Ministry had consisted of those charged with the conduct of Foreign and
Home Affairs, the management of the naval and military forces, of the
national finances, of ecclesiastical affairs, and of public instruction.
At the side of the Ministry stood the Sa-In, or Senate, of which there
were thirty-two members, and the Sho-In, or Council of State, the number
of members whereof was unlimited,—the nominations to both these bodies
being made by the sovereign. The power of the Emperor was in those days,
in both temporal and spiritual affairs, regarded as boundless, and a
voluntary surrender of rights which,—though they had often in the past
history of the nation lain dormant,—had existed unchallenged from remote
antiquity,—was a concession the importance of which could not be too
highly esteemed. The Senate (Gen-Ro-In, as it was latterly termed) was
composed of Peers of the realm, and of persons who had rendered the
country distinguished service in their several capacities, or who were
eminent by reason of their erudition, and its duty was to take charge of
legislative matters referred to it by the Cabinet or introduced at the
instance of the Senate itself. The Gen-Ro-In was likewise empowered to
receive petitions regarding legislation from outside sources, so that
in its functions it was largely the forerunner of the present House of
Peers, as constituted under the edict of 1889. There was also a Local
Governors’ Council, which resembled to some extent a national assembly,
though composed of officially nominated members, for it was directed
by imperial rescript on its first sitting that its duties would be “to
attend to the affairs of State as the representative of the people’s
interests.” In the same rescript the Emperor declared that the said
Council had been called together “in pursuance of the solemn promise,
given by Us on the occasion of Our accession to the Throne, to summon
delegates of Our subjects to assist Us in the conduct of affairs of
State, to make with those delegates arrangements calculated to cement
the amicable understanding that prevails between rulers and ruled, and
to enable both to co-operate for the common good of the country.” It was
added that the Governors who attended the Council were in “no danger of
incurring the displeasure of the Government for any opinion enunciated
by them at the meeting.” The Council which had thus existed since 1875
was abolished in 1880, but meanwhile the prefectural assemblies had been
established, and there were thus other legitimate channels for voicing
public opinion.
The next year saw the issue of the proclamation providing for the
assembly of a truly national representative body in 1890, and meanwhile
Marquis Ito and his staff were diligently preparing the Constitution
and the Laws bearing upon elections to the Diet and the Houses
themselves, all of which were proclaimed in 1889, on the 11th February,
the anniversary of the ascension of the throne by Jimmu Tenno. Thus
was fulfilled in its entirety the promise made in the “Charter Oath,”
as it is termed, taken by his Majesty on his coronation. The Imperial
Rescript has been throughout the guide and mainstay of the people’s hopes
and ambitions, and in its original form it was worded as under;—(the
translation is almost literal)—
I. In administering the business of the State, We shall settle
affairs by public opinion, which shall have an opportunity of
expressing itself in public representative assembly.
II. Our administrations shall be in the interests of the whole
people, and not of any particular class of Our subjects.
III. No person, whether official or private citizen, shall be
hindered in the prosecution of his legitimate business.
IV. The bad customs of past ages shall be abolished, and
Our Government shall tread in the paths of civilisation and
enlightenment.
V. We shall endeavour to raise the prestige and honour of Our
country by seeking knowledge throughout the world.
In 1893, when Parliamentary institutions were in their infancy, the
representative assemblies having met for the first time in 1890, the
climax was reached in a furious political agitation by the Lower House of
the Diet voting a wholesale reduction of the Government expenditure, to
which the Ministry absolutely refused to consent. It was then that the
Emperor intervened with a characteristic message impartially addressed
to both his Cabinet and to the Diet, pointing out facts which he was
resolved to bring to their remembrance. The Emperor declared that the
progress of foreign countries in which representative institutions
had taken root had been rapid and constant, but that if disputes and
bickerings were indulged in not only would time be wasted and energies
dissipated but the attainment of those worthy objects for which all
were working would be hindered and delayed. He continued;—“We have full
confidence in the faith and ability of the servants of Our Crown, and
have committed to their care the execution of measures calculated to
promote our designs, and We have no doubt but that the representatives
of Our people will share with Us in our care for the national welfare.
The expenditures mentioned in Article 67 of the Constitution—_i.e._
those connected with naval and military administration—should not be the
cause of any dispute or contention, seeing that they have the express
written sanction of Our Decree. In the matter of administrative reform,
We have given special instruction to Our Ministers to give the fullest
consideration, so that there may be no error in the conclusions they
arrive at, and then come to Us for Our sanction to any reforms they
may desire to introduce. The question of national defence is one which
brooks no delay, and in order to show our own sense of its paramount
importance We have directed that the expenditures of Our Household be
cut down, so that We may be able to contribute a yearly sum of Yen
300,000 [£30,000] for the next six years to the necessary equipment of
the national defences. We have at the same time ordered all officers
and officials in Our service to contribute, unless excused by Us for
exceptional reasons, one-tenth of their salaries, for the same period of
years, towards the expenses of naval construction. We depend, therefore,
on the co-operation, along constitutional lines, of Ministers and
Representatives, in the accomplishment of our great national tasks; and
We call upon Our people, one and all, to do their duties in this matter.”
That proclamation appeared in 1893, one year before the outbreak of war
with China, and it had the effect of putting an end to the disputes, for
all sides cheerfully acquiesced in the wisdom and impartiality of the
sovereign’s decision.
During the war with China in 1894-5, the Emperor’s solicitude for the
welfare of his people and the painstaking diligence with which he entered
into the minutest details of the naval and military plans for the
prosecution of the campaign in Manchuria and Shantung, his unwearying
attendance at his desk in the Hiroshima headquarters for more than eight
months without change, having left his Court behind him when he took
upon himself the serious burdens of conducting the war, endeared him to
his people to an extent that no mere words could effectively describe.
When at the close of the long struggle he returned to his capital his
reception was such as to have satisfied his utmost aspirations and must
have convinced him that his subjects feel for him not the traditional
reverence they owe to a sovereign but the deep and abiding regard of a
loving people.
Her Majesty the Empress has been for thirty-seven years the devoted
consort of the ruler, and is esteemed throughout the imperial dominions
as the very embodiment of all the womanly virtues. While the Emperor
is immeasurably concerned with the welfare of the army and navy, her
Majesty takes the utmost personal interest in the Red Cross Society,
and continually works for the benefit of the hospitals, her greatest
happiness consisting in identifying herself with or aiding with her own
hands the undertakings of charitable institutions. In the wars which
Japan has gone through the care of the sick and wounded has been the
subject of the Empress’s most anxious thought, she and the four young
princesses having toiled at bandage-making and other useful occupations
day after day. She regularly devotes much time to such tasks, encouraging
the sick with cheering words, and she rigorously pared down her
household’s expenditure from the outset, in order that the contributions
made to benevolent societies might be the more munificent. She has always
been a liberal patroness of the arts, and in the direction of education
she has been untiring in her promotion of worthy objects. There is
not a man or woman in the empire who would allude to her Majesty in
terms short of the most profound and respectful regard, and the people
yield her homage not more by right of her exalted station than in their
universal recognition of her queenly attributes and personal charm.
The Crown Prince has received an education which has among other things
fitted him to become in due course of time the Commander-in-chief of the
Army and Navy. He does not take part in active service, but all the other
princes of the blood have by the Emperor’s desire entered the services
afloat or ashore, and have very recently been serving as Military or
Naval officers in war.
The late Prince Arisugawa, as the chief of the general staff, was at
the headquarters at Hiroshima during the China War, and planned all
the operations of the campaign. He died at the age of sixty-one from
the results of hard work and exposure, during the trying months from
September 1894 to January 1895.
He was succeeded in his office by his relative, the late Prince Komatsu,
who in March 1895 proceeded to China as Commander-in-chief of the army in
the field.
Prince Kita-Shirakawa was also in the field as commander of the imperial
guards division, and fought at Port Arthur, and in Formosa, where he died
before the end of the war from the effects of climate. He was universally
popular as an officer, and his early decease was deplored. Prince
Takehito Arisugawa was at Wei-hai-wei and the Pescadores, and did good
service as the captain of the _Matsushima_.
Prince Kanin, as a major and officer of the staff, fought bravely in the
Liaotung peninsula, and likewise took part in the Russo-Japanese war, in
which also three of the imperial princes were under fire, before Port
Arthur.
Prince Higashi Fushimi was a commander on board the _Chitose_, Prince
Yamashina on the _Yakumo_, and Prince Fushimi was on the _Hatsusé_.
It was a source of immense pride to the nation that these princes of the
imperial house were all actively engaged on its behalf in the hour of
trial.
Thirty-eight years ago the Emperor began his most auspicious
reign with the solemn message to his people, conveyed in the
_Go-Jo-no-Go-Sei-Mon_—_i.e._ a Decree of Five Articles previously
referred to:—
“On ascending the Throne of Our Ancestors, Our determination
is, in spite of all difficulties that may beset Our path, to
rule Our country in person, to secure the peace of all Our
subjects, to open friendly relations with other countries, to
make Our country glorious, and to establish the nation on a
permanent basis of prosperity and happiness.”
With extreme tenacity of purpose and the most steadfast determination
the sovereign has never deviated a hair’s-breadth from the course which
he set himself to follow. He cast aside at the outset the ties which
might have bound him to an ancient feudalism, resolved to substitute
Constitutional and Parliamentary Government for the Absolutism that his
predecessors on the throne had exercised, and by his countenance and
example rendered feasible the adoption by his people of all the arts and
sciences known to modern civilisation, in order that the nation might
ultimately raise itself to a pinnacle of greatness never before attained
by a purely Asiatic Empire.
Under his Majesty’s wise rule Japan has developed her latent resources
and extended her commerce to a degree that has transcended even the most
sanguine expectations of her mercantile men, while she has perfected
within her borders the essentials of a permanent system of defence, naval
and military, ample for her needs.
The address which the Emperor first issued to his Army and Navy made the
deepest impression on the minds of all, and its stirring tones have rung
in the ears of his soldiers and sailors ever since, as they have braced
themselves to measure strength with their enemies on land and sea. The
Emperor said:—
“As your Commander-in-chief We fully rely upon you as We do
upon Our own hands, and desire you to look to Us as your
head, so that the relation between us may be one of absolute
and sincere confidence and trust. Whether We perform Our duty
successfully or not, depends entirely on the manner in which
you perform yours. If Our country fails to stand high in the
opinion of other nations, We desire you to share in Our sorrow.
If it rises with honour, We will enjoy the fruits of it with
you. Stand firm in your duty; assist Us in protecting the
country; and the result must be the prosperity of the nation
and the enhancement of Our country’s reputation.”
This is the “imperial message” the terms of which are graven deep on the
memories of men of both services in Japan, inspiring them with ardour
in the heat of battle and encouraging them to patiently endure the
inevitable privations and suffering of their lot. The root-principle of
their conduct is strict conformity with the Emperor’s Message, their
one anxiety not to fall short of their duty in executing the ruler’s
commands. The imperial charge laid upon them is that they shall be brave
and enduring, true and honourable in their actions, simple and frugal in
their habits.
In their Emperor they have always had a brilliant example set them,
not only of diligence in the performance of daily tasks, but of the
practice of that frugality and adherence to a simple mode of life which
is enjoined upon all. His menage is noticeably free from ostentation,
his wardrobe and table being almost meagrely supplied. Winter and
summer he is at his desk by 8 A.M., ready for the transaction of State
business, and his endurance is marvellous, for when occasion demands
it he will continue at work far into the night, ever ready to receive
any of his ministers in audience should matters of serious importance
arise. The Emperor is well known to his people to have the habit of
closely questioning those who may come before him until he has mastered
the facts of a case, and then he gives his decision without hesitation.
His fondness for horses is proverbial, and it is always on horseback
that he appears at reviews of his troops, or at the annual manœuvres,
when he conducts the operations in person, as Commander-in-chief. His
Majesty’s sympathies are promptly aroused by the oft-recurring calamities
that unhappily sweep over Japan, in the form of tornadoes, earthquakes,
tidal waves, conflagrations, or epidemics,—he condoles with the
sufferers,—and his privy purse is open to the relief of real distress.
His personal attributes have won the respect and affection of his people,
now numbering 46,000,000—an increase of 14,000,000 has taken place in
the population of his dominions since he came to the throne—and in an
intensely practical age like the present it is stimulating to discover
that there is a nation in the distant Orient which, while its sons have
fought their way to “a place in the sun,” has nevertheless preserved
throughout a whole-souled devotion and unquestioning loyalty to its
monarch, never exceeded, never perhaps equalled, in the history of the
globe.
Allusion has been made to the Emperor’s predilection for writing short
poems as a relaxation from the cares of State. They are occasionally
given out for publication in the daily journals and appear under the
heading of _Giyo-Sei_—_i.e._ Imperial Compositions. Those of last year
frequently bore reference to the war in which his forces were engaged in
Manchuria, and two may here be quoted in illustration of the trend of his
Majesty’s thought during that anxious period:—
_Ikanaran koto ni aite mo, tayumanu wa,_
_Waga shikishima no Yamato-damashii._
Scorning to yield, whatever fate’s decree—
Undaunted is the soul of my Japan.
_Shiraku mono yoso ni motomu na yo no hito no_
_Makoto no michi zo Shikishima no michi._
Sincere as one who seeks for that which lies beyond,—
My country’s course shall be.
II
PRINCE TOKUGAWA KEIKI: THE LAST OF THE SHOGUNS
Prior to the Meiji era, which began in 1867, the Shogun (known in foreign
countries as the Tycoon), who was the Emperor’s deputy at Yedo, now
Tokio, personified the military supremacy of a feudal system which had
existed for many centuries, the last occupant of the post being the
direct descendant of the founder of the Tokugawa house in which the
office of Shogun had been hereditary from the year 1603. Possibly the
history of Modern Japan might have taken a different turn but for the
recognition by the Shogun Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu, otherwise Tokugawa
Keiki, of the necessity of introducing reforms into his country if it
were to hold its own against the tendency to deal arbitrarily with the
nations of the Orient which was half-a-century since being manifested by
some of the powers of the Occident. Prince Keiki placed his resignation
in 1868 in the hands of his imperial master and counselled the adherents
of the Tokugawa house to unite with those of the Southern clans in
efforts for the well-being of the nation at large. That his followers
could not be persuaded at once to take his advice can scarcely be
regarded as the fault of the Shogun, who had only the year previously
succeeded to the honours of the position yet was prompt to relinquish
them in order, as he hoped, to avert some of the horrors of civil war.
Tokugawa Keiki was chosen by the Mito branch of the family to follow
the Shogun Iyemochi in 1866, and he succeeded to power at Yedo castle
at a moment when Japan was racked with dissensions between the party
which opposed the opening of the ports to foreign trade and that which
was in favour of the admission of strangers. The Shogun Iyesada, who
in 1854 and subsequent years had entered into the treaties with the
representatives of the Occidental nations, had been repudiated by his
imperial master, the Emperor Komei, who for a long time refused to
ratify these agreements. Even though he eventually signed them the
nation remained sharply divided within itself on the question of the
introduction of foreign methods. It is almost necessary, in order that
the position occupied at this period by the Shogun should be fairly
comprehended, to allude briefly to the earlier history of Japan, from
about the time of the Emperor Konoye, who was contemporary with King
Stephen of England. The rise of the military caste in Japan dates from
that era, when the Taira and Minamoto families were contending for
the mastery, and it was a period which has been termed not altogether
inaptly that of the Japanese “wars of the roses” (the badges worn were
really red and white chrysanthemums), inasmuch as the rival clans were
intimately related to each other, and strove to place their respective
candidates in possession of the real executive power, which was even
then becoming gradually acquired by the deputies of the true sovereigns
who dwelt at Kioto. Ultimately the Minamoto family prevailed, in the
person of the famous warrior Yoritomo, about 1185 A.D., and seven years
later, when his authority had been firmly established, he received
from the reigning sovereign the title of Sei-I-Tai-Sho-Gun—_i.e._
Barbarian-vanquishing-Generalissimo, in allusion to the duty of guarding
Japan from the inroads of those northern savages who at that period made
occasional descents on the coasts of Oshiu. The headquarters of the
Shogun’s government were then at Kamakura, a place of great interest
to travellers at the present day, and within easy reach of the port of
Yokohama. Kamakura as it now stands contains but few traces of its former
glories, but the temple dedicated to Hachiman, the Japanese Mars, is of
noble proportions and annually attracts thousands of pilgrims who journey
thitherward in confident expectation of obtaining relief or benefit from
the virtue inherent in this celebrated shrine. In Yoritomo’s day it was
a city of 1,000,000 inhabitants, but its _yashiki_ walls, crumbling to
powder, are fast disappearing, and its magnificent avenues of cedar
ceased to resound to the martial tread of mail-clad warriors centuries
ago. Kamakura fell, as Yedo rose, and Yedo castle, some portions of
which yet exist, adjoining the Imperial palace, was begun in 1592. It is
Kamakura that boasts the possession of the bronze image of Buddha, over
fifty feet in height, towering from its high pedestal above the groves
of pine that surround the temple, and forming a conspicuous landmark
as the village is first seen from a hill on the Fujisawa road. After
Yoritomo’s death the Ho-jo family gained an ascendency in the affairs
of the nation and practically ruled it until 1333 A.D., for the Shoguns
of that epoch were scarcely more than figureheads. But it is to the
everlasting credit of the Ho-jo that when Kublai Khan sought to subjugate
Japan, in the thirteenth century, the defence of the country was in their
hands so complete as to have led to as overwhelming a defeat of the
Mongol armada as that which Queen Elizabeth of England inflicted upon the
presumptuous Spaniards in 1588. The Mongol invaders had, like the Duke
of Medina Sidonia, not only to contend against the very active defenders
of the realms which they sought to invade, but also with fierce storms
at sea that threw their vessels into confusion and exposed the scattered
fragments of Kublai Khan’s immense fleet to separate and disastrous
attack from the Japanese vessels manned by resolute _samurai_.
[Illustration: THE EX-SHOGUN AND FAMILY]
The armada which had threatened Japan’s independence had no sooner been
disposed of than internecine strife began afresh, and rival dynasties
of Shoguns kept the land in a ferment until, in 1392, the northern or
Ashikaga line proved itself the stronger, and Japan entered into the
enjoyment of two centuries of almost uninterrupted peace. Under the
Ashikaga administration the country flourished exceedingly, and the epoch
is famed in Japanese history as one in which learning and the sciences
advanced to a degree of perfection never before known. High art and
culture everywhere prevailed.