The Memoirs of Admiral Lord Beresford
gallant, honest, kindly gentleman sorely perplexed by the ethical
problems involved in the forcible interference of one powerful nation
in the affairs of a weaker nation, whose sole ambition was to be let
alone. Hampered, on the one hand, by the greed and discourtesy of the
European traders, and on the other, by the immitigable duplicity and
the furtive and implacable enmity of the Japanese, yet singly
determined to do his duty to his Queen and country, Sir Rutherford
Alcock honourably fulfilled a task of extreme danger and incredible
difficulty.
Thenceforward, until the year 1869, the duel between East and West
continued with increasing ardour. The whole polity of old Japan was
shaken as by the earthquakes which agitate and rend its soil. There
were frequent assassinations of the foreign barbarians; the governing
classes, which consisted wholly of the military caste, employed every
invidious method to restrict trade with Europeans; while the Western
nations, on their side, brought their armed strength to bear in the
enforcement of treaty rights, which by the same means had originally
been wrung from the Tycoon's government. And here it falls to
distinguish between the divine prestige of the Mikado, {95} descendant
of the sun-goddess, and the temporal administration of the Tycoon, or
Shogun. In that dual administration resided a main factor of the
extraordinary difficulty of the situation. Both the spiritual and
temporal rulers, the Imperial Court and the Bakufu, or Tycoon's
Government, were equally inspired by hatred of the foreigner. But
whereas the Mikado, dwelling majestically apart, could avoid all
contact with the barbarians, the Tycoon was compelled by superior force
to negotiate with them. He was thus placed between two fires; on the
one side, the Mikado ordered him to expel the foreigner; on the other,
the foreigner threatened him with war unless the treaties were carried
into execution.
For long the Tycoon, or his advisers, maintained his position with
singular address. But no man born of woman could have solved its
complications. For the great Daimios, the feudal nobility, held
allegiance primarily to the Mikado. The Tycoon could and did detach
some of the clans to his side; but the great body of the western clans
defied him. The influence of the Tycoon began swiftly to decline. At
the same time the Imperial party began to perceive that the expulsion
of foreigners had become impossible. The immediate result was the
revolt of some of their adherents. Inspired as it was by hatred of the
foreigner, it was directed equally against Mikado and Tycoon, and
accompanied by expressions of loyalty to both parties.
In 1864 the troops of the Choshiu clan attempted to capture Kioto and
to obtain possession of the person of the Mikado. They were defeated
after heavy fighting. In June of the previous year, the Choshiu men
had fired upon the American ship _Pembroke_ while she was passing
through the Inland Sea, and also upon the Dutch corvette _Medusa_. The
French commander-in-chief of the station, Admiral Jaurès proceeded to
Shimoseki and destroyed the batteries. In August a British naval force
under the command of Vice-Admiral Kuper proceeded to Kagoshima in order
to enforce {96} the payment of the indemnity due for the murder of Mr.
Richardson, bombarded the town and destroyed the batteries. It was
these two actions which for the first time really convinced the ruling
classes in Japan that it was hopeless any longer to endeavour to
prevent the intrusion of foreign influence.
In 1866 the Tycoon Iyemochi died. In the same year a new and enlarged
Convention was concluded with Great Britain, France, America and
Holland. In the following year Keiki, very unwillingly, became Tycoon,
an office which by this time had become exceedingly insecure. In the
same year the Mikado, Komei, died and was succeeded by his son
Mutsuhito, a minor. In the following year the Mikado assumed the whole
administrative power hitherto vested in the Tycoon, and a new system of
Government was promulgated. Followed, civil war and the defeat of the
Tycoon, who retired into seclusion. In the meantime the Mikado had
invited the Representatives of Foreign Powers to visit him at Kioto.
"That the Mikado of Japan, who claims to be descended from the
sun-goddess, and in whose person a peculiar odour of sanctity was
considered to exist, should voluntarily invite to his palace at Kioto
the Envoys of nations who had hitherto been looked upon as outer
barbarians, and intercourse with whom was a profane thing, was indeed a
great step in advance. No foreigner had ever yet crossed the Imperial
threshold, or looked upon the face of the sacred Emperor of Japan. It
was a proof that a new order of things was inaugurated, and gave good
hopes for the future" (Adams, _History of Japan_. Lond., 1875).
But although the Imperial Government perceived the wisdom of accepting
the inevitable, the hatred of the foreigner, bred in the blood of the
military caste, could neither be dissembled nor controlled; and the
attack made upon the British Envoy, Sir Harry Parkes, while actually on
his way to the Imperial Palace on 23rd March, 1868, illustrates the
condition of affairs. On the road to Kioto {97} and in the sacred city
itself, the Europeans had been regarded by the people with a polite and
respectful curiosity, nor was there any sign of hostility.
Sir Harry Parkes left the temple of Chi-on-in, where he lodged, to
proceed to the audience, with a mounted escort of twelve
ex-Metropolitan mounted police, under the command of Inspector Peacock,
with whom rode a Japanese officer, Nakai Kozo. Behind these massive
veterans rode Sir Harry himself, accompanied by Goto Shojiro, of the
Japanese Foreign Department, and followed by Mr. Mitford, Mr. Satow,
Dr. Willis, and other members of the Legation. Then came a guard of
forty men of H.M.'s 9th Regiment under the command of Lieutenant
Bradshaw and Lieutenant Bruce. A native guard preceded the train, and
another guard followed it. Just as the policemen were turning the
corner of a narrow street, Sir Harry observed signs of confusion, and
the next moment a Japanese, his great sword flashing and hewing, dashed
round the corner, closely pursued by two policemen. Sir Harry cried
out to the soldiers behind him to stop the Samurai. Turning his head,
he saw his companion, Goto Shojiro, on foot, sword in hand rushing
forward to attack a second Samurai, who was already fighting hand to
hand with Nakai Kozo, the Japanese officer who had been riding
alongside Inspector Peacock at the head of the policemen. Behind Sir
Harry, shots rang out as the soldiers fired at the first assassin. Sir
Harry Parkes was suddenly aware of the wild figure of a Japanese
warrior, advancing towards him through the press. His face was a mask
of blood; in one hand shone a long sword, dripping red from hilt to
point; in the other, the victor lifted the bloody head, shorn clean
from the shoulders, of his countryman. It was Nakai Kozo. Nakai gave
the following ingenuous account of his deed of arms to Mr. Adams,
secretary of the Legation, who quotes it in his _History_, as follows:--
"I saw a man running down the line cutting at one man after another. I
jumped off my horse, drew my sword, and {98} rushed after him; he
turned and we engaged; he cut me on the head. Then Goto came up and
dealt him a blow which felled him to the ground. Unfortunately Goto's
sword-hilt, which was of lacquer, slipped from his hands, and I had to
cope with the fellow alone. I could only see out of one eye, the other
being covered with blood, but I kept chopping at him, and after about
ten blows I managed to cut his head off. I then took the head and
showed it to Sir H. Parkes."
The soldiers bayoneted the first Samurai, who was still alive when he
was finally secured by Mr. Mitford. He was afterwards beheaded by the
Imperial Government. But those two desperate enemies of the foreigner
wounded thirteen men and five horses ere they were cut down. One of
the wounded was a soldier, another a native groom; the remaining nine,
of whom two were so seriously hurt that they were invalided home, were
ex-Metropolitan policeman to whom the methods of the Samurai must have
been startling. These trained fighters wield their two-handed swords,
heavy, perfectly balanced, razor-sharp weapons, with an appalling
swiftness and dexterity. At a single blow they can cleave a man to the
chin, or cut off his head, or lop off a limb.
In May, 1868 Sir Harry Parkes presented his credentials, which had
hitherto been addressed to the Tycoon, to the Emperor. On the 23rd was
celebrated the Queen's birthday, when many Japanese of high rank, some
of whom had never before made acquaintance with a foreigner, were
entertained by Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Keppel, commander-in-chief of the
China Station, on board H.M.S. _Rodney_. It was not until November
that the civil war was ended by the submission of the rebels. The
Emperor then took up his residence for a time in Yedo--now called
Tokio--which had been the capital of the Tycoon, and which was
henceforth to be the eastern metropolis of the Emperor, as Kioto was
the western capital. In the following year, after another insurrection
had been suppressed, the great Daimios made their memorable sacrifice,
offering their lands and servants to the Emperor; thereby deliberately
exchanging their {99} almost independent state for a condition of
subservience to the central Government.
Such, in brief, was the beginning of the New Japan; and it was at this
stage in its development that, for the first time in history, a foreign
prince, in the person of H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, visited the
Mikado.
{100}
CHAPTER XI
THE CRUISE OF H.M.S. _GALATEA_ (_Continued_)
V. WITH THE DUKE IN JAPAN
The _Galatea_ arrived at Yokohama on the 29th August 1869. The Duke
with his suite, including myself, went up to Tokio (the old Yedo) and
took up his quarters at Hama-go-ten, which had been the summer
residence of the Tycoon. The estate marched with a piece of water
opening into the bay; here were many summer-houses; and a commodious
building equipped for the Duke by the orders of the Mikado. The name
was changed to Yen-Rio-Kan, signifying a place set apart for
distinguished foreigners.
We were entertained with the most delicate and sumptuous hospitality by
this charming people whose courtesy greatly impressed us. Conjurers,
acrobats and wrestlers performed for the entertainment of his Royal
Highness; whenever we went abroad, thirty two-sworded Yaconins attended
us.
The Duke went in state to visit the Mikado in his palace. All along
the route the upper windows of the houses were sealed with paper, so
that none should look down upon he royal visitor; a precaution only
taken in the case of the highest nobility. The Duke, attended only by
Sir Harry Parkes, Admiral Sir Harry Keppel and Mr. Mitford (afterwards
Lord Reedsdale and author of the delightful _Tales of Old Japan_), had
a private audience of the Emperor, who was presented by his Royal
Highness with a diamond snuff-box. {101} Six of us were afterwards
admitted to the presence. I remember the dim figure of a young man
seated behind a screen at the end of the audience chamber. Many years
afterwards, when I again visited Japan, the Mikado, who remembered my
former visit, graciously invited me to lunch, and entertained me with
the royal sport of catching ducks in a hand-net. The ducks are
preserved in the royal gardens, which are charmingly diversified with
lawns and running water, and flowering shrubs. As you enter, the ducks
rise suddenly, and the sport was to net them as they rose.