New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-07-30
DEAD MIKADO FATHER
OF THE NEW JAPAN
Ex-Attache Gives His Vivid Personal
Impressions of Remarkable Ruler

No Western appreciation can do Justice
TO the great Oriental ruler who descend
ed In ain unbroken line from Emperor
Jimmu. sovereign OF Japan twenty-sI
hundred years ago, has now been gath
cred to his fathers at Toxic. For just IN
the same way as the people OF Dai Nip
pom. no matter how great their Western
culture. remain an ever unfathomable
mystery 10 the white race., so was their
monarch beyond our understanding.
Tourists and casual visitors may fondly
imagine that they know all about the
japanese mind and character. but those
alone who have lived long In the Lane
OF the Rising Sun, in close association
with the people. are able TO realize that
the more one learns about them the less
one comprehends them. Add TO this that
his late majesty Mutsuh!to was n mystery
even TO his own subjects. being invested
in their eyes with a sort OF divinity, and
some idea may be obtained OF the difl-
Guilty Of forming any just estimate OF his
personality
Perhaps tho most remarkable feature
Of his long reign OF nearly half century
IS the fact that while lie enabled his sub
two thousand years OF progressive CIV
ilization. ne found II possible so 70 direct
matters that not even the most advanced
teachings OF American and European uni
versitles lave succeeded IN impliring In
the slightest degree the belief Of their
Japanese graduates IL his almost super
natural attributes Indeed. men who have
achieved emnence even I'm Western capt
tails as princes OF the most modern
branches OF science. and who decline 20
accept Christianity on account OF It's al
legged contradictions and absence OF rea-
son end logic, manage 20 retain their
faith In the legends Of the pre-Buddhstic
era legends that claim for the Mikado, OF
Tenno, descent from the sun goddess,
mother of the founder OF the dynasty.
and are Officially promulgated to-day as
genuine history, strange as u may seem
TO us.
The sentiments OF his lieges toward him
have always been those OF deeply rev
ercnt men toward a being close to deity.
rather than those OF the loyalty which
the people OF Europe are content TO ac-
cord to even the best loved Of their tenn
pordl rulers That In spite OF all the
Western reforms which he caused Japan
to adopt he should have been able
to preserve unweakencd this feeling OF
profound awe Tor his person and hs
throne proves conclusively that he was
really en-. extraordinary man.
Even the late Prince Ito. the cynics.,
rnasterful statesman, so often called "the
Bismarck of the Orient" who had been
3 hss VI, .Trs'
: crowned head in Europe from the Car
10 Edward VII. never dared TO raise his
eyes from the ground when consulted by
his own Emperor while neither Marsha
Yamagata nor any other of the veteran
and victorious commanders Of his army
and navy ever entered his presence with
out tropidation.
A. for the ordinary peopie-those forty
millions OF aggressive. irrepressih!e Jap
anesc. who are bent OIL the realization %
their dream Of Asia Tor the Asatics. UNI
der japanese auspices-of course, they
have never until now presumed 10 men,
ton his name. II was regarded az far
TOO hallowod TO be printed or spoken
willie he lived any reference TO It being
regarded I'm the light Of rank leze males
subjects did not even so much as know
lit, naIne-that name Of Mutsuhlto under
which he figures ia American and Euro
pean works OF reference. To them he
was not a real man. with human weak
nesses. but an abstract ideal, almost d.!
vine.
Accession to the Throne.
Mutsuhito. list Emperor OF his lire.
WAS born Oh November 8. 1852. at Kioto.
and was but fifteen years OF age when the
death OF his father brought him TO the
throne. A. his accession his sovereignty
over the islands OF his empire was OF a
purely ecclesiastical and spiritual char
actcr, the temporal power having been
,,surped several hundred years before by
the ShogIns. known to Europeans from
one OF their titles as the Tycoons, who
had their residence at Yeddo. as Toxic
was then called. II was with one Of the