Imperial Family of Japan

“ All Japanese empresses have been native-born. Doubtless the remoteness of Japan from other lands precluded the idea of foreign matrimonial alliances. The monarch's life-partner was habitually sought in the families of the native aristocracy, one consequence of which is that the Japanese Imperial Family is absolutely native and national, not alien in blood, like the reigning houses of England, Russia, and many other European states. ”

“ The present imperial palace at Tokyo is, to be sure, protected by a moat and great stone walls, but that was originally built for shoguns, and was taken over by the Imperial House only at the time of the Restoration.
"Our old Japanese idea is that the Emperor is the father of his people. There is a certain reverence, yet a certain democracy, too, in our feeling on this subject. We who have the old ideas regret that the Emperor now appears in a military or naval uniform. It is too much like the European way, too much like abandoning the feeling that he is the head of the family. ”

“ The “Shi sinwo” (“sz tsan wang”) are “four imperial relatives,” or royal families of Japan. This name denotes four families of imperial descent set apart, with allotted residences and revenues, as supporters to the imperial family. The families are cadets of the royal line descended from junior branches. From among the members of these four families, in case of failure of male heirs of the body, an heir to the throne, or a husband to the Princess Imperial, is to be sought.
In Japan all ranks are under laws more or less strict, and from such the imperial family does not escape. ”

“ The Imperial Throne of Japan, enjoying the grace of Heaven, and everlasting from ages eternal in an unbroken line of succession, has been transmitted to Us through successive reigns. The fundamental rules of Our family were established once for all at the time that Our ancestors laid the foundations of the empire, and are even at this day as bright as the celestial luminaries. ”

“ The Empresses of Japan are not chosen from any branch of the imperial family, but from among the daughters of the five of the great kugé, or court nobles, who are next in rank to the imperial princes. ”

“ Article 12 In case a female of the Imperial Family marries a person other than the Emperor or the members of the Imperial Family, she shall lose the status of the Imperial Family member. Article 13 The consorts of a Shinno or O who leaves the status of the Imperial Family member, and his direct descendants and their consorts, excepting those females who are married to other members of the Imperial Family and their direct descendants, shall lose simultaneously the status of the Imperial Family member. ”

“ CHAPTER XIII HIS IMPERIAL HIGHNESS
In these days, when princes resign their rank to marry commoners, and queens elope with tutors, it is probable that most Western minds will see nothing out of the way in the condescension of the Japanese ruler in admitting a diplomatic agent to the honor of the imperial cousinship.
But the dynasty of Japan is the most illustrious in the world, excepting only that of Great Britain. Like Edward VII., the Mikado traces his lineage back to pagan gods. ”

“ It is not surprising that the Japanese are proud of the leadership they have already attained. Being relatively new members of the hair-pulling, hobnailed family we call the Family of Nations, and having rapidly become important members, they are inclined to harp more than necessary upon this importance, so novel and so gratifying to them. They like to talk about it. They delight in proclaiming themselves a "first-class power." ”

“ As has been shown, they do not go as settlers because cheap continental labor makes it unprofitable. They go as business-men, as the advance-guard of the empire, as the rear-guard of the army. No one has ever raised a voice against the migration of Japanese to these unpopulated regions—with the exception, perhaps, of the natives. But ever and always one feels the hand of imperial Japan behind each little man from the empire, and that hold on her nationals is the thing that vigorous nations resent, because it threatens to impair their status. ”

“ The long arduous labours of these historians were consummated in expounding the doctrine that the Japanese nation had something unique in its civilisation which was worthy to be guarded carefully and fostered, and that the only bond which could unite the nation spiritually was fidelity towards its common centre, the Emperor, whose family had continued to reign over the country since time immemorial. ”

“ The Emperor of Japan, without the slightest exaggeration, can say, 'L'état, c'est moi.' The Japanese believe that all their happiness is bound up with the Imperial line and have no respect for any system of morality or law that fails to take cognizance of this fact."
Mr. Yamaguchi, professor of history in the Peeresses' School and lecturer in the Imperial Military College, thus writes in the Far East: "The sovereign power of the State cannot be dissociated from the Imperial Throne. It lasts forever along with the Imperial line of succession, unbroken for ages eternal. ”

“ With a government drawing for itself lines parallel with those of enlightened western nations, increasing the freedom of its people, the power of the people’s legislators, and the honesty of the people’s courts, Japan has every right to name herself as worthy of a place in full brotherhood with the family of civilized nations. ”

“ The personal name of the sovereign is rarely written or spoken in Japan, it being regarded almost as a discourtesy to allude to the ruler as other than the Ten-shi, the son of the heavens, or more elegantly as the Tenno, the heaven-sent Emperor. The theory of the supernatural origin of the imperial dynasty ceased to have weight with the educated classes long ago, but that in no way lessens the respect and affection which his subjects have for their sovereign. ”

“ The Imperial House Law has prevented for ever any female succeeding to the throne. We can therefore sum up the order of succession to the Japanese throne as that of the male primogeniture, viz., from the father to the eldest son, then to the eldest grandson and so on, in the direct line, in default of which, to the collateral line. The order of all these is similar to that which appertains to European primogeniture. The ceremony of coronation is always to take place at Kioto, the old capital, so also is the Daijo-Sai, the grand festivity, which is celebrated but once in a reign. ”

“ Next after loyalty in the Japanese scale of virtues stands filial piety. The State being composed of families, if the family is badly managed, the State cannot be well governed. If the child is disobedient to his parents, he is not likely to prove a loyal and obedient subject when he grows to manhood. Hence the necessity, from a political point of view, of filial piety. On the extreme importance attached to this virtue both in China and Japan it is needless to dilate. ”

“ It is proper to state that in regard to this exaltation of the family over the individual Japan is now in a transition period, and that the individual is becoming more and more important in the eyes of the law.
A marked characteristic of the Japanese is their strong patriotism. There is no more patriotic people on the face of the earth. It is said that the name of the emperor, whispered over the heads of an excited mob, will calm it as readily as oil poured on troubled waters. ”

“ With this belief firmly rooted in the minds of the great majority of the people, it is no wonder that all those who have not the good fortune to be born Japanese appear to them not only as foreigners, but as Gentiles. The statesmen of New Japan are profuse in their assurances that it is the desire of their people to form a unit, on terms of equality, in the great family of nations. ”

“ This current of emigration is neither chaotic nor fruitless. Even more than the German the Japanese is an emissary of imperialistic design. He does not become absorbed into the nation in which he lives; he does not become naturalised under the protection of hospitable laws; he preserves his worship of the Mikado, his national traditions, and his noble devotion to the dead.
Japan aspires to political domination and economic hegemony in Korea and Northern China. The Japanese have annexed Korea, and flying the Imperial standard upon this peninsula they have become a {325} continental power. ”

“ The rise of the influence of the new-born bourgeois class in modern Japan may be said to have dated from this epoch. Europeanisation in manners and customs became more and more striking year by year.
What is unique in our modern history is that, parallel with the growth of the democratic tendency in the nation, the imperial prestige effected a remarkable increase. This seemingly contradictory phenomenon may be explained easily by considering how our present notion of fidelity to the Emperor has evolved. ”

“ In 1869, Mutsuhito, the one hundred and twenty-third mikado in lineal descent, resumed the imperial power which had so long been lost. Unlike China, over which so many dynasties have ruled, Japan has been governed by a single dynasty, according to the native records, for more than twenty-five hundred years.
The fall of the shogun was followed by the fall of [Pg 141] feudalism. The emperor, for the first time for many centuries, came from behind his screen and showed himself openly to his people. Yedo was made the eastern capital of the realm, its name being changed to Tokio. ”

“ It is really unthinkable that any Japanese Emperor could ever suffer the fate of Charles I of England. It was this idea of imperial sanctity that made the people discredit, at first, the report of the anarchist conspiracy of 1910. It must however be acknowledged, that even the Emperor is not always exempt from being the subject of discussion. ”

“ Even yet the great mass of the people of our own country have far from a right conception of the ancient civilization which has for ages prevailed in these islands of the Pacific.
The Japanese imperial dynasty is the oldest in the world. Two thousand five hundred and fifty-four years ago in 660 B.C., 188the sacred histories relate that Jimmu Tenno commenced to reign as the first Mikado, or Emperor of Japan. The sources of Japanese history are rich and solid, historical writings forming the largest and most important divisions of their voluminous literature. ”

“ Concurrently with the events relating to the fall of feudalism, which, for the sake of lucidity, have been collected in the preceding section into a continuous narrative, the Imperial Government spared no effort to equip Japan with all the paraphernalia of Western civilisation. Under any circumstances it would have been natural that the master-minds of the era, the men who had planned and carried out the great work of the Restoration, should lead the nation along all paths of progress. ”

“ These families are the Arisugawa, Katsura, Fushimi, and Kanin. The throne has ten times been occupied by a woman, but it was ever an inflexible rule that she should choose a prince-consort from among these four Shinnō, or Imperial families, and the relationship of these families to the throne well [4] illustrates the principle of adoption which prevails throughout Japan in all classes, from the Imperial circle down to the home of the humblest peasant. ”

“ It is often argued that the progress of a country can be measured rightly by the social status of the women in it. If that be true, Japan at the beginning of the eleventh century must have been very highly civilised. And it was really so in a certain sense. This civilised Japan, however, was confined to the very narrow circle in Kyoto, and for that very circle the Chinese enlightenment penetrated too deep. The great nobles of the Fujiwara family were too refined, too effeminate for holders of the helm of [Pg 153] the state, the young state in which there was still much to be done vigorously. ”

“ The five imperial, or reserved provinces, are supposed to support the expenses of the Taikoon and Mikado’s Courts; but the various princes all contribute in rich presents, which are duly acknowledged with certain complimentary or honorary distinctions.
In strange contradistinction to China, whence many of their laws and ordinances must have been derived, all rank and office in Japan is hereditary, and the old feudal system of Western Europe exists to-day in a well governed and powerful empire on exactly the opposite side of the globe. ”

“ Soon afterwards, when the Imperial Court began to better understand foreign manners and customs, the kuges, the more intelligent among them, from being antagonistic became their staunchest friends and supporters. Presently the mass of the people, following the lead of their superiors, enthusiastically accepted the new idea that Japan could no longer live isolated. ”

“ The government of Japan is a constitutional monarchy in which the emperor not only claims to rule by divine right but by right of divine birth. He is described as Heaven born, and according to the accepted history there has been no break in the family line for twenty-five hundred years. ”

“ At the same time their immigration was encouraged by the Japanese emperors, and some of the literati were enlisted into the imperial service. As Japan had at that time a quasi-caste system, everybody pursuing the profession which he had inherited from his forefathers, and people belonging to the same profession forming a group by themselves, several groups were thus formed, which made reading and writing their exclusive profession. Almost all the scribes appointed in the reign of the Emperor [Pg 62] Richû must have belonged to one of the families in those groups. ”