THE MIKADO:
INSTITUTION AND PERSON

A STUDY OF THE INTERNAL
POLITICAL FORCES OF JAPAN

BY
William Elliot Griffis, D.D., L.H.D.
FORMERLY OT THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO. MEM
BER OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND LETTERS.
AUTHOR OF "THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE," "THE JAPANESE
NATION IN EVOLUTION," " THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN." ETC.

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON
LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1915

Copyright, 1915, by
Princeton University Press
Published November, 1915

Believing, with all loyal Japanese, that
the glory of japan's triumphs in peace and
war is due to "the virtues of the mlkado's
ancestors," each one of whom was "the son
of Adam, the son of God," the author dedi
cates THIS WORK TO ALL LOVERS OF TRUTH IN
jEvERLASTING GREAT JAPAN.

'A sweet perfume is on our Master's sleeve,
The perfume of the sweetest flower on earth,
Loyalty, growing in the nation's heart."
The Lady Isao Seigenji.

PREFACE
From the launching in 1850 of Commodore
Perry's flagship, the Susquehanna, which I wit
nessed, to the end of the life of Mutsuhito the
Great, in July, 1912, and the world events in
1915, my interest in Japan has never flagged.
The present volume was written in large part
during the lifetime of the august monarch, but
the manuscript was withheld for much the same
reasons of delicacy that prompt one to refrain
from publishing the letters of a friend in the
lifetime of their writer. In this age, however,
the people who revere their great ruler's memory
should fear neither the light of investigation nor
the revelation of a human life, in however exalted
a position. Mikadoism is the symbol of all that is dear to
the Japanese; yet, like all social forces, whether
religion, or the magic of a great name, or the
national flag, the dogma is often abused by its
so-called friends, is made an unnecessary engine
of cruelty, or is debased to selfish or mercenary
purposes. I have handled freely the ancient documents,
and have given my judgment of Dai Nippon not
to please or offend the Japanese, in or out of

vi PREFACE
power, but solely to get at the facts and truth.
For what happened in my own lifetime I have
set value upon the personal testimony and reports
of eye witnesses, myself included, more than upon
most contemporaneous writings of either natives
or foreigners. I saw much of what I have writ
ten, when living in the interior under the feudal
system, and later in the nation's capital. I talked
with the soldiers, statesmen, feudal lords and
princes who were leaders in the Restoration of
1868, besides discussing later with Japanese and
foreign scholars the facts and philosophy of mod
ern politics. Repeated audiences of the Emperor
Mutsuhito and a study of his life lead me to place
him among the really great men of our age.
Without him, Japan could never have become
what she is, and as the world recognizes her
to-day. W. E. G.
Ithaca, N. Y.
September 1, 1915

TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter page
I. A Nation on Its Knees  1
II. Japan's Secret of Power  8
III. The State or Ancestors?  15
IV. "Unbroken for Ages Eternal" ... 22
V- Mikadoism and Shinto  31
VI. The Mikado as a Monk  43
VII. Seven Centuries of Eclipse  52
VIII. Echizen: The Farsighted Re
former  67
IX. Komei: The Last Hermit Mikado. 79
X. The Childhood of Mutsuhito  88
XL Steps Toward National Unity. . . 99
XII. Attempt to Kidnap the Mikado. . . 108
XIII. The Mikado Becomes Emperor. . . 122
XIV. The Charter Oath of 1868  132
XV. Tokyo: Exit Shogun; Enter
Mikado  139
XVI. The God Becomes Human  150
XVII. Mutsuhito Unifies the Nation  166
vii

viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
XVIII. Trials of the Young Emperor  177
XIX. Feudalism Swept Away  188
XX. Mutsuhito the Emancipator  197
XXI. Japan Seeks Her Rights of
Sovereignty  206
XXII. The Nation's Face Toward the
West  216
XXIII. The Emperor in Public  228
XXIV Confronting New Problems  239
XXV. The Mikado's Northern Journey. 251
XXVI. The New Mikadoism Tested  265
XXVII. Political Struggle and Evolution . 276
XXVIII. Later Life of the Emperor  288
XXIX. The Roots of the Quarrel with
Russia  291
XXX. The Mature Man  299
XXXI. The Family of Mutsuhito  312
XXXII. The Emperor as Poet  319
XXXIII. Japan in the Councils of the
World  328

CHAPTER I
A NATION ON ITS KNEES
At forty-three minutes past twelve on the
morning of July 30, 1912, Japan's greatest
Emperor breathed his last. With him ended the
era of Enlightened Government (Meiji, 1868-
1912) the most brilliant in the long history of
the Empire.
Mutsuhito, Man of Peace, was born in Kyoto,
November 3, 1852, when Japan was a hermit
nation, inhospitable to the rest of mankind, her
people numbering but 30,000,000 and living in
an area of 150,000 square miles. The archi
pelago of Riu Kiu then paid tribute to China,
and except in the southern part of Yezo the
knowledge, interests and claims of the Japanese
nation as to the northern isles, a hundred or
more, were exceedingly hazy.
Nor had the people at large any dream, which
later so dazzled the nation, of Japan's glory ever
"shining beyond the seas." For seven centuries
the Mikados had lived and died in Kyoto, with
little more attention from the populace than was
given to the falling of the autumn leaves on the
distant mountains, and with much less direct

2 THE MIKADO
honor than that paid by multitudes to idols en
shrined in many a temple. As a vague, myster
ious, far off potency the Mikado indeed had an
existence, but the man and the institution of
Mikadoism were subjects of serious interest
principally to those persons whose ambitions or
patriotism led them to consider him and it as
forming the chief but hidden motor in the engine
of state. As such his person was jealously
guarded, from 1604 to 1868, by the great mili
tary ruler or usurper in Yedo, who had sur
rounded Kyoto the Sacred City with feudal
barons who were his own relatives. To the mass
of the Japanese the Mikado was a sentiment
rather than a personality. He was traditionally
the embodiment of things sacred by inheritance
from "the gods." The transcendence of the one
ruler in Kyoto and the immanence of the other
in Yedo, — the former having no force at his
command, while the other held at his beck and
call a mighty army of eighty thousand personal
followers and a vast host of feudal retainers, —
were expressed, as in a clear picture, by the say
ing familiar in every home: "The Mikado all
men love ; the Shogun every man fears." It had
been forgotten by the people that the Mikado
had ever been a visible ruler.
To all this the contrast, during the last days
of July, 1912, was striking. On the esplanade
fronting the Imperial Palace, in Tokyo, thous-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 3
ands of people were gathered. On their knees,
or bowing low in prayer, they pleaded with the
Unseen Powers for the life of their Emperor.
Many creeds were represented, but there was but
one heart, and one silence of inward prayer
uniting the Buddhist priest, the devotee of
Shinto, and the Christian. Nothing like it had
ever before been seen or known "Within the
Four Seas."
Yet this gathering in Tokyo, at once spontan
eous and prophetic, was but the type of many
such all over the land. Congregations of hun
dreds and thousands, numbering in all many
millions, were offering the same prayer. Even
in war time, when little Japan had twice risen,
like the Syrian lad before the Philistine, to meet
the giants, China first and then Russia, there had
been no such unity of thought and purpose.
Within the Forbidden Enclosure native men of
science, trained in the best transoceanic schools
of medicine, were at or near the Imperial bed
side. Bulletins issued from the palace to the
public like minute guns. A strange contrast
with the past, for in the days when Japan was
hermit, death might come to the ruler and be
concealed from the public for days, weeks, or
months !
Ancient myth told how, in ages unwritten, the
Imperial spirit turned into a white bird and
soared into the heavens. Many a mother, even in

4 THE MIKADO
the modern Japan of electricity and steam,
gathered her children at night around the floor
hearth to tell them the story of these ancient
burial mounds, whence the new embodiment in
snow white wings emerged, and not a few fathers
recalled the day when Jun-shi, or "dying with the
master," was a fixed custom. They told solemnly
how around the mausoleum of the ancient Em
perors, or Ministers of State, servants or retain
ers were buried alive ; and then how in the advance
of more humane, albeit artistic civilization, clay
figures took the place of living men. But all
such things were in the far past. None suspected
that any element other than the long sweep of
centuries would divide these customs from the
death of the great, broad minded Emperor in the
era of Enlightened Civilization, when suddenly
like a lightning flash out of the unclouded sky,
fell the news of a great hero's suicide. Nogi,
leader of the Ninth Division of the army, com
posed chiefly of the famed Echizen troops, the
winner of Port Arthur, unquailing soldier, most
loyal servant of the Emperor, white flower of
Bushido, had gone to join his master. With like
unquailing nerve the true Samurai woman, his
wife, simultaneously with her husband bade fare
well to earth. In strict faithfulness to the pro
prieties, with intention as clear as the dew, they
left this world. In manifold ways, and spectacu
lar, sad and startling, with the demise of Japan's
great Emperor blended the old and the new.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 5
Thus fitly closed the era of Meiji, or Enlight
ened Civilization. The name was taken from two
words, each expressed by an ideograph, from a
noble line in the Chinese classics, and meaning
respectively "light" and "rule." The Occidental
alien is apt to conceive of this new era, during
which so many wonders have been wrought, as
beginning with the arrival of the American
squadron sent by President Fillmore in 1853.
But the year periods of Japan are measured
from the beginning of each Emperor's reign and
Mutsuhito was "crowned" and "ascended the
throne" on October 12, 1868, the new era being
named eleven days later. Fifteen years of inter
nal commotion and reconstructive force were
necessary between the advent of Perry and the
transformation of the old into the new Japan.
Then began a brilliant era, during which the
Japanese became a new nation. Besides internal
political metamorphosis, the glory of Nippon
"shone beyond the seas" and the dream of ages,
the vision of a few, became a reality for all. Hav
ing taken her place among the great Powers of
the world, Japan in the twentieth century had be
come the Land of the Risen Sun. Her place in
the councils of the nations was sure. Mutsuhito
wore the decorations of the great sovereigns of
Europe and died a Knight of the Garter. His
brocade Sun Banner hung in Windsor Castle's
chapel, while the President of the greatest repub-

6 THE MIKADO
lie, breaking all precedents and beginning a new
order of things, sent the highest officer in his
Cabinet across the Pacific to express the sorrow
and sympathy of the American people at the
bier of Great Japan's greatest ruler.
What a wonderful era was that of Meiji!
Greater than the humiliation of China, with the
peace indemnity that enabled Japan to acquire
a resistless navy, and, by commanding the seas, to
humble Russia also, were Japan's victories of
peace. First of all and among the greatest of the moral
glories of Meiji was the uplift to citizenship of
a million outcasts. To-day they and their sons,
under the battle flag, or in peaceful toil, honor the
nation by their patriotism and industry. In the
forefront of a thousand political reforms were
the abolition of duarchy, vindication of the su
premacy of the Mikado, the ownership of the
soil by its tillers, the sweeping away of feudalism,
the abolishing of old abuses, the transformation
of Japan, both in its main features and in a
myriad details, into a modern State. Crowning
all was the superb national Constitution of 1889,
with its limitation of the prerogative of the
Throne, separation of Church and State, the
granting of freedom of conscience and the elec
toral franchise, with blessings innumerable to the
people. How did all this come about? Even to-day

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 7
there are some who think that the coming of
Perry, like a magician's wand, wrought the trans
formation. In America and Europe, sensation
mongers still deem the Japanese mind "un
fathomable." They wonder how such things as
Nogi's suicide could take place, or that the
Mikado's generals and admirals could win vic
tories without an aftermath of personal squabbles
and courtmartial trials. It seems to be a neces
sity to the mystery peddlers and the money
makers to keep alive, on the stage and in popular
fiction the purely literary legend of "the Orien
tal," as if he were a creature different from "the
Occidental." Two centuries before Perry arrived the great
intellectual movement among scholars and think
ers had begun to leaven the nation and prepare
it for the mighty change of 1868. Perry, or
rather President Fillmore, did but add the tiny
morsel to a supersaturated solution, which in
stantly crystallized to solidity. The President's
action only accelerated what was in potency
already proceeding. Far more impressive to the
scholarly imagination than even the contrast
which the theatre board or the uninformed edi
torial writer can show, was that moment when the
native scholar Mabuchi, who after a long life died
in 1769, resigned his office and emoluments to
give himself to research, making the revelations
of history and starting the great line of influences
which ultimately made Japan a new nation.

CHAPTER II
JAPAN'S SECRET OF POWER
This spectacle of a nation on its knees, with
hearts stirred to the depths, suggests both politics
and religion, the past and the future, the root and
the blossom. What is the secret of Japanese
unity and power? What is, what will be, the poli
tical morality of modern Japan in international
affairs ? Will the nation in the coming years have
a spiritual rebirth, as she has already undergone
material transformation?
Until "a cycle of Cathay" ago— that is, sixty
years — events in the Far East attracted but lan
guid attention from Occidentals, for the Asian
peoples were for the most part hermits. Their
one word to outsiders was "Keep off." In
Siberia tigers were shot in virgin forests where
cities now teem. Korea's coast was desolated to
starve out invaders. Japan was a sleeping
Thornrose. China recognized none of her peo
ple abroad, and wished nothing to do with them
or the aliens. To the Central Empire humanity
outside was made up of neglected recluses or
cowering vassals or distant barbarians.
Even after Japan had entered the world's

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 9
social life the alien's blindness to her real poten
cies was amazing. In 1872 I asked an English
editor at Yokohama, long resident in the East,
as to the profit of studying Japanese native his
tory. With a wave of the hand, he dismissed the
whole subject with the ejaculation: "Clan
fights." I remarked that there was more than
foreigners might imagine. "No," said he, "as
one bucket, which a single cow could drain at a
draught." Nevertheless for over forty-five
years I have found that the study of Japanese
history reveals new deeps and brings fresh
surprises. Ignorance in America was equally dense and
perception not less obtuse. The Japanese were
associated with the laundry shop and hair tails.
Even the more aesthetic, who admired the unques
tioned proofs of taste and refinement, answered
my plea for respect of their political abilities
thus: "Oh, no, the Japanese are an interesting
people, but now that they have opened their
country they will soon go to pieces."
But they did not. Crossing all seas and visit
ing all lands, they saw what other nations and
civilizations could teach. Selecting, rejecting,
they put all things to proof. The alien wanted
dollars and the Japanese were ready to buy.
Material resources being most needed and imme
diately at hand, they first armed themselves.
They learned from the West the words, though

10 THE MIKADO
they knew their reality already, that "self-preser
vation is the first law of nature." They needed
sure defence against sham Christianity, for they
were not at one with the European notions
about inheriting the earth and commanding the
seas. The world wanted Japanese tea, silk, cop
per, tobacco, porcelain and lacquer. Selling
these, the Mikado's people bought the best rifles,
artillery, battleships and hospital gear. Trade
went on merrily.
Yet during all the years of traffic their f eelings
were hurt. They hated the name "Quaint
Japan." They said to themselves: "Why do
these Western people admire us for that of which
we are not proud? Of our finest art, our litera
ture, our civilization, our moral stamina, our
refinement, our codes of honor and ethics, the
real secrets of our strength, they seem totally
ignorant. Only here and there do we find a man
who knows anything of our past, sees the true
line of our advance or suspects our real ambi
tions. They do not want us to rise, and they say
so. So let us hold back the robber hand and
give the aliens a lesson. If they will not receive
us for what we really are, in our Land of Great
Peace, we shall force them to respect us in war.
Both contemptuous China and aggressive Rus
sia shall know our courage and power."
When, in 1880, the Central Empire, violating
a solemn agreement, insulted her island neighbor,

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 11
by shelving the treaty concerning the Loochoo
(Riu Kiu) Islands, which had been proposed
and negotiated at the instance of General Grant,
Japan pocketed the insult and waited. When in
1894 China again trampled on treaty stipulations
concerning Korea, Japan went to war. Within
six weeks the sea power of the Central Empire
and her only disciplined soldiery were annihi
lated. Then, after Japan had scattered military
mobs, exploded the bubble of China's military
reputation, conquered an area larger than her own
territory and was on her way to Peking, hostile
Europe woke up. Three of the mightiest nations,
Russia, Germany and France, joined forces to
block Japanese ambition on the Asian mainland.
The islanders yielded, but the shattered Chinese
dogma of universal sovereignty was removed
from the world's politics forever. By her might
in war Japan had won the world's respect.
When in 1900 China's barbarism burst into
eruption, and the legations of the civilized world
in Peking were imperilled by a riotous mob called
"the Boxers" Japan saved the situation. All
the allies, except the Americans under Admiral
Kempff, made war on a peaceful Power, by at
tacking the Taku forts. The Chinese dragon,
stiffening its back for once, accepted the chal
lenge of the unjust, and China's regular troops,
goaded to resistance, now for the first time
active in offence, held Tientsin. By superior

12 THE MIKADO
forces, totalling nearly 21,000 men, quickly
landed, and by the astonishing efficiency of every
arm of her military service, Japan held the van
in the march to Peking. Had not Russia jeal
ousy prevented, the Japanese, unaided, could
have relieved the legations within twenty days.
In 1904, thrice armed because her quarrel was
just, Japan challenged the idea of a Russian
Manchuria, which meant also a Russian Korea —
which no man born of a Japanese woman could
endure without a fight to the death. The national
public schools, incarnated in an army, smote
ignorance on the war field and won. Russia
gladly made peace.
Japan has won the admiration of the world
and also the applause of the Anglo-Saxon
nations by her political stability, elasticity and
power. Duarchy and feudalism are deep in the
ooze of oblivion. Exactly one century after the
Philadelphia instrument of 1789, Japan's writ
ten Constitution of 1889 guaranteed liberal poli
tical rights to persons and conscience. This
supreme law of the land, higher even than the
Emperor's will, has in its working passed the
stage of experiment. Old privileges abolished,
all lines of promotion are open to the people.
Once there was "a nation within a nation" and
authority was divided, so old and strong had been
privilege and custom. Now one nation, of over
fifty million souls, is linked to the Throne in

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 13
unsurpassed loyalty. Now all unite in one ambi
tion, to make Japan great. At home or abroad
the native, intensely patriotic and ambitious, is
resolved to raise his country to the equal of the
world's best.
A proser in patience and work, the son of
Nippon is a sentimentalist at heart. Japanese
confess freely their debt to Cathay — witness the
superb "Chinese Portal" at Nikko — and to six
teenth century Europe, as well as to the modern
Occident. Nor is gratitude an unknown trait
among them. They have raised memorials to
Seibold, to Commodore Perry, to Townsend
Harris, to "Verbeck of Japan," to General
Meckel, who taught them strategy and tactics
and, in one form or another, to scores of their
British and Continental teachers. They have
awarded decorations to half a thousand aliens,
half being Americans. Great have been the
meetings in Tokyo presided over by native
statesmen and educators to express their indebt
edness to American diplomatists, teachers, mis
sionaries, and experts in every line of human
achievement. It is absurd to ascribe the progress
of Japan exclusively to forces within or without.
Rather is it true that the best powers of the
Orient and the Occident have here coalesced.
Yet great as are these external influences there
seems but one answer that crystallizes the history
of the Japanese and reveals as through a lens

14 THE MIKADO
their hopes for the future : Mikadoism. Stand
ing as a portal to the national Constitution of
1889 is this declaration :
"The Empire of Japan shall be reigned over
and governed by a line of Emperors unbroken
for ages eternal."

CHAPTER III
THE STATE OR ANCESTORS?
The Mikado is the living symbol of all that
is glorious in the history of Everlasting Great
Japan. He expresses to the sons of Nippon
whatever is dearest in the present and auspicious
in the future. He incarnates history and reli
gion. His person embodies the nation's memory
and the people's hope.
But who, politically, are "the people"? Iye-
yasu (1542-1616), greatest of all Japan's states
men in the past, who gave to the land more than
two hundred and fifty years of peace (1604-
1868), declared that "the people are the founda
tion of the Empire."
In 1912 a fierce controversy raged among the
intellectuals of the Imperial University in Tokyo,
as to whether the Emperor created the State or
was himself the creation of the State. Against
an ecstatic conception of loyalty was set the truth
of history. The Japanese are supposed to be,
like the Chinese, an old nation ; but they are not.
They talk of their "twenty-five hundred years of
history" as foolishly and as baselessly as the
Koreans do of their "four thousand." As well
15

16 THE MIKADO
may one date the achievements of Thor, or Cin
derella, as to accept the Tokyo chronology,
which was officially manufactured in 1872. Then
were the "ages eternal" mapped and made ortho
dox by fiat.
The islanders of Nippon came into history
about the same time with the Germanic nations
of northern Europe, and are no older. Until the
sixth century there were various tribes of diverse
origins and of several ethnic stocks in the archi
pelago, Ayran, Semitic, Malay, Negrito, Mongo
lian, Tartar and Ainu ; but these had no common
bond of union or even knowledge of each other.
There was then no more a Japanese than an
English people.
Like all great nations the Japanese are a com
posite of various stocks. The ancestral homes of
the various tribes had been in both continental
and insular Asia, in Tartary, Korea, Formosa
and the southern Pacific islands; while in the
northern half of Hondo and in Yezo dwelt the
Emishi, or the Ainu, whose characteristics and
language point to their being a branch of the
Aryan family. At the base the Japanese are as
truly a "white" as they are a "yellow" race.
About the same time that our Teutonic fathers,
unlettered and savage, came into contact with the
Romans the tribes of Nippon entered definitely
into relations with the Koreans and Chinese, who
were the lettered and civilized peoples of eastern

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 17
Asia. Borrowing as much in the sixth century
as in the nineteenth, these islanders became inher
itors of a civilization which had already blended
the ideals of India and China, and whose tran
scendent superiority was at once manifest.
Herein lay the vast difference. The Germanic
tribes came into collision with a grand civilization
in its decay. Receiving its culture, they hastened
its destruction. The Germanic peoples made
Latin the basis of their law and theology, but,
retaining their vernacular, they built their own
institutions and developed their life from within.
The Roman Empire was but a temporary model.
They refused to rewrite their ancestral story in
the terms of Tacitus or Thucydides, and rejected
the cult of Venus or Jupiter. Their poetry,
legend and folklore were left untouched in the
ancestral tongue and in time their thoughts and
aspirations found a voice in their own cultivated
poetry and prose. Only the priest and monk
Latinized their speech and writing. For centur
ies, during their political evolution, the northern
nations of Europe preserved external unity
through the dogma and ritual prescribed at
Rome. With the Asiatic islanders something entirely
different occurred. One tribe, or group of tribes,
became dominant in Japan, giving the archi
pelago political unity, largely by means of dogma
superimposed upon the aborigines by force of

18 THE MIKADO
arms. Their simple ancestral cult, when made an
engine of state, ensured uniformity of adminis
tration. Then they proceeded not only to wipe
out the varied tribal histories but to cover up all
linguistic differences, in the interests of central
ized monarchy, by the revolutionary measures of
A.D. 645. The primeval names of mountains,
rivers, places and even of persons were concealed
or made unrecognizable by the use of official
Chinese characters. The appeal of these ideo
graphs to the eye and the method of their pro
nunciation made everything on the map seem
uniformly "Japanese." Both politics and reli
gion combined in this process. Buddhism, with
its literary veneer of Chinese on everything, has
been even more powerful than the Government
in the making of the Japanese people. Shut off
from the continent as they were, within an archi
pelago in the distant seas, the process of assimi
lating many tribes into uniformity was as easy
and the results were as thoroughgoing as in
Britain. The vast element of difference in the exper
iences of the early Nipponese and of the Teutonic
tribes was that the former, isolated islanders, were
far more likely to come under one political influ
ence and organization in order to make one
nation, than were the northern nations on the
European continent.
The Teutonic peoples, on the contrary, mi-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 19
grated widely. Separated by mountains, rivers
and morasses, they wrought their different des
tinies under varying conditions, their one bond
of visible unity being the Christianity represented
by Rome. But the Nipponese, instead of con
fronting a decaying civilization, came first in
contact with the Chinese system, when in the
noontide of its glory under the Tang dynasty
(A.D. 618-905). The European barbarians
were not so overawed as to borrow wholesale and
preserve almost intact, as were the islanders who
became the intellectual bond servants of China.
The Teutonic peoples despised, rejected and
finally destroyed Roman civilization. The Nip
ponese for a thousand years glorified China as
the mother of all nations and made her civilization
their standard of perfection.
The lines of evolution in the Far East and in
the Far West were still further differentiated.
In their social organization, the clan or family
being the unit, the islanders were communal.
They first borrowed from China and then re
tained ancestor worship. The Teutons were
individualistic. In the West personality was cul
tivated in the intensest degree, in the East it was
annihilated in institutions. Individuality, the
glory of the Anglo-Saxon, was the bane of the
Nipponese. All language, art, custom, history
in the West show the spirit of individuality. The
East, with its communal civilization, smothered

20 THE MIKADO
this feeling and made the clan or the family the
unit. The individual is nothing; the dynasty,
the commune is everything. The structure of the
Japanese family is abhorrent to Western ideas.
In the social systems of the West adoption is a
rare episode, an exception. In the Far East it
is the general custom, so that even the modern
codes are gorged with the details of a system dis
tinctly lower and most worthily despised in the
West. In a word, the old Far East, building its polity
on ancestor worship, faced the past to find the
golden age, allowing the graveyard and ghosts to
tyrannize over the living. The West long ago
heard the call to "let the dead past bury its dead,"
and dropped ancestor worship as a clog to pro
gress. To the West it was, as it still is to China
and Japan, a fountain of moral pollution. The
eyes of the Occident are ever presented to the
front and future. "Forward" is the watchword.
In the Orient the dogma that "devotion to an
cestors is the mainspring of all virtues" is the
false doctrine ever preached. In the Occident
consecration to the bettering of descendants is
the supreme motor that secures progress. Nogi
commits suicide to follow his Master in death.
Lincoln, at Gettysburg, facing the future,
charges the living to continue the work left
undone. In promulgating the Constitution in 1889

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 21
Mutsuhito said: "That We have been so for
tunate in Our reign in keeping with the tendency
of the times as to accomplish this work We owe
to the Glorious Spirit of the Imperial Founder
of Our House and Our Other Imperial Ances
tors." It was an empty concession to ancient
form. Mutsuhito had departed far from the ways
of his forefathers.

CHAPTER IV
"UNBROKEN FOR AGES ETERNAL"
Japan claims the world's oldest unbroken line
of rulers. In the Emperor's state documents,
using the imperial "We," he calls attention to his
own heavenly descent and ascribes ineffable vir
tue to his predecessors. The preamble to the
Constitution, issued in 1889, reads:
"Having by virtue of the glories of Our Ances
tors ascended the Throne of a lineal succession
unbroken for ages eternal; desiring to promote
the welfare of and to give development to the
moral and intellectual faculties of Our beloved
subjects, the very same that have been favored
with the benevolent care and affectionate vigi
lance of Our Ancestors ; and hoping to maintain
the prosperity of the State, in concert with Our
People and with their support, We hereby pro
mulgate, in pursuance of Our Imperial Rescript,
of the 12th day of the 10th month of the 14th
year of Meiji [1882] a fundamental law of state,
to exhibit the principles by which We are to be
guided in Our conduct, and to point out to what
Our descendants and Our subjects and their de
scendants are forever to conform.
22

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 23
"The rights of sovereignty of the State We
have inherited from Our Ancestors, and We shall
bequeath them to Our descendants. Neither We
nor they shall in the future fail to wield them in
accordance with the provisions of the Constitu
tion hereby granted."
Seventeen articles, setting forth the place of
the Emperor, in law and fact, as the fountain of
order, power and privilege, and as the maker of
war and peace, form Chapter I. of the Constitu
tion. His person is sacred and inviolable. He
combines "in himself the rights of sovereignty
and exercises them according to the provisions
of the present Constitution."
In the declarations of war with China in 1894
and with Russia in 1904 the same tone of lan
guage and coloring of ideas are continued. In
all this there is nothing new. Such expressions
are in harmony with all Japanese literature and
with traditions at least a thousand years old.
In his "Commentaries on the Constitution of the
Empire of Japan" Marquis Ito reinforces the
text. In spite of the brilliance of their modern
achievements the Japanese are not yet wholly
out of their intellectual or ethical childhood.
Little conception of history as a science, apart
from their opinions and feelings, as yet exists.
The glib but utterly worthless statements of even
"educated" Japanese and renowned statesmen

24 THE MIKADO
concerning "their twenty-five hundred years of
written history" have as little basis in literal fact
or contemporaneous record as have the tradi
tional notions concerning early Hebrew history,
long dominant in the Jewish and Christian world.
Even the Japan of the books, as known in the
West, is the Japan of the Samurai; not of the
great mass of the people. Rural Japan, that is,
nine-tenths of all, is yet unknown.
It was about the opening of the fifth Christian
century that Chinese culture began to filter into
Japan, causing a profound revolution in the
thoughts and habits of the islanders, giving them
a new mental outfit, and altogether accomplish
ing a change as great as that wrought in the
nineteenth century. Yet not till the eighth cen
tury were either annals or history written. All
before that time is prehistoric. Native scholars
now acknowledge this.
The story of Wani the Korean bringing letters
to Japan, in A.D. 286, may have some basis of
fact, but writing by a class, or body of scribes,
was not practiced until after A.D. 552, for in
stead of the dishonest accuracy of the chroniclers
of A.D. 712, who filled up the morass of ignor
ance by the manufacture of minutely dated events
and dynasties, we have in the records after this
date an entire change in atmosphere. From the
fifth century sobriety and likeness to other his
toric records mark the chronological list of Japa-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 25
nese Emperors. In fact, the table of Mikado
sovereigns* — the first seventeen, of exceedingly
long life, being clearly mythical — begins to look
wonderfully human and actual. After Nintoku,
who reigned A.D. 313-399, no Emperor reached
the age of 100, nor even that of 90, and only two
the age of 80. The days of thirteen of them were
"three score years and ten." During the second
period, in the Middle Ages, many short reigns of
infants and little people of the nursery, puppets
of the politicians, are noted, some lasting less than
a year. In our list of 124 Mikados, which includes
Queen Jingu, whom some Japanese authors do
not admit, "she having never been crowned or
formally declared Empress by investiture with
the regalia of sovereignty," mirror, crystal sphere,
and sword, are nine female sovereigns, the last
being Go-Sakuramachi (A.D. 1763-1770).
What kind of rulers were these first Mikados,
kings of men, in the divine or prehistoric age,
before the tremendous transforming influences of
Buddhism, or of the Chinese ethical, political and
legal systems or the institutions of feudalism were
known in Japan?
All the evidence points to the fact that during
this thousand years of unrecorded time, a great
void which tradition fills so courageously and
* See the entire list, with dates of reign and age at death, in
"The Mikado's Empire," p. 123.

26 THE MIKADO
cunningly, with an accuracy which is self-dam
nable, various races of people in the archipelago
strove for the mastery. Craniologists declare
that no skull known to mankind shows greater
evidences of mixture of many ethnic stocks. Ex
actly who and what these various tribes were, no
man can now say with certainty. The Japanese,
made up of four races, Aryan, Malay, Semitic
and Tartar, are still in search of their first ances
tors, as they are of a rehgion. That they were
fishermen and hunters living in the stone age is
certain. Gradually the house or tribe of Yamato
in central Japan became paramount. Like that
of old Rome it was composite, many tribes form
ing one. Sending out expeditions to the far east
and north, the Mikadoists gradually brought the
other tribes under the sway of their chiefs.
By the might not only of superior weapons but
of intellect the Yamato men wrought progress,
conquering by Shinto, that is, theology, as well as
with iron. Seen through official spectacles, the
conquerors' ancestors came from "Heaven."
They were a divine race sprung from the "gods,"
while those subdued were earthborn and therefore
ordained to subjection.
Japanese mythology is the veiled and poetic
representation of centuries of conflict that estab
lished Mikadoism and culture. Whatever the
original religion of the islanders the graft that
hides the stock is Mikadoism. In every Church-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 27
State in which the ruler has claimed divine right
rehgion has been made a political engine* To
challenge or criticize the Government-made dog
mas means heresy and lese-majesty. One who
doubts or calls for the basic facts is not "sound"
or "safe," and the inquisition, the sword or the
synod may silence him. The orthodox Japanese
is not unique in abridging or minimizing the dif
ference between ancient and modern days.
During these early ages of Japan the chief, or,
as seen through modern lenses, the "Emperor,"
was a warrior leading his host, accustomed to toil
and the hardships of a soldier. The conquered
tribes were made obedient, by as good a govern
ment, perhaps, as the times allowed. Leading
men of the dominant tribe married the daughters
of the subdued people. The general polity was a
rude species of feudalism of the Chinese sort, in
which eight parts of the ground were cultivated
for the benefit of the landholder and his serfs, or
tenants, and one-ninth for the chief of the para
mount house.
From the very first and all along, language
bearing witness to the fact, the sense of person
ality in Japan has been weak. Dwelling close to
nature and not as far removed then as now from
the old hfe which they shared with their fellow
animals, the early islanders did not distinguish
clearly between Creator and creatures, between
the world and man. Millions of their modern

28 THE MIKADO
descendants do not, even yet. Each human being
sank his consciousness in the idea of the place, the
family, the clan, the institution. Along with a
feeble sense of personality was the equally weak
perception of individuality.
There are historical reasons why Japanese
nouns have neither gender, number nor case ; why
verbs lack inflections; why personification is so
very rare in their older literature ; why mythology
is so abundant and why real history is so small in
quantity and poor in quality. The individual was
nothing; the tribe, clan, community, everything.
Even with the modern codes of law, which cut
straight across the grain of Japanese family life
and hereditary notions, the average native has
not the full clear sense of individuality and per
sonality dominant in America. It will be long
before he, longer before the Chinese average man,
reaches this goal, even though his progress toward
it is unmistakable.
The head of the Yamato house had at first no
title corresponding to any of those verbal forms
afterward borrowed from Chinese imperialism,
nor was there a nobility modelled on continental
court systems. Buddhist priests, much later than
A.D. 552, invented many titles for the chiefs of
the Yamato tribe, who gradually became a seden
tary recluse. His headquarters were named the
Awful Place, or Mikado, from mika, awful, and
do, place. Or, since in Japan the gateway is

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 29
often as outwardly imposing as is the main struc
ture, being the only one which the outsider sees,
the term may mean the Sublime Porte, from mi,
honorable, and kado, gate or door. In Hiuga
province there is a village named Mikado.
In any event it was the place, the power, not
the real person that was considered. Personality
was made invisible. The chief was not spoken of
by his personal name. Even in our day, it not
being polite to utter it, the Mikado's name is
rarely mentioned. He is referred to by one or
another of many impersonal titles, and Mutsuhito
the Great, now dead, is now known as the Meiji
Tenno, or Son of Heaven of the Era of Meiji.
Even the present Mikado is to millions less a per
sonality than a celestial function. Most Japanese
do not inquire into details concerning him.
Native literature is almost silent concerning
his life as a man, yet the newer journalism has
broken many old traditions. The title Mikado is
not used by modern Japanese, the term Tenno
taking its place. Nevertheless both history and
the English language have their rights.
In A.D. 645 the primeval system of chieftain
ship, with the simple relation of conquerors and
vassals, was changed to a very elaborate form of
government, when Chinese imperialism, or the
method of political centralization, was introduced
from beyond sea into Japan. This did away with
the rude, primitive feudalism and substituted the

30 THE MIKADO
method of "capital and provinces," governors
being sent out from the Throne and Court to
rule in the name of the Mikado. Even more pro
foundly transforming in its influence upon the
person, character and habits of the nation-chief
was Buddhism, which came in along with Chinese
politics.

CHAPTER V
MIKADOISM AND SHINTO
In the Occidental part of the modern world
there exists nothing corresponding to Mikadoism,
which is a survival and an anachronism. Yet in
the Islands of the Risen Sun Mikadoism is more
than Shinto, for it is older than the State. There
was a Mikado — it is absurd to speak of this
archaic figure as an "Emperor" unless we de
grade the ancient personage and institution to
the level of a Haytian "sovereign" or an Iroquois
chieftain — before there was a Government. The
social order was that of the clan. The tie of rit
ual, binding all, was without a name, something
that "always had been." That is what Shinto,
codeless, ethicless and without dogma, is to-day.
When this cult came into the presence of an
imported rival, Buddhism, that threatened its
existence, Shinto for the first time received a
name, kami no michi, which means the Rule of
the Superiors, or the Way of the "Gods." Using
the Chinese term expressed in Roman letters, we
have "Shinto," but employing a Greek word,
"theology." "Shintoism" is both tautology and
hybrid. Original Shinto had no mysteries, dog-
31

32 THE MIKADO
mas or ethical codes. It was simply propriety,
loyalty, the attitude of mind becoming the ruled
in presence of their rulers, of the subordinates
before their superiors. In its ritual development
it became the expression of the aspiring life. It
showed how man felt in the presence of the spirits
of the dead and the powers mysterious, for as
yet insular man knew nothing of the infinite, nor
dreamed of things metaphysical.
Dwelling in a land everywhere rich in hot
springs, nature invited man to bathing, and clean
liness formed a large part of his daily duty.
Being an agriculturalist, living alongside of hos
tile aboriginal hunters and fishermen, the devout
Shintoist prayed to be clean, to avoid trespass on
field, house and neighbor. He petitioned for
deliverance from calamity out of air, land or sea,
while invoking the fertility of his body and the
soil, and rendering thanks for the products of
each. By virtue of his relation to the Upper or
Superior Ones, the Kami, all loyal tribesmen of
Yamato, or those subdued by them, were Mika-
doists, and hence Shintoists. The term for gov
ernment, matsurigoto, or shrine visiting, meant
also religion.
Before a "Japanese people" was conceived of
the Mikado, or head of this "religion," social
organization or class cult, claimed no personal
moral superiority over his people, nor pretended
to look after what later ages called morals. His

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 33
life was open to all, his human faults were mani
fest. He made confession of sin and defect like
his own people. As life was communal he, as the
head of the clan, was in orthodox theory the
owner of the land, the people and all their pos
sessions. Hence he prayed for them as for his
own property. His falchion and lance had come
to him from Ama, the Ancestral Region or "Hea
ven," and by these weapons he had won the land.
Conquest is the basis of Shinto as a political force
and an engine of state.
What he, the tribal chief, head of "Shinto"
when this Chinese word and name were still un
known, and what he, as the Mikado, said in the
early ages, when a Japanese nation was forming,
he says now in the Constitution, according to
which he summons or dissolves Diets, declares
war or announces peace: "The rights of Sov
ereignty of the State we have inherited from Our
Ancestors." Shinto is not a religion in any technical sense.
It is a national tradition raised to a cult and possi
ble only to islanders. Then, as now, the palladia
of the Mikado's station and rule were the sword,
emblem of conquest; the mirror, emblem of the
spirits of his ancestry; the crystal ball, symbol of
pure government, or flawless rule.
Shinto is not a single form of belief, but a
fusion of naturism with animism, a composite
body of beliefs. In many respects the legends in

34 THE MIKADO
the Kojiki, Japan's most sacred scripture, com
posed A.D. 712,* resemble closely those of the
North American Indians, and in the method of
forming their names, each one a long sentence of
description, the ancient "Japanese" were much
like the Iroquois. The old hfe, in the primitive
home, the ancestral land of Ama (Tartary?) and
the village assembly are reflected in the "Council
of the Gods" (kami) in Ama, or the High Plain
of Heaven; that is, perhaps the very region in
which Field-Marshal Oyama and his hosts won
victory in 1905. In that primeval congress action
and migration are decided upon. The whole
"local color" of many of the earlier myths of the
Kojiki is that of ancient Tartary. Up to this
point, in time and space, the legends and chron
icles are consistent and homogeneous.
With the advent of the woman, Amaterasu, or
Heaven Illuminator [in Section XI] there comes
in a most delightful and disturbing influence.
The narrative loses its unity, and a new cycle
of stories concerns this, the most famous of the
Mikado's "ancestors."
The direct product of the myth maker is now
very evident. On the story of the continental
home, on the stock of an immigrant tribal tradi
tion, is grafted a dogma. On a body of belief
very much like simple monotheism, or at least
* Translated by Basil Hall Chamberlin, in Transactions of the
Asiatic Society of Japan.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 35
tending to it, we have now a ritual, pointing
toward an earthly monarch, with festivals in
his honor.
Evidently in the "Sun Goddess" conqueror and
conquered have fused their traditions and made
one cult, which becomes a highly developed sys
tem and coalesces with Chinese ancestor worship,
a new importation in the islands. Before "Shin
to," as formulated for a scheme of conquest, and
previous to borrowing exotic ideas from China,
the primitive cult honors the clan and the clan's
progenitors. From the introduction of the
Chinese system, ancestor worship becomes part
of family life in the islands of Nippon.
In the forefront of the Kojiki's story we have
the "divine comedy," which portrays the pranks
of Susano-6, the storm god; the flight into the
cave of Amaterasu, or the Heaven Illuminator;
the assembly of the gods, and the dancing of
Uzume before the cave door. In this narrative is
discernible the origin of Japanese art, ritual,
music, inventions, and indeed most of the rudi
ments of the island civilization.
After this comedy of the gods, or eclipse of the
sun, so often described by modern writers, the
legends center round Idzumo; not in the south,
but in the west. These show diplomacy and com
promise, through which one rule was exchanged
for another. The arrangements between Ama, or
Heaven, and Idzumo, as to dynasty, being com-

36 THE MIKADO
pleted, "the Sovran Child" of the sun goddess
"descends" from Ama, or Heaven, to earth ; that
is, to "Japan," yet not to Idzumo, but hundreds
of miles to the south, upon a mountain in Kiu-
shiu, between Satsuma and Ozumi. After many
adventures amid animal gods of all sorts, one
chief sets out eastward on a tour of conquest.
Now we hear of Yamato, in which reign the
conqueror rules as the first "Emperor" of Japan,
whose posthumous name, given fourteen hundred
years after his death, is Jimmu, or Warhke Spirit.
Asuka was the classic spot in Yamato, in the
center of the main island. Not till centuries after
Jimmu do we hear of the eastern region, where
Tokyo lies, or of Korea, and not until very late
of China. After Yamato we read no more of
Ama or the Heavenly Region, or of the old town
or tribe meetings of the myriads of kami, or
chiefs. In a word, the primitive tribal assemblies
of (Tartary? or) the ancestral home fall out of
view. In the new land and under differing conditions,
growing out of the fusion of the old and the new
forms of conqueror and conquered, arise the insti
tutions of "Shinto" and the Mikado. We have
now a tradition of ruler and ruled, liturgies that
express hopes and desires, and something like his
tory, that tells us of the ruler's acts; in a word,
Mikadoism. We have worship by the Mikado
and his chiefs of nature gods, under the idea that
these are "ancestors."

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 37
This is not true ancestor worship; the early
Japanese system had no true ancestor worship,
like that of the Chinese. Ancestor worship has
profoundly influenced Japanese laws and social
custom, yet is not indigenous but imported and
was unknown in very ancient Japan. The graft
ing of this Chinese idea upon the insular civiliza
tion marked but one of many stages in the
evolution of the nation.
Buddhism, rather than Mikadoism, educated,
uplifted and made the Japanese "people," fos
tered their innate love of art and beauty, gave
them their folklore, and, for the most part, their
drama and literature. Mikadoism generated the
military, political and unifying ideas and forces
which have made the Japanese a nation and, from
many tribes, one body politic. The role of Mika
doism has been from the first in the clan, that of
Buddhism has been in the family.
What social order the islanders had before the
seventh century was based on the clan idea, not on
the family. The clans were not held by a true
blood tie but were fictitious, in that people of
different bloods, ethnic and tribal stocks, were in
many cases united under one Uji. Even in our
own days two unrelated families in Japan may
coalesce to form one, making a "family" in the
eye of Japanese law, but not in the Western or
Christian sense. So, also, in ancient times, a clan
was not a body held together by a blood tie. The

38 THE MIKADO
name, the legal entity, was the main thing. One
after another these clans were overcome by one
powerful family, the Soga. By the seventh cen
tury the Sogas not only controlled the ad
ministration of affairs but even threatened the
existence of the Mikado, both as a person and as
an institution.
There took place in A.D. 645 a revolution
which in both its inner and its outer aspects was
astonishingly like that wrought by the advent of
Perry in 1853 and the coup d'etat at Kyoto,
engineered by fifty-five young men, on January
3, 1868. In both eras the existing system was on
the point of breaking down and the country was
ready for political revolution. The interior forces
of upheaval were soon confronted with influences
from without. Native students had been abroad
and "seen the world." They came back to Japan
with yeast and leaven. They had looked upon
better things and were determined to have im
provement at home. They and those likeminded
with them made, in A.D. 645 as in Kyoto, in
A.D. 1868, a coup d'etat. The effect, as in the
'50s and '60s of the nineteenth century, was not
collision and destruction but a new resultant of
forces. These, in the seventh century, began a
new "Japan," which was relatively as wonderful
as that we see in the twentieth century. In effect
Chinese ideals, once imported, were immediately
turned into practical methods.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 39
Reforms were begun on paper, but the Gov
ernment was not consolidated until the ninth or
tenth century. The conquests of the Ainu in the
east and the north, and of the southwestern tribes
and people of the outlying islands, were com
pleted only after four hundred years of military
operations. These, followed by the machinery of
civil government, completed the making of the
nation; or, shall we say, ended the preparation
for formal feudalism in the eleventh century.
By that time the type of Mikadoism that had
grown up under the centralization system in the
successive capitals at Asuka (two places A.D.
412-628), Nara (A.D. 719-784), and Kyoto
(A.D. 784-1868) under a dual process made the
chief ruler a failure and government by an exclu
sive ring of politicians a farce. The pohcy of the
civilian Fujiwara nobles was to exalt the occu
pant of the throne to the "shelf of the blue
clouds," making him, or it, a "god," existent but
absentee from his people. The ideal Mikado of
the Buddhist dogmatist was a monk and a recluse.
In the modern list of the 128 Imperial portraits
we see many shorn heads.* In both ways the liv
ing Mikado became more and more a shadow, an
idea, an institution, and less a personality. Pos
sibly the motive of the Fujiwara civilians, who
hedged the Throne, may have been more than that
* A framed copy of this official picture is in the library of
Cornell University.

40 THE MIKADO
of the officeholder's greed of power and pelf.
Conservative precaution, more than personal am
bition, may have been the ruling idea. To make
the Mikado more and more a "god," while he was
still holding political power, may have seemed
dangerous to the State. Might not such a one
revolutionize order and custom?
So, to save the State, it may be, the religious
aristocracy separated the politician and his sacer
dotal functions. The Mikado was made more of
a "god" and less of a ruler, in order that gov
ernment might be kept safe and sure. It is
certain that when the military clans left the field
in the twelfth century and came to court,
exchanging the toils of the campaign for the
luxury of the capital, to engage also in the splen
did game of throne disposal, they did not alter
the Fujiwara policy. They adopted it, but in
their own selfish interests. The Taira clan chiefs,
deposing their rivals, the Minamoto, did but rear
another and a higher ring fence around the
Mikado, showing also even a more shameless
nepotism in filling offices.
Then, under the quarrels of the rough sol
diers, the reds and the white, Taira and Mina
moto (in Chinese, Genji and Heike), feuds
broke out which deluged Japan with blood, the
Taira being annihilated and the Minamoto be
coming supreme. Having both sword and purse,
they overawed the Emperor and created the

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 41
duarchy of Throne and Camp, with centers at
Kyoto and Kamakura, or, later, Yedo. Under
the shadow of such a dual system, the power and
life of Mikadoism sank to a mythology.
For nearly six centuries the institution re
mained a ghostly shadow, until the internal
revolution, wrought by native thought and schol
arship and the assault of Occidental forces, once
more set the ancient organism on a new plane of
evolution. The Americans Perry and Harris
helped mightily to give Mutsuhito his throne.
The Restoration of 1868 made the Japanese peo
ple a nation, in the sense of both an intensity and
a plenitude unknown before in all their long
history. Pretenders to the throne have not been want
ing in Japan, though no commoner, or noble, or
prince not of Imperial blood, ever attempted to
be a Son of Heaven. The best known of early
pretenders was Masakado, of the Taira family.
This dissatisfied ofnceseeker departed, in A.D.
930, to "the Far East," in the half savage region
of Yedo Bay, governing as a Shinno, or cadet of
the Imperial line. His reign was short, for in the
year 940 Sadamori, his cousin, slew him, cut off
his head and brought it to Kyoto, where it was
exposed on the pillory.
Calamities, ascribed to the wrath of Masa-
kado's perturbed spirit, followed, and to placate
the uneasy dead there was erected at Kanda, now

42 THE MIKADO
in modern Tokyo, a shrine to the memory of the
mighty Pretender. But in 1868 the loyal troops
of the young Meiji Emperor, well read in the
writings of Rai Sanyo, the interpreter of their
national story, and full of hatred of all preten
ders and traitors, thronged into the Kanda tem
ple, overthrew the idol of the traitor "god,"
dragged it out into the street and with their
swords chopped it to pieces. The spell of nine
hundred years was broken. There was one
"god" less to deceive the masses.
Japanese religion and social life did not begin
in true ancestor-worship. The facts, as revealed
in the Kojiki and Nihongi, are in flat contradic
tion to the theories of Mr. Herbert Spencer,
Lafcadio Hearn and the native code lawyers,
Dr. Hozumi and others.* These ancient records
will always prevent uncritical patriots from
"swallowing whole" later dogmas born from the
necessities of statecraft.

* See also "Shinto" by W. G. Aston, London and New York,
1905, and "The Development of Religion in Japan" by G. W.
Knox, New York, 1907, and "The Religions of Japan," New York,
1905, by the present author.

CHAPTER VI
THE MIKADO AS A MONK
In the period between Nintoku (A.D. 313-
399), the seventeenth and last of the longlived
and unhistorical Mikados, who were tribal chiefs,
and the Emperor Gotoba, the eighty-third in the
list, constituting fifty-six reigns, from about
A.D. 400 to 1200, the Mikado was, in theory, the
sole ruler of the land. During these eight cen
turies certain principles developed into institu
tions which profoundly affected the status of the
Emperor. These were, (1) the influence of
China; (2) the entrance and spread of Bud
dhism; (3) the great Reformation of AD. 645;
(4) the evolution of the military classes and their
achievements, in war and in civil life; and (5)
the formulation of Bushido, or the Warrior's
Code. In Kimmei's reign (A.D. 540-571) began a
long procession of Buddhist missionaries and
Korean teachers into Japan. The literature,
architecture, medicine, the arts and sciences, cos
tumes and comforts, customs and manners of the
old "treasure lands of the West" (India, China,
Korea) were brought to the Islands of the Sun.
43

44 THE MIKADO
Japan had her choice from the ripe fruitage of
thought in India and Tibet and could select from
the triumphs of Chinese civihzation, enriched by
Buddhist dogmas, new sentiments and ritual,
together with whatever Korea, then rising to the
zenith of her civihzation, had to offer.
During this period Japanese warriors, making
naval and mihtary expeditions, went over into
the neighboring peninsula; sometimes, and prob
ably in most cases, as unauthorized pirates; but
again as servants of the Mikado who furnished
valuable allies to the Koreans.
After this tremendous infusion of continental
ideas the islanders were able in A.D. 645 to move
at one bound from feudalism to imperialism,
from something hke a rude confederacy, held
together by one paramount house or tribe, to
centralization that meant sooner or later the
obedience of subjugated people. Nevertheless
Kyoto, like Rome, soon had both its imperator or
general and its Praetorian camp.
Until the settlement, in the eighth century, at
Nara (probably a Korean word for "capital")
the residence of the Court was migatory. In the
five home provinces, Japan's ancient center,
scores of names tell of places which were once
capitals or seats of the Court. In most cases
they have shrunk to humble villages. Japan has
had sixty "capitals."
In the further transformation both of the

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 45
islanders and their central institution of Mikado
ism the cult of Buddha, yieldmg both a literary
and a spiritual treasure, stimulated the study of
Chinese and opened a door into the treasure
houses of Confucianism, which, though at first
only an ethical system, had become a philosophy.
Japanese Buddhism, which is simply the collec
tive name of manifold influences during a thous
and years, has been the nation's greatest and most
thoroughgoing civilizer, becoming even the par
ent of Japanese ancestor worship; as distinct
from the clan or official cult, making the insular
idea and practice very much, though not exactly,
like the true Chinese system. Furthermore the
bonzes persuaded the Mikados to use no more
the ancient term "Sumeragi," but, after the
Chinese fashion, to adopt the title of "Tenno,"
King of Heaven, or "Tenshi," Son of Heaven.
Now, in the native rhetoric of many centuries, the
Mikado, in addition to the European equivalents
for "Majesty," has a rosary of Chinese titles.
It soon appeared that nominal retirement fur
nished often only a mask for greater political
activity in secret, when a puppet was on the
throne. Mikadoism grew into a cult and later
evaporated into an idea, or an abstraction, but
the nation degenerated under this new variety of
the dogma. Instead of being a man, priestcraft
transformed Japan's chief ruler into an idol. It
mattered very little who was on the throne. The

46 THE MIKADO
place, the office, rather than the person, was
important. It is against this foil of the historic degrada
tion of the personality of Japan's Emperor, for
which Buddhism is so largely responsible, that
the Constitution of 1889, so exphcitly and with
emphasis, declares that "the Empire of Japan
shall be reigned over and governed by a line of
Emperors." Mutsuhito, a true governor, lived
a life of ceaseless industry in shouldering the
cares of state.
Nevertheless, as seen in perspective, through
the later centuries of war, the early Buddhist era
(A.D. 552-1192), the era of Hei-an (Serene
Calm) seems to the modern Japanese to be
almost a golden age. They call the period from
A.D. 1159 to 1603 the era of Civil Strife.
Roughly speaking, the nation has had but two
long stretches of peaceful time, that of the early
Buddhist era, over a small area, comparatively,
and that of the Tokugawa era of bureaucracy,
from 1604 to 1868, in the Empire, south of Yezo.
Japan's modern life has been marked by the two
great internal, bloody struggles of 1868 and
1877, and two colossal foreign wars.
During this medieval era of Hei-an, as in
every other period of Japanese history, popular
reverence for the Mikado continued unabated.
This was not patriotism, as we understand it, not
even reverence for the Emperor himself, but

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 47
rather for the Throne. The man was sunk in the
office. It was the place, the impersonal potency,
which formed the center of all authority. It is,
in our day, noisily asserted that no noble or com
moner ever attempted to usurp the office of
Mikado; but at this question, answered so dif
ferently by the delirious patriot of modern days
and by the real history of Japan, we have already
glanced. There is a blatant, unhistorical Mika
doism. Indeed, we may ask, why need preten
ders arise? So long as it was possible to raise
up figureheads on the throne, and thus conceal
the mechanism of wirepulling and pipelaying,
that is, of rendering invisible the real "boss" or
worker of the machine, why should the politician
crave nominal supremacy?
Even when the military clans, Taira and Mina
moto, came to blows in A.D. 1159, and the latter
were defeated and exiled, the victors did not seize
the Throne, nor actually make one of their num
ber a Mikado, but it was their nominee, Go-Toba,
of Imperial blood, who took the sacred mat and
behind the bamboo curtain reigned fourteen years
(1184-1198). During this century hara-kiri, or seppuku, a
form of suicide not known in early Japan, began
its vogue. In the opinion of some it originated
"in the metaphorical use of the word hara [abdo
men], which was the supposed organ for the be
getting of ideas." Philosophically speaking, it

48 THE MIKADO
was the issue of the conflict between nominalism
and realism, phases of philosophy that have
played no mean part in the history of Far East
ern thought.
As civilization advances in Japan and insular
and class ideals melt into a universal and higher
system of ethics, the cult of hara-kiri is attacked
even by Japanese reformers. Now, except for
compelling and excusing reasons, the suicide is
reckoned a moral coward, and thousands of
natives are courageous enough to say so.
During this Hei-an, or Peaceful Period, many
if not most of the various names, titles and titular
or rhetorical references to the Mikado had their
origin. Descriptive of the center of the nation's
life, these terms now form a treasury of word
jewels in the Aladdin's cave of Japan's classical
poetry. Alas that the modern Japanese have virtually
let fall into desuetude the august and venerable
native word "Mikado," associated for ages as it
is with all things noble and venerable! In place
of "Mikado" they have adopted a term of Chi
nese coinage, "Tenno," or "Tenshi," now used in
ordinary native speech. This word, which cuts
against the grain of progressive humanity and
advancing civilization, means Heavenly King or
Son. For foreign use they employ the title "Em
peror." Perhaps the Japanese, following recent
precedent in this as in other matters, notably their

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 49
once neglected art, and, for a time, their true
assets of hereditary culture, will return to the
grand and venerable title, "Mikado."
In official documents, "Kotei," meaning imper
ial ruler, is employed and "Heika" has the force
of "His Majesty." There are numerous other
expressions relating to the Throne and its Occu
pant used in rhetoric or poetry.
The appellations by which the Mikados, both
male and female, in the line, are known in his
tory are all posthumous. Only expert scholars
and antiquarians can recall the names by which
the rulers of Japan were known during their
lifetime. The official action of 1912 which de
clares that Mutsuhito (the Great) shall lose his
personality and be known as the Meiji Tenno
may follow national custom, but to the Western
mind seems abominable.
The Mikado has no family name, but only a
personal designation. This in itself is a note of
very great antiquity. The fact that the Mikado
has no name, like that of the Guelphs, Haps-
burgs, Hohenzollerns, or others who have arisen
out of the impersonal ooze of barbarism, shows
that his predecessors ruled in a day more an
cient than that of any Occidental house now
reigning or acting as figureheads of social order
in Europe. The line of Mikados has ruled from
time immemorial, or as the Constitution declares
"from ages eternal."

50 THE MIKADO
During this classical era the national literature
and native art, already in evolution, as shown in
the relics found in the dolmens and the Shinto
oral liturgies and early songs, had their first nota
ble development. Imitated from Chinese origin
als, or developed through literary or artistic
suggestion, the symbols of the Mikado's person
ality and power also took form. The three
legged crow in the sun, the sixteen petalled
"chrysanthemum," originally the sun, with six
teen rays, the red ball on a white ground and the
same now used by the War Department, on the
army flag, but with sixteen rays added, are now
well known, but the original suggestion came
from China. The Mikado was as the sun, his
Ministers and servants were as the moon; and
this social dogma is shown in the ancient brocade
standards. Out of the rich treasury of native classical
poetry a stanza of the eighth century, celebrating
the glory of the Mikado and wishing him "Ban
zai," or ten thousand years of life, was selected,
a few years ago, as the national hymn, and made
by the soldiery during the war with China a
battle cry. The classic words, Kimi ga yo, are
now sung to a tune, suggesting archaic music,
but written by a German musician. Some of the
renderings in English are too florid, even to the
exaggeration of fulsome flattery. Professor

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 51
Chamberlain's version, now the accepted one, is
as follows: "May our Lord's dominion last
Till a thousand years have passed,
Twice four thousand times o'er told!
Firm as changeless rock, earth rooted,
Moss of ages uncomputed,
Grow upon it, green and old."
Simplest of all is this version, also made by
Chamberlain in 1880:
"A thousand years of happy life be thine !
Live on, my Lord, till what are pebbles now,
By age united, to great rocks shall grow
Whose venerable sides the moss doth line !"
A flamboyant and expanded form, containing
ideas not in the original, is this:
"Until this grain of sand,
Tossed by each wavelet's freak,
Grow to a cloudgirt peak
Towering above the land;
Until the dewy flake
Beading this blossom's gold
Swell to a mighty lake —
Age upon age untold
Joy to joy manifold
Add for our Sovereign's sake."

CHAPTER VII
SEVEN CENTURIES OF ECLIPSE
I have set out in this volume to tell the story
of Japan's development only in the phases of
Mikadoism. In other books I have shown how
the two leading military clans, the Genji and
Heike, or Minamoto and Taira, the Reds and
the Whites, after settling down in Kyoto, quar
reled, in A.D. 1159, over the spoils of office, the
Throne being the chief prize. The former held
the power and overawed Court and Emperors
during several generations. Then followed a
war of supposed extermination, but the Mina
moto rose to triumph again, and the Shogun in
the "Far East," at Kamakura, became the real
power holder, while the personality of the Mikado
in Kyoto grew more shadowy. There were two
capitals and two rulers in the Island Empire.
The families, in succession, as mihtary governors
of the country, that is, the "bosses," were the
Minamoto (A.D. 1192-1219), the Hojo (1219-
1333) and the Ashikaga (1335-1573). When in
A.D. 1333 the eastern city of Kamakura was
stormed and burned the partisans, once united in
war, quarreled over the division of spoil, and, as
52

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 53
each side held to its own nominee to the Throne,
a desolating war issued, which lasted fifty-six
years. The Imperial dynasties were called
respectively the Northern and the Southern. As
the war progressed and widened the prime object
was in a great measure forgotten in the lust for
land and slaughter.
Finally, in 1392, the Southern Emperor, Go-
Kameyama, was persuaded by an envoy of Ashi-
kaga to come to Kyoto and deliver up the regalia,
or three sacred symbols, to Go-Komatsu, the
Northern Emperor. The compromise was made
effectual by declaring that the throne should be
occupied alternately by the rival dynasties of the
Imperial family, the two becoming one. The
problem was soon solved. In a few generations,
however, the Northern dynasty became extinct.
The orthodox view, held in modern Japan, con
cerning the Northern dynasty, consisting of the
five "false" Emperors, Kogen, Komio, Shinko,
Go-Kogon, Go-Enyiu, and Go-Komatsu, is that
this line was illegitimate. A library of books by
Japanese authors exists on the subject. In mod
ern lists the names of the five Northern, or
"false" Emperors, nominees of Ashikaga, were
at first represented only by black spots ; but now,
on the rising tide of Mikadoism, both names and
faces are given, though not in the official chrono
logical order, making, in 1915, 129 in all.
This rough treatment of the Emperors and the

54 THE MIKADO
defiant attitude to the institution of Mikadoism
by the Ho jo regents enables the historical stu
dent to examine again the statement, made with
the seriousness of an article of religion, that "the
crime of high treason has never been known in
Japan." As a simple matter for record, Mikados
have been plotted against, assassinated, driven to
exile and suicide, seized and put in prison, ban
ished, their palaces attacked and the Imperial
person held as prisoner. In the case of Masa-
kado, as we have seen, assumption of sovereignty
itself was made.
The dual system of Shogun and Mikado
was maintained under the Ashikaga line of
rulers (1335-1573). Art flourished and luxury
abounded in the capital, but the Empire fell into
anarchy. "Japan" was but a geographical ex
pression for an area covered by a multitude of
warring feudal fractions.
Then arose in succession the three great men,
Nobunaga (A.D. 1534-1582); Hideyoshi, who
died in 1598, and Iyeyasu (1542-1616). These
fought in the name of the Mikado to give the
country unity, as well as to gratify their own
ambitions. Seen in the perspective of history, there are dis
cernible in this era (1575-1604) the origins of two
modern parties, that might be called the Feder
alist and the Imperialist; which, after mutual
antagonism, became Unionists. The idea of the

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 55
first was incarnated in Hideyoshi, the second in
the Mikado reverencers of the early nineteenth
century, and third in Okubo, Ito, and the Elder
Statesmen of the Meiji era (1868-1912) .
Iyeyasu, virtual monarch of Japan, founded
in Yedo the Tokugawa regency, when "all mem
ory of the personal rule of the Mikado had been
lost for four hundred years." As a statesman of
consummate genius, he surpassed all his prede
cessors in heaping honors upon the Emperor,
besides re-erecting Mikadoism on a new and larger
foundation, ordering that the Shogun should pay
homage to the Throne. He rebuilt the palace in
Kyoto and enlarged the revenues of the Imperial
house. Apparently the reverence of Iyeyasu, in
exaltation of the Emperor, could no further go.
Yet Iyeyasu paid honor only in form. He
outdid the Fujiwara in elevating the Mikado
godward, while eliminating the last vestige of his
political authority. He made of a living man an
idol in a shrine. He built a ring fence of fiefs,
held by his feudal relatives, around the Imperial
and sacred city. In Kyoto itself the strongly
fortified castle of Nijo, always fully garrisoned,
nominally protected but in reality overawed the
Court. Approach to the Emperor, through such
a threefold hedge, except by permission of the
Yedo lord, was impossible. Nothing but a strong
combination of clans and Castle Lords, unthink-

56 THE MIKADO
able during Japan's hermit days, could sap or
storm such a triply guarded fortress.
To make guardianship sure one of the Imperial
princes was obliged to live as a hostage in Yedo,
for the Imperial house. Under monastic vows, as
lord abbot of the Uyeno temple in Yedo, he was
kept in virtual durance. The Court nobles were
treated generously, but rather as poor relations.
Though kept in comfort and good humor by social
attentions and assurance of income, they were
ever under espionage. Dutch writers, who told
the outside world about the secluded Empire,
were encouraged to say that there were "two Em
perors" in Japan, one "spiritual," the other "tem
poral." Naturally it came to pass that the gifts
of the United States, through Perry, to the Yedo
Shogun, were labelled to "the Emperor of
Japan." In 1872 I saw these cast off tokens of
Shogunal glory and alien misinterpretation of
reality. Between pity and wrath I enjoyed
richly the humor of the affair. Here, at Shidzu-
oka, was one of the colossal jokes of the ages.
In American history Jefferson and Madison,
though in their lifetime political opponents of
Alexander Hamilton, the chief artificer of the
Government of the United States, followed out,
after his death, their adversary's policy. So,
although the new ruler, Iyeyasu, was nominally
an enemy of Hideyoshi, he was the real executor
of his political will, in giving peace and unity to

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 57
the Empire. A favorite Japanese picture shows
Nobunaga and Mitsuhide pounding the boiled
rice, Hideyoshi kneading the dough and prepar
ing the cake, which Iyeyasu eats and enjoys. The
Tokugawa crest, three asarum leaves within a
circle, said to have been derived from a cake pre
sented to an ancestor with decoration of this fol
iage, henceforth became to natives and foreign
ers alike a conspicuous object of art, adornment,
and blazonry. It was even more familiar to the
people than were the Imperial crests of three
kiri leaves surmounted by the blossoms, and the
sixteen petalled chrysanthemum.
Iyeyasu incarnated the spirit of his age in
longing for peace. The Empire's "grand old
man," he spent his later years in gathering books
and manuscripts, in patronizing scholars, and in
endowing institutions of learning, philosophy and
Buddhism, thus ushering in the age of calm,
which lasted for two hundred and fifty years.
Iyeyasu initiated a system of inclusion by
which the people were shut up within. All
seaworthy ships were destroyed, and the Japa
nese forbidden to go to other countries. Certain
economic and social theories, coworking with a
system of philosophy borrowed from Chinese
representers of Confucius and enforced under
penalties, were set forth as orthodoxy to rivet
the iron bands of military compression. His
immediate successors, especially Iyemitsu his

58 THE MIKADO
grandson, were even more rigid in executing the
founder's policy. Buddhism was more or less
patronized. The Portuguese and Spanish mis
sionaries were expelled, foreign religions were
put under ban, and only one loophole was allowed,
at Nagasaki, where the Dutchmen, not considered
to be "Christians," that is, political intermeddlers,
were permitted, under rigid limitations, to trade.
Nevertheless Iyeyasu, in attempting to but
tress his family line, to secure his succession and
to "give peace to the Empire," by duarchy in
government, ironhanded orthodoxy in philosophy
and Buddhism in rehgion, planted acorns in a
bottle. The researches of the native critical his
torians, the study of ancient history, the cultiva
tion of the neo-Confucian philosophy, with the
coming of the foreigners, combined to shatter his
stately edifice. Even without Occidental on
slaught, the Iyeyasuan system would have been
doomed and made to fall before the twentieth
century dawned.
Yedo gradually became a splendid city, and
until 1868 was the real center of authority. It
had already reached its full glory when Perry
knocked at its door.
We may call this "the European period."
Hitherto the civilization of Japan, derived from
India and China, was more or less Hindoo (Bud
dhist), or Chinese (Confucian). From 1603 it
was more strictly Japanese, for Nippon, though

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 59
steadily and continually influenced by Europe,
through Holland and the Dutch of Deshima,
was shut up from the outer world.
Fifteen Tokugawas held rule in Yedo, from
1604 to 1868, and during this period fourteen
Mikados ruled, one of them twenty-five, another
thirty-six, another twenty^nine years. One, Go-
Midzuno-o (1612-1629) reached the advanced
age of eighty-five. Two of the Mikados were
Empresses, the political tools of Yedo.
The successors of Iyeyasu, especially his
grandson, as we have seen, were strenuous in
carrying out the founder's policy. The Shogun's
procession to Kyoto, to offer homage to the
Mikado, was discontinued and the Nijo castle
garrison increased. In Court ritual the Shogun
was the Mikado's ape. Throne, or dais, curtains,
sword bearer, prostrations and etiquette in Yedo
were but copies or reflections of those in Kyoto.
In time public and abject homage, even to the
spectacular tomfoolery and millinery, the osten
tation of outward symbols, the compulsion of
bowing, even to tea jars in process of transporta
tion and the pasting up of windows, lest any
should look down on Shogunal person or prop
erty, were exacted of both populace and gentry,
until the blood of jealous or hostile vassals and
reverencers of the Mikado boiled.
From the point of view of the fanatical Mika-
doist Iyeyasu was a usurper, who robbed the

60 THE MIKADO
Emperor of his power in order to glorify his own
name and family. The more judicial student
sees, however, that the Tokugawa dynasty was
democratic in its tendency.
The "legacy" of Iyeyasu, a document well
worthy of study, teaches that "the people are the
foundation of the Empire" and assures us of his
purpose to "assist the people to give peace" to
the country. In the provinces ruled by his kins
men or descendants, as I saw in my travels in
1870 and later, the lot of the common people was
notoriously better than in most of the other fiefs
or districts. The fiercest diatribes against "demo
cracy" and popular rights came later from Sat
suma, the most determined foe of Tokugawa.
So perfect seemed the system, so apparently
free from internal dangers and external perils
and so apparently destined to last forever, that
to the majority of the Japanese at the opening of
the nineteenth century any suggestion of change
seemed impiety or treason. Nevertheless, soon
after alien influences began to work in Japan this
duarchy went to pieces. It is now only historical,
with scarce a perceptible trace, except as its old
ideals sway some individual of ancient mind.
The chief cause of overthrow lay in the study of
the ancient Shinto religion and of the primitive
Japanese language, begun by Mabuchi, who left
office and emolument, for the lonely toil of the
scholar, to usher in a glorious era.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 61
Even the re-presentation of the ethics and phi
losophy of Confucius had a result the opposite
of that looked for by the founder of Yedo. Like
the other forms of intellectual labor, the study of
philosophy tended to undermine a system of divi
sion and to concentrate loyalty in the Mikado's
person as the center of government and rehgion.
While politically the Bakufu or War Curtain
Government fell asleep, the brain of the Japanese
scholars was alert and sleepless.
Long before foreign influences became phe
nomenal in Japan, the field was ploughed ready
for new seed and fresh growth. A small but ever
increasing number of intelligent Japanese hun
gered for the science of the West. Making pil
grimages to Nagasaki, or meeting the Dutchmen
in Yedo, or on their journeys to and from that
city, their appetites were but whetted for greater
knowledge. Each native student on his return
home became a center of intelligence and of for
eign culture.
Most of these passionate pilgrims southward
were physicians. Indeed there are some who
would date the renascence of Japan from the year
1776, when, as is supposed, for the first time in
the Empire, a human cadaver was dissected, and
the Chinese system of anatomy, hitherto domi
nant, was thus proved to be fanciful. Many a
Vesalius before this time saw, but feared to tell
the truth. Many scores of literary and political

62 THE MIKADO
inquirers mastered Dutch as the vehicle of knowl
edge. In this way they learned of the great
world, especially of the West and its mighty
forces. Yet the idea of Imperial monarchy was but
slowly reached and perhaps no prophet had the
vision of a Japan wholly free from feudalism.
The story of the mental development of Okubo,
"the brain of the Revolution" of 1868, conclu
sively proves this, showing his roundabout path
and the teaching of events. With Nariaki, lord
of Satsuma, and other farseeing patriots, he
studied possibilities, peered into the future, and
was forward in the doctrines and hopes of the
Mikado reverencing school of thinkers, who were
all, of course, united in the purpose of destroying
the work of Iyeyasu. Okubo's first plan, as a
Unionist, in order to do away with the Yedo sys
tem and duarchy, was to unite the landless Court
Nobles in Kyoto, with the Daimios or territorial
barons, in the Government. Only by degrees did
the vision of a supreme imperialism dawn on this
superb intellect, while the abolition of feudalism,
even as an idea, came only after foreigners had
been long on the soil.
The final issue of the Revolution of 1868 was
not only a woeful disappointment to the Samurai,
and even to Okubo's coworkers, Saigo and others,
but became a horrible and wholly unforeseen
abyss. To put down the opposition, of those who

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 63
started the original movement of 1868 cost the
Mikado the shedding of tenfold more of the blood
of his subjects than the Revolution itself, with its
battles and sieges.
These various influences, the revivals of native
and Chinese learning, of pure Shinto, of the Con
fucian philosophy of Chu Hi (1130-1200), with
the doctrines of the Chinese thinker Oyomei
(1472-1528), and the critical inquiries of the
Historical School becoming more potent as
knowledge increased, would in all probability,
without foreign contact, making a new world of
opinion, have ripened into action, even to the
overthrow of the existing system and the creation
of a new State.
Along with the researches of the Shintoists and
the work of the Mito scholars, who produced a
massive historical library, proceeded the private
investigations into native history by such men as
Rai Sanyo, who helped to create the political
opinions of Japanese gentlemen in the nineteenth
century. Added to these were the patriots who
hated the Yedo tyranny and longed to find truth
in the world at large. The story of these pris
oners of the spirit, whose pinions of desire beat in
vain against the bars of the gaol, is full of pathetic
incident. A whole library in the vernacular has
photographed the experiences of those who were
the morning stars of the full day dawn of 1868.
Ever shining is the name of Yoshida Shoin,

64 THE MIKADO
who foresaw the day of Perry's coming, waited
long, travelled much, and at risk of life mounted
the deck of the American war steamer Mississippi
at midnight, with his coat stuffed with materials
for taking notes of what he should see in the
countries of the great world outside. Arrested,
imprisoned, but afterward released, be became the
teacher of the Marquis Ito and Count Inouye,
two relentlessly aggressive prophets of the new
dispensation in Japan.
Others hoped that Japan might become as
England and have representative government,
and more than one such prisoner of hope suffered
incarceration or death, because of his opinions or
acts. Even subterranean Christianity had its
martyrs. A large and powerful party, both
literary and theological, taught as the pohtical
ideal of the nation the restoration of the Mikado
to the supreme authority which he had enjoyed
seven centuries before, with Shinto as an engine
of state. The members of the Satsuma, Choshiu,
Tosa and other clans that had never been really
conquered but had only yielded in compromise
and were but nominally obedient to the Shogun
greedily fed their minds upon this idea. More
over each clansman found this pretext a most
convenient mantle under which to hide his own
personal ambitions and his yearnings for the
supremacy of his own clan.
President Millard Fillmore's constructive

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 65
statesmanship on behalf of the United States and
his interposition in the affairs of Japan saved the
Empire from civil war. In 1852 everything
seemed ready for an explosion from within, which
might have so weakened resources as to cripple
the nation for modern life, or called in foreign
aggression, as in the case of Java, India and
China. Okakura declares in his book "The
Awakening of Japan" that "the immediate effect
of the arrival of the American Embassy was to
reconsolidate the fast waning power of the Toku
gawa Government. Putting in abeyance all
minor matters of of dispute, the entire nation
looked to the Shogun, as the representative of
all existing authority, to lead the forces of Japan
against what was regarded as a Western invasion.
Thus the Tokugawa Government got a new lease
of life and its final overthrow was postponed fif
teen years, during which ultra reformists were
kept from running riot and the nation had a
chance to prepare itself for the momentous
change which was to come."
Failing however, to understand their position,
the Tokugawa rulers were unable to retain tbleir
power. Throughout Japanese history the outer
Ministry and the inner Household have often been
in conflict. The strong and benign ruler is he
who prefers "the discourse of sour visaged coun
cillors," who represent "the united political wis
dom of the country, through a long succession of

66 THE MIKADO
experiences," to the "sweet music of the court
beauties." Happily in our day, and almost at
the very hour in which President Fillmore
ordered Commodore Perry to start, there was
born one, even Mutsuhito who "confined himself
exclusively to the first role."

CHAPTER VIII
ECHIZEN: THE FARSIGHTED REFORMER
Marquis Matsudaira Shungaku, who died in
1890, with the highest honors to which a subject
could attain bestowed on him by the Emperor,
was born of Kuge or Court ancestry, in Yedo,
October 11, 1828. When ten years old he was
adopted, according to the order of the Shogun,
by Matsudaira, the Daimio of Echizen, part of
whose name he took, and whose domains were
assessed at 1,600,000 bushels of rice. The rank
of this western province ruler and Castle Lord at
the Yedo Court was Vice-General of the Left
Guard, his feudal title being Echizen no Kami,
or Lord of Echizen. Happily for the young
nobleman, for Japan and for the world, he be
came, as he often signed himself, the pupil of
Yokoi Heishiro, one of the prophets and mar
tyrs who held the Oyomei philosophy (Japanese
"pragmatism") which helped so largely to make
modern Japan.
In 1841, young as he was, Echizen began to
reform the luxury and extravagance bred during
the long peace. Having reinforced the coast
guard, in 1842, he journeyed to Fukui, and lived
67

68 THE MIKADO
there, making the City of the Happy Well a
model of good government and an educational
center for the advancement of science morals and
the manly arts of Bushido. Decreasing his own
expenses, he lived frugally for the sake of inspir
ing example.
In 1848 cannon on Western models were cast
at Fukui. Echizen sent some of young men to
study medicine of the Dutch at Nagasaki, and,
without ordering, advised European practice.
To stay the ravages of smallpox he petitioned the
Shogun to have general vaccination attempted
throughout the country. Failing in this, in 1850
he opened at Fukui an office at which his own
people could receive the pure vaccine virus. The
next year he introduced the Dutch artillery, drill
and infantry tactics. In 1852 he abolished arch
ery, as the Samurai's accomplishment, and
ordered rifle shooting at the butts.
In the same year, in anticipation of the coming
of "the American barbarians," he was ordered by
the Shogun to guard the water front of Yedo.
In answer to a request for opinion in 1852 he
opposed making a treaty as an inferior, and pro
posed to defend Japan against American aggres
sion. He held to the same view on Perry's return,
next year, for his idea was first to make the Em
pire so strong that Japan would not be obliged to
submit to the dictation of any foreign Power.
He ordered all his Samurai to cast aside spears,

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 69
arrows and armor, putting in their hands the im
proved Lebel firearms, made in the rifle factory
established at Fukui. On May 2, 1855, he estab
lished the School of Enlightened Methods for the
training of his young men in modern science and
ordered all males in his fief over fifteen years old
to be enrolled as soldiers. It was this school
which, in 1871, 1 had the honor to transform into
one with modern languages and science, and
which is now the Fukui High School, which in
1914 had thirty teachers and six hundred pupils.
In 1856, finding that few had followed his
advice, he made it mandatory on physicians in
Echizen to begin the Dutch, that is, scientific
medical practice. On May 6, 1857, a foreign lit
erature training department, with a curriculum
of study, with textbooks based on the Dutch
model, was established. Not wishing the lads to
spend all their time on booklore he added a school
of military arts in which they received training in
sword, spear, and gun exercise, horsemanship and
jiu-jutsu, that is, weaponless craft, or the gentle
art of self-defence. Himself the consummate
white flower of Bushido, he would have his stu
dents to be manly and his mihtary men stalwart,
yet both to be gentle, learned and brave. It was
in describing this gymnasium and noticing the
distinction between jiu-jutsu and wrestling, that
in 1876 I made the first reference in a Western
language, I believe, to this art, now so well
known.

70 THE MIKADO
As a practical reformer Shungaku underwent,
unconsciously, self-development. He saw him
self and his country in a new light. Consequently,
when called to Yedo, December 21, 1858, to give
his opinions concerning the Harris treaty, he
declared himself in favor of foreign intercourse.
He pleaded earnestly in behalf of trade, as the
best means of making Japan strong, rich and able
to defend herself. He urged the reformation of
luxury, the improvement of the military system
and the establishment of schools and colleges. In
political reorganization he was a Unionist. He
proposed the cooperation of Mikado and Shogun,
in active administration.
Visiting the houses of the Premier Ii, in Yedo,
he urged him not to dishonor the Mikado by
signing, without Imperial consent, the Townsend
Harris treaty. He warned him that if he did
the Daimios would fall away from the Shogun
and turn to the Mikado, a prophecy very quickly
fulfilled. The question of an heir to the Shogun-
ate was also a burning one. Instead of a minor,
certain to be the tool of a regent, Echizen urged
the nomination of Keiki, popularly known as
Hitotsubashi (First Bridge), a man of age,
promise and ability.
The interview between Ii and the lords of Ech
izen, Owari, and Mito over the opening of the
country was long and stormy. Finding himself
thwarted, Ii resolved on arbitrary exercise of

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 71
power. Shortly after that these three great
barons were ordered to domiciliary confinement.
Echizen was compelled to vacate his office and
hand his fief over to his adopted son, Mochiaki.
He at once wrote to his people, explaining his
conduct and motives, and advised them all to be
loyal and obedient to their new lord. House
imprisonment ended in October, 1860, but his
disabilities were not wholly removed until June,
1862, when Ii was dead through assassination
and the whole political situation had changed.
The Emperor and Court, on reading Echizen's
memorial, saw that he was the man for the hour
and raised him to high honor. Herewith we give
the text of his document in which he pleaded that
Japan by the Harris treaty be opened to the
world's commerce. It is one of many notable
state papers of this era:
"Western foreigners of the present day differ
widely from those of former times. They are
more enlightened and liberal. But while other
nations are united in the bonds of friendly inter
course Japan, standing apart in her solitude, has
not known the changes of Heaven's course and
has lost the friendship of the world. There is no
greater shame to our country than this. Hence,
to drive out the foreigners and shut up the coun
try would be a positive evil. There are, moreover,
five great continents, and even if all Japan were
united in the attempt to expel foreigners, it

72 THE MIKADO
would be an unequal contest. Much more when
the country is not of one mind, would Japan be
shivered to pieces like a roof tile. Furthermore,
treaties have been made, and if we should attempt
the expulsion aforesaid, the most serious result
that would follow would be our violation of the
national good faith. The now talked of expul
sion of foreigners is a scheme of those who do not
know them, and our country would be ruined
by it.
"Let us by commerce conform to the law of
change in the world, and Japan will become rich.
Besides, all this talk about expelling foreigners,
closing the country and confining our attention to
the protection of our seacoast is no way to pro
mote the power and dignity of the Empire. Al
though there is so much said at the capital about
driving out the barbarians, I cannot think the
Emperor really reckons on success in the attempt.
It would be impossible unless we navigate the
seas. "The so called 'corrupt religion' of the Western
ocean is different from the Christianity of former
times. Were Japan to adopt and practice it, I
am of the opinion that no sects would arise to
ruin or damage the country. This, however,
would depend upon the character of our laws. If
the people of Japan become assimilated to for
eign nations, it must be because the government
here is inferior to that of other lands.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 73
"Let us take our stand by the side of the five
countries, and like them build many large ships
of war, erect forts here and there along our sea-
coast, and let us inaugurate a flourishing com
merce in our own vessels. Giving to other nations
not articles useful to us but those we do not need,
let us transport American merchandise to Eng
land and French goods to Russia, and selecting
the best of these commodities for ourselves, while
we carry on an exchange of products, we shall
naturally become a rich and powerful country in
the midst of the seas.
"When we have become strong enough to at
tack others, we shall have firmly established our
own coast defences. As the power of the Empire
becomes more and more confirmed, by means of
long established friendly commerce with other
nations, we cannot be overthrown or destroyed
for ten thousand generations. Should another
nation violate its good faith, the wrong would be
its own, and we could at once destroy it. This
were quite a different affair from the expulsion
of foreigners at the present time. It would not
make all the treaty Powers our enemies at one and
the same time. Hence if one or two of them
should act in bad faith, the enemy, being small,
could easily be overthrown.
"While these things are so, the Imperial Gov
ernment is not administered accordingly. It has
but one aim. Hating the Western foreigners,

74 THE MIKADO
the Emperor regards them as brutes, and says
'Drive them out ! Drive them out !' But, though
he esteems them as brutes, they are nevertheless
enlightened. At the present time they firmly
maintain friendly relations with each other, and
it is clear that it is a great mistake to confound
ancient with modern times.
"From the beginning mankind in all parts of
the world have not been unlike one another. If
the views that prevail at the capital are sound,
Oyomei and Confucius were barbarians and
ought for that reason have been swept away. . . .
"I present my remonstrances against the loss
of virtue on the part of the Celestial Dynasty,
and the Shogun's administration, whatever be
the hazard of so doing, and though not heeded, I
shall do so while hving.
"This is a true representation of the opinions
of one principality. I have not persuaded any
other prince [baron] to adopt my views. But
though one, two, or three other principalities have
come to entertain the same, still the Imperial
Government has always, even from the first, been
desirous to expel the foreigners. Though I have
made known my views, whenever I have been at
the capital, yet the Imperial Government has not
embraced them. And the foregoing are the opin
ions which one principality will hold till death.
"I had proposed to go to the capital, but as
the Commander-in-Chief [the Shogun] has re-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 75
turned thence, I could but present this memorial
to his officers.
"The present prince [baron] of Echizen [Mo
chiaki] was about to go to Yedo, but is detained
by a disease in his feet.* Moreover I do not know
when I shall go up to the capital. If the Shogun
says 'To-day,' I am ready to go to-day, or when
ever it may please him.
"My retainers are all in readiness, and should
there be any danger in the vicinity of the capital
[Kyoto] I shall hasten to the ruts of His Imper
ial Majesty's chariot wheels, and therefore I
present this memorial."
Again the pen proved mightier than the sword
and honors were showered upon Echizen. He
was made Sosai, or Supreme Administrator [of
affairs in Yedo]. In an epochmaking speech be
fore the Council of State he urged that arbitrary
rule should be abolished and government be car
ried on according to public opinion; publicity
instead of secrecy prevail ; righteousness be made
the basis of action, and the will of the Emperor
and the nation be constantly consulted.
One of Echizen's first acts in Yedo was to
release the Daimios from the yoke of centuries.
Freed from the compulsion of being interned in
Yedo, or of leaving their wives and children as
hostages in the fortress city when they left it, the
* Probably akin to Yuan Shih Kai's "sore leg1' in recent Chinese
history.

76 THE MIKADO
barons flew like uncaged birds for home, and for
Kyoto. Here began the rising wave of pubhc
opinion, for the feudal lords could now meet and
hold council together.
Echizen's move, prompted by Satsuma, revers
ing the old precedent of division and separation,
was the first practical step toward national unity.
He struck the first effective blow for undoing the
work of Iyeyasu.
Ordered into the Emperor Komei's presence,
for consultation, Echizen proved himself a mod
ern man. Knowing the value of time, he went by
steamer. The palace grandees, still shrouded
in the dense fog of ignorance, wished to set a
date to drive out the foreigners. Echizen, in a
minority report, showed the impotence of the
whole project, declaring that it could not be done.
He urged his point before the Mikado, Komei.
If the expulsion pohcy were presed he would
resign office.
Seeing the obstinate bigotry of the owls and
bats then in control, Echizen departed from
Kyoto in disgust and retired to Fukui.
For this breach of decorum, in leaving without
Imperial permission, he was first ordered to house
detention and then forgiven. On December 18,
1863, he was appointed a Palace Resident, and on
the last day of the Japanese (Chinese) year was
made Sanjo, or Counsellor, retaining the full
favor and perfect trust of the Mikado. Later,

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 77
when the question arose as to the coercion of the
Choshiu clan by the powers in Yedo, and during
the negotiations leading to the abohtion of the
Shogunate, Echizen was in the Imperial Palace
day and night. Explaining, answering a thous
and questions, this great Mikadoist never rested
until he saw all power centered in the Throne, and
the unified nation peaceful under one head. His
great hope was ever that this, with national unity,
might be accomplished without war.
Of Yokoi, lecturer on the ethics and philosophy
of Confucianism, spiritual teacher of Echizen, it
is enough to say that he was, in influence over
his chief, what Alexander Hamilton was to
George Washington. Before sinking under the
assassin's sword, in Kyoto, in 1869, Yokoi had,
through the medium of a Chinese version of the
Gospels, discovered the Samurai of the Ages.
He saw Jesus in history, and, happily, apart from
ecclesiastical dogma and tradition. With quick
decision, he became at once His secret and un
quailing follower. He predicted that the bright
intellects of Japan would, when they knew him
aright, accept the Christ. He sent his two
nephews to America to study and be the path
finders for a great host. These lads in 1866, I
had the honor of teaching, at New Brunswick,
New Jersey.
In the Council of the new Government at
Kyoto, in 1869, Yokoi pleaded for and secured

78 THE MIKADO
not only freedom of conscience, but also the uplift
of the Eta, or social outcasts to citizenship, as
great a work, morally, as Lincoln's ; and, like the
American, he was assassinated for his pains. A
noble record! At the promulgation of the Con
stitution, in 1889, Yokoi received posthumous
honor from the Mikado, now called Emperor, as
one of the Makers of the New Japan.

CHAPTER IX
KOMEI: THE LAST HERMIT MIKADO
While Japan's interior preparation, begun two
centuries before the advent of Perry's squadron,
went on, and events were ripening in the Far
East, the people of the United States were being
disciphned for the experiences of national expan
sion. The nation's growing pains, manifest in the
Mexican war, followed by an accession of two mil
lion square miles of territory, including the
Pacific Coast from Oregon to Old California,
compelled outlook upon the greatest of oceans and
concentrated American thought upon the old em
pires of Asia.
Many men and incidents led to the Japan
Expedition of 1853 ; but while the direct initiative
belongs to the Secretary of the Navy, William
A. Graham, the largest measure of honor must be
awarded to President Millard Fillmore. "His
tory is a resurrection," and history will yet lift
from the shadow the name and fame of one of the
noblest of American Executives.
The story of Perry warms the popular imagi
nation, but to Townsend Harris, the New York
merchant and peaceful envoy, belongs the greater
79

80 THE MIKADO
credit of enticing Nippon the hermit into the
world's market place. It was he who introduced
within the gates an army of teachers of science and
religion. After a year's hermitage at Shimoda,
Harris entered Yedo in triumph, unarmed and
without military or naval escort, to convert the
sons of darkness into children of the new day.
For four months, by sunlight and lamplight, he
instructed the leading men of the hermit nation
in the modern life of nations. He demanded a
treaty of trade, residence and commerce, which
should open five ports. The Japanese readily
saw that what was given to one nation must be
allowed to all.
Thus an entirely new element, and a very
potent one, was injected into the politics of the
Empire, tending at once to exalt the office and
person of the Mikado: Townsend Harris is, in
one sense, the maker of the modern Emperor of
Japan. Perry's achievement alone would never
have exalted so grandly the Mikado. With only
two ports open, instead of five, and to sailors
only, Japan might have gone on in her hermit
life. But behind both Perry and Harris was the
push of the whole Western world.
In Yedo, led by the farsighted, vigorous and
unscrupulous Premier Ii, men knew that they
could not resist the demands of the Western
Powers. In Kyoto the men of the court held that
the foreigners, being "barbarians," must at once

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 81
be driven out of the country. How dare they
resist the Emperor? Let the Yedo Premier bind
the imps as Watanabe bound to obedience the
rebel thunder god. Old fairy tales have actually
influenced politics in Japan and do, even yet.
The Mikado at this time, No. 122 in the line,
was Osahito, posthumously named Komei ( father
of Mutsuhito) who had begun to reign in March,
1846. Born in 1831, he was, at the time of the
agitation in regard to the opening of the ports,
hardly thirty years old. Having none but the tra
ditional ideas about aliens, he was a bitter hater
of them.
In its calmness and freedom from politics
Kyoto had been like a desert. For over two cen
turies all authority had been centered in Yedo,
but from the arrival of Harris the Blossom Capi
tal became the place of storm, battle and fire.
The historical research of scholars had so opened
the eyes of thousands of able men that these now
looked upon the Shogun as a usurper. Unable
to get Imperial consent to the treaties, the Yedo
regent, Ii, took the responsibihty. On the deck
of the American war steamer Powhatan, his
agents signed the treaties and he then despatched
an embassy to Washington. In true Japanese
fashion, Ii was assassinated a few weeks later.
The Emperor Komei having ordered the Sho
gun to expel the aliens, the foreign envoys in Yedo
were surprised to find that the very powers that

82 THE MIKADO
had admitted them to the country were trying
by every resource of diplomacy to get them to
go out and stay away. The haters of the Shogun
made use of incendiarism, assassination and every
known method of violence, with the one purpose
of drawing the lightning of the foreigner's ven
geance upon the Yedo Government that had made
the treaties. Some of the modern, later the Elder,
Statesmen were busiest at this work in their
youthful days.
Impatient at the delay in Yedo, and absence of
any sign of obedience to the orders from Kyoto
to drive out the strangers, the swordsmen of the
great Choshiu clan, aflame with their new ideas
of aggressive loyalty to the Mikado, took inde
pendent action. Professing to have received an
explicit Imperial command, they raised a flag
inscribed "in obedience to the Mikado's order."
In 1863, having mounted heavy batteries on the
bluffs commanding the narrow straits of Shimo-
noseki, they fired in succession upon and fought
with the single ships of two nations, the United
States and the Netherlands, and upon the doubled
force of France. The following year, the com
bined squadrons of the four Powers — Great
Britain having joined the others, and with the
largest contingent of ships and men — destroyed
the batteries and inflicted an indemnity of
$3,000,000, to be paid by the Yedo Government.
The latter then summoned its vassals, gathered

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 83
a miscellaneous army and attempted, against the
protest of Echizen, to punish the Choshiu men.
The Yedo army was thoroughly beaten in the
campaign and the reputation of the Bakufu was
now utterly ruined.
The last Mikado of Old Japan, Osahito, the
122nd Mikado, was the son of the Emperor
Ninko, who ruled from 1817 to 1846, the Empress
being Yasuko, of the Fujiwara family. Komei,
as his posthumous name is, was born, as we have
seen, in 1831, became heir apparent in 1845 and
succeeded to the Throne in March, 1846. The
date named first belongs in the era of Heavenly
Peace, 1830-1843, of which the big oval brass coin
with a square hole, so well known abroad, is
mnemonic. During Komei's reign there were no fewer than
six chronological or year periods, formed after
the analogy of the old Chinese calendar, the
names being made by selecting two characters
of the cycle of sixty years, literally "a cycle of
Cathay," and joining them together. One of
these periods, Genji, which lasted only from Feb
ruary 8, 1864, to December 29, 1864, is famous
for a terrific battle in Kyoto, the Choshiu men
making their first attempt, but not their last, to
kidnap the Mikado, to possess the motor of gov
ernment. The clansmen of Satsuma, Echizen
and Aidzu resisted and the result was that Kyoto,
as we shall see, nearly disappeared in the smoke

84 THE MIKADO
and flames of a war fire. In this episode Mu-
tshito, then a boy of twelve, received his baptism
of noise, if not of fire. The era of Genji began
one of the cycles of sixty years ending in 1914,
of which the present, in Chinese chronology, is the
seventy-sixth, in order.
With January 25, 1868, began the era of
Meiji, or Enlightened Rule or Government —
the two words (mei and ji) occurring close to
gether in a sentence from the Chinese classics. It
was destined to be the most brilhant in all the
annals of Japan, ending with the decease of
Mutsuhito, or the Meiji Tenno, July 30, 1912.
With the passing of Old Nippon disappeared
also the confusing custom of making many short
year periods, for the new law declared that hence
forth there should be but one time name, or period
to each reign.
Komei died of smallpox on February 13, 1867,
but in accordance with ancient custom it was not
given out until later in the month that he was
dead. Like the Kyoto Mikados, each Shogun
in Yedo had two different deaths, one actual and
the other official. It ;was thus literally true,
among the Japanese, who are destitute of the
Western sense of humor, that the official re
ports of the death of any one high in office were
"greatly exaggerated."
This mummery and trifling with time and
truth, which utterly discredits so much of Japa-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 85
nese so-called history, is slowly but surely pas
sing away, even though a lapse, concerning the
dead Empress, again took place in 1914. The
idea is thoroughly Asiatic, for although history
is silent on the subject of King Solomon's de
cease, fanciful and fashionable Oriental legend,
in the Koran, for example, declares that the
announcement of his death was kept secret for a
year. On January 13, 1867, the heir apparent, Mu
tsuhito, who was the son of Komei, by Madame
Yoshiko, daughter of the Dainagon, or First
Adviser of State, Nakayama, a lady of the Im
perial Court, became Mikado, being the 123rd in
the line, as an alien counts. He "ascended the
throne" or was inaugurated, on October 12,
1868; that is, he was vested in due ceremony
with the three divine regalia of sovereignty, mir
ror, sword, and crystal sphere. His name, mean
ing "affectionate and humane," may be literally
rendered "Peaceful Gentleman." The word
hito means man, but has hardly the force of the
same term in Enghsh. "Hito" was part of the
sire's name, just as the same syllables are in the
present Emperor, Yoshihito's name. Mutsu is
the root word, in the noble and endearing terms
mutsubi (affection, intimacy, love, friendship),
and mutsuzoto (the affectionate conversation as
between husband and wife). But in spite of
this peaceful cognomen Japan's greatest wars,

86 THE MIKADO
three of them on the continent of Asia, and one
domestic rebellion, the most tremendous in her
history, were to occur during his reign. Yet
never, also, in all Japanese history, was there a
man more worthy of his name or more truly a
prince of peace. Opinions may differ as to Mu-
tsuhito's personal abilities or the real part played
by him in the making of the new nation; but of
his winsome character and attractive humanity
there can be among those who know but one
judgment. In old Japan, where the sense of personahty
was weak, a ruler's true name did not count for
much in popular use. One's cognomen was
usually employed in public only in a hostile or
disrespectful sense, if at all. It was only the
intending assassin who always wrote the name,
but not usually the rank or office of his victim, in
the self -justifying document which he carried on
his person. Usually a man was spoken of by his
official grade or profession. In all ordinary
speech and in official documents the living name
of the Emperor is avoided.
Possibly there are millions of Japanese who do
not even know the Mikado's personal name. He
is to them simply "the Emperor." His name,
the real one, to us blunt Anglo-Saxon people, is
in Japan his imina, or name not to be spoken and
usually given at the age of fifteen. The ruler of
Everlastingly Great Japan is expected to be

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 87
less a personality than a sacred figurehead. The
crown which Japan's sovereign is yet to wear in
honor, above all his predecessors, is the crown of
personality, but all manhood in Japan must rise
in spiritual worth before this dignity becomes
that of the sovereign.
When Mutsuhito was born, November 3, 1852,
the Mississippi, first national steam propelled
man-of-war to circumnavigate the globe, was
ready for her momentous voyage, bearing the
letter of the President of the United States to
the "Emperor of Japan." Commodore Perry
and Mutsuhito: each the initiator of new hnes
of influence. Converging — to what end? Colli
sion or coalition?

CHAPTER X
THE CHILDHOOD OF MUTSUHITO
The mother of the babe Mutsuhito was a lady
of the Imperial Court belonging to the household
of the Emperor Komei. To guard against fail
ure in the Imperial line, it was permitted to
the Mikado to have twelve concubines, though the
number was rarely filled. In the Meiji era the
ladies selected from high noble f amilies to be pos
sible mothers of emperors were chosen by the
Privy Council. In old days also the choice of the
Mikado's consorts was an affair of state. Of one
of these, the highly honored lady Nii no Tsubone,
the Meiji Emperor, was born. "Tsubone," like
"Mikado," signifies a place, rather than person,
even the interior apartments of the Palace; and
specifically chambers set apart for the particu
lar person's own use. "Nii' is ni, two, and "i"
rank. In other words, the lady Tsubone held the
second rank at court, a very high one indeed for
a woman, and next to that of the Empress. In
every country in which polygamy and concubin
age are institutions there is a rich vocabulary
of terms by which the status of both is dis
criminated, and in Japan the shofuku, "born
88

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 89
of a concubine," and jio-shi, "true-born" (not
adopted) are strictly and accurately used.
One sees, on the artistic postal cards of the
Japan of to-day and the photographs and pic
ture books published since the late Emperor's
decease in 1912, abundant illustration of the
natural surroundings of the Imperial infant with
many of his toys. The visitor in Kyoto may look
at the Imperial flower gardens, with their grand
old trees, their flowers, rocks, mounds, ponds
and streams of water, in which the life of the boy
Emperor was spent, and amid which he grew up.
The building and rooms in which babyhood and
childhood were passed are also open to elect
visitors. From the point of view of one who takes his
ideas of a "palace" from European precedents
and models, everything about the abode of roy
alty in Japan of the old days suggests exces
sive, even austere plainness. Apart from the
actual poverty in which regents and Shoguns
kept their Imperial prisoner in Kyoto, it must
be remembered that the simplicity of divinity
marked the palace of the Emperor, because in
reality this august edifice was a Miya, a shrine,
the dwelling of a god, the temple of a Tenno, or
Son of Heaven. Such austere plainness was
purposely studied, in contrast with the splendor
of Nijo Castle, which was the fortress of the
Shogun's garrison. The majesty of the Throne

90 THE MIKADO
of straw was set over against the spectacular
fierceness of the Camp. The Imperial seat, now
a curiosity in the Tokyo museum, was a mat
raised a few inches higher than the floor. The
chill of winter was removed by braziers, from
which glowing charcoal, laid on beds of fine white
ashes, diffused a genial warmth. Silk, for cover
ing the cushions were abundant, and in winter
these were thickly padded with cotton. The
food, besides being delicate, was most carefully
prepared and ceremoniously served. For greater
nicety in service, the kitchen attendants and wait
ers bound strips of paper over their mouths.
The Mikado was never allowed to set his foot
upon the ground, and the heir apparent was
usually carried from room to room. When he
went beyond the Palace grounds, as might occa
sionally be the case, to see spring's cherry blos
soms or autumn's polychrome foliage, he was
shut within the vehicle from the gaze of any and
all eager eyes, by thick curtains of split bamboo.
These covered both the outside and inside of the
windows of the equipage, which was a gorgeous
black lacquered cart drawn by white bullocks.
In other words, the Mikado's life in the Palace
was that of a puppet, the wires being held by
others. Personality was reduced as nearly to
an abstraction as possible, and individuality was
extinguished. Did an Imperial princess sneeze,
a maid polished her nose with a paper handker-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 91
chief. Would she drink a cup of tea, then other
hands lifted the beverage to her lips. Did the
Mikado mount a horse, etiquette required that
four men should assist him to the saddle.
On the gold paper screens of the artists of the
Tosa school the life of the Emperor during the
Kyoto era is brilliantly and accurately depicted.
Here we see that His Majesty was sheltered
from view, not only when on the throne, while his
Ministers were in audience, but even when he
enjoyed the classic opera and pantomime pieces
called No, listening to the music of the Imperial
musicians and watching the play of the actors
and dancers. Curtains of fine bamboo threads
hid "the dragon countenance" from either vulgar
or noble eyes on other occasions. Even his high
est Ministers, when with him, enjoying music,
mimicry or dancing, must not turn their backs to
the Son of Heaven; but, while ear and eye were
delighted, only half the face was given to the
actors. Thus the Mikados of Japan droned away the
days of the years of their lives. No doubt they
had their enjoyments. In the artistic decorations
of the august edifice, in the lovely freshness of
the gardens, in the games and amusements which
etiquette allowed to the inmates of the Palace and
occupant of the throne, there was much to delight
and make pass pleasantly the hours in the flower
girt prison.

92 THE MIKADO
One might indeed make a great mistake in
depreciating the value of those inner resources
of delight which belong to every native of Japan
by reason of his inheritance of a rich history and
of a view of life which, through the cultivation
of beauty and sentiment, yields constant and
ennobling enjoyment. Even to his latest con
scious hour, Mutsuhito took his pleasures in
native style, preferring what was indigenous and
delighting chiefly in what was free and open to
every one of his subjects. It is also true that
many of the youth of princely or Imperial blood
were reared in almost Spartan severity and sim
plicity. Some of these have told me the story
of their early days.
Yet, judging by the fact that from the very
first moment of their freedom in modern days
the princes of the blood and relatives of the
Emperor have frequently and continuously
travelled abroad in the great world, it is evident
that, however refined the culture of the Palace
occupants might be, theirs was a very narrow
round of existence. Even yet it is an open ques
tion whether life, to a normal Japanese, equals
in richness and depth that of the man reared in
Christendom. Not in his mind, but in his personal habits and
round of life, Mutsuhito was and remained a
Japanese of Old Japan. In his middle life at
least he disliked travel, ignored his various coun-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 93
try palaces, had no sympathy with those who
must change residence in summer, took few or no
holidays, and usually moved on journeys only
through compulsion, or at least the constraint of
his medical advisers. Happy for Japan, so
straitened in her resources, that her great ruler
lived the simple life! This was Mutsuhito's
patriotism — to live a frugal and at times an
abstemious life. Extravaganve at the court would
have made the nation's victories in peace and war
impossible. The early life of the Meiji Tenno was very far
from being that "sealed book" which is thought
by some to be the true emblem of the existence of
the Emperor of Japan. Special teachers were
assigned to him, who were responsible for his
education. He was very fond of geography and
history, asking many questions about the coun
tries of the strangers who were beginning to come
to his father's dominions.
During most of his boyhood Mutsuhito was
placed in charge of one of the noble families of
the Court. He was far from being pampered,
for his father gave orders that he should be
brought up in hardihood and with plenty of out
door exercise. This physical training was regu
lar and moderately severe. Indeed, this fact
explains his interest in manly sports, his own
generally robust health, which he enjoyed during
his later career, and his ability to withstand the

94 THE MIKADO
severe strain of forty-five years constant pubhc
service. Most of his time, after he was sixteen,
was passed in sedentary occupations and in a
series of daily details of duty, the routine of his
life being only occasionally broken, while crises
and dangers were many and frequent. He rarely
took a formal vacation and was not notably
patient with those who prolonged theirs.
For instruction in moral and political phi
losophy he was put under charge of the scholarly
Nakamura, a master in the Confucian philos
ophy, especially as expounded and reshaped by
Chu-Hi, in the twelfth century. This system had
been formulated after China's disastrous experi
ment, continued during a generation or two, in
populism or socialism. Chu-Hi's tenets formed
the basis of the creed of most educated gentlemen
of eastern Asia.
In after life it is known that Mutsuhito took a
direct and personal interest in schools and educa
tion, visiting, advising, calling to his presence
and questioning the officers charged with pubhc
instruction. Such interest arose from personal
experience, for all his life the Meiji Mikado was
a reader and student. Very much the same
praise may be given to the Empress, so we know
she spoke out of her own heart when she wrote
the poem "Wisdom's Goal," for the maidens at
the Peeress' School in Tokyo:

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 95
"The water placed in goblet, bowl or cup
Changes its form to its receptacle ;
And so our plastic souls take various shapes
And characters of good or ill, to fit
The good or evil in the friends we choose.
Therefore be ever careful in your choice of friends,
And let your special love be given to those
Whose strength of character may prove the whip
That drives you ever to fair Wisdom's goal."
It was impossible to keep from the bright boy
in the Palace a knowledge of the great events
already happening "Within the Four Seas."
Even when he was but five years old the Ameri
can envoy, Mr. Townsend Harris, was in Yedo,
demanding the Emperor's signature to the pro
visional treaty and threatening to go to Kyoto
himself, unless the business was despatched. The
calling of a great assembly of the Court Nobles,
to debate before the Throne the question of open
ing the country to foreign residence and com
merce, five years after Perry had secured for
sailors the right of entrance for food and sup
plies, involved a social revolution. To admit the
despised trader and moneymaker, who had then
no standing in Japanese society, seemed impiety
to the "gods" and the destruction of the whole
fabric of order and decency. Osahito (Komei)
expressed his feelings in a verse:
"Perish my body 'neath the cold clear wave of some
dark well,
But let no foreign foot
Pollute the water with its presence here."

96 THE MIKADO
It was on April 19, 1857, that the Congress
of eighty Court Nobles assembled before the
Mikado Komei and gave their views of the situa
tion. It was comparatively easy for the men fur
ther east, in Yedo and nearer the aliens and their
ships, to get at least some clear knowledge of the
outside world. They knew too well the power
and stern purposes of the Western nations. But
in Kyoto it was scarcely possible for the palace
hermits to gain any guiding light on this partic
ular subject. These recluses were well versed in
that consummate craft which springs only from
intrigue and personal politics, while they were as
yet children in their acquaintance with the move
ments of thought, the methods of procedure, and
the tremendous power of the strangers. The
most enlightened men of Japan were those who
knew that the "barbarians" were strong at home.
The proposal to open social relations by means
of a treaty was bitterly opposed, and every means
was used to poison the Mikado Komei's mind
against the Harris treaty. Messengers moved
to and fro between the City of the Throne and
the City of the Camp. Spiritualism in Japan
is a procedure of the Government, proposed as
a political expedient by members of the Diet,
even in 1914. So the great Iyeyasu, dead for
two centuries, was consulted. This was done by
taking a copy of the treaty and laying it on his
tomb. No answer by rap, knock, whisper or

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 97
word is recorded. Mr. Harris vibrated between
Shimoda and Yedo. The Shogun's envoy in
Kyoto kept busy. Again the nobles laid their
hostile views before the Emperor. American,
British, Russian, and Dutch war-ships kept com
ing into Yedo Bay to press matters, yet the
Mikado would not consent. What was to be
done? Was Japan to go the way of Poland,
Java, China or India? As Persia and Korea
have since gone?
Taking the responsibility, Ii signed the pro
visional American treaty. When eight days
afterward, this virtual defiance of his orders was
announced to the Mikado, Komei, "His Majesty
was said to have been much enraged." He fasted
six days; that is, he abstained from animal food
and wine, and prayed to "the gods of the sixty
provinces." This was because of the multiplying
troubles introduced from foreign countries.
Nevertheless the gods stirred not. Portents mul
tiplied. The imported pestilence, "kurori," or
cholera, swept off thousands of the people. A
comet appeared in the western sky. Such signs
of disturbed nature only added to the inveterate
personal prejudices of the last of the sequestered
Mikados. The Imperial heart was hardened
against the aliens.
The regent Ii showed his power. Foreign
ships coming more numerously, the merchants
were notified that trade with the foreigners was

98 THE MIKADO
permitted at the treaty ports, but none must wear
foreign clothes or hats. From the castle of Nijo
in Kyoto the iron hand of the Yedo Premier
was stretched forth to smite his opponents even
unto death. Scores of patriotic partisans of the
Emperor, and Jo-i, or foreign haters, were
arrested in Kyoto and other places and clapped
into prison. Among the righteous men com
pelled to die by their own hands, or decapitated,
was Dr. Hashimoto Sanai, of Fukui, Echizen,
"of Mazzini-like intellect," whose brother after
ward, in Tokyo, became physician in the Im
perial Palace. Sanai's posthumously published
writings are notable.
In 1909, after fifty years of controversy and
the persistent and hounding opposition of ultra-
Mikadoists, who showed an excess of rancor over
logic and far more fanaticism than understand
ing of history, a bronze statue of Premier Ii was
reared at Yokohama. The pen of Shimada
Saburo, in his book, translated by Henry Satoh,
entitled "Agitated Japan," helped vastly in the
good work of justly awarding honor.

CHAPTER XI
STEPS TOWARD NATIONAL UNITY
The clear headed alien, free from the folly and
fanaticism of pseudo-Mikadoism, fearing not the
taint of heresy of the Japanese variety, and who
places the nation above its ruler, however august,
discerns in Ii, the Yedo Premier, a man born for
the hour. With all his limitations and mistakes,
this man was the savior of Japan. Without
him, Japan might have suffered vast humilia
tions akin to those of India and China.
While the Kyoto people were as ostriches, with
heads buried in the midst of perils, the man in
Yedo saw clearly what would ensue if the for
eigners were defied. Apart from political neces
sity, Ii had no desire to humble the Imperial
hermit or punish his advisers. When, on account
of the troubles in the country, there was among
these men, who dressed in silk and damask and
were heaven high in pride, while yet beggarly
in poverty, actual suffering for food and the com
forts of life, the Yedo Government made an
offering to the Mikado of 5,000 pieces of gold,
while the Court Nobles received 20,000 rios (or
taels), certain of them being elsewise specially
99

100 THE MIKADO
rewarded. In spite of this, however, the Premier
Ii was set upon by assassins and slain in Yedo,
March 24, 1860, though his death officially did
not occur until May 20, and he was buried on
May 30.
Following upon the murders by the ronin (or
feudal retainers who had left the service of their
masters) , and the foreigners of all countries hav
ing taken up their residence in Yedo, the assas
sin's trade flourished and official steps were
"taken to guard against mischief." The death of
their chief represser had evidently encouraged
the foreign haters at the Imperial Court, also,
for on August 5 the Mikado issued a command
that all the barbarians in the Holy Country
should be expelled. Paper and ink for the mak
ing of Imperial fiats were cheap and proclama
tions numerous, but while this Kyoto industry
was thriving, more ships from Europe and Amer
ica kept coming.
In Yedo it was proposed that the young Sho
gun should marry an Imperial Princess, and
Kadzu, younger sister of Mikado Komei, was
the one selected. A famous lady of the Shogun's
house, well skilled in the ways of court craft and
personal politics, named Amenokoji, was sent to
Kyoto to arrange the match. The princess was
to leave the Flowery City for the place of turmoil
in the Far East, where strangers were daily
increasing in numbers and insolence.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 101
Now that Peking had been captured and China
had been humbled by the earth hungry Euro
peans, who were likely to seize new land wher
ever they could, certain barons were put in charge
of Yezo to guard and garrison it. Even the
cold and bleak island of Saghalien was to be
held against Russian aggression, which had been
proceeding steadily during the century. It was
also thought that greater care must be taken to
protect Kyoto.
On the twenty-eighth day of the ninth month
(November 10, 1860), the Japanese embassy
having returned from America, the Imperial
Prince Mutsuhito, now eight years old, was pro
claimed heir and successor to the throne. The
increasing importance of foreign affairs was
recognized by the appointment of the able
Daimio Ando, lord of Tsushima, as sole chief
director. It was this feudal baron's island pos
sessions that were, a few months later, occupied,
and not without the shedding of blood, by the
Russians. A monument was erected in 1905 in
honor of the barrier guardsmen slain by the
Czar's marines in 1860; and not many leagues
from this spot, in 1905, also, Admiral Togo's
cannon sank the Russian battleships, part of the
Muscovite armada being fired on by the guns of
the fort on the island, which had been stained by
the defenders' blood in 1860. The Japanese of
our day see poetic justice in this.

102 THE MIKADO
The authorities in Yedo were mightily pleased
with the success of their matrimonial negotiations
in Kyoto. They at once showed their apprecia
tion by distributing 15,000 rios among the Court
Nobles. There was delay in the marriage, but a
few weeks later the rank of the bride-elect was
raised from that of Miya, that is, simply daughter
of the Emperor, to that of Nai-shin-no or Im
perial Princess, and the marriage day fixed. The
political meaning of this wedding, of the boy
Shogun with the little girl from Kyoto, lay in
the hoped for union of Mikado and Shogun in
one government.
On the twentieth of the promised month, she
set out from Kyoto, making in twenty-three days
the journey by palanquin over the Eastern Sea
Road, which would now be performed in less than
one day by steam and rail. Arriving in Yedo,
December 27, she was entertained at the resi
dence of Lord Shimadzu. About a month later
the bride-elect entered the castle, where on
March 22, 1861, the marriage ceremony took
place. The vast structure had been rebuilt after
the fire, and operatic performances called No
were enjoyed in honor of the re-erection. The
princess was now styled Mi-dai, which was the
honorable term applied to the wife of a Shogun.
Born on June 4, 1846, in the same year with her
husband, she was, when made a bride, but four
teen years old. No children were born of this

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 103
union, so the usual process of securing heirs was
followed. By adoption Keiki, the last Shogun,
was her son, and by the same legal procedure
Prince Iyesato, the present head of the Toko-
ugawa family (1915), is her grandson. Short
was her wedded life, for on September 19, 1866,
at Osaka, her husband, not quite twenty years
old, died.
All earthly glory being over for her, when so
soon left a widow, she had her hair shaved off,
took the vows of a Buddhist nun and lived the
rest of her life in the nunnery, in which she died
September 13, 1877. Her funeral formed one
of the grandest civil, military and Buddhist page
ants ever seen in the chief city of the nation. She
came to Yedo in its feudal glory. She died in
Tokyo, the Imperial capital.
The foreign haters and the patriots, as eager
to destroy the Yedo system as to see the Mikado
restored to sole authority, were not yet satisfied.
Indeed they were very angry at the idea of the
Emperor's sister being taken to Yedo to increase
the prestige of "the Camp" and the "Curtain
Government." Again the assassin's sword
leaped from its sheath. On February 14, 1862,
as the train of the Minister Ando, reputed to be
favorable to foreigners, was approaching the
castle in Yedo, a desperate band of eighteen men
suddenly assaulted the procession with bullet and
sword. In the fight a dozen men were left killed

104 THE MIKADO
or wounded on the ground. This street battle
prefigured the civil war yet to come.
As usual, each of the assailants had on his
person a written paper declaring his purpose to
sacrifice his own hfe, in order to kill the "wicked
traitor" for imprisoning loyal Court Nobles and
for so far abusing the influence of the Yedo Gov
ernment as to bring the Mikado's sister to Yedo,
and, worst of all, because he had "commanded
learned Japanese scholars to collect precedents
for the deposition of the Emperor, his intention
being to depose the Son of Heaven." The assail
ants were retainers of Hori, lord of Ise, who,
some time before, after a violent discussion with
the Minister Ando, on foreign matters, had com
mitted hara-kiri. Here was Mikadoism incar
nate, rampant and blood red! Yet hardly less
amenable to reason and fact is the ink black fanati
cism of the penmen of 1912, who in discussing
Mikadoism, the relation of the Emperor to the
State, fly in the face of history, while maligning
their opponents.
Shortly after this bloody episode of 1862 the
men of Satsuma, in the train of the famous Shi-
madzu Saburo, were met on their way to Yedo
by a great band of ronin, or free lances, eager to
drive out the foreigners from Japan. Their pro
gramme was to take by assault the castle of
Osaka, and then burn that of Hikone, the old
home of the Premier Ii and of his successor, who

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 105
had the guardianship of Kyoto. After this they
would march on Kyoto and slaughter the Sho-
gun's garrison in the castle at Nijo. All
obstacles being thus removed, they could enter
the Palace, seize the divine person, give the color
and prestige of law to their proceedings, carry
the Son of Heaven in his Phoenix Car eastward
over the mountains to Yedo, and sweep all for
eigners before them. Here was Mikadoism and
their duty, as the ronin, or masterless and lawless
men, saw it.
It was no easy matter to handle such a body of
determined fellows, but Shimadzu let them escort
him as far as Fushimi. Though Kyoto was in
frightful alarm about these "wave men," yet
Shimadzu entered the capital, calmed the ronin
and then marched to Yedo. While there the
heads of the two clans, Choshiu and Satsuma,
rivals for centuries, became friends.
This action was prophetic of the future unity
of a Japan long divided by feudal jealousies.
The Satsuma men excelled in military, the Cho
shiu in civil virtues. Most of the great command
ers on sea and land, within the last fifty years,
have been from the more southern, nearly all the
eminent statesmen from the more western com
munity. The happy union of these talents, like
wings, equal in power yet different, has enabled
triumphant Nippon to win her place among the
nations.

106 THE MIKADO
Nevertheless, the Lord of Satsuma was not
happy. Both his request to be allowed to return
home by steamer, and, as it is said, audience of
the Shogun had been refused, the proud Daimio
being referred to subordinate councillors : "Yedo
tyranny" again!
On September 14 Shimadzu left the eastern
city, resolved on bringing the Shogun into trou
ble with the foreigners, so as to weaken the power
of Yedo.
As his proud knights rode along the high road
they came into colhsion with four English people
who were destined to learn how different "these
people" were from the peaceful Chinese. The
latter usually made no resistance to the strangers
from Europe, who were accustomed to use their
walking sticks on the heads of common folks.
Again the sword left its scabbard, and Mr. Rich
ardson was killed.
Instead of the Shogun's being embroiled with
foreigners the blame was laid wholly upon Sa
tsuma. A British squadron bombarded Kago-
shima, August 15, 1863, and the clansmen had to
pay an indemnity of $100,000.
Nevertheless the clan won revenge and re
couped itself by a clever stroke of statecraft.
Under their dictation the lord of Echizen, as
we have seen, abolished the custom of the Dai-
mios' forced residence in Yedo. This action had
the effect of gathering the feudal barons and their

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 107
retainers at Kyoto, the Imperial city becoming
the center of political activity. For the first time
in over two hundred years, the Shogun made a
journey to Kyoto, doing homage and receiving
orders from the Emperor Komei. The tide of
Mikadoism was rising to flood.

CHAPTER XII
ATTEMPT TO KIDNAP THE MIKADO
Because the British warships had sailed away
from Kagoshima the Mikado Komei, interpret
ing the issue as a victory, promulgated an edict
expressing his admiration of Satsuma's bravery,
and ordered his envoy to demand once more from
the Yedo authorities the expulsion of the for
eigners. In fact, His Imperial Majesty had
presented the Shogun with a sword for his
appointed task.
As matter of simple fact, that bombardment
was a powerful factor in the education of the
proudest of the Japanese clans. It led to great
searchings of heart and resolves to enter on a
new path. From this date the Satsuma men
ceased their opposition to strangers and resolved
rather to borrow their power. They at once
began the introduction of mills, foundries,
schools and dispensaries. Their experiences had
made them ready also to drop their jealousies
and sectionalism, and enter upon union with other
clans to secure a common result.
His Majesty Komei held a great review of his
drilled troops near the Sun Gate in Kyoto and
108

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 109
announced that he should proceed to Yumoto
to worship at the shrine of Jimmu Tenno. After
this he should hold, on Mount Kasuga, a grand
council of war and then proceed in person to the
punishment of Choshiu.
This last resolve was taken because there was
a band of Choshiu men then in Kyoto, who had
come to kidnap the Emperor, so that they could
issue laws and carry out their wishes in the Imper
ial name. This Choshiu scheme was nothing else
than a political form, in military force, of the old
trick of "god possessed" village fishermen bear
ing the shrine of deity, and on the anniversary
festival incarnating his "Rough Spirit" by smash
ing the shops and dwellings of unpopular and
sinful men who had offended the community.
Immediately there was great excitement. The
gates of the Palace were shut and the Choshiu
men forbidden to remain in the capital. The
southerners took the hint and made hasty exit.
Prince Sanjo and six other Court Nobles, favor
able to Choshiu, also retired to the south. These
seven dignitaries were officially deprived of their
offices and titles.
Quiet had not yet returned to Japan. The
annals relate that the runaways of many clans,
from all over the country, men who had left the
service of their former lords, were active not only
in preying upon merchants and farmers to get
means of support, but also in taking off the heads

110 THE MIKADO
of the shop keepers who traded in foreign goods
and of persons who were politically obnoxious.
It is a monotonous story, of this and that man
having his head sheared off and stuck on a pole,
or a pillory, though more usually upon one of
the city gates. Scores of skulls, removed from
their trunks by the sword, decorated the tiled
roofs of these go-mon, or the walls adjoining.
Not a few houses or temples were burned, in
which dwelt or lodged those who were in favor of
foreign intercourse. In every case, when the
ruffians could not at once reach their victims, they
gave them notice that they were marked for the
"vengeance of Heaven," the murderers consid
ering themselves "the divine instruments of jus
tice." This was the rougher side of Bushido.
One is quite able to understand events in the
modern history of Korea and China, who studies
the details of this era in Japan.
In a land which has no newspapers or ballots,
but only the despotism either of monarchs, oli
garchs or mobs, the sword is the time honored
instrument in securing unanimity of opinion in
propagation of dogma. By removing their heads,
the criticism of opposers ceased. The wearers
of the sword (katana) became the brothers of
the assassins and incendiaries, who were, at this
time, the real governors of Japan. Bushido was
being illustrated in sinister fashion. The ronin is
the intermediate figure between Japan's deca-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 111
dent feudahsm and constitutional government.
The two sworded men seemed to have reverted
to the old headhunting customs of their Malay
ancestors, and to the practice of filling the skull
shelf, which is still common among their distant
kinsmen, the copper colored aborigines of For
mosa, whom in 1915 they are still fighting. In
some cases the ronin contented themselves with
chopping off with their swords the wooden heads
from the images of famous usurpers who in times
past had curtailed or compromised the Mikado's
authority. In one instance they entered a temple
in Kyoto, and with their swords changed a row
of seven lacquered statues of the Ashikaga re
gents, who had ruled from A.D. 1219 to 1333,
into as many torsos. Echizen, the military gov
ernor of Kyoto, took vigorous measures of re
pression. Such a cult of symbolism was not to be
encouraged, but it spread, and Japan added one
more variety in religion to her rich assortment.
It is to be noticed, in all this agitation against
the foreigners and their ways and works, that
there was never, as has been so often the case in
old China, such a thing as a popular outbreak or
uprising, for the people had no real objection to
the nation's guests, or to their trade, which was
much desired. Acts of violence issued only from
a minority within the body of Samurai or gentry,
mostly ronin. These ferocious and morbidly
egotistic exemplars of Bushido, or Japanese

112 THE MIKADO
knightly culture and morality, beheved they were
doing Heaven, earth, and common man service
by turning themselves into assassins and incen
diaries. One can see amid what excitements, in
the palace as well as without, Mutsuhito grew up.
As we have seen, the result of Satsuma's
attempt to measure forces with foreigners was
that they come to believe as Echizen did. Indeed,
they were soon found to be the nation's leaders
in the making of intelligent public opinion. It
was manifestly useless to waste resources in
attacking the aliens directly. They perceived that,
in some manner, the power of the whole nation
must be concentrated. At Kyoto, to which the
Shogun had again come, the Satsuma men, per
suaded by Echizen, were found urging the Court
to reestablish the Tokugawa family in power,
giving it the direction of the national policy.
Kyoto was to remain the center of authority, the
Shoguns receiving the imperial investiture in suc
cession to their office. The barons were to lend
all aid in supporting the Mikado and Court, while
the nine gates of the Imperial Palace were to be
guarded by the Shogun's most loyal vassals.
This decision of Satsuma was not understood
by the Choshiu men, and it made them intensely
indignant. Their rivalry and quarrels broke out
afresh and Choshiu became, from the hostile point
of view, the resort of runaways from all parts of
the Empire. In the eyes of others, it was seen

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 113
that the ablest and most ambitious young men,
the men of to-morrow, sought this province as
that from which the future was to be dictated.
Again their plot was attempted. Hundreds of
regular and irregular troops marched up from
Choshiu to Kyoto. On August 20, 1864, they
endeavored to seize the Mikado's person by mak
ing a rush upon the gates of the Imperial Palace,
then guarded by the clansmen of Fukui, Echizen.
The kidnappers hoped to capture the Son of
Heaven, and carry out their wishes through him.
The onset was made in two divisions, numbering
in all about a thousand men. The battle was now
"at the base of the chariot," even on the Mikado's
doorstep. The first onslaught was successful. In wild
flight the forces then commanded by Keiki, who
afterward became Shogun, were driven away,
when suddenly three hundred Satsuma men, mak
ing a flank attack with field pieces, drove back
the assailants. The other division, at first win
ning easy victory, was later repulsed. Bullets
flew in showers in and about the Imperial Pal
ace, and Mutsuhito, the future Emperor, learned
what war is.
The heaviest fighting took place when, after
the Echizen and Kuwana forces had been re
pulsed, the lord of Hikone came up with large
reinforcements. Then the loyal troops re-formed,
charged in mighty mass and routed the Choshiu

114 THE MIKADO
men. Fire breaking out, and the cannonade
being kept up to hinder the wouldbe kidnappers
of the Mikado from hiding, a large part of the
city was destroyed.
I heard the story of this battle from the hps
of Echizen men, who took part in defending the
Palace. The beaten southerners, not discouraged,
gathered to renew the conflict, waiting only for
the arrival of their lord from Choshiu to begin
again. He, however, on reaching Kyoto, having
learned of the bombardment of Shimonoseki on
September 4, 1864, by seventeen vessels of the
allied fleets of four nations, Great Britain,
France, Holland and the United States,
discouraged any further military operations.
Despite the protests of Ito and Inouye, just
returned from Europe, the Choshiu men had
encouraged hostilities and had fought the allies'
fleet. Mutsuhito now looked upon the Blossom Capi
tal, thus turned into a battle field. It presented
an awful scene of ruin and desolation, when the
smoke of the war fires cleared away. Over eigh
teen palaces of nobles, forty-four of the great
caravanseries of the Daimios, and 27,000 houses
were burned. Sixty Shinto shrines, 115 Bud
dhist temples, forty bridges, three theatres,
besides the habitations of the common people,
and a village of Eta, or pariahs, were destroyed.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 115
Thus in a circle of blood and fire did the Palace
boy, the future Emperor, Mutsuhito, receive his
baptism. Turning to the southwest, the other focus of
disturbance, at Shimonoseki, we find that the
Choshiu clansmen, having measured their re
sources against the outside world in naval war,
had the same experiences as Satsuma. The sound
thrashing which they received taught them the
folly of fractions fighting wholes. They now
saw themselves in the light of the old Chinese
story of the swarm of bees trying to sting the
tortoise through its armor. Yet to show the
world that they were really aiming at the Sho
gun and the Yedo usurpation, rather than at the
foreigners, the intelligent leaders of the great
clan wished, even when beaten, to open the city
of Shimonoseki to foreign commerce. The
Choshiu men even proposed to send indepen
dent envoys to England to effect their object.
This they could not do, for the Shogun's Gov
ernment preferred to pay the heavy indemnity
of $3,000,000 rather than open more ports.
The Yedo bureaucrats took their medicine
calmly. The heavy indemnity was intended to
be extortionate, so as to compel the Shogun to
yield to the demands of commerce and open new
ports. The instalment of 500,000 Mexican dol
lars was paid September 1, 1865, bringing the
treasury in Yedo to almost a state of emptiness
and compelling the issue of paper money.

116 THE MIKADO
Hitherto the great Choshiu clan had been
divided into factions, of which one was called the
Vulgar View Party. The other had taken no
part in the attack on the capital. Besides two
wars, one with the aliens at the straits and another
with fellow countrymen at the capital, there was
civil strife at home. This threefold waste,
draining the clan's resources, would soon ex
haust its vitality, unless unity should be gained.
Such a desideratum was destined to come through
Saigo, a man of genius in the Satsuma clan, and,
in this irenic enterprise, most probably inspired
by Okubo. He proposed a method by which
these two great principalities were hereafter to
bury all enmity and unite in one purpose, to
return to the ancient, unique rule of the Mikado.
This grand idea required not merely a change of
the mats only, but of floor and foundations.
Saigo, expressing the thoughts of many hearts,
was both prophet and statesman. Mikadoism
healed the old wounds.
In July, 1865, the Shogun being in Kyoto, the
foreign representatives, with nine ships of war,
came to Hiogo to discuss the opening, of both
that port and the nighboring city of Osaka, and
also the Imperial assent to the treaties permit
ting this action. The delay at Court was so very
exasperating that Keiki, the Shogun's guardian,
threatened to resign. Komei had given his con
sent, but the Court Nobles raised such a tumult

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 117
that he withdrew his approval. At last, after an
all night's session of July 22, the opposition of
the leading men in Kyoto was withdrawn, and the
Emperor re-asserted his decision, on condition
that Hiogo, which was so near to Kyoto, should
not be made a port of commerce. One high na
tive officer declared that Komei "would rather
that the whole of Japan had been burned to a
cinder, than that it should be opened to the outer
barbarians;" Meanwhile the Yedo army, made up of nearly
all the supposedly loyal clans, except Satsuma,
had, against the earnest protest of Echizen, now
Palace Resident and Imperial Councillor, been
sent to punish the Choshiu men. Nevertheless the
Yedo soldiers, laced in armor and armed with
spears and swords, could not contend with men
in light short sleeved garments, drilled in Wes
tern style, and armed with American rifles. After
several defeats in pitched battles the prestige of
the Tokugawa family was ruined, and the Yedo
treasury nearly emptied.
The Shogun Iyemochi died at the age of
twenty, on September 19, 1866, though accord
ing to the old precedents his decease was not
announced until some time later. His young
widow, of Imperial blood, as we have seen, shaved
her hair and became a Buddhist nun. Her
adopted son Keiki was made Shogun on Jan
uary 6, 1867. He did not wish to accept the

118 THE MIKADO
office, for he felt that it was of very brief tenure
and that its days were numbered. Many of his
chief followers however hoped that even though
monarchy should be estabhshed the Tokugawa
family, because of its immense revenues and
numerous vassals, might, with foreign commerce
to enrich its coffers, have even more power than
before. Far differently did the clans of the southwest
think on this subject. They formed a combina
tion, which Echizen joined, to bring about the
headship, not of any one clan or group of clans,
but of one strong Government, for they were
determined to have nothing less than an Em
peror who should not only reign but govern.
Their idea of Mikadoism was the true one.
The active men in the new coalition were Sa
murai, not of high rank, but thoughtful and well
read, withal full of fire and energy and well inoc
ulated with Western ideas. For allies they had a
small party among the Court Nobles, and a very
few conspicuous men of ability and personal
importance, Echizen being perhaps the leader
in constructive statesmanship among that crowd
of Daimios who were mere figureheads. In fact,
the men who now prepared finally to achieve the
coup d'etat, which made a new Government and
nation, even the new Japan of the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries, numbered all told but
fifty-five, their average age being thirty. Of

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 119
these five, Okubo, Iwakura, San jo, Kido and
Saigo, were the conspicuous leaders. I knew
them all in the Japan of 1870-1874.
These progressive men were disappointed and
indignant at Keiki's receiving the office of Sho
gun, because, having powers hke his predeces
sors', he could treat the landed nobility as if they
were his own vassals, and not as advisers of the
Emperor. They clamored for the opening of Hiogo and
Osaka, yet not as mere marts of trade and not
for the benefit of the "ring" in Yedo, but in the
interests of the whole country. In the splendid
game, whose prize was the possession of the "liv
ing god of the Japanese nation," both bands of
hunters coquetted with the foreign envoys.
Three parties were forming, Federalists, Un
ionists, and Imperialists. Each party was in
formed chiefly by the culture, the ideas of
philosophy and the politics derived from the
Chinese classics, or the later thinkers of China.
The Federalists, at first led by Satsuma and
including kuge, ronin, and Shinto zealots, united
in hating the foreigners, less on account of these
being aliens than because the Yedo Premier, Ii
had signed treaties with them against the Mika
do's wishes. They wanted a Government on the
model of Hideyoshi's council of Daimios; Mi
kado, Shogun, and feudal lords sharing the
power.

120 THE MIKADO
The Unionists were mostly enlightened and
brave young Samurai, with some taste of Euro
pean culture. They had before them the vision
of a State much like that in the golden age of
ancient China, where all men had equal oppor
tunity, and in which popular opinion ruled
through representative government. They were
inspired by the Oyomeian philosophy, in which
right thought and right action quickly joined
hands. The Imperialists aimed at monarchy and la
bored for the supremacy of the Mikado, with a
bureaucracy as it existed previous to feudalism.
This meant, ultimately, the abolition of both the
Shogun and the Daimios.
In the order of time the Federalists were first.
It was they who in 1862, after the death of Ii,
reformed the Government and made Echizen
Premier in Yedo and Aidzu the lord of Nijo
Castle in Kyoto. This party soon broke down,
through complications domestic and foreign, and
the Imperialists rose to power, Choshiu even
defying the Shogun and firing on foreign ships.
Then the Federalists reunited, but when Owari
and Echizen dealt lightly with Choshiu, Aidzu
protested, became rampant, and proceeded to in
vade Choshiu, the Shogun leading in person. As
this, if successful, would rehabilitate the Toku
gawa and give the Shogunate greater power and
a fresh lease of life, a combination of able clan

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 121
leaders hostile to the policy of chastisement was
formed, and thus a new party, the Unionist, came
into being. It was now a struggle between
Unionist and Federal. When the Yedo army
was beaten the prestige of the Federals had de
parted, and the Unionists, now thoroughly in
fected by Katsu, Ito and other students returned
from foreign countries were, for the most part,
transformed by the logic of events into Imperial
ists. The Unionists accomplished little, and the
Federalists less, the Imperialists coming out
victors.

CHAPTER XIII
THE MIKADO BECOMES EMPEROR
In this state of affairs smallpox seized the
Emperor, Osahito, whom we know by his post
humous name, Komei. In fourteen days he was
dead. He had ruled twenty years, from 1847.
He was the last of the line of Palace prisoners,
that is, of Emperors virtually shut up in a box
and treated as idols, with superstitious and often
very malign reverence. In history, though
through ignorance Komei disliked, even hated
foreigners, he stands as the promotor of the Res
toration and of national unity.
The official and announced death was on Feb
ruary 3, 1867. The real event took place, per
haps, on January 30. His son, Mutsuhito, on
February 13, 1866, became Mikado, or, as later
styled, Emperor. By the reckoning of exact
mathematics, he was fourteen years and eighty-
eight days old when his father died, but by Japa
nese use of language was sixteen. It often stirs
the risibilities of foreign physicians to see babies
born, it may be, only an hour or two before Jan
uary 1 greeted as "two days old."
On account of the youth of the new ruler, it
122

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 123
became necessary to choose a regent, the Junior
Prime Minister of the Left, one Nariaki. The
hopes of Keiki rose, because a majority of the
Court Nobles were his partisans. Now, he
thought, instead of having to deal with a Mikado
born in the old days of seclusion, with hereditary
and lifelong prejudices against the Western bar
barians, here was a lad, reared since Perry's
arrival, who knew at least a little about foreign
nations. According to his agreement the Shogun met
the foreign Ministers in Osaka. Sites for the
foreign settlement at Hiogo and Osaka were
fixed upon, and this covenant was approved by
the Court in Kyoto. It was too late, however,
for Keiki to bring into play his really great abil
ities, for the Unionist party was definitely formed
and had both a programme and force to carry
it out. In October, 1867, the ex-Prince of Tosa wrote
a letter to Keiki, advising him to resign and
restore the whole power to the Emperor. In his
view, the cause of the troubles was "that the ad
ministration proceeds from two centers, because
the Empire's eyes and ears are turned in two dif
ferent 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

124 THE MIKADO
which Japan may take its stand as the equal of
all other countries." Long before this, as we
have seen, Echizen, the relative of Tokugawa,
published a manifesto fully as liberal in its fore
sight and demands. The hammer blow of Tosa
on the iron driven by Echizen, when the steel bar
of critical opportunity was beneath, turned the
nail into a rivet.
Keiki, under the impression that the feudal
barons would be called to Kyoto to dehberate
upon the basis of a new Constitution, on Novem
ber 3, 1867,* placed his resignation in the hands
of the Emperor, who, after accepting it, sum
moned the feudatories at Kyoto to meet on De
cember 15. Meanwhile Echizen, now the Great
Counsellor, was in the Palace night and day,
seeking to reconcile all parties, explaining, per
suading, hoping, and fully expecting to avert
bloodshed and secure a modern government, with
the Emperor as supreme head.
The war spirit was too hot. Instead of a
council there was a host of armed men from the
clans of Satsuma, Tosa, Owari, Echizen, and
Aki, whose leaders, knowing exactly what they
wanted, soon showed their hand.
Perhaps the precise date on which modern
* See "Japanese Government Documents" (from November 3,
1867, to the end of Meiji era) edited with an introduction by
W. W. McLaren, Ph.D., in Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of
Japan, Vol. XLII, Part I, pp. Ci-681, containing those of the first
half of the era of Meiji, published in 1914.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 125
Japan's internal history opened may be named as
January 3, 1868. At noon, by order of the Court,
the combination seized the nine gates and thus
gained control of the Imperial Palace and Person.
Dismissing the Regent, Nariaki, who was a
partisan of Keiki, they also forbade the court
Nobles, hitherto in the Emperor's confidence, to
come near. Then they surrounded His Majesty
with those who were in accord with their own
ideas. They had now the Mikado, Mutsuhito,
the holy oracle, in their power, and through him
could utter their convictions in law, for they were
"the Court." Within twenty-four hours they
made the boy Emperor proclaim a new order of
things. The office of Shogun and the Yedo
Government were abolished, and a provisional
system, with three grades of officers, was
arranged for. Their authorization was thus ex
pressed: "It is the Emperor's decree," etc.
Instead of accepting this as "the Restoration"
Keiki denounced it as revolution. His clamorous
followers, especially those of Aidzu, commandant
of Nijo Castle, who had been in command of the
palace gates so long, and who hated the Choshiu
men, were also allowed to express their views.
Keiki, in a memorial to the Court, announced
that he should act upon the previous order and
declared that everything should be determined by
a council of barons. On January 6, under the
plea of calming the passions of his adherents, and

126 THE MIKADO
hoping for union among them, he left Kyoto with
his great following, and in Osaka, protesting to
the foreign Ministers against the revolutionary
proceedings, as criminal, declared his resolve to
"carry out the instructions left by the late
Emperor." Keiki was too late. It was time to let the dead
past bury its dead. The enlightened living, and
not the men in their graves, now ruled in the
councils of Japan. Rather, since the dead were
still potent to decree, the deceased Emperor had
new interpreters.
Two envoys from the capital, Owari and Echi
zen, came to Osaka and invited their relative,
Keiki, to accept the office of Gijo, or Emperor's
servant of the second rank. They urged him to
bring his influence and resources to the support of
the new Government, dismiss all feelings of re
sentment and return with only a small escort,
offering, as his kinsmen, to protect him with their
own troops, if disturbed about his personal
safety. Keiki agreed, and Echizen was happy. Yet
when new advisers came the ex- Shogun changed
his mind, yielding to the demands of Aidzu and
Kuwana, and his hot headed retainers, to march
back to Kyoto. With his army he would "re
move from the Emperor his bad counsellors and
try the issue with them by the sword." This was
nothing less than a declaration of war.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 127
On January 27 the battle opened between the
"divine" and the "human," the Government and
the choteki (traitors) ; the "loyal" army and
the "rebels." It lasted 'three days. It was a run
ning fight in the towns and villages on either side
of the Yodo river. Two thousand riflemen and
artillerists, with arms and tactics in modern style,
directed by Saigo opposed ten thousand men
cased in helmets and armor and equipped, for the
most part, with arrow, sword, and spear. The
attacking party of "rebels" advancing over nar
row roads or causeways among rice fields, and
strung out in long narrow lines, without any pos
sibility of making evolutions, except at the risk of
sinking into the mire to their knees, were easy prey
for men lightly dressed, expert with American
rifles, and able to move easily. Hidden, or skir
mishing in bamboo thickets, the modern warriors,
drilled by General Omura, were well provided
with cannon favorably posted. In such a case
superiority of numbers was a detriment rather
than an advantage. The battle was not to num
bers or valor, but to brain and science.
The fifteen hundred Imperialists actually en
gaged and chiefly Satsuma and Choshiu men well
practiced in flank attacks, won a decisive victory.
The rebels were pursued all the way to Osaka,
from which city the foreign Ministers had to with
draw, for the old Government could not protect
them. Keiki, with a few of his loyal retainers,

128 THE MIKADO
left the castle early in the morning and crossing
the dangerous bar, on which the American Rear
Admiral Bell was afterward drowned, found
temporary refuge on board the United States
steamship Iroquois. Soon afterward, on his own
steam corvette, he left for Yedo. The great
castle of Osaka, built by Hideyoshi, with wall
stones larger than any in the pyramids of Egypt,
was burned on the same day.
On February 8, the young Emperor, now six
teen, or in Japanese reckoning, eighteen years
old, in celebrating his majority, declared an am
nesty to pardoned criminals, promising that all
would be considered loyal subjects, except those
actually in rebellion, and threatening severe pun
ishments against every one who remained in open
hostility. For the first time in history a Mikado, Mutsu
hito, wrote out his full name on a pubhc docu
ment, written in letters of unusual size, and this
he did alongside "The Seal of Great Japan."
This was a notification that he had resumed the
governing power and that the title of "Emperor"
should be substituted in all the treaty documents
for the sign manual of the Shogun. Henceforth
in this work we use the term as applied to Mutsu-
shito and the reigning Mikado-Emperor.
Mutsuhito sent this imposing paper on Feb
ruary 7 by a special envoy, Higashi Kuze, who
went to Hiogo to meet the foreign Ministers.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 129
This dignitary arrived in the nick of time, because
on February 4 a party of the proud soldiers of
the Daimio of Bizen, eager to use their new war
tools, had foolishly, with slight provocation, shed
foreign blood on the main street of Kobe. After
leaving Osaka the foreign Ministers had come to
the newly laid out settlement of Kobe, where var
ious people from America and Europe were wait
ing for business to open on the new site. As
there was no Government there was no one to
restrain possible outrages.
The baron of Bizen, with his train, was passing
through the foreign quarter. As usual, a native
herald went ahead of the procession shouting to
the crowd, "Down on your knees!" The foreign
ers, however, remained standing. The haughty
Samurai were irritated. A Frenchman happen
ing to come out and walk alongside of the Bizen
troops, a misunderstanding ensued, and a native
officer gave the order to fire. The soldiers began
blazing away at all strangers, among whom were
several men of high rank and station. The clans
men had repeating rifles, but the sights were set
too high, and the bullets flew over the foreigners'
heads. A sailor boy from the United States man-
of-war Oneida, the ship which was afterward
sunk by accidental collision in Yokohama harbor,
was wounded. The unarmed spectators quickly
disappeared, and, there being no one else to fire
at, the Bizen men marched on.

130 THE MIKADO
The guards of three legations were at once
ordered out, but no enemy was in view. Besides
seizing the five steamers belonging to different
Daimios, marines and sailors were landed and
they protected the settlement until a body of
Satsuma troops arrived to keep order.
This Kobe episode at once put the reality of
Imperial power to proof, for it affected not Bizen
only but all Japan, and the new Government
must take the responsibility. Instead of demand
ing apology from the Daimio, the foreign envoys
pressed the matter upon the new Government in
Kyoto. Happily the young Emperor was reasonably
advised. At his call the offenders were instantly
surrendered. A new thing had happened under
the Japanese sun. Instead of the old excuses and
delays, here was promptness in business. Date,
the old Daimio of Uwajima, came to Hiogo and
offered an apology in writing from the Mikado
himself. The officer who gave the order to fire
was to commit hara-kiri in presence of witnesses.
The Emperor, assuming the treatymaking
power, appointed an Imperial Prince Minister of
Foreign Affairs and published, February 14, a
proclamation. It was saturated with the spirit of
Japanese theology, and showing the real or re
puted rule of the dead, concerning the treaties.
The whole cast of thought and form of language
is Chinese:

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 131
"Since the time that the late Emperor occu
pied himself seriously with foreign affairs, the
Bakufu, by a long series of errors, has brought
us to the present state and the country has under
gone a great change, which has indeed come about
unavoidably. "It has been definitely resolved, after Court
Council, to have treaties of amity [with foreign
Powers]. The Imperial will is, therefore, that
high and low join in unison and abstain from
doubting [feel at ease in their minds] that our
defences be made so thorough that the national
glory may shine abroad amongst all nations, and
that the spirit of the late Emperor be satisfied."

CHAPTER XIV
THE CHARTER OATH OF 1868
On February 16, 1868, the young Emperor
heard of two English gentlemen in his capital,
Dr. Willis, surgeon of the British Legation, and
the student-interpreter, Mr. Ernest Satow, later
Great Britain's plenipotentiary in Japan and in
China, and member of the Privy Council. It was
the first time since the sixteenth century, when
St. Francis Xavier had come to the sacred city,
at that time ravaged and desolated by civil war,
that foreigners had been welcomed in Kyoto.
Dutchmen had passed near or through, but had
made no stay. Both gentlemen were well treated,
for Dr. Willis had come to dress the wounds of
the loyal soldiers. In fact, he attended ahke to
friend and foe.
The barons of Echizen, Tosa, Satsuma, Cho
shiu and Aki sent in a memorial acknowledging
the mistake of closing the country, advising rela
tions of friendship for repairing their deficien
cies in knowledge, and urging that the foreign
envoys should never be spoken of in terms of con
tempt, but rather be invited to the Court and
presented before the Emperor, as in civilized
133

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 133
countries. A favorable answer was returned and
the fruit of this decision was soon seen in the new
educational pohcy of the Empire.
Echizen was the first nobleman who sent for
teachers from America. In his province the first
common schools were organized and here was
raised the Ninth Division, so famous at Port Ar
thur in 1904. This was the beginning of that
system of yatoi, or salaried foreigners, in all lines
of service, about 5,000 being hired between 1868
and 1900, to serve the Empire with their varied
talents. The foreign envoys accepted the invitation to
visit Kyoto and have audience of the Mikado.
This was a tremendous step in advance, for no
Europeans had ever yet crossed the Imperial
threshold or looked upon the face of the Tenno.
There was danger in entering Kyoto, and none
knew this better than the British Minister, Sir
Harry Parkes, and, as he told me, he "took pre
cautions." Fanatics of the old school could not
understand what was going on, for they thought
that the Mikado's restoration and the expulsion
of the barbarian were synonymous terms. In
their minds, dogmatic theology was not yet sep
arated from practical diplomacy.
On March 23 crowds gathered to see the Min
isters of three nations on their way to Imperial
audience. The British Minister's escort consisted
of sixty armed men, twelve in front and forty-

134 THE MIKADO
eight in the rear, with native soldiers preceding
and following.
All went well until the procession got into a
narrow street. Then two fanatics ran amuck with
their two handed swords, dealing blows furiously
and rapidly. Nine of the eleven British guards
men, a soldier of the Ninth regiment, and the
Japanese groom were slashed, and five horses
were badly cut. Goto Shojiro, running in front,
took off the head of one assassin with a sweep of
his sword, and the other was wounded and made
prisoner. The British procession turned back. The Em
peror, to whom the insult was greater than to the
English envoy, at once sent several high Minis
ters in full Court dress, to express his regret at
what had happened, and five days later issued a
decree, declaring that acts of violence towards
strangers would be punished according to the
gravity of the offence. If the offenders were
Samurai their names would be erased from the
roll of the gentry. Mutsuhito thus made clear his
purpose to reform barbarism. Hereafter, every
one of his servants attacked received fresh honors,
and in case of death posthumous reward.
This new decree was enforced only with great
difficulty. The intensity of Japanese conceit and
pride was then so colossal that native officers felt
humiliated even when treating foreigners de
cently. The Foreign Department was a new one,

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 135
and it was not easy to get servants of the Govern
ment to take the same broad view of things as
the Emperor and his advisers. Men brought up
on a hermit isle were very slow to make conces
sions to "barbarians" or in any way to seem to sub
mit to their dictation. The bureaucracy, Japan's
permanent curse, tried every means to suppress
or delay the publication of the Emperor's decree,
but Mutsuhito and his advisers were firm. Al
ready the young Emperor, as he was soon to be
popularly as well as officially called, gave proof
of the determined spirit within him.
However, as a foil and an ostentatious assur
ance of national orthodoxy, the anti-Christian
edicts, signed by the Great Council of the Gov
ernment, were republished. All Japan read these
on the notice boards which hung under roofed
frames set on platforms in the city wards, town
divisions and the villages. A new set of wooden
slabs or tablets was put up in place of the old. I
remember the fresh wood and shining ink. Bar
barism still triumphed at Court and conscience
was in slavery, as in medieval Europe.
In April, 1868, as the result of the bold petition
of Okubo, the Mikado made his first appearance
in a public assembly, and travelled beyond the
city of Kyoto to see Osaka and the sea.
The effect of Okubo's petition, ungarnished
with references to Chinese precedent and uncon-
taminated by a single legal fiction, was like an

136 THE MIKADO
electric shock. It opened a broad vista of hfe to
the young ruler of Japan.
To allay clan jealousy and harmonize conflict
ing interests, the leaders at Court estabhshed
"the Constitution of 1868." The text of this
document, expressed in five articles, all models
of terseness, came directly from the pen of Mi-
tsuoka, of Fukui, disciple of Yokoi and retainer
of Echizen, later Viscount Yuri. One must not
read into it the ideas either of twentieth century
Japan, of parliamentary England, of the Amer
ican Declaration of Independence, or of the
Constitution of the United States. It was to
safeguard the nation against the ambitions for
supremacy of any one clan, such as Satsuma or
Choshiu, while "pubhc opinion" meant that of a
single class, the Samurai. "The people" had no
political existence. The "Charter Oath," first
sworn in the Imperial Palace, is literally trans
lated by President Harada, of the Doshisha Uni
versity, with notes, as follows:
"On the twenty-third day of the third month
of the first year of Meiji (April 16, 1868) , H.M.
the Emperor being present at the Shishin temple
of the Palace [Kyoto], taking oath before the
Divine Illuminance (or deities) of Heaven and
Earth, declared the fundamental principles of the
Restoration :
"First. An assembly shall be organized on a
broad basis: all policies (of the state) should be
decided by public opinion.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 137
"Second. Both Government and people shall
be united in one heart : every undertaking should
be pushed with vigor.
Third. Civil and military classes with distinc
tion and also commoners shall each carry out their
aims: it is necessary that the spirit of the nation
shall not be tired out.
"Fourth. Mean usages of the past should be
destroyed : all things shall be founded on the Uni
versal Law (or Way) of Heaven and earth.
"Fifth. Knowledge should be sought in the
wide world : foundations of the royal realm shall
be firmly established (elevated)."
To give the new "Constitution" sanction and
authority the Mikado's oath was necessary, for
everything must now be done in his name. The
significant place where the oath was taken was
the Shi-shin-den, or Purple Mystery Hall, a sep
arate edifice of noble proportions and venerable
associations. The text was published in the castle
of Nijo, the headquarters of the Camp which had
long overawed the Throne. In its interior decor
ation, at least, this was the handsomest building
in Kyoto, except possibly some of the gorgeous
temples of the Shin, or "Protestant" sect of Bud
dhists. In this edifice the assembled Court Nobles
and the land holding barons had formed a house
of assembly for the discussion of public questions.
This "Charter Oath" formed the basis of the
Constitution of 1889. As matter of fact, it was

138 THE MIKADO
twenty-one years before its provisions were ful
filled, the prerogative of the Emperor limited,
the rights of Japanese subjects guaranteed, and
their hberties assured. Bitter experience taught
the Japanese statesmen that representative gov
ernment could not be created at once, and that
the too hasty introduction of liberal or democratic
views in a country whose institutions were essen
tially aristocratic would only lead to reaction and
bloodshed. Nevertheless, here at Kyoto, in 1868,
was the visible beginning of constitutional Japan.
On April 13, in a palanquin or norimono,
screened from the pubhc gaze, Mutsuhito trav
elled to Osaka, and looked for the first time on
salt water. He was present at a review of some
of his soldiers. He saw the six Japanese steam
ers, belonging to the various Daimios, moving
without sail or wind. This was a great day in
his hfe.
His Majesty next despatched Prince Arisu-
gawa to Yedo, giving him a sword and a brocade
banner, with one thousand picked troops, to assert
Imperial authority in the Kuanto, or Broad East.

CHAPTER XV
TOKYO: EXIT SHOGUN; ENTER MIKADO
The new Government was still in a very pre
carious position. It consisted of but a handful
of students and loyal clansmen, of the average
age of thirty years. These bold spirits had con
verted also a few of the court nobles and thus
got possession of the Mikado. The great major
ity of the gentry and courtiers were even yet filled
with that old spirit of pride and hatred to aliens,
arising from insular narrowness and dense ignor
ance. No revenue, treasury, or national army or
navy existed. Clansmen and factions were over
numerous, but not one national dollar, school or
soldier was as yet visible.
On the other hand the angry followers of the
deposed Shogun were gathering arms and forces
to resist the "usurpers." On arriving at Yedo
Keiki had summoned Katsu and Okubo his coun
cillors, who at once advised full surrender, to
which Keiki agreed and notified his adherents not
to resist the loyal army.
Moved to pity lest Yedo should be laid in ashes,
high officers, the princesses Kadzu and Tensoin,
widows of the two last Shoguns, sent some of
139

140 THE MIKADO
their ladies as messengers of mercy along the
Eastern Sea Road, over which the triumphant
victors under Saigo were approaching. The fire
"flowers of Yedo" might, under the war torch,
blossom in a garden of flame, many miles square.
Largely through the influence of the Unionist
Katsu, friend of Saigo, Yedo was spared the
torch. On March 25 the Kyoto troops entered
the Castle of Yedo. The ultimatum, which of
fered forgiveness of Keiki, included in its terms
the surrender of all pubhc property.
The terms were formally accepted by the ex-
Shogun, but his infantry soldiers fled by thous
ands to the north, where a coalition hostile to the
new order of things was planned. The seaports
were taken charge of by the Imperial officers,
who at Nagasaki enforced ruthlessly the old laws
against the "Christians." To the popular and
even to the official mind the rehgion of Jesus was
synonymous with sorcery and magic, if not
rebellion. No less a statesman than Kido, "the Pen of the
Revolution," was the official agent in dealing with
the Nagasaki believers, who for two centuries
had secretly kept their Christian faith and hope.
On July 10 about six score of these banned peo
ple were taken by steamer to the northern prov
ince of Kaga. Tied together, labelled and
numbered, hke so many bundles of firewood,
about four thousand were ultimately deported

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 141
and distributed among the different Daimios,
They were kept in prisons situated in old craters
of volcanoes, and were nearly starved. I saw one
of these parties, several score in number, in Feb
ruary, 1871, while travelling in the mountain
regions of Echizen. They were dressed in the
criminal's color of red, and roped together in line.
Army officers held Yedo and the municipal
administration was carried on by officers of the
old regime, but on June 13 Prince San jo arrived.
Then the question of revenue for the Tokugawa
clan, estimated at $1,110,000, was taken up. The
Court had made Tayasu Kamenosuke, a boy of
six years old, afterward Speaker of the House of
Peers, the head of this honorable family, but as
yet had not decided how much was to remain the
property of the clan.
The dissatisfied retainers of Keiki were very
angry when the Yedo Castle and the munitions of
war had been given up, and now resolved to resist,
even to blood. They formed "the band which
makes duty clear" and seized the park and tem
ples at Uyeno, in the northern part of the city.
"Fighting fire with fire" was voted the correct
policy, so Mikadoism was pitted against Mikado
ism, all of which shows how deeply rooted and
universally held is the idea. As the lord abbot of
Uyeno was a prince of the blood, virtually a hos
tage for the Throne, in the Camp city, as or
dained by Iyeyasu, the Yedo rebels were able to

142 THE MIKADO
set up a rival Mikado as pretender to the Imper
ial throne.
This "court doll in long sleeves," hke the old
Fujiwara or Ho jo figureheads, named Rinnoji
no Miya, was deceived into yielding. Gathering
other clansmen, runaways and various nonde
script characters out of employment, and making
Uyeno Park — the seat of the Taisho Exposition
of 1914 — their headquarters, these defiant ruf
fians terrorized Yedo and even murdered the
loyal troops in broad daylight. San jo ordered
this band to disperse and summoned the rival
Mikado to the castle, but the latter, a mere pup
pet, was not allowed to obey. So the sword was
unsheathed. On July 4, led by General Omura, who had
introduced foreign drill, the Imperialists, singing
their war songs, moved to the attack. The battle
raged fiercely all the morning, but when in the
afternoon the Hizen men got two Armstrong
guns into position, their effective artillery fire
decided the day. The remnant of the beaten
army fled to Aidzu, in the north. During the
combat the great temple, one of the most mag
nificent in Japan, was burned. A few months
later, in January, 1871, I walked over its cal
cined foundation stones and its heaps of ashes of
camphor and hinoki trees, with Verbeck of Japan.
The desolation was appalling. The "Black
Gate," or entrance to the beautiful grounds,

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 143
looked like a honeycomb with its bullet holes. So
peppered was its framework with lead that a
square foot of untouched wood was hard to find.
The Uyeno insurgents "had ruined the busi
ness" and instead of the two or three million
koku (over ten or fifteen milhon bushels), which
the retainers of the great clan had expected, the
amount of the fief's revenue was fixed at seven
hundred thousand koku (4,400,000 bushels)
annually. Those whose fortunes were wrecked
went to dwell in large numbers in Shidzuoka,
Suruga's chief city and the home of Iyeyasu in
his later life. It was there that I talked with
many of them.
Keiki lived in Mito, but there was danger that
the disaffected might seize his person and set up a
new sort of pretender. He therefore petitioned
the Court that he might be allowed to live in
Shidzuoka. His request was granted.
There, in "the St. Helena of Tokugawaism,"
this last of the Shoguns dwelt for a generation,
firmly refusing to emerge from his seclusion, to
see strangers or to take any part whatever in
political affairs. In the name of the new head of
the family, Tokugawa Iyesato, his able advisers
and guardians established in Shidzuoka a school
of science and modern languages, and sent a com
missioner to the writer, when at Fukui, to engage
an American teacher, who was Mr. Edward War
ren Clark, author of the life of "Katz Awa,

144 THE MIKADO
Founder of Japan's Modern Navy," and other
books. In 1902, hale and hearty, and the father of a
large family of sons and daughters, created a
marquis, invited by His Gracious Majesty, the
Emperor, to live in Tokyo and later made a
Prince of the Empire, Keiki returned to his old
home in the great city, now so greatly changed
in environment, to hve until 1913. In 1910 Count
Okuma was able to obtain from Prince Keiki for
his book, "Fifty Years of New Japan," a delight
ful chapter of reminiscences and an explanation
of his conduct that breathed throughout love to
his country and loyalty to his Emperor.
Opposition in the north had centered at the
lord Aidzu's castle of Wakamatsu, later the site
of Japan's greatest steel foundry. The siege
began October 8, 1868, but the loyal forces,
though armed with American breechloading
rifles, had only twelve-pounder siege guns. A
combined assault was made on October 30, and
the castle, after prodigies of heroism, surren
dered on November 6. The Emperor graciously
pardoned all the twenty-five nobles in real or
nominal rebellion, and their repentant retainers.
In the usual public and official confession of sin,
borrowed from Chinese models, he blamed him
self and excused the crime of rebellion, because
the Throne had not been honored for seven cen
turies. The final proclamation, on November 1,

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 145
1869, a brief but noble document, reveals Mutsu
hito as a magnanimous ruler, a sincere lover of
peace, a reconciler, and the true father of a
nation. It shows how well the Emperor un
derstood the Miltonic dictum, "Who overcomes
by force, hath overcome but half his foe." Of
the heroic maidens at Wakamatsu, one after
ward was appointed to study in America, grad
uated from Vassar College and became the wife
of Field Marshal Oyama.
Here is part of the text of the Imperial pardon
which shared the moral burden of blame:
"We have heard that a great Prince draws
after him his subjects by his virtue, while an
ordinary ruler meets them with provisions of the
law. In our opinion, the unnatural condition of
rebellion depends solely on the possession, or
want, of kingly virtue in the Sovereign. Now
that peace has been restored in our dominions and
a settled state of things established throughout
the Empire, it is our pleasure to grant pardons
to Keiki, Katamori, and their adherents, and to
encourage them to a spontaneous reform of their
lives. Thus shall our royal clemency be extended
throughout the Empire."
As we noticed before, on November 3, 1868,
the birthday of the Emperor, now sixteen years
old (eighteen, in native reckoning) was cele
brated, and henceforward was to be a festival
throughout the whole Empire. No capital pun-

146 THE MIKADO
ishment may take place on that date, and with
holiday and rejoicing, it has become one of the
greatest days of the year for Japanese in all parts
of the world. Chronology was also partially re
formed. It was announced that thereafter there
should be only one nen-go, or year period, for
each reign, the new era being named Meiji, or
Enlightened Rule. It is a pity that the Japa
nese did not part completely with their old sys
tem, so utterly worthless before A.D. 645, and
so confusing ever since.
Another bold break with tradition ! The Sho-
gunal City of the Bay Door was to become a
Kyo, or capital. To prepare the minds of the
people for the change, it was declared that there
should be two capitals, eastern and western,
Kyoto was to be called Saikyo, or the Western
Capital, and Yedo, Tokyo, or the Eastern Cap
ital. When I was in Japan native gentlemen
always spoke of Mutsuhito as the Mikado and
the old city as "Saikyo," and the new capi
tal as "Tokyo." Now the term Saikyo is almost
obsolete. To reach Tokyo, Mutsuhito began an overland
journey of nearly a month, which now, by steam,
on steel rails, occupies a day.
In token of quiet in the north, the Emperor
received back from his general, Arisugawa, the
brocade banner and the sword of justice. Yet
though "all was peace Within the Four Seas" on

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 147
land, there was war on the water. On October 4
the eight vessels of the old Yedo Government,
with about 3,000 men, sailors, soldiers and former
retainers of Tokugawa, under the head of Ad
miral Enomoto, who had been educated in Hol
land, left Yedo Bay and went north, declaring
their purpose to colonize and develop the archi
pelago called the Hokkaido, or Northern Sea
Gate. Taking possession of several towns in
Yezo, they proclaimed a republic. Following
American precedent and customs, they balloted
for officers. The new born state, saluted by the
guns of the Fort Kameda, near Hakodate, was
inaugurated, and "universal suffrage" declared to
be the basis of the Constitution, though only the
Samurai could vote.
This republic, of untimely birth, had not a
thousand years of evolution behind it. Other
plans were made and dreams enjoyed. The new
Jonah's gourd flourished, but on April 21 the
east wind withered all. The Imperial fleet of six
steamers, reinforced by the ex-Confederate iron
clad Stonewall, just arrived from the United
States, started northward. After some fighting,
both on land and sea, the insurgent forces were
defeated. The short lived "Hokkaido Republic"
melted into oblivion, and by the end of the month
of May the war was a thing of the past. Another
republic of the Jonah's gourd pattern, which
sprang up in Formosa, fifteen years later, was

148 THE MIKADO
likewise shrivelled up and withered in oblivion.
Again Mutsuhito's name became a principle of
national unity. Enomoto, Hayashi (later of
London) and Otori, once arrayed against the
Imperial banner, became, when pardoned, among
the ablest and most trusted servants and envoys
of the Emperor.
All talk of "the Tycoon's returning to power"
ceased by the summer of 1869, when the head of
the Empire was dwelling in Yedo and every hos
tile weapon had been grounded. "All was peace
under Heaven." The port of Niigata, on the
west coast, was formally opened to foreign trade,
and on January 6 the envoys of the six treaty
Powers, which had long ago recognized the new
Government, were, with their naval and mihtary
staffs, received in audience by the Emperor. At
home the way of reconcihation was opened wide,
because the Mikado put in practice the principles
of vicarious sacrifice and in an edict bore all
blame. Taking also long views into the perspec-;
tive of history, he shouldered the blameworthiness
of rebellion, because "the sovereign had not ad
ministered the laws during the past seven hundred
years." No one was put to death, and only two
out of the twenty-five rebelhous nobles — mere
figureheads, the real offenders being their retain
ers — were condemned to retire from public life.
Rinnoji no Miya, a pretender by compulsion,
was placed in seclusion in Kyoto.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 149
In the vista of the twentieth century, how vast
the changes! Time has healed the war scars of
Aidzu and the Hokkaido. Of the beaten clans
men, thousands of veterans or their children, are
in the Christian churches, especially in those of
the Greek Catholic communion. Hundreds of
able swordsmen paid off, individually, their scores
with Satsuma in 1877 and 1878, while long since
the names of "rebel," "vassal," "pretender" have
been buried in those of forgiven and now de
votedly loyal subjects of one Emperor, even as
they are the servants of one common country.
The supreme influence in the transformation has
been that of the Man of Peace, Mutsuhito, Em
peror of Divine, Unconquerable Everlasting,
Great Japan.

CHAPTER XVI
THE GOD BECOMES HUMAN
The Government of 1867 had been formed on
the theory of a closer union between the Emperor
and his people, through the medium of three sets
of officers, Kuge, Daimio, and Samurai; or, Court
Nobles, barons and gentlemen. "The people"
did not yet exist in any political sense.
It will be interesting to note what strong men
the young Emperor was able to gather round him,
for the carrying out of his ideas and theirs. The
most active man of the old nobihty and chief
agent at Court of the progressive clansmen was
Iwakura Tomomi. Of immemorial lineage,
sprung from the Minamoto family, alhed in blood
with the Emperor, a consummate master of state
craft, he had never seen an Occidental until fifty-
five years of age. Yet his long experience with
courtiers and the Shogun's officers in Kyoto made
him easily the match of any of the foreign Minis
ters whom he confronted. Made Junior Prime
Minister in the triple Premiership, Iwakura was
the constant adviser of the Emperor and of the
new and younger statesmen. Early in 1869,
under the plea of ill health, so usual among
150

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 151
Japanese men of station, and always accepted
without delay or inquiry, he asked to be reheved
of his offices. His request was only partially
granted, for his purpose was easily read. He
followed the custom of resigning in form in order
to gain more of the substance of power. It was
a "change of the mats, but not of the floor." He
was reappointed, with larger powers.
The new Government had no money and Japan
no actual unity, and the average Japanese no
true patriotism. Asked of what country he was
a native, his instinctive reply was, "Echizen,"
"Tosa" or "Satusma," as the case might be. The
personal sense of nationahty was then very weak.
In such a state of division, a new civil war might
break out any time.
The able men of low rank, who gave direction
to the pubhc opinion of the clans, were now the
real rulers of the nation, and they had foreseen
the dangers ahead. The castle lords were unable
to meet the situation. Only one out of forty of
the Daimios had any special ability to face the
new situation. The leader in thought, if not in
act, among them was Echizen, who, as early as
February, 1869, in a memorial to the Emperor,
proposed a return to the Imperial Government of
his castle, fief, and roster. If a blow was to be
struck to give the reality, as well as the notion of
power, it must be done in the Emperor's name,
and the resolve was made to strike the blow

152 THE MIKADO
quickly. Ito was one of the first to propose the
abolition of feudahsm at one stroke but it was
Kido, the "Pen of the Revolution," who was
chosen to forge, on his inkstone, that thunder bolt,
mightier than the sword, which was to demohsh
feudahsm. These students and men of the new age had es
tablished a newspaper, called the Official Ga
zette. In this, on March 5, appeared a petition,
following in the line of Echizen's proposal, from
the four Daimios of Satsuma, Choshiu, Tosa and
Hizen. It was a document in the modern style, a
new state paper in the new state. Rapidly sur
veying the history of the country, with rhetoric
phenomenally free from Chinese expressions and
precedents, that author argued that everything
in Japan belonged to the Emperor, and that re
sults should instantly follow upon the truth
realized, in accordance with this doctrine. Action
followed on the word, according to the dominant
Oyomei philosophy, and this was the ending:
"We now reverently offer up the list of our pos
sessions and men. Let ... all proceed from the
Emperor ; let all the affairs of the Empire, great
and small, be referred to him."
Centuries of exercise had made sovereign the
rights thus surrendered by the leaders of four
great clans. The lightning struck home, shiver
ing the superstructure of feudalism. So powerful
an example was quickly followed. In forty days

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 153
118 out of the 276 Daimios restored their fiefs to
the Emperor, and soon the total number reached
241. The minority of seventeen was disregarded.
The old castle lords returned landless to their
fiefs, to act temporarily as province-governors.
"Han-chiji" (province-governor) was the title
in signature to the document handed me, March
5, 1871, by the former Daimio, Mochiaki, when
welcoming me to Fukui, as organizer of educa
tion, under the still existing feudahsm, into the
province of Echizen. So far as the writer has
learned, he was the first under the Imperial Char
ter Oath, brought directly from a foreign country
to Japan — the file leader of a mighty army of
Yatoi, or salaried foreign helpers, to be employed
in "relaying the foundations of the Empire."
In execution of his oath the young Emperor
had called a parliament, which opened in Kyoto
on April 18, 1869. About 200 out of the 276
members, all Samurai, were present. It was not
a national assembly, for neither the cities nor the
towns were represented, but only the clans. The
people at large had no voice. Without power,
such an assembly was really nothing more than a
select debating society, from which few practical
results could be or were obtained. Radicals and
reformers, and some of them very able men, there
were, but the general tone of the assembly was
ultra-conservative. The propositions to allow
freedom of conscience, with other liberal meas-

154 THE MIKADO
ures, were voted down. When Arinori Mori,
later Minister at Washington, proposed to abol
ish hara-kiri, and the wearing of two swords, he
was hooted at. Having neither information, nor
intellectual equipment for pohtical business, these
talkers were dismissed, having done nothing. It
was hke the first parliament of the Enghsh com
monwealth in 1655, or of the republican China
in 1913.
When, on April 18, the young Emperor left
Kyoto for the East, the fiery patriots in his old
body guard, numbering about two thousand, im
plored the Son of Heaven not to leave the Sacred
City nor to pollute himself by intercourse with
foreigners. They were in reality earnest protes-
tants against the new theology, which, while out
wardly contravening traditional notions, was in
reality fulfilling the old; for the Mikado was to
become, more than ever, the embodiment of the
national religion and the incarnation of the gods,
or divine ancestors. The revival of Shinto had
made the Throne the center and heart of the
whole nation. When His Majesty persisted
these militant Shintoists, consumed with zeal, fol
lowed him to Yedo.
In the swarm of travellers on the Eastern Sea
Road, some of these fire eaters had insulted for
eigners, rousing the ire of Sir Harry Parkes and
the other envoys. Because the Japanese officers
would not punish the offenders, the diplomatists

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 155
at once promptly refused to transact any more
pubhc business.
The city of Tokyo was crowded with Jo-i, or
alien-haters. Their manifestos, posted on the
Great Bridge of Japan, declared that "Gradually
the detestable barbarian becomes more overbear
ing and the instances of his misconduct are num
erous. Driving about in carriages, etc., he often
inflicts injuries on those walking in the street and
rides on without any concern. . . . When the
foreign savages act in this unlawful manner, cut
them down, and by thus displaying the patriotic
intrepidity of the men of Japan, crush the cour
age of the barbarian."
Too true! In a land where wheeled vehicles
were almost unknown the foreigners, many of
them fresh from China, rode and drove about,
more like Tartars than Christians. On horse
back and in carriages, riding, even galloping,
without bettos (runners), in dangerous violation
of long established Japanese custom, in crowded
thoroughfares, in which street and sidewalk were
one, these rough riders often hurt people who
were unused to rapidly moving wheeled vehicles.
Nor were all the first comers to Japan the most
gentle in the world. The common people's term
for most of them, sailors, was dammurizehito
(D — n your eyes man) .
Yet despite internal reaction and weakness,
and discouragement from their guests, farseeing

156 THE MIKADO.
men hke Iwakura, Okubo, Echizen and Date
were firm in their policy of friendship to strang
ers. The age of the hermit was over. True na
tionalism meant internationalism.
It was the beginning of the end of "a nation
within a nation," when, on May 25, 1869, the
order, rank or caste of the Samurai was abol
ished. The Emperor issued his decree, assimi
lating the civil and mihtary classes, placing them
on a footing of equality. The populace was di
vided into three grades, nobles, gentry, and com
mons. "Kuge and buke," landless Court Noble
and landed lord, were made one under the general
name of Kuazoku, or noble family.
The Samurai was to be lost in the mass, for all
the people were now servants of the Mikado.
Thus Mutsuhito abolished the division and
closed the fissure that for a thousand years had
split Japan into two nations. The Samurai (the
word means simply servant of the Mikado), or
gentry, including all feudal beneficiaries from
daimio to poor ronin, who had formed a nation
within a nation, were now the gentry and named
shizoku, and the common people heimin. The
Japan of the books, the Samurai's Japan, was
passing away. The new Japan of the people was
coming in.
The Imperial Government, by edict, reserved
to itself the appointment of all offices hitherto
held under the late Daimios or Castle Lords.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 157
From this time forward all the han, or prefectures,
were administered on a uniform plan throughout
the Empire. One-tenth of the revenue raised was
set apart as the governor's salary. The remain
der, after defraying public expenses, was to go
into the Imperial treasury. The term han means
literally "wall" and the term was chosen to signify
that his prefectures were the bulwarks of the
Throne. The way being now open, that provision of
the "Charter Oath" was carried out. The men
of Echizen led the procession of Macedonians,
who beckoned across the water to men of special
ability and cried "Come over and help us."
Through Verbeck, their friend, whom they had
summoned to Tokyo to be their factotum, and to
organize a national system of education, they
asked for a teacher of Enghsh (Mr. Alfred
Lucy) ; a physician (who never came) ; a mili
tary instructor (Captain Frank Brinkley,* ap
pointed to Fukui, but retained by the Imperial
Government) ; a geologist and miner (who never
arrived) ; and a teacher of science and superin
tendent of education. The latter was the writer,
who reached Yokohama December 29, 1870, and
spent seven weeks in Tokyo, before proceeding
into the interior, where he arrived at Fukui,
March 4, 1871, to witness, until October 1, 1871,
* Author of "The Oriental Series" and editor of the Japan Mail
until his decease in 1913.

158 THE MIKADO
life under the feudal system, then a thousand
years old, and to remain until January 27, 1872.
The early abolition of feudalism was the chief
reason why the writer had (excepting Mr. Lucy,
for a short time) no colleagues in Fukui. Never
theless in the day when foreigner-hating ronin,
or wouldbe assassins, were so numerous, and no
life insurance company, except at a heavy pre
mium, would accept the risk of insuring an Amer
ican life when spent in Japan, other reasons had
weight to deter. Except as a lure to danger,
Nippon had then few attractions to a young man
well settled at home.
The young Emperor could not see the actual
rulers, with whom he had made treaties, but their
sons and kinsmen were travellers abroad and
Japan would be visited. To these, facing the
inevitable, the Mikado was prepared to give au
dience. How to do it, and not be defiled, was a
sore problem to the Shinto casuists and ultra-
orthodox theologians, to whom His Majesty was,
literally, the Son of Heaven. Ordinarily, to
cleanse, from his own pollution, a mortal being
admitted to the presence of the Mikado, as head
of the Shinto religion, the gohSi, or spirit-pres
ence-wand, was waved or flourished over the
person, or he was rubbed with this holy emblem
to purify him of ritual uncleanness. This was
the substitute for a "live coal from off the altar,"
to purge the unclean lips.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 159
It would never do, however, to attempt visibly
and openly any ceremony of lustration upon a
royal guest, nor would a Christian prince or gen
tleman submit to it. By an inglorious comprom
ise host and guest saved their credit.
His Majesty's first visitor was the Duke of
Edinburgh, who arrived on August 19, 1869, and
next day was given residence at the Strand Pal
ace overlooking Yedo Bay. At a convenient dis
tance from the hall of audience, rites with wands
of gohei and other Shinto appliances were per
formed by the white robed and black capped
priests, in order to exorcise any evil spirits or
influences which might have accompanied repre
sentatives from such outlandish countries as
England and Scotland, which orthodox Shinto
commentators taught had been made from the
sea foam and mud left over after the creation of
the Heavenly Country, Japan, by the ancestors
of the Mikado.
Mutsuhito invited the Duke to a private inter
view at the Waterfall Pavilion, in the Palace
grounds. Attended by five or six of his nobles
and the Prime Minister, His Majesty arose, as
the British Prince entered, and bowing, begged
his guest, who was accompanied by Sir Henry
Parkes and Admiral Keppel, to be seated. Mr.
Mitf ord, the accomplished translator and author,
whose "Tales of Old Japan" have become classic,
acted as interpreter, and Sir Charles Beresford

160 THE MIKADO
was one of the naval officers present. The two
most illustrious persons sat down, but the others
remained standing. Conversation followed, the
Duke presenting the Emperor with a diamond
mounted snuff box as a souvenir. This lovely
space, Hama Goten, later the En Rio Kuan, was
set apart permanently for the entertainment of
distinguished foreigners. At the British Lega
tion the ball given on the return of the Duke to
Yokohama was attended by high Japanese offi
cers, among whom was a prince of Imperial blood.
Sir Henry Parkes, the British Minister, who
had lived in China from boyhood, on coming to
Japan in June, 1865, discovered for himself the
real relation of Mikado and Shogun, risking his
life to do it. He had been the efficient agent in
helping the Japanese to put a sound financial
basis under the new regime, for it was through
his influence that the British banks made a loan of
money. During a career in Japan of eighteen
years, Sir Henry was the steadfast friend of the
Mikado's Government, and no native reactionary
assassin, though three attempts on Parkes's hfe
were made, was able to kill this indomitable Chris
tian and friend of Japan.
On May 18, 1871, Parkes had audience of leave
before the Emperor. As a mark of special es
teem the Emperor invited Sir Henry to a private
audience, and asked his British friend to express
his own opinions freely. The Englishman urged

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 161
the Emperor to put full trust in his Yatoi, or for
eign employees, and to give freedom of movement
to ahens living on the soil. He told the Emperor
that the Japanese would never be recognized as
a civilized people while they persecuted Chris
tians or denied freedom of conscience to any.
Years have passed, and now the country is
open and free to all law abiding people, and free
dom of conscience is guaranteed in the Constitu
tion of a nation which is slowly but surely
becoming Christian.
In later years, after the Anglo-Japanese al
liance, Mr. Mitford, now Lord Kedleston,
brought to Mutsuhito the insignia of the Order
of the Garter, and added another charming book
to English literature; while in Windsor Castle
chapel, among the historic flags of the order, one
notes the pendent and resplendent gold brocade
sun banner of the Mikado and Eternal Japan.
The like dignity of knighthood, in the oldest of
European orders of chivalry, with star, collar,
and mantle, was conferred upon Yoshihito, the
present Emperor, by Prince Arthur of Con-
naught, in the Phoenix Hall, September 18,
1912, on the fiftieth day of the new era of Taisho,
or the Resplendence of Righteousness.
This progressive and friendly policy of the
Government of 1867, so far from being univer
sally welcomed at home, meant the setting up of
an altar for the immolation of fresh victims. The

162 THE MIKADO
roll of martyrs, already long, was lengthened.
General Omura, victor of Uyeno, had introduced,
besides the military discipline of the West, many
foreign customs. Sent to Kyoto, with some of
the fanatics that had come from that city, Omura
was killed on October 8 in the same city by these
same murderous wretches, one of Whom lost his
head in the fight which ensued. On the assassin's
person was a document declaring that Omura was
slain because he had arbitrarily introduced the
customs of the barbarian. To-day, in a lofty
bronze column in Tokyo, the statue of Omura
stands in the sunshine and his name is honored as
the military reformer who led in the change from
the medieval arms and tactics to the modern
forms. Secretary William H. Seward's purchase of
Alaska brought the frontier of the United States
within seven hundred miles of Dai Nippon. As
Secretary of State in Washington Mr. Seward
had negotiated with the first Japanese embassy
sent to America. A sincere friend of the rising
nation, he had frankly denounced, as barbarous
and uncivilized, the persecution of Christians in
Japan. When in Yokohama, as a tourist round
the world, Mr. Seward received a special invita
tion of the Mikado to come to Tokyo, to be re
ceived "not in the customary official manner, but
in a private audience, as an expression of personal
respect and friendship."

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 163
The interview is described in Miss Seward's
volume. Frank communication was solicited
from the visitor. Minister Sawa, who soon after
ward fell under the assassin's sword, told Mr.
Seward that "in dealing with the vanquished
Tycoon's party" the Government "had copied the
example of toleration given them by the United
States." Lincoln was resting from his labors, but
his works followed.
The Court officers inquired in detail concerning
the American method of taking the decennial
census and the collection and disbursement of the
pubhc revenues. Not long after, the Imperial
Government imported a financial expert from
Washington, General Williams, and replenished
the national coffers by putting in operation a
modified form of the internal revenue system of
the United States. Instead of borrowing money
at ten and twelve per cent, loans were floated
at seven per cent, through General Williams's
representations abroad of Japan's stability.
The Emperor quickly realized that a new world
of ideas and time values had come. An atmos
phere electric with the quickened pulses of bustle
and activity filled the Government offices. On
October 2, 1869, two Austrian ships of war with
treaty envoys arrived at Yokohama. The Kai
ser's representatives had audience of the Mikado
on the sixteenth, and on the eighteenth negotia
tions were finished and the documents signed. In

164 THE MIKADO
old days, months were wasted before results were
visible. Baron de Hiibner, Austrian Minister to the
France of Louis Napoleon, from 1849 to 1859,
and author of that charming book "A Ramble
Round the World," enjoyed an interview with
the Mikado on September 16, and reports thus
his impression of his Imperial host :
"The features of Mutsuhito bear the character
of the Japanese race: his nose is large and flat
tened; his complexion is sallow; but his eyes are
sharp and brilliant, in spite of the immobility
which etiquette prescribes. I had often met faces
like his in the streets of Yedo. His costume was
as simple as possible— a dark blue tunic, almost
slate color, and wide scarlet trousers. His hair
was done in native fashion ; but he wore a colossal
aigrette, made of bamboo and horse hair, which,
fixed behind the right ear, rose vertically at the
least movement. This is the insignia of supreme
rank. Neither the Mikado nor any of his Min
isters wears jewels. Except at the moment of
speaking, His Majesty held himself as immov
able as a statue."
The photographs of the emergent Imperial
hermit of Kyoto, as he looked in 1871, show that
the young Emperor was unmistakably nervous
before his first facing of the camera. In spite of
Imperial hauteur he appeared either frightened,
or defiant, at the camera. Vulgar superstition

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 165
imagined that every time a photograph was taken
a portion of the soul went into the image
produced. It may please Americans to know that the first
foreigner to be grasped by the hand in hearty
friendship by Mutsuhito was General Ulysses S.
Grant. Toward him the Emperor of Japan
showed a special friendship, because, even more
than a soldier who hated militarism, this leader of
men had shown himself a peace lover and pro
moter of concord. The two men met as peace
makers, rather than as commanders-in-chief.
Mutsuhito adopted Grant's suggestion that the
then burning question of the Riu Kiu (Loo
Choo) Islands should be settled by a Joint High
Commission, after the example of the United
States and Great Britain. Commissioners were
appointed, held their sessions and concluded, as
they supposed, their labors, on October 21, 1880.
Then the whole procedure was turned into a farce
by the Chinese Government's taking the matter
out of the hands of the "plenipotentiaries" and
putting it into those of its Superintendents of
Trade! This piece of Manchu perfidy gave the first
serious impetus to the war with China which broke
out in 1904.

CHAPTER XVII
MUTSUHITO UNIFIES THE NATION
The Mikado's policy of leniency toward all the
disaffected was grandly successful. Not only
were the old clan leaders, once hostile to the new
form of government, received back into Imperial
favor, but the brilliant abilities and great talents
of many of them were utihzed, with vast national
benefits. Many were appointed to high office.
Although the Emperor was married and was
supposed to have absolute power, yet upon its
full exercise, in 1869, wisdom placed limits, as
the Constitution did twenty years later. When
he was about to leave Kyoto with his bride for
Yedo, the old conservatives, who had held to the
dogmatic theology of Shinto, alarmed at the
"down grade" of things and dogmas holy, made
opposition to the Empress's going with him.
Their militant demonstration of orthodoxy was
so great that a compromise had to be made.
Haruko, the Imperial bride, was left behind and
the Mikado started alone.
For six months she remained in her native city,
and then, on November 8, started for her future
home, to dwell with her husband in the Far East.
166

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 167
Again the fanatics, ostentatious in their phari-
seeism, made some attempt to restrain her from
leaving Kyoto, but, as with Rebecca, her word
was "Hinder me not." They failed to change her
purpose and after an overland journey of nine
teen days she rejoiced her Imperial consort.
We may now glance at the religious import of
the Restoration.
The apparent weakness of the average Japa
nese in the personal matter of religion has been
often illustrated in the history of his country.
The apparent ease with which he changes from
one cult to another, while seeming to prove that
his faith sits hghtly upon the conscience, may
rather reveal the tenacity of his belief in Shinto
and his adherence to ancestor worship. In the
unchanging reality underneath the varied phe
nomena the alien may be deceived.
In the province of Mito, even before 1850, it
had been seriously proposed to abolish Buddhism,
its temple bells being utilized for the casting of
cannon. In Satsuma this abolition had actually
been accomplished, the Buddhist temples being
closed or turned into schools. The people of the
Empire who were now, by Imperial proclama
tion, ordered to return to Shinto, the rehgion of
their prehistoric fathers, did, many of them, obey
as quickly as in the sixteenth century they became
Roman Catholic by order of their feudal lords.

168 THE MIKADO
The actual results showed that even the power of
Mikadoism had limits.
In other words, what had thus been done
locally was, in 1870, attempted on a national
scale, and — failed.
We repeat : Mikadoism had a new outburst of
zeal, backed by the Government, when an edict
was issued ordering the people to return to a
behef in Shinto. Official zealots expected com
plete conformity. In all those temples in which
Buddhism and Shinto had been, for a thousand
years, more or less, linked together, in the form
called Riobu (mixed, or double), especially those
which had originally been dedicated to the Shinto
divinities, a general separation or "purification"
was ordered. This decree, so far as related to
architecture, was carried out with thoroughness.
Some of the most splendid edifices in the Empire
and hundreds of the smaller shrines were stripped
of their images, furnishings and decorations.
Everything in them that could suggest the
dogma, ritual, or symbols imported from India
disappeared. Some of the radical reformers even
hoped that the whole nation would be thus
brought into the Shinto fold. Buddhism was dis
established and much of its land confiscated. It
was Verbeck who let the Japanese into the secret
of lay trustees of ecclesiastical property.
Nevertheless, as a system Buddhism was not
seriously injured. Its roots were too deep. Speak-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 169
ing generally, the movement for the establish
ment of a purified and national Shinto was,
externally at least, a failure. The "Revival"
seemed to be mainly literary, for Shinto, as a true
religion, is but a shadow. The course of deca
dence may be traced in the steps taken with re
gard to the Government establishment. At first
it was a council, Jin Gi Kuan ( Council of Gods
and Men), outranking even the Dai Jo Kuan or
Great Government Council. Thence descending,
it became a subordinate department. Later it
degenerated into a mere bureau, which was abol
ished after a few years. Finally the whole sys
tem was so far secularized, in 1900, as to be what
it is now, little more than a patriotic cult.
Internally, however, Shinto took a new life.
In the presence of foreign aggressions, credal,
economic and political, this body of sentiments
and traditions helped to make a new nation take
the place of local fractions. Indeed, it was rather
a smart piece of statecraft to declare officially that
Shinto was not a "religion" but a political bond
of national unity. This has enabled the Govern
ment virtually to coerce, in a measure, the con
sciences of Christians in Japan and Korea. The
Constitution grants the equality of religions, but
the minions of the bureaucracy are sometimes
able, as in Korea, in 1912, to make the funda
mental law of the land a dead letter.
Meanwhile the double problem pressed, how

170 THE MIKADO
to win back Satsuma and to create an army that
should be national. The military question
threatened comphcations. The example of the
United States in maintaining so small a standing
army exerted a powerful fascination over the
minds of men who saw that Japan was a very
poor country and needed first of all to develop
her resources. Okubo, almost the overmastering
intellect in the Cabinet, favored the American
precedent. He would have the Government build
a railway from one end of Japan to the other, in
order to destroy sectionalism, even though for
generations the enterprise paid no dividends.
Outlay in money would be justified in returns of
nationalization. Others urged that an army
sufficiently large to keep internal order would
suffice, while the bulk of the new national revenue
should be spent on pubhc education, as the cheap
defence of the nation, and on harbors, dykes,
roads and modern appliances. Some insisted on
the need of arming for defence against predatory
nations and the arrogant claims of China and
Russia. After long and serious debate among
themselves several members of the Cabinet met,
in the autumn of 1870, at the house of Dr. Guido
F. Verbeck, head of the University. Stating both
sides of the case, they appealed to him for
judgment. In substance, this was Verbeck's reply, as he
himself told me, in January, 1871 :

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 171
"Gentlemen, your opinions are in harmony
with those of the best men in every civilized coun
try. But while peace is the dream of philoso
phers and the hope of the Christian, war is the
history of mankind. Considering what the atti
tude of European Governments toward Asiatic
nations is, I advise you to fortify your coasts.
You know what Great Britain has done in India,
and France in Annam and Tonquin. Germany,
having humbled France, will soon be looking for
possessions in this part of the world, and may
get Formosa. Russia has been for centuries
steadily moving eastward, she already occupies
half of Saghalien, and in 1861 tried to seize
Tsushima. You see the dangers. They are real.
Now, gentlemen, I advise you, besides fortifying
your coasts, to create a truly national army. Ed
ucate the young men while you train them, and
make promotion open to all. This will secure
exactly what you are seeking. It will destroy
sectionalism and excess of class conceit, and will
fill the people in every part of the country with
a proper pride in the welfare of the whole nation
and an earnest zeal for His Majesty's honor."
Verbeck's dictum was an immediate and power
ful element in creating Japan's national army.
The mainspring in the next line of action by the
Imperial Cabinet was the American's advice.
Within a few weeks after the conclave in Ver
beck's house steps were taken to form a national

172 THE MIKADO
army, on exactly the plan proposed by the peace
loving but wise missionary. Conscription, which
levelled all privilege and class distinctions, has
been proved to be one of the powerful engines in
democratizing Japan, even as the aristocratic
lord of Satsuma saw and vigorously protested
against. While levelling down, it has also levelled
up, for the sons of the once social outcasts have
won glory as heroes.
In its treatment of the native Christians the
new Government was at first a "frog in a well."
It acted with Russianhke arbitrariness and a ram-
pancy of barbarism, to which the full freedom
granted in 1889 was the later recoil. Against the
united protest of the Ministers of foreign Powers
the authorities in Tokyo had a ready excuse. The
question of native rehgion in any form was one
entirely of domestic pohcy. There was a strong
party in the country which, with distorted preju
dices, inherited through two centuries or more,
abhorred what they imagined to be Christianity.
Moreover, the new Government, but lately estab
lished and still far from all powerful, could not
run counter to the general opinion.
Mikadoism was at the root of this judgment
and manifesto. The Japanese Ministers knew
only too well that respect and even superstitious
awe for the Emperor was the foundation of their
polity, nor did they seem then to know that the
rising tide of nationalism was not wholly the re-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 173
suit of the forces in Mikadoism, great as these
were. They honestly beheved, so in the dark
were they, that the presence of native Christian
ity endangered their very existence as a Govern
ment, just as in Korea it has been fancied that
American missionary zeal is dangerous not only
to despotism but to good government. Like that
of many theologians and politicians, their nar-
rowminded logic in both cases was faulty in the
extreme. Nevertheless, let it be remembered that in the
eye of the old law and its traditional enforce
ment, Protestants and Greek Catholics were not
"Kiristans," or followers of the padres or friars,
nor had the Dutchmen on the island of Deshima
ever been so considered, inasmuch as they used
no symbols and had no connection with the In
quisition, or propagation of opinion and cult by
violent means. Happily, as we shall see, the
Emperor "hated" his fathers and with personal
pleasure granted freedom of conscience.
For two generations, however, it has been a
serious problem in Japan how, in the face of
popular notions and family traditions, to be a
patriotic subject of the Emperor, while also liv
ing as a Christian; or, in other words, how to
adjust the relations of individual rights with
communal claims. How to reverence the Mi
kado according to old time pagan notions and
yet to give unqualified loyalty to Jesus, his spir-

174 THE MIKADO
itual Master, is even yet a vital problem to many
a native Christian.
So long as the Throne of Nippon is based on
mythology, and so long as things spiritual and
temporal are mixed up in Japanese as in Rus
sian pohtics, there is constant danger from the
Government of violation of the Constitution,
despite the strong language of this fundamental
law, in favor of freedom of conscience. To say
nothing of China, for ages a church nation, and
now officially in favor of Confucianism, this poli
tical dogma lay at the root of the troubles in
Korea in 1912. In one sense the Constitution,
which grants the rights of the individual in a
communal civilization, is an anachronism, being
in spirit and letter so far in advance of the tissue
of reality. The same difficulties are seen in the
Chinese republic of 1912. When abused, the
doctrines of Mikadoism have cramped the view
and narrowed the intellect of the Japanese, both
as individuals and as a nation.
When, however, ideas are properly differen
tiated, there ceases to be any difficulty. As soon
as Japan drops her ancestor worship and every
pretense of state churchism, all suspicion as to
the genuineness of her reforms, or doubt as to
Japan's continuing in the path of real progress
will pass away.
Thus, in Dai Nippon, war has been steadily
waged between reactionary chauvinism and ever

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 175
advancing intelligence and patriotism. At times,
even with the twentieth century, it has seemed
as though even the Department of Education
would be seized and held by the owls and the
bats, that fanatical officials were enslaving the
intellect of the masses, and that Japan would
revert to the darkness of past ages. Gradually,
however, enlightenment and truth have won their
way and now, in the Constitution, religious
liberty, if native Christians are loyal, vigilant
and courageous, is set upon an immovable
foundation. In the light of this historic episode which has
taken place under our eyes, one may well ask
whether the words of a certain American critic,*
superb in his own field of art and architecture,
written in 1905, are worth anything if taken to
represent more than their literal expression.
Does he truly gauge the power of Japan's
Emperor to play the part of Canute, except to
repeat history's anecdote of failure? Can the
chick get back into the shell? The architectural
critic says:
"A word from the right source, the one super
ior source, the Mikado, would send the whole
ridiculous card house of Western art and West
ern manners crumbling into instantaneous
collapse."
* "Impressions of Japanese Architecture." Ralph Adams Cram.

176 THE MIKADO
Has the Mikado any such power? Mutsu
hito, "the very incarnation of the spirit of
Japan," is dead, and in February, 1914, an out
burst of militant democracy in Tokyo overthrew
the Ministry.
However, in the matter of seeming not to yield
to foreign dictation the Japanese, perhaps even
more than the Chinese, but with more serious
ness, like to save the "face" of a thing. He most
easily wins and leads them, who makes the
leader's will and purpose seem their own. This
was the secret of the amazing influence of Ver-
beck of Japan, who never asked a personal favor,
and who so presented his views as to make his
pupils believe that these were of their own initia
tive. What he diffused as gentle showers on the
mountain tops came back as ocean floods. The
Japanese thought they were entirely original,
real creators of ideas, when they were, in reality,
mere absorbents and docile pupils. Neverthe
less, their true genius showed itself in applica
tions. Unconsciously borrowed ideas shamed the
originals. "Adopt, adapt, adept," is a process
particularly and most creditably Japanese, fit
ting their country to be the middle term between
the Orient and the Occident.

CHAPTER XVIII
TRIALS OF THE YOUNG EMPEROR
Young as Mutsuhito was, he was early called
upon almost continually for active service as
ruler. After adult manhood he became one of
the most industrious of sovereigns, following a
daily routine of duties. It was this severe activ
ity that early qualified him to know men, to read
their motives, and to gauge quickly their value
and capacities. Mutsuhito, with Sanjo and
Iwakura, formed the Supreme Council, which
discussed the affairs of state. When matters of
great importance came up, all the Ministers were
called in, the whole body forming the Dai Jo
Kuan, or Supreme Council of the Government,
in which sat three prominent men of Hizen, two
from Choshiu, one from Tosa and one from
Satsuma. The powerful Satsuma clansmen, believing
themselves to have been the principal agents in
bringing about the Restoration, felt that they
were not properly rewarded or honored in the
distribution of offices. After ten years strain,
amid the toils of camp and field, and their once
insolent victors humbled, was this shght notice of
177

178 THE MIKADO
their exertions to be their only guerdon i More
over, results had not been what they expected.
Satsuma was not supreme, and Japan, especially
Tokyo, was too highly flavored with things for
eign. In fact, the Satsuma Unionists came into
collision with the Imperialists who were now in
the Cabinet. In a fit of hot jealousy they left
Tokyo and embarked, in July, 1870, on their
steamers, and returned home in the far South to
brood over their discontent.
The Emperor had taken the first steps in re
nunciation of his old secluded life, and entered
gladly upon the career which modern conditions
required. The former mode of existence in her
mitage was founded on the theory that he was a
god. The nation's new life was expanding on the
idea that he was a man. Such pubhc appear
ances could, in 1870, be made without danger,
whereas only two years before they would have
met with violent protest and even outbreak.
On May 7, 1870, the Mikado appeared uncur
tained in public in the new capital. Tens of
thousands of his subjects were only too happy
to look upon the face of their august ruler, who
rode through the streets of Tokyo to the plain of
Komaba, to review his soldiers, cavalry, infantry
and artillery, not yet a true national army, but
only a body of clansmen, loyal to their Mikado.
The Emperor himself seemed to enjoy being out
doors and looking upon his own people. On

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 179
October 3, despite unpleasant weather, he rode
out again in the same public way, to review his
troops. The same impulse toward progress was felt by
the members of the Imperial House. Two
princes of the blood left the shores of Japan,
one for England, the other for the United States,
the latter travelling under the assumed name
Adzuma. This was a compliment to the new part
of the Empire, in which the Mikado had come to
live, being the poetical designation of the
Kuanto, or Broad East of Japan, in which
Tokyo is situated.
I had, in 1870, the pleasure of meeting and of
entertaining this young gentleman several times
in both New York and Philadelphia. It amused
me to find that in most cases the Americans at
first took Barnabas for Paul, not knowing which
was Jupiter and which was Mercury. The in
terpreter, Mr. Yagimoto, from Fukui, was
thought to be the nobleman. This was probably
not only on account of his polished foreign man
ners and of his ability to speak English very well,
but because he was decidedly handsomer than his
august master.
The problem of sulking Satsuma was solved in
a way exclusively that of Old Japan, by the Em
peror's sending two high noblemen with Okubo,
down to Kagoshima, the provincial metropolis.
Here Nariaki, the uncle of the ex-Daimio and

180 THE MIKADO
brother of the famous Shimadzu Saburo, had lived
and died. Then, canonized or deified, he joined
the interminable list of Japanese "gods," who
once were men. His shrine was magnetic to pil
grims from near and far. Ostensibly Mutsu
hito sent his envoys to present a sword at this
shrine and "to take an oath to the 'god' to exalt
the destinies of the State." Thus would the spirit
of this stalwart son of Nippon be soothed. In
addition to this form of spiritualism, His Ma
jesty also called upon the living Shimadzu to
come to the aid of his sovereign and country.
The written reply of Shimadzu, stuffed with
Chinese rhetoric, was characteristic of the now
vanished old school of ethics and epistolary writ
ing. He "cannot restrain tears of joy at such a
signal mark of Imperial favor." He privately
thinks that "the duty of a great subject to his
prince is one and simple; namely, fidelity alone.
To forget himself for the sake of his country is
the highest hmit he can reach." He quotes
Mencius, though not according to verbal inspira
tion. He depends upon His Majesty's super
natural virtue, and prays that "the heavenly
heart may be pure and transparent."
The chief problem confronting the new Gov
ernment in Tokyo was its need of cash. Without
one national soldier, it possessed only moral
power, for the revolution had been carried
through because of the great reverence which the

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 181
Mikado's name inspired. The physical force,
furnishing fuel for this motor came principally
from Satsuma, Choshiu, Tosa, and Echizen. Yet
if Satsuma should now refuse to cooperate, the
new Government's danger would be greatly in
creased. The work of the two envoys, sent south
ward and reinforced by Kido, was to persuade
the great clans to hand over to the direct control
of the sovereign large quotas of their own troops
and thus begin an Imperial and national army.
Satsuma was to furnish four battahons of in
fantry and four of artillery, Choshiu three
battahons of infantry, and Tosa two battalions,
each of infantry and artillery, and two squadrons
of cavalry. Other clans were to supply soldiery
in the same manner. This was done in due course,
and April 2, 1871, may be named as the date of
the beginning of the modern military establish
ment of Japan.
I remember the joyful day at Fukui when
word came into the far interior, that the path
way of "glory and virtue" was open to the youth
of all classes, by entering the army. It was like
conferring a patent of nobility upon a peasant,
to allow him to bear arms. After seeing many
contingents of the old clan army, I was present
by invitation at the review" of the first regiment
raised in Fukui. The young men, nondescript
as to clothes but uniform as to arms and equip
ment, marched with faces flushed with a new en-

182 THE MIKADO
thusiasm. The old abysmal distinctions were
forgotten, for Samurai and commoner, in the
ranks, were one in hope and patriotism. The
spirit of the knights had descended into the whole
nation, making the invincible hosts that were to
humble proud China and arbitrary Russia.
This preliminary work was done none too soon.
Besides uprisings of peasants, on account of the
injustice of local officials, there was one more
attempt, in 1871, to set up a rival Mikado and
reinstate the old order of things. It illustrated
the old proverb, "Diamond cut diamond," but
everything was planned on the time honored
method, which was, first of all, to get possession
of the person of some one of the princes of the
Imperial blood. With a Son of Heaven in their
grip the usurpers could give the color of sanc
tity and law to their proceedings done in his
name. At Kyoto the prince, Rinnoji No Miya,
was living quietly. He had already, in 1868,
been set up as a pretender to the Throne, by the
rebels at Uyeno, in Tokyo.
For several months plots were hatching. Dis
affected men of many clans gathered together,
expecting to march through Kiushiu, seize the
castle at Kumamoto, and then go to Kyoto and
proclaim the Miya. They made a cat's paw of
the peasantry in Bungo, by promising them to
remit the land tax. These ignorant people, led
on by the reckless two sworded men, rose on

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 183
January 8, 1871, against the magistrates, and set
the Government buildings on fire. When, how
ever, the Imperial troops, sent by steamer from
Nagasaki, quickly reached the scene of disorder,
the armed rebels scattered and fled, leaving the
poor country folk to their fate. Ignorance, first
led and then deserted by craft, was left in
sorrow. Other troubles in the prlovince of Shinshiu
were quickly settled in like manner. The loyal
troops, armed and disciplined in modern form,
with the resources of steam and electricity,
moved with what seemed miraculous speed.
Valor on wings availed against valor leaden
footed. Intelligent patriotism overcame ignor
ant fanaticism.
In other directions Mutsuhito was making
progress. Private law in the Empire was codi
fied. On January 13, 1871, two Englishmen in
Tokyo were attacked by three two sworded men
and wounded very severely. With Verbeck, I
had the pleasure of helping to nurse them back to
health. With the utmost promptness, the three
assailants were caught and their confessions ex
torted from them before their punishment was
decreed. What surprised and pleased the Brit
ish Minister was the production of a new criminal
code, two out of five volumes being then ready.
According to its provisions two of the guilty
ruffians were strangled and one sentenced to ten

184 THE MIKADO
years of hard labor, all three being degraded
from the rank of Samurai. Pubhc proclama
tions were also made that such an act of assault
"not only involves the credit of the Government
but is a disgrace to the community."
In this affair the Mikado's sincerity and desire
to keep his word of honor with his alien guests
were strikingly demonstrated. One of the assail
ants was a Satsuma man, from whose clan great
pressure was brought to bear upon the Govern
ment to save him from dishonor and punishment.
The innovation of putting gentlemanly scoun
drels and murderers to death on the common exe
cution ground, where vulgar felons were beheaded,
soon made assassination unpopular. It was seen
that the Government was determined to go still
further, even as late as 1901. Instead of this
conceited assassin's being allowed even the priv
ilege of a form of death which the vulgar would
deem martyrdom, the anarchist, in this case a
true product of decadent Chinese philosophy,
was condemned to hard labor for hfe among
common jail birds. Such drastic medicine was
effective. In May another great conspiracy, headed by
two young nobles, was discovered. Part of the
plot was to burn Tokyo, carry back the Emperor
to Kyoto, and change the whole system of gov
ernment. Amid such plots Mutsuhito grew in
fearlessness and intellectual stature.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 185
Japan had as yet no national standard coinage
and currency. Coins were flat, round, oval, per
forated and nondescript. Over eleven hundred
varieties of the local paper issues of the Daimios
were known, and the financial sorrows of Japan
were great. The Emperor sent Ito, later Pre
mier and Prince, and perhaps the best known
Japanese statesman of the nineteenth century,*
to the United States, to study the mechanism of
money. While in Washington, D. C, Ito read
"The Federalist," "finding it," as he said, "as
interesting as a novel." He was confirmed in
his ideas of centralization in government, and in
time graduated from Hamiltonism to become a
Bismarckian. The result of his report was the
adoption of the decimal system of round and
milled coinage, and of national banks modelled
on those of the United States of America. On
April 4, 1871, the new national mint at Osaka,
built under British superintendence, a superb
enterprise and a splendidly equipped institution,
was opened with great solemnity. The new coin
age, of gold, silver and copper, speedily became
popular. The issue of this honest money, as well as of
the new postage stamps, which came later,
brought up an interesting problem. What sym
bolism and devices should be used? The answer
* See "The Statesmanship of Ito" in the North American Re
view, January, 1909.

186 THE MIKADO
touched even theology and revealed Asiatic no
tions. In Europe coins, being epitomes of chron
ology, sentiment and portraiture, form a large
port of the assets of true history. In Chinese
Asia, where the idea of personality has always
been very low, individuality next to nothing
and history little more than bare annals, the offi
cial stamp is often more than the coin itself. The
money of old Japan, whether metal or paper, was
decorated with symbols, figures and characters,
but never with portraits of a living ruler. Not
even yet does the face of the Mikado appear on
the national stamps or coins, although photo
graphs of the Imperial family are in circulation.
Mutsuhito guided the ship of state between
the radicals, who would plunge headlong into
modern civilization and adopt everything for
eign at once, and the conservatives, who would
make changes only under compulsion and with
dangerous slowness. The fever of exodus rose
to a climax. Hundreds of young Japanese,
many of them of high rank, and almost all of the
gentry class, went abroad to travel or study. On
coming back, after rushing over continents, or
while puffed up with undigested knowledge,
gained in ridicuously short courses of study,
they were eager to make Japan a new France,
a new Germany, a minature copy of the British
Empire, or a model, on a small scale, of the

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 187
United States, according as they had lived in one
or the other of these countries.
In the qualities of self esteem and profound
conceit the natives of Nippon, despite their polite
self depreciation, have never been lacking. Their
isolation bred a particularly strong type of the
element of pride. Novices in travel often secured
office on the strength of having been abroad.
Some of the hardest problems of the Govern
ment arose in dealing with these half educated
men. The older men of experience were more
and more trusted, so that most of the real ques
tions of government in the Meiji era have been
settled by a very few men, "the Elders," or the
"Elder Statesmen," whose power of influence is
unspent even in 1915.

CHAPTER XIX
FEUDALISM SWEPT AWAY
The men who made the new Government felt
that in the institution and the person of the Mi
kado they had power by which, rightly utihzed,
they could reconstruct the nation on foundations
older even than feudalism, despite its seven cen
turies of existence.
While Tokyo was filling up with the ex-Dai-
mios and their retainers, a newspaper was started
with the idea of ripening pubhc sentiment for
the next great stroke of policy, which was to kill
the feudal system and bury it beyond hope of
resurrection. The first number of this News
Budget appeared in June, 1871. Among many
other things, it contained a memorial from the
governor (ex-Daimio) of Higo, who after a long
discussion, petitioned that he and his whole clan
might return to the agricultural condition.
A Samurai might choose farming, but not
trade. The Zeze clansmen led off in noble ex
ample. They said, we agree "to resign our he
reditary pay, to enter the agricultural class, to
exert our energies in the cultivation of the
ground," and thus "be of some, however insig
nificant, use to the State." 188

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 189
Feudalism was now attacked in a war of pam
phlets. Centralization of all the resources of
Japan, in order to secure national independence,
was the main idea in view. An Imperial army,
and uniformity in land tax, land tenure, cur
rency, education and penal laws, were the great
est needs.
The people soon got into the custom of calling
the movements of the Mikado's hand "earth
quakes." The first great shaking up took place
on August 11, 1871, when all the members of the
"Cabinet" were dismissed except Sanjo. The
purpose was to improve the quality of the high
officers of state; for when, a few days later, the
Government was reformed, the ablest of its
former members were again in office. "It was a
change of mats, not of the floor." Iwakura, rep
resenting the old nobility, became Minister of
Foreign Affairs. The four Councillors of State,
Saigo, Kido, Itagaki, and Okuma, were from
the four great clans. Okubo of Satsuma was
made Minister of Finance, and Goto Shojiro
Minister of Public Works. Looked at from an
other point of view, this "earthquake" weakened
aristocracy and lifted no fewer than six men, for
merly simple Samurai, nearer the Emperor and
into the highest offices. Soon the system of Im
perial governors, sent to or moved from any of
the provinces, as in the pre-feudal era, became
the regular rule of procedure. In spite even of

190 THE MIKADO
Satsuma, this plan of transferring the emphasis
of personal loyalty from the local barons to the
nation's chief was carried out.
The crowning edict of the Mikado that fell hke
a stunning thunder clap, heard all over the coun
try, was the abolition of feudalism in form. The
old clans and provinces, at first called han, were
made ken, or prefectures, that is, subdivisions
of the Imperial Government. Mutsuhito declared
that he was thus getting rid of the vice of the
unreality of names, and striking at the cause of
pohtical diseases, which proceed from multifar
ious centers of authority.
Such a decree, sweeping away the last land
marks of a fabric more than seven hundred years
old, seemed to the world at large tremendously
bold, and indeed it was. Very few aliens could
then understand the power of the Mikado's name
and word, or the depth of the nation's loyalty to
the Throne. In most places the Emperor's
order was received as a matter of course. Yet it
was an awful risk thus to let loose the four hun
dred thousand swords of men many of whom
were able with brain and pen also. How were
they to be occupied? I had full opportunity of
seeing the immediate effect of this edict, when
living at Fukui, in the castle, under the feudal
system. Three scenes impressed me powerfully.
The first was that at the local Government
Office, on the morning of the receipt of the Mi-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 191
kado's edict, July 18, 1871. Consternation, sup
pressed wrath, fears and forebodings mingled
with emotions of loyalty. In Fukui I heard men
talk of killing Yuri, the Imperial representative
in the city and the penman of the Charter Oath
of 1868.
The second scene was that in the great castle
hall, October 1, 1871, when the lord of Echizen,
assembling his many hundreds of hereditary re
tainers, bade them exchange loyalty for patriot
ism and in a noble address urged the transference
of local to national interest.
The third scene was on the morning following,
when the whole population, as it seemed to me, of
the city of 40,000 people, gathered in the streets
to take their last look, as the lord of Echizen left
his ancestral castle halls, and departed from
Fukui to travel to Tokyo, there to live as a pri
vate gentleman, without any political power.
Only a few farseeing men could understand the
significance of these movements.
On the financial side the ex-Daimios were bet
ter off than before, for having now money enough
(one-tenth of their former income) they could
maintain themselves and their families easily.
Hereafter they were free to go abroad and see
the world, or to travel wherever they would in
Japan. These were new and great privileges.
As for employment in Government service, how
ever, only men of ability, without regard to their

192 THE MIKADO
rank, would be sought. No officer need expect to
be appointed to the province in which he had pre
viously held office, for the power and authority
of each department of the Government was to
extend throughout the whole Empire. It was
Mutsuhito's desire and purpose to fuse local pre
judices and attachments in the common fire of
national patriotism.
The Emperor's advisers had expected to use
force, and in some instances to shed blood, as I
once heard his high officers say, but they were
greatly disappointed. But what was now to be
done with the tens of thousands of the ex-
Daimios' retainers ? Only a few of the old wear
ers of sword and silk had returned to agriculture.
Most of them waited for what might turn up.
To pay the pensions, hitherto enjoyed for cen
turies, required an annual outlay of about
$40,000,000. The News Budget contained var
ious plans for commuting the Samurai's pen
sions. One of the ablest of these was written by
a councillor of Echizen, whom I knew well. His
plan was to reunite the mihtary and agricultural
classes. All the Samurai, whether holding office
or not, were to be divided, and then enrolled on
the registers of the different villages, they being
allowed to buy or sell their revenues. No one
thought, even at that late date, of a merchant, or
trader, or any skilled money maker, as a com
panion for gentlemen, though a farmer was. In

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 193
the four great classes, nobles, gentry, farmers
and commoners of all sorts, tillers of the soil
ranked next to the Samurai.
The Government's scheme was matured and
published in 1873. Samurai, voluntarily sur
rendering hereditary incomes, were given a sum
equivalent to six years salaries, and to those hav
ing life income a lump sum equal to four years
pay. By this means a large class of non-produc
ers would at once become productive, the finances
of the State be reheved, and the national wealth
be greatly increased. The gentlemen with salar
ies thus commuted would have some ready capital
for business purposes. Pitiful as seemed the
amount, it was all that the Government could
afford to give, and money had to be borrowed for
the purpose.
Here was an invitation, on a large scale, to an
army numbering, with its families, 2,000,000, to
beat swords into ploughshares and spears into
pruning hooks. To hasten the process the Mi
kado issued an order permitting the gentry to
discontinue wearing swords. Up to this time a
Japanese gentleman would no more have ap
peared in public without blade and scabbard, the
badge of his rank, than his social equal in Europe
or America would promenade the streets in his
shirt sleeves. Yet from this time forth tens of
thousands of Samurai not only left off their
blades but doffed also their flowing robes, though

194 THE MIKADO
in donning new and tight costumes they changed
from picturesque oddity to clumsy and unlovely
commonplace. Nevertheless, in spite of what artists and lovers
of the unique and strange in the Japanese may
say, the natives themselves understand human
nature and hold the true philosophy of clothes.
Their great ambition is to be treated as men, as
gentlemen, and as the equals of Occidentals.
In their antiquated garb they knew that they or
their country would never be taken seriously.
Very soon we saw a change of dress, not only
among soldiers and Samurai but among all the
government officers and even in the Mikado him
self. The courtiers had been persuaded to cos
tume themselves no longer as idols or demi-gods
but as modern gentlemen and ladies. It is cer
tain that the laying aside of the Samurai's garb
hastened the decay of the old barbarous customs
which belong to feudalism. In fact, this revolu
tion in clothes helped powerfully in the recogni
tion by the whole world of Japan as an equal in
the brotherhood of nations.
One potent influence in assisting the former
Samurai to honorable livelihood soon became
manifest. The foreign experts (yatoi), who
began to arrive in increasing numbers, set an
example of industry, especially in mechanical
pursuits, engineering and industrial exploitation,
and even in the use of their hands, as well as in

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 195
teaching and clerical labors, that was nobly con
tagious. These guests of the nation took off their
gloves and coats. Soon there developed among
thousands of natives, who formerly despised
manual labor and commercial activity, a spirit of
emulation and rivalry highly creditable and bod
ing vast good for the nation. The work of the
yatoi or foreign assistants in helping Japan to
solve the problems suddenly thrust upon her has
been a noble one and deserves the notice of the
historian. Notable among these yatoi, or salaried strang
ers, was the American commission of scientific
men engaged for the development of the re
sources of Yezo. These gentlemen, General
Horace Capron, Dr. Thomas Antisell, Major
Warfield and Dr. Stewart Eldredge, were re
ceived in audience by the Emperor at the Cas
cade View Pavilion, at 10 a. m. on September
16, 1871. Afterward Professor Benjamin Ly
man and others were added to this commission
and did noble work. Japan's monarch was very
gracious and the Imperial welcome and Ameri
can response were alike appropriate.
It was only those who could read Japanese,
however, who knew that in the report printed in
the Gazette of the Great Government Council
the General was made by the Japanese interpre
ter to call himself "an insignificant servant" (bi-
shin) , no fewer than five times in his brief speech.

196 THE MIKADO
It was more than once my privilege, and some
times unpleasant duty, when inquired of by
fellow Americans just arrived, of amply suffi
cient self-esteem and personal importance, to
show their names in the printed lists of yatoi —
the same word that was ordinarily applied to any
hired person, including a day laborer waiting
for a job. Nevertheless history has shown that
the greatest man is the greatest servant, and the
most faithful of the yatoi have done most to
make the new nation. The Japanese gave to
none of their yatoi power or office. They used
their guests and pensionaries simply as servants,
holding rigidly all authority in their own hands.
"Nothing is too small for a great man," however,
and men willing to serve, hke Verbeck and others,
gained lasting mastery of influence, unceasing
even after death. The most self-effacing ser
vants won the most signal success. When the
American, Henry Willard Denison, who begin
ning on May 1, 1880, after serving as adviser in
the Department of Foreign Affairs until June,
1914, lay, like Nicanor "dead in his harness," the
entire nation mourned his loss.

CHAPTER XX
MUTSUHITO THE EMANCIPATOR
The American national bank system having
been adopted in Japan, the next step in financial
reform was to buy up the feudal paper currency
and replace it with national money. The new
currency was at first in the form of the thick
pasteboard "gold notes" (kinsatsu), the paper
of which was manufactured in Echizen. In Fu
kui my salary every month ($250), was paid me
in a pile of cards, six or eight inches high. In
bundles of ten, they were tied through an eyelet
in each, with twisted paper cord.
Up to this time paper money, invented in
China, the emission of which in Japan began in
the seventeenth century, was of very many ages,
shapes, sizes, thicknesses of paper, degrees of
artistic decoration and state of cleanliness and
legibility. These "shin plasters" were usually
beyond the boundary of the han in which they
were issued, as worthless as euchre cards. At
home, in the interior city, I used these "shin
plasters" daily. In a single journey from Tokyo
to Fukui I was obliged to handle seven or eight
different sorts of the filthy or fuzzy stuff.
197

198 THE MIKADO
Piled up in small mountains, tons upon tons
of this currency, brought to Tokyo, were burned.
There were as many as 1,694 forms of these
promissory notes, based on gold, silver, iron and
brass cash, rice, umbrellas, tools, cloths, and as
many articles as a rummage sale or pawnbroker's
shop might show. In 1873, in the Imperial Treas
ury Department, I saw stacks of the old wooden
and copper plates, used by the local engravers
and printers of this fiat money.
Then in succession, after "clean Mexicans"
(dollars) had been for a short time in use, for
foreigners in Japanese service, there followed
the new gold coinage and the fractional currency
engraved in Germany; or national bank notes,
after the American pattern; and, finally, the
smaller notes of recent years. The beautiful new
"greenbacks," engraved in America, were educa
tive. They bore vignettes drawn from scenes in
the national history of Japan, especially those
which illustrated Mikadoism.
Gradually the mystery play of medieval and
musty Mikadoism gave way to modern reality.
The new god now descended to the earth and
came out of his box shrine into the air. When
Mutsuhito visited the Strand Palace he rode not
in a screened bullock cart but in an open carriage
drawn by four horses. During his first drive in
public he was accompanied by a few officers on
horseback and about forty cavalrymen. He

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 199
wished to cause little or no inconvenience to the
people, except that the roads were to be swept
and lanterns hung at evening from the eaves of
the lower story of each house, as was usual after
nightfall. On his way Mutsuhito visited San jo
and Iwakura, getting down out of his carriage
and entering their houses.
On His Majesty's way back the people stood
as usual, gazing at their sovereign, just as civi
lized people do in other parts of the world. This
became the rule, the Emperor and Empress
going about freely like other rulers, and, after
their silver wedding, riding side by side in the
same carriage. What had once been a myster
ious idol seemed now to have a human soul.
The spirit of democracy made progress. In
October, 1871, the nobles were permitted, by
Imperial decree, to intermarry with ordinary peo
ple. The rigorously exclusive dress, in fashion
during two centuries, of loose trousers and silk
coats, or haori, hitherto the privilege of the gen
try alone, was now allowed to all classes.
The Mikado took the nobles into his family
council by issuing an encyclical letter, giving
them good advice. They should be leaders in
animating the people. Their responsibilities
were indeed grave. They should "make a tour
abroad, to widen their circle of knowledge by
seeing and hearing, and thus to improve their
understanding," and their wives and female rela-

200 THE MIKADO
fives should go with them. The secret of the
power of other countries lies in the fact that "each
individual does his best as a member of the
nation." His Majesty said furthermore, "We have
lately changed our ancient system and desire to
run equally in the race with other countries. . . .
In consequence, too of the want of a system of
female education in our country, many women
are deficient in intelligence. Besides, the educa
tion of children is a thing which is connected in
timately with the instruction of their mothers,
and is really a matter of the most absolute impor
tance." The Imperial permission to women to
go abroad was given, so that they might "learn
that the instruction of females in foreign coun
tries has a good foundation, and become ac
quainted with the right system of educating
children." Nevertheless and possibly because burdened
with so many other cares and facing still vast
problems, the Japanese Government, even at
this date, has shown httle interest in the higher
education of women, leaving this, for the most
part, to the missionaries. Miss Ume Tsuda's
school and the "Women's University" in Tokyo
are the direct outgrowth of the heart and brain of
Christians, Dr. Jinzo Naruse and Dr. Tasuke
Harada of Kyoto and the leading educators of
women being such.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 201
Mutsuhito deserves to stand in the hne of
great emancipators, like Lincoln and Nicholas,
for he lifted up two classes of his people who, as
a separate race, or "non-human," were deemed
outcast from Japanese humanity.
The Eta (pariahs) came into existence after
the introduction of Buddhism in the sixth cen
tury, when the killing of animals for food was
religiously banned. The class of Hi-nin (not
human), originated after the beginning of the
Tokugawa dynasty. The industrious Eta were
workers in the skins of dead carcasses of ani
mals, and handlers of the corpses of criminals.
The majority of Hi-nin were beggars. It was
into this latter class that social outlaws, who
would not conform to the cult of the clan or fam
ily, were driven. Economically, such social exiles
saved the expense of prisons and police. It was
a cheap way of damnation, without priest, book,
bell or candle, and saved the public expense of
prisons. Such creatures lived in a hell on earth.
From 172J to 1846 the population of Japan re
mained stationary at about 26,000,000, but to
this number, not reckoned in the census, must be
added at least 1,000,000 outcasts, mostly belong
ing to the doomed or submerged and uncounted
people called the Eta and Hi-nin.
No Japanese would share fire, food or habita
tion with the Eta, and it was rare for the Hi-nin
to rise into ordinary life. The lowest native sub-

202 THE MIKADO
ject considered a house as forever defiled, even
when a wounded member of the Eta class was
brought indoors to be treated by an English sur
geon, as Mitford has told us. I could hardly get
one of my students to walk with me through the
Eta quarter of Fukui, which seemed to be
shunned even by the dogs. Nevertheless it must
be acknowledged that the latter, being then un
owned and coveted for their hides, had good
reason to fear for their own skins. Yokoi Hei-
shiro, the Christian, was probably the first native
statesman to plead that these people be elevated
to citizenship. He was assassinated in Kyoto,
by the ronin, for "holding evil opinions," within
five hours after making the twin propositions of
freedom, for the conscience and for the outcast,
both then in a state worse than slavery. He died
not in vain. In October, 1871, the following
proclamation was issued by the Council of State
to the local authorities and published all over
Japan :
"The designations Eta and Hi-nin are abol
ished. Those who bore them are to be added to
the general registers of the population, and their
social position and methods of gaming a liveli
hood are to be identical with the rest of the peo
ple. As they have been entitled to immunity
from land tax and other burdens by immemorial
custom, you will inquire how this may be re
formed and report to the Board of Finance."

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 203
Yedo, a city of wooden caravansaries, to which
had come daily during the feudal period spec
tacular caravans from the castle towns in all parts
of the Empire, changed its face with its change
of name. The old hollow squares of the yashkis
were turned into barracks, parade grounds,
vegetable gardens or mulberry plantations, and
their buildings utilized for public offices. The
jin-riki-sha, invented by the American Jonathan
Goble, an ex-United States marine and Baptist
missionary, rolled on every street. Thousands of
the people dressed in European costumes, or
what they imagined to be such. To a well
groomed foreigner most natives at first looked
as if they had gone to a rummage sale and there
equipped themselves. The rage for hats emp
tied the slop shops of the seaports, while those in
Tokyo were full of goods "from the ships."
These, to the Japanese — the sense of smell being
largely a matter of education and association —
had the same outlandish odor which things Orien
tal have to us. In hundreds of other "stores" the
discarded spears, swords, furniture and Japanese
bric-a-brac were to be bought at shockingly low
prices. Often, indeed, they became literally "for
burning and fuel of fire," and even for the heat
ing of the bath water, or the cooking of the daily
meal. Especially was this true of the cast out
idols. Most of the old Samurai swords are now
kitchen knives or farm tools. The best of the gold

204 THE MIKADO
inlaid ornaments are in our museums, while to
the art treasures of the world a distinct addi
tion has been made in the tsuba, or sword guards.
In a collection of these keyholes of history one
discerns, through their decoration, a world of
Japanese wit, fancy, poetry and tradition
wrought in metal.
While taking rapidly to things material from
the West, the Japanese were slow to modify
radically their old culture, or to receive rehgion
from the same direction. They will probably be
always hesitant to embrace Christianity in its
purely European, or metaphysical forms. In
1871 Nakamura, the translator of "Self-Help"
and of Mill "On Liberty," and the virtual foun
der of the Liberal and Progressive parties in
Japan, openly advocated the introduction of
Christianity. He denounced branding the reli
gion of Jesus as wicked. He pubhcly challenged
the Mikado's infalhbility: "How does His
Majesty know it [Christianity] to be evil? It
is impossible to know the nature of anything till
it has been tried. Formerly all foreigners were
called barbarians, but now that the Japanese have
come to know foreigners, they call them barbar
ians no more." The strength and wealth of West-
tern countries, he argued, were due to the num
ber of good men who were animated by the spirit
of the faith they held, which was the fountain
whence sprang their good government. "Now

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 205
Japan is delighted with the flowers and leaves,
but will take no account of the roots." Foreign
ers did not admire the Mikado's course of action
and the countries in the East were despised by
the West, because the Orientals hate the rehgion
of the Westerners. The author even went so far
as to advise the Emperor to be baptized, become
the head of the Christian Church in Japan, and
lead his people in professing Christianity. Hap
pily for pure religion, the Mikado has not yet
done anything of the sort.

CHAPTER XXI
JAPAN SEEKS HER RIGHTS OF SOVEREIGNTY
As yet Japan was without the rights of na
tional sovereignty, and the men of the new gener
ation chafed under the indignity. They had
hated the Bakufu, or Yedo Government, for sur
rendering this, in the Townsend Harris treaty,
and allowing the consular courts of aliens on
the sacred soil of Japan. They now sought to
have removed what in 1858 had been granted
with easy and frivolous acquiescence, or, as re
corded, "agreed to without demur."* To secure
the end in view they would cross oceans and plead
before the President of the United States and
the sovereigns of Europe.
As the date fixed for the revision of the trea
ties was July 1, 1872, the Emperor and his ad
visers felt that this would be a good opportunity
to explain to foreign Governments both the Res
toration and the revolution which had taken place.
They claimed that, on account of these facts, the
odious extraterritoriality clause in the treaties
should be abolished and the Imperial authority
* See "Townsend Harris, First American Envoy in Japan,"
p. 124. 206

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 207
be extended over all persons within the Mikado's
domain, whether natives or strangers.
An embassy to Europe and America had been
proposed as early as June 11, 1869, and its route
mapped out, by Dr. Guido F. Verbeck, American
missionary in Japan. This Dutch-American,
first teacher of the men who made the New
Japan, found that more than one-half of its mem
bers, finally selected in 1871, had been his pupils.
To say, as some shallow Japanese do, that neither
education nor statesmanship in Japan has or had
been influenced by the missionaries shows both
their ignorance and their absurd conceit. To dis
cuss the question whether the foreign teachers
have profoundly affected the national ideals
would without rigid definition on both sides, na
tive and alien, be a worthless proceeding.
Some of the hermit statesmen had innocently
supposed that as soon as Japan had made a code
of laws based on the ideas prevalent in Christen
dom, foreign Governments would be at once
wilhng to revise their treaties and place their
citizens and subjects under Japanese authority.
Only three years or so, it was thought by some
ardent patriots, would be necessary to conform
Japan and the Japanese, in all essential respects,
to the nations of the West. Many confidently
looked forward to welcoming Iwakura back with
the draft of new treaties in his pocket to take
the place of the old ones.

208 THE MIKADO
Such trees of hope produced only Dead Sea
apples. Our American Minister, Mr. Charles
E. De Long, told me in 1871 that before the
commissioners started he had pointed out to them
that they were not clothed with full powers and
that their plans would come to naught ; and so it
proved. After reaching Washington, the American
Government would do nothing, and Okubo was
despatched home to obtain the requisite creden
tials. Months were thus spent and lost, or im
proved, abroad. Even then, however, the United
States would not act without the other States in
Christendom, while in Europe the envoys found
they were still looked upon as little less than
picturesque barbarians, because of the persecut
ing policy toward the native Christians. All
requests for a revision of the treaties were re
fused. The whole matter was referred by the
various Governments to their diplomatic agents
in Tokyo. It was strongly hinted that some
thing besides law codes on paper was necessary
before Nippon could be received as an equal or
treated in a different way from Turkey or the
barbarous States. The ambassadors, after twen
ty-one months abroad, arrived in Japan, Septem
ber 13, 1873, in no happy mood. The agitation
for treaty revision ended only in 1900. That
Kido was thoroughly right is proved by the mani
fold enrichment and vast advance made by the

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 209
Japanese during the long probation on which they
were kept by the Treaty Powers.
The embassy accomplished a great deal of
good through the study, by nearly seventy of its
intelligent members, of the people and institu
tions of the West. While in New York, Iwakura
and Okubo, in an official letter, heartily thanked
the little company of American gentlemen
and ladies who had advanced funds to sup
port the Japanese students, otherwise finan
cially stranded, in New Brunswick, N. J., during
the civil war of 1868-70. They inquired partic
ularly after the two Christian women who took
into their homes the first two lads, when, owing
to the kitchen and servant situation, these youths
could secure board and lodging nowhere else.
Through Mr. George Haven Putnam the envoys
secured a library of works on international law,
from Grotius and Puffendorf to Wheaton, and
this case of books, well used, is still in the For
eign Office in Tokyo. In Washington Kido in
quired long and earnestly concerning the origins
and working details of political administration in
the United States, and purchased a library of
books treating of the philosophy of government.
Afterward he urged his younger friends to study
these, Montesquieu being the favorite author.
The general effect of the mission was to turn
the face of the nation away from China and to
ward the adoption of Western ideas and institu-

210 THE MIKADO
tions. A full account of the doings and reports
of the embassy was published by the Government
in a set of handsome volumes. The $750,000
spent on the mission abroad was a good national
investment. In form and spirit this embassy was
different from any that had ever gone from
Japan. It was the first one sent out by the Mi
kado and representing him. Long before its
return we in Toyko noticed that the anti-
Christian edicts had disappeared. These were
removed on the plea, to protesting inquirers, that
the people were already famihar with the sub
stance of the prohibition.
A lively book could be written upon the comic
side of the great embassy's history: the mistakes
made mutually, the density of Occidental ignor
ance, even among statesmen, regarding Japan,
and the many odd revelations to certain members
of the embassy, as they saw themselves in the
mirrors of fresh and novel experiences.
In Boston, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes inno
cently perpetrated a joke upon the august
envoys, in a poem read at a public dinner :
"God bless the Mikado,
Long live the Tycoon !"
The prayer has been answered; for Mutsuhito
lived until 1912 and the ex-Tycoon until 1913.
The amusing thing was to compare these names
and offices together, three years after the office

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 211
of Tycoon had ceased to exist. Imagine in Eng
land a gentleman proposing, in one toast, the
health of the merry monarch King Charles II.
and honor to Oliver Cromwell; or one in a com
pany of Jacobites linking together the names of
Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Hanoverian King
George II.!
The Japanese, among other things very desir
able, were in search of a religion. Though anx
ious to win the secrets of Occidental civilization,
most of these wise men at that time knew
next to nothing about Christianity except
as they had heard about it as a far off echo, in
nursery tales, or from their nurses and grand
mothers about the "Kiristans" of three centuries
ago and their alleged magic and sorcery. In
1873 Japanese in political power were inclined
to blink at the very mention of the religion of
their best friends, such as Perry, Harris, Ver
beck, Brown, Hepburn, and Parkes. The study
of religion was assigned to two young members
in the suite of the ambassadors, the later Minis
ter of Education, Tanaka Fujimaro, and the
later Professor Kume, neither of whom took
their duties with profound seriousness.
On shipboard this committee on religion was
embarrassed by the leading question of a Roman
Catholic priest, who may have been also a Yan
kee. They asked him what his religion was. He
made answer chiefly by inquiring what was theirs.

212 THE MIKADO
At once the Japanese proverb was fulfilled, as in
a picture show. "The beaten soldier fears even
the tops of the tall grass." Routed and driven to
bay, the subject was dismissed with the assistance
of tobacco fumes, for those most interested gath
ered in the smoking room, to decide on what an
swer to give. "Were the Japanese Buddhists?"
"Away with such a thought, for Samurai !" "Did
they hold to Confucianism?" That, as they knew
well, was no more a rehgion to the average Japa
nese than is the unwritten code of pohteness of
any gentleman with us. "What is Shinto?"
Who, outside of Japan's little archipelago, knew
what this cult was? It seemed disgraceful to go
before the world as men from a country which
had no religion, yet they had to face the reahty,
for these Samurai of 1873 did not represent the
Japanese millions. However, they got through
America without being questioned!
The real point of the whole incident lies not
at all in rehgion, and, when thoroughly under
stood, has no real interest to the theologian or
propagandist. The basic fact is that the two or
three score members of the embassy, whether
humble interpreters or august ambassadors, were
in no sense, not even the political, the real repre
sentatives of the people of Japan, but only of the
Government then in existence. The Japan of
the books is almost wholly the Japan of the Sa
murai, with something about art and incidents

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 213
concerning the geisha and artists. The Japan
of the people, or the heart of Nippon, or social
Japan, is not yet open to the world.
It is significant that in later life Professor
Kume was the first native scholar bold enough
to apply the higher or scientific criticism to the
Kojiki and show the utterly baseless fabric of
Mikadoism as a religious cult. Instantly a storm
of hostile denunciation of such daring impiety
broke. What happened about the same time to
the critical scholars in America who had intro
duced science in place of tradition took place in
Japan, as also in the clerical Christianity, which
is often so different from that of the Founder.
The accusations on both sides of the Pacific had
much the same result. Professor Kume was
charged with "degrading Shinto to the level of
Christianity" and of insulting the Emperor. The
Americans were accused of heresy and of var
ious isms abhorred by the scribes in power. To
such lengths can fanaticism go! The Japanese
and the American professors were each promptly
silenced within the pale, but in the case of the
heathen scholar he was retired on half pay. In
1912, writing of religion, this same Professor
Kume describes Shinto and Confucianism as
"present life" religions, and Buddhism and Chris
tianity as "future life" religions.
Not least of the impressions of the rehgious
hfe of America was gained by Mrs., later the

214 THE MIKADO
Marchioness, Tanaka, who in the homes of not a
few guests inquired concerning family worship
and into the training of children. She visited
many a nursery, while enjoying the hospitality of
American mothers.
In Europe some of the most rabidly materialis
tic of the embassy sat up at night, telling old
Chinese stories, and slept by day in the railway
cars, while passing through superb scenery and
regions replete with thrilling history, while wide
awake in the machine shops and arsenals. It
may be different now, despite the allegation that
"the old culture has conquered." Meanwhile
true religion, whatever its name, under the ir
resistible influence of Jesus, the Samurai of
the Ages, and in spite of friends and enemies,
self-purgative and driven by motors unseen,
moves more and more the heart of Japanese hu
manity. Not least of the exemplars of the power
of Christianity, which may live and work outside
its own followers and ritual forms, was, as I
heartily believe, Mutsuhito in his later years.
Probably the feeling of the overwhelming ma
jority of all Christians in Japan, who pray daily
for their august ruler, is that the Mikado may be,
by conviction and practice of life, a sincere and
humble follower of Jesus and thus uplift, bless
and lead the nation by force of example. Apart
from this, they pray that he may keep his hands
off, make the Constitution's guarantee of liberty

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 215
of conscience a reality to the fullest degree, and
restrain not only the bigots and fanatics of all
sects and creeds, while crushing out all attempts
to make religion of any sort an engine of state,
the trust and monopoly of a corporation, or a
means of personal gain.

CHAPTER XXII
THE NATION'S FACE TOWARD THE WEST
New Japan's declaration of independence
from Asia came through a change of calendar, on
January 1, 1873. Old fashioned Japan, which
meant nearly everybody in the four thousand
islands, thought the world had turned upside
down, when New Year's Day fell on January 1,
instead of February 9. The lunar and Chinese
calendar was for Japan dead and buried. Con
formity with the time measurements of Christen
dom was officially declared and was duly
celebrated on January 1. Japan's Emperor, in
adopting the Gregorian calendar, wished not
only to be in harmony with Occidental civiliza
tion but also to assert fresh sovereignty and
independence. Nevertheless, in their settled policy not merely
to imitate but first to select, then adopt, and fi
nally to adapt, the Japanese took care not to use
those words of historical origin associated with
Christianity, or in common Occidental use. On
the contrary, they tried to build science on myth
ology. They employed colorless terms in their
own language, marking years and days, in the
216

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 217
era of Meiji, and reckoning from "the foundation
of the Empire" by Jimmu Tenno, 660' B.C.
January 1, 1872, began the New Year, which was
the year 2532 after the accession of Jimmu, who
got a name one thousand or more years after his
supposed existence. Hereafter even Japanese
who professed to be educated spoke habitually of
"our twenty-five hundred years of history," thus
lending color to the saying "the more official, the
less likely to be true."
It happened that the second day of the twelfth
month of the Chinese system fell on December
31, 1872, so that the change effected in the new
calendar was facilitated by leaving out twenty-six
days of the twelfth month. New Year's Day was
thus "the first day of the first month, of the sixth
year of Meiji," January 1, 1873, and the method
of counting the years by periods remained the
same. No popular protests or riots followed in
Japan, as had been, in some instances, the case
in Europe, when the people imagined they had
lost eleven days out of their lives. Native Bud
dhist priests and countryfolk still hve according
to the old, irregular almanac, even as the Rus
sians were, for centuries, eleven days behind the
rest of Christendom.
On January 1, 1872, the Emperor went in state
on board the ironclad war steamer Biujo, to
inspect the docks at Yokoska. These are built
under the very shadow of the tomb of Will

218 THE MIKADO
Adams of Kent, the English pilot of a Dutch
fleet despatched to Japan in 1600, whose mem
ory is still kept green in Tokyo by the people of
the thoroughfare named after him, Anjin Cho,
Pilot street, in an annual celebration. In
1912 his tomb was restored and a bronze statue
erected. His Majesty was to see molten iron poured
out and thus get some idea of the processes of
metallurgy. The moulds contained the prepared
sand for the making of the crysanthemum, and
characters for "Banzai," expressing the wish —
now, as a thousand years ago, embodied in a
stanza which has become the national hymn, that
the Mikado might live during ten thousand gen
erations ; words which later became the battle cry
of the soldiers in the national army. Mutsuhito
saw the tapping and flow of the fiery stream into
the orifice. Suddenly the mould, probably damp,
was blown up, and red hot bits of metal flew all
around, striking some of the spectators, who
quickly got out of danger. An officer, seeing the
Emperor in jeopardy, held up his cap and saved
the Imperial face from harm, though His
Majesty kept perfectly cool throughout the
whole affair.
On January 17 Mutsuhito celebrated the as
sumption of the Throne and the Empire by the
Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, or Tensho Dai j in,
and his own succession from his heavenly ances-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 219
tor. This takes place only at the beginning of a
reign. The Imperial proclamation stated that
when the grandson of the sun goddess was about
to descend from Heaven his grandmother made
him a present of The Fertile Country of Sweet
Flags (Japan), saying: "My son, behold ! This
is the country which you are called upon to gov
ern." So saying, she presented him with the
symbol of an ear of rice. Descending from
heaven upon the mountains of Hiuga, he there
planted the rice, and when the first crops were
ready, he partook of it as food. Such is the
origin of the feast.
While the Emperor's person was undoubtedly
safe, and while probably after 1870 there was no
conspiracy to carry him off and set up a rival
Government, yet toward the end of March, 1872,
blood was shed in the courtyard of the palace
gates, because certain fanatics were determined,
in defiance of the challenge of the guards, to
penetrate into the Imperial residence. Ten men,
dressed in white clothes, carrying long staves, and
looking like the priests called Yamabushi, or
Mountain Sect, came to the King's Hand Gate,
declaring they wished to lay a complaint directly
before His Majesty. Once allowed to get within
the gateway, they drew swords. Thereupon the
guards fired upon them. Four were killed and
one severely wounded. We, the professors of the
Imperial University, talked the subject over next

220 THE MIKADO
morning, and wondered what could be the mean
ing of it. Very little was ever said about it.
Along with the change of calendar came a
new warmth of welcome from the Emperor to his
foreign guests. Having left Fukui for the cap
ital, to which I had been invited by His Majesty's
new Minister, Mr. Ogi Takato, in the newly
created Department of Education, to come to
Tokyo to form a Polytechnic School, after an
interview, on February 12, I had early proof of
the Emperor's personal interest in his foreign
helpers. In the reception room of the Imperial
Palace, next to the Throne Hall, those in the
educational service in Tokyo, eighteen in number,
and of several nationalities, were invited to a
banquet. The Japanese officers wore their an
cient native caps and gowns, the Americans and
Europeans black dress suits, though the German
surgeons, Miiller and Hoffman, had donned their
uniforms of gold and black, holding their spiked
helmets in their hands by the pickelhaube. The
French and Prussians were not as yet very cor
dial to each other, for their war was just over.
The Minister of Education sat at the head of the
long table.
It was delightful — and frightfully cold. Only
a little charcoal in braziers diminished, by a de
gree or two, the freezing temperature of outdoors.
One week later, in the Hall of the old Seido, or

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 221
University of Chinese Philosophy and Learning,
we were treated to an exhibition of No, or classi
cal opera. The Emperor had sent his band of
musicians, twenty-five in number, and ten or
twelve of the most famous No dancers in the Em
pire to entertain us. These, in resplendent cos
tumes of the early centuries, sparkling with gold
and silver, performed, with the accompaniment
of Korean and medieval Japanese music, the four
dances: 1. The Great Peace Anthem; 2. The
Joy Attracting Dance; 3. The Golden Dragon
Goddess; 4. The Benediction of the Mountain
God. During the spring months we often saw the
Emperor at military reviews and public gather
ings, and he always bowed to us from his
carriage. On April 20, visiting the Imperial
University, he read an address of welcome to his
fellow "rebuilders of the foundations of the Em
pire." I stood within a few inches of him and
heard his clear voice, with its peculiar Japanese
use and training, and afterward performed some
chemical experiments in presence of His Majesty
and chief officers of Court and Government.
Surprise and interest made their faces, after a
while, look positively human. Mutsuhito wore
his ancient classic garb, with high gold feather or
plume far above his head. On the part of the
interpreter, in presence of the Son of Heaven, it
was a case of cold perspiration and a shaking of

222 THE MIKADO
bones through stress of fear and awe. The Amer
ican, who was himself a sovereign and had been
in the presence of presidents and seen kings, was
more at ease.
One native lad, in the English language classes,
in a composition describing the visit of the Tenno
to the school, thus burst forth concerning his
sovereign. To him no diction could be too
lofty, and, in all innocence and sincerity, he bor
rowed the paeans in the Forty-fifth and Seventy-
second Psalms as most appropriate on this
occasion :
"Thou art fairer than the children of men.
Grace is poured into thy lips. . .
In thy majesty ride prosperously," etc.
In spite of ultra-conservative and hostile in
fluences Okubo, Ito and others pushed forward,
with the help of British capital, the completion of
the railway. Above all other objects, this enter
prise had in view the annihilation of feudal no
tions and sectional prejudices, and the creation
of a national sentiment. At its opening the Em
peror's benevolence was shown even more strik
ingly toward his subjects, when, incredible as it
then seemed to me, four native merchants in plain
garb, instead of crouching on all fours, actually
stood in the Imperial presence, speaking to and
being spoken to by the Mikado.
It was a grand pageant and a sublime and

INSTITUTION AND PERSON
prophetic spectacle, this dedication of the first
railway in Asia, and modelled after Perry's initia
tive, in 1854. In the pageant of the day, Japan
was visualized as an empire. The nobles, and
civil and military officers, the Riu Kiu princes,
the Ainu chiefs, the foreign guests, the floral and
color decorations, the popular processions and
rejoicings, the addresses to His Majesty and the
Imperial replies, are all worth a volume of de
scription. Yet most impressive and eloquent,
prophetic of Japan's glorious future, was that
scene in which men of trade, only of late in the
social mire, stood erect, both at Yokohama and
Tokyo, in the presence of gracious and apprecia
tive majesty.
This was probably the last public appearance
of the Mikado in ancient costume. The skull cap,
with its pennon projecting high in air, the long
skirt-trail, which, when he was resting, was gath
ered up and hung over the outrigger clothes-
frame projecting from the back of his lacquered
girdle and thus held, were now to go into the
museum. The officers were in their stiff, archaic
costume. Mutsuhito and the Senior and Junior
Prime Ministers sat immovable during the two
hours of speeches and ceremonies. On one occaJ
sion I was startled at seeing and hearing one of
these images smile and speak to me.
It was in the palace that I saw the Mikado in
his archaic robes again, when on January 1, 1873,

224 THE MIKADO
I was one of a few selected guests, in the Gov
ernment service, invited by His Majesty to an
audience before the Throne in the Imperial
Castle. Robed in crimson and white silk and
crowned with the high fluted gold feather, Mu
tsuhito sat on a throne chair resting on two golden
"Korean dogs." On the right and left stood
two rows of Court dignitaries. These were
dressed in a variety of colors and quaint gar
ments such as a pack of playing cards might
suggest, but were shod with modern leather
shoes. Leaving the palace for a week's trip and a stay
of two days at "the St. Helena of Tycoonism,"
where hved Keiki, the last Shogun, I enjoyed
the winter scenery of Hakone. This, like Japan
and its humanity, was by turns superbly beauti
ful, savage, sublime, repulsive. I saw Fuji San
in every garb of gloom and glory, and, on the
road, looked on a dead beggar lying naked in the
center of the highway, past which men and horses
walked and well fed dogs passed. Such a sight,
then quite common in my experience, is probably
impossible in the New Japan of a thousand hos
pitals and numerous charity shelters.
The Emperor, resolving to show himself to his
subjects in other and distant parts of the Empire,
and withal to propitiate Satsuma, made a jour
ney by sea to Osaka and Kyoto. He visited
several of the public schools in the capital, re-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 225
ceived the foreign teachers and even partook of
refreshments offered by them. At Osaka His
Majesty enjoyed seeing the performances of a
foreign equestrian troupe, under Mr. Abell. He
then took steamer to Nagasaki and Kagoshima.
In the capital city of Satsuma he gave audience
to Shimadzu Saburo, who handed to His Majesty
a letter full of language which, though sufficiently
polite in form, gave great offence to the Govern
ment. This gentleman of the old school had not
only seen the Eta or social outcasts elevated to
citizenship, but had ;ieven heard of merchants
standing in the presence of Majesty, instead of
grovelhng on all fours. To men of the old mind
this was a sign that the country was going to de
struction. He charged the Emperor's system of
administration with being "in danger of falling
into the vice called republicanism." He pro
fessed to see, "as clearly as in a mirror," that
Japan would eventually become a dependency of
the Western barbarian. Again the conflict of
the Unionists with Imperialists!
Having made himself visible to millions of his
subjects, Mutsuhito returned to Yokohama about
the middle of August. While here he had a long
consultation with the governor of Yokohama,
Mr. Oye Taku, concerning the case of the Peru
vian ship Maria Luz, which had come into the
harbor through stress of weather. It was loaded
with the human freight of Chinese laborers, who

226 THE MIKADO
had been decoyed, practically kidnapped, and
cruelly treated. Their condition was made known
by one of them swimming off to a British man-of-
war then in the harbor.
Mutsuhito, not afraid of "the vice called repub
licanism," nor of Peruvian ironclads, nor of the
frowns of men behind the age, resolved to strike
a blow for human freedom. After due trial in
court, the Chinese laborers were landed on Japa
nese soil and held until the Peking government
was heard from. This was Japan's first mani
festo in behalf not of herself only but of Asian
humanity. Some foreigners severely criticized
the Imperial action and even imagined a Peru
vian man-of-war coming to demand satisfaction;
but the matter was settled by arbitration, the
Russian Emperor deciding that Japan was right.
Incidentally, this noble act of Mutsuhito
wrought good to his own people, through pub
licity of the trial of Japanese slave keepers, who
traded in the flesh of women. In the trial at
court the cogent arguments of the English bar
rister, F. V. Dickins, and the translator of
Japan's classic verse, helped mightily. Young
girls, who had been forced to go into service for
vile purposes, were practically set free and the
old contracts, which bound them involuntarily for
a period of years, were annulled.
The good work, thus begun in behalf of sixty
thousand or more women slaves, in the brothels

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 227
licensed by Government, has been continued
notably by the able editor, member of Parlia
ment, and historian, Shimada Saburo. With the
legal weapons furnished by improvement in legis
lation the Salvation Army, braving Japanese
bullies and ruffians, set free in one year more
than twelve thousand of these unfortunates. The
existence of this traffic in woman's flesh and the
abuses of the system make one of the blackest
blots on the good name of Japan.
Great conflagrations in Tokyo, in 1911, have
helped, or at least given the Japanese an oppor
tunity to cauterize the foulest of the social ulcers
of Dai Nippon. Christian women in Japan are
besieging the Imperial Diet with petitions in
favor of one standard of morality for all.

CHAPTER XXIII
THE EMPEROR IN PUBLIC
After the completion of the first iron road, the
next sensation was the building of a railway
through the national intellect, such as the reading
of the Bible suggests. Mutsuhito's acceptance of
a copy of the English Bible, at the hands of Dr.
J. C. Hepburn, on behalf of the mission which
he represented, through the kind offices of the
American Minister, C. H. De Long, was another
expression of the Emperor's desire to cultivate
friendly feelings with his foreign guests. Being
in a foreign language, Mutsuhito could not be
expected to consult this book very often, a library
in one volume. The Holy Scriptures in Japa
nese were not yet ready, though several of the
books of the New Testament had been trans
lated. It was not until 1898 that a handsome
copy of the complete Bible in Japanese, one of
the greatest of successful missionary translations,
was graciously received by His Majesty. That
Mutsuhito made himself in a measure familiar
with its general contents is beyond doubt.
As man advances so also must woman. The
first lady of the land was now to win fresh honors

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 229
with her husband. The time was ripe for the
Empress to be more of a wife and a woman and
participate in the new and broader life of the na
tion. In old days an Imperial consort had been
allowed to leave the palace only when the days
of her confinement drew near. Otherwise she
must remain ever within walls. It was reported
that she was attended only by vestals, who had
never beheld a man and that even the highest
dignitaries were not allowed to see her. Like
many other traditional statements of the Japa
nese, I, for one, do not believe this, if taken liter
ally, but certainly her life was wholly one of
narrow routine indoors.
On January 16, 1872, within the Palace, the
Empress received in audience the wives of the
American and Russian Ministers, Mrs. De Long
and Madame Buztow. This had more signifi
cance than the mere statement of the fact would
warrant, for the Empress thereby honored her
self more than her guests. The Mikado's wife, in
Kyoto days, had never been considered his equal.
She was never addressed with the corresponding
title, nor awarded the same honors as a woman of
like rank and name in Europe. Such equality
of wifehood is logically impossible in any coun
try where a harem, or seraglio, or, legalized con
cubinage exists. By the new privileges accorded
to his consort Mutsuhito recognized that the
freedom enjoyed by women in Western countries

230 THE MIKADO
was "in accordance with the right Way between
Heaven and earth," and here again his example
has been powerful with his people. In time,
Mutsuhito caused the days of polygamy, in the
palace and among his subjects, to be numbered,
and advised his son, the present Emperor, to have
but one wife. At the same time the customs of
blackening the teeth after marriage and the
wearing of the hair in four styles, to signify
respectively maidenhood, wifehood, widowhood
or permanent celibacy, were abolished. The new
democracy is seen even in the women's coiffure,
all classes dressing their hair ahke.
Not everything was done by the Japanese out
of sweet temper and spontaneous benevolence.
Many things were yielded only on pressure. For
example, His Majesty had always remained
seated while giving audience to foreign Minis
ters, and any change of native customs, to con
form with the etiquette in use at other courts,
was resisted by the Emperor's advisers, until Mr.
R. T. Watson, the British Charge d' Affaires, re
fused to be received unless the Mikado followed
the example of sovereigns elsewhere and, in this
way, showed real friendship. When the usual
policy of delay was attempted, the Imperial au
thorities were given to understand that unless
modern civilized customs were followed in Tokyo,
the ambassadors then in Europe would not be
received by Queen Victoria. This settled the

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 231
question quickly, and Mr. Watson received swift
proof of reasonableness, by soon standing face
to face with the standing Emperor. One of the
noblest traits of the Japanese is his willingness
to change for the better when he sees himself
wrong. Often by moral compulsion, more fre
quently by free choice, he walks in the better way.
So far from Haruko, the wife of Mutsuhito,
being an "Empress," in the European sense of
the word, the Japanese of the early seventies, as
I can testify, strenuously objected to speaking
of the gracious lady as "Her Majesty." "Bu
shido" had little to say for the exaltation or even
equality of woman. The arguments in explana
tion of the real position of woman in Japan, as
given thus far by native authors, seem tame and
lame. But now Japanese would be indignant
if one did not address or speak of the Emperor's
wife as "Empress," for they see things more
clearly. "Kogo Sama" — as her title is — ranks as
true Empress, although by the Constitution and
Imperial House law neither she nor any other
woman can be, as, in nine other previous in
stances Japanese women before were, sovereign,
or Mikado. Largely in reflection of potent ex
ample in the Palace, how different the life of the
Japanese woman to-day, as compared with that
of only thirty years ago !
To unify the commonwealth and end the ano
maly of "a nation within a nation," all lines of

232 THE MIKADO
advancement were thrown open to all. The
army, the navy, the court, schools and public
employment of all sorts were made highways
to promotion. The motto "education is the basis
of all progress" was adopted, as was Verbeck's
plan of common school education. The country
was divided into eight grand districts, each of
which would in time have one university, or eight
in all; thirty-two middle schools, and 210 acad
emies, in which the foreign languages would be
taught the higher classes. In stimulating this
pohcy, in planning and cooperating, the Ameri
can missionaries, led by G. F. Verbeck and S. R.
Brown, were very effective and the majority of
foreign teachers have been Americans. Dr.
David Murray was for many years the urbane
and efficient adviser to the Department of Edu
cation. In the Engineering College of the De
partment of Public Works English professors
were called to serve, and noble is their record.
Ideas grow slowly. Millions cannot be edu
cated in a day. Many local riots throughout the
empire showed how little the grand purposes of
the Government were understood. In these rus
tic uprisings the farmers carried on bamboo poles
sheets of matting daubed in ink with mottoes, or
declarations of their grievances. Rude spears
were made by sharpening bamboo staves and
hardening their points in fire. Repeal of the
conscription law, the abolition of the new na-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 233
tional schools, the restoration of the old calendar,
and the right to shave their heads as before, were
demanded. Priests wanted the old regime back
again. Men whose view was circumscribed by
rice fields could not understand the new age.
Later on, they approved with enthusiasm.
In consolidating his Empire and asserting its
unity and independence Mutsuhito must grapple
with the problem of dual sovereignty and also
end it. This Chinese doctrine was illustrated in
both Korea and the Riu Kiu Islands, and out of
it grew the great war with China in 1904.
Although in the little southern archipelago the
people are Japanese, so far as features, blood
and language can prove origin, they were from
very early times pupils and vassals of China. The
name Riu Kiu may mean Sleeping Dragon ; or, as
the Chinese characters are read, Pendent Tassels,
or Hanging Balls — that is, part of the tasselled
fringe, on the mighty robe of the Great Central
Empire. In 1875 the islanders were forbidden
from Tokyo to despatch any further tribute to
China and a few companies of soldiers, bearing
the Mikado's crest on their frontlets, occupied the
little archipelago, which henceforth, with its area
of 171 square miles and 170,000 people, became
an integral part of the Japanese Empire. The
kinglet, Sho Tai, came to Tokyo, living quietly
in the great city, until August 19, 1901, when he
died, his decease ending the last living memorial

234 THE MIKADO
of the dual sovereignties, once so common in Asia.
Now Riu Kiu is becoming not only the sanitar
ium of the Empire but a Christian garden.
Reaffirmation of the Mikado's sovereignty
required of Mutsuhito protection for these island
ers, and he was soon obliged to show his willing
ness. A tribe of Formosan copper colored
warriors, probably near ethnic kinsmen to both the
Japanese and the North American Indians, the
Butans, were head hunters and under no rule.
The Chinese had no jurisdiction over aboriginal
Formosa. Many a foreign ship wrecked on the
Formosan coast furnished skulls for the dadoes
in the village halls.
In 1867 the American bark Bover had been
wrecked and all on board put to death by these red
men. General Le Gendre, United States Consul
at Amoy, then visited the island, with a Chinese
force, and made a treaty with the Butans, who
promised to treat all shipwrecked people kindly.
In 1871 sixty Riu Kiuans, cast ashore on this
same eastern coast, were killed by these same
head hunters, the Butans. Hearing of this, Con
sul Le Gendre, in the U. S. S. S. Ashuelot, again
visited the islands to find out why the treaty had
been broken. The savages received their old
friend gladly and explained that they had mis
taken the Riu Kiuans for Chinese, with whom
they were at perpetual war, and for whose heads,
as desirable prizes, they were always hunting.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 235
The next year Mr. Le Gendre, while in Japan,
on his way to America, was consulted by the Em
peror's Minister Soyeshima, and engaged as an
adviser. The Butans must be chastised, but how would
China look upon the Japanese landing a force in
Formosa? Happily the way of conciliation was
opened. Mutsuhito, who wished to send to the
young Chinese Emperor a letter of congratula
tion upon his recent marriage, appointed as his
ambassador Soyeshima, formerly a pupil of Dr.
Verbeck and later Minister of Foreign Affairs.
A consummate scholar in Chinese, he was thor
oughly versed in the etiquette of the Peking
Court. Meeting Li Hung Chang at Tientsin, on
April 3, ratifications of treaties were exchanged
and Soyeshima arrived in Peking in the nick of
time. He used his code of politeness as a rapier
to pierce the hide of Chinese arrogance and wound
it at a vital point. As ambassador, and thus out
ranking all other foreign envoys, he carried off
the highest honors. The audience question, long
discussed, was thus settled for a time at least, and
later China acknowledged Japan's right to pun
ish the savages in Formosa. Soyeshima arrived
home in August, firmly believing that China was
in full sympathy with Japan's purpose.
Japanese art was the first product of the na
tional genius that had attracted the serious
attention of the appreciative civilized world, and

236 THE MIKADO
the enterprise of international expositions had
already been embarked upon. Mutsuhito took
great interest in the researches of the American,
Mr. Fenollosa, who made a comparative study of
the art of Japan and Europe. After decorating
repeatedly this "Teacher of Great Men," the Em
peror, upon the departure from Japan of this
unwearied student, said: "You have taught my
people to know their own art: in going back to
your great country, I charge you to teach your
own countrymen also." It required foreign
stimulus to make the Japanese people at large
appreciate their own artistic treasures.
After the collection made for Vienna had been
shipped an exhibition of interesting things was
maintained permanently in Tokyo, and this has
grown into the National Museum at Uyeno,
where among other things are the rehcs of Japa
nese Christianity and the Mikado's throne mats
formerly used. From the days of the Crystal
Palace in London to the Louisiana Purchase Ex
position in St. Louis, and in view of the Panama-
Pacific Exposition, in 1915, the Japanese have
steadily progressed in the capacity and art of
exhibition, notably under the practical labors of
Mr. S. Tejima.
The newspaper press had become a great en
gine for the making of public opinion. In 1873
one weekly and two daily papers had been started
under private ownership, one being the Mai-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 237
nichi Shimbun (Every Day Budget) in Yoko
hama, which at first was only an advertising sheet
without comment or criticism. In later years it
was brilliantly conducted by Shimada Saburo, a
pupil of Dr. Samuel R. Brown. The other was
the Nichi-Nichi-Shimbun, or Day-by-day News
paper, since become a Government organ of great
weight and respectabihty. Like so much Japa
nese popular literature, the first native journals
were loaded with obscenity, which the people read
greedily. The establishment of the true Japanese
press, in which criticism, comment and interpre
tation were mingled, was the work of the English
man, Mr. John R. Black, author of "Young
Japan," who founded the Nisshin Shinjishi
(Daily Newspaper) . Good results of its whole
some criticisms were quickly seen in the sweeping
away of some of the abominably obscene exhi
bitions then so common in the city of Tokyo.
Selecting from each nation its characteristic
product, the Japanese have become experts in
finding out what the world and its various parts
can yield them. The French furnished for Japan,
at the beginning, the science of war, the art of
cookery, and for a time the Code Napoleon. In
later years much was borrowed from Germany,
General Meckel being chief instructor in the or
ganization of the nation for defence, as well as
in the detail of campaigns. The Japanese mar
ines were first organized and trained by Lieuten-

238 THE MIKADO
ant Hawes, of Queen Victoria's marine corps,
and much was done for the navy by Captain
James and other British gentlemen of expert
ability. Sir Lucius Archibald Douglas, later
British Admiral, was Director of the Imperial
Naval College in Tokyo from 1873 to 1875, and
the trainer of Togo. These Yatoi, Americans,
Germans, Dutchmen and others, an army per
haps five thousand strong, including twelve hun
dred teachers from the United States, have done
noble service for Japan.

CHAPTER XXIV
CONFRONTING NEW PROBLEMS
In May, 1872, Shimadzu Saburo, of Satsuma,
was invited to visit the capital by the Govern
ment, which sent a man-of-war for his convey
ance, to show also that the invitation was not to
be lightly regarded.
When he and his band of two hundred Samurai
arrived they seemed most sadly medieval and ob
solete. All wore high clogs, long red scabbarded
swords, had the front and sides of their noddles
shaved, went bareheaded and often bare armed,
and in general looked like a pack of antiquated
ruffians. They found themselves so stared at, and
indeed so looked upon as men behind the times
that they actually begged their lord to allow them
to take off their killing tools. While their com
rades of other days, and Japanese gentlemen gen
erally, had cut off their topnots and cultivated
their front head hair, laid aside their weapons
and either adopted foreign dress or accepted the
wearing of the Samurai clothing by common
folks, these ferocious looking fellows from the
south adhered to the garb and mien of a century
gone. Shimadzu was urged to take high office,
239

240 THE MIKADO
and he did so. It was sad work for him, as though
Noah had been invited to cross the Atlantic on an
"ocean greyhound." He was able to stand the
modernism of the renovated Court and Govern
ment for a few months only, and then this critic
of the Emperor returned to Satsuma and serene
obscurity. The next foreign visitor, on the frigate Gari
baldi, was the Duke of Genoa, a son of King
Victor Emmanuel and a lieutenant in the Itahan
navy. The Emperor made him his guest, treating
him with high honor.
The great embassy, on its return, was con
fronted by questions of domestic politics that
threatened to rend the country. The minds of
the military classes were exercised over the For
mosa outrages and they were stung to madness by
a defiant and insulting Korean letter which up
braided Japan for having adopted Western civi
lization. The ex- Samurai clamored for war, the
invasion of Korea, the chastisement of the For
mosan savages and the immediate formation of a
national assembly.
To all these projects Iwakura and those who
thought with him were totally opposed. Im
pressed with the unity of the American republic,
now no longer merely federal but truly national,
and with the strength of the central authority at
Washington, Iwakura and his colleagues believed
that all immediate efforts should be in the direc
tion of consolidation.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 241
After many interviews among themselves the
debate was adjourned and held before the Em
peror. The master mind throughout was that of
Okubo, who showed that to go to war with Korea
at such a time was simply to play into the hands
of Russia. When Mutsuhito vetoed the war
scheme, five of his Ministers, Saigo, Soyeshima,
Goto, Itagaki and Eto resigned.
Terashima, Okubo, Ito and Katsu took the
vacant places, but violent agitation among the
old clansmen followed. It eventuated that the
Formosan expedition, made up chiefly of Sat
suma men, slipped off without orders and Iwa-
kura's life was attempted by assassins. It was
at this time that I learned much directly concern
ing the Emperor's personal life from Katsu Awa.
This great man was the representative of both
the old and the new Japan, the link between feu
dalism and the return to modern nationahty, and
the unwavering believer in mind and reason as
being above the sword and brute force. He told
me much concerning the personality and daily
habits of the Emperor and the conduct of men
of all parties and offices. At certain times in
these awful crises, some, often most of the Min
isters absented themselves from the Council
Board. There was in more than one instance a
terrible wavering between the old clan instinct,
with its personal loves and hates, hopes and fears,
and loyalty to the new Government, so that hon-

242 THE MIKADO
est men were often at their wit's end what to do
or advise. Such ordeals did but develop the
moral fibre of the young Mikado. They made
him a judge of men and gave him the power of
impartial and quick judgment, fitting him to be,
also, a consummate master' of conciliation.
The Empress in July visited the silk reeling fac
tory at Tomioka, where, under French superin
tendents, elaborate and effective machinery had
been introduced to reel silk from cocoons. This
was a great change from the old way of melting
the shrouds of the grubs in hot water heated in
an iron pot over a charcoal fire, picking out the
cue with the fingers, and then reeling by hand the
strands on a little wooden frame. In Japanese
mythology the method was even more primitive.
The goddess who created the silkworms put the
cocoons in her mouth and thence spun out the sil
very threads. In this century it is a worm that
supplies out of its bowels the largest item of the
wealth of Japan in exports. The Emperor and
Empress together visited also the model farm and
nurseries under the care of the American, General
Horace Capron. Late in December they saw the
docks at Yokosuka.
The new year of 1874 at the capital was ush
ered in at midnight by a great mountain of fire,
streaked with iridescence of many hues, that
seemed to rise up in the southern part of the city.
The torch had been applied by some enemy of the

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 243
Government, perhaps some fanatic Buddhist
priest of the great Buddhist temple of Zozoji, in
Shiba, in revenge for its official "purification" in
the interests of Shinto.
The old clansmen, hereditary guardians of the
sword of Japan, "the living soul of the Samurai,"
still held the idea that they could act indepen
dently of the Government, or force it to declare
war, notwithstanding that the resources of the
country had been already strained to the utmost.
They first attempted to assassinate Iwakura,
whom they wounded. The intending assassins
were caught and beheaded.
Reckless men proceeded still further in the bad
old way of the ronin. In Hizen, at Saga, a band
of rioters assaulted the local bank and levied on
the rich farmers and merchants, with the idea of
providing funds for an expedition to Korea.
Soon it was known in Tokyo that Eto Shimpei,
the late Minister, was at the head of the rebellion.
Not a moment was to be lost, or the fires of
insurrection would spread rapidly. The Mikado
at once ordered Okubo, with Admiral Ito and
General Nodzu, and backed by ships and men, to
deal with the crisis. This they did quickly. Steam
and electricity make history short. The castle at
Saga had been stormed, but the Imperial mind
was speedily relieved by a telegram from Okubo,
announcing surrender on the one hand and vic
tory on the other. Eto fled, but was soon dis-

244 THE MIKADO
covered. He had feathered the shafts for his own
destruction. When Minister of Justice in Tokyo
he had introduced the custom of making the faces
of criminals known by photography. By means
of his own portrait, widely distributed, he was
quickly recognized, seized and beheaded.
The Formosan Expedition was "a combination
of enterprises which, whatever their consequences,
would have attracted a far greater attention and
a more vivid interest than any previous event of
modern times." It meant nothing less than the
invasion of Formosa and of Korea, and long
preparation had been made with this end in view.
The invaders believed that even the conquest of
China was possible.
In suppressing the Saga rebelhon the loyalty
of the new national army was thoroughly tested,
and the resources of the nation both in men and
money were strained. Had the uprising been
reinforced by Satsuma, it would have made a
question of life or death for the Government.
There is httle doubt that many of the veteran
soldiers disliked the idea of fighting the insur
gents in Saga, because their object was what all
the Samurai had at heart, namely, the invasion
of Korea. To satisfy both Satsuma and the
army, it was given out that the Mikado would
order an expedition to Formosa as soon as his
authority was vindicated in Hizen.
As planned by the Government, the Formosa

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 245
Expedition was finely organized. Diplomati
cally, the Japanese had the unchallenged right
of way. Everything was done after previous
agreement with China. The Peking mandarins
had furnished a map of Formosa, showing what
parts of the island, the northern end and western
half, were subject to Chinese jurisdiction. The
southeastern tip was the portion which the Japa
nese were to enter and occupy temporarily.
This was divided from the Chinese domain by
almost impassable mountain barriers, which the
aboriginal savages used as fastnesses. On the
western slopes the native head hunters were ac
customed to reap their periodical harvests of
Chinese heads, easily carried, when cut off, by
their hair handles, or queues. On the sea coast
these Butans got what they could from frequent
shipwrecks. A British and an American steamer were char
tered to carry the Japanese marines and infantry,
together with a large contingent of laborers, be
sides tools and materials for making roads and
building temporary shelters. Excellent equip
ment for attention to the wounded and the thirsty
was provided, for the Japanese, above all people,
believe in plenty of pure water. General T.
Saigo, the younger brother of Marshal Saigo of
1868, was appointed to command. Three exper
ienced American officers, one of the United
States Navy, one of the Engineer Corps, and

246 THE MIKADO
General Le Gendre were, by permission of the
State Department in Washington, permitted to
accompany the Japanese. Mr. Edward H.
House was to go as correspondent. He was
under the patronage of Okuma, and later wrote
the history of the expedition.
Most unexpectedly, when everything was
ready, the foreign diplomatists in Tokyo inter
meddled most foolishly. They stirred up such a
protest, with predictions of risk and ruin, that the
expedition was very much disarranged and the
whole matter became very complicated; for the
Chinese Government, which had hitherto been
complacent, suddenly assumed a hostile front.
Nevertheless the expedition sailed, and Okubo
was sent with full powers to Peking.
In Formosa the Japanese built roads, erected
huts, and had some little fighting in the bamboo
jungles. After chastising the savages they se
cured from the chiefs the promise of good treat
ment of shipwrecked people upon their shores.
While the Mikado's captains gained experience in
handling an army clothed and armed in Western
style, it was evident that they had not wholly
mastered modern military methods. It was like
some of the first Enghsh experiments in coloniza
tion. There were, in the force ashore, too many
gentlemen, and almost as many laborers as sol
diers. The total loss of life, chiefly through dis
ease and exposure, was about seven hundred.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 247
The bodies of the dead were brought to Nagasaki,
and, under Government auspices, buried in what
is now one of the national cemeteries. The final
issue of all was that the Peking authorities recog
nized the Formosan Expedition as just and
rightful, promising that if the Japanese would
evacuate the island China would pay indemnity
for expenses, to the amount of 400,000 taels. The
pamphlet written by Mr. E. H. House contains
an accurate chronicle of this enterprise.
Thus "all was settled, and once more Japan
held up her head as a leader in paths of humanity,
a fearless actor in the role she marked out for
herself, in spite of whatever influences might be
brought against her."
It was this vacillating and unjust conduct of
China in her dealings with Japan, both in regard
to the Formosans and the Riu Kiuan matters,
that fixed the Japanese in their determination to
strike hard at China when the opportunity should
come, as it did come twenty years later. Mean
while their respect for the foreign diplomatists in
Tokyo was not raised by the shortsighted med
dlesomeness of these gentlemen.
The Emperor was much interested in the
transit of Venus across the sun, which took place
December 9, 1874, and his Ministers and learned
men cooperated warmly with the scientific ob
servers sent out from America, France and
Mexico. On Palace Hill (Goten-yama) for-

248 THE MIKADO
merly garrisoned by Echizen's troops, the former
chief of the Survey Department, with Dr. David
Murray, observed the phenomenon, the latter
showing upon a screen the movement of the
planet across the greater disc. In Yokohama a
lithographed illustrated newspaper, very witty,
very humorous and always mirth provoking,
published from time to time by Mr. Wirgman, of
the London Illustrated News, as The Japan
Punch, treated the theme in allegory. A striking
cartoon, entitled "The Transit of Venus, as Ob
served from Peking," brought "lunar politics" to
the earth. China was represented as a lazy lady,
heavy with excess of adipose, who, after a
moment's gaze at the sky, turns over upon her
kang for more sleep, while across the sun's disc
is seen moving the glorious figure of the Japanese
Venus, lovely Yamato, slim and lithe, bearing the
sun flag of victory.
Mutsuhito profited by the popularity gained
by the Formosan affair so far as to take two steps
further in national evolution. He created a high
tribunal of justice, or ultimate court of appeal,
in all cases both civil and criminal. By estab
lishing, also, the Genroin, or Senate, a body of
men that shaped the national policy and legisla
tion not only in 1874 but for some years to come,
and even to 1912, the Emperor prepared the way
for the Upper House of the National Legislature
of the future. Mutsuhito's chief problem was
that of harnessing new power.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 249
The year of 1875 was notable for the develop
ment of the press, which served again to reveal
how large was the amount of unemployed brain
power, not yet healthily utilized, among the
Samurai. Newspapers sprang up in every prov
ince. The editors, being mostly Samurai, were
excessively free in their utterances, especially in
their personal criticisms of high officers of the
Government. Exchanging the sword for the
pen, these doughty knights, as dangerous with the
feather as with the steel, strove to make the new
weapon even mightier in offence than the older
one. Was it a new illustration of Dr. Oliver
Wendell Holmes's dictum concerning that short
ening of weapons which lengthens boundaries?
When one newspaper published a memorial de
manding that, besides modifying its policy, the
Government should behead the Prime Minister,
the law for the regulation of the press was put in
force, and the jails were soon crowded.
In the course of the next ten years hundreds
of editors were sent to prison. At times, room
could not be found for the peccant penmen, be
cause there were always jaunty warriors willing
to step into the places of those who were behind
bars. Soon the supply of figureheads ready to
day to stand as dummies for Government pro
secution, and to-morrow to board at the public
expense, created an embarrassment of riches.
Then more faithful study was given to the

250 THE MIKADO
memorial, which had been presented by Verbeck,
in the early '70s, on "The Freedom of the Press."
In this masterly document the man who had won
the confidence of the Japanese showed them the
path, out of sword rule and prison coercion, into
the more excellent way of regulated freedom.

CHAPTER XXV
THE MIKADO'S NORTHERN JOURNEY
In the consolidation of his Empire Mutsuhito
found it necessary to rectify the frontiers, as well
as to define sovereignty over the outlying north
ern portions. He sent Enomoto as his envoy
to the court of the Czar to negotiate concerning
Saghalien, which the Japanese and Russians had
jointly occupied. It resulted that the sub-arctic
island was given to Russia to make into a prison,
while all the Kurile Islands (the Smokers), of
which half had been claimed by Russia, became
an integral part of Dai Nippon.
The Bonin (No Man's) Islands, called Arzo-
bispo by the Spanish voyagers to Manila, visited
by Dutch and other earliex-navigators, and later
by Parry, Coffin, Beecli, Perry and others, and
colonized in 1830 by a mixed company from
Hawaii, were als</ taken under the Mikado's
direct rule.
Steadily the Japanese regained their old mas
tery of the seas, for which they had been famed
throughout Asia. As early as 1827 a vessel on
the foreign model had been built, but not used.
A steamer, made by native mechanics taught by
251

252 THE MIKADO
Dutchmen, had been launched at Nagasaki in
1851, and in 1860 Katsu Awa had navigated a
steamship across the Pacific to San Francisco.
The Daimios had bought steamers on private ac
count and the Government owned a few steam
war vessels. Mercantile companies were formed
for the coasting trade. One of them, the National
Mail Steamship Company of Japan, fell to
pieces for lack of mutual confidence and common
honesty in its interior organization. Another
company, called the Mitsu Bishi, or Three Dia
monds, impressed by the superior integrity of its
foreign agents, borrowed their methods and per
sonnel. Securing the Government mail contracts,
they also bought out the Pacific Mail Company,
in part, securing the coast trade and plying to
Shanghai, carrying the Sun Flag farther out on
the seas. Surveying and the making of charts
had already been begun in the Navy Department.
In 1873 the postal service was grandly de
veloped. Hitherto the inland transit of mail
matter had been by means of the naked runner,
clothed only in a loin cloth and head kerchief.
Carrying a bamboo pole over his shoulder, with a
letter stuck in the split end, the postman whizzed
across the country. The foreign residents had
their own postoffices, Enghsh, French, and
American. On Japanese soil these were an of
fence to the Mikado and his advisers. They could
not bear the idea of having ahens do a work which

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 253
belonged to the Imperial Government. Having
now an improved postal service, they aimed at
the control of the whole system within their boun
daries and applied first to the United States. An
expert, Mr. Samuel W. Bryan, was secured from
Washington. He helped mightily to develop
that system of transit and administration at home
and abroad which is now one of the finest in the
world. By degrees the Samurai, or hereditary swords
men of the Empire, were absorbed into the mass
of the people. Thousands remained in the army,
almost as many more became policemen, and
myriads gained their rice as servants of the Gov
ernment. The modern institutions of the press,
the medical, engineering and legal professions
absorbed many more. Almost to a man, the
Christian workers, teachers and preachers sprang
from this cultured class, while hundreds found
employment as translators, interpreters and
teachers, a fact which accounts for the highly
intellectual leaven and that notable spirit of in
dependence and self-help in the churches of
reformed Christianity. The Russo-Greek church
was recruited largely from people of the Aidzu
and other northern clans.
The Government, anticipating a recrudescence
of the cry "On to Korea," as soon as the For
mosan matter was settled took the initiative, to
win if possible a peace victory.

254 THE MIKADO
Since the days of Taiko there had been at
Fusan, in Korea, in a space of about 140 acres,
a httle settlement of Japanese who were shut
up very much as were the Dutchmen on Deshima,
at Nagasaki. One nobleman, ruling from Tsu
shima, held the monopoly of Korean trade and
grew rich at the business. Musuhito ordered his
resident agent, Moriyama, to secure, if possible,
a treaty with the Government at Seoul.
Meanwhile, in September, 1872, the officers
of the Unyo, a Japanese gunboat, while at sur
vey work at the mouth of the river leading up to
Seoul, were mistaken, in their new costume, for
Europeans, and were fired upon by armed
Koreans on Kokwa island. Next day the Japa
nese marines, only thirty-two in number, made an
assault, stormed the fort and, after the usual loot,
hoisted their flag, set the buildings on fire and
came away.
When the news reached Japan the war party
expected instant orders of invasion, but news
paper discussion showed that public sentiment
was against such a course. Taking a hint from
President Fillmore, the Mikado at once ordered
to Korea a fleet of no fewer than eight men-of-
war and transports under General Kuroda. The
envoy, Inouye, borrowing from the American
Minister, Mr. Bingham, a copy of Bayard Tay
lor's book on Japan, refreshed his memory as to
the Yankee Commodore's details. Mr. Mori,

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 255
formerly Japanese Minister to Washington, was
sent to Peking to get, if possible, China's good
will. Kuroda, following almost exactly the
American tactics ordered by President Fillmore
with Japan in 1852 — reliance on force for show,
but on tact to win — enlarged his apparent arma
ment by painting holes on merchant ships, mak
ing them look like men-of-war.
With patience and skill the Japanese envoys
were entirely successful. A treaty of peace and
friendship, wonderfully like that which the Amer
icans made with the Japanese in 1854, having in
it even the extraterritorial clause, was signed on
February 20, and the squadron returned with
colors apeak. Again was Mutsuhito worthy of
his name: the Peace Maker.
Another of the centers of friction in the na
tional machinery had been removed; for the
Korean question, in its old form, was now as
dead as the proverbial door nail. Again, improv
ing the opportunity, the Government prohibited
the wearing of swords. None but military, naval
and police officers, or gentlemen in Court dress,
could wear a weapon. Permission to disarm had
become compulsion. The girded sword being
"the hving soul of the Samurai," these gentry
were now as "soulless," so far as fighting tools
were concerned, as ordinary mortals.
To the proffer of the olive leaf the Koreans
responded by sending an embassy, which proved

256 THE MIKADO
to be a greater object lesson to the Japanese than
they could have imagined. No embassy like this
had visited the capital of Japan for more than
230 years. The hermits appeared in padded, and
baggy white clothes, and with baggage of an
uninviting appearance, the large horn rimmed
spectacles of the chief envoy suggesting vast
sapience. Dressed in a robe of violet colored
crape, and carried on a chair covered with a
tiger's skin, this fine looking man was perched on
an open litter borne by nine men. His band of
musicians, consisting of fourteen players, clothed
in garments of as many hues, made most dis
tressful music, which caused hilarious laughter
among the Japanese. They played on trumpets,
flageolets, flutes, cymbals, conch shells and tom
toms. The two pages, bare headed and with their
hair plaited in queue, carried boxes. Their sex
was a puzzle, but as unmarried young men, they
were correctly arrayed and coifed in the Korean
fashion, that is, exactly like the pages in the old
Imperial court in medieval Kyoto. Attendants
bore staves of office, spears and flags, and there
were four gorgeously dressed men, of evidently
higher rank, with many followers. All had on
broad brimmed horsehair hats, ornamented with
peacock's feathers and tassels, and tied under the
chin by strings of large amber beads. The pro
cession, though no doubt intended to add to the

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 257
dignity of the embassage, only provoked jokes
and jeers.
These Koreans wre nearly all tall, good looking
specimens of humanity, giving the impression
that the peninsulars were a fine, large race of
men, "devoted to Confucianism, dirt, and the
most distracting music." Altogether it was an
elaborate and spectacular anchronism, but it did
the Japanese good. It was history's mirror.
After audience of the Mikado the chief envoys
spent some days examining things foreign and
native. They visited various places and then
went to the Strand Palace to see dakiu, or polo,
played, a game in vogue in Japan for several
hundred years past. On the present occasion
several high officers of the Cabinet took part. The
inhabitants of the capital, forgetting their usual
politeness, openly made merry over the uncouth-
ness and strangeness of the visitors. In their
newspapers and comic journals they were more
than facetious ; they were grossly insulting. The
Tokyo folks were illustrating their own proverb,
Kiyo ni mo, inaka: "There are boors even in the
capital." The British editor of the Japan Mail
was moved to declare that "a press which had not
yet travelled beyond the stage on which we find
that of Japan would do well to put off some of
its own soiled linen before making remarks about
its neighbor's wardrobe."
The Emperor had long intended to visit the

258 THE MIKADO
northern and poorer parts of his dominions, and
those least under the influence of the capital. His
desire was to consolidate the nation. With other
political ends in view, the Government encour
aged the Mikado to take this journey, which was
devised in part to avoid calling together the' long
promised National Parliament.
The Imperial progress began on June 2. All
the villages and towns were gaily decorated, and
the line of route to Nikko was crowded with peo
ple, all eager to catch a glimpse of their beloved
Emperor. The country people as a rule took off
their shoes, or rather stepped out of their clogs
and sandals, and voluntarily prostrated them
selves, as their sovereign passed by. Like a true
Father of His Country, Mutsuhito wished that
traffic along the pubhc roads should be inter
rupted as little as possible. He made many
inquiries of each of the prefects, and reviewed his
soldiers in each place, giving money not only to
erect memorial shrines to those slain in the war
of 1868, but also to keep in repair the tombs of
celebrated scholars.
In the course of this journey the Emperor
received news of the death of his daughter, the
infant Princess Plum Blossom (Ume No Miya) .
He sent a message of condolence "to the Em
press" and the party rested a few days.
This incident leads us to look at the record of
Mutsuhito's offspring. His first child, born to

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 259
the Emperor by Madame Hamuro Mitsuko, Sep
tember 18, 1873, died on the same day.
A princess, by Madame Hashimoto Natsuko,
born on November 13, 1873, died on the same day.
His third child, by Madame Yanagiwara Aiko,
named Shigko Ume No Miya, was born Jan
uary 21, 1875, and died on June 8, 1876, as above
stated. The same Imperial concubine gave birth,
on September 23, 1877, to a son, Yukihito, who
was named heir apparent, but died July 26, 1878.
This same lady became the mother of the third
son of the Emperor, Yoshihito, born August 31,
1879, who became heir to the Throne and Crown
Prince, and on July 31, 1912, Emperor of Japan,
his inauguration being appointed for November
10, 1915.
Five more daughters were born to the Em
peror between August 3, 1881, and November 30,
1893, of whom three died. Of two of them
Madame Shigosa Kagako was the mother.
Madame Sono Yoshiko gave birth to two sons
and two daughters, of whom two daughters, now
married, are living.
Most of the localities renowned in the classics
are in central Japan. The Moor of Hasu, one of
the largest plains in the Empire, was one of the
few places in the north made famous in poem,
song or drama. Dreadful tales had long been
told of travellers lost in storms, or led to grief or
death through the malevolent agency of the

260 THE MIKADO
spirits that dwell in the fox and the badger in
this desolate region. Here was located the scene
of the classic comedy or opera entitled "The
Death Stone," in Which the spirit of the Flawless
Jewel Maiden (a demon spirit from India, in
female form, who had nearly brought to death
the Mikado Toba) is exorcised and "laid" by the
prayers of the Buddhist priest Genno. Mutsuhito,
being familiar with the opera of the Death Stone,
richly enjoyed looking upon the scenery made
classic in medieval literature, which he traversed
on the 12th.
Most pleasing to the eye was the beautiful
plain of Sambongi. The Emperor was dehghted
to learn the story of its fertility. The whole tract,
a century or so before, was a sandy, barren moor,
sparsely inhabited by poor people who had be
come degenerate because of the sterility of the
region. With only the rudest instruments, a
straw rope for a surveying chain, and without
even a spirit level, Tsuto Nitobe, aided by his
father, tunneled two ranges of mountains and led
the waters of a river through them, a distance of
ten miles. Nature and man thus transformed a
desert into a fertile plain.
This wonderful piece of engineering is grate
fully commemorated, in two stones inscribed to
the benefactor's grandfather, the great-grand
father of Dr. Inazo Nitobe, the accomplished
author of "Bushido : the Soul of Japan," and lee-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 261
turer in six American universities in 1912. The
Emperor spent a night in the Nitobe home, and
leaving a memento of his favor, desired that the
family should continue in similar lines of effort.
The oldest son was already studying civil en
gineering, and in consequence of the wish ex
pressed by Mutsuhito the youngest son, Inazo,
decided to make agricultural development his
life work.
During this year the college at Sapporo in
Yezo, with a staff of American instructors, was
opened for the training of a body of men who
could develop according to scientific methods the
mines and rich valleys of that hitherto almost
unknown part of the Empire. Inazo Nitobe en
tered in the class of 1877. Later he studied
history and political economy at Johns Hopkins
University, writing for his thesis the well known
monograph "Intercourse Between the United
States and Japan." In 1905 he engaged in the
development of Formosa.
The Emperor rode over the rough northern
roads on horseback, escorted through each pre
fecture by its governor, and always met by the
local magistrates on the borders. As the Em
peror walked about, the lower class of people
carefully gathered up the soil on which the Im
perial feet had stepped, believing that earth thus
consecrated would cure diseases.
During the whole journey the proprietors of

THE MIKADO
the different hotels kept with great reverence
whatever articles His Majesty had used. In
some cases these were stored up in the temples,
the priests of which are usually the custodians
of all articles of interest. These became the seed
of educational collections, even as European
museums grew up out of the curiosity rooms and
reliquaries of monasteries.
At Shirakawa, noted for the breeding of horses,
about fifteen hundred of the animals had been
gathered for the Emperor's inspection, and the
public school children, the boys in foreign cos
tume and the girls in their own pretty native
dress, welcomed their sovereign. Mutsuhito also
visited the site of the former castle of the Daimio,
finding the interior space wholly given up to
agriculture, a type of the national change from
feudalism to industrialism.
On the 14th His Majesty in his carriage passed
through several towns, along the main streets of
which the children of the public schools, dressed
in their gayest clothes, were waiting to receive
him. At night the firemen, turning out in great
force, made a demonstration of their prowess and
skill. At Tsukagawa the great September horse
fair was held earlier this year, for the Imperial
delectation. Of the six hundred or more animals
gathered together, most were sold by auction in
presence of the Mikado, who enjoyed the spirited
competition of the horse dealers. On the 16th

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 263
His Majesty crossed a plain which had recently
been waste land, but which now, reclaimed,
brought forth good crops. The Emperor sum
moned to his presence several farmers and told
them how happy he was to see such improvement.
On the 17th at Nihon-Matsu the Emperor
visited the silk reehng establishment, learning the
process and leaving a present of fifty yen for the
workmen employed there. The old castle area,
now wholly given up to this industry, furnished
a striking proof that the age of war, of feudalism
and of division was over and that the era of peace,
industry and national unity had come.
In Fukushima the Emperor took up his quar
ters at the college to remain until the 22nd. The
ruler of all Japan, true Father of His People,
asked some searching questions of the prefects of
three ken. On the 21st the silver mines of Handa
were visited and the workings on the foreign
method examined.
The most famous city of northern Japan, and
now a centre of Christian education, Sendai, was
reached on the 24th, the troops in garrison being
drawn up to receive their sovereign. Here the
visits and receptions consumed several days. The
Emperor looked upon the relics of Date Masa-
mune, lord of Sendai (1566-1636), who had once
sent his retainer Hashikura (1561-1622) and an
embassy to Europe, by way of Mexico, to inquire
into Western civilization and religion. The en-

264 THE MIKADO
voy, baptized in the Christian faith at Madrid,
under Philip III. was absent eight years, his
portrait being there painted as a European monk.
These most interesting memorials are now in the
museum in Tokyo. The Emperor received an
address of welcome from the members of the
Greek Church, which he accepted graciously. It
was from this city that in June, 1905, the people,
heartily appreciative of the educational influence
of the American missionaries, sent an ancient
sword and other presents to President Roosevelt.
The last part of the journey had to be made
on horseback or in norimono, because the
wretched apologies for roads would not then
admit of carriages. His Majesty looked with
interest upon the ancient temple of Chuzenji and
its relics. Despite the rains, he kept on to Mo-
rioka, which he left on the 7th of July, riding
through a barren and uninhabited country. At
Awomori he witnessed the horse races.
On the 16th of July the Imperial party crossed
over the Straits of Tsugaru, spending several
days at Hakodate, whence His Majesty and at
tendants embarked on a man-of-war, the Meiji
Maru, for Tokyo, arriving at Yokohama July 20.

CHAPTER XXVI
THE NEW MIKADOISM TESTED
Having looked upon his native land from one
end to the other, Mutsuhito felt that his hand was
now powerful enough to signalize his mastery of
the whole situation by two bold strokes of power.
His one aim was to unify the nation by curtailing
privilege above and uplifting the masses from
below. On August 5 he issued the decree extin
guishing the hereditary pensions and life incomes
of the Samurai. Sixteen days afterward he or
dered a reduction in the number of prefectures
from sixty-eight to thirty-five, thus diminishing
the army of salaried servants of the Government
by one-half.
In old Japan, virtually the land of a single tax,
almost the only people regularly forced to pay
the expenses of the Government were the farm
ers. Even under the new regime three-fourths of
the total national revenue was drawn from the
land tax. A reduction from three to two and a
half per cent, meant a loss to the treasury of
$8,000,000. This loss was to be made good
through economy in administration, by lessening
to a minimum both the number of Government
265

266 THE MIKADO
functionaries and their salaries. This relief of the
agricultural classes, who aggregate three-fourths
of the people, was a truly national blessing, mean
ing grief to a few thousands and joy to many
millions. The measure, executed about Christ
mas, 1876, was destined in the long run to benefit
the whole population and bring nearer that happy
time when the Imperial prerogative should be
"broad based upon the people's will."
These reforms, actual and prospective, were
not to be accomplished without protest and blood
shed; and the severest test of the new system was
yet to come. Japan had no representative system,
nor a free press. Hence the old possessors of
hereditary privileges could not at once compre
hend what was going on. Not a few of them
thought that the Emperor was virtually a pris
oner in the Tokyo Castle, the tool of a few de
signing and selfish men. To see the Divine
Country defiled by aliens, the grand old institu
tions decaying, and the ancient landmarks of their
faith swept away, their swords put under ban,
Christianity tolerated and democracy in pros
pect, was too much. To give expression to their
convictions that their Mikado was held in bond
age by bad counsellors they formed clubs, named
after the Divine Breath, that six centuries before
had swept away the Mongol barbarians. They
raised the cry, "Drive the foreigners into the sea."
Yet their only idea of reform was to "reverence

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 267
the Mikado" — by having their own way. They
determined to assassinate the Tokyo office-hold
ers, get hold of the sacred person, and then issue
laws or reactionary edicts in his name.
So, after long brooding over fancied wrongs,
these men donned helmets and armor, drew their
swords and rushed like bulls at a locomotive ad
vancing under full head of steam on well laid
rails. The interesting collision was soon an event
in history.
The results could have been easily foretold,
when in October, 1876, at Kumamoto the reac
tionaries rose and attacked the Imperial garrison,
for the day of telegraphs, steam, electricity, re
peating rifles and modern cannon had come.
Japan was a body politic, with a new nervous
system. No men encased in the old shells of
civilization, however brave, could compete with
equally valorous men equipped with new forces
and weapons. By Christmas day everything was
quiet and the rebellion annihilated. The after
math was seen in hundreds of cases of hara-kiri,
or decapitation, exile and degradation.
The last days of 1876 were marked by intense
activity on the part of the Emperor, who met his
councillors almost daily in the Senate (Genroin),
devising methods of reform for the rebuilding of
the nation. After the usual autumnal crop of
rustic uprisings had been reaped, a cloud was
noticed rising in the southwest. The sullen and

268 THE MIKADO
reactionary clansmen of Satsuma, the one portion
of the Empire unassimilated to the life of pro
gressive Japan, were preparing to defy the au
thority of the central Government. In old times
this clan had been able to overawe and terrify
the Yedo authorities. Now there were many
ominous signs that the Satsuma men imagined
themselves able to do the same thing with the new
Government. Under the direction of the elder
Saigo the young men of the province were, al
most in a body, in attendance upon the private
schools and under daily military drill. Mutsuhito
ordered the powder from the mills near the city
of Kagoshima to be removed, and for this pur
pose one of the national vessels was sent thither.
Meanwhile the Emperor and his chief counsellors
went to Kobe to attend the opening of the new
railway to Kyoto.
Hardly had the Imperial party arrived when
the news came that the removal of the powder
had been resisted and on January 29 the Satsuma
clansmen had broken into the arsenal, removed
the arms and ammunition and had even tried to
stop the transport steamer.
Power of secrecy is the Japanese armor of
proof. Grave as was this piece of news, the
Ministers decided not to postpone the opening
of the railway or to make public the news. After
the ceremonies and gaiety Admiral Kawamura
was sent in the Mikado's steam yacht, the fastest

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 269
vessel of the navy, to conciliate, if possible, Saigo
and his fellow clansmen, but upon his arrival at
Kagoshima on the 9th, the Admiral found the
whole body of Samurai armed and in revolt. A
vile report, that the Tokyo Government had
planned to assassinate Saigo, had acted like a
spark upon gunpowder. Skilfully avoiding a con
flict, which might have made impossible any hope
of peace, Kawamura, after interviews with the
city governor, steamed out of the bay and tele
graphed from the nearest station the startling
facts. All doubt as to whether Saigo, the military
leader and hero of the Restoration, was person
ally concerned with the uprising was soon dis
solved. He had organized his followers into
companies and regiments and was marching to
attack Kumamoto Castle. The garrison at this
place was under command of Colonel Tani, and
Oyama, destined to be Field Marshal in Man
churia, was a lieutenant under him. Saigo and
his generals, dressed in the uniforms they had
worn in the Imperial army, professed to be loyal
to the Emperor, Saigo acting as the Mikado's
commander-in-chief of the land forces, with the
view of going to Tokyo "on a peaceful and lawful
errand." In its nature this was exactly that of
Keiki, who set out from Osaka in 1868 to reenter
Kyoto in force, to "drive out the bad counsellors
of the young Emperor." Appearing before the

270 THE MIKADO
Kumamoto Castle, Saigo began a siege lasting
fifty-five days.
As Mutsuhito saw the situation, it was this:
The ablest military genius in Japan was at the
head of a host of brave men, all passionately loyal
fellow clansmen and many of them veterans, well
drilled, equipped and disciplined, with artillery.
With thousands of others, all over the Empire,
they were devoted to the ideas of the old school
and ready to follow their leader to the death. In
their minds Saigo was the shining exponent of
the ancient virtues of Bushido.
On the other hand was a new and untried army
of raw troops, composed largely of peasant lads.
These, like their ancestors, peaceful laborers dur
ing centuries, had been overawed by the sword-
bearing gentry, who looked down with supreme
contempt upon them as inferiors. It was now to
be seen whether the spirit of unconquerable Japan
belonged to the nation at large or was only the
prerogative of the gentry.
The Mikado at once proclaimed martial law
in Kiushiu, ordered his ships to blockade the
ports, despatched the flower of the new national
army southward, armed the municipal police,
raised fresh levies of conscripts, put Prince
Arisugawa again in supreme command and sent
Generals Yamagata (afterward Field Marshal
in China) and Kawaji, the oni or "demon" (who
allowed the massacre at Port Arthur in 1895) in

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 271
command of two divisions to inclose the rebels in
a cordon. In July Tsukumichi Saigo, younger
brother of the arch rebel, but loyal to the Mikado,
took the field. Nogi, later hero of Port Arthur,
was active. The loss of his regimental standard
in battle was mourned over by him during thirty-
five years, and was in 1912 given by him as the
fundamental reason for his committing suicide.
The uprising soon took in nearly all Kiushiu,
and an exceedingly bloody civil war began. Al
though Saigo's men were armed with modern
rifles, they clung with fanatical affection to their
ancestral weapon, the two handed sword, and in
most of the battles they preferred the old style
of fighting. Their favorite method of attack was
much like that of the Highlanders with their
claymores, at Culloden. Their idea was to neu
tralize the rifle ball, to dash aside the bayonet
thrust with a shield, and then to ply their double-
handed swords when they had broken up the
ranks of the foe. Instead, however, of "brazen
studs and tough bull hide," each Satsuma swords
man, utilizing his girdle, bound together two of
the thick tatami, or rice straw mats, with which
every Japanese house floor is covered. Holding
before them in their left hand these light, double
cushions of thickly braided straw, five, six or eight
inches thick, they rushed against the enemy, often
with terrific effect, as the awful sword wounds on
the new peasant soldiers showed. Many a time

272 THE MIKADO
they thus worsted the Imperial infantry. Even
the women performed prodigies of valor. Soon
the list of casualties on the royal side numbered
over six thousand. The Government was obliged
to call to its service, at high wages, from Aidzu
and other quarters, the expert fencers and
veteran clansmen, who had old scores to settle
with Satsuma. Then the duels with cold steel
went on to sure decision of the issue.
What was thought at the time to be the con
cluding battle was fought on August 16, in an old
natural stronghold at Nobeoka, when victory
perched on the Mikado's brocade banner. It was
supposed that peace had come, and most of the
Imperial troops were withdrawn. The next piece
of news was that the Satsuma leaders, escaping
into Hiuga and dashing out again, on September
2, had seized Kagoshima, holding it for two
weeks. When driven out of the city they were sur
rounded, at Nobeoka, on September 24, by 15,000
Imperialists, who fired at long range so that not
one of the Mikado's soldiers was injured. About
four hundred proud upholders of the lost cause,
armed only with their blades and surrounded by a
wall of fire, were all slain, or committed hara-kiri.
It is believed that Saigo, refusing to surrender
or be taken prisoner, sought the extermination of
his band in order to die by opening his bowels in
the ancient manner.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 273
Brave as he was, Saigo and his leaders were un-
regenerate Bushi and to him Bushido meant the
irreformable and ferocious traditions of insular
feudalism. He could not come into the new
world of ideas. He had led more than forty
thousand men to battle, of whom more than
11,000 were killed or wounded. On the other side
was an equal number of dead or maimed men,
the majority of wounds being from sword cuts.
It was clear that the spirit animating the Sa
murai had descended upon the hei-min or com
moners. The army, recruited from the plain
people, had shown itself in heroism second to
none in Japan's history, and was unconsciously
rehearsing for the Chinese continental war of
1894, which was to annihilate the drilled soldiers
of China and astonish the world. The prelude
to the humbling of Russia was in Kiushiu in 1877,
a training school for 1904.
The new age had come, and with it new ideas.
In the Emperor's gracious clemency, only twenty
persons were beheaded, and these for special
crimes. Out of over 38,000 persons tried, more
than 35,000 were pardoned. There were fines,
degradations and sentences of imprisonment with
hard labor for fewer than 2,000, while nearly 300
were acquitted.
Mutsuhito and his Ministers decided that, ex
cept the religious and memorial celebrations, there
should be no public demonstrations in the capital

274 THE MIKADO
nor any sign of triumph or exultation. Accord
ingly, without any notice of their arrival, with no
pageantry or decoration, the victorious regiments
marched quietly to their barracks. Yet mtensely
eloquent and dramatic, in its very silence, was the
appearance of these peasant soldiers with their
bayonets nicked, bent or broken, showing how
these had crossed with the swords of Samurai in
deadly combat and had won. To the commander-
in-chief and the generals decorations of jewels
were awarded, and the ceremonies of Sho-
kon (greeting the spirits), memorial services
in honor of the loyal slain, were appointed for
November 14.
The total number of national troops employed
in suppressing the Satsuma uprising was over
65,000, including 7,000 police and four battalions
of artillery, with forty-eight guns; but not over
40,000 were at any one time in Kiushiu. The
utmost strength of Saigo, at any one time, never
exceeded 22,000 men. Peculiar to the Japanese
is the general employment of laborers to assist the
soliders and do much work which in other armies
is done by the fighting men themselves. As the
War Department paid for 12,856,700 days work
of laborers, there must have been 50,000 laborers
occupied daily during the period of the rebellion.
Seventeen men-of-war, with fifty-eight guns and
1,500 men, were constantly employed in the duties
of blockade, transport or bombardment.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 275
The loss in the national army was 6,399 killed
and 10,523 wounded; and of the rebels 7,000
killed and 11,000 wounded, many of whom died
of their wounds. From these causes, together
with disease, exposure and injury, probably not
fewer than 50,000 natives lost their lives on ac
count of this rebellion. Perhaps as many houses,
of an average value of $40, were destroyed. The
cost of vindicating the national authority was at
least $50,000,000.
Besides nature's "oblivion of flowers," trade
and industry do their part in mantling old scenes
of wrath with new associations of brotherhood.
The National Industrial Exposition, in the
grounds and on the old battle field of Uyeno, in
Tokyo from August 21 to November 30, 1877,
and in every way successful, ministered to peace
and national unity. In 1914, on the same site, an
exhibition celebrating the accession of the new
Mikado and the era of Tai-Sho, or Great Right
eousness, was held.

CHAPTER XXVII
POLITICAL STRUGGLE AND EVOLUTION
A decade of the new order of things had passed
when the year 1877 ended. A Government made
up of an irresponsible Ministry stood between the
Emperor and the people. Intelligent young men
out of office were making great strides in political
knowledge. Hundreds of them, educated in the
United States, the greatest school of self govern
ment in the world, by their writings, lectures,
translations and public addresses were making
the people all over the country familiar not only
with the right ideas of government but with the
unpleasant fact that the Emperor had not yet
fulfilled his promise of 1868, to form a representa
tive National Assembly. They kept on agitating
this one subject in the newspapers and sent up
frequent memorials to the Imperial Ministers.
An old oracle in the Island of the Four Prov
inces declared that "liberty shall yet flow out of
the mountains of Tosa," and the Tosa men, led by
Itagaki, were particularly active in political dis
cussion. By the year 1877 they had become a
distinctly formed political party, with a frankly
expressed ideal of government in Japan, that of
276

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 277
the English people. Although opposed to the ir
responsible Ministry in Tokyo, Itagaki, their
leader, refused all recourse to arms, beheving only
in peaceable means. In July, 1877, he sent a
most elaborate memorial to the Mikado, showing
why the Imperial oath of 1868 should be made
good. Eight of the nine reasons were direct im
peachments of the Government.
Occupied with the suppression of the rebelhon
in the southwestern provinces, the Ministers could
pay little attention to this memorial at the time,
but soon, according to the time honored prece
dent, the sword, that "lightning flash in the dark
ness," revealed to the Ministerial mind the crisis
of danger. Assassination, as usual in Old Japan,
ushered in a new era. Bushido, the Knightly
Code, was to be again exemplified in vengeance
and mutual martyrdom.
Okubo, the victim selected, and one of the most
brilliant and handsome men in the group nearest
the Emperor, was the typical statesman of the
New Japan. He saw what was needed to lift
his country out of feudalism and to make the
nation the equal of any in the world. His very
eagerness to fulfil a noble purpose blinded him
to the dangers inherent in a centralized form of
government, which he and like minded men be
lieved to be of the first necessity.
The protestants in Satsuma, Tosa and Kaga
looked upon him, however, as an enemy to public

278 THE MIKADO
discussion and popular rights. They murdered
him on the morning of May 14, 1878, as the car
riage of the Minister drew near the Imperial
Palace. With his head cloven, one hand severed
and the body cut and stabbed in many places,
lying near the reddened swords used by the six
assassins, the corpse of Okubo was found by his
friend, General T. Saigo. The unquailing ex
ponents of egotism and of Bushido had vol
untarily surrendered themselves, a few minutes
before, to the guard at the gate of the Imperial
Palace, calmly acknowledging what they had
done. Faithful, in every jot and tittle, to the old
orthodoxy of feudahsm, each man carried on his
body a writing in vindication of his motive and
purpose. Mutsuhito never showed more clearly his true
spirit, his invincible purpose and his own high
personal appreciation of Okubo than by at once
conferring upon his dead servant the highest
rank, elevating the sons of Okubo to the nobihty,
and ordering a funeral of imposing splendor,
which eclipsed, perhaps, anything of the kind
ever seen in the great city.
Yet this was not all. The Emperor heeded the
irrepressible expressions of public opinion that
were manifest on every side, and on July 22
ordered that provincial parliaments, or assem
blies should be organized in each prefecture.
These were to be schools of local government to

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 279
prepare the nation for the still more august Diet
that must, with the Mikado, direct the policy of
Japan. It is hardly possible to-day, after so many
years of peaceful constitutional government, to
realize the excitement of the twenty-one years of
political agitation that lay between the promise
given in the Imperial Charter Oath of 1868 and
its complete fulfilment in the Constitution of
1889. Two lines of thought in the evolution of mod
ern Japanese politics as expressed in parties are
discernible, the missionary, or Anglo-Saxon
party, and the Shinto, or Prussian party.
On the one side we see such men as Okuma,
Soyeshima, Itagaki, Shimada, and hosts of others,
their successors, whose purpose is not only politi
cal but ethical. True representatives of the com
monwealth and the people, they are liberal in
politics but conservative in social matters. They
uphold personal and public morality. They be
lieve in a written Constitution, which makes the
Ministers responsible to the Diet, and not to the
sovereign. Educated in the historical documents
and writings of English and American publicists,
they admire the constructive men of action and
wisdom in these countries. Trained in the art of
conference and of assembling for the public
good, they believe in making sovereignty reside
not in the Throne but in the people, when rightly

280 THE MIKADO
educated and controlled. The best things to
borrow from the Occident, they consider, are
high ethical standards. The most valuable things
to conserve in the native civilization are the old
ideals, transfigured and adapted to the new age.
The Shinto or Prussian party is based on the
idea that all sovereignty resides in the Emperor;
that the Constitution is his own gift to the nation ;
that the Ministers must always be responsible to
the sovereign and not to the Diet ; that the Upper
House must be the Emperor's creation and al
ways his support, that the greater part of the
Constitution must be rigid and unamendable;
that there must be great orders and dignities con
ferred by the Emperor and that everything must
centre in him; that parties have nothing to do
with the policy of the Government ; that even in
the Lower House, as well as in the Upper, legis
lators are simply advisers, and the chief Minis
ter of the Imperial will is the Chancellor, who has
subordinates but no associate; while, all through
the body politic, the governors and the deliberate
gatherings are to follow out the example of the
upper personnel of the Empire. In their strict
est view, there is no State of Japan apart from
the Imperial family.
The real fathers of Japan's political parties
were Nakamura and Fukuzawa, both of whom I
knew well. In both body and mind, even in
feudal days, they had visited Occidental coun-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 281
tries. The teachings of the one were ethical, and
socially conservative; those of the other were
economic and materiahstic.
Exactly what the official rhetoric concerning
the gift of the Constitution as solely an act of
Imperial grace may mean, one may judge from
a glance at chronology. The text of the instru
ment is of Imperial origin.
1868. The promise, with an oath, that "public
matters shall be decided by public assembly."
1873. Petition of Itagaki and others that the
Emperor should keep his promise.
1875. Establishment of the Supreme Court
and local assemblies.
1879. The Jiyuto, or Liberty Party, or
ganized. 1880. Urgent petitions from tens of thous
ands of people for the establishment of a Parlia
ment. (Two of the agitating leaders afterward
thrown into prison.)
1881. Reorganization of the Liberals. Meet
ing in secret, because of police opposition, they
resolved "to labor for the overthrow of despotism
and the establishment of civil liberty, to part
with property, nay even with wife and children,
and to face death itself for the accomplishment of
this object; and whatever be the cost, never to
dissolve . . . till this purpose be obtained."
Ninety-eight representatives from thirty-nine
provinces took the oath.

THE MIKADO
1882. The Government's repressive measures
were condemned by the judgment of the Su
preme Court, and the cause of popular hberty
triumphed. 1887. The Imperial Rescript, or Peace Pres
ervation Regulations, at which we shall now
glance more fully.
In 1881, when the Jiyuto, or Liberty Party
was formed, the very name startled some of the
men in office and power. "The term liberty,
which is wholly absent from the literature of
China and Japan," thus coined and put to a
political purpose, might bode no good to despot
ism, or even to those who in office felt themselves
masters instead of being true servants. When,
in the Court of Appeals, in Sendai a lawless
governor, secretly upheld by the Tokyo states
men in power, was arraigned for malfeasance in
office, a young lawyer represented and defended
six members of the Jiyuto party, exposing before
the court the illegal acts of the Government. For
this duty to his country, he was thrown into
prison. Against such shameless action men high
in office protested as sheer injustice. The six
men of the Jiyuto party were hurriedly tried,
convicted and sentenced to fifteen years impris
onment. They appealed to the Supreme Court.
Mr. Hoshi Toru pleaded their case and they were
released amid joyful popular demonstration.
The Tokyo bureaucracy had been beaten in a
trial at law.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 283
This was one of the rather too many instances
in which Mikadoism, by the folly of its upholders,
has been made reactionary, almost to the point
of Czarism and has been an obstacle to freedom.
All the good fruits of the Restoration, at one time,
seemed wrested away by bureaucracy. Because
they were appointees of the Emperor, governors
of provinces often abused their office and au
thority, oppressed the people and humbled
their political opponents. Most vicious of all
their machinations was their well concealed pur
pose to force or inveigle their critics into acts of
treason. Against this the people and all lovers
of freedom under law protested fearlessly. Even
the overworked police and prisons did not deter
them. The culmination of Ministerial arrogance
was reached in the so-called "Peace Preservation
Regulations," promulgated December 25, 1887.
In this virtual proclamation of martial law in
Tokyo not only were all secret assemblages for
bidden but the police were empowered, without
reference to higher authority, to put a stop to
open air meetings, and even to remove from
within a radius of three ri (ten miles) from the
palace any one "judged to be scheming some
thing detrimental to the public peace" ; the police,
secretly instructed by the Ministers in power, to
be the judges.
In the execution of this order, which was more
military than civil, about three hundred persons

284 THE MIKADO
were deported. Some of these were undoubtedly
dangerous characters, or silly young persons who
made themselves a nuisance; but many were
among the ablest men of Japan, irreproachable
in character, though differing in political opin
ions from the Ministers in power. They de
clined to leave Tokyo, and demanded to know
what crime they had been guilty of or • were
charged with. Refused even an answer, they
were sent to prison. This highhanded action
filled the jails with men whose faces were set
towards the goal of freedom.
When the Imperial Diet assembled under the
Constitution, in December, 1890, almost every
one of the jail birds of ability was summoned to
a seat in the Diet, and two of them became Speak
ers of the House of Representatives. The des
potic measures of 1887 had their nemesis in the
poor success of the first year of Japan's parlia
mentary experiment.
These men, true Samurai, ready to serve and
to suffer, are far more worthy of being called
Yushisha or giri (righteous men) than the sui
cides and murderous assassins so long glorified
by the Japanese. They must be reckoned in
equal honor with the "Elder Statesmen" in
power. The three great liberties, of speech,
press and assembly, were gained by them. No
Togo, or Oyama, or army or navy won greater
victories than they. They made possible, as

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 285
surely as the men in office, the power of the
nation in its wars and diplomacy. The struggle
of tendencies and parties, during most of the
Meiji era, has been between the followers of the
Anglo-Saxon and the Prussian models of gov
ernment, with the result that the latter won in the
letter of the Constitution and the former in the
spirit of it. Such liberals as Count Okuma and
Itagaki were too high in character, abilities and
popular regard for arrest, and they never got
into prison. Nevertheless, speaking their minds
freely, they cheered on their followers. Through
out the long struggle for personal and popular
rights speakers, writers and leaders everywhere
showed how powerfully the literature and exam
ple not only of France and England but much
more those of the United States had nourished
their minds and influenced their action.
Political Japan might be rapidly transformed,
but social customs change slowly. Even under
constitutional imperialism, the old clan methods
persisted in new forms, and one of the phe
nomena of the new regime was the rise of a new
figure in Japanese politics — the so-shi or "physi
cal force politician."
From 1869 to 1889, speaking roughly, the
ronin vanished, and no well defined figure took
his place, for feudalism was no more. The assas
sin, however, was occasionally busy, and in every
case was a "gentleman," and out of office. When

286 THE MIKADO
Okuma pressed that phase of the question of
treaty revision which would allow foreigners to
sit with Japanese as judges in mixed courts, then
the so-shi (brave man), or stalwart patriot,
arose. His cry was, "Japan for the Japanese."
He knew what dynamite was and handled it
effectively, at times even in evening dress. The
sword having ceased to be part of a gentleman's
garb, the sword cane and revolver were in de
mand and use. Organized into bands, named
"young radicals," "independents," etc., these
fiery patriots were regularly enrolled, and paid,
bought and sold like Tammany Hall "heelers."
They figured in the personal assaults on members
of the Diet, at the election rows, and in those
unrequested interviews forced on Cabinet Min
isters, which so disgraced the politics of Japan
in the early days of the Diet. Whether serving
as personal guards, sluggers, blackmailers, in
ventors of scandals for dirty newspapers, turners
of state's evidence, low actors, peddlers of their
own ribald street songs, or campfollowers of the
armies, their story, whether in abounding pros
perity or abasement of impecuniosity, is marvel
lously like that of the vote seller and political
hanger-on in America. The clash with China did
much to make the so-shi a vanishing figure. The
war, by moving Court and Diet to the far south
west at Hiroshima, withal, calling forth into at
least temporary earnestness of unity the various

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 287
factions, spoiled the so-shi's trade. One burden
of letters from Japan during the year 1895 was
the absence from or innocuousness of the so-shi at
the capital. The pistol shot at the aged Chinese
envoy, Li Hung Chang, the guest of the nation,
at Shimonoseki, roused such a storm of popular
wrath that the half educated young "gentlemen"
who once lived as well paid "workers for the
party," in ever dwindling numbers, were com
pelled to earn a living by manual industry or in
precarious blackmailing.

CHAPTER XXVIII
LATER LIFE OF THE EMPEROR
By the time the Mikado had fulfilled his sacred
promise given to the nation in 1868 and had
granted the Constitution of 1889 he had reached
the prime of life and his character as a statesman
and ruler was fixed. Scrupulously conscientious
in all his dealings with individual men and with
the nation, he rejoiced in the opportunity to fulfill
his plighted word. There were extravagant
demonstrations of joy on the part of Japan's
millions, on the promulgation of the Constitu
tion in 1889, but their emotions were no deeper
than the Emperor's own. Theirs was as the tor
rential rivers of mountainous Nippon. His was
as the still waters of Lake Biwa.
Tokutomi, a veteran editor, through Professor
E. W. Clement says of Mutsuhito: "He was
a model constitutional monarch; he always
trusted his eminent statesmen, and kept them
in their proper places, the right man in the right
place; he never deserted his Ministers; he was
always straightforward and openhearted. He
was never an autocrat, but always welcomed sug
gestions from the Elder Statesmen and Minis-
288

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 289
ters ; yet he was master of the situation and never
'dropped the reins.' He never signed a law or
ordinance without ascertaining for himself
whether it was desirable. He was a painstak
ing, studious monarch; he had a tenacious
memory, so that his mind was a remarkable store
house of recent Japanese history, wherein he was
better posted than many officials. He had great
literary talent ; his poems were straight from the
heart and reminded one of the 'Meditations' of
Marcus Aurelius. He lived a simple life."
None more than this quiet, forceful man, set
to guide the destinies of 50,000,000 souls, knew
the value of the simple life. Amid the incoming
flood of luxury Mutsuhito lived in the palace as
a Spartan. None in all Japan was truer to the
old sanctions in a time of corrosion and flux.
Loyal to the ancient ideals, he understood also
the power of inspiration through a shining
example. In 1894 mighty China, with her big modern
battleships, of which Japan then had none; her
army drilled by Germans, her forts and arsenals
reared on modern models and equipped with
Krupp cannon, and backed by her supposed in
vincible hosts and inexhaustible resources, was
reckoned a power that could crush Japan. So,
in unbroken chorus, predicted the armchair ex
perts. We who knew Japan's public schools and
understood Mutsuhito did not wait for "wisdom

290 THE MIKADO
after the event," but outlined in detail the course
of Japan's sure victories and ultimate triumph
on land and sea; and afterward we were not sur
prised when the Occident, in new treaties, pro
ceeded to acknowledge Japan's political equality.
In this crisis the Emperor revealed his unsel
fish devotion to his people by leaving the capital
and his home comforts to be nearer his men.
Journeying by rail to Hiroshima, in the south
west, and to the rendezvous and port of depar
ture of his fleets and armies, he hved in frugality
there during many months. It was the simple life
for him; for his personal food, shelter and sur
roundings were even less luxurious than the stan
dard of the middle classes of the Empire in time
of peace. All this the soldiers knew. They could
not help winning.
On His Majesty's return to the capital after
the war a pavilion, or covered arch, many yards
long, sheathed entirely with kiri leaves, emble
matic of national loyalty, welcomed him.

CHAPTER XXIX
THE ROOTS OF THE QUARREL WITH RUSSIA
The clash between Russia and Japan, which
surprised the world in 1904, was preordained.
The red flower of war blossomed from roots deep
in the past. Both nations had sentimentally
claimed the far northern region of Saghalien,
long supposed to be continental, though it was a
Japanese who first proved that it was an island.
In a narrow craft, made especially for the pur
pose, Mamiya in 1805 sailed into and beyond the
narrow straits of Tartary, nearly circumnavi
gated the island, and fixed its topography. To
the Japanese Karafuto, as they called it, was a
part of the Mikado's domain. Its occupation,
even though temporary, by aliens, meant inva
sion; while seizure of any part of their land was
to them "dismemberment of the Empire," a
thought most horrible.
When therefore in 1806 the Russians made de
scent upon Itorup, in the Kurile Islands, they
met resistance from the garrison from Yedo, and
they shed Japanese blood. Because of this the
wrath and long memory of a people to whom
forgetfulness or forgiveness of injuries is not a
391

292 THE MIKADO
shining grace smouldered long and needed only a
breeze to rouse it. An increasingly voluminous
literature concerning their insular possessions,
which they now called Hokkaido, or North Sea
Gate, kept them from popular oblivion.
Later provocations were not wanting. In time
of her dire weakness in 1861, Japan was further
insulted by the descent of Russians on the island
of Tsushima in the far south. When bravely
resisted, the invaders shed blood again, for a
Japanese guardsman was killed. The Musco
vites planted seed for crops and expected to stay.
Only when the Yedo Government, then helpless
before its insurgent feudatories, invoked the aid
of the British fleet, did the Russians retire.
Yet in St. Petersburg the determination to
own Saghalien, for a convict station, was kept up
and in 1875 Baron De Rosen, the Czar's envoy in
Tokyo, right under the nose of Sir Harry Parkes,
the ever vigilant British Minister, conducted his
negotiations with such adroitness and secrecy that
one fine morning Parkes was astounded to learn
that all Saghalien was now Russian and that
possession of the Kuriles, already claimed by
Japan, had been guaranteed by Russia as quid
pro quo. The Muscovites had outwitted the
Chinese, slicing off a territory in Manchuria as
big as France, which brought their frontier
alongside of Korea and made them neighbors to
the Japanese; and now nothing but a narrow

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 293
strait separated the Czar's land from the Mikado's.
What was to hinder the Russians from seizing
Korea and making of the Japan Sea a Russian
lake? Over these humiliations and impending dan
gers thousands of subjects of the Mikado
brooded with secret sorrow. When therefore, on
April 27, 1891, the Czarevitch, or son of the then
Autocrat of all the Russias and now, since 1894,
Emperor, landed as the Mikado's guest, the most
scrupulous care was exercised everywhere on his
route lest any breach of hospitality should occur.
Yet above all things the practical Japanese
are very sentimental, and some, in spite of Bu
shido, are without control. None knew this trait
of their countrymen more than the Tokyo states
men, but they thought they could trust their own
policemen. But, borne down with a sense of
humiliation over the "dismemberment of the Em
pire" and boiling with rage and hatred at the
defilement of the Land of the Gods by the incar
nation of Russian spoilers, in the person of the
Czarevitch, one fanatical policeman, near Kyoto
on May 11, 1891, drew his sword and smote the
Czarevitch a blow that save for the thick pith
helmet he wore would have been fatal.
What was to be done, when the Emperor of
Japan, even more than his guest, was thus
wounded in the house of his friends? The com
ing of the Czar's son had been the subject of long

294 THE MIKADO
negotiation. When the Russian Minister in
Tokyo told the Mikado that he did not consider
the guarantees for the safety of the Czarevitch
sufficient, Mutsuhito made reply that startled
to indignation some of his own officers : "I take
the personal responsibility of the Czarevitch's
visit. His person shall be as safe as my own.
I answer for his safety with my own honor."
What this meant, the swift sequel showed. In
Tokyo, within two hours after receipt of tele
grams announcing news of the attack, a Cabinet
meeting was called. The Emperor's own sur
geon and an Imperial Prince were at once des
patched by special train to Kyoto. In a rescript
addressed to the nation, its head expressed his
profound sorrow, and the next morning started
with all his staff for Kyoto. Then followed what,
considering the sacredness of the Emperor's per
son, was an exhibition of genuine personal cour
age. Mutsuhito went on board the Russian ship
to make apology in person and to express his
deep sympathy and sorrow. The meeting be
tween the two men of exalted rank was affecting
in the extreme. Yet on land, the Elder States
men, members of the Cabinet, and the leading
men of Japan, as they saw their sovereign put
off in the boat, and during all the time of his
absence on the Russian ship felt the deepest
anxiety while their beloved ruler was virtually
away from Japan and on what was legally Rus-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 295
sian soil. What if he should be kidnapped and
carried away to Russia?
With such a grievance to redress, would not
the Russians be justified in holding the Japa
nese Emperor as a hostage for redress, or as a
punishment for the insult to a royal personage?
The aged Count Hijikata, on November 14,
1912, recalling the incident, said: "When the
boat which conveyed the Emperor back to the
shore was seen leaving the Russian man-of-war,
our joy at receiving back our Emperor knew no
bounds." No incident in all the life of Mutsuhito showed
more clearly the union of hearts between the
Mikado and the people than this incident.
In 1904, after Russia's aggression and tor
tuous diplomacy, which might have compelled a
war, even with the United States, had not certain
questions at issue been settled by Japan, when a
public school army smote Russia's ignorant mili
tary masses, Mutsuhito was the true leader of his
people. As was his lifelong habit, he opened his
mind in daily rhythm and spoke to his people in
poetry. Three poems, which appeared in "The
Nation's Friend" (Kokumin Shimbun) of No
vember 9, 1904, and were translated by the late
Rev. Arthur Lloyd, photograph his feelings be
fore the war, at its declaration and in the crisis
of battle, when youth was in arms abroad and at

296 THE MIKADO
the front, while old age was at home in unwonted
labors :
"My heart's at peace with all, and fain would I
Live, as I love, in lifelong amity ;
And yet the storm clouds lower, the rising wind
Stirs up the waves ; the elemental strife
Rages around. I do not understand
Why this should be."
'"Tis surely not Our fault.
We've sought to be sincere in deed and word;
We have exhausted every means to press
A clear and truthful case, but all in vain.
Now may the God that sees the hearts of men
Approve of what We do !
"They're at the front,
Our brave young men ; and now the middle aged
Are shouldering their arms ; and in the fields
The old men gather in the abundant rice,
Low stooping o'er the sheaves : all ages vie
In cheerful self-devotion to the Land."
Of the war hundreds of witnesses, in every
language of Europe and in many of Asia, have
written. Apart from its carnage, its engineering,
its hygiene, its naval conflicts, it was a revelation
to the world. It smote most wholesomely the
conceit of the "white man." These blows of
surprise and pedagogical chastisement were
sorely needed. The Muscovites, in masses of
men who knew not what they were fighting for,

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 297
were thrown against intelligent patriots infused
with the loftiest ideals. As usual, the moral
counted against the physical force, as three to
one. In actual conflicts in the field the Russian
infantry fired by platoons. Their tacticians,
sword in hand, galloped at the front. The
Japanese commanders used telegraphs and tele
phones, their soldiers making brain power and
cleanliness allies to valor. Russian soldiers, in
their sheer ignorance and within their own lines,
cut down the electric wires to mend their boots
and bale their hay. The Japanese could out
march the Russians and could throw a pontoon
across a river over a mile wide within twenty
minutes, because bridge building, as well as san
dal making, had been an everyday task during
ages. The spirit of Japan is sufficiently repre
sented in two of many telegrams after Admiral
Togo's victory:
The Japanese Minister of the Navy to Ad
miral Togo:
"We send sincere congratulations and take
occasion to praise the virtue of the Emperor; to
thank you and those under you for the onerous
service extending over many months and to ex
press sympathy for the killed and wounded."
The Japanese Emperor to Admiral Togo:
"We are glad that by the loyalty of Our offi-

298 THE MIKADO
cers and men We have been enabled to respond to
the spirits of our ancestors."
Again, response to the spirit of ancestors!
The reply of Admiral Togo to his Emperor's
congratulations, which created surprise and mer
riment in America, ascribed the whole credit of
victory to the virtue of the Mikado's ancestors.
My own comment in the New York Tribune
was in part the following :
"In Japan all life is communal. The vic
tories of Oyama and Togo are not theirs, but the
nation's. They are literally the result of all the
past life and training of the whole people. Togo
is absolutely sincere in declaring that 'not to the
action of any human being' but to the soul of all
Japan is the result to be ascribed."

CHAPTER XXX
THE MATURE MAN
Mutsuhito incarnated the spirit of the nation,
in that he rose to every fresh occasion and met
new demands and duties with cheerful regularity.
With filial piety, he accepted the past. He real
ized, as few outsiders possibly could, the mystic
influence of ancestors in his own heredity. Yet,
as if reborn, he welcomed the fresh opportunities
and was no less obedient to the new calls, nor
any the less loyal to the duties of the unexpected
hour. He entered like an athlete into the need
ful preparation of a larger life, such as his sires
had never known or dreamed.
Mutsuhito was accustomed to rise at six o'clock
the year round. At seven o'clock he sat down to
breakfast and after this attended to matters of
paternal affection and personal need, and to
those household cares which the husband, father
and friend cannot shirk, whether he dwell in the
hut or palace. At nine o'clock the court physi
cians came in to make the necessary inquiries
after the Emperor's health. This function not
infrequently extended to further examination
and scrutiny. Imperative rule required the
299

300 THE MIKADO
physicians to state frankly what was necessary
to maintain the bodily vigor of the nation's ruler.
Even in later years, when disliking travel and
becoming more and more wedded to domestic and
personal comfort, he was in danger of falling,
like even common men, into an ignoble round of
sedentary life, the Emperor was obedient to med
ical command. He went out doors into active
horsemanship or even took considerable jour
neys, in order to vary, for his best physical good,
the rigid routine of his daily life.
At ten o'clock Mutsuhito was in his library, or
engaged in council with his Ministers, in discus
sion, or in attending to the multifarious duties
which now devolved upon the head of the great
Empire. At high noon he sat down to the mid
day meal, a rather light and frugal one. At two
he began again the consideration of and deci
sion upon questions of state, the hours of detail
stretching out usually until five and often until
six. After the evening meal there were social
duties, audiences with his Ministers or servants,
or great pubhc functions, so that rarely was
Mutsuhito at entire leisure, while certainly one
of the busiest, if not the most busy man in the
Empire. The Emperor's gymnastic habits were less
peculiar than thoroughly Japanese. In the ear
lier days archery was his favorite amusement.
As the Empire expanded and his duties pressed,

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 301
he could take long walks only occasionally, in the
Imperial gardens. When wet weather prevented
outdoor relaxation he walked under cover, but
more time was spent on a wooden horse, which
was so built and articulated and capable of move
ment that it afforded him good exercise. From
childhood he was passionately fond of high bred
horses and of riding them. He frequently at
tended the races, in both Tokyo and Yokohama,
enjoying keenly the utmost development of
equine flesh as seen in speed. He had been well
trained by the best teachers of horsemanship
when a lad in Kyoto, but there is a notable dif
ference between the old and new styles of riding.
When the Japanese saddle was a voluminous
affair of gilt bravery in leather and dazzling
brilliancy of red silk and tassels, with mighty
stirrups, in which one put the whole of his stock
inged foot upon the wide, flat heavy shoe, the
style of sitting for the rider differed notably from
that of to-day, in that the man leaned forward,
while also holding the head of the horse high up
in the air. The modern method of sitting up
right, booted and spurred, with feet in compara
tively small steel loops is in striking contrast.
The old fashioned habits of the Emperor, kept
up in later years, sometimes excited inward smiles
among those who were outwardly admiring. In
stead of sitting straight up, as the best modern
riders do, Mutsuhito still leaned forward with

302 THE MIKADO
what one might call the "scholarly stoop" in his
shoulders. Mutsuhito loved not the horse only but all liv
ing things. His favorite companion in his garden
walks was the Yorkshire terrier which General
Oyama had given him.
Poetry to the Japanese is "the gymnastics of
the soul." In this enchanted realm Mutsuhito
exercised his spirit. From early childhood Mut
suhito not only loved poetry, to hear and read it,
but he even began at seven or eight years of age
to write it. His honored father, Komei, taught
his precocious son and commanded him to write
down his thoughts in dainty rhythm. What was
at first discipline became passion with Mutsuhito.
Where others in the Western world, for example,
let out their souls at play in keeping a diary, in
writing letters, in jotting down thoughts in
prose, in collecting what is personally agreeable,
thus making a record of their inmost desires and
showing what their souls feed upon, Mutsuhito,
now that he has gone, has in these verselets re
vealed to us his soul. In his merry moods or in
times of excitement he would pen as many as
fifty or sixty a day. He shared his soul with his
people. Part of the Emperor's evening recreation in
later years was in recalling memories of Kyoto,
both of his tranquil child life and the stirring
scenes of his boyhood, both of bloodless struggle

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 303
in the Court and of the war and fire scenes which
took place in the old city.
From the time when he discarded the native
flowing robes as his daily habit Mutsuhito wore,
during the hours of his occupation with affairs
of state, the uniform of commander-in-chief of
the army and navy. On naval occasions, since
the great review took place, the Emperor wore
the naval uniform. When public business was
over he donned a plain frock coat. This was
of simple black cloth, woven from native looms.
To the end of his days, however, the tight fitting
foreign dress always seemed to him like armor,
the robe of duty but not the dress of comfort.
His own looser native garb was preferred for the
hours of ease, and his night garment was of white
silk of a kind called habutai, or feather woof.
Most of this fabric is made in the city of Fukui,
and nowadays with modern machinery moved by
steam, gas or electricity, and no longer in cot
tages, as I saw it woven, but in great factories.
The sleeping robe was worn but once.
His Majesty was a convinced believer in the
virtues of the shampoo, or dry rub. The Hindu
word and the actual thing were introduced alike
into Japan and Europe, the Far East and the
Far West from India, in connection with the
hot bath, which like a true native of Nippon,
Mutsuhito believed in. The practice of massage
is an old one in Japan, and is the monopoly of

304 THE MIKADO
blind men (ama), who go about the streets
toward dusk or night fall. Blowing his curious
whistle, each one sounds the cry, "My services
are perfectly fulfilled for three hundred mon,"
(three cents). Many foreigners, especially in
travelling, and thousands of natives enjoy the
mild kneading, rubbing, pounding, slapping,
pulling and snapping of joints by the expert
ama, while they lie on the mats and quilts. As
preparation for tranquil rest His Majesty sum
moned to his bedside one of the most skilful of
the fraternity, but one with sight, and enjoyed
the passive exercise which refreshes and promotes
circulation. In the morning the silk kimono was given
away, and many of these mementoes of His1
late Majesty have been made into cushions, bags,
bedding, or objects of personal and household
decoration, thus still keeping fresh the memories
of the past.
Formerly these garments for the Emperor
were bought through the regular channels of
trade, but in these modern days of bacilli and
germs, when we know how disease is carried,
there has been established in the Palace a de
partment of tailoring, in which the men and
women employed are subject to rigid purification
and inspection. These workmen dress in wash
able white, so that danger of disease entering in
this way is almost wholly eliminated. It is per-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 305
haps hardly possible for a modern Mikado to
die, as Komei did, of smallpox, or of infectious
diseases that have more than once desolated the
palaces of Asia and Europe alike. No profes
sion is now more honored in Japan than that of
the physician, and in the art of prevention as
well as cure the Japanese doctors excel.
Few people in the Empire were more consis
tently frugal in their eating habits than Mu
tsuhito. For the Emperor's conscience, it was a
question of national welfare as to how he ate.
He certainly tried to glorify his ancestors and
emulate their primitive virtues. The example
which he set has made it possible for an over
crowded and poor country, with very little
arable land, to sustain two great wars. Vast
enterprises that would have been impossible ex
cept for the strong reinforcement of precept and
practice in the Imperial Castle and the inspira
tion that flowed thence were carried out.
The Emperor's meal at sunset, the chief one
of the day, usually consisted of five courses. He
was very fond of chicken soup and of broiled
fish. The latter was dipped repeatedly in soy,
as it was taken off and put again upon the grid
iron several times over, so that the flavor of the
sauce penetrated the entire body of the food.
This soy, our word being a corruption of the
Japanese shoyu, is made of a fermented mixture
of calcined barley meal, boiled beans, yeast, water

306 THE MIKADO
and salt, and is the basis of most of those English
sauces, with names ending in "shire," which come
to us in bottles having long necks and high prices.
As a rule Mutsuhito did not care for foreign food
or dishes, though not averse to some of them.
He ate frequently also, as we do, of raw food,
ours being oysters and clams, and his Sashimi,
which consists of very thin slices of raw fish, with
finely grated root stuff having a piquant taste
and flavor. His Majesty was very fond of fine
garden vegetables and was never at any time a
large consumer of flesh.
For the lighter courses, the Emperor was very
fond of fruit, and in time banana and peach trees
brought from different countries were planted in
the Palace gardens, so that he could have them
fresh from the parent stem. For dessert he liked
sponge cake, which the Japanese call kastera,
after Castile in Spain, whence first it came. Of
other dainty bakings and of chocolate he was also
a good judge.
Though the Imperial meals were simple, ex
ceeding care was used in the preparation and
presentation of the food. This was most care
fully selected and sampled, and every phase of its
cleansing and cooking was guarded by the Palace
physicians. Then set upon ceremonial trays,
that is, those upon a lofty base, they were brought
upon the table, which was garnished with the
standard emblems of happiness and longevity,

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 307
the pine, the crane and the tortoise. The flower
arrangements in the season were of the choicest
of their kind, while the dishes and articles of use
on the table had the chrysanthemum and the
paulownia, which form the Emperor's national
and family crest, as their decoration.
Tea was of course the standard drink, for
Mutsuhito, a world citizen in intellect, was a
Japanese by choice and taste, as well as by birth
and training. The particular kind of herb he
liked was grown in Uji, where are the oldest
gardens in the Empire. The black leaf he most
appreciated was called by a name meaning
"jewelled dew." The tea was always made in
Japanese style, the proprieties as to metal and
keramics being strictly observed, and was served
at every meal. In old Japan milk was not a
common drink. Only motherless, infantile hu
manity and very old and weak people were sup
posed to drink it. In fact two strong causes
operated against an abundant supply; the one
being a matter of opinion and the other of re
sources. It was thought wrong to take the milk
from the mother animal, when her offspring
needed it more. Yet as a matter of fact, with
the old native stock, it usually required, besides
the presence of the calf, a good deal of muscular
human exertion to get any respectable amount of
the liquid. Ages of evolution had done little for
the cow in Japan, and none of the wonders of

308 THE MIKADO
the mighty udders in Friesland or Jersey were
known in The Land of Fertile Plains, even in
mythology or fairy tale. As American and
European blooded stock was introduced, the
breed of cattle improved and fashions changed
in the Land of Many Adoptions. Then the dairy
man and the milk wagon, the chum, the jug and
the pitcher made their appearance, both His Ma
jesty and the Empress frequently enjoying the
beverage. The man who wins the Japanese to
delight in the products of the cow and to use
cheese liberally will have the honors of a conquest
greater than that of Port Arthur or Mukden.
Of alcoholic hquors, at first, Mutsuhito drank
only sake, the son old liquid, both brewed and
distilled from rice, but later took to the enjoyment
of foreign wines, liking especially in recent years
Chateau la rose. This sense of pleasure in for
eign liquors so increased, that, according to the
alleged testimony of one of his physicians, his
alcoholic indulgences, along with his multifarious
burdens and cares, shortened his life. From the
best testimony gathered, it was more than prob
able that Japan would have enjoyed much longer
the benefit of his noble and beautiful life, had
Mutsuhito been an abstainer, especially from for
eign concoctions.
A true Japanese of the Japanese, the Emperor
used hashi, or chopsticks continually. Those for
Imperial use were of a special length. Whereas

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 309
the hashi or chopsticks used by other members of
the Imperial family were eight inches, those of
the Mikado were nine inches long. These were
fashioned by an expert living in one of the vil
lages of Greater Tokyo from katsu wood. This
man selected the material according to its weight
and quahty. Then, after repeated personal prep
aration in cleanliness both of mind and body, and
strict inspection of material and the workman
assistants, he gave the proper shape, form, and
length to the chopsticks. The final craftsman
ship which imparted the slender grace and ivory
like polish to the hashi was the master's joyful
work. He was accustomed to shut himself up
from his family, see no friends, and, as if en
gaged in religious exercises, would put the fin
ishing touches upon fifty pairs in a day.
A true Japanese and a genuine connoisseur,
Mutsuhito had a great passion for swords. He
was well acquainted with the history of the wea
pon and of the methods and details of the work
men and their shops, and with the poetry and lore
of the time, for in Nippon the sword has been
transfigured and its spiritual significance em
phasized quite as much as its material reality.
Before the Restoration he had made a collection
of half a hundred choice blades, which he enjoyed
handling; but after feudalism had been abolished
many of the former castle lords sent to their be
loved master scores of historic weapons, famous

310 THE MIKADO
in their families and with their ancestors. The
Emperor's personal collection in 1912 numbered
over three hundred. Only a few of the former
Daimios have established museums, in which hun
dreds and even thousands of the blades of the
clan, once so dear, are treasured. The romance
and sentiment of the Japanese sword penetrated
Mutsuhito's heart and mind and much of the per
fume of the old Palace life still remained, as if
the spirit of the blade were guarding him day and
night. Here is his feeling expressed in one of
his own verses, as Dr. J. Ingram Bryan trans
lates it: "Hail, forged sword of ancient glory
Untarnished through ancestral ages !
Still higher make its worldwide story,
Knights of Nippon, when war rages."
One other personal foible was shown by the Em
peror in his love for clocks, native and foreign.
These he collected by the score, enjoying the
study of their workmanship and casing, and de
lighting to hear their ticking, striking and chimes.
He was a great patron of art, not only pictorial
but also glyptic and keramic. He delighted in
fine lacquer and ivory. Almost every kind of
plastic material, in which the Japanese genius
finds a field for the expression of fun, fact, fancy,
dream, soul vision and aspiration, interested
Mutsuhito.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 311
It is certain that no one of his subjects ever
trained himself more in personal finance, and
realized early in life how potent his example in
this vital question would be with his subjects.
He made himself early sensitive to all needs and
was quick to respond to the calls upon his munifi
cence, whether these were uttered or unexpressed.
Almost every charitable cause appealed to him,
and without regard to race, sect or creed, he gave
liberally and often.
Thanks largely to Mutsuhito's fostering in
terest in athletic exercises, improvement in diet
and habits of sitting, the Japanese have added in
one generation half an inch to their average stat
ure. They are slowly but surely increasing in both
weight and height, and perhaps no country now
excels Japan in public hygiene.

CHAPTER XXXI
THE FAMILY OF MUTSUHITO
The Empress Haruko was not far behind her
Imperial husband in love of poetry, in outdoor
delights, in a thousand manifold industries in the
Palace, of which the world knows little or noth
ing, and in the constant practice of charity.
Well do I remember her interest in and her visit
to the Girls' School, of which my sister was the
head, which by evolution grew into the Tokyo
Normal School and the Peeresses' School. In a
hundred other places I have heard of the same
gracious interest and presence. She visited
hospitals, and during war time saved from her
private purse, in order to give to the needy. Her
accounts show self-denial and economy, even to
one twentieth of a cent saved from her personal
allowance, in order to purchase artificial limbs
for soldiers who had lost theirs in siege or battle.
It is impossible to exaggerate the power of the
Empress's example in educating her people. To
her own personal patronage in the furtherance
of the ambulance enterprise, which astonished
and led the world, and of the Red Cross activi
ties is due their remarkable efficiency.
313

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 313
Times that I can remember were, when in the
normal Japanese maiden or mature woman the
feeling of disgust overcame the instincts even of
humanity. The love of aesthetics triumphed over
mercy, for the canons of modesty forbade a Japa
nese woman to touch the body of any male
human being not her father or in close blood
relationship, even though the man might be
wounded and in pain. Yet, as with the waving of
a wand or the passing of a dark night, the whole
atmosphere and landscape of Japanese hfe
changed into bright morning when it was known
that the Empress had gone into the hospitals,
where the lowest or plainest people were, muti
lated or diseased. Later, when the noble ladies
both washed and cleansed the sick and wounded
common soldier, women rushed forward in a
great army to become nurses. Example, rein
forcing precept, added amazingly to the efficiency
of Japanese womanhood.
It was during the Russian war that the Japa
nese women found themselves, realizing for the
first time, on a national scale, their power in
organization for good. In their great work under
the Red Cross they were led by the Empress
Haruko. Besides her own poems, those of two
of the Imperial Princesses penned during the war
are noteworthy. The first here given is by the
Princess Kitashirakawa, who was left a widow
in the war with China :

314 THE MIKADO
"The snow white bands our tender hands have rolled
Are dyed with the red blood of our true hearts
To give fresh vigor to our wounded men."
The second is by the Princess Nashimoto :
"We are but women, and our slender hands
Are all untaught to grasp the musket stock;
Yet in this work, we know that we can bear
Our share of the great burden of the war."
It was in war time that the Empress wrote :
"With every tale of victory
Arriving from the field
I think how many brave lives
For triumph had to yield."
"The twelve cardinal virtues of Japanese so
cial life," temperance, purity, constancy!, etc.,
were treated poetically by the Empress. One of
her compositions, on "Reality," is as follows:
"I ask not flowers for the hair
However beyond compare
But ornaments more rare
Heart flowers, fragrant and fair."
Here is another flash of thought, in praise of
the permanent:
"The jewel in a lady's coronet
Gleams in her hair and sparkles in the gloom
And yet 'tis naught, a sparkle, not a light.
The book, whose page enlightens the dark mind
Is the true treasure."

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 315
A fresh study of the Dowager Empress Ha-
ruko's poem* shows that it, "like that of her
late Imperial Lord, is supreme in technique and
magnificent in appeal, although it is naturally
not quite so virile in sentiment nor so profound
in poetical conception." The following, penned
on shipboard, is translated by Arthur Lloyd :
"In the small hours of night,
When all is dark, and rocks nor islets show
To guide the steerman, lo ! the noisy crew
Of mariners, with many a 'yo-heave-ho' and shout,
Raise up the anchor. Ere the lusty strains
Have ceased, day breaks on the whitening waves,
And all the course lies clearly to be seen."
Yoshihito, third son of Mutsuhito and now
Emperor of Japan, survived all his older broth
ers, who died young. When eight years old, in
September, 1887, he entered the school for nobles.
His playmates were chosen with great care, but
the heir to the Throne was taught to attend to
many of the details of hfe himself, so as to learn
the ways of the common people, even to the tying
of his own shoe strings. The Emperor attended
in person, or rather supervised much of his son's
education, but the boy remained in the school with
his playmates until June, 1895, after which his
training in the Chinese and Japanese branches
of learning was conducted under private tutors.
* In the Japan Magazine, for December, 1912, by Dr. J. Ingram
Bryan.

316 THE MIKADO
His general manner of life was that of most
well bred Japanese. He rose at six, took his cold
bath and sat down to a breakfast of milk and
bread. He then spent the time outdoors until
nine o'clock, when lessons began, and he was busy
studying until twelve o'clock. His lunch was
usually in foreign style, but his principal or even
ing meal consisted of the native food and was
served in the manner of his countrymen. The
greater part of the afternoon was passed outdoors
in lively exercise. He was very fond of football
and robust games.
To some Yoshihito seemed almost outland-
ishly democratic, especially to those who used the
glasses of tradition. Many anecdotes are told of
his sympathy with the plain man. When visiting
the garrison town and entering the barracks he
insisted while among them on eating the common
soldiers' food. To all protests he answered, "I,
also, am a soldier of the Empire." On one occa
sion, when a jin-riki-sha man was seized with
vertigo and disabled, the Crown Prince leaped
out of the vehicle and walked all the way to
Mishima. Once on climbing a mountain he left
his companions behind him and reached the top
first. At another time, on parade, he helped a
cavalryman, who had tumbled off his horse, hold
ing the fellow in his arms until he had regained
his seat. Yoshihito inherited his great love of
horses from his father, and when a boy was made

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 317
very happy by the gift of a Siamese pony, with
which he had great fun. Another pretty story is
told of his coming to a tea house, where a de
formed young girl of eight had hidden herself in
the dark part of the room, though wishing to
"worship the august shadow." Yoshihito, in
quiring about her, called her out and sat beside
her on the bench in front of the tea house, speak
ing words of kindness never forgotten by the
child. Yoshihito spent the evenings in social enjoy
ment, and his last function and wish at night
were to take a hot bath, and be in bed before
eleven. His union with the Princess Sada, now
Empress, resulted in the birth of three sons, the
first of whom, Hirohito, is now Crown Prince
or Heir Apparent. During his kindergarten
days two young Japanese ladies of good training
had charge of the Imperial children in a model
school room, in which were blackboards, modern
seats and equipment. The exercises began at
nine. Prince Michinomiya, as his child's name
was, showed himself a real boy, enjoying espe
cially the native games of "catching the oni,"
or demon, and "first at the flag." The birth of
a grandson born to an actually reigning Emperor,
on April 29, 1901, is said to have been the first
in Japan during many centuries.
Like his ancestors, the new Mikado is ready
with the pen at verse flashes. Once when out

318 THE MIKADO
hunting he shot a stag, but when the beautiful
creature was brought and lay dead before him,
while the cry of its bereaved mate was heard,
he wrote : "For my own amusement,
The fatal shot I fired
But when I heard the doe's lament,
The pleasure all expired."

CHAPTER XXXII
THE EMPEROR AS POET
Nothing reveals the character of Mutsuhito, the
man, more than his autobiography, which he has
himself written, in the fugitive couplets, or stan
zas, which he began to compose in childhood and
which pastime he kept up almost to his latest con
scious hour. It was his constant daily habit thus
to express thought, fancy, dream, emotion, and
probably 50,000 of these scintillations of his gen
ius are in existence. Hundreds of the verselets
have been translated by competent scholars.
These, dwelling among the living people, and
surrounded by the objects and sensitive to the
influences to which the Japanese soul is most re
sponsive, withal being themselves of poetic tem
per and aesthetic temperament, have succeeded
in rendering the verselets with point and felicity.
We say this advisedly, because a merely literal
translation of the language of these evanescent
impressions, emotions and fruits of experiences
would be absurd. The analysis of a humming
bird in terms of chemistry would hardly yield
to one's eyes a true picture of this flashing jewel
of the air. 319

320 THE MIKADO
The late Dr. Arthur Lloyd and Dr. J. Ingram
Bryan of Tokyo have been among the most suc
cessful of these translators. They have devel
oped with skill the Japanese negative of the light
pictures in the Emperor's soul and felicitously
have they thrown open these chambers of im
agery. Here are a few :
"The evening afterglow
Across green plains of pine,
Extending for below —
How exquisitely fine !"
That the Emperor himself came to his sunny
and winsome disposition not by the mere accident
of heredity but through conscientious cultivation
is shown in his stanza of "The Sunny Heart" :
"Morn by morn the rising sun
Serene and pure his course doth run ;
Oh, happy heart that yearns to be
Thus sunlike in its quality!"
The cares of state sometimes robbed the Em
peror of his sleep, for it was not possible to be
free from anxiety when the very existence of his
people were threatened. In this manner he ex
pressed himself:
"Many a humid summer night
I've passed long hours in wakeful mood,
Much musing of my country's plight,
And with deep thoughts of her imbued."

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 321
How he lived with his people, in all their joys
and sorrows, he confesses in another couplet:
"Whether it rain or shine,
I have one only care —
The burden of this heart of mine
Is how my people fare."
Again he feels that the nation's welfare de
pends much upon himself and writes:
"Oh ! Pillar of State,
By inheritance mine,
I pray untoward fate
May never be thine ;
And that thou, through my reign
May unmoved remain."
Like sparks from an incandescent bar of iron,
flew out many a time the proofs of the Emperor's
spontaneous love for Japan's millions, who, when
they read these poetic outbursts, were thrilled :
"When old books I open
And turn the frayed pages,
I read but one token,
The question of ages :
My People so true
How fares it with you?"
In the competition annually called for by the
State the Emperor took part with his subjects.
As in the West, at New Year's time, or rather in
the departing hours of the eve of the joyous day,
which calls forth reflection and penitence issuing

322 THE MIKADO
in resolve, the spirit is stirred to longing for
greater purity of life. To the theme set by the
Emperor himself, His Majesty, as he looked
toward the silver glory of Japan's peerless moun
tain, than which no symbol of the pure heart
could be more striking, wrote :
"To greet New Year
Toward Fuji's height,
Aspiring peer,
Lofty and white!"
Japan's Emperor on New Year's Day invites,
according to custom, the whole nation to a poetry
party, and millions enjoy and compete. The
Bureau of Poetry makes the decisions of honor.
A theme, given out by the Emperor, was "The
Plum Blossom and the New Year." Only those
who have seen the fair flower itself, whether in
the garden of Japanese life and literature or
as the living harbinger of spring's victory over
winter, when — as the artist in keramics has
endeavored to depict it — the plum blossom's
petals lie on the paper-thin ice, that cracks with
the slightest motion, can fully appreciate the sug-
gestiveness, along with the verbal beauty of this
poetic gem expressed in the original thirteen
words : "In the morning glow
Of the still young year,
Through the new fallen snow
Plum blossoms appear!"

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 323
On another occasion His Majesty gave out the
theme "When the Bush-warbler {unguisu, Ja
pan's sweetest songster] Makes Melody."
"Not to be behind my farers
With New Year's congratulations
The warbler leads the bearers
Of the day's felicitations."
Certain objects in pairs form the main stock
of the Japanese poet's thoughts and artist's de
signs. They are the elements which by mystic
permutation and combination make the islander's
world of feeling.
For example, the new born babe is covered by
a robe embroidered with pine tree and stork, em
blems of long life. The willow and the swallow,
the bamboo and the sparrow indicate gentleness.
Does the cuckoo fly across the night sky's silver
crescent? The scene recalls to a native in the
land of the classic bow and arrow the happy shot
made by the archer Yorimasa, who at night killed
a monster that destroyed the Mikado's rest.
When the Emperor rewarded his liegeman with
a famous sword, the Court Noble who was to
present it heard a cuckoo. Catching the bird's
note, he extemporized a verselet in seventeen syl
lables; whereat the archer, being as good a poet
as he was a brave soldier, made reply in a second
strophe of fourteen syllables, making a poem
full to overflowing richness of dainty allusion and

324 THE MIKADO
double meaning, so that history, poetry and sen
timent are in art and song recalled by the cuckoo
and moon.
Other couplets combine the peony and Chinese
lion ; the mulberry and the goat, the hare peeping
out of the autumn rushes. The Japanese see
in the moon not a man carrying sticks but a hare
scouring the face of the sky's mirror with rushes.
The red maple leaves of autumn and the stag
suggest poetry and love, because the Japanese
use the same word for color (iro) and for passion.
When the lover sends a once beloved sprig
of autumn maple, it is equivalent to our more
prosaic "mitten." The leaf and the heart have
both changed their iro or color.
The plum blossom and pheasant, the soaring
wild geese with rushes or pine sprays in their
beaks, the monkey and the moon — the animal
seeing its face in the dancing mirror on the un
stable element — the chrysanthemum and the ox,
the bamboo and the tiger, the peach tree and the
oxen, the dragon crossing the summit of Fuji
on the clouds, the carp and the waterfall, are all
associated images. One touch of rhythmic words
or painter's brush starts the Japanese imagina
tion into a long ramble through fairy land, be
comes an Open Sesame into the treasure house
of the national lore, or sends a thrill of aesthetic
joy through the nature of reader or hearer.
Translation seems not only "treachery" but sug-

326 THE MIKADO
The Emperor prays for the immortality of his
land : "Isuzu's river toward the main,
For ages measureless to man,
Has flowed in its imperial reign;
And so, methinks, will fair Japan."
The smoke from the humble cottage is a poetic
theme everywhere, but is especially classic in
Japanese poetry. Thus the Emperor's pen limns
a picture, while his heart swells with joy:
"Above each mountain hamlet roof
The New Year wreaths are curling blue ;
0 happy ruler, with such proof
Of happy subjects; loyal, true."
Another poem on "The Color of the Bamboo"
suggests the spirit of unconquerable Japan, un
changing through the ages :
"The bamboo planted long ago
Along the garden breadth
Hath lost no color through the flow
Of Time and Change and Death."
Those who have studied the rescripts from
Mutsuhito's pen will see that his prose, his poetry
and his life made one harmony. His own faith
ful measuring up to his own ideals explains much
of Japan's unhalting progress from the time
when he took the helm of the Ship of State.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 327
How the Emperor welcomed the new while
loving the old, giving reverence to the latter
while approving the former, is shown in two of
his verses: "E'en the children born in modern days
Should first be taught the good old ways,
Even plants and trees of alien clime
Take root in Nippon's earth,
When given the needful care and time."

and

"Lo ! in my garden* all things thrive and grow,
E'en foreign trees and plants with care bestowed
Upon their shoots, grow strong and green,
Like those indigeous to soil and clime."
f"My garden" is the Empire.

CHAPTER XXXIII
JAPAN IN THE COUNCILS OF THE WORLD
Mikadoism recreated Japan and made the na
tion a unity. The Japanese people had now an
opportunity to show their real genius and abili
ties to the world and to destroy the Occidental
prejudices and superstitions gathering around the
term "Oriental." Japan was soon enabled to
take her place at the world's council tables.
So long as the nation was divided by dualism
in government and comminuted in feudalism,
with the classes separated by social gulfs both
deep and wide, while kept rigidly apart by law,
custom, ritual and even language, there could be
no true expression of the national genius or
power. Meanwhile the world remained in dense
ignorance of the possibilities latent in the charac
ter of a people even yet strangely misunderstood.
Thirty-five years, however, have shown that
Japan is able to adapt herself to a large meas
ure of representative government; while ten
years have shown her ability not only to hold her
own in diplomacy but even to meet armies of an
Occidental Power on the field of battle. In her
scrupulous honor in discharging treaty obliga-
328

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 329
tion she is excelled by none. The sudden emer
gency of 1914, which found the nations of Eu
rope at war, revealed also the fact that the
Japanese Government was both prompt and will
ing in discharging her duties as an ally to Great
Britain. The determination of Japan to win recognition
of her sovereignty and to abolish extraterritorial
ity from her borders would have come in time,
through the despatch of an embassy to the
Treaty Powers of the world. It is, however, an
indisputable fact of history that this vital meas
ure was first suggested, in writing, by the Ameri
can missionary Guido F. Verbeck, in 1869. Even
though internally ill fitted for the duties of a
modern State and unlikely to secure recognition
as a sovereign nation, Japan resolved to make the
attempt to gain it. This she did, in 1872, by dis
patching commissioners of highest rank to the
capitals of the United States and Europe.
Nevertheless, being still medieval and Oriental
in her policy of religious persecution, even while
financially and otherwise unprepared, especially
in her judicial apparatus, her request was unani
mously refused. In 1874 Japan "lacked the in
dispensable features of a modern State," as
Marquis Ito said of Korea, in order to justify his
policy of 1905-1909, so analogous to that of Eu
ropeans toward Japan in earlier days. Every
Christian nation flatly refused to trust its subjects

330 THE MIKADO
to Japanese courts and prisons, and the Imperial
embassy returned in bitter disappointment.
Nevertheless few, even sons of the soil, will deny
that her years of preparation and the putting of
her house in order prepared Japan all the more
for her subsequent faithful adherence to modern
policies. In fact Kido, the greatest in construc
tive vision among the Meiji statesmen, always
regretted the too easy success of the revolution of
1868. After the Constitution of 1889 had been
granted and her judiciary and codes recreated,
the path toward recognition of Japan's sov
ereignty was clear.
In 1900, led by Great Britain, the Western
Powers made treaties with constitutional Japan
on the status of an equal. Nevertheless the aver
age Occidental does not yet award full faith and
credit to Japan. It is with millions almost a per
manent conviction, even as it formerly was a fixed
dogma, that no "Oriental" nation is able to con
tinue in the path of permanent progress. How
ever promising might be its beginnings, many
European statesmen predicted, even as most for
eigners still expect, that Japan, wearying of her
burdens as a world Power, and even "civilized"
according to the Western ideas, will sooner or
later falter and fall back in the race, reverting
more or less profoundly to "Orientalism."
One of the most pointed arguments used to-day
is that whereas in the early years of Meiji, espe-

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 331
cially in the struggle with China and Russia no
breath of scandal or corruption was whispered
against members of the Government, there have
been in late years terrible revelations of graft;
as, for example, in the sugar scandals, in the
school textbook frauds, and the naval contracts,
the latter of which provoked an outburst of mili
tant democracy in Toyko which caused a crash in
the Ministry and a change of Cabinets. Okuma,
pupil of Verbeck in 1860, and veteran educator
and statesman was made Premier.
Yet the cold facts of history, personal knowl
edge, and the absolute lack of any vital difference
between Oriental or Occidental human nature dull
the edge of the arguments of both admirers and
detractors of Japan. Those who deem the Japa
nese to be the children of Eden, guileless and un
spotted, are startled at the evidences of Japanese
scoundrelism of a very modern and Occidental
sort and which wears so familiar a look. Those
who, even in dignified quarterly reviews, would
set up Bushido, a bubble blown into the volume
and thinness of iridescence by enthusiastic rhe
toricians, against the Christianity of Jesus, are
covered with confusion.
On the other hand, those who think that "Ori
ental" morality has its bottom only in the infernal
regions have been stunned to find the Japanese
so Christianlike in war and so honest in diplo
macy. Those who know familiarly the inside his-

332 THE MIKADO
tory of Japan, during the early Meiji era, when
penniless Samurai of low rank became very
wealthy in being admirers of the Emperor and in
administering heads of departments, see no geo
graphical or social difference in the methods of
nest lining, East or West.
No changes in the form of government or social
rehabilitation of the classes have had any effect on
the human heart, which remains the same as be
fore. Japanese graft is no different in essence
from the American, Russian, or British variety,
but it takes on different forms and has to be
curbed in different ways in different eras of time.
It was by exposing the Hokkaido scandal, in
1883, that Okuma, now Premier, became a popu
lar hero.*
It is doubtless true that the alliance made with
Great Britain enabled Japan to accomplish two
objects; first to roll back the tide of Russian ag
gression from her own soil, where the blood of
* Mr. W. W. McLaren, editor of "Japanese Government Docu
ments," from 1867, says: "The history of graft during the Meiji
era, when some day it can be written, will form an interesting
parallel to the eighteenth century in England. Between the two
stories there will be this curious difference, however, for in
Japan there was little if any sentiment against dishonesty in
public life. . . . With such a public sentiment, the result both
of feudal tradition and Chinese philosophy, there is nothing
remarkable in the all but unbroken uniformity of the practice
of starting life in comparative poverty and dying millionaires."
"Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan," Vol. XLII,
pp. lxviii, lxix. 1914.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON
her people had been spilled by Russians more
times than one, and also to substantiate her right
of trade and residence on the soil of continental
Asia. Furthermore, this alliance enabled an
Asiatic people to demand and gain a "man's
chance," and to demonstrate that the boasted in
vincibility that rests upon color, creed or conceit
is a chimera.
In a large sense of the word, Mikadoism was
the force that disturbed "the balance of power"
in Europe, tumbled the edifices of British and
Russian, German and French statecraft into ruin,
and compelled world views. Mikadoism was the
dynamite that ruined Bismarckian alhances, and,
perhaps, as history may yet show, set the wisdom
of Hamilton and Washington in clearer light.
No alliance is without its entanglements. There
is a close, logical connection between the battle of
Mukden in 1905 and the European war of 1914.
The unbroken series of victories of the Sun Ban
ner in Manchuria demonstrated that the Russian
war machine was obsolete, her platoon volleys ab
surd, her tactics and strategy impossible in
modern times, and her transportation methods
antiquated. This revelation had an immediate effect in Eu
rope. The quick eye of the Kaiser saw that the
dual alliance of France and Russia was now, like
the supposed neutrality of Belgium, "a bulwark
of paper" and his military writers and staff offi-

334 THE MIKADO
cers thought with him. Bernhardi wrote his book,
and a war party formed which dominated in suc
cession the nation, the Crown Prince and ulti
mately the Kaiser. Pan-Germanism run mad, in
its hterary foam of book and map, rolled hke a
wave over the Empire. In the popular atlases,
even, the Netherlands received the same color as
did Germany.
Bismarck and the kind of a Fatherland that
grew up after the humiliation of France, in 1870,
were disturbed and irritated by what seemed the
almost miraculous power of France to recuperate.
Hostile diplomacy and veiled threats, from the
man who wore his sword in the Diet and patted
it significantly when the peace loving part of Gef, -
many's whisper of protest was heard against a
pohcy of "blood and iron," became the rule. On
the other hand, Russia showed increasing friend
liness to France in one case, even mobihzing her
army near the German frontier; which proceed
ing gave thought in Berlin. When Bismarck was
retired, soon after the accession of William II.,
France and Russia concluded their defensive pact
and the Dual Alliance became a new force in the
politics of Europe.
I remember well the rejoicings in Paris, in
1891, when Russian artillerists sitting on their
guns joined with the French cuirassiers and in
fantry in the pageant of Joan of Arc. Then the
welkin rang with shouts of joy. This friendship

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 335
of Russia and France, during fifteen years or
more, drew out from Kaiser William a great show
of affability toward his country's former adver
sary, and many were the seeming tokens of his
regard. When the Kaiser's warships in the Chi
nese Seas joined with the Dual Alliance of
France and Russia to rob the Japanese of the
fruits of their victory in the war with China, and
the Emperor, whose "heart bleeds" to-day over
Louvain in ashes, turned artist long enough to
make pictures of "the yellow peril," he gave the
Japanese opportunity to nourish a second unfor
gettable grudge against the Fatherland. The
first was when, in 1879, a German man-of-war,
in ostentatious defiance of Japan's civilization
and hygienic laws, escorted to the docks in Yoko
hama a German steamer from a port infected
with cholera, a proceeding which General Grant,
who was then on the ground, declared should
have been met by the concentrated fire of the
Japanese forts. Later on, although at the
Hague conference the German delegation placed
the only real obstacle to the limitation of arma
ments, yet until 1906, even after the creation of
the Entente between France and Great Britain,
made in April, 1904, the Kaiser still acted so
much like a gentleman and a Christian that he al
most totally disarmed French distrust of Prussia.
In fact, his amiability was extreme, until the
Russian war machine broke down.

336 THE MIKADO
What was it that caused a sudden change in
the brain under the spiked helmet and provoked
what the world thought at the time was an un
justified outburst of mihtarism in France as
shown in the enlargements of her armies?
The victory of Japan over Russia at Mukden,
in February, 1905, disturbed the balance of
power in Europe. In the spring of 1905 the
Prussian military oligarchy that held Germany
in its grip, the Kaiser being at its head, dis
covered that the Dual Alhance was no longer a
formidable war engine.
Immediately there was a change of atmosphere
in Germany. The British and French Entente
must be broken. At Tangier, Morocco, the
German Emperor showed his determination to
intervene in international affairs. He insisted
that the Algeciras Conference be called for the
adjustment of the questions raised and demanded
that the able French Minister Delcasse, author
of the Entente and opposed to the conference
project, be removed from office, threatening in
stant war if this were not done. France, though
bullied, was not then ready to fight Germany
and Delcasse resigned. The result of the Alge
ciras Conference, which lasted three months, was
that a majority of the delegates justified the
course of France. The Entente was strength
ened and Germany became less, and not more,
the dictator of Europe.

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 337
Meanwhile France improved her army and
navy, and quickly renewed her strength, but
later, at the critical moment of French Minister
ial adjustments that promised to open a weak
point in the national armor of France, the Ger
man warship Panther, at Agadir, the most south
ern point of Morocco, made virtual invasion of
French territory. This disagreeable surprise,
with electrical celerity, transformed Frenchmen
of every shade of belief, opinion and social grade
into lovers of "an Eternal France." Never was
the nation more united. Like a rock, the Ger
man bluff was defied and withstood. In mutually
tense expectancy, war was looked for within
twenty-four hours, but France budged not an
inch. One incident, almost theatrically comical,
showed the tenseness of the strain, when war was
likely to be declared by telegraph. At Jemappes,
in Belgium, where in 1792 Lafayette, of Ameri
can fame, with his young conscript French repub
licans had defeated an army of Austrian veterans,
a Gallic cock in bronze, instead of the Napoleonic
eagle, was to be unveiled; but on the day
appointed both the French President and the
Belgian King, previously announced on the pro
gramme, "glared by their absence," and the ova
tion of the French General Langlois was "as
colorless as a royal speech from the Throne."
From this time forth the costly forts of Liege,

338 THE MIKADO
built a generation before but unoccupied, were
garrisoned and provisioned, and France im
proved her artillery. When in 1912 the French
Government discovered that Germany had
690,000 soldiers under arms, while France had
but 583,000, and that the Teuton's war chest ex
ceeded that of the Gauls by over $40,000,000,
they took the alarm. When, in the January fol
lowing, Germany made a third increase in her
army, making it thirty per cent larger than that
of France, the conscripts then under the Tri
color were held to arms for another year, and
the term of enlistment was lengthened from two
to three years. On the sea Germany's navy was
planned to be, in 1917, twice as large as that of
France. Thus the mania for colossal armaments
went on. The German effective force, suddenly
raised from 700,000 to 880,000 men, meant in
evitably an early obedience to the call of the
books of Bernhardi and Frobenius, and pointed
to the war of 1914.
In this strife of nations Japan, as the ally of
Great Britain, was summoned at the call from
Downing Street, to enter with her splendid army
and navy. Under the Premiership of Count
Okuma the Imperial Diet on September 9, 1914,
voted unanimously to adopt the war programme
of the Government and appropriated $26,500,000
to carry out the measures for removing Germany
from the sphere of affairs in China. The plan was

INSTITUTION AND PERSON 339
to capture the fortified Tsing-Tau, and to hand
back to China that portion of her territory in
Shang Tung wrested from her by Germany in
1897. What the issue of the great world war of 1914
may be is not within the domain of history, which
records the past but makes no forecasts of the
future. It is clear, however, from a study of
Mikadoism that, according to the doctrines of
the conservation and transmutation of forces,
Japan's ancient institution, revived in modern
form, has profoundly influenced both the nation
and the world.
On this institution, as on a rock, Japan makes
her claims for full recognition by the nations of
the world. Ignoring prejudices and ignorances,
the race and color hatreds which are the legacies
of barbaric ages, she demands the fulfilment of all
treaty obligations and the common justice mu
tually expected from each other by the most
civilized nations.

INDEX

Adams, Will, 218.
Administration, 265.
Adoption, 80, 103, 265.
Adzuma, Prince, 179.
Aidzu, 125, 142, 272.
Ainu, 16, 223.
Algeciras Conference, 336.
Alliance, Anglo-Japanese, 332,
333, 338, 339.
Alliance, Dual, 334-338.
Ama, 33, 37.
Americans in Japan, 13, 232,
261.
Ancestor worship, 20, 35, 37, 42,
174.
Ando, 101, 103, 104.
Anthem, National, 51.
Area, 1.
Architecture, 175.
Art, 35, 54, 89, 175, 201, 235,
236.
Army, 68, 69, 170, 171, 181, 182,
183, 269-274.
Arthur, Prince, 161, 328.
Aryans, 16.
Ashikaga, 53, 54, 111.
Assassinations, 100, 184, 267.
Austrians, 163, 164.
Bakufu, 61, 83, 131.
Banks, 185.
Banzai, 218.
Barons, 76, 77, 106, 130, 151,
152, 153, 155.
Battles, 127, 128, 142, 143.
Bayonets, 274.
Beresford, Sir Charles, 159.
Bible, 228.
Bismarck, 334.
Black, J. R., 237.

Bonin Islands, 251.
Boxers, 11.
Brinkley, Frank, 157.
British in Japan, 159-163, 185,
232, 238, 330, 338.
Brown, Dr. S. R., 237.
Buddhism, 18, 37, 43-46, 168,
212, 217, 243.
Bushido, 43, 68, 69, 110, 260,
270, 276, 278, 331.
Cabinet, 189, 241.
Calendar, see Chronology.
Capitals, 39, 44, 52.
Castles, 102, 140, 191, 224, 263.
Chamberlain, Basil Hall, 34, 51.
Charter-oath, 136, 137.
China, 8, 11, 154, 165, 233-235,
245, 248, 289, 339.
Chinese, 16, 18, 19, 106.
Chinese civilization, 18, 19, 37.
Chinese literature, 45. See Con
fucianism and Philosophy.
Chopsticks, 308, 309.
Choshiu, 82, 83, 108, 112-116,
181.
Christianity, 18, 58, 64, 72, 77,
135, 140, 141, 149, 161, 172-
174, 202, 204, 209, 213, 214,
253.
Chronology, 16, 24, 25, 83, 86,
122, 146, 216, 217, 281. See
Eras.
Chrysanthemum, 50.
Church and State, 6. See Re
ligion and Shinto.
Civil war, 53. See Satsuma Re
bellion.
Civilization of Japan, 48.
Clans, 37.

341

342

INDEX

Classes, see Samurai.
Classical era, 43-51.
Clement, E. W., 288.
Clothes, 194, 222, 223.
Codes, see Law.
Coinage, 185, 186.
Communal civilization, 19, 20.
Confucianism, 45.
Constitution of Japan, 22, 46,
78, 136, 174, 279.
Cornell University, 39.
Coronation, 5, 85.
Corruption, Political, 331, 332.
Couplets, 323, 324.
Cram, R. A., 175.
Criticism, 213.
Cycle of Cathay, 86.
Czar, 293.
Daimio, see Barons.
Date, 263.
Death, 84.
De Long, C. F., 208, 228.
Democracy, 60, 176, 199, 230.
Denison, H. W., 195.
Deshima, 173, 254.
Dickins, F. V., 226.
Diet Imperial, 248, 284, 286.
Dissection, 61.
Dogmas, 11, 17, 26, 27, 42, 45.
Dress, 220, 230.
Dual Alliance, 334.
Duarchy, 39, 52, 53, 55, 56.
Duke of Edinburgh, 159, 160.
Dutch in Japan, 56, 58, 59, 61,
68, 132, 173, 254.
Dynasties, 53, 54.
Echizen Shungaku, Baron and
Prince, 67-78, 83, 106, 111,
118, 124, 151.
Echizen, Mochiaki, 71, 133, 153,
157, 191.
Economics, 58, 93.
Education, 69, 80, 95, 132, 133,
175, 200, 220, 232, 261, 312.
Elder statesmen, 55, 82, 187,
294.

Embassies, 81, 101, 207, 212, 240,
329.
Emperor, 26, 56, 86, 87.
Empress Haruko, 166, 167, 229,
230, 231, 242, 314, 315, 312,
313. See Women.
Empresses, 85, 94, 95, 228-230.
Empress Sada, 317.
Enomoto, Admiral, 251.
Entente, 336.
Eras, 46, 83, 84, 161. See
Chronology.
Eta, see Outcasts.
Ethnology, 16.
Expositions, 236, 275.
Extra-territoriality, 206, 329.
Face, 176, 186.
Fairy tales, 81. See Kojiki.
Farmers, 232, 258, 261.
Family, The, 20, 37.
Federalist, The, 185.
Fenollosa, 236.
Feudalism, 27, 29, 55, 151-153,
190-194.
Fillmore, Millard, 5, 7, 64, 65,
66, 79, 254.
Finance, 160, 163, 185, 197, 198,
202, 265.
Flag, 50.
Foreign helpers. See Yatoi.
Formosa, 234, 235, 244-247.
France, 11, 333-337.
France and Germany, 334-338.
Fujiwara family, 39.
Fukui, 67-69, 113, 153, 157, 181,
182, 190-191, 197.
Fukuzawa, 28.
Genji, see Minamoto.
Germanic people, 17.
Germans in Japan, 220.
Germany, 11, 333, 334-338.
Germany and France, 334-338.
Goble, Jonathan, 203.
Gods, 39, 40, 41.
Government, 189, 265, 275. See
Cabinet.

INDEX

343

Government, representative, 153, Japan, 1, 24, 339.
154, 266, 275, 328.
Graham, William A., 79.
Grant, General, 11, 165, 335.
Gratitude, 13.
Greek Catholics, 149, 173, 253,
263.

Hair, 220, 239.
Hamilton, Alexander, 185, 333.
Harada, President, 136, 200.
Hara-kiri, 47, 154, 272.
Harris, Townsend, 13, 41, 70, 71,
79, 80, 95, 97, 206.
Hashimoto, Dr. S., 98.
Hawaii, 251.
Head-hunting, 110, 111, 234.
Hearn, Lafcadio, 42.
Heik6, see Taira.
Hepburn, Dr. J. C, 228. See
Physicians.
Hideyoshi, 54, 128.
Hi-nin, see Outcasts.
History of Japan, 9, 10, 13, 16,
23, 24, 63, 65, 81.
Hojo, 54.
Hokkaido, see Yezo..
Holmes, Dr. O. W., 210, 249.
Horses, 262, 264, 301, 302.
House, E. H., 247.
Hozumi, Dr., 42.
Httbner, Baron, 164.
Ideals, 207.
Ii, premier, 70, 80, 97, 98, 99,
100.
Imperialism, 29, 44, 62.
India, 17, 58.
Individuality, 19, 28.
Inouy6, Count, 254.
Itagaki, 275.
Italy, 240.
Ito, Marquis, 23, 55, 64, 114, 185,
241, 329.
Iwakura, T., Prince, 150, 207,
240, 243.
Iyesato, Prince, 103, 141, 144.
Iy6yasu, 15, 54, 55-60, 76, 96.

Japanese, 10, 13, 15, 19, 24, 186.
Jin-riki-sha, 203.
Jiu-jutsu, 69.
Journalism, 29.
Judiciary, see Law.
Jun-shi, 4.
Kadzu, Princess, 100, 102, 103,
117, 139.
Kagoshima, 106, 179, 180, 268,
272.
Kamakura, 52.
Kami, 32.
Katsu, Count, 139, 241.
Keiki, 70, 113, 116-128, 139, 143,
144, 224, 269.
Kempff, Admiral, 11.
Kido, 140, 152, 181, 209, 330.
Knox, Dr. G. W., 42.
Kobe, 129, 130, 268.
Kojiki, 34, 42, 213.
Komei, 76, 79-83, 95, 96, 108,
117, 122, 305.
Korea, 8, 36, 44, 173, 224, 240,
253-257, 329.
Koreans, 15, 16, 256, 257.
Kumamoto, 267, 269, 270.
Kume, Professor, 211, 213.
Kuriles, 251, 291.
Kuroda, General, 254.
Kyoto, 1, 2, 41, 52, 59, 81, 89,
107, 112-114, 133, 136, 154, 166.
Language, 27, 28.
Laws, 183, 207, 208, 209, 237,
248, 330.
Le Gendre, General, 234, 235,
246.
Li Hung Chang, 235.
Liege, 337.
Lincoln, Abraham, 20, 78, 201.
Lloyd, Rev. Arthur, 295, 320.
Literature, 24.
McLaren, W. W., 124, 332.
Mabuchi, 7, 60.
Maria Luz, 225, 226.

344

INDEX

Meckel, General, 13, 237.
Medical science, 61, 68.
Meiji era, 1, 5, 6, 29, 55, 84, 124,
146.
Merchants, 222.
Mexico, 263.
Mikado, 1, 23, 25, 28, 29, 48.
See Mutsuhito.
Mikadoism, 2, 14, 15, 43, 45, 47,
52, 53, 55, 64, 82, 103, 104, 141,
154, 199, 283, 339. See also
Shinto.
Milk, 307, 308.
Minamoto, 40, 47, 52.
Mint, 185.
Mitford, Mr., 159, 161, 202.
Mito, 63, 70.
Money, 197, 198.
Monks, 40-46.
Montesquieu, 209.
Mori, Arinori, 154.
Mukden, 333, 336.
Murray, Dr. David, 232, 248.
Music, 35, 50, 51, 256.
Museums, 262.
Mutsuhito, 1, 21, 49, 81, 84, 85,
86, 88-90, 112, 125, 128, 133-
138, 146, 158-162, 164, 177-180,
199, 200-337.
Mythology, 3, 34. See Kojiki.
Nagasaki, 61, 140, 147.
Nakamura, Masanao, 205, 280.
Names, 18, 49, 85, 86.
Narus6, Dr. Jinzo, 200.
Nation, The, 50, 139.
Nationality, 151, 156, 169, 185,
231, 232, 265.
Navigation, 251, 252.
Navy, United States, 81, 87, 128,
129, 234, 252.
Navy, Japanese, 138, 147, 217,
242, 254, 264, 268,.
New Brunswick, N. J., 209.
Newspapers, 152, 191, 195, 236,
237, 248, 249, 257.
New Year's Day, 217, 218.
Nihongi, 42.
Nijo Castle, 59, 89, 125.

Nikko, 13, 258.
Nitobe, Dr. Inazo, 260, 261.
No, 221, 260.
Nobeoka, 272.
Nobles, 199, 200.
Nobunaga, 54.
Nogi, 4, 7, 20, 271.
Oath of Emperor, 136, 137, 276.
Ogi, Takato, 220.
Okakura, 65.
Okubo, 55, 62, 116, 135, 170,
179, 241, 243, 247, 276-279.
Okuma, Premier, 144, 246, 331,
332, 338.
Omura, General, 127, 142, 162.
Opera, see No.
Oriental, The, 7, 328, 330.
Orient and Occident, 19, 20.
Origin of Japanese, see Eth
nology.
Osaka, 116, 128, 129, 130, 185,
225, 269.
Outcasts, 6, 78, 201, 202, 225.
Oyama, 34, 145, 302.
Oyomei philosophy, 63, 67, 74.
Palace, 2, 3, 89, 108, 112, 113-
126, 220, 223, 224.
Parkes, Sir Harry, 133, 154, 159-
163, 291.
Parties, 54, 55, 119-121, 279, 280,
281, 285.
Patriotism, 46.
Peace Preservation Regulations,
283, 284.
People, The, 15, 111, 150, 213.
Perry, Commodore M. C, 5, 7,
13, 38, 41, 56, 64, 65, 68, 79, 87.
Personality, 27, 28, 29, 86, 186.
Philosophy, 57, 63, 94.
Photographs, 164, 244.
Physicians, 61, 305.
Pillory, 41.
Poetry, 35, 51, 95, 296, 302, 314,
315, 320-327.
Polo, 257.
Population, 1, 201.
Port Arthur, 133.

INDEX

345

Portraits, 39, 186, 244, 264.
Ports, opening of, 119, 123, 148.
Postal system, 185, 186, 252, 253.
Prayer, 1, 2.
Presidents, 5.
Pretenders, 41, 148, 149, 182.
Princesses, Imperial, 258, 259.
Prisons, 249.
Progress, 13.
Public opinion, 75.
Purity, 32.
Putnam, G. H., 209.
Rai Sanyo, 42, 63.
Railways, 222, 228, 268.
Red Cross, 313.
Reforms, 38, 39, 48.
Religion, 167, 211. See also
Shinto, Buddhism, and Chris-

Republics, 147.
Restoration, 41, 122, 167, 206.
Revolutions in Japan, 29, 38,
52, 62.
Rice, 219.
Riu Kiu, 1, 11, 165, 223, 233, 234.
Roads, 224, 264.
Roman civilization, 19.
Ronin, 100, 104, 105, 110, 285.
Russia, 11, 101, 251, 272, 291-
298, 333.
Russo-Greek church, see Greek
Catholics.

Sacred Symbols, The Three, 33.
Saghalien, 101, 251, 291.
Saigo, Marshal, 140, 245, 268.
Saigo, T., 278.
Samurai, 136, 156, 239, 253, 270,
272, 284.
Sanjo, Prince, 108, 141, 142.
Sapporo, 261.
Satoh, Henry, 98.
Satow, Sir E. M., 132.
Satsuma, 62, 102, 105, 106, 108,
112, 168, 178-181, 224, 225, 239,
244.
Satsuma Rebellion, 267-274.

Sawa, 75, 268.
Secrecy, 75, 268.
Sendai, 263, 282.
Seward, William H., 162, 163.
Shampoo, 303, 304.
Shimadzu of Satsuma, 180, 225.
239, 240.
Shidzuoka, 56, 143, 144, 224.
Shimada, Saburo, 98, 227, 237.
Shimonoseki, 82, 114.
Shinto, 26, 31-38, 41, 63, 154,
158, 159, 166-169, 212.
Shogun, 2, 52, 59, 65, 70, 81, 84,
107, 108, 116, 117, 146.
Silk, 242, 303.
Skulls, 26, 110.
Social life, 19.
Soga family, 38.
Songs, 50, 51.
Soshi, 286, 287.
Sovereignty of Japan, 206-211
Soyeshima, 235.
Spain, 263.
Spencer, Herbert, 42.
State, The, 40.
Stature, 811.
Steamers, 251, 252.
Students abroad, 38, 77, 186
187.
Sun, 34, 35, 50, 218, 219.
Swords, 108, 110, 180, 191, 193,
203, 204, 243, 255, 271, 272,
274, 276, 309, 210.

Tara, 40, 47, 53.
Taisho, 142, 161, 275.
Tanaka, Fujimaro, 7, 211, 212,
214.
Tea, 307.
Teeth, 230.
Tenno, 29, 45, 48.
Throne, 174.
Tientsin, 235.
Titles, 28, 29, 45, 48.
Togo, Admiral, 101, 297, 298.
Tokugawa, 46, 55, 112, 141.
Tokyo, 140, 155.
Tosa, 123, 124, 181, 275.
Trade, 70, 80, 95, 110, 190.

346

INDEX

Treasury, 198, 199.
Treaties, 68-70, 80, 81, 130, 158,
206, 207, 208, 255.
Tsuda, Um6, 200.
Tycoon, see Shogun.
United States, 64, 65, 79, 114,
165, 170, 255. See also Amer
icans, Fillmore, Harris, Yatoi.
University, Imperial, 219.
Usurpers, 41, 111, 139.
Uyeno, 141-144, 275.
Vassar College, 145.
Verbeck, Guido F., 13, 142, 157,
168, 170, 171, 176, 207, 232,
250, 329.
Wakamatsu, 144.
Washington (city), 81, 185, 208,
209, 240.
Watson, R. T., 230.

Williams, General, 163.
Willis, Dr., 132
Windsor Castle.
Women in Japan, 25, 34, 200,
226, 228-231, 313, 314.
World War of 1914, 339.
Xavier, 132.
Yamato, 26, 28, 36, 248.
Yatoi, 13, 133, 153, 157, 194,
195, 196, 220, 238, 261.
Year-periods, 5. See Chronol
ogy.
Yedo, 41, 58, 70, 74, 80, 81, 140,
146, 203.
Yezo, 1, 115, 147, 195.
Yokoi Heishiro, 67, 77, 136, 203.
Yokosuka, 217.
Yoshida Shoin, 63, 64.
Yoshihito, 315-318.
Yuri, Viscount, 136.