The Mikado's Empire/Buku 1/Bab 28

XXVIII.

THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN*

IT is the popular impression in the United States and in Europe that the immediate cause of the fall of the shogun's Government, the restoration of the mikado to supreme power, and the abolition of the dual and feudal systems was the presence of foreigners on the soil of Japan. No one who has lived in Dai Nippon, and made himself fa- miliar with the currents of thought among the natives, or who has studied the history of the country, can share this opinion. The for- eigners and their ideas were the occasion, not the cause, of the de- struction of the dual system of government, which would certainly have resulted from the operation of causes already at work before the foreigners arrived. Their presence served merely to hasten what was already inevitable.

I purpose in this chapter to expose the true causes of the recent marvelous changes in Japan. These comprise a three-fold political revolution within, a profound alteration in the national policy toward foreigners, and the inauguration of social reforms which lead us to hope that Japan has rejected the Asiatic, and adopted the European, ideal of civilization. I shall attempt to prove that these causes oper- ated mainly from within, not f r6m without ; from impulse, not from impact ; and that they were largely intellectual.

The history of Japan, as manifested in the current of events since the advent of Commodore Perry, has its sources in a number of dis- tinct movements, some logically connected, others totally distinct from the rest. These were intended to effect: 1. The overthrow of the shogun, and his reduction to his proper level as a vassal ; 2. The res- toration of the true emperor to supreme power; 3. The abolition of the feudal system and a return to the ancient imperial regime; 4. The abolition of Buddhism, and the establishment of pure Shinto as

• Reprinted and enlarged from the North American Review of April, 1875.

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the national faith and the engine of government. These four move- ments were historically and logically connected. The fifth was the expulsion of the foreign "barbarians," and the dictatorial isolation of Japan from the rest of the world ; the sixth, the abandonment of this design, the adoption of Western civilization, and the entrance of Japan into the comity of nations. The origin of the first and second movements must be referred to a time distant from the present by a century and a half ; the third and fourth, to a period within the past century ; the fifth and sixth, to an impulse developed mainly within the memory of young men now living.

There existed, long before the advent of Perry, definite conceptions of the objects to be accomplished. These lay in the minds of earnest thinkers, to whom life under the dual system was a perpetual winter of discontent, like snow upon the hills. In due season the spring would have come that was to make the flood. The presence of Perry in the Bay of Yedo was like an untimely thaw, or a hot south-wind in February. The snow melted, the streams gathered. Like houses built upon the sand, the shogunate and the feudal system were swept away. They were already too rotten and worm-eaten to have the great fall which the simile might suggest. The mikado and the ancient ark of state floated into power. Buddhism stood as upon a rock, damaged, but firm. The foreigner, moored to the pile-driven foundations of his treaties, held his own more firmly than before. The flood in full mo- mentum was swollen by a new stream and deflected into a new chan- nel. Abandoning the attempt to defy the gravitation of events, to run up the hill of a past forever sloping backward into the impossi- ble, the flood found surcease with the rivers of nations that make the ocean of human solidarity.

The chief motors of these movements were intellectual. Neither the impact of foreign cannon-balls at Kagoshima or Shimonoseki (see Appendix), nor the heavy and unjust indemnities demanded from the Japanese, wrought of themselves the events of the last ten years, as foreigners so complacently believe. An English writer resident in Japan concludes his translation of the " Legacy of lyeyasu " by refer- ring to it as the " constitution under which this country [Japan] was governed until the time within the recollection of all, when it gave way to the irresistible momentum of a higher civilization." The translator evidently means that the fall of the dual form of govern- ment and the feudal system was the direct result of contact with the higher civilization of Europe and America. English writers on Japan

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seem to imply that the bombardment of Kagoshima was the para- mount cause that impelled Japan to adopt the foreign civilization.

Much, also, has been said and written in praise of Japan for her abolition of the feudal system by a " stroke of the pen," and thus "achieving in one day what it required Europe centuries to accom- plish." An outsider, whose knowledge of Dai Nippon is derived from our old text-books and cyclopedias, or from non-resident book-makers, may be so far dazed as to imagine the Japanese demi-gods in state- craft, even as the American newspapers make them all princes. To the writer, who has lived in a daimio's capital before, during, and after the abolition of feudalism, the comparison suggests the reason why the Irish recruit cut off the leg instead of the head of his enemy. Long before its abolition, Japanese feudalism was ready for its grave. The overthrow of the sh5gun left it a headless trunk. To cut off its legs and bury it was easy, and in reality this was what the mikado's Government did, as I shall show.

As it would be vain to attempt to comprehend our own late civil war by beginning at Sumter, or even with the Compromise measures of 1851 ; so one will be misled who, in attempting to understand the Japan of to-day, looks only at events since Perry's time. The roots of the momentous growth of 1868 are to be found within the past centuries.

Yoritomo's acts were in reality the culmination of a long series of usurpations, begun by the taira. Under the plea of military necessity, he had become an arch-usurper. In the period 1184-1199 A.D. began that dual system of government which has been the political puzzle of the world ; which neither Kaempfer, nor the Deshima Hollanders, nor the Portuguese Jesuits seem ever to have fully understood ; which has filled our cyclopedias and school-books with the misleading non- sense about " two emperors," one " spiritual " and the other " secular ;" which led the astute Perry and his successors to make treaties with an underling ; which gave rise to a vast mass of what is now very amus- ing reading, embracing much prophecy, fiction, and lamentations, in the Diplomatic Correspondence from Japan ; and which keeps alive the drivel and solecism heard among a few Rip Van Winkles in Ja- pan, who talk, both in Japanese and English, about the " return of the tycoon to power." There never was but one emperor in Japan ; the shogun was a military usurper, and the bombastic title "tycoon" a diplomatic fraud.

WP have seen how the policy of Yoritomo was continued by the

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Hojo, the Ashikaga, and the Tokugawas, who consummated the per- manent separation of the throne and the camp. The custom of the shoguns going to Kioto to do the mikado homage fell into desuetude after the visit of lyemitsu. The iron-handed rule of the great com- mander at Yedo was felt all over the empire, and after centuries of war it had perfect peace. Learning flourished, the arts prospered. So perfect was the political machinery of the bakufu that the power of the mikado seemed but a shadow, though in reality it was vastly greater than foreigners ever imagined.

The dwellings of the two rulers at Yedo and Kioto, of the domi- neering general and the overawed emperor, were typical of their posi- tions. The mikado dwelt, unguarded, in a mansion surrounded by gardens inclosed within a plaster wall, in a city which was the chosen centre of nobles of simple life, highest rank, and purest blood, men of letters, students, and priests, and noted for its classic history and sacred associations, monasteries, gardens, and people of courtly man- ners and gentle life. The shogun lived in a fortified and garrisoned castle, overlooking an upstart city full of arsenals, vassal princes, and military retainers. The feelings of the people found truest expression in the maxim, " The shogun all men fear ; the mikado all men love."

The successors of lyeyasu, carrying out his policy, having extermi- nated the "corrupt sect" (Christianity), swept all foreigners out of the empire, and bolting its sea-barred gates, proceeded to devise and execute measures to eliminate all disturbing causes, and fix in eternal stability the peaceful conditions which were the fruit of tlie toils of his arduous life. They deliberately attempted to prevent Chronos from devouring his children.

According to their scheme, the intellect of the nation was to be bounded by the Great Wall of the Chinese classics, while to the hie- rarchy of Buddhism — one of the most potent engines ever devised for crushing and keeping crashed the intellect of the Asiatic masses — was given the ample encouragement of government example and patron- age. An embargo was laid upon all foreign ideas. Edicts commanded the destruction of all boats built upon a foreign model, and forbade the building of vessels of any size or shape superior to that of a junk. Death was the penalty of believing in Christianity, of traveling abroad, of studying foreign languages, of introducing foreign customs. Be- fore the august train of the shogun men must seal their upper win- dows, and bow their faces to the earth. Even to his tea-jars and cook- ing-pots the populace must do obeisance with face in the dust. To

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study ancient history, which might expose the origin of the sh6gun- ate, was forbidden to the vulgar, and discouraged among the higher. A rigid censorship dried the life-blood of many a master spirit, while the manufacture and concoction of false and garbled histories which extolled the reigning dynasty, or glorified the dual system of govern- ment as the best and only one for Japan, were encouraged. There were not wanting poets, fawning flatterers, and even historians, who in their effusions styled the august usurper the 0-gimi (Chinese, tai-kun, or "tycoon"), a term meaning great prince, or exalted ruler, and properly applied only to the mikado. The blunders, cruelties, and op- pressions of the Tokugawa rulers were, in popular fiction and drama, removed from the present, and depicted in plots laid in the time of the Ashikagas, and the true names changed. One of the most perfect systems of espiouage and repression ever devised was elaborated to fetter all men in helpless subjection to the great usurper. An incred- ibly large army of spies was kept in the pay of the Government. Within such a hedge, the Government itself being a colossal fraud, rapidly grew and flourished public and private habits of lying, and de- ceit in all its forms, until the love of a lie apparently for its own sake became a national habit. When foreigners arrived in the Land of the Gods during the decade following Perry's arrival, they concluded that the lying which was everywhere persistently carried on in the Govern- ment and by private persons with such marvelous facility and unique originality was a primal characteristic of Japanese human nature. The necessity of hoodwinking the prying eyes of the foreigners, lest they should discover the fountain of authority, and the true relation of the shogun, gave rise to the use of official deception that seemed as varie- gated as a kaleidoscope and as regular as the laws of nature. The ma- jority of the daimios who had received lands and titles from the sho- gun believed their allegiance to be forever due to him, instead of to the mikado, a belief stigmatized as rank treason by the students of history. As for the common people, the great mass of them forgot, or never knew, that the emperor had ever held power or governed his people ; and being officially taught to believe him to be a divine per- sonage, supposed he had lived thus from time immemorial. Knowing only of the troubled war times before the " great and good " Tokuga- was, they believed devoutly in the infallibility, paternal benevolence, and divine right of the Yedo rulers.

The line of shoguns, founded by lyeyasu, was the last that held, or ever will hold, the military power in Japan. To them the Japanese

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people owe the blessing of nearly two hundred and seventy years of peace. Under their firm rule the dual form of government seemed fixed on a basis unchangeable, and the feudal system in eternal stabili- ty. There did not exist, nor was it possible there should arise, causes such as undermined the feudalism of Europe. The Church, the Em- pire, free cities, industrialism — these were all absent. The eight classes of the people were kept contented and happy. A fertile soil and ge- nial clime gave food in unstinted profusion, and thus was removed a cause which is a chronic source of insurrection in portions of China. As there was no commerce, there was no vast wealth to be accumu- lated, nor could the mind of the merchant expand to a limit danger- ous to despotism by fertilizing contact with foreigners. All learning and education, properly so called, were confined to the samurai, to whom also belonged the sword and privilege. The perfection of the governmental machinery at Yedo kept, as was the design, the daimios poor and at jealous variance with each other, and rendered it impossi- ble for them to combine their power. No two of them ever were al- lowed to meet in private or to visit each other without spies. The vast army of eighty thousand retainers of the Tokugawas, backed by the following of some of the richest clans, such as Owari, Kii, Mito, and Echizen (see Appendix), who were near relatives of the shogunal family, together with the vast resources in income and accumulation, made it appear, as many believed, that the overthrow of the Tokuga- was, or the bakuf u, or the feudal system, was a moral impossibility.

Yet all these fell to ruin in the space of a few months ! The baku- fu is now a shadow of the past. The Tokugawas, once princes and the gentry of the land, whose hands never touched other tools than pen and sword, now live in obscurity or poverty, and by thousands keep soul and body together by picking tea, making paper, or digging the mud of rice-fields they once owned, like the laborers they once despised. Their ancestral tombs at Ktmo, Shiba, Uyeno, and Nikko, once the most sacred and magnificently adorned of Japanese places of honor, are now dilapidating in unarrested neglect, dishonor, and de- cay. The feudal system, at the touch of a few daring parvenus, crum- bled to dust like the long undisturbed tenants of catacombs when sud- denly moved or exposed to the light of day. Two hundred and fifty princes, resigning lands, retainers, and incomes, retired to private life in Tokio at the bidding of their former servants, acting in the name of the mikado. They are now quietly waiting to die. They are the " dead facts stranded on the shores of the oblivious years."

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What were the causes of these three distinct results? When be- gan the first gathering of the waters which burst into flood in 1868, sweeping away the landmarks of centuries, floating the old ship of state into power, impelling it, manned with new men and new ma- chinery, into the stream of modern thought, as though Noah's ark had been equipped with engines, steam, and propellers? To understand the movement, we must know the currents of thought, and the men who produced the ideas.

There were formerly many classes of people in Japan, but only three of these were students and thinkers. The first comprised the court nobles, the literati of Kioto ; the second, the priests, who brought into existence that mass of Japanese Buddhistic literature, and origi- nated and developed those phases of the India cultus which have made Japanese Buddhism a distinct product of thought and life among the manifold developments of the once most widely professed religion in the world. This intellectual activity and ecclesiastical growth culminated in the sixteenth century. Since that time Japa- nese thought has been led by the samurai, among whom we may in- clude the priests of Shinto. The modern secular intellectual activity of Japan attained its highest point during the latter part of the last and the first quarter of the present century. Even as far back as the seventeenth century, the students of ancient history began to under- stand clearly the true nature of the duarchy, and to see that the sho- gunate could exist only while the people were kept in ignorance. From that time Buddhism began to lose its hold on the intellect of the samurai and lay educated classes. The revival of Chinese learn- ing, especially the Confucian and Mencian politico - ethics, followed. Buddhism was almost completely supplanted as a moral force. The invasion of Corea was one of the causes tributary to this result, which was greatly stimulated by the presence of a number of refugee schol- ars, who had fled from China on the overthrow of the Ming dynasty. The secondary influence of the fall of Peking and the accession of the Tartars became a parallel to the fall of Constantinople and the dispersion of the Greek scholars through Europe in the thirteenth century. The relation between the sovereign (mikado) and vassal (shogun) had become so nearly mythical, that most Japanese fathers could not satisfy the innocent and eager questions of their children as to who was sovereign of Japan. The study of the Confucian moral scheme of " The Five Relations " (i. «., sovereign and minister, parent and child, husband and wife, elder and younger brother, and between

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friends), in which the first and great requirement is the obedience of the vassal to his lord, aroused an incoercible desire among the samurai to restore and define that relation so long obscured. This spirit in- creased with every blunder of the bakuf u ; and when the revolution opened, " the war-cry that led the imperial party to victory was Daigi meibun, or the 'King and the subject;' whereby it was understood that the distinction between them must be restored, and the shogun should be reduced to the proper relation of subject or servant to his sovereign."*

The province of Mito was especially noted for the number, ability, and activity of its scholars. In it dwelt the learned Chinese refugees as guests of the daimio. The classic, which has had so powerful an influence in forming the public opinion which now upholds the mi- kado's throne, is the product of the native scholars, who submitted their text for correction to the Chinese scholars. The second Prince of Mito, who was born 1622, and died 1700, is to be considered, as was first pointed out by Mr. Ernest Satow, as " the real author of the movement which culminated in the revolution of 1868." Assembling around him a host of scholars from all parts of Japan, he began the composition of the Dai Nikon Shi, or " History of Japan." It is writ- ten in the purest Chinese, which is to Japan what Latin is to learning in Europe, and fills two hundred and forty-three volumes, or matter about equal to Mr. Bancroft's "History of the United States." It was finished in 1715, and immediately became a classic. Though dil- igently studied, it remained in manuscript, copied from hand to hand by eager students, until 1£51, when the wide demand for it induced its publication in print. The tendency of this book, as of most of the many publications of Mito,f was to direct the minds of the people to the mikado as the true and only source of authority, and to point out the historical fact that the shogun was a military usurper. Mito, be- ing a near relative of the house of Tokugawa, was allowed greater lib- erty in stating his views than could have been granted to any other person. The work begun by Mito was followed up by the famous scholar, Rai Sanyo, who in 1827, after twenty years of continuous la- bor, completed his Nihon Guai Shi (" External History of Japan "), in which he gives the history of each of the military families, Taira, Mi- namoto, Hojo, Ashikaga, etc., who held the governing power from the

• Arinori Mori : Introduction to " Education in Japan," p. 26.

t See article Japan, Literature of, in the "American Cyclopaedia."

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period of the decadence of the mikados. This work had to pass the ordeal of the censorate at Yedo, and some of the volumes were re- peatedly purged by the censors before they were allowed to be pub- lished. The unmistakable animus of this great book is to show that the mikado is the only true ruler, in whom is the fountain of power, and to whom the allegiance of every Japanese is due, and that even the Tokugawas were not free from the guilt of usurpation.

The long peace of two centuries gave earnest patriots time to think. Though the great body of the people, both the governing and the gov- erned classes, enervated by prolonged prosperity and absence of dan- ger, cared for none of these things, the serious students burned to see the mikado again restored to his ancient authority. This motive alone would have caused revolution in due time. They felt that Japan had retrograded, that the military arts had sunk into neglect, that the war spirit slumbered. Yet on all sides the " greedy foreigners " were ey- ing the Holy Country. Already the ocean, once a wall, was a high- way for wheeled vessels. The settlement of California and the Pacif- ic coast made the restless Americans their neighbors on the east, with only a wide steam ferry between. American whalers cruised in Japa- nese waters, and hunted whales in sight of the native coasters. Amer- ican ships repeatedly visited their harbors to restore a very few of the human waifs which for centuries in unintermitted stream had drifted up the Kuro Shiwo and across the Pacific, giving her shores wrecks and spoils, her tribes men, her tongues words, and perhaps the civiliza- tion which in Peru and Mexico awoke the wonder and tempted the cupidity of the Spanish marauders (see Appendix). Defying all prec- edent, and trampling on Japanese pride and isolation, the American captains refused to do as the Hollanders, and go to Nagasaki, and ap- peared even in the Bay of Yedo. The long scarfs of coal-smoke were becoming daily matters of familiar ugliness and prognostics of doom. The steam-whistle heard by the junk sailors — as potent as the rams' horns of old — had already thrown down their walls of exclusion. The "black ships" of the "barbarians" passing Matsumae in one year numbered eighty-six. Russia, on the north, was descending upon Saghalin ; the English, French, Dutch, and Americans were pressing their claims for trade and commerce. The bakufu was idle, making few or no preparations to resist the fierce barbarians. Far-sighted men saw that, in presence of foreigners, a collision between the two centres of government, Yedo and Kioto, would be immediate as it was inevitable. When it should come, in the nature of the case, the sho-

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gunate must fall. The samurai would adhere to the mikado's side, and the destruction of the feudal system would follow as a logical ne- cessity. It was the time of luxury, carousal, and the stupor of licen- tious carnival with most of the daimios, but with others of gloomy forebodings.

Another current of thought was flowing in the direction of a re- stored mikadoate. It may be called the revival of the study of pure Shinto, and, in examining the causes of the recent revolution, can not be overlooked. The introduction of Buddhism and Chinese philoso- phy greatly modified or " corrupted " the ancient faith. A school of modern writers has attempted to purge modern Shinto, and present it in its original form.

According to this religion, Japan is pre-eminently the Land of the Gods, and the mikado is their divine representative and vicegerent. Hence the duty of all Japanese implicitly to obey him. During the long reign of the shoguns, and of Buddhism, which they favored and professed, few, indeed, knew what pure Shinto was. Its Bible is the Kojiki, compiled A.D. 712. Several other works, such as the Nihongi, Manyoshiu, are nearly as old and as valuable in the eyes of Shinto scholars as the Kojiki. They are written in ancient Japanese, and can be read only by special students of the archaic form of the language. The developments of a taste for the study of ancient native literature and for that of history were nearly synchronous. The neglect of pure Japanese learning for that of Chinese had been almost universal, until Keichiu, Kada, and other scholars revived its critical study. The bakufu discouraged all such investigation, while the mikado and court at Kioto lent it all their aid, both moral and, as it is said, pecuniary. Mabuchi (1697-1769), Motoori (1730-1801), and Hirata (1776-1843), each successively the pupil of the other, are the greatest lights of pure Shinto  ; and their writings, which are devoted to cosmogony, ancient history, and language, the true position of the mikado and the Shinto cultus, exerted a lively influence at Kioto, in Mito, in Echizen, Satsuma, and in many other provinces, where a political party was already form- ing, with the intention of accomplishing the abolition of the bakufu and a return to the Osei era. The necessary result of the study of Shinto was an increase of reverence for the mikado. Buddhism, Chi- nese influence, Confucianism, despotism, usurpation, and the bakufu were, in the eyes of a Shintoist, all one and the same. Shinto, the ancient true religion, all which a patriot could desire, good govern- ment, national purity, the Golden Age, and a life best explained by the

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conception of the "millennium" among Christians, were synonymous with the mikado and his return to power. The arguments of the Shintoists helped to swell the tide that came to its flood at Fushimi. Throughout and after the war of 1868-1870, there were no more bit- ter partisans who urged to the last extremes of logic and severity the issues of the war and the " reformation." It was the study of the lit- erature produced by the Shinto scholars and the historical writers that formed the public opinion that finally overthrew the shogunate, the bakufu, and feudalism.

Long before foreigners arrived, the seeds of revolution were above the soil. The old Prince of Mito, a worthy descendant of his illustri- ous ancestor, tired of preaching Shinto and of persuading the shogun to hand over his authority to the mikado, resolved, in 1840, to take up arms and to try the wager of battle. To provide the sinews of war, he seized the Buddhist monasteries, and melted down their enor- mous bronze bells and cast them into cannon. By prompt measures the bakufu suppressed his preparations for war, and imprisoned him for twelve years, releasing him only in the excitement consequent upon the arrival of Perry.

Meanwhile Satsuma, Choshiu, and other Southern clans were mak- ing extensive military preparations, not merely to be in readiness to drive out the possible foreign invaders, but, as we now know, and as events proved, to reduce the shogun to his proper level as one of many of the mikado's vassals. The ancestors of these most powerful clans had of old held equal rank and power with lyeyasu, until the fortunes of war turned against them. They had been overcome by force, or had sullenly surrendered in face of overwhelming odds. Their adhe- sion to the Tokugawas was but nominal, and only the strong pressure of superior power was able to wring from them a haughty semblance of obedience. They chafed perpetually under the rule of one who was in reality a vassal like themselves. On more than one occasion they openly defied and ignored the bakufu's orders ; and the purpose, scarcely kept secret, of the Satsuma and Choshiu clans was to destroy the shogunate, and acknowledge no authority but that of the mikado.

From the Southern clans rose, finally, the voice in council, the secret plot, the coup d'etat, and the arms in the field that wrought the purpose for which Mito labored. Yet they would never have been successful, had not a public sentiment existed to support them, which the historical writers had already created by their writings. The scholars could never have gratified their heart's wish, had not the

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sword and pen, brain and hand — both equally mighty — helped each other.

Notably pre-eminent among the Southern daimios, in personal char- acteristics, abilities, energy, and far-sightedness, was the Prince of Satsuma. Next to Kaga, he was the wealthiest of all the daimios (see Appendix). Had he lived, he would doubtless have led the revo- lutionary movement of 1868. Besides giving encouragement to all students of the ancient literature and history, he was most active in developing the material resources of his province, and in perfecting the military organization, so that, when the time should be ripe for the onslaught on the bakufu, he might have ready for the mikado the military provision to make his government a complete success. To carry out his plans, he encouraged the study of the Dutch and English languages, and thus learned the modern art of war and scientific im- provement. He established cannon - foundries and mills on foreign principles. He saw that something more was needed. Young men must visit foreign countries, and there acquire the theory and practice of the arts of war and peace. The laws of the country forbade any subject to leave it, and the bakufu was ever on the alert to catch run- aways. Later on, however, by a clever artifice, a number of the brightest young men, about twenty-seven in number, got away in one vessel to Europe, and, despite the surveillance of the Yedo officials, others followed to England and the United States. Among these young men were some who are now high officials of the Japanese Government.

The renown of this prince extended all over the empire, and num- bers of young men from all parts of the country flocked to be his pupils or students. Kagoshima, his capital, became a centre of busy manual industry and intellectual activity. Keeping pace with the in- tense energy of mind and hand was the growing sentiment that the days of the bakufu were numbered, that its fall was certain, and that the only fountain of authority was the mikado. The Satsuma samurai and students all looked to the prince as the man for the coming crisis, when, to the inexpressible grief of all, he sickened and died, in 1858. He was succeeded in actual power by Shimadzvi Saburo, his younger brother. No master ever left more worthy pupils ; and those most trust- ed and trusting, among many others, were Saigo, Okubo, and Katsu. The mention of these names calls up to a native the most stirring memories of the war. Saigo became the leader of the imperial army. Okubo, the implacable enemy of the bakufu, was the master-spirit in council,

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and the power behind the throne which urged the movement to its logical consequences. At this moment, the annihilator of the Saga rebellion, crowned with diplomatic laurels, and the conqueror of a peace at Peking, he stands leader of the Cabinet, and the foremost man in Japan. Katsu advised the bakufu not to fight Choshiu, and his master to resign his position, thus saving Yedo from destruction. The lesser men of note, pupils of Satsuma, who now hold positions of trust, or who have become disinterested Cincinnati, to show their patriotism, are too many to mention.

Familiarity with the facts above exposed will enable one to under- stand the rush of events that followed the arrival of the American en- voy. The bakufu was apparently at the acme of power. The shogun lyeyoshi at Yedo was faineant. The mikado at Kioto, Komei Tenno, father of the present emperor, was a man who understood well his true position, hated the bakufu as a nest of robbers, and all foreigners as unclean beasts. Within the empire, all was ripe for revolution. Beneath the portentous calm, those who would listen could hear the rumble of the political earthquake. From without came puffs of news, like atmospheric pulses portending a cyclone. On that 7th day of July, 1853, the natural sea and sky wearing perfect calm, the magnifi- cent fleet of the " barbarian " ships sailed up the Bay of Yedo. It was the outer edge of the typhoon. The Susquehanna was leading the squadrons of seventeen nations.

There was one spectator upon the bluffs at Yokohama who was per- suaded in his own mind that the men who could build such ships as those ; who were so gentle, kind, patient, firm ; having force, yet using it not ; demanding to be treated as equals, and in return dealing with Japanese as with equals, could not be barbarians. If they were, it were better for the Japanese to become barbarous. That man was Katsu, now the Secretary of the Japanese Navy.

The barbarian envoy was a strange creature. He was told to leave the Bay of Yedo and go to Nagasaki. He impolitely refused, and staid and surveyed, and was dignified. This was anomalous. Other barbarians had not acted so ; they had quietly obeyed orders. Fur- thermore, he brought letters and presents, all directed " To the Em- peror of Japan." The shogun was not emperor, but he must make believe to be so. It would not do to call himself the mikado's general only. This title awed sufficiently at home ; but would the strangers respect it  ? A pedantic professor (" not the Prince of Dai Gaku ") in

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the Chinese college (Dai Gaku Ko) at Yedo was sent to treat with the barbarian Perry. A chopper of Chinese logic, and a stickler for exact terms, the pedant must, as in duty bound, exalt his master. He inserted, or at least allowed to be used in the treaties the title tai-kun, a purely Chinese word, which in those official documents signified that he was the supreme ruler of all Japan. This title had never been be- stowed upon the shogun by the mikado, nor had it ever been used in the imperial official documents. The bakufu and the pedantic pro- fessor, Hayashi, did not mean to lie to the true sovereign in Kioto. The bakufu, like a frog, whose front is white, whose back is black, could look both ways, and present two fronts. Seen from Kioto, the lie was white ; that is, " meant nothing." Looked at by those unsus- pecting dupes, the barbarians, it was black ; that is, " The august Sov- ereign of Japan," as the preamble of the Perry treaty says. Yet to the jealous emperor and court this white lie was, as ever white lies are, the blackest of lies. It created the greatest uneasiness and alarm. The shogun had no shadow of right to this bombastic figment of authority.

It was a new illustration in diplomacy of ^Esop's Fable No. 26. The great Yedo frog puffed itself to its utmost to equal the Kioto ox, and it burst in the attempt. The last carcass of these batrachians in diplomacy was buried in Shidzuoka, a city ninety-five miles south- west of Tokio, in 1868. The writer visited this ancient home of the Tokugawas in 1872, and in a building within a mile of the actual presence of the last and still living " tycoon," and within shouting dis- tance of thousands of his ex -retainers, saw scores of the presents brought by Commodore Perry lying, many of them, in mildew, rust,

or neglect. They were all labeled " Presented by the of

the United States to the Emperor of Japan." Yet the mikado never saw them. The Japanese excel at a jibe, but when did they perpe- trate sarcasm so huge  ? The mikado's government, with Pilate's irony, had allowed the tycoon to keep the presents, with the labels on them !

We may fairly infer that so consummate a diplomatist as Perry, had he understood the true state of affairs, would have gone with his fleet to Ozaka, and opened negotiations with the mikado at Kioto, in- stead of with his lieutenant at Yedo. Perhaps he never knew that he had treated with an underling.

The immediate results of the opening of the ports to foreign com- merce in 1859 were the disarrangement of the prices of the necessaries of life, and almost universal distress consequent thereon, much sickness and mortality from the importation of foreign diseases, to which was

THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 305

added an exceptional succession of destructive earthquakes, typhoons, floods, fires, and storms. In the midst of these calamities the shogun, lye'sada, died.

An heir must be chosen. His selection developed upon the tairo, or regent, li, a man of great ability, daring, and, as his enemies say, of unscrupulous villainy. li,* though socially of low rank, possessed almost supreme power. Ignoring the popular choice of Keik6 (the seventh son of the Daimio of Mito), who had been adopted by the house of Hitotsubashi, he chose the Prince of Kii, a boy twelve years of age. In answer to the indignant protests of the princes of Mito,f Echizen, and Owari, he shut them up in prison, and thus alienated from his support the near relatives of the house of Tokugawa, It was his deliberate intention, say his enemies, to depose the mikado, as the IIojo did, and set up a boy emperor again. At the same time, all who opposed him or the bakufu, or who, in either Kioto, Yedo, or elsewhere, agitated the restoration of the mikado, he impoverished, imprisoned, exiled, or beheaded. Among his victims were many noble scholars and patriots, whose fate excited universal pity.J

• The premier, II, was the Daimio of Hikone", a castled town and fief on Lake

Biwa, in Mino ; revenue, three hundred and fifty thousand koku. He was at the head of the /udai. His personal name was Nawosuke"; his title at the emperor's court was kamon no kami — head of the bureau of the Ku Nai Sho (imperial house- hold)—having in charge the hangings, curtains, carpets, mats, and the sweeping of the palace on state occasions. His rank at Kioto was Chiujo, or "general of the second class." In the bakufu, he was prime minister, or " tairo." He had a son, who was afterward educated in Brooklyn, New York.

t It would be impossible in brief space to narrate the plots and counterplots at Yedo and Kioto during the period 1860-1868. As a friendly critic (in The Hifigo News, June 9th, 1875) has pointed out, I allow that the Prince of Mito, while wishing to overthrow the shogunate, evidently wished to see the restoration ac- complished with his son, Koike", in a post of high honor and glory. While in banishment, secret instructions were sent from Kioto, which ran thus: "The bakufu has shown great disregard of public opinion in concluding treaties with- out waiting for the opinion of the court, and in disgracing princes so closely al- lied by blood to the shogun. The mikado's rest is disturbed by the spectacle of such misgovernment, when the fierce barbarian is at our very door. Do you, therefore, assist the bakufu with your advice ; expel the barbarians ; content the mind of the people ; and restore tranquillity to his majesty's bosom." — Kinte Shiriaku, p. 11, Satow's translation. This letter was afterward delivered up to the bakufu, shortly after which (September, 1861) the old prince died. The Mito clan was for many years afterward divided into two factions, the "Righteous" and the "Wicked." There is no proof that the Prince of Mito poisoned ly&ada, except the baseless guess of Sir Rutherford Alcock, which has a value at par with most of that writer's statements concerning Japanese history.

I Among others was Yoshida Shoin, a samurai of Choshiu, and a student of

306 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE.

The mikado being by right the supreme ruler, and the shogun merely a vassal, no treaty with foreigners could be binding unless signed by the mikado.

The shogun or his ministers had no right whatever to sign the treaties. Here was a dilemma. The foreigners were pressing the ratification of the treaties on the bakufu, while the mikado and court as vigorously refused their consent. li was not a man to hesitate. As the native chronicler writes : " He began to think that if, in the pres- ence of these constant arrivals of foreigners of different nations, he were to wait for the Kioto people to make up their minds, some un- lucky accident might bring the same disasters upon Japan as China had already experienced. He, therefore, concluded a treaty at Kana- gawa, and affixed his seal to it, after which he reported the transac- tion to Kioto."

This signature to the treaties without the mikado's consent stirred up intense indignation at Kioto and throughout the country, which from one end to the other now resounded with the cry, " Honor the mikado, and expel the barbarian." In the eyes of patriots, the regent was a traitor. His act gave the enemies of the bakufu a legal pretext of enmity, and was the signal of the regent's doom. All over the country thousands of patriots left their homes, declaring their inten-

European learning. He was the man who tried to get on board Commodore Perry's ship at Shimoda (Perry's " Narrative," p. 485-488). He had been kept in prison in his clan since 1854. He wrote a pamphlet against the project of taking up arms against the bakufu, for which he was rewarded by the Tedo rulers with his liberty. After li's arbitrary actions, Toshida declared that the shogunate could not be saved, and must fall. When the shogun' s ministers were arresting patriots in Kioto, Yoshida resolved to take his life. For this plot, after detection, he was sent to Yedo in a cage, and beheaded. This ardent patriot, whose memo- ry is revered by all parties, was one of the first far-sighted men to see that Japan must adopt foreign civilization, or fall before foreign progress, like India. The national enterprises now in operation were urged by him in an able pamphlet written before his death.

Another victim, a student of European literature, and a fine scholar in Dutch and Chinese, named Hashimoto Sanai, of Fukui, brother of my friend Dr. Hashi- moto, surgeon in the Japanese army, fell a martyr to his loyalty and patriotism. This gentleman was the instrument of arousing an enthusiasm for foreign science in Fukui, which ultimately resulted in the writer's appointment to Fukui. Ha- shimoto saw the need of opening peaceful relations with foreigners, but believed that it could safely be done only under the restored and unified government. Under a system of divided authority, he held that the ruin of Japan would re- sult. Had Perry treated with the mikado, foreign war might possibly have re- sulted, though very probably not. By treating with the counterfeit emperor in Yedo, civil war, foreign hostilities, impoverishment of the country, and national misery, prolonged for years, were inevitable.

THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 307

tion not to return to them until the mikado, restored to power, should sweep away the barbarians. Boiling over with patriotism, bands of assassins, mostly ronins, roamed the country, ready to slay foreigners, or the regent, and to die for the mikado. On the 23d of March, li was assassinated in Yedo, outside the Sakurada gate of the castle, near the spot where now stand the offices of the departments of War and Foreign Affairs, and the Gothic brick buildings of the Imperial Col- lege of Engineering. Then followed the slaughter of insolent foreign- ers, and in some cases of innocent ones, and the burning of their lega- tions, the chief object in nearly every case being to embroil the baku- fu with foreign powers, and thus hasten its fall. Some of these ama- teurs, who in foreign eyes were incendiaries and assassins, and in the native view noble patriots, are now high officials in the mikado's Government.

The prestige of the bakufu declined daily, and the tide of influence and power set in steadily toward the true capital. The custom of the shogun's visiting Kioto, and doing homage to the mikado, after an in- terval of two hundred and thirty years, was revived, which caused his true relation to be clearly understood even by the common people, who then learned for the first time the fact that the rule existed, and had been so long insolently ignored. The Prince of Echizen, by a special and unprecedented act of the bakufu, and in obedience to orders from the Kioto court, was made premier. By his own act, as many believe, though he was most probably only the willing cat's-paw of the South- ern daimios, he abolished the custom of the daimios' forced residence in Yedo. Like wild birds from an opened cage, they, with all their retainers, fled from the city in less than a week. Yedo's glory faded like a dream, and the power and greatness of the Tokugawas came to naught. Few of the clans obeyed any. longer the command of the bakufu, and gradually the hearts of the people fell away. " And so," says the native chronicler, " the prestige of the Tokugawa family, which had endured for three hundred years; which had been really more brilliant than Kamakura in the age of Yoritomo on a moonlight night when the stars are shining ; which for more than two hundred and seventy years had forced the daimios to come breathlessly to take their turn of duty in Yedo ; and which had, day and night, eighty thousand vassals at its beck and call, fell to ruin in the space of one morning."

The clans now gathered at the true miako, Kioto, which became a scene of gayety and bustle unknown since the days of the Taira.

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THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE.

Ending their allegiance to the bakufu, they began to act either ac- cording to their own will, or only at the bidding of the court. They filled the imperial treasury with gold, and strengthened the hands of the Son of Heaven with their loyal devotion. Hatred of the foreign- er, and a desire to fill their empty coffers with the proceeds of com- merce, swayed the minds of many of them like the wind among reeds. Others wished to open the ports in their fiefs, so as to pocket the prof-

Matendaira Yoshinaga, ex-Dairaio of Echizen, Chief Minister of State in 1862. (From a carte-de-visite presented by him.)

its of foreign commerce, which the bakufu enjoyed as its monopoly. A war of pamphlets ensued, some writers attempting to show that the clans owed allegiance to the bakufu ; others condemning the idea as treasonable, and, having the historic facts on their side, proved the mi- kado to be the sole sovereign. The bakufu, acting upon the pressure of public opinion in Kioto, and in hopes of restoring its prestige, bent all its efforts to close the ports and persuade the foreigners to leave Japan. For this purpose they sent an embassy to Europe. To has-

THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 309

ten their steps, the rOnins now began the systematic assassination of all who opposed their plans, pillorying their heads in the dry bed of the river in front of the city. As a hint to the Tokugawa " usurpers," they cut off the heads of wooden images of the first three Ashikaga shoguns, and stuck them on poles in public. The ronins were ar- rested ; Choshiu espoused their side, while Aidzu, who was governor of the city, threw them into prison. The mikado, urged by the clam- orous braves, and by kuge who had never seen one of the " hairy for- eigners," nor dreamed of their power, issued an order for their expul- sion from Japan. The Choshiu men, the first to act, erected batteries at Shimonoseki. The bakufu, which was responsible to foreigners, commanded the clan to disarm. They refused, and in July, 1863, fired on foreign vessels. They obeyed the mikado, and disobeyed the sho- gun. During the next month, Kagoshima was bombarded by a Brit- ish squadron.

On the 4th of September, the Choshiu cannoneers fired on a bakufu steamer, containing some men of the Kokura clan who were enemies of Choshiu, and who had given certain aid and comfort to foreign ves- sels, and refused to fire on the latter. The Choshiu men in Kioto be- sought the mikado to make a progress to Yamato, to show to the em- pire his intention of taking the field in person against the barbarians. The proposal was accepted, and the preliminaries arranged, when sud- denly all preparations were stopped, Choshiu became an object of blackest suspicion, the palace gates were doubly guarded, the city was thrown into violent commotion ; while the deliberations of the palace ended in the expulsion of Sanjo Saneyoshi (now Dai Jo Dai Jin), Sawa (Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1870-'7l), and five other court nobles, who were deprived of their rank and titles, while eighteen oth- ers were punished, and all retainers or members of the family of Mori (Choshiu) were peremptorily "forbidden to enter the capital" — a phrase that made them outlaws. An army was levied, and the city put in a state of defense.

The reason of this was, that the Choshiu men were accused of plot- ting to get possession of the mikado's person, in order to dictate the policy of the empire. The eighteen kuge and the six ringleaders were suspected of abetting the plot. This, and the firing on the steamer containing their envoys, roused the indignation of the bakufu, and the clans loyal to it, especially Aidzu, to the highest pitch. The men of Choshiu, accompanied by the seven kuge, fled, September 30th, 1863, to their province.

310 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE.

Choshiu now became the rendezvous of deserters and ronins from all parts of Japan. In July of the following year, 1864, a body of many hundred of irresponsible men of various clans, calling themselves " Irregulars," arrived in Kioto from the South, to petition the mikado to restore Mori and the seven nobles to honor, and to drive out the barbarians. Aidzu and the shogun's vassals were for attacking these men with arms at once. The mikado, not adopting the views of the petitioners, returned them no answer. On July 30th, the " Irregulars" were increased by many hitherto calm, but now exasperated, Choshiu men, and encamped in battle array in the suburbs, where they were joined, August 15th, by two karos, and two hundred men from Choshiu, sent by Prince Mori to restrain his followers from violence. While thus patiently waiting, a notification that they were to be-punished was issued, August 19th, to them by the court, then under the influence of Aidzu, and Keiki was put in command of the army of chastisement.

With tears and letters of sorrowful regret to their friends at court, the Choshiu men and the ronins, in a written manifesto vindicated the justness of their cause, swore vengeance against Aidzu, whose troops were encamped in the imperial flower-garden, and then asking pardon of the Son of Heaven " for making a disturbance so near the base of the chariot " (the throne), they accepted the wager of battle, and rushed to the attack. " The crisis had arrived," says the native chronicler, "and the spirit of murder filled and overflowed heaven and earth. The term choteki, which for centuries had been obsolete, now again came into being. Many myriads of habitations were destroyed, and millions of people were plunged into a fiery pit." On the 20th of August, 1864, at day-dawn, the battle began, the Choshiu men advan- cing in three divisions, numbering in all thirteen hundred men, their design being to attack the nine gates of the imperial palace and sur- round the flower-garden. The Tokugawa and Aidzu troops were backed by those of Echizen, Hikone, Kuwana, and others. The bat- tle raged furiously for two days, involving the city in a conflagration, which, fanned by a gale, reduced large quarters of it to a level of ashes. The fighting was by men in armor, equipped mostly with sword, ar- row, cannon, and musket: 811 streets, 27,400 houses, 18 palaces, 44 large and 630 small yashikis, 60 Shinto shrines, 115 Buddhist temples, 40 bridges, 400 beggar's huts, and one eta village were destroyed by the flames; 1216 fire-proof store-houses were knocked to pieces by the cannonading kept up after the battle to prevent the Choshiu men from hiding in them. " The capital, surrounded by a nine-fold circle

THE RECENT DEVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 311

of flowers, entirely disappeared in one morning in the smoke of the flames of a war fire." The homeless city populace fled to the suburbs, dwelling on roofless earth, pestered by the heat and clouds of mos- quitoes, while men in soldiers' dress played the robber without fear or shame. " The Blossom Capital became a scorched desert." The Choshiu were utterly defeated, and driven out of the city. Thirty- seven of them were decapitated in prison.

The next month the bakufu begged the imperial court to deprive the Mori family and all its branches of their titles. Elated with suc- cess, an order was issued to all the clans to march to the chastisement of the two provinces of Nagato and Suwo. The Tokugawa intended thus to set an example to the wavering clans, and give proof of the power it still possessed. During the same month, September 5th and 6th, 1864, Shimonoseki was bombarded by an allied fleet bearing the flags of four foreign nations. After great destruction of life and property, the generous victors demanded an " indemnity " of three million Mexican dollars (see Appendix). The brave clan, having de- fied the bakufu at Kioto, dared the prowess of the " civilized world," and stood to their guns at Shimonoseki till driven away by over- whelming numbers of balls and men, now prepared to face the com- bined armies of the shogunate.

Then was revealed the result of the long previous preparation in the South for war. The Choshiu clansmen, united and alert, were lightly dressed, armed with English and American rifles, drilled in Eu- ropean tactics, and abundantly provided with artillery, which they fired rapidly and with precision. They had cast away armor, sword, and spear. Choshiu had long been the seat of Dutch learning, and translations of Dutch military works were numerously made and used there. Their disciplined battalions were recruited from the common people, not from the samurai alone, were well paid, and full of enthu- siasm. The bakufu had but a motley, half-hearted army, many of whom, when the order was given to march, straightway fell ill, having no stomach for the fight. Some of the most influential clans declined or refused outright to join the expedition, whose purpose was con- demned by almost all the wisest leaders, notably by Katsu, the sho- gun's adviser.

A campaign of three months, in the summer of 1 866, ended in the utter and disgraceful defeat of the bakufu, and the triumph of Cho- shiu. The clans not yet in the field refused to go to the front. The prestige of the shogunate was now irretrievably ruined.

312 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE.

The young shogun, worn out with ceaseless anxiety, died at Ozaka, September 19th, 1866. He had secured the mikado's consent to the treaties, on the condition that they should be revised, and that Hiogo should never be opened as a port of foreign commerce. He was suc- ceeded by Keiki, his former rival, who was appointed head of the To- kugawa family by the court October, 1866. On the 6th of January, 1867, he was made shogun. He had repeatedly declined the position. He brought to it numerous private virtues, but only the firmness of a feather for the crisis at hand. The average Japanese lacks the stolid- ity and obstinacy of the Chinaman, and fickleness is supposed to be his chief characteristic. Keiki, as some of his once best friends say, was fickleness personified. If, with the help of counselors, he could make up his mind to one course of action, the keenest observers could never forecast the change liable to ensue when new advisers appeared. It is evident that the appointment of such a man at this crisis served only to precipitate the issue. His popularity at the court most prob- ably arose from the fact that he was opposed to the opening of Hio- go and Ozaka to the foreigners.

In October, 1867, the Prince of Tosa openly urged the new shogun to resign ; while many able samurai, Saigo, Okubo, Goto, Kido, Hiro- zawa, Komatsu, backed by such men of rank as Shimadzu Saburo, and the ex-princes of Echizen, Uwajima, Hizen, and Tosa, urged the formation of the Government on the basis of the ante-shogun era pri- or to 1200 A.D. They formed so powerful a combination that on the 9th of November, 1867, the vacillating Keiki, yielding to the force of public opinion, tendered his resignation as Sei-i Tai Shogun.

This was a long step toward the ancient regime. Yet, as in Japan, whichever party or leader has possession of the mikado is master of the situation ; and as the Aidzu clan, the most stanchly loyal to the Tokugawa family, kept guard at the gates of the imperial palace, it was still uncertain where the actual power would reside — whether in the Tokugawa clan, in the council of daimios, or, where it rightfully belonged, with the imperial court. The influential samurai of Satsu- ma, and Choshiu, and the princes of Tosa, Echizen, and Uwajima were determined not to let the question hang in suspense. Gradually, small parties of the soldiers of the combination assembled in the capital. Saigo and Okubo, Kido, Goto, and Iwdkura, were too much in earnest to let the supreme opportunity slip. They began to stir up the court to take advantage of the critical moment, the mikado Komei being dead, and, by a bold coup d'etat, abolish the office of shogun and the

THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 313

bakufu, and re-establish the Government on the ancient basis, with the young emperor at the head.

On the 3d of January, 1868, the troops of the combination (Satsu- ma, Tosa, Echizen, Aki, and Owari) suddenly took possession of the palace gates. The court nobles hitherto surrounding the boy emper- or were dismissed, and only those favoring the views of the combina- tion were admitted to the palace. The court, thus purged, issued an edict in the name of the mikado, which stated that the government of the country was now solely in the hands of the imperial court. The bakufu and office of shogun were abolished. A provisional govern- ment, with three grades of office, was formed, and the positions were at once filled by men loyal to the new rulers. The family of Mori was rehabilitated, and the seven banished nobles were recalled. Sanjo and Iwakura were made assistants to the supreme administrator, Ari- sugawa Miya, a prince of the blood.

The indignation of the retainers of Tokugawa knew no bounds. The vacillating shogun now regretted his resignation, and wished him- self back in power. He left Kioto with the clans still loyal to him, with the professed intention of calming the passions of his followers, but in reality of seizing Ozaka, and blocking up the communications of the Southerners. Shortly after, in Yedo, on the 19th of January, the yashikis of the Satsuma clan were stormed and burned by the bakufu troops. The Princes of Owari and Echizen were sent by the court to invite Keiki to join the new Government, and receive an ap- pointment to office even higher than he had held before. He prom- ised to do so, but no sooner were they gone than he yielded to Aidzu's warlike counsel to re-enter Kioto in force, drive out the " bad counsel- ors of the young emperor," and "try the issue with the sword." He was forbidden by the court to approach the city with a military fol- lowing. Barriers were erected across the two roads leading to the capital, and the Southern clansmen, numbering about two thousand, posted themselves behind them, with artillery. Keiki set out from Ozaka on the evening of the 27th of February, with the Aidzu and Kuwana clans in the front of his following, amounting to over ten, or, as some say, thirty thousand men. At Fushimi his messengers were refused passage through the barriers. The kuan-gun (loyal army, Kioto forces) fired their cannon, and the war was opened. The sho- gun's followers, by their last move on the political chess-board, had made themselves choteki. Their prestige had flown.

The battle lasted three days. In the presence of overwhelming

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forces, the Southern samurai showed not only undaunted valor, but the result of previous years of military training. The battle was not to the strong. It was to the side of intelligence, energy, coolness, and valor. The shogun's army was beaten, and in wild disorder fled to Ozaka, the historic castle of which was burned by the loyal army. The chief, unrecognized, found refuge upon an American vessel, and, reaching Yedo on one of his own ships, sought the seclusion of his

Keiki, the last ShOguu of Japan. (From a photograph.)

castle. His own family retainers and most of the subject clans (fudai), and the daimios of Aidzu, Sendai, and others of the North and East, urged him to renew the fight and restore his prestige. One of his min- isters earnestly begged him to commit hara-kiri, urging its necessity to preserve the honor of the Tokugawa clan. His exhortation being unsuccessful, the proposer solemnly opened his own bowels. With a large army, arsenals, munitions of war, and fleet of ships vastly exceed- ing those of the mikado, his chances of success were very fair. But

THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 315

this time the vassal was loyal, the waverer wavered no more. Refus- ing to listen to those who advised war, abhorring the very idea of be- ing a choteki, he hearkened to the counsel of his two highest minis- ters, Katsft and Okubo Ichio, and declaring that he would never take up arms against his lord, the mikado, he retired to private life. The comparison of this man with Washington because he refused to head an army, and thus save the country from a long civil war, does not seem to be very happy, though I have heard it made. Personal- ly, Keiki is a highly accomplished gentleman, though ambitious and weak. Politically, he simply did his duty, and made discretion the better part of valor. It is difficult to see in him any exalted traits of character or evidences of genius ; to Katsu and Okubo is due the last and best decision of his life. Katsu, the old pupil of Satsuma and com- rade of Saigo, had long foreseen that the governing power must and ought of right to revert to the mikado, and, braving odium and assas- sination, he advised his master to resign. The victorious Southerners, led by Saigo, were in the southern suburb of Yedo, waiting to attack the city. To reduce a Japanese city needs but a torch, and the im- patient victors would have left of Yedo little but ashes had there been resistance. Katsu, meeting Saigo, assured him of the submissive tem- per of the shogun, and begged him to spare the city. It was done. The fanatical retainers of Keiki made the temple grounds of Uyeno their stronghold. On the 4th of July they were attacked and routed, and the magnificent temple, the pride of the city, laid in ashes. The theatre of war was then transferred to the highlands of Aidzu at Wakamatsu, and thence to Matsumae and Hakodate in Yezo. Victory everywhere perched upon the mikado's brocade banner. By July 1st, 1869, all vestiges of the rebellion had ceased, and "the empire was grateful for universal peace."

The mikado's party was composed of the heterogeneous elements which a revolution usually brings forth. Side by side with high-soul- ed patriots were disreputable vagrants and scalawags of every descrip- tion, ronins, or low, two-sworded men, jo-i, or " foreigner-haters," " port- closers," and Shinto priests and students. There were a few earnest men whose darling hope was to see a representative government estab- lished, while fewer yet eagerly wished Japan to adopt the civilization of the West, and join the brotherhood of nations. These men had utilized every current and eddy of opinion to forward their own views and achieve their own purpose. The object common to all was the exaltation of the mikado. The bond of union which held the major-

316 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE.

ity together was a determination to expel the foreigners or to revise the treaties so as to expunge the odious extra-territoriality clause — the thorn that still rankles in the side of every Japanese patriot. For eighteen months the energies of the jo-it or " foreigner-haters," were utilized in the camp in fighting the rebellious Tokugawa retainers. The war over, the trials of the new Government began. The low, two-sworded men clamored for the fulfillment of the promise that the foreigners should be expelled from Japan and the ports closed. The Shinto officials induced the Government to persecute the native " Christians," demanded the abolition of Buddhism, the establishment of Shinto by edict, and the restoration of the Government on a purely theocratic basis, and echoed the cry of " Expel the barbarian." Even with the majority of the high officials there was no abandonment of the purpose to expel foreigners. They intended to do it, but the wisest of them knew that in their present condition they were not able. Hence they simply wished to bide their time, and gain strength. It was a matter of difficulty to keep patient thousands of swaggering braves whose only tools for earning bread were their swords. The first attention was given to reorganizing a national army, and to devel- oping the military resources of the empire. All this was done with the cherished end in view of driving out the aliens, closing the ports of commerce, and bringing back the days of dictatorial isolation. The desire for foreign civilization existed rather among the adherents of Tokugawa, among whom were many enlightened gentlemen, besides students and travelers, who had been to Europe and America, and who wished their country to take advantage of the inventions of the for- eigners. Yet many of the very men who once wished the foreigners expelled, the ports closed, the treaties repudiated, who were jo-i, or " foreigner-haters," and who considered all aliens as only a few degrees above the level of beasts, are now members of the mikado's Govern- ment, the exponents of advanced ideas, the defenders and executors of philo-Europeanism, or Western civilization.

What caused the change that came over the spirit of their dreams  ? Why do they now preach the "faith they once destroyed? "It was the lessons taught them at Kagoshima and Shimonoseki," say some. " It was the benefits they saw would arise from commerce," say others. " The child of the revolution was changed at nurse, and the Govern- ment now in power was put into its cradle by mistake or design," say others.

Cannon-balls, commerce, and actual contact with foreigners doubt-

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less helped the scales to fall from their eyes, but these were helps only. All such means had failed in China, though tried for half a century. They would have failed in Japan also. It was an impulse from with- in that urged the Japanese to join the comity of nations. The noblest trait in the character of a Japanese is his willingness to change for the better when he discovers his wrong or inferiority. This led the leaders to preach the faith they once destroyed, to destroy the faith they once preached.

The great work of enlightening the mikado's followers was begun by the Japanese leaders, Okubo, Kido, Goto, all of them students, both of the ancient native literature and of foreign ideas. It was fin- ished by Japanese writers. The kuge, or court nobles, wished to ig- nore the existence of foreigners, drive them out of the country, or worry them by appointing officers of low rank in the Foreign Office, then an inferior sub -bureau. Okubo, Goto, and Kido promptly op- posed the plan, and sent a prince of the imperial blood, Higashi Kuze, to Hiogo, with Date, Prince of Uwajima (see Appendix), to give the mikado's consent to the treaties, and to invite the foreign ministers to an audience with the emperor in Kioto. The British and Dutch min- isters accepted the invitation ; the others declined. The train of the British envoy was assaulted by fanatic assassins, one resisting bullet, lance, and sabre of the English dragoons, only to lose his head by the sweep of the sword of Goto, who rode by the side of the foreigners, determined to secure their audience of the mikado. At first sight of the strangers, the conversion of the kuge was thorough and instan- taneous. They made friends with the men they once thought were beasts.

In a memorial to the mikado, Okubo further gave expression to his ideas in a memorial that astounded the court and the wavering dai- mios, as follows : " Since the Middle Ages, our emperor has lived be- hind a screen, and has never trodden the earth. Nothing of what went on outside his screen ever penetrated his sacred ear ; the imperial residence was profoundly secluded, and, naturally, unlike the outer world. Not more than a few court nobles were allowed to approach the throne, a practice most opposed to the principles of heaven. Al- though it is the first duty of man to respect his superior, if he reveres that superior too highly he neglects his duty, while a breach is created between the sovereign and his subjects, who are unable to convey their wants to him. This vicious practice has been common in all ages. But now let pompous etiquette be done away with, and simplicity become

318 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE.

our first object. Kioto is in an out-of-the-way position, and is unfit to be the seat of government. Let his majesty take up his abode tem- porarily at Ozaka, removing his capital hither, and thus cure one of the hundred abuses which we inherit from past ages."

The memorial produced an immediate and lively effect upon the court. The young mikado, Mutsuhito, came in person to the meet- ings of the council of state, and before the court nobles and daimios took an oath, as an actual ruler, promising that " a deliberative assem- bly should be formed ; all measures be decided by public opinion ; the uncivilized customs of former times should be broken through ; and the impartiality and justice displayed in the workings of nature be adopted as a basis of action ; and that intellect and learning should be sought for throughout the world, in order to establish the foundations of the empire." This oath is the basis of the new Government.

These promises are either the pompous bombast of a puppet or the pregnant utterances of a sovereign, who in magnanimity and wisdom aspires to lead a nation into a higher life. That such words should in that sublime moment fall from the lips of the chief of an Oriental despotism excites our sympathetic admiration. They seem a sublime echo of affirmation to the prophetic question of the Hebrew seer, " Can a nation be born at once  ?" They sound like a glad harbinger of a new and higher national development, such as only those with the strongest faith in humanity believe possible to an Asiatic nation. As matter of fact, the words were uttered by a boy of sixteen years, who scarcely dreamed of the tremendous significance of the language put into his mouth by the high-souled parvenus who had made him em- peror de facto, and who were resolved to have their ideas made the foundations of the new Government. The result of the memorial, and the ceaseless activity of Okubo and his colleagues, were the ultimate removal of the Government to Yedo. It is not easy for a foreigner to comprehend the profound sensation produced throughout the em- pire when the mikado left Kioto to make his abode in another city. During a millennium, Kioto had been the capital of Dai Nippon, and for twenty-five centuries, according to popular belief, the mikados had ruled from some spot near the site of the sacred city. A band of fanatics, fired with the Yamato damashi, religiously opposed, but in vain, his journey eastward. To familiarize his people with the fact that Yedo was now the capital, its name was changed to Tokio, or Eastern Capital.

Then was further developed the impulse to enter the path of mod-

T1IE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 319

crn civilization. While Okubo, Kido, Goto, Iwakura, Sanjo, Itagaki, Oki, and the rising officials sought to purge and strengthen the po- litical system, the work of enlightening the people and the upstarts raised suddenly to power was done by Japanese writers, who for the first time dared, without suffering death, to tell their thoughts. A large measure of freedom of the press was guaranteed ; newspapers sprung up in the capital. Kido, one of the prime movers and leaders, himself established one of the most vigorous, still in existence — the Shimbun Zasshi. The new Government acted with clemency equal to the standard in Christian nations, and most generously to the literary and scientific men among the retainers of the Tokugawas, and invited them to fill posts of honor under the Government. They sent none of the political leaders to the blood-pit, but by the gracious favor of the mikado these were pardoned, and the conciliation of all sections of the empire wisely attempted. Many of those who fought the loyal forces at Fushimi, Wakamatsu, and Hakodate are now the earnest advocates of the restoration and its logical issues. Even Enomoto is envoy of the court of Tokio to that of St. Petersburg. All of the defeated daimios were restored to rank and income. A complete and happy reunion of the empire was the result. Some of the scholars declined office until the time when even greater freedom of speech and pen was permitted.

There w-ere men who in the old days, braving odium, and even death, at the hands of the bakufu, had begun the study of the English and Dutch languages, and to feed their minds at the Occidental fount- ains. They were obliged to copy their books in manuscript, so rare were printed copies. Later on, the bakufu, forced by necessity to have interpreters and men skilled in foreign arts and sciences, chose these students, and sent them abroad to study. When the civil war broke out, they were recalled, reaching Japan shortly after the fighting be- gan. They returned, says one of their number, " with their faces flushed with enthusiastic sympathy with the modern civilization of Christendom." Then they began the preparation of those original works and translations, which were eagerly read by the new men in power. Edition after edition was issued, bought, read, lent, and circu- lated. In these books the history of the Western nations was faith- fully told ; their manners and customs and beliefs were explained and defended ; their resources, methods of thought and education, morals, laws, systems of governments, etc., were described and elucidated. Notably pre - eminent among these writers was the school - master, Fu-

21

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kuzawa. Western ideas were texts : he clothed them in Japanese words. He further pointed out the weaknesses, defects, and errors of his countrymen, and showed how Japan, by isolation and the false pride that scorned all knowledge derived from foreigners, had failed to advance like Europe or America, and that nothing could save his country from conquest or decay but the assimilation of the ideas which have made the foreigners what they are. There is scarcely a prominent or rising man in Japan but has read Fukuzawa's works, and gratefully acknowledges the stimulus and lasting benefit derived from them. Many of the leaders of the movement toward restoration, who joined it with the cry, " Expel the foreigners," found themselves, after perusal of these works, "unconsciously involved in the advance, with- out wish or invitation," and utterly unable to explain why they were in the movement. Fukuzawa has declined every one of the many flat- tering offers of office and power under the Government, and still de- votes himself to his school and the work of teaching and translation, consuming his life in noble drudgery. He has been the interpreter of Western ideas and life, caring little about the merely external garnish and glitter of civilization. His books on " Western Manners and Cus- toms," and his volumes of tracts and essays, have had an enormous circulation.

Nakamura, also a school-master, has, besides writing original tracts, translated a considerable body of English literature, John Stuart Mill's " Essay on Liberty," Smiles's " Self-help," and a few smaller works on morals and religion, which have been widely read. His memorial on the subject of Christianity and religious liberty made a very profound impression upon the emperor and court, and gave a powerful check to the ultra Shintoists. Mori, Mitsukuri, Kato, Nishi, Uchida, Uriu, have also done noble service as authors and translators. It is the writer's firm belief, after nearly four years of life in Japan, mingling among the progressive men of the empire, that the reading and study of books printed in the Japanese language have done more to transform the Jap- anese mind, and to develop an impulse in the direction of modern civ- ilization, than any other cause or series of causes.

During the past decade the production of purely Japanese literature has almost entirely ceased. A few histories of recent events, a few war-poems and pamphlets urging the expulsion of the barbarians, were issued previous to the civil war ; but since then almost the entire lit- erary activity has been exhibited in translations, political documents, memoirs of " mikado reverences " who had been martyrs to their faith,

THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 321

and largely in the expression of Western ideas adapted to the under- standing of the Japanese.

The war was ended by July, 1870. Rewards were distributed ; and the Government was still further consolidated by creating definite offices, and making all titles, which had been for nearly six centuries empty names, to have reality and power. There was still, however, much dead wood in the ship of state, a condition of chronic strain, a dangerous amount of friction in the machinery, wrangling among the crew, and a vast freight of bad cargo that the purest patriots saw the good ship must " unload," if she was to be saved. This unloading was accomplished in the usual way, by dismissing hundreds of officials one day, and re-appointing on the next only those favorable to the desired policy of the mikado.

Furthermore, it became daily more certain that national develop- ment and peace could never be secured while the feudal system ex- isted. The clan spirit which it fostered was fatal to national unity. So long as a Japanese meant by " my country " merely his own clan, loyalty might exist, but patriotism could not. The time seemed ripe for action. The press was busy in issuing pamphlets advocating the abolition of feudalism. Several of the great daimios, long before ready for it, now openly advocated the change. The lesser ones knew bet- ter than to oppose it. The four great clans, Satsuma, Choshiu, Tosa, and Hizen (see Appendix), were the pioneers of the movement They addressed a memorial to the throne, in which it was argued that the daimios' fiefs ought not to be looked on as private property, but as the mikado's own. They offered to restore the registers of their clans to the sovereign. These were the external signs of the times. Back of these, there were at least three men who were determined to sweep feudalism away utterly. They were Kido, Okubo, Iwakura. The first step was to abolish the appellation of court noble (kuge) and territo- rial prince (daimio), and to designate both as kuazoku, or noble fami- lies. The former heads of clans were temporarily appointed chiji (governors of their clans). This smoothed the way. In September, 1871, the edict went forth calling the daimios to Tokio to retire to pri- vate life. With scarcely an exception, the order was quietly obeyed. The men behind the throne in Tokio were ready and even willing to shed blood, should their (the mikado's) commands be resisted, and they expected to do it. The daimios who were hostile to the measure knew too well the character of the men who framed the edict to resist it. The writer counts among the most impressive of all his life's ex-

322 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE.

periences that scene in the immense castle hall of Fukui, when the Daimio of Echizen bid farewell to his three thousand two-sworded re- tainers, and, amidst the tears and smiles and loving farewells of the city's populace, left behind him lands, revenue, and obedient followers, and retired to live as a private gentleman in Tokio.

Japan's feudalism began nearly eight centuries ago, and existed un- til within the year 1871. It was not a tower of strength in its last days. Long before its fall, it was an empty shell and a colossal sham. Feudalism is only alive and vigorous when the leaders are men of brain and action. Of all the daimios, there were not ten of any per- sonal importance. They were amiable nobodies, great only in stom- ach or silk robes. Many were sensualists, drunkards, or titled fools. The real power in each clan lay in the hands of able men of inferior rank, who ruled their masters. These are now the men who compose the present Government of Japan. They rose against the shogun, overthrew him, sent him to private life, and then compelled their mas- ters, the daimios, to do likewise. They hold the emperor, and carry on the government in his name. The mikado, however, is much more of a ruler than his faineant ancestors. Still, the source of government is the same. In 1872, by actual count, four-fifths of the men in the higher offices were of the four great clans of Choshiu, Satsuma, Hizen, and Tosa. A like census in 1876 would show a larger proportion of officials from the northern and central provinces. Nevertheless, this is not sectionalism. The ablest men rise to office and power in spite of the locality of their birth. Natural ability asserts its power, and in the Cabinet and departments are now many of the old bakufu adher- ents, even Katsu, Obuko Ichio, Enomoto, and several scions of the house of Tokugawa. The power has been shifted, not changed, and is displayed by moving new machinery and doing new work.

Who are now, and who have been, the actual leaders in Japan since 1868? They are Okubo, Kido, Iwakura, Sanjo, Goto, Katsu, Soyejima, Okuma, Oki, Ito, and many others, of whom but two or three are kuge, while none is a daimio. Almost all were simple samurai, or retainers of the territorial nobles.

The objects of the revolution of 1868 have been accomplished. The shogunate and the feudal system are forever no more. The mi- kado is now the restored and beloved emperor. The present per- sonage, a young man of twenty-four years of age, has already shown great independence and firmnness of character, and may in future be- come as much the real ruler of his people as the Czar is of his. The

THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 323

enterprise of establishing Shinto as the national faith lias failed vastly and ignominiously, though the old Shinto temples have been purged and many new ones erected, while official patronage and influence give the ancient cult a fair outward show. Buddhism is still the re- ligion of the Japanese people, though doubtless on the wane.

To summarize this chapter : the shogun was simply one of the many vassals of the mikado of comparatively inferior grade, and historically a usurper; the term "tycoon" was a diplomatic fraud, a title to which the shogun had, officially, not the shadow of right ; the foreign diplo- matists made treaties with one who had no right whatever to make them  ; the bakuf u was an organized usurpation ; the stereotyped state- ments concerning a " spiritual " and a " secular " emperor are literary fictions of foreign book-makers ; feudalism arose upon the decadence of the mikado's power ; it was the chief hinderance to national unity, and was ready for its fall before the shock came ; in all Japanese his- tory the reverence for the mikado's person and the throne has been the strongest national trait and the mightiest political force; the ba- kufu exaggerated the mikado's sacredriess for its own purposes; the Japanese are impressible and ever ready to avail themselves of what- ever foreign aids or appliances will tend to their own aggrandizement : nevertheless, there exists a strong tendency to conserve the national type, pride, feelings, religion, and equality with, if not superiority to, all the nations of the world ; the true explanation of the events of the last eight years in Japan is to be sought in these tendencies and the internal history of the nation ; the shogun, bakufu, and perhaps even feudalism would have fallen, had foreigners never landed in Japan; the movement toward modern civilization originated from within, and was not simply the result of foreign impact or pressure ; the work of enlightenment and education, which alone could assure success to the movement, was begun and carried on by native students, statesmen, and simple patriots.

|A mighty task awaited the new Government after the revolution of 1868. It was to heal the disease of ages ; to uproot feudalism and sectionalism, with all their abuses ; to give Japan a new nationality ; to change her social system ; to infuse new blood into her veins ; to make a hermit nation, half blinded by a sudden influx of light, competitor with the wealthy, powerful, and aggressive nations of Christendom. It was a problem of national regeneration or ruin. It seemed like en- tering into history a second time, to be born again/)

What transcendent abilities needed for such a task ! What national

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union, harmony in council, unselfish patriotism required ! What chief, towering above his fellows, would arise, who by mighty intellect and matchless tact could achieve what Yoritomo, or the Taiko, or lyeyasu himself, or all, would be helpless to perform  ? At home were the stol- idly conservative peasantry, backed by ignorance, superstition, priest- craft, and political hostility. On their own soil they were fronted by aggressive foreigners, who studied all Japanese questions through the spectacles of dollars and cents and trade, and whose diplomatists too often made the principles of Shylock their system. Outside, the Asiatic nations beheld with contempt, jealousy, and alarm the depart- ure of one of their number from Turanian ideas, principles, and civili- zation. China, with ill -concealed anger, Corea with open defiance, taunted Japan with servile submission to the " foreign devils."

For the first time, the nation was represented to the world by an embassy at once august and plenipotentiary. It was not a squad of petty officials or local nobles going forth to kiss a toe, to play the part of figure-heads or stool-pigeons, to beg the aliens to get out of Japan, to keep the scales on foreign eyes, to buy gun-boats, or to hire employes. A noble of highest rank and blood of immemorial an- tiquity, vicar of majesty and national government, with four cabinet ministers, set out to visit the courts of the fifteen nations having treaties with Dai Nippon. These were Iwakura Tomomi, Okubo To- shimiti, Kido Takayoshi, Ito Hirobumi, and Yamaguchi Masaka. They were accompanied by commissioners representing every Government department, sent to study and report upon the methods and resources of foreign civilizations. They arrived in Washington, February 29th, 1872, and, for the first time in history, a letter signed by the mikado was seen outside of Asia. It was presented by the embassadors, robed in their ancient Yamato costume, to the President of the United States, on the 4th of March, Mr. Arinori Mori acting as interpreter. " The first president of the free republic " and the men who had elevated the eta to citizenship stood face to face in fraternal accord. The one hundred and twenty-third sovereign of an empire in its twenty-sixth centennial saluted the citizen - ruler of a nation whose century aloe had not yet bloomed. On the 6th of March they were welcomed on the floor of Congress. This day marked the formal entrance of Japan upon the theatre of universal history.