CAPTURE OF WAKAMATSU AND ENTRY OF THE MIKADO
INTO YEDO
NOVEMBER 6th was celebrated with much pomp and ceremony as being the
Mikado's birthday. A review of the 2/x regiment was held at Yokohama to
which Sir Harry invited Sanjô, now promoted to the rank of Udaijin. The
foreign men-of-war joined with the Kanagawa fort in firing a royal
salute, which the party viewed from my upstairs verandah overlooking the
bay. Besides Sanjô we had Nagaoka Riônosuké, Higashi-Kuzé and
Madé-no-kôji. A luncheon at the minister's residence followed, and the
swords of honour sent out from England for presentation to Gotô and
Nakai in recognition of their gallant conduct on the 23rd of March were
handed over. Nakai at once girt his on, and strutted about with a
gold-laced cap on his head, to his own great delight and the intense
amusement of the rest of the company. As it happened to be the second
day of the Yokohama races it was proposed that the whole party should
adjourn to the race-course. Sanjô and Higashi-Kuzé, who had on white
_maedaré_ and black-lacquered paper caps, declined. I rode down with
Madé-no-kôji and Nagaoka, who enjoyed themselves immensely. On returning
home I took Nakai in with me and gave him tea; in exchange for this he
informed me that news had been received of the capture of the outer
castle of Wakamatsu, and that only the inner ring and citadel remained
in possession of the defenders; also that the Mikado would arrive at
Yedo about November 27.
Next day I went up to Yedo on board a Japanese steamer belonging to the
Yokosuka arsenal with Sanjô, Higashi-Kuzé, Nagaoka and Nakai. By a
mistake of Nakai's about the hour of leaving I kept the party waiting
for me at the custom house and a mounted messenger had to be sent to
fetch me. I hurried down and found them sitting quietly smoking. They
protested against my apologising. How different from some Europeans!
On the 8th Mitford and I went to call on Katsu. His wife had gone off to
Sumpu, but he remained to do the "head muck-and-bottle-washing"
(_miso-zuri_) of the clan. He hoped to obtain the Shimidzu lands,
amounting to 110,000 _koku_, for feeding the retainers who had lost
their lands and pay. Instead of the lands promised in Oshiû, part of
Mikawa and the whole of Enshiû had been conceded, but the _daimiôs_
hitherto entitled had not yet given up possession. Keiki had preceded
Kaménosuké to Sumpu. Katsu also had a story that Brunet, one of the
French military instructors, went off in the Kayô-maru, when the
Tokugawa naval squadron left the Yedo anchorage on the night of October
4. We doubted this, as we knew that he had just received promotion in
the French army. Nevertheless it turned out to be a fact. He was
accompanied by another officer named Caseneuve, and several other
Frenchmen.
We also visited Nakai, who gave us a first-rate dinner from the hotel.
He said that the citadel of Wakamatsu was captured on October 29. He had
also received a letter from Kido placing the question of the Mikado's
coming to Yedo beyond a doubt. And as we returned to my house we found
that great preparations were already being made in anticipation of His
Majesty's arrival, roads being re-made, bridges rebuilt, and ward-gates
being constructed in side streets where they had never existed before.
One of my _betté_ Sano Ikunosuké called to present his thanks for having
been selected by the court to remain one of the Yedo guard for
foreigners; all my sixteen men had been engaged for this service. He
said that the Shimidzu domain had been granted provisionally to the
Tokugawa family for the purpose mentioned by Katsu. To-day (November 9)
was the last day on which men of the Tokugawa clan could send in their
names for service under the Mikado. In some cases they would receive
about half their former revenue, but others would be better off than
before, because their allowances, though nominally diminished, would be
issued in rice instead of in money at a low fixed rate. That evening
Mitford and I dined with Nagaoka at the Higo _yashiki_ in Shirokané,
close by our legation, Higashi-Kuzé and Nakai being the other guests. It
was a dinner in European style served from the hotel in a picturesque
two-storeyed house, built in the garden so as to command a view over the
_nagaya_ in the direction of the bay. In the garden there were some
splendid trees and pretty shaded nooks. Hosokawa himself was there, very
fat and amiable, very small eyes and a tendency to "fly catching." On
the 10th I went back to Yokohama.
At an interview on November 16 between all the Foreign Representatives,
Higashi-Kuzé and Térashima, the Japanese ministers stated that the
castle of Wakamatsu had surrendered on the 6th November to the imperial
forces. The two princes, father and son, in robes of ceremony and
preceded by a retainer carrying a large banner inscribed with the word
"surrender" (_kô-fuku_), and followed by the garrison, likewise in robes
of ceremony and with their heads shaven, came to the camp of the
besiegers and gave themselves up. The castle and all the arms it
contained were handed over, and the two princes retired into strict
seclusion (_kin-shin_) at a Buddhist monastery in the town. Nakamura
Hanjirô, the chief of the staff (_gun-kan_) wept when he went to take
delivery of the castle and its contents. It was a pleasure to us to see
how the countenances of some of those who had to listen to the story
fell, for they had counted on a desperate resistance on the part of
Aidzu to defeat the imperialist party and frustrate the policy of the
British Legation. Now that this exciting episode was at an end, the
speedy submission of the other northern clans could be counted on with
confidence. The detailed report made by the Hizen clan, dated November
16, published in the "Kiôto Gazette," shows that the garrison included
_samurai_ soldiers 764, troops of a lower class 1609, wounded 570,
outlaws from other territories (_rônin_) 462; women and children 639,
officials 199, civilians 646, personal attendants of the princes 42, and
porters 42. There was no record of the number of men killed in the
defence. On November 19 I went to Yedo with Captain Stanhope, Charles
Wirgman the artist, and Dr. Siddall, after breakfasting with Du Petit
Thouars on board the "Dupleix." Adams and William Marshall went up by
road. On our arrival possession was at once taken of Siddall, by a
Japanese doctor named Takéda Shingen, and he was carried off to the
military hospital established at the Tôdô _yashiki_ in the Shitaya
quarter. On the 21st Adams, Mitford, Marshall and Wirgman went to the
Yoshiwara and had a feast in fine style at the Kimpeirô, part of which
was furnished in western style for such Japanese guests as liked it. The
admission of Europeans into that quarter of the town, from which they
had until then been jealously shut out, was hailed as the dawn of a day
of friendly intercourse of the frankest character. Next evening I gave a
great entertainment at my own house. There were three _geisha_ from
Shimmei-mae and two _taikomochi_ (jesters). We kept it up boisterously
till midnight. The jesters performed a foreigner and his escort arriving
at the Kawasaki ferry on the way to Yedo, and meeting with the usual
obstruction at the hands of the men placed there to guard the crossing.
My escort men also exhibited some comic scenes, much to their own
satisfaction and to the delight of the household, who were admitted to a
room at the top of the stairs. Letters arrived from the chief to say
that he wanted a stand erected for himself opposite to the gate of our
former legation buildings, in front of Sengakuji, for him to see the
Mikado pass in (he was expected to reach Yedo on the 27th), and that
Higashi-Kuzé and I must go down to Yokohama on the 24th to see himself.
We wrote in reply to say that a stand was altogether an impossibility,
seeing what Japanese etiquette was in such matters, and that I could not
leave Siddall alone in Yedo without some one to interpret for him. So
next day Wirgman and I went over to see Siddall, and found that the Tôdô
_yashiki_ had now been turned into a general hospital. Here we fell in
with old Ishigami, the Satsuma doctor who married a daughter of old
Freiherr von Siebold by a Japanese mother, a very cheery person. After
lunch we went with him and a crowd of other Japanese doctors to Uyéno,
intending to get in and examine the scene of the fighting that took
place on July 4, but the gate was shut in our face, and though we waited
and argued patiently for a whole hour with the sentries, we could not
convince them that we might safely be admitted. I think our Japanese
companions felt even more annoyance than we did. The gateway was riddled
with bullets, and it was evident that a pretty stiff fight had taken
place there in July.
We stayed the night at the hospital, and spent a jolly evening with
Ishigami and another doctor named Yamashita. Next morning, in spite of
the bitter cold, we went round the wards with the doctors. All the state
apartments of the _daimiô's_ mansion (_go-ten_) had been converted into
wards, and provided with iron bedsteads and hair mattresses. There was a
very plucky little Tosa boy, probably a drummer, who had had his foot
amputated. Then our attention was attracted to an aristocratic-looking
little surgeon from Chôshiû, with his sleeves turned up like ruffles
over a pair of delicate little wrists. At noon there came the two
brothers Notsu, Shichizayemon and Shichiji, who persuaded Wirgman and
myself to go to the Yoshiwara with them, instead of keeping an
engagement with Nakai. Siddall compounded _mistura vini gallici_, and
after partaking of this we started on a journey of exploration. It was a
terribly cold day, with a gale from the north-west coming straight down
the plain from the snowy peak of Asama-yama and other mountains of
Shinshiû. The Yoshiwara lay right out in the middle of the rice-fields,
occupying a considerable extent of ground. It was entered through a
narrow gate at the end of a long causeway. After passing this gate, we
were introduced into the upstairs rooms of a rather shabby house,
evidently much frequented by the Satsuma clan. _Geishas_ were of course
sent for, and the _saké_-cup circulated merrily. Towards nightfall it
was proposed that we should visit the Kimpeirô, a hideous house
furnished in what was regarded as European style; but we stayed there
only a few minutes, and then returned to the house where we had first
been entertained. Here we had more drinking, dancing and playing at
_nanko_. In this game a wooden chopstick is broken up into six pieces,
of which each player receives three. He puts in one palm as many as he
thinks fit, and guesses at the total of what his hand and the hand of
the other player contain. If he guesses right, the loser has to drink,
and his turn comes to give the challenge. Evidently this is the way to
get speedily drunk. We stopped there till a message came from Ishigami
to say that he was awaiting us at another house to drink sober again. We
went in search of him to a restaurant on the river bank, the
_Yu-mei-rô_, where much singing, dancing, drinking and _nanko_ followed,
till we had had enough of it, and came home by boat to the hospital,
accompanied by three of the _geishas_. Next afternoon the artist and I
said good-bye to Siddall, and walked over to Nakai's, but not finding
him at home, we went to the hotel for refreshment, where we sat down in
the garden and found ourselves overwhelmed with melancholy at the
ugliness of the building. For five cups of tea and a bundle of Manila
cheroots the manager charged us a dollar, to the surprise and horror of
the Japanese boy who waited on us. To him it appeared an exorbitant
demand. The cheroots were perhaps worth 20 cents, which left 16 cents
for a cup of tea. On getting home to Takanawa we found that Rickerby,
the proprietor and editor of the "Japan Times," had just arrived in a
boat from Yokohama to witness the ceremony of the following day.
November 26, 1868. About ten o'clock in the morning the Mikado passed
into Yedo, having slept at Shinagawa. Mitford, the artist, Rickerby and
I saw the procession from the open space recently created in front of
the new gate of what had previously been Sir Harry Parkes' diplomatic
residence, now transformed into a sort of foreign office. The display
could not be described as splendid, for the effect of what was oriental
in the courtiers' costumes was marred by the horribly untidy soldiers
with unkempt hair and clothing vilely imitated from the west. The
Mikado's black-lacquered palanquin (_hôren_) was to us a curious
novelty. As it passed along the silence which fell upon the crowd was
very striking. Old Daté, who rode between it and the closed chair in
which the Mikado was really seated, nodded to us in a friendly manner.
Rickerby wrote and published an excellent newspaper account of the whole
show a few days afterwards in the "Japan Times." In the afternoon he and
I walked to Kai-an-ji, a Buddhist religious house at Shinagawa,
celebrated for its very pretty plantations of maple. From there we
proceeded to a house of entertainment, the Kawasaki-ya, close by, to
drink _saké_ and crack jokes with the girls about the Prince of Bizen,
who had passed the night there. The house was full of troops from the
west, but they scarcely took any notice of us, and in fact all those we
met on the road ignored us completely. It must be said that whenever I
went out into the streets of Yedo I was always accompanied by my Aidzu
_samurai_ Noguchi and from four to six of my personal escort of the
_betté-gumi_.
On the 28th Sir Harry and Dr. Alford the Bishop of Victoria, Hongkong,
came up to Yedo, and were entertained in European style at the new
foreign office by Daté and Higashi-Kuzé. Machida and Môri, young Satsuma
men, were also of the party. Both had been in England and spoke English,
the latter, who was only about one-and-twenty, particularly well.
Next day Mitford and I went to call on Nakai. We met there Machida, and
Yamaguchi Hanzô, a Hizen _samurai_, who brought with him a man who had
just returned from Shônai. He reported that Shônai had submitted on the
4th instant, and that two foreigners, one an American, the other an
Englishman, both from Hakodaté, were present as spectators. Nakai, who
was a member of the local government of the city, now called the
Tô-kei-fu instead of Yedo, had given in his resignation because he found
that the governor-general instead of placing confidence in himself and
the other officials, was in the habit of upsetting their arrangements on
the complaint of a few wretched tradespeople.
Wirgman and I went down to Yokohama on the 30th, walking as far as
Namamugi-mura (where Richardson was murdered in 1862), whence we took
boat across to the foreign settlement. At Kawasaki-ya in Shinagawa we
fell in with Notsu Shichizayémon and Ijiû-in, with two Kurohané men and
one from Utsunomiya, companions on the occasion of our visit to the
Yoshiwara, of whom the Satsuma men were on their way home. There was a
large consumption of _saké_ and Japanese dishes, and much Doric Japanese
spoken. Further on, at Mmé-yashiki or Bai-rin, as it had now become the
fashion to call this very pleasant half-way house between Yedo and the
ferry at Kawasaki, we found Oyama, who was like the others returning to
Kagoshima as the civil war was practically at an end. We drank many
parting cups together, and then walked with him to his hotel at
Kawasaki. The road was full of homeward bound Satsuma men and Tokugawa
people going to Sumpu. A report had got about that difficulties had
arisen between Satsuma and Higo, and that the latter in conjunction with
Arima and Chikuzen were going to fall upon the great clan; that in
consequence of this the troops were rushing off as fast as possible to
forestal the attack. Another rumour, much credited by the French
Legation, was that Aidzu surrendered only on condition that the Satsuma
troops should be withdrawn from the east and north of the country, and
the Mikado come to Yedo. But as others besides the Satsuma fighting men
were also going home, these stories were easily discredited. On December
3 I went back to Yedo, half-way in a _kago_ (common palanquin) from
Kanagawa, and on foot from Kawasaki. At Bai-rin I met Midzuno Chinami,
hurrying back from Shimoda where he had been put ashore from H.M.S.
"Manila." Here was the late governor of Yokohama, who last year used to
ride in a state palanquin (_nagabô_), with a large cortége and preceded
by running footmen crying _shitaniro_, "down on your knees," now
travelling in a wretched cheap hackney _kago_, without a single
retainer. For all that he seemed cheerful enough. A good deal of my time
in those days was passed in the compilation of an English-Japanese
dictionary of the spoken language and in reading Japanese novels. On the
4th I went over to the hospital, where I found Siddall with his hands
full, wounded men from Echigo having begun to arrive. Willis had gone on
from Echigo to Wakamatsu to look after the Aidzu wounded, of whom there
were nearly 600 in the castle when it was surrendered. My new pony
"Fushimi," a present from Katsu before he left Yedo, carried me
splendidly; the imperialists who crowded the streets appeared to admire
with envy a black chimney-pot hat which I was wearing. On the 5th I went
there again to pass the night, with Ishigami and Yamashita. They
complained bitterly of one Mayéda Kiôsai, who had been appointed chief
of the hospital, and said that the patients had threatened to cut his
head off because he spent his time in driving about the city in a
carriage and pair instead of attending to his duties. The reflection
came naturally that you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, or
give the standing of an European physician to a Japanese half-educated
apothecary.
On December 9 I went to the hotel to dine with Machida. The
indispensable Nakai was there, also Okubo and Yoshii. The latter had
left Wakamatsu on December 1st. Willis was there looking after the
wounded, of whom he said there were at least two thousand on the Aidzu
side alone. Snow was lying deep both in Echigo and Aidzu. Shônai was
pacified, and the whole country might now be said to be at peace, a
state of things which of course was displeasing to anti-imperialists,
whether among diplomatists or merchants. Information had arrived that
the murderers of the two sailors of H.M.S. "Icarus" in August 1867 had
been discovered; they were from Chikuzen and the party to which they
belonged was said to number nine in all. This of course would be welcome
news to the Tosa people. It was strange that retainers of Chikuzen, who
entertained Admiral King so hospitably in January should have been
guilty of such a wanton crime. The newly issued paper money, known as
_kinsatsu_, was much discussed, and it was evidently creating a great
ferment among the people. Uchida, the mayor (_nanushi_) of Kanasugi, who
had been to see me a few days earlier, said that a refusal to receive
these notes in the payment of taxes was the only obstacle to their free
circulation. Nakai denied the correctness of the statement that taxes
might not be paid with them, but he thought that in the end it would be
found necessary to establish a proper banking system by giving authority
to the great firm of Mitsui to issue notes against a reserve of coin or
bullion. It was a matter of vital importance to the imperial government,
which had not found any money in the Tokugawa treasury, and the Mikado
had always been kept very poorly supplied by the Shôgun's ministers.