Chapter XXXIII: Capture Of Wakamatsu And Entry Of The Mikado Into Yedo¶

1November 6^th was celebrated with much pomp and ceremony as being the Mikado's birthday. 2A review of the 2/x regiment was held at Yokohama to which Sir Harry invited Sanjô, now promoted to the rank of Udaijin. 3The foreign men-of-war joined with the Kanagawa fort in firing a royal salute, which the party viewed from my upstairs verandah overlooking the bay. 4Besides Sanjô we had Nagaoka Riônosuké, Higashi-Kuzé and Madé-no-kôji. 5A luncheon at the minister's residence followed, and the swords of honour sent out from England for presentation to Gotô and Nakai in recognition of their gallant conduct on the 23^rd of March were handed over. 6Nakai at once girt his on, and strutted about with a gold-laced cap on his head, to his own great delight and the intense amusement of the rest of the company. 7As it happened to be the second day of the Yokohama races it was proposed that the whole party should adjourn to the race-course. 8Sanjô and Higashi-Kuzé, who had on white maedaré and black-lacquered paper caps, declined. 9I rode down with Madé-no-kôji and Nagaoka, who enjoyed themselves immensely. 10On returning home I took Nakai in with me and gave him tea; in exchange for this he informed me that news had been received of the capture of the outer castle of Wakamatsu, and that only the inner ring and citadel remained in possession of the defenders; also that the Mikado would arrive at Yedo about November 27.

11Next day I went up to Yedo on board a Japanese steamer belonging to the Yokosuka arsenal with Sanjô, Higashi-Kuzé, Nagaoka and Nakai. 12By a mistake of Nakai's about the hour of leaving I kept the party waiting for me at the custom house and a mounted messenger had to be sent to fetch me. 13I hurried down and found them sitting quietly smoking. 14They protested against my apologising. 15How different from some Europeans!

38716 On the 8^th Mitford and I went to call on Katsu. 17His wife had gone off to Sumpu, but he remained to do the "head muck-and-bottle-washing" (miso-zuri) of the clan. 18He hoped to obtain the Shimidzu lands, amounting to 110,000 koku, for feeding the retainers who had lost their lands and pay. 19Instead of the lands promised in Oshiû, part of Mikawa and the whole of Enshiû had been conceded, but the daimiôs hitherto entitled had not yet given up possession. 20Keiki had preceded Kaménosuké to Sumpu. 21Katsu also had a story that Brunet, one of the French military instructors, went off in the Kayô-maru, when the Tokugawa naval squadron left the Yedo anchorage on the night of October 4. 22We doubted this, as we knew that he had just received promotion in the French army. 23Nevertheless it turned out to be a fact. 24He was accompanied by another officer named Caseneuve, and several other Frenchmen.

25We also visited Nakai, who gave us a first-rate dinner from the hotel. 26He said that the citadel of Wakamatsu was captured on October 29. 27He had also received a letter from Kido placing the question of the Mikado's coming to Yedo beyond a doubt. 28And as we returned to my house we found that great preparations were already being made in anticipation of His Majesty's arrival, roads being re-made, bridges rebuilt, and ward-gates being constructed in side streets where they had never existed before.

29One of my betté Sano Ikunosuké called to present his thanks for having been selected by the court to remain one of the Yedo guard for foreigners; all my sixteen men had been engaged for this service. 30He said that the Shimidzu domain had been granted provisionally to the Tokugawa family for the purpose mentioned by Katsu. 31To-day (November 9) was the last day on which men of the Tokugawa clan could send in their names for service under the Mikado. 32In some cases they would receive about half their former revenue, but others would be better off than before, because their allowances, though nominally diminished, would be issued in rice instead of in money at a low fixed rate. 33That evening Mitford and I dined with Nagaoka at the Higo yashiki in Shirokané, close by our legation, Higashi-Kuzé and Nakai being the other guests. 34It was a dinner in European style served from the hotel in a picturesque two-storeyed house, built in the garden so as to command a view over the nagaya in the direction of the bay. 35In the garden there were some 3881 splendid trees and pretty shaded nooks. 2Hosokawa himself was there, very fat and amiable, very small eyes and a tendency to "fly catching. 3On the 10^th I went back to Yokohama.

4At an interview on November 16 between all the Foreign Representatives, Higashi-Kuzé and Térashima, the Japanese ministers stated that the castle of Wakamatsu had surrendered on the 6^th November to the imperial forces. 5The two princes, father and son, in robes of ceremony and preceded by a retainer carrying a large banner inscribed with the word "surrender" (kô-fuku), and followed by the garrison, likewise in robes of ceremony and with their heads shaven, came to the camp of the besiegers and gave themselves up. 6The castle and all the arms it contained were handed over, and the two princes retired into strict seclusion (kin-shin) at a Buddhist monastery in the town. 7Nakamura Hanjirô, the chief of the staff (gun-kan) wept when he went to take delivery of the castle and its contents. 8It was a pleasure to us to see how the countenances of some of those who had to listen to the story fell, for they had counted on a desperate resistance on the part of Aidzu to defeat the imperialist party and frustrate the policy of the British Legation. 9Now that this exciting episode was at an end, the speedy submission of the other northern clans could be counted on with confidence. 10The detailed report made by the Hizen clan, dated November 16, published in the "Kiôto Gazette," shows that the garrison included samurai soldiers 764, troops of a lower class 1609, wounded 570, outlaws from other territories (rônin) 462; women and children 639, officials 199, civilians 646, personal attendants of the princes 42, and porters 42. 11There was no record of the number of men killed in the defence. 12On November 19 I went to Yedo with Captain Stanhope, Charles Wirgman the artist, and Dr. Siddall, after breakfasting with Du Petit Thouars on board the "Dupleix. 13Adams and William Marshall went up by road. 14On our arrival possession was at once taken of Siddall, by a Japanese doctor named Takéda Shingen, and he was carried off to the military hospital established at the Tôdô yashiki in the Shitaya quarter. 15On the 21^st Adams, Mitford, Marshall and Wirgman went to the Yoshiwara and had a feast in fine style at the Kimpeirô, part of which was furnished in western style for such Japanese guests as liked it. 16The admission of Europeans into that quarter of the town, from which they had 3891 until then been jealously shut out, was hailed as the dawn of a day of friendly intercourse of the frankest character. 2Next evening I gave a great entertainment at my own house. 3There were three geisha from Shimmei-mae and two taikomochi (jesters). 4We kept it up boisterously till midnight. 5The jesters performed a foreigner and his escort arriving at the Kawasaki ferry on the way to Yedo, and meeting with the usual obstruction at the hands of the men placed there to guard the crossing. 6My escort men also exhibited some comic scenes, much to their own satisfaction and to the delight of the household, who were admitted to a room at the top of the stairs. 7Letters arrived from the chief to say that he wanted a stand erected for himself opposite to the gate of our former legation buildings, in front of Sengakuji, for him to see the Mikado pass in (he was expected to reach Yedo on the 27^th), and that Higashi-Kuzé and I must go down to Yokohama on the 24^th to see himself. 8We wrote in reply to say that a stand was altogether an impossibility, seeing what Japanese etiquette was in such matters, and that I could not leave Siddall alone in Yedo without some one to interpret for him. 9So next day Wirgman and I went over to see Siddall, and found that the Tôdô yashiki had now been turned into a general hospital. 10Here we fell in with old Ishigami, the Satsuma doctor who married a daughter of old Freiherr von Siebold by a Japanese mother, a very cheery person. 11After lunch we went with him and a crowd of other Japanese doctors to Uyéno, intending to get in and examine the scene of the fighting that took place on July 4, but the gate was shut in our face, and though we waited and argued patiently for a whole hour with the sentries, we could not convince them that we might safely be admitted. 12I think our Japanese companions felt even more annoyance than we did. 13The gateway was riddled with bullets, and it was evident that a pretty stiff fight had taken place there in July.

14We stayed the night at the hospital, and spent a jolly evening with Ishigami and another doctor named Yamashita. 15Next morning, in spite of the bitter cold, we went round the wards with the doctors. 16All the state apartments of the daimiô's mansion (go-ten) had been converted into wards, and provided with iron bedsteads and hair mattresses. 17There was a very plucky little Tosa boy, probably a drummer, who had had his foot amputated. 18Then our attention was attracted to an aristocratic-looking little surgeon from 3901 Chôshiû, with his sleeves turned up like ruffles over a pair of delicate little wrists. 2At noon there came the two brothers Notsu, Shichizayemon and Shichiji, who persuaded Wirgman and myself to go to the Yoshiwara with them, instead of keeping an engagement with Nakai. 3Siddall compounded mistura vini gallici, and after partaking of this we started on a journey of exploration. 4It was a terribly cold day, with a gale from the north-west coming straight down the plain from the snowy peak of Asama-yama and other mountains of Shinshiû. 5The Yoshiwara lay right out in the middle of the rice-fields, occupying a considerable extent of ground. 6It was entered through a narrow gate at the end of a long causeway. 7After passing this gate, we were introduced into the upstairs rooms of a rather shabby house, evidently much frequented by the Satsuma clan. Geishas were of course sent for, and the saké-cup circulated merrily. 8Towards nightfall it was proposed that we should visit the Kimpeirô, a hideous house furnished in what was regarded as European style; but we stayed there only a few minutes, and then returned to the house where we had first been entertained. 9Here we had more drinking, dancing and playing at nanko. 10In this game a wooden chopstick is broken up into six pieces, of which each player receives three. 11He puts in one palm as many as he thinks fit, and guesses at the total of what his hand and the hand of the other player contain. 12If he guesses right, the loser has to drink, and his turn comes to give the challenge. 13Evidently this is the way to get speedily drunk. 14We stopped there till a message came from Ishigami to say that he was awaiting us at another house to drink sober again. 15We went in search of him to a restaurant on the river bank, the Yu-mei-rô, where much singing, dancing, drinking and nanko followed, till we had had enough of it, and came home by boat to the hospital, accompanied by three of the geishas. 16Next afternoon the artist and I said good-bye to Siddall, and walked over to Nakai's, but not finding him at home, we went to the hotel for refreshment, where we sat down in the garden and found ourselves overwhelmed with melancholy at the ugliness of the building. 17For five cups of tea and a bundle of Manila cheroots the manager charged us a dollar, to the surprise and horror of the Japanese boy who waited on us. 18To him it appeared an exorbitant demand. 19The cheroots were perhaps worth 20 cents, which left 16 cents for a cup of tea. 20On getting home to Takanawa we found that 3911 Rickerby, the proprietor and editor of the "Japan Times," had just arrived in a boat from Yokohama to witness the ceremony of the following day.

2November 26, 1868. 3About ten o'clock in the morning the Mikado passed into Yedo, having slept at Shinagawa. 4Mitford, the artist, Rickerby and I saw the procession from the open space recently created in front of the new gate of what had previously been Sir Harry Parkes' diplomatic residence, now transformed into a sort of foreign office. 5The display could not be described as splendid, for the effect of what was oriental in the courtiers' costumes was marred by the horribly untidy soldiers with unkempt hair and clothing vilely imitated from the west. 6The Mikado's black-lacquered palanquin (hôren) was to us a curious novelty. 7As it passed along the silence which fell upon the crowd was very striking. 8Old Daté, who rode between it and the closed chair in which the Mikado was really seated, nodded to us in a friendly manner. 9Rickerby wrote and published an excellent newspaper account of the whole show a few days afterwards in the "Japan Times. 10In the afternoon he and I walked to Kai-an-ji, a Buddhist religious house at Shinagawa, celebrated for its very pretty plantations of maple. 11From there we proceeded to a house of entertainment, the Kawasaki-ya, close by, to drink saké and crack jokes with the girls about the Prince of Bizen, who had passed the night there. 12The house was full of troops from the west, but they scarcely took any notice of us, and in fact all those we met on the road ignored us completely. 13It must be said that whenever I went out into the streets of Yedo I was always accompanied by my Aidzu samurai Noguchi and from four to six of my personal escort of the betté-gumi.

14On the 28^th Sir Harry and Dr. Alford the Bishop of Victoria, Hongkong, came up to Yedo, and were entertained in European style at the new foreign office by Daté and Higashi-Kuzé. 15Machida and Môri, young Satsuma men, were also of the party. 16Both had been in England and spoke English, the latter, who was only about one-and-twenty, particularly well.

17Next day Mitford and I went to call on Nakai. 18We met there Machida, and Yamaguchi Hanzô, a Hizen samurai, who brought with him a man who had just returned from Shônai. 19He reported that Shônai had submitted on the 4^th 3921 instant, and that two foreigners, one an American, the other an Englishman, both from Hakodaté, were present as spectators. 2Nakai, who was a member of the local government of the city, now called the Tô-kei-fu instead of Yedo, had given in his resignation because he found that the governor-general instead of placing confidence in himself and the other officials, was in the habit of upsetting their arrangements on the complaint of a few wretched tradespeople.

3Wirgman and I went down to Yokohama on the 30^th, walking as far as Namamugi-mura (where Richardson was murdered in 1862), whence we took boat across to the foreign settlement. 4At Kawasaki-ya in Shinagawa we fell in with Notsu Shichizayémon and Ijiû-in, with two Kurohané men and one from Utsunomiya, companions on the occasion of our visit to the Yoshiwara, of whom the Satsuma men were on their way home. 5There was a large consumption of saké and Japanese dishes, and much Doric Japanese spoken. 6Further on, at Mmé-yashiki or Bai-rin, as it had now become the fashion to call this very pleasant half-way house between Yedo and the ferry at Kawasaki, we found Oyama, who was like the others returning to Kagoshima as the civil war was practically at an end. 7We drank many parting cups together, and then walked with him to his hotel at Kawasaki. 8The road was full of homeward bound Satsuma men and Tokugawa people going to Sumpu. 9A report had got about that difficulties had arisen between Satsuma and Higo, and that the latter in conjunction with Arima and Chikuzen were going to fall upon the great clan; that in consequence of this the troops were rushing off as fast as possible to forestal the attack. 10Another rumour, much credited by the French Legation, was that Aidzu surrendered only on condition that the Satsuma troops should be withdrawn from the east and north of the country, and the Mikado come to Yedo. 11But as others besides the Satsuma fighting men were also going home, these stories were easily discredited. 12On December 3 I went back to Yedo, half-way in a kago (common palanquin) from Kanagawa, and on foot from Kawasaki. 13At Bai-rin I met Midzuno Chinami, hurrying back from Shimoda where he had been put ashore from H.M.S. "Manila. 14Here was the late governor of Yokohama, who last year used to ride in a state palanquin (nagabô), with a large cortége and preceded by running footmen crying shitaniro, "down on your knees," now travelling in a wretched cheap hackney kago, without a 3931 single retainer. 2For all that he seemed cheerful enough. 3A good deal of my time in those days was passed in the compilation of an English-Japanese dictionary of the spoken language and in reading Japanese novels. 4On the 4^th I went over to the hospital, where I found Siddall with his hands full, wounded men from Echigo having begun to arrive. 5Willis had gone on from Echigo to Wakamatsu to look after the Aidzu wounded, of whom there were nearly 600 in the castle when it was surrendered. 6My new pony "Fushimi," a present from Katsu before he left Yedo, carried me splendidly; the imperialists who crowded the streets appeared to admire with envy a black chimney-pot hat which I was wearing. 7On the 5^th I went there again to pass the night, with Ishigami and Yamashita. 8They complained bitterly of one Mayéda Kiôsai, who had been appointed chief of the hospital, and said that the patients had threatened to cut his head off because he spent his time in driving about the city in a carriage and pair instead of attending to his duties. 9The reflection came naturally that you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, or give the standing of an European physician to a Japanese half-educated apothecary.

10On December 9 I went to the hotel to dine with Machida. 11The indispensable Nakai was there, also Okubo and Yoshii. 12The latter had left Wakamatsu on December 1^st. 13Willis was there looking after the wounded, of whom he said there were at least two thousand on the Aidzu side alone. 14Snow was lying deep both in Echigo and Aidzu. 15Shônai was pacified, and the whole country might now be said to be at peace, a state of things which of course was displeasing to anti-imperialists, whether among diplomatists or merchants. 16Information had arrived that the murderers of the two sailors of H.M.S. "Icarus" in August 1867 had been discovered; they were from Chikuzen and the party to which they belonged was said to number nine in all. 17This of course would be welcome news to the Tosa people. 18It was strange that retainers of Chikuzen, who entertained Admiral King so hospitably in January should have been guilty of such a wanton crime. 19The newly issued paper money, known as kinsatsu, was much discussed, and it was evidently creating a great ferment among the people. 20Uchida, the mayor (nanushi) of Kanasugi, who had been to see me a few days earlier, said that a refusal to receive these notes in the payment of taxes was the only obstacle to their free circulation. 3941 Nakai denied the correctness of the statement that taxes might not be paid with them, but he thought that in the end it would be found necessary to establish a proper banking system by giving authority to the great firm of Mitsui to issue notes against a reserve of coin or bullion. 2It was a matter of vital importance to the imperial government, which had not found any money in the Tokugawa treasury, and the Mikado had always been kept very poorly supplied by the Shôgun's ministers.