Empress Consort Haruko in ; Credit — Wikipedia. Lady Yanagihara Naruko; Credit — Wikipedia. Lady Sono Sachiko; Credit — Wikipedia. Emperor Meiji in ; Credit — Wikipedia. Share this: Email Print Facebook Twitter. In mid, a bakufu army set forth to punish rebels in southern Japan.
The army was defeated. In that month, however, he fell seriously ill. Though he appeared to make some recovery, he suddenly worsened and died on 30 January. The crown prince formally ascended to the throne on 3 February , in a brief ceremony in Kyoto.
In the meantime, the shogun, Yoshinobu, struggled to maintain power. He repeatedly asked for the Emperor's confirmation of his actions, which he eventually received, but there is no indication that the young Emperor was himself involved in the decisions.
The shishi and other rebels continued to shape their vision of the new Japan, and while they revered the Emperor, they had no thought of having him play an active part in the political process. The political struggle reached its climax in late In November, an agreement was reached by which Yoshinobu would maintain his title and some of his power, but the lawmaking power would be vested in a bicameral legislature based on the British model.
The following month, the agreement fell apart as the rebels marched on Kyoto, taking control of the Imperial Palace. The Emperor of Japan announces to the sovereigns of all foreign countries and to their subjects that permission has been granted to the Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu to return the governing power in accordance with his own request. We shall henceforward exercise supreme authority in all the internal and external affairs of the country.
Consequently the title of Emperor must be substituted for that of Tycoon , in which the treaties have been made. Officers are being appointed by us to the conduct of foreign affairs. It is desirable that the representatives of the treaty powers recognize this announcement. Mutsuhito [29].
Yoshinobu resisted only briefly , but it was not until late that the final bakufu holdouts were finally defeated. This marked the beginning of the custom of an era coinciding with an emperor's reign, and posthumously naming the emperor after the era during which he ruled.
The future Empress was the daughter of an Imperial official, and was three years older than the groom, who would have to wait to wed until after his gembuku manhood ceremony. The two married on 11 January Although she was the first Japanese Empress Consort to play a public role, she bore no children.
However, the Meiji emperor had fifteen children by five official ladies-in-waiting. Only five of his children, a prince born to Lady Naruko — , the daughter of Yanagiwara Mitsunaru, and four princesses born to Lady Sachiko — , the eldest daughter of Count Sono Motosachi, lived to adulthood. They were:.
Meiji, Emperor of Japan and the Imperial Family Despite the ouster of the bakufu , no effective central government had been put in place by the rebels. On 23 March, foreign envoys were first permitted to visit Kyoto and pay formal calls on the Emperor [31] On 7 April , the Emperor was presented with the Charter Oath , a five-point statement of the nature of the new government, designed to win over those who had not yet committed themselves to the new regime.
This document, which the Emperor then formally promulgated, abolished feudalism and proclaimed a modern democratic government for Japan. Traveling in slow stages, he took three days to travel from Kyoto to Osaka, through roads lined with crowds. At the end of May, after two weeks in Osaka in a much less formal atmosphere than in Kyoto , the Emperor returned to his home.
On 19 September , the Emperor announced that the name of the city of Edo was being changed to Tokyo, or "eastern capital".
He was formally crowned in Kyoto on 15 October a ceremony which had been postponed from the previous year due to the unrest. Soon after his coronation, the Emperor journeyed to Tokyo by road , visiting it for the first time. Only by his own prerogative could the Meiji become a highly visible symbol of the new Japan, and the young emperor enthusiastically responded to the call. His proximity to the people increased dramatically.
He appeared in public on carefully selected and important occasions such as the completion of the nations first rail line, a cleverly orchestrated illustration of the link between the emperor and modernization. His public appearances, limited though they were, were considered acts of extreme concession and were symbolic of the new relationship between the people and their rulers at the imperial court. Mutsuhito's personal lifestyle further endeared him to the population, setting as he did an example of frugality and disciplined hard work that the people sought to emulate.
His retinue was not ostentatious and horses were his only visible leisure activity. He took an active interest in the business of the state, arriving punctually at his desk at 8 a. Under the Japanese system, the emperor's approval was a requirement for the enactment of any legislation or policy initiative. Laws were promulgated in his name, officials appointed "as though by him," and he spoke to the people on matters of significance. Mutsuhito's abilities and dedication thus took on a great importance.
His pronouncements legitimized the changes and, despite several threats to his life by disgruntled Nationalists, the emperor continued to support modernization. He also helped to make it more palatable through his personal cultivation of a balance between traditional Japanese customs and Western ideas. Mutsuhito wore Western-style clothes, ate Western-style food, and his stature became closer to that of a Western-style monarch.
Nevertheless, the Meiji Emperor composed poems in the traditional Japanese style and retained the Confucian philosophy of personal relations which characterized Japanese society. Mutsuhito's role as a symbol of national unity underwent a change in the s and s as the imperial institution was legally defined in the constitutional discussions of the period. The conservative Satsuma-Choshu oligarchy that dominated the imperial court had gradually come to the conclusion that constitutional government and its accompanying representative institutions were necessary for Japan to truly complete its modernization.
Slowly, they implemented the necessary changes—a cabinet system was adopted in , a constitution promulgated in , and the Japanese Diet was officially opened in Simultaneously, government leaders reflected on the necessity of centering, as Jansen and Rozman observe, all institutions around the Imperial House "in the absence of a vital tradition of national religion comparable to the ties that bound western nations together.
Carol Gluck asserts that "the late s and s saw the emperor become the manifestation of the elements associated with national progress … and the symbol of national unity, not of a political and legal, but of a patriotic and civic kind. Mutsuhito was placed in the ironic situation of being removed from the actual practice of governing but concurrently being the nominal last court of appeal.
After his "bestowal" of the Constitution of , the emperor's political role became largely ceremonial—he opened the Diet, held ministerial meetings, and issued proclamations of the "government's will. The emperor, however, maintained an active interest in state affairs. He kept abreast of all policy initiatives through a constant reading of cabinet documents and was a voracious reader of national as well as provincial newspapers.
Unfortunately, no record exists of Mutsuhito's personal feelings on his gradual estrangement from the very people he was supposed to personify. His reaction to some of the elements of "national progress," however, provide some gauge to his personal dedication.
One measure of Japan's westernization and progress was her adoption of the expansionist tendencies of the imperial powers of the late 19th century. An over-crowded island nation lacking in resources, Japan looked to the Asian mainland, particularly the Korean peninsula, for that which it did not have.
This brought Japan into conflict with China and Russia, and in two separate wars the Japanese proved how well they had adopted Western military techniques and technology. The Sino-Japanese War erupted in and the emperor played an active role as commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Mutsuhito moved with the imperial headquarters in Tokyo to the campaign debarkation headquarters at Hiroshima. At the age of seven, the young prince was given his adult name.
He was proclaimed as the crown prince of blood and heir to the throne. He was given the name Mutsuhito. The prince began his education at this time.
Mutsuhito continued his education. Mutsuhito admitted that he was an indifferent student. He did, however, enjoy studying waka poetry with the court poets. During this time, Japan was in a state of turmoil.
Emperor Komei died. Emperor Komei died at an early age. This left fourteen year old Meiji in a position of power.
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