EVENTS FOLLOWING THE ABOLITION OF THE SHIOGOONATE
Mr. Dickson’s history was published in 1869. During the years that
have since elapsed we have witnessed a complete transformation of
Japan. To make intelligible the sequence of events, it may be well to
describe more in detail the incidents which preceded, attended and
immediately followed the downfall of the Tokungawa Shiogoonate which,
for more than two and a half centuries, had possessed the substance of
power in Japan, only the shadow thereof being retained by the Mikado.
Within less than a year after January 6, 1867, when Keiki had been
made Shiogoon, much against his will, the Prince of Tosa and many able
representatives of the Daimio and Samurai castes urged him to resign
and permit a government to be constituted on the principles which had
prevailed in the ante-Shiogoon era, namely, before the year A.D. 1200.
In November, 1867, Keiki so far yielded to public opinion as to tender
his resignation; but, as the Aidzu clan, which was stanchly loyal to
him, continued to guard the Mikado’s palace, it remained for a time
uncertain whether Keiki might not resume his functions. Ultimately, a
combination was formed by the Satsuma, Choshiu, Tosa, Etsizen and other
clans, whereby the followers of the Tokungawa family were expelled
from the imperial palace and an edict was issued in the name of the
young Mikado, Mutsuhito, to the effect that the office of Shiogoon
was abolished, and that the government of Japan would be henceforth
carried on by the Mikado himself. A provisional administrator was
appointed, and all the important civil and military posts were allotted
to unflinching upholders of the prospective regime. The ex-Shiogoon,
however, was persuaded by his retainers to retract his resignation,
and, at the head of a large force, he undertook to re-enter Kioto
[Miako] for the purpose of reasserting his former authority. After a
battle, which lasted three days, he was beaten by the loyal troops and
was forced to take refuge in his castle, where he announced that he
would never again take up arms against the Mikado. Nevertheless, the
Tokungawa clan showed, for a time, signs of disaffection; but by July
1, 1869, all vestiges of rebellion had ceased and the Mikado’s party
was triumphant. The trials of the new government now began. The Kuge,
or court nobles, and the whole body of Samurai, or two-sworded men,
desired to drive foreigners out of the country, but Okubo, Goto and
Kido, who were conversant with foreign ideas, opposed the execution of
the plan and sent a noble of the imperial court to give the Mikado’s
consent to the treaties and to invite the foreign Ministers to an
audience with the Emperor in Kioto. The conversion of the court nobles
to the party that desired to see Japan reconstructed on European
principles now went on rapidly, and the young Mikado was induced to
appear in person before the Council of State and to promise that a
deliberative assembly should be eventually formed. Indicative of an
intention to revolutionize the mode of government was the Emperor’s
departure from Kioto, which had been the seat of his ancestors for
twenty-five centuries, and his adoption of Yedo, thenceforth called
Tokio, for his capital. To a considerable extent, freedom of the
press was now guaranteed, and a number of newspapers sprung up. Books
expounding European methods of thought and education were published,
and many pamphlets advocating the abolition of feudalism appeared.
Four of the great Daimios, or feudal lords, advocated the change. They
addressed a memorial to the throne offering to restore the registers
of their clans and proposing that the Mikado should resume possession
of their fiefs. In conformity to this request, an edict was issued in
September, 1871, summoning the Daimios to Tokio for the purpose of
arranging their retirement to private life. With scarcely an exception,
the order was obeyed; even the Daimios who disapproved of the measure
were unwilling to oppose the resolute men who had framed the edict. The
truth is that, even under the feudal system, the real power in each
clan had lain in the hands of able men of inferior rank who ruled their
nominal masters. These are the men who, during the last thirty years,
have controlled Japan. Having first driven the Shiogoon into private
life, they then compelled the Daimios to follow him into retirement. Of
the men who have governed the country since 1868, not one is a Daimio
by birth, and only two or three are Kuge, or court nobles. Almost all
were simple Samurai, or retainers of the territorial lords.
It should be mentioned that, in 1869, the Emperor returned to Kioto for
a brief visit, in order to perform certain ceremonies at his father’s
tomb, and, during his sojourn in the western capital, he married the
present Empress, who was a princess of one of the five regent families,
from which the highest officers under the Mikado have always been
selected, and from which the emperors have habitually chosen their
wives.
We have seen that the Emperor had promised to convoke a deliberative
assembly. This promise was, at first, kept to the ear, rather than
the hope. A so-called Kogisho or Parliament was formed of persons
representing each of the Daimiates, and designated for the position
by the Daimios. It was a mere debating society, whose function was to
give advice to the imperial government. How conservative the advice
given by this body was may be measured by the fact that it refused to
recommend the abolition of the privilege of hari-kari, or of the custom
of wearing swords. This Kogisho lasted only for some months, being
dissolved in the autumn of the same year in which it was created.
Soon after the suppression of the feudal system in Japan, the
Daimiates, considered as administrative areas, were superseded by
Prefectures. At first, the ex-Daimios were appointed Prefects, but
most of them were soon found to be unfit for high executive office,
and they have been gradually replaced by competent persons drawn from
the Samurai class. It should further be noted that the extinction of
feudalism imposed some onerous financial obligations. It was decided
that each ex-Daimio, and each of the sub-feudatories that had been
dependent on him, should receive one-tenth of the income which they
had drawn from their fiefs. This income was to be free from any claim
for the support of the Samurai who had formed the standing army in
each clan. The central government undertook to make all payments to
the Samurai for services of any kind. The assumption of this burden
compelled the government to borrow $165,000,000. In lieu of the
pensions which they had formerly received, lump sums were given to
the Samurai, but these were soon squandered, and much poverty and want
were eventually experienced by the ex-feudal retainers. Among other
remarkable events which took place in 1871, should be mentioned the
removal of the ancient disqualification of the _eta_ and _heimin_,
whereby these pariah castes were placed on the same legal footing as
the rest of the population. In the following year, the first railway
in Japan was opened. This was a line between Yokohama and Tokio. In
1873, the European calendar was adopted, so far as the beginning of the
year and the beginning of the months are concerned. The year is still
reckoned, however, from Jimmu Tenno, which is 1873 of the Christian
era, and corresponds to the year 2533 of the Japanese era. Still
employed occasionally, also, is the Meiji year-period, which began in
1868.
From the beginning of 1872, the remodeling of the Japanese system of
education was undertaken. In April of that year, the Mikado, Mutsuhito,
visited the Imperial College, subsequently to be known as the Imperial
University. The new buildings consisted of three wings, each 192 feet
long, joined to a main edifice 324 feet in length. The students in this
institution soon numbered 350, taught by 20 foreign professors. The
foreign language school, in which pupils learned English or some other
European language, preparatory to entering the college, presently had
600 students and 20 foreign teachers. For educational purposes, the
empire was divided into eight districts, in each of which a university
was contemplated, which was to be supplied by 210 secondary schools
of foreign languages. It was arranged that the elementary vernacular
schools should number 53,000, or one for every 600 persons in Japan.
To these elementary establishments were to be deputed native teachers
trained in normal schools. Before many years had passed, the school
attendance was computed at three millions.
During the year 1872, two legations and three consulates were
established abroad. Before long, the number was increased to ten. The
Japanese press quickly emerged from the realm of experiment and became
a powerful civilizing force. In the course of a few years, ten daily
newspapers in the capital and 200 publications in the empire, equipped
with metal type and printing presses, began to flood the country with
information and awaken thought. In the department of jurisprudence,
also, great progress was made. Since the restoration of the Mikado
to actual power, revised statutes have greatly decreased the list of
capital punishments; the condition of the prisons has been ameliorated;
legal processes have been improved from the viewpoint of justice, and
the use of torture to obtain testimony has been entirely abolished.
Law schools were established, and to accused persons was given the
assistance of counsel for their defense. By the year 1874, there had
been a great change for the better in the diet, clothing, and hygienic
protection of the people. In the year named, there were in the empire
one government hospital and twenty-one hospitals assisted by government
grants, twenty-nine private hospitals, 5,247 physicians practicing
according to the principles and methods of Western science, and 5,205
apothecaries. In 1875, there were 325 students in the medical colleges
at Tokio and Nagasaki, and there were some twenty-five foreign surgeons
and physicians in the employ of the Japanese government. Public decency
was improved and the standards of Christendom approached. The sale of
orphan female children to brothel keepers, the traffic in native or
European obscene pictures, lascivious dances, the exhibition of nude
singing girls, the custom of promiscuous bathing in the public baths,
and the toleration of nakedness on the part of the rural coolies
were brought to an end. Religious persecution ceased. All the native
Christians who had been exiled or imprisoned in 1868-69 were set free
and restored to their villages. We note, finally, that, as early as
1876, the fulfillment of the promise made by the Mikado in 1868, that
“intellect and learning should be sought for throughout the world,” had
been so far fulfilled that 400 foreigners from many Western countries
had been invited to occupy posts in the government civil service. In
1870, there had been not ten Protestant Christians in the empire. By
May, 1876, there were ten Protestant churches, with a membership of 800
souls. In March of the year just named, Prime Minister Sanjo issued a
proclamation abolishing the custom of wearing two swords. This measure,
which had been first advocated by Arinori Mori in 1870, now became
law throughout the land. It was in August, 1876, that the commutation
of the hereditary pensions and life incomes of the Samurai, which
previously had been optional, was made compulsory. This act forced the
privileged classes to begin to earn their bread. In the same month, the
empire was redivided and the 68 Ken, or Prefectures, were reduced in
number to 35. It was to be expected that the progressive course of the
Mikado’s Ministers would excite some disaffection. There were during
this year some insurrections on the part not only of discontented
Samurai, but also of the farmers on whom the burdens of taxation mainly
fell. It was to redress the grievances of the agricultural class that,
in January, 1877, the national land tax was reduced from 3 to 2½ per
cent, while the local tax, which had formerly amounted to one-third
of the land tax, was cut down to one-fifth. About the same time, the
salaries of nearly all the government officers were diminished, several
thousand office-holders were discharged, the Department of Revision
and the Prefecture of Police were abolished, and their functions were
transferred to the Home Department. An annual saving of about eight
million dollars was thus effected, and the loss to the Treasury from
the curtailment of land taxation was made good. In 1877, however, a
great rebellion broke out in Satsuma, instigated by Saigo Takamori,
who had been formerly a marshal of the empire. After a contest of
some months, the imperial authority was everywhere re-established,
and Saigo, at his own request, was beheaded by one of his friends.
This insurrection represented the final struggle between the forces of
feudalism and misrule against order and unity. The contest cost Japan
$50,000,000 and many thousands of lives. In the ultimate treatment of
the rebels, the government displayed a spirit of leniency worthy of an
enlightened state. Of upward of 38,000 persons tried in Kiushiu, only
twenty were decapitated, about 1,800 were condemned to imprisonment,
and some 36,000 were pardoned. During the same year, 1877, the cholera
broke out in Japan, but, owing to the enforcement of sanitary measures,
there were but 6,297 deaths.
The Mikado had now been governing Japan for ten years by means of an
irresponsible Ministry. The oath which he had taken at Kioto in 1868
to form a deliberative assembly had never been fully carried out. We
have seen that the Kogisho, or advisory body, called into existence in
1868, had been dissolved in the same year. Subsequently, in 1875, a
Senate had been established and an assembly of the ken governors, or
prefects, held one session. The meetings of the latter body, however,
were soon indefinitely postponed. Nevertheless, the era of personal
government was drawing to a close. On July 22, 1878, a long step
was taken toward representative institutions by an edict convoking
provincial parliaments or local assemblies which were to sit once a
year in each ken or province. Under the supervision of the Minister of
the Interior, these bodies were empowered to discuss questions of local
taxation, and to petition the central government on other matters of
local interest. There were both educational and property qualifications
of the franchise. Each voter had to prove his ability to read and
write, and he must have paid an annual land tax of at least five
dollars. In October, 1881, the Mikado announced by a proclamation that,
in 1890, a Parliament would be established. In June, 1884, an edict was
issued readjusting the system of nobility. In the newly created orders
of princes, marquises, counts, viscounts and barons, were observed
the names of many men who had once belonged to the class of Samurai,
or gentry, but who had earned promotion by distinguished services on
behalf of their country. Three hundred persons, that may be described
as pertaining to the aristocracy of intellect, were thus ennobled on
the score of merit. It was expected that out of these newly created
nobles would be constituted the upper house, or Chamber of Notables,
in the Parliament which was to come into being in 1890. In December,
1885, the triple premiership, the Privy Council and the Ministries,
as they had been hitherto established, came to an end. In their place
was created a Cabinet, at the head of which was a Minister-President.
The old government boards, together with a new board, which was to
supervise the post-office, telegraph and railway, were organized in
such a way as to discharge many thousand office-holders. All the
members of the new Cabinet were men of modern ideas, and such Asiatic
features as the government had hitherto retained were now extinguished.
By 1886, notable progress had been made in the applications of steam
and electricity. Of railroads there were already 265 miles open, 271
miles in course of construction, and 543 miles contemplated. Although
these lines were built and equipped on British models, most of the
surveying, engineering and constructive work and all of the mechanical
labor were performed by natives. The trains and engines were worked
by Japanese; such light materials as were made of wood and metal
were manufactured in Japan, only the heavy castings, the rails and
the engines being brought from Great Britain. The telephone and the
electric light were now seen in the large cities, and four cables
connected the island empire with the Asiatic mainland. Already the
Japan Mail Shipping Company employed a large fleet of steamships and
sailing vessels in their coasting trade and passenger lines. We add
that, in 1885, the Postal Department forwarded nearly 100,000,000
letters and packages.
The Japanese had, for some time, recognized that education is the basis
of progress, and that their efforts for intellectual advancement were
seriously impeded by their use of the Chinese graphic system. They
perceived that what they needed most of all was an alphabet. In 1884,
the Roma-ji-Kai, or Roman Letter Association, was formed in Tokio,
and, within two years, had 6,000 members, native and foreign. As their
name implies, their purpose was to supplant the Chinese character and
native syllabary by the Roman alphabet, as the vehicle of Japanese
thought. It was demonstrated that all possible sounds and vocal
combinations could be expressed by using twenty-two Roman letters. It
was further proved that, by means of the Roman alphabet, a child could
learn to read the colloquial and book language in one-tenth of the time
formerly required. Scarcely was the Roman Letter Association under way
than it printed a newspaper, edited text-books, and transliterated
popular and classic texts in the appropriate characters of the Roman
alphabet. By an imperial decree, issued in November, 1884, the English
language was made part of the order of study in the common schools.
Meanwhile, the progress of Christianity acquired considerable momentum.
Not only were many converts made by Catholic missionaries, but, by the
end of 1885, there were 200 Protestant churches, with a membership of
over 13,000. In December, 1885, the Mikado’s Cabinet was reorganized,
and, during the next four years, Ito and Inouye were the principal
molders of the national policy. In April, 1888, a new body called the
Privy Council was created, of which Ito became President, while Kuroda
filled the position of Prime Minister. In this body, active debate upon
the forthcoming Constitution began in May of the year last-named, and
proceeded until February 11, 1889, when the long-awaited instrument was
proclaimed. Exactly thirty-five years after the American treaty-ships
appeared in sight of Idzu, the Mikado, Mutsuhito, took oath to maintain
the government according to the Constitution, the documents defining
which he, before an audience of nobles, officials and foreign envoys,
handed to Kuroda, the principal Minister of State. On this occasion,
for the first time in Japan’s history, the Emperor rode beside the
Empress in public. The one blot upon the record of the day was the
assassination of the Minister of Education, Arinori Mori, by a
Shintoist fanatic.
Let us glance at some of the features of Japan’s fundamental organic
law. The Constitution proper consists of sixty-six articles, but,
simultaneously with it, two hundred and sixty-six expositionary laws
were proclaimed. In the first place, the Mikado’s person was declared
sacred and inviolable. In him continued to be concentrated the rights
of sovereignty, which, however, he was to exercise according to the
provisions of the organic law. A Diet or Parliament was created to
meet once a year, and to be opened, closed, prorogued and dissolved by
the Emperor. Its debates are public. The Mikado’s Ministers may take
seats and speak in either House, but are accountable, not to the Diet,
but to the Emperor alone. Bills raising revenue and appropriating the
same require the consent of the Diet, but certain fixed expenditures,
provided for by the Constitution, cannot be abolished or curtailed
without the concurrence of the Executive. To a large extent, the
power over the purse is thus withheld from the representatives of
the people. The tenure of judges is for good behavior. The Upper
House consists partly of hereditary, partly of elected, and partly of
nominated members; the combined number, however, of the members of
the two last-named classes is not to exceed that of those who hold
heritable titles of nobility. The House of Representatives consists of
about 300 members, who serve four years. For them there is a property
qualification; they must pay annually national taxes to the amount of
fifteen yen or dollars. Those who elect them must also pay national
taxes to the same amount. Those persons who pay taxes to the amount of
over five yen are entitled to vote for members of the local assembly.
These numbered, in 1887, about 1,500,000, whereas the electorate of
the national House of Representatives numbered only about 300,000. We
observe, lastly, that certain fundamental rights were guaranteed to
the Japanese people. They have, for instance, the right of changing
their domicile. Except according to law, they are not to be arrested,
detained or punished. They are also to enjoy the right of freedom from
search, the inviolability of letters, freedom of religious belief
and the liberty of speech, petition, writing, publishing, association
and public meeting within the limits of laws to be laid down by the
national Parliament.
The threefold election--namely, for a fraction of the Upper House, for
the whole of the national House of Representatives, and for the local
assembly--took place in July, 1890. About eighty-five per cent of
eligible voters availed themselves of the franchise, and there was a
great superfluity of candidates. It turned out at the ballot-box that
to be in any way connected with government employment was to invite
almost certain defeat, while, on the other hand, few of the old party
leaders were chosen as standard-bearers in the new Parliamentary field.
We add that, on April 22, 1890, a new code of civil procedure, and the
first portion of a Civil Code, were promulgated; since 1881, a new
Criminal Code based on the principles of Western jurisprudence has been
in successful operation.