THE ANCIENT JIMMU DYNASTY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8187, 31 July 1912, Page 1

THE ANCIENT JIMMU DYNASTY.

THE .SOVEREIGN AND THE IMPERIAL FAMILY OF JAPAN

The late Emperor of Japan, Mntsn-hito, 1 was born on November 3rd. 1852, and suei coeded to the-throne In January, 1867. at the ■ early age of fourteen years and two months, though -the ceremony of coronation did not take place until October 31st, 1868. By that time the Tokngawa'Shogunate had fallen and the Court had -been transferred from the Imperial capital, Kyoto, to. tho administratis® capital. Toklo. 1 Nevertheless it was in the former city, where the Mikados had resided since A.D. 794. that the coronation was solem-Mutsu-hito .was regarded by his sub.Jctjts as -.the 122nd- representative of a. line of sovereigns ’ unbroken .since B.C. 660, when,their great ancestor, Jimmu, reached Japan at tho head ot a'n invading force coming from an oversea region which re■ihains to this day a mystery. Authenticated history does not • stretch quite so far back, but it is ’at all events tolerably certain that, during some two thousand years, princes, united by - tics iot consanguinity have consecutively occupied the throne of Japan, a dynaStic ■ record without paralled in any other country. ■ Mutsn-hito. wrote ."The Times”-Tokio cor-respondent-just two years - ago,' when the great London Journal devoted a special is- ■ sue to tho history and progress of Japan, may - be'■ said' to have been bom nt the parting of tho ways. Ho "was still a baby in arms when tho first treaty was signed with the United States: Yokohama had been opened, before he completed his sixth year, and-he-had seen only twelve summers when an allied squadron-appeared off Hyogo to demand the . ratification ' of the treaties. Had he been a little-older • and had Japanese customs been different, he couln scarcely have ■ failed to bo drawn into the anti-foreign atmosphere that pervaded the Kyoto Court during the last decade of his father Komei’s - life. But his tender years forbade'his entrance into the field of politics. and being brought np, as is Japanese wont, in a palace separate from that of his parents, he apprehended little of the events that were convulsing the Empire until he was actually called to take a part in them under the advice of the new generation of statesmen, the makers of the Meiji era. It la commonly supposed that tho occupants of the Japanese throne lived from the earliest times behind an impenetrable veil, which completely hid them from the world and tho world from them. Such was oot tno- case. In the opening pages we find the sovereign moving freely among his subjects, taking intimate cognisance ot their condition, and admitting them frankly to his presence. The sacrasanct seclusion to which he was afterwards banished dated from medieval days, had its origin in the ambitions usurpation of powerful nobles, 1 and reached its culmination under the system devised by the founder of the Tokugawa dynasty of Shoguns, who converted Kyoto Court, into a veritable cloister and 1 the occupant of the throne into an an- 1 chorite. . 1

ration, and none of those who had the privilege of access to tho thoughts of his boyhood has recorded anything as to their trend. But he emerged from seclusion at too tender an age to have formed many prejudices, and though on the occasion (i£6B) of the first audience given to the foreign representatives, his Majesty maintained throughout such an absolutely immobile demeanour as to suggest the idea of a lay figure rather than of a human being. >not many of these ceremonies were needed to convert him into an animated host. EMERGENCE PROM SECLUSION. . Three weeks prior to this audience, the fateful step had been taken. An Imperial Rescript had been issued (February 14th, 1868) declaring a definite resolve to have treaties ot amity with foreign countries. The sovereign’s emergence from the sacred seclusion of three centuries and his country’s abandonment ot her traditional isolation were unequivocal. Thereafter there was no looking back from tho plough. Nino months, later the Emperor made a progress to TolcVr and established his Court in the castle where tho Tokngawa Shoguns had administered the government since the seventeenth century. Very soon the Court ceremonial was altered so as to , accord with ■ Occidental customs, and his Majesty granted audience freelv not only to foreign envoys, but also to distinguished visitors from oversea and even to foreign employees of his Government. Constantly,. too, he attended military and naval reviews, -graduation ceremonies or race meetings: hold levees nt the New Year; entertained-'nobles at banquets, and gave garden parties in the seasons of chrysanthemums and cherry blossoms. But he was never present at a ball in Western style; the round dance did not appeal to him.

In Japanese eyes the late sovereign’s most striking departure from cld customs was connected with the Empress. He married—in February, 1669—Princess Harn, daughter of Prince Ichijo, and by degrees the nation learned to place the Imperial lady on a pedestal of reverent love, seeing that her life was one long round of deeds of duty or charity, performed with unostentatious grace and unflagging assiduity. But at tho same time the old-fashioned habit of masculine, hauteur seemed to ex•lude her from "any direct part in her sovereign master's career, which, of course, being quite in accord with tho rigorous etiquette of other ages, might have been continued without evoking any comment. Nevertheless, on the day when' tho Empress was seen' to take her place by the Emperor’s side the exclamations of the people evinced ns much gratification as surprise. ACTIVITIES OF THE E3IPEKOB. Among outsiders . there exists scepticism as to the active part taken by the Japanese sovereign in. affairs of State. . But those who came in dally contact with

Atutsu-hito’s ' early education certainly prepared him lor a life of remote veno-

Mutsu-hito affirm that ho brought to the discharge of hi* duties zeal and ability, iviko William the Great of Prussia, he was lifted with almost unerring perspicacity in reading character. ills judgment of men was never erroneous. Whenever matters of moment were to bo debated, the Em* peror’s attendance at the meetings of the Privy Council was constant, and it is cn record that his Majesty never once failed to l>e present at the conference ot the special Commission charged with the duty of drafting a Constitution lor Japan. lie made no attempt to appropriate any sbaic in the credit of success, being entirely content tiiat the country’s interests should be promoted, by whatever hands. AN ECONOMICAL. RULER.

Under the Tokugawa administration tbo sum allowed lor defraying the expenses of the Court iu Kyoto and the maintenance of the imperial Princes was only equivalent to about £IOO,OOO. After the Restoration, of 1867, the allowance lor tiic Privy purse was increuecd to £300.000 annually, but the maintenance of princes or the family (the old style of “Imperial ' was dropped, by the wuy) constituted a heavy drain, and the Emperor and Empress, moreover, had many claims upon them for charity, which never went unheeded. The Meiji statesmen, especially Prince Ito, appreciated from the outset that the throne must be guaranteed against tno slur of irapccuniosit3’, and must bo able to lead the nation in deeds of benevolence without figuring us the State s pensioner. Fortunately there were considerable tracts of hitherto unused lands, forest and moor, which reverted to the Crown under the new regime. By utilising thcpe and by various other enterprises sagaciously chosen, an Imperial estate was gradually accumulated, which is now valued at from £40,000,000 to £50.000,000. and which yiclas n substantial addition to the annual income of the Royal household. His laic Majesty had not so much as one costly taste. The Palace is a simple biuldmtr. and the rooms habitually used by the Emperor were practically without decoration. The daily fare served there partook of the eamo character of plainness and simplicity. Tho antique survives in the home-life of the people, from the sovereign. downwards, as completely as it ever did—in the wearing of eilk garments or immemorial style and materials, eating rice, fish, and vegetables after the mode of a tnousaud years ago. and preferring cushion on. mats to an armchair on a* carpet. And it shows no sign of disappearance. A LOVER OF ART AND POETRY. Tho Emperor was a liberal patron c£ art ana a- discerning judge of its products, thougn he denied himself tho pleasure oi collecting. In the Palace and in ibo Imperial museum, however, many ttnu specimens are preserved, some-bequeathed! Irom by-gono days, but tho majority purchased at competitive exhibitions in recent years for the sake of encouraging artists. It as from this collection that articles aro selected Irequently tor presenting to foreign potentates or distinguished visitors* wmio tho examples of ancient art 4 arc lent unreservedly for public display iu the interests of aesthetic education. It the Emperor can be said to have had any passion, it was for poetry, and ho devoted much of hi* brief leisure to ‘composing the impressionist voiselets which represent tTTis branch of the national literature, showing much grace of thought and Sincerity of feeling. A MAN OF SORROWS.

It has been said by those best acquainted with Mutsu-hito that this propensity for poetry wae greatly accentuated oy the grids of his life. For ho'had been an un of many sorrows. Out of thirteen children born to him only five—a boy and tour girlfi—survived, and at first it seemed as though the Prince, Haru, could not grow up to man’s estate. "With constant care, however, and the aid of high medical skill, the long-threatening danger was averted, and in his twenty-first year (1900) the Prince married Princess Sad a, who has presented him with three lusty sons, to the great satisfaction of tho nation; ter v-mle no voice has ever been raised against securing the succession by recourse to eons of consorts in default of tho offspring of Empresses, there has grown up in modern times a strong aspiration to see the strictest code of ethics followed by the Imperial family in such matters.