Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (131 page)

ry
ū
gan itomo / uruwashiku

Tsukushi no kisha ni / mesaretsutsu

kangyo no roji mo / Ch
ō
sh
ū
naru

oki ni wa Saien / teihaku shi
…
²⁷

His dragon countenance extremely pleased

He boarded a train in Tsukushi

And on the way back, off the Ch
ō
sh
ū
coast,

The
Chi-yüan
was anchored …

At the end of December 1902, the House of Representatives was again dissolved, this time because of the failure of the government’s proposal to raise property taxes in order to pay for a bigger navy. The opposition parties, headed by It
ō
Hirobumi’s Seiy
ū
kai, were against the plan. The impasse was not resolved by repeated suspensions of the Diet by the emperor, and on the twenty-eighth the House of Representatives voted in favor of dissolution and a new election on March 1, 1903.

The only novelty in the New Year rituals for 1903 was the choice of subject for the lecture on Western history delivered before the emperor on January 6. This year it was devoted to the section of William H. Prescott’s
History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic
describing Columbus’s appeal for funds for his exploration. As usual, there is no indication if Meiji was interested in this lecture, but now, when his country was about to acquire colonies and join the imperialistic powers, he may have wished that a Japanese endowed with the vision of Columbus would appear before him and promise an empire.

But whatever dreams Meiji may have had concerning the future expansion of Japan, with respect to matters closer at hand he remained conservative. On January 9 Sasaki Takayuki, who was charged with the education of Princesses Masako and Fusako, sent word to the chief chamberlain that he was thinking of moving the girls to a place on the coast where they could escape the cold of the T
ō
ky
ō
winter. When the emperor was consulted, he refused to allow the princesses to leave the city. He reasoned that they were approaching marriageable age and that when a woman married, she had to accommodate herself to the ways of the family she joined. The family into which a woman married might not be sufficiently rich to travel in order to avoid the cold and heat. If the princesses grew accustomed to spending every summer and winter outside the city, this would become a habit, and it might not be easy for them to discard it. It might even be bad for their health. It would be better for them to learn to endure cold and heat. The princesses would spend this winter in T
ō
ky
ō
. If outdoor exercise was necessary for their health, they might from time to time visit one of the detached palaces or imperial properties.
²⁸

Although he himself never went anywhere to escape the heat or cold, the emperor did not insist that the crown prince remain in T
ō
ky
ō
. Probably he feared that heat or cold might seriously affect the prince’s health. He may also have feared that forcing the prince to do what he disliked might bring on convulsions or some other nervous disorder, as it had in the past. The crown prince was the one member of the imperial family who lived as he pleased.

On February 2 the crown prince’s tutor, Prince Takehito, expressed to the emperor his belief that the office of tutor should be abolished. He said that the crown prince of late not only had made great progress in his studies but was even inclined to study on his own, and his illness had gradually subsided. He believed that the time had come for the prince to be more independent. Now that he was twenty-five years old, people thought it was strange that he should still need a tutor, and this reflected on the imperial household. The emperor responded that if having a tutor was considered inappropriate for the crown prince now that he was a grown man, the title should be changed. In other words, the emperor believed that the prince still needed a tutor, regardless of the title. When consulted by Takehito at the end of the previous month, It
ō
Hirobumi had also expressed the opinion that the prince still required a tutor, but he recognized that Takehito was exhausted by the physical and mental strain to which he had been subjected for some years, that it would be inhumane to ask him to continue. On February 6 Takehito’s title was changed to the crown prince’s adviser, but his duties remained the same.
²⁹

A month later, Takehito again reported to the emperor on the need to foster a spirit of independence in the crown prince, but the emperor had become increasingly cautious about his son’s behavior and does not seem to have favored giving him greater independence. He issued the order that if henceforth anyone wished to ask the crown prince’s opinion, it should be in writing, and the crown prince’s answer should also be in writing.
³⁰

On January 28 the statue of another problem member of the imperial family, the late Prince Yoshihisa, was erected in front of the barracks of the First and Second Infantry Regiments of the Household Guards.
³¹
Yoshihisa’s wartime service and death in Taiwan no doubt occasioned the erection of the statue, but his earlier career—whether as Rinn
ō
jinomiya or as an extravagant and capricious student in Germany—hardly justified this honor. In contrast, not one statue of Meiji was ever erected, although other sovereigns (such as his near contemporary, Queen Victoria) had no objection to being immortalized in stone or bronze.

On April 7 Meiji left for Ky
ō
to and
Ō
saka to observe a Grand Naval Review and the Fifth National Industrial Exhibition. He traveled by train, making several stops along the way and arriving on the following afternoon at Maiko, where he stayed at Prince Takehito’s villa. When his train passed K
ō
be, the warships outside the harbor, all fully dressed, fired salutes, and at Maiko, the warships anchored offshore were decked with pennants by day and illuminated at night. For two hours before and after dinner, the navy band played. At the emperor’s request they played the war song composed in November on his return from army maneuvers in Kumamoto.
³²

The emperor’s preference for the army over the navy was no secret. He disliked being aboard warships, in part because he found the smell of oil unpleasant. On April 10, the day of the Grand Naval Review, he chose to wear an army uniform,
³³
the one he wore in both winter and summer, regardless of the occasion or season. Although he commanded his military attaché to compose a war song about the occasion and presented it to the navy, the naval personnel were disappointed that the emperor had failed to wear his uniform as commander in chief of the navy.

Several years after the review of 1903, when the Imperial Navy was about to stage another review, a naval uniform was made for the emperor with the request that he wear it at the ceremony. He did not reply, and the navy minister, Yamamoto Gonnohy
ō
e, fearing that this signified a refusal, requested an audience with the emperor, hoping to change his mind. Before he could say a word, the emperor, guessing what was on Yamamoto’s mind, asked, “You’ve come about the uniform, haven’t you?” He promised to wear his new naval uniform. The sight of the emperor in naval attire is said to have greatly raised morale among men of the fleet.
³⁴

The emperor left Maiko for Ky
ō
to on April 13. On the train he composed a poem in the manner of a war song. He had Chamberlain Sawa Nobumoto write it down and commanded him to say it was his own composition when he showed it to other people:

Maiko hamabe no / kashiwayama

kari no miyai wo / gubu nashite

hashiru ressha ni / makasetsutsu

haya
Ō
saka ni / tatsu keburi

hikage mo
ō
te / sora kuraku

kore sh
ō
gyo no / hanj
ō
wo

hajimete satoru / gubu no tomo

fuku harukaze mo / samukarazu

yagate Ky
ō
to ni / tsukinikeri
³⁵

Having served His Majesty

At the temporary Palace of Kashiwayama

On the shore at Maiko,

We, his attendants, boarding a speedy train,

In no time at all reach
Ō
saka

Where smoke rises, obscuring the sunlight,

And we realize for the first time

That this shows the prosperity of commerce.

The blowing spring wind is not cold,

And soon we arrive at Ky
ō
to.

Sawa suggested that this composition by the emperor, extolling
Ō
saka’s prosperity, would give great pleasure to people of the city if they knew about it, but the chief chamberlain refrained from asking the emperor’s permission to publish it, fearing that this might incur his wrath.

On April 20 the emperor attended the opening ceremonies of the Fifth National Industrial Exhibition in
Ō
saka. No doubt it greatly pleased him to see the progress that Japan had achieved in industry as well as in agriculture, commerce, and education.
³⁶
He and the members of his escort wore full-dress regalia for the ceremonies, where they were joined by the ministers of thirteen foreign countries and many Japanese dignitaries. It was an occasion for satisfaction in the “smoke capital” of Japan.

In the meantime, however, disquieting reports were being received from China on the slow progress of the withdrawal of Russian troops from Manchuria. The Russians had promised to withdraw in three stages. One stage had been completed, and the railway between Shan-hai-kwan and Ying-k’ou (Newchang) had been returned, but all this meant was that the Russians had moved their troops from Liao-hsi, a region where they had few interests, to their major base at Liaotung. The Russians were far more reluctant to carry out the second-stage withdrawal, which included Port Arthur and Dairen. The deadline of April 8 passed without any Russian withdrawal; instead, the Russians presented the Chinese government with seven demands that it would have to fulfill if it wanted its territory returned. The demands amounted to complete control over the administration and economy of Manchuria, which would mean that commercial relations with all other countries would be blocked.
³⁷

The Japanese were dismayed to learn of the new demands but could not agree on how to react. On March 15 at a meeting of the
genr
ō
, It
ō
Hirobumi had stated that England and Germany would not use force against Russian actions in Manchuria. If Japan, not backed by any other power, opposed Russia, this might lead to a conflict of views that in the end could be resolved only by war. He favored modeling Japan’s responses on those of England and Germany. With respect to Korea, the goal should be to preserve the status quo; Japan should try to reach an understanding with Russia that there would be no conflict between the two countries.

It
ō
’s opinions were not easily disregarded, but when the foreign minister, Komura Jutar
ō
, learned of Russia’s new demands on China, he at once sent a severe warning to China not to yield. At the same time he believed that the time had come to open direct negotiations with Russia. He persuaded It
ō
to go with him to Yamagata Aritomo’s residence in Ky
ō
to to discuss basic policy.

Just at this time a telegram arrived from the minister to China reporting that the Russian army had begun moving. One battalion was preparing to occupy the forest on the bank of the Yalu River. A similar communication was received from the Japanese minister to Korea.

Those meeting at Yamagata’s villa on April 21 came to the conclusion that Russia’s activity in Manchuria and northern Korea threatened Korea’s existence and was incompatible with Japanese policy. The four men
³⁸
decided that although they were willing to make concessions on Manchuria, they would insist on their rights in Korea, even at the risk of war.
³⁹

There is no indication that the emperor had been apprised of the potentially dangerous situation. He was staying in Ky
ō
to but traveled to
Ō
saka repeatedly to visit the exposition. The empress usually went on the following day to the same places the emperor had visited. On May 2 the emperor listened to a phonograph that had been lent to the exhibition by Matsumoto Takeichir
ō
of
Ō
saka. The emperor, greatly pleased with this new invention, purchased it for seventy-five yen. Later, Matsumoto presented the emperor with five wax cylinders. The first was a recording of “Kimigayo,” the national anthem. The second was a performance by Tachibana Chij
ō
, the master of the Chikuzen biwa, playing “Lord Kusunoki at the Battle of Sakurai.” The remaining cylinders were devoted to war songs.
⁴⁰
Matsumoto evidently knew the emperor’s tastes.

On the following day after the emperor had visited the tombs of Emperor K
ō
mei and Empress Eish
ō
at Tsukinowa behind the Senny
ū
-ji, he wrote one of his most moving poems: