Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (228 page)

18.
KYN, dai ikkan
, pp. 79–80. After conveying Konoe's views to high Imperial Household Ministry officials, Kawai went back to Konoe at the House of Peers. When Kawai returned to the palace, he mailed a copy of his proposal to Konoe. Kawai also sought the advice of constitutional law scholar Uesugi Shinkichi.

19.
“Nara Takeji kais
roku (s
an),” p. 327. Meiji was not enshrined and worshiped as a god until 1920, eight years after his death.

20.
Nakajima Michio,
Tenn
no daigawari to kokumin
(Aoki Shoten, 1990) p. 116;
KYN, dai ikkan
, pp. 73–80.

21.
KYN, dai ikkan
, p. 219, entry of Oct. 8, 1927;
Japan Times and Mail
, Nov. 5, 1928.

22.
See Kawai's diary entry of May 1, 1929; Takahashi Hiroshi, “Kaisetsu: tsukurareta ky
ch
saishi,” in
KYN, dai rokkan
(Iwanami Shoten, 1994), pp. 256–57. Takahashi notes that both rice cultivation and the practice of sericulture were deeply related to the Harvest Festival, the most important ceremony of the imperial house. The new, unhulled harvest was offered by the emperor to the gods, while silk drapery was employed in the requiem for dead emperors, held on the eve of the Harvest Festival.

23.
For details see
NH
; Kanazawa Shio, “Gy
sei seiri, fusen, chian ijih
: dai 49 kai teikoku gikai-dai 52 kai teikoku gikai,” in Uchida Kenz
et al., eds.,
Nihon Gikai shiroku 2
(Dai Ichi H
ki Shuppan K. K., 1990), pp. 401–6.

24.
See the long entry of June 15, 1927, in
MNN
, pp. 268–69.

25.
NH
, p. 5.

26.
On Oct. 30, 1928, General Ugaki criticized the money lavished on the enthronement ceremonies at a time when “the masses are suffering for lack of adequate food and clothing.” He later noted: “Police control throughout the period of the succession…was extraordinarily severe and many critical voices are saying that it exceeded the bounds of common sense.” Cited in Ogino Fujio, “‘Sh
wa tairei' to tenn
sei keisatsu: Sh
wa tairei keibi kiroku o ch
shin ni,” in Nishi Hidenari et al.,
Sh
wa tairei kiroku shiry
: kaisetsu
(Fuji Shuppan, 1990), pp. 30, 55.