A Handbook of Modern JapanClement, Ernest W. (Ernest Wilson)
History
A Handbook of Modern Japan
Clement, Ernest W. (Ernest Wilson)
Japan
But the late Emperor, whose name was Mutsuhito, was an entirely
different personage. He did not live in seclusion, but frequently
showed himself in public to his subjects, who could look upon his
face without fear of being smitten with death. He was, none the less,
revered and loved by all the people, and was the real ruler of the
land. He had, however, voluntarily surrendered to the people some of
his prerogatives, so that the Japanese to-day enjoy constitutional
government, parliamentary and representative institutions, and local
self-government. And in 1901 the Empire, instead of being divided
up, as in 1801, into about 300 feudal fiefs, in each of which a
_Daimyō_ was more or less a law unto himself, is divided into about
50 Prefectures, Imperial Cities and Territories, in each of which the
people have more or less a voice in the administration.
The Empress Dowager, too, although brought up and educated in the
old-fashioned way, had yet adopted modern ideas with great ease. She
did not have shaven eyebrows and blackened teeth, like her predecessor
of 1801. She often appears in public, and continues a generous
patron of female education, the Red Cross Society, and artistic and
philanthropic enterprises.
The Shōgun of 1801 was Iyenari, who exercised that authority for about
half a century. He lived in glory and splendor in Yedo (now Tōkyō)
with his vassals around him. Theoretically he was only Generalissimo
under the Emperor, and, as a matter of policy, kept up the practice of
occasional visits to Kyōto, where he humbled himself before his nominal
superior; but, as the highest administrative officer, he was ruler in
act and fact. Very appropriately has he been called “the Emperor’s
vassal jailer.” During his Shōgunate “the military class remained
perfectly tranquil, and the feudal system attained its highest stage of
efficiency.”
In 1901 there was no Shōgun; the last of the Tokugawa dynasty
abdicated in 1867, and has spent most of his life since then in
retirement in Mito and Shizuoka. He is now living quietly in Tōkyō,
without much regard, apparently, to the new-fangled ways of these
times, except that he is reported to ride a bicycle!
In 1801 Japan was still a sealed country, but not hermetically,
because there was one chink at Nagasaki, where occasional intercourse
was allowed with the Chinese and the Dutch. Not only were foreigners
forbidden to enter, but natives were also forbidden to leave, this
“holy land.” Already, however, efforts were being made spasmodically to
break down the policy of seclusion, with its two phases of exclusion
and inclusion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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