.
The lords of the various provinces assembled while the War of the
Restoration, as it is termed, was yet in progress. A form of Government
was decided upon in which the control of the administration was vested in
a Council of State, presided over by a Chancellor (the Dai-jo-dai-jin)
assisted by two Vice-chancellors (the Sa-dai-jin, or Vice-chancellor
of the Left, which in Japan ranks highest, and the U-dai-jin, or
Vice-chancellor of the Right). The Administrative departments of State
comprised those of the Imperial Household, Foreign Affairs, Finance, War,
Education, Justice, and Religion, each with its departmental chief or
Minister. The First Council as finally formed was composed of:—
Prince Sanjo Sanetomi Dai-jo-dai-jin: a Court noble.
Prince Iwakura Tomomi Sa-dai-jin: a Court noble.
Prince Shimadzu Saburo U-dai-jin. Of Satsuma.
Saigo Takamori Of Satsuma.
Okubo Toshimichi Of Satsuma.
Kido Takakoto Of Choshiu.
Inouye Bunda Of Choshiu.
Ito Hirobumi Of Choshiu.
Okuma Shigenobu Of Hizen.
Itagaki Taisuke Of Tosa.
The Ministry was in reality constituted to give equal representation to
the four leading clans, as far as practicable, though the Choshiu and
Satsuma influence actually predominated.
Acting under authority of his Majesty the members of the Council here
mentioned had in the preceding January, on the occasion of the _coup
d’état_, established a provisional government, and had called upon the
Shogun to surrender his heritage and to submit himself entirely to
the will of his imperial master. For some months past there had been
frequent conferences at the Nijo Castle in Kioto between the Shogun and
Goto Shojiro (late Count Goto), who, with Komatsu of the Satsuma clan,
persistently urged upon the Shogun the advisability of establishing an
Imperial Government, with the effect that his Highness had been on the
point of yielding to their arguments. Goto was the trusted representative
of the Tosa clan, and had brought a letter from his feudal lord addressed
to the Shogun, in October 1867, recommending his Highness to resign his
position of Shogun, for patriotic reasons. There is excellent ground
for the belief widely entertained in Japan, and which it is palpable
his Majesty shares, that the Shogun, had he been wholly free to follow
the dictates of his own heart, would have relinquished his office there
and then, but a new complication arose through his followers coming to
blows with the Satsuma retainers, thus compelling him either to repudiate
them or to accept a position of absolute hostility to the new government
of which the Satsuma chieftain was a leading member. It was with that
extreme clemency which has throughout characterised the rule of the
present monarch that in after years his Majesty spontaneously recognised
that the Shogun had no real intention of being hostile to himself, and
that it was mainly the acts of the adherents of the Tokugawa family
which drove the Shogun into seeming antagonism to the party of reform.
As already explained, the Emperor has recently conferred on the former
Shogun a title by which his once lofty position in pre-Restoration days
is fittingly acknowledged.
But for the time, as has been said, there was civil war, and its progress
was marked by the almost continuous defeat of the Shogun’s forces, and
their gradual retreat through the provinces of the Tokaido, the great
eastern coast road, on the Shogun’s capital of Yedo, now Tokio. There in
the famous castle some of the Tokugawa clansmen were closely besieged,
while others made their way northward to the more remote regions of
Aidzu and Oshiu, and again defied the imperialists until the future
Field-marshal Yamagata finally hunted them down and compelled them to
surrender as the only alternative to extermination. The Shogun himself
finally retired into private life, at the urgent solicitation of Katsu,
the lord of Awa province, in May 1868, five months after his resignation
of his office in the first place had been formally accepted by the
sovereign, and for what happened after May, until the autumn of that
eventful year of 1868 saw the terrible internecine strife brought to a
close, the Shogun cannot be held directly responsible. By many he has
been blamed because he did not remain by the side of the young sovereign
at Kioto in the stormy period which marked the last month of 1867 and
the beginning of 1868, but it must be remembered that as a consequence
of the _coup d’état_ of the 3rd January the provisional government had
already thrust the Shogun aside and was issuing edicts for which it
had the direct authority of the monarch. The Shogun’s office had in
reality ceased by that time to exist. His presence at Kioto may well
have seemed to him in those days to have become superfluous, and his
sense of self-respect prompted him to retire to his own castle of Osaka
three days later, on the 6th January, seeing that he was no longer being
consulted on affairs of State. In the same month of January 1868, there
was a naval engagement off Awaji, that “foam-land” to which reference
has been made in connection with Japanese mythology, and which lies
athwart the Inland Sea a little west of Kobé, the opposed squadrons
consisting of the Satsuma vessels _Lotus_, _Kiang-Su_, and _Scotland_,
and the Shogun’s _Kaiyo Maru_ (the frigate bought from the Dutch), the
yacht _Emperor_ (Queen Victoria’s present to himself) and the _Fujiyama_,
another steamer purchased abroad. The three Satsuma ships were part of
the fleet which had in recent years gradually been formed by the lord of
the fief in pursuance of his conviction that the possession of powerful
vessels would some day or other prove advantageous to the clan. They held
their own fairly against the stronger ships of which the Tokugawa party
had simultaneously possessed itself, and though the _Scotland_ was sunk
off Awa Bay as a result of the encounter the Satsuma men had no reason
to be ashamed of the figure they cut in this early clash of armaments at
sea. The Satsuma vessels had been under fire before, for they had taken
part in the resistance offered by the Satsuma clan to Admiral Kuper at
Kagoshima, when he undertook to chastise the lord of their province in
1863. The Tokugawa ships returned to Osaka, or rather to Tempo-san, which
is to the great commercial port of Japan what Gravesend is to London, and
there they awaited the progress of events in that spring of 1868 which
must be accounted the most stirring period of Japanese modern history, as
the events already narrated when taken in conjunction with those which
have to be related will, it is believed, sufficiently demonstrate. It may
be observed that after the battle of Fushimi, midway between Osaka and
Kioto, which soon afterwards occurred, and in which the Tokugawa men were
signally defeated, the frigate _Kaiyo Maru_ was of the utmost service to
the Shogun in conveying him from the region where his forces were meeting
with nothing but disaster to a safe retreat for the time being at Yedo.
He took passage in her from Tempo-san, and safely reached his own castle
in what is now Tokio after two nights at sea.
The then British Minister, Sir Harry Parkes, early in the spring of 1868
despatched Messrs Satow and Willis to express to the newly formed Kioto
Government his hope that the time might be deemed opportune for the
inauguration of direct relations between the accredited representatives
of Western powers and his Imperial Majesty, the Shogun having actually
resigned three months or more before. Dr Willis was the medical officer
attached to the British Legation, and at a later date took up his
residence in Kagoshima, the chief town of Satsuma, where he was physician
to the hospital which the clan established, and his services during the
stormy days of the Restoration struggle and subsequently when the Satsuma
men were nominally in rebellion were invaluable. The British Minister’s
messengers were well received and hospitably entertained in Kioto, and
were permitted to walk freely in the streets of the ancient capital of
the Ten-shi, which was something that no foreigners had ever done before.
The anti-foreign feeling was still very strong throughout Japan, as was
proved by the wholesale massacre of a French vessel’s boat’s crew at
Sakai, near Osaka. An officer and eleven men were killed in all, and the
French Minister, M. Roches, made an imperative demand on the Shogun’s
government, which at that time (February 1868) was administering the
affairs of the country, for the delivery of the bodies of the murdered
men within twenty-four hours, a request which it was found practicable as
well as politic to comply with. Also a number of Bizen soldiers hailing
from that province washed by the Inland Sea, west of Awaji, had in
passing through the newly opened port of Hiogo, vented their animosity
towards the strangers whom they saw in the streets by running amok among
them and firing with their rifles right and left. This crime, like that
perpetrated at Sakai, was avenged, for the Government was strong enough
to issue orders for the performance of seppuku by the culprits and to
insist on execution of the sentences. The Bizen men were marching from
Okayama to Osaka at the time when they allowed their anti-foreign ideas
to outrun their discretion, the actual order to fire on the foreign
residents being given by one Heiki Tatewaki, whose death was decreed by
imperial edict and the then Governor of the port, the present Marquis
Ito, was directed as his Majesty’s representative, to see the act of
seppuku carried out in due form.
[Illustration: THE ARMS MUSEUM AT TOKIO]
But there were worse troubles to follow, for when, in the month of March,
Sir Harry Parkes went to Kioto on the invitation of the Emperor, to
attend, in company with the Ministers of France and Holland, the first
imperial audience of the reign of Meiji, he and his retinue were suddenly
attacked in a public thoroughfare there, by two outlaws, of the “ro-nin”
type already described, and the British representative had personally a
very narrow escape. But for the magnificent courage shown by the Japanese
officers who had been sent to meet the Emperor’s guest, Goto,—who rode
by Sir Harry’s side, and Nakai,—who was immediately in front, with a
member of the Legation guard,—both of these Japanese gentlemen having
instantly engaged the ro-nins with their swords so effectually that one
of the assailants was slain on the spot, and the other taken prisoner,
afterwards to be executed, it is probable that Sir Harry would have been
killed. The eminent services rendered by Count Goto (as he afterwards
became) to his country are elsewhere recorded in this volume. Queen
Victoria decorated him, and likewise Mr Nakai, for their gallantry on
this occasion, and the Emperor manifested his poignant regret for the
outrage when the following month the British Minister was received at
Court. The Ten-shi gave practical effect, moreover, to his abhorrence
of these crimes by issuing a decree in which it was declared that all
persons guilty in the future of murdering foreigners, or of committing
any acts of violence towards them, would not only be transgressing the
express commands of the Emperor, but would be the direct source of
national misfortune, inasmuch as they would be committing the heinous
offence of causing the national dignity and reputation for good faith
to suffer diminution in the eyes of those Treaty Powers with which his
Majesty had declared himself to be on terms of amity and friendship. The
effect of such an edict on the minds of people so accustomed to obey
their sovereign’s behests as are the Japanese could not be other than
salutary, and although there were isolated cases in the years which
ensued wherein attacks were made on strangers, the era of opposition to
the entry of aliens was by this time practically at an end, and taken in
conjunction with the abolition shortly afterwards of those anti-Christian
edicts which had been promulgated by his predecessors on the throne it
must be admitted that the Emperor speedily gave gracious and convincing
evidence of his desire to rule with that justice and liberality towards
humanity at large by which he has ever been distinguished throughout an
already long reign.
These events have to be recorded in connection with the life of the
imperial court at Kioto at a time when the war of the Restoration,
as it is termed, was still in progress in the northern portion of
the island of Hondo, and in many cases the fighting was of the most
desperate character, fortune by no means invariably inclining towards the
imperialists. There was a fierce encounter at Utsu-no-miya, a town about
sixty miles north of the capital, resulting in a success for the Shogun’s
side, their leader having been Otori Keisuke, who, after undergoing a
term of imprisonment for his share in prolonging the rebellion, entered
the Imperial Government service, and rose to occupy posts of distinction.
In October 1868, his Majesty Mutsuhito was crowned Emperor of Japan in
the ancient castle of the Nijo, at Kioto, and it was then that he took
the oath to rule constitutionally, which was a purely voluntary act,
prompted by an earnest desire to confer upon his people the advantages
and blessings of enlightened government. A few weeks later, in the
second month of 1869, he wedded the Princess Haruko, the daughter of a
Court noble, and during the ensuing spring the Imperial court was wholly
transferred to Yedo, that city being renamed Tokio, or Eastern Capital,
to distinguish it from Kioto, which bore thenceforward the official title
of Saikio, or Western capital. At Tokio his Majesty took up his abode
in the Hon-maru, or Inner circle of the former castle of the Tokugawa
family, and on the following 6th of September he received Prince Alfred
of England in the palace gardens of Fuki-age, adjoining the imperial
residence. This was the first occasion in the history of Japan on which
the sovereign had ever met a foreign prince, all previous intercourse
with strangers having taken place through the medium of the Shoguns. The
interview between the Ten-shi and the British prince, afterwards the
Duke of Edinburgh, took place in a tiny summer-house in the picturesque
grounds of Fuki-age, then of considerable extent and laid out in wholly
Japanese style, with its clumps of bamboo, groves of pine, masses of
rhododendron, and azalea, rippling brooks, and grassy dells that go to
form the delightful pleasaunces in which the heart of every Japanese
rejoices. The meeting was of a most cordial character, the Emperor on
that occasion wearing the unique old-fashioned head-dress which it was
customary from time immemorial for the sovereigns of Japan to don on
State occasions. His majesty only once afterwards appeared in public with
this peculiar crown, and that was on the day that he opened the railway
from Tokio to Yokohama in 1872. He has since worn foreign dress at all
State functions.
Late in 1869 the Emperor was joined at Tokio by the young Empress
Haruko, who travelled overland by the highroad termed the Tokaido, with
an immense retinue, resting on the way at the prescribed _honjins_ or
private hotels used by the feudal lords on their former journeys to and
from Yedo, when the Shoguns required them to pay periodical visits to
the headquarters of the Tokugawa government. The Empress was some weeks
on the road from Kioto to Tokio, and as her procession passed through
the street of Kanagawa, near Yokohama, the foreign residents took the
opportunity to assemble at the wayside and show their respect for the
Ten-shi’s consort. They did not catch a glimpse of her features, but they
knew that behind the gauze-screened windows of her lacquered palanquin
sat the highest lady of the land, perhaps as much interested in her
first sight of the strangers from the west as they were with the various
elements of the imperial cortege. Though her majesty had heard and read
much of the characteristics of the Occidentals, she had never previously
seen any of them; in after years, however, her own beneficent impulses in
the cause of charity led her to receive on many occasions the wives and
daughters of foreign residents and contributed to the establishment of an
enduring fame as the strenuous advocate and supporter of all good works.
The Emperor was but little in evidence in the early years of his reign,
and it was an event in the history of the nation when the monarch who
had been brought up in such strict seclusion was one day seen in the
streets of his capital driving in an open carriage to Hama-go-ten, the
beach palace in the suburbs of Tokio, in company with his Ministers the
Princes Sanjo and Iwakura. On this occasion he had done them the supreme
honour of calling for them at their residences and conveying them in his
own carriage to a ceremony in which they were both deeply concerned.
This was on the 1st of October 1871, and it is difficult to estimate at
its true value the extraordinary effect which so graceful an act on the
part of the monarch who had only four years before succeeded to a dignity
which seemed to impose on him an existence of absolute invisibility to
his subjects must have had on those who were witnesses of this vast
concession to modernised ideas. Under the old regime the princes would
themselves have been hidden from the vulgar gaze by the latticed windows
of their sedan chairs, and the sovereign would never have been seen
outside his own palace walls.
The next year the first line of railway was completed and the moment was
seized by his Majesty’s advisers for a grand ceremony at the port which
thirteen years before had been thrown open to foreign trade. A suitable
stage had been erected at the Yokohama end of the eighteen miles long
railway, over which an experimental train service had been conducted
for some weeks previously, and at the appointed hour the Emperor, clad
in white silk robes, with a crimson sash, and scarlet trousers, and
wearing in place of a crown the antique black coif terminating in an
upright lath-like structure which rose some ten inches above his head,
came forward in full view of the multitude, which included hundreds of
foreign residents and visitors. To the great mass of his subjects, with
whom the existence of the sovereign had always been a matter of pious
belief rather than of assured reality, this manifestation in the flesh
of their revered ruler was beyond measure impressive and gratifying. It
unquestionably smoothed the path of the newly formed Central Government,
for the advent of his majesty on the scene was proof positive that all
which was then being done in the way of innovation upon established usage
had the imperial sanction and authority. In Japan this meant a great deal
more, owing to the respect for law and order which is admittedly inherent
to the Japanese character and disposition, than it by any possibility
could have done in lands where less reverence is shown to sovereign
attributes. The day was one to be remembered by old and young alike, for
it marked beyond all doubt the emancipation of Japan from the thraldom of
a feudal system which had held her in check for centuries. The Emperor
had set the seal of his approval on projects of reform.
In the same year the Gregorian calendar was adopted throughout Japan, and
from this period may be said to have been obliterated those discrepancies
in dates which had been unavoidable owing to the tendency to resort to
the Chinese plan of reckoning time. Down to the year named the day of
the month corresponded to the age of the moon, and an intercalary month
had to be provided in the calendar every third year. The new year fell
usually between mid-January and mid-February, and as dates were given in
conformity with the old style of reckoning in some cases and in others
the new, it may be that down to 1872 there will here and there be found a
difference of a month or so in the recorded dates of events.
The opening of the railway in 1872 from Tokio to Yokohama, though of no
great length, made communication between the capital and its port a far
more easy matter than it had been at the time when the Tokaido was the
only highway and traffic was liable to dislocation by the passage of a
daimio and his retinue of two-sworded samurai. It is true that for some
two or three years prior to the date on which the regular service of
trains between the two places began to work a revolution in the system of
travel there had been a steamer or two plying to and from the wharf at
Tsukiji, near the Hama-go-ten Palace, in Tokio, and the jetty at Yokohama
which then existed near the northern end of the “Bund” or Esplanade. But
the accommodation, though the residents freely enough availed themselves
of such facilities as the service afforded, was of the most limited
and primitive character, and was necessarily wholly inadequate to the
demand for the means of transport of that almost pauseless ebb and flow
of the tide of humanity along the shores of the bay which from the days
of Kaempfer had never failed to attract the attention of travellers.
One of the saddest incidents of the early days of the new era was the
explosion of the small steamer _Yeddo_ as she lay at the Tsukiji “hatoba”
with steam up in readiness for her daily voyage to Yokohama, some scores
of lives being sacrificed on that occasion. The _Yeddo_ was one of
the pioneers of the coasting trade of Japan, which has since grown to
proportions truly enormous.
While the railway to the “Eastern capital” was being built, another line
was commenced from the newly opened port of Kobé-Hiogo to Osaka and on
to the “Western capital” of Kioto. It was officially opened for traffic
in 1873, the Emperor being present on the occasion, which gave rise
to great national rejoicing. The improved methods of transport had by
that time been extensively supplemented by greatly enhanced facilities
for intercommunication in the form of telegraph lines, which had been
stretched over practically the entire length of the highroad from Tokio
to Nagasaki, close upon 1000 English miles. The work was done in the
days when the peasantry of the interior had no conception of the value
of such aids to commerce and were not easily to be persuaded to refrain
from interference therewith. In many cases the telegraph poles were
uprooted as soon as they were planted in the ground, and in others the
opposition to the innovation took the form of active hostility to the
individuals, both native and foreign, charged with the duties of carrying
out the proposed works. The origin of this antagonism, however, was to be
ascribed solely to local prejudice, and the punishment of the ringleaders
proved to be a sufficient deterrent to the rest, for after the first few
months the attacks entirely ceased.
At this stage the residents of the Capital had become somewhat accustomed
to see the Emperor riding or driving through the streets of the
metropolis, for he periodically reviewed his troops on the Hibiya parade
ground, and not infrequently was to be seen visiting places at some
distance from his capital. The greatest concern was manifested by all
classes when, late one night in the spring of 1873, the signal guns were
heard to announce that a fire had broken out within the castle. There
was a prompt muster of the forces forming the Tokio garrison and for a
while the utmost consternation prevailed. The damage done was immense,
and the actual source of the outbreak was discovered to have been in
such dangerous proximity to the imperial apartments as to suggest for
the moment that there had again been a preconcerted arrangement to seize
the person of his Majesty, in the confusion which might well have been
expected to arise on the warning guns being fired. Happily the monarch
was efficiently guarded, and whatever may have been the true cause of
the conflagration there was no difficulty in removing the Court to
another palace at Akasaka, in the suburbs, wherein his Majesty dwelt
during the rebuilding on a modern design of the imperial residence
within the Honmaru. In the thoroughfares of Tokio were at this time to
be seen scores of Satsuma samurai, retainers of the feudal chieftain
Shimadzu Saburo, who was occupying the position in the new Government
of Sa-dai-jin, or Vice-president of the Left, as already mentioned,
and these ardent spirits of the warlike clan of the south found much
in the changes that were then taking place to be displeased with. They
persisted in wearing their two swords in their belts, and had their hair
dressed in the old-fashioned queue. Their retention of the old style
of costume, too, with its loose trousers, sandals for the feet, and
lacquered helmet tied with cords for the chin, among a population that
was already beginning to adopt foreign fashions to a notable extent, made
them conspicuous and provoked the ridicule of the lower classes. This
the Satsuma clansmen were quick to resent, and here and there slight
skirmishes were recorded, the general effect being to create a feeling of
uneasiness which lasted for many weeks until the Satsuma chieftain, as
elsewhere explained, resigned his office and returned to his stronghold
of Kagoshima in the summer of 1873.
The year 1874 was memorable as that of the expedition to Formosa, when
Japan chastised the savages of the south-east coast of that island for
their ill treatment of Japanese shipwrecked sailors. China’s attention
had been drawn to these barbarities, but she had professed her utter
inability to put a stop to them, and Japan had then warned the Peking
Government that if the savages should continue to subject Japanese
mariners or others who might be cast away on Formosan shores to the
inhuman treatment which it had been the fate of others in misfortune to
experience the Tokio Cabinet would know what to do. A fresh incident
arose and Japan was as good as her word. The younger brother of the Saigo
Takamori whose fame as a leader will never wane was selected as the Chief
of the Expedition, and to him, afterwards the Marquis Saigo, his Majesty
entrusted the duty of vindicating the honour of the Japanese Empire, of
which it must never be said that it has shown the slightest hesitation
to hit out when the interests of its own people have been imperilled.
In past years her arm has not always been long enough to extend support
to her subjects over-sea, but it is Japan’s aim, as it is that of
Britain, to convince the rest of the world that while she repudiates most
vigorously the idea that she seeks territorial aggrandisement or covets
the recognition of an unchallenged supremacy in the Far East, she at all
times resents the slightest attempt to trespass on what are regarded by
her statesmen as the boundaries of her national safety. If Japan’s arm
is growing longer and her policy seems to be far-reaching, it is but the
natural outcome of her resolve to protect her people wherever they may be
and to encourage their lawful desires for expansion into fresh fields of
enterprise as the result of the remarkable growth of her population at
home.
The Formosan expedition proved a complete success, and a detailed
account of its progress will be met with elsewhere in these pages. It
gave to the newly formed army its first opportunity of displaying to the
satisfaction of the sovereign its qualifications as a fighting force,
inasmuch as the difficulties which it had to encounter, although its
adversaries were savages, were naturally on a formidable scale, and the
undertaking bore in this respect a strong resemblance to what have been
described as Britain’s “little wars.” The upshot was that the tribesmen
of the Formosan east and south-east coasts developed a wholesome fear
of the prowess of disciplined troops and from that time forward there
were no recorded instances of their maltreatment of mariners, whilst
at the present day the best effects are perceptible from the spread
of education among them in consequence of the establishment of native
schools in Formosa since it became a Japanese Colony. There was, however,
an additional advantage secured to Japan by the expedition, in that it
served for the time to divert attention from the ever-pressing political
questions arising from China’s somewhat irritating attitude, mainly
in regard to Korea. From time immemorial the monarch of Korea had paid
tribute to Japan at stated intervals much in the way that he had paid an
annual tribute to China, but owing to Japan’s preoccupation with other
and weightier matters the practice had fallen into desuetude. Instigated
by ambitious Chinese officials, as it was generally supposed, Korea
had sought to free herself from any and all obligations to continue
this practice, and by way of emphasising this reluctance to be bound
by old traditions the Koreans had thought fit to attack the Japanese
Legation and to otherwise commit unfriendly acts towards their immediate
neighbours on the east. The Samurai of Satsuma and the other southern
clans clamoured to be led against the Koreans,—and if the Koreans should
be supported by China, then against the Chinese as well,—in order that
these insults to the Japanese flag might be avenged. It was a strong
plea, but it had to be resisted, for Japan was not ready to embark at
that time in a great war. Consequently the Government deemed it prudent
to be content with the compensation offered and the establishment of a
garrison for the Legation at Seoul which might suffice to adequately
protect its staff. By the ardent followers of the Satsuma chieftain,
however, this was regarded as wholly insufficient, and matters had
reached a decidedly perilous stage when the despatch of an expedition
to Formosa happily provided an outlet for the superabundant energies of
the younger swordsmen. The personnel of the punitive force consisted
largely of Satsuma samurai, and right well did the men acquit themselves
in the tasks which fell to their share in the mountainous wilds of “the
Beautiful Isle.”
A few months prior to the setting out of the Formosan Expedition there
had been an insurrection in Saga, the chief town of the Hizen province,
led by Yeto Shimpei, who had not long before been a member of the new
Government. The rising had been very quickly suppressed, and without
much bloodshed, but it was an indication that the policy of the new
administration met with scant favour in some of the regions remote from
the metropolis, where the spirit of the people was, for want of wider
knowledge, very averse to what were viewed as pernicious innovations
based upon a wholesale introduction of Occidental manners and customs.
Though the antipathy to foreign methods subsided with the punishment
of the foremost of the Saga insurgents, the embers were not wholly
extinguished, and less than three years later they burst once more into
flame at Kagoshima, as will presently appear, and in the meantime the
growing hostility in Satsuma to the proceedings of the Tokio Cabinet
revealed itself in a variety of ways, though it was the policy of the
administration to avoid the danger of driving matters to extremities
with the warlike clansmen of the extreme south, at the head of whom
stood Saigo Takamori, then resident on his own farm in the vicinity of
the castle town which was the Satsuma stronghold and the headquarters
of its quasi-independent military organisation. Nevertheless, the
clansmen continued their regular drilling and set utterly at naught the
remonstrances of the Tokio Government.
Affairs in Satsuma reached their climax in February 1877, when a march
to Kioto was decided upon, the military cadets and the clansmen,
mustering over 12,000, having resolved on accompanying their leader Saigo
Takamori on a journey to the Western capital ostensibly to beg for the
intervention of his Majesty in respect of the grievances which Satsuma
claimed to be enduring at the hands of the existing Tokio Government. The
telegraph promptly carried the news to Kioto of the departure of this
formidable force from Kagoshima, and preparations were instantly made to
oppose its progress. The Emperor proclaimed Saigo and his followers to
be in rebellion, and the Emperor’s uncle, Prince Arisugawa, was directed
to inflict punishment on the offenders. The incidents of the campaign in
Kiushiu which ensued are set forth at length elsewhere in this volume,
and order was not restored in the southern island until the autumn of the
year, after a period of the most disastrous strife in which Satsuma was a
house divided against itself, inasmuch as there were many of the clan who
remained faithful to the imperial standard, notably the younger Saigo,
afterwards marquis, and Admiral Kawamura, who commanded the imperial
fleet.
The Emperor remained for some time at his Kioto palace before returning
to Tokio, and it was known at the time that this outbreak of hostilities
in a part of his dominions occasioned his Majesty the most profound
sorrow, the more so that Saigo Takamori had led his own forces to victory
ten years before, when the imperialists had been plunged into warfare
with the adherents of the Shogun. That Marshal Saigo should have been so
ill advised as to head an insurrection was to the monarch whom he had in
former years served so faithfully a source of the most poignant grief,
and the sad end of the arch-rebel, in battle on the crest of Shiroyama,
in the town of Kagoshima, made a deep impression on all in Japan. The
Emperor’s attribute of magnanimity was displayed only a few years ago
in the grant of a peerage to the son of the famous Satsuma leader, and
the imperial approval of the erection of a monument to his memory in the
public park of Uyeno, in Tokio. The record of Saigo’s rebellion has been
effaced, and only his splendid services to the State in the years prior
to 1877 are kept in his sovereign’s remembrance.
The period which followed the war in Satsuma was one of uninterrupted
industry and persevering endeavour on the part of all the Ten-shi’s
subjects to make up for the time which had been lost by the civil war.
Immense interest was taken in the advancement of education and the spread
of commercial enterprise, the shipping and manufacturing trades being
diligently fostered by wise enactments that were often the outcome of the
ruler’s own initiative. There can be no doubt that at this period were
laid the foundations of that unexampled industrial prosperity which has
distinguished the latter portion, down to the present time, of the Meiji
era, and which, resting as it does on the most secure basis—one which
even a war with a great European power has been powerless to disturb—bids
fair to last for ages to come.
In 1880 the Imperial edict appeared establishing the prefectural
assemblies, local parliaments which served in not a few instances to
develop a talent for debate in political aspirants, and likewise to
familiarise the agricultural population, wherein lies the main strength
of the nation, with the principles of representative institutions on a
larger scale, such as had been foreshadowed by the Imperial promise made
at the time of the Emperor’s accession. That promise was reiterated,
and a definite date assigned for the opening of the Japanese Diet, by
his Majesty in the following year. It was in 1880, too, that the new
Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, on both of which a vast
amount of careful consideration had been bestowed, were promulgated, the
codes themselves having been compiled with a lucidity and completeness
which leave nothing to be desired. There is no ambiguity about the laws
of Japan, and as translations have been made and published under the
sanction of the Government, accessible to all, it is practicable for
a stranger to make himself acquainted with the rules and regulations
applicable to every walk of life without the aid of lawyer or interpreter.
The announcement that the Emperor had determined to grant a Constitution
was everywhere received with joy and gratitude, for though the time had
not, it was fully comprehended, yet arrived when it would be feasible for
a representative assembly to meet, the nation had the sovereign’s word
for it that there would be no needless delay.
Under the system which existed in the early years of the Meiji era the
Ministry had consisted of those charged with the conduct of Foreign and
Home Affairs, the management of the naval and military forces, of the
national finances, of ecclesiastical affairs, and of public instruction.
At the side of the Ministry stood the Sa-In, or Senate, of which there
were thirty-two members, and the Sho-In, or Council of State, the number
of members whereof was unlimited,—the nominations to both these bodies
being made by the sovereign. The power of the Emperor was in those days,
in both temporal and spiritual affairs, regarded as boundless, and a
voluntary surrender of rights which,—though they had often in the past
history of the nation lain dormant,—had existed unchallenged from remote
antiquity,—was a concession the importance of which could not be too
highly esteemed. The Senate (Gen-Ro-In, as it was latterly termed) was
composed of Peers of the realm, and of persons who had rendered the
country distinguished service in their several capacities, or who were
eminent by reason of their erudition, and its duty was to take charge of
legislative matters referred to it by the Cabinet or introduced at the
instance of the Senate itself. The Gen-Ro-In was likewise empowered to
receive petitions regarding legislation from outside sources, so that
in its functions it was largely the forerunner of the present House of
Peers, as constituted under the edict of 1889. There was also a Local
Governors’ Council, which resembled to some extent a national assembly,
though composed of officially nominated members, for it was directed
by imperial rescript on its first sitting that its duties would be “to
attend to the affairs of State as the representative of the people’s
interests.” In the same rescript the Emperor declared that the said
Council had been called together “in pursuance of the solemn promise,
given by Us on the occasion of Our accession to the Throne, to summon
delegates of Our subjects to assist Us in the conduct of affairs of
State, to make with those delegates arrangements calculated to cement
the amicable understanding that prevails between rulers and ruled, and
to enable both to co-operate for the common good of the country.” It was
added that the Governors who attended the Council were in “no danger of
incurring the displeasure of the Government for any opinion enunciated
by them at the meeting.” The Council which had thus existed since 1875
was abolished in 1880, but meanwhile the prefectural assemblies had been
established, and there were thus other legitimate channels for voicing
public opinion.
The next year saw the issue of the proclamation providing for the
assembly of a truly national representative body in 1890, and meanwhile
Marquis Ito and his staff were diligently preparing the Constitution
and the Laws bearing upon elections to the Diet and the Houses
themselves, all of which were proclaimed in 1889, on the 11th February,
the anniversary of the ascension of the throne by Jimmu Tenno. Thus
was fulfilled in its entirety the promise made in the “Charter Oath,”
as it is termed, taken by his Majesty on his coronation. The Imperial
Rescript has been throughout the guide and mainstay of the people’s hopes
and ambitions, and in its original form it was worded as under;—(the
translation is almost literal)—
I. In administering the business of the State, We shall settle
affairs by public opinion, which shall have an opportunity of
expressing itself in public representative assembly.
II. Our administrations shall be in the interests of the whole
people, and not of any particular class of Our subjects.
III. No person, whether official or private citizen, shall be
hindered in the prosecution of his legitimate business.
IV. The bad customs of past ages shall be abolished, and
Our Government shall tread in the paths of civilisation and
enlightenment.
V. We shall endeavour to raise the prestige and honour of Our
country by seeking knowledge throughout the world.
In 1893, when Parliamentary institutions were in their infancy, the
representative assemblies having met for the first time in 1890, the
climax was reached in a furious political agitation by the Lower House of
the Diet voting a wholesale reduction of the Government expenditure, to
which the Ministry absolutely refused to consent. It was then that the
Emperor intervened with a characteristic message impartially addressed
to both his Cabinet and to the Diet, pointing out facts which he was
resolved to bring to their remembrance. The Emperor declared that the
progress of foreign countries in which representative institutions
had taken root had been rapid and constant, but that if disputes and
bickerings were indulged in not only would time be wasted and energies
dissipated but the attainment of those worthy objects for which all
were working would be hindered and delayed. He continued;—“We have full
confidence in the faith and ability of the servants of Our Crown, and
have committed to their care the execution of measures calculated to
promote our designs, and We have no doubt but that the representatives
of Our people will share with Us in our care for the national welfare.
The expenditures mentioned in Article 67 of the Constitution—_i.e._
those connected with naval and military administration—should not be the
cause of any dispute or contention, seeing that they have the express
written sanction of Our Decree. In the matter of administrative reform,
We have given special instruction to Our Ministers to give the fullest
consideration, so that there may be no error in the conclusions they
arrive at, and then come to Us for Our sanction to any reforms they
may desire to introduce. The question of national defence is one which
brooks no delay, and in order to show our own sense of its paramount
importance We have directed that the expenditures of Our Household be
cut down, so that We may be able to contribute a yearly sum of Yen
300,000 [£30,000] for the next six years to the necessary equipment of
the national defences. We have at the same time ordered all officers
and officials in Our service to contribute, unless excused by Us for
exceptional reasons, one-tenth of their salaries, for the same period of
years, towards the expenses of naval construction. We depend, therefore,
on the co-operation, along constitutional lines, of Ministers and
Representatives, in the accomplishment of our great national tasks; and
We call upon Our people, one and all, to do their duties in this matter.”
That proclamation appeared in 1893, one year before the outbreak of war
with China, and it had the effect of putting an end to the disputes, for
all sides cheerfully acquiesced in the wisdom and impartiality of the
sovereign’s decision.
During the war with China in 1894-5, the Emperor’s solicitude for the
welfare of his people and the painstaking diligence with which he entered
into the minutest details of the naval and military plans for the
prosecution of the campaign in Manchuria and Shantung, his unwearying
attendance at his desk in the Hiroshima headquarters for more than eight
months without change, having left his Court behind him when he took
upon himself the serious burdens of conducting the war, endeared him to
his people to an extent that no mere words could effectively describe.
When at the close of the long struggle he returned to his capital his
reception was such as to have satisfied his utmost aspirations and must
have convinced him that his subjects feel for him not the traditional
reverence they owe to a sovereign but the deep and abiding regard of a
loving people.
Her Majesty the Empress has been for thirty-seven years the devoted
consort of the ruler, and is esteemed throughout the imperial dominions
as the very embodiment of all the womanly virtues. While the Emperor
is immeasurably concerned with the welfare of the army and navy, her
Majesty takes the utmost personal interest in the Red Cross Society,
and continually works for the benefit of the hospitals, her greatest
happiness consisting in identifying herself with or aiding with her own
hands the undertakings of charitable institutions. In the wars which
Japan has gone through the care of the sick and wounded has been the
subject of the Empress’s most anxious thought, she and the four young
princesses having toiled at bandage-making and other useful occupations
day after day. She regularly devotes much time to such tasks, encouraging
the sick with cheering words, and she rigorously pared down her
household’s expenditure from the outset, in order that the contributions
made to benevolent societies might be the more munificent. She has always
been a liberal patroness of the arts, and in the direction of education
she has been untiring in her promotion of worthy objects. There is
not a man or woman in the empire who would allude to her Majesty in
terms short of the most profound and respectful regard, and the people
yield her homage not more by right of her exalted station than in their
universal recognition of her queenly attributes and personal charm.
The Crown Prince has received an education which has among other things
fitted him to become in due course of time the Commander-in-chief of the
Army and Navy. He does not take part in active service, but all the other
princes of the blood have by the Emperor’s desire entered the services
afloat or ashore, and have very recently been serving as Military or
Naval officers in war.
The late Prince Arisugawa, as the chief of the general staff, was at
the headquarters at Hiroshima during the China War, and planned all
the operations of the campaign. He died at the age of sixty-one from
the results of hard work and exposure, during the trying months from
September 1894 to January 1895.
He was succeeded in his office by his relative, the late Prince Komatsu,
who in March 1895 proceeded to China as Commander-in-chief of the army in
the field.
Prince Kita-Shirakawa was also in the field as commander of the imperial
guards division, and fought at Port Arthur, and in Formosa, where he died
before the end of the war from the effects of climate. He was universally
popular as an officer, and his early decease was deplored. Prince
Takehito Arisugawa was at Wei-hai-wei and the Pescadores, and did good
service as the captain of the _Matsushima_.
Prince Kanin, as a major and officer of the staff, fought bravely in the
Liaotung peninsula, and likewise took part in the Russo-Japanese war, in
which also three of the imperial princes were under fire, before Port
Arthur.
Prince Higashi Fushimi was a commander on board the _Chitose_, Prince
Yamashina on the _Yakumo_, and Prince Fushimi was on the _Hatsusé_.
It was a source of immense pride to the nation that these princes of the
imperial house were all actively engaged on its behalf in the hour of
trial.
Thirty-eight years ago the Emperor began his most auspicious
reign with the solemn message to his people, conveyed in the
_Go-Jo-no-Go-Sei-Mon_—_i.e._ a Decree of Five Articles previously
referred to:—
“On ascending the Throne of Our Ancestors, Our determination
is, in spite of all difficulties that may beset Our path, to
rule Our country in person, to secure the peace of all Our
subjects, to open friendly relations with other countries, to
make Our country glorious, and to establish the nation on a
permanent basis of prosperity and happiness.”
With extreme tenacity of purpose and the most steadfast determination
the sovereign has never deviated a hair’s-breadth from the course which
he set himself to follow. He cast aside at the outset the ties which
might have bound him to an ancient feudalism, resolved to substitute
Constitutional and Parliamentary Government for the Absolutism that his
predecessors on the throne had exercised, and by his countenance and
example rendered feasible the adoption by his people of all the arts and
sciences known to modern civilisation, in order that the nation might
ultimately raise itself to a pinnacle of greatness never before attained
by a purely Asiatic Empire.
Under his Majesty’s wise rule Japan has developed her latent resources
and extended her commerce to a degree that has transcended even the most
sanguine expectations of her mercantile men, while she has perfected
within her borders the essentials of a permanent system of defence, naval
and military, ample for her needs.
The address which the Emperor first issued to his Army and Navy made the
deepest impression on the minds of all, and its stirring tones have rung
in the ears of his soldiers and sailors ever since, as they have braced
themselves to measure strength with their enemies on land and sea. The
Emperor said:—
“As your Commander-in-chief We fully rely upon you as We do
upon Our own hands, and desire you to look to Us as your
head, so that the relation between us may be one of absolute
and sincere confidence and trust. Whether We perform Our duty
successfully or not, depends entirely on the manner in which
you perform yours. If Our country fails to stand high in the
opinion of other nations, We desire you to share in Our sorrow.
If it rises with honour, We will enjoy the fruits of it with
you. Stand firm in your duty; assist Us in protecting the
country; and the result must be the prosperity of the nation
and the enhancement of Our country’s reputation.”
This is the “imperial message” the terms of which are graven deep on the
memories of men of both services in Japan, inspiring them with ardour
in the heat of battle and encouraging them to patiently endure the
inevitable privations and suffering of their lot. The root-principle of
their conduct is strict conformity with the Emperor’s Message, their
one anxiety not to fall short of their duty in executing the ruler’s
commands. The imperial charge laid upon them is that they shall be brave
and enduring, true and honourable in their actions, simple and frugal in
their habits.
In their Emperor they have always had a brilliant example set them,
not only of diligence in the performance of daily tasks, but of the
practice of that frugality and adherence to a simple mode of life which
is enjoined upon all. His menage is noticeably free from ostentation,
his wardrobe and table being almost meagrely supplied. Winter and
summer he is at his desk by 8 A.M., ready for the transaction of State
business, and his endurance is marvellous, for when occasion demands
it he will continue at work far into the night, ever ready to receive
any of his ministers in audience should matters of serious importance
arise. The Emperor is well known to his people to have the habit of
closely questioning those who may come before him until he has mastered
the facts of a case, and then he gives his decision without hesitation.
His fondness for horses is proverbial, and it is always on horseback
that he appears at reviews of his troops, or at the annual manœuvres,
when he conducts the operations in person, as Commander-in-chief. His
Majesty’s sympathies are promptly aroused by the oft-recurring calamities
that unhappily sweep over Japan, in the form of tornadoes, earthquakes,
tidal waves, conflagrations, or epidemics,—he condoles with the
sufferers,—and his privy purse is open to the relief of real distress.
His personal attributes have won the respect and affection of his people,
now numbering 46,000,000—an increase of 14,000,000 has taken place in
the population of his dominions since he came to the throne—and in an
intensely practical age like the present it is stimulating to discover
that there is a nation in the distant Orient which, while its sons have
fought their way to “a place in the sun,” has nevertheless preserved
throughout a whole-souled devotion and unquestioning loyalty to its
monarch, never exceeded, never perhaps equalled, in the history of the
globe.
Allusion has been made to the Emperor’s predilection for writing short
poems as a relaxation from the cares of State. They are occasionally
given out for publication in the daily journals and appear under the
heading of _Giyo-Sei_—_i.e._ Imperial Compositions. Those of last year
frequently bore reference to the war in which his forces were engaged in
Manchuria, and two may here be quoted in illustration of the trend of his
Majesty’s thought during that anxious period:—
_Ikanaran koto ni aite mo, tayumanu wa,_
_Waga shikishima no Yamato-damashii._
Scorning to yield, whatever fate’s decree—
Undaunted is the soul of my Japan.
_Shiraku mono yoso ni motomu na yo no hito no_
_Makoto no michi zo Shikishima no michi._
Sincere as one who seeks for that which lies beyond,—
My country’s course shall be.
II
PRINCE TOKUGAWA KEIKI: THE LAST OF THE SHOGUNS
Prior to the Meiji era, which began in 1867, the Shogun (known in foreign
countries as the Tycoon), who was the Emperor’s deputy at Yedo, now
Tokio, personified the military supremacy of a feudal system which had
existed for many centuries, the last occupant of the post being the
direct descendant of the founder of the Tokugawa house in which the
office of Shogun had been hereditary from the year 1603. Possibly the
history of Modern Japan might have taken a different turn but for the
recognition by the Shogun Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu, otherwise Tokugawa
Keiki, of the necessity of introducing reforms into his country if it
were to hold its own against the tendency to deal arbitrarily with the
nations of the Orient which was half-a-century since being manifested by
some of the powers of the Occident. Prince Keiki placed his resignation
in 1868 in the hands of his imperial master and counselled the adherents
of the Tokugawa house to unite with those of the Southern clans in
efforts for the well-being of the nation at large. That his followers
could not be persuaded at once to take his advice can scarcely be
regarded as the fault of the Shogun, who had only the year previously
succeeded to the honours of the position yet was prompt to relinquish
them in order, as he hoped, to avert some of the horrors of civil war.
Tokugawa Keiki was chosen by the Mito branch of the family to follow
the Shogun Iyemochi in 1866, and he succeeded to power at Yedo castle
at a moment when Japan was racked with dissensions between the party
which opposed the opening of the ports to foreign trade and that which
was in favour of the admission of strangers. The Shogun Iyesada, who
in 1854 and subsequent years had entered into the treaties with the
representatives of the Occidental nations, had been repudiated by his
imperial master, the Emperor Komei, who for a long time refused to
ratify these agreements. Even though he eventually signed them the
nation remained sharply divided within itself on the question of the
introduction of foreign methods. It is almost necessary, in order that
the position occupied at this period by the Shogun should be fairly
comprehended, to allude briefly to the earlier history of Japan, from
about the time of the Emperor Konoye, who was contemporary with King
Stephen of England. The rise of the military caste in Japan dates from
that era, when the Taira and Minamoto families were contending for
the mastery, and it was a period which has been termed not altogether
inaptly that of the Japanese “wars of the roses” (the badges worn were
really red and white chrysanthemums), inasmuch as the rival clans were
intimately related to each other, and strove to place their respective
candidates in possession of the real executive power, which was even
then becoming gradually acquired by the deputies of the true sovereigns
who dwelt at Kioto. Ultimately the Minamoto family prevailed, in the
person of the famous warrior Yoritomo, about 1185 A.D., and seven years
later, when his authority had been firmly established, he received
from the reigning sovereign the title of Sei-I-Tai-Sho-Gun—_i.e._
Barbarian-vanquishing-Generalissimo, in allusion to the duty of guarding
Japan from the inroads of those northern savages who at that period made
occasional descents on the coasts of Oshiu. The headquarters of the
Shogun’s government were then at Kamakura, a place of great interest
to travellers at the present day, and within easy reach of the port of
Yokohama. Kamakura as it now stands contains but few traces of its former
glories, but the temple dedicated to Hachiman, the Japanese Mars, is of
noble proportions and annually attracts thousands of pilgrims who journey
thitherward in confident expectation of obtaining relief or benefit from
the virtue inherent in this celebrated shrine. In Yoritomo’s day it was
a city of 1,000,000 inhabitants, but its _yashiki_ walls, crumbling to
powder, are fast disappearing, and its magnificent avenues of cedar
ceased to resound to the martial tread of mail-clad warriors centuries
ago. Kamakura fell, as Yedo rose, and Yedo castle, some portions of
which yet exist, adjoining the Imperial palace, was begun in 1592. It is
Kamakura that boasts the possession of the bronze image of Buddha, over
fifty feet in height, towering from its high pedestal above the groves
of pine that surround the temple, and forming a conspicuous landmark
as the village is first seen from a hill on the Fujisawa road. After
Yoritomo’s death the Ho-jo family gained an ascendency in the affairs
of the nation and practically ruled it until 1333 A.D., for the Shoguns
of that epoch were scarcely more than figureheads. But it is to the
everlasting credit of the Ho-jo that when Kublai Khan sought to subjugate
Japan, in the thirteenth century, the defence of the country was in their
hands so complete as to have led to as overwhelming a defeat of the
Mongol armada as that which Queen Elizabeth of England inflicted upon the
presumptuous Spaniards in 1588. The Mongol invaders had, like the Duke
of Medina Sidonia, not only to contend against the very active defenders
of the realms which they sought to invade, but also with fierce storms
at sea that threw their vessels into confusion and exposed the scattered
fragments of Kublai Khan’s immense fleet to separate and disastrous
attack from the Japanese vessels manned by resolute _samurai_.
[Illustration: THE EX-SHOGUN AND FAMILY]
The armada which had threatened Japan’s independence had no sooner been
disposed of than internecine strife began afresh, and rival dynasties
of Shoguns kept the land in a ferment until, in 1392, the northern or
Ashikaga line proved itself the stronger, and Japan entered into the
enjoyment of two centuries of almost uninterrupted peace. Under the
Ashikaga administration the country flourished exceedingly, and the epoch
is famed in Japanese history as one in which learning and the sciences
advanced to a degree of perfection never before known. High art and
culture everywhere prevailed.
It was during the supremacy of the Ashikaga Shoguns that the geisha
first became popular in Japan, and the musical instrument termed the
_samisen_ was introduced from the Loo-Choo islands. The earliest trace
to be met with of the use of this species of guitar is contained in a
history of events for the year 1558, and it has been suggested that the
Loo-Choo people obtained the instrument from the Spaniards who came
to the Philippines in 1520, and continued their voyage under Magellan
northward as far as Nafa. But this view of the samisen’s origin is
not entirely concurred in by Japanese archæologists who hold that it
is improbable, for many reasons, that it is merely a bad copy of the
guitar. The Loochooans called it the Jamisen, and used it to scare away
snakes, because its sound was, as they declared, much like the cry of
the mongoose (ichneumon), which is the implacable enemy of the serpent
tribe. Possibly this explanation of the purpose which their special
instrument of music was made of old to serve may not altogether commend
itself to the geisha body to-day, and it would appear to be more probable
that snake’s skin was stretched on the drum where ordinarily vellum is
employed,—in more recent time cat’s skin has been used,—and that ja =
serpent, and mi = body, sen = strings, may be the actual derivation of
the name, though as written now in Japan it might mean “three dainty
threads.” The geisha’s office was to sing, dance, play the samisen or
other musical instrument, to pour out wine for the guests, and generally
to infuse gaiety and good humour among the convives, her title of gei
= accomplishments, and sha = exponent, sufficiently indicating the
nature of the services she was engaged to render. She was, in fact, a
professional entertainer, and in the luxurious days of the Ashikaga
Shogunate she became fashionable, and has never lost her popularity. Her
taste in dress is considered to be unapproachable, her coiffure is a
triumph of the hairdresser’s art,—the recognised style being some form
or other of the “shimada,” a fashion brought to the capital centuries
ago from the town of Shimada, a railway station midway between Tokio
and Kioto,—she is entirely her own mistress, and often lives in her own
house, though in the majority of cases she dwells with others and has an
agent who makes contracts for her. Her attractions may draw patrons and
benefit the landlord, as he is quick to perceive, of the restaurant to
which she may choose to attach herself, and if she should be summoned to
a house or to take part in an entertainment to which she does not care
to go, she is at perfect liberty to decline the invitation. Anything
less resembling the life of slavery that it is sometimes represented to
be it would be difficult to imagine. Her singing and dancing are usually
remunerated at a fixed price per half-hour, varying according to her
status as an accomplished entertainer, and she is not infrequently called
upon to display her abilities to a party composed exclusively of ladies,
whose wish it may be, like that of the other sex, to beguile the tedium
of a winter evening by her witty conversation and her skill in music.
Finally it must be added that a geisha of good repute is more sought
after than one whose morality is deemed to be somewhat lax. In any case
her character is always known to the police, for it is the rule that she
must take out a licence as an entertainer, and the Chief Superintendent
of the Section, in handing the document to her, commonly adds some words
of fatherly admonition to avoid the many pitfalls that of necessity lie
in her path.
The nation once more experienced the miseries of civil strife towards the
close of the sixteenth century, this time by reason of the introduction
of a religion which differed from that which had been dominant in Japan
for twenty-three centuries, and likewise from that Buddhism which had
found its way eastward 1000 years before from India. The Portuguese had
obtained the right, under the Ashikaga rule, to settle in Japan, and in
1542 they brought with them,—what were altogether strange at that time to
the Ten-shi’s people,—firearms, and the doctrines of the Roman Catholic
faith. The keen desire manifested by the Jesuits to make proselytes
speedily provoked the antagonism of the Buddhist and Shinto priesthoods,
but, as was the case in China, the climax seems to have been reached
only with the assumption by the new-comers of political power. To such
pretensions the ruling house at Yedo could but oppose all its strength,
and the patriotism of the country asserted itself in the form of a
persecution that left no stone unturned in the effort to rid the land of
a direct menace to its existence as an independent monarchy, secure from
the influences of the Church of Rome. But the expulsion of the visitors
was not accomplished until many years after the supremacy of the Ashikaga
line had been successfully challenged by Nobunaga, and to the renowned
Hideyoshi,—the Taiko-sama, or Great general,—had succeeded the scarcely
less famous Iyeyasu, “the Law-giver,” who founded the Toku-gawa dynasty
of Shoguns, and himself to all intents and purposes governed the country,
from his accession in 1603 to the post of Sei-I-Tai-Sho-Gun, to his death
in 1616, for though nominally he gave way to his third son, Hidetada,
in 1605, he really ruled in his son’s name, and retained the executive
power in his own hands. His ostensible retirement was due to his desire
for leisure to frame his system of laws for the better government of the
empire, and he drew up a scheme for the effective subordination of the
provincial dai-mios, or feudatories, to the ruling authority at Yedo,
which remained in force until the Restoration of direct sovereign rule,
in 1868.
The Shogun Iyeyasu was descended from the Minamoto family, and the name
Toku-gawa, _lit._: stream of blessings, is said to have been taken from
a river and village of the same name in the province of Shimo-tsuke,
and not far from the celebrated Nikko Shrines. On the banks of the
little Tokugawa the Shogun’s ancestors had dwelt, as farmers, for
centuries, but the father of Iyeyasu,—Toku-gawa Shiro,—lived in the
village of Matsudaira, in the province of Mikawa, which borders on the
Pacific, about midway between Kobé and Yokohama. Here the “Law-giver”
was born in 1542, the year that the Portuguese voyager, Mendez Pinto,
first set foot on the soil of Japan. Iyeyasu fought under Nobunaga,
and Hideyoshi, and ultimately succeeded the renowned Tai-ko Sama in
the supreme command of the military forces, occupying thereafter the
position of Sei-I-Tai-Sho-Gun. Iyeyasu first acquired property in his
native province of Mikawa, and all his early associations were with that
region, so much so that his opponents in after years were accustomed
to allude to him somewhat slightingly as the “man from Mikawa.” When
Iyeyasu obtained the position of Shogun in 1603 he elevated his
birthplace to a position of honour by conferring its name as an extra
title on many of his supporters, and down to the date of the abolition
of such territorial distinctions there were not a few prominent dai-mios
who thus preserved their connection with the Tokugawa regime from the
beginning of its supremacy. The traces were to be found in titles such
as “Nabeshima Matsudaira Hizen no Kami”—the baron Nabeshima Matsudaira
of Hizen province,—Kuroda Matsudaira the dai-mio of Chikuzen,—and a
host of others. In accord with the plans formulated by Tokugawa Iyeyasu
every one among the number, some 300 in all, of the provincial barons
was personally required to spend a moiety of each year in residence
at his Yashiki in Yedo, and to leave his family there for the other
six months,—the Yashikis being town mansions dotted about the capital
in which a semi-regal state was kept up, and where the barons were
surrounded by hundreds of their own retainers, ready to do their
chieftain’s bidding on the instant. The remnants of these mansions are
still to be found in modern Tokio, but they were in great part utilised,
on the Restoration of Imperial rule, as Government offices and barracks
for the troops of the army then about to be formed on Western lines.
One of the most remarkable of these mansions of Old Yedo was that
occupied by the Mito family, and it still retains much of its ancient
splendour, inasmuch as it has been converted into a public park, and its
magnificent gardens are maintained at the expense of the State, while
the buildings and site of the historic residence of the Mito princes
have been made over to the military for the purposes of an arsenal. It
was part of Iyeyasu’s plan to adequately provide for the preservation of
the Tokugawa line in the office of Shogun, and to that end he conferred
upon three of his sons dukedoms in Owari, Kishiu, and Mito respectively.
These three provinces are somewhat widely separated, for Owari is the
region of which the flourishing city of Nagoya is at the present day the
centre,—Kishiu is the province that borders the Kî channel at the eastern
entrance to the Inland Sea,—and the Mito territory was that which is
situated north-east of Tokio, and to the north of the river Toné, where
it enters the Pacific near Cape Inuboye. Kishiu is now known as Wakayama
_Ken_ or Prefecture, Owari is Aichi _Ken_, and Mito is now Ibaraki
_Ken_, though the boundaries do not exactly correspond with the ancient
frontiers. The tripartite grant of territory to his seventh, eighth, and
ninth sons respectively under this arrangement was accompanied by the
proviso that in the event of the failure of the direct line the Shogun
should be chosen from among the cadets of one or other of these families.
In after years it frequently became needful to fall back on the wisely
ordained succession thus laid down at the beginning of Iyeyasu’s reign
at Yedo, wise in the sense that the extinction of the line was provided
against, though it was not always possible to make a selection that met
with the approval of all parties, since it sometimes happened that more
than one branch of the Tokugawa house was ready with a candidate for the
post of honour. It will presently be seen that a difficulty arose in this
respect only a few years prior to the abolition of the Shogun’s office
altogether, and which was not disposed of without many heart-burnings.
Some idea may be formed of the scale of magnificence on which the feudal
system inaugurated during Iyeyasu’s tenure of the Shogunal office was
based from the subjoined table of the barons’ revenues. For convenience’
sake I have added the approximate value of the _koku_ of rice, in terms
of which the incomes were formerly calculated, at the prices ruling in
Japan for that commodity at the present day.
ANNUAL INCOMES OF THE BARONS UNDER THE SHOGUNATE
The _San-ke_, descended from the three youngest Sons of the Founder of
the Tokugawa house
Title Residence Income At present
value
koku £
Owari Nagoya 610,000 = 762,000
Kii Wakayama 559,000 = 700,000
Mito Mito 350,000 = 440,000
(All bore the family arms of the Tokugawa, three heart-shaped leaves in a
circle.)
Mostly sprung from the Governors appointed by, or the personal
connections or vassals of Tokugawa Iyeyasu, A.D. 1603-16
Dai-Mio’s Clan Family Name Residence Income At present
value
koku £
Kaga Mayeda Kanazawa 1,027,000 = 1,284,000
Satsuma Shimadzu Kagoshima 710,000 = 887,000
Sendai Date Sendai 625,000 = 780,000
{ Close
Echizen Matsudaira Fukui 320,000 = 400,000 { Relatives
Aidzu Matsudaira Wakamatsu 230,000 = 280,000 { of
{ Iyeyasu
Higo Hosokawa Kumamoto 540,000 = 655,000
Chikuzen Kuroda Fukuoka 520,000 = 650,000
Geishiu (Aki) Asano Hiroshima 426,000 = 535,000
Choshiu & Suwo Mori Hagi 369,000 = 462,000
Hizen Nabeshima Saga 350,000 = 463,000
Inaba Ikeda Tottori 350,000 = 463,000
Bizen Ikeda Okayama 315,000 = 419,000
Ashiu (Awa) Hachisuka Tokushima 258,000 = 323,000
Tosa Yamanouchi Kochi 242,000 = 304,000
Chikugo Arima Kurume 210,000 = 267,000
Descended from Hachiman Taro
Dai-Mio’s Clan Family Name Residence Income At present
value
koku £
Akita (Ugo) Sataki Akita 206,000 = 258,000
Nambu (Mutsu) Nambu Morioka 200,000 = 250,000
Yonezawa (Uzen) Uyesugi Yonezawa 150,000 = 188,000
At the time of Iyeyasu the total revenue of the Empire was calculated
to be equal to 28,900,000 koku of rice, out of which he distributed
20,000,000 of koku among those daimios and other dignitaries who were
closely attached to the Tokugawa house, and retained 8,900,000 koku for
the support of his own household and the maintenance of Government in
Yedo. From this immense sum he also had to make, it must be borne in
mind, suitable grants to the Court at Kioto, including the privy purse,
and it was incumbent on the Shogun at all times to secure to the Emperor
ample funds for the support of the imperial dignity and honour. In
former years this duty had not invariably been executed on a fitting
scale of liberality, the Ashikaga Shoguns in particular having made it
a point to keep the Emperors poor. Under the regime of the Tokugawa,
however, this had never been a cause of complaint, and in the days of
Iyeyasu especially the apportionments of revenue to the service of the
Court were made on a satisfactory basis. The repair of roads, and the
cost of local administration in general, were matters to which the
Daimios were expected to give attention without any allowances beyond
those made from headquarters, their own incomes having in the majority of
cases been ample for all purposes.
Following these eighteen “kokushiu daimios” ranked the eighteen “Ka-mon”
(Members of the family) who were all relatives of the Tokugawa house,
and bore the name of Matsudaira, the revenues they enjoyed ranging from
10,000 to 200,000 koku.
Next to the Ka-mon were the “To-sama” (outside lords) with incomes
of 10,000 to 100,000 koku. They numbered from 90 to 100. These were
representatives of collateral branches of the Kokushiu or greater barons,
but were “outside” the Tokugawa.
After the “To-sama” ranked the “Fu-dai” (successive generations) and
of these there were 115 families, with revenues ranging from 10,000 to
350,000 koku. The fu-dai were the main support of the Tokugawa house
under the Shogunate regime.
It is not surprising to know that the feudal castles of these numerous
barons were at one time to be counted by the hundred, or that many are
still extant.
Among the Fudai families ranked two which became exceptionally
conspicuous in the later days of the Tokugawa Shogunate,—as will
presently appear, one for the defection of its chief to the opposing side
in the battle of Fushimi in 1868, the other, on the contrary, for the
sturdy loyalty which the head of the house exhibited to the engagements
which on behalf of the Tokugawa Shogun he, as Regent, had entered into
with the nations of the West. The first was Todo, the chieftain of Tsu,
in Isé, whose followers went over to the imperialists and turned the
scale against the Tokugawas,—the other the famous Ii Kamon-no-kami, who
was killed in Tokio by political assassins in 1860. These two barons
were the richest of the Fu-dai, each having a rent roll valued at
half-a-million sterling.
When Iyeyasu the Law-giver died in 1616 his first resting-place was at
the temple of Kunozan, in the province of Suruga, which adjoins his own
native province of Mikawa. The mount of Kuno is close to the port of
Shimidzu, in Suruga Gulf, and the temple is approached by many flights
of stone steps, and looks out immediately on the broad Pacific, the
impressive solitude of the spot being broken only by the occasional
visits of bands of pilgrims coming from far-distant parts of Japan to pay
their respects at the shrine. The wooden structures betray the ravages
of time, notwithstanding that the contributions of the faithful are
devoted to the preservation of this and like edifices which possess for
the Ten-shi’s subjects deep historic interest, and the peculiar sanctity
of the fane in Japanese estimation is doubtless heightened by the claim
made for it by the attendant priests that it still holds the heart of the
great Shogun though the rest of his remains were transferred to Nikko in
1617. Nikko, the incomparable Nikko, _lit._: Sun’s Effulgence,—is so well
known to Occidental travellers that a lengthy description of its glories
would here be superfluous, and it need only be mentioned, perhaps, that
the splendid cryptomeria-bordered highways met with on the journey
thither were equally with his code of laws a part of “Iyeyasu’s Legacy”
to the nation, inasmuch as it was with a wish to afford the millions
who in after years might traverse the roads of Niphon that protection
from its fierce summer suns which might be derived from spreading shade
trees that the founder of the Tokugawa house caused those magnificent
avenues to be planted and maintained. The tomb at Nikko to which his
body was removed from Kunozan in March 1617 was regularly visited by
the occupants, each in his turn, of Yedo Castle, but only the founder’s
grandson Iyemitsu, who completed the work of building Nikko, and also
of the original Uyeno temples at Yedo, rests beside Iyeyasu in this
sacred spot. The other Shoguns of the Tokugawa line were interred in the
capital, six at Uyeno, and six at Zozoji in Shiba, and on the “Rock of
the Dead,” as the hill at Nikko is named on which these heroes of Old
Japan repose, only the mausolea of the First and Third of the Tokugawa
Shoguns are to be found. But there is that in the surroundings of the
lonely graves on the crest of Hotoké-Iwa that is absent even in the
gorgeous edifices which stand within those famous groves of pine and
cedar that envelop the base of the mountain, and in the simplicity of the
unadorned tombs, with their moss-covered approaches, and the time-worn
balustrades which surround the peaceful courtyard, with its few bronze
urns and incense-burners, there is grandeur unmistakable, and a dignity
which no wealth of embellishment ever could confer. Iyeyasu in his
lifetime wielded practically regal sway, and he and his successors of the
Tokugawa dynasty of Shoguns were _de facto_ rulers in Japan, and obtained
their investiture direct from the Ten-shi who was _de jure_ ruler at
the ancient capital of Kioto, while they, as vicegerents, held their
semi-imperial courts at Yedo.
The rise of the military power dates from the days of Hideyoshi, whose
ambition it was to subjugate Korea and add the peninsula to the Empire of
Japan. But all his efforts, from one cause and another, were frustrated,
and when in 1598 he died, after six years of ineffectual strife, the idea
was for a time abandoned, his successor, Iyeyasu, as we have already
seen, choosing the path of internal reform as that by which he would
seek fame, rather than that of foreign conquest. Hideyoshi had restored
order to the land, and it was for his successor in the exalted office to
consolidate and strengthen the influence which the Taiko had acquired
with the feudatory chiefs, and to carry onward to complete fulfilment
the work of centralisation so boldly begun. Hidetada, as the second
Shogun, followed in his father’s footsteps, though his tastes lay rather
in the direction of art, but it was reserved for Iyemitsu to perfect
Iyeyasu’s policy, and it was by Iyemitsu that Japan was closed for the
time to foreign intercourse. In 1617 all Japanese ports excepting Hirado
and Nagasaki were barred to strangers, and four years later the subjects
of the Ten-shi were forbidden to visit foreign lands. In 1624 all
foreigners save the Dutch and the English were banished from Japan;—and
in 1637 there took place the terrible massacre of Christian converts at
Shimabara in Kiushiu. By 1638 aliens of every sort save the Dutch had
been expelled, and the Hollanders remained only on promise of faithful
compliance with severe restrictive laws, and at the sacrifice in great
measure of their personal liberty. Christianity, it was supposed, had
been rooted out, but it was found in after years to have survived to
some degree, in the vicinity of Nagasaki, the persecution to which its
adherents were subjected.
Thus though the Anti-Christian edicts were promulgated during the latter
part of Iyeyasu’s life it was by his grandson, who succeeded Hidetada,
that the policy of extermination was resolutely carried into effect. How
far the action of the Shogunate was prompted at this time by the dread
of foreign encroachment is to be gathered from the proclamations issued
at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Hideyoshi, moreover, is
said to have paid more attention than it deserved to the idle boast of
the Portuguese that it was the practice of their monarch to first send
missionaries to convert the natives of a country to his own religion and
next to send an army which, aided by the converts, contrived to overrun
the land and add it to his dominions. Iyemitsu said in reference to this
report:—
“If my dynasty perishes in consequence of civil wars, this is
a disgrace which falls only on me: but if only an inch of our
territory were to fall into foreign hands, the whole nation
would have cause to be ashamed.”
Under the Tokugawa regime the influence of the military caste was
predominant, and the _samurai_ ranked next to the nobles, but all
samurai were not of equal rank, for the spearmen were of higher grade
than the men who fought with firearms, and the mounted man ranked above
his comrade who fought on foot. Among the retainers of the barons a
_hatamoto_, as he was termed, was a person who had command of as many,
in some cases, as thirty foot-soldiers, and held a position akin to that
of captain in the modern army. _Hatamoto_ signified “under the flag,”
each company having its own distinctive banner inscribed with its number
and place of origin. The _hatamochi_ was the actual standard-bearer from
Hata, a banner, and Mochi, to hold. The ashi-garu (_lit._: light of
foot) was the lowest rank of samurai of the feudal times, and the man
who carried a gun was less entitled to respect, according to that rigid
code of honour which was so jealously guarded by the knighthood of Japan,
than the man who met his enemy with the sword,—foot to foot, and hand
to hand. It was doubtless to be ascribed to a survival of this feeling
that in the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 the followers of Marshal Saigo
were ever anxious to come to close quarters with their foes, and often
threw away their rifles in order the better to wield their treasured
swords. The warrior trained in the old school had nothing but contempt
for the method of fighting which enabled a man to hurl missiles at an
enemy from a comparatively safe distance. The samurai’s principles led
him to challenge his adversary to mortal combat in the open field, but
were averse to anything which might be construed as seeking an undue
advantage. With the military caste uppermost, and the farmers ranking
next in order of precedence, then the artisans, and lastly the tradesmen
or traffickers in wares of whatever description, with a lower class still
of genuine outcasts, distinguished as Eta (the tanners) or Hi-nin (not
men) the people of Japan led a more or less contented life of seclusion
from the outer world until the arrival on their coasts of Commodore
Perry’s ships in 1853, though it would be wrong to imagine that there had
not arisen in the land in all those years a spirit of inquiry concerning
the mode of life which prevailed among other nations. On the contrary,
and more particularly towards the end of the Tokugawa epoch, thoughtful
men had come to the front with proposals for enlightened government,
earnestly advocating the adoption of some system that should be more in
accord with what was dimly conceived to be the age of progress that had
dawned in the other hemisphere, vague reports of which had reached the
hidden East through various channels.
It was while Iyeyasu virtually ruled Japan, and before his son Hidetada
had been invested with the Shogunal authority, that a shipwrecked
English mariner, Will Adams of Rotherhithe, won his way to favour by
his abilities, mainly in the direction of shipbuilding, and attained
to high rank in the service of the Shogunate. The East India Company,
a few years later (June, 1613), established a depot at Hirado, in Spex
Straits, not far from Nagasaki, where the Dutchmen had been earlier in
the field. Adams learned that some of his countrymen were resident at
Hirado, and journeyed thither overland at the Shogun Iyeyasu’s command
to see them. He found the little colony in charge of Captain John Saris,
whose diary has afforded much information concerning the mode of life
of the pioneers of British trade in their remote settlement in the then
little-known “Zipangu” of Portuguese navigators, and Adams himself
left some few written traces of his remarkable career which have been
carefully preserved, and are of the utmost value as throwing light on
the manners of that period when the feudal system was in full force. On
retiring nominally from the control of affairs in favour of Hidetada, in
1605, Iyeyasu had taken up his abode at Shidzuoka, then called Sumpu, and
thither Adams brought Saris to have audience of the great Chieftain, by
special desire. Captain Saris had been made the bearer of a letter from
King James I. of England to the Emperor (Shogun) of Japan, which was
delivered in due course at Shidzuoka. The English sovereign had expressed
his desire that commercial relations should be established between
Britain and Japan. Saris and Adams saw both Iyeyasu and Hidetada, and the
project was well received. A charter was granted, in pursuance of which
the English were to enjoy as much freedom of trade as the Dutchmen then
in Nagasaki, the document comprising eight clauses, and constituting the
first “Anglo-Japanese Agreement” of history. Unhappily the venture of the
East India Company, in whose favour the charter was given, did not turn
out so satisfactorily from a monetary point of view as could have been
wished, and eventually the factory that had been established at Hirado,
was closed, and the British withdrew, not again to seek commercial
privileges until 1856. Saris placed Captain Cocks in charge of the Hirado
depot and returned to London to report to the East India Company the
success of his mission, and Cocks remained until the withdrawal from
Hirado in 1623.
Adams never returned to his own country, and died in his own house at
Hemi village, where his grave, with that of his Japanese wife, is to
be seen on the hill above the modern naval station of Yokosuka, a few
miles south of Yokohama, in the Gulf of Tokio. He had taught his friends
at Yedo the art of building ships on the Occidental model, and it is
recorded that many of his vessels were employed in over-sea trade to
the Philippines, Siam, Cochin China, and Mexico. But the law of 1621
prohibiting the use of decked ocean-going craft brought about a return
to the ancient form of junk with a single mast. The construction of
decked sailing boats has only of late years been revived in connection
with the fisheries of Yeso and the quest of the seal and sea-otter, off
the Kuriles archipelago. After the East India Company closed its factory
at Hirado trade was still further restricted, and in obedience to an
edict of 1641, the Dutch were finally confined to the islet of Deshima,
in Nagasaki harbour, and all other foreigners were ordered to quit the
country. Saris had long before returned home,—Adams had been dead for
years,—and little or nothing occurred for two centuries to remind the
Western world of the existence of the far-off Japanese Empire.
Throughout this interval the feudal system flourished and the Shogunate
was at the zenith of its power. Every daimio nominally owned allegiance
to the Ten-shi’s deputy at Yedo, but there had been murmurings against
the feudal rule long before the American ships made their appearance
at the entrance to the Bay of Yedo in 1853. A few men, more daring
than their fellows, had been bold enough to write and speak openly of
their desire to see the ancient order of things re-established and of
their hope that the Ten-shi would again in person regulate the affairs
of his dominions. In most cases the would-be reformers had for their
temerity lost their heads. But the leaven that they had introduced had
begun to work, and when the Shogun Iyesada made the treaties with the
Western nations under which Japan was reopened to foreign trade and
intercourse the real basis of the opposition which he encountered,
and which outlasted his own lifetime and that of his successor in the
office of Shogun, was an antagonism to the Shogunate itself, and not to
the strangers who sought to develop commerce with the Empire. Thus it
came about that the truly progressive clans,—Satsuma, Choshiu, Tosa,
and Hizen,—all of which had in some form or other availed themselves
of foreign inventions in the form of rifles and other implements of
warfare, or of steamships and gunboats and armaments, with the object,
as it would seem, of strengthening their own positions, were to be found
ranged under the banner of Jo-I, or “Expulsion of the Alien,” when with
more candour their slogan might have been “Down with the Shogunate.” The
Tokugawa side, on the other hand, was in favour of the resumption of
foreign relations and maintained the advisability of pursuing the policy
of kai-koku—_i.e._ opening the country—which Iyesada had initiated.
Neither side was in actual fact antagonistic to foreigners, and no sooner
had the Jo-I party attained its purpose in overthrowing those who had
espoused the cause of the Shogun, than it at once adopted an attitude
towards aliens which was in effect a complete ratification of the policy
that had been adhered to by the Government of Yedo. The Sat-cho alliance
to “expel the stranger” entered into between Satsuma and Choshiu at the
end of 1861, or early in 1862,—a couple of years before the present
Marquis Ito and his comrade Inouye Bunda, now Count Inouye, stole away
to England,—was mainly designed to embarrass the Shogunate, and was by no
means so reactionary as it at first appeared to be.
When Perry dropped anchor at Uraga it was the Shogun Iyeyoshi who sat on
the Viceregal throne in Yedo, but he shortly afterwards died, and was
buried in the cemetery attached to Zozoji temple in Shiba, where five
other Shoguns of the Tokugawa line were interred, and when Perry came for
the promised answer to the American President’s letter the Shogun Iyesada
was in power. But soon afterwards his health failed him to the degree
that he found it expedient to appoint a Regent in the person of the Go
Tai-Ro (_lit._: Honoured Great Elder)—_i.e._ Prime Minister of State
under the Tokugawa Government—an office which was filled by the baron
Naosuke Ii Kamon-no-kami, between whom and the feudal chieftain of Mito
there were great differences of opinion in regard to the wisdom of the
Kai-koku policy. For reasons which were never very clearly comprehended,
Nari-aki, the senior lord of Mito, was all his life bitterly opposed to
the influx of foreigners, and when in 1860 the Regent was assassinated
at the Sakurada Gate of Yedo castle the crime was perpetrated by men
who had once been retainers of the Mito family, but had voluntarily
severed their connection therewith in order that the responsibility
for the murder that they were resolved to commit should not be laid at
the door of their lord. They banded themselves together as Ro-nins, or
“Wave-men,” casting themselves as it were on the billows of adventure,
and caring nothing whither they might drift in the political currents
of the hour. Other Ro-nins made a midnight attack in 1861 on the then
recently-established British Legation at Takanawa, a southern suburb of
Yedo, and these were afterwards proved to have belonged previously to the
Mito clan. The daimio Nari-aki died in 1862, and it was felt that one
source of uneasiness had been removed from the path of those who were
totally averse to the suggested expulsion of the subjects of foreign
powers and repudiation of the compacts which had been entered into. But
the assassinated Regent had had other enemies in the political world, for
his appointment had never been favourably received by the Jo-I party (in
reality the advocates of the restoration of direct imperial rule, and
who only used Jo-I as a convenient battle-cry) and when, in 1858, the
Shogun Iyesada died and his place was taken by the youthful Iyemochi,
at that time only twelve years old, and the Regency of Ii Kamon no Kami
was continued, the antagonism between the rival factions—one nominally
pro-foreign and the other nominally anti-foreign, but neither of them
seriously concerned with the foreigner so much as with the abrogation or
retention of the feudal system,—grew more fierce and deep-seated than
ever. The Mito clan, notwithstanding that its old prince Nari-aki had
been violently anti-foreign, had in a general way given its support to
the Shogun, but even in Mito dissensions arose, and the clansmen were
divided among themselves. In proportion as these internal quarrels arose
in the Shogun’s party its influence in the State declined and that of
the party of the Mikado, as it was termed, gained strength. It must be
understood that the reference here is not to the now-reigning Emperor but
to his father, who occupied the throne until the year 1867. An imperial
ordinance promulgated in 1862 abolished the old law made in the days of
Iyeyasu whereby the feudal lords were obliged to spend half their time
at the capital, and this repeal of a statute on which the Shogunate had
relied for the preservation of its ascendency over the clans hastened,
no doubt, the downfall of its authority. It was further weakened, it may
be supposed, by the internecine strife that arose from the rivalries of
the three branches of the Tokugawa house, for when Iyesada died it had
been the ardent desire of the Mito prince to place his son Hitotsubashi
Yoshinobu,—otherwise Tokugawa Keiki,—on the viceregal throne at Yedo, a
wish that was thwarted by the Regent Ii Kamon no kami. The reason that
Nari-aki’s son bore two names was that in the year 1848, when he was only
eleven years old, he had been adopted into the family of the Owari branch
of the Tokugawa family, which branch bore the surname of Hitotsubashi,
while his other name could be read as either Keiki or Yoshinobu, the
Chinese characters by which it was written being readable according to
the Kan-On, or Chinese sounds as Keiki, while the Japanese equivalents of
the same symbols are Yoshinobu. To the candidature of Nari-aki’s son the
Regent would not agree, and carried his point in favour of Kikuchiyo, a
prince of the Kishiu branch of the Tokugawa family, who took the name on
his accession of Iyemochi. This prince was the thirteenth child of the
XIth Shogun, and a cousin of the deceased Iyesada. The regent’s power at
this period was equal to the effort of compelling Nari-aki to confine
himself to his Yedo mansion, in a forced retirement which was tantamount
to imprisonment, and similar steps were taken in regard to the princes of
Owari, Hizen, Tosa, and Uwajima, who were opposed to the Regent’s policy.
Tokugawa Keiki was forbidden to show himself at Yedo castle, and was
ordered to remain in strict seclusion within his own abode.
Meanwhile the Emperor Komei, at Kioto, was being urged by the feudal
lords of Tosa, Hizen, Sendai, Uwajima, and other provinces to abrogate
the treaties which the Regent had made, to close the ports, and expel
all strangers from the land, but Ii Kamon no kami was too strong for
them to succeed in overthrowing him, and it will be understood that the
representations of the Ministers of foreign powers already accredited
to Japan in virtue of the treaties must all have tended to confirm the
Regent in his resolution to abide by the terms of the compacts which he
had entered into. This was in effect the situation in March 1860, when
the ro-nins at the Sakurada Gate in Yedo put an end to the life of the
Regent, and affairs were left in greater uncertainty than ever.
The baron Ii Kamon-no-kami Naosuke is considered to have been a
genuinely patriotic statesman, one, moreover, who was able to realise
the necessities of the hour and gifted with tact and resolution to carry
his point. His persistence in the policy of _kai-koku_ procured for him
the undisguised antagonism of a very powerful faction, but he remained
unshaken in his determination to adhere to the arrangements that had
been entered into with foreign powers. The assassins responsible for
his death had carried on their persons, as was customary with ro-nins
bent on some notable deed, written declarations setting forth their
motives, and declaring it to be their belief that the admission of
aliens to the country spelt speedy ruin. His intimate friend, Baron
Matsudaira of Yada, had sought to dissuade him from paying his customary
visits to the Shogun, who dwelt within the inner moat of the castle,
and in urging his request had even endeavoured to hold the Regent back
by grasping the sleeve of his robe, a scrap of the material being torn
away in the effort, so vehement were Matsudaira’s representations of
the impending danger. That was on the 21st of February, a fortnight
before the murder was actually perpetrated, so that Ii Kamon-no-kami
was perfectly conscious of the risk he ran in continuing to perform his
daily duty at the castle. His own residence was just outside the second
moat, and he had only quitted it a few minutes when, at nine o’clock on
the morning of the third of the third month (April 5th according to the
Gregorian calendar), he received several sword-thrusts as he sat in his
palanquin, and died immediately. The day was one on which his enemies
were sure that he would be passing that way early, as it was one of the
great annual festivals (Sekku) when the princes and barons invariably
went to the palace to pay their respects and offer the congratulations
appropriate to the season. Their retinues included numerous swordsmen,
and their processions were characterised by a pomp almost unimaginable
to-day, with scores of trusty henchmen, their lords’ crests prominently
displayed on their helmets and their banners and insignia borne aloft,
marching on either side the palanquin to guard their chief. The Regent’s
cortege was at the Sakurada Gate when the attack was delivered, and the
falling snow had led the retainers to keep their sword-hilts covered, so
that there was a fatal delay in encountering the ro-nins, who, moreover,
were disguised as peasants, and wore rain-coats to conceal their weapons.
Eight of the Regent’s men were killed, and three of the ro-nins were
slain on the spot, eight more being brought to execution at a later date.
The whole thing was the work of but a few minutes, and the band no doubt
had a confederate who was skilled in heraldry watching at the gate, ready
to announce the baron’s approach, and able to distinguish his procession
by the device on the banners which some of his retinue bore.
The Regent was forty-five years old at the time of his death, having been
born in 1815, the fourteenth son of the baron Naonaka. The Ii family is a
very old one, an ancestor having aided in the subjugation of the rebels,
so termed,—presumably the Ainus,—in the island of Yeso, between A.D.
987 and 1011, when the Emperor Ichijo was on the throne. The name Ii is
taken from the spot not far from Hamana inlet, in Totomi province, called
Ii-dani, or the valley of Ii, whereat the first baron built a castle in
the eighth century. But having been appointed protector of the city of
Kioto, one of the baron’s ancestors had removed to Hikoné, on Lake Biwa,
to be nearer his charge, and thus it came about that Ii Kamon-no-kami
was Lord of Hikoné at the period when he became Regent, and dwelt at the
Hikoné Yashiki in Yedo. The baron Ii bequeathed to the nation a couplet
illustrative of his real patriotism, a quality which even those who were
opposed to his policy never failed to recognise as part of his noble
nature. It runs:—
“Omi no mi kishi utsu nami no iku tabi mo,
Miyo ni kokoro wo kudaki nuru kana!”
(Rent as the wave-beat rocks on Omi’s strand
My broken heart, for our belovéd Land!)
Lake Biwa, on which stands Hikoné, is often in poetry termed the Sea
of Omi. It washes the shore of what in feudal times were the lord of
Hikoné’s estates.
At the time when the dissensions between the supporters of the Bakufu
and the nominally anti-foreign faction were at their height, the young
Shogun was but fifteen years old, and was able to render his party but
little help in the crisis in its fortunes which had been reached. An
effort was made to bring about a fusion of the interests by the marriage
of the Shogun to the Mikado’s sister, the Princess Kazu, on 11th March
1862, the hope being that it might thus be feasible to present a united
front to the incursions of the Westerners, but the union failed for the
time being to have any political results in the direction anticipated,
and the divergence of views on the question of the admission of strangers
remained as pronounced as at first. In this attempt to reconcile the
conflicting interests of parties the prince of Satsuma, acting through
his uncle, Shimadzu Saburo, and on the advice of Saigo Takamori and
Okubo Toshimichi, elsewhere referred to in this book, had exerted all
his influence but without avail. On the other hand a vast amount of
jealousy was created between the Chiefs of Satsuma and Choshiu, for the
Baron Mori, the lord of Choshiu, was at this time wholly in favour of the
expulsion of foreigners.
Matters were in this condition, when the least spark might lead to an
explosion, in the summer of 1863, at the moment when the Shogun, possibly
as a consequence of the Kioto Court influence brought to bear through his
connection by marriage with the imperial house, decided to proceed to
the Mikado’s capital and submit himself entirely to the Emperor Komei’s
commands. He expressed his concurrence in the Court party’s views on
the subject of the abrogation of the treaties, and was willing that the
aliens should be driven out of the land. Whether he was sincere in this
attitude or not is a question that it is not easy to answer, but at all
events there was a personal quarrel at Kioto between the young Shogun
and Mori, the Choshiu chieftain, which ended disastrously for Mori, who
was sent down by the Emperor Komei to his own dominions in the west and
Iyemochi remained in favour. The Choshiu clan was from that hour in
direct antagonism to the Shogun’s party, and the baron Mori’s retainers
were so indignant at what they considered to be the insult put upon their
lord at Kioto that they marched to that city and attacked it The present
ruler of Japan was only very young at the time, and it was a novel
experience, no doubt, to hear the rattle of musketry in close proximity
to the palace walls. The Choshiu clansmen were encountered and worsted
by the soldiers of the Shogun, who had been ordered by imperial edict to
punish Choshiu for the outrage, and at the same time the chief of the
insubordinate clan was by the Emperor’s command deposed.
The Choshiu baron remained obdurate, and in pursuance of his hostile
attitude towards foreigners, and presumably with the idea of embroiling
the Shogun’s government with Western powers, he persevered in the
practice, despite all remonstrance, of firing on such vessels as
attempted to pass the Straits of Shimonoseki. He set the Shogun’s
authority completely at defiance, and raised in the south-west of Japan
the standard of revolt. At the head of a numerous army the Choshiu
leaders, one of whom was the present Marshal Yamagata, again set out for
Kioto, and were met by the Shogun’s forces led by Iyemochi himself, who
was certainly not deficient in courage, though his health, even at that
time, was far from satisfactory. The series of engagements which followed
terminated badly for the Shogun’s supporters, for the Choshiu men were
better armed, and had been drilled on something like Western principles,
as the result of a study of military books translated from the Dutch.
They also bore rifles of the “Tower” and other patterns which probably
had been brought to Japan from Europe, by way of China.
The first step towards the fall of the Shogunate had in reality been
taken when the admission was made that the power of the Shogun had its
limitations, for the doctrine which had prevailed for centuries, and to
which the supremacy of the Tokugawa house was traceable, was that the
holder of this high office enjoyed complete freedom of action without
reference to the monarch at Kioto and was to all intents and purposes
the executive head of the State. The visit paid to Kioto by the Shogun
Iyemochi at the instigation of the imperial counsellors struck at the
root of this theory of absolute power and led to the open revolt of
some of the provincial magnates against the authority of the Bakufu, a
title, by the way, which, as applied to the Yedo Government, sufficiently
demonstrated its military character, since _Baku_ signified the curtain
which was used in camp to screen the Generalissimo’s quarters from the
vulgar gaze, and _Fu_ meant “seat of government.” Once the principle
became admitted that the Shogun was like other of the nation’s most
puissant nobles, only a vassal of the Ten-shi, the way was paved in
a measure for the restoration of the real monarch to the exercise of
his rightful prerogatives and the re-establishment of that direct rule
which had existed in former years prior to the usurpation of regal power
by the Ashikaga and Tokugawa Shoguns. It may be said, therefore, that
the thin end of the wedge with which the fabric of the Yedo government
was ultimately to be sundered and overthrown was inserted in 1863.
The actual outcome of the Shogun’s visit to Kioto was the issue of an
imperial notification to the Ministers of Foreign Powers at Yedo that
all strangers would be expelled from the Empire. The announcement came
from the Department for Foreign Affairs in the Bakufu, and was to the
effect that the orders which had been received by the Shogun from Kioto
were peremptory, and required the closing of the recently opened ports.
The foreigners were to be driven out, because the people of Japan were
not desirous of holding intercourse with foreign countries. The Minister
added that the discussion of this subject had been left to him “by his
Majesty,” by which term was meant the Shogun, who had figured in the
early treaties,—that for example made by the Earl of Elgin on behalf
of Queen Victoria, dated 26th August 1858,—as “his Majesty the Tycoon
of Japan.” The Shogun’s government was at this time trying to sit on
two stools simultaneously, for while the notification was given to the
foreign representatives in obedience to the orders received from Kioto
there was palpably no intention of giving effect to them in any shape,
even had the Bakufu then possessed the strength requisite to bring about
the strangers’ exclusion. On this point the presence of war vessels at
Yokohama warranted the Bakufu officials in entertaining serious doubts.
At all events the Shogun’s Government soon afterwards had to express
regret for the deplorable affair near Tsurumi, on the highroad from
Yokohama to Yedo, when an Englishman lost his life, and in offering an
apology the Bakufu expressed a hope that nothing might again arise to
imperil the friendly relations between Britain and Japan. When it was
urged that the murderers should be brought to justice the Bakufu was
fain to acknowledge that it had not the power to punish the Satsuma clan
which had been guilty of the crime, and thereupon Admiral Kuper was sent
to Kagoshima to bombard the Satsuma chieftain’s forts. The engagement
took place on the 11th of August, a fortnight before the Elgin treaty
was signed at Yedo, the breach between the Shogun and the southern clans
being at that time practically complete. The bombardment spurred the
Satsuma clan to the attainment of greater military strength, for their
leaders were quick to grasp the importance which Satsuma would acquire,
in connection with those coming events which even then were casting long
shadows athwart the political path, by being first in the field with
approximately efficient naval and military forces. Western appliances
were imported and foreign inventions largely drawn upon to increase
Satsuma’s effective strength, and from being hostile to foreigners the
attitude of the clansmen became almost friendly, a circumstance that was
partly due, it may have been, to the consciousness of the Satsuma leaders
that in spite of their antiquated weapons they had made no mean fight of
it when assailed in their stronghold by the modern British ships of war.
The waning Shogunate had despatched a mission to Europe the previous year
to beg for an extension of time in regard to those provisions of the
treaties which included the opening of additional ports to foreign trade,
for it was felt that the Bakufu had trouble enough on its hands without
arousing further opposition by the fulfilment of the strict letter
of the compacts which had been entered into with the Western powers.
That mission was successful inasmuch as the opening of Kobé-Hiogo was
postponed until the 1st of January 1868, and the British Government gave
assurances of its unwillingness to take any steps that might embarrass
the Government of the Shogun. But a fresh source of trouble had speedily
developed itself in Choshiu, by the baron’s arbitrary treatment of
shipping at Shimonoseki, and when, after the united squadrons of the
Western powers had compelled the defenders of the forts in the straits
to haul down their flag, and an indemnity had been exacted, the Bakufu
became more than ever discredited, and its downfall accelerated. As with
Satsuma, so with Choshiu, the fighting led to the foes becoming far
better friends than had seemed to be possible, and in 1864 the baron
Mori signified his willingness that any of his ports in Choshiu should
be opened to the commerce of the strangers. It was not until many years
after this that Shimonoseki was actually opened, but the delay was not
due to the reluctance of the clan. During those prolonged contests with
the Bakufu the clans of Satsuma and Choshiu were secretly allied, and the
rivalry which might have been utilised to enable the Shogunate to triumph
over Choshiu by enlisting the help of the Satsuma clan in the execution
of the imperial command given to the Shogun Iyemochi to punish Choshiu
was not in reality to be obtained by reason of this private compact
between the two daimios. The bond of union was, of course, a common
desire to bring about the abolition of the Viceregal office and restore
the personal rule of the Emperor. The abstention of the Satsuma clan from
interference on the side of the Shogunate probably saved the Choshiu
clan from the defeat that would otherwise, it is to be believed, have
overtaken them in the end. It was the policy of the Satsuma chieftain to
allow the Shogunate to be worsted.
Difficulties multiplied, and the Shogun Iyemochi had taken up his
residence in the castle of Osaka, after paying a second visit to the
Emperor at Kioto, at the end of 1864, so the foreign ministers had
to journey thither when they desired to communicate personally with
him in his retreat. By this time some of the more powerful among the
provincial daimios had fallen away from their allegiance to the Shogun,
and had ceased to attend the Court at Yedo or to reside there during
the prescribed six months of the year. Satsuma, for instance, did not
occupy his yashiki after September 1862, until he paid it a visit
in the early seventies, and others among the Yedo mansions of the
provincial lords remained unoccupied from that time forward until they
were turned to account as Government offices after the Restoration. The
Shogun’s entourage lost the pomp and circumstance of state in 1864,
with the removal of his retinue to Osaka, and the internecine strife
which culminated in the battle of Uyeno in 1868 was entered upon soon
afterwards.
In 1866, however, while the Shogun’s men were contending for the mastery
with the retainers of Choshiu, the Emperor Komei decided to ratify the
treaties that the Shogun had made, and thenceforward the relations of the
Bakufu with the representatives of Occidental powers were characterised
by greater cordiality than had for some time past existed. The British
Minister, Sir Harry Parkes, who had succeeded Sir Rutherford Alcock
at Yedo, sent Messrs Mitford and Satow to Osaka with a message to the
Shogun, and the mission ended with mutual satisfaction; the Shogun wrote
to the Emperor at Kioto urging the opening of the port of Kobé-Hiogo
to trade as early as practicable. The Emperor Komei finally gave his
consent, and even expressed himself at this time as favourably disposed
towards the fulfilment of the treaties. The right of native merchants
to hire foreign vessels to trade either at the open ports or abroad was
established in 1866, and thus Japanese foreign trade was set free from
the restrictions which had checked its development.
As an illustration of the amicable relations which had by this time grown
up between the Japanese authorities and foreigners, it may be related
how, on the 21st of March 1866, 800 samurai troops, under the command of
Kubota Sentaro, marched out of Yokohama in company with the British from
the camp on the Bluff for a field day in the country towards Kamakura.
The Japanese soldiers who thus for the first time in the history of
the two nations bore their part in an Anglo-Japanese Alliance were men
belonging to the Shogun’s forces, and their officers had acquired a
knowledge of Western drill from their studies at the British camp, under
the guidance of the officers of the Lancashire Fusiliers, then forming
the garrison of the Yokohama foreign settlement. Less than two years
before the Shogun’s troops had participated in similar manœuvres, but
only to a very slight degree, as at that time the Japanese had been armed
with the bow and arrow and wore chain armour, in the ancient style. Two
years’ drill had made the Shogun’s men so efficient that their shooting
with the rifle astonished the British spectators by its rapidity, and
by the ease with which the men handled their weapons, comparatively
unaccustomed as they undoubtedly then were to modern firearms. Among
those who were in this way the pioneers of the Japanese modern military
organisation were many personal friends of the first Ambassador to the
Court of St James, Viscount Hayashi.
In August 1866, the Shogun Iyemochi, whose health had for a long time
past been failing, died at Osaka, his end having been accelerated, it
is beyond doubt, by the vicissitudes of the last year or two, and the
effort demanded of him when personally taking the field at the head
of his army against the troops of the contumacious lord of Choshiu.
Notwithstanding the fast-growing power of the Shogunate’s political
adversaries, the moment was scarcely fitting for attempting its entire
overthrow, and in December of that year the Shogun Keiki, seventh son
of the prince of Mito, a branch of the Tokugawa family, and adopted son
of the Hitotsubashi family—_i.e._ the Owari branch of the same Tokugawa
house—was duly invested with all the dignities of his exalted office.
He had been nominated Shogun, as already explained, in 1858, by the
then prince of Mito his father, but had been passed over owing to the
strenuous opposition of the Regent, whose hostility to the Mito prince
Nari-aki has been alluded to, and its effects described.
The newly appointed Shogun had had abundant opportunities of observing
the gathering disposition of his countrymen to seek the restoration of
the sovereign to the direct rule of his dominions and the abolition
of the system of government by delegate which had for two and a half
centuries prevailed. The transfer of the active duties of government to
the hands of the real monarch had become a matter easy of accomplishment,
moreover, by reason of the fact that the policy of the Kioto Government
and that of the Shogun no longer differed in respect of the treatment of
the foreigners who sought to establish intimate diplomatic and commercial
relations with Japan.
In January 1867, the Emperor Komei fell a victim to smallpox, five weeks
after he had appointed Tokugawa Keiki to the office of Shogun. Though
the Bakufu was declining rapidly, the hour had not arrived for its final
extinction, but no one could better judge of the hopelessness of the
situation, perhaps, than the Shogun Keiki, who had for several years
acted as guardian to the late occupant of the position, and had been also
Minister of Justice (Giyobukiyo) in the time of Iyesada.
Despite the patriotic willingness of the Shogun Keiki to recognise from
the very outset the need which was beginning to be felt of a thoroughly
unified administration, the northern clans, which had been faithful
to the Tokugawa house and had ever made its cause their own, were far
from being reconciled to the reorganisation of the government as it was
sought to constitute it, and appealed to arms against the domination of
the Satsuma and Choshiu combination that had by this time obtained vast
influence at Court. Civil war followed, but the strife was desultory in
character until the later months of the year, by which time the Shogun
had satisfied himself of his inability to effectively chastise the
recalcitrant lord of Choshiu, and was compelled to accept defeat. As,
moreover, his position as Shogun was manifestly under such conditions
intolerable, he tendered to the Emperor his resignation of the office
that had been in his family for 264 years.
The Prince of Tosa had returned to his castle at Kochi in October 1867,
and had written to the Shogun in the following terms:—
“It appears to me that although the government and penal laws
have been administered by the military class ever since the
Middle Ages, yet since the arrival of foreigners we have been
squabbling amongst ourselves, and much public discussion has
been excited. The East and the West have risen in arms against
each other, and civil war has never ceased, the effect being to
draw on us the insults of foreign nations.
The cause of this lies in the fact that the administration
proceeds from two centres, and because the Empire’s ears and
eyes are turned in two different directions. The march of
events has brought about a revolution and the old system can no
longer be obstinately persevered in.
You should restore the governing power into the hands of the
sovereign, and so lay a foundation on which Japan may take its
stand as the equal of all other countries. This is the most
imperative duty of the present moment and is the heartfelt
prayer of YODO.
Your Highness is wise enough to take this advice into
consideration.”
The full name of the writer of this remarkable epistle was Yama-no-uchi
Yodo, daimio of Tosa province.
It was not until the close of December 1867 that the Emperor received
the formal abdication of the Shogun’s powers, and it was foreseen that
among his adherents there would be many who would resist to the uttermost
what they could but regard as their chieftain’s degradation, voluntary
or otherwise. For the resignation of his prerogatives involved also the
surrender of his lands and possessions, and his followers’ fortunes were
so inseparably linked with his that it meant to them the deprivation in
like manner of all those privileges on which they had thereunto placed
the highest value. The Satsuma and Choshiu leaders were willing to avail
themselves, however, of their proximity to the throne by seizing the
person of the Emperor, and this _coup d’état_ was carried out.
On the 3rd of January 1868, suddenly appeared an imperial edict giving
to the three chiefs of Satsuma, Tosa, and Geishiu the charge of the
Nine Gates of Kioto,—in other words the guardianship of the Emperor’s
palace,—an office which had previously been held by the Lord of Aidzu, a
northern province, and who ceased to occupy it by reason of his having
espoused the cause of the Shogun in the Kai-koku _versus_ Jo-I discussion.
It is due to Aidzu to acknowledge that the clan, from the time when,
in 1862, it had been given the charge by the Shogun Iyemochi of the
imperial city, had evinced the utmost loyalty and energy in its defence.
In repelling the attack of the Choshiu men in 1864 the Aidzu chieftain’s
retainers had shown the greatest bravery and determination, and as
honest, staunch protectors of the Emperor’s person and guardians of the
palace the clansmen had had no sympathy with the agitators who had sought
to sow discord between the monarch and his deputy. Both sides, indeed,
had reason to value the lord of Aidzu’s fidelity to the trust reposed
in him. When, therefore, the edict appeared by which Aidzu was relieved
of his functions, the adherents of the Shogunate were incensed, for
they saw, or believed that they saw, in the _coup d’état_ the clearest
possible indications of a Satsuma and Choshiu intrigue. The rescript is
remarkable as having definitely decreed the end of the old regime, and it
brought about the ascendency of the southern clans, for which the way had
been paved in great measure during the previous Emperor’s reign. The old
distinctions between the court lords (kuge) and the territorial magnates
were at one stroke swept away, new titles were introduced, and while some
of the princes, the _kuge_, and many of the samurai, found places under
the new regime, the adherents of the Tokugawa were for the most part
dismissed from office and their positions given to men of the opposing
side.
[Illustration: THE INTERIOR OF SHIBA TEMPLE]
Acting under the authority of the sovereign, the perpetrators of the
_coup d’état_ proceeded to set up a provisional government, and the
Shogun was directed to surrender his fiefs and hold himself entirely at
the disposal of the Emperor, whose pleasure would in due course be made
known to him. This decisive stroke was delivered by the combined agency
of the leaders of the clans of Satsuma, Choshiu, Hizen, and Tosa, and
the Shogun was on the verge of yielding to the demand made upon him when
hostilities broke out between his adherents and the followers of the
Satsuma chieftain. The Shogun was in this way driven into the position
of seeming antagonism to the Imperial Government as provisionally
constituted, and the fact that he was in great measure the victim of
circumstances was in after years most generously recognised by his
imperial master. The Shogun, acting no doubt on the advice tendered to
him by his supporters, quitted Kioto on horseback, accompanied by only
a few mounted attendants, on the 6th January, and reached the castle of
Osaka early in the morning of the 7th, just four days after the _coup
d’état_ and though he has by some been blamed for allowing himself to be
ousted from his position at the Emperor’s side, as the principal adviser
of his sovereign, it is difficult to censure him for so doing seeing
that the monarch had already begun to issue decrees without consulting
his customary adviser. In fact, the decree which was issued as a result
of the _coup d’état_ expressly stated that thenceforward everything
connected with the government of the country would emanate from the
Cho-Tei—_i.e._ the Imperial Court at Kioto—and strict obedience to the
terms of the proclamation was enjoined upon all. The chiefs of the Aidzu
and other clans which held allegiance to the Tokugawa side throughout
its vicissitudes were summoned to a conference the night previous to the
Shogun’s departure for Osaka, and a letter was written to the Cho-Tei
by the Shogun in which he declared that it being evident that some
deceiver stood at the young sovereign’s side he would, for the safety of
the nation, resume the duties of his office, and the better to secure
for himself due freedom of action he would remove to the city of Osaka,
where he could in his Majesty’s interests venture to take upon himself
once more the direction of affairs as Shogun. History relates that at
the meeting of his supporters held in the Shogunal palace at Kioto it
was urged on his Highness that it would be better to retain control of
the neck of the bottle by holding Osaka, the key of Kioto, than wait to
fall into the trap which had been set for them. The formal resignation
of the Shogun had been tendered by him to the Emperor at the close of
1867, but not definitely accepted, and when it was found that he had
quitted the capital an imperial messenger was despatched to Osaka to
request his return and the lords of Owari and Echizen were ordered to
furnish an escort. Preparations were at once made to obey the sovereign’s
command, but the Aidzu and Kuwana clansmen, who had followed their
chiefs to Osaka, declared that they would form the escort necessary, and
set out in the van of the force which was to constitute the Shogunal
procession on the short journey northward. The Shogun himself was to
start with the last of his little army, some four days later than the
vanguard. To the experienced eyes of the Satsuma and Choshiu leaders,
who now had entirely the ear of the young ruler, and whose troops were
at this time in full possession of the capital, this march back of the
Shogun’s whole army had for them the most sinister of meanings, and
accordingly their combined regiments were thrown forward, to challenge
the advance of the Tokugawa men, as far as Fushimi, a village seven miles
from Kioto on the highway east of the river Yodo. The Commander-in-chief
of these imperialist forces was the prince who then bore the title of
the Ninnaji-no-miya, a close relative of the Emperor, and before him
was carried the gold brocade banner which is emblematic of delegated
sovereign authority. The prince afterwards took by imperial order the
name of Higashi Fushimi-no-miya, and he is elsewhere referred to as
having subsequently spent some time in England. Marshal Saigo Takamori,
as he afterwards became, held a position equivalent to that of Chief of
Staff in modern campaigns. The main body of the Shogun’s army marched by
the Fushimi-kai-do, or eastern road, though a portion took the western
one, and there was a contingent of the followers of the lord of Idzumi
on that road also, on whose fealty the Shogun believed he might rely.
As the sequel showed, the defection of this force was his undoing,
for at the critical moment it allowed itself to be won over bodily
by the imperialists. At the village of Fushimi the Shogun’s men found
that barriers had been erected to stay their progress, and though when
challenged the leading company made answer “this is the procession of
his Highness the Shogun, who is going to Kioto by the Emperor’s express
command,” passage was refused by the imperialist guard. The Shogun’s men
were ordered to advance, and an engagement commenced which lasted for
three whole days without intermission. The treachery of the men of Tsu,
retainers of Todo Idzumi-no-kami, turned the scale, and the Shogun’s army
was compelled to retreat from Fushimi towards Osaka, where the Chiefs
of Aidzu and other clans loyal to the Tokugawa house found the warships
belonging to their side, under the command of Admiral Enomoto, lying
off the mouth of the Yodo at Tempo-san. The Shogun himself received the
distressing news of the defeat of his forces at Fushimi when about to set
out with the last of his army for Kioto, on the 27th of January 1868,
and on the afternoon of that day, realising that irremediable disaster
had befallen his arms, he quietly took his departure from Osaka castle
attended by a few faithful friends, and safely reached the _Kaiyo Maru_.
This was a Dutch-built frigate which had been purchased for him in Europe
and brought out to Japan shortly before. In order to reach the ship the
Shogun had had to take boat at the Shin-Sei bridge in Osaka, whence the
distance to Tempo-san is about four miles by river.
But before he set out he penned a letter to the foreign representatives
then present in Osaka, to the effect that the battle having gone against
him, they must provide for their own safety, and they accordingly did so
to the best of their ability. The British Minister, Sir Harry Parkes,
was staying in a temple in the northern part of the city, and, with his
mounted escort of ex-constables of the London police, he rode into the
newly established foreign settlement at Kawaguchi that night. At this
crisis in the affairs of Japan it was advisable, to prevent mishap, that
the British and other foreign ministers should be well guarded, and Sir
Harry had with him in addition to his own escort a detachment of the
Ninth Regiment, then quartered at Yokohama, always at his disposal. The
ships of the powers also lay at Tempo-san, within hail, but the weather
being at the moment exceptionally stormy the ministers could not get
aboard the vessels. It has to be recorded that Osaka city was held by
the men of Choshiu, who showed every disposition to befriend the foreign
residents and protected them against any possible violence of the mob,
though only four years had elapsed since the bombardment of Shimonoseki
by the allied squadrons, and that incident could not have been entirely
forgotten. The Tokugawa men had quitted Osaka on the day following the
departure of the Shogun, and the mob seized the opportunity, prior to
the entry of the Choshiu troops, to pillage the castle and set it afire.
The men wounded in the battle of the 27th painfully made their way along
the roads from Fushimi, and many were attended by the medical officer of
the British Legation who had accompanied Sir Harry Parkes from Tokio. Dr
Willis, the genial Irishman and accomplished surgeon here alluded to,
is doubtless remembered to this day by many of his patients. He was at
a later date in charge of the hospital at Kagoshima, belonging to the
Satsuma clan, and was universally respected in Japan. When, in 1877, the
clan was declared to be in rebellion, and all foreigners in the country
and at out-ports were directed to repair to the nearest “treaty port” for
safety, where they would be under the protection of their own warships,
he declined to quit his post at the hospital, where he could be of use
to his Satsuma friends, and the British cruiser sent to bring away the
foreign residents had to leave him behind. But as a bombardment was
imminent a Japanese government steamer was sent to fetch him away, and he
was then induced to yield.
Although the Shogun had embarked on the _Kaiyo Maru_ on the 27th January
at Tempo-san, she did not immediately sail for the gulf of Tokio, but
took part in the memorable sea-fight which occurred near Kobé shortly
afterwards. Late on the 27th the dwellers in the newly opened foreign
settlement saw from the esplanade that the _Kaiyo Maru_, together with
the _Ban-riyo Maru_ (which was in reality the _Emperor_ yacht that Queen
Victoria had presented to the Shogun), and _Fusiyama_, a steamer that
the Shogunate had bought, arrived from Osaka, at a time when there were
three vessels of the prince of Satsuma’s little fleet in Kobé harbour.
When their adversaries steamed in the Satsuma ships were preparing to
leave, but they waited until dawn, and then got under weigh. The _Kaiyo_
immediately sent two shots after them, and one of the Satsuma vessels,
originally named the _Kiang-su_, turned and slowly steamed round the
harbour, as a challenge, and then followed her consorts the _Scotland_
and the _Lotus_. The three Shogunate vessels instantly accepted the
gage of battle, and all six ships disappeared below the horizon to the
southward. The fight took place in Awa bay, which faces Kobé, on the
Shikoku coast, about forty miles from that now well-known and flourishing
port. The _Scotland_ was sunk, and another of the Satsuma ships took
fire. No precise knowledge is obtainable as to what damages the remaining
vessels received but the _Kaiyo Maru_, _Emperor_ yacht, and _Fusiyama_
were able to reach Shinagawa, close to Tokio, on the 4th of the ensuing
month, exactly a week after they left Kobé. Immediately on his arrival
there the Shogun landed and went to his castle, now the imperial
residence.
Yedo, now Tokio, was at that time still the headquarters of the
Shogunate, and while stirring events had taken place in the vicinity of
the Ten-shi’s capital of Kioto, scarcely less exciting incidents had had
to be recorded in respect of the Shogun’s centre of authority in the
north. The duty of keeping the peace in Yedo had been assigned to the
dai-mio Sakai Sayemon-no-jo, a magnate whose income was that of 150,000
_koku_.[1] To assist in the work he had engaged a number of _ro-nin_,
or masterless samurai, whom he dubbed the Shin-Cho-gumi, _lit._: newly
raised company, and installed as a species of police. Finding that
the dwellers in the Satsuma Yashiki at Mita, adjoining Shiba, where
now stands the Shiba palace, were somewhat addicted to burglary, he
determined to put a stop to such irregularities, and demanded of the
clansmen then resident in the yashiki that the culprits should be
surrendered to justice. In the temper of the samurai of all classes in
those days of storm and stress a peremptory demand of this nature was
tantamount to a challenge to a trial of strength, and a desperate combat
ensued at Mita, in which fifty of the Satsuma men were killed outright.
Some contrived to make good their escape to a Satsuma vessel that was at
the moment in the harbour of Shinagawa (one of the three that afterwards
fought at Awa Bay) and she quickly got up steam and weighed anchor. Four
Shogunate ships lying off Shinagawa fired on her as she passed them,
and two—the _Eagle_ and the _Dumbarton_—were able to take up the chase.
The _Eagle_ and the Satsuma vessel had a long running fight, following
an encounter in Mississippi Bay, near Yokohama, which the residents of
that port were privileged to witness on the Sunday afternoon, and in
the end the Satsuma champion sped away to the southward and the _Eagle_
returned to her anchorage at Shinagawa. In the Mita fight between the
Shin-Cho-gumi and other Shogunate men and the retainers of Satsuma the
yashiki was practically burned to the ground and the bodies of the fallen
were cremated within its walls. It goes without saying that the deadly
animosity which existed between the Satsuma and Tokugawa followers was in
no sense diminished by these active hostilities.
[1] In those days the standing of a feudal lord among his
fellows was in strict accord with his income, and some dai-mios
enjoyed enormous revenues as expressed in _koku_—1 _koku_ = 5
bushels of rice.
In resigning into the hands of the Emperor a power that had for two and
a half centuries been wielded by the Tokugawa family the Shogun Keiki
issued the manifesto which is here reproduced according to a translation
made at the time, though the dignity and force of the original
composition are necessarily somewhat impaired.
MANIFESTO
“A retrospect of the various changes through which the Empire
has passed shows us that after the deadness of the monarchical
authority, the power passed into the hands of the Minister of
State,—and that by the wars of 1156 to 1159 the governmental
power came into the hands of the military class. My ancestor
Iyeyasu received greater marks of confidence than any before
him, and his descendants have succeeded him for more than two
hundred years.
Though I perform the same duties, the objects of the Government
and of the penal laws have been missed, and it is with feelings
of the greatest humiliation that I find myself obliged to
acknowledge my own want of virtue as the cause of the present
state of things.
Moreover, our intercourse with foreign countries becomes daily
more extensive, and consequently our national policy cannot be
pursued unless directed by the whole power of the State.
If therefore the old regime be changed and the Governmental
authority be restored to the Imperial Court,—if the counsels
of the whole Empire be collected and the wise decisions
received,—and if we unite with all our heart and all our
strength to protect and maintain the Empire, it will be able to
range itself with the nations of the Earth. This comprises our
whole duty to our country.
However, if you [the Daimios] have any particular ideas on the
subject, you may state them without reserve.”
The Shogun had lost no time in making known to his imperial master at
Kioto his desire to submit unreservedly to the sovereign’s will, for
a courier was despatched from Yedo shortly after the arrival of the
_Kaiyo Maru_ at Shinagawa anchorage. But it turned out that after the
Shogun’s departure from Osaka an imperial messenger in the person of
the baron Higashi Kuze was sent to Kobé to assure Sir Harry Parkes and
the other foreign representatives that the engagements which had been
entered into by Japan with their respective governments would be observed
to the letter, and the imperial despatch contained an announcement of
the Shogun’s resignation. The memorable document was dated the 3rd
of February,—the day before the Shogun reached Yedo. Not only was the
imperial rescript of the most welcome,—because reassuring,—character, but
it bore for the first time in the history of Japan the sign-manual of
the Emperor in the form of his personal name of Mutsuhito. Never before
in the lifetime of the monarch had the personal name been appended to a
state paper, it being customary to attach the great seal alone, but on
this occasion both the great seal and that bearing the ruler’s own name
were affixed to the document of which Higashi Kuze (now Count) was the
bearer. The text thereof was as follows:—
The Emperor of Japan announces to the Sovereigns of all foreign
nations and to their subjects that permission has been granted
to the Shogun Yoshinobu to return the governing power in
accordance with his own request. Henceforward we shall exercise
supreme authority both in the internal and external affairs
of the country. Consequently the title of Emperor should be
substituted for that of Tycoon which has been hitherto employed
in the Treaties. Officers are being appointed by us to conduct
foreign affairs. It is desirable that the representatives of
all the treaty powers should recognise this announcement.
MUTSUHITO.
(With the Seal of Dai Nihon,—Great Japan.)
_February 3, 1868._
The Emperor’s relative Ninnaja-no-Miya, afterwards Prince Higashi
Fushimi, then became Minister for Foreign Affairs, and he wrote to all
the foreign ministers notifying to them the fact of his appointment,
and stating that it was the Emperor’s express mandate to him that all
existing agreements made by the Bakufu with foreign countries should be
respected.
For a while the Shogun retired to the temple of Uyeno, but on the
decision of the Emperor being made known to him he went first to Mito,
and not long afterwards to Shidzuoka, the chief town of Suruga province,
at that time also known by its ancient name of Sumpu. He directed
his followers without exception to adopt a similar course and submit
themselves to the imperial will, yielding the Ten-shi implicit obedience
from that time forward. In the vast majority of cases, however, this
excellent counsel fell on deaf ears, for the adherents of the Tokugawa
house were for the most part resolved by this time to carry on the
struggle to an end.
On the retirement of Tokugawa Keiki the third son of Prince Tayasu, of
the Mito branch of the family, by name Kamenosuké, at that time only
five years of age, became the lineal head of the house. He is now Prince
Iyesato, the President of the Tokio House of Peers, and bears the title
of Kō-shaku, _lit._: Duke, though by courtesy styled Prince, there being
in Japan a distinction between those who bear the simple title of Prince
and the Imperial Princes of the Blood Royal.
More recently the Emperor, in the abundance of that magnanimity which has
ever distinguished him, called the former Shogun, who is to-day in his
sixty-ninth year, to the Imperial Palace at Tokio, and conferred upon him
likewise the rank of Kō-shaku, a title similar to that borne by Prince
Tokugawa Iyesato, who, as explained, represents the older (Tayasu) branch
of the Tokugawa family, so that there are now two noblemen who hold this
rank in what in pre-Restoration days was the viceregal line of Tokugawa
Shoguns who claimed descent from Iyeyasu the Law-giver.
Prince Tokugawa Keiki, during his retirement at Shidzuoka, was often
visited by those who had shared the fortunes of the Shogunate, but he
entirely refrained from all interference with politics, and lived the
life of a country gentleman, finding his recreation mainly in fishing,
and showing his sympathy with the hard-working agricultural population
in a way that won for him the respect and regard of all classes. When
the Emperor sent for him to visit Tokio, a few years ago, he set out
amid demonstrations of esteem on the part of the populace in Suruga
which must have convinced him by their spontaneity that if in the course
of events he had been compelled to relinquish the semi-regal state
in which he had dwelt at the capital, he had retained in the hearts
of his fellow-subjects of the Ten-shi a place of highest honour, and
that the affection for his person evinced at every stage of the journey
by those who were in former days his henchmen had flourished unabated
throughout the lapse of close upon four decades. A writer once described
the Shogunal entourage in terms which, after all the changes that Japan
has undergone during the last quarter of a century, read somewhat
strangely, but they serve to convey most vividly to the mind that
magnificence by which, in the pre-Restoration period, the Court of Yedo
was distinguished. There was a direct contrast between it and the almost
severe simplicity of the Kioto Dai-ri, which housed the real monarch,
in his complete seclusion, while his vicegerent performed most of the
duties of sovereignty in a city 400 miles distant. The quotation is from
an account given by one of his Highness’s own pages, and affords an
interesting sketch of the daily routine in the Shogunal palace, or Nijo,
at the Western Capital.
The usual form of address, we are told, was Go Zen (Your Highness), and
there were in the palace no fewer than fifty pages, whose duties were
to attend on the Shogun at all times, to wait at table, dress his hair
in the fashion peculiar to that time, and, when invited to do so, take
part in equestrian and other exercises. The Shogun habitually rose at
eight o’clock, and made his toilet for the day. He never wore any garment
twice, the whole of his raiment being renewed each day. At breakfast
seven or eight dishes were placed before him, but he ate sparingly at all
meals, and at ten o’clock he saw his ministers in council (the Go-ro-ju,
or assembled honoured elders). Having devoted the forenoon to affairs of
state he usually, at midday, went to the “male quarters” of the palace
to ride, shoot, or play polo,—in Japanese “da-kiu”—being skilled in
archery, and a sure shot with the pistol. On the lake he had a boat in
which he rowed himself, and he was expert in fishing with a casting-net.
At four o’clock he usually returned to the ladies’ palace, and listened
to their playing on the _koto_ or _Biwa_ (the _samisen_ was always too
vulgar an instrument to have entry to the palace) and at 6 P.M. the
evening repast of choice viands was served in great variety. His highness
dined alone, having many ladies to wait on him, as well as pages, and
the banquet often lasted until 11 P.M., with music and classic dances at
intervals during the evening. He had no companions, for the reason, no
doubt, that his rank prevented his associating on terms of equality with
even the feudal lords, who were obliged by an inflexible etiquette to
bow their heads to the floor when in his august presence, and to remain
in that attitude throughout an interview. It is recorded that in 1866 a
photograph of the Shogun was taken in his palace of Nijo at Kioto by an
officer of an English man-of-war then in Japanese waters, his Highness
wearing at the time his robes of ceremony, and it would be interesting
to learn that the portrait still exists. The Nijo was built by the first
Shogun of the Tokugawa line, the “Law-giver” Iyeyasu, and it was designed
to be as much a fortress as a palace. The gorgeous gateways, resplendent
in lacquer and gilding, leading to the inner apartments, remind one in
their wealth of embellishment of those wonderful temple gates and halls
at Nikko, constructed not long afterwards by Iyeyasu’s grandson, the
magnificent Iyemitsu, and in the splendid audience chamber, where the
Shogun sat on a dais to receive the homage of the feudal barons, the
visitor catches a glimpse, as it were, of the pomp and circumstance which
to the end of the Bakufu’s existence as a power in Japan surrounded the
person of the “Last of the Shoguns.”
For fifteen years prior to its extinction the foreign policy of the
Tokugawa Shogunate had been that which was found acceptable to the
Emperor Mutsuhito on his accession, thus the necessity for the “Tycoon’s”
intervention to secure imperial recognition for the treaties was no
longer apparent, and it was inevitable that the position he held should
eventually become untenable, apart from all other considerations of
political exigency. The predominance of the Bakufu as a military
despotism attained its zenith, to judge by the available history of the
period, in the days of Iyemitsu, and in proportion as the individual
strength and influence of the numerous feudal barons who owed it
allegiance were found to increase, the real power of the Tokugawa house
steadily diminished. While it lasted, however, the Bakufu did much to
render Japan a prosperous country, studiously fostering the arts of
civilisation in general, and diligently seeking to promote secular
education. It established academies as far back as 1857 for the study of
foreign languages and science, supplemented by a school of medicine in
1858.
III
FUJITA TOKO
Outside the Japanese Empire the name of Fujita Toko is but little known,
yet he undoubtedly exercised an influence which tended greatly towards
the making of Modern Japan, if only by reason of his pronounced hostility
to the Regency of the Bakufu and his steadfast, unwearying inculcation of
the doctrines of loyalty to the real sovereign and constant preparation
for national defence. That he was in advance of his age is clear, for he
lived in an era when Japan was secluded from the outer world, and was
mainly dependent on such information regarding it as filtered through
from Holland by way of the Dutch settlement at Nagasaki. Fujita was a
renowned Chinese scholar and teacher of the classics, born in the third
year of the Bunkwa period (1806), at Mito, in eastern Hondo, the seat of
one branch of the Tokugawa family which for 250 years virtually ruled
the country from Yedo. Mito is distant from the capital some fifty-five
miles by railway, and is now the chief town of the Ibaraki prefecture,
with a population of about 35,000, but in the time of Fujita it was
accessible only by road through Tsuchiura, a town at the extremity of
the large inlet or lagoon named Kasumi-ga-ura which penetrates from the
Pacific a long way inland just to the north of Cape Inuboye. Mito itself
is about twelve miles from the coast and is a flourishing agricultural
centre, famed for its output of barley, beans, millet, and buckwheat.
Tobacco is also extensively cultivated in this region, which is at the
present day in the enjoyment of exceptional facilities of communication,
for sea-going steamers call at Choshi, an anchorage at the mouth of the
river Toné, close to Cape Inuboye, and smaller craft ply between Choshi
and the towns situated along the Toné or on the shores of Kasumi-ga-ura,
in addition to the branch railway from Oyama on the main line to the
north of Japan and a separate line in connection with the capital through
Tsuchiura.
[Illustration: FUJITA
SAKUMA
YOSHIDA]
Fujita Toko was not merely a celebrated professor of Chinese literature
in an age when classical learning was highly prized, but he was the
friend and counsellor of the famous Rekko, senior prince of Mito, whose
seventh son, born in 1837, was destined to play so conspicuous a part
in the affairs of the nation, and who happily still occupies a leading
position as Prince Tokugawa Keiki, better known in pre-Restoration
days as the Shogun Hitotsubashi, and whose share in the revival of
imperial rule is elsewhere referred to in these pages. The head of the
Mito house, Prince Tokugawa Nariaki, strenuously opposed the Bakufu
form of government and its policy towards foreign powers, but there is
no direct evidence that he was personally antagonistic to the people
of the Occident. Dark deeds were attributed to his followers, but the
perpetrators were at all events in theory “ro-nins” or outlaws, who had
voluntarily severed their connection with the clan beforehand, and for
whose crimes the house of Mito was not to be held responsible. This was
particularly the case in regard to the assassination of the Regent or
Tairo, Ii Kamon-no-Kami, in 1860, at the Sakurada Gate in Yedo. Though
the murderers had once, it turned out, been followers of the “old prince
of Mito”—as he was termed—they had cut themselves adrift from the clan,
and were acting independently of it when they perpetrated the crime that
so profoundly stirred the community.
Fujita had long before this taken up his abode in Yedo, and dwelt in
that part of the capital known as Koishikawa, down to the date of the
terrible earthquake of 1855, in which he, in common with many thousands
of his fellow-citizens, was engulfed. He spent practically the whole
of his life, however, in Mito, and thither came in 1842 the future
Commander-in-chief of the Imperial Forces in the War of the Restoration,
and at a later period Minister for War in the Government of Revived
Imperial Rule, Saigo Takamori. Saigo became Fujita’s pupil, and there is
no doubt that the professor instilled into Saigo’s mind a hostility to
the Shogunate as deep and enduring as his own, to bear fruit in after
years when the possibility as well as the desirability of effecting a
complete revolution in the administration came to be a matter no longer
of secret consultation but of free and open discussion. If in the
affectionate remembrance of his countrymen Saigo Takamori was the “sword
and spear” of the Revolution of 1868, as Kido was its “brain” (employing
a phrase once much in vogue), the thoughts of people in Japan must often
turn to the long since dead Mito scholar who implanted in his pupil the
conviction of the pressing need that there was for a return to the old
order of things, and the personal rule of the real emperor.
There is a little story still current in Japan relative to the time of
Saigo’s departure from Mito, after a stay of some years’ duration there
under Fujita’s tuition. The master had bidden a number of his friends
to a supper in Saigo’s honour, and in accord with ancient custom Fujita
offered his _sakazuki_ (wine-cup) to his pupil in token of friendship,
but Saigo, to Fujita’s surprise, at first begged to be excused. When
rallied on his excessive caution Saigo explained that he went in
fear lest under the influence of wine he might be guilty of acting
imprudently, but Fujita would not accept the plea. “A man who aims at
distinction as a samurai must never refuse his master’s invitation to
take wine with him,” declared Fujita,—meaning, apparently, that a soldier
must place himself unreservedly in the hands of his chief,—and Saigo
thereupon took the risk, as he deemed it, on that occasion, and drank
several cupfuls of _Sake_. Fujita was pleased with his pupil’s spirit,
and often said of him afterwards that whatever Saigo might undertake
he would assuredly succeed in, as he could accommodate himself to
circumstances.
Fujita had many other students of classical literature staying with him
at Mito at various times, it being a period when not only was there the
highest appreciation of Chinese literary composition, but things Chinese
in general had a vogue in Japan which approximated to that which in
later years was developed in respect of things European. There was,
moreover, a growing disposition among the samurai to apply themselves
to the study of such arts and sciences as were revealed to them through
translations of foreign works introduced by the Dutch at Nagasaki. To
thinking men of the type of those who went to Fujita for instruction
the Dutch books formed the only media whereby the desired information
concerning the Western world could be obtained, and considering the
difficulties under which those who sought knowledge in those days must
have laboured the perseverance shown in its pursuit reflects vast credit
on professors and pupils alike. Long prior to Commodore Perry’s first
visit in 1853 the Japanese people were cognisant to some extent of the
existence of railways, and steam engines,—even of the electric telegraph,
it is said, which was at that time quite new to Europe and America,—and
blast furnaces, mills, and workshops of different kinds had been set up
on plans obtained from Nagasaki, with no inconsiderable share of success.
Other industrial inventions had been introduced, which, if they did not
precisely originate in the Occident, had at least been brought to some
degree of perfection there, such as the art of printing from movable
types, which is said to have belonged in the first place to Korea, and
so with human effort in other directions it was at last discovered that
all unknown to the Western world the leaven had been working in the
various strata of society in Japan with results as astounding to the
onlooker as they were beneficial in their effects on the nation. The
disposition towards independence of political thought that arose from the
perusal of foreign writings which found their way to the country in its
period of seclusion was productive, when once the upheaval commenced,
of a mental activity that manifested itself in a thousand ways in the
last half-century, and there is little likelihood, despite her eagerness
for progress, that Japan will ever forget those who aided in the past
to bring about her emancipation from a feudal system which sapped her
energies and blighted her prospects of advancement. Fujita Toko lives in
the hearts of his countrymen.
IV
SAKUMA SHURI (OTHERWISE SHOZAN)
In the eighth year of the Bun-kwa era, corresponding to A.D. 1811,
during the reign of the Emperor Kokaku, was born in the little town of
Matsu-shiro (Pine citadel) in Shinano province, a man who was destined
to leave his mark on the annals of his country for all time. Little has
ever been heard of him, so far, outside his own land, but in Japan he is
regarded as one of the forerunners of a new regime,—a patriot to whom
the Japanese people of the present day are indebted in no small degree
for the privileges which they now enjoy. His family name was Sakuma,
and his common or as we might say, his baptismal name was Shuri, but to
the student of history he is best known, perhaps, by his _nom de plume_
of Shozan. His poetical works fill many volumes, and I venture to quote
one of the numerous “thirty-one syllabled” poems which he penned, as an
example of his endeavours to stimulate his fellow-countrymen to throw off
the yoke of feudalism:—
Kokoro-mi ni izaya sakeban Yama-biko no
Kotaye tataseba koye wa oshimaji.
(When once to our loud shouts Echo vouchsafes an answer
The vocal effort made to gain her favour counts for naught.)
It is recorded of him that even as a child he evinced an unusual gravity
of demeanour, so much so that his behaviour was that of an adult rather
than a boy of seven, and the neighbours were apt to shake their heads in
doubt as to what manner of man he would grow up to be. He cared nothing
for the ordinary sports of Japanese children of his years, who, as we
have often been assured, dwell in a perfect paradise as far as their
play is concerned, but was at all times distinguished by a taciturnity
wholly unbefitting one so young. His cleverness was the subject of
general remark, and he was a source of intense pride and satisfaction to
his parents. In Japan, as in the West, children who betray extraordinary
ability are objects of the most marked admiration.
As far as can be ascertained, Shuri continued to reside in his native
town until he was twenty-nine years old, when he set out for Yedo, as the
capital of the Shogun,—now Tokio—was then called, to seek his fortune.
There he studied diligently, under such celebrated professors as Hayashi
Jussai and Sato Issai, the then much-prized Chinese literature, and
enjoyed the close friendship of those profound scholars Yanagawa Seigan,
Watanabe Kazan, and Tsuboi Shindo. All these men won for themselves
enduring fame as exponents of the writings of the Chinese sages, and
under their guidance Sakuma became deeply versed in the teachings
of Mencius and Confucius, and many of the lesser lights of Chinese
philosophy. Japan’s rigid seclusion from the outer world, which had at
that time already lasted over two centuries, had had the result, for
one thing, of elevating Chinese learning to a position, in the eyes
of the average Japanese, scarcely less exalted than that of Greek or
Latin in England in the Middle Ages, although in Japan some knowledge
of Chinese was found among all classes. But Sakuma’s studies were by no
means confined to Chinese literature. He set himself to glean all that he
could from the works of the Hollanders, then almost the only Occidental
writings available to the Japanese in their search for information, and
having acquired a fair knowledge of the Dutch language, he embarked
resolutely on an investigation of the arts and sciences of the West,
including the manufacture of firearms, the construction of vessels of
war, of fortifications, and the casting of heavy guns. The immediate
effect of his researches was to imbue his mind with a conviction of
the paramount necessity of strengthening the national defences, and
providing against the contingency of an attack by some hostile Western
power. His studies in musketry led him to invent a new weapon, in the
shape of a musket capable of far greater rapidity of fire than that
which at the time was in use, the pattern of which had been brought
from Europe. Sakuma was groping in the dark, by comparison with those of
his fellow-countrymen who, at a later date, followed in his footsteps
along the path which led to substantial reforms, but he was on the right
track, as his unerring judgment assured him, though it was not his fate
to live until the dawn of the Meiji era, still less to be able to form a
true conception of the success that would attend his country’s efforts
and the phenomenal progress that would be achieved under the beneficent
auspices of the Emperor Mutsuhito’s reign. In 1842, which was the
thirteenth year of the Tempo period, while the Emperor Ninko was on the
throne, the feudal chieftain of Shinano, Sakuma’s native province, was
given high office under the Tokugawa Government—that is to say, under
the administration at Yedo of the Shogun, or as he was better known to
Europeans, the “Tycoon.” The Shinano _dai-mio_, as the feudal chiefs in
those days were styled, raised Sakuma to the rank of private adviser to
the State on matters concerning coast defence. In the execution of his
duties in this capacity Sakuma prepared a memorandum on the nature of the
measures to be adopted for adequate protection, and the document is not
without historical value, when considered in the light of the more recent
events of Japanese history. The report, it will be remembered was made in
the year 1842. Roughly speaking, Sakuma’s ideas of national defence were,—
(_a_) To fortify all points of strategical importance on the
coast territories.
(_b_) To prohibit the export of copper to Holland, and to
undertake the manufacture of a large number of cannon. (The
impression conveyed is that many thousands of such guns were to
be cast, and that the material was to be bronze.)
(_c_) To build powerful men-of-war, on the Western model.
(_d_) To promote the trade with foreign countries, by every
means at command, external commerce being essential to the
national development, and at the same time to put a check on
the self-seeking ambitions of the Dutch merchants at Nagasaki,
and induce them to abandon their evil ways.
(_e_) To strengthen the navy. (Considering that Japan was
not supposed to have had a navy until quite recent years,
this provision would at first sight appear to be somewhat
superfluous, but the reference is, of course, to the very few
sailing vessels fit to carry guns which had been built in the
days of the Tokugawa regime, on lines that had been handed down
to the native shipbuilders from the time of Will Adams, the
sailor and shipwright of London, who, after his vessel’s wreck
on the Japanese coast, at the dawn of the seventeenth century,
entered the employ of the then Shogun, and for the remainder of
his life devoted himself to the service of his adopted country.)
(_f_) To establish schools and in every way spread a knowledge
of the benefits of a liberal education.
(_g_) To familiarise people with the principles of sound
government, by the introduction of beneficent regulations, and
to lead them to appreciate its advantages by the establishment
of organised rule on enlightened methods.
(_h_) To employ only the more intelligent persons in offices of
higher rank.
It will readily be comprehended that these recommendations, had they been
adopted, would at the outset have involved such sweeping reforms in the
methods of administration as would have procured for Sakuma in any case a
whole host of enemies, for there were vested interests to be considered
in those times as in every age, and it is not at all surprising to learn
that his proposals were not received with any degree of favour: admirable
as they were in conception, they struck at the very root of the system
on which the Tokugawa rule was based, after the closing of the country
to foreign intercourse in 1638, which was that of complete seclusion
from the rest of the world, and the memorandum was, as might be said,
pigeon-holed for future reference.
To fully appreciate the risk that Sakuma ran in putting forward
proposals so entirely subversive of the existing order of things, it
must be brought to mind for an instant that early in the seventeenth
century of the Christian era, at a time when the over-sea trade of
Japan had attained to some importance, the Tokugawa Government sternly
suppressed all trade with foreign nations on account of the attempts of
the Jesuit missionaries, it was said, to obtain for their order that
political influence in Japan that they had succeeded in securing at the
time in China. The construction of large vessels was prohibited under
very severe penalties, and a maritime trade that bade fair to prove
eminently advantageous to Japan was strangled at the outset. As far as
can be gleaned from the records of that period, Japan had in 1620 about
200 ocean-going ships, fit to brave the storms that were usually to be
encountered in the course of a voyage to India, Mexico, or the islands
of the South Seas, where the Japanese flag was in those days by no means
rarely to be seen. The order that thenceforward Japanese ships were to
have but one mast struck at the root of naval expansion, and Japan was
still suffering the consequences of this drastic regulation when Sakuma
penned his remarkable essay on needed measures of defence.
When his feudal chief, at a later date, returned to his own province
Sakuma went back also, being no longer in the employ of the Shogun,
though of course the clan administration was still conducted in full
accord with the prevailing system, under which the Shogun, as the
Emperor’s deputy, managed the nation’s secular affairs and controlled
its foreign policy. It was not long, however, before Sakuma was again
in Yedo, this time occupying himself in teaching Dutch, of which he had
acquired a competent knowledge, to a group of pupils whose ideas tended
to coincide with his own. It was at this period that he wished to publish
a Dutch-Japanese dictionary, but the Shogun’s officials, so strict were
still the laws on this point, could not grant the desired permission.
And in the fifth year of the Ka-yei era, corresponding to 1852, the
year before Commodore Perry made his appearance off the shores of Idzu
province, Sakuma sought to issue a handbook on gunnery, but this right
was likewise denied him. The work was entirely from his own pen, and it
is to be regretted that it has not, so far as is known, been translated.
The next year eight American warships arrived at the little bay of Uraga,
close to the entrance of the gulf of Yedo, and it was freely stated that
they had brought a message to the effect that unless the Japanese were
prepared to open their ports to trade with all nations these “black
ships” would find their way to Yedo itself and bombard the castle of
the Shogun. The prospect filled the minds of the people of the locality
with horror. Japan had no naval or military strength to oppose to these
invaders. It was mournfully recognised that the coast forts then in
existence had no armaments that would enable them for an instant to
cope with the powerful guns on board the American ships. Japan had in
secluding herself failed to keep pace with the march of progress, and
was wholly at the mercy of the powers of the Occident. China had had,
as in Japan they well knew, to endure in 1841 the intrusion of foreign
troops, and the forcible entry of Western vessels into the waters of
the Yang-tse-kiang, and now Japan, though she had secluded herself for
centuries from the unwelcome attentions of foreign nations, was destined
to undergo, as it seemed, the forcible encroachment on her dominions
of Western barbarians with whom she had no sort of sympathy, and whose
acquaintance she had absolutely no desire whatever to make.
Sakuma was stirred to action. Mounting his horse, he set off alone to
Uraga, riding at full speed, resolved to see for himself, as a first
step, what manner of men these visitors were, and to gather, if he
could, from their attitude to the local inhabitants, what were the
real intentions of the intruders. He saw sufficient, as he judged,
to form an opinion, and speedily returned to Yedo in order that he
might make a report to his feudal chief, who was then staying in the
capital. Soon afterwards Sakuma was appointed a member of the general
staff, and given the command of the military forces. While enjoying
the opportunities which his position afforded him, he frequently at
this period advocated the adoption of a new and more complete system
of training, as being requisite if Japan desired not merely to protect
herself from the aggression of those foreign powers which had already
worked their will upon China, but to be in a position some day to choose
her own friends should a recourse to Occidental methods suggest itself
as politically advantageous to his countrymen. But his aspirations met
with no favourable response at headquarters. His ideas were pronounced
to be crude and altogether needlessly alarmist in their tendency. He was
compelled, therefore, to bury his hopes for the time being, trusting that
in the chapter of accidents something might arise to add force to his own
respectful but solemn warnings of the danger of delay.
The following year, being the first of An-Sei era,—at this time it was
the custom in Japan to change the name of the era to commemorate some
auspicious or notable event, irrespective of the sovereign’s reign, but
now the eras are co-extensive with the monarch’s tenure of the throne—the
American cruisers reappeared at Uraga, having as arranged on their
previous visit, returned to receive an answer to President Fillmore’s
despatch, in which he had saluted the ruler of Japan with obvious good
will and had expressed with a heartiness that could not be misinterpreted
America’s wish to be on cordial terms with the subjects of the Ten-shi.
On this occasion the squadron of Commodore Perry permitted itself the
freedom of entering the Bay of Yedo, an act that came perilously near
wrecking the negotiations altogether. As it was, the Tokugawa Government
directed two prominent _dai-mios_, the feudal barons of Kokura and
Matsushiro respectively, to prepare for the defence of the approaches
to the Sho-gun’s chief city. Kokura is a castle town in the straits of
Shimonoseki, afterwards so famous for a fierce fight between the combined
foreign squadrons and the forts of the _dai-mio_ of Choshiu province,
facing the Buzen province to which Kokura belongs, and Matsushiro is
in the Shinano province, and was the place of Sakuma’s birth, and the
seat of that feudal chief to whom he owed allegiance. It is situated
west-north-west of the Japanese metropolis, towards the west coast, close
to that mighty river the Shinano, which there pours its waters into
the Sea of Japan. By his chieftain Sakuma was immediately directed to
attend and advise the military council, and from that time forth he so
ardently devoted himself to the elaboration of a scheme of defence as to
allow himself no proper time, it is said, for rest, night or day, until
he had completed his task. A week after the advent for a second time of
the American warships in Uraga Bay Sakuma took up his position in the
vicinity of what is now Yokohama in command of his small force, all being
resolved to prevent, as far as their limited powers would permit them to
do, the landing of what were then regarded as hostile visitors.
The Tokugawa government had it in mind at that time to open the port
of Shimoda to foreign trade in response to the American proposal, the
situation of this place, near the extremity of the peninsula of Idzu, and
bathed by the waves of the Pacific, being such as to afford reasonable
security from too close intimacy with the strangers. But Sakuma was
averse to this, on the ground that Shimoda was strategically far too
valuable to be relinquished for the purposes of trade, and the free
entry and egress of aliens and their ships, and he suggested instead
the opening of a trading centre at some spot within the bay of Yedo,
not wholly, it may be surmised, without an eye to the practicability of
closing the entrance to the bay, should such a course become necessary,
by fortifications at Kannon-saki. Ultimately Kanagawa was selected as
the port to be opened, the actual site for the foreign settlement being
laid out at the village of Yokohama, the “beach over the way,” as its
name implies, from the town of Kanagawa. Parenthetically it may be
mentioned that as long as the Treaties with foreign powers remained in
force Kanagawa was the official designation of the port commonly known as
Yokohama. The result of Sakuma’s remonstrances was that the opening of
Shimoda was postponed _sine die_, and Kanagawa was finally chosen to be
the first of the ports at which foreign trade and intercourse should be
allowed.
In 1851, three years before the treaty of peace and amity with the United
States of America was concluded, Sakuma had received into his entire
friendship one who was like himself to occupy a niche in the annals of
his country. This was Yoshida Torajiro, better known now by his literary
name of Sho-in. Yoshida, as Sakuma’s pupil, had become imbued with his
mentor’s ideas on the subject of national defence, and acting on Sakuma’s
suggestion, which was that every man ought to examine for himself how
other countries provided for their own security from attack, Yoshida
endeavoured to procure a passage in an American warship, though it was at
that time against the law for a Japanese to quit his native land, and in
this endeavour he was supported by the conviction that Sakuma approved
of his plan, but unfortunately the attempt was foredoomed to failure, as
Commodore Perry would not countenance a breach of Japanese law. Sakuma
perceived that Yoshida contemplated running the risk of detection,
with the object of seeing for himself the condition of people under an
enlightened government, and gaining experience which should fit him to
continue the good work which the elder man had begun, and the pupil
received at the hands of his master a treasured letter stimulating him to
yet greater efforts in his search for knowledge, and designed to comfort
him amid the inevitable trials and difficulties of the career that he
had mapped out for himself. That composition was to be historic, for it
decided the fate of Sakuma too, but it shows the clearsightedness of its
writer, and it was subsequently an incentive to many to prove constant
amid the storm and stress of a period of transition and revolution. An
attempt is here made to translate Sakuma’s stirring exhortation into
English, but the result is by no means satisfactory, for it is very
difficult, if not impossible, to reproduce faithfully the force of the
original.
Rendered into English it might perhaps be read as:—
“He has journeyed a thousand leagues, and though he has not
yet disclosed to me the trend of his thoughts, I perceive
that he is meditating some exploit out of the ordinary. As
I watch him move away from my cottage gate I see in fancy a
solitary stork outstretched on the wing in the autumn sky. The
ocean lies beneath, and the five continents seem to be the
bird’s close neighbours. So in a tour of the globe one takes
in the situation at a glance, and the benefit exceeds that
of a hundred lectures. An intelligent person would not fail
to profit hugely by the opportunities presented of acquiring
expansive views of men and things. Unless a man achieves
something wonderful in life he cannot hope to bear a high
reputation after his death.”
The letter brought trouble to Sakuma’s door because it happened to fall
into the hands of his political foes, who promptly denounced him to the
Government as having instigated a Japanese subject to transgress the
laws, and his arrest and imprisonment speedily followed. He was permitted
to return to his native province, but was there confined to his own
house, on pain of immediate punishment if he ventured to quit it. For
nine years he endured this captivity, and then was set free, receiving
thereupon invitations from the feudal lords of both Nagato and Tosa to
settle in their territories and act in each case as adviser upon matters
of coast defence. Nagato is the Japanese title of the province otherwise
known as Cho-shiu, and Tosa is one of the four baronies of the Shikoku
(_lit._: four states) island, the third largest of the group forming
the Japanese empire. Sakuma’s fame as an ardent reformer had already
spread to the south, in which the two chieftains named held sway, and
they thus early evinced their antagonism to the Tokugawa regime, and
their recognition of the purity and self-sacrificing character of those
ambitions for which Sakuma had already suffered imprisonment. Both
_dai-mios_, in inviting Sakuma to make his home within their borders
had it in mind, beyond doubt, to protect him from the dangers that were
fast accumulating above his head, and had he been willing to become
the protege of either he would have been comparatively safe, for they
were all-powerful within their own fiefs, and might have secured for
him perfect freedom for the elaboration of his plans of reform. But for
reasons with which the present age has little concern, and were they
even fully comprehended might scarcely, perhaps, be appreciated, Sakuma
respectfully declined the flattering offers thus made to him and clung to
his home in Yedo to the last.
Japan was now on the verge of experiencing a crisis in her affairs which
threatened to end in one of those sanguinary internecine struggles for
supremacy between rival factions to which in her long and exceedingly
diversified history, not only under the Tokugawa dynasty but for
centuries antecedent thereto, she had been no stranger.
In the third year of the Bunkio era, which was that corresponding to A.D.
1863, Sakuma was invited to visit Kioto, then the centre of learning, as
indeed it had ever been, and the city in which dwelt the absolute monarch
of Japan, the Ten-shi himself, but again he rejected all overtures to
change permanently his place of abode. The following year the title of
the era was altered to Genji, so often from one cause and another was
it desirable at that period to change these era names. Once more Sakuma
was urged to go south, and this time he consented to make the journey
to the ancient capital, arriving there in the spring of 1864. It was at
that epoch that the latent animosity to foreigners, begotten of racial
prejudice and ill report combined, reached its height, and attacks
on strangers were not at all infrequent, both in the capital and the
provinces. “Loyalty to our Emperor, and expulsion of foreigners” was the
cry that animated the masses of the people, who were totally incapable,
no doubt, of judging for themselves, and were urged to deeds of violence
by the specious arguments of skilled agitators, unable to form any
conception of the ignominy that a policy of deliberate persecution was
certain to entail for their country. Kioto became infested with men of
the “ro-nin” class, outlaws by choice, having obtained from their feudal
lords permission to detach themselves from their masters’ service and
to become free-lances prepared to undertake deeds of violence for which
the barons to whom they ordinarily owed allegiance should not be held
responsible to the State. It mattered little whether the “ro-nin” had
been dismissed from his lord’s employ for some personal shortcoming or
had sought temporary or permanent leave of absence. His lord was no
longer liable for what might occur. And it was not in Kioto alone that
these men had assembled, for Yedo was almost equally in favour with them
as a convenient lurking-place, and the persons and property of foreigners
were often assailed, to the extent that life became most insecure.
Within a brief space of time a whole series of assassinations took
place, including the killing of Mr Richardson on the Tokaido seven miles
from Yokohama the slaughter of Dankichi, an interpreter to the American
Embassy, of Mr Heusken, attached to the British Embassy in a similar
capacity, and of several others. The chapter is so painful a one in
Japanese history, and Japan so long ago repented in sackcloth and ashes
for the crimes of which her people were then guilty, that it is needless
to offer, and would perhaps be ungenerous in an English-reading public
to demand, a detailed account to-day of these deplorable occurrences.
Suffice it to say that Sakuma himself, for the ostensible reason that he
firmly adhered to his opinion,—despite the opposition of a numerous and
powerful body of his fellow-countrymen who advocated the abrogation of
the treaties and the return to a policy of complete isolation,—that the
other ports designated as the emporiums of general foreign trade should
be forthwith opened, as well as Yokohama, incurred the censure of the
anti-foreign clique and was stabbed to death by “ro-nins” on the 11th of
July 1864, he being then in the fifty-fourth year of his age.
Of the character of Sakuma Shozan it is impossible to write in terms
of too high praise. By his countrymen he is universally esteemed a
martyr to the sacred cause of enlightened progress. He was unselfish
in the extreme, ever willing to aid others with his learning, a man of
lofty ideals, of unrivalled ability to forecast the future and prepare
himself, as he strove to prepare others, for its inevitable changes
and transformations. His was patriotism of the purest type, for he had
everything to lose and absolutely naught to gain by seeking to popularise
in Japan the institutions of the West. He was in advance of his age,
and shared the fate of many a reformer in other lands. He realised, at
a time when it was fatal to entertain views so heretical, that the days
of Japan’s complete liberty to choose a course for herself had passed,
and that she would be driven to consort with the other nations of the
earth if she would avoid the fate which was seen to have overtaken some
other Asiatic peoples and potentates. He suffered for his boldness in
criticising the then existing order of things, and a perusal of his later
poems will serve to indicate the extent to which he was willing that the
nation should go forward in its adoption of Western ideas and appliances,
for they are eminently inspiring and resolute in tone, encouraging in
every line the pursuit of knowledge with the single purpose of providing
for the national defence and the retention of the independence of the
land for which he prophesied the most brilliant future. Sakuma was the
great forerunner of that distinguished band of patriots who, in some
cases at the sacrifice of their lives, and always by the whole-souled
devotion of their best energies, helped to make Modern Japan.
V
YOSHIDA TORAJIRO (OTHERWISE SHO-IN)
During the reign of the Emperor Nin-ko, in the first year of the Tempo
era, which corresponded to A.D. 1830, there was born in Cho-shiu
province, south-west Niphon, Yoshida Torajiro, the son of _samurai_
parents, who were retainers of the dai-mio Mori, the lord of the fief.
Yoshida’s birthplace was the little village of Matsushita (Under the
pines), close to the town of Hagi, on the west coast of Niphon, facing
the peninsula of Korea. From his earliest years Yoshida was an ardent
student of Chinese literature, and exhibited an extreme cleverness as
a child that won for him uncommon fame in the district. So proficient
had he become in this department of study that at the age of eleven he
was called on to lecture on a topic of military history in the presence
of his feudal chieftain, the dai-mio Mori Kei-shin, and his erudition
was the source of the utmost astonishment to his hearers. When he was
nineteen he set out on a tour through the island of Kiu-shiu, his main
object being to make the acquaintance of those prominent men in the south
of Japan who just then had raised the cry of “loyalty to the Emperor,
expulsion of all foreigners.” This sentiment, it will be observed, did
not have its origin in the later fifties, as might have been supposed
from the frequency with which it was then heard, after Perry’s visits had
led to the conclusion of treaties of peace and amity, but was prevalent
as far back as the year 1849, when the only aliens in the country were
a few Dutchmen at Nagasaki. The feeling at that time was perhaps only
local, for it was to the vicinity of that port that Yoshida wended his
way in the evident belief that he would there meet with those who most
strongly entertained this opinion of the proper course to be taken with
the intruders. No doubt his youthful impressions had been stimulated
by the reading of the _Nihon Gaishi_, a work on Japanese history,
written by Rai Sanyo, that at that period was intensely popular. His
father’s influence, moreover, was all in the same direction, and the
circumstances all point to Yoshida’s having imbibed principles that were
distinctly adverse to the retention of foreigners in the country under
any conditions whatever. Precisely what effect his travels in Kiushiu
had on his mind can never be known, but it may be assumed with tolerable
safety that he journeyed to Nagasaki and there saw the Dutchmen dwelling
in their own fashion in the quaint little settlement of Deshima, where
they were all but prisoners, though allowed to carry on their trade.
In the meantime the Emperor Ko-mei, father of the reigning monarch, had
succeeded Ninko on the throne, and the era bore the title of Ka-ei.
It lasted until 1854, and it was when it was in its fourth year that
Yoshida went to Yedo and there met, as described in a previous chapter,
with Sakuma Shozan, whose pupil he became. At this time Sakuma was forty
years old, and Yoshida was twenty-two. From their first meeting Yoshida
recognised in the elder man a greatness of intellect and grandeur of
aim that fascinated him, and led him there and then to appreciate the
opportunity afforded him of becoming Sakuma’s disciple. More especially
was he convinced of the soundness of Sakuma’s views on the importance
of coast defence, and at his suggestion undertook a journey into the
provinces of Sagami and Awa, with the express object of searching out
the most suitable positions, from a strategical point of view, for the
defence of Yedo Bay. It will be perceived, as constituting a matter of
no trifling interest, that the defence of the coast was under anxious
consideration two years at least prior to the arrival off Uraga of
Commodore Perry and his squadron of “black ships,” so that it cannot be
said that these measures were proposed as a direct consequence of the
American expedition’s advent in Japanese waters. After visiting Awa and
Sagami Yoshida went north to the Tsugaru Straits and Hakodate, having
the same purpose ever before him, the strengthening of his country’s
defences against the intrusion of foreign powers.
In 1853, the year of Perry’s arrival, Yoshida was again in Yedo, but
in September of that year he went once more to Nagasaki. His secret
purpose was then to embark for Europe in a Russian cruiser, but by the
time he reached the port named the vessel had sailed, so that his hopes
were entirely frustrated. Sakuma had recommended him to make his way to
Europe, if possible, because, as he said, if Yoshida desired to form an
adequate idea of the most efficient means of providing for the security
of the Japanese coasts it was first requisite that he should fully
comprehend the conditions under which the protection of their own coasts
was successfully undertaken by foreign nations. It was on this advice
that he sought by every means at his command to obtain a passage to some
foreign land, and in the following year, when the American warships
again visited Uraga, Yoshida made his next attempt, in company with a
faithful servant who very possibly hoped also to get away to a land where
there would be no restrictions on their movements, and entire liberty of
thought could be secured. It is a matter for regret that his ambitions
in this regard were once more frustrated, for in Yoshida there can be no
doubt that Japan had a truly patriotic son, one who, had the opportunity
been afforded him, would have achieved distinct success in the direction
which he had marked out for himself, the preservation of Japan for the
Japanese. In Yoshida’s case, as in all others with which I am acquainted,
the innate patriotism that he had inherited had been aroused and
stimulated by the experiences that the neighbouring Chinese Empire had
undergone. In common with other people in the Far East, he had heard
of the occupation of Canton, and of Chusan, of the expedition up the
Yang-tsu-kiang, and of the forcible opening to foreign commerce of the
ports of Ningpo, Amoy, and Shanghai. Such doings were of dire portent for
the dwellers in Dai Niphon, for if the Chinese, who for so many centuries
had in the arts and sciences led Japan, found themselves reduced to
the necessity of conforming to the will of the Western invaders, by
reason of a laxity in preparation for national defence, how much more
incumbent must it be upon the Japanese, with only their islands to call
their own, and no hinterland to retire into, strenuously to make ready
for eventualities. Yoshida’s request for a passage to the United States
was refused,—Commodore Perry mentions him as Isagi Kooda,—and he was
imprisoned for having attempted to quit Japan at a time when emigration
was forbidden.
In the following year Yoshida was confined to his own house at
Matsushima, in the province of Cho-shiu, but a year later, in the third
of the An-sei era, the discipline was so far relaxed as to admit of his
taking pupils for the study of military books. It was probably at this
period that he wrote to a Court noble, by name Ohara Shigetami, who held
very similar views on the subject of the foreigners’ invasion, begging
him to visit Cho-shiu for the purpose of starting an agitation there
in favour of the “expulsion of barbarians and the restoration of the
Ten-shi to supreme control,” that twofold object on which a majority of
the patriots of the age laid stress in the belief that its attainment
was wholly indispensable to the welfare of the nation. In truth
Yoshida’s teaching of military subjects was little more than a cover for
the inoculation of his pupils with the principles of a most resolute
antagonism to the Bakufu—_i.e._ the system of government by the Tokugawa
line of Sho-guns, a plan of vicarious rule in which he could discern
nothing for his country but disaster. A school was at this time opened
in the village of Matsushima by two uncles of Yoshida Sho-in, named Kubo
and Tamaki, and after a while Yoshida succeeded them in the management
thereof; it deserves more than a passing reference, for it was destined
to be the cradle, as it were, of the revolution of 1868, by which the
present Emperor was led to abandon the life of utter seclusion that it
had for centuries been customary for the occupants of the Japanese throne
to lead, and to take upon himself the actual rule of his dominions. Among
those who attended this school were not a few to whom fell the lot of
fighting, a short time afterwards, at Fushimi, in the tremendous contest
for supremacy which took place between the adherents of the Sho-gun and
those who sided with Choshiu and Satsuma.
Yoshida conducted the village school for two years and a half, from
July 1856 to December 1858, but in the latter month he was arrested,
and thrown into gaol for having, it was alleged, incited his pupils to
plot against the Tokugawa dynasty, and planned the assassination, his
enemies asserted, of the Minister Manabe Norikatsu, a member of the
Government. It is certain, whatever degree of guilt may have attached to
him in other respects, that he consistently challenged the wisdom of the
Tokugawa’s foreign policy, and advocated most zealously the abolition of
that form of administration, becoming in consequence the object of a most
determined persecution by the Yedo Government.
After an incarceration lasting five months in his native province he was
transferred to the Temmacho Prison in Yedo, and its doors closed over
him in July 1859. On the 27th of October following he was decapitated
in obedience to the orders of the Bakufu, and thus at the early age of
twenty-nine ended the career of one of Japan’s most earnest patriots.
While his aim was the retention of Japan for the Japanese, and his
determined antagonism to the Shogunate arose from its willingness to
enter into treaties for the opening of the Empire to foreign trade,
the object sought by his followers was the destruction of the Tokugawa
dynasty itself, and their opposition to foreign intercourse proceeded not
from antipathy to the Occidentals so much as from a paramount desire to
put an end to the dual form of administration. The cry of “Expulsion of
the Alien” was raised by Yoshida’s disciples in the expectation that acts
inimical to the strangers would embroil the Bakufu with those Western
Powers, the subjects of which were by degrees attaining a foothold in
the country, and that government by the Shogunate would then become an
impossibility.
VI
MARQUIS ITO
A Statesman of transcendent ability, the Marquis Ito Hirobumi of
necessity has his detractors. By the vast majority of the nation,
however, his political views are deemed wholly acceptable, and in regard
to the value of his services to his country there are not in Japan two
opinions. He was born in September 1841, at Kumagé, in the province of
Cho-shiu, otherwise Nagato, in south-west Japan. By birth a samurai,
he spent his boyhood in studies suitable to his station in life, and
became proficient in the military exercises which were prescribed for the
retainers of the feudal barons, but from the time of Commodore Perry’s
arrival in 1853 his aspirations became directed into a new channel, and
his reading especially took a turn in the direction of the adaptation
of foreign methods to the needs of Japan. In this he was associated
with many of his fellow-clansmen whose names have become in later years
household words in the country of their birth, and are almost equally
well known to the people of other lands. Yamagata, Kido, Takasugi,
Yamao, Inouye Kaoru, with many others who have since risen to fame, were
fellow-students of the political and military systems of the Occidental
nations, striving desperately to acquire information that should guide
them in their project of raising their country to the level of the
leading powers of the world.
[Illustration: MARQUIS ITO]
The little knot of reformers was headed by Takasugi, a man of samurai
rank who was considerably the senior of his colleagues in age, and one
of the earliest acts of the party, on ascertaining the attitude of the
lord of the province towards the Bakufu, was to put itself in a posture
of something like rebellion against his authority. The reformers sought
to organise a substantial resistance in Cho-shiu to the policy of the
Shogun, who had, it was urged, betrayed the best interests of his country
by entering into treaties with foreigners. Ostensibly, if not actually,
the leaders of this anti-Bakufu league were hostile to innovations from
the Occident, but they were willing to avail themselves of Western arts
and sciences to the end that their own position might be strengthened
to oppose the Shogun’s administration, and accordingly we find the new
military system gaining ground notwithstanding the avowed antagonism of
the reformers to the invasion of their country by the originators of that
system.
At Hagi, a town beautifully situated on the west coast of Nagato, and
the castle town of the lord of that province, the reformers gradually
matured their plans and drilled a small army of their fellow-samurai in
the martial exercises of the West as set forth in books of which they had
become possessed at Nagasaki and elsewhere, mainly in the Dutch tongue.
It is recorded of Ito Shunsuke that he earnestly strove to make himself
acquainted with Occidental progress, and became by degrees a competent
English scholar, thus equipping himself for the course of Western travel
which he was able to undertake in the year 1863, when he left his country
for the first time on the long voyage to Europe in a sailing vessel
belonging to Jardine Matheson & Company of Shanghai, for whom Glover &
Company, British merchants of Nagasaki,—a port which had been opened to
foreign trade four years previously,—were agents.
Ito Shunsuke, as he was then named, was one of many young men of Samurai
rank who, with the view of acquiring information which they felt might
the better enable them to do good service to their country, were willing
to undergo all kinds of privations and run all risks in order that they
might add to their store of knowledge. Glover & Company, as agents
for the owners, Jardine Matheson & Company, facilitated the escape
of the young men, who were concealed in a garden at Yokohama, their
queues having previously been cut off and their hair trimmed in foreign
fashion, until the sailing ship was prepared to weigh anchor, when they
were stealthily put on board by their English friends. It is due to
the Marquis Ito to say that he has never failed to acknowledge in most
graceful terms his indebtedness at the outset of his career to the aid he
thus received from those who were not of his own land.
On his return to Japan twelve months later he found that his feudal
chief, the dai-mio of Cho-shiu, had become involved in a dispute with the
Bakufu, or Government of the Sho-gun, concerning right-of-way through
the Shimonoseki Straits, which separate the Cho-shiu territory from the
adjoining island of Kiu-shiu. The lord of the province was averse to
the free entry of foreign vessels into the Inland Sea from the west,
and had signified his disapproval by firing on ships that attempted the
passage of the straits, from batteries which he had placed on the hills
above. The Bakufu had failed to convince the Cho-shiu chieftain that the
channel ought to be open to all comers, and despairing of its own ability
to put a stop to the systematic interference with foreign shipping, had
authorised the admirals of the Western Powers to take such measures as
they thought fit. Ito Shunsuke, with his knowledge of the naval and
military strength of the Occident amplified by personal inspection at
the European capitals, saw that his lord was inviting disaster by his
arbitrary treatment of the strangers, and sought to dissuade him from
continuing the attacks on passing shipping, but the feudal baron was
resolved to persist in his endeavour to check the influx of foreign
ideas, and Ito had to return to the ship in which he had taken passage,
with this express object in view, from Yokohama, with his mission
unfulfilled. The foreign men-of-war had been at the time assembled in
Yedo Bay preparatory to setting out for the Inland Sea, on their way to
the Shimonoseki Straits to engage the Choshiu batteries, and the two
young men of that province, for in this matter Ito was associated with
his fellow-clansman Inouye, deemed it expedient to endeavour to convince
their lord that however skilful might be the Choshiu gunners, it would be
impossible for them to hold their own against the formidable armaments of
the Western warships. In this long and self-imposed, and, as it turned
out to be, useless journey to the capital of his native province from the
coast, Ito was accompanied by this friend and fellow-student Inouye, who
had likewise been to Europe with him,—no other than the present Count
Inouye Kaoru, who is elsewhere referred to in this book.
To appreciate the nature of the services thus early rendered to his
clan and to the nation at large, it must be remembered that the laws
under which emigration to countries abroad was prohibited, and which
had been framed in the days of Iyeyasu, were still in force. Special
permission was needed for any Japanese to quit his native shores, and
in case of surreptitious departure without the formality having been
observed it was somewhat risky to return. Ito and Inouye had contrived
to reach Europe without complying with the regulations, and were liable
to certain penalties in consequence, so that in undertaking to visit
Choshiu with the object of making representations to their chieftain Mori
they had to brave his anger for their disobedience to the regulations in
the first place, apart from the character of their mission, which was,
to say the least of it, one not calculated to appease the wrath of a
noble who held strong views on the subject of dealings with foreigners
in general. The journey from the little coast town in the Inland Sea
where the envoys, garbed as doctors of medicine, were put ashore by a
boat from the British warship _Barrosa_ in which they had come south
from Yokohama was not more than sixteen Japanese leagues (forty English
miles) in length, but the track lay across mountains, and the only means
of conveyance were _kago_ of the type used in the hills, mere baskets
slung from poles borne on the shoulders of two men, who walked at about
four miles an hour. The mission, as already said, was a complete failure,
for the lord of Cho-shiu refused to pay any attention to the letters
from Foreign Ambassadors, or to listen to the faintest suggestion that
his batteries were not a match for anything that the foreign ships
might carry, and he was resolved that the gates of Bakan,—otherwise
Akamagaseki, the Red Horse Barrier,—should not be thrown open without
a struggle. The _Barrosa_ returned to Yokohama, and shortly afterwards
the combined fleet, comprising British, French, Dutch, and American
vessels, accordingly steamed south to the Straits, and the memorable
battle of Shimonoseki, of 1864, was fought, with the result that the
Cho-shiu guns were speedily silenced. On a low hill at the back of the
town, overlooking the swift-flowing waters of the straits, is a tiny
graveyard where repose the Cho-shiu men who fell in that final effort to
close the door to Western trade. On the opposite shore are two or three
neglected graves which local tradition declares to be the burial places
of the French soldiers who were victims to the Cho-shiu artillerymen.
The gunners were aided by archers, one of the foreigners killed having
been transfixed by an arrow. Some day it may be feasible, perhaps, to
have the spot suitably marked where rest those who did their duty as
gallantly as did their foes whose memories are honoured with well-kept
tombs on the other side of the narrow channel in which the fierce combat
occurred. It was long believed that the foreigners who fell were buried
at sea, but still living witnesses of the battle aver that three bodies
were brought ashore on the Moji side and interred in the field which
abuts on the beach, and where mounds of earth are distinctly traceable,
or at all events were visible when the writer was engaged in work there
some years ago. In his task he had the assistance of several Cho-shiu
men who had taken part in the operations against us, and who bore the
scars of injuries received while serving their own guns. There was not
the slightest sign at any time manifested of resentment,—though the fight
had taken place too recently to be other than fresh in the memory. It was
felt that the best use had been made of the weapons that the province
then possessed, and that no disgrace attached to defeat under such
conditions,—moreover, had not the British bluejackets landed immediately
the firing ceased, and striven might and main to extinguish the flames
which had been ravaging the town as a consequence of the fight in its
immediate neighbourhood? The inhabitants of Shimonoseki will never forget
that the victors proved themselves to be generous foes, and nothing but
good will has been exhibited towards strangers in the now flourishing
port ever since.
Ito Shunsuke was much occupied for the ensuing two years in Kioto, where
his knowledge of Europe became of immense value to his party, and in
preparations for the struggle with the Bakufu which it was plain could
not be long delayed.
The main incidents of those two years are recorded elsewhere in
connection with the career of Prince Sanjo, and it will suffice to
mention here that immediately on the resignation of the last of the
Sho-guns, whose adherents continued the war, nevertheless, for some
months longer, Ito was busily occupied with plans for the institution
of government on a Western model, to the careful study of which he had
devoted himself while absent in the capitals of Europe. It was a period
of intense political excitement and unrest, and as the Marquis not long
since declared, little thought entered the minds of men other than the
all-absorbing idea of restoring the supreme power to the dynasty of the
true sovereigns of Japan, and abolishing for ever the influence of the
Tokugawa line of Sho-guns.
It is comparatively little known that the statesman who has been for
fifty years prominent in every great work connected with the advancement
of his country upon Western lines and has advocated the adoption of every
foreign institution that would be calculated to benefit his native land
was in his young days opposed to the influx of strangers, having been an
ardent follower of the Jo-I party which was adverse to the cultivation of
foreign relations. He was brought up in this school of thought, having
been a pupil for some time of Yoshida Shoin, who is elsewhere alluded to
in this volume, and when he at first favoured the introduction of Western
appliances and methods it was purely in order that the defence of the
empire should be secured against foreign aggression.
After the Restoration to the direct exercise of the prerogatives of
sovereignty of his present Majesty in 1867, and the final suppression
of the revolted northern clans, the opening of the port of Hiogo to
foreign trade became an accomplished fact, and Ito Shunsuke, as he
was still named, received the appointment of Governor. Though the port
was officially styled Hiogo, the residences of the foreign merchants,
indeed the whole “Settlement” in which they lived and transacted their
business, was situated in the adjoining town of Kobé, under which name
the port has become best known to Europeans, and latterly as Kobé-Hiogo.
It has had many famous men as its Governor in the years that have passed,
notably the present Minister to Great Britain, Viscount Hayashi, and
the office may be said to have been the stepping-stone to still greater
distinction in more than one instance, but Kobé will never forget that
he who is often almost affectionately referred to as the “grand old man”
of Japan was the first to occupy the chair as its chief magistrate. This
was in 1868, when he was yet a young man of twenty-seven, and he was
selected, it may be assumed, for this responsible post on account of his
exceptional acquaintance with Europe and its people, and with the habits
and requirements of foreign residents in general.
His subordinates at Hiogo, during the time he was Governor, were like
himself young and progressive men, entirely at one with the propaganda
of the new and progressive policy which aimed at the consolidation of
the Empire and the development of all its resources. Many proposals were
put forward by Governor Ito at this period with the view of remodelling
all branches of the imperial polity, in particular with respect to
the imposition of taxes, military education, and so on, covering a
wide field. Their advocacy of these measures procured for Ito and his
associates at the time the designation of holders of the “Hiogo view.”
It was really Ito who inspired Kido, the famous statesman whose history
is recorded in another chapter, with the resolve to take up the question
of the total abolition of the feudal system, and which rapidly gained
supporters in many quarters, to the extent that in a few years it came to
be an accomplished fact.
As Governor of Kobé-Hiogo, he won the highest esteem of all classes, but
he was not destined to remain long in that office, for he was called to
Tokio next year to undertake the duties of Finance Vice-Minister, and
the following spring he went to the United States to study the monetary
system of that country, a task to which he devoted himself for the
ensuing twelve months, returning to his own land in 1871.
While away he wrote the following memorandum on “Reasons for basing the
Japanese new coinage on the metric system.”
According to the coinage system recently adopted in Japan, the
silver yen is the standard unit of value, so that it may be
used as legal tender in transactions to any amount; the smaller
coins, various fractions of one yen, are to be the subsidiary
medium of exchange, each kind being permitted as legal tender
in transactions amounting to one hundred times its value.
There is besides the gold yen, but it is subsidiary, and may
be used in the payment of sums not more than ten times its
value or one hundred yen. The silver yen is equal in quality
to the American dollar, but slightly exceeds the latter in
weight. The gold coins are in England and America legal tender
to any amount. I presume the Japanese Government is in hopes
that gold coin will always remain abundant while silver yen
will gradually wear out through constant handling, so that in
course of time gold will of itself become the standard unit of
value. Just now there is under discussion in the U.S. House of
Representatives a bill for establishing an international system
of coinage. The ten-dollar gold piece according to that system
is to weigh 257·2 grains, or sixteen and two-third grammes.
The Japanese ten-yen gold piece weighs 248 grains, but if
it were slightly increased in weight to equal the suggested
international standard coin, the coinage system of Japan would
be established on a sound basis and be for ever free from
all fluctuations of exchange value. As to which metal should
be the standard of value, the opinion of the economists all
tend to coincide in regarding gold as the fittest metal for
standard. That Austria, Holland, and some other countries
still maintain a silver standard is probably due to the great
difficulty of changing the old system. If a system of coinage
were to be newly established by any of these countries, there
is no question but that the gold standard would invariably be
adopted. It will be a wise policy for Japan, therefore, to
consider the trend of opinion in Western lands and establish
her new system in accordance with the best teachings of
modern times. It may be that for the time being, on account
of the possible great loss to the country from the too sudden
adoption of the gold standard, a silver standard may have to
be maintained. Otherwise there is no question that gold is the
best metal for the standard of value. If the gold standard is
introduced, silver may be fitly coined for a subsidiary medium
of exchange, putting a limit to its legal tender amount. It may
be as well to establish our system on this basis, making silver
provisionally the standard, strictly keeping in view, however,
the time when gold will be made to supersede silver as the
standard of our system of coinage.
The foregoing memorandum was chiefly instrumental in effecting a change
in the coinage policy of the country,—it bore a postscript to the effect
that the contents thereof had been penned in haste, but that the main
points which Ito wished to emphasise were:—
I. The necessity of slightly reducing the weight of the unit of
value of the silver coinage; and
II. To determine the weight of the gold coin according to the
metric system.
And it concluded:—
“Written in America on the 29th day of December 1870.”
(Signed) HIROBUMI.
The Government decided to adopt at once the gold standard, and issued the
new coinage regulation on the 10th of May 1871. The various measures
then taken, and supported at subsequent dates by the administration,
proved unavailing, however, to maintain gold monometallism in healthy
growth at that period. The issuing of a large amount of inconvertible
paper money drove specie, especially the gold coins, out of the country.
This and the smallness of the natural output of gold in Japan compelled
the Government to have recourse to gold and silver bimetallism in 1878,
as being more conducive to the national prosperity at that time.
From this time onward Ito’s rise to power was singularly rapid, he was
in truth the man of the hour, the chosen counsellor of the youthful
sovereign, the hope of a nation which had at the moment but a faint
impression, if any at all, of the part that it would be called on to
play in the not distant future, and was as yet merely groping towards
the light. The finances of the revivified country needed exceptional
ability for their reorganisation, for there were still in operation in
the provinces the primitive arrangements for the introduction of which
the at times urgent necessities of the feudal lords was often directly
responsible, and which it was absolutely essential should be replaced by
methods more substantial if local credit were to be maintained,—there
were the inevitable heavy expenditures incidental to the adoption of
a new system of administration,— a less cumbrous coinage was greatly
wanted,—and a workable plan of taxation whereby to support the reformed
Government of the country was above everything essential. These were
among the matters that pressed for the attention of the department which
Ito was called on virtually to control.
Only a few months had elapsed when his services were demanded in a
different capacity, but one that afforded still greater opportunities
for the display of his talents, for he was chosen by the Emperor to take
a most active part in the mission which it was resolved should visit
America and Europe, there to gather information on matters of vital
importance to the nation, and in December of the year 1871 the party,
headed by Prince Iwakura, started from Yokohama in a Pacific mail steamer
for San Francisco. Although it was not absolutely the first time that
Japan had sent her messengers abroad, for two of the feudal barons with
their secretaries had been to Europe on a short visit in the early
sixties, the mission of Prince Iwakura, following immediately as it did
the assumption by the real monarch of all the duties appertaining to his
imperial station, bore a special and striking significance. The departure
of the vessel from the bay of Tokio was watched by many thousands of
people, and the event was acknowledged on all sides to be full of happy
augury for Japan.
In California the mission was very cordially welcomed, and in an eloquent
speech delivered at the Lick House, San Francisco, in January 1872,
shortly after landing, Ito set forth the objects of the mission. Without
reproducing the whole oration, it may suffice to give here some of its
salient features, but the occasion was a memorable one, since it could
but be regarded as the first time that the empire, newly emancipated
from the thraldom of an intensely rigid feudalism, had declared itself
through the mouth of an accredited representative. The speaker began by
remarking that: “This is perhaps a fitting opportunity to give a brief
and reliable outline of many improvements introduced into Japan. Few but
native Japanese have any correct knowledge of our country’s internal
condition.... Our mission, under special instructions from His Majesty
the Emperor, while seeking to protect the rights and interests of our
respective nations, will seek to unite them more closely in the future,
convinced that we shall appreciate each other more when we know each
other better.... To-day it is the earnest wish of both our Government
and people to strive for the highest points of civilisation enjoyed
by more enlightened countries. Looking to this end we have adopted
their Military, Naval, Scientific, and Educational Institutions, and
knowledge has flowed to us freely in the wake of foreign commerce.
Although our improvement has been rapid in material civilisation, the
mental improvement of our people has been far greater.... While held in
absolute obedience by despotic Sovereigns through many thousand years,
our people knew no freedom nor liberty of thought. With our material
improvement they learned to understand their rightful privileges, which
for ages had been denied them. Civil war was but a temporary result....
Our _daimios_ magnanimously surrendered their principalities, and their
voluntary action was accepted by a general Government. Within a year a
feudal system firmly established many centuries ago has been completely
abolished. What country in the middle ages broke down its feudal system
without war?
“By educating our women we hope to ensure greater intelligence in future
generations ... our maidens have already commenced their education. Japan
cannot claim originality as yet, but will aim to exercise practical
wisdom by adopting the advantages, and avoiding the errors, taught her
by the history of those enlightened nations whose experience is their
teacher. A year ago, I examined minutely the financial system of the
United States, and every detail was reported to my Government. The
suggestions then made have been adopted and some of them are already in
practical operation.
“In the department of Public Works, now under my administration, the
progress has been satisfactory. Railroads are being built, both in
the eastern and western portions of the Empire. Telegraph wires are
stretching over many hundred miles of our territory, and nearly one
thousand miles will be completed within a few months. Lighthouses now
line our coasts, and our shipyards are active. All these assist our
civilisation, and we fully acknowledge our indebtedness to foreign
nations.
“As ambassadors, and as men, our hope is to return from this mission
laden with results valuable to our country and calculated to advance
permanently her material and intellectual condition. While bound to
protect the rights and privileges of our people, we aim to increase our
commerce, and by a corresponding increase of our productions, hope to
create a healthy basis for their greater activity.
“Time, so burdened with precious opportunities, we can ill afford to
waste. Japan is anxious to press forward. The red disc in the centre of
our national flag shall no longer appear like a wafer over a sealed
empire, but henceforth be in fact, what it is designed to be, the noble
emblem of the rising sun, symbolical of the awakening of Japan, and her
wish to be found ever moving onward and upward amid the enlightened
nations of the world.”
The Iwakura Mission proved in every sense save one an immense success.
One of the Secretaries was Mr Tadasu Hayashi, who subsequently in the
diplomatic service of his country was accredited to the various capitals
and won distinction in all, ultimately to represent Japan, as Viscount
Hayashi, at the Court of St James. In the United States Prince Iwakura
and his party everywhere were received with genuine enthusiasm, as giving
by their visit substantial proof of the desire of Japan to enter at no
distant date the comity of nations, and of the close neighbourship that
exists between the two countries, their shores washed by the waves of the
broad Pacific Ocean. As Prince Iwakura was the head of the Mission, the
actual details of the journey will be found recorded in the pages of this
volume devoted to a brief review of his share in the making of Modern
Japan, and it may suffice here to mention that all returned to Yokohama
in January 1873 and that the construction of a Cabinet on Occidental
lines was there and then proceeded with.
In describing the mission as having been successful in every sense
but one, it becomes necessary to explain that undoubtedly among its
members the hope had been cherished that the treaties made twenty years
before with the West might, now that Japan had given earnest of her
intentions to justify to the uttermost extent her inclusion in the ranks
of civilised powers, be revised on a basis of equality, or might at all
events be modified in a way to remove from the minds of the Japanese
people the impression that the bargains made as exemplified in the
earliest agreements with foreign powers were somewhat one-sided. But as
yet the powers of the western world were insufficiently cognisant of the
scope and sincerity of Japan’s legitimate ambitions to comprehend that
her claim to complete equality of treatment could with perfect propriety
and security be admitted. The ambassadors accepted the situation with
the utmost composure, and proceeded to store their minds with all the
information that might serve to fit them for the administration of their
country’s affairs on Occidental lines modified to meet its own peculiar
needs. Among the first results of the mission were the adoption of the
Gregorian calendar, which came into operation with the year 1873, and
the removal of all the anti-Christian edicts from the Statute Book. A
notable event, moreover, was the reception, some time later in the year,
of a number of foreign ladies by the young Empress of Japan, then in her
twenty-second year. The members of the Iwakura mission were particularly
impressed with the advisability of introducing the system of prefectural
assemblies, the working of which they had had opportunities of studying
in Europe, and these initial steps in local self-government, it was
ultimately ordained by the Emperor, should be inaugurated in 1879.
It had always been the custom in Japan for a man to have two personal
names, one being for everyday use, so to speak, and the other one that
by which he desired to be known to posterity, and to be employed by his
historian, should he ever attain distinction. The Government, in order
to abolish this cumbrous system, ordered people to choose a single name,
for permanent use, and to make their selection forthwith, and it was in
obedience to this decree that Ito chose for himself the name of Hirobumi,
instead of Shunsuke, as that by which, in preference, he would for the
future be known. In Japan the surname usually precedes the personal
name, though of late years the compliment has been often paid to Europe
of adopting its method in this respect, and the Marquis writes his name
in Roman letters as “Hirobumi Ito,” rather than “Ito Hirobumi,” the
form that he would adopt if using a Japanese pen. Ito Hirobumi became
Minister of Public Works in the Cabinet of 1873, his friend Inouye Bunda,
as he was then, holding the portfolio of Minister of Finance. It was as
Minister of Public Works that the remarkable administrative skill of the
future Premier was first manifested. Those who, like the writer, were
privileged to serve Japan in those days in the department over which he
presided will retain vivid impressions of the quick, keen perception that
he manifested in everything appertaining to engineering and the rapidity
with which he mastered all the details connected with the building of
railways, with mining and telegraphs, and with every branch of the huge
undertaking then comprised under the head of public works to be carried
on by the newly formed Government.
Lighthouses on the Western system had been begun as early as 1870, and a
short experimental line of telegraph had been constructed from Yedo to
Yokohama in the same year, followed by one joining Osaka with Kobé. And
in the ensuing year, prior to the departure of the Iwakura Mission, the
postal system had been inaugurated on an American model, and from Hong
Kong the entire machinery of a mint had been procured, it having been
available for purchase in consequence of the British Government having
determined to cease coining in the Colony. Docks were being established
in Japan, and newspapers were beginning to make their appearance.
Into the whole of these varied fields of enterprise, as Minister of
Public Works, Ito Hirobumi now threw his entire energies, with the best
possible results, and Japan soon had her own printing establishment
(the In-satsu-kiyoku) for the execution of Government work, her own
Official Gazette for the promulgation of orders and regulations, her own
specially designed coinage, her own State-maintained line of railroad,
her own telegraphs to every part with submarine cables connecting the
larger islands one to another. In his capacity of Minister the practical
knowledge that he had acquired in Europe served the rising statesman
in excellent stead, and he was able personally to concern himself with
every branch of the important department over which he presided. At
that time the number of his countrymen who might lay claim to share
his intimate acquaintance with these matters was small indeed. During
his stay in Great Britain in the year 1872 arrangements were made for
the inauguration of a College of Engineering at Tokio, and a brilliant
staff of Professors, headed by Mr Henry Dyer, was shortly afterwards
engaged to fill the chairs of Mining and Metallurgy, Geology, Mechanical,
Railway, and Electrical Engineering, Architecture, Chemistry, etc., and
some hundreds of cadets commenced a six years’ course to fit them for the
duties of carrying on the multifarious undertakings on which it had been
decided to embark.
The next few years of Marquis Ito’s strenuous life were spent in active
preparation for the still more onerous duties that were to fall to his
lot when Japan should be in a position to take her place as one of the
leading nations of the earth, by right of her advancement in all the arts
and sciences that tend to make a people great and powerful. He continued
to avail himself of every opportunity of enlarging the field of his own
knowledge and experience, making an especial study of the Constitutions
of the several European States. For a time he was Minister of the
Interior, having been succeeded at the department of Public Works by his
friend and fellow-clansman, Inouye Kaoru.
Although he has four times been Prime Minister in the years which have
elapsed, the fame of the Marquis Ito will for ever rest on the invaluable
work he accomplished for Japan in the framing of a constitution, based to
a certain extent on his researches into European history and contemporary
politics, but modified to suit the requirements of an Oriental country,
deeply immersed in the traditions of autocratic rule, and wedded to
a feudal system of which lingering traces yet remained to enter at
times into conflict with the principles of representative government
and limited monarchy. The years devoted to the task of evolving a
constitution that should suffice for the nation’s needs and be acceptable
to the ruler who had pledged himself to bestow this inestimable boon on
his subjects, an act of spontaneous generosity in the sovereign for which
his people have never ceased to record their gratitude, were years to
which the Marquis looks back with infinite pride and pleasure. It was
not until 1881 that the Emperor announced his intention of fulfilling
the promise conveyed in his coronation oath, the details of which have
already been given in referring to his Majesty’s personal share in the
making of modern Japan, and the eight following years were more or less
consumed in deliberations, but at last, on the 11th of February (the
anniversary of the ascension of the throne of Japan by Jimmu Tenno, the
first Emperor and direct ancestor of the present occupant), in the year
1889, was solemnly proclaimed the Constitution of which the subjoined is
a digest, as translated into English.
The Emperor is the repository of the supreme power inherited from the
glorious spirits of the Imperial Founder of his House, and of a line of
Imperial ancestors, and it is by virtue of that inherited power that he
promulgates (11th February 1889), the immutable fundamental law of the
Constitution. The person of the Emperor is sacred and inviolable. It is
with the consent of the Imperial Parliament or Diet that he exercises
the legislative power, sanctioning and promulgating laws, and when the
Diet is not sitting he issues ordinances with the force of laws, to be
confirmed at the next session. He convokes and prorogues the Diet and
dissolves the Lower House. He appoints and dismisses all officials, civil
and military,—he has absolute command of the army and navy,—he declares
war, makes peace, and concludes treaties,—he may declare a state of
siege,—and he confers titles of nobility and other marks of honour. The
rights of the monarch being thus defined, we come to the rights of the
subject. “No Japanese subject shall be arrested, detained, tried, or
punished, unless according to law. The rights of property, conditionally
on the payment of taxes, are to be inviolable. Liberty of speech and of
publication, of public meeting and association, and of petition, so long
as the limits of the law are not transgressed, are fully secured.” In the
same way religion, “within limits not prejudicial to peace and order,” is
free.
The Imperial Diet comprises a House of Peers and a House of
Representatives. In the first are five classes,—(_a_) Members of the
Imperial Family, (_b_) Princes and Marquises, (_c_) Counts, Viscounts,
and Barons, elected as representatives of the several orders, the
representatives of each order not exceeding one-fifth of that order,
(_d_) persons nominated, for life, by the Emperor on account of
meritorious service to the State, or of erudition, (_e_) persons elected
for seven years by and from the fifteen highest tax-payers in each city
and prefecture, and subsequently nominated by the Emperor. The number
of members from the last two classes is not to exceed the number of
representatives of the hereditary nobility.
The foregoing are some of the salient features of a Constitution that is
the pride and glory of the Japanese nation, but there are others of not
less importance, perhaps, in their influence on the future of the nation
and which appeal to its sense of order with the more force, it may be
believed, in that the enactments so promulgated have not merely all the
weight of actual law but form integral parts of the Constitution. They
provide for certain fixed expenditures based on the powers appertaining
to the Emperor, and are opposed to the rejection or reduction by the Diet
without the consent of the Government of such expenditures as may have
arisen by the effect of law or that appertain to the legal obligations of
the Government. The expenses of the Imperial Household, though defrayed
out of the Treasury funds, require no consent of the Diet unless an
increase is contemplated. Another significant provision is that when the
Diet cannot be convoked, owing to the external or internal condition of
the country, in case of urgent need for the maintenance of public safety,
the Government may take all necessary financial measures by means of an
Imperial ordinance. A still more important clause is to the effect that
when the Diet has not voted on the budget, or when the budget has not
been brought into actual existence, the government shall carry out the
budget of the previous year. It has been found needful on more than one
occasion since the year 1890 to take advantage, owing to the tactics
of a factious parliamentary majority adverse to the Cabinet, of these
provisions. The Cabinet being directly responsible to the Emperor, the
opposition in the Diet has been powerless to prevent the policy of the
Government being carried out,—on the other hand, the statesmen on whose
shoulders has rested from time to time the weight of public affairs have
been called upon to sustain a heavier burden than would have fallen
to their lot had they been armed with fewer powers. That the nation’s
business has been conducted on the whole with undeniable prudence and
success is due to the personal characteristics, in great measure, of the
surviving Makers of Modern Japan.
[Illustration: JAPANESE SCHOOL AT SEOUL]
To return to the transition period, prior to the promulgation of the
Constitution in the preparation of which the subject of this sketch had
so conspicuous a share.
In connection with this task of paramount importance and responsibility
the future premier again visited England, accompanied by a staff of
qualified assistants, to glean all the additional particulars regarding
the principles and practical operation of European constitutions and
parliamentary institutions, and the mass of detail thus gathered was
carefully considered on the return of the mission to Tokio, by a
well-staffed bureau presided over in great measure by the statesman with
whom it had come to be identified in respect of its deliberations. Of the
process by which the committee thus formed arrived at its conclusions,
what were the systems deliberated upon, the arguments pro and con
employed to ensure their adoption or rejection, little has ever been made
public, but that there was no lack of careful consideration of every
detail is to be comprehended from the fact that eight years were in
all consumed in the work, the proclamation of the Constitution bearing
date, as we have already seen, the 11th of February 1889. While the
provisions of this Edict gave birth to representative bodies, the utmost
anxiety was evinced to safeguard the executive from any encroachments on
its legitimate sphere by those bodies, as though the outcome of their
profound researches into the principles of representative government in
Europe had been a conviction on the part of the examining committee that
disadvantages were to be recognised, in relation to the benefits, in a
proportion which it was impossible wholly to ignore.
The prerogatives of the Crown had to be secured from excessive
interference by the governed,—the government must be absolutely free to
employ all the nation’s resources. Without this clear perception of the
attributes of sovereignty at the outset, it might have been difficult
to have brought all Japan’s strength to bear in the critical situations
which have in later years arisen. As matters stand, however, the direct
rule of the sovereign, though in some respects the idea of limited
monarchy is preserved, remains practically unfettered, and the supreme
control rests in the Emperor’s own hands. The Cabinet being responsible
to the Ten-shi himself, may continue to conduct the affairs of the
nation until it pleases him to signify a wish for its resignation, in
spite of adverse votes on its policy that may be passed in both Houses,
a provision which places it above the exigencies of party strife, and
secures at all times its complete independence of action.
The prefectural assemblies, which were designed to pave the way for
organised self-government through representative bodies on the western
model, continued to meet in the provinces and to constitute a very
useful training for the people in the principles of local administration
and the formation of public opinion. The functions of these provincial
parliaments were definitely laid down in a special ordinance in the
year 1888, a few months before the assembly of the first Diet, so that
there should be no conflict in regard to the respective powers of these
institutions. A notable step had been taken four years previously in
the reorganisation of the aristocracy on a system akin to the Chinese
but accommodated to the methods of the Occident. There had been from
ancient times in the Chinese Empire certain well-defined grades of the
aristocracy, and in a modified form the titles so conferred had had their
equivalents in Japan, so that it became necessary merely to revive the
system under modern conditions. The degrees of nobility thus reintroduced
were Ko = prince, Ko = (with a different symbol) marquis, Haku = count,
Shi = viscount, and Dan = baron, corresponding to the Kung, Hou, Po,
Tzu, and Nan of the Chinese, the European equivalents for these titles
being adopted by imperial ordinance from the year 1884. It has often
been supposed that Japan copied the Western forms in reorganising her
nobility, but the truth is that she officially recognised the European
ranks under their Chinese equivalents, just as her scientific terminology
is based upon the ideographs which have been employed in China for tens
of centuries to represent substances of which the inhabitants of that
land were cognisant though they lacked the enterprise to turn their
knowledge to practical account. Chinese, as a language, has been to
Japanese what Latin and Greek have been to English, the never-failing
fount from which it was feasible to draw as occasion might require a term
to suit the needs of scientific advancement. There had been princes,
court nobles, and a hereditary aristocracy in Japan from times out of
mind, the new feature introduced was the adjustment of mediæval titles
of nobility to the requirements of a later age. Under this arrangement
it became possible to group the former feudal magnates according to the
relative positions that they had occupied while in possession of their
estates, and simultaneously to raise to commensurate rank those who
had become distinguished by their services to their country. Honours
were to be conferred solely by the sovereign, and while he confirmed
in this respect in their inherited privileges the members of the older
aristocracy the Emperor raised to a status of equal title to respect
those who had served him in the reconstitution of his empire on a
basis of unexampled prosperity. On Ito Hirobumi his Majesty conferred
the rank of Count. A similar honour was bestowed on his colleague and
fellow-countryman Inouye Kaoru, and on many more. The former feudal lord
of the Hizen province, for example, took his place in the new peerage as
Marquis Nabeshima. The court noble Iwakura, who had headed the mission to
Europe and America, became a Prince. The great shipbuilder, Iwasaki, who
by his enterprise had done yeoman service to the nation in establishing
this valuable industry at Nagasaki, became a baron.
It was in 1885 that Count Ito, as he had now become, by the favour
of the sovereign, under the provisions of the law creating a Peerage,
formed his first Cabinet, in accordance with the resolution arrived at,
by the Emperor in Council, to introduce this vital change of system in
respect of the political organisation of the Empire. The Supreme Council
of the nation thenceforward became composed of the heads of the various
departments of State, with a Minister-president at its head. The Count,
as in duty bound, took his place as the first to occupy the presidential
office, and around him were grouped the foremost men of his party, in
which the Sat-Cho element as it was termed, predominated. Sat-Cho is
a compound word evolved from the names of the two great clans of the
south, Satsuma and Choshiu. The first syllables are seen to be united in
the compound, a term which has for many years been employed in Japan to
signify the ascendency enjoyed in the political affairs of the New Japan
by the representatives of the two clans indicated. Satsuma and Choshiu
have always, under the later regime, shone conspicuously in the annals
of the navy and the army having been the pioneers in the introduction of
modern naval and military science. The Ministers who formed the First
Cabinet of Japan were:—
Count Ito Hirobumi: Minister-President.
Count Inouye Kaoru: Foreign Minister.
Marshal Yamagata: Home do.
Count Matsukata: Finance do.
Marshal Oyama: War do.
Marquis Saigo (late): Navy do.
Viscount Mori (late): Education do.
Admiral Enomoto: Communications do.
The Privy Council, of which the special function is to advise the
sovereign whenever it may be his pleasure to consult it, was established
in 1888, and Count Ito became its first president, having resigned his
post of Minister-president of State to take up this more important
office. The expression is used advisedly, because in Japan, where the
prerogatives of the sovereign place him nearly on a level with those
rulers whose sway is absolute and autocratic, the Privy Council occupies
a position of responsibility that is not shared even by the Cabinet,
in those crises that must at times occur in the life of a nation. To
the Privy Council in Japan belong all those surviving Elder Statesmen,
as they are with fitting respect designated, who have helped to make of
Japan the marvellous success as a world power that she has become. In the
formation of the Japanese Privy Council we may trace a close resemblance
to that body which discharges somewhat similar functions in Great
Britain. The original idea was not improbably imbibed by Count Ito during
his study of European systems of Government, but in Japan the plan is
extended to admit of the adoption of an ever-widening field of selection.
The Emperor may summon whom he may think fit among his people to aid him
in his deliberations, and in his wise choice of counsellors he has been
guided by the evidence afforded of sterling ability or rare virtue rather
than by affluence or the world’s esteem. The Privy Council may boast a
membership exclusively of patriots, proved in the fire, men who have in
reality sought above all things their country’s welfare, the advancement
of their ruler’s legitimate interests and the maintenance of his rights
and prerogatives unimpaired. He is able as a result to invest them with
his complete confidence in the hour of trial. It was to the Privy Council
that was entrusted the solemn duty of finally deliberating upon the draft
to be submitted to the Emperor of the new Constitution, prior to its
adoption in February 1889, and it is obvious from the character of its
members that in this body his Majesty has been able to repose the utmost
confidence at critical periods in the life of the nation.
The first Ito Cabinet remained in office until 1888, and when it was
replaced by a Ministry of which Count Kuroda was the President, Count Ito
at the express command of the sovereign, continued to retain office as
a Cabinet Minister, but without holding any portfolio. In 1892 he again
formed a Cabinet of which he was the Premier, and this lasted four years,
through all the storm and stress of the war with China, in 1894-5, only
in the year following going out of office on the conclusion of peace. In
April 1895, occurred the famous meeting at Shimonoseki to arrange the
terms for a cessation of hostilities, when Japan was represented by Count
Ito Hirobumi and China by Earl Li Hung-chang. The document as eventually
drawn up is too long for quotation in its entirety, but in its main
provisions it covered a wide field, the opportunity being seized by Japan
to insist on the opening of additional ports in China to foreign trade, a
service to the rest of the world which has perhaps been less appreciated
than Japan had a right to expect at the time. Under this treaty of
peace China definitely recognised the full and complete independence
and autonomy of Korea and agreed to the cessation of ceremonies and
formalities and the payment of tribute derogatory to such independence.
China ceded to Japan in perpetuity and full sovereignty the following
territories, together with all fortifications, arsenals, and public
property thereon:—
(_a_) That part of the province of Feng-tien (Southern
Manchuria), south of a line drawn from the mouth of the
Yalu upstream to the mouth of the An-ping, thence to
Feng-hwang-cheng and on to Hai-cheng, thence to Ying-kow
(Newchwang) including the towns and places named.
(_b_) The island of Formosa, and adjacent islets appertaining
thereto.
(_c_) The Pescadores group, that is to say all islands between
longitude 119° and 120° E. and between 23° and 24° N. latitude.
The indemnity was fixed at 200,000,000 taels, payable in eight
instalments. Wei-hai-wei was to remain in the occupation of the Japanese
forces as a guarantee of the faithful performance of the stipulations of
the agreement.
In the Liao-tung Convention signed at Peking on behalf of their
respective countries by Baron Hayashi Tadasu and Earl Li on the 8th
November 1895, the Third article of the Shimonoseki Treaty was abrogated,
and a sum of 30,000,000 taels added to the monetary indemnity.
Mention has here been made of the boundaries in Liaotung province of the
region which was to have become part of the Japanese Emperor’s dominions.
Had that bargain been carried out Russia, who had long before fixed her
gaze upon the fortress of Port Arthur, would have had to abandon the
hope of ever acquiring the coveted spot, and accordingly with the view
of preventing its transfer to Japan she thought fit to address to the
Government of Tokio, with the consent and approval of France and Germany,
the subjoined remonstrance:—
“The Government of his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias,
in examining the conditions of peace which Japan has imposed on
China, finds that the possession of the peninsula of Liao-tung,
claimed by Japan, would be a constant menace to the capital of
China, would at the same time render illusory the independence
of Korea, and would henceforth be a perpetual obstacle to the
permanent peace of the Far East. Consequently, the Government
of his Majesty the Emperor would give a new proof of their
sincere friendship for the Government of his Majesty the
Emperor of Japan by advising them to renounce the definitive
possession of the peninsula of Liao-tung.”
As Minister-President of State it fell to the lot of Count Ito, on the
receipt of this historic document, to advise his Japanese Majesty to
comply with the recommendation therein set forth, and to incur all the
odium that attached in Japan itself to what was looked upon by the less
thoughtful of the population as an abject surrender to the aggressive
European Powers which were leagued in an unholy intrigue to deprive Japan
of the legitimate fruits of her victory over China. For a time Count Ito
went in danger of his life, for there are not rarely to be found those
in Japan who are willing to regard themselves as the appointed agents of
the gods for the punishment of what they deem to be an indignity brought
upon the nation, no matter what the circumstances may have been. But that
the Minister went well guarded at the express command of his sovereign in
these days of uncommon excitement he might have shared the fate of other
true patriots whose history is briefly recorded in this volume.
By his imperial master the Minister-president of the day, however, was
throughout praised for the part which he took in respect of the war and
of the settlement reached on its conclusion, and a signal mark of his
Majesty’s favour was given in the statesman’s elevation to the rank of
Marquis in connection with these notable events.
In 1897 Marquis Ito visited Great Britain for the fourth time, the
occasion being the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. The representative
of the Ten-shi was Admiral his Royal Highness the Prince Arisugawa, so
well known in the British Navy, he having served his apprenticeship to
the sea in H.M.S. _Iron Duke_, after a course of education at Greenwich
Naval College. Marquis Ito was for some weeks in London in the summer
of that year, and paid a fifth visit to this country in 1900, to which
reference will be made later on.
In the year 1898 the Marquis headed a ministry which included:—
Count Inouye: Finance Minister.
Baron Nishi: Foreign do.
Viscount Yoshikawa: Home do.
General Katsura: War do.
Marquis Saionji: Education do.
and the late Marquis Saigo: Minister for the Navy.
In 1900 he took office for the fourth time as Minister-president,
with Baron Suyematsu, so well known in Europe of recent years for his
contributions to the literature of the day and for his reasoned and
fearless championship of his country’s cause on the lecture platform
and elsewhere, as the Minister of the Interior. In this Cabinet was Mr
Takaaki Kato, formerly Japan’s representative at the Court of St James,
who held the portfolio of Foreign Affairs, General Viscount Katsura,
now Premier, was Minister for War, and Admiral Baron Yamamoto was
Minister for the Navy, a position which he occupied under successive
administrations, from 1899 until January 1906.
In 1900 Marquis Ito associated himself with the doctrines of party
government, and an immense step was taken in that direction by the
formation of a political body named the Sei-Yu-kai, pledged to the
adoption and support of Constitutional methods. His views on the duty of
a political party were set forth in a manifesto at the time and may with
advantage be introduced here:—
“If a political party aims, as it should aim, at being a guide
to the people, it must first commence with the maintenance
of strict discipline and order in its own ranks, and above
all must shape its own conduct in accordance with an absolute
and sincere devotion to the public interests of the nation.
It must, moreover, avoid falling into the fatal mistake
of conferring posts on persons of doubtful qualifications
merely because they happen to be members of its own political
organisation.”
It is probable that when this Association was formed its founder intended
that it should be a party of such wide scope that it would embrace all
the then contending factions, and that thus while seeking to promote
the principles of party government it would at the same time do away
with the friction that was so much to be deplored. Nominally it did
unite the factions under one leadership, but, sad to say, the friction
in great part remained, and dissension was still rife within the party,
to the manifest impairment of its capabilities for the attainment of
the general weal. By Marquis Ito it has always been claimed that the
Constitution was not a matter of agreement between the sovereign and his
subjects, but a magnanimous grant of privileges to them by the Emperor
purely on his own initiative, and it is not for the people, therefore,
to question any of its provisions. Its sole aim, regarded from this
lofty standpoint, is the substantial progress and well-being of the
country, and it was because the leaders of political parties became too
eager in their strife for the possession of power, to the detriment of
their usefulness as regarded the advancement of the nation, that the
idea of forming the Sei-yu-kai arose in the first place. Marquis Ito
in former years was stoutly opposed to the theory of party government,
and though he headed the association with which he was for two or three
years closely identified, it may be held with some show of reason,
perhaps, that he was never entirely enamoured of the system, for he has
often alluded to the mischief which the friction inseparable from party
rule is apt to create as altogether regrettable, and calling for the
introduction of some form of administration of the country’s affairs
that should be free from the drawbacks which he recognises and deplores.
Marquis Ito, in truth, assents to the proposition that party government
has its advantages as well as its disadvantages, but he is by no means a
whole-souled convert to the doctrine that it is the best that could be
devised for Japan. He aims at something higher and nobler, and though he
is prepared at all times to admit that excellent work has been done in
the thirty-eight years of his present Majesty’s reign, he would ascribe
the national progress to the circumstance that the people have acted
together under the guidance of the Imperial Oath, taken at the beginning
of the Mei-ji era, when the present ruler ascended the throne, in which
it was proclaimed that “a deliberative assembly should be formed; that
the uncivilised customs of former times should be abandoned; that the
impartiality and justice displayed in the workings of nature should
be adopted as a basis of action; and that learning should be sought
throughout the world in order that the foundation of the Empire should be
firmly established.” There has never been discernible any slackening of
the marvellous energy with which Japan entered upon the quest of those
most commendable objects, and the only tendency towards reaction that
the most uncharitably disposed of critics has been able to discover was
in reality nothing more than a desire, and that most temperately and
dispassionately expressed, for the preservation of the national spirit,
at a moment when it appeared to be in some danger of undergoing temporary
eclipse. In Europe constitutional government has been the growth of
centuries, but to Japan it is still comparatively new. Even in the West
the personal element is by no means obliterated, and it is unlikely that
Japanese politicians would be found wholly capable of eliminating that
element and of giving to the world an example of a perfect civilisation
in which individual ambitions and the jealousies of cliques should
become completely subordinated to love of country and zeal for public
welfare. Nevertheless much has been accomplished in the direction of
the elevation of political life to a high standard of purity, far above
the sordid and despicable strivings for place and power that too often
disgrace those countries of the Occident which ought to be foremost in
setting the despised Orient a good example. It is a wise provision of
the Japanese Constitution, if we may judge by results, that renders
it impossible for the Cabinet to be affected by an adverse vote in
Parliament, the appointment or dismissal of Ministers remaining the sole
prerogative of the sovereign, as when once a Ministry has been invested
with the imperial authority to perform its functions it holds a place
removed from interference by party considerations with its deliberations,
and from any unwarrantable intrusion, by even the members of its own side
in the Diet, upon its complete privacy and abstraction from political
concerns during its discharge of its duties to the State. There may be
those in Europe who will yearn for the freedom which the observance of
such a rule as this implies, and will be prone to regard the Japanese as
a people who have found a way to improve upon the systems which served
them to some extent as models for their modernised institutions.
It was the little rift within the lute caused by the inability of some of
its members to see eye to eye with Marquis Ito that ultimately brought
about the fall of the last Ito Cabinet, which was in office from October
1900, to May 1901, and then received his Majesty’s permission to dissolve
itself, the Minister-president announcing his intention of retiring from
political life, a resolution which was strenuously combated by all his
adherents, who besought him to reconsider his decision. On the plea that
his health would be the better for a sea voyage, however, the Marquis
contrived to secure that rest from the cares of statesmanship which he
had fairly earned, and he came to Europe once more at the close of the
year, arriving in London on Christmas Day 1901, for a brief stay in
the British metropolis which, as he observed, he had first visited as
long ago as the year 1863. On this occasion his object was to gather
information and ideas, as he declared, and his tour was devoid of all
political significance. The journey from capital to capital in the
Occident was not, however, undertaken exclusively, it was thought, for
pleasure, nor was it believed in a general way that the veteran statesman
had travelled many thousands of miles without having an adequate purpose,
though he chose not to disclose it. His wishes were respected, and during
his sojourn in London, though he was the guest of the Lord Mayor at the
Mansion House, and was received in audience by King Edward at Marlborough
House, it was accepted as sufficient that he had, as it was described,
come to England for purposes of private study, though necessarily the
knowledge that he sought to acquire could not fail to be of service
eventually to Japan, on account of the prominent position which the
Marquis has of late years continuously occupied in his own land. The
Lord Mayor in a felicitous speech (3rd January 1901), gave utterance to
British opinion at large when he declared that the career of his guest
had been one almost unequalled in truth, and indeed in fiction. “The
incidents of that career,” said the Lord Mayor (Sir Joseph Dimsdale), “do
not only represent the achievements of a great character, of a wonderful
brain, an indomitable will and public spirit: but they have carried with
them from year to year the destinies of an empire which it is hardly
too much to say has been created in a few decades. Whether we look to
the growth of civilisation, the increase of political and commercial
relations, the spread of science, or the establishment of constitutional
freedom, we are amazed at the almost fabulous progress of Japan in the
last forty years. The promotion of all that may be placed to the credit
of our honoured guest.” The marquis spoke in his own language in making
his reply, the following translation being given there and then by his
travelling companion Mr Tsudzuki:—
“In thanking you for the high honour done me, and for the
eulogy of my country, I regret that I do not feel entitled
to the praise that has been showered upon me. The progress of
Japan in the past is entirely due to the powerful guidance
of her sovereign and the loyal patriotism of her people. All
that I have done for my country does not exceed the limits
of having served as one of the links in the harmonious
co-operation of advancing civilisation. I am unworthy of the
high opinion which his lordship has been good enough to express
of me. I think it may not be out of place to give expression
to my profound satisfaction at the cordial relations which
have existed for nearly a century between England and Japan.
It was the English people who were the first to come to our
shores as the harbingers of civilisation. Who could compute
now the number of Japanese who speak the English language or
the closeness of the relations which now exist? I was one of
the first Japanese to come to this country thirty-eight years
ago—a country equally hospitable then as now. Since then
how many of our countrymen have been studying in England in
commerce, education, industries, the navy, and in the venerable
institutions of education and learning? And how many of your
institutions—social and political—have served as models in our
task of assimilating Western civilisation? I need not remind
you that we have never failed in our profound admiration of
England and English ideas, and its excellent self-governing
institutions. And how many of your countrymen have lent us a
helping hand in the education and regeneration of our land, as
tutors, professors, and as employees in the different branches
of our public life, and, above all, in commerce, as constantly
intermingling with the ever-increasing network of peaceful
relations between the two countries? I believe that the focus
of international competition is moving steadily towards the
Pacific Ocean, and pledged as we are, not only by our historic
relations with the west, but also the east, we are destined
to play an ever-increasing part in the development of that
portion of the globe. It is only natural for me to believe and
sincerely hope that the continuance of those friendly feelings
and sympathies which have existed in the past shall be daily
more strongly cemented. With these hopes and convictions I
trust I may be excused if I construe this hospitality as one of
the many tokens of the continuation of our past friendship.”
At the dinner given the evening prior to his departure for Paris, on his
way home, the Marquis was the recipient from Lord Lansdowne on behalf of
the King, of the order of Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Bath.
On his way to London the Marquis had passed through Russia, where he
was received in special audience by the Tsar, and Count Lamsdorff gave
a Ministerial Banquet in his honour. From St Petersburg he travelled
to Germany, Italy, and Belgium, receiving at Potsdam a decoration from
the Kaiser, at a banquet specially arranged, the tour through Europe
being one of unalloyed satisfaction to the veteran statesman, and of
exceptional value to his country, in that he obtained information
at first hand regarding the status of political parties, and added
to his store of knowledge on subjects connected with the science of
constitutional government, which is one of the many matters on which he
is privileged to be the trusted adviser of his sovereign, in virtue of
his position as President of the Council.
In this necessarily imperfect sketch of the strenuous life of Marquis
Ito I have touched mainly on his public career, leaving to the last any
reference to the simplicity and usefulness of his private life in town
and country, the one permeated with the anxieties and perplexities of
a statesman’s daily round of duty, the other a restful freedom from
political worry always to be secured in his seaside villa at Oiso. In
a measure the Marquis may be said to have made Oiso, for it was not
until he had a house built there, within sound of the waves of the
Pacific, that the wayside village and posting station of ancient times
became known as a health resort and acquired a certain notoriety as a
convenient seaside bathing-place. Oiso will never be a Brighton or an
Eastbourne, perhaps, but it has a pretty collection of villa residences
close to the shore, and it has for a background the peerless Fujiyama,
while the Pacific billows rattle the shingle on its extensive beach. Here
it is that the veteran statesman is visited by his life-long friends,
those “elder statesmen” of the new regime who recognise in him their
experienced chief and are by the nation regarded, in the main, as its
safest guides and counsellors in all that appertains to the welfare of
the country.
It is here that he seeks repose when jaded with the cares of office,
for although he no longer heads a Ministry, and is therefore exempt,
it might be imagined, from the storm and stress of party politics, his
advice is as much sought and valued as it ever was, and his presence in
the capital is often indispensable to the adjustment of matters of the
highest national importance. According to Western ideas the Marquis is
not a wealthy man,—as Premier his salary was less than a thousand pounds
a year,—but on the other hand his tastes are not expensive, and like the
vast majority of his countrymen he lives a frugal, almost abstemious,
life in which neither the pleasures of the table nor the dissipations
of society have any share. He is essentially a man of active habits,
and betrays in no marked degree the weight of years or the strain of
his long-continued and invaluable services to his nation. He feels a
justifiable pride in the achievements of the Japanese army and navy, for
he was among the first to perceive that if Japan would take her stand
among the powers of the world she must provide herself with, first of
all, the means to add weight to her arguments in the council. In some
respects the most critical period of Japan’s development was from 1892
to 1896, which covered the war of 1894-5 with China, and throughout this
term the hand of the Marquis was on the helm, steering the ship of State
through the exceedingly troubled waters produced firstly by the war
itself and secondly by the oppressive action of three European powers
which deprived the victor in the struggle of the fruits, in no small
degree, of the victories achieved. Japan had then to stomach an affront
which she could never forgive, and Ito has lived to see the day when by
the might of her sons Japan has been avenged. Not completely, perhaps, in
the opinion of some, but sufficiently so to justify the adoption of the
policy which he advocated, for,—come what may,—his country has obtained a
place in the front rank of naval and military powers of which the future,
be it favourable or unfavourable, can by no means wholly deprive her.
His patient courage and determination in the hour of trial have extorted
admiration on all sides. His sober judgment and wise discretion in the
conduct of affairs of State have won for him the entire confidence and
regard of his countrymen wherever they are to be found. His adaptability
has ever been one of his distinguishing characteristics. In his choice
of a model he has confined himself to no one country or system but
has framed his progressive measures, whether of naval or military
organisation, of public works, or of administrative improvement, with an
absolute freedom from bias that has enabled him to secure for his nation
in all cases that which is most suited to its needs, and which in actual
practice has proved the most beneficial throughout.
In his grand conception of a reformed and reinvigorated Japan under
a written constitution and codified laws based upon the best that
could be gleaned of Occidental modes of procedure, the Marquis Ito was
instrumental in conferring upon his country a series of benefits such
as by no ordinary combination of fortuitous circumstances could it have
obtained in the lifetime of an individual, however exalted. His early
visit to the Occident afforded him an insight into methods of government
which had borne the test of time, and by his accurate judgment and
skilful interpretation of the demands of a people who were yearning for
enlightenment and freedom he gauged to perfection the possibilities of
a wholesale adaptation of Western arts and sciences to the requirements
of his own land. Among the lessons learned in the course of an extended
tour through Europe and America by the Iwakura Embassy in 1872 had been
the imperative need of adopting measures of defence against the even
then palpably inimical designs of Russia in regard to Japan’s position.
If the travellers had been deeply impressed with the power and wealth of
the Occidental nations they were not less convinced by what they saw of
the need of an efficient system of national protection by sea and land.
In his representations to his sovereign the future Premier dwelt then,
there is reason to believe, on the advantages of a policy of preparation
for eventualities such as in recent times has borne good fruit in a
hundred ways. It is to the Marquis Ito Hirobumi more than to any other
individual statesman that the honour belongs of having brought his
country, subject to the guidance of a wise and revered monarch, through
a period of unexampled peril in respect of its domestic condition, and
of frequent crises in its foreign relations. Troubles have lately arisen
owing to the action of one of the Great Powers, and for which Japan is in
no sense to be held responsible, by which the efficiency of her naval and
military organisations was for a year and a half subjected to the most
severe tests, but the final results were of a character to still further
elevate the status of the country among the nations of the earth and to
confirm its claim to consideration as the most potent, enlightened, and
progressive of any in the Orient.
Korea, by the terms of the Peace Settlement of 1905, has come under
the protection of Japan, and Marquis Ito has assumed the duties of
Resident-General; the speedy development of the peninsula under Japanese
auspices may therefore be looked for. Already there is a large Japanese
population, and both Korean and Japanese children attend the Japanese
schools at Seoul, where special attention is given to physical drill. The
photograph shows the girls exercising with the _naginata_, a weapon which
the daughters of samurai were taught in the olden time to wield most
effectively.
VII
PRINCE IWAKURA TOMOMI
There may be some who yet remember Tenniel’s cartoon in _Punch_ of
1872 depicting a Japanese nobleman attired in orthodox _haori_ and
_hakama_ and wearing two swords in his girdle, watching a faction fight
in Ireland, and remarking to the Archbishop of Canterbury,—“These,
your grace, I suppose, are Heathens?” To which the answer was: “On
the contrary, your Excellency, they are among our most enthusiastic
Religionists!” The figure in the ancient costume of Japan was intended
to represent Prince Iwakura, the head of an Embassy which included Ito,
Kido, Okubo, and others whose names are familiar enough to the people
of the Occident to-day but were then as strange to their ears as can
well be imagined. The visitors had come to England from the Far East by
way of America, and were here to learn all that it was likely would be
useful to the people of their own land to know. When he quitted Japan
on the mission to Europe and America Prince Iwakura was U-dai-jin, or
Vice-Chancellor of the Right, and had always occupied a high position
at the Court of Kioto, being a _Kuge_—_i.e._ a member of the old
nobility—by birth. He had, like Prince Sanjo, been a prominent leader,
intellectually, in the great transitional period of 1867-71, and was
thoroughly imbued with the tenets of the kai-koku section of the Japanese
body-politic, though he can scarcely be said to have been a whole-souled
advocate of unrestricted intercourse with foreign nations,—not at any
rate until after his visit to the capitals of the West in 1872.
[Illustration: PRINCE IWAKURA TOMOMI]
The prince began his life at the palace as one of the _Jiju_, or junior
chamberlains in the imperial service at Kioto. This was in the year 1848,
when he was about sixteen years of age. In the month of February 1858,
at the time when the American Minister Townsend Harris was pressing the
Government of Yedo for the completion of a new treaty with the United
States, it happened that Hotto, the feudal lord of Bichiu, was sent to
Kioto by the Shogun to explain the critical state of affairs, and with
the request that the Emperor Komei, who was then on the throne, would
give his sanction to the conclusion of the treaty referred to. But
several of the _Kuge_ protested, Iwakura being one of them, and presented
a memorial to the Emperor, urging him not to consent to the Shogun’s
proposition. As far as Iwakura was concerned, it was not through any
disposition towards factious opposition to the Bakufu that he protested,
as was to be well comprehended from the fact that when the Bakufu was
being urged by the Court party to expel foreigners from Japan altogether,
and the Tokugawa officials realising the impossibility of carrying out
the imperial commands, and that it was mainly due to the circumstance
that the _kuge_ had the ear of the ruler at Kioto, yet pretended to
acquiesce, and suggested that the _Kuge_ should unite with the samurai
in the effort to turn out the Westerners, the intention being that the
_kuge_ should thus come to see the folly of attempting to shut up the
treaty ports, Iwakura at once said publicly that the Bakufu’s suggestion
was just and right. The idea of his taking this view of the matter was,
however, so displeasing to the Emperor Komei that Iwakura was ordered
to shave his head and go into retirement until further orders. Thus it
was by his impartial attitude that he made enemies among those who were
opponents of the Shogun, and they dubbed him _Sabakuka_, or helper of the
Bakufu, ostracising him so completely that no one went near him. As a
matter of fact he was no friend to the Bakufu, but he was a fair-minded
man, not afraid to give utterance to his convictions, and did not approve
of the principle of wantonly opposing every step that the Shogun might
find it advisable to take.
While Iwakura was dwelling in this enforced seclusion means were found
of opening up communication between him and Saigo Takamori, Okubo, Kido,
Goto Shojiro, and others of the imperialist party, and so when the
change of government was brought about in 1868 he was at once released
from his retirement and appointed at first a Sanyo, then a Gijo, and
finally, when the new administration was completely arranged for, in the
autumn of that year, he became a Fuku-Sosai or Vice-Chancellor of the
Government, a title that subsequently was merged in that of U-dai-jin.
Long prior to his journey to Western lands he had come in contact with
Western people to no inconsiderable extent, as a brief allusion to the
part he took in the reception of the Duke of Edinburgh in 1869 will
suffice to show. But first it should be explained that as a Court noble
he had in the preceding year accompanied his present Majesty from Kioto
to Yedo, thenceforward to be known as Tokio. The youthful sovereign
travelled by the famous To-kai-do, or road of the Eastern Sea, and as
it was the first and last occasion on which the sovereign journeyed
under conditions that have long since ceased to exist, it may be worth
while to recall some of the features of the imperial procession and the
methods of travel which down to that date were adopted in Japan. Matters
have in this respect been completely changed, for the railways have
revolutionised everything. The _honjins_ at which the daimios stayed
for the night when journeying by easy stages from their provinces to
the Shogun’s capital at stated periods and back to their domains have
mostly disappeared,—the post stations, where their servitors hired
baggage ponies and their palanquin bearers were changed, every few miles,
still exist on most roads, but the palanquins have been replaced by the
“man-power-car” (jin-riki-sha), a vehicle then uninvented. The stately
manners and elaborate courtesy of the old regime have been replaced by
a certain brusqueness that sometimes offends. The journey from Kioto to
Yedo formerly occupied four weeks. The average rate of progress was thus
about twelve miles per day, but it was not uniform, and much depended
on the character of the road, and of the weather. The Emperor rode in a
specially constructed “norimono” (_lit._: thing for riding in) and was
hidden from the gaze of the vulgar by silk-gauze curtains. The bearers
of the imperial vehicle had been trained to perfection in the art of
carrying it steadily,—to the degree, indeed, that they could run fast
with it when a bowl brimful of water had been placed inside and not
spill a drop, if we may credit the assertions of those who formerly made
their journeys in this fashion,—and were carefully matched for height
to prevent any oscillation. In the month of November, when the Emperor
removed to his new capital, the days were warm and sunny, and the nights
cool, so that the time chosen was the pleasantest for travelling of all
the year, and as the _honjin_ keepers had been warned of his Majesty’s
approach by advance couriers all had been made ready for his fitting
reception. By his express command no levy of any sort was made but, down
to the smallest article needed for use on the road, everything was paid
for. As the procession neared Kanagawa some of the Yokohama residents
were present at the roadside to witness its passage through the little
town, and it is supposed that his Majesty, then not quite seventeen years
of age, obtained his first view of the strangers in his realms through
the gauze-curtained windows of his norimono. The advance was slow and
dignified. There were 1000 soldiers marching in scattered parties of
from forty to two hundred, with a few flags, and several bands of music
playing a weird air that no one recognised. Beyond this there was not
a sound. The people bowed profoundly, but in perfect silence, as the
ruler of Japan passed by. Following the Emperor came Prince Iwakura, in
a norimono, and some twenty other nobles of the Court, as also three or
four territorial lords, each with his own retinue. Slowly the procession
wended its way along the “Eastern Sea Road” at a foot pace, until the
castle of Yedo which had for two and a half centuries sheltered the
deputy ruler, but thenceforward to be the headquarters of the real
sovereign, came in sight, from the suburb of Shinagawa. Soon the imperial
norimono had been borne across the inner moat and the Emperor had reached
his palace, not again to appear in public for a long time, and then not
in a norimono but in a wheeled vehicle of European pattern drawn by
well-groomed horses.
Next year there came to Japan Prince Alfred of England, and with his
reception as the first foreign prince to visit Japan under the new order
of things created by the Restoration Prince Iwakura had all to do. At the
time he gracefully said that the Government had given to the reception
of the English prince the most anxious consideration, inasmuch as it was
of all things wished that the utmost friendship should be shown towards
Foreign Powers, and the Government was ready to promote the formation of
intimate relations even though in doing so they might have to sacrifice
to some degree the ancient usages and ideas, so much so that the Emperor
would be compelled to observe an altogether new etiquette in receiving
Prince Alfred in a way that would be acceptable to Great Britain, but
that it afforded intense gratification to reflect that this compliment
would in the first instance be paid to an English prince, and would
form some slight acknowledgment of the abundant proofs which Japan had
received of the thorough good will of England and of the Government of
Queen Victoria.
It is ancient history now, but the _Galatea_ dropped anchor at Yokohama
on Sunday, the 25th of August 1869. The royal standard, however, was not
hoisted by her until the 31st, and then all the warships in harbour and
the fort of Kanagawa broke into a tremendous salute, which later the
_Galatea_ returned with the flag of Japan at the main. On the 1st of
September the Duke took up his residence in the palace of Hama-go-ten,
in Tokio, which had been made ready for him, and on the 4th he went to
the palace within the castle to meet the Ten-shi, who welcomed his guest
in the Audience Chamber, and then invited him to a less formal meeting
in the adjoining garden of Fuki-age. Refreshments were served in the
maple pavilion, and the Emperor awaited the Duke’s coming in the tiny
pavilion by the waterfall. As Prince Alfred entered the Ten-shi rose and
bowed courteously, and begged his guest to be seated. The suites remained
standing, while the Emperor said “It affords me great pleasure to receive
a prince who has come so far, and I hope you will remain long enough
to repay you for the fatigues of the journey.” The best wishes were
expressed on both sides for cordial relations between England and Japan
and the memorable interview was brought to a conclusion.
Interest will always attach to this first meeting of the Japanese
Emperor with a member of another ruling house, for it signalised a vast
alteration in the views of the Japanese aristocracy as well as the
beginning of cordial relations between the two powers which have with the
lapse of time grown closer and closer, and promise to be eternal. It is
due to the memory of Prince Iwakura to show, as it has here been sought
to do, that he most clearly appreciated the benefits which were certain
to accrue from the maintenance of a mutual understanding between his
country and ours, and did all that it was feasible in that epoch to do to
cement the ties which were thus early growing up between nations destined
to be one day absolutely allied.
In 1870 Prince Iwakura was despatched on an important mission to the lord
of Satsuma province, being the bearer of a request from the Emperor that
the daimio Shimadzu Saburo, then dwelling at Kagoshima, should come to
Tokio and give his assistance in affairs of State, by taking his seat at
the Grand Council. The Emperor wrote a special letter to Shimadzu,—who
was virtually all powerful in Satsuma, though nominally the uncle and
truly the father of the daimio of the clan,—to the effect that the
Dainagon Tomiyoshi (Iwakura) was charged to convey the expression of his
Majesty’s esteem and calling upon him (Shimadzu) to join in the great
work of reforming the national institutions. To Iwakura the Imperial
Commission was given in these terms:—
TO IWAKURA DAINAGON:
His Majesty desires to present a sword to the shrine of
_Shokoku Daimojin_ at Kagoshima in Satsuma, and to take an oath
to the god to exalt the destinies of the State.
You will therefore proceed thither and worship in obedience to
this desire of his Majesty.
SANJO SANETOMI:
TOKUDAIJI SANENORI:
The Satsuma lord found an excuse for non-compliance at the time with the
sovereign’s command, though he ultimately went up to Tokio with a retinue
of armed samurai, at a date when the wearing of two swords in the girdle
had become an anachronism, and then made but a brief sojourn there.
The next mission undertaken by Prince Iwakura was that alluded to at the
outset,—the visit to America and Europe.
With him, as Vice-ambassadors, were four of the heads of departments of
State, and a number of Secretaries and clerks belonging to the several
departments represented. The dominant idea seems to have been that the
chiefs should form a council of five among themselves, and be able to
adequately represent the views of their sovereign. The prince had some
months prior to the leadership of this mission being conferred upon him
been made Minister for Foreign Affairs, and what was a most exceptional
thing at that time, indeed an altogether unprecedented honour, the
Emperor paid him a visit at his own residence in Tokio, and thus
addressed him:
“I have purposely called on you to thank you for your zeal in
my service. Ever since the Reform you have exerted yourself
day and night to secure the happiness and tranquillity of the
empire, and the present state of prosperity has principally
depended on you.”
When Prince Iwakura was chosen to lead a mission to the Western Powers it
is to be inferred from this commendatory utterance of the sovereign how
great was the importance that was attached to its successful fulfilment,
and there can be no doubt that much was anticipated from it in the shape
of compliance by the Governments to which it was accredited with a desire
that the Japanese Government had very much at heart, and that was the
revision of the treaties entered into twelve to fifteen years before with
foreign powers,—a revision which it took many years to bring about but
was at last amicably effected in 1894.
The Embassy left Yokohama by a Pacific Mail Company’s steamer in December
1871, and it was absent altogether a year and nine months. Everywhere it
was well received, but the results were not quite satisfactory, for when
it returned the vexed question of extra territoriality was no nearer a
settlement in accordance with Japan’s views than when it set out.
On his return Iwakura found a strong party in the Government in favour
of inflicting punishment on Korea for wrongs and insults that it was
declared the nation had sustained at the hands of the people of the
neighbouring peninsula. As Korea was tributary to China, this meant
going to war with the Chinese, and Iwakura was profoundly opposed to an
adventure of this character in the then state of the Empire’s naval and
military forces. A split in the Government followed, and the members
of the war party, which included Goto Shojiro, Itagaki Taisuke, Saigo
Takamori, Soyeshima, and Yeto Shimpei, all resigned, their places in the
administration being taken by Ito Hirobumi, Katsu Awa-no-kami, Okubo, and
Terashima.
The ill feeling in the country engendered by this conflict of opinion
led to a determined attempt on Prince Iwakura’s life by men belonging to
the Tosa clan, who were caught and executed for their abominable crime.
The prince was returning from the imperial palace at eight o’clock in
the evening of the 15th of January 1874, in a small open carriage, the
hood of which, fortunately, as the night was cold, had been drawn up.
Nevertheless, though the hood was a partial protection, he received
several wounds from the swords and spears with which the intending
assassins had armed themselves. The attack took place on the causeway at
Ku-ichi-gai, close to the castle moat, and the driver of the carriage and
the _betto_ or groom, were likewise both badly wounded. In endeavouring
to escape from his assailants the prince fell headlong into the moat,
which happily was not deep at that point, and the assassins, as they
deemed themselves to be, took to flight, on the guard at the palace gate
approaching with a lantern. Their victim had strength left to shout, and
was hauled out of the moat, more dead than alive from his injuries and
immersion in the ice-cold water on that winter night. He was a long time
confined to his bed, but he eventually recovered to be able to resume his
part in the official life of the capital.
He died in 1881 deeply mourned by the whole of the Japanese people,
who recognised in him perhaps more than in any other statesman of his
generation the guide and counsellor of the monarch at critical periods of
the nation’s history, and he undoubtedly was honoured by his sovereign
with a close personal friendship such as rarely falls to the lot of a
subject under any conditions, in Japan or elsewhere.
VIII
PRINCE SANJO SANETOMI
On the 6th of November 1868, when the British Minister, the late Sir
Harry Parkes, was reviewing the British garrison at Yokohama, a Japanese
equestrian, wearing the native robes of white silk which befitted
his rank as a _kuge_ or Court noble,—his horse led by two grooms or
“bettos,” and attended by forty soldiers in blue serge uniforms, with
black cloth caps,—a man of slight physique, and particularly juvenile
in appearance,—sat placidly in his saddle watching with an interested
air the movements of the foreign troops as they executed a series of
evolutions and marched past the representative of Queen Victoria. The
visitor, who had come from Tokio to attend the review, was Prince Sanjo,
the first Prime Minister of Japan, and leader of the newly formed
Government of the Restored Imperial Rule. A few minutes later Sir Harry,
with a well-turned compliment on the skill of Japanese swordsmen, and
a graceful acknowledgment of his indebtedness personally to the valour
of one of their number, handed to the Japanese statesman the sword sent
by the British Queen for presentation to Mr Nakai Kozo, in memory of
the day when Nakai and Goto Shojiro, as is elsewhere related at length,
saved the life of the British Minister when he was attacked by outlaws
in the streets of Kioto in March of the same year. Prince Sanjo passed
on the gift to Mr Nakai with his own congratulations to the recipient on
the performance of a brilliant feat of arms, and thus closed an incident
that served to remind those present of an exceptionally stormy period
in the history of the nation, and which happily was then giving place
to comparatively settled conditions. Prince Sanjo had come from Kioto
to Yedo, thenceforward to be the capital of the Empire under the title
of Tokio, in the month of June, in attendance on the Emperor, who then
removed to the former headquarters of the Shogunate and gave to the place
its new name. Sanjo was at that time _Fuku-Sosai_, ranking next to the
Emperor’s uncle, Prince Arisugawa Taruhito, who occupied in the first
administration formed under the Restored Imperial regime the position of
_Sosai_—_i.e._ Supreme Director of the Government. The decisions of the
So-sai were unchallengeable, and it was an office which only a prince of
the blood might hold. Sanjo had always, even during the lifetime of the
present Emperor’s father, sided with those who recognised the need of
reforms, and when, in the autumn of 1868, the Department of the So-sai
was abolished and the Dai-jo-kwan, or Supreme Governing Council, was
constituted, thus resuscitating an ancient advisory body that had had
a prior existence in the eighth century, he succeeded to the post of
president, or _Dai-Jo-Dai-Jin_, thereof, and occupied it from that time
forth until the dissolution of the Council on the reconstitution of the
Government in the year 1886.
[Illustration: PRINCE SANJO SANETOMI]
The Ministry of the Restored Rule was soon after its institution
reorganised so as to give equal representation to the four leading clans
that had been directly concerned in the revival of direct imperial
control—viz. Satsuma, Choshiu, Tosa, and Hizen. Up to the year 1886
the Dai-jo-kwan was a separate body, distinct from the Council of
Ministers or heads of departments. But in that year the two Councils
were fused into one, and became the Cabinet as it exists at the present
day. In Japan, it will be remembered, the Cabinet is appointed directly
by the sovereign, and is entirely independent of any political party
that may be predominant in the Diet. The Ministry at the outset of the
Meiji era included those energetic reformers, Ito Shunsuke (afterwards
Hirobumi) and Inouye Bunda (afterwards Kaoru) both Choshiu Samurai,
and in Prince Sanjo they found an able and ardent supporter of their
views. His influence was apparent in the tolerant attitude of the Court
party towards the policy of the new government, and as the motto of the
administration was then, and still is, “a strong Japan, for defence,
and if need be, for aggression,” it is not easy to see in what respect
the Imperialistic conservatism of the Kioto nobles was stultified by the
doctrine enunciated in the Council Chamber at the capital. The retention
of Japan for the Japanese was the object sought by both sides, but while
one would have attempted to realise it by the expulsion of the subjects
of the Occidental Powers, the other party in the State was willing to
believe that Japan’s safety and territorial integrity were best to
be preserved by the assimilation of those arts and sciences that had
given to the Western peoples their capabilities of waging successful
warfare, and of thereby imposing their will upon others. The policy which
commended itself to Japan at that epoch was certainly not inspired by a
mere love of change, nor by any pronounced preference for foreign ways,
nor was it ascribable to a passion for learning, in the abstract, but it
was directly prompted by a well-grounded political incentive to action
that has never lost its hold on the minds of Government or people, and is
indubitably as strong to-day as when its principles were first assented
to by the nation at large, close upon forty years ago.
Prince Sanjo belonged to the eighth _Kuge_ family, and was therefore
a descendant of the Fujiwara house which has from very early days
provided consorts for the Emperors. The mothers and wives of the
sovereigns of Japan have all been Fujiwaras by descent, and the rule
still holds good that the princesses of the blood shall marry into
Fujiwara houses. The retention of Prince Sanjo in the office of Prime
Minister on the establishment of the Dai-jo-kwan was a wise step of
which the good effects were incalculable, inasmuch as it tended towards
the reconcilement of those antagonistic sections of the community which
were to be classed respectively as adherents of the old and of the new
systems. At the beginning he was himself an opponent of the _kai-koku_
policy which favoured the opening of the country to foreign trade and
intercourse, but in the end he vastly aided the accomplishment of those
plans to which he had finally accorded his unqualified approbation. As a
Fujiwara he could not be other than a devoted servant of the throne,—as
a convert to the doctrine of reform he was a pillar of strength to the
Government of the Restored Imperial Rule, and a strenuous advocate of
the adoption of methods calculated to place his country in the van of
Asiatic powers. The Fujiwaras in the ninth century assumed regal control,
in their tenure of the office of Kwambaku,—an ancient title borne by the
Prime Minister of the State,—and the holder of it in A.D. 888 had wielded
absolute sway, arranging all affairs with and on behalf of the then
reigning Mikado, who seems to have been content to efface himself and to
permit the Minister to exercise sovereign powers. Thus the prestige of
the Fujiwara house was a valuable prop to the edifice of State and the
influence exerted by the prince as Premier throughout his long occupancy
of the exalted office was ever thrown into the scale of solid advancement.
When the Shogun Tokugawa Keiki tendered his resignation in the spring of
1868, he made a strong appeal for the assembling at an early date of the
provincial lords in Kioto, in order that they might express individually
and collectively their views to the young monarch on the great questions
which were then agitating the land. This Council of Dai-Mios met while
the war of the Restoration was yet in progress, and the outcome of their
deliberations was the revival of the historical Dai-jo-kwan, with a
_Dai-jo-dai-jin_, or Chancellor,—to use the term then commonly employed
in translation,—a Sa-dai-jin, or Vice-chancellor of the Left, which ranks
highest in Japan,—and a Vice-chancellor of the Right, the U-dai-jin.
The holders of the Vice-chancellorships under Prince Sanjo were Prince
Iwakura and the feudal chief of Satsuma. The administrative departments
created—viz. Foreign Affairs, Finance, War, Education, Home Affairs,
Justice, Religion, and the Imperial Household—were each presided over by
a Minister, and among those who accepted portfolios at that time were
many whose names will remain conspicuous for all time in the chronicles
of the Empire. Few of them are now alive, but it may with strict justice
be said that their labours in laying the foundations of good government
for their country were not in vain.
Prince Sanjo was at the head of the government throughout the troublous
period when it became necessary, in order to vindicate Japan’s rights, to
send an expedition to Formosa, led by Marquis Saigo, and at the far more
anxious stage when rebellion arose in Satsuma and it was imperative to
prosecute the war against Saigo Takamori and his followers with vigour,
lest the spread of principles opposed to the Government policy should
ultimately render its position insecure. Throughout it was Prince Sanjo
who presided over the deliberations of the Cabinet, and who enjoyed the
complete confidence of his imperial master. A great demand arose for
the revision of the treaties into which Japan had entered with foreign
nations, at a time when she practically had no choice but to throw open
her ports to over-sea trade. Year after year this momentous problem, how
to procure for the country adequate recognition of its paramount rights,
while it chafed under the claims of foreigners to enjoy the immunities
afforded by extra-territorial jurisdiction, obtruded itself, but it was
not until the Dai-jo-kwan had given place to a Cabinet in 1886 that a
satisfactory stage leading to revision was entered upon, and then Prince
Sanjo had ceased to be Premier.
Five years previously the nation had passed through a crisis in its
financial affairs due to the difficulties arising from a superabundant
issue of paper currency, and trade had been temporarily affected in
a way to give the maximum of concern to the Ministry. Brave efforts
were made, and with an appreciable measure of success, to economise in
every department of State. With the revival of commercial prosperity
to some extent in the autumn there was promulgated the imperial decree
granting a Constitution, to take effect in 1889, and for the assembly
of a Parliament in 1890. These gracious fulfilments of the promise
vouchsafed to his people by the sovereign at his accession filled the
nation with joy, and it was resolved that steps should be taken to frame
a Constitution which should be acceptable to the monarch and at the
same time satisfy all the legitimate aspirations of his loyal subjects.
To this end it was agreed that Marquis Ito should visit Europe, there to
complete his studies of Constitutional law and history, in order that he
should be in a position to offer the Emperor advice on every point in
connection with which information might be desired. By 1884 the internal
progress of the Empire was such as to give the utmost confidence to the
administration of which Prince Sanjo remained the head, and it had become
practicable to regard the unrestricted opening of the country to foreign
commerce and residence as being within the domain of practical politics,
and indeed within measurable distance.
By the time that it had become desirable, in 1886, to reconstitute
the Government on a model more suited to the requirements of a regime
based upon parliamentary procedure, the new army of Japan had attained
dimensions which warranted the Ministry in entertaining high hopes of its
future serviceability as the safeguard of the national interests, and
simultaneously the navy had risen to the condition of being a formidable
force. The army mustered at this stage over 100,000 of all ranks, and in
the fleet there were twenty-six vessels, five of them ironclads, in all
mounting some 225 guns. The railway system had grown to a total of nearly
300 miles, and there were 5000 miles of telegraph. In one way and another
the outgoing governing council was able to give a thoroughly satisfactory
account of its stewardship, for while in Korea there had been rioting
resulting in the deaths of a number of Japanese, and the War party at
Tokio had clamoured for retaliatory measures at Seoul, a treaty had been
negotiated on acceptable terms with the Peking Government and Japan had,
by the moderation of her demands for redress, averted the danger which
threatened of an open rupture with consequences for which Japan was
herself at that period but ill prepared.
On being relieved of his office of Dai-jo-dai-jin Prince Sanjo went
nominally into retirement, but his services as an adviser to the Crown
were not infrequently called for, until his health failed him in 1889.
His decease took place in February 1891, of influenza, and just before
his death the Emperor visited him and conferred on him, as an old and
faithful servant, the highest rank that it is possible for a Japanese
subject to attain, and which had not been bestowed by an Emperor of Japan
on anyone since the Eleventh Century.
IX
COUNT INOUYE KAORU
Like others who have been prominent in the making of modern Japan, Count
Inouye was a soldier before he became a statesman. To most of the foreign
residents in Japan at the period immediately following the Restoration of
Imperial rule he was best known as the Finance Minister, Inouye Bunda. To
his countrymen he was the dashing Choshiu leader who had commanded the
samurai troops of the southern clan in the fierce and prolonged strife
of pre-Restoration days between his lord and the Bakufu, or Government
of the Shogun. He and many of his colleagues in the first Imperial
Government had made names for themselves as deft wielders of the long
keen swords that they wore in their belts rather than for sage advice in
the council chamber, but they speedily gave proof of exceptional ability
in directions far removed from the ordinary path of the _bushi_, whose
province it was of old “to follow his chief to the field.” But prior
to his defeat of the Tokugawa forces the future financier had spent
more than a year in England and the capitals of the Continent, having
contrived to make his escape from his own land when foreign travel was
still interdicted. A batch of students left Japan in 1863 intending to
remain abroad for a five years’ course of study, but Inouye heard of
the troubles that were thickening in connection with his own province
consequent upon the attitude of its lord towards foreign intercourse,
and having had opportunities of judging of the military strength of the
Occidental nations in the course of his journey through Europe resolved
in company with his friend Ito Shunsuke to return forthwith and warn
the Choshiu baron of the risks that were being incurred by the clan.
They left their fellow-students behind them in Europe and hastened
to Yokohama, where they found the combined squadron on the point of
sailing for Shimonoseki, to punish the daimio of Choshiu for firing on
passing ships. Armed with letters from the Foreign Ministers to the baron
Mori, their lord, Ito and Inouye took passage in one of the warships,
and were at their own desire landed at a point on the coast, in the
Suwo Nada, as that part of the Inland Sea is termed, and made their
way by road to Hagi, where the daimio was then in residence. Hagi is
some forty miles across country from the Suwo Nada, and Inouye and his
companion ran considerable risk of being discovered and brought to book
for having quitted the province without leave. They assumed the disguise
of medical men, who were permitted in those days to wear one sword, and
were thus not wholly without means of defence had they been attacked in
the mountains, and they succeeded in reaching the castle town to which
they were bound without being delayed on the road. But they found the
baron Mori entirely averse to the proposition that he should withdraw
his standing order to the forts to fire on strangers, and on the other
hand, though their reception had not been unkindly, they were ordered to
return with a message of defiance to the squadron they had left in the
Inland Sea. Three days in all had elapsed when they rejoined the British
man-of-war _Barrosa_ and communicated the purport of their lord’s reply.
One course only remained open to the British and other commanders, and
the vessels steamed to a selected position in the straits, just out of
the strong current, and early the next morning prepared for the assault.
Not without warning, however, for due notice was given of the intention,
failing surrender. The Choshiu batteries were eight in number, beginning
at Chofu, three miles east of the town of Shimonoseki,—and now the first
railway station on the Sanyo line towards Kobé,—and extending thence to
the hill, opposite Moji Point, where the main street of Bakan—another
name for Shimonoseki, and in general use—begins. Seventy-four guns were
mounted in the eight batteries, and the instant that the guns of the
squadron opened fire, on the expiration of the allotted time, the most
vigorous response was made by the Japanese gunners. The most powerful of
Choshiu’s ordnance was mounted at Maita-mura, a village midway between
Bakan and Chofu. After some severe fighting, in the course of which the
town of Bakan took fire and burned fiercely, the batteries were silenced,
and the British ship _Barrosa_ landed a party of bluejackets and marines
to aid in extinguishing the conflagration. During the engagement one man
on board a foreign ship was killed by an arrow, the Choshiu men having
fallen back on archery to help them in the defence of their positions.
On the surrender of the forts a document was drawn up for the baron’s
signature, agreeing to certain conditions for the withdrawal of the
attacking squadron, and Ito and Inouye were once more despatched at the
request of the local government to represent the utter impossibility of
holding out against superior force. The envoys returned two days later
with the agreement sealed, and seventy-two guns, then supposed to be
the total number in use, were taken on board the allied vessels. Two
guns were unwittingly left in position on the hillside, commanding the
straits, for the writer found them there when surveying the locality ten
years afterwards, all but hidden in the dense undergrowth. The Choshiu
samurai were not a little proud of the resistance which they had been
able to offer to the foreign ships’ attack, and the townspeople never
forgot the magnanimous behaviour of the victors in going ashore to quench
the flames that the battle had originated.
[Illustration: COUNT INOUYE KAORU]
The men of Choshiu, some fifty or more in all, who fell in the memorable
fight were interred in a special cemetery situated on rising ground
in the rear of the town, and the graves are still tended with that
loving care which is invariably bestowed everywhere in Japan on the
burial-places of relatives and friends. The Frenchmen,—it is said there
were three,—who were killed aboard the French warships, were taken ashore
on the Moji side for interment, and at a later date the French admiral
visited the spot, and, according to report, discovered that the graves
had been wilfully desecrated, indeed,—as it was said,—wholly destroyed.
That some misapprehension must have existed on this point is certain,
since the writer was conducted by a farmer, who dwelt near Moji point, to
the spot where the three sailors had been buried, and to all appearances
the graves, though surrounded by dense vegetation, were intact. This
was in the year 1873, when a submarine cable was being laid across the
Straits to form part of the Japanese telegraph system. The farmer knew
that those who fell on the side of the allies lay in that secluded spot,
and expressed his regret that being a poor man he could do nothing to
show his respect for those who had perished at the post of duty. The
undergrowth was cleared away, and the soil had been purposely left
untouched by rake or hoe. This was more than thirty years ago, and it is
impossible for the writer to say whether or not some suitable memorial
to the French victims of the battle has since been set up at the place
indicated, but in any case there must still be people dwelling near it
who know where the interments took place, as the story of the combined
attack on the forts and the incidents of the struggle is told with zest
by father to son, and on the Shimonoseki side the festival of the dead is
regularly held at the tiny graveyard at the back of the main street.
Only a little while before the date of the Shimonoseki bombardment
the Choshiu retainers at the baronial mansion in Kioto had engaged in
hostilities with the Shogun’s supporters at the capital, and so close to
the imperial palace were the combatants that the walls were repeatedly
struck by bullets. This was during the lifetime of the Emperor Komei, and
the now reigning sovereign was then only ten years of age, this early
experience of hearing shots fired in anger, and particularly in the
immediate vicinity of the imperial palace, though indicative of the pitch
to which clan jealousy and animosity had at that period attained, being
such as his Majesty was not likely to forget.
As to Choshiu, the sequel to the attack made by the clansmen on the
Shogun’s troops was that the Emperor Komei issued an edict deposing
the lord Mori and directing the Shogun, as Commander-in-chief of the
forces, to punish him for his rebellious behaviour. The Choshiu clan
thus found itself in a position of antagonism to the imperial house, as
well as to the Bakufu, and as at the same moment it was assailed by the
combined foreign fleets at the Straits of Shimonoseki, in consequence
of its attacks on passing vessels, the head of the clan was driven to
the necessity of defending both flanks as best he could. He contrived to
stall off the assault of the Shogun’s troops for the few days that he
was engaged at Shimonoseki, where his forts were demolished by the fire
of Admiral Kuper’s men-of-war and their allies, and when that trouble
was past he raised the standard of rebellion in real earnest and defied
the Shogun openly. Discipline and drill (for they were armed with Tower
rifles, and had been partially trained on a Western system) served the
men of Choshiu well, and they succeeded in inflicting a severe defeat
on the forces of Iyemochi, who led his men in person. In this encounter
between the forces of Choshiu and the Shogun the Satsuma clan stood
aloof, possibly as the result of private negotiations between the clan
leaders, for there were at this time several persons making their way
to the front who were destined at no very remote date to play the most
important parts in the affairs of the nation. On the Choshiu side were
Ito and Inouye, on the Satsuma side were Saigo and Okubo, all men whose
names will never fade in the history of their country’s emancipation from
feudalism. The leaders of the two clans were united, moreover, by a bond
of common interest, inasmuch as all desired to bring about the abolition
of the Shogunate and secure the revival of direct imperial rule by the
Emperor himself. The future Marquis Ito and Count Inouye had at this time
only just returned from their first visit to Europe, as already recorded,
and they lost no time in impressing upon their fellow-clansmen of Choshiu
the advantages of military preparation for the coming struggle. The
spirit of loyalty to the clan with which they were animated prompted them
to ensure, as far as was practicable, that it should be in a position to
do itself justice in the final effort which was then about to be made to
restore the personal authority of the Ten-shi.
Inouye Bunda was invested with the control of the Choshiu forces in
the field, and many engagements took place in the region bordering the
Inland Sea. After the death of the Shogun Iyemochi in 1866, however,
the encounters between the Bakufu troops and those of Choshiu became
less frequent, and there was practically a truce during the later months
of the year 1867, the situation in October being such as to prompt the
Shogun Keiki, whose tenure of the office had been but brief, to prefer a
request to be relieved of duties which circumstances had made it all but
impossible for him to fulfil. The lord Mori made his submission to the
Court, at Kioto, but the hostility of the clan to the Bakufu remained
latent, notwithstanding its temporary suppression, and when, at the close
of December 1867, the supremacy of the southern clans was established at
the capital, followed by the departure, on the 3rd of January, of the
Shogun Keiki for Osaka, the Choshiu clan was prepared to play a very
active part in the restoration of direct imperial rule in substitution
for that delegated authority which the Tokugawa house had so long wielded.
But Inouye Bunda had shown capacity of a different kind to that which had
so far been demanded of him as a military leader, and he at once took his
place as one of the most well-informed members of the new administration,
particularly on matters of finance, which he had made his especial study.
It became necessary for the Imperial Government to undertake works of
public utility, more especially railways, and on this account money had
to be obtained from abroad, the first loan being negotiated through
the agency of the Oriental Banking Corporation, while Count Inouye, as
he subsequently became, was at the Finance Department. The interest
on this loan was 9 per cent., and on a subsequent one 7 per cent.,
both being extinguished very early in the Meiji era. In the fifth year
(A.D. 1872) the wise step was taken by Inouye, then Vice-Minister of
Finance, of laying by a Reserve Fund comprised of extraordinary incomes,
obtained in the first place from the sale of certain Government articles
which had ceased to be of any use. The idea of inaugurating such a
reserve had been borne in upon the Government by the trying financial
experiences of the preceding four years of the reign, consequent on the
new administration having had to shoulder the responsibilities of the
provincial Governments or _Hans_, by which in many instances a flood of
paper money had been issued to circulate in merely their own territories,
and not current beyond their boundaries. The extinction of the _Hans_
obliged the new Government to undertake the liabilities so incurred to
the agricultural and other population. The Vice-minister had also in
view the resumption of specie payments at the earliest possible moment,
though it was long ere his wishes were realised. Altogether he found
it practicable to create the “Treasury Reserve Fund” by appropriating
11,330,000 _yen_,—adding together 11,230,000 _yen_ of specie and 99,000
odd of paper money, which had been accumulating in the Government
treasury. The Rules framed by him and issued in connection with this
Reserve Fund are evidence of the clear perception the Vice-Minister had
of the necessities of the hour, for he pointed out the urgent demand that
then existed for giving support to the policy of the Government by saving
up specie as a reserve, and arranging for its utilisation in a definite
and unequivocal manner, in order that the circulation of paper money
and the redemption of bills might be effectively provided for. A set of
rules, twelve in number, was laid down for determining the method of the
utilisation of the fund, in June 1872, and with slight modifications to
suit changed conditions these regulations held good throughout the period
antecedent to the introduction of Parliamentary Government. Such reserve
funds as were in the possession of the _Hans_, kept for the redemption
of the notes issued by them,—for they were not all indifferent to this
obvious duty,—were added to the Government’s reserve, according to the
actual sums received. And as the New Treasury’s convertible bills then
totalled 6,800,000 _yen_, it was arranged that the amount thereof should
be withdrawn at any time from the reserve fund of over 11,000,000 and
paid in exchange for those bills whenever the demand might be made.
By the following December the Reserve fund, in the Vice-minister’s
management, had reached the sum of over 16,000,000 _yen_, and as the
_yen_ was the equivalent of the dollar, at that time valued at from forty
to forty-four pence English, the Reserve Fund was roughly £3,000,000
sterling.
But when every liability had been taken into consideration it was the
Vice-minister’s somewhat mournful conviction that the Reserve was not
equal to even one-tenth of the total of the bills and various other kinds
of paper money in existence, for there were 20,000,000 _yen_ worth of
the _Hans_ notes out somewhere, and 55,000,000 worth of the Dai-jo-kwan
paper, issued to meet the unavoidable cost of setting up the new
administration in 1868. This financial difficulty, indeed, was but one of
the many problems that the Government of the Restored Imperial Rule was
faced with at the beginning of its career, apart from all considerations
of the opposition that it had to expect from those who were averse to the
change and resolved to appeal to arms in support of their convictions.
Indeed, the insight which even a superficial examination of the financial
position in the early years of Meiji is apt to afford the student
must tend to add to the wonder always experienced that the marvellous
results which it is on all sides acknowledged were achieved by the men
in power were attained with no greater sacrifices than those which
had to be recorded. The spirit in which the individual members of the
administration set about their tasks is, however, well exemplified by the
tone of the memorandum addressed by the Department to the Government in
December 1872. These were its terms:—
“It is our purpose to persist in our efforts to increase the
Reserve Fund and bring it up to an amount which may one day
prove to be of great service to the financial administration
of the country. It is, therefore, our earnest prayer that not
only during the time that we are in office, but down to a
hundred years yet to come, in pursuance of the plan here laid
out, efforts shall be made year after year to augment the fund,
thus protecting and advancing the prosperity of the nation,
in order to establish the foundation of popular confidence in
the national currency, and furthermore that the fund shall
positively never be spent for expenditures under the General
Account.
Should the Cabinet find our scheme acceptable, we would most
humbly beg for the immediate sanction of his August Majesty,
with the counter signatures of all the Ministers of State. With
these prayers we hereby submit this memorandum to the careful
consideration of the Government.”
From that time forward the Government never neglected any opportunity of
augmenting the Reserve Fund, and when at a later date the change to the
adoption of a gold standard was in preparation the fund which had been so
wisely initiated in 1872 was of the greatest help in partly paving the
way for the resumption of specie payments by Count Matsukata.
In 1878 it was decided that a sum of 10,000,000 _yen_ in gold should
be kept, as part of the Reserve Fund, in the Government Treasury, the
remainder being turned into floating capital, and it was ordered at the
same time that 20,000,000 _yen_ should be added annually out of the
general account to the Sinking Fund, having for its object the redemption
of public debts, both domestic and foreign.
It would be very difficult to set forth in detail the many services
rendered to his country by Count Inouye in the domain of finance, but
enough has been adduced already in the way of proof that his guiding
hand was of immense value to the nation in the critical period which
followed on the Restoration of Imperial Rule, and for many years after
while the national finances were being gradually established on the
substantial footing they have in later years been shown to possess. It
was as Foreign Minister in several administrations that Count Inouye also
distinguished himself, having held that portfolio at various times during
the existence of the Dai-jo-kwan, which only gave place to the Cabinet
in 1886. It was while he was Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1882 that a
systematic attempt was made to bring about an amicable adjustment of the
outstanding questions relative to the position of foreigners in Japan, a
conference of representatives of the treaty powers meeting at Tokio to
seriously consider revision in all its bearings. Minister Inouye, who had
some time previously changed his name from Bunda to Kaoru, had throughout
held it to be impossible for the nation to preserve the attitude which
the advocates of an exclusive policy had sought to maintain towards the
Occidental powers, and at the conference he boldly stood up for the
wholesale opening of the ports to foreign trade, with a corresponding
abandonment of consular jurisdiction on the part of the Western nations,
in recognition of the Emperor of Japan’s sovereign rights over every foot
of Japanese soil. The agreements to be entered into on this give-and-take
basis were to be valid for twelve years, though there was a suggestion
that the tariff, and the regulations in general as to foreign commerce,
should be subject to alteration at the end of eight years. Some of the
foreign delegates were dissatisfied with this proposal, while on the
side of the Japanese there was no little repugnance evinced even in high
quarters to the idea of throwing the whole country open to trade. There
were other difficulties, too, in regard to the period that should elapse
before the provisions respecting the admission of foreigners to the
interior should come into force, and the suggested appointment of foreign
judges to the Japanese Courts after the style of the Mixed Courts in
China. Finally the conference broke up without reaching any conclusions
on these knotty questions, though it was something to reflect upon that
a genuine effort had been made on both sides to remove the obstacles to
a better understanding. In 1884 there were clear indications that the
Foreign Minister’s policy was gaining ground, symptoms of a disposition
to welcome foreigners being manifested where previously there had been
violent antagonism to the project.
In 1885 the war party in Japan conceived the notion of an alliance
between their country and France against China, there being at the time
extreme bitterness of feeling between the French and the Government of
Peking, which culminated in the bombardment of Foochow. The reversal
of Japan’s traditional policy towards the neighbouring empire which
an alliance of the kind at that moment would have entailed was fully
appreciated by Japan’s Foreign Minister, who had by this time been raised
to the peerage as Count Inouye. It was by his tact that Japan was enabled
to steer clear of complications at this juncture, and to retain her
influence in affairs at the Chinese capital.
The year following Count Inouye was again immersed in the excessively
complicated problem of treaty revision, which it had been Japan’s object
to effect for fully fifteen years past. The conferences began in May and
lasted throughout the year and well into the next. By the summer of 1887
Count Inouye had by his patience and urbanity brought the negotiations
to a stage wherein it really seemed that nothing was requisite beyond
the actual signature of the agreements. But at that moment the Cabinet
decided, notwithstanding that the British and German representatives were
urging on their colleagues the advisability of forthwith surrendering
the consular jurisdictions, without any transitional stage, that it was
premature to adopt Count Inouye’s views with regard to the opening of
the country unrestrictedly to commerce and travel, mainly because it was
felt that the safeguards which it was still deemed needful by some of the
delegates to insist upon were destructive of the judicial independence of
the State. While such were the opinions entertained in some degree even
in official circles the hope of adjusting the differences became more
than ever slender, and popular antagonism to the grant of any concessions
of the kind was once more revived, to the extent that in July 1887 Count
Inouye terminated the conference in the conviction that it could serve no
useful purpose to prolong its sittings. More than twelve months had been
consumed in a fruitless endeavour to reach a satisfactory settlement, and
the end seemed to be as far off as ever.
In August, however, the Emperor invited the British Minister, Sir F.
Plunkett, to a private audience, and warmly eulogised the part which
Great Britain had taken in the prolonged effort to revise the treaties on
a basis acceptable to Japan, also intimating his intention of sending
to the then Prince of Wales—now his Majesty King Edward VII.—the Grand
Cross of the Order of the Chrysanthemum, by the hand of the Imperial
Prince Komatsu. The ceremony of investiture subsequently took place
at Marlborough House, and the German Emperor was simultaneously the
recipient of the order named, likewise in recognition of the friendly
part played towards Japan in connection with the Revision Conference.
Count Inouye resigned his post of Foreign Minister, as a matter of
course, when the Cabinet refused to endorse his proposition, but he
remained in the Government for the time being, his place at the Foreign
Office being taken by Count Ito, who was also at that time Prime
Minister. Count Inouye became Court Councillor, but in the ensuing summer
he was again in the Cabinet as Minister for Commerce and Agriculture, the
portfolio of Foreign Affairs having in the previous February been assumed
by Count Okuma, on the retirement of Count Ito to become President of the
Sumitsu-In, or Privy Council, then newly created as his Majesty’s highest
resort of counsel. Ten Cabinet Ministers were given seats as _ex-officio_
members of this council, one of them of course being Count Okuma whose
return to official life, after seven years’ retirement following his
long service as Minister of Finance between 1873 and 1881, was a source
of immense gratification to the people at large as well as to his
colleagues in the Ministry, implying as it did a fusion of the interests
of the Progressives (Kai-shin-to) and the Government party represented
by Counts Inouye and Ito, at a rather critical period in the history of
the nation’s affairs. At the Foreign Office the policy of Count Inouye
was ably and steadfastly pursued in respect of treaty revision by Count
Okuma, who on receiving the congratulations of the Yokohama Chamber of
Commerce in 1889 on the promulgation of the Constitution, took occasion
to say that “one national aspiration yet remained unsatisfied,—the
revision of the treaties.”
In 1890 Count Inouye became a Lord-in-waiting, which office had never
previously been filled by other than a member of the old Court nobility,
and in bestowing this unusual honour on one of the Elder Statesmen the
Emperor gave signal proof of his appreciation of Count Inouye’s matured
judgment and ability.
By 1892 a disruption of the Cabinet had become inevitable, and at the
Election of February the Opposition gained a victory, which brought
about the return of Count Ito to power, and with him Count Inouye, in
his old position at the Foreign Office. On the 1st of December he made
a memorable speech in the House of Representatives in reference to the
necessity of increasing the naval armaments of the empire,—a speech which
was remarked upon both inside the House and out of it as having been
one of his most telling efforts,—powerful in argument, lucid in theory,
convincing in its array of facts. It was the prelude to a request from
the Finance Department for a credit of 16,000,000 _yen_, to be spread
over a period of seventeen years, and which the Diet forthwith granted.
During the subsequent war with China Count Inouye continued to be a
leading member of the Government, but in 1897 he was in opposition to
the Coalition Cabinet of Counts Okuma and Itagaki, and when that was
succeeded by the Administration of Marquis Yamagata he still remained
out of office. But towards the close of the year 1900 a ministerial
crisis arose which resulted in the overthrow of the Yamagata Cabinet and
its place was taken for a brief space of time, scarcely seven months in
all, by a Ministry of which Ito (now Marquis) was the Premier. Contrary
to expectation, the post of Finance Minister in this was allotted to
Viscount Watanabe, who had previously served as Vice-minister with both
Count Inouye and Count Matsukata, though it was commonly believed that
Count Inouye had been invited to accept the post. Whatever may have
been the real situation at this time, it is a fact that there had been
eleven different Cabinets between December 1886 and the end of 1900, the
collapse in every case having been due to internal dissension rather than
to external pressure, and this may be accepted as an indication of the
difficulty which was experienced by statesmen of even the front rank
to unite on a general scheme of domestic as distinguished from foreign
policy. In relation to foreign affairs the patriotism of the nation
has ensured a reasonable continuity, but on home questions there has
frequently been wide divergence of opinion. It was generally expected
that in May 1901, when the last Ito Cabinet went out of office, Count
Inouye would be successful in forming a Ministry, or that he would join a
Ministry with Marquis Saionji as Premier, on the basis of the Ito party.
But in the end the Cabinet of Count Katsura was established, and it
continued until January 1906 to hold office, having guided the destinies
of the nation with conspicuous success through the long and anxious
period of the war against Russia.
Although he has not held a portfolio, therefore, in any recent
administration, the influence of Count Inouye is always felt and his
wise and sure guidance sought for in times when the financial outlook
in Japan is more than ordinarily complicated, as was the case shortly
before the formation of the existing Government in 1901. There seems to
be a consensus of opinion in the country that among the “Elder Statesmen”
three in particular are most conversant with financial matters,—Counts
Inouye, Okuma, and Matsukata,—and to one or other of them it always turns
in the hope of being extricated from its difficulties and relieved of its
anxieties in a monetary crisis. In business circles the prestige which
Count Inouye enjoys has never waned, from the period of his earliest
assumption of the duties appertaining to the office of Finance Minister,
and his views on those matters with which he has been more particularly
connected during his long and diversified career, as soldier financier,
and diplomatist will never cease to command the highest respect and
attention of the nation.
X
VISCOUNT OKUBO TOSHIMICHI
One of the most trusted of his Majesty’s advisers, Okubo Toshimichi was
the Minister who was mainly responsible for the vast administrative
reform symbolised by the public appearance of the Emperor Mutsuhito
and the removal of the imperial court from Kioto to Yedo, renamed
Tokio. Okubo held firmly to the conviction that the distinction which
had for three centuries been recognised, in pursuance of the Shogunal
policy, between the feudal chieftains and the court nobility (kuge) must
forthwith be abolished, as a first step towards the re-establishment
of that direct personal rule which had existed prior to the usurpation
of the imperial prerogative by the Ashikaga house, and by the Tokugawa
family which followed it at Yedo. Okubo Toshimichi was a Satsuma samurai
of good family, and though the Kagoshima clan has many a name inscribed
on its roll of honour there is none that possesses for his countrymen
a greater power to stir the emotions or awaken grateful memories than
that of the subject of this memoir. Twenty-eight years ago, on a lovely
summer morning, as he was on his way to attend a meeting at the imperial
palace, in an unfrequented part of the highway at Kojimachi adjoining the
castle moat, his carriage was stopped by some students, as they seemed
to be, who a moment before had been sportively thrusting at one another
with branches of the flowering cherry (sakura), the better, as the sequel
showed, to lull the suspicions, if he entertained any, of the coachman on
the box. The Minister, unarmed, finding his carriage stopped, descended
and faced his assailants, who thereupon stabbed him to death, and at the
same time slew the coachman who loyally sought to aid his master.
[Illustration: VISCOUNT OKUBO TOSHIMICHI]
A rough-hewn granite slab, bearing an inscription on its one smoothed
side, stands amid a clump of azalea bushes to mark the spot where the
patriot fell. The band of fanatics who slew him no doubt fancied that
they were serving the best interests of their country by thus putting an
end to a noble and promising career, owing to his avowed conviction of
the advantages to be reaped by the adoption of the _kai-koku_ policy,
which they had been taught to believe would be injurious.
When brought to trial the culprits declared, however, that they killed
the Minister because he was a traitor to his clan. How utterly unfounded
and altogether preposterous was the accusation will be evident from the
brief story of his meritorious career which follows. He left a record of
unswerving patriotism, of bold and energetic administration of national
affairs, of far-seeing and well-judged advocacy of all that could be
deemed beneficial to his country in the political and economical systems
of other lands, which he had made from the first his especial study.
Okubo Ichi-o, or Toshimichi, was born in 1836, and from a comparatively
early age acquired no little fame as a student of Chinese literature. He
sought and obtained from the beginning sound knowledge of the affairs
of the outside world that to most of his countrymen was in those days a
sealed book. Foreigners, with Okubo, were never the enemies of Japan,
but people with whom, on the other hand, it should be to the national
interest to cultivate a permanent friendship. That their good will
should be secured for the reformed system of government which he foresaw
would ultimately have to replace that of the oppressive Baku-fu,—an
administration based upon an anachronic feudalism,—was always with him a
matter of real concern, and to obtain it he devoted his whole energies.
His zeal and daring led him to urge on the sovereign the desirability
of his assuming the reins of active government, and to put forward in
the first instance a definite proposal to the effect that the seat of
government should be transferred to Osaka, the seaport only twenty-seven
miles distant, where the magnificent castle built by Hideyoshi on the
banks of the river Yodo might be made a fitting residence for the monarch.
In his truly remarkable Memorial to the Emperor he pointed out that no
such revolution as that which had just taken place had ever previously
occurred since the creation of Japan. The Memorial was dated March 1868,
and in alluding to it here my endeavour is to give precedence to the
Minister’s first great effort in the direction of progress, and with
which it is inevitable that his name should be for ever associated. Okubo
proceeded in his Memorial to argue that the time was peculiarly opportune
for the fulfilment of the great undertaking of restoring the ancient
constitution of the Ten-shi’s realms, a task which he held had only been
half accomplished by the defeat at Fushimi of the Bakufu’s forces. “If,”
he wrote, “the Imperial Court should seek only a temporary advantage,
instead of insuring permanent tranquillity, we shall have a repetition
of the old thing, like the rise of the Ashikaga after the destruction of
the Hojo. We shall be rid of one traitor only to have another arise. The
most pressing of your Majesty’s pressing duties at the present moment is
not to look at the Empire only, and judge solely by appearances, but to
consider carefully the actual state of the whole world,—to reform the
inveterate and slothful habits induced during hundreds of years,—to give
union to the nation,—so that the whole Empire shall be moved to tears
of gratitude, and both high and low appreciate the blessing of having a
Sovereign in whom they can place their trust.”
The memorialist went on to recommend very strongly a transfer of the
Capital to Osaka, as being the fittest place for the conduct of foreign
relations, for enriching the country and strengthening its military
powers, for adopting successful means of offence and defence, and for
establishing an army and navy. He was anxious that the young Emperor,
then only in his sixteenth year, should set out on the journey to
Osaka without loss of time. But there were cogent reasons why the new
organisation should be centred in the city that had for centuries been
the recognised headquarters of the executive, and Tokio, the present
capital, was ultimately fixed upon as the future seat of the Central
Administration.
Okubo was one of the Iwakura Embassy which set out from Tokio at the
close of 1871 and visited the United States of America, Great Britain,
and the various countries of Europe, ostensibly to announce to the powers
what sweeping changes had been effected in Japan from the date of the
present ruler’s accession in 1867. The Embassy was headed by Prince
Iwakura, and associated with him in addition to Okubo Toshimichi were
Ito Hirobumi, Kido Takakoto, and Yamaguchi Naoyoshi. Only one leading
member of that mission, the Marquis Ito, now survives. The especial aim
of the ambassadors was to procure revision of the treaties with the
Western nations which had been entered into by the Government of the
Shogun, and under which compacts the position of Japan was considered
to be that of a country under the tutelage of America and the European
States. There was, however, a duty imposed upon the Mission that was of
far greater importance to the future of the Japanese nation even than
those already specified, for it was entrusted with the task of collecting
information in all quarters regarding foreign institutions, methods of
government, laws and their enforcement, and of gathering at first hand
every detail needful to the adaptation of the systems of the Occident to
the requirements of the Far East. Although at that time a revision of the
treaties proved to be impossible of attainment, the mission was in other
respects of immense service to Japan, and Okubo, for one, became as fully
convinced by what he saw in the West of the advantages of representative
government as were those among his colleagues who had previously seen
something of its results. Ito, for example, had been to this country
before, and so had Hayashi Tadasu, as he then was, the Secretary to
the Mission, who had studied for some time in a private college in
England. The work of the embassy was most conscientiously carried out,
and its members journeyed here and there in search of opportunities
to add to their stock of knowledge on every point that conceivably
might be of value to the departments of State with which they were
for the most part individually as well as collectively identified. In
the new administration at Tokio, immediately on the mission’s return,
Kido was entrusted with the portfolio of Home Affairs, Ito Hirobumi
became Minister of Public Works, and Okubo received the appointment of
Gaimukiyo, or Minister for Foreign Affairs. One effect of the visit of
the Japanese Ambassadors to the European capitals was speedily visible in
the withdrawal of the garrison of British troops which had for years been
maintained at Yokohama, the ability of the Imperial Government to protect
the foreign residents at the ports opened by treaty to foreign trade
having been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the British Government,
and the last of the guard of marines which had been quartered on the
Bluff in Yokohama took their departure early in 1873.
It is especially noteworthy that the Iwakura Embassy had, even at that
early period, been quick to discover traces of the deeply aggressive
designs of Russia, and in a memorandum drawn up by Okubo appear the
memorable words:—“Russia, always pressing southward, is the chief peril”
for Japan. The aim of Japanese statesmanship, from that time forward,
became of necessity the safeguarding of the national interests in the
adjacent peninsula, and there was a strong party in the Government in
favour of going to war there and then in defence of the rights of Japan.
But in their travels in Europe the ambassadors had learned enough to
convince them that to enter at that stage on a contest with the Colossus
of the North would only be disastrous for their country, and the peace
advocates, foremost among whom were Prince Iwakura and Okubo Toshimichi,
carried the day. Unhappily the stealthy advance of Russia and the
question of how to counteract it produced such a divergence of opinion
that the newly formed government was torn asunder and the split had
consequences for the nation at large which could never have been expected
at the time. Among the ministerial advocates of a forward policy at that
date were Saigo Takamori and Itagaki Taisuke, who are elsewhere referred
to in this volume, and they, in company with Yeto Shimpei and others,
resigned office.
Viscount Okubo held an important position under the Tokugawa
administration in the days of the Shogun Iyesada, who, owing to ill
health, appointed a _Tairo_, or Regent, whose duty it became to
shoulder the heavy responsibilities of that very troublous period of
the national history. The Regent was Ii Kamon-no-kami Naosuke, lord of
the fief of Hikoné, near Lake Biwa, who was assassinated by Ro-nins,
_lit._: “Wave-men,”—in other words, men who having become masterless
were restless and tempest-tossed by political gales, an element often
uncontrollable and for whose vagaries no one should be held primarily
responsible,—on the 3rd of March 1860, less than two years after he had
entered on his onerous task. It was in reference to that, and to the
attitude of the Regent towards foreign powers and the treaties which
had been made with them that Viscount Okubo, at a later date penned
the following note by way of preface to the memoir of Ii Kamon-no-kami
Naosuke written by Mr Shimada Saburo. The original note was in classical
Chinese, and the translation was made by Mr Shimada,—himself one of
Japan’s foremost scholars, a much-travelled man, and member of the Lower
House of the Diet, whose contributions to current literature have been
numerous. The memorandum by Viscount Okubo serves to indicate, moreover,
his own opinion on the advisability of opening the country to foreign
intercourse, and which led to his association with other prominent Makers
of New Japan. He wrote:—
On the evening of the sixth month of the fifth year of An-sei
era (1858) when I went to see the Tairo, Baron Ii, to inform
him of my departure to Kioto on the following day, I told
him that as to the appointment of the Shogun’s heir, I had
heard it directly from the Shogun himself; but as to the
question of foreign affairs, I said that I had embodied my
opinion in a poem, and asked him if that were his view. I
had the poem written on my pocket paper, and presented it to
his consideration. He carefully perused it and said that he
approved of it, instructing me at the same time to act up to
the spirit of that poem. Now I have the pleasure of appending
that poem here as an evidence that the Baron was in favour of
opening the country to intercourse with foreign nations. The
poem reads:
“However numerous and diversified the nations of the earth may
be, the GOD who reigns over them all (or, binds them together)
can never be more than one.
OKUBO ICHI-O.”
The Regent himself, like Okubo, with whose poetry he was in sympathy,
fell a victim to the assassin’s dagger, as is elsewhere related in
detail, and at the time alluded to in the foregoing note the country was
so torn by clan dissensions and was so agitated by the continued rivalry
of the Jo-I and Kai-koku factions that Ii Kamon-no-kami was prompted to
express himself in verse which is elsewhere translated as:—
Rent as the wave-beat rocks on Omi’s strand
My broken heart, for our beloved land!
Okubo had attained to a position of influence in the Satsuma clan long
prior to the restoration of imperial rule, and it followed almost as a
matter of course that when the new administration was formed he became
a member of the first Council of State. Prince Sanjo was the Chancellor
(Dai-jo-dai-jin), and the feudal chieftain of Satsuma officiated as one
of the Vice-chancellors (Sa-dai-jin) while Prince Iwakura was the other
(U-dai-jin). Sai means left, and U right,—the left being highest in
Japan. This Council gave place to a body closely resembling a Cabinet as
it exists in Occidental countries, in 1885, and with it disappeared the
title of Dai-jo-dai-jin, or Prime Minister, the head of the Government
now being styled Minister-president of State. The earliest efforts of
the new government were directed to the abolition of the Kioto Court
influence which had for centuries been potent to sway the decisions of
the Emperor, especially during the lifetime of Komei Tenno. Dating from
the days of Iyeyasu the first Tokugawa Shogun, a sharp distinction had
been drawn between the court nobles and the territorial barons (dai-mio),
and this it was found to be desirable at once to abolish. Another long
stride was taken when the Court decided to remove to Yedo, and renamed
that city Tokio, _lit._: East Capital, the older metropolis of Kioto
being simultaneously renamed Saikio, _lit._: West Capital, to prevent
confusion. As a matter of fact, however, the title of Saikio never
entirely supplanted the older one of Kioto, and it is by the ancient
appellation that the capital of the west is perhaps best known at the
present day.
It is always believed in Japan that it was on Okubo’s advice that the
sovereign, then only sixteen years of age, resolved to appear in public,
a departure from established custom which foreshadowed the vast changes
that his subjects were to witness within the ensuing few years. Okubo
strenuously urged the advisability of assembling the territorial lords
to hear from the monarch’s own lips the plans that had been formed in
council for the future administration of the empire, and at the memorable
meeting which took place in April 1869, with this object in view the
Emperor declared himself in favour of the establishment of a deliberative
representative body empowered to discuss the management of national
affairs, and he also pronounced his intention of providing adequately
for the defence of the country by land and sea, and of doing away with
all pernicious customs while securing to the individual perfect freedom
and liberty of conscience. The hand of Okubo was seen in the regulations
for the conduct of debates in the Kogisho, or first deliberative
assembly, and he was ever a trusted adviser of the sovereign on matters
of both internal and external policy. In the Ko-mon, or advisers of
the So-Sai, whose office was almost identical with that in later years
of Prime Minister, Okubo found able and willing coadjutors, and it was
in no slight measure due to his personal capabilities that the new
administration was firmly established at Tokio in 1868.
A memorable mission was that undertaken by Okubo to Peking in 1874.
The savages of Formosa had been guilty of most inhuman conduct to some
shipwrecked Japanese fishermen, and China, at that time claiming the
island as part of her empire, had been appealed to in vain with regard
to their punishment or as regards the needful security against cruel
practices in the future. Failing redress in any other shape, Japan had
despatched an expedition on her own account to the island, and though
the Japanese troops had encountered many and great difficulties, owing
to the savages retreating to their mountain fastnesses whither it was
extraordinarily hard work to pursue them, in the end they had been
severely handled by General Saigo Tsukumichi,—afterwards Marquis—and some
sort of guarantee exacted for their better behaviour towards shipwrecked
persons of whatever nationality in the days to come. China, however, had
become not a little alarmed at the progress that the Japanese forces
were making with the subjugation of the barbarians, a task that she had
not herself thought it worth while to essay, and made proposals for
the prompt withdrawal of the invading army. Okubo went to Peking armed
with plenary powers to arrange terms, and he arrived there in September
1874. The Chinese wanted to treat with him on the basis of reimbursing
Japan for the outlay she had incurred in the expedition, which was
what Japan herself desired, and of guaranteeing that there should be
sufficient control instituted over the savages in future to ensure that
no repetition of the inhuman acts should occur. But the negotiators at
Peking sought to cut down the sum-total of the indemnity, and to avoid
giving any written pledge as regards the time to come. Okubo, however,
was very firm on these points, and told the other side plainly that Japan
would not place confidence in his assurances unless they were supported
by documentary evidence that the settlement was of the character which he
might describe it to have been. “Of course I do not covet the indemnity,”
he declared, “but if I cannot explain the steps to be taken and the
amount of compensation for expenditure to be paid, with written proof
to support my statements, how can I in honour report my mission to the
Emperor as having been completed?”
Finding the Chinese to be still reluctant to comply with these terms, he
prepared to return to Japan, but at that juncture Prince Kung hurried to
the British Legation and besought Sir Thomas Wade to intercede. In the
end a treaty was drawn up and signed, between Okubo and Kung, acting on
behalf of their respective sovereigns, whereby it was agreed:—
Article I: that the enterprise of Japan was a just and rightful
proceeding to protect her own subjects, and China did not
designate it as a wrong action,—
Article II: that a sum of money should be given by China for
relief of the families of the shipwrecked Japanese subjects
maltreated. Japan having constructed roads and built houses,
etc.: in that place, and China wishing to have the use of these
for herself, she agreed to make payment for them, the amount to
be fixed by special agreement.
Article III. All the official correspondence thereunto
exchanged between the two states to be returned mutually and
be annulled, to prevent any future misunderstanding. As to the
savages, China engaged to establish authority, and promised
that navigators should be protected from injury by them.
Under a special clause it was agreed that 100,000 taels
should be paid to the families of the murdered men, and that
in respect of the roads and buildings the sum paid should be
400,000 taels. Japan was to withdraw all her troops, and China
was to pay the half-million taels agreed upon by the 20th
December following, in that thirteenth year of the reign of the
Emperor Tung-Chi.
Japan thus early in her era of Meiji, or Enlightened Rule, vindicated her
right to be regarded as a champion of the rights of our common humanity,
a position which she has successfully maintained on every occasion since
that time.
Okubo never received the title of Viscount, but the rank was posthumously
conferred for the benefit of his family. His assassination was attributed
to ill feeling engendered among certain adherents of the Satsuma clan by
his attitude with regard to the rebellion of 1877, as some thought he
ought to have supported his clan in the war. He was a loyal and devoted
servant of his Emperor, and placed his duty to his sovereign above all
considerations of clan or party connections.
XI
COUNT GOTO SHOJIRO
The late Count Goto, who died in 1892, was a trusty retainer of the
Prince of Tosa, one of the four provinces into which the island of
Shikoku, as its name implies, was of old divided. The chief town of Tosa
is Kochi, a well-known port on the east coast, facing the Pacific. The
Tosa clan was one of the first to make use of foreign-built vessels, the
prince owning more than one steamer officered by Europeans in the “early
seventies” when the coasting trade was in its infancy. Goto Shojiro was
born in the year 1832, and in his young days was a close student of
Dutch books, but the advent of the American “black ships” at Uraga in
1853 led him to turn his attention to marine affairs, and he applied
himself vigorously to the acquisition of a competent knowledge of modern
inventive progress, becoming convinced thereby of the necessity for a
radical change in his own country’s methods if she would hold her own
among the nations. It was for his acquaintance with engineering matters
that he was chosen to act as Vice-Minister of Public Works when the
administration was first set up in the new capital, but he had taken a
prominent part in the abolition of the Shogunate from the days when the
Shogun Tokugawa Keiki dwelt at the Nijo Castle in Kioto, in 1866, often
going thither in company with Komatsu Tatewaki of the Satsuma clan, to
discuss politics with his Highness on the Shogun’s special invitation.
Goto at all times steadfastly urged the advisability of the formation of
an Imperial Government upon the Shogun, and it speaks volumes for the
broad-minded unselfishness of the Prince Tokugawa Keiki (as he now is)
that he was prepared to listen to suggestions which necessarily involved
his own renunciation of the exalted position that he then held, and
even, as the sequel showed, to act upon them, though in doing so he
deprived himself of rank and power at one stroke. That Goto Shojiro made
good use of the opportunities thus presented to him of laying before his
Highness the fruit of his own researches into the then dimly comprehended
sources of Occidental strength and prosperity is evident, and for that
service to his country, if for no other, he deserves to be remembered,
but he laid his nation under obligations to him in a variety of ways, and
was active in the popular interest to the end of his days, which were all
too short for it to reap the full benefit of his matured experience and
practical, common-sense application of the knowledge that a busy career
had enabled him to amass.
[Illustration: COUNT GOTO SHOJIRO]
In the year 1867 the prince of Tosa, Yamanouchi, sent Goto Shojiro to
Kioto with a letter addressed to the Shogun which he was to deliver
personally, and the tenour of this document is stated to have been a
strong appeal to Prince Tokugawa Keiki to resign his functions as head of
the Bakufu and co-operate in the establishment of an imperial government.
The text of the document is quoted in the _Kin-sei Shi-riaku_, an
“Abridged History of Modern Times,” and it amounted to a respectfully
worded invitation to take into consideration the existing conditions in
the empire and make choice of a line of action which would tend to the
restoration of peace and harmony within the nation’s borders and the
elevation of the country to a position of importance among the powers of
the world. Its keynote was the absolute necessity of doing away with the
feudal system which had existed for six centuries under the domination of
the Shoguns of the Tokugawa family and their predecessors.
The Shogun received the prince of Tosa’s letter in a most friendly
spirit, and promised to consider the matter, continuing to call Goto into
consultation at the Nijo castle as before. To what degree his Highness
was influenced by the letter it would of course be impossible to judge,
but it is certain that at the close of the autumn of that year he had
formed the resolution to abdicate definitely his position, though he did
not actually quit Kioto until January 1868.
When the new Government was set up at Kioto in 1868 Goto became a Ko-Mon,
or adviser to the So-sai, like his friends Kido and Komatsu, and in this
position was able to exert considerable influence, as the So-sai, to whom
the three ardent reformers acted in the capacity of private counsellors,
possessed the confidence of the sovereign, and procured or refused the
imperial assent to the proposals of the other heads of departments in the
Ministry as then constituted. Subsequently, when the administration was
remodelled on a foreign plan, and Prince Sanjo became Prime Minister,
Goto still occupied his position of responsibility, more especially
connected with the Foreign branch, and he was so engaged when, in March
1868, the various representatives of foreign powers went by appointment
to Kioto to pay their respects to the present Emperor, who had a few
weeks previously taken in hand the reins of government on the resignation
of the Shogun. The British and Dutch ministers left Kobé, then a newly
opened port for foreign trade, on the 18th March, accompanied by Ito
Shunsuke (now Marquis), who was the Governor of Kobé, and Sir Harry
Parkes was to have been received with the other envoys on the 23rd of
the month, but for a dastardly attack made upon him and his escort when
passing along the streets of the then Japanese capital. The British
Minister had been lodged during his short stay in Kioto at a temple in
a northern suburb, and he left it at the appointed hour to go to the
Dairi (palace) where the interview with the Emperor was to take place.
Sir Harry’s mounted escort was leading the way, the inspector riding in
front with Mr Nakai Kozo, likewise a Government official, and a Satsuma
samurai, when suddenly, at a street corner, a band of Japanese swordsmen
sprang out from their hiding-place and began slashing right and left. Sir
Harry was riding immediately in rear of his mounted guards, with Goto
Shojiro at his side. The attack was so sudden that the escort had no time
to use their lances, and the thoroughfare, moreover, was very narrow. The
present British Minister in China, Sir Ernest Satow, rode on Sir Harry
Parkes’ right, and behind marched a detachment of the Ninth Regiment from
the British camp at Yokohama. The desperate character of the attack will
be understood by the fact that the British representative was by no means
inadequately protected, to judge from previous experience, and though
murderous assaults on foreigners were unhappily not infrequent at this
period,—the result of political ferment rather than of personal animosity
to the strangers,—there was no particular reason to expect any attack on
this occasion.
Nakai Kozo at once leaped from his horse and engaged one of the
assailants, but having the bad luck to stumble when parrying a stroke of
his antagonist he received a severe cut on the head. After their first
onslaught some of the swordsmen took to their heels, but two of the
number remained cutting at the escort all down the line, and so quick had
been their movements that Sir Harry and Goto only heard the scuffle as
their horses turned the corner. Goto, instantly dismounting, rushed to
the front, and was able to rescue Nakai, but his assailant straightway
made for Sir Harry Parkes, whose Japanese groom received the blow, and
at the same time Mr Satow’s horse was badly cut. The would-be assassin
fell momentarily forward by the impetuosity of his own attack, and Goto
at that instant delivered a stroke which severed the ruffian’s head from
his shoulders before he could recover his equilibrium. The other man ran
off to a back yard where he was captured, after receiving many wounds.
The activity displayed by the assailants is best to be realised from the
mischief they wrought in a few minutes. Out of eleven men forming Sir
Harry’s own escort nine were severely wounded, as was also one man of the
Ninth Regiment, and a groom and four horses were more or less badly cut
with the terrible two-handed swords that the assailants wielded with such
deadly precision.
Goto afterwards said that the Japanese were proud of having had a man
like Sir Harry Parkes to defend, for he was quite calm throughout and
betrayed not the slightest fear despite the suddenness of the attack.
As soon as the affair was over, and it was of very brief duration, the
Minister gave the order to return to the temple which he was lodging
in, only a quarter of a mile away, and the visit to the Dairi was of
necessity postponed. By good fortune Dr Willis of the Legation and two
naval surgeons from the British fleet had followed on foot with the
intention of going as far as the palace gates, and they were able to
stanch the open wounds of the men of the escort.
The immediate result of this outrage by partisans of the _Jo-I_ or
“Expulsion of the Foreigners” faction was a proclamation by the Emperor
to the effect that attacks of the kind were infamous and detestable, and
that a samurai guilty of a like offence in future would be first degraded
and then decapitated as a malefactor by the common executioner, the head
of the criminal to be exposed to public gaze for a prescribed period.
And this proclamation had a wonderful effect, for it not only placed
upon record the plain fact that deeds of such a character were abhorrent
to the young ruler of the empire, but the punishment entailed by the
indulgence in a crime of this kind was to the samurai of so terrible a
nature, in respect of the degradation,—not the forfeiture of his own
life—that there were subsequent to the issue of the imperial edict hardly
any cases of assault on foreigners, and the antipathy to the _Kai-koku_
policy, which favoured the entry of the strangers, gradually diminished
with the lapse of time.
On the third day of the third moon,—at that time the old-fashioned mode
of reckoning derived from China centuries before was in vogue,—the
British minister again set out for the Dairi, and this time the journey
was accomplished without mishap, his reception by the Emperor being of
the most cordial kind. His Majesty expressed personally his horror of
the proceedings which had debarred him from previously receiving the
representative of Queen Victoria, and Sir Harry had every reason to
be gratified by the evident concern manifested by the sovereign. The
day was according to the old calendar a most auspicious one, being the
Girls’ Festival or Sekku and the 26th of April by Western reckoning. The
Gregorian calendar was adopted in Japan in 1872.
Queen Victoria sent richly mounted swords to Goto and Nakai, bearing the
inscription in each case—“From Victoria, Queen of England, in remembrance
of the 23rd of March 1868.” As no more appropriate gift to a samurai of
Japan than a fine sword could have been imagined, the recipients of these
tokens of their prowess were individually delighted, and Count Goto of
to-day, who is the son of Goto Shojiro, prizes the weapon in recollection
of the skilful swordsmanship which enabled his father to save the British
Minister’s life. That the combat was of the most determined character,
in which assailants and defenders put forth all their strength and skill
may be judged from the account given afterwards of the affair by Mr Nakai
Kozo, who was for many years on the staff of the Foreign Office and a
most witty and charming companion. “I was only able to see out of one
eye, owing to the blood flowing from my wound in the head, but I kept on
hacking away at the fellow in front of me, and at last saw that I had cut
his head off, which I showed to Sir Harry to let him know that at least
one of his assailants was duly accounted for.”
Like Kido, Inouye, and Itagaki, and other “Makers of Japan,” Count Goto
was active in the field during the war of the Restoration, which lasted
throughout 1868, with more or less intensity, and into the spring of
1869, and made his mark in numberless hotly-contested engagements. Saigo
Takamori, as Chief of General Staff to the Prince Arisugawa Taruhito,
reached the suburbs of Tokio in April of the year 1868, and the battle of
Uyeno was practically the last of the war, but fighting went on in the
north for many months after.
Count Goto Shojiro did vast service to the country in the Ministry headed
by Prince Sanjo, and it was in 1874, while occupying a high post in the
administration that he associated himself with Count Itagaki and Count
Soyeshima (who died last autumn) in memorialising the Government to
make arrangements at the earliest possible moment for the summoning of
a National Assembly, in order that the promise made by his Majesty at
the beginning of his reign to the effect that he would eventually rule
the empire in conformity with the popular wishes might be realised. But
the time was hardly ripe for experiments in Constitutional Government,
and the memorial was shelved. Goto and his fellow-memorialists resigned
office, but though they were less prominent than some of their
compatriots thenceforward in the actual occupation of seats in the
Cabinet they were by no means lost to sight in respect of contemporary
politics. Count Goto, moreover, was identified with industrial
undertakings to a noteworthy extent, and figured conspicuously in a large
number of philanthropical enterprises in connection with which he was
ever ready to lend a helping hand.
In the year 1882, in company with Count Itagaki, who had just recovered
from injuries received in an attempt on his life by a political partisan
of the reactionaries, Count Goto visited Europe and America, and they
were warmly welcomed both here and on the Continent. In part the object
that Count Goto had then before him was the acquisition of information
concerning social institutions, as established in the West, though he
took the opportunity to study at the same time matters of practical
politics with the intention of rendering aid to his fellow-provincial
Count Itagaki in support of the _Jiyuto_, or Liberal Party, with which
that prominent statesman was then closely identified.
He was entrusted with the portfolio of Minister of Communications in the
First Cabinet formed after the establishment of Constitutional Government
in 1890, with Marquis Yamagata as Minister-President. The appointment may
be said to have been a recognition of the part taken by him sixteen years
before when he joined in the memorial urging the speedy formation of a
National Diet. This was his last office, for two years later he died, at
the age of sixty, not “full of years,” but “full of honour” won in the
service of his country, and respected for his nobleness of character by
his fellow-countrymen and by those foreign residents, and they were many,
who had under most varied conditions experienced his unfailing courtesy
and genuine good will.
XII
MARSHAL SAIGO TAKAMORI
In the sense that Japanese history begins with the landing of Jimmu Tenno
in Kiushiu, and that many of the greatest events narrated in the annals
of the Empire took place in that island of, as its name implies, nine
provinces, there should be much to interest the student in connection
with this portion of the Ten-shi’s dominions. The nine baronies of the
feudal regime were ranged around the coast, their rearmost boundaries
meeting on mountain ridges in the interior. The passes in these ridges
were in many cases the scenes of desperate battles during the Satsuma
War of 1877, as will presently be shown, there having originally been
one long dividing line extending almost north and south from Shimonoseki
straits to Kagoshima bay, with branch lines like the veins of a leaf
splitting one half of the island into five and the other into four
portions. Satsuma and Osumi were the two most southerly provinces,
with Hiuga adjoining Osumi, and it is in connection with this region
in particular that some of the more stirring passages of ancient and
modern Japanese history have to be recorded. Marshal Saigo Takamori,
who had perhaps more than anyone else to do with the formation of the
nucleus of Japan’s great army, was born and died in Satsuma, and he
spent most of his life in the immediate neighbourhood of the castle town
of Kagoshima. From the extremity of Kiushiu the isles of Loo-Choo (now
termed Riu-kiu-to or Okinawa prefecture), stretch in a south-westward
direction, linking up Formosa, and to the north-west the islands of
Iki and Tsushima form stepping-stones, as it were, to Korea. Excepting
in Miyasaki prefecture, where the coast is less broken, facing the
Pacific, the shores of Kiushiu are deeply indented with inlets and bays,
lofty mountains forming the background, and there is an abundance
of good harbours, rendering its populous towns and numerous villages
comparatively easy of access. The chain of islets to the south sheltered
vessels and aided migration from Malaysia, while Tsushima and Iki,—places
made famous by the decisive battle of the Sea of Japan in 1905 which was
fought in their vicinity,—doubtless prompted the exploration of the Hizen
and Chikuzen coasts by adventurous voyagers from the mainland of Asia.
The Nine Provinces are rich in traditions of the imperial ancestors, the
reputed landing-place of Jimmu Tenno being Shibushi bay, a few miles
south-east of Kagoshima. There is a very ancient Shinto shrine in a cave
close by, and on Takachiho-miné, otherwise Higashi Kiri-shima-yama, the
easternmost of twin peaks in the ridge which forms the boundary line of
Osumi and Hiuga provinces, thirteen miles from the Satsuma stronghold,
stood the palace which the founder of the imperial dynasty is believed to
have inhabited prior to setting out for the Inland Sea.
[Illustration: MARSHAL SAIGO TAKAMORI]
Rein tells us that in 1875 he saw on a blunt cone of piled-up stones
on the summit of the volcanic peak of Kiri-shima-yama, 5500 feet above
sea-level, the famous sword which tradition says Ninigi-no-mikoto,
grandson of the Sun-goddess, used. It is clumsy, and obviously of great
antiquity. The material is bronze containing a large proportion of
copper, the blade is not quite flat, the shaft cylindrical, with several
blunt projections, and it originally was sharpened on one side towards
the top. The length of this remarkable weapon was fifty inches over
all, the blade measuring forty inches from point to hilt. The width of
the blade was nearly three inches, and the handle extremely thick. It
is evident that the weight of such a sword must have been considerable,
and without entering into the question of its origin it may at least be
said that the fact of its being preserved so carefully at that spot from
what can hardly have been other than a very remote period of Japanese
history alone would suffice to account for the store set upon this truly
extraordinary relic. Jimmu Tenno is supposed to have spent some years in
subjugating the tribes which he found in possession of Southern Japan,
but he eventually reached Naniwa (Osaka) and established his capital in
Yamato. Naniwa and Takachiho are names which have for the Japanese people
historical significance sufficient to have induced the naval authorities
to bestow them on two warships built for Japan on the Tyne.
Saigo Kichinosuke, as he was named until he was of full age, was born
in Satsuma province in the year 1822. His father was a Samurai, of
foot-soldier rank. It is clear, however, that the father possessed an
accurate idea of the value of education and training, if only from the
prominence which both his sons achieved in the service of their country.
Kichinosuke was the elder of the two, his younger brother achieving the
rank of Marquis, and figuring in the national annals with a lustre but
little inferior to that of the popular hero himself. While yet young
Kichinosuke was given the post of gardener to the prince of Satsuma.
In days of old this was often a position of trust, for the individual
occupying it necessarily came into close contact with his lord when it
happened, as it did in nine cases out of ten, that the chieftain of a
clan had a taste for horticulture. Trustworthy Samurai of rank were
sometimes given the office of gardener for the sake of the opportunities
thus afforded for direct communication, between the baron and his
faithful retainers, free from the risk of surveillance by emissaries
of the Shogun’s Government who under the old regime were to be found
in every mansion. That Saigo held this post is a proof of his lord’s
confidence in him. When twenty years old Kichinosuke went to Mito and
there became a pupil of Fujita Toko—whose history is elsewhere in this
volume briefly recorded—and under that profound scholar’s guidance
studied Chinese literature so assiduously that Fujita always spoke of
Saigo with pride as one of his best pupils. It was from Fujita that
Saigo imbibed his rooted hostility to the Shogunate, Fujita being the
confidential friend of the old prince of Mito, whose opposition to the
Bakufu is always believed to have culminated in the assassination by
his followers of the Regent, Ii Kamon-no-kami, at the Sakurada Gate of
Yedo Castle, in March 1860. On separating after the lapse of some years
from Fujita Toko, Saigo went to Kioto and there became the intimate
friend of Gessho, the high priest of the famous Buddhist temple of
Kiyomidzu, and during the eventful five years from 1854 to 1859 Saigo was
resident either in Kioto or Osaka. It was when the Regent or “Gotairo”
Ii-kamon-no-kami came into power in 1859 at Yedo, during the minority
of the Shogun Iyemochi, that Saigo, dissatisfied with the course things
were taking, and possessing definite views of his own, formed a party
opposed to the Bakufu. In the same year, 1859, when he was about to
return to Satsuma, his friend Gessho was selected by the Imperial Court
to be the bearer of a despatch to the prince of Mito. Gessho, however,
pleaded that the honour of being the imperial messenger should be
bestowed on Saigo, as being far better qualified for the office, and
his prayer was granted. Saigo could not succeed, however, in delivering
the secret despatch, owing to the rigorous watch kept by the Mito
prince’s retainers over his person,—it is easy to picture the position,
knowing as we now do, how exceedingly strict was it needful to be in
those stormy days of frequent assassination and widespread feuds,—and
in the end the imperial courier had to return to Kioto with his task
unfulfilled. Saigo and others opposed to the Bakufu became marked men,
but the dread of Satsuma’s vengeance protected them from actual arrest.
Gessho also was suspected, and for his safety Saigo resolved to take
the priest with him to the south. The priest rode in a palanquin, and
Saigo, assisted by a fellow-clansman named Umeda, acted as escort. They
were not attacked, though they fully apprehended that they would be, and
reached Kagoshima in safety. Saigo acquainted his clansmen with what
he had done, but the explanation was coldly received. At this time his
opposition to the Bakufu was not shared by the officers of the Satsuma
province. Gessho’s hiding-place was soon discovered, and he was in
danger, and Saigo went at midnight to the place where he had secreted
his friend to warn him. Together they resolved to drown themselves in
the bay of Kagoshima, for Saigo, perceiving that the priest’s death was
inevitable, deemed it a point of honour to die with him, in despair at
the absence of a true chivalric spirit in the clan. They actually threw
themselves into the sea, but the act had been observed, and some boatmen
recovered the bodies from the waves in time to resuscitate Saigo, though
Gessho had expired. The provincial officers were wrathful at the stigma
cast on the clan’s hospitality by Gessho’s death, and also at Saigo’s
uncompromising hostility to the Shogunate, and they banished him to the
island of Oshima, some distance from the Satsuma coast. Here he changed
his name to Oshima Sanyemon, the reference in the second word being to
the circumstance that this was his third visit to the islet, his previous
banishments having been the fruits of similar opposition to the Bakufu,
and the result moreover of his being appreciably in advance of the times.
It was not long before the entire clan was united with Saigo in his
unswerving hostility to the Yedo Government, but meanwhile he suffered
for his temerity. On Oshima he studied incessantly, when one not of his
indomitable spirit might have broken down under a sense of disappointment
and the conviction of wrongs sustained without hope of remedy. His
feudal chieftain pardoned him after the expiration of four years, and
Saigo returned to Satsuma and became one of the clan officials. When the
Shogunate entered into the treaties with foreign powers Saigo opposed
it with all the resolution of his unbending character, and during the
conflicts which ensued at Kioto he sheltered many who were pursued by
the Yedo Government’s officers and helped them to escape. He it was who
strongly favoured a reconciliation between his clan and Choshiu and
advocated their coalition in opposition to the Bakufu.
Owing to his banishment Saigo was not present in Satsuma during the
earlier part of the period of intense military activity which was
noticeable in his native province, but he may be said to have been with
his fellow-clansmen in spirit, and he was, in all probability, in close
touch with them by the agency of mutual friends, despite his enforced
absence. There were ways and means even in those days of maintaining
communication when necessary.
At this period the policy of the Satsuma clan as a whole was distinctly
reactionary, and ample indication of the bent of its chieftain’s
inclinations is to be traced in a memorial which he about this time
addressed to the Emperor, setting forth his reasons for believing that
the administration at the capital was conducting the national affairs
without due respect for the traditions of the Empire.
Shimadzu Saburo, author of this uncompromisingly anti-foreign proposal,
subsequently held office in the Government which was formed immediately
on the restoration of imperial rule in 1868. He had been a great student
in early life, and was the father of the real daimio of the Satsuma
province. He was also, by the system of adoption which prevailed, uncle
to the same person, who had been adopted by the previous daimio, Shimadzu
Saburo’s brother. Virtually, though not nominally head of the clan, the
uncle wielded immense influence in Kagoshima, and vehemently opposed the
Yedo Government, though he was not antagonistic to foreigners or their
inventions in the abstract, and had purchased steamers from them and set
up a cotton mill in Satsuma itself. His province had indeed benefited
hugely by its proximity to Nagasaki, which had for centuries been the
only port open to trade of any kind with the Occident, and he had
expressed his willingness to throw open the whole of the Satsuma province
to Western trade, but the Yedo government had set its face against the
proposal, some years before the Restoration of the Imperial power.
In the year 1862 he had purchased the steamer _Fiery Cross_ for his
nephew, and went for a trial trip in her, outside Yokohama, and he had
otherwise evinced his perfect readiness to avail himself of such novel
methods and appliances, and of the services of Europeans in general, as
were from time to time offered to the local authorities of Satsuma as a
distinctly progressive body. It is requisite that the real attitude of
the Satsuma chieftain towards strangers should be made clear, because
it was owing to the precipitate action of some of his followers, in
attacking a party of Yokohama residents on the highway, for no better
reason than that they did not at once alight from their horses and
stand at the edge of the roadway while the Daimio’s procession passed
on its way back to Satsuma, that the British squadron was ordered to
bombard Kagoshima in 1863. The murder of Mr Richardson near Tsurumi
was perpetrated, in fact, when the Satsuma chief was returning after
escorting to Yedo a high official whom the Emperor Komei had sent in the
spring of 1862 to announce to the Bakufu his determination to expel all
foreigners from Japan. This was the period when reactionary influences
at Kioto were strongest, and even the Shogun Iyemochi, to whom Prince
Tokugawa Keiki was at the time the appointed guardian, could do no other
than promise obedience to the Imperial mandate. The Emperor Komei’s
orders had been to the effect that Iyemochi must at once visit Kioto
and there confer with the Court nobles, the avowed intention being that
the Shogun should put forth all his strength, in concert with the clans
throughout the empire, and restore tranquillity by effecting the complete
expulsion of “the barbarians.” So long as the Court influence remained
inimical to foreigners it was almost inevitable that there should be
a vast percentage of the population averse to the treaties, to the
Shogunate which had entered into those treaties, and to everything that
was to be regarded as an alien intrusion. Shimadzu Saburo’s relations
with the Bakufu were obviously of a nature to preclude the possibility
of its calling him to account for the crime perpetrated at Tsurumi, and
the British Admiral therefore undertook the duty, with the result that
the Kagoshima batteries were silenced and three of Satsuma’s recently
purchased steamers were captured. But as so frequently happens after a
quarrel, the foes were better friends than ever within a year or two,
and on the 27th of July 1866 Sir Harry Parkes, the British Minister,
paid Kagoshima a visit at its lord’s special invitation, in the
man-of-war _Princess Royal_, accompanied by the _Serpent_ and _Salamis_,
and received a most enthusiastic welcome. The young Prince, nephew of
Shimadzu Saburo, came off in his state barge, and the British visitors
were taken to see the foundry, where cannon were being cast, and shot
and shell turned out in great quantities, almost within a stone’s throw
of the walls of the daimio’s palace. Satsuma’s acquisitions were seen
to have included a steam lathe, and there likewise was a glass works
in full operation. Saigo Takamori being temporarily in exile, he was
not there personally to attend to the training of the Satsuma rank and
file, but it was carried on by his lieutenants with ardour, in view of
possible eventualities, and the general impression created was that the
Satsuma clan had resolved to make the best use of the knowledge that it
had gained of the power of modern weapons, and of Western inventions and
appliances, and would thenceforward seek by every means at command to
maintain its position in the van of Japan’s progress.
In 1865 Saigo was again prominent at Kagoshima, having been restored to
favour by his feudal lord, and he seems to have had a great share in the
direction of affairs in his native province, more particularly in respect
of the preparations that the clan was then making for taking a leading
part in the conflict which it was becoming more and more evident would
occur in the near future between the followers of the Tokugawa house and
the supporters of O-Sei—_i.e._ Imperial Government. Saigo’s personal
efforts were directed to the drilling of a competent force, capable of
making the best use of modern weapons, and when, in the first month of
1867, the Emperor Komei died at Kioto, and was succeeded on the throne
by the present sovereign, Satsuma was able to place at the service of
the new administration a fairly well-equipped contingent of riflemen,
under the leadership of Saigo Takamori himself. For a considerable
portion of the first year of the Meiji era there was warfare between the
troops of the Shogun and the Choshiu clan, and in January 1868 came the
_coup d’état_ at Kioto by which the Aidzu clansmen were relieved of the
guardianship of the Nine Gates of the capital and the duty was undertaken
by the drilled forces of Satsuma and Choshiu combined.
In the memorable battle at Fushimi, seven miles from Kioto on the Osaka
road, Saigo was leader of the imperial troops opposed to those of the
Tokugawa Shogunate, and exhibited on that occasion marked military genius
as well as great personal bravery. His coolness under fire was ever a
subject of intense admiration to his comrades, and it was conspicuous in
this fiercest of engagements, lasting for three days, at the very outset
of the Meiji era.
The Aidzu men had retired northward after the defeat of the Shogun’s
army at Fushimi, but at Yedo the forces of the Shogunate still held
their ground, and the Emperor’s uncle, Arisugawa-no-miya, was sent,
bearing the imperial brocade banner, to suppress them. With him went
Saigo Takamori, as his Sambo, or military adviser, a post that would in
these days be described as that of Chief of Staff. There was some severe
fighting at different points on the road to Yedo, but early in 1868
Saigo Takamori, at the head of the imperial forces reached the southern
suburb of the capital at Shinagawa, and the occupation of Yedo by them
took place on the 26th of April of that year. The Tokugawa men shut
themselves up in the castle and were not subdued until a desperate fight
had occurred at Uyeno, in grounds then belonging to the temples, but at
the present day forming a beautiful public park. This battle was fought
on 4th of July 1868, his Imperial Highness Higashi Fushimi, to whom some
reference has already been made as having at a later date visited London,
having on that day borne the imperial brocade banner to victory. Though
this engagement was in July the Shogun had ceased his connection with
the rebellion—for such it had now become, being a revolt against the
administration which had received the Emperor’s authority to act,—and
after making his submission had been directed to retire for the time
being to his original home at Mito, on the east coast. At a later period
he finally went into complete seclusion at Shidzuoka, in the province of
Suruga.
The dignified manifesto to his adherents which the Shogun issued at
the time of his retirement made evident his conviction that unity was
absolutely essential to the success of the national policy and that it
was the duty of all true patriots to sink their differences and join in
unselfish endeavours to promote the influence and supreme authority of
the Imperial Court.
While Saigo was at Shinagawa, in the yashiki of the Satsuma clan, which
the recent combat and subsequent fire had left in a deplorably ruinous
condition, an old friend came to him in the person of Katsu, the lord of
Awa,—a province facing Yokohama across the Bay of Tokio,—who pleaded that
the capital should be spared the horrors of an assault, and representing
the willingness of the Shogun’s supporters to submit. Saigo consented to
place matters before his chief, the Prince Arisugawa, and terms of peace
were arranged on the lines that Katsu had suggested, namely that the
city should be spared in consideration of the vessels belonging to the
Shogunate being surrendered, and the castle of Yedo handed over to the
imperialists. With men of the type of the Shogun’s supporters, however,
it was one thing to make peace on their behalf and quite another to
induce them to abide by the bargain when it involved complete submission
in token of defeat. A number of them determined to hold out in Uyeno, and
the fleet made good its retreat from Yedo bay and was next heard of at
Hakodate, where it held out for some considerable time. Another section
of the Shogun’s supporters under Otori Keisuke, went northward, and were
followed by the imperialists under Saigo, a severe engagement ensuing
at Utsunomiya, some sixty miles north of the capital. It is related of
Katsu that he persuaded his friend Saigo to accompany him to the top of
Atago-yama, a conspicuous hill near Shiba, within the city limits, and
from that elevation showed him a great part of Yedo lying helpless, as
it were, at his feet. “If we fight, these innocent people will be great
sufferers,” said Katsu, and the appeal to Saigo’s humanity was not in
vain. Katsu, as the lord of Awa, was on the side of Saigo’s opponents,
in virtue of his holding under the Bakufu, and though the Shogun’s
Government had been rather severe with him for some of his pro-foreign
ideas, imbibed when he navigated the first Japanese vessel of war across
the Pacific to San Francisco, some few years previously, he was bound in
honour to espouse the Shogun’s side in the struggle then taking place.
On the termination of the War of the Restoration Saigo received a grant,
for his eminent services to the State, in the form of an estate of the
annual value of 2000 _Koku_, equivalent, if the present-day price of
rice be taken as a guide, to £2500 per annum. He retired to his native
province and settled at Takemura, a village close to Kagoshima, his
life from that time forward being characterised by extreme simplicity,
frugality, and the cultivation of his lands with his own hands, until
duty once more called him forth from his eminently peaceful pursuits
to take part in matters of administration. Although the idol of the
samurai, and constantly mixed up in political affairs, as was indeed
almost unavoidable in that stage of the national progress, when every
prominent man was intimately concerned with one party or another, it
was nevertheless contrary to Saigo’s personal tastes to figure as a
Government official, and he would infinitely have preferred to roam
the hills of Satsuma or Osumi, gun in hand, than to take part in State
functions.
In the Government which was formed in 1872 under the presidency of Prince
Sanjo, Saigo held the portfolio of Minister of War, and it was at this
time that the army of Japan began to take definite shape, Saigo himself
being responsible for the general plan on which the establishment of an
adequate military force was based. That Japan’s ambition did not soar
very high at that time may be gathered from the subjoined figures, which
represent approximately the strength in peace time and in war which was
then decided upon:—
In Peace time In War Household
Infantry 26,880 40,320 3,200
Cavalry 360 450 150
Artillery 2,160 2,700 300
Engineers 1,200 1,500 150
Military Train 360 480 80
Marine Artillery 720 900 ...
------ ------ -----
31,680 46,350 3,880
It was at about this period that the Korean difficulty began to make
itself felt in connection with the administration of the Japanese forces,
for there arose a strong party in the State which favoured immediate
and resolute action with regard to what was loudly proclaimed to be
a stealthy but sure advance of Russia toward the coasts of Japan, an
approach that even the coolest and the wisest heads in the Empire could
not reflect upon without apprehension. Okubo Toshimichi had placed it
on record that “Russia, always pressing southward, is Japan’s principal
danger.” The conquest of Korea, as affording a complete check to Russia’s
advance, was a step that several of the Cabinet Ministers were eager
to embark upon there and then. But in Okubo and Iwakura the nation had
two cautious statesmen, as prudent as they were patriotic, and their
influence carried the day, though Okubo was Saigo’s fellow-clansman. The
annexation of Korea was postponed indefinitely, and those who were the
strenuous advocates of the forward policy resigned, among them being
Saigo Takamori, and Itagaki Taisuke of the province of Tosa. The standard
of revolt was speedily raised in the south, not in Satsuma, for Saigo was
not then prepared for such a desperate venture, but in Hizen province,
to which belonged Yeto Shimpei, who had been one of Saigo’s colleagues
in the Cabinet, as Minister of Justice. Yeto Shimpei and his following
were soon put down, and the leader of this abortive undertaking paid the
penalty with his life.
But although Saigo had not been in a position to render his former friend
any active help, had he been disposed at that stage to embark in open
hostilities to the existing Government, it is none the less true that
he had devoted the bulk of his income of 2000 koku to the upkeep of a
school at Kagoshima, named the _Shimpei Shi-gakko_, or New Army Private
Academy, which was in reality a school for young samurai, belonging
to his own clan, wherein were taught the science and theory of modern
warfare, and the pupils were numbered by the thousand. Among them the
idea was prevalent that the honour of their country had been sullied by
the failure to exact an apology from either Korea or its suzerain China
for the insults, as they were deemed to be, levelled at Japan during the
preceding two or three years. The samurai of the south demanded that they
should be led against the Koreans to exact reparation, and when this boon
was denied them they murmured against the authorities at Tokio.
In the expectation that it would prove a safety-valve for this excessive
eagerness to be revenged upon Korea, the Government of Tokio sought to
find a vent for the ebullient enthusiasm of the Satsuma warriors in an
expedition to Formosa, to demand redress for the ill treatment of some
shipwrecked fishermen by the savages, whom China had professed herself
unable to control. This resolve was not taken without having exhausted
all ordinary means of obtaining satisfaction, and the supreme charge of
the undertaking was given to Saigo’s brother, then Minister of the Navy
in the Imperial Cabinet. Satsuma being the province nearest to Formosa,
the transports set out from Kiushiu, and the bulk of the troops on which
the task devolved of maintaining Japan’s prestige in the field on this
occasion were men of Satsuma.
In due course the victorious army returned to Japan, on the completion
of an Agreement with China whereby the Peking Government bound itself
to repay to Japan the expense which it had incurred, but it was not
until the British Minister, Sir Thomas Wade, had intervened to prevent a
complete severance of relations between Japan and China, consequent upon
the indisposition of the Tsung-Li Ya-men to fall in with Japan’s views,
that a rupture was avoided. Okubo Toshimichi, Japan’s representative in
the negotiations, was actually on the point of taking his departure from
the Chinese capital when the Chinese besought the British Minister to
rescue them from the predicament into which their procrastination had led
them. China paid half a million taels toward Japan’s expenses, and the
affair was at an end for the time, Satsuma receiving back the survivors
of the contingent that she had sent out a few months before, with regret
that fever had decimated their ranks, but with pride that her drilled
troops had acquitted themselves so well in the day of trial.
The attitude of Korea continued to be in every way a source of anxiety,
however, to the Imperial Cabinet, and though in 1875 an agreement was
made whereby Korea was opened to foreign trade, and ratified on the 26th
February, of the next year, termed the treaty of Kokwa, the war party
in Japan was by no means willing to accept this as a solution of the
problem. The Satsuma clan offered strenuous opposition to the extension
of the telegraph system of the empire into its own province, and for
the time the farthest point of the line southward that the wires could
be carried was Kumamoto, seventy-five miles by road short of Kagoshima.
It is only now, in 1906, that a State railway is being constructed to
the Satsuma stronghold, and for many years the reactionary spirit was
strong enough to give pause to both these enterprises of the Department
of Public Works. It was Saigo’s wish to chastise Korea and bring her
into complete subjection to Japan, but the Government of the day thought
otherwise, and meanwhile the Shimpei Shi-gakko persevered with its
drills, and the pupils regarded Saigo Takamori as a misjudged man whose
most patriotic wishes were being ignored at Tokio.
At last, one day in February 1877, a messenger arrived by boat at
Kumamoto and handed in a despatch for transmission by telegraph to Tokio
apprising the Government of the departure three days before of 12,000
men, fully armed, on a march to Kioto,—as the leaders put it,—to lay
their grievances before the Emperor, who happened to be making a brief
stay at his old capital. The despatch speedily reached the Government at
Tokio, and action was taken on the instant. The sovereign’s uncle was
invested with full powers to punish the rebels, as Saigo Takamori and
his companions in this desperate adventure were pronounced to be, and
troops were hurried away to Kiushiu as fast as steam could convey them.
Prince Arisugawa reached Hakata, which became the base of operations,
early in March, and meanwhile the garrison of Kumamoto, which town was
on the line of the Satsuma men’s march, placed the castle in a state of
defence. Saigo was in command of the rebels, with Kirino, and Shinowara,
who were both officers of high rank, as his lieutenants, and the Kumamoto
castle was held by a Satsuma man, General Tani, whom nothing would
induce to betray his trust. Apart from all question of its prospects of
success had it got as far as the main island of Hondo, the chances of the
expedition ever completing its projected march to Kioto were destroyed
at the outset by its leader devoting his energies to the reduction of
the Kumamoto fortress before proceeding beyond that point. Whether he
had a sufficient following to admit of his leaving a large proportion
of his force in possession of Kumamoto, numerous enough to keep General
Tani within the castle walls, while himself pushing on northward, is at
least doubtful, but at all events he did not attempt to do so, and the
garrison offered so stout a resistance that weeks were lost in a vain
effort to capture the place, all the time that the imperial forces were
gathering and marching against him from Shimonoseki and Hakata, whither
they had been brought by transport. The relief of Kumamoto was effected
on the 14th of April 1877. Some very severe conflicts took place in the
vicinity, notably at Minami-no-seki (Southern barrier) a pass in the
range of hills some miles to the north of the castle, Takase, and Uyeki.
A large percentage of the troops employed on the Government side were
men from Aidzu and other northern districts wherein the cause of the
Shogun had found its strongest support in the war of the Restoration,
and in their encounters with the Satsuma men, ten years before, had been
worsted. Under the improved military system which Saigo Takamori had
had so great a share in establishing these northern men had developed
into fine soldiers, but their efficiency was sorely tested by the fierce
onslaughts of the Satsuma swordsmen, whose habit it was to fling away the
rifles they bore and rush to close quarters on every occasion. Eventually
the Tokio police, who are all of samurai birth, were drafted into Kiushiu
to take part in the contest with the swordsmen of the south, and there
was from that time onward a vast amount of hand-to-hand fighting in the
fashion of a bygone era.
After the siege of Kumamoto had been raised the followers of Saigo
became somewhat scattered, and were driven back towards their stronghold
in Kagoshima. There were sanguinary encounters at Miyako-no-jo,
Hitoyoshi, Sadowara, and Nobeoka, all places within a short radius of
the Satsuma headquarters, and stage by stage the rebellion was crushed,
the final stand of Saigo’s adherents being made at Shiroyama (Castle
mountain) within the walls of the daimio’s residence in Kagoshima,
of which the rebels had possessed themselves in the absence of their
feudal lord. Shimadzu Saburo had been prevailed upon at the outset to
discountenance the movement, and his influence had prevailed with his
nephew to prevent him likewise from throwing in his lot with the avowed
antagonists of the Government. The end was reached on 24th September,
when a fierce assault was made by the Government forces on the Castle
hill, and Saigo was wounded, the major part of his men falling with
him to the bullets of their adversaries. When he saw that all hope was
past Saigo bade his faithful friend Hemmi perform the last office that
a samurai could undertake for a comrade, and the command was obeyed as
soon as Saigo had himself consummated the act of _seppuku_, the headless
body being found at the close of the fighting, but the head remaining for
a while undiscovered. Hemmi had fallen also, on his own sword, by his
leader’s side. Search was made, and soon the head was found and taken
to Admiral Kawamura, who had borne his share in the attack as a loyal
subject of the Emperor, though heart-broken at being compelled to oppose
his fellow-clansman and life-long friend. The admiral was indeed related
by marriage to the dead hero, and having carefully washed the head
Kawamura carried it in his own hands to his home, there to be guarded
until such time as the body could be decently interred.
However misguided may have been his actions in the opinion of some of his
compatriots, Saigo was the idol of the samurai, and almost equally so of
the nation at large. It was many years before millions of his countrymen
were willing to credit the reports of his death. When at last they were
compelled to admit it they insisted that he had taken up his abode in
the planet Mars. A man of striking personality,—he stood over six feet
high,—he was distinguished by the extreme simplicity of his tastes, his
utter repugnance to display of any sort, his bravery and contempt of
danger, his complete modesty and unselfishness, evinced in a thousand
ways. His innate kindliness and generosity of heart, concealed beneath
a certain taciturnity which is not infrequent among Satsuma people
in general, gained for him the utmost respect and esteem and won the
affections of soldiers of all ranks to a man. When the struggle was at
its height in the summer of 1877 a prominent journal thus eulogised him:—
“Though Saigo Takamori is the public enemy of the State,—although his
crime, according to the laws of Meiji, is absolutely unpardonable,—he is
still a great man. Was it not he who overturned the despotic Bakufu, and
restored the ancient imperial authority? Did he not do this with infinite
exertion and the most profound indifference to the perils which beset his
person?” It is safe to say that up to the time of the revolt of the clan
in 1877 he was the most popular of the nation’s heroes.
The Emperor gave one more proof of his extreme magnanimity of mind when
he pardoned Saigo’s transgression and ordered a statue to be erected to
his memory in Uyeno Park in Tokio. Some years afterwards his Majesty
conferred the title of Marquis on Takamori’s eldest son, in recognition
of the invaluable support that the father had rendered to the State,
in the days prior to Satsuma’s outbreak. Every line of the record of
his error has been expunged by his sovereign’s command, and naught
remains but the memory of splendid services given to his country with
whole-souled devotion and self-sacrifice. He died as became a true and
loyal samurai of his race,—died as he had hoped to die,
“... And not disgrace—
Its ancient chivalry.”
XIII
FIELD-MARSHAL MARQUIS YAMAGATA
Owning allegiance originally to the great Choshiu party, Yamagata
Aritomo was from the outset of his career distinguished by his strenuous
advocacy of the principle of army reform which even at that early period
of the history of modern Japan had come to be recognised by her most
ardent patriots as a sheer necessity. The idea of establishing the
paramount influence of his native country in the affairs of the Far
East by endowing it with a numerous and powerful army seems to have
taken possession of his active mind from an early age, and he strove
unceasingly to spread the desire of attaining martial supremacy for the
clan among his fellow-samurai, who were in the habit, like himself, of
devoting much of their leisure to the study of translations of military
works from the Dutch. In Yamagata’s young days practically the only
accessible writings on fortification and the art of war were in this
form, but they were devoured by the Choshiu cadets, who speedily turned
to account the knowledge they thereby acquired. The military forces of
the Daimio of Choshiu were drilled more or less on the Occidental system
after the year 1864, and as a result, on the outbreak of hostilities
between the followers of the Shogun and the great southern clans towards
the close of the Emperor Komei’s reign the northern men found themselves
confronted by troops which had a semblance of skill with the bayonet,
and could shoot with some approach to accuracy. The rifles with which
the men were armed were of a pattern obsolete in Europe, it is true, but
they made the best use they could of these weapons, and the effect on the
Aidzu men and other adherents of the Shogun, whose training with modern
arms had been of shorter duration and less thorough, was from the first
unmistakable. The superiority of Western drill and implements of warfare
having been demonstrated in actual combat on the battlefield, it became
the Choshiu leader’s ambition to establish a national army, fit to defend
the Imperial possessions and to enable Japan some day to take her fitting
place among the great powers of the world. To Yamagata, in the opinion
of his countrymen, more than to any other person, belongs the credit of
having established his country’s military effectiveness and laid the
foundations of her martial success in later years.
[Illustration: MARQUIS YAMAGATA]
Yamagata was born in 1838, in Nagato, or Choshiu (_lit._: the Long
Province), his grade as a samurai being that of the lancers, which was
superior to the _ashigaru_ (or “light of foot”) rank of retainer. His
father had achieved local renown as a poet and philologist, but Aritomo’s
own tastes inclined him towards the study of the arts of war, and he
entered the service of the clan in his boyhood, rising by degrees from
the position of a common soldier to the command of a regiment. The
headquarters of the Choshiu daimio were at Hagi, a town picturesquely
situated on the west coast fifty miles from the Shimonoseki Straits. The
seat of the present prefectural government is at Yamaguchi, an inland
town standing on the highroad which connects the Inland Sea, at Mitajiri,
with the Sea of Japan on the west coast of Niphon. Yamaguchi was itself
a place of much importance in pre-Restoration days, and enjoys some fame
for the excellence of its thermal springs.
Yamagata was very active in the War of the Restoration, leading the
Choshiu forces with distinction in the campaign under Marshal Saigo
against the Shogunate forces at Fushimi and elsewhere, and when the new
Administration was formed in 1868 he was appointed Under Secretary of
the War Department at Tokio. There he at once set to work to reorganise
the new Imperial army, partly made up as it was of the forces which the
feudal barons had themselves maintained and handed over to the Imperial
Government after the cessation of hostilities in Oshiu, North Japan. For
the ability he displayed in the campaign in that region he received
signal marks of the Emperor’s approval, and a few months later he was
despatched on a journey to Europe, in order that he might study more
closely the art of war as there practised. He was a little over a year
absent from Japan, but during the interval he had been present at most of
the important engagements of the Franco-German War, and returned to his
own country in the spring of 1871.
It is interesting at this stage to recall the actual constitution of the
first army on the European model which Japan possessed. It was planned by
the Government of the Shogun in 1861 (the first year of the Bun-kiu era),
and as a first attempt was undoubtedly the nucleus of the tremendous
force that the country is now able to place in the field. The intention
was that it should comprise:—
6 regiments of heavy infantry:
4 battalions of light infantry:
6 battalions of heavy cavalry:
2 battalions of light cavalry:
6 batteries of light field artillery:
6½ batteries of heavy field artillery for protection of
castle gates.
13 additional companies of heavy infantry for protection
of castle gates.
4 additional battalions of light infantry as bodyguard
for the Shogun.
But though planned this army was never completely organised, because it
was only the hatamoto or other retainers of the Shogun himself who could
be called on to contribute, other retainers (samurai) being already in
the service of their respective feudal lords. The Hatamoto and others
directly controlled by the Shogun had to provide according to their
incomes as under:—
Those having incomes of 500 koku (about £625
at the present day) were required to supply one soldier.
Those in receipt of 1000 koku three soldiers.
Incomes of 3000 koku or more were assessed at ten men.
Those whose incomes were under 500 koku paid a tax in rice or its
equivalent.
The men to be supplied had to be between the ages of 15 and 45, and
served for five years, with liberty to renew their engagement if they so
chose.
Each regiment of heavy infantry—6 in all—was composed of 2 battalions,
each of which contained 10 sections of 40 men. Then the guard for the
Shogun’s castle gates (there were 13 gates in all) was made up of 40 men
at each—520 in all. Thus the total of the heavy infantry force was 5320
men.
The light infantry was to protect artillery and convoys, and consisted
of 4 battalions, each with 8 sections of 32 men in each. The bodyguard
or rifle brigade,—the first to carry modern rifles—numbered 890 men. The
heavy cavalry had swords and carbines, and numbered 888 men. The light
cavalry carried lances, and were only 192 in number.
The artillery had 6-pounder guns, and 12-in. howitzers,—8 guns to a
battery, the men numbering in all 384.
The heavy field artillery (416) men had 12-pounder guns and 15-in.
howitzers, and there was half a battery at each gate,—6½ batteries
altogether. In the coast defences, including the forts at Shinagawa,
Yedo, there were some 2000 artillerymen.
In the staff of the army were 1406 men, many being junior officers,
chosen for training for military duties under the eyes of staff officers.
The total effective force of the Shogunate was thus supposed to be about
13,500 men. In reality it did not muster more than 7700 men and 64
officers when the “standing army” was called on to support the waning
fortunes of the Shogunate in 1867.
At the time that this nucleus of the modern Japanese army was formed
the intrusion, as it was deemed, of foreigners was bitterly resented
by the party of exclusion, which had its centre in the Court of Kioto;
the Shogun, on the other hand, day by day became more convinced of
the futility of such efforts as Japan could make in opposition to the
fulfilment of the treaties. There remained to be considered the probable
attitude of the great feudatories, who were almost independent of the
Shogun though nominally his subordinates, and by whom it was to be
anticipated, in not a few instances, that the occasion would be seized
for divesting themselves of a yoke which had begun to be burdensome.
This factor in the problem was at all events one which no one could with
safety ignore. Affairs were further complicated by the circumstance that
in 1860, when the discussion was at its height, the two strong chieftains
of the south, Mori of Choshiu and Shimadzu of Satsuma, were at variance,
and as a result when Mori advocated the out-and-out adoption of a policy
of expulsion his powerful opponent in the extreme south of Kiushiu
preferred to see an understanding arrived at between the Imperial party
and the adherents of the Bakufu, which was responsible for the signature
of the treaties with foreign powers. At this time the Shogun Iyemochi was
but a youth and politically he was unable to render more than the minimum
of service to his party, but it was hoped that a fusion of interests
might be brought about by a marriage between his Highness and a sister
of the reigning Emperor, which took place in the autumn of 1860. But the
scheme conspicuously failed to bring the rival factions into line, and
instead of presenting a united front against the “barbarians” the clan
enmities and jealousies continued to thrive and in the views entertained
on the subject of the admission of strangers there remained as complete
a divergence as ever. And not only was there this conflict of opinion
prevailing between two well-defined parties in the State but the Shogun’s
side grew to be a house divided against itself, for dissensions arose
within the Mito clan, thereunto the strongest pillar of the Tokugawa
regime, and one of the branches of that family in which the office of
Shogun was hereditary. One half of the Mito clan were for the expulsion
of foreigners, the other half favoured the strict fulfilment of the
Shogun’s bargains. Feeling on these matters at one time ran so high at
Mito that the samurai of the clan fought desperately among themselves,
and it is possible to trace the decline of the Shogunate’s power to
this lamentable internecine strife which sapped the strength of the
Tokugawa house and paved the way to its final fall. Another peril to the
Shogunate was created by the antagonism of the Lord Mori of Choshiu. His
uncompromising hostility to the treaties led him into a direct quarrel
with the Bakufu, and he was directed to return to his own province from
Kioto. His abrupt dismissal from Court was calculated to arouse the
keenest antagonism to the Shogunate on the part of his followers, who
carried the news to Hagi, his castle town in the west of Choshiu, and
there was from that time war between the clan and the adherents of the
Tokugawa house. Thus arose the anomaly that while the Choshiu clan had
at that time in its ranks those very men by whose endeavours Japan was
ultimately to be induced to abandon a policy of seclusion and to enter
the comity of nations, their influence was insufficient to prevent,
until a considerably later period, the adoption of an attitude by their
feudal chief which was distinctly reactionary. And the reformers, finding
themselves in a minority, were compelled to wait their time. The Choshiu
men gathered in their strength and marched upon Kioto, resolved to wipe
out the disgrace which they conceived attached to them through the
unavenged insult to their lord, and as at that date the Choshiu troops
were by far the better armed, victory would have rested with them in the
battle which ensued within sound, and, indeed, within rifle shot, of the
Imperial residence, but for the inadequacy of their numbers. Yamagata,
Takasato, and many others who were presently to achieve distinction in
their country’s cause, were engaged in this contest, and were ranged
under the Jo-I banner, though their presence there as supporters of the
principle of expulsion was due to their loyalty to their feudal lord, and
in defence of his rights as opposed to the Shogun, rather than to any
unwillingness that the country should be opened to international trade
and the introduction of Western arts and sciences.
In writing of the pre-Restoration days himself, in 1887, Count Yamagata,
as he was then, described the time of the Tokugawa Shogunate as that
when, all foreign intercourse being limited to China and Holland, people
in Japan knew little of the civilisation of other nations. “Peace,” he
said, “universally reigned. The swords were kept in their sheaths, and
the arrows lay untouched in their quivers. Luxury and effeminacy followed
in the wake of peace. The sudden appearance of the problem of foreign
intercourse in the sixth year of Ka-yei [1853] resulted in the universal
cry for exclusion. The power of the Shogunate was gradually undermined by
this event. It is not to be wondered at that this cry was raised on every
side, for people were kept in ignorance of things outside of their own
country. Their condition was that of the proverbial frog in the well.
I no naka no kawadzu
Dai Kai wo shiradzu.
(The frog in the well
Knows naught of the ocean.)
Things outside were completely shut off from their view. Along with
this perplexity the advocates of the virtual authority of the Throne
assailed the Shogunate. Baron Ii Naosuke was the person who had to face
these great problems. Confident in the wisdom of his policy, he bravely
opposed public opinion, and was hated even by his relations. The result
was that he had to sacrifice his life for his perseverance in the policy
that he followed. Yet this sad event not only saved our country from the
misfortune that befell our neighbour, China, but opened the pathway of
civilisation in our own land. The merit of this is attributable to no one
but Baron Ii Naosuke.” This powerful championship of a nobleman to whom
Japan owes much—further reference to the part which he took in connection
with the foreign treaties and the manner of his death will be found in
this volume in the chapter devoted to Prince Tokugawa Keiki—does justice
to the memory of one whose fate it was to be much maligned during life,
and also to Marshal Yamagata’s goodness of heart, and there must have
been many of the former adherents of the _Tairo_ who read this eulogy of
their murdered chieftain with genuine satisfaction.
It was on Yamagata’s return from France in 1871 that the reform and
expansion of the military system were definitely taken in hand, the
barons of Satsuma, Choshiu, and Tosa presenting their provincial armies
to the Emperor, and it was then that four military centres were formed
for the troops that likewise were drafted into the imperial service
from the military establishments of the other feudal lords. In 1872
conscription became the law of the land. Six divisions of the army were
formed, and regular drill and instruction were provided for. Several
French officers were engaged to give tuition in military subjects.
Yamagata himself occupied the post of Minister of War, and to the army he
appointed as Commander-in-chief General Saigo Takamori. General Yamada
ranked next, and other appointments to high command were those of Kirino,
the close friend of Saigo in the events of 1877, General Tani, who in
that year defended Kumamoto, and Generals Toriwo, Miura, Nodzu, Asa,
Miyoshi, Nishi, Osawa, etc.: all capable men who in after years greatly
distinguished themselves, some having taken part prominently in the war,
now happily at an end, with Russia.
The first regulations promulgated remain in most of their essential
features but little changed, notwithstanding the lapse of thirty-five
years, and this is testimony in itself to the soundness of the system
for which Marquis Yamagata was mainly responsible. All Japanese subjects
on reaching the age of twenty were to be liable for three years’ active
service in the army or the navy. The officers of the lower grades were to
be chosen by the officers of the corps. Commissions were to be granted
only after a course of instruction and rigid examination. After their
three years’ term conscripts were to form a first reserve, assembling
once a year for drill. On the expiration of two years in the first
reserve they were to be placed in a second reserve, only liable to be
called out in case of a levy _en masse_. The militia was to be formed
of all males between the ages of seventeen and forty, who had been
otherwise exempted from service, and these were to be formed into troops
for district protection whenever a general levy might take place. The
term in the first reserve has been extended far beyond that originally
contemplated, but in practice the service in the first and second
reserves is merely nominal, and in the militia or national army likewise,
as the men are only called out once a year for manœuvres, save in case of
war or emergency. The six provincial divisions, inclusive of the Imperial
Guards, who were maintained at the capital, were stationed in the first
place as under:—
Headquarters Brigade Headquarters Regiment Quarters
Provincial
Division I. Tokio I. Tokio I. Tokio
XV. Takasaki
II. Sakura II. Sakura
III. Tokio
Do. II. Sendai III. Sendai IV. Sendai
XVI. Shibata
IV. Aomori V. Aomori
XVII. Sendai
Do. III. Nagoya V. Nagoya VI. Nagoya
XVIII. Toyohashi
VI. Kanazawa VII. Kanazawa
XIX. Nagoya
Do. IV. Osaka VII. Osaka VIII. Osaka
IX. Otsu
VIII. Himeji X. Himeji
XX. Osaka
Do. V. Hiroshima IX. Hiroshima XI. Hiroshima
XXI. Hiroshima
X. Matsuyama XXII. Matsuyama
XII. Marugame
Do. VI. Kumamoto XI. Kumamoto XIII. Kumamoto
XXIII. Kumamoto
XII. Kokura XIV. Kokura
XXIV. Fukuoka
In addition to the six divisions detailed under the earlier scheme
of military organisation—viz. those having their headquarters at
Tokio, Sendai, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, and Kumamoto—divisions were
subsequently established at Asahigawa in the island of Yeso, at Hirosaki
in Northern Hondo, at Kanasawa on the west coast, at Himeji, near Kobé,
close to the Inland Sea, at Kokura, facing Shimonoseki across the
Straits, and at Marugame in the island of Shikoku.
All the divisional headquarters are now served by public or State
railways, and practically the same may be said of the various Brigade
headquarters, numbering twelve more.
The establishment comprised 36 regiments including artillery, 22
battalions, 20 companies, 12 corps (inclusive of colonial troops in Yeso,
and the gendarmerie), 228 General and Field officers, 2267 officers, 484
cadets, 5835 sub-officers, and 54,555 rank and file. Total 63,369.
These were the figures of the standing army at the end of 1893, and at
that time the nominal strength of the reserve rank and file was 193,949
of all arms, made up of 107,222 infantry, 1923 cavalry, 10,182 artillery,
4373 engineers, 2035 commissariat, and 68,214 miscellaneous, including
transport-soldiers, firemen, ambulance attendants, etc.: all these
passing into the “landsturm” or national army on the expiration of their
12 years with the colours or in the reserves.
By the ordinance of July 1894, a divisional regiment consists of 3
battalions or 12 companies, each company comprising 136 officers and men.
A Bodyguard regiment has only 8 companies. The cavalry battalion is of
3 companies, each of 159 officers and men. A Field artillery regiment
includes 693 officers and men in a division, or 465 if of the Bodyguard.
In time past only the “Samurai” of Japan were entitled to bear arms, and
as the sum-total of these “Samurai” families was comparatively small, it
was evidently impossible in 1871 to create a large army of this class
alone. Thus it became needful as a first step to throw open the ranks
of Japan’s new military organisation to “heimin” as well as to the
“ancient warrior caste,” if what was in reality the knighthood of the
realm may properly be so designated. The “heimin” were complimented by
such a direct recognition of their ability to wield weapons of war, and
flocked to the standards; the nucleus of a huge fighting machine was
speedily formed, and the necessary steps were taken to provide tuition
for its officers and competent instruction for the rank and file. At
first the intention was to take France as the model, as it had already
been determined to copy Britain in all matters naval. But France having
come somewhat badly out of the war of 1870 it was in the end decided to
base the system chiefly on that of Germany. The Household Troops were at
first an exception to this rule and held more or less for a time to the
French system.
Yamagata’s ambition did not extend very far at first, for the army was
to consist of only 20,000 men, all told. But it was intended that these
should be well drilled, with additions to their ranks later on, and in
gaining proficiency in military exercises they served to leaven the
whole mass of the male population, and imbue it with a notion of the
high standard of efficiency which defenders of the realm were expected
to attain. Not until after the war with China, however, which will be
referred to in detail in its proper place, was the Japanese army really
formidable in point of numbers. But under the plan for which Marshal
Yamagata was directly responsible, there grew up an enormous reserve, far
in excess of anything for which the rest of the world was prepared to
give Japan credit. Parenthetically, it may be mentioned that even down
to the end of 1904 the tremendous strength which Japan is able to put
forth had not, save in a very limited circle, been in the faintest degree
appreciated, and least of all, perhaps, in Russia.
At the time of the outbreak of war in the island of Kiushiu in 1877
General Yamagata was at headquarters in Tokio, and it may well be
comprehended that there was some anxiety in his mind concerning the
behaviour of the new army when confronted by the redoubtable swordsmen
of the great southern clan. The heimin of whom the imperial army was
largely composed were comparatively unaccustomed to the use of weapons
of warfare, and it remained to be seen how they would comport themselves
in the face of a peculiarly strong and agile foe. The Satsuma onslaught
was famed for its irresistible vigour and determination. It was at least
open to question if the men who had only recently begun to handle the
bayonet would with it be a match for swordsmen whose tactics were to
come to close quarters on every occasion and to some extent despised
musketry as an art unworthy of their knightly training. But the outcome
of the struggle justified the sanguine anticipations which the military
authorities at Tokio had formed regarding the value of the new force, and
increased confidence was felt in its future development. It was not the
first trial that it had undergone in actual warfare, for some regiments
had been through a rather severe campaign,—not in respect of the fighting
that they had to do, but in regard to the climate and the character of
the country—in the island of Formosa three years before the contest with
Satsuma occurred, yet the civil war in Kiushiu was a test of a far more
rigorous nature, and one on which the fate of the Government’s scheme of
reform in no small degree depended. Suffice it to say that the confidence
Yamagata had placed in his military system was amply warranted by events,
and as references are to be found elsewhere to the incidents of the
campaign it would be superfluous to enter into detail concerning them
here.
By 1883 the available strength of the imperial army had risen to some
105,110 men, of all arms, not counting non-combatants, and at the end
of the year 1888 there were 150,000 drilled men, with 120 guns, and a
cavalry force of 500 sabres, ready for service at short notice, and a
serviceable army of 25,000 troops could have been sent away to Korea
or China at any time, on three days’ notice being given to the War
Department.
In December 1889 Marshal Yamagata, as he had now become,—having
previously held the office of Nai-mu-kio or Home Minister, in the
Cabinet, was called upon, owing to the resignation of Count Okuma, to
form a Ministry, and he continued to fill the post of Minister-President
of State until April 1891, when he gave way to Count Matsukata, who had
held under him the portfolio of Finance.
The following year, the Marquis Ito having meanwhile become head of the
Ministry, a very extensive scheme of army extension and reorganisation
was brought forward, encountering no inconsiderable opposition from
the Radical party in the House of Representatives, and the year ended
with stormy debates in Parliament on questions of military and naval
expenditure. Marshal Yamagata was of course mainly responsible for
the project as far as it related in detail to the enlargement of the
nation’s military resources, but that it had the entire approval and
support of the Crown was clear from the imperial rescript which appeared
in 1893, when matters had reached a deadlock in the Diet owing to the
obstacles placed in the Cabinet’s path by the irreconcilable elements
of the Opposition. In the course of his message to the Diet the Emperor
declared that “the progressive force of various countries of the world
becomes more apparent day by day: at this period if time is squandered in
disputes and ultimately the great objects in view become neglected, so
that the opportunities of promoting the nation’s welfare and extending
its influence are lost, the desire that we cherish in view of meeting
the spirits of our ancestors will be frustrated, and the way to reap
the fair result of constitutional government will be missed. The items
of expenditure referred to in the 67th Article of the Constitution are
already guaranteed by the terms of those articles, and therefore must
not be a matter of dispute now. As to the military defences of the
State, a single day’s neglect may result in a hundred years’ regret. We
shall Ourselves economise in the expenditure of Our household, and We
call on Our officers to do the same....” His Majesty’s efforts brought
about a temporary understanding, and in the meantime affairs in Korea
were assuming so threatening a shape that all the energies of the War
Office were directed into the channel of urgent and complete preparation
for what it was feared could not long be averted, namely, a desperate
struggle with China, whose policy had been growing more and more inimical
to Japan’s interests in the adjacent peninsula.
The culmination was reached when news arrived in Japan that a large
reinforcement of the Chinese army in Korea was on the eve of being
sent from Tientsin, and that foreign vessels had been chartered to
convey the troops across the Yellow Sea to points on the Korean
littoral. The bargain had been that neither Japan nor China was to
increase its strength in the peninsula without giving due notice to
the other interested power, for Korea, under the existing agreement,
was independent, though China still insisted on claiming a rather
shadowy suzerainty. Japan ordered her fleet to intercept the Chinese
vessels, and hostilities began when the _Naniwa Kan_, a cruiser at that
time commanded by the now famous Admiral Togo, fired upon and sank a
British-owned steamer which had been chartered for the express purpose of
carrying Chinese soldiers to the vicinity of the Korean port of Chemulpo.
Admiral Togo’s orders were to prevent a landing, and when he had taken
on board the _Naniwa Kan_ all the foreign officers of the transport, the
Chinese on board refused to surrender, in spite of fair warning, so he
considered that he had no alternative but to put an effectual stop to
the vessel’s career. Already large numbers of Chinese had been thrown
into Korea, and a first collision between the rival forces took place at
Asan, a port to the south of Chemulpo, in the Nam-yang or Empress Gulf.
The decisive battle of the 15th September 1894, at Ping-Yang, north of
Seoul, at which spot Hideyoshi had fought the Chinese at the end of
the sixteenth century, settled the question of the supremacy on Korean
soil, and the Chinese withdrew in haste beyond the river Yalu frontier.
Marshal Yamagata at this stage arrived from Japan to take command in
person of the Japanese army in Manchuria, in the campaign on which it
was now about to enter, and a second army, under the command of Marshal
Oyama, was called out for the invasion of the peninsula known as the
“Regent’s Sword,” at the extremity of which lay Port Arthur, for until
this fortress should be captured the Chinese fleet could not be said to
have been rendered absolutely useless, whilst its possession would give
Japan the control of the Gulf of Pechili and enable her to interrupt
communications with the Chinese ports in those waters.
At the end of 1893 the strength of the Japanese army was as follows:—
Peace Establishment 70,892
First Reserve 92,252
Second Reserve 106,020
Yeso colonists 4,104
-------
273,268
The peace establishment and the First Reserve constitute the First Line
on a war footing, so that the forces which Japan was able under Marshals
Yamagata and Oyama to place in the field were 163,144 in all. Roughly the
peace strength of a Japanese division is 9000, but in time of war its
total rises to about 27,000 men, all told. In the Japan and China war,
under the arrangements which Marshal Yamagata had made, each division
was a complete unit in itself, and, comprised 2 infantry brigades, 1
artillery regiment, 1 engineer battalion, 1 cavalry battalion, 1 train
battalion, a medical corps, and an intendant, accountant, veterinary and
legal staff.
Each infantry brigade had 2 regiments, and each regiment 3
battalions,—(save in the Guards, which had 2 battalions to a regiment)—a
battalion at war strength averaging 800 rifles. The weapon was the
Murata rifle of the 1889 pattern (embodying the improvements effected in
the original type which was the invention of Captain Murata, as he was
then, of the Japanese army, in the early years of the Meiji era,—he is
now General Murata) the rifle being a single-loading breech-loader of 8
millimetres calibre. Each man carried 100 rounds of ammunition, and there
were 80 rounds per man in the battalion transport and ammunition column.
A new magazine rifle—since brought to great perfection—had then just
been issued to the Guards and to the Osaka (4th) division. An artillery
regiment comprised 6 batteries of 6 guns each, and a cavalry battalion
consisted of 2 squadrons of 100 sabres each. The engineer battalion
had 2 field companies of about 200 combatants each, and also furnished
the bridging and telegraph sections. The train battalion supplied the
personnel, ponies, and so forth for all regimental and divisional
transport, a pack pony being able to carry about 250 lbs., but during
the campaign great use was made of hand-carts, each drawn by 3 coolies,
and conveying about 350 lbs. Each division had 3 supply columns and 5
ammunition columns, and in all 8 days’ rations were carried. The medical
corps formed 2 bearer companies and 6 field hospitals. The men of the
First Reserve formed depots for each corps and augmented the units
from peace to war strength, whereas the Second Reserve, on territorial
mobilisation, formed additional units for garrison work, and for the
preservation of the lines of communication for the army in the field.
It is needful to supply these details in order to show how Marshal
Yamagata had taken cognisance, in his scheme, of the requirements of
modern warfare, and that the confidence with which Japan entered on the
contest with China was thoroughly well based. By Yamagata’s efforts the
army of Japan had already been brought to a high standard of efficiency,
and it more than fulfilled the expectations that he had been led to form
of its capabilities in the field. Its discipline was from the first
perfect. Had they been needed, there was a vast reserve of men in Japan
who, given medical fitness, were liable to be called out, if between the
ages of seventeen and forty, for service in the National Army, but up to
that period no demand had ever been made on them, and they had not been
organised into a fighting force.
The Japanese headquarter staff, at the beginning of the war, removed from
Tokio to Hiroshima, in the south-west, and thence directed operations.
The Emperor went likewise to Hiroshima and took up his residence in
the barracks without the ancient castle of the former _daimio_ of Aki
province, as Dai-Gen-Sui, or Supreme Commander-in-chief of Army and Navy.
At his Majesty’s side were Prince Komatsu, Chief of Staff for the army,
with General Kawakami, as his assistant, and Admiral Kabayama, as Chief
of Staff for the Navy.
It was noted by military critics of the campaign that “the conduct of the
war by the Japanese was marked by a very complete decentralisation.” The
commanders of armies or detached forces were given definite objectives
(one at a time), and then allowed a free hand in carrying out their work,
the same system being followed within the armies or their divisions.
The telegraph, of which Japan had learned the value during the Satsuma
Rebellion of 1877, was turned to the best account in the war of
1894-5, for orders were sent by cable from Japan to Fusan, and thence
by telegraph through Korea to Marshal Yamagata, and for the Second
army they were sent by wire to Ping-Yang and thence by steamer to the
Liao-Tung peninsula. After the end of December 1894 the line of telegraph
was built around the coast to the vicinity of Port Arthur, so that
Marshal Oyama was also in direct touch with the imperial headquarters at
Hiroshima.
The approximate strength of the Chinese army when it took its stand at
Kiu-lien-cheng, on the west bank of the Yalu, was 20,000, and there was
a further contingent of 4500 men, who had come south from Tsi-tsi-har,
posted ten miles upstream. The advanced guard of Marshal Yamagata’s army
arrived at Wiju, on the south side of the river, on the 10th October,
and the main body on the 23rd. Just above Kiu-lien-cheng the Yalu is
joined by the Ai-ho, and in the angle formed by the two rivers stands a
prominent hill called Hu-shan, or Tiger Mount. The Chinese held this as
an advanced position in front of their left flank, their main position
extending along the right bank of the Yalu as far south as An-Tung-hsien.
In front of this main Chinese position the river was broad and deep,
and the country on the opposite bank was flat and open, so Marshal
Yamagata, realising the difficulty of making a direct attack, determined
to capture Hushan first, and then by fording the tributary stream to
turn the Chinese left. The attack was planned to take place at daylight
on the 25th October. The main obstacle to the advance of the Japanese
forces was the principal channel of the Yalu, which at that time of the
year was 11 feet deep and about 200 yards wide. The bridge had to be
constructed by night, the pontoon equipment at that time with the army
was not sufficient, and the water was so ice-cold that the men could
only work in very short reliefs. By dawn however, the principal work had
been done, and, the attack was delivered, the Chinese abandoning their
Hushan positions before 8 A.M., though the main position continued to
give trouble. The Japanese bivouacked on the right bank of the Ai-ho
above Kiu-lien-cheng, and next morning it was found that their foes had
evacuated both that city and An-Tung during the dark hours, and had
fallen back, part in the direction of Feng-hwang-cheng, and part towards
Siu-Yen.
The maxim that history repeats itself was so accurately borne out in the
events of a decade later at Kiu-lien-cheng that the temptation to allude
briefly to them at this point becomes irresistible. In the Russo-Japanese
war of 1904 the Japanese commander General Kuroki had to force the
passage of the Yalu in a precisely similar fashion, the attack being
commenced by the crossing of the twelfth division at dawn on the 30th
of April, and the Russians vainly attempting to hold the heights facing
Hushan against assault. General Sassulitch fell back on the 1st of May,
on Feng-hwang-cheng, which the Japanese occupied five days afterwards.
In 1894 the troops under Marshal Yamagata entered Feng-hwang-cheng on
the 29th October, the fifth day after the commencement of the attack on
Hushan, the Chinese having retreated to the Mo-tien pass, thirty-eight
miles to the north-west. Two columns were sent by different roads towards
Taku-shan, afterwards meeting at Siu-Yen, and General Nodzu executed
a brilliant combined movement against Sai-ma-tsui and defeated the
Chinese at Tsao-ho-kao, on the 30th of November. Meanwhile General Sung,
taking with him Ma Yu-kun as his chief of staff, had gone south by way
of Kai-ping to attack the Japanese Second Army, which was reported to
be marching on Port Arthur. At this time the Chinese opposing Marshal
Yamagata in Manchuria numbered approximately 22,000 men.
After the capture of Port Arthur by the Second Army on the 21st of
November, Marshal Yamagata was directed to proceed to the taking of
Hai-cheng, which the Chinese were then holding in considerable strength,
but his health, which had never been good during his stay in that region,
quite broke down, and he was invalided home, his place in the field being
taken by General Nodzu. At this period the marshal was so feeble that he
could only with difficulty mount his charger, but he held on until the
Emperor’s own physician, who had been sent with him to Manchuria, made
a resolute appeal to him to desist. Very reluctantly Yamagata returned
to Japan, abandoning the hope of winning glory on the field of battle,
almost at the moment when fame seemed to be within his grasp.
The end of the war came in April 1895, and Marshal Yamagata had recovered
sufficiently to be able to resume his place at the War Office, and even
to journey to Europe, to attend the coronation of the Tsar Nicholas II.
at Moscow, as the delegate of the Japanese Emperor. He did not succeed in
getting as far as London, for he was obliged by illness to return direct
to Japan from Russia, after concluding the Treaty of 9th June 1896.
On resuming his duties some months later at Tokio a scheme of expansion
of the military forces was elaborated under his supervision which
promised to confer upon Japan by the year 1902 a military power just
double that which she possessed in the summer of 1895, and providing for
an army of not less than 500,000 men, at an annual cost of 26,000,000
_Yen_ (roughly £2,654,000).
In January 1898 the Emperor decreed the formation of a Supreme
Military Advisory Council, consisting of four members—viz. Marquis
Yamagata, holding the position at that time of Inspector-General of the
Army,—Prince Komatsu, Chief of the Staff,—Marshal Oyama,—and Marquis
Saigo (since deceased). On the failure of the attempt to form a Party
Government, which ended in the resignation of the Cabinet in November
1898, Marquis Yamagata was once more commanded by the Emperor to form
a Ministry, and he became Minister-president with Marquis Saigo as
Home Minister, Count Katsura as Minister for War, Count Matsukata
at the Finance Department, and Baron Aoki at the Foreign Office.
The Cabinet so constituted remained in office until September 1900,
when Marshal Yamagata made way for Marquis Ito, who, as the retiring
Minister-president declared, was far more skilled than himself in matters
concerning China, and Chinese questions were then becoming exceptionally
prominent.
Marquis Yamagata held during 1904 and 1905 the position at headquarters
of Chief of the General Army Staff, and politically he is one of the
Gen-Ro, or Elder Statesmen, to whom Japan looks for counsel and guidance
in the hour of trial. During the recent war with Russia he was ever at
the helm at Tokio, silently arranging and directing everything pertaining
to the conduct of the campaign in Manchuria, while his colleague Marshal
Oyama was active in the field.
Ten years ago Marshal Yamagata realised to his intense mortification not
only that the Government of St Petersburg wished to deprive Japan of the
legitimate fruits of her successes in the war with China, but that Russia
intended to appropriate Manchuria herself. From that time his thoughts
were occupied with the development of his country’s military strength,
that at least she might not again be subject to the indignity which she
had to suffer in 1895. It has already been shown how he gradually and
surely raised the total of Japan’s resources in men and material until
she was in possession of an army that would enable her to challenge with
success the further advance towards her own shores of a power whose
progress southward had ever constituted,—and as Minister Okubo had
declared thirty years before,—a grave peril for Japan.
The disposition of Western observers had always been to accept the
published figures of the standing army as indicative of the Empire’s
military power. Never, perhaps, were figures so altogether deceptive, for
the nominal muster of the regular forces bears but little comparison with
the real strength which the nation is capable of putting forth in time of
war.
Japan’s army is based on conscription, and all male subjects of the
Ten-shi become liable when full seventeen, and remain liable until full
forty years of age. In actual practice they are never called on until
they are twenty, but even then their term of service may extend over
twenty years, only three of which it is compulsory that they shall spend
with the colours. We have in the Japanese system, therefore, a short
service with the colours, but followed by a prolonged liability to be
called out in emergencies and annually for practice, and its effects
in relation to the military power of a nation are conveniently to be
studied in the history of Japan since about the year 1890 when its
possibilities first began to be realised by the people at large. At the
end of his third year the Japanese soldier of the first selection—which
is of men of superior physique—passes into the First Reserve, to which
he is attached for four years and four months. But as there is a
superabundance of men who are physically fully qualified for the Active
army, the conscripts have to draw lots for the three years’ service
with the colours, and when one of them is unlucky enough to be debarred
from the active service—(this is the view which, as is, of course, only
natural, the Japanese youth’s patriotism induces him to take of the fact
that he has drawn a blank)—he is commiserated by his friends, and passes
to the depot, where he will serve seven years and four months, and thus
equal in the duration of his term his more fortunate comrade on whom the
lot fell for active service at the outset. At the expiration of their
term of seven years and four months the men of both classes are passed
into the territorial army for ten years, and thence to the territorial
reserve until they reach the age of forty. Up to a certain point the
same course is followed with those who were at first rejected as being
of inferior physique,—they serve seven years and four months in depot,
but they then pass to the Territorial Reserve direct until they are forty
years old. One-year volunteers are accepted, as in Germany, provided they
are youths of the prescribed educational attainments and undertake to
maintain themselves (and to mount themselves in mounted branches of the
service) during their term. They then pass for six years and four months
into the Active Reserve Army, and next for ten years into the Territorial
Army as usual, completing their term in the Territorial Reserve until
forty. There is a special plan of service in force in the island of
Tsu-shima owing to its strategical position, whereby all the male
population may be mobilised, but with the changed circumstances resultant
on the altered status of Korea it seems possible that Tsushima may
eventually be brought under the operation of the ordinary regulations.
The general effect of the provisions for service was to equip Japan down
to the end of 1904 with an army on a peace footing of 8000 officers and
152,000 men, which was capable of being raised on a war footing to 14,000
officers and 630,000 men, but that was before the law increasing the term
of service in the Territorial Army to ten years, promulgated in September
1904, came into operation. The term had previously been five years only.
The lengthening of the term will have had the result of vastly adding to
the possibilities of the army in numbers on a war footing. The budget
appropriation for this large army was for the fiscal year ending with
March 1906 as nearly as possible £4,000,000.
It may be useful to insert here for the sake of comparison the cost of
some other armies to their respective countries:—
Russia £38,330,000
Germany 31,674,000
Great Britain 28,600,000
France 27,000,000
Austro-Hungary 13,150,000
Italy 11,160,000
In Japan the service is universal and compulsory, with exemption only
for physical disability. At a rough estimate 410,000 youths reach the
prescribed age annually, but less than one-third of this number are
selected for the maintenance of the standing army, as men of superior
physique, a term which palpably is elastic enough to admit of the choice
of precisely the number required from the vast assemblage of youths
presenting themselves every year for enrolment.
To judge of Japan’s strength, then, by her standing army would be a huge
mistake, or even to wholly estimate it from the figures given as that
of her army on a war footing, as was proved by the last campaign, for
there were vast numbers of men who had completed their twelve (now 17)
years and four months’ service in the active army, the first reserve,
and territorial army, who were still liable until they became full
forty. Moreover, the territorial army and its reserves are composed
of men who are as a rule in good marching condition, for they are in
the majority of cases engaged in normal times in agriculture or other
industries, and physically equal to any tasks they may be called on to
undertake. Conscription has made of Japan the great military power that
she may, with strict justice, claim to be, but owing to the light in
which military service is there regarded it is never a burden on the
population. On the contrary, the system is really a voluntary one, since
it is every youth’s hope and ambition to be among those first chosen to
enter the ranks of the active army and a source of grief to him when he
is drafted into the depot corps.
It was, then, not simply with a nation possessing a powerful army but
with veritably a nation in arms that Russia had to contend when the war
was begun in February 1904, and no more definite, straightforward history
of that mighty contest has been given to the world than the brief account
of its origin, progress, and conclusion which, according to a journal
published in the Far East, fell from Marshal Yamagata’s own lips not long
ago. Referring to the events of the spring of 1904, he said:—
“Russian aggression in the Far East became so notorious, and
took on such serious dimensions after Russia obtained the
lease of Port Arthur and Talienwan that it was felt that a
conflict of the interests of Japan and Russia was imminent.
I considered most carefully measures to counteract this
aggression, and took counsel with all my colleagues and
friends. We came to the decision to forestall Russia in Korea,
as the historical and geographical relations of Korea with
our Empire demanded that we should have the peninsula in our
power, rather than it should fall into that of Russia. To
attain this object we decided to construct the Seoul-Fusan
railway, and did not neglect to elaborate any other necessary
measures, as circumstances required, to oppose Russia. In the
meantime Russia steadily augmented her naval strength in the
Far East, and by about March 1903 her naval force here was
almost equal to our own. Russia failed to fulfil her promise
to evacuate Manchuria, and by steadily reinforcing her army
and navy her designs came to be generally acknowledged. The
Japanese Government, therefore, decided to protest against
these designs, and entered upon negotiations in July 1903, with
a view to arriving at an arrangement diplomatically. These
negotiations proved very difficult, and towards the end of
November the situation became desperate. By this time we were
determined that Korea should under no circumstances be left
in the hands of Russia. Frankly I may say that we were not
confident of defeating Russia, for she was considered to be one
of the greatest powers of the world. We had some hope, however,
in our navy. The naval forces of the two countries were almost
equally balanced, but fortunately our navy had had experience
in fighting in the past ten years, while Russia had had none.
As to the strength of the army, there was great disparity, the
Russians having 4,000,000 men and Japan only 500,000. There was
certainly a limit in the strength of the army that could be
sent by Russia’s one line of railway, but the Russian equipment
in arms was in no way inferior, even if it was not superior, to
that of our army, and the education of the officers was almost
equal. We had, therefore, no advantage over the Russian army,
with the exception, as we thought, of the skill of our troops
in fighting in such hilly country as Korea and Manchuria.
Thus we had very little prospect of success in land fighting,
it having been altogether impossible to assure ourselves of
success in the way that the lay mind is apt to think. It was a
critical and anxious time when hostilities were commenced, but
the army was determined, we knew, to fight to a man in defence
of the Empire. On the campaign being opened, however, we were
able to obtain a success far beyond that which we had hoped
for. This was to be ascribed to the virtue of the Emperor and
to the valour of the officers and men, and the army and navy
are to be congratulated thereon.
From about the time of the great victory at Mukden a suggestion
was made in Europe and America that for the sake of humanity
peace should be restored, and shortly after the defeat of the
Russian fleet in the battle of the Sea of Japan, President
Roosevelt, acting from humanitarian motives, advised the two
belligerents to make peace, with the result already known.
Some of the people appear to be strongly opposed to the terms.
Each man has a right to his own opinion, and it is only natural
that opinion should be divided upon so momentous a question.
In deciding to conclude peace the Government carefully
investigated the present financial capacity of the Empire,—the
plans made for its future development,—the general political
situation of the world,—as well as the fact that Russia was
constantly aggressive and warlike. After full consideration
the Government then came to the conclusion that if hostilities
were continued any longer it would hardly be possible to obtain
compensation for the vast expenditure involved, and no better
result could be secured than was to be obtained by concluding
peace there and then. The continuation of the war, it was
thought, would require a further heavy sacrifice and the only
result would be to exhaust the funds required for the promotion
of works in Korea and Manchuria. Thereupon the members of the
Government agreed without a dissenting voice to conclude peace
without delay. There was no difference, as alleged, among the
members of the Government—no ‘strong party.’ If the peace be
condemned by some people, I am for my part quite willing to
accept the name of being a member of the ‘weak’ party, and all
the other Elder Statesmen and Cabinet Ministers will share my
view.”
Marshal Yamagata emphatically repudiated the allegation that he had
advocated peace on the ground of the difficulty of further continuing
the war because of the inadequacy of the country’s military strength.
“The assertion,” he said, “reflects upon the prestige of the army and
cannot be passed over unnoticed. The Government prosecuted the war with
the greatest determination, and is still competent to carry it on. I have
been in the military service over forty years, and have been through
several wars. We have experienced greater difficulties in other wars
than in the one with Russia, though the wars of the past were of less
magnitude. We have always managed to overcome difficulties.”
It will be admitted that this speech was not conceived in any spirit of
boastfulness, but that it was a plain unvarnished statement of fact.
Japan was by no means exhausted by the struggle with Russia,—on the other
hand, nothing was to be gained by prolonging it to exhaustion point.
The combination of soldier and politician is not so uncommon that it
need occasion remark to find it exemplified in the case of Marshal
Yamagata, whose abilities as a leader in the field have been almost
equalled, though they could not be surpassed, by his talents as chief
of a numerous and powerful party in the State. He is the acknowledged
head of the Japanese Conservatives, and has served his country as Prime
Minister with signal success. He always displayed a perfect genius for
organisation, and in the Parliamentary arena he shone as brilliantly
as in the “tented field.” But for all that it is not for one moment to
be imagined that he is in the usually accepted meaning of the word a
parliamentarian. He is not, strictly speaking, a politician or party man
at all. When he was originally invited to form a Ministry he accepted
the task, not from a desire to achieve political success, but in order
that he might, if possible, be the means of removing from the arena of
party conflict those great questions that were at the period alluded to
becoming daily of real importance to the nation at large. He has ever set
his face sternly against the subordination of national interests to the
ambitions of a party. He is essentially a soldier, and his heart is with
the army, on which he bases his hopes for the future eminence among the
powers of that country which it was called into being to protect. And
Marshal Yamagata has every right to be proud of that magnificent force
the enrolment of which he so strenuously advocated from the very first,
and to the complete organisation of which he has entirely devoted his
energies for forty years. True it is that he received the utmost help in
this great work,—one surely worthy of a life’s continuous effort,—from
those military and other experts from the Occident whose services he had
known how to secure, and that this loyally rendered assistance was at all
times recognised by him. It was none the less a result of his personal
and unflagging zeal that the course of training for the army, once
entered on, was never suffered to deviate a hair’s-breadth from the plan
on which it had been determined that the vast structure should in the
main be raised.
Two maxims have always had weight with him, and he has steadfastly
inculcated their observance by every individual in the army in which he
takes such justifiable pride: they are:—
Gi wo mite, nasazaru wa, yu naki nari.
(Duty recognised, but unfulfilled, means lack of courage.)
Gi wo omonzuru koto tai-san no gotoku
Shi wo karonzuru koto, ko-bo no gotoshi.
(Duty should weigh (with us) as the mass of a lofty mountain:
Against it, our lives resemble in lightness the swan’s down.)
There are six kinds of decorations in Japan, that of the Golden Kite
being the Japanese equivalent of the Victoria Cross. Its first grade
carries an annuity of £150. The Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun and
Paulownia is the Order of Merit, held by very few. Marshal Yamagata has
both, and in February 1906, he was invested with the British Order of
Merit, at the hands of Prince Arthur of Connaught, an honour which was
universally appreciated in Japan. His heir is Mr Yamagata Isaburo, his
adopted son, who took office as Minister of Communications in 1906.
XIV
COUNT OKUMA SHIGENOBU
Very few of those who have been prominent as Statesmen in Japan have
wholly escaped the personal dangers which there appear to be inseparable
from a political career, and though the attacks have not always been
fatal they have been painfully frequent in the past forty or fifty
years. Count Okuma was maimed by the explosion of a bomb hurled at his
carriage as he drove past on his way to the Finance Department one
morning in 1889, and has but one leg. The marvel was that he survived the
attempt on his life at all, for the fanatic who was guilty of the crime
unquestionably intended to murder him outright and did succeed in killing
his coachman and groom. Count Okuma, who was raised to the peerage in
1887, is a native of Hizen, having been born in that province, at Saga,
in February 1838. He is a big, broad-shouldered man, endowed with a
bright, cheery disposition, possessed of most genial manners, and is
brilliant and entertaining to a degree in his ordinary conversation. It
is generally conceded that in the qualities which go to form a successful
politician Count Okuma and Marquis Ito have much in common, for in
respect of their prestige as party leaders, and the remarkable mental
vigour and activity by which these renowned statesmen have ever been
distinguished, there can be no doubt that they both take exceptionally
high rank in the public esteem. Both have been the consistent advocates
of progress, and both date their service to the Crown from the very
beginning of the present reign. In one sense the Count’s success in
politics was more noteworthy than that of his colleagues among the Elder
Statesmen, since his clan took by no means the leading part in the course
of events immediately antecedent to the Restoration of 1868 that fell to
the share of Satsuma, for example, or of Choshiu. Hizen nevertheless was
a progressive province and its feudal chieftain had set up an ironworks
in his territory, and had commenced coal-mining upon a practical basis,
long prior to the establishment of foreign industries in the Empire on
a large scale. Thus it was that Okuma Shigenobu, who had studied at
Nagasaki, came early to the front in connection with the dissemination
of foreign ideas, and it was perhaps as much by his energy as that of
Marquis Ito that arrangements were made for the construction of the first
line of railway connecting Tokio with the port of Yokohama, immediately
that the Central Government was removed to the new Capital.
[Illustration: COUNT AND COUNTESS OKUMA]
The capital for that railway was found in England, and its Engineers were
engaged partly there and partly in India. It seems difficult nowadays to
imagine Japan paying 9 per cent. for a Loan, yet that was the rate at
which she procured the means of developing the Scheme of Public Works on
which the Government embarked, and it is matter of history that the short
railway of eighteen miles by which the Japanese metropolis was joined to
the chief treaty port in 1872 was phenomenally expensive. In recent times
it has been feasible to build railways and execute other works of public
utility in Japan on the most economical and satisfactory terms, but
thirty-five years ago economy in construction was, owing to the novelty
of the undertaking, practically out of the question.
Count Okuma is, in his native tongue, a fluent and effective speaker,
and he has a most retentive memory. Early in his life he closely studied
Finance, and was an able Minister of that department in the seventies,
prior to the institution of the Cabinet, which dates from 1885. In 1881
there were serious differences of opinion between the Count and his
colleagues in the Dai-jo-Kwan, and he resigned office, forming a united
party named the Shim-po-to, by the amalgamation of several smaller
ones, in opposition to the Government of the day. Latterly it has borne
the title of Kai-shin-to (from _Kai_ = to alter or correct,—_shin_ =
to advance,—_to_ = a party) in Chinese Kai-chin-tang,—and thus it is
literally the progressive party in Japan, in contradistinction to the
Sei-Yu-Kai or Constitutional party, now headed by Marquis Saionji, but
formerly by Marquis Ito. In the Cabinet of Count Kuroda, of 1888, which
was replaced by that of Marshal Yamagata within two years, Count Okuma
acted as Minister for Foreign Affairs, and it was during his tenure
of this post that the Constitution was promulgated in 1889, and Okuma
received the congratulations of the Yokohama Chamber of Commerce on the
auspicious event and on his personal endeavour to effect a satisfactory
revision of the Treaties. He was succeeded at the Foreign Office in
the late autumn by Viscount Aoki, and, having just become Minister of
Finance, was attacked in the manner already described, for no other than
the fancied reason that he was willing to give away too much in respect
of concessions to foreigners.
Okuma’s return to ministerial life after seven years spent in retirement,
between 1881 and 1888, was a source of general satisfaction to the
nation, for the fusion brought about between the Government and the
Kai-shin-to by his taking office was regarded as a valuable massing
of strength at a critical time, when supreme efforts were being made
to secure the abolition of the extra-territorial privileges thereunto
enjoyed by the subjects of other nations. On this much-vexed question
an undercurrent of discontent had agitated the nation for many years,
the obnoxious clause in the proposed new treaty with which Count Inouye
was identified in 1887, and which led to his resignation of the post of
Foreign Minister which he then held, being one relating to the suggested
establishment of mixed Courts, like those in Egypt, or that at Shanghai
which has in recent times been the object of much hostile criticism on
the part of the Chinese population of that port. Count Okuma in 1889
was anxious to remove this source of irritation from the path of his
own countrymen, and sought to minimise the objections to the clause by
restricting its application to the Supreme Court, whereas Count Inouye
had been ready to admit foreign judges to the lower tribunals also. The
misguided “patriot” who threw the bomb which shattered Count Okuma’s
limb was not even well posted in regard to the circumstances of the case.
When in 1891 the Privy Council was instituted as the Sovereign’s “last
resort of counsel” and Marquis Ito became its president, Count Okuma
issued a manifesto to his followers in which he strongly advocated
the spread of education and the perseverance by the entire nation in
a policy of enlightened tolerance of innovations which make for the
industrial and political welfare of the country. He is a firm believer
in the advantages of Free Trade, and his experience in former days at
the Finance Department, coupled with a marvellously retentive memory
for figures, directly tended to enlarge his views upon matters relative
to international commerce, a subject on which he is always listened to
with the keenest attention. He is ever in sympathy with the national
hopes and desires and enjoys for that reason immense popularity with
the masses of his countrypeople, but although there is everywhere the
highest appreciation of his eminent qualities, singularly enough, Count
Okuma has not shone particularly as a Statesman when holding office.
He is, on the other hand, great in opposition, and to his untiring
endeavours to stimulate the energies of the Government of the day,
at any time during the past quarter of a century, may be ascribed no
little of the success which has attended the efforts of those Cabinets
which have been most conspicuous for effective legislation. But if his
attitude, in the ordinary way, has consistently been that of an opponent
of the Government, he has given it most loyal support in national
crises, putting aside all considerations of party and rendering to
the Ministry the invaluable assistance which he alone, as leader of
a practically united Opposition in the Diet, has of late years been
in a position to offer. At the Election in February 1891 the Yamagata
Ministry was defeated and Count Matsukata took office, but Count Okuma
remained outside the Cabinet until 1896 when his party joined hands
with that represented by the Second Matsukata Administration and Count
Okuma accepted the portfolios in it of Foreign Minister and Minister
of Commerce and Agriculture. But the alliance was destined to be very
short-lived, and in June 1898 a Coalition was brought about between
the Jiyuto, or party of Freedom, headed by Count Itagaki, and the
Kai-shin-to, or party of progress. In the Cabinet then formed Count Okuma
was Minister-President, but it existed no longer than the following
October, and after being Premier four months the Count gave way to
Marshal Yamagata. The official career of the great progressive leader may
be said to have terminated at that point, but he has continued to wield
an immense political influence and he is above all things interested in
educational projects and has striven might and main to promote the spread
of Western knowledge in his own land. Where Marshal Yamagata may be
credited with the development of a military power that has made of Japan
a nation to be envied for the perfection with which her sons have been
trained to fight her battles, and Marquis Ito has striven successfully
to secure for the country the blessings of constitutional Government,
Count Okuma has made it all his life the one aim of his existence to
promote the adoption of an educational system throughout the Empire
which shall be effective and thorough, and if he has in this way led
successive Governments to regard the work of education as a pressing
duty laid upon them, and to expend large sums in its fulfilment, he has
not hesitated to devote large sums from his own purse to the attainment
of his ideal. As a rich man he has been able to do a great deal to
further the cause which he has always had at heart, and he certainly
has displayed a most commendable readiness to add practice to precept
when advocating the allocation of Government funds to the endowment of
schools and colleges. The University of Waseda, which he founded in 1882,
has prospered exceedingly, and is numbered among the most valuable of
those institutions,—and they are many,—which afford facilities to the
Japanese youth for the acquisition of a liberal education. The Japanese
name of the College is Semmon Gakko, and Waseda is the suburb of Tokio in
which stands the Count’s mansion, adjacent to the institution in which
he takes a natural pride. It aims at the higher education of girls as
well as boys, and among other things it possesses an extensive publishing
bureau, designed to provide for the efficient translation into Japanese
of foreign works of an educational character. Here his own articles for
foreign magazines have at times been rendered into English, for though
the Count is fairly conversant with our tongue he does not attempt to
speak or write it save on very rare occasions.
In March 1904 there was a gathering in Tokio to celebrate the fiftieth
anniversary of the treaty made between Japan and the United States of
America, consequent on the visits of Commodore Perry in 1853 and 1854.
Count Okuma, in giving a sketch of the Educational progress achieved
by Japan in recent years, made some thoughtful remarks which showed
how thorough is his grasp of the teachings of history as well as his
breadth of view. Alluding to the circumstances which had compelled
Japan to close her doors to Western nations early in the seventeenth
century, he remarked that for a long period prior to that time she had
been in free and unfettered intercourse with Europe, particularly with
Spain and Portugal. That intercourse led to the introduction of a new
religion, which made such rapid progress that tradition put the number of
converts at several millions within a hundred years. “The first religious
propagandists,” he said, “were men of noble character. But they were soon
followed by men of inferior quality. These began to meddle with politics.
People began to suspect that the real object of missionary work was to
conquer the country. The home Governments at Lisbon or Madrid might
possibly have been innocent of any evil designs, but their missionaries
in the Far East behaved in such a manner that the rulers of Japan came
to the conclusion that the object and presence of foreign missionaries
was inimical to the peace and tranquillity of the country. At the time
Japan adopted this policy it so chanced that Europe was also grappling
with a religious trouble. It was the harassing period of the Thirty
Years’ War. But during the seclusion of 216 years which followed Japan
was not altogether out of touch with the West. The light of Western
Civilisation was all the time penetrating Japan through the little port
of Nagasaki, where the Dutch, alone of all Occidental nations, were
permitted to reside and trade. The result was the spread of a knowledge
of medicine, astronomy, botany, and other branches of Western learning
among the people long before the advent of Perry. Preparations had thus
been steadily made during the period of seclusion for the reception
with advantage of the full flood of Western Civilisation. As to Perry’s
mission in 1853, the Pacific Coasts had been touched by more than fifty
Japanese fishing craft driven across the ocean from their own islands by
storms. And in 1860 Japan herself sent the Oguri Mission to the United
States, in a warship of her own, commanded by Count Katsu, at that time
the lord of Awa province, at the entrance to Yedo bay,—a mission which
received as much attention, if not more than was accorded in America to
the Iwakura Embassy a dozen years afterwards. One of the many beneficial
results of the Oguri Mission was the discovery which the members of it
made of the importance of studying the English language. At that time
Dutch was the only prevalent European tongue cultivated in Japan.” Count
Okuma’s opinion has always been that the adoption of English as the
standard foreign language,—it is a compulsory subject in the national
schools, while all other Western languages are merely optional,—had wide
reaching effects on the mental bias of the people and in the direction
given to national development. Coming down to very recent times, Count
Okuma spoke of the fact that Japan was at the moment unfortunately
entangled in war with a great power. In that conflict his country
represented, he said, the aspirations of the civilised world, since she
was striving in support of the great principle of the open door. She had
had to draw her sword to sweep away a great obstacle in the path of the
practical realisation of that principle. Her success in the struggle
would therefore be the triumph of the common policy of the Commercial
Powers.
In one of Count Okuma’s best speeches, made not long since in connection
with the rise of Japan, he claimed that the whole nation had acted from
the beginning on the principle which was so clearly enunciated in the
Imperial Rescript at the time of the Restoration in 1868 of “seeking
knowledge throughout the world.” The Emperor’s words, in the fifth clause
of the Rescript were:—
“We shall endeavour to raise the prestige and honour of Our
Country by seeking knowledge throughout the world.”
The intention was to copy what was worth copying in every country and
to enter into an honourable rivalry in culture and civilisation with
all nations. It is the fundamental principle which accounts for Japan’s
rise: she has never hesitated to adopt anything that she has found to
be good; she has ever tried to swim with the current of human progress;
she has never shrunk from any sacrifice in eradicating that which she
has found to be bad. The voice of the people can make itself heard in
the management of public affairs and it was the same Rescript, as Count
Okuma always declares, which gave to the country the keynote of a liberal
form of administration, when the Emperor bade his subjects “settle
affairs by public opinion.” If the principle of swimming breast-high
on the tide of human progress is to be adhered to in its entirety, the
intellectual faculty, as Count Okuma urges, should be applied to all the
concerns of daily life, and that cannot be done without education. For
more than thirty years the Government of Japan has devoted much attention
and energy to the question of education, and the best training that
could be procured has been given with a generous hand to students of
political, social, and military affairs, as well as for those preparing
themselves for humbler but no less important walks of life in commerce,
industry, and agriculture. The country, declared Count Okuma, has also
stepped out into the wider area of the world of reality and has become a
formidable competitor in the field of international trade and commerce,
her policy during the last thirty years having greatly assisted her
development along this line. The Japanese nation is not merely a nation
of fighters,—it has no mean skill in agriculture and commerce, for the
statistical tables which are available show that the national wealth
has increased six or sevenfold during the last thirty years, and if one
compares the present revenue of the country with what it was at the
conclusion of the Japan-China War only ten years ago it is seen to have
already more than trebled itself.
In 1899 Count Okuma expressed himself publicly as being very anxious
for Great Britain’s co-operation with Japan, and the Anglo-Japanese
Agreement of 1902 had no more zealous supporter of the policy involved,
nor is there a more thorough admirer of British institutions, though
he has never visited our shores, than Count Okuma. Indeed he has
not, so far, quitted his own land, yet he knows from close study of
contemporary literature as much about the countries and peoples of the
Occident as he would probably have acquired in years of travel. In
private life his hobby is horticulture. At Waseda he has a magnificent
collection of orchids and tropical plants in general, sheltered within
huge conservatories which stand in the spacious gardens attached to
his residence, and he is a great lover of the chrysanthemum, of which
he cultivates many new varieties. The mansion itself is in two parts,
one purely Japanese in style and construction, the other European, and
he entertains his friends accordingly, the privileged visitor being
received in the Japanese apartments even though he may be a foreigner. In
adopting this plan of building Count Okuma has followed a practice that
is becoming almost general among the Japanese nobility.
XV
FIELD-MARSHAL MARQUIS IWAO OYAMA
Born sixty-four years ago at Kagoshima, the chief town of the famous
province of Satsuma, in Kiu-shiu, Marshal Iwao Oyama is a nephew of the
renowned Marshal Saigo Takamori, and a type of the _bushi_ of which
the nucleus of the army of Japan was largely composed. He was in his
twenty-fifth year when the war of the Restoration took place, a contest
that it will be remembered arose between the followers of the Sho-gun
and those of the Dai-mios or feudal chieftains who had practically ruled
their own provinces in the south and west. On the side of the Sho-gun
were ranged the Tokugawa barons, and the northern clans generally, while
for the south and progress there stood the men of Satsuma, Nagato, Hizen,
and Tosa. By Japanese Nagato is commonly known nowadays as Cho-shiu,
and Satsuma is officially styled Sasshiu. Satsuma had taken the lead in
many respects in introducing the arts and sciences of the Occident into
Japan, for she had not only established a cotton mill at Kagoshima some
years before, and owned several very useful steamers of small tonnage,
but had drilled a body of troops on the western system. It was this
foreign-drilled corps that took so prominent a part in the operations
near Kioto, in which the Shogun’s adherents were signally defeated and
the opposition of the northern clans finally overcome. Oyama took his
share of the hard work entailed in this memorable struggle, and was
head of one of the Satsuma companies that shone conspicuously in the
engagement at Fushimi, a village situated midway between Osaka and Kioto,
close to the existing main line of railway. When the civil war was over,
and the reign of Mei-ji had fairly begun under the beneficent auspices
of the present occupant of the throne, the organisation of a regular army
on an Occidental model occupied the attention of all who were interested
in the rise of their country to power and wealth. If she would take her
place among the nations of the West, skilled as they were in all the arts
of modern warfare, Japan must provide herself, it was seen, with the
means of securing peace within her borders to develop her energies and
call up all her resources. Peace, as no people were better able than the
Satsuma clansmen to perceive, was only to be attained by making the most
complete preparations for war. Satsuma was foremost in advocating the
adoption and assimilation of every improvement in the mechanical arts and
the earnest study of every science that would be likely to promote the
welfare of the nation, more especially those that might lead to military
success if ever the country should be plunged into hostilities with
either an Eastern or a Western Power.
[Illustration: MARQUIS OYAMA]
Marquis Oyama was in part educated in France, and after the Restoration
had been accomplished and the existing Mei-ji era of Enlightenment had
been inaugurated, he was sent to Paris as Military Attache, and was
in Europe throughout the Franco-German War, his sympathies, no doubt
from early association, having been keenly aroused in favour of France.
Naturally he was greatly disappointed with the result of the campaign,
and there can be no doubt that he laid to heart the lessons which the
failure of the French arms in this gigantic struggle were well calculated
to impress upon his receptive mind. Immediately on his return to Japan
he received a command in the army, and he had opportunities at this
comparatively early period of turning to account the knowledge that he
had acquired of Occidental systems of warfare, though as yet he held
no position of paramount responsibility that admitted of his putting
his ideas into actual practice. The ball was not yet at his feet: his
consummate ability was yet to be manifested.
The year 1877 is especially memorable in the annals of Japan as being
that in which clan dissensions, despite the genuine endeavours of able
statesmen, culminated in a disastrous internecine strife. It is not
necessary to enter into a consideration of all the events which led
to that deplorable result, for they have been set forth at length in
connection with the life story of Marshal Saigo Takamori, elsewhere
recorded in these pages, and it is only necessary for the moment to
refer to the part which Marshal Oyama took in the suppression of the
rebellion. He was despatched to Kiushiu at the outbreak of hostilities
and his division was conspicuous among the Imperial forces that landed
at Hakata, the chief town of the province of Chiku-zen, in March, some
five weeks after the Satsuma men had marched out of Kagoshima 12,000
strong. An ardent believer in the efficacy of military training, and
a most enthusiastic supporter of the principles of universal military
service, as the sole security of a nation against foreign aggression,
Oyama now found himself, by the force of circumstances, compelled to
take the field against one to whom he was closely related, and who had
been the consistent upholder of an identical policy, if not, indeed, its
originator,—as far as Japan was concerned,—and who had himself occupied
the post of Minister of War in the first State Council of the Meiji era.
General Oyama, as he was then, distinguished himself in connection with
many engagements at Minami-no-seki (South Barrier), Takase (High Rapids),
Kawajiri (River’s end), and Kumamoto (Bear’s origin), and on other fields
of battle, being present at the final scene at Kagoshima, late in the
year 1877, when the remnants of Saigo’s troops were annihilated and their
leader met a soldier’s death, fighting to the last.
At the close of this regrettable civil war General Oyama was sent to
Europe specially to study the working of the military systems then
in operation, and he visited the principal capitals and made himself
master in every instance of the needful details. He spent much time in
Berlin during this later visit to Europe, for the German system had been
definitely adopted in Japan as the most suitable to the needs of the
nation. But he did not wholly dissociate himself from his former friends
in France, and in the course of his stay took opportunity more than once
to pass a day or two in Paris, combining pleasure with profit, for he
continued to find in the methods of the French most valuable features,
admirable from every point of view, but especially so when applied under
given circumstances to the peculiar needs of the Japanese army. It was
designed that the studies to which he had to devote himself in Berlin
should be of a character to enable him to render Marquis Yamagata the
maximum of assistance in the grand work of reorganising the army and
providing adequately for military education. When, therefore, his mission
in Europe was deemed sufficiently accomplished he was recalled to Tokio
and made Chief of the Staff under General Yamagata, and when in 1890
Marquis Yamagata was the Minister-president of State in the First Cabinet
formed after the proclamation of the New Constitution, Marshal Oyama, as
he had by that time become, held the portfolio of Minister for War. That
administration lasted until April 1901, and was followed by the Matsukata
and Ito Cabinets, in both of which Oyama Iwao was War Minister, and when
in 1894 the great conflict with China began, he begged to be relieved of
his post in the administration with all speed in order that he might be
able to take part in the actual fighting in Manchuria. He was given the
command of the Second Army Corps, Marshal Yamagata being at the time with
the First Army in Liao-tung, and while the preparations for despatching
the Second Army over-sea to the capture of Port Arthur were in progress,
the Commander of it dwelt at the town of Hiroshima, in south-west Japan,
close to the port of embarkation, named Ujina. While organising the
expedition he took up his quarters in a very unpretending little shop in
Hiroshima, and there the final arrangement of the campaign was planned in
company with the late General Kawakami, by common consent esteemed the
greatest of Japan’s strategists.
The Second Army consisted of the First Division, and a mixed brigade of
the Sixth, with a siege train, and it was despatched in part at the end
of September 1894, to Chemulpo, and partly to the Ping Yang inlet in the
middle of October, the Japanese fleet being there already, keeping watch
on the movements of the Chinese squadron and reconnoitring the coasts of
the Liao-tung peninsula for a suitable landing-place for Marshal Oyama’s
force. There was little cause to apprehend interference from the vessels
of Admiral Ting’s fleet after its defeat at the mouth of the Yalu in
September, however, and on the evening of the 23rd October the first
convoy of sixteen ships steamed over from the Ping Yang inlet to a point
on the coast at the mouth of the river Hwa-yuan. Ten Japanese men-of-war
acted as escort, but the Chinese made no attempt to interfere with the
landing of the troops. At this time the Chinese held Ta-lien-wan and the
adjacent walled city of Kinchau with some 6000 men, and Port Arthur was
garrisoned with 10,800 men after the 6th of November.
On that date the Japanese captured Kinchau and next day Ta-lien-wan forts
fell into their hands, and the port was thenceforward their base of
operations against the fortress at the extremity of the “Regent’s Sword.”
Marshal Oyama’s army remained in the region of the Talienwan isthmus
until the 18th, and then the advance towards Port Arthur was commenced.
On the 20th the Marshal issued orders for the attack to be made at
daylight the next day, his whole force at that time numbering 25,700
combatants. The Chinese had 4050 men in the coast forts in addition
to the 10,800 men before mentioned in the various land forts which
formed the semicircle of the defences, of about two and a half miles
radius. These land forts were armed with a great variety of ordnance,
including Krupp, mountain, field and siege guns, 40-pounder Armstrongs,
10-barrelled Gatlings, and even Chinese pieces of antique design. Long
before daylight on the 21st November the assailants were on the move,
and had reached their assigned positions by 7 A.M. without encountering
the least opposition. The famous Itsushan forts were taken in the first
onset, and General Hasegawa, commanding the mixed brigade, speedily took
the positions on the Two-dragons’ hill and adjacent heights, the fighting
being practically over by noon. At 3 P.M. the Japanese were in possession
of the town, and though the coast forts continued to fire at the fleet,
which took no notice of them, the positions were evacuated during the
night, and Marshal Oyama, with the headquarters of the First Division,
returned to Kinchau.
The Chinese fleet lay at Wei-hai-wei, a danger to any expedition which
might cross the gulf of Pechili, and as it was part of the Japanese
plan to march to the Chinese capital, the capture or destruction of the
ships became imperative. It was therefore resolved that Marshal Oyama
should lead his army to the assault of the Shantung fortress. For this
purpose it was decided to reinforce him to the extent in all of 24,000
combatants, and the fleet of transports with the men on board left Ujina
early in January 1895, and steamed to Talienwan, where the bulk of the
troops which had been victorious at Port Arthur were likewise embarked
and the whole expedition set sail for Yung-cheng Bay, at the extreme
north-east point of the Shantung peninsula, which was reached on the
early morning of the 20th January. By degrees all the men were landed,
with provisions for six weeks. From Yung-cheng the advance was made by
two roads, six days after the landing was commenced, and the ridges to
the south of the harbour were carried without any difficulty on the 30th.
It was part of the Japanese plan to turn the guns of the Chinese land
forts, as soon as they could be taken, against the men-of-war in harbour
commanded by Admiral Ting, and it is to this officer’s credit that he had
foreseen this and had even begun to dismantle the eastern forts in good
time, but he was over-ruled, and the guns replaced in their positions in
obedience to peremptory orders from Tien-tsin. So confident was Marshal
Oyama that he would be able to turn these heavy guns to account that
he had brought bluejackets with him to man them, with sundry stores
and fittings from Port Arthur to replace similar articles which it was
thought probable the Chinese would either remove or destroy. There was
somewhat hard fighting on the 1st of February, but next day the Japanese
forces entered Wei-hai-wei unopposed, and it was found that the guns in
the western defences had been rendered useless. The cold was at this
time so intense that the ships were covered with ice, and blocks of ice
three inches thick were frozen into the muzzles of the guns. Marshal
Oyama’s army had, however, completed the work assigned to it, and it only
remained for the fleet to bring about the reduction of the forts on the
island of Liu-kung-tao, and the destruction or surrender of the Chinese
vessels. It was effected by a series of daring torpedo-boat attacks, in
the first week of February, followed by a systematic bombardment of the
island positions, and the surrender of Admiral Ting took place on the
12th of that month.
Having captured Wei-hai-wei and removed the danger to the Peking
expedition which the presence of a Chinese fortress on its flank would
have created, the next step of the Japanese was to prepare for the march
to the Chinese capital itself. Marshal Oyama returned to Talienwan,
and the troops were disposed between there and Port Arthur, or at the
fortress itself, in readiness for the final concentration.
On the 14th of April the Guard and the Fourth Division passed through
the Straits of Shimonoseki in fifty transports on their way to Talienwan
to unite with the troops under Marshal Oyama. Prince Komatsu accompanied
them as Commander-in-chief of the Land and Sea Forces, intending to
set up his headquarters in Port Arthur. The entire Japanese forces now
included seven divisions, and the Chinese had massed practically an equal
number between Shanhaikwan and Peking, in addition to the army they
still had in Manchuria. But on the 17th of April the treaty of peace
was signed, and an armistice established until the 8th of May, when
ratifications were exchanged at Chifu and the war of 1894-5 was at an end.
In the course of the war the total losses on the Japanese side were:—
Killed 739
Died of wounds 230
” cholera 1602
” other diseases 1546
----
Total deaths 4117
Wounded 3009
Cholera patients 2689
Invalids from other causes 51,164
------
56,862
------
Total loss, 60,979
In the settlement with China it had been agreed that she should cede
the peninsula of Liao-tung to Japan. But Russia, France, and Germany
stepped in to deprive her of these legitimate spoils of war, in order
that Russia, and at no distant date, might seek to permanently occupy
the territory herself. The wrong done was never forgiven nor forgotten
in Japan, and when Marshal Oyama took up his position as Chief of the
General Staff in Tokio, shortly after the conclusion of peace, both he
and Marshal Yamagata set about the task of making Japan’s military power
sufficient to secure her against the peril which they foresaw would
continue to menace their land while the advance of Russia southward might
remain unchecked.
Marshal Oyama held the post indicated, at the General Staff, during the
intervening years down to 1904, and it was a period of steady and eager
preparation for the inevitable, by reorganisation of every branch of the
military system, and by paying very particular attention to the education
and training of the Japanese military officer. What that training is may
be ascertained from the Kinkodo Company’s excellent history of the late
war.
In Japan the law is that all citizens are under the obligation of
military service for a certain term of years, and therefore the necessity
of complying with its provisions is as great as that of the payment of
taxes. In practice the duty is accepted as just as much a matter of
course as any other feature of citizenship. It was adopted at the outset
and no one seriously offers an objection to it. He would be deemed a
most unpatriotic man who did not revel in the thought that he might be
chosen to serve his country, and every man in Japan rejoices to think
that he knows how to handle a weapon and take his share of the task
which may some day be that of the Emperor’s loyal subjects to defend the
island empire against a foe. Mere drilling and parades are not so much
valued as rifle practice, fencing, the bayonet exercise, skirmishing,
and gymnastics. Work begins at 6 A.M. and with little appreciable
interval, never more than five minutes, goes on until the midday meal
is served. Afterwards it is resumed for four hours, then bath, supper,
recreation, and bed betimes. The officers share in all the exercises of
the men, very little being left to non-commissioned officers, sergeants,
and corporals. The officers are always on duty. It is in this way that
complete harmony has been established between all ranks and the dread
of a martinet sergeant is unknown among the men in Japanese barracks.
Promotion from the ranks, however, is not possible as no one is eligible
for a commission who has not entered himself in the first place as a
candidate, and to do so he must be either a graduate of the Cadet school,
or have graduated from a middle school licensed or recognised by the
Government, public or private, or be able to show that his education has
brought him up to the standard needed in order to obtain the certificate
granted on leaving a middle School. And in either of the two latter
cases the candidate must have a letter from the Commanding officer of
the regiment he wishes to join, signifying that officer’s willingness to
accept him eventually as an officer in that regiment.
As soon as he is accepted as a candidate he joins his regiment _as a
private_, spending one year in the ranks as an “officer candidate,” thus
gaining a practical acquaintance with all the duties of a common soldier,
and then he is sent for one year more of study to the Military College
in Tokio. Next he returns to his regiment as an aspirant, to learn the
duties of a subaltern, and at last, when about two years and a half
have elapsed from the time when he first entered as a candidate, he is,
if approved of at a meeting of the officers of the regiment, accepted
and commissioned as a sub-lieutenant. He can choose whichever arm he
prefers, when he goes to the Military College, as there are departments
for infantry, cavalry, field artillery, fortress artillery, Engineers,
and military train. He may select his own regiment, subject to the
consent of the commanding officer of that regiment, and should the number
of candidates exceed the number of vacancies the choice falls on those
who have won most marks, in rotation. Every year on the 1st of December
the batches of candidate officers are distributed to the regiments,
as privates. They receive their uniforms, food, arms, etc., from the
State but no money allowance. They must drill and go through their
exercises just like other men in their company, but they enjoy certain
privileges, for example, they have special rooms in barracks, and mess
with the officers, this association with their superiors in rank being
regarded as part of their education. During the year they may be promoted
to lance-corporal or non-commissioned officer grade, and they receive
lessons in military science from the regimental instructors.
The Military College stands on a wide plateau in Tokio, at Ichigaya,
where there is excellent air, and abundance of space. The students are
divided into three companies each under the command of a captain of
infantry. Each company is in six sections, of twenty-five to thirty
students each, a lieutenant of infantry in charge of each section. The
studies prescribed are the same for all arms—viz. Tactics, Artillery,
Science, Fortification, Topography, Military administration, Field
hygiene and farriery, Foreign languages, Surveying, and Practical
work. For exercise the students have drill (distinct for each arm),
gymnastics, fencing, sabre exercise, riding, and shooting. Study and
exercise together keep the youths at work the whole day, save for
half-an-hour after supper, when they unbend. The school year begins on
the 1st of December, to agree with conscription arrangements, and the
first examination is in April or May, the second in September or October.
At the end of October there are annual manœuvres, and the graduation
ceremony is in November, when the Emperor makes a point of being present.
There is a Military staff college, designed to give further instruction
in the higher branches of military science to junior officers of promise.
Its students are lieutenants and sub-lieutenants of all arms who have
been at least two years with their regiments or battalions, and whose
physical health, intellectual qualifications, morals, diligence, and
general conduct have shown them to be suitable recipients of the higher
training. Here the course is for three years, and for about ten weeks the
students are with regiments different from their own arm, participating
in the annual manœuvres. Graduates receive diplomas, and a badge which
they wear like a medal, and one year after graduation they are eligible
for staff appointments, instructorships, and other more or less coveted
posts. Artillery and Engineer Lieutenants are eligible for the College
of Artillery and Engineering, wherein special instruction is given on
subjects required in these two arms, the course including strategy,
equitation, mathematics, chemistry, drawing, and foreign languages. At
the gunnery school for fortress artillery, and for field artillery,
practical instruction is given for periods of two or three months to
students who comprise captains and lieutenants from each of the field
artillery regiments, or of fortress artillery, or they are lieutenants or
sub-lieutenants who have just graduated from the College. At the cavalry
training school the course lasts eleven months, and includes practical
testing of all sorts of riding material and harness. It may, in fact, be
claimed that the system of military instruction in the army of Japan is
as complete as that of the armies of Europe, but the government still
sends annually some dozens of promising young officers abroad to perfect
themselves in their studies in the Occident.
The value of the system of military education on which Japan relied
for her safety was amply demonstrated in the war with Russia which
came to an end in the autumn of 1905, having lasted a year and a half.
The negotiations which had been proceeding throughout the year 1903
concerning Korea and Manchuria proved barren of satisfactory result,
and being convinced that nothing more could be hoped for in the shape
of a pacific settlement of the points in dispute, while on the other
hand Russia was protracting the discussion only to gain time for further
military preparations, the Tokio Government at last announced through the
Japanese Minister at St Petersburg the rupture of diplomatic relations,
on the 6th of February 1904, and forthwith commenced hostilities. At the
outset the operations were principally of a naval character, designed to
cripple the Russian fleet and make the landing of troops on the coast
of Korea and Manchuria secure, the first land skirmish taking place at
Cheng-ju, in Northern Korea, on the 28th of March. Wiju was occupied on
the 6th of April, and a three days’ encounter at the river Yalu ended
on the 1st of May in the complete defeat of the Russians under General
Sassulitch by General Kuroki, and the capture of Kiu-lien-cheng. Up to
this stage the operations in the field had been under the control of
General Kuroki, but in May Marshal Oyama arrived from Tokio to take
supreme command of the armies in Manchuria, and a series of important
engagements then took place, notably the storming of Nanshan near
Kinchau, close to Port Arthur, which opened the way to the investment
of that fortress, and the occupation of Feng-hwang-cheng and Dalny. The
Russian General Kuropatkin sought to relieve the growing pressure on Port
Arthur by sending an army southward through the Liao-tung peninsula, but
Marshal Oyama sent General Oku to meet it and a desperate battle was
fought at Wa-fang-kou and Telissu, adjoining villages to the north of
Kinchau, on 14th and 15th June, and ten days later a beginning was made
with the attack on the fortress on the Regent’s Sword which nine years
before Marshal Oyama had taken from the Chinese. The same month he was
personally engaged with the First and Third armies in the mountainous
region between Feng-hwang-cheng and Liao-Yang, where severe fighting
occurred at the passes in the Mo-tien-ling, Feng-shui-ling and other
ranges, on the route to the capital of Manchuria. Kaiping, on the coast
of the Gulf of Liao-tung, was captured on the 9th July, and a week
afterwards a determined attempt on the Japanese positions at Mo-tien-ling
was repulsed, with great slaughter. The second Japanese army forced back
the Russians on Ta-shi-chiao, when they again sought to break through to
the South, and at Port Arthur itself there was a severe struggle for the
possession of Wolf Hill, ending in a complete success for the Japanese
forces. Meanwhile General Oku was executing Marshal Oyama’s plan of
campaign in the direction of Newchwang, and that port and Haicheng were
in Japanese hands by the 3rd of August. Port Arthur’s outer defences fell
at about the same date, and for five days, from the 19th to the 24th
of that month, a fierce attack was delivered on the fortress, while at
the same time the assault of Liao-Yang, which proved to be a ten days’
affair altogether, was begun on the 24th of August and lasted well into
September. In that long and terrible contest there were more than 20,000
casualties on both sides, and during its progress the assault on Port
Arthur was renewed with tremendous energy, from the 27th to the end of
August. A week’s heavy fighting again took place from the 19th to the
26th September at Port Arthur, and meanwhile Marshal Oyama had been
developing his advance on Mukden, at that time the headquarters of the
Russians, and the ancient seat of the Manchu dynasty. General Kuropatkin
announced on the 2nd of October that he was strong enough to attack, and
a Russian advance actually began, leading to the series of battles at the
Sha-ho or Sand River, in mid-October, and ending in a Russian retreat
to the northward with a loss of forty guns. The fighting continued
intermittently for many weeks, the Russians losing on an average three
to one Japanese. At Port Arthur the assailants took 203-metre Hill on
the 30th of November, and fort after fort fell during December, until
on the 1st of January 1905 the surrender of the fortress was proposed
by General Stoessel and by General Nogi accepted. Severe battles took
place subsequently in Manchuria, including that of Hei-kau-tai, from
the 25th to the 29th of January, when the Russians under Gripenberg
attacked the Japanese left but were hotly repulsed, and Mistchenko’s
raid on Newchwang,—the old city,—brought about severe fighting in that
vicinity, but in March the operations against Mukden terminated in a
clear victory on the 10th, and the Russian forces fell back to the
northward. Tieh-ling was taken six days later, and on the 17th General
Kuropatkin was superseded by Linievitch. Kai-yuen was next to fall into
Oyama’s hands, and though there was fighting on the 18th and 19th to the
north of Kai-yuen, nothing serious was afterwards attempted as the peace
negotiations had been commenced at Washington.
Marshal Oyama returned to Tokio in December, and resumed his post of
Chief of Staff. He holds the Grand Order of Merit and the Golden Kite,
and, like Marshal Yamagata and Admiral Togo, received the British
Order of Merit in 1906 from King Edward VII., to the great joy of his
fellow-countrymen throughout Japan.
XVI
FUKUSAWA YUKICHI
No list purporting to be that of the Makers of Modern Japan would be
complete were the name of Fukusawa Yukichi, the pioneer of Western
education in his own land, to be omitted. His claims to remembrance
are manifold and irrefutable, not the least of them being his right
to be esteemed the founder of the leading Japanese journal, the _Jiji
Shimpo_, of Tokio. But his fame will rest chiefly on his achievement in
establishing the Kei-o-gi-juku College, wherein a large percentage of the
leading men of the Japan of to-day graduated, and by not a few of whom
he is revered as having been in no small degree the architect of their
fortunes.
Mr Fukusawa,—as he preferred to remain despite the offer of a peerage
in his later years,—was born in Osaka, on the 12th of December 1834,
that being the year which corresponds to the fifth of the Tempo era, and
while yet an infant was taken to his father’s native province of Buzen,
in Kiushiu, the family residence being in the town of Nakatsu, a port on
the north-east coast of that island. The elder Fukusawa had been staying
at Osaka for a time in the service of his feudal chieftain the lord of
Buzen. Yukichi dwelt at home, pursuing the customary studies of youths
of his age, but with a decided bent towards foreign literature, until
in the first year of the Genji period (1854), he went to Nagasaki, and
there began the study of Dutch. Prior to this he had been conspicuous
as a hard-working scholar in Chinese, which to the Japanese was then,
and is still, what Greek and Latin are to us. Yukichi was a whole year
at Nagasaki, and then he removed to Osaka, and became a pupil of the
celebrated doctor of medicine Ogata Ko-an, under whose guidance he
continued the study of the Dutch tongue, and in 1858, the fifth year of
the An-sei era, he went to Yedo, and began to impart to a few beginners
the knowledge he had thus far acquired of the foreign language. It must
be remembered that during Japan’s long seclusion from the rest of the
world there were always a few Dutchmen dwelling at Nagasaki, and that
Dutch was, as a consequence of that isolation, the only foreign tongue
spoken down to the advent of Commodore Perry in 1853. Although by 1858
people of other nations had begun to make their appearance in the
country, English was as yet almost an unknown tongue, and Dutch was still
the only medium of communication with the Occident.
[Illustration: FUKUSAWA YUKICHI]
In Yedo Mr Fukusawa occupied quarters in a mansion at Teppodzu which
belonged to his feudal chieftain the lord Okudaira of Buzen, and it was
while the scholars were immersed in their study of Dutch works that the
opening of Yokohama to foreign trade brought about a change in their
ideas, and led their tutor to enlarge the field of his own researches.
For by the year 1859 the treaties with five foreign powers had been
concluded, and the first steps were taken by Japan to fully acquaint
herself with what had been the progress of other nations during the
period of her voluntary severance of all communication with them. Yukichi
was only twenty-five years old when he paid his first visit to an open
port and saw something of the British people of whose characteristics
he had read a great deal but had had previously no personal experience.
He had at that time no knowledge whatever of English as a language, but
he set himself diligently to work, and with the aid of a dictionary
compiled in English and Dutch he sought, by private study, to master the
difficulties of a tongue which he perceived would afford him the key to
learning of the kind that his ambitions prompted him to seek. It was
impossible at that time for him to procure an English teacher, or in
all probability it would have been his choice to obtain his information
direct rather than by the roundabout fashion in which he was compelled to
acquire it—by Dutch intervention, as it were,—and, as it was, the burden
of the task of procuring a competent knowledge of so complex a language
as ours was rendered vastly more onerous by the nature of the method that
he was driven to adopt in his studies. It is due to the memory of this
eminent scholar to declare that he surmounted all the obstacles in his
path and became the first of Japanese teachers of the Western tongue.
But in the meantime, towards the close of 1859, he sailed for the United
States of America, in the suite of Kimura, the lord of the province of
Settsu, who was despatched on a mission to America by the Government of
the Shogun. The party voyaged in the little man-of-war _Kan-riu-maru_,
commanded by Katsu, the feudal lord of Awa, and Yukichi was in the United
States for some months. The following year he returned to his own land,
and his first act was to publish in book form a translation of a work
which he had brought with him from the other side of the Pacific. This
was the beginning of a long series of similar educational works from his
pen for which Japan is deeply indebted to him.
In the year 1861 Mr Fukusawa voyaged to Europe on a British man-of-war,
being entrusted at that time with a government mission to make literary
researches, and he travelled through England, Holland, Prussia, Russia,
and Portugal. On his return to Japan in the ensuing year he translated
and published many of the English and other books which he had brought
back with him, thereby adding immeasurably to the store of information
then possessed by his countrymen on the subject of foreign lands and
peoples. After occupying himself in this useful work more or less until
1867 he was despatched in that, the third year of the Kei-o era, to the
United States, taking his passage this time in an American mail-boat for
San Francisco. His object accomplished, he returned to Yedo just at the
beginning of the Meiji period, and established in 1868 the College with
which his name will for ever be associated.
The Kei-o Gi-juku school was first set up in the temple of Shinsenza, in
the Shiba quarter of the capital, but in the fourth of Meiji (1871), it
was transferred to more spacious and convenient premises at Mita, still
in the Shiba district, the curriculum including law, mathematics, and
political economy. Not less than 14,000 students claim to have passed
through this college, and at the present time fully 2500 are entered on
its books.
It is impossible to convey an adequate idea in so many words of the
extent of Mr Fukusawa’s influence and the share which he had in building
up the fabric of modern Japan, for at one time and another by far the
major portion of her leading men derived their education either by direct
training at his school or by the perusal and study of the English works
which he translated. He was an ardent advocate of the early opening of
the Diet, and was a resolute opponent of those ancient customs that
tended to hinder Japan’s progress, strongly insisting, for one thing, on
monogamy and the equality of rights of the sexes, having accomplished
much in his lifetime towards raising the status of womanhood throughout
the Japanese dominions. He vigorously opposed Confucianism in his
“General laws of the doctrines of Morality,” a work which had for its
primary object the enforcement of the principle of the independence and
justification of the right of prudent self-government of man.
The value of Mr Fukusawa’s work was enhanced by the circumstance that it
was perseveringly carried on in spite of opposition and almost contumely,
and in days when the utility of a sound commercial education could not
be discerned, for the samurai abhorred of all things the contamination
of trade, and those who devoted themselves to the acquisition of other
than classical knowledge, equally with those who might seek to impart
it, were openly scoffed at. It has been pointed out with much force
by one of his contemporaries that long before the Jo-I and Kai-koku
parties in the State had adjusted their differences concerning the
retention or abandonment of a policy of isolation, Mr Fukusawa was
enjoining on his pupils the benefits to be derived from a study of
Smith’s “Wealth of Nations,” and that while feudalism was still in the
ascendant his students were deep in the mysteries of the standard work
on “Representative Government” by John Stuart Mill. The greater the
opposition that he encountered, the more determined was Mr Fukusawa to
fulfil the task which he had set himself, and he no doubt imbibed during
his stay in America not a few ideas relative to the spread of education
that were of use to him later in life. Mr Fukusawa seemed to be marked
out for the post of Minister of Education whenever that post might fall
vacant, but he consistently declined to take office, preferring to carry
on his school rather than to aim at rank and station. And when it is
remembered that he was mentor to half the statesmen who have risen to
power in the Meiji era, the extraordinary influence that he exerted
indirectly on the affairs of his country will readily be comprehended.
Mr Fukusawa died in 1900, and his second son Sutejiro, who—together
with his elder brother, Mr Fukuzawa Ichitaro,—went to America in 1883,
to prosecute his studies, and entered at Yale University, remaining
there until 1890, now edits the _Jiji Shimpo_ in Tokio, and married the
daughter of Viscount Hayashi, the Japanese Ambassador to Great Britain.
XVII
MARQUIS KIDO KOIN
Dying, as he did, prior to the adoption of the Western system of orders
of nobility, Kido Koin—better known as Kido Takakoto, or still earlier
in his career as Kido Jiunichiro,—won during his lifetime a title to the
esteem and everlasting gratitude of his fellow-subjects of the Japanese
Emperor far above any rank that he could have been rewarded with even had
he lived to see his aspirations for his country’s welfare realised, as
they have in great measure been, during recent years. He was a Choshiu
man, a native of the same province as those other Makers of Japan—Ito,
Inouye, and Yamagata,—and he was active throughout that troubled period
in which his clan came to the front in affairs, and participated in all
those stirring events in which it was engaged. As became a samurai of the
great southern province, he was an expert swordsman, and he was likewise
one of the most profound scholars of his time. The two things did not
always go together, even in Japan, and it suited those knights of old
whose tastes ran primarily in the direction of falconry or the chase, or
who were given to fencing and drill, to somewhat undervalue culture, as
scarcely deserving of their serious attention. Every fief had its college
for the education of the youthful samurai, but they rarely aspired to
literary excellence or renown, preferring the more robust accomplishments
of archery and swordsmanship to the ability to pen an essay or compose a
stanza, even though it were but one of the orthodox thirty-one syllabled
kind that every gentleman was supposed to be able to produce at will.
Kido’s energy was unbounded, his patriotism unquenchable. There was no
risk that he would not cheerfully run if it afforded a prospect of adding
to his store of knowledge of a character likely to enhance his ability
to serve his country or the imperialist cause with which he was always
identified. Dangers and disguises were for years inseparable from his
daily life, as he never missed an opportunity of acquiring information
that would the better qualify him for the services that he sought to
render to the nation. How much he accomplished in his comparatively brief
span of life is matter of common knowledge in Japan, though perhaps,
for lack of information, his talents have hitherto met with but scant
appreciation outside the borders of the Japanese Emperor’s dominions.
[Illustration: MARQUIS KIDO]
Entering the military service of the Nagato province at a very early
age, Kido Jiunichiro proceeded to acquire a competent acquaintanceship
with all those arts in which skill was demanded of the young samurai of
the time, and in some he soon excelled. He was with the Choshiu men when
they made their assault on Kioto, and was daring enough to remain behind
at that capital and headquarters of his lord’s political opponents after
the rest of the Choshiu forces had been compelled to beat a retreat to
their own territory. It was at Kido’s house, on a later date, that the
reconciliation which had such stupendous consequences for Japan as a
nation between the clans of Satsuma and Choshiu was quietly arranged to
the satisfaction of all parties, the two Satsuma leaders Kuroda and Oyama
going to him and consulting with him, as the representative of Choshiu,
in reference to joint action which had for its object the overthrow of
the Shogunate and the re-establishment of the imperial regime.
When the new government was set up Kido, together with Goto Shojiro, of
Tosa, and Komatsu Tatewaki, of Satsuma, were made _Ko-mon_, or advisers,
of the So-Sai,—the title then conferred on the official head of the
administration, but which is now applied to the president of a board,—and
as it rested with the So-Sai to give or refuse the imperial consent to
all measures proposed by the other departments of State, the position of
_Ko-mon_ was one of great power and responsibility.
It will be understood that at this time the present sovereign had only
just come to the throne, and that the establishment of the imperial
government at Kioto was the outcome of the resignation of his office of
Shogun by the present Prince Tokugawa Keiki, who had a few weeks before
surrendered his rights and privileges and retired into private life,
though his adherents were still fighting beyond Tokio, and the war of
the Restoration was not yet over. The Emperor, of course, was still in
residence at the Kioto Dairi, or palace, and Kido realised that before
a settled order of things could be hoped for the feudal system must
be abolished, root and branch. He clearly perceived the necessity for
centralisation as a first step in the direction of the introduction of a
constitutional regime, and, with Kido, to see his duty before him was to
act.
The daimio of Choshiu, his own chieftain, was then at Yamaguchi, and by
way of estimating the chances of success for the bold proposal by which
he was resolved to stand or fall, Kido set out for that distant town,
determined to ascertain first of all how the lord Mori might be disposed
to view so audacious a proposition as that to be submitted for the
consideration of the territorial magnates.
Arriving at Yamaguchi, which stands at a distance from the coast, in a
hilly district—as its name, _lit._: “mountain’s mouth,” might imply—Kido
lost no time in procuring an interview with the baron, and endeavouring
to prove by every argument at his command how fatally feudalism was
obstructing the progress of the empire. In conclusion he respectfully
invited the lord of Choshiu to divest himself of his inherited estates
and make a present of them to the Emperor!
Baron Mori listened to this astounding suggestion of his retainer with
composure, and remained silent, Kido wondering, in all probability, what
would be the nature of the punishment that would descend upon him for his
temerity.
But to his everlasting honour the daimio raised his head and said, after
a while,—“Let it be so: act as you think best.”
Although Kido knew that his lord’s patriotism was of a kind that would
prompt him to make enormous sacrifices, and that with Choshiu as with
Satsuma, the overwhelming superiority of foreign armaments had been so
effectively demonstrated as to make it clear that unless Japan was to
fall a prey to some enterprising foe she must bestir herself and reform
her institutions to a degree that would enable her to present a united
front to an aggressor, it was with a feeling of intense gratitude that
Kido received his chieftain’s answer. He had had no expectation of
obtaining so ready a consent to his excessively venturesome proposition.
As he was retiring the baron called Kido back and warned him, “You must
be careful, for the samurai are excited with their recent achievements
and may not take it quietly. You had better watch for a convenient
opportunity before making my decision known.”
Kido’s joy at this initial success was great beyond measure, and he
forthwith made his way to Kioto, where he found Okubo Toshimichi, and
they entered deeply into the question of approaching the other daimios
with a similar suggestion. Okubo thoroughly shared Kido’s views as to
the imperative need of abolishing the feudal system, and was not less
surprised than Kido himself had been at the willingness shown by the lord
of Choshiu to relinquish his possessions. He accepted it, however, as a
good augury in his own case when he should attempt to convince the lord
of Satsuma, to which province he belonged, of the wisdom of adopting a
course similar to that taken by baron Mori.
Representations were made most cautiously to one daimio after the other,
and Kido drew up a paper in the form of a memorial to the Emperor,
which the feudal chiefs were asked to subscribe to, and to which four
of them at once appended their seals, they being those who had been
most active in bringing about the situation which culminated in the
fall of the Shogun from power. The very essence of this epoch-making
document, conveying an unequivocal renunciation of their possessions
and entire submission to the imperial will by the leading daimios
throughout the land, was patriotic devotion to the sovereign and repose
in his wisdom and virtue as their restored monarch. “We hereby offer
up our possessions, our men, and ourselves to his Majesty,—let the
imperial commands issue for the remodelling of the clans,—let everything
henceforward be done exclusively in his sovereign name, and let the
internal affairs of the country be so regulated and placed on a true and
safe basis that the empire shall be able eventually to take its place
side by side with the other enlightened countries of the world.” Such was
the tone and in great measure the phraseology employed when the grandees
of Japan spontaneously relinquished their positions as lords of the soil
and unconditionally bowed themselves before the throne in readiness to
conform to their ruler’s mandate, relying implicitly, for their future,
on his justice and benevolence.
To Kido Koin, in the first place, must be assigned the credit of this
truly diplomatic triumph, and in a second place to Okubo. Though Choshiu
was willing, it would have been impossible without the approval of
Satsuma to carry the proposal through, nor would it have been probable
that some, at all events, of the less prominent daimios could have been
induced to renounce their all but for the brilliant example set them by
the powerful barons of the first rank (kokushiu) of the south.
To the memorial the Emperor replied that the proposal should be debated
in Council, and in the course of a few weeks the scheme was definitely
adopted which provided for the change from daimiates or _Hans_ to
provincial administrations, and the appointment of the former lords of
those territories as _Chiji_ or Governors. The entire revenues, it was
arranged, should go to the imperial exchequer, and on the other hand
the sovereign took it upon himself to provide for the samurai who had
thereunto been the retainers of their feudal chiefs. The daimios were
themselves invited to return to their territories for the last time and
send in statements of their possessions, which they did, and ultimately,
when their own incomes had been apportioned in accordance with a settled
basis of commutation, they evacuated their old castles and went to dwell
in retirement whithersoever their tastes led them. Some entered into
trade, with a part or all of the capital obtained by commutation of their
assigned incomes, but the majority, realising their total inaptitude for
commercial pursuits, having been accustomed all their lives to leave
such matters to their factors, were warned in time and refrained from
embarking in enterprises for which they were obviously unfitted.
Meanwhile Kido Koin was called to the post of Minister of the Interior
in the newly established Government. In 1871 he left Yokohama in company
with Prince Iwakura, Ito Hirobumi, and others on the Embassy to Europe
and America, elsewhere referred to, and returned to Japan with them in
the autumn of 1873. Resuming his position at the Home Department, he
continued to fulfil his arduous duties until increasing illness obliged
him to withdraw, and he died of consumption in 1875, at the age of
thirty-seven, regretted by the whole Japanese nation. His monument at
the Aoyama Cemetery is all that visibly reminds this generation of one
who was a patriot and a statesman of the highest ability, but Japan at
large acknowledges its indebtedness to his unselfish devotion and keen
perception of the requirements of the age in which he lived.
The rank of Marquis was posthumously conferred on Kido Koin, and the
present holder of the title is a nephew of the great statesman.
XVIII
COUNT ITAGAKI
Though necessarily less active by reason of advancing age than he was a
quarter of a century ago, when he succeeded in forcing the hand of the
Government of the day to the extent that he extracted a promise of the
establishment of a Diet in 1890, and though nominally he has retired from
active political life, Count Itagaki Taisuke is still a power in the
land of his birth, highly respected for his strict integrity of purpose,
absolute sincerity, and wide philanthropy. As one of the leading spirits
in the development of the project of Restored Imperial Rule he was
particularly energetic in the years immediately preceding the fall of the
Tokugawa Shogunate, and displayed military ability of a high order in the
War of the Restoration.
[Illustration: COUNT ITAGAKI]
Born in the province of Tosa on the 17th of April 1837, of Samurai
parents, he applied himself as a youth with much ardour to martial
exercises, and was proficient in all the arts that the youth of the
warrior caste was, in the palmy days of the Tokugawa Administration,
expected to excel in. At Kochi, the chief town of Tosa, he devoted
himself to military studies, and devoured such works on strategy as
were then available, with the result that when the stupendous struggle
of 1868 took place between North and South he was given the command of
a division, in the army of the Imperialists, and displayed invincible
talent in the leadership of his men throughout the campaign under
Prince Arisugawa Taruhito and Marshal Saigo Takamori. The Tosa men were
conspicuous for their steadiness, and were pronounced, in respect of
drill and discipline, to be in the front rank of the forces that overcame
the adherents of the Shogunate and made practicable the entire abolition
of that long-cherished feudal system which so greatly retarded Japan’s
progress.
As a reward for the eminent services rendered by him in the war, Itagaki
Taisuke was made a _Sangi_ in the new Government, this being a position
comparable to that of a Cabinet Minister at the present day. When, in the
discussion of Korean affairs a sharp divergence of opinion was manifested
in 1873-4 among the members of the Dai-jo-kwan or Governing Council, and
the war party led by Saigo Takamori was outvoted, those who sided with
him, one of whom was Itagaki, resigned office, and from that time forward
Tosa, whither Itagaki promptly returned and vigorously applied himself
to the formation of a democratic party, became known as the nursery of
advanced political aspirations and the primary source whence sprang an
irresistible undercurrent of opinion tending towards representative
government.
As a matter of fact Itagaki had himself sent up a memorial to Government
at the time he quitted the Council, urging the institution of a national
assembly, and when he retired from the capital he found ready to his hand
the nucleus of the political association that he had it in mind to form
in the shape of the Ri-shi-sha, a Society which had been organised for
the purpose of promoting the interests of those who espoused the popular
cause. Though the Government rejected his memorial, Itagaki had reason to
think that his plea had not been wholly unnoticed, inasmuch as an edict
appeared summoning the Local Governors to consult at headquarters on
matters of provincial administration, the improvement of communications,
the regulation of public meetings, and so on, and in 1875 the Gen-Ro-In,
or Senate (_lit._: Congress of Elders), was established and discharged
its functions as a legislative body until it was superseded by the
Diet in 1890. The Local Governors met again in 1878, and meanwhile the
Satsuma clan had revolted and the country had been plunged into civil
war. Itagaki and his friends had seized the right moment to point out
how beneficial in allaying internal dissensions would be the institution
of a Parliament which should voice the opinions and hopes of the nation.
A memorial addressed by them to the Emperor urged that there could be
nothing that would more directly lead to the welfare of the people
than for the sovereign to signify once for all his disapproval of
despotic measures and to emphasise his wish that public opinion should
be consulted in regard to the conduct of affairs of State. The effect of
this action on the part of the Emperor, pleaded the memorialists, would
be that concurrently with the establishment of a representative assembly
the people would show greater zeal in regard to the country’s vital
concerns and would be able to take a genuine interest in its affairs,
while with the disappearance of all traces of despotism the aspirations
of the masses would rise to a higher plane and civilisation would be
advanced simultaneously with the increase of national wealth and the
cessation of internecine jealousies and antagonism.
The leaven had been introduced into the mass of the more reflective
section of the population, it was clear, and Itagaki, in his retired
home at Kochi, became the acknowledged head of the _Jiyuto_, or Party
of Freedom, a term which has come into general use as signifying the
Liberal Party as distinct from the Progressive Party originated by Count
Okuma some fifteen months later. Tosa had long been the centre, in fact,
of an agitation which in 1881 assumed truly formidable proportions, and
its endeavours bore fruit in the autumn of that year in the form of an
Imperial Rescript, dated the 12th October, in which his Majesty announced
the grant of a constitution, to take effect in 1890, and his intention of
convoking a Diet for the discussion of national affairs.
Throughout the preceding period of eight years the party headed by
Itagaki Taisuke had never wavered in its resolute advocacy of the popular
cause, though its members were often the objects of violent opposition
from reactionary zealots, whose antagonism in the case of Itagaki
himself took the form of a desperate assault, perpetrated by a youth
whose imagination had become fired with a mistaken notion of serving his
country, and who at Gifu stabbed, almost to death, the Jiyuto leader
who at the time was engaged in making his first tour of the provinces
after the establishment of the party on a definite basis. Fortunately
the intending assassin’s aim was disturbed, for he failed to strike in
a vital spot, and after a time Itagaki recovered, but he was perilously
near sharing the fate of so many of his fellow-countrymen who have at
various times suffered for their prominence in national politics. As
has often been the result of political crimes, too, the foul deed had
precisely the opposite effect to that which its perpetrator doubtless
intended, for the exclamation of Itagaki as he fell to the ground,—“I
may die, but freedom never!”—rang through the land, and did more to
knit together the bonds of Liberalism than even floods of oratory could
possibly have achieved.
The following year Itagaki journeyed in company with his life-long
friend and fellow-clansman, Goto Shojiro, to America and Europe, and
his subsequent career was inseparably connected with the spread of
Liberal ideas among his countrymen, and of preparation for the exercise
of those rights and privileges guaranteed to them by the Constitution.
Eventually the control of the _Jiyuto_ passed in great measure to Count
Ito, and the party was dissolved, to be resuscitated on a new footing
in connection with the Constitutionalists. But this did not occur until
various attempts had been made in the direction of Government by party, a
system which, from one cause or another, seems in Japan to be doomed to
failure. Itagaki was Home Minister in the Third Ito Cabinet, which fell
in August 1896, and when in June 1898 Marquis Ito went out of office, he
recommended that a trial should be given to party Government, and that
the formation of a Cabinet should be entrusted to Counts Itagaki and
Okuma. The experiment was in no sense to be regarded as satisfactory, and
the rivalries that had formerly existed, and had merely been temporarily
suppressed, were revived in an aggravated form. In less than six months
the internal disagreements found vent in an open quarrel, and the idea of
establishing Government on a party basis was abandoned if not for ever
at least for an indefinite period. There was a brief repetition of the
experiment in 1900-1, extending over seven months in all, when Marquis
Ito headed his fifth Cabinet, but the result was no better, and save for
that short interval the administration has been for the past seven years
avowedly conducted on non-party lines.
The Jiyuto formed by Count Itagaki (who received his title in 1887) no
longer exists, for it was abolished, to all intents and purposes, in
1900, and its place has been occupied more or less by the Sei-yu-kai,
or Constitutional party, which was headed until July 1903 by Marquis
Ito, and since that date has had as its president the Marquis Saionji.
Count Itagaki has ceased to figure on the political stage in anything
approaching the degree to which he at one period of his career filled
the public eye, but there is ample ground for the conviction that his
influence is yet very appreciable in Liberal circles, albeit many younger
men than himself have recently come to the front. Close upon seventy
years of age, he surely has earned the right, after a strenuous life,
to retire from the political arena, and it is indisputable that he
enjoys the respect and confidence of the entire nation in those minor
enterprises which have of late received a large share of his attention,
and which have as their object, for the most part, the amelioration of
the lot of the poor of his own province, or are kindred efforts in the
cause of humanity at large.
XIX
COUNT MATSUKATA MASAYOSHI
Born in Satsuma in the year 1835, the son of a Kagoshima samurai, the
statesman whose name will for all time be identified with the adoption
in Japan of a gold standard has played a very distinguished part in the
affairs of his country, for it is to his untiring efforts that must in a
peculiar degree be ascribed the circumstance that, in all Asia, his is
the only nation which bases its financial system on gold monometallism.
The Coinage law which brought about the great change that has had so
vast an influence on the economic and financial conditions prevailing in
Japan came into operation on the 1st October 1897. The hope which Count
Matsukata entertained that capital at a low rate of interest might be
attracted from gold standard countries, to help on the industrial growth
of the country, has already to a very appreciable extent been realised.
That in the long run the advantages of the gold standard would be deep
and abiding, conducive to the healthy industrial growth of the country,
was Count Matsukata’s firm and expressed conviction.
Matsukata Masayoshi when quite young entered the service of his Han
and took part as a Satsuma clansman in the events which preceded the
downfall of the Tokugawa Shogunate. He was a fervent advocate of the
establishment by the Satsuma Chieftain of a provincial navy, and in this
proposal he met with some success, as his clan purchased several ships
which at a later date carried the Satsuma flag (a circle with a cross in
it) into action against vessels of the Tokugawa squadron under Admiral
Enomoto, though without achieving any substantial victory. The knowledge
which Matsukata acquired in his young days of matters naval was mainly
obtained at Nagasaki from the Dutch, and he was in this way brought
into contact with Western people at an early age. This was prior to the
opening of the Treaty ports, when the Dutchmen were the only foreigners
allowed to reside in the Japanese Empire. Nagasaki was reopened to
general foreign trade and intercourse on the 1st of July 1859, under the
terms of the Elgin treaty of the previous year.
[Illustration: COUNT MATSUKATA]
The monetary system in vogue in the last days of the Tokugawa Shogunate
was based on an obsolete plan established as far back as 1600 A.D. and
various causes had combined to bring the currency of Japan into the
utmost disorder. His course of study led Matsukata to appreciate the
necessity of action long before the opportunity came to him to put his
ideas into practice. The coins in circulation had become debased, having
lost in quality and quantity by successive recoinage, to which the
Shogunate had resort as a relief measure at times of financial distress.
Some of the feudal lords, moreover,—of whom there were in all some
270,—had secretly coined money, and counterfeits had become numerous.
Most of the _Hans_—_i.e._ baronial administrations—had issued paper money
for circulation within their respective jurisdictions, and the value of
such notes had undergone great depreciation. The Shogun’s administration
was prompt to realise, on the opening of the country to trade with
Western nations under the treaties, the serious loss which the country
was sustaining on account of the disordered state of the coinage, but
before any adequate steps were taken towards reform the Shogunate regime
came to an end and an new era dawned for Japan under the beneficent
influences of the reign of Meiji.
The imperial government even instituted a scheme of monetary reform while
yet the revolutionary war was in progress, for a system of recoinage
was drawn up and adopted in April 1868, and steps were taken to found
a Government Mint. At the end of 1869 it was resolved to base the new
coinage on the metric system, making silver the standard unit of value
and gold subsidiary. The Hong Kong Mint was purchased outright, on the
Colony ceasing to coin for itself, and many members of the British staff
were engaged by the Tokio Government to supervise the operations of the
establishment, which it was found expedient to set up at Osaka. It began
to coin silver in November 1870.
While this substantial progress was being made by the newly formed
imperial government Ito Hirobumi (the present marquis) was travelling
in the United States,—he then occupying the post of Vice-Minister of
Finance,—and from what he saw he was induced to write home strenuously
advocating the establishment by Japan of a gold standard. His memorandum
is quoted at some length elsewhere, but its salient points may be briefly
summarised here, because its cogency appealed to Matsukata, who made it
practically the chief aim of his official life to procure the adoption of
a gold standard for his country, and finally triumphed over the many and
vast obstacles that lay in the path of its successful introduction. Ito
Hirobumi’s memorandum referred to the opinions of economists the world
over displaying a decided bent towards the choice of gold as the fittest
metal for standard, and mentioned that the fact that Austria, Holland,
and some other countries were still maintaining a silver standard was
probably due to the difficulty met with in making a change. He urged that
it would be a wise policy for Japan, in her new coinage, to profit by the
teachings of modern times. He admitted the necessity of provisionally
making silver the standard, but insisted that Japan should keep in view
the time when gold might be adopted as the more suitable basis of her
monetary system.
At the time when the Satsuma men were contending at Fushimi, near Kioto,
with the adherents of the Shogun the future Count Matsukata was residing
in Nagasaki. The Governor of the town happened to be a northern man,
one whose sympathies were wholly with the Tokugawa side, to which,
indeed, he had been indebted for his appointment to the post he held.
At Nagasaki the trend of opinion was of course anti-Shogunate, and
the Governor, recognising that his rule must necessarily be somewhat
unpopular, decided, it would seem, to take his leave rather abruptly, for
he hastily quitted his official residence and sought safety in flight.
The administration of the treaty port could not be left unprovided for,
and therefore Matsukata and a few other young men who were on the spot
at this crisis resolved to take matters into their own control. As soon
as the upheaval of 1868 had subsided and affairs were beginning to run
their normal course, Matsukata was offered a position under the newly
established government at Tokio, but he was for a short time placed in
charge of its interests at Nagasaki as Local Governor. In 1871 he was
attached to the Department of Finance, for it had been discovered that
he possessed exceptional qualifications for dealing with problems of the
knotty character which were at that period of transition apt to present
themselves. The connection with the national finances thus auspiciously
begun in the fourth year of the Meiji era has never ceased, since he is
still frequently consulted on points of policy in which it is considered
that his matured judgment will be of benefit to the nation.
In the year 1874, when Japan was about to embark on an expedition to
Formosa, to avenge the deaths of several of her sons at the hands of
the savages whom China professed to be unable to control, the Count was
made Vice-Minister of the Department of Finance, and began a series of
fiscal reforms among which the conversion of the pensions granted to the
lords and their retainers of the old regime into public loan bonds was
one of the most important. The 7 per cent. Foreign Loan raised in 1873,
and which was entirely redeemed in 1897, was devoted in the main to the
supply of funds to those samurai who had of their own accord surrendered
their hereditary pensions and who were at that time entering, in not a
few instances, on a business career. In 1874 the Voluntarily Capitalised
Pension Bonds were issued for granting relief in the form either of cash
or bonds to the samurai in order that they might be enabled to carry
on their commercial pursuits. In 1876, when the old hereditary pension
system was entirely abolished, a systematised plan of compounding the
pensions with capitalised pension bonds was at once instituted, it being
the intention of the government that these bonds should be made the
capital of National Banks, and that those banks should be authorised to
issue notes. In this way it was believed that the poorer samurai would
at once be placed in funds, while the economic market would be supplied
with much wanted capital in the form of bank notes. As Count Matsukata
has remarked, “it is needless to note that these ideas were based on an
erroneous notion that capital and currency were interchangeable terms.”
Meanwhile almost unlooked for and wholly insurmountable difficulties had
been encountered in the effort to establish in Japan a gold standard,
as defined in the coinage law of May 1871, based on Ito Hirobumi’s
recommendations, the intrinsic merit of which was not disputed though it
had most reluctantly to be confessed that the time was not propitious
for their entire adoption. Situated as Japan was in the midst of the
silver countries of the East, it was found impossible to uphold the
gold standard, and the Government had been driven, moreover, to the
expedient of issuing paper money to meet its financial needs at a time
when it was hampered by having, in addition to other embarrassments,
to take over all the notes issued by the former _daimios_ who had
been dispossessed—voluntarily, it must be added—of their fiefs on the
restoration of a central imperial government. Paper money was at a heavy
discount for a long time, partly because the people could not overcome
their repugnance to notes due to the sad experience they had had in years
gone by of the inconvertible “satsu” of feudal times. The crisis had been
partly met by the issue of 6 per cent. Government bonds (_kin-satsu_,
_lit._: gold note) given in exchange for the paper money in order to
decrease its amount, and by degrees the hatred of paper money wore off.
The Satsuma rebellion in 1877, however, once more placed the Government
under the necessity of issuing a large amount of inconvertible notes,
which brought about a new depreciation, prices rose rapidly, gold and
silver left the country, as imports vastly exceeded the exports, and in
1880-1 there was great financial distress. As Count Matsukata in his
work on the “Adoption of the Gold Standard in Japan” has said,—“that
disastrous results would inevitably follow if convertible paper money
were made the standard of value” might easily have been foreseen, but it
appeared that an idea prevailed that the difference between the price of
silver and paper was an indication, not of the depreciation of paper,
but of the appreciation of silver. The attempt was made to stop the rise
of the price of silver by increasing the amount of its circulation. The
Government sold silver coins, opened places for the exchange of Mexican
dollars, and established the Yokohama Specie Bank in order to call
forth the coins hoarded by the people. But the more these measures were
resorted to the more rose the price of silver.
It was while matters remained in this awkward fix that Matsukata
Masayoshi received the portfolio of Finance in October 1881. “It was
at this crisis,” he states in his Report, “that it occurred to me as
I studied the case that in order to effect the object in view the
Government should, side by side with the redemption of a portion of the
paper money in circulation, take steps to increase the specie reserve of
the Government preparatory to the resumption of specie payment. Moreover,
in order to put the country’s finance on a sound basis and relieve the
pressing distress of the time, I felt the need of a central bank having
the sole privilege of issuing convertible notes. I submitted a scheme for
the establishment of such a central bank to my colleagues. In the Cabinet
Council which followed my suggestions were approved, and in June 1882 the
_Nippon Ginko_ (Bank of Japan) was established. Two years later it was
empowered to issue convertible notes. After the necessary foundations
were in this way laid, the Government used every means in its power to
raise thereon a sound financial superstructure. The method of receiving
and disbursing the State revenue was changed, and the strictest economy
was practised in the expenditures of the different departments. One half
of the surplus obtained in this way was devoted to the redemption of
paper money, while the other half was added to the specie reserve of the
Government. Besides, after the latter part of 1881 this reserve fund
was employed for discounting foreign bills of exchange, with a view to
encourage the export trade of the country, which in its turn would lead
to the importation of specie.”
Something more was done, however, in the way of accumulating specie
besides the transaction of foreign exchange. Count Matsukata proposed
as an important adjunct to the scheme that the Government should engage
in the direct exportation of rice and seaweed, and his memoranda on the
subject, dated November 1882 and February 1883, only adopted by the
Cabinet in June 1883,—a clear proof that there was no undue haste in any
of the steps taken in this pre-eminently momentous national affair,—took
in part the form given below. It should serve in its tone to explain with
what solicitude the Government of Tokio views all questions that hinge
upon the successful cultivation of Japan’s most valuable staple.
“Rice being the greatest of our national products, the abundance or
scarcity of its harvest and the fluctuations in its price naturally
affect to no small extent the financial condition of the country. As
to the contingency of a bad harvest, there is already in operation the
Law of Storing, and ... I shall confine myself to providing means of
disposing of surplus rice in a year of abundance. For should there occur
an extraordinary depreciation in the price of rice, it would not only
make it difficult to raise the revenues, but it would interfere with the
development of agricultural enterprises, affecting thereby the general
trade and commerce of the country. For this reason it seems to me that
the best means to prevent such a contingency would be to export rice to
foreign countries. It so happens, however, that work of this kind, owing
to shrinkage from rotting and other causes, and the time involved in
transport over wide seas, can hardly ever pay in private hands. If the
Government undertakes it these apprehensions need not be entertained.
When specie is as scarce as it is to-day, the Government must still
provide it for the payment of unavoidable expenses, such as the army and
navy, and it seems to me that every effort ought to be made to absorb
specie by enlarging the list of exported commodities. The export to
foreign countries of the surplus rice will be like killing two birds with
one stone, for it will provide specie for the Government and protect the
income of the farmer. There seems to be a growing increase in the demand
for Japanese rice in Western markets, owing to the gradual recognition
of its superior quality. As it is an urgent necessity to draw in specie,
let what has hitherto formed the Reserve Fund (of the Department of
Agriculture) be turned into capital for making yearly purchases of rice
in suitable quantities according to conditions of crop and market price,
in order that it may be sent abroad, and let the Finance Department be
charged with the duty of keeping accounts.”
The actual quantity of rice exported under this arrangement amounted to
some 6,000,000 bushels, and in selling the rice British and American
coins were taken in payment, and the various earnings were transferred
to Japan through the agency of the Yokohama Specie Bank in the form of
draft or of gold and silver bullion. Altogether the specie accumulated by
the Government, by its several measures, was in English money value about
£28,750,000 sterling, the total disbursements from this huge sum having
been £23,500,000, leaving a margin of £5,250,000 to be applied to the
redemption of paper money.
In this way and on the recommendations of Count Matsukata the needful
redemption was brought about, and at the close of 1885 the difference
between the value of silver and paper money had almost disappeared.
Notice was given by the Government, therefore, that on and from the 1st
of January 1886 specie payments would be resumed. The actual amount
of specie held at that time in the State coffers was of the value of
£4,500,000 sterling.
The adjustment of the paper currency thus accomplished prepared Japan to
reap the benefits of a scientific system of coinage. The rate of interest
fell,—commercial and industrial enterprises began to expand,—the volume
of the country’s foreign trade increased greatly. Count Matsukata had
rid his nation of one serious impediment to its progress, but in the
process Japan had become _de facto_ a silver standard country. Sooner
or later, as he well knew, she would have to enter the international
economic community, and to do this she would have to adopt a gold
standard.
Prior to 1873 the price of silver had not shown any great variations, the
ratio between gold and silver having been as a rule 1 of gold to 15½ of
silver. Count Matsukata attributed the immense fall which took place in
subsequent years to a number of causes, (_a_) the vastly increased annual
output of the metal, (_b_) the action of the German Government in selling
large quantities of silver when unifying the coinage of the Empire, (_c_)
the adoption of a gold standard by the United States of America, and
(_d_) the various limitations imposed on the coinage and in other forms
by Continental nations. None of the measures adopted were sufficient to
check the fall. In 1879 the ratio became 1 to 18,—in 1891 it was 1 to
20·92,—in 1892 it was 1 to 23·72,—and in 1893 it had become 1 to 26·49.
But this was eclipsed by the figures for 1897, which at one time were as
1 to 39·70 and the average for that year was but 1 to 34·35. In Japan the
consequences were most serious, for the price of commodities rose rapidly
and a spirit of speculation became rampant.
It is necessary to go back a little, to the period of Count Matsukata’s
initial efforts to pave the way for the introduction of a gold standard.
That his financial policy led at first to Japan becoming a silver
standard country was owing mainly to the immense difficulty of at once
accumulating a large gold reserve necessary for the establishment of gold
monometallism. It was deemed advisable to defer this essential, all but
vital, alteration to some more favourable time, but Count Matsukata never
relinquished for one moment the hope of being able to effect it. When it
is remembered that in April 1881, 1 yen in silver fetched on an average
1 yen and 79½ sen of paper, and at one time the proportions were as 1
to 1·815,—the lowest point ever reached,—and yet four years and a half
later paper and silver were on a par, the magnitude of Count Matsukata’s
achievement becomes apparent. The imperial ordinance authorising the Bank
of Japan to issue convertible notes was obeyed when, on the 9th of May
1885, the first of such notes were put into circulation, and the moment
was seized by Count Matsukata to urge on the Government, as Minister of
Finance, the advisability of taking the opportunity then presented for
redeeming the whole of the inconvertible paper, and of entrusting the
business of the exchange entirely to the Bank of Japan, to be effected
in the ordinary way of circulation, so that the reform might be quietly
and smoothly carried out. “If,” he concluded, “these suggestions shall
happily receive the August Sanction, not only will the Government be able
to accomplish its original purpose in regard to paper money, but the
credit of the Government at home and abroad will thereby be assured, the
national finance placed on a firm basis, and the future happiness of the
people greatly enhanced.”
In the year 1884 Mr Matsukata, as he then was, received the rank of
_Haku_, or Count, continuing to hold the portfolio of Finance until
1891, when he was appointed Prime Minister, but without relinquishing
his post at the _Okurasho_, and he only quitted it, after a service of
nearly twenty years in that department of State, when he resigned the
Premiership also in 1892.
In the office of Premier of the third administration since the
institution of Constitutional Government Count Matsukata had for one
of his colleagues Count Enomoto, who had represented his country at
the Courts of Russia and China, and had previously been Minister for
the Navy. He now held, in the Third Cabinet, the portfolio of Foreign
Affairs. Count Matsukata’s occupancy of the position of Prime Minister
lasted on this occasion from May 1891 to July 1892, there having been a
general election in February of that year which had resulted in a victory
for the opposition, followed by Cabinet disruption, and the advent of
Count Ito, as he was then, to a long lease of power.
At the period of the outbreak of war between Japan and China, Count
Matsukata was in private life, pondering his all-important scheme for the
permanent settlement of Japanese finance, but the successful floating
of the War Loan was in a measure ascribable to his influence, for the
nation had learned to couple his name with not a few judicious measures
of national finance that had given relief to commercial enterprises in
a very marked degree. And as the end of the campaign in Shantung and
Liaotung was seen to be approaching the Emperor expressly decreed the
Count’s assumption of the duties of Finance Minister, in order that
he might undertake the adjustment of the country’s finances on the
termination of the war. He remained in office long enough, with Marquis
Ito as Premier, to initiate a movement which in effect carried him a
great way towards the realisation of that cherished plan on which he had
expended so much mental labour and close application both when in and out
of office. He says that when India, the greatest silver country in Asia,
took steps in 1893 to reorganise her currency system, the sudden fall in
the price of silver had most noticeable effects in Japan, and the need
of the adoption of gold as the basis of her coinage was more and more
impressed on her financiers. The reform was, however, very difficult to
undertake. Quite unexpectedly, however, the receipt by Japan of a large
indemnity from China seemed to offer the long-desired opportunity.
“It occurred to me then,” wrote Count Matsukata afterwards, “that on
account of the unstable price of silver, as well as in view of the
possible adoption of a gold standard by our country, it would be greatly
to our advantage to receive payment of the indemnity in British, instead
of Chinese money. The Minister-president of State, Marquis Ito, acting on
my suggestion, negotiated with the Chinese authorities, which led to our
receiving the indemnity money in pounds sterling.”
In September 1896 Count Matsukata was appointed Minister-president, for
the second time in his career, and he forthwith directed his endeavours
to the realisation of his highest ambition. A bill was drawn up in
February of the ensuing year, to the passing of which through the Diet
there was in reality but little opposition. Some critics of the proposal
said that the fall in the price of silver would rather encourage trade
with gold countries, while the adoption of a gold standard by Japan would
tend to decrease the amount of her exports to those countries. Others
said that Japan, situated as she was in the midst of the silver countries
of the East, would be placed in a position of much disadvantage in her
trade with these countries if she adopted gold monometallism. Again,
some said that Japan could not produce a sufficient amount of gold to be
able to maintain permanently a gold standard system. This was not all.
It was by many urged that the silver yen coins exported to foreign lands
exceeded 100,000,000, and that if all these came back for exchange, as
might possibly be the case, the national treasury would have to suffer
an immense loss. Count Matsukata had no notion, however, of allowing
himself to be influenced by those dismal prophecies. His Cabinet stood
firm in its purpose, and in March 1897, after having been passed by
both Houses of Parliament, the bill received the Imperial sanction, and
was promulgated as Law No. XVI. on the 29th day of the same month. The
stability of Japanese finance during the nine years which have passed
since that Law came into force, and especially throughout the terrible
ordeal that it has lately undergone during the time that Japan has been
at war with one of the Great Powers of Europe, affords an incontestible
proof of the soundness of Count Matsukata’s judgment, and the nation is
indebted to him for the perseverance and fortitude that he displayed in
carrying his scheme, despite all opposition, to a successful conclusion.
No doubt every precaution that financial skill could suggest was taken by
the Government of which he was a member. One of the earlier instalments
of the indemnity was converted in London into gold bullion and conveyed
to Japan as fast as steam could transport it, to be minted into coins in
the Government mint. In buying bullion, too, care was taken to secure it
without much disturbance of the market or loss to the Government. The
gold thus turned into coins between July 1897, and April 1898, as a
reserve for the exchange of silver _yen_, amounted to roughly £7,500,000
sterling. The process of exchanging began on the 1st of October 1896, and
closed on the 31st of July 1898.
It is not a little instructive to learn to what degree the foreboding
as to the national treasury being swamped by the number of yen silver
coins that would come back for exchange, in which some critics indulged,
proved to lack solid foundation. The total number of one-yen pieces
coined at Osaka from the date of the opening of the Mint was 165,000,000.
Of these the number actually exchanged during the ten months specified
for gold coin was 45,500,000, including 10,750,000 sent back from
abroad for that purpose: the rest were in circulation in Japan. It is
estimated that 99,500,000 of yen coins were exported to foreign lands
and never returned. 11,000,000 of these coins were taken abroad at the
time of the China-Japan war,—5,750,000 were taken to Formosa after the
cession of that island to Japan by China and were never brought in for
exchange,—about 500,000 were recoined at Osaka into subsidiary coins,—and
about 2,750,000 could not be traced, and must have been lost or worn
out, or taken away by visitors to Japan, when leaving the country. Count
Matsukata was not moved by sinister prophecies, for one thing because he
had had the most careful inquiries made as to the numbers of these coins
circulating in Shanghai, Hong Kong, the Straits Settlements, etc.; and
it was found that no inconsiderable proportion of them either bore the
marks of some private stamp or “chop” which unfitted them for circulation
in the land of their origin, or had been turned into Chinese _taels_.
Then it was known that a fairly large quantity was in use as a medium
of exchange in the Straits Settlements and neighbouring islands, and
that there was but little prospect of any of these coming back to Japan.
Altogether Count Matsukata’s estimate of the number that would have to
be provided for was 10,000,000, and this was within a trifle of the true
number presented for exchange. The people were invited to pay taxes and
make other public settlements in Yen coins, a vast number of Government
treasuries and sub-offices were opened all over the country to facilitate
the work of exchanging the silver, and that no report was ever received
that any failed to get exchanged went to show that the process was
effectually completed.
The next thing was to dispose of the silver that had been brought in, and
a large part of it was recoined into subsidiary coins, a large proportion
sold in Hong Kong, Shanghai and elsewhere, and much sent to Korea. The
whole amount was disposed of in a year and a quarter after the new
coinage law was promulgated in Japan. The total expense incurred by the
State in effecting the change was roughly £500,000 sterling, but this was
more than made good by the Mint profit on the subsidiary coinage. As fast
as they could be produced the ten-_sen_, twenty-_sen_, and fifty-_sen_
pieces were put into circulation, in lieu of the paper money of small
denominations, and it is estimated that the sum-total of the subsidiary
coinage in actual circulation,—silver, nickel, and copper,—would be of
the value of 4s. _per capita_, if calculated in English money. This is
considered to be ample for the economic needs of the people to-day.
In October 1898 Count Matsukata was for the fourth time called
upon to take the portfolio of Finance, with Marshal Yamagata as
Minister-President, and in May 1899 he presented to the Premier a
masterly report on the financial progress of Japan, entitled the
“Adoption of the Gold Standard,” which was issued in book form, and it
was followed in March of the next year by a “Report on the Post-Bellum
financial administration of Japan, 1896-1900,” both affording emphatic
testimony to the Minister’s untiring zeal and industry.
In October 1900 Count Matsukata retired into private life, and in
the ensuing summer he visited London and the capitals of Europe. In
recognition of his long and valuable services to the State the Emperor
accords him as much consideration as if he were a Cabinet Minister
still. He has received the Grand Cordon of the Paulownia Imperialis,
and other decorations, and many foreign honours. He was twice Premier,
and fourteen years Finance Minister. His achievements include land-tax
reform, centralisation of fiscal administration, the redemption of the
paper money, the establishment of the Bank of Japan, post-bellum finance,
the adoption of the gold standard, the establishment of the Industrial
Bank,—and he has rendered many other services to his sovereign and his
countrymen of which it is needless to give details here. His part in the
Making of Japan has been most ably and conscientiously performed, and he
has won the respect and admiration of all classes of his fellow-subjects
of the Japanese Emperor.
XX
ADMIRAL VISCOUNT ENOMOTO
Born on the 25th of August 1836 at Yedo, Enomoto Buyo was sent by the
Tokugawa Government as a young naval officer to study in Holland, and he
was in Europe for several years, ultimately returning to Japan on board
the _Kai-yo Maru_, as she was named, a corvette built at Amsterdam to the
order of the Shogunate. With him returned several of the students who
had been despatched in 1862 and 1863 to Europe for purposes of study,
some sent by their clans, and some by the Bakufu. Ito Shunsuke and Inouye
Bunda, two of the number, had, as is elsewhere recorded, returned some
years previously, in consequence of trouble in their native province
of Choshiu. The _Kai-yo Maru_ reached Japan in 1866, and she was a
formidable addition to the fleet of six vessels already possessed by the
Shogun’s Government. Being a native of Yedo he was of course one of the
Bakufu supporters, and when the troubles of 1867 began, and which were to
culminate in the fall of the Tokugawa family from power, Admiral Enomoto
was loyal to his chief, Prince Keiki, and fought strenuously for his side
in the War of the Restoration.
[Illustration: ADMIRAL ENOMOTO]
When, on the result of the battle of Fushimi between the Tokugawa men
and the Imperialist regiments belonging to Satsuma and Choshiu becoming
known at Osaka, the Shogun recognised the impossibility of retrieving the
fortunes of the day, his retainers procured a small boat for him at an
adjacent wharf and he made his way to the vessels belonging to him,—three
in number,—lying off Tempo-san, at the mouth of the river Yodo, on which
the city of Osaka stands. He was quickly taken on board the _Kai-yo
Maru_, Admiral Enomoto’s flagship, and she was next seen entering Kobé
harbour with her consorts on the 26th January 1868, Prince Keiki being
on board. Lying in Kobé were three Satsuma steamers, and the _Kai-yo
Maru_ challenged them to combat by steaming round them and leading the
way to the open sea. The contest took place in “Awa Bay” as it is termed,
in reality the indentation of the coast facing Tokushima, the chief town
of Awa province, close to the southern extremity of the island of Awaji,
a few hours’ steam from Kobé. One of the Satsuma ships was sunk and
another took fire. The three ships under Admiral Enomoto, one of which
was the steam-yacht _Emperor_ which Queen Victoria had sent out as a
present to the Shogun some time before, escaped with slight damage, and
subsequently steamed to Yedo, where the Prince Tokugawa Keiki landed a
week after the battle. The _Emperor_ yacht was best known by her Japanese
name of _Banrio Maru_. Several of the clans at this period possessed
foreign-built steamers, and the chieftain Shimadzu Saburo of Satsuma had
purchased the _Fiery Cross_ in Yokohama as far back as 1862, as a present
for his nephew the _daimio_ of Kagoshima. She had been handed over to
her new owners in Yedo bay and navigated by them to the headquarters of
the clan. The ships belonging to the several territorial barons were
ultimately surrendered to the Central Government, after the Restoration,
as well as those belonging to the Shogunate, and formed the nucleus of
the splendid navy that Japan may now rightfully pride herself on having
established.
The eight ships which had been lying in Shinagawa waters, and which were
to have been given up to the Imperial Government when Yedo was finally
surrendered, suddenly left there, however, on October 4th, 1898, under
the command of Admiral Enomoto, and it became known that he had stolen
away to Hakodate. There, in conjunction with three other supporters of
the Shogun’s lost cause, he presently proclaimed the “Republic of Yeso,”
the other signatories being Otori Keisuke (subsequently pardoned, and at
a later date the faithful and energetic representative of Japan at the
Court of Korea) Matsudaira Taro,—a relative, as his name implied, though
in this case a distant one, of the Tokugawa family, and Arai Ikunosuke,
subsequently appointed to an office under the Colonisation Department in
Yeso, and in which he evinced no little talent as an organiser.
Admiral Enomoto declared that his reason for going to Hakodate with his
squadron was that he and his friends had resolved to guard the Northern
Gate for the Emperor, and to till the soil, as yet wholly uncultivated,
of the island of Yeso.
“Men who have the hearts of Samurai,” they pleaded, “cannot turn into
farmers or merchants, so it appeared to us that there was nothing for us
but to starve. And considering the untilled state of the island of Yeso
we petitioned the Government that we might remove thither, but all in
vain.” In sheer despair they had sailed north at their own risk, using
force only against the fortified places, Hakodate and Matsumai (now
Fukuyama). “The farmers and merchants are unmolested, going about their
business without fear, and are sympathising with us, so that already,”
they added, “we have brought some land under cultivation. We pray that
this portion of the Empire may be conferred upon our late lord, Tokugawa
Kamenosuké, and in that case we shall repay your beneficence by our
faithful guardianship of the Northern Gate.” The newly appointed head of
the Tokugawa clan, here alluded to as Kamenosuké, now Prince Tokugawa
Iyesato, President of the House of Peers, was ordered to go to Yeso and
restrain his clansmen, but it was asked that as this young prince was
then only a child of five years old, the ex-Shogun Keiki might be given
control. This, however, was refused, lest his prestige might still be
employed by his followers to incite others to rebellion and thus prolong
a useless struggle.
“Why should we quit this spot?” asked Enomoto afterwards, when told he
must surrender: “If his Majesty the Emperor will take pity on us and give
us a portion of this barren northern region, our men shall guard the gate
till death, whilst for the crime of having opposed the Imperial army, we
two [Matsudaira and himself] will gladly suffer capital punishment.”
It was not until the following spring that the newly formed Central
Government at Yedo found itself able to turn its attention seriously to
the subjugation of the little band of malcontents up north, and then the
Imperial fleet steamed away from the anchorage at the head of the bay,
off Shinagawa, intending to rendezvous at Hakodate where the rebels were
making a last stand. The chief hope of the Satsuma officers lay in their
recent acquisition, the _Stonewall_, to which had been given the Japanese
title of _Adzuma_. She had been employed in the American Civil War before
she came into Japanese hands, as one of the Federal Squadron in the
assault on Vicksburg.
The _Adzuma_ though of small tonnage, was an ironclad, and with her
mighty ram she presented a most sinister appearance. Altogether the
collective fleet made a very good beginning, and the Imperialists were
justly proud of it as marking an appreciable advance on the agglomeration
of war junks with which the nation’s sea-fighting had been done under the
old conditions.
The _Stonewall_ (or _Adzuma_) had been bought in America by the agents
of the Shogunate, and she dropped anchor in Yokohama on the 24th of
April 1868, only a few days before the Prince Tokugawa Keiki resigned
his office. She was never delivered to the Shogun’s government, but was,
by order of the American Minister, retained in port at Yokohama under
the Stars and Stripes ensign, though as a matter of fact she had flown
the flag of Japan on her voyage thither from the United States. There
was some little heart-burning at this, for it was thought that had she
been available for use by the Shogunate party which had bought her, she
might with her far greater power have made short work of the imperial
fleet. But, as we have seen, the Shogun was then ready to resign, and all
prospect of success vanished with his submission to the Emperor five days
after the ironclad’s arrival in Japanese waters.
With the resignation of the Shogun she naturally came into the hands of
the Imperialists, to whom the United States authorities were no doubt
justified under the circumstances in delivering her, and she set out
bravely enough with the remainder of the imperial squadron for the north
in 1869. But less than twenty-four hours had elapsed before she was in
difficulties with her engines, and it was with much trouble and anxiety
that she was navigated as far towards Yeso as the harbour of Miyako, a
little to the north of Sendai Bay, and about half way to Hakodate. Here
she might have been captured, but for good luck, for she had entered
to coal and her crew were ashore, not scenting danger, as they had no
expectation that any of Admiral Enomoto’s vessels were in the vicinity.
While she was lying at anchor the _Eagle_, flying the Shogunate ensign,
steamed in, and catching sight of the ram, charged her at full speed.
It was magnificent, but it was not war, and the _Eagle’s_ bow was
severely damaged by the exploit. There was a tussle on the deck of the
_Adzuma_, and several were killed on either side, but numbers were with
the Imperialists, and the _Eagle_ was obliged to seek safety as best
she could in flight. She ultimately reached port at Hakodate, though
her consort, the _Ashuelot_ gunboat, which was waiting for her outside
Miyako, contrived to run ashore, it being rather a foggy time of year,
and was captured with all hands, by the Imperial fleet, which followed as
soon as steam could be got up, and went to Aomori Bay, on the south side
of the Straits of Tsugaru, opposite to Hakodate.
The engagement which shortly afterwards took place on land and sea
at Hakodate itself was described by eye-witnesses as a splendidly
contested affair from first to last. The besiegers advanced under a very
heavy and well-sustained fire, and Admiral Enomoto’s defence of his
vessels, on the other hand, was skilful and resolute. The _Kwan-gun_ or
Imperialist forces, which had come to the straits overland from Tokio,
were landed on Hakodate Head in the rear of the town of Hakodate, while
the rebels held the battery at Benten, and the villages of Chiyoga-oka
and Goriokaku. They were under the command of Matsudaira Taro, Otori
Keisuke, and Arai Ikunosuke, while Admiral Enomoto was afloat, one of
his captains being the present Ambassador in London, Viscount Hayashi.
Despite their undoubted bravery, the Tokugawa men were overmatched, for
the Imperialists acquired a position which dominated the fortifications
of the town from the hill behind, and when at last he saw that it would
merely prolong the strife and cause useless bloodshed if he persisted in
his opposition, Admiral Enomoto, yielding to the earnest remonstrances
of the Imperialist Army, surrendered, and the Shogun’s followers finally
laid down their arms.
Admiral Enomoto and many of those with him were imprisoned for a time,
but there was no desire to treat harshly those who had been loyal to the
party which had a claim on their services, notwithstanding that they had
of necessity been classed as rebels, and Enomoto was himself given a high
post as Minister of the Colonisation Department then newly established
under the title of the Kai-taku-shi, its operations being specially
directed to the development of this northernmost island of the Empire.
Thus in some degree Enomoto had his wish gratified, of being entrusted
with the guardianship of the Northern Gate, but in 1874 he was despatched
to St Petersburg on a mission to arrange with the Russian Government for
the exchange, in conformity with Russia’s request, of the southern half
of Sakhalin island for the northern half of the chain of islets forming
the Kuriles Archipelago. When he returned from Russia he was again
occupied with the work of Colonisation, and in 1882 he went to China as
Japan’s representative at the Court of Peking.
He has occupied a seat in the Cabinet on several occasions, having
held the portfolios, at various times, of the Navy, Foreign Affairs,
Education, Communications, and Agriculture and Commerce. The last-named
office he occupied in the Second Ito Ministry at the close of 1896, and
was similarly placed in the Second Matsukata Ministry which fell in
December 1897.
It was characteristic of him that when the conflict was over at Hakodate
in 1869 he sent to the Imperialist Generals two volumes on Naval Tactics
which he had studied while in Holland prior to 1866. They were very
valuable books, he said, and were otherwise unobtainable in the Empire
and he could not bear that they should be destroyed. The Imperialist
leaders acknowledged the gift, and in return sent to the Admiral five
kegs of _saké_, the native wine. Enomoto and Matsudaira were both
resolved on putting an end to their lives by the traditionally honourable
act of _seppuku_, but they were closely watched and were prevented from
doing so, and they finally surrendered and were taken prisoners to Yedo,
where, as already explained, their punishment was only of brief duration.
Happily, Admiral Enomoto, though no longer on the active List of the
Navy, is still in the enjoyment of good general health at seventy years
of age. He is rightfully regarded by the younger men as the father, to
all intents and purposes, of the Japanese Navy, and his exploits at the
beginning of the Meiji era certainly entitle him to a high place in the
affections of those who recognise in the fleet as it exists to-day a
bulwark of defence against invasion and a force which has proved itself
capable of making the flag of the Rising Sun Empire everywhere respected.
XXI
ADMIRAL TOGO HEIHACHI
If Admiral Enomoto was the first to obtain the title by having handled
a modern Japanese fleet in actual warfare, it will be acknowledged that
Admiral Togo has caused his own doings to be for ever associated with the
later developments of Japan’s sea-power, and that it is his name which
will descend to posterity as that of the commander who, by his skilful
leading and marked ability, combined with personal attributes of a kind
to inspire the loftiest esteem and even affection in all those who came
into contact with him, made the Japanese fleet the tremendous fighting
machine that it is to-day. It is true that the late Count Katsu (known
in the pre-Restoration days as Katsu Awa-no-Kami, the personal friend
of Saigo Takamori) was Minister of the Navy under the Shogunate, and
commanded the first Japanese steamship that ever crossed the Pacific
Ocean from Yokohama, an armed vessel which took out the Oguri Embassy
to America in 1859, but the rise of the Navy must be attributed to a
somewhat later period, when the rival forces fought in Awa Bay in 1868,
and at Hakodate in the next year, and the leader who on those occasions
most distinguished himself was Admiral Viscount Enomoto, whose adventures
have been recorded. Admiral Togo represents the polished and perfected
machine: Enomoto was answerable for the quality of the metal employed
in its construction. Togo has all the credit of having given impetus
and direction, by the force of his own example, to the studies of the
Japanese naval officer and thus contributed extensively to the making of
the Navy as it now exists.
[Illustration: ADMIRAL TOGO]
The Admiral is a Satsuma man, born in the castle town of Kagoshima on
the 6th of December 1847, and comes of Samurai stock, his father being
one of the retainers of the _daimio_ Shimadzu Saburo. When only sixteen
he was placed aboard one of the small war vessels then owned by the
principality, and was in the engagement with Admiral Kuper’s Squadron
when the British bombarded Kagoshima in 1863. As is elsewhere explained,
the Satsuma men realised that modern Western appliances gave great power
to those who wielded them as weapons of warfare, and with the conviction
uppermost that they had made as good a fight as could have been expected
with rather antiquated guns, they forthwith prepared to be good friends
with their late antagonists, and to learn all they could with the object
of making the Satsuma clan a tower of strength in view of the Restoration
of Imperial rule.
In 1868 Togo Heihachi was an officer aboard one of the three Satsuma
ships that then came to Kobé, and fought with Admiral Enomoto’s squadron
in January in Awa Bay. She was the _Kiang-Su_, later named _Kasuga-Kan_,
and she routed her enemy, the _Kwai-Ten_. The _Kasuga-Kan_ had originally
been Admiral Sherard Osborn’s flagship when the “Lay flotilla” was taken
out to China, and as the Chinese did not want her, she was sold to the
prince of Satsuma. She was a fairly fast vessel of the paddle-wheel type,
and did good service for the Imperial Government after the Restoration.
In the year 1871 Togo Heihachi came to England and was for the ensuing
seven years in H.M.S. _Worcester_ at Greenhithe, and the Royal Naval
College at Greenwich. In 1878 the _Kon-go Kan_ and _Hi-yei Kan_ composite
corvettes were completed in Great Britain for the Japanese Government to
the designs of Sir Edward Reed, and Togo Heihachi went out in the _Hiyei_.
From that time nothing was heard of him until the famous affair of the
_Kowshing_, at the commencement of the Japan and China War, in 1894,
when he commanded the _Naniwa Kan_, a Second-class Cruiser built at
Elswick-on-Tyne in 1885. During the long interval he had been steadily
climbing the ladder, and had gone through all the stages to the
attainment of the rank of Commander. A thorough seaman, he did not
disdain to personally instruct those under him in the most ordinary
duties, translating naval technicalities from English text-books into
Japanese for the puzzled junior officers who had not been out of Japan
for their education. Later, the _Naniwa_ was one of the flying squadron
of four ships under Admiral Tsuboi that preceded the main squadron under
Admiral Ito into action with the Chinese fleet off Hai-Yang Island, the
engagement being known as the Naval Battle of the Yalu. After the fight
was over the _Naniwa_ was sent westward to reconnoitre Wei-Hai-Wei,
Chifu, and Port Arthur.
When the prospect of war with Russia in 1903 necessitated much
preparation at Tokio, Togo was summoned by Admiral Yamamoto, his old
friend and schoolfellow, to the Capital, and he rose from a sick-bed to
go, replying to his wife’s remonstrances, “I shall be well the moment
I set foot on deck and drink in the salt-laden air.” It is recorded of
him that while stationed at Maizuru, the naval depot on the west coast
of the main island, facing Korea, he practically lived in his office,
and scarcely spoke to any of his officers, merely saluting as he passed
in and out. His taciturnity is proverbial, yet children in Japan find
nothing forbidding in him and crowd round him with delight. He resides
in an exceedingly modest dwelling-house in a Tokio suburb, its furniture
and decorations being of the simplest kind. So imperturbable is he that
had he been aboard his flagship the _Mikasa_ when she went down recently
in harbour at Sasebo it is certain that he would not have lost his
self-possession for an instant, and to those who know him best he is the
“silent one,” who loves to be alone with his tiny silver tobacco pipe.
His recreations are hunting game with his breech-loader and his dogs, or
trout-fishing in some mountain stream. Madame Togo has said that when he
went to join the United Squadrons a short time prior to the outbreak of
hostilities in 1904, he merely asked her to be kind enough to take care
of his dogs.
Even for a Japanese the Admiral is short, and rather stout, of figure,
and people marvel when they see him that he can be “the great Togo, the
Nelson of Japan.” But the energy of the man is revealed in his quick,
piercing glance. He is a strict disciplinarian, and a hater, above all
things, of display, or of public homage. A story is current at Sasebo
that before the fleet sailed for Port Arthur he called all his officers
on board the _Mikasa_ and briefly addressed them to the effect:—“We sail
to-night, and our enemy flies the Russian flag.” On a tray in front of
him lay one of those short daggers which in former times were used to
commit _Seppuku_. As the officers filed past him he looked each one
in the eyes, and all of them understood his meaning. None would have
survived the disgrace of a defeat. It is his practice, it may be added,
as showing his indifference to danger, to direct operations during an
engagement entirely from the bridge, and he has had some narrow escapes.
The incidents of the Naval campaign of 1904-5 are so fresh in everyone’s
memory that it would be tedious to go into minute details. On the night
of the 8th of February 1904, the Russian fleet, which lay conveniently
for Admiral Togo’s purpose outside the harbour of Port Arthur, found
itself attacked. Two Russian battleships and one cruiser were torpedoed,
and next day the assault was renewed with the result that another
battleship and three more cruisers were badly damaged. Five days later
Admiral Togo sent his destroyers to the attack in a snowstorm, and
another Russian cruiser was torpedoed. On the 24th of the month an
attempt was made to seal Port Arthur by sinking steamers which officers
of Admiral Togo’s fleet navigated, and on the 9th and 10th March there
was another destroyer attack, followed by a bombardment on the 21st and
22nd.
Five days later another desperate effort was made to block Port Arthur
by sinking steamers, and on the 13th of April a Russian Squadron was
decoyed out of harbour and the _Petropavlovsk_, with the Russian Admiral
Makharoff on board, was sunk by a mine. At last on the 3rd of May Port
Arthur was at all events temporarily blocked, for battleships and
cruisers, but on the 15th Admiral Togo had the misfortune to lose two
of his finest battleships, the _Hatsusé_ and _Yashima_, both built on
the Tyne, having run upon drifting torpedoes. There was a naval sortie
on the 23rd June, which was easily repulsed by the Japanese fleet, and
on the 10th of August took place the memorable battle in the Yellow
Sea, when the Russian fleet, issuing from Port Arthur, was defeated and
dispersed, some of the ships getting back to harbour at the fortress,
but others making for neutral ports, where they were interned until the
conclusion of the war. On this occasion the Russian Admiral Vitoft was
killed in action. There was a long running fight in which the _Mikasa_
greatly distinguished herself, and at 6.12 P.M. a 12-inch shell came
aboard her and burst close to her bridge on the port side. Admiral Togo,
with his Chief of Staff, and the captain of the ship, with five others,
were on the bridge at the time, and four of the eight persons were hit
by fragments, but the admiral was untouched. He had been on the bridge
throughout the action, from the first exchange of shots at one o’clock,
but his subordinates were resolved that he should stay there no longer,
and by efforts little short of an application of physical force, he was
induced to enter the conning-tower. At 8 P.M. the Russian ships had
fallen into inextricable confusion, and it was left to the Japanese
torpedo craft to continue the fight, with what result was never precisely
ascertained. The Russian vessels at Port Arthur were ultimately sunk by
their Commanders prior to the Capitulation of the 2nd January 1905, but
most of them have since been raised and taken over to Japan.
On the 12th of April Admiral Rojdestvensky arrived at Kamranh Bay in
Indo-China, and on the 22nd left there under pressure from France after
Japanese protests had been lodged against infractions of neutrality. The
battle of the Sea of Japan was fought on the 27th and 28th of May 1905,
and Admiral Togo succeeded in annihilating the Russian Baltic Fleet.
After peace was made the Japanese vessels remained for a time at Sasebo,
where an explosion occurred on board the _Mikasa_ and she sank at her
moorings, but was not wholly submerged, the work of refloating her being
one that it was fully expected would be completed early in 1906. In
October the Combined Fleet was reviewed by the Japanese Emperor at its
moorings, drawn up in seven lines, in the bay of Tokio, extending from
the mouth of the Rokugo river at Kawasaki to the vicinity of Hommoku
Point, near Yokohama. Prior to the fleet’s arrival in Tokio Bay it had
paid a visit to Isé Bay, which opens out of the Pacific in lat. 34° 30´
North, and was formerly known as Owari Gulf. The assembly of the combined
squadrons in the bay was an imposing spectacle, and Admiral Togo, with
his staff-officers, visited the sacred shrines of the Imperial ancestors,
at Yamada, which is near Toba harbour. Hundreds of thousands of the
people had assembled from far and near. Admiral Togo was the recipient of
the greatest honours that his admiring countrymen could pay, both there
and afterwards at Tokio, where they gathered absolutely to the number of
a quarter of a million to bid him welcome on his safe return to his home.
On the 29th of October he visited the beautiful Cemetery at Aoyama, in
the Capital, to take part in an impressive Shinto Ceremony in honour of
the departed naval heroes of the war, the spot chosen being close to that
where lies Captain Hirosé, the officer who lost his own life while trying
to succour a subordinate in the second attempt to block Port Arthur. The
central figure of the gathering was Admiral Togo, who was escorted by a
detachment of his sailors, unarmed. After the religious rites had been
solemnly performed, he moved to the altar, and standing alone while all
the officers and men present came to the salute, he read an address to
the spirits of the dead. It ran somewhat as follows:—
The clouds over land and sea have dispersed, children welcome
us and their parents await us at the gates. Looking back we
recall the heat and cold of the times when we fought side by
side with you against our powerful foe. The result could not
then be foreseen. The bravery you showed brought us splendid
victories in all our combats. Now that the contest is over,
we who are at home feel it deeply that our rejoicings cannot
be shared by you. Yet your deaths have made this day possible.
Your fidelity and bravery shall remain with our navy for ever,
and inspirit it to protect perpetually this, the Imperial Land.
I have prepared this ceremony to your manes, as worthy of all
honour, and I take leave to say to you: Be at peace,—Accept our
offerings.
There was no sound but that of the Admiral’s voice, and in profound
silence all those present made their obeisances before the Altar of
Memory.
It may be useful here to give some idea of the character of the training
that the Japanese Naval Officer undergoes.
Most Japanese youths intended for the sea begin their naval training at
the Etajima College, close to the arsenal of Kure, near Hiroshima, in the
“Inland Sea,” which separates the main island from Shikoku and Kiushiu.
The entrance to this college is by competitive examination, and students
come from all parts of the country, though not a few of the successful
ones are prepared at a special school in Tokio,—the Higher Naval College.
The Etajima establishment is open to every male subject between the
ages of fifteen and twenty, but marriage is a bar, likewise bankruptcy
or previous subjection to any serious punishment. Everything is done at
Government expense. Failure to pass the physical examination disqualifies
the youth for the educational tests, which cover a wide field. There
are three foreign languages which are optional as studies—viz. French,
German, and Russian, but English is compulsory. The course lasts three
years, and a cadet who is once entered must not change his mind, but must
continue his studies unless disqualified in some recognisable way. Sea
duties are taught aboard one of the several tenders attached to Etajima.
The daily programme is:—
5.30 A.M. Rise, sweep room, make bed, arrange
clothes, wash and dress.
6.10 ” Inspection by officer on duty.
6.30 ” Breakfast.
7.45 ” Second inspection by the captain.
8. 0-12. 0 noon. Lessons.
12. 5- 1. 0 P.M. Dinner.
2.15- 3.30 ” Special studies—_e.g._ fencing, wrestling,
bayonet drill, rowing, sailing,
hygiene, history, law, etc.
3.30- 5.30 ” Recreation.
5.30 ” Supper.
6.30- 9.30 ” Preparation.
10 ” Bed.
Though Etajima is an out-of-the-way spot, and there is nothing on the
island but the college and its grounds, there are three training ships
and five launches at the disposal of the institution, so that life is not
by any means dull or uneventful.
After midshipmen quit the college they continue their work at sea, and
the sister ships _Matsushima_, _Itsukushima_, and _Hashidate_, all of
which were prominent in the war with China of 1894-5, and are each
4200 tons, are employed for this purpose. At the end of two months
from joining the captain examines a sub-lieutenant in ships’ stations,
regulations, etc., and subjects are set for essays, for which rewards are
given.
From the practical training given at Etajima it is possible to select
officers who go to Tokio for further theoretical training at the
Naval Academy. There the courses are four in number, the first,—of
two years—being intended to equip the lieutenants with a knowledge of
strategy—naval and military,—tactics—naval and military,—fortification,
torpedoes, shipbuilding, navigation, and the higher education of the
general course. The officers are sent out to take part in manœuvres or
visit forts and naval stations. The next year is devoted to special
studies of gunnery, torpedoes, and navigation, and then the officers pass
to a three months’ practical course at the gunnery or torpedo schools.
Side by side with these there are the practical courses for officers and
men at Yokosuka. In all that she has done Japan has closely followed the
example of Britain, and in other branches than that referred to here,
which is of course the executive of the navy, the same care is taken that
the training shall be of a thorough kind, in faithful adherence to the
principles on which the instruction first derived from Admiral Douglas
and his staff, in 1873, was based.
In his own country Admiral Togo Heihachi is esteemed above everything
for his absolute sincerity and singleness of purpose, his overwhelming
sense of duty which prompts him to make complete sacrifice of personal
considerations, and his observance of strict courtesy towards all men.
His services entitled him to a rest, and he has been given the post of
Chief of the Naval Staff. In his farewell address to the officers and
men of the Combined Fleet which he had commanded he emphasised the need
of incessant training, pointing to the example of the British navy, and
concluded thus:—
“Providence will confer honour on those who work hard in the
study of their duties, and thus virtually win the victory
before fighting, whilst denying honour to those who are
satisfied with a temporary success only, and seek personal
pleasures in time of peace instead of devoting their leisure to
useful research. An ancient adage warns us:
“Katte, kabuto no O wo shimero!”
(If victorious, tighten your helmet-cords!)
In other words, “Never relax your efforts,—on the contrary, be
prepared to exert yourselves still more!”
XXII
BARON EICHI SHIBUSAWA
In the making of a nation its commerce must be fostered and facilities
given for the legitimate expansion of all branches of trade, since it is
in proportion to the prosperity of its industries and resultant wealth
that its political influence will in the main be appreciated. Baron
Shibusawa’s career has been essentially that of a business man, for
although he occupied at one time a prominent position as an official of
the Finance Department, and ranked next to Count Inouye, circumstances
ordained that his energies should be applied to tasks more or less
directly associated with commerce and the financial progress of his
country. If it may be said that the Bank of Japan (Nippon Ginko) owes
its existence to Count Matsukata, the First National Bank (Dai-ichi
Ginko) was established by the efforts of Baron Shibusawa. Eichi Shibusawa
was brought up in the metropolitan province of Musashi, having been
born in the village of Chi-arai-jima, in the county of Hanzawa, about
forty-five miles from the capital, in 1840. The village is one of many
in that region whereof the population is occupied partly in sericulture
and substantially in agriculture, millions of cocoons being annually
produced in the cottages of the husbandmen, and a great variety of
crops gathered from the fields, including some indigo. The Shibusawa
family was concerned with both these industries, and had been so for
generations. Saitama district, indeed, which comprises in great part what
was formerly the province of Musashi, was in the days of the Shogunate,
like the neighbouring districts to the west and north, devoted to the
rearing of the silkworm, and for the reason that good paddy land is
scarce thereabouts a large percentage of the inhabitants still regard
sericulture as their most profitable occupation. The industry dates in
Japan from the fourth year of the Emperor Chuai’s reign, corresponding to
A.D. 195, when a Chinese prince named Koman went over to Japan and was
naturalised there, at the same time introducing the Chinese species of
silkworm, which from that period was largely cultivated in the Japanese
empire. In 283 A.D., while the Emperor Ojin sat on the throne (he was
deified as Hachiman, the god of war) a number of Chinamen settled in
Japan and taught silk-weaving, the Court itself taking great pains to
encourage the industry, by causing mulberry-trees to be planted, and
rearing the worms. The taxes were then paid to some degree in silk
fabrics. At a later date silk raising and weaving had grown to be the
principal productive industry of the country, and was almost universal,
though some regions were especially famous for the quality of the output,
among them that which is to-day known as Saitama Ken. During the “age of
wars” which lasted from the middle of the tenth century to the beginning
of the seventeenth, the work could only be carried on in secluded and
out-of-the-way places comparatively free from the ravages of fire and
sword.
[Illustration: BARON SHIBUSAWA]
Under the Tokugawa regime the prosperity of sericulture revived, for
the feudal chiefs were anxious to see their people engaged in settled
occupations, and recognised the value of this industry in particular.
Throughout that region in which Baron Shibusawa spent his boyhood
the silkworm is an object of the keenest interest to the people, for
everything hinges upon its preservation in a good state of health, and
at certain stages of the worm’s existence it is regarded, even at the
inns where travellers have to put up for the night when on the road, as
a creature whose interests it is necessary to study far more carefully
than those of a guest. The “Kaiko-sama” must on no account be disturbed.
Shibusawa Eichi received the rudiments of education at his home, and
was a close student of history. He read the Chinese classics with a
scholar residing in an adjoining village, and helped his father in the
manufacture and sale of indigo. By the time he was nineteen years old the
cry of Jo-I (Out with the barbarians) which then was being raised in
Yedo, little more than a long day’s tramp away from him, had penetrated
to the remote village in which he dwelt, and by degrees the whole region
grew to be in an uproar. Shibusawa soon betook himself to the capital,
to see for himself what it all meant. There he continued his studies
under the famous Gyo-son Kai-ho, a classical scholar of repute, and he
was a pupil of the no less celebrated fencing master, Chiba Shusaku. From
Yedo he travelled to the then seat of learning, Kioto, where he made
many friends and finally was received into the Hitotsubashi clan, one of
the branches of the Tokugawa family, and from which the last dynasty of
Shoguns sprang. The Hitotsubashi branch was that into which the present
Prince Tokugawa Keiki, “the last of the Shoguns,” was adopted,—though
really a scion of the Mito house—and whose name he bore in the days
immediately antecedent to the Restoration of Imperial Rule. The head of
the Hitotsubashi house when Shibusawa owned allegiance to it was a very
distinguished nobleman, who was instrumental in founding a modernised
military system for the Tokugawas and did good service in connection with
its finances. Soon afterwards Prince Keiki was called upon to succeed
Iyemochi as Shogun at Yedo, and removed thither from Kioto, taking with
him Shibusawa Eichi, who became an officer of the Shogunate Government
or “Bakufu.” In 1867, the prince Mimbu-taiyu, a younger brother of the
Shogun, was sent to France to study Western sciences and institutions,
and in his suite was Shibusawa, at that time twenty-seven years of age.
The opportunity was one of which he availed himself to the uttermost, and
he diligently acquired all the information possible on matters that it
had been his main ambition to know more about, passing no inconsiderable
portion of his time in England. His stay in Europe lasted until the close
of 1868, and he reached home only to find his former chief, the Shogun
Tokugawa Keiki, taking up his residence in retirement at Shidzuoka, in
Suruga province, 100 miles from the capital. The Restoration had been
effected a few months previously.
Shibusawa received the appointment of Chief treasurer of the Shidzuoka
household, under the prince Kamenosuké, who had been installed as chief
of the clan, and who is now the President of the House of Peers. In this
post Shibusawa found ample employment in rearranging the finances of
the Tokugawa family, but he presently relinquished it on being made tax
controller in the department of Finance under the newly formed Imperial
Government at Tokio. In the same service he was next promoted to be
Assistant Vice-minister of Finance, and also Chief Inspector of Trade,
and in the performance of his duties in these offices he supervised the
establishment of several joint-stock enterprises, the first of their
kind undertaken in Japan. The members of these companies were merchants
of Kioto and Osaka, and their enterprises extended to shipbuilding, land
reclamation, etc.; the joint-stock principle thus early in the history
of New Japan having begun to find favour. Soon afterwards Shibusawa was
appointed Junior Vice-Minister of Finance to Inouye Bunda, as he then
was—the present Count Inouye—and in 1873 both resigned in consequence
of their views relative to the apportionments to different departments
of the public service in the budget estimates not meeting with the
support of the Ministry headed by Prince Sanjo Sanetomi. Count Inouye
subsequently resumed his place as Vice-Minister of the department but
Shibusawa Eichi retired altogether from the Government service, and
applied himself to commercial pursuits.
Prior to the Restoration Japan possessed no institutions exactly
corresponding to the modern bank. There was what was termed a “rice
bank” which advanced rice to the retainers of the Shogun, and this, it
is declared, dated back at least as far as the days of Iyemitsu, in
1724. The plan of operations was for certain business houses in Yedo to
receive the grain as it came from the domains under the direct control
of the Shogunate, and to distribute it among the Shogun’s officers in
remuneration for their services. In this way the houses in question were
often called on to advance sums on account of the forthcoming crops,
the liabilities of the retainers to be met out of the proceeds of the
grain when received from the farmers and sold. Needless to say, the
normal condition of many of the samurai was one of indebtedness to the
“rice banks.” When, in 1870, the present Marquis Ito was authorised
to proceed to the United States to investigate financial affairs in
America, especially with respect to the public debt, banking, and the
monetary standard, he aroused extraordinary interest by his report on
the National Bank Act of the United States, a copy of which he sent to
Tokio for perusal. The need of some such system was much felt in the then
existing crisis in monetary matters, and though the proposal made at that
time could not be adopted in its entirety, the financiers were led to
consider the advisability of setting up a bank on those lines in the near
future. The reception of the idea was quickened by the cumbersome method
in vogue of paying taxes in rice, a plan which not only caused delay,
but resulted in loss owing to difficulties attendant on the transport of
large quantities of grain from places at a distance. The question arose,
should the tax be still paid in rice or in legal currency according to
the market price of the commodity? If it were allowable to pay in money,
then there ought to be some institution at which rice could be exchanged
for ready cash. The necessities of the hour pointed to a bank as the
medium which must forthwith be established.
But there was another thing that made the notion additionally attractive,
and this was the position of the country’s finances in respect of the
inconvertible paper currency termed “Da-Jo-Kwan Satsu”—notes issued by
the Government, which were depreciated, though not to any great extent so
far, and it was deemed unwise to keep them floating so long as thirteen
years, the period assigned for their redemption. It had been ascertained
that the United States had established a National Bank to facilitate the
management of the inconvertible notes issued at the time of the Civil
War, known as “Greenbacks,” and the similarity of the situation at the
moment in Japan to that of America in 1860 struck everyone.
Messrs Inouye and Shibusawa, then together in the Finance Department at
Tokio, cordially agreed with the proposals of Ito Hirobumi, as conveyed
in his reports from America, and began to take the needful steps for
establishing a National Bank of Japan on a small scale. Mr Shibusawa was
made Chairman of a Committee of Investigation into the system of national
banks, and after careful study the Committee framed regulations which
were put into force by the Government under the National Bank Act in
November 1872.
The Dai-Ichi Ginko, _lit._: No. 1 Bank, prospectus appeared in December
1872, the proposers—two of them members of the renowned house of
Mitsui, two of the firm of Ono, and Minomura Rizayemon, five well-known
men, subscribed 2,000,000 yen, and offered 1,000,000 yen for public
subscription. It illustrates the change which has come over Japan in
more recent years that, notwithstanding every effort, in 1873, when
the list closed, only 4408 shares had been taken in the new venture,
and the capital of the bank was reduced to 2,440,800 yen, equal at
present rates to about £250,000 sterling. The public had not sufficient
understanding of the corporation system to be able to appreciate the new
enterprise. A few years later the joint-stock concerns were numbered by
the hundred. The Dai-ichi Gin-ko began business on the 20th July 1873,
in the picturesque block at Nihonbashi, in Tokio, which had belonged to
the Mitsui Company, and had been bought from them for 128,500 yen, and
it continued thenceforward to transact a general banking business, and
to act as accountant of the Finance Department, for at that time every
department of the Government had its own accountant and kept its own
independent set of accounts.
Mr Shibusawa,—as he was then,—on resigning his post of Junior
Vice-Minister of Finance, was elected General Superintendent of the
Dai-ichi Gin-ko, and discharged the duties of president.
Speaking some time ago of those early days of banking in Japan, the Baron
explained that “It was the 1st day of August 1873 when the First National
Bank received the certificate of authorisation. From that time we issued
the new bank-notes for circulation, little by little, but there were
none who came to make demands for the redemption thereof. It was our
idea to have them circulated in the country districts rather than in the
cities and open ports. The people of the country districts, although
they were very unfavourably impressed by the old Government paper,
were now better disposed to circulate the notes issued by a bank under
strict Government inspection, and the general public began to put more
confidence in these notes than in those which had been issued before.
But we were very careful not to put too many of them into circulation,
because we were well aware of the possibility of fluctuation in the price
of gold and silver that would seriously affect the value. So, at first we
kept back a large quantity of the paper in our vaults....” And thus by
prudent management the First National Bank passed its first year with a
record of 112,000 yen net profit, out of which 11,000 yen were carried at
once to a reserve fund.
At the end of 1874 the bank received a severe blow by the failure of
the Ono firm, which had been one of the largest shareholders, and owed
the bank a considerable sum. At a general meeting it was resolved that
the Ono house’s obligation would be met by the shares of 1,000,000
yen which it owned, and consequently the capital was reduced by that
amount. Mr Shibusawa was elected first president of the bank, and as
the Government had been a little alarmed by the Ono affair, and was
determined thenceforward to establish an accountant bureau in each
department of State under its own charge, the First National Bank had to
hand over all Government moneys left in its control, and seek to extend
its business solely among the people. It was believed that no fears need
be entertained of the result, and it has, as a matter of fact, done well.
In recent years it has been the chief financial organ of the Japan-Korea
trade, and has floated loans for the Imperial Household and Government
of Korea with complete satisfaction. The Dai-ichi Ginko notes are the
recognised medium of circulation in Korea still and are facilitating the
commerce of that country.
It was in May 1900 that a peerage was conferred on Baron Shibusawa,
and it was the first instance in which such a mark of imperial favour
had ever been extended to a business man in Japan, the rank being in
his case accorded in recognition of his past services to the State. It
was on his initiative, supported by Marquis Ito and Count Okuma, that
the Tokio Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1878, with himself as its
president, an honour which he still enjoys. He has played a distinguished
part in connection with the municipal affairs of Tokio, and was mainly
instrumental in establishing an Asylum for the Poor. When at a later
date the Tokio municipality abolished this useful institution, he took
upon himself the work of raising a fund for an asylum to exist purely
as a private establishment, and to be maintained wholly independently
of official aid. In the end it was taken over by the municipality, with
Baron Shibusawa as its president, and he continues to be the head of the
institution, which is the largest and best equipped of its kind in the
land.
Before he quitted the Government service in 1873 he had taken the first
steps to establish a mail steamship service to China and Korea, and
around the Japanese coasts. The Company formed to undertake this work was
afterwards amalgamated with the Mitsu-Bishi (Three diamonds) Shipping
Company, and subsequently, when another concern was started and a fierce
competition arose for the coastwise trade, Baron Shibusawa induced the
opponents to make terms with each other and unite in one Company which
is now among the great Shipping Organisations of the world, and known as
the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, or Japan Mailboat Company. He is still one of
its directors, and has helped, moreover, very materially to establish a
trans-Pacific line,—the Toyo Kisen Kaisha,—which runs mail steamers from
Yokohama to Hong Kong and San Francisco.
In the cotton-spinning industry he is prominent, having founded the Osaka
and Miye Spinning Mills, and he has either promoted or started numerous
undertakings for the supply of gas or electric light, for silk or cotton
weaving, hemp and rope manufacturing, brickworks, cement factories,
sugar refining, and many other enterprises for the utilisation of the
knowledge which modern science has conferred on his fellow-countrymen.
He is deeply concerned with railway extension, not only in Japan but
in Korea, he is interested in harbour construction, and reclamation
works, in farming, the breeding of horses and cattle, the manufacture of
artificial manures, hat-making, and a variety of other ventures that need
not be particularised. Altogether, including several banks other than the
Bank of Japan of which he is president—_e.g._ the Yokohama Specie Bank,
the Industrial Bank, and the Japan Credit Mobilier—the Baron is connected
with upwards of thirty companies in the capacity of either president or
director. He founded the Tokio Clearing-House, the Commercial Agency,
and other business institutions, and in Korea he has from the outset
taken a leading part, the construction of the railway from Fusan to the
Capital, and between Seoul and Chemulpo, having been due principally
to his efforts. When the railway development of Southern Manchuria is
seriously undertaken this line from Fusan to Seoul, and thence to Wiju,
is destined to form a link in the long chain of railway communication
which will stretch from London to Tokio, with short breaks at the Straits
of Dover and the Straits of Korea which divide Fusan from Shimonoseki in
South-west Japan. There are incomplete links, notably between the Yalu
river and Liao-Yang, but a military line exists, which needs only to
be strengthened, so the permanent establishment of that section should
present correspondingly fewer difficulties. Ultimately it is to be
expected that England will be brought within a fortnight by rail of Japan.
Baron Shibusawa was nominated by the Emperor as a member of the newly
formed House of Peers in 1890, when the Imperial Diet was first opened,
but he resigned that post a year later, and afterwards occupied the
chair of the Higher Council of Agriculture, Commerce, and Industry, and
he has served on many commissions appointed by the Sovereign to make
investigations on various subjects of importance to the nation.
In the domain of philanthropy Baron Shibusawa’s exertions have tended
materially to the establishment and support of schools, orphanages,
reformatories, hospitals, and kindred benevolent institutions designed
to confer public benefit, on the directorates of which his name is
frequently to be found, for he has ever been an active worker in the
cause of charity.
In 1902 he again visited England, and was entertained by the London
Chamber of Commerce, his speech on that occasion containing the happiest
allusions to the growth of commercial relations between Japan and Great
Britain. He was able to point with satisfaction to the existence in his
own country of no fewer than 2534 banks possessing an aggregate paid-up
capital of £35,000,000 sterling. After the Chino-Japan war the number of
joint-stock companies rose, as he explained, with phenomenal rapidity,
for in 1900 the total number was not less than 6176, and their paid-up
Capital amounted to 440,476,000 yen, or over £44,000,000 sterling. The
volume of the export and import trade, as he was able to assure his
audience, had risen from 50,000,000 yen in 1877 to 138,330,000 in 1890,
and 506,160,000 in 1901. Though Japan has since been at war with Russia
the volume of her trade for the year 1905 will in all probability show a
very appreciable increase over any intervening year, and with the immense
commercial activity which she has developed subsequent to the conclusion
of peace the figures for the fiscal year ending with March 1907 must
inevitably exhibit a degree of progress and an expansion of international
trade in which her people may justifiably take the utmost pride.
Speaking as a business man to men of business, Baron Shibusawa proceeded
to refer in his speech to the then recently concluded Anglo-Japanese
Agreement of 30th January 1902. His remarks may be said to apply with
equal force to the extended form of that Agreement entered into on the
12th of August 1905.
“It is true,” he said, “our manners and customs are so
different from yours that it would be impossible to make them
common to both nations; but, as judging from past experience we
are getting ever nearer to and assimilating with each other,
and especially as there is no racial or national distinction in
economic affairs, I firmly believe that the future development
of commerce and industry in our country must be cosmopolitan
in its character, that is to say, we should freely invite the
co-operation of knowledge, experience, and capital from the
most advanced nations of the West, not only for the further
development of industry and commerce in Japan, but also for the
opening up of the great natural resources of China and Korea.
Our country is geographically so near to these countries and
has so much of literature and art in common with them that we
can understand the manners and desires of their people much
better than you do, and your country has the advantage of being
rich in capital as well as in the knowledge and experience of
modern scientific appliances. There is no reason, it seems
to me, why we should not co-operate in the Far East to our
mutual advantage, since we have so many interests in common,
and especially now that we are so closely knit together by the
Anglo-Japanese Agreement of Alliance.
“Just as I was planning to leave Japan on my present tour, the
United Chambers of Commerce were holding their General Meeting
in Tokio, and they passed a resolution requesting me to convey
their unanimous desire to bring the business world of Japan
into closer relation with that of Europe and America, and to
reach a better understanding of the real business conditions of
each other’s countries. Vague as such a resolution must sound,
its ultimate aim can be no other than what I have stated,—the
co-operation of Japanese and foreign capitalists for the
industrial and commercial development of the Far East,—and I
trust that if there be anything in our business methods and
customs which will obstruct the realisation of this happy
union, our people will not spare their utmost efforts to
remove it. I sincerely hope that not only will your Chamber
take note of this desire on the part of the Japanese business
world, but that it will kindly help to convey this desire to
all other Chambers of Commerce in your country as well as to
the business world at large. It is more than thirty years since
I first visited your land, as a petty government official,
but I now am here as a business man, and I cannot but admire
the wonderful development of industry and commerce which is
here exhibited. May the Anglo-Japanese Alliance be the means
of realising the richest results in the pacific expansion of
commerce and industry in the Far East, and may it thus be a
source of inestimable blessing to the nations of the world!”
The wish to which Baron Shibusawa gave utterance in 1902 is one that
finds its echo in the hearts of the people of both nations to-day, and
one with which this humble effort to spread a knowledge of Japan and her
affairs may fittingly conclude.
INDEX
Abdication of Shogun, 82
Academies of Bakufu, 96
Accumulation of specie, 291
Ama-no-terasu, goddess, 11
Ancient sword on Takachiho-miné, 203
Ancient shrine in Hiuga, 203
Adams, William, vi, 67, 68
“Advance, Japan,” xv
_Adzuma_ ironclad, 302
Aidzu clan, 25, 29, 84, 86
Alcock, Sir Rutherford, xv, 16, 80
Arisugawa, Prince Taruhito, 3, 4, 49
Arisugawa, Prince Takehito, 4, 144
“Ashigaru” rank, 66
Ashikaga Shogunate, 55, 57
Anglo-Japanese relations, 68, 80
Attachment to throne, 6
Attempt on Sir H. Parkes’ life, 32
Awa bay, battle of, 30, 89, 300
Awa, Count Katsu of, 29
Awaji island, 11, 30
Bakufu (Shogunate), 76, 77
Bank of Japan established, 289
Barons’ revenues, 61
_Barrosa_, H.M.S., 122, 123
Battle of Awa bay, 30, 89
— Fushimi, 31
— Shimonoseki, 123
— Shinagawa, 90
Biddle, Commodore, vii
Biwa lake, 74
Bizen men run amok, 32
Bombardment of Kagoshima, 78
Buddha (Daibutsu) at Kamakura, 55
Buddhism, viii
Cabinet, first, 140;
changes, 45, 46
“Charter oath,” 46
Choshi, port, 97
Choshiu clan, 16, 17, 69, 76, 79, 173, 175
— defeated, 17
— victorious, 174
Clement, E. W., xv
Cocks, Captain, 68
Codes, civil and criminal, 44
Columbus, 9
Commodore Perry, 12
Constitution promulgated, 135
Coronation oath, 21
Council, first, 28
— of Local Governors, 45
— Privy, 140
_Coup d’état_ at Kioto (1868), 28, 83
Crown Prince, 49
Dai-jo-dai-jin, 27
Dakiu (polo), 94
Decree on accession, imperial, 50
Degrees of nobility, 139
Deliberative assembly promised, 21
Deshima, 68
Diet, the, 45, 135
Douglas, Admiral, 314
Douglas, Sir R. K., xv
Drill, foreign, 17
Dual control, 19
Dyer, Professor Henry, 133
Early visitors to Japan, vi
East India Company, 68
_Eclipse_ of Boston, vi
Embassy under Prince Iwakura, 128, 131
Emperor, personal name, 1;
portrait (_frontispiece_);
address to army and navy, 51;
menage, 51;
decree on accession, 50;
grants Constitution, 44;
at Hiroshima, 48;
diligence, 51;
sympathy, 52;
Commander-in-chief, 52;
education, 20;
equestrianism, 20;
poetry, 21, 52;
coronation, 33;
coif, 34, 36;
first public appearance, 35;
costume, 36;
opens railway, 36;
marriage, 34;
magnanimity, 22, 25, 43;
message to Diet, 47;
reviews fleet, 311
Emperor Komei, 1, 4, 75, 80
— Ninko, 4, 103, 114
_Emperor_ yacht, 30, 89
Empress Haruko, 1;
marriage, 34;
travels to Yedo, 34;
first sees foreigners, 35;
supports Red Cross Society, 48
Enomoto, Admiral Viscount, 87;
portrait, 299;
aboard _Kaiyo Maru_, 300;
Hakodate, 301;
fight at Hakodate, 303;
head of Colonisation Department, 304;
makes treaty with Russia, 304;
in Cabinet, 304
“Eta,” 66
Etajima naval college, 312
Etiquette at Shogun’s Court, 95
Expenditures reduced, 47
Expulsion of foreigners, 19, 65, 69, 77
Fillmore, President, 12
Fire at palace, 38
Foreign drill, 17
Formosa expedition, 39, 40
French graves at Moji, 123, 172
Fudai rank, 62
Fujita Toko, 97, 99, 100
_Fujiyama_ steamer, 30
Fuki-age gardens, 34
Fushimi, battle, 3, 31, 62, 86, 87
Fukusawa, Yukichi, portrait, 268;
founds _Jiji Shimpo_, 268;
at Teppodzu, 269;
teaches Dutch, learns English, 269;
sails for America, 270;
for Britain, 270;
influence, 271;
establishes his famous college, 271
Gates, nine, of Kioto, 25
Geisha, origin of, 55
Geishiu province, 26
Gen-ro-in Assembly, 45
Gessho, priest, 205
Giyobukiyo, Prince Keiki as, 82
Glover & Company, 120
Golownin visits Japan, vi
Go-ro-ju Assembly, 94
Goto, Shojiro, Count, 28, 32, 195;
consulted by Shogun, 195;
carries prince’s letter to him, 196;
adviser to new Government, 197;
defends Sir Harry Parkes, 198;
sword from Queen Victoria, 200;
active in field, 200;
Cabinet with Sanjo, 200;
visits Europe with Itagaki, 201;
portrait, 195
Graves of French sailors, 123, 172
Gregorian calendar adopted, 36
Hachiman temple, 54
Hagi, 16, 120
Hakodate, 13, 26
Hama-go-ten palace, 35, 37
“Hans’” liabilities, 285
Harris, Mr Townsend, 13
Haruko, Empress, 1, 34, 35, 48
_Hatamoto_ and _Hatamochi_, 66
Hayashi, Jussai, 102
Hayashi, Viscount Tadasu, xiv, 81, 125, 131, 187, 272
Hearn, Lafcadio, xv
Heiki, Tatewaki, 32
Hemi village, 68
Hibiya parade ground, 38
Hidetada, Shogun, 58, 64, 67
Hideyoshi, Shogun, 15, 58, 64
Higashi Fushimi-no-miya, 86
Higashi Kuze, Baron, 91
Hikoné, 74
“Hi-nin,” 66
Hiogo, 14
Hirado, 65, 67, 68
Hirosé, Commander, 311
Hiroshima, 2
Hitotsubashi, Shogun (see under S)
Hiuga, old shrine in, 203
Hizen, 25, 69
Hokkaido, 15
Hostility to strangers, 19, 71
Hotoké-Iwa, 64
Ibaraki Ken, 97
Idzu promontory, 13
Ii-dani in Totomi, 74
Ii Kamon-no-Kami, 63, 70-74, 98, 189, 204
Imai, S., xv
Imperial decree, 24
“Imperial message,” the, 51
Imperial oath, 146
Industrial progress, 43
Inland Sea, 9
Inouye, Count Kaoru, ix, 28, 70, 121;
military service, 170;
on _Barrosa_, 171;
at Shimonoseki, 173;
arranges loan, 175;
finance, 176, 178;
foreign minister, 179;
treaty revision, 179, 180;
lord-in-waiting, 181;
influence, 183;
portrait, 170
Interpreters, vii
Inuboye, Cape, 97
Itagaki, Count Taisuke, 28;
portrait, 279;
commands division, 279;
Sangi, 280;
organises Jiyuto, 281;
urges grant Constitution, 281;
wounded, 282;
in Europe, 282;
joins Okuma, 282
Ito, Marquis Hirobumi, 28, 32, 45, 119, 121, 125, 129, 144, 147,
148, 150, 151, 153;
portrait, 119
Iwakura, Prince, 21, 28, 35, 128, 131, 152-162;
portrait, 152
Iwami province, 9
Iwasaki, Baron, 139
Iyemochi, Shogun, 15, 16, 18, 53, 71, 79
Iyesada, Shogun, 15, 53, 69, 71
Iyeyasu, Shogun, 12, 16, 58, 63, 67, 95
Iyeyoshi, Shogun, 70
Izanagi and Izanami myth, 11
Jamisen, 56
Jardine Matheson & Company, 120
Jimmu Tenno, 9, 10, 202-203
Jiyuto party, ix, 69, 71
Jo-I party, ix, 69, 71
Junks sail far, 68
Kagoshima, xi, 15, 31, 23, 42, 43, 78
Kai-koku, 69
_Kaiyo Maru_ frigate, 30, 31, 89, 299
Kamakura, 54
Kanagawa, 108
Kanin, 3, 48
Kasumi-ga-ura, 97
Kato Takaaki, Mr., 144
Katsu, Awa-no-kami, Count, 29
Katsura, General, 3, 144
Kawaguchi, 87
Kawamura, Admiral, 43
Kazu, Princess, 75
Keiki, Prince Tokugawa, 18, 23, 53, 81, 85
_Kiang-Su_, 30
Kido, Marquis Koin, 28, 99, 273-278
Kioto, 10, 14, 31, 43
Kiri-shima-yama, 203
Kishiu, 59
Kita Shirakawa, Prince, 7, 49
Knighthood of Japan, 66
Kobé, 14, 78, 125
Komatsu of Satsuma, 28
Komatsu, Prince, 49
Komei, Emperor, 1, 4, 14, 16, 19, 75, 80
“Ko-mon,” 62
Konoye, Emperor, 54
Kublai Khan invades Japan, 55
Korea, 41
_Kowshing_, 307
Kubota Sentaro, 80
Kuge, Court nobles, 21
Kujo, Prince, 1
Kumagé, in Choshiu, 119
Kunozan, Mount, 63
Kuper, Admiral, 23, 78
Kuroda family, 59
— Count, 141
Lancashire Fusiliers, 81
Liao-tung, convention, 142
— evacuation, 143
Lighthouses, 133
Li Hung Chang, 142
London police, 87
Loo-Choo isles, 56
_Lotus_ steamer, 30
Maizuru, 308
Manchuria, 2
Marco Polo, 3, 8
Massacre at Sakai, 31, 32
— of Christians, 65
Matsudaira, 58, 59
Matsukata, Count, xv, 284-297
Matsushiro, 101
Matsushita, 114
Mexico, junks sail to, 68
Mendez, Pinto, 9, 58
Mikado, title explained, 2
Mikawa, 58
Minamoto, 54, 58
Mint established, 285
Mitford (Lord Redesdale), 16, 80
Mito clan, Mito town, 53, 59, 60, 71, 81, 97
Mori, Baron, xii, 16, 17, 75, 114, 122, 173, 275
Mutsuhito, Emperor, xiii, 1, 18, 22, 24, 25, 33, 34, 92
Nafa, 56
Nagasaki, 13
Nakai Kozo, 32
Naosuke, Ii Kamon-no-kami, 70
Nariaki, Prince of Mito, 71, 81, 98
National Assembly decreed, 45
Nijo Castle, Kioto, 28, 95
Nikko shrines, 58, 63, 95
Ninko, Emperor, 4, 103, 114
Ninnaji-no-miya, 86, 92
Oiso, 151
Okubo, Viscount, 28, 75, 184-194
Okuma, Count, xiv, 28, 246-254
Oriental Banking Corporation, 175
Osaka, 24
_Osaka Mainichi Shimbun_, xv
Otori Keisuke, Baron, 27, 33
Owari, 59
Oyama, Marquis, 255-267
Parkes, Sir Harry, 16, 22, 31, 80, 87, 91
Peace treaties, 142
Personal name of Emperor, 1
_Phaeton_ cruiser, vi
Pinto, Mendez, 9, 58
Polo (dakiu), 20, 94
Port Arthur, 143, 309-311
Ports closed, 65
Portuguese, arrival of, 57, 67
Prince Higashi Fushimi, 48, 86
— Komatsu, 49
— Kita Shirakawa, 7, 49
— Kujo, 1
— Sanjo Sanetomi, 21, 28, 163-169
— Shimadzu Saburo, 15, 22, 28
— Yoshi-hito, 1, 49
Princess Sadako, 1
— Kazu, 75
Privy Council, 141
Public Works Department, 133
Railway, first opened, 47
Ranks of Samurai, 66
Rebellion in Satsuma, 42
Redesdale, Lord, 16, 80
Reed, Sir E., xvi
Regent (Tairo), 70
Religions, 57
Resanoff, vi
Revenues of barons, 60, 61
Rice, State trade in, 290
Richardson killed, ix, x
Roches, M., 31
Rome, Church of, 58
“Ro-nins,” 70
Russia and Liao-tung, 143
Sa-dai-jin, 28, 39
Sadako, Crown Princess, 1
Saga insurrection, 41
Saigo, Marshal Takamori, 25, 28, 42, 66, 75, 86, 99, 202-217
— Marquis, 39
Sa-in, 44
Saitama Ken, 316
Sakai massacre, 31, 32
Sakuma Shozan, v, 12, 101-115
Sakurada gate, 70
Samurai principles, 66
Sanjo Sanetomi, Prince, 21, 35, 163-169
Saris, Captain John, vi, 67
Sato Issai, 102
Satow, Sir Ernest, 16, 31, 80
Satsuma, clansmen, 22, 39, 41, 69
— rebellion, 42, 66, 78, 79
— allied with Choshiu, 69
_Scotland_ sunk, 30
Sei-yu-kai, 145, 283
Sekku festivals, 73
Senate, 44
Shantung, 2
Shibusawa, Baron, 315-324
Shidzuoka, 24, 67, 92, 93
Shikishima, 5
Shimabara, 65
Shimadzu Saburo, Prince, 15, 22, 28, 39, 75, 207
Shimidzu, 64
Shimoda, 13, 108
Shimonoseki, x, 76, 123
Shin-Cho-gumi, 90
Shinnō, 3
Shintoism, viii, 6, 7
Shogun, Tokugawa Keiki, 12, 18, 22, 25, 28, 31, 54, 71, 75, 82, 85,
88, 90, 93, 94, 95
Shogunate Embassy, 78
— troops, 81
Sho-in, 44
Shrines, 8
Siebold, Von, vi
Silk culture, 316
Suruga, 24, 92, 93
Suyematsu, Baron, xv, 144
Tairo (Regent), 70
Takachiho peak, sword on, 202
Takanawa Legation, 70
Takasugi, 119
Tayasu house, 93
Telegraphs established, 38
Temmacho prison, 118
Tempo-san, 30, 87
Tenno, 1, 5
— Jimmu, 9
Ten-shi, 1
Throne, attachment to, 6
Togo, Admiral Heihachi, 306-314
Tokugawa, Prince Keiki, vi, 16, 18, 53, 60, 76, 77
— Prince Iyesato, 24, 93
Toné river, 97
Tosa, 25, 69, 82, 110
To-sama, 62
Treaty, British, 14
— Elgin, 14
— first, 13
Treaties disliked, 19
Tsu deserters, 63, 87
Tsuboi Shindo, 102
Tsugaru straits, 25
Tsukiji, 35
Tsurumi murder, x, 77
“Tycoon,” 24, 53, 92, 95, 103
U-dai-jin, 28
Uraga, 11, 70, 116
Utsunomiya, 33
Uyeno, 43, 92
Victoria, Queen, decorates Goto and Nakai, 32
Wakamatsu, 26
Wakayama, 60
Watanabe Kazan, 102
“What will Japan do?” xv
Willis, Dr., 31, 88
_Worcester_, H.M.S., Togo in, 307
Xavier, Francisco, 9
Yamagata, Marshal Marquis, 18, 29, 76, 219-245
Yamamoto, Admiral, 144
Yamao Yozo, Viscount, 119
Yamato, 9
Yanagawa Seigan, 102
Yashikis, 54, 59, 79
Yedo, 14, 29, 69, 80, 94
_Yeddo_ steamer explodes, 37
Yenomoto, Admiral. See Enomoto
Yeso, 15, 27
Yeto Shimpei, 41
Yodo, Prince of Tosa, 83
— river, 86
Yokohama, 14
Yoritomo, Shogun, 54
Yoshida Torajiro, v, 12, 114, 117
Yoshi-hito, Crown Prince, 1
Yoshinobu Hitotsubashi. See Shogun
“Zipangu,” 67
Zozoji temple, 64
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