Best books online Library

Such an edict was in effect an exhortation to every
Japanese subject to organize an anti-foreign crusade, and it
"publicly committed the Bakufu Court to a policy which the latter had
neither the power to carry out nor any intention of attempting to
carry out."

But at this juncture something like a reaction took place in the
Imperial capital. A party of able men, led by Princes Konoe and
Iwakura, had the courage to denounce the unwisdom of the extremists,
at whose head stood Princes Arisugawa and Sanjo. At that time the
most powerful fiefs in Japan were Satsuma and Choshu. Both were
hereditarily hostile to the Tokugawa, but were mutually separated by
a difference of opinion in the matter of foreign policy, so that when
the above two cabals were organized in Kyoto, the Choshu men attached
themselves to the extremists, the Satsuma to the moderates. The
latter contrived to have an Imperial rescript sent to Yedo by the
hands of the Satsuma feudatory, Shimazu Hisamitsu. This rescript
indicated three courses, one of which the shogun was asked to choose:
namely, first, that he himself should proceed to Kyoto for the
purpose of there conferring with the principal feudatories as to the
best means of tranquillizing the nation; secondly, that the five
principal littoral fiefs should be ordered to prepare coast defences,
and, thirdly, that Keiki of Mito and the feudatory of Echizen should
be appointed to high office in the Bakufu administration.

To obey this rescript was to violate the fundamental law of the
Bakufu, namely, that all interference in administrative affairs was
forbidden to the Kyoto Court. The only dignified course for the
shogun to take was to refuse compliance or to resign, and probably
had he done so he would have recovered the power of which he had
gradually been deprived by the interference of Kyoto. But his
advisers lacked courage to recommend such a course. At their
suggestion the shogun signified his willingness to comply with the
first and the third of the conditions embodied in the edict. The
Satsuma feudatory strongly counselled that the shogun should decline
to proceed to Kyoto and should reject all proposals for the expulsion
of foreigners, but the Bakufu ignored his advice.

THE NAMAMUGI INCIDENT

At this time there occurred an incident which had the most
far-reaching consequences. A party of British subjects, three
gentlemen and a lady, met, at Namamugi on the Tokaido, the cortege of
the Satsuma feudatory as he was returning from Yedo. Unacquainted
with the strict etiquette enforced in Japan in such situations, the
foreigners attempted to ride through the procession, the result being
that one, Mr. Richardson, was killed, and two of the others were
wounded. The upshot of this affair was that the British Government,
having demanded the surrender of the samurai implicated in the
murder, and having been refused, sent a naval squadron to bombard
Kagoshima, the capital of the Satsuma baron. In this engagement, the
Satsuma men learned for the first time the utter helplessness of
their old weapons and old manner of fighting, and their conversion to
progressive ideas was thoroughly effected.

CONTINUED INTRIGUES IN KYOTO

The submissive attitude of the Bakufu towards the Imperial Court
encouraged the extremists in Kyoto to prefer fresh demands. Instead
of waiting for the shogun to repair to Kyoto, as he had pledged
himself to do in compliance with the edict mentioned above, they
contrived the issue of another rescript, requiring the Bakufu to
proclaim openly the adoption of the alien-expelling policy, and to
fix a date for its practical inception. Again the Bakufu yielded.
They did not, indeed, actually take the steps indicated in the
rescript, but they promised to consider its contents as soon as the
shogun arrived in Kyoto. The extremists, however, could not reconcile
themselves to even that delay. In the spring of 1863, they
constrained Keiki, who had been appointed guardian to the shogun and
who was then in Kyoto, to give an engagement that on the shogun's
return to Yedo decisive measures to put an end to foreign intercourse
should be begun. This engagement the shogun found awaiting him on his
arrival in the Imperial capital, and at the same time messages daily
reached him from Yedo, declaring that unless he returned at once to
Yedo to settle the Namamugi affair, war with Great Britain would be
inevitable. But the conservatives would not allow him to return. They
procured the issue of yet another Imperial decree directing that "if
the English barbarians wanted a conference, they should repair to
Osaka Harbour and receive a point-blank refusal; that the shogun
should remain in Kyoto to direct defensive operations, and that he
should accompany the Emperor to the shrine of the god of War where a
'barbarian-quelling sword' would be handed to him." Illness saved the
shogun from some of his perplexities and, in his absence, the Yedo
statesmen paid the indemnity required by Great Britain for the
Namamugi outrage and left her to exact whatever further redress she
desired. Accordingly, in July, 1863, a British squadron proceeded to
Kagoshima and bombarded it as already described.

THE SHIMONOSEKI COMPLICATION

If the Satsuma men thus received a conclusive lesson as to the
superiority of Western armaments, the Choshu fief was destined to be
similarly instructed not long afterwards. It will have been perceived
that at this epoch the Imperial Court was very prolific in
anti-foreign edicts. One of these actually appointed the 11th of May,
1863, as the date for commencing the barbarian-expelling campaign,
and copies of the edict were sent direct to the feudatories without
previous reference to the shogun. The Choshu daimyo found the edict
so congenial that, without waiting for the appointed day, he opened
fire on American, French, and Dutch merchantmen passing the Strait of
Shimonoseki, which his batteries commanded. The ships suffered no
injury, but, of course, such an act could not be condoned, and the
Bakufu Government being unwilling or unable to give full reparation,
the three powers whose vessels had been fired on joined hands with
England for the purpose of despatching a squadron to destroy the
Choshu forts, which result was attained with the greatest ease. This
"Shimonoseki Expedition," as it was called, enormously strengthened
the conviction which the bombardment of Kagoshima had established.
The nation thoroughly appreciated its own belligerent incapacity when
foreign powers entered the lists, and patriotic men began to say
unhesitatingly that their country was fatally weakened by the dual
system of government.

CHANGE OF OPINION IN KYOTO

The sway exercised by the extremists in Kyoto now received a check
owing to their excessive zeal. They procured the drafting of an
Imperial edict which declared the Emperor's resolve to drive out the
foreigners, and announced a visit by his Majesty to the great shrines
to pray for success. This edict never received the Imperial seal. The
extremists appear to have overrated their influence at Court. They
counted erroneously on his Majesty's post facto compliance, and they
thus created an opportunity of which the moderates took immediate
advantage. At the instance of the latter and in consideration of the
fictitious edict, Mori Motonori of Choshu, leader of the extremists,
was ordered to leave the capital with all the nobles who shared his
opinions. Doubtless the bombardment of Kagoshima contributed not a
little to this measure, but the ostensible cause was the irregularity
of the edict. There was no open disavowal of conservatism, but, on
the other hand, there was no attempt to enforce it. The situation for
the extremists was further impaired by an appeal to force on the part
of the Choshu samurai. They essayed to enter Kyoto under arms, for
the ostensible purpose of presenting a petition to the Throne but
really to make away with the moderate leaders. This political coup
failed signally, and from that time the ardent advocates of the
anti-foreign policy began to be regarded as rebels. Just at this time
the Shimonoseki expedition gave an object lesson to the nation, and
helped to deprive the barbarian-expelling agitation of any semblance
of Imperial sanction.

CHOSHU AND THE BAKUFU

When the Choshu feudatory attempted to close the Shimonoseki Strait
by means of cannon, the Bakufu sent a commissioner to remonstrate.
But the Choshu samurai insisted that they had merely obeyed the
sovereign's order, and the better to demonstrate their resolution,
they put the commissioner to death. Thus directly challenged, the
Bakufu mustered a powerful force and launched it against Choshu. But
by this time the two great southern clans, having learned the madness
of appealing to force for the purpose of keeping the country closed,
had agreed to work together in the interests of the State. Thus, when
the Bakufu army, comprising contingents from thirty-six feudatories,
reached Choshu, the latter appealed to the clemency of the invading
generals, among whom the Satsuma baron was the most powerful, and the
appeal resulted in the withdrawal of the punitory expedition without
the imposition of any conditions. The Bakufu were naturally much
incensed. Another formidable force was organized to attack Choshu,
but it halted at Osaka and sent envoys to announce the punishment of
the rebellious fief, to which announcements the fief paid not the
least attention.

THE HYOGO DEMONSTRATION

While things were at this stage, Sir Harry Parkes, representative of
Great Britain, arrived upon the scene in the Far East. A man of
remarkably luminous judgment and military methods, this distinguished
diplomatist appreciated almost immediately that the ratification of
the treaties by the sovereign was essential to their validity, and
that by investing the ratification with all possible formality, the
Emperor's recovery of administrative power might be accelerated. He
therefore conceived the idea of repairing to Hyogo with a powerful
naval squadron for the purpose of seeking, first, the ratification of
the treaty; secondly, the reduction of the import tariff from an
average of fifteen per cent, ad valorem (at which figure it had been
fixed by the original treaty) to five per cent., and, thirdly, the
opening of the ports of Hyogo and Osaka at once, instead of nearly
two years hence, as previously agreed.

Among the penalties imposed upon Choshu by the four powers which
combined to destroy the forts at Shimonoseki was a fine of three
million dollars, and the Bakufu, being unable to collect this money
from Choshu, had taken upon themselves the duty of paying it and had
already paid one million.