to beg for an extension of time in regard to those provisions of the
treaties which included the opening of additional ports to foreign trade,
for it was felt that the Bakufu had trouble enough on its hands without
arousing further opposition by the fulfilment of the strict letter
of the compacts which had been entered into with the Western powers.
That mission was successful inasmuch as the opening of Kobé-Hiogo was
postponed until the 1st of January 1868, and the British Government gave
assurances of its unwillingness to take any steps that might embarrass
the Government of the Shogun. But a fresh source of trouble had speedily
developed itself in Choshiu, by the baron’s arbitrary treatment of
shipping at Shimonoseki, and when, after the united squadrons of the
Western powers had compelled the defenders of the forts in the straits
to haul down their flag, and an indemnity had been exacted, the Bakufu
became more than ever discredited, and its downfall accelerated. As with
Satsuma, so with Choshiu, the fighting led to the foes becoming far
better friends than had seemed to be possible, and in 1864 the baron
Mori signified his willingness that any of his ports in Choshiu should
be opened to the commerce of the strangers. It was not until many years
after this that Shimonoseki was actually opened, but the delay was not
due to the reluctance of the clan. During those prolonged contests with
the Bakufu the clans of Satsuma and Choshiu were secretly allied, and the
rivalry which might have been utilised to enable the Shogunate to triumph
over Choshiu by enlisting the help of the Satsuma clan in the execution
of the imperial command given to the Shogun Iyemochi to punish Choshiu
was not in reality to be obtained by reason of this private compact
between the two daimios. The bond of union was, of course, a common
desire to bring about the abolition of the Viceregal office and restore
the personal rule of the Emperor. The abstention of the Satsuma clan from
interference on the side of the Shogunate probably saved the Choshiu
clan from the defeat that would otherwise, it is to be believed, have
overtaken them in the end. It was the policy of the Satsuma chieftain to
allow the Shogunate to be worsted.
Difficulties multiplied, and the Shogun Iyemochi had taken up his
residence in the castle of Osaka, after paying a second visit to the
Emperor at Kioto, at the end of 1864, so the foreign ministers had
to journey thither when they desired to communicate personally with
him in his retreat. By this time some of the more powerful among the
provincial daimios had fallen away from their allegiance to the Shogun,
and had ceased to attend the Court at Yedo or to reside there during
the prescribed six months of the year. Satsuma, for instance, did not
occupy his yashiki after September 1862, until he paid it a visit
in the early seventies, and others among the Yedo mansions of the
provincial lords remained unoccupied from that time forward until they
were turned to account as Government offices after the Restoration. The
Shogun’s entourage lost the pomp and circumstance of state in 1864,
with the removal of his retinue to Osaka, and the internecine strife
which culminated in the battle of Uyeno in 1868 was entered upon soon
afterwards.
In 1866, however, while the Shogun’s men were contending for the mastery
with the retainers of Choshiu, the Emperor Komei decided to ratify the
treaties that the Shogun had made, and thenceforward the relations of the
Bakufu with the representatives of Occidental powers were characterised
by greater cordiality than had for some time past existed. The British
Minister, Sir Harry Parkes, who had succeeded Sir Rutherford Alcock
at Yedo, sent Messrs Mitford and Satow to Osaka with a message to the
Shogun, and the mission ended with mutual satisfaction; the Shogun wrote
to the Emperor at Kioto urging the opening of the port of Kobé-Hiogo
to trade as early as practicable. The Emperor Komei finally gave his
consent, and even expressed himself at this time as favourably disposed
towards the fulfilment of the treaties. The right of native merchants
to hire foreign vessels to trade either at the open ports or abroad was
established in 1866, and thus Japanese foreign trade was set free from
the restrictions which had checked its development.
As an illustration of the amicable relations which had by this time grown
up between the Japanese authorities and foreigners, it may be related
how, on the 21st of March 1866, 800 samurai troops, under the command of
Kubota Sentaro, marched out of Yokohama in company with the British from
the camp on the Bluff for a field day in the country towards Kamakura.
The Japanese soldiers who thus for the first time in the history of
the two nations bore their part in an Anglo-Japanese Alliance were men
belonging to the Shogun’s forces, and their officers had acquired a
knowledge of Western drill from their studies at the British camp, under
the guidance of the officers of the Lancashire Fusiliers, then forming
the garrison of the Yokohama foreign settlement. Less than two years
before the Shogun’s troops had participated in similar manœuvres, but
only to a very slight degree, as at that time the Japanese had been armed
with the bow and arrow and wore chain armour, in the ancient style. Two
years’ drill had made the Shogun’s men so efficient that their shooting
with the rifle astonished the British spectators by its rapidity, and
by the ease with which the men handled their weapons, comparatively
unaccustomed as they undoubtedly then were to modern firearms. Among
those who were in this way the pioneers of the Japanese modern military
organisation were many personal friends of the first Ambassador to the
Court of St James, Viscount Hayashi.
In August 1866, the Shogun Iyemochi, whose health had for a long time
past been failing, died at Osaka, his end having been accelerated, it
is beyond doubt, by the vicissitudes of the last year or two, and the
effort demanded of him when personally taking the field at the head
of his army against the troops of the contumacious lord of Choshiu.
Notwithstanding the fast-growing power of the Shogunate’s political
adversaries, the moment was scarcely fitting for attempting its entire
overthrow, and in December of that year the Shogun Keiki, seventh son
of the prince of Mito, a branch of the Tokugawa family, and adopted son
of the Hitotsubashi family—_i.e._ the Owari branch of the same Tokugawa
house—was duly invested with all the dignities of his exalted office.
He had been nominated Shogun, as already explained, in 1858, by the
then prince of Mito his father, but had been passed over owing to the
strenuous opposition of the Regent, whose hostility to the Mito prince
Nari-aki has been alluded to, and its effects described.
The newly appointed Shogun had had abundant opportunities of observing
the gathering disposition of his countrymen to seek the restoration of
the sovereign to the direct rule of his dominions and the abolition
of the system of government by delegate which had for two and a half
centuries prevailed. The transfer of the active duties of government to
the hands of the real monarch had become a matter easy of accomplishment,
moreover, by reason of the fact that the policy of the Kioto Government
and that of the Shogun no longer differed in respect of the treatment of
the foreigners who sought to establish intimate diplomatic and commercial
relations with Japan.
In January 1867, the Emperor Komei fell a victim to smallpox, five weeks
after he had appointed Tokugawa Keiki to the office of Shogun. Though
the Bakufu was declining rapidly, the hour had not arrived for its final
extinction, but no one could better judge of the hopelessness of the
situation, perhaps, than the Shogun Keiki, who had for several years
acted as guardian to the late occupant of the position, and had been also
Minister of Justice (Giyobukiyo) in the time of Iyesada.
Despite the patriotic willingness of the Shogun Keiki to recognise from
the very outset the need which was beginning to be felt of a thoroughly
unified administration, the northern clans, which had been faithful
to the Tokugawa house and had ever made its cause their own, were far
from being reconciled to the reorganisation of the government as it was
sought to constitute it, and appealed to arms against the domination of
the Satsuma and Choshiu combination that had by this time obtained vast
influence at Court. Civil war followed, but the strife was desultory in
character until the later months of the year, by which time the Shogun
had satisfied himself of his inability to effectively chastise the
recalcitrant lord of Choshiu, and was compelled to accept defeat. As,
moreover, his position as Shogun was manifestly under such conditions
intolerable, he tendered to the Emperor his resignation of the office
that had been in his family for 264 years.
The Prince of Tosa had returned to his castle at Kochi in October 1867,
and had written to the Shogun in the following terms:—
“It appears to me that although the government and penal laws
have been administered by the military class ever since the
Middle Ages, yet since the arrival of foreigners we have been
squabbling amongst ourselves, and much public discussion has
been excited. The East and the West have risen in arms against
each other, and civil war has never ceased, the effect being to
draw on us the insults of foreign nations.
The cause of this lies in the fact that the administration
proceeds from two centres, and because the Empire’s ears and
eyes are turned in two different directions. The march of
events has brought about a revolution and the old system can no
longer be obstinately persevered in.
You should restore the governing power into the hands of the
sovereign, and so lay a foundation on which Japan may take its
stand as the equal of all other countries. This is the most
imperative duty of the present moment and is the heartfelt
prayer of YODO.
Your Highness is wise enough to take this advice into
consideration.”
The full name of the writer of this remarkable epistle was Yama-no-uchi
Yodo, daimio of Tosa province.
It was not until the close of December 1867 that the Emperor received
the formal abdication of the Shogun’s powers, and it was foreseen that
among his adherents there would be many who would resist to the uttermost
what they could but regard as their chieftain’s degradation, voluntary
or otherwise. For the resignation of his prerogatives involved also the
surrender of his lands and possessions, and his followers’ fortunes were
so inseparably linked with his that it meant to them the deprivation in
like manner of all those privileges on which they had thereunto placed
the highest value. The Satsuma and Choshiu leaders were willing to avail
themselves, however, of their proximity to the throne by seizing the
person of the Emperor, and this _coup d’état_ was carried out.
On the 3rd of January 1868, suddenly appeared an imperial edict giving
to the three chiefs of Satsuma, Tosa, and Geishiu the charge of the
Nine Gates of Kioto,—in other words the guardianship of the Emperor’s
palace,—an office which had previously been held by the Lord of Aidzu, a
northern province, and who ceased to occupy it by reason of his having
espoused the cause of the Shogun in the Kai-koku _versus_ Jo-I discussion.
It is due to Aidzu to acknowledge that the clan, from the time when,
in 1862, it had been given the charge by the Shogun Iyemochi of the
imperial city, had evinced the utmost loyalty and energy in its defence.
In repelling the attack of the Choshiu men in 1864 the Aidzu chieftain’s
retainers had shown the greatest bravery and determination, and as
honest, staunch protectors of the Emperor’s person and guardians of the
palace the clansmen had had no sympathy with the agitators who had sought
to sow discord between the monarch and his deputy. Both sides, indeed,
had reason to value the lord of Aidzu’s fidelity to the trust reposed
in him. When, therefore, the edict appeared by which Aidzu was relieved
of his functions, the adherents of the Shogunate were incensed, for
they saw, or believed that they saw, in the _coup d’état_ the clearest
possible indications of a Satsuma and Choshiu intrigue. The rescript is
remarkable as having definitely decreed the end of the old regime, and it
brought about the ascendency of the southern clans, for which the way had
been paved in great measure during the previous Emperor’s reign. The old
distinctions between the court lords (kuge) and the territorial magnates
were at one stroke swept away, new titles were introduced, and while some
of the princes, the _kuge_, and many of the samurai, found places under
the new regime, the adherents of the Tokugawa were for the most part
dismissed from office and their positions given to men of the opposing
side.
[Illustration: THE INTERIOR OF SHIBA TEMPLE]
Acting under the authority of the sovereign, the perpetrators of the
_coup d’état_ proceeded to set up a provisional government, and the
Shogun was directed to surrender his fiefs and hold himself entirely at
the disposal of the Emperor, whose pleasure would in due course be made
known to him. This decisive stroke was delivered by the combined agency
of the leaders of the clans of Satsuma, Choshiu, Hizen, and Tosa, and
the Shogun was on the verge of yielding to the demand made upon him when
hostilities broke out between his adherents and the followers of the
Satsuma chieftain. The Shogun was in this way driven into the position
of seeming antagonism to the Imperial Government as provisionally
constituted, and the fact that he was in great measure the victim of
circumstances was in after years most generously recognised by his
imperial master. The Shogun, acting no doubt on the advice tendered to
him by his supporters, quitted Kioto on horseback, accompanied by only
a few mounted attendants, on the 6th January, and reached the castle of
Osaka early in the morning of the 7th, just four days after the _coup
d’état_ and though he has by some been blamed for allowing himself to be
ousted from his position at the Emperor’s side, as the principal adviser
of his sovereign, it is difficult to censure him for so doing seeing
that the monarch had already begun to issue decrees without consulting
his customary adviser. In fact, the decree which was issued as a result
of the _coup d’état_ expressly stated that thenceforward everything
connected with the government of the country would emanate from the
Cho-Tei—_i.e._ the Imperial Court at Kioto—and strict obedience to the
terms of the proclamation was enjoined upon all. The chiefs of the Aidzu
and other clans which held allegiance to the Tokugawa side throughout
its vicissitudes were summoned to a conference the night previous to the
Shogun’s departure for Osaka, and a letter was written to the Cho-Tei
by the Shogun in which he declared that it being evident that some
deceiver stood at the young sovereign’s side he would, for the safety of
the nation, resume the duties of his office, and the better to secure
for himself due freedom of action he would remove to the city of Osaka,
where he could in his Majesty’s interests venture to take upon himself
once more the direction of affairs as Shogun. History relates that at
the meeting of his supporters held in the Shogunal palace at Kioto it
was urged on his Highness that it would be better to retain control of
the neck of the bottle by holding Osaka, the key of Kioto, than wait to
fall into the trap which had been set for them. The formal resignation
of the Shogun had been tendered by him to the Emperor at the close of
1867, but not definitely accepted, and when it was found that he had
quitted the capital an imperial messenger was despatched to Osaka to
request his return and the lords of Owari and Echizen were ordered to
furnish an escort. Preparations were at once made to obey the sovereign’s
command, but the Aidzu and Kuwana clansmen, who had followed their
chiefs to Osaka, declared that they would form the escort necessary, and
set out in the van of the force which was to constitute the Shogunal
procession on the short journey northward. The Shogun himself was to
start with the last of his little army, some four days later than the
vanguard. To the experienced eyes of the Satsuma and Choshiu leaders,
who now had entirely the ear of the young ruler, and whose troops were
at this time in full possession of the capital, this march back of the
Shogun’s whole army had for them the most sinister of meanings, and
accordingly their combined regiments were thrown forward, to challenge
the advance of the Tokugawa men, as far as Fushimi, a village seven miles
from Kioto on the highway east of the river Yodo. The Commander-in-chief
of these imperialist forces was the prince who then bore the title of
the Ninnaji-no-miya, a close relative of the Emperor, and before him
was carried the gold brocade banner which is emblematic of delegated
sovereign authority. The prince afterwards took by imperial order the
name of Higashi Fushimi-no-miya, and he is elsewhere referred to as
having subsequently spent some time in England. Marshal Saigo Takamori,
as he afterwards became, held a position equivalent to that of Chief of
Staff in modern campaigns. The main body of the Shogun’s army marched by
the Fushimi-kai-do, or eastern road, though a portion took the western
one, and there was a contingent of the followers of the lord of Idzumi
on that road also, on whose fealty the Shogun believed he might rely.
As the sequel showed, the defection of this force was his undoing,
for at the critical moment it allowed itself to be won over bodily
by the imperialists. At the village of Fushimi the Shogun’s men found
that barriers had been erected to stay their progress, and though when
challenged the leading company made answer “this is the procession of
his Highness the Shogun, who is going to Kioto by the Emperor’s express
command,” passage was refused by the imperialist guard. The Shogun’s men
were ordered to advance, and an engagement commenced which lasted for
three whole days without intermission. The treachery of the men of Tsu,
retainers of Todo Idzumi-no-kami, turned the scale, and the Shogun’s army
was compelled to retreat from Fushimi towards Osaka, where the Chiefs
of Aidzu and other clans loyal to the Tokugawa house found the warships
belonging to their side, under the command of Admiral Enomoto, lying
off the mouth of the Yodo at Tempo-san. The Shogun himself received the
distressing news of the defeat of his forces at Fushimi when about to set
out with the last of his army for Kioto, on the 27th of January 1868,
and on the afternoon of that day, realising that irremediable disaster
had befallen his arms, he quietly took his departure from Osaka castle
attended by a few faithful friends, and safely reached the _Kaiyo Maru_.
This was a Dutch-built frigate which had been purchased for him in Europe
and brought out to Japan shortly before. In order to reach the ship the
Shogun had had to take boat at the Shin-Sei bridge in Osaka, whence the
distance to Tempo-san is about four miles by river.
But before he set out he penned a letter to the foreign representatives
then present in Osaka, to the effect that the battle having gone against
him, they must provide for their own safety, and they accordingly did so
to the best of their ability. The British Minister, Sir Harry Parkes,
was staying in a temple in the northern part of the city, and, with his
mounted escort of ex-constables of the London police, he rode into the
newly established foreign settlement at Kawaguchi that night. At this
crisis in the affairs of Japan it was advisable, to prevent mishap, that
the British and other foreign ministers should be well guarded, and Sir
Harry had with him in addition to his own escort a detachment of the
Ninth Regiment, then quartered at Yokohama, always at his disposal. The
ships of the powers also lay at Tempo-san, within hail, but the weather
being at the moment exceptionally stormy the ministers could not get
aboard the vessels. It has to be recorded that Osaka city was held by
the men of Choshiu, who showed every disposition to befriend the foreign
residents and protected them against any possible violence of the mob,
though only four years had elapsed since the bombardment of Shimonoseki
by the allied squadrons, and that incident could not have been entirely
forgotten. The Tokugawa men had quitted Osaka on the day following the
departure of the Shogun, and the mob seized the opportunity, prior to
the entry of the Choshiu troops, to pillage the castle and set it afire.
The men wounded in the battle of the 27th painfully made their way along
the roads from Fushimi, and many were attended by the medical officer of
the British Legation who had accompanied Sir Harry Parkes from Tokio. Dr
Willis, the genial Irishman and accomplished surgeon here alluded to,
is doubtless remembered to this day by many of his patients. He was at
a later date in charge of the hospital at Kagoshima, belonging to the
Satsuma clan, and was universally respected in Japan. When, in 1877, the
clan was declared to be in rebellion, and all foreigners in the country
and at out-ports were directed to repair to the nearest “treaty port” for
safety, where they would be under the protection of their own warships,
he declined to quit his post at the hospital, where he could be of use
to his Satsuma friends, and the British cruiser sent to bring away the
foreign residents had to leave him behind. But as a bombardment was
imminent a Japanese government steamer was sent to fetch him away, and he
was then induced to yield.
Although the Shogun had embarked on the _Kaiyo Maru_ on the 27th January
at Tempo-san, she did not immediately sail for the gulf of Tokio, but
took part in the memorable sea-fight which occurred near Kobé shortly
afterwards. Late on the 27th the dwellers in the newly opened foreign
settlement saw from the esplanade that the _Kaiyo Maru_, together with
the _Ban-riyo Maru_ (which was in reality the _Emperor_ yacht that Queen
Victoria had presented to the Shogun), and _Fusiyama_, a steamer that
the Shogunate had bought, arrived from Osaka, at a time when there were
three vessels of the prince of Satsuma’s little fleet in Kobé harbour.
When their adversaries steamed in the Satsuma ships were preparing to
leave, but they waited until dawn, and then got under weigh. The _Kaiyo_
immediately sent two shots after them, and one of the Satsuma vessels,
originally named the _Kiang-su_, turned and slowly steamed round the
harbour, as a challenge, and then followed her consorts the _Scotland_
and the _Lotus_. The three Shogunate vessels instantly accepted the
gage of battle, and all six ships disappeared below the horizon to the
southward. The fight took place in Awa bay, which faces Kobé, on the
Shikoku coast, about forty miles from that now well-known and flourishing
port. The _Scotland_ was sunk, and another of the Satsuma ships took
fire. No precise knowledge is obtainable as to what damages the remaining
vessels received but the _Kaiyo Maru_, _Emperor_ yacht, and _Fusiyama_
were able to reach Shinagawa, close to Tokio, on the 4th of the ensuing
month, exactly a week after they left Kobé. Immediately on his arrival
there the Shogun landed and went to his castle, now the imperial
residence.
Yedo, now Tokio, was at that time still the headquarters of the
Shogunate, and while stirring events had taken place in the vicinity of
the Ten-shi’s capital of Kioto, scarcely less exciting incidents had had
to be recorded in respect of the Shogun’s centre of authority in the
north. The duty of keeping the peace in Yedo had been assigned to the
dai-mio Sakai Sayemon-no-jo, a magnate whose income was that of 150,000
_koku_.[1] To assist in the work he had engaged a number of _ro-nin_,
or masterless samurai, whom he dubbed the Shin-Cho-gumi, _lit._: newly
raised company, and installed as a species of police. Finding that
the dwellers in the Satsuma Yashiki at Mita, adjoining Shiba, where
now stands the Shiba palace, were somewhat addicted to burglary, he
determined to put a stop to such irregularities, and demanded of the
clansmen then resident in the yashiki that the culprits should be
surrendered to justice. In the temper of the samurai of all classes in
those days of storm and stress a peremptory demand of this nature was
tantamount to a challenge to a trial of strength, and a desperate combat
ensued at Mita, in which fifty of the Satsuma men were killed outright.
Some contrived to make good their escape to a Satsuma vessel that was at
the moment in the harbour of Shinagawa (one of the three that afterwards
fought at Awa Bay) and she quickly got up steam and weighed anchor. Four
Shogunate ships lying off Shinagawa fired on her as she passed them,
and two—the _Eagle_ and the _Dumbarton_—were able to take up the chase.
The _Eagle_ and the Satsuma vessel had a long running fight, following
an encounter in Mississippi Bay, near Yokohama, which the residents of
that port were privileged to witness on the Sunday afternoon, and in
the end the Satsuma champion sped away to the southward and the _Eagle_
returned to her anchorage at Shinagawa. In the Mita fight between the
Shin-Cho-gumi and other Shogunate men and the retainers of Satsuma the
yashiki was practically burned to the ground and the bodies of the fallen
were cremated within its walls. It goes without saying that the deadly
animosity which existed between the Satsuma and Tokugawa followers was in
no sense diminished by these active hostilities.
[1] In those days the standing of a feudal lord among his
fellows was in strict accord with his income, and some dai-mios
enjoyed enormous revenues as expressed in _koku_—1 _koku_ = 5
bushels of rice.