HISTORIC KYOTO
It was a day's journey in the train from the coast to Kyoto. We ran
through stretches of glistening paddy-fields, with their patches of
bright green crops and rows of yellow straw-stacks, and then through
long villages of tiny thatch-roofed houses, or by avenues of twisted
pine-trees. We passed bullock carts and strangely laden horses, and
people clip-clipping along on their wooden clogs, and arrived finally,
late on Christmas Eve, at Kyoto, the ancient capital.
[Illustration: "WE PASSED ... STRANGELY LADEN HORSES."]
To our delight and surprise, we found that the thoughtful hotel
proprietor had arranged a pretty Christmas tree in our parlour. So we
had supper and exchanged gifts, although the hour was late, and felt
that in spite of being so far from home we were having a real Christmas
after all.
We stopped in Kyoto for the especial purpose of making a pilgrimage to
the burial place of the late Emperor Mutsuhito, now known as Meiji
Tenno. The emperors take their posthumous name from the name of their
era; the present Emperor has chosen to call his era Tai-Sho, for
instance, which means Great Righteousness. As L. wished to pay his
respects, it was arranged that we should visit Momoyama, where the late
Emperor is buried.
As all diplomats are obliged to wear Court mourning, we put on our
deepest black--I had a crêpe veil and bonnet which I had been wearing
for the mother of the King of Belgium. We went in a motor. The roads
were excellent, and the people made way for us, so that we ran with
speed and comfort, even through the narrow streets of the continuous
village with their congested traffic.
The place chosen for the tomb of Mutsuhito is on a hill beyond Kyoto
where there is a fine outlook which the late Emperor greatly loved. As
we drew near, constabulary, who were apparently waiting for us, directed
and stopped the traffic, so that we soon reached the broad new highway
which had been made for the funeral. It is a wide gravel road winding
around the base of the mountain to the low-lying buildings about the
tomb. These are of the simplest style. Indeed, the entire burial place
and shrine are in the Shinto fashion, very plain in form and
arrangement.
[Illustration: THE TOMB OF MUTSUHITO.]
We were met by the Honourable Chief Keeper of the Tomb, a Japanese
gentleman in a frock coat and top hat who conducted us into a pavilion
at one side, where seats were placed at the head of a table. Here we sat
for a few moments, and then, preceded by the Keeper, passed into the
wide gravelled courtyard surrounded by houses and walls of plain wood.
There are two "wash-hand" places at one side, between which a path leads
to steps that ascend from the court toward the burial place. People are
admitted to this courtyard, and at times over a hundred thousand have
come in a single day to worship the memory of the late Mikado. Princes
and ambassadors may go beyond this space, however, so we bowed and
passed up another gravelled way to the Memorial Temple, in its simple
Shinto style. Immediately above this, higher up on the hill, is the
temple beneath which the Emperor's body is buried.
At one side of the Memorial Temple, in a small pavilion, three figures
were squatting, immobile and expressionless. These were noblemen,
dressed in ancient fashion. Here we found a mat on which we knelt for a
while, then rose and bowed again toward the tomb, and then toward the
figures in the pavilion, who bowed in return. After that we passed out
as we had come.
It had really been a most impressive ceremonial, although so simple. As
we had been received by his late Majesty in audience and at luncheon,
there was something personal as well as official in the respect which we
had tried to show by our pilgrimage. Afterward we heard that it had been
greatly appreciated by the Japanese officials and people, who consider
their Imperial family almost divine.
The funeral of the Emperor occurred several months before our arrival in
Japan. From all accounts it must have been a very wonder of wonders.
Special ambassadors came from every country as guests of the Japanese
Government, and fine houses were put at their disposal. Mr. Knox, our
Secretary of State, was conveyed from the United States in a man-of-war.
Great pavilions in Shinto style were erected in Tokyo to accommodate the
distinguished guests during the evening of the procession, and feasts
were provided for them.
[Illustration: THE FUNERAL CORTEGE.]
As it had been so long since an Emperor had died, special Shinto
services had to be arranged. The funeral was at night. The music was
very weird and sad, and the wheels of the funeral car, which was drawn
by oxen, were made to creak as they ran along, as if writhing and crying
in agony for the loss of the Great Emperor they were bearing to his
resting-place.
High officials, officers, and priests, in old ceremonial costumes or
modern uniforms, were in the procession, and the brightly decorated
avenue, lined with soldiers and crowded with onlookers, made a weird
picture in the flashing lights--one never to be forgotten, I should
imagine, by those who were fortunate enough to witness it. After passing
in this fashion through the streets of Tokyo the body was put on the
train and conveyed to Kyoto, where the procession was resumed to the
tomb.
Of its reception in Kyoto, Terry, author of "The Japanese Empire," says:
"To the distant crashing and the reverberating roar of minute-guns; the
wailing of bugles and the booming of gigantic temple bells; to the sound
of the wild minstrelsy of priests and bonzes, the pattering of a
weeping, drenching rain and the sighing of a vast concourse of mourning
people ... the mortal remains of Mutsuhito ... were laid tenderly in
their last resting place."
A poem written by the late Emperor and translated by Dr. Bryan has
recently been published. It is called "My People," and although so short
is rather impressive.
"Whether it rain or shine,
I have only one care:
The burden of this heart of mine
Is how my people fare!"
Kyoto, sometimes called Saikyo, was the ancient capital, where the
shoguns and mikados used to reside in the early days. It is a city of
temples, where nothing under three hundred years is counted old, and
although typically Japanese it seems somehow different from other
cities. The tiny houses and narrow streets appear tinier and narrower
here than elsewhere.
The hills to the east of the city are covered with old shrines and
buildings, and the woods are full of temples, too. In the Chionin
Temple, founded some seven hundred years ago, may be seen an umbrella
left among the rafters of the roof by the master-builder during its
erection. Tradition insists that it flew thither out of the hands of a
boy whose shape had been assumed by the guardian deity of the temple,
but the other explanation, while less romantic, seems more probable.
Near this temple, on a small elevation among the trees, stands the Great
Bell, the largest in the country. Not far away are many other
interesting things, among them the Dai Butsu--the Great Buddha. There
are also some sacred springs, a curious temple on stilts, and
innumerable lanterns.
The two most important temples are the Eastern and the Western
Hongwanji, which belong to the most powerful Buddhist sect. We went
through the latter, which had some excellent paintings. The garden and
houses belonging to this temple, which are six hundred years old, were
built by Hideyoshi, the famous "clever boy," who from nothing at all
became shogun. The Eastern temple is described in the chapter dealing
with religions.
[Illustration: HIDEYOSHI'S HOUSE AND GARDEN.]
The approach to the Gosho Palace, once the abode of the mikados, is not
very attractive, leading through a bare, flat park. Our interest was
soon aroused, however, by the sight of one of the six gates of the
palace, through which we drove, following the grey wall with its stripes
of white and its tiles showing the sixteen-petalled chrysanthemums--both
emblems of royalty. Another gate, perhaps a little smaller than the
first, brought us to the immediate entrance. The building is
comparatively new, the old palace having been destroyed by fire in 1854,
but it is very large, covering an area of twenty-six acres.
Two officials greeted us at the inner gate, and, after politely asking
us to remove our shoes, conducted us down the long, narrow corridor to
what were probably waiting-rooms. There were three of these, decorated
in sepia. From here we were led through another corridor, past the room
with a dais at one end for the higher nobility, where the courtiers used
to dine off the flat, red lacquer tables, to the Seiryoden--the Pure and
Cool Hall--a room used for religious festivals, with marvellously
coloured birds painted upon its walls. This hall received its name from
a small stream of clear water which runs through a sluiceway near-by.
Opening from this is a courtyard in which grow two clumps of bamboo,
named centuries ago for the two ancient Chinese kingdoms, Kan and
Go--Kan-chiku and Go-chiku.
To the right of the Seiryoden is a room which is reserved for special
audiences, called Shishinden, or Mysterious Purple Hall. In the centre
of this is a platform on which stands the throne, a great chair inlaid
with mother-of-pearl. It is covered by a canopy of pale fawn-coloured
brocade with outer drapings of red and purple, and is guarded by the two
sacred dogs. The walls of this room are painted in panels representing
Chinese sages, the panels being copies of the originals, which were
painted in 888 A. D. and afterward destroyed by fire. Leading from the
courtyard into the hall is a flight of fifteen steps, corresponding in
number to the grades into which officials of government were divided.
The higher order stood on the upper step, and so on down to those who
were obliged to stand in the court. On one side of the steps is a wild
orange tree named Ukon-No-Tachibana, and on the other a cherry tree,
Sakon-No-Sakura.
From this hall we passed through more galleries, and through one
particularly beautiful chamber with decorations of wild geese in sepia.
At the end of a corridor, making a turn to the left, we came to some
more waiting-rooms, decorated in blue and white--the most heavenly blue,
surely pieces of the sky brought down from the kingdom of the gods by
the first illustrious ruler! Here tea and cigarettes were offered us,
and we were glad to rest and enjoy the view of the landscape garden with
its miniature lake and islands on which were temples and twisted trees.
From this room we passed through more corridors to the entrance, where
we bowed to our guide, put on our shoes, and departed, with a feeling of
having been soothed and rested by the beautiful simplicity and solemnity
of the Gosho Palace.
Once more out in the sunshine, we drove through the park into the
streets of the city and on to the Nijo Castle. This palace, formerly
belonging to the shoguns, dates from the early part of the seventeenth
century. Its splendid iron-bound gates are fine specimens of Japanese
architecture and carving. It is much more resplendent than the Mikado's
palace, having been built in a spirit of rivalry to show the superior
wealth and power of the Shogun. We were received here in the same
cordial manner as at the Gosho, and after removing our shoes were taken
into a small antechamber, which had two superb doors made of the
cryptomeria tree with bronze studdings and hinges. Then followed a
series of rooms, the first of which was set aside for the _samurai_ and
decorated with tigers with intent, awful eyes, crouching, rampant, even
flying, on a background of glorious gold.
From these we passed into the rooms used by the _daimyos_, and on from
room to room, every apartment having its golden setting, which was so
rich and mellow with age that we seemed to be breathing in the creamy
softness of it. In each of these suites were secret closets, where
guards were stationed in olden times, unseen by the assembly. One
chamber with its paintings of pine-trees was very attractive in its
simplicity; the next delighted us with remarkable carvings; the
following one, with its cherry blossoms and its ceiling, so pleased the
late Emperor that he had it copied for the banquet-room of his palace in
Tokyo. Still another apartment, with its bamboo decorations, rivalled
those we had seen before, while the last one had a pathetic touch with
its poor little cold and starving sparrows.
One door of especial note showed a heron, wet, cold and miserable,
standing on the gunwale of a boat. The grain of the wood had been
skilfully used by the artist to represent a rainstorm. The door had
unfortunately been much damaged by vandalism during the régime of the
Kyoto prefecture in 1868.
From a long series of rooms radiant with sunshine we entered others
which had the moonlight for their setting--all so beautiful that it is
difficult to express one's admiration. From this suite we were led
finally back to the entrance once more, arriving there bewildered by the
vast number of rooms, the length of the corridors, and the splendour of
all that we had seen.
It was in this palace that the last of the Shoguns formally turned over
his power to the Mikado, an event which marked the beginning of the new
era for Japan.
* * * * *
Japanese history, with which Kyoto is closely identified, begins with
myth and fable. No definite facts or dates are known, previous to the
fifth century A. D. According to legend, the country was first created
by Izanagi and his wife Izanami; from his left eye came the Sun-Goddess
and from his right eye the moon, while a tempestuous god came from his
nose. He was blessed with more than a hundred children, but, in spite of
this, his wife, Izanami, died and went to Hades. Although their parents
were divine, the children were only demi-gods, and came to earth by
means of a floating bridge.
The Sun-Goddess, Ama-terasu, was given partial control of the new realm.
She appointed her grandson, Ninigi, and his descendants for ever,
sovereigns of Japan. Before leaving his grandmother's kingdom Ninigi was
presented with a sacred mirror, sword and jewel. The mirror is shown at
the shrine of Ise, the sword in a temple near Nagoya, while the stone
has always been kept by the Mikado. Ninigi, accompanied by a host of
gods, alighted upon a mountain in the province of Satsuma, and his son,
Jimmu Tenno, finally made a conquest of Japan.
The Emperor Jimmu is said to have been the first human sovereign in the
land. He rowed up through the Inland Sea with his warriors, overcoming
and subjugating the savages whom he encountered. All this happened
during the seventh century before Christ. February eleventh is the date
celebrated as the anniversary of his coronation as Emperor, but, of
course, not only the date but even his very existence, is uncertain. The
present Emperor is believed to be a direct descendant of this first
ruler.
Some think that Jimmu Tenno may have been a Chinese warrior, for it is
true that during the third and fourth centuries A. D. vast hordes of
Chinese and Koreans invaded the country, bringing with them the arts and
sciences of civilization, as well as the religion of Buddha. The Ainus,
who were probably the original Island people, began to disappear and are
now found only on the northern island of Hokkaido--also called Yezo.
The first woman who seems to have taken an active part in Japanese
history is the Empress Jingo (Singokogu). She is supposed to have lived
in the third century A. D. and to have made a conquest of Korea, which
she added to her other possessions.
The son of Sujin, "the Civilizer," became known as the Merciful Emperor,
because he did away with the terrible custom of burying alive, with a
deceased Emperor, his family, retainers, and animals. Instead, he
substituted clay figures about the tomb. This is still the fashion, for
such figures were placed inside the tomb of the late Emperor. They are
also to be seen on the avenue leading to the Ming Tombs, near the Great
Wall of China.
Kyoto became the seat of the mikados during the eighth century A. D. and
was known as the Western Capital. From the twelfth century on, these
descendants of the Sun-Goddess were rulers of Japan in theory only,
however. In reality the power was held by a succession of powerful
nobles--mayors of the palace, like the Carolingians in mediæval
Europe--who were called _shoguns_.
The shoguns continued in power for nearly a thousand years, living at
first in Kyoto but later--in the sixteenth century--removing to Tokyo
(Yedo), which became the Eastern Capital. They never claimed supremacy,
always affirming that they ruled the country simply by authority
delegated to them from the Mikado. Any titles or honours which they
wished to bestow upon themselves or their favourites were given in the
name of the Emperor.
The Portuguese were the first foreigners to arrive, coming in 1542. With
them were Jesuit priests, who, under cover of attempted conversion, were
thought to be plotting a Portuguese conquest of the country. As a result
of this discovery, in 1587, an edict was issued that all Christian
teachers should leave Japan. Later even more stringent measures were
taken for the destruction of the Church, and all proselytes were called
upon to recant.
After this event two centuries and a half of peaceful seclusion, known
as the Tokugawa Period, followed. The founder of this dynasty was
Tokugawa Iyeyasu, a general of great genius who succeeded in bringing
the other nobles to terms and in establishing a strong and effective
central government. Bismarck is said to have described him as "a great
man long trained in the school of adversity." Feudalism reached its
perfection under his rule.
While the shoguns were in power they owned all the land in the realm.
This land they leased to the _daimyo_, or barons. These in turn sublet
to their vassals, the brave _samurai_, who formed the fighting class and
gave military service to their lords for the value received. Merchants,
traders, manufacturers, farmers, artisans and coolies, all owed
allegiance to their immediate master, who stood next above them in the
social scale.
During the Tokugawa Period art and letters flourished. The country was
at peace, and well governed. The only foreigners allowed in the country
were the Chinese and Dutch traders, who might enter the harbour of
Nagasaki under guard.
To Americans the most interesting date in Japanese history is that of
July 14th, 1853, when Commodore Perry appeared with his black ships, his
big guns, and a letter from the President of the United States to the
Shogun of Japan. (Foreigners did not realize that the Shogun was not the
supreme authority.) Prince Tokugawa not only received the letter, which
was contrary to national law, but in due time consented to the opening
of certain ports to foreign trade.
Soon after this, the "open door" policy proving unpopular with the
people, the country found itself in the throes of a revolution which
resulted, in 1868, in the restoration of the Mikado to the throne of his
ancestors and to the power which went with it. Prince Keiki Tokugawa,
the fifteenth of the House of Tokugawa and last of the shoguns, retired
in favour of the Emperor, Meiji Tenno. He survived the Emperor by over a
year, dying in November, 1913.
Although the Imperial line was restored to power, their capital, Kyoto,
was abandoned in favour of Tokyo, which has remained the seat of
government ever since.