his proudest boast is to be a son, he combines those distinguished
attainments, which a long past of services well rendered have given in
turn, and is not only a fine example of Modern Japan at its present
moment of leadership, but is also a man of the world,--moulded by the
best scholarship of the last century, and while working to-day in the
formation and perfecting of his own government, his thought has the
catholicity of a statesman and embraces the interests of every land as
well.
Born at an epoch when his country was just awakening to the modern
struggle,--born out of the provincial life, which is always the best
preparation for city life, because it is more serious, more profound,
and more far-reaching in its thought than that of a metropolis, as
it is more introspective; he came as a very young man to be the
adopted foster son of our great republic, and with singular Oriental
astuteness, read into its pages of history and life, its secrets
of growth and progress, as well as its defects and limitations; he
rose through all the grades of a city public school, that unrivaled
training for life, entered our proudest university, the synonym of
culture, of the humanities of that aristocracy of thought which
separates and differentiates men, far more than lineage,--and came out
of it to mingle in the affairs of men, a democrat, progressive, man of
action, incorporating in his ideals and work the best influences of the
past, but an ardent lover of the future, a believer in better days and
things, a belief which he has kept to this hour.
Kentaro Kaneko was born in Fukuoka, Chikuzen, Western Japan,--noted for
its chivalry, its warriors, and also for its learning. Its Daimyo was
Marquis Kurada, one of the greatest nobles of the land, the grandfather
of the present Vice-President of the House, and this man took a special
interest in Viscount Kaneko, and it was through his influence that as
a boy he was sent to Tokyo to study, and later to Boston, where he
began his education in the Boston public schools. From these schools be
entered Harvard Law School and graduated, returning to his own country
after eight years, and was soon appointed by Prince Ito Secretary of
the State Council, and was in the next year appointed private secretary
to Prime Minister Ito, and launched on the arduous labors of making the
draft of Japan’s future Constitution.
He was married to the present Viscountess, the daughter of a governor
of one of the Japanese provinces, and they have two daughters and a
son. Viscountess Kaneko is exceptional in her graceful hospitality,
a lover of home, and although she does not speak foreign languages,
is said to be a brilliant conversationalist in her own, and is a real
helpmate to her husband in his intellectual and social life, devoted
to children and to entertaining, she has won enthusiastic appreciation
from her guests by her tact and kindness. She is interested in all the
best modernism.
In a recent resume of his life, we gather these details:
“In 1890 he was elected as a member of the Institute of International
Law and in 1892 attended its general meeting held in Switzerland. At
the meetings, he advocated reforming the Treaties then in force between
Japan and foreign powers and for abolishing extraterritoriality in
Japan, and after much argument and pleading, he at last succeeded in
getting the Institute to pass the resolution. In 1894 he was appointed
the Vice Minister of Agriculture and Commerce; in 1898 became the
Minister of Agriculture and Commerce in the Ito Ministry, and then
resigned the portfolio together with Prime Minister Ito. In 1899 he
went over to the United States, accepting an invitation from Harvard
University, where the honorary title of Doctor of Laws was conferred on
him. He was the first Japanese that received the title, and the reason
for conferring this singular honor upon him was announced by President
Eliot at the Commencement as follows:
“Kentaro Kaneko, Harvard Bachelor of Laws, formerly Chief Secretary of
the Imperial House of Peers in Japan, and Vice-Minister and Minister of
Agriculture and Commerce, Life member of this House of Peers, the type
of those scholars of two Hemispheres through whom West would welcome
East to share in the inheritance of Hebrew religion, Greek Art, Roman
Law and Nineteenth Century Science.”
In 1900, he was created a Baron in recognition of his service. Before
this time, he had organized with Prince Ito a political association
named Seiyu-Kwai and was appointed a member of the managing committee.
When the Ito Cabinet was formed in 1900 he was appointed to the
portfolio of the Minister of Justice. The next year, when the Ito
Ministry resigned, he retired to a quiet life for a while. In 1904 on
the declaration of war with Russia, the Viscount was ordered to proceed
to the United States on a special mission and remained there for one
year and a half. During that time he devoted himself to promote the
best interests of his country and scarcely had a day’s rest, so that he
was looked upon as uncommissioned ambassador; and it is said when the
negotiation for peace was commenced at Portsmouth, he labored hard to
secure a successful result, and had several interviews with President
Roosevelt. In 1906 he was appointed a Privy Councillor and for his
service during the war, decorated with the First Order of Merit and
the Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun. In 1907, when the Order for the
Organization of the Bureau of the Grand Exhibition of Japan, to be
opened in 1912, was promulgated, he received the Imperial Order to be
the Director of the Exhibition with all the offices and rank already
conferred upon that function. In September, 1907, he was a Viscount for
his service rendered for the cause of his country.
In one of our interviews with this man, whose souvenirs cover such
an interesting period, we asked him for reminiscences, which he
kindly gave in the genial and unstudied manner characteristic of his
conversation.
“My souvenirs of England? Every day I used to go and sit in the house
and listen to the debates in which Gladstone and his illustrious
colleagues took part, this was in 1890, and I learned the usages from
Sir Reginald Palgrave, who was the clerk of the house, the brother
of the famous Prof. Palgrave of Oxford. My friendship with Herbert
Spencer was a connecting link from America, for I took a letter from
Mr. John Fish to him, and sending him my card, we met the following
day by his invitation. At once we talked on the constitutional
government of Japan and I showed him the English translation of the
Constitution and we discussed questions of morality and religion. He
was particularly interested in Japanese history, and evidently my
explanation cleared many points he could not get right before. His face
glowed with excitement. He jumped up, having an engagement at half past
four, and he took me in his carriage and drove me to my hotel on his
way to the “Atheneum Club.” We talked all the way and he said ‘I shall
propose you as an honorary member of the Atheneum Club,’ and I was
informed a week later that I was elected a member. Frequently afterward
we dined there together, and on my return to Japan we corresponded.
Herbert Spencer had great interest in the Orient and in collecting from
there his materials for his social studies. Another friend was Lord
Coolidge, Chief Justice of England. He used to entertain a great deal
in his London house and there I met the celebrities. Sir Francis and
Lady Jeune entertained me during the London season, and I visited with
them in their country place in Newberry, meeting all the society of the
day, Lord Knutsford and others. Gladstone impressed me as one of the
greatest men in intellectuality, learning and the force of conviction;
at that time he was out of office.
“In 1892 I revisited London, and arrived the very day Lord Salisbury
went out and Gladstone’s cabinet came in. Among its members Mr. James
Brace was my particular friend. I met him often in London and in the
United States in 1904, when he was invited to give lectures to the
Alumni at Harvard.
“When in England I met many Oxford and Cambridge men. What impressed me
as admirable in England was the English quiet, contented life. In Japan
politically we are aristocratic, but in all the social relations we
are democratic. The wife educates our servants to be really interested
in their duties. We, the Japanese, are not very rich, we do not count
the men by their money, but by their worth; any man is admitted to
the best society who is worthy of it. Japan is the most deceptive
country externally; you scarcely meet a single lady, or gentleman
in the street, so you do not meet them on the cars or the parks. A
Japanese lady sends for her goods to the house, a promiscuous crowd
alone meets you so that you rarely come in contact with the well-bred
people of the country. So it is also the undesirable people who go to
America, oftentimes either in misfortune financially through the fault
of others, he is preparing himself by an industrious life in a foreign
country, and often he is trying to retrieve his life or that of his
family. Hotel boys and servants come back and take useful places here,
the better for their experience.
“Among the great men who moulded my ideals in America, I wanted to
study the religious institutions and influence in the United States,
so I went to all the churches while in Boston, Roman Catholic,
Congregational, Swedenborgian, Episcopalian, Baptist, and Parker’s
Memorial, and met all classes of preachers, theologians, and ethical
teachers. I was in public school in Boston in 1872, when the public
school was at its best. That gave me the strong force to come back into
the battle of life, and from the mingling with negroes and emigrants,
I learned life. I knew Longfellow and Holmes and spent two summers
with him at Beverly Farm. Robert C. Winthrop was also my friend, and
was also a great help to me. Through his kindness, Judge Holmes gave
me more material to cultivate my mind perhaps than any other American.
President Eliot was of course an inspiration and two of my pleasantest
memories are visits to James G. Blaine at Bar Harbor and President
Cleveland at “Gray Gables”.”
In closing, as the sun was setting over Tokio and filling the vast
salle of the Exposition Administration offices with twilight, the
delicate and earnest face of the speaker flashed now with humor, now
with seriousness and pathos as he spoke of the present relation of
Japan and America, serious it is, when loose tongues speak of that most
awful thing,--war. “We try to weigh the past, present and future, and
we are sure that soon the temporary strain will be relieved,” said the
earnest voice,--“ever since the restoration in 1868 America has been
our friend and we remember it; it has been a friendship cemented with
our growth.”
[Illustration]
EXPOSITION NOTES
A jinriksha ride through the picturesque streets of Tokyo about two
to two and a half miles from Shimbashi Station brings you to the
Aoyama Parade ground, which, with the Imperial Park forms the site of
the Exposition of 1912. From corners of the grounds and a temporary
station, trains will leave for and come from all parts of the Empire.
This place, now perfectly bare, will show the result of Japanese genius
and invention in a short time. On one side is the park of the Crown
Prince’s palace, and at another corner is a military university, which
will be removed. The ground here is high and the air very fresh and
invigorating, as it is in an open part of the city, and it will remain
a permanent park after the Exposition. The work on the ground begins
early in 1908.
Tokyo alone is most interesting in its street sights; the children at
their games, a baby asleep in the shop, a lovely vision, two old people
weighed down with their burdens, pilgrims in quaint garb, the boys and
girls returning from school with knapsacks full of books, arms over
each others’ shoulders, bright-eyed girls out for amusement or to pay
visits, the big milk carts and street vendors, the portable kitchens,
around which some are taking an evening meal, the flower wagons, the
horses with their bright accoutrements, the strange calls, the pathetic
blind beggars, all mingle in the city’s drama! The road from the
parade ground is lined with parks and villas, passing we see many gay
singing children. We go through the deeper lanes and hedges to the park
which we enter by an avenue of truly imperial trees, pine trees, and
groves also of maples and shrubs, 120 acres, rented from the Imperial
household, paths of delightful vistas, mystery and woods full of charm,
a sylvan paradise, hilly, rolling, full of possibilities of gardening,
near Tokyo Bay.
Dr. Fukuichi, the chief engineer of Japan, is the Chairman of the
Committee for the buildings and is now engaged on the plans. The
gardening and electricity, each best authority, has been appointed.
Mr. Fuwa is the Director of the Imperial Horticultural department and
is the chairman of the Committee on Gardening. The buildings will be
unique,--five departments, education, science, electricity, manufactory.
The Governments of the world have been requested to build in the style
of their own country. Viscount Kaneko emphasizes that every nation
should incorporate its own architecture in the structures. “We hope,”
thus he says, “that our ideas of architecture will be revolutionized.”
There will be large hotels constructed in different cities of Japan
and many new ones in Tokyo, as the houses already here are by no means
adequate.
“The International Exposition,” said Viscount Kaneko, “as far as I have
seen in Europe and America, have been too large in extent and scope, so
that as a rule it is too great for any one to grasp as the exhibits are
over-full, and might be described as ‘too much of a muchness.’ Neither
the eyes nor the ears can take in the magnitude, so you are dumb and
numb, and you come out overawed by the detail. The extent and magnitude
have defeated often their object: too much paltry stuff, and show and
display, not realizing the educational purpose, have become rather a
sight-seeing scheme.
“This was said of Paris and of St. Louis, and I have heard from
different sources, commissioners, executives, both European and
American, express this feeling, and so at this juncture of world’s
fairs, I think the organizers are thinking to lessen the extent and
magnitude and thereby to make the exposition compact, systematic, and
effective.
“I believe that in the future the world’s fairs will be lessened in
size and in indiscriminate exhibits. That is my idea, which I hope
to incorporate in the coming exposition. We mean to emphasize to the
world that in the grandeur of the buildings we cannot compete with
Europe and America, and also Japan cannot show anything of electricity,
manufacturing or machinery, and we cannot give any lesson to the world
either, in going ahead of other nations in the ensemble;--we hardly
hope to show much of overwhelming value on any line to the world, as
it is the first International Exhibition in the Orient. Consequently
we expect to make the Asiatic exhibit the special point; we want to
exhibit all the products of Asia and the Indian Archipelago, the
Philippines, Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Australia, New Zealand, and
Formosa, and so we will have the first Asiatic expression of commerce
on so large a scale, showing unity of language, racial features,
religion and customs, for we can collect from all those peoples and
realize a unifying of the Oriental Nations, and enlighten the world as
to the Oriental essence, thought, ideals,--past and future. This is our
aim.
“Next, we expect to make Tokyo the centre from Tokyo then, expanding
in the radii of Nikko and Sendai in the north, and in the south
Nagoya, Nara, and Kyoto, and farther down south Shimonoseki and the
Island of Kyushu, and thus the whole country will be thrown open to
the people as an exhibition ground. All the temples will be open to
the western visitors, and every corner and every mountain and all the
scenery will form a part of the Exposition grounds, and thus we expect
to show to the Western peoples the manners, customs and life of the
Japanese, and show them also, not only in public, but at home. Thus
also by interchange of ideas between the Japanese and Western nations,
they will come to a better understanding of each other for mutual
benefit, so many misunderstandings between the East and the West may be
corrected and also it will bring about a “rapprochement” of sympathy
and interest, and in this manner we will contribute something to the
world’s commerce, diplomacy and civilization. These are the general
lines along which we shall move and we expect to organize.
“We wish the exposition also to serve in statecraft. Formerly the
Sovereigns and Ministers negotiated the diplomacy of a nation in secret
conclaves, but within the last fifty years this has been changed. Now
the people hold the power. If we can bring a better understanding
between the Orient and Occident by the means of a friendly rivalry of
an Exposition, the ends of civilization will be met and progress will
be served.
“Japan is considered the leading artistic nation of the Orient, but
the nations of the world have not seen Japanese art arranged in
order. Now we expect to have an exposition of Japanese ancient art,
arranged chronologically, and also according to schools, covering a
period of 1,500 years, after the introduction of Indian religion and
Chinese philosophy into Japan. This period will be divided into eight
periods of Japanese artistic history, and each period will show the
characteristic arts of painting, bronze and pottery, and lacquer, and
so forth, and will show characteristic ideas and instincts of the
Japanese people. Thus the whole history of Japanese art will be brought
down to the modern age.
“These are only a few details of the forthcoming Exposition which will,
we trust, bring the East and West into greater unity.”
[Illustration]
BARON TAKAHASHI
In the two great branches of state craft, diplomacy and finance, it is
interesting to see the interchange of qualities and the intellectual
dominance of each is usually thought to be most marked, still there
have been men of rare human qualities, who were financiers and
diplomats as well.
Baron Takahashi unquestionably belongs to this class who weave, as
do certain scientists, a romance of facts or more justly speaking
comprehend the intense humanness of dollars and cents.
Five times he has crossed the ocean to visit America on commercial
missions and brought back a fund of observation, as well as more
material baggage. He has put his finger on the pulse of Wall street and
discovered some of the causes of its fitful and erratic pulsations, and
has even after bearing the tremendous financial burden of a country
in its hour of extreme need come out with the vigor and the magnetic
vitality of a man of the future, not of the past.
We thought of Necker at once and the cheerful Latin optimism seemed in
the speaker and in his person.
“Japan has not yet recovered as we know from the late war, and she
requires foreign capital, we must look to the world’s markets for it.
Unfortunately for us we must wait for our loans until the affairs of
other countries are on a better basis or rather in a less fluctuating
condition than they are to-day. I believe that if men of capital will
continue to invest in my country, it will be to their advantage and I
am also desirous for the mutual good of both, that these investments be
as safe as possible and in this I have been and will be an intermediary.
“From the standpoint of investors England and Germany are
unquestionably the safest and surest markets to-day. Financial security
always goes with freedom, the United States has such serious abuses of
power that freedom becomes disturbed and so as by a paradox tyranny
often reigns.
“The continual warfare between labor and capital gives rise to
uneasiness and disturbs the market, as does the lax social conditions
the sequel of the indiscriminate immigration and it has the seeds of
revolt against established rule.
“Something must be done with the banking system in America and
there must be reforms also in the monetary system. The peculiar
centralization of the gold in Washington and so in an event of crisis
the intervention coming wholly from there, is not advantageous. A
central banking system as in Germany should be established. The
amassing of great fortunes is not however as many suppose an evil,
money is never idle except unspent in the pocket of the poor man! The
rich man puts it at once to use. Turning to Japan we see some very
hopeful signs and some serious drawbacks. Foremost among the things
which promise most, are the sugar plantations of Formosa. If in a few
years she furnishes us with most all the sugar we need as we expect
and Korea with her vast territory as yet waiting for energy and for
intellect to develop can give us cotton, we shall find these great
items in our imports changed to sources of income and in the near
future a trade balance in our favor. This cotton of Korea is of far
more value to us than her gold mines. One of the major drawbacks in
Japan commercially is the want of co-operation among small manufacturers
and work men handicrafts.
“We feel this primarily in the exports to China. Take the case of
Manchuria. The Chinese are very observing and they can tell the
difference between our work and German work at once and they prefer to
use the German although they must pay more for it.
“The cause of this is often that a poor manufacturer is many times
compelled to over-produce under great pressure and turns out half-done
work, even when he knows it means no more orders.
“Local authorities are trying to urge combinations among manufacturers,
but so far have met with little success.
“This isolated working purely for self interest is undoubtedly the root
of what is called Japanese commercial dishonesty.
“To France we must turn to-day to see the supreme example of thrift and
industry and reciprocity of helpfulness. Japan unfortunately does not
yet give us as hopeful a picture of economy.”
Laughingly assuring Baron Takahashi that we had a personal sympathy
with the people who could not save, he answered playfully that we must
all acknowledge the wisdom of providing for old age and children, and
with that very human and humane observation our interview was closed.
We felt the man spoke rather than the financier.
TOKYO OBSERVATORY
If you look at an astronomical map of stations of observation, you will
see what looks to be a meteoric shower of dots on Europe, where there
are one hundred and thirty observatories, sixty-five in North America,
six in India, six also in Australia, two in the West Indies, three on
the coast of China, and following the line of sea and shore northward
in a vast region of watery waste only two lone spots which are the
two Japanese observatories. Their importance to science is therefore
obvious. Though situated on a height which seems to crown the city of
Tokyo with the picturesque foliage of Hibiya Park, where the lungs and
the mind expand, we are surprised to be told that for star gazers,
there is not enough space. The observatory is soon to be moved; so bad
are the atmospheric conditions and it is all but impossible to obtain
good results in astronomical photography. In spite of this draw-back
some very successful work on the Milky Way has been obtained by Prof.
S. Hirayama, still as the enthusiastic young assistant says who has
just returned from two years at the Yerkes observatory at Williams bay,
Wisconsin, it is very unsatisfactory.
The work just now of the Observatory is the observation of variable
stars, and the study of the deviation of verticals for which the
observers must go out into the country to other heights. The chief work
of the staff is along the line of time service, variation of latitude,
solar observations, though the most important work is possibly on the
Milky Way. The staff has been up to this time small, but there is
now a sufficient force to ensure greater results of a more searching
character. The present officers are:--Director, Prof. Terao; Professors
S. and K. Hirayama; Assistant Professors, Sotome, Midzuhara, and
Ichinoye.