The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1912-08-02
THE DEAD MIKADO

| spiritual character, the temporal power
having been usurped several hundred
years before by the Shoguns. known to
Europeans from one of their titles as the
Tyeoons. who had their residence at Yed-
do, as Toxic was then called. 1t was with
ore of the last of the Tokukawa Shoguns
| that Commodore Perry concluded his
treaty in 1858. and thus opened that inter-
course with western nations to which the
empire had until then been closed. Euro
pean nations followed the example of the
United States and secured treaties similar
to Perry's from the reluctant japanese
Eventually the country became divided
into two camps, the one receiving Its in
SEPARATION from the Mikado's court at
Kioto, standing for the continuance OF
the policy of isolation and the exclusion
of aliens, while the other, led by the Sho-
guns, favored closer relations with for
eign powers. In 1857 indeed, the Shotgun
Keilxi dispatched his brother on a special
embassy to France and England where,
owing to ignorance of the true political
conditions in Japan, he was received with
imperial honors, the late King Edward,
then Prince of Wales. being dispatched
by Queen Victoria to greet him on his
landing.
Twelve years later, | may remark in
passing, when this scion of the great
Tokugawa house was living an the utmost
, retirement at Paris, after the overthrow
Of the shogunate, it was my privilege to
present him anew to the British heir ap-
parent. who commented with much en-
thusiasm upon his air of high breeding
and rare distinction. The behavior of the
Tokugawa prince was certainly in accord
with his appearance for although in re-
ceipt of a large annuity from the i'm
perial government, he nevertheless lived
at Paris in the simplest fashion, expend-
ing the major portion of his income in
pensions to those retainers who had
fought and suffered In the cause of the
Shoguns and,in the maintenance of their
sons as students in France and Eng
land.
1t was while this prince was absent in
Europe in 1867 that the old Mikado Usa-
hito died, and his successor, Mutsuhito,
was persuaded by his reactionary advis-
ers at Sioto suddenly to decree the aboli-
ton of the Shogunate as penalty for
opening the country to the foreigner. A
civil war ensued. the great nobles the
feudal barons and the lower aristocracy
Cor samuraD siding with the new En-
peror. The shoguns forces. in fact, were
literally overwhelmed by numbers.
Among those who played the leading
role in thus restoring its former temporal
power to the imperial throne were the
all powerful Raimios of Choshu and Sat
suma, who both had their respective
strongholds, Kagoshma and Shimonosek.
bombarded by an allied fleet of American,
English French and Dutch warshps in
punishment of outrages upon white per-
sons. When victory became assured to
the young Emperor these same two
Daimios-the only ones who had expert
enced the force of foreign arms-seceded
from the reactionary anti-forogn court
party and expressed themselves in favor
of opening the country to foreign inter-
course and of adopting western innova-
tons.
They now found the young Emperor
wholly in sympathy with their ideas, and
in accordance with their suggestion he
invited the representatives of the foreign
powers to meet him in audience at
Kioto. While on their way to the capital
an attempt was made by number of re-
dictionary Samurai to murder Sir Harry
Parkes, the English envoy, and as the
Emperor regarded this as reflection ON
his honor and that of the Japanese nation,
he welcomed the foreign diplomatic mis-
sions with the utmost kindness and, en-
deavorlng to make reparaton, granted to
them still greater concessions than they
had ever dreamed of being able to obtain
In the following year he transferred his
capital from Kyoto u Toxic. whence he
ruled Japan for the remainder of his
reign.