one of the retainers, the Karo, or minister of Mito. “Your master has
been engaged in very dangerous schemes and intrigues, of which you were
ignorant.” (Mito had written a letter to say that all the Daimios gave
themselves up to trifling and debauchery.) “You were very foolish if
you did not know of this business, and you ought on that account to be
severely punished. But as Mito, your master, said that this business in
which he was engaged was entirely for the good of the empire of Japan,
and of the greatest consequence, your punishment shall be mitigated. In
future you will take care to look into what your master is doing, and
not cause the government of the Shiogoon so much trouble.
“In future, if you do cause trouble, you shall be severely punished.”
It appeared that both parties were trying to gain over the Kwanbakku by
bribes--the Regent on the one hand, and Mito on the other. This high
officer was perplexed which to side with, but he concealed all from the
Emperor.
The Shiogoon commanded a letter to be written to Mito, to inform him
that government was aware that many men had come secretly to Yedo from
Mito, and warning him of what would be the consequence if any trouble
should arise; and at the same time eight Daimios were appointed to
guard the approaches to the city.
At this time the Regent was maturing his plans, and having arrested
many of the agents of Mito, brought them before the Hio jo sho and
judges of Yedo. The personal enmity of the two was working for the
opening up of the country to foreign trade.
Many persons, some of whom were connected with the highest officers in
Miako and Yedo, were arrested as being engaged with Mito in intrigues.
The head retainer of Mito was kept in confinement, and was commanded to
kill himself in prison:[10] Eekai, the gentleman in charge of Mito’s
house in Miako, with his third son, the head chamberlain of Mito’s
establishment, the gentleman in the service of the late Kwanbakku, the
Chinese teacher, and a lady about the establishment of Konoyay dono,
in Miako, were brought before the judges in the Hio jio sho Hoki no
kami, and the two city magistrates, Ishingaya and Ikeda.[11] Of the
prisoners, the first three were beheaded.
On the 8th month, 20th day, the following letter was sent to Nakayama
Bizen no kami, who was a Hattamoto in the service of government,
resident at Mito’s castle to assist him (or to watch him). Officers
with the same duties reside at the castles of the other two Sankay,
Owarri and Kii:
“Your house is a very honorable one, and you are a man of talent and
experience. You ought to attend more correctly to do your duty. Now
you have been neglecting your duty, while Mito the elder has been
intriguing at Miako against me. You are ignorant of what is going
on, and show yourself to be very indolent. This is a harsh mode of
speaking, but you are still very young. You are hereby ordered to
consider yourself under arrest, and remain a prisoner in your own room.”
Toki, a colonel of the Household Guards, was degraded from his rank,
and his territory confiscated.
To the Sakuji boonyo, Iwase, and to the First Lord of the Admiralty,
Nangai, it was ordered that their salaries were to be stopped from that
date.
The same punishment was inflicted upon Kawadsi, the keeper of the West
Castle. To the Kosho, his eldest grandson, it was written:
“Your grandfather has been guilty of opposing the government, and has
been degraded and deprived of his territory, and ordered to confine
himself to his room. Therefore it is our will that you take possession
of his territory, and also of his office.”
It seems to have been the Regent’s policy always to put children in
place of those men whom he displaced.
The other keeper of the West Castle was degraded, and deprived both of
his territory and office.
To Tayki no skay, commander of the vanguard of the army, son of Oodo,
it was written: “Having examined into the offense of your father, I
have degraded him; but you are his adopted son, and therefore I give to
you his territory and house.”
Of other high officers some were beheaded, while others were ordered
not to enter a town (Chu tsui ho); others were imprisoned in their own
houses (Oshi kome), or in prison; others were put in irons; others
confined to one room for life (ay chikio); others were banished to
small islands.
All the above, who were themselves persons of some rank, and connected
with the highest in the empire, were brought to the Hio jo sho, in
Yedo, and received their sentences from the temple lords sitting there.
To Hongo Tango no kami, at that time in the Lower Cabinet, the Shiogoon
wrote:
“Your conduct recently has been very improper. The Shiogoon has heard
of this, and you deserve to be severely punished; but I will be
lenient, and only deprive you of 5,000 koku of revenue, and degrade
you.” (He had been made a Daimio, with 10,000 koku of revenue, by the
previous Shiogoon.) To his son the Shiogoon wrote as above, but added:
“I will now take the ground I took from your father, reducing him from
a Daimio to a Hattamoto. Your father must stay in his house, and retire
from public life, and give over his lands and rank to you.”
To Ishikawa Tosa no kami a similar letter was written, depriving him of
his honors and territory, which were given to his son.
The head of the Treasury, Sassaki Sinano no kami, was degraded.
Iyo no ske, a gentleman in the service of Mito, was transported to
Hatchi jio. His son, being only three years of age, is to be kept till
he is fifteen, and then transported also.
Two boys, aged four and two years, sons of Mito’s chamberlain, are to
be expelled from towns when they arrive at fifteen years of age.
The Regent, after thus disposing of his enemies, proceeded, in the name
of the Shiogoon, to reward his friends.
He wrote to Matzdaira Idzumi no kami, then the head of the Cabinet: “I
approve of what you have done, and in testimony I give you twenty-five
obangs. [An obang is a large gold coin worth about thirty-five
dollars.] You have been very diligent in a most difficult and important
business. I am very much satisfied, and will change your territory; and
as that you now possess is very poor, I will give you better.” (He also
sent him a sword.)
To the temple lord, Matzdaira Hoki no kami, were given a saddle and six
dresses.
To the Owo metski Kowongai were given seven obangs and four dresses.
To the street governor of Yedo, Ikeda, were given seven obangs and five
dresses.
To the second street governor, Ishi ngaya, ten obangs and five dresses.
To the treasurer, five obangs and three dresses.
These men had acted as the judges in the Hio jo sho, and had awarded
the punishments to the accused. Itakura was degraded because he would
not act as the tool of the Regent in executing his vengeance.
In a letter to these officers the Shiogoon expresses satisfaction with
the diligence shown by them, and on that account rewards them, at the
same time rewarding smaller officers who have been similarly engaged,
but without specifying them by name.
To Manabay, who had been formerly Prime Minister, and lately much
engaged in ferreting out these intrigues for the Regent, the Shiogoon
wrote: “You are now not very strong, and it will be perhaps better that
you retire from the weight of public duty.”
The Regent and he had a difference as to whether he was right in,
or had the power of, punishing these men. The Regent was anxious
to get rid of him, but his arguments were strong, and, besides, he
was cognizant of all the secrets of the late _coup d’etat_, so that
the Regent dared not take a stronger step than simply advise him to
withdraw.
The Regent must have been well aware that in acting as he was doing
he was playing a dangerous game. He had not been afraid to enter the
family of the Emperor himself. The servants of the highest Koongays
had been arrested, and themselves insulted and degraded. He had
degraded five of the highest Daimios--Owarri, Mito, Satsuma, Tosa, and
Etsizen--and had severely punished all of lower rank who had in any
way countenanced or assisted those opposed to him. He had put his own
protégé on the seat of the Shiogoon, in opposition to Stotsbashi, the
nominee of Mito. He now felt that he must retain the reins of power in
his own hands, as, if he yielded a jot, his enemies would overthrow
him, and take away his place and name. The only thing he had now to
fear was secret enemies, who might wreak their vengeance by poison or
assassination.
The 3d day of the 3d month is a day when a great levee is held at the
castle in Yedo, all the Daimios on duty appearing in court dresses,
with large retinues. At such times it is common for strangers to
gather on the broad road or esplanade by the side of the castle moat,
to watch the trains of the Daimios going to and returning from court.
They often carry with them the small monthly list of officials in which
the armorial bearings are given, by which the train of each Daimio may
be at once recognized. In the Daimios’ quarter of the city the guards
of the streets and cross streets are the retainers of Daimios. The
guard-houses are sometimes divided into two when the guard is divided
between two neighboring Daimios. Upon days of levee such as this
strangers are allowed to loiter about, and are not so readily noticed
as at other times.
At the south side of the castle of Yedo is the Soto Sakurada, or
outer Cherry gate, opening from that part of the inclosure in which
the residences of the Gorochiu are situated. At this gate the moat is
crossed by a bridge which opens upon a wide graveled road--the Tatsu no
kutchi--bounded on the one side by the moat, on the other by Daimios’
residences, and leading by a gentle ascent to the residence of the
Regent, Ee Kamong no kami.
On the 3d day of the 3d month the Shiogoon was to hold this levee, at
which the Regent, now that he had put down his enemies, would appear in
the plenitude of his power as the real ruler of Japan. He set out in
his norimono toward the Sakurada gate, which was at a short distance,
and seen from the door of his own residence. He was surrounded by his
own retinue in white dresses. Suddenly a rush of men was made at the
train. The bearers set down the norimono. Men with drawn swords ordered
him to come out. He expostulated. One fired a pistol through the chair,
wounding him in the back. He tried to crawl out, but his head was
immediately cut off and carried away by the assassins.
The investigation which follows will show what took place.
On the 3d day of the 3d month (March 24, 1860) the Gorochiu wrote to
the commander of the guard kept by Matzdaira Segami no kami: “Why did
you allow men in disguise, with small sleeves and drawn swords, to pass
your guard and loiter about the Tatsu no kutchi?” To this a reply was
given: “There was a heavy fall of snow at the time. I noticed the men
once, and they disappeared; but I acknowledge my fault--I am much to
blame in the matter. But what shall I do now? Shall I cut off my men’s
heads?”
The same question was put to Matzdaira Daizen no daibu’s (Choshiu)
guard, who kept the Sakurada gate. He answered: “This morning at nine
o’clock many men passed, but whether they were porters or soldiers I
cannot tell. Several passed with blood-stained swords in their hands. I
was on the point of arresting them, but as there was much snow falling
I could not see them distinctly, or where they went to.”
The principal gentleman in the late Regent’s service, Kimatta Watari,
wrote to the Gorochiu as follows: “This morning, while my master was
on his way to the shiro to pay his respects to the Shiogoon, an attack
was made upon his train. In the scuffle one man was killed, and the
servants of Ee brought the body to the house here.”
It is a general impression in Yedo that the servants, or some of them,
as well as the guards about, and even some of the Daimios living in the
neighborhood, were cognizant of the attack about to be made. Some of
them gave no assistance to their master.
The same day the Shiogoon sent two Katchi metsuki to Ee Kamong no
kami’s house to make inquiries.
The servants of Sakkai oota no kami, guards of the Owo tay, a large
gate of the castle, wrote a similar letter to the above. It is a common
plan in Japan, even among Daimios, when an investigation is to be made
in which many are concerned, for all to write similar letters, to
prevent the government seizing one. They added: “One Ronin, between
twenty-seven and twenty-eight years of age, cut his throat. He only had
his sword-sheath when found, and no sword. We found one wounded by a
shot, and seized him.”
At Tatsu no kutchi, the men at the cross-street guard-house, occupied
by Tajima no kami and Sakkai oota no kami, said to the Gorochiu: “At
about eight o’clock this morning a man shot himself through the neck
while holding a man’s head in his hand. Immediately one of the guard
said, ‘I will ask the man where he came from.’ He said he was a servant
of Satsuma. We sent for a surgeon, and he is now under treatment.”
Ee Kamong no kami writes himself to the Shiogoon (notwithstanding his
having had his head removed several hours previous): “I proposed going
to the levee at the palace, and was on my way there, when near the
Sakurada gate, and in front of the joint guard of Matzdaira Osumi no
kami and Ooyay Soongi, about twenty men were collected. They began to
fire pistols, and afterward with swords attacked me in my norimono. My
servants thereupon resisted, and killed one of the men--the others ran
off and escaped. I having received several wounds, could not pay my
intended visit to the Shiogoon, and was obliged to return to my house,
and now I send the names of such of my servants as were wounded.”
Of these there were in all nineteen, of which number several died.
Upon receiving intelligence of this attack, the Shiogoon sent to the
Regent a present of ginseng root, and to inquire more particularly as
to his health and condition.
Upon the coats which were left by the assassins pieces of poetry had
been worked with the needle; such as, “Let us take and hoist the
silken standard of Japan, and first go and fight the battles of the
Emperor.” Upon another was the following: “My corpse may dry up with
the flowers of the cherry, but how can the spirit of Japan relax?”
The names of eighteen men are given who were engaged in the
assassination of the Regent. Of these--
Arimura Jesayay mong, who is said to have been the actual perpetrator
of the deed, was head servant of Satsuma.--His brother is probably the
man who assassinated Mr. Richardson in 1862.
Sanno take no ske, a servant of Mito.
Seito Kemmootz.
These three, with two others, are said to have died of the wounds
received, on the 7th day of the 3d month, or four days after his death.
Sakkai and Yakushuri, on the part of the Shiogoon, sent a letter to Ee
Kamong no kami, to ask how he was, and to bestow upon him a present of
fish and sugar, as a mark of regard.
The Cabinet was in difficulty how to act. They were of the party of the
Regent, but were now afraid that the opposite views would prevail, and
that power would fall into the hands of Mito.
On the part of the Gorochiu, Neito Kii no kami wrote to the servants of
Ee Kamong no kami:
“As a severe misfortune has befallen Ee Kamong no kami, all his
servants and relations are liable to be implicated in the trouble.[12]
If you, in revenge, should raise disturbance with the followers of
Mito, it will occasion much trouble. I will endeavor to arrange matters
for you, and keep things quiet.”
For some time after the assassination, the gates of the Shiogoon’s
castle, known as the Sakurada, Babasaki, and Watakura, were shut. The
Tayass gate at Take bashi, the Hanzo and Saymidzu gates, were open
during the day and shut at night.
The members of the Cabinet were allowed a guard of sixty men, and those
of the lower Cabinet fifty men.
The men now feared by the government, the partisans of Mito, were
lurking about Yedo in numbers. It was known that the head of the Regent
had been carried off to the city of Mito and put up on a pole, with
much abusive writing attached to it.
The Shiogoon gave orders to five Daimios to arrest all suspicious
persons from Mito, and to seize the leaders of the movement.
Mito had said, tauntingly, “How can I, a poor Daimio, arrest these men,
when you, the Shiogoon, are not able to do so? If you wish to seize
these men, send your officers and do it. From Tatsuno kootchi a head
was brought, and Ee Kamong no kami’s servants are very anxious to get
possession of it.”
The head of the Cabinet, Neito, wrote to Matzdaira Osumi no kami:
“Three days ago a high officer was assassinated before your door. You
did not go to his assistance, or prevent the outrage. You were very
negligent of your duty, and you are to be punished by the door of your
residence being shut for one week, and you are not to go out during
that time, but to confine yourself to your own house.”
A similar message was sent to Katagiri Iwami no kami, keeper of the
Heebiyah gate; and also to Toda stchi no ske (a child), keeper of the
Babasaki gate.
At this time the streets of Yedo were placarded with squibs against the
party of the late Regent and those in favor of foreigners. One of these
accused the late Gotairo of enriching himself by foreign trade at the
expense of the people of Japan, and others were obscure allusions to
the founder of the family. Another, by turning the characters of his
name upside down, makes of it, “A gentleman’s head swept away is very
good.”
(Some of these squibs were what is called “Yabatai” writing. This name
is founded on the following: Abe no naka maro in old times was sent as
embassador to China. The Chinese Emperor was angry with him, and said
that if he could not read a certain piece of writing he would kill
him. He failed, and was put to death. Another embassador succeeded, to
whom the same alternative was given. While he was musing upon it, and
praying to Ten sho go dai jin, a spider dropped from the ceiling upon
the paper, and went from word to word showing him how it was to be
read. This is called Yabatai, wild-horse writing, now converted into
Yaotai, wild-fool writing.)
The following information as to the assassins appears to have been
given to the Gorochiu by Hossokawa, the Daimio to whose residence
several of the assassins fled, saying that they were men from Mito, and
wished to place themselves under his protection. He is supposed to have
known all about the affair from the first.
One of the assassins, Mori, said that, about three months before, he
had attempted to kill the Regent by shooting him with a pistol. The
ball passed through the norimono, and he made his escape. The day they
came to Hossokawa’s house was very cold, so they were provided with
food and wine. There was much snow falling, which furthered the designs
of the assassins, as they thought it was assistance given them from
heaven. They were all very tired and sleepy. Upon the 18th day of the
2d month they all went to Mito, afterward returning to Yedo; and they
met in the morning of the 3d day of the 3d month at Atango yama. They
did not sleep there; but the Buddhist priest was cognizant of what was
going on.
The government in Yedo had doubtless good cause for alarm at the
present crisis, as Mito, on the one hand, and the young Ee, son of the
Regent, on the other, were making preparations for a fight. The policy
of Iyeyas in compelling the lords to be personally in Yedo with few
followers, while their strength in men remained at their provincial
seats, prevented any outbreak. Mito was gradually filling his houses
in Yedo with men.
On the other side, the family retainers of the Ee Kamong no kami, the
lad who had succeeded to his father, fearing what might be the result
of the present crisis, brought up ten cannon from his shta yashiki
in the suburbs of Yedo, to his kami yashiki. [Every Daimio of any
wealth has three houses in Yedo: his own residence, kami yashiki,
where his wife and family reside, near the castle; naka yashiki, where
concubines, servants, etc., reside; and shta yashiki, where he has a
garden, and retainers, servants, and their families reside.] From his
lands at Sano, in the province of Simotsuki, he brought up 400 men.
On the same day on which the Regent was killed, an attempt was made
by Ronins of Mito to kill Matzdaira Sanuki no kami, who was a near
relative of Mito, but a friend and son-in-law of Ee Kamong no kami.
He had some suspicion, and was unwell on the day of the levee, and
sent his son in his place. The norimono was attacked, but when the
son was dragged out, and they discovered their mistake, the assassins
let him go. The father did not long escape, however. He had taken as
a concubine a girl from Mito, who, during the next month, stabbed him
while in bed, and cut off his head, sending it to Mito. Matzdaira
Koonai no tayu, another friend of the Regent’s, and also a relative of
Mito, hearing in the palace of the murder of the Regent, escaped by a
back way.
The Daimio Hossokawa Etshiu no kami wrote to the government as follows:
“Yesterday morning some men came to my guards at the main gate, and
said they were servants of Mito and had killed the Regent, and it was
right that they should go to the Gorochiu; but as it is the first time
they have come to Yedo, and do not know where the Gorochiu live, they
requested me to go with them. I asked them who they were and what they
wanted. They answered, that they had been this morning fighting with
the Regent at the Sakurada gate; and having first wounded him with a
pistol, they pulled him by the right hand out of the kango and cut off
his head. There came at first only nine men, but these were followed by
a number of others: whence they came I do not know.”
Hossokawa accompanied these men to the Hio jo sho, where the judges
on duty asked them to give in writing their reasons for killing the
Regent. The answer was: “We have good reasons. From the time of Zin
mu tenwo to the present day the Japanese nation has never received
any insult from a foreign nation; now five foreign nations have made
treaties, and all through the empire the people are angry and sorry and
vexed, and the Regent did not care. If he does not care for this, he
makes himself an enemy to the nation, and therefore we killed him. We
have no other reason.”
The officers at the Hio jo sho were afraid to ask any more questions.
Mito sent the following letter to the Shiogoon:
“I am told that some men who were formerly in my service, but who were
dismissed, have gone this morning to the Sakurada gate and killed Ee
Kamong no kami. They appear to have gone to Hossokawa, wishing that
he should take them into his employ. A messenger from Hossokawa has
brought me this information. I am very sorry for it, and it has caused
me much distress. I could not employ so many servants, and therefore
was obliged to reduce my establishment, while some men who would not
obey me went away of their own accord. On this account I am unable
to arrest or punish such men, and must trust to the servants of the
Shiogoon doing so, while I must try to find those who have absconded;
but the Shiogoon is powerful while I am comparatively powerless; I
therefore beg the assistance of the Shiogoon.”
The Shiogoon wrote to Mito on the 4th day of the 3d month:
“Yesterday your servants killed the Gotairo, and now I fear they may
attack and kill some of the Gorochiu. It is ordered that your servants
from morning to night, all day and all night, are not to move out of
the house.”
Otta, Hiobu sho, wrote to the Shiogoon:
“This morning about 8 A.M. the men of my guard informed me that two
soldiers had passed them wounded and covered with blood. They, when
very near my cross guard, committed suicide. I thereupon sent an
Ometski to investigate the case. I asked the men standing near whence
they had come. They said from the direction of the Heebiyah gate, and
that on account of a severe wound of the shoulder one of them was faint
and could not walk. He said to his companion, ‘I cannot kill myself, as
I cannot move my right hand’; the other said, ‘If you are weak I will
do it for you,’ and cut off his head, and immediately after doing so he
cut his own throat. We found that one of the swords of these men was
bent round like a bow, and on examining the pockets, one had seven boos
[coins], and the other seven boos and a half; and besides the money
was a crest similar to that used by the Shiogoon [Mito uses the same
crest--the awoyee, or three leaves], which had been cut from his coat;
and a receipt from the Yebi ya [_i.e._, lobster inn], a tea-house at
the Yosiwarra [the government brothel]--viz., two boos for Tamanyoshi
and two for Chittosay, two girls; one boo for a singing-girl; one boo
for drink, two boos for fish, and ten tenpos for rice, with half a boo
as a present to the servants of the house, with the date, 2d month,
27th day.”
The street governor came and examined the corpses, and took them away
on the 4th day of the 3d month.
On the 4th day of the 3d month--_i.e._, the day after the
assassination--Satsuma wrote to the Shiogoon:
“A servant of mine, Arimura Yooske, yesterday absconded and has not
yet returned. I find that a man who committed suicide yesterday,
near the residence of Endo Tajima no kami, was his elder brother. As
I am ignorant of what he has been doing, please to order him to be
arrested.”
On the 3d day of the 3d month the Ronins in the service of Mito who had
assisted in the murder wrote out the following statement and gave it to
Hossokawa:
“We left our province of Hitatsi on the 18th day of last month; we did
not meet together, but stopped at different parts of the town during
our stay in Yedo. This morning we all met at the temple on Atango Hill
[in the middle of Yedo], and thence we went to the Cherry gate, and
waited between the guard-house of Osumi no kami and the Cherry gate.
The Gotairo came along with his retinue. All at once we surrounded the
kango on both sides. For some time we argued with the Gotairo. We told
him that he was a bad man. We spoke to him about foreigners coming to
the country, about the export of gold, about his receiving money as
bribes from foreigners. He answered, and his men tried to prevent any
attack being made upon him. One of our men fired a pistol into the
kango (by which shot he was wounded in the back). He crawled out of the
kango, but could not rise off his hands and knees quickly. His servants
ran away, and one man cut off his head; six or seven others hacked at
his body.”
In the pocket of Arimura, the servant of Satsuma, who had been killed,
was found a “sakiburay,” or permit to travel for the Prince of Satsuma,
who was at this time a child--“My master to-morrow sets out for
Satsuma, and wants at each station coolies and horses.” There was also
found a piece of poetry:
“This is my body, which belongs to my master;
I will wait in the ground till my name is made greater.”
The following is given as information with reference apparently to the
men who had banded themselves together to free their country from the
presence of foreigners:
“There are sixty honorable men in the service of Mito who are very hard
and iron-willed. Why are they so iron-willed? To drive away foreigners
according to the wish of the Emperor expressed in his letter of the
28th day of the 12th month. Mito has received a letter from the
Emperor. Hikonay [_i.e._, the Regent, from the name of his castle] gave
it to him to tell him he must go to Miako. We have got the Emperor’s
letter and know his wishes [that foreigners should be driven out of
Japan], and if we do not obey him we are rebels. The will of the
Emperor we are determined to accomplish.”
As further information the following is given: Hotta Bitshiu no kami
went to Miako on the part of the Gotairo to speak to the Emperor
about the foreign treaties with Japan. The Emperor said to him: “You
have made your treaties first, and afterward come to me to tell me of
what you have done. I know nothing about it. I know nothing about the
business transacted in Kwanto--_i.e._, in Yedo.” Hotta could not answer
the Emperor.
The Regent then sent Manabay to Miako to speak to the Emperor. He had
an audience of the Emperor, and advised him to wipe out the treaty
made at Yedo, and to make an entirely new and proper one. The Emperor
replied: “You have fouled my face, and consider me as of no use. From
the beginning there was always an Emperor in Japan; but if now the
people do not wish it, I will give up my position. But you are trying
to sow divisions between the Emperor and the Shiogoon.”
Manabay said: “It will be better for us to make their interests one
[alluding to the proposal that the Shiogoon should marry the sister
of the Emperor]. If we do so, we can afterward unite to brush out
foreigners.”
The Emperor replied: “Now, at three or four audiences you have brought
forward the business of Kwanto, but each time it has been false. Now
you speak truth. If you think it right, put out these foreigners now.
But my honor has been fouled and broken.”
Manabay said: “At present the government of Japan is difficult and in a
critical position, but let us be quiet and delay.”
Manabay had, for the Regent, given large sums of money to the high
Koongays, the Kwanbakku, and others, to bring over the Emperor to his
side. The Emperor was then standing alone, the Kwanbakku having been
bought over. Manabay, on his return, retired from the Gorochiu to his
provincial residence in Etsizen, but he got the credit of having saved
Japan at this critical period from a civil war. It was only postponed
for a little.
The Gorochiu were in great alarm at this time, and issued orders to all
the guards around and in Yedo to be on the watch for disturbances.
At the Hio jo sho the following evidence was elicited from one of the
guards:
“I am a Gay zammi.[13] In the open space in front of the gate there
were eight or nine men standing--some with raincoats on, and some
holding umbrellas--and looking at the Sode bookang.[14] I heard a
pistol-shot in the open space in front, and several shots were fired at
the kango. The bearers ran away. Some men then seized Ee Kamong no kami
by the mangay [_i.e._, the stiff tuft of hair on the top of the head],
and dragged him out of the kango. After that I heard loud speaking,
quarreling and scolding; and soon after they cut off Ee’s head. While
the quarreling was going on he was not dead, because I saw him moving
his hands. Afterward many of the assassins stamped upon the body, and
all kicked it; and they afterward hacked the body all over. They then
all ran away.”
The Gorochiu immediately sent a letter to the Emperor: “This morning
(3d day of 3d month), on the Soto Sakurada, twenty servants of Mito
assassinated Kamong no kami. We fear that Mito may have a design of
sending men down to Miako to seize the Emperor, and gain over the
Koongays. Therefore his Majesty’s government would do well to keep a
strict watch round Miako, and in the six roads leading to the capital.”
Matzdaira Higo no kami wrote to the Gorochiu: “This morning there was a
serious disturbance at Soto Sakurada. My soldiers are at your disposal
to guard any spot where you may please to order them.”
The Gorochiu answered, by the usual way of attaching a small slip of
paper to the letter: “We do not require any more soldiers.”
The Shiogoon ordered Sakkai Sayay mon no jo, who was now, by the death
of the Regent, head of the Tay kan no ma, or room of the Fudai Daimios,
as follows:
“This morning there was a great disturbance in Soto Sakurada; and
afterward there was fighting close to the Shiogoon’s residence. You
must keep all the soldiers under your command in readiness within your
house.”
The Shiogoon also wrote to Higo no kami: “You say you have your
soldiers all ready for any duty they may be called to. Your loyalty has
given me much satisfaction.”
On the 4th day of the 3d month, Okamoto and Soma, the two principal
officers in the late Regent’s service, went to the Gorochiu with the
following letter: “Our master, Kamong no kami, went out yesterday to
go to the castle to pay his respects. When about half-way between
his house and the gate of the castle, several miscreants fell upon
him and killed him. We have certain information that these assassins
were servants of Mito and Satsuma. Yesterday all the officers say
to us, ‘Wait a little.’ But this business cannot wait. We wish to
know for what reason these men killed our master. There are, at the
present moment, some of these men secreted in the houses of Wakisaka
and Hossokawa--two Daimios. We wish to see them, and ascertain from
themselves why they killed our master. We desire that these men may be
delivered up to us. All the people of Hikonay [the Regent’s territory]
wish this, and we trust you will take pity on them and grant their
desire.”
To this letter the Gorochiu affixed as answer: “Cannot do so.”
The following letter was addressed to the Shiogoon by the son and
servants of the late Regent on the day of the murder. It was written
to ascertain whether the law of Japan would be acted upon in their
case, by which the territory of any officer who had been assassinated
is confiscated. “3d day, 3d month.--Ee Kamong no kami, when going to
the castle to-day, and when near the Sakurada gate, was attacked by a
number of villains. At the time, so much snow was falling as to make
it impossible to see a yard before one. All the servants of Ee are
enraged. There were but few Ronins and many servants, and they ought
to have overpowered the Ronins. The servants are deeply shamed when
they think of Ee nawo massa (the first of the family in the time of
Iyeyas). Whatever is to become of us we care not; but the retainers and
friends of Ee wish to know whether the house is, according to the old
laws of the empire, to be reduced in rank and impoverished, or if it
is to be entirely degraded and removed from the territory. We wish to
understand clearly.” This was written in the name of the young Ee; and
was probably written with the view of preparing to defend themselves
and party by an appeal to arms rather than by submission.
The Shiogoon answered to this: “All your father’s territory I restore
to you his son.”
Here terminates the native account of the assassination. It gives some
insight into the working of the government, and the unscrupulous means
to which the highest magnates of the land will resort to attain their
ends. From the general tenor of the statements, the extreme hatred
of one party in Japan to foreign intercourse is brought out, and the
slight which the Emperor considered to have been put upon him by the
conclusion of the treaty without his consent and against his expressed
opinion.
Assassination is the _ultima ratio_ of the desperation of party
weakness. The act implies that the party which has sanctioned it has no
one competent to cope with the individual removed, or to fill the place
which it has made vacant.
The position of the government upon the death of the Regent was that
of helpless inactivity. The sudden removal of the foremost man of the
empire was as the removal of the fly-wheel from a piece of complicated
machinery. The whole empire stood aghast, expecting and fearing some
great political convulsion. The whole country knew who had been the
active agents in the deed; and perhaps there were at heart very few who
did not feel more or less satisfaction at the blow given to the party
which was responsible for, and instrumental in, bringing foreigners
into the country; and a civil war or revolution would certainly have
followed, had not every one felt that they were, for the first time in
their history, face to face with an enemy, fear of whom concentrated
all minor feelings, and consolidated them into one great national
determination to rid the land of the hated foreigners. This was the one
policy which the Emperor demanded of the Shiogoon, which the people
looked to the government to effect, and which the lords and military
classes burned to carry into execution. Were the foreigners not a mere
handful of men, and were such to be allowed to beard and insult the
highest personages in the land with perfect impunity? Now, when the
head of the party, who was or pretended to be in favor of such a change
of the laws, is struck down, if some representative of the national
feelings would only arise and lead them on, they would follow to the
death in such a glorious cause. But no such leader appeared. Where was
Mito, the rival of the late Regent? and why did he not come forward to
carry out his own policy at this juncture? The son of the late Regent
was too young and inexperienced to claim his father’s office, or to
assume the leadership of the party. It was the personal hatred of the
two men which had been the moving spring in the daring action of the
Regent, and in the underhand plotting of Mito. In all probability
the feelings of hostility with which each regarded the foreigner were
equally strong. Mito said you must admit foreigners, because you cannot
keep them out. He thought we can admit foreigners, and, if we see fit,
afterward turn them out. But Mito was disliked by the other Daimios,
and his name was not sufficient to rally a strong party, while he[15]
and the lately degraded Daimios were now in arrest in their own houses,
in territories which had been transferred to the hands of infants.
They had thus no opportunity for intriguing, having no common place
of meeting out of Yedo, as by law they were prohibited from going to
Miako, and could only come to Yedo as Daimios, when called there on
duty by the government.
In this crisis the only course for the Cabinet to pursue was to go on
quietly, managing the routine of affairs until time should open up some
line of action. The Gorochiu, therefore, with Neito at its head, and
nominally under Tayass as Regent, continued to carry on the ordinary
duties of government.
Events have shown that the Regent was right in his judgment of the men
whom he sought to remove from his path as obstacles--Mito, Etsizen,
Satsuma, Owarri--as these have all since his death reappeared as
leaders of the party opposed to his policy in the Obiroma or council of
the Kokushu. Etsizen, afterward known by his retired title Shoongaku,
was the first among these magnates who attempted to take a lead in the
government of Yedo. He had been removed from his position as Daimio
and placed in arrest; but, having subsequently been released, was able
to move about and obtain an influence in high places. He obtained from
the Emperor a letter [afterward considered a forgery], appointing him
and Awa to fill the place of co-regents, under the name of Sosai Shoku
or Sodangeite. But the fermentation of revolution had already begun
to work, and at such a time the first actors upon the stage seldom
play the prominent parts they deem themselves fitted to fill. They
generally fail to see the causes of the boiling going on around. Such
a man is like an atom in a pot of boiling water, and knows and sees
nothing of the fire which is causing all the upturning around him. To
even a superficial looker-on at the state of things in Japan, it was
evident that such a dual condition of government as that then existing
could not long continue to carry on foreign relations. The discord and
weakness arising from the permission of an _imperium in imperio_ by
the exterritoriality clause was greatly increased by the government
attempting to carry on foreign relations without the consent or against
the will of the higher power in Miako. The two powers must work
harmoniously; and so long as the internal affairs of the empire are
the only possible cause of rupture, the weaker, though more exalted,
will find it to be its interest to be on good terms with the lower
but more powerful, the executive. So soon as the latter begins to act
as supreme power toward other nations, it places itself in a wrong
position, and foreign nations will not treat with such a pretense.
The opposition finds a head in the Emperor, and the only way to avert
a rupture is for the lower power to give way and to act only as the
representative of the head of the empire. If he fails to see this, he
sets himself against the Emperor, who is then supported, not only by
his own nobility, but also by those powers with whom he has entered
into relations. The party of the Shiogoon deserts him, and his only
_rôle_ is to work with and under the Emperor; or, if he refuses to do
this, civil war ensues, and he falls.
After the removal of the Gotairo, the Cabinet was able or permitted
to carry on the affairs of State. But while everything seemed smooth,
smoldering powers were at work preparing for volcanic action. The
Kokushu, and especially those who came to Yedo from the west, were
becoming very much irritated about the question of foreigners in the
country, and foreign ministers in Yedo. The latter assumed a position
of superiority to which these lords were quite unaccustomed. They were
occupying temples belonging to great families, situated in cemeteries
consecrated by the burial of their ancestors and relatives, but now
polluted by intruders hateful to the spirits of the country. The
foreign merchants were able to beard these princes on the highroad,
and to treat with nonchalance dignitaries who looked for the utmost
deference, and who were authorized by law to punish at their own hands
any real or supposed insolence or insult. On the other hand, they saw
trade pushing its way in the country; silk which had been sold for 100
dollars was now bringing 1,000, and Emperor and lord longed to share in
such advantages and participate in the profits. The first object which
the more powerful of the Kokushu set themselves to accomplish was to
break down this intolerable subjection to the Yedo government. This
was not difficult to do, as the power of the empire was in the hands
of a delicate lad, and the Emperor, through whom the end was brought
about, was promised and hoped that the power would revert to him. The
agents in this act were Shoongaku, Shimadzu saburo, Choshiu, and a
Koongay Ohara--a distant relative and the unexpected successor of a
Koongay, and who had spent his early life hanging about the offices of
Yedo. After the boy-Shiogoon had been married to Kadsu mia, sister of
the Emperor, Shoongaku, who was always full of the most economical if
not parsimonious views, reduced the retinue and court of the Shiogoon
till it was brought into contempt with the populace. In October, 1862,
these potentates produced a letter (forged, as is generally believed)
from the Emperor, putting an end to the routine of the Yedo court; and
having the power in their own hands, they immediately proclaimed the
edict and carried it into execution. The order was to the effect that
the higher Daimios were to visit Yedo only once in seven years, and
that the wives and families of all the Daimios were to live at their
own provincial seats. This removed from Yedo all the luster of the
court. At the same time these lords filled up the complement of their
design by inducing the Emperor to call most of the higher Daimios who
were of their own views to Miako. The Mikado was swayed hither and
thither as the one party or the other gained the power in the capital;
and so at one time Kanso, the retired lord of Hizen, had the ear of
the Emperor in the interest of the Shiogoon, while Choshiu appeared to
have taken up arms against his sovereign. But he seems all along to
have acted loyally and patriotically in showing an intense hatred to
the foreigners who were by force of arms thrusting themselves and their
regiments into the country. This act was the great blow which broke
up the power and brought to a termination the dynasty of Iyeyas. He
had foreseen and made provision for intestine war and revolution, but
had not been able to provide for a treaty with foreign nations and an
exterritoriality clause.
In 1861 the foreign ministers, up to that time resident in Yedo,
retired to Yokohama, and pressed one demand after another upon the
Japanese government, already sufficiently occupied with complications
arising from intestine difficulties. The Cabinet was worried by
requests for interviews upon questions of land, of residences, of money
exchanges, of matters of etiquette in interviews with the Shiogoon,
and other matters which might seem trivial in comparison with the
crisis through which the country was passing in the face of an internal
revolution. These foreign ministers were now, somewhat unreasonably,
all demanding that residences should be built for them by the Japanese
government, and insisting that these residences should (in the face of
an article of the treaty to the contrary) be fortified and furnished
with guns. The recreation ground of the people of Yedo, Go teng
yama, was demanded and given up for this purpose by Ando, then Prime
Minister, and a large building was erected by the Japanese government
upon this site; but the feelings of the people at this unjust
appropriation of a piece of ground which had been set apart for their
use were so much excited that another local _émeute_ was threatened
at Yedo. This was allayed by the burning of the new building, and by
the attempted assassination of the Prime Minister, who narrowly escaped
with the loss of an ear.
By these annoyances occurring in the neighborhood of Yedo, and through
the presence of foreigners, a strong party was drawn over to the views
of the Emperor, and the nation began to see that he had all along been
in the right in opposing the admission of foreigners as detrimental
to the quiet of the country. Satsuma and Choshiu built each a large
new residence in Miako. The Emperor called on twelve of the wealthiest
among the Daimios to keep each a sufficient body of troops in the city
for his protection. The young Shiogoon was invited or called upon to
pay a visit to Miako when Stotsbashi was intriguing against him. He
accordingly went with Kanso, the retired prince of Hizen, while Higo
was appointed Shugo shoku, or guardian of the palace. This meeting of
the Emperor and the Shiogoon seems to have opened the eyes of both to
the power and intelligence of foreigners, of which the Emperor and his
court seem to have been ignorant. Some of the Miako nobility went out
on a trip with the Shiogoon in his steamer, and were astonished and
converted; and Anega Koji was assassinated for expressing too plainly
and openly his opinions as to the power and energy of foreigners.
The intercourse between the two heads of the empire seems to have
consolidated the power of the government, and promised to bring forth
fruit in a mutual good understanding and co-operation. Stotsbashi
sneaked away to Yedo in disgrace, and had to run the gantlet of an
attack on his way back, when his chief secretary was assassinated on
the highroad at Saka no shta. Shimadzu and Choshiu retired from Miako
in disgrace to their respective provincial residences, where they
brooded over their own position and that of the empire. They could not
but feel that it was the loyalty of their views which had entailed
on them their present disgrace, and the prime cause of this was the
foreigners. They knew well that the feeling of every one of their
countrymen was with them, and they seem to have at last determined to
throw themselves into the breach by bringing about a quarrel between
the government and some foreign nation. Shimadzu, the father of the
Daimio, then a minor, determined to carry out the laws of the country
irrespective of any exterritoriality clauses. On leaving Yedo, on
September 14, 1862, he gave out that he would cut down any foreigners
he might chance to meet upon the road; when, as he approached Kanagawa,
meeting three gentlemen and a lady, he ordered his retainers to cut
them down, and Mr. Richardson, wounded and unable to ride away more
than two hundred yards, was set upon, fainting from loss of blood, and
brutally murdered. Justice was asked from the Shiogoon’s government and
the punishment of the offender, who was well known to all Japan. The
murder of a merchant by a lord like Satsuma was treated with contempt,
and the matter was referred by the British Minister to H.M. government.
The subsequent necessary delay of many months, before instructions came
out to demand an indemnity and the punishment of the offender, raised
the courage of the party opposed to foreigners, and Choshiu determined
on his part to carry out the laws of the country according to his
instructions. He held a commission from the Emperor as guardian of the
Straits of Simo no seki, the narrow western entrance to the “inner
sea.” He had thereby a right to overhaul all vessels passing through
this strait. There is no other sea quite analogous: it resembles, but
is much narrower than, the Dardanelles, the Sound, the Straits of
Dover, or Tarifa, at all of which places some recognition of the power
of the nation to defend a vulnerable point of her territories has been
allowed in the exercise of certain surveillance over passing vessels.
Choshiu fired upon some foreign vessels passing through this strait.
The consequence of this was a combined attack by English, French
and Dutch, by which he or one of his relatives (by error) suffered
severely in men, ammunition and prestige. The Shiogoon disavowed his
proceedings, and to satisfy foreign demands proposed to punish the
rebel This, however, he found to be no easy matter, as the whole troops
and populace were in favor of Choshiu and his patriotic attempt, and
the Shiogoon was at last obliged to make terms with the Daimio.
Choshiu had presented the following memorial to the government upon
the position of Japan in its internal and external relations at this
juncture:
“Allow me, notwithstanding your political discussions [with the
Mikado’s envoys], to give you my opinion respecting the troubles
which foreigners have given us of late years in asking all kinds of
concessions, in addition to the unexpected troubles which exist in
our own country. This combination of difficulties within and without,
occurring at the same time, and bringing us to a point when our
prosperity or misfortune is decided, keeps my heart day and night in
anxiety, and induces me to give you in confidence my own feelings upon
these subjects.
“I have long thought that union and concord between the Shiogoon and
Mikado, and obedience to the Mikado’s orders, are highly necessary in
keeping up an intercourse with foreign nations, as I have already said
very often.
“But every one knows that since the great council of officers, the
Shiogoon and Mikado are disunited, which has occasioned a conflict of
parties, and brought with it discord and trouble.
“I think the reason of this is, that although the signing of the
treaties was forced upon us by urgent circumstances and pressing
events, there are some who maintain that the reopening of relations
with foreigners has occasioned a degradation of the people, who were
so brave and constant ten years ago, to the state of quiescence and
cowardice to which they are now reduced by their fear of war and of the
foreign powers. These persons who are of this opinion are therefore
in opposition to the acts of the Shiogoon, and say that they will
themselves undertake to set aside the treaties and prepare the country
for war, declaring that the Mikado still maintains the old laws of our
country, which direct the expulsion of foreigners.
“Other persons accept, on the contrary, the reopening of the country,
and praise the foreigners, and thus destroy all confidence in
ourselves. They say that the foreigners have large forces, and that
they have great knowledge of arts and sciences.
“These conflicting opinions trouble the minds of the people. Unity is
force and strength, and discord is weakness; therefore it would be
imprudent to go to war against powerful and brave enemies with discord
in our minds.
“The closing or opening of Japan is a matter of the greatest moment.
That which cannot be shut again should not have been opened, and that
which cannot be opened should not have been shut.
“The closing of Japan will never be a real closing, and the opening
will never be a real opening, so long as our country is not restored to
its independence, and as long as it is menaced and despised by foreign
countries. Therefore the opening or closing of Japan is dependent upon
the restoration of our own powers; if that is effected, then war or
peace can be declared.
“The condition upon which this power can be restored to us is the
enlightening of the people, and their union.
“I think the only way to bring about national union is by solid union
between the Shiogoon and Mikado, acting together as in one body. Should
there be war, it can be brought to an end very easily.
“A time is now come very different from the barbarous ages, and arising
out of the long peace which has prevailed. Every little child knows the
respect it owes to its parents and masters.
“It will therefore rejoice everybody in this advanced age to see the
Shiogoon hold the Mikado in great respect; and the whole nation would
honor the Shiogoon, and all troubles would cease, and then only we can
be restored to our independence and power.
“After our independence is restored, it is urgent and pressing that we
reform our military institutions, the naval sciences, as well as all
branches of industry. We should find out the great advancements and
developments of arts and sciences in other countries. The whole nation
must devote life and soul to the benefit of our state, and we must
learn and study the interior arrangements of foreign lands, in order
that the commerce of our country may flourish in this important age. I
think all this ought to have been done long since; but nothing of the
kind is to be found in the edicts which have appeared so often during
the last seven years.
“Inventions and improvements pass on with rapidity, and the time is now
come to make all these changes and improvements; but if our attachment
to old customs causes us to postpone these measures of such great
importance, if these changes are later suddenly forced by circumstances
upon the inhabitants, a very bad impression will be produced, creating
disorder and confusion. These are reasons why they should be effected
now calmly and gradually. I think that the Mikado will not be
disinclined to this, and therefore I wish that the Shiogoon should act
under the orders of the Mikado, and not conclude matters by his own
authority. He ought to let these designs be known to all the Daimios in
the name of the Mikado; then there will be a general quiet restored;
then the dormant soul of the whole nation will awake, and will be
united in power and in independence; and then it will display its force
and strength to the other five portions of the universe without anxiety
and fear for our own country.
“I do not write these my sentiments to aid you in your negotiations, as
they may be of little or no use to you, and only like a drop of water
falling into the ocean; but to show my gratitude for the favors of the
Shiogoon, which my ancestors have enjoyed during centuries.”
The aim of the party opposed to the policy of the Shiogoon and the
admission of foreigners seems to have been to poison the mind of the
Emperor against the young Shiogoon, and to embroil the country in a
war, by setting the one against the other. The letters from the Emperor
which have been obtained prove this.
The following letter was conveyed by Shimadzu Saburo from the Emperor
to the Shiogoon about October, 1862:
“I think that the power of the foreigners [Ee jin, wild men] at the
present time in the country is improper; and the officers of the Kwanto
seem to have lost all knowledge of the right way, and of all plans of
action, causing disturbance all over the empire. All my people [Ban
nin, 10,000 men] seem about to fall down into mud as black as charcoal.
On this account I, standing between Ten sho go dai jin and my people,
am very deeply distressed. The Bakuri [Shiogoon’s officers] have spoken
to me, saying, ‘All our people are agitated, and the Shiogoon has no
power to hold up his arm. Therefore please give us your sister in
marriage [to the Shiogoon]. If you can do this, Miako and Yedo will be
at concord, and the whole power of Japan can join together, and we can
then brush away the Yee teki’ [_i.e._, foreigners, wild enemies].
“In answer, I said, ‘This is right, and I will give my sister.’
“At that time the Bakuri said to me, ‘In ten years the foreigners
must be brushed away.’ This gave me great pleasure; and I pray to the
spirits every day to help Japan.
“I have now been waiting for a long time for your brushing away. Why
are you so slow?
“With my sister Kadsumia I sent Tchikusa shosho and Iwakura chiujo, and
at the same time granted a general amnesty;[16] and all the business of
the government I gave, as in former times, to the Shiogoon. But this
business about foreigners [Gway-Ee] is of the first importance to the
country. Therefore I said, ‘Let all this foreign business come under
my care, and I will settle it.’ At the time, all the Yedo officials
answered to me that the Emperor’s proposal was very important and
serious, but a speedy answer cannot be given, and that we must wait a
little.
“After this time, several Daimios proposed several different stratagems
for driving away foreigners. But of all the Daimios only two--viz.,
Satsuma and Choshiu--came in person to speak to me; and all the loyal
people from San yodo [west of Miako], Nan kaido [island of Sikok], and
Sai kaido [island of Kiusiu], came to Miako like bees, and addressed
me secretly. All these tell me that the officers of Yedo are all bad,
and that they are becoming worse from day to day; and that justice
and truth are fallen to the ground; and that they do not hold the
Emperor in respect; and they are friends of the foreigners, giving them
everything they want--silk, tea, and other things--while the whole
country loses. All the people are much vexed about this; and they feel
that they are becoming the same as servants of the foreigners, and now
their habits cannot change. On this account, these people of San yodo,
Nan kaido, and Sai kaido, and Satsuma and Mowori [Choshiu], wish to
raise the Emperor’s flag. And they say, that if the Emperor with the
flag goes to Hakonay, the Bakufu [Shiogoon’s office] officers, if bad,
must all be punished.
“Some men say that, Japan having been at peace for a long time, the
spirits of the people are very lazy and slow; therefore they suggest
that a letter should be given to the Daimios and people of the Go ki
stchi do [_i.e._, the districts lying upon the seven roads], ordering
that foreigners must be brushed out of the country.
“The Emperor says: ‘Throughout the empire there are many loyal and
patriotic men, therefore I will speak to Satsuma and Nagato to desire
the people to have patience.’
“I gave a letter to Koozay Yamato no kami, requesting an answer, and
yet none ever came; and last year I wrote and proclaimed an amnesty,
and to this I received no answer. Why has the Shiogoon thus lost the
way? I believe it is not he, but his officers. All the Gorochiu do not
care. The Ty jiu [great tree] is but young; but I fear that if I delay
but an instant [till I can stand up], all the empire will be broken up.
Therefore I am every day troubled and weeping. All the officers of the
Kwanto [the Shiogoon, Daimios, etc.] think only of the happiness of
a day, and forget the misery of a hundred years. The holy books thus
speak, and you ought to study them. You ought to keep these virtuous
ideas in your minds, and be ready with your military preparations, and
then you will clearly see your way out, and brush away the power of
the foreign enemies. But while all Japan is in a state of excitement,
I will hold to the medium course [_i.e._, between brushing away
immediately and waiting indefinitely]. Since the Tokungawa family
began [_i.e._, since Iyeyas], there has not arisen a question of so
much difficulty. I have three plans to propose: The first is, that I
will gradually bring the Shiogoon and Daimios and Hattamoto to Miako,
and will hold a council about the government of the country and the
brushing away of foreigners. If we can do this, the anger of heaven
and the gods will be averted. They will rejoice, and the good minds of
the lower classes will return. Then all people will stand on a strong
foundation, and the empire be as strong as a large mountain.
“My second plan is, you must lean upon the old laws of Ho taiko
[_i.e._, Taikosama], and give the laws of the country and the
settlement of the question into the hands of the Tai hang [_i.e._,
large fence, or the Kokushiu] and the Gotairo [_i.e._, five elders].
If we do this, the country can keep out or push back the pressure of
foreigners. All round the coasts military preparations must be made;
and so the country will be strong, and foreigners can be brushed away.
“My third plan is, to order Stotsbashi to assist the Ty jiu on all
internal business, and to give the office of Regent to Shoongaku, to
take charge of the outer relations of the office at Yedo. In that case
both the internal and external business will be well conducted, and
we shall not blush to think that we are servants to foreigners, and
that they have obliged us to cross our coats the right over the left
side.[17] For all men fear that in a very little time these foreigners
will seize all Japan.
“I think that these three plans should now be considered and settled,
and to that end I send an envoy to Kwanto; but if they cannot all three
be carried out, I wish the officers of the Shiogoon to examine them and
determine on one that can be carried out. All my servants must be very
busy going round and round, and there is to be no secrecy about it; but
every one is to be diligent, and all must give me a faithful report.”
At the time this letter was written both Stotsbashi and Shoongaku were
in Miako, whither they had hurried down before the arrival of the
Shiogoon. The letter bears some internal evidence of being written at
their dictation, especially from the proposal made to appoint the two
as Lieutenants and Regent to or over the Shiogoon; and corroborates the
advice which Kanso had given the young Shiogoon; viz., that he should
repair at once to Miako, where the enemies of his power were trying to
subvert him.
Not long after this, four Koongays of Miako having been discovered
plotting against the Emperor were degraded and obliged to shave their
heads and retire to monasteries. Koonga and his son, and the Empress
herself, with two concubines, were said to be implicated in these
intrigues. The following reasons of punishment were published: “During
the last five years intrigues have been carrying on against the Emperor
by the late Gotairo and Sakkye Wakasa no kami. The object of these
intrigues has been to get possession of the Emperor’s person and banish
him to one of the islands (as formerly several were sent by Ashikanga
and Hojio). Sakkye was very false, and tarnished the bright name of
the Emperor, which is a very foul crime. Now their devices have been
discovered, and the Emperor has ordered the Sisshay [another name of
the Kwanbakku] thus to punish them.”
The punishment inflicted by the British government upon Satsuma at
Kagosima, on account of the murder of Mr. Richardson, was severe but
deserved, and, in a political view, was completely successful. The two
most powerful lords in the empire had each tried a fall with foreigners
and been worsted. They could no longer press on the government to brush
out these intruders, as they knew now by experience how far behind the
country was in military and naval tactics and means of warfare. The
natural result now followed--they began to quarrel among themselves.
Seeing their own weakness, however, they instantly began to take what
steps they could to bring themselves up to a higher standing by the
education of their people, and they began by seeking to acquire a
knowledge of steam and steam-vessels. Choshiu and Satsuma sent young
men to England, arms and ammunition were purchased, steam-factories
were erected for working in iron, military tactics were studied,
professors were appointed in their colleges, and officers were obtained
to drill their young men and teach the use of the rifle.
The fruit expected from the intercourse of the Emperor and Shiogoon
unfortunately did not ripen. The latter returned to Yedo despoiled
of much of the former splendor of his position. His court was broken
up. The greater lords paid now no deference to him, and the lesser
Daimios began to side with the greater. His party consisted chiefly
of the Kamong Daimios, the relatives of the family of Tokungawa. Yedo
itself was falling into the position of a fading capital, and, as a
place of commercial importance, was dwindling with the departure of its
political greatness. A feeble attempt was made to recall the edict and
re-establish the old order of things in Yedo; but events rolled on,
and things are shaping themselves in totally different order from that
proposed by the ruling powers.
The defeat of Satsuma by the English navy at Kagosima separated that
Daimio from the party of Choshiu and others, and his counsels to
the Emperor were those of peace. Shimadzu Saburo paid the indemnity
demanded of him, and gave assurances that the offender should be given
up when discovered, which was perhaps as much as could be expected from
one who, while a murder was being committed by his orders, was quietly
sitting within ten feet of his victim.
The Shiogoon Iyay mutchi had found nothing but trouble and anxiety from
his elevation to the seat of power in the year 1859. In 1866 his health
began to give way, and he shortly after died, leaving no children, and
the way became open to his rival, Stotsbashi. The period was critical,
and the ablest man would have found difficulty in steering through the
dangers surrounding the vessel of state. The Daimios would now have
little hesitation in withholding their allegiance to another Kubosama
until it should be settled who was to be the _de facto_ ruler of the
empire--the Emperor or the Shiogoon. Many would see that some change
must take place in the internal constitution of the empire now when the
government must deal as one body with foreign nations. The necessity
for dual government was at an end. The mouthpiece of the nation must
be one, and give no uncertain sound. The internal resources must be
gathered into one treasury. The police, the taxes, must be recognized
as national, and not as belonging to one petty chief here and there.
The army and navy required reconstruction; and the power of the feudal
lords would have to be broken down in order to be reconstituted into
one strong state under one head.
The new Shiogoon, Yoshi hisa, attempted to assume the power with the
position held by his ancestors, but he was too late. His only true
policy was to stand beside and support the Emperor while the lower
chiefs impoverished themselves by fighting. He attempted to take a side
against the Emperor, but not being aided by a strong party, he was
forced in 1867 to give way, and by abdicating retire into temporary
obscurity.
To add still more to the critical position of affairs in Japan at this
time, the Emperor died, being about thirty-eight years of age, and
leaving a young boy as his heir and successor. It does not clearly
appear who has been pulling the strings of political action on the
part of the boy-Emperor; but there can be little doubt but that the
two Daimios to whom Yedo was the most grievous offense, and whose
ancestors had smarted from the rise of the Tokungawa family under
Iyeyas, Satsuma and Choshiu, have not been idle. On the other hand, the
wealthy Daimios from the north--Sendai, and other Kamong or relatives
of that family--seemed determined to uphold the position of the family,
and carry out the principles of Iyeyas at all hazards. Between these
parties the Shiogoon, who is said to be an able man, tried to steer a
neutral course until he saw what would turn up. At length he came to
think that submission to the Emperor was the true policy for himself
and for the empire, and he humbly placed himself at the disposal of
the Emperor rather than involve the country in another civil war. His
submission was accepted by the Emperor in the following terms:
“The conduct of Tokungawa Yoshi hisa having proceeded to such an
extreme as to be properly called an insult to the whole empire, and
having caused the deepest pain to the mind of the Emperor, both sea
and land forces were sent to punish him. Hearing, however, that he is
sincerely penitent, and lives in retirement, the excess of the imperial
compassion shall be exhausted, and the following commands be enjoined
upon him. Let him be respectfully obedient to them. A period of eleven
days is granted him in which to comply with all these orders.
“1st, Yoshi hisa having, on the 12th month of the last year, and
afterward, insulted the Emperor, attacked the imperial city, and fired
upon the imperial flag, was guilty of a most heinous crime. The army
was accordingly sent out to pursue and punish him. But as he has
manifested sincere contrition and obedience, has shut himself up in
retirement, and begs that his crime may be pardoned: in consideration
of the no small merit of his family, which, since the time of his
ancestors, for more than two hundred years has administered the affairs
of government, and more especially of the accumulated meritorious
services of Mito zo Dainagoon [the father of Yoshi hisa, and rival
of the Regent]; for these various considerations, of which we are
most profoundly sensible, we give him the following commands, which
if he obeys we will deal leniently with him, grant that the house
of Tokungawa be established [_i.e._, not destroyed from the list of
Daimios], remit the capital punishment his crimes deserve, but command
him to go to the castle of Mito, and there live shut up in retirement.
“2d, The castle [of the Shiogoon in Yedo] to be vacated, and delivered
over to the Prince of Owarri.
“3d, All the ships of war, cannon and small arms to be delivered up;
when a proper proportion shall be returned [to the head of the house of
Tokungawa, which is reduced to the rank of an ordinary Daimio].
“4th, The retainers living in the castle shall move out and go into
retirement.
“5th, To all those who have aided Yoshi hisa, although their crimes
are worthy of the severest punishment, the sentence of death shall be
remitted, but they are to receive such other punishment as you shall
decide on. Let this be reported to the imperial government. This,
however, does not include those persons who have an income of more than
10,000 koku--_i.e._, Daimios; the imperial government alone will punish
such.”
An important political step has been taken within the last few months,
during the present year 1869. The Daimios appear to have become aware
of the weakness which inevitably accompanies division, and of the
strength which would be gained to the country by consolidation and
unification under one head. The threatening position taken up by some
or all of the foreign nations with whom treaties of friendship had been
concluded brought up the subject at some of the recent great councils.
The crushing defeats which had fallen upon Satsuma and Choshiu warned
individual Daimios of their weakness as units in carrying on operations
of war; the enormous expense entailed upon them in procuring munitions
of war, and in exercise, and in the purchase of steamers, alarmed these
lords in the prospect of annihilation from exhaustion, and they came
to the conclusion that such expenses could only be borne by the empire
as a whole, and that to gain such an advantage the privileges of the
class must in some degree be given up. The removal of the Shiogoon
presented a favorable opportunity for carrying out the proposal, and
they agreed heartily to restore all their fiefs into the hands of the
Emperor, and to give up the exclusive privileges which each held in his
own state, that these might all be thrown into one government, with one
exchequer, one army, and one navy. The latest accounts confirm this
cession of their independent rights--in which cession Satsuma, the
most powerful, but the Daimio who suffered most from the independent
system in the very severe punishment which he received in loss of men,
destruction of steamers, and payment of indemnity, with total loss of
prestige and position as a military power, has been foremost. It is
therefore reasonable to suppose that henceforth there will be only one
responsible ruling power in Japan.