Transcriber’s Notes:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end.
* * * * *
RARE DAYS IN JAPAN
* * * * *
“Yes! ’tis a very pleasant land,
Filled with joys on either hand,
Sweeter than aught beneath the sky,
Dear island of the dragon-fly!”
[From an old poem composed by the Mikado Gomei, who died A. D. 641.]
* * * * *
[Illustration: “COUNTRY SCENES AND COUNTRY CUSTOMS”]
RARE DAYS IN JAPAN
BY
GEORGE TRUMBULL LADD, LL. D.
AUTHOR OF “IN KOREA WITH MARQUIS ITO,”
“KNOWLEDGE, LIFE, AND REALITY,”
“PHILOSOPHY OF CONDUCT,”
ETC., ETC.
_ILLUSTRATED_
[Illustration]
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
1910
* * * * *
COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
_Published, September, 1910_
PREFACE
By many friends, both in this country and in the Far East, the
question has often been asked me: “Why do you not write a book about
Japan?” Whatever answer to this question _à propos_ of each particular
occasion, may have been given, there have been two reasons which have
made me decline the temptation hitherto. Of the innumerable books,
having for their main subject, “The Land of the Rising Sun,” which have
appeared during the last forty years, a small but sufficient number
have described with a fair accuracy and reasonable sympathy, certain
aspects of the country, its people, their past history, and recent
development. To correct even, much more to counteract, the influence of
the far greater number which, if the wish of the world of readers is to
know the truth, might well never have been written, is a thankless and
a hopeless task for any one author to essay.
A yet more intimate and personal consideration, however, has prevented
me up to the present time from complying with these friendly requests.
Many of the experiences, of special interest to myself, and perhaps
most likely to be specially interesting and instructive to the public,
have been so intimate and personal, that to disclose them frankly would
have seemed like a breach of courtesy, if not of confidence. The highly
favoured guest feels a sort of honourable reserve about speaking of the
personality and household of his host. He does not go away after weeks
spent at another’s table, to describe the dishes, the silver and other
furnishings, and the food.
What I have told in this book of some of the many rare and notably
happy, and, I hope, useful days, which have fallen to my good fortune
at some time during my three visits to Japan, has not, I trust,
transgressed the limits of friendly truth on the one hand, or of a
friendly reserve on the other. And if the narrative should give to
any of my countrymen a better comprehension of the best side of this
ambitious, and on the whole admirable and lovable people, and a small
share in the pleasure which the experiences narrated have given to the
author, he will be much more than amply rewarded.
GEORGE TRUMBULL LADD.
NEW HAVEN, June, 1910.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I VISITING THE IMPERIAL DIET 1
II DOWN THE KATSURA-GAWA 25
III CLIMBING ASAMA-YAMA 46
IV THE SUMMER-SCHOOL AT HAKONÉ 74
V JAPANESE AUDIENCES 99
VI GARDENS AND GARDEN PARTIES 126
VII AT THE THEATRE 156
VIII THE NŌ, OR JAPANESE MIRACLE-PLAY 190
IX IKEGAMI AND JAPANESE BUDDHISM 217
X HIKONÉ AND ITS PATRIOT MARTYR 248
XI HIRO-MURA, THE HOUSE OF “A LIVING GOD” 281
XII COURT FUNCTIONS AND IMPERIAL AUDIENCES 314
ILLUSTRATIONS
Country Scenes and Country Customs _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
“The Picturesque Moat and Ancient Wall” 18
“The Charm of the Scenery Along the Banks” 32
“To Tend These Trees Became a Privilege” 38
“The Villages Have Never Been Rebuilt” 56
“For Centuries Lovers Have Met About the Old Well” 72
“Dark and Solemn and Stately Cryptomerias” 78
“_Ashi-no-Umi_, which is, being Interpreted, ‘The Sea of
Reeds’” 84
“Class and Teacher Always Had to be Photographed” 108
“The Bearing of the Boys and Girls is Serious, Respectful
and Affectionate” 118
“It is Nature Combed and Trimmed” 130
“Winding Paths Over Rude Moss-covered Stepping-Stones” 142
“The Worship of Nature in the Open Air” 152
“In One Corner of the Stage Sits the Chorus” 194
“Leading Actors in the Dramas of that Day” 208
“Leading Actors in the Dramas of that Day” 212
“The Chief Abbot Came in to Greet Us” 226
“Where Nichiren Spent His Last Days” 234
“Picturesquely Seated on a Wooded Hill” 250
“All Covered with Fresh-Fallen Snow” 276
“Peasants Were Going to and from Their Work” 294
“You can not Mock the Conviction of Millions” 302
“The Beautiful Grounds in Full Sight of the Bay” 308
“They Took Part in Out-Door Sports” 320
CHAPTER I VISITING THE IMPERIAL DIET
The utter strangeness of feeling which came over me when, in May of
1892, I first landed in Japan, will never be repeated by any experience
of travel in the future amidst other scenes, no matter how wholly
new they may chance to be. Between Vancouver, so like one of our own
Western towns, and the Land of the Rising Sun, nature provided nothing
to prepare the mind for a distinctly different type of landscape and
of civilisation. There was only the monotonous watery waste of the
Northern Pacific, and the equally monotonous roll of the Empress
of China, as she mounted one side and slid down the other, of its
long-sweeping billows. There was indeed good company on board the
ship. For besides the amusement afforded by the “correspondent of
a Press Syndicate,” who boasted openly of the high price at which
he was valued, but who prepared his first letter on “What I saw in
China,” from the ship’s library, and then mailed it immediately on
arrival at the post-office in Yokohama, there were several honest
folk who had lived for years in the Far East. Each of these had
one or more intelligent opinions to impart to an inquirer really
desirous of learning the truth. Even the lesson from the ignorance
and duplicity of this moulder of public opinion through the American
press was not wholly without its value as a warning and a guide in
future observations of Japan and the Japanese. The social atmosphere
of the ship was, however, not at all Oriental. For dress, meals,
hours, conversation, and games, were all in Western style. Even with
Doctor Sato, the most distinguished of the Japanese passengers, who
was returning from seven years of study with the celebrated German
bacteriologist, Professor Koch, I could converse only in a European
language.
The night of Friday, May 27, 1892, was pitchy dark, and the rain fell
in such torrents as the Captain said he had seldom or never seen
outside the tropics. This officer did not think it safe to leave the
bridge during the entire night, and was several times on the point
of stopping the ship. But the downpour of the night left everything
absolutely clear; and when the day dawned, Fujiyama, the “incomparable
mountain,” could be seen from the bridge at the distance of more than
one-hundred and thirty miles. In the many views which I have since had
of Fuji, from many different points of view, I have never seen the
head and entire bulk of the sacred mountain stand out as it did for us
on that first vision, now nearly twenty years ago.
The other first sights of Japan were then essentially the same as those
which greet the traveller of to-day. The naked bodies of the fishermen,
shining like polished copper in the sunlight; the wonderful colours
of the sea; the hills terraced higher up for various kinds of grain
and lower down for rice; the brown thatched huts in the villages along
the shores of the Bay; and, finally, the busy and brilliant harbour of
Yokohama,--all these sights have scarcely changed at all. But the rush
of rival launches, the scramble of the sampans, the frantic clawing
with boat-hooks, which sometimes reached sides that were made of flesh
instead of wood, and the hauling of the Chinese steerage passengers
to places where they did not wish to go, have since been much better
brought under the control of law. The experience of landing as a novice
in Japan is at present, therefore, less picturesque and exciting; but
it is much more comfortable and safe.
The arrival of the Empress of China some hours earlier than her
advertised time had deceived the friends who were to meet me; and so
I had to make my way alone to a hotel in Tokyo. But notes despatched
by messengers to two of them--one a native and since a distinguished
member of the Diet, and the other an American and a classmate at
Andover, within two hours quite relieved my feelings of strangeness and
friendlessness; and never since those hours have such feelings returned
while sojourning among a people whom I have learned to admire so much
and love so well.
It had been my expectation to start by next morning’s train for the
ancient capital of Kyoto, where I was to give a course of lectures in
the missionary College of Doshisha. But in the evening it was proposed
that I should delay my starting for a single day longer, and visit
the Imperial Diet, which had only a few days before, amidst no little
political excitement, begun its sittings. I gladly consented; since it
was likely to prove a rare and rarely instructive experience to observe
for myself, in the company of friends who could interpret both customs
and language, this early attempt at constitutional government on the
part of a people who had been for so many centuries previously under
a strictly monarchical system, and excluded until very recently from
all the world’s progress in the practice of the more popular forms of
self-government. The second session of the First Diet, which began to
sit on November 29, 1890, had been brought to a sudden termination on
the twenty-fifth of December, 1891, by an Imperial order. This order
implied that the First Diet had made something of a “mess” of their
attempts at constitutional government. The “extraordinary general
election” which had been carried out on the fifteenth of February,
1892, had been everywhere rather stormy and in some places even
bloody. But the new Diet had come together again and were once more
to be permitted to try their hand at law-making under the terms of
the Constitution which his Imperial Majesty had been most “graciously
pleased to grant” to His people. The memory of the impressions made by
the observations of this visit is rendered much more vivid and even a
matter for astonishment, when these impressions are compared with the
recent history of the sad failures and exceedingly small successes of
the Russian Duma. So sharply marked and even enormous a contrast seems,
in my judgment, about equally due to differences in the two peoples
and differences in the two Emperors. Another fact also must be taken
into the account of any attempt at comparison. The aristocracy of
Russia, who form the entourage and councillors of the Tsar are quite
too frequently corrupt and without any genuine patriotism or regard for
the good of the people; while the statesmen of Japan, whom the Emperor
has freely made his most trusted advisers, for numbers, patriotism,
courage, sagacity, and unselfishness, have probably not had their
equals anywhere else in the history of the modern world.
The Japanese friends who undertook to provide tickets of admission
to the House of Peers were unsuccessful in their application. It was
easier for the foreign friend to obtain written permission for the
Lower House. It was necessary, then, to set forth with the promise of
having only half of our coveted opportunity, but with the secret hope
that some stroke of good luck might make possible the fulfilment of the
other half. And this, so far as I was concerned, happily came true.
As our party were entering the door of the House of Representatives,
I was startled by the cry of “soshi” and the rush toward us of two or
three of the Parliamentary police officers, who proceeded to divest
the meekest and most peaceable of its members, the Reverend Mr. H----,
of the very harmless small walking-stick which he was carrying in his
hand. It should be explained that, according to Professor Chamberlain,
since 1888 there had sprung up a class of rowdy youths, called _soshi_
in Japanese--“juvenile agitators who have taken all politics to be
their province, who obtrude their views and their presence on ministers
of state, and waylaid--bludgeon and knife in hand--those whose opinions
on matters of public interest happen to differ from their own. They
are, in a strangely modernised disguise, the representatives of the
wandering swashbucklers or _rōnin_ of the old _régime_.”
After his cane had been put in guard, and a salutary rebuke
administered to my clerical friend for his seeming disregard of the
regulations providing for the freedom from this kind of “influence”
which was guaranteed to the law-makers of the New Japan, we were
allowed to go upon our way. Curiously enough, however, the very first
thing, after the opening, which came before the House, explained more
clearly why what seemed such an extraordinary fuss had been made
over so insignificant a trifle. For one of the representatives rose
to complain that only the day before a member of the Liberal party
had been set upon and badly cut with knives by _soshi_ supposed to
belong to the Government party. The complaint was intended to be made
more effective and bitter by the added remark that the Speaker of the
House had been known to be very polite, in this and in all cases where
a similar ill-turn had been done to one of his own party, to send
around to the residence of the sufferer messages of condolence and of
inquiry after the state of his health. In the numerous reverse cases,
however, the politeness of this officer of the _whole_ House had not
appeared equally adequate to the occasions afforded by the “roughs” of
the anti-Government party. To this sarcastic sally the Speaker, with
perfect good temper, made a quiet reply; and at once the entire body
broke out into laughter, and the matter was forthwith dropped from
attention. On my asking for an interpretation of this mirth-provoking
remark, it was given to me as follows: “The members of the Speaker’s
party had always taken pains to inform him of their injuries, and so
he had known just where to distribute such favours; but if the members
of the opposite party would let him know when they were suffering in
the same manner, he would be at least equally happy to extend the same
courtesies to them.”
It will assist to a better appreciation of what I saw on this
occasion, of the _personnel_ and procedure of the Japanese House of
Representatives, if some account is given of its present constitution;
this differs from that of 1892 only in the fact that it is somewhat
more popular now than it was then. The House is composed of members
returned by male Japanese subjects of not less than twenty-five years
of age and paying a direct tax of not less than ten _yen_. There are
two kinds of members; those returned by incorporated cities containing
not less than 30,000 inhabitants, and those by people residing in
other districts. The incorporated cities form independent electoral
districts; and larger cities containing more than 100,000 inhabitants
are allowed to return one member for every 130,000 people. The other
districts send one member at the rate of approximately every 130,000
people; each prefecture being regarded as one electoral district.
Election is carried on by open ballot, one vote for each man; and a
general election is to take place every four years, supposing the House
sits through these four years without suffering a dissolution in the
interval. The qualifications for a seat in the House are simple for all
classes of candidates. Every Japanese subject who has attained the age
of not less than thirty years is eligible;--only those who are mentally
defective or have been deprived of civil rights being disqualified. The
property qualification which was at first enforced for candidates was
abolished in 1900 by an Amendment to the Law of Election.
I am sure that no unprejudiced observer of the body of men who composed
the Japanese House of Representatives in the Spring of 1892, could
have failed to be greatly impressed with a certain air of somewhat
undisciplined vigour and as yet unskilled but promising business-like
quality. The first odd detail to be noticed was a polished black tablet
standing on the desk of each member and inscribed with the Japanese
character for his number. Thus they undertook to avoid that dislike
to having one’s own name ill used, in which all men share but which
is particularly offensive among Oriental peoples. For instead of
referring to one another as “the gentleman from Arkansas,” etc., they
made reference to one another as “number so or so.” How could anything
be more strictly impersonal than sarcasm, or criticism, or even abuse,
directed against a number that happens only temporarily to be connected
with one’s Self!
It was my good fortune to light upon a time when the business of the
day was most interesting and suggestive of the temper and intentions of
these new experimenters in popular legislation; and, as well, of the
hold they already supposed themselves to possess on the purse-strings
of the General Government. What was my surprise to find that this power
was, to all appearances, far more effective and frankly exercised by
the Japanese Diet than has for a long time been the case with our own
House of Congress. For here there was little chance for secret and
illicit influences brought to bear upon Committees on Appropriations;
or for secure jobbery or log-rolling or lobbying with particular
legislators.
The business of the day was the passing upon requests for supplementary
grants from the different Departments of the General Government. It was
conducted in the following perfectly open and intelligible way: The
Vice-Minister of each Department was allowed so many minutes in which
he was expected to explain the exact purpose for which the money was
wanted; and to tell precisely in _yen_ how much would be required for
that purpose and for that purpose only. The request having been read,
the Vice-Minister then retired, and fifteen minutes, not more, were
allowed for a speech from some member of the opposition. The Speaker,
or--to use the more appropriate Japanese title--President of the
House, was at that time Mr. T. Hoshi, who had qualified as a barrister
in London, and who in personal appearance bore a somewhat striking
resemblance to the late President Harper of Chicago University. He
seemed to preside with commendable tact and dignity.
As I look backward upon that session of the Imperial Japanese Diet,
there is one item of business which it transacted that fills me with
astonishment. The request of the Department of Education for money to
rebuild the school-houses which had been destroyed by the terrible
earthquake of the preceding winter was immediately granted. Similar
requests from the Department of Justice, which wished to rebuild the
wrecked court-houses, and from the Department of Communications,
for funds to restore the post-offices, also met with a favourable
reception. But when the Government asked an appropriation for the
Department of the Navy, with which to found iron-works, so that they
might be prepared to repair their own war-ships, the request was almost
as promptly denied! To be sure, the alleged ground of the denial was
that the plans of the Government were not yet sufficiently matured.
At this juncture Mr. Kojiro Matsukata, the third son of Japan’s
great financier, Marquis Matsukata, came into the gallery where we
were sitting and offered to take me into the House of Peers. But
before I follow him there let me recall another courtesy from this
same Japanese friend, which came fifteen years later; and which,
by suggesting contrasts with the action of the Diet in 1892, will
emphasise in a picturesque way the great and rapid changes which have
since then taken place in Japan. On the morning of February 19, 1907,
Mr. Matsukata, who is now president of the ship-building company at
Kawasaki, near Kobe, showed me over the yards. This plant is situated
for the most part on made ground; and it required four years and a half
to find firm bottom at an expense of more than _yen_ 1,000,000. The
capital of the company is now more than _yen_ 10,000,000. All over the
works the din of 9,000 workmen made conversation nearly impossible.
But when we had returned to his office, a quiet chat with the host
over the inevitable but always grateful cups of tea, elicited these
among other interesting incidents. Above the master’s desk hung the
photograph of a group which included Admiral Togo; and still higher
up, above the photograph, a motto in the Admiral’s own hand-writing,
executed on one of his visits to the works--he having been summoned
by the Emperor for consultation during the Russo-Japanese war. On my
asking for a translation of the motto, I was told that it read simply:
“Keep the Peace.” Just two days before the battle of the Sea of Japan,
Mr. Matsukata had a telegraphic message from Togo, which came “out of
the blue,” so to say, and which read in this significant way: “After a
thousand different thoughts, now one fixed purpose.” In the centre of
another group-photograph of smaller size, sat the celebrated Russian
General, Kuropatkin. This picture was taken on the occasion of his
visit to the ship-yards some years before. Mr. Matsukata became at
that time well acquainted with Kuropatkin, and described him to me as
a kindly and simple-minded gentleman of the type of an English squire.
He was very fond of fishing; but like my friend, the Russian General
Y----, he appeared to have an almost passionate abhorrence of war. He
once said to my host: “Why do you build _war_ ships; why not build only
merchant ships; that is much better?” To this it was replied: “Why do
you carry your sword? Throw away the sword and I will stop building
war ships.” And, indeed, in most modern wars, it is not the men who
must do the fighting or the people who must pay the bills, that are
chiefly responsible for their initiation; it is the selfish promoters
of schemes for the plunder of other nations, the cowardly politicians,
and perhaps above all, the unscrupulous press, which are chiefly
responsible for the horrors of war. Through all modern history, since
men ceased to be frankly barbarian in their treatment of other peoples
and races, it has been commercial greed, and its subsidised agents
among the makers of laws and of public feeling, which have chiefly
been guilty for the waste of treasure and life among civilised peoples.
But let us leave the noise of the Kawasaki Dock Yards, where in 1907
Russian ships were repairing, Chinese gun-boats and torpedo and other
boats for Siam were building, and merchant and war ships for the home
country were in various stages of new construction or repair; and let
us return to the quiet of the House of Peers when I visited it in May
of 1892. After a short time spent in one of the retiring rooms, which
are assigned according to the rank of the members--Marquis Matsukata
being then Premier--we were admitted to the gallery of the Foreign
Ambassadors, from which there is a particularly good view of the entire
Upper House.
The Japanese House of Peers is composed of four classes of members.
These are (1) Princes of the Blood; (2) Peers, such as the Princes and
Marquises, who sit by virtue of their right, when they reach the age
of twenty-five, and Counts, Viscounts, and Barons, who are elected
to represent their own respective classes; (3) men of erudition who
are nominated by the Emperor for their distinguished services to the
state; and (4) representatives of the highest tax-payers, who are
elected from among themselves, and only one from each prefecture.
Each of the three inferior orders can return not more than one-fifth
of the total number of peers; and the total of the non-titled members
must not be greater than that of the titled members. It is thus made
obvious that the Japanese House of Peers is essentially an aristocratic
body; and yet that it represents all the most important interests
of the country in some good degree--whatever may be thought of the
proportion of representation assigned to each interest. The care that
science and scholarship shall have at least some worthy representation
in the national counsels and legislation is well worthy of imitation
by the United States. And when to this provision we add the facts,
that a Minister of Education takes rank with the other Ministers, that
the Professors in the Imperial Universities have court rank by virtue
of their services, and that the permanent President of the Imperial
Teacher’s Association is a Baron and a member of the House of Peers, we
may well begin to doubt whether the recognition accorded to the value
of education in relation to the national life, and to the dignity and
worth of the teacher’s office, is in this country so superior to that
of other nations, after all.
[Illustration: “THE PICTURESQUE MOAT AND ANCIENT WALL”]
The appearance of the Chamber occupied by the Peers was somewhat more
luxurious than that of the Lower House; although it was then, and still
is, quite unimposing as compared with buildings used for legislative
purposes in this country and in Europe. Indeed, everywhere in Tokyo,
the ugly German architecture of the Government buildings contrasts
strikingly with the picturesque moat and ancient walls of the Imperial
grounds. More elaborate decoration, and the platform above which an
ascent by a few steps led to the throne from which His Majesty opens
Parliament, were the only claims of the Upper Chamber to distinction.
The _personnel_ of the members seemed to me on the whole less vigorous
than that of the Lower House. This was in part due to the sprinkling
of youthful marquises, who, as has already been explained, take their
seats by hereditary right at the age of twenty-five. In marked contrast
with them was the grim old General T----, a member of the Commission
which visited the United States in 1871, who asserted himself by asking
a question and then going on to make a speech, in spite of the taunts
of two or three of the younger members. The manner of voting in the
Upper House was particularly interesting; as the roll was called, each
member mounted the platform and deposited either a white or a blue card
in a black lacquer box which stood in front of the President of the
Chamber.
Here the business of the day was important on account of the precedent
which it was likely to establish. A Viscount member had been promoted
to a Count, and the question had arisen whether his seat should be
declared vacant. The report of the committee which disqualified him
from sitting as a Count was voted upon and adopted. Then came up the
case of two Counts who were claimants for the same seat. The vote
for these rival candidates had stood 30 to 31; but one voter among
the majority had been declared disqualified; because, having held a
Viscount’s seat, on being promoted to a Count, he had attempted to vote
as a Count. All this, while of importance as precedents determining
the future constitution of the House of Peers, had not at all the
same wide-reaching significance as the signs in the Lower House of
the beginnings in Japan of that struggle which is still going on all
over the world between the demands of the Central Government for money
and the legislative body which votes the appropriations to meet these
demands.
It was under very different circumstances that I witnessed a quite
dissimilar scene, when in December of 1906 my next visit was paid to
the Imperial Diet of Japan. This occasion was the opening of the
Diet by the Emperor in person. Now, while my court rank gave me the
right to request an official invitation to the ceremony, the nature of
the ceremony itself required that all who attended should come in full
dress and wearing their decorations, if they were the possessors of
decorations at all. It was also required that all visitors should be
in their respective waiting-rooms for a full hour before the ceremony
began. None might enter the House later than ten o’clock, although
His Majesty did not leave the palace until half-past this hour. This
waiting, however, gave a not undesirable opportunity to make some new
acquaintance, or to have a chat with two or three old friends. But
besides the members of the various diplomatic corps and a French Count,
who appeared to be a visitor at his nation’s Embassy, there were no
other foreigners in the waiting-room to which I was directed on arrival.
During the hour spent in waiting, however, I had a most interesting
conversation with Baron R----, an attaché of the German Embassy, who
seemed a very clever and sensible young gentleman. The excitement over
the recent action of the San Francisco School Board was then at its
extreme height; and on discussing with him an “open letter” which I
had just published, explaining in behalf of my Japanese friends the
relation in which this action, with some of the questions which it
raised, stood to our national constitution, I found him thoroughly
acquainted with the historical and the political bearings of the whole
difficult subject. I could not avoid a regretful sigh over the doubt
whether one-half of our own representatives, or even of our foreign
service, were so well informed on the nature of our constitution
and its history as was this German diplomat. However this may be,
certain it is that a higher grade of culture is eminently desirable
in both the legislative and diplomatic classes of our public service.
In the same connection the Baron gave it as his opinion that Japan
had produced in this generation a nobler and more knightly type of
individual manhood than can be found in any country in Europe. Such
a verdict can, of course, never acquire any higher trustworthiness
than an individual’s opinion. But if we ask ourselves, “Where in the
world is another city of 45,000 inhabitants to be found, which has
produced in this generation six generals who are the equals of Field
Marshall Oyama, Admiral Togo, and Generals Oku, Count Nodzu, and the
two Saigos?” I imagine the answer would be exceedingly hard to find.
Perhaps the truth is, as one of my best informed Japanese friends once
quaintly said: “In America you have a few big, bad men, and a good many
small good men; but in Japan we have a few big, good men and a good
many small bad men.” At any rate, the six “big men,” whose names have
just been mentioned, were about fifty years ago living and playing as
boys together in an area so small that the houses and yards of their
parents, and all the space intervening, might have been covered by a
ten-acre lot.
As soon as His Majesty had arrived, all those who had been waiting were
conducted to their proper chambers in the gallery of the Peer’s House,
where I found myself seated with Japanese only, and between those of a
higher rank on the right and of a lower rank on the left. The members
of both Houses of the Diet were standing on the floor below;--those
from the Lower House on the left and facing the throne, and those from
the House of Peers on the right. The former were dressed, with some
exceptions, in evening-dress, and the latter in court uniform with gold
epaulets on their shoulders. All the spectators in the galleries were
in court dress. On the right of the platform, from which steps led up
to the throne, stood a group of some fifteen or twenty court officials.
At about five minutes past eleven an equal number of such personages
came into the Chamber by the opposite door of the platform and arranged
themselves so as to form a passage through the midst of them for the
Emperor. Not more than five minutes later His Majesty entered, and
ascending to the throne, sat down for a moment; but almost immediately
rose and received from the hand of Marquis Saionji, the Prime Minister,
the address from the throne inscribed on a parchment scroll. This
he then read, or rather intoned, in a remarkably clear but soft and
musical voice. The entire address occupied not more than three minutes
in the reading. After it was finished, Prince Tokugawa, President of
the Peers, went up from the floor of the House to the platform, and
then to a place before the throne; here he received the scroll from the
Emperor’s hand. After which he backed down to the floor again, went
directly in front of His Majesty and made a final bow. The Emperor
himself immediately descended from the throne and made his exit from
the platform by the door at which he had entered, followed by all the
courtiers.
All were enjoined to remain in their places until the Emperor had left
the House; the audience then dispersed without further regard to order
or to precedence. So simple and brief was this impressive ceremony!
Nearly all over the civilised world, at the present time, there seems
to be a growing distrust of government by legislative bodies as at
present constituted and an increasing doubt as to the final fate of
this form of government. The distrust and doubt are chiefly due to
the fact that the legislators seem so largely under the control of
the struggle which is everywhere going on between the now privileged
classes, in their efforts to retain their inherited or acquired
advantages, and the socially lower or less prosperous classes, in their
efforts to wrest away these advantages and to secure what they--whether
rightly or wrongly--regard as equal rights and equal opportunities
with their more favoured and prosperous fellows. It is not strange, in
view of this so nearly universal fact, that any inquiry as to the past
and present success of legislation under constitutional government in
Japan, should receive such various and conflicting answers both from
intelligent natives and from observant foreigners. There can be no
doubt among those who know the inside of Japanese politics that the
success of this sort which has hitherto been attained in Japan has been
in large measure due to the wise and firm but gracious conduct of
the Emperor himself; and to that small group of “elder statesmen” and
other councillors whom he has trusted and supported so faithfully. But
no few men, however wise and great, could have achieved by themselves
what has actually been accomplished in the last half-century of the
Empire’s history. Great credit must then be given to hundreds and
thousands of lesser heroes; and indeed the events of this history
cannot be accounted for without admitting that the genius of the race,
accentuated by their long period of seclusion, is the dominant factor.
The one fault, which most threatens the cause of parliamentary and
constitutional government of Japan, is a certain inability, hitherto
inherent, to avoid the evils of an extreme partisanship and to learn
that art of practical compromises which has made the Anglo-Saxon race
so successful hitherto in constitutional and popular government.