Kagoshima

“ Death was always instantaneous. ↑ See A History of Christianity in Japan (1910) , by Otis Cary. ↑ The Imperial cities were Yedo, Kiōto, Osaka and Nagasaki. To this last the English were subsequently admitted. They were also invited to Kagoshima by the Shimazu chieftain, and, had not their experience at Hirado proved so deterrent, they might have established a factory at Kagoshima. ”

“ A Japanese feudal chief in that era had sedulously to foster every source of wealth or strength, and as the newly opened trade with the outer world seemed full of golden promise, each feudatory was not less anxious to secure a monopoly of it in the 16th century than the Ashikaga shōguns had been in the 15th. The Satsuma daimyō was led to believe that the presence of the Jesuits in Kagoshima would certainly prelude the advent of trading vessels. ”

“ The insurgents assembled in Kagoshima now numbered some 15,000 picked samurai of desperate courage and great skill in the use of their weapons. At the head of this force Saigō set out for Kumamoto on February 15, 1876, and on the 22d of that month [180] he sat down with his whole army before Kumamoto castle, an error of strategy which ultimately enabled the government to confine the insurrection to the Island of Kiushū. Major General Tani Tateki, who held command of the garrison, made a stubborn resistance, though many of the samurai among his troops went over to the rebels. ”

“ He had had much leaning towards Western enlightenment. An incident is told of his strength of character in regard to the visit of a Dutchman whom he had invited to Kagoshima, the capital of Satsuma. He went to the port and rode with him side by side back to his residence. ”

“ Neale took up the dispatch which he received from Satsuma's minister at Kagoshima and reviewed all the circumstances. He pointed out the fact that the British squadron did not go to Kagoshima with any hostile intention against Satsuma, that the vessels had been three days anchored quite close under the batteries at Kagoshima, without having a single gun shotted, in any of the ships ”

“ To-day news came to hand that at length the Shōgun proposed to make a visit to the Mikado in order to consult about the punishment of the Rōnins of Chōshiu and Satsuma--the former for firing on the Palace of Mikado, and the latter for firing on the English fleet at Kagoshima. ”

“ For the purpose of making a second experiment, on the 20th of August the “Morrison” entered the bay of Kagoshima, in the principality of Satsuma. The shores, rising gradually from the water, were under high cultivation. A boat from the ship boarded a Japanese fishing vessel, and proceeded to a little village, where they found the people in great commotion. The “Morrison” followed, and when opposite the village, was visited by a richly dressed officer, with a number of almost naked attendants. He stated that, supposing the ship to be a pirate, preparations had been made to fire on her ”

“ Three months previously to this bombardment of Kagoshima another puissant feudatory had thrown down the gauntlet. The Chōshū chief, whose batteries commanded the entrance to the inland sea at Shimonoseki, opened fire upon ships flying the flags of the United States, of France and of Holland. In thus acting he obeyed an edict obtained by the extremists from the mikado without the knowledge of the shōgun, which edict fixed the 11th of May 1863 as the date for practically inaugurating the foreigners-expulsion policy. ”

“ I’ll chance Kagoshima. That Satsuma king or mandarin, whatever he is, may have changed his mind since the Morrison, or there may be a new one now, with more liberal idees.”
“Since you’re resolved upon it, skipper, I must confess I have reasons of my own to be pleased with your plan,” I said, and at his interested glance, I told him somewhat in detail of my daring ancestor Will Adams, the first Englishman ever to reach the Land of the Rising Sun and the only European ever made a Japanese noble.
“H’m. Married a Japanese wife, and left children by her,” commented Downing, and he grinned broadly. ”

“ The Satsuma clan offered strenuous opposition to the extension of the telegraph system of the empire into its own province, and for the time the farthest point of the line southward that the wires could be carried was Kumamoto, seventy-five miles by road short of Kagoshima. It is only now, in 1906, that a State railway is being constructed to the Satsuma stronghold, and for many years the reactionary spirit was strong enough to give pause to both these enterprises of the Department of Public Works. ”

“ When it was urged that the murderers should be brought to justice the Bakufu was fain to acknowledge that it had not the power to punish the Satsuma clan which had been guilty of the crime, and thereupon Admiral Kuper was sent to Kagoshima to bombard the Satsuma chieftain’s forts. The engagement took place on the 11th of August, a fortnight before the Elgin treaty was signed at Yedo, the breach between the Shogun and the southern clans being at that time practically complete. ”

“ On the side of the Sho-gun were ranged the Tokugawa barons, and the northern clans generally, while for the south and progress there stood the men of Satsuma, Nagato, Hizen, and Tosa. By Japanese Nagato is commonly known nowadays as Cho-shiu, and Satsuma is officially styled Sasshiu. Satsuma had taken the lead in many respects in introducing the arts and sciences of the Occident into Japan, for she had not only established a cotton mill at Kagoshima some years before, and owned several very useful steamers of small tonnage, but had drilled a body of troops on the western system. ”

“ Richardson, the British were justified in demanding an indemnity of $500,000 from the shogun and $125,000 from the daimio of Satsuma, or in enforcing their demands with a threatened bombardment of Yeddo and an actual bombardment of Kagoshima. It is out of our scope here to inquire into the shelling of the batteries of the daimio of Choshiu, at Shimonoseki, in turn by the Americans, British, French and Dutch, the men of Choshiu having fired upon some Dutch, American, and French vessels that had entered the straits against the prohibition of the Japanese. ”

“ All the roads in the world.”
This was the song of the kago men. First the [197] kago of Hasunuma the samurai turned in at the garden gate, then followed his lady; last came Aiyamé of the South Wind. Upon the roof of her kago there lay a blossoming bough.
“Rest well, lady,” said Konojo, as she passed, and had no answer back. Howbeit it seemed that some light thing dropped from the kago, and fell with a little noise to the ground. He stooped and picked up a woman’s comb. It was of gold lacquer, very fine work, adorned with golden dragon-flies. Smooth and warm it lay in the hand of Konojo. ”

“ In my lord's presence I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Komazawa Jirōzayémon, a samurai who has come on a mission of importance from the Yamaguchi Clan. He is young, of exceptionally fine appearance, and, better than all, an adept in military arts and well-versed in literature. Our lord seems to hold his character in the highest esteem. While we all three drank together, we talked with the utmost frankness. Our lord, who has very much in mind the marriage of our daughter, inquired of this gentleman if he was a married man. ”

“ Kashima is bound on all sides by the rock-tipped circle of the Dosehri hills. In Spring, it is ablaze with roses; in Summer, the roses die and the hot winds blow from the hills; in Autumn, the white mists from the hills cover the place as with water; and in Winter the frosts nip everything young and tender to earth-level. There is but one view in Kashima—a stretch of perfectly flat pasture and plough-land, running up to the grey-blue scrub of the Dosehri hills. ”

“ In 1863, England declared war against Japan; blockaded the Inland Seas with a combined squadron of English, French, Dutch, and American ships, acting under the orders of Admiral Keuper, stormed and captured Simonoseki, and burnt Kagosima, the capital of the prince of Satsuma. Having brought the Japanese to their senses, we demanded of [100] them a war indemnity, half of which was to be paid by Satsuma.
Five years passed. The mikado meanwhile had placed himself at the head of the reactionary party, pensioned the tycoon, and made rapid advancement in European manners and customs. ”

“ But Kagehime had already formed an illicit connection with Shibi, son of Matori, the Minister of State. Fearing, however, to offer opposition to the eldest son's proposal, she answered him, saying:—"Thy handmaiden wishes to wait upon thee on the street of Tsubaki-ichi." Accordingly the eldest son, in order to go to the place of assignation, sent one of his personal attendants to the house of the Oho-omi Heguri to ask for official horses, saying that he did so by his command. The Oho-omi mocked him, pretending that he would send them, and said:—"For whom (else) are official horses kept? ”

“ So turbulent did the monks show themselves under the influence of Shin-shu teachers that the Uesugi of Echigo, the Hojo of Izu, and other great daimyo interdicted the propagandism of that form of Buddhism altogether. The most presumptuous insurrection of all stands to the credit of the Osaka priests. A great temple had been erected there to replace the Hongwan-ji of Kyoto, and in, 1529, its lord-abbot, Kokyo, entered Kaga, calling himself the "son of heaven" (Emperor) and assigning to his steward, Shimoma Yorihide, the title of shogun. ”

“ Among the books reprinted there were the Adzuma-kagami, the record of the earlier Kamakura Shogunate, a Chinese political miscellany written at the beginning of the T'ang dynasty, and some old Chinese strategical works.
Not only such illustrious personages as the above-mentioned Emperors, Shogun, and eminent [Pg 323] warriors, but men of mediocre means or of unpretentious rank, such as samurai, priests, literati and merchants, also vied with one another in publishing new and old books of Japan as well as of China, by the method of woodblocks or of movable types. ”

“ All aghast at this, Miyuki was in act to run away; but Asaka followed her fleeing footsteps and laid hold upon her sleeve. "There is no need to run away, Miyuki, my dear child," she said, in a voice all broken with emotion. "But oh, what a miserable plight you are in! Well I can imagine how great your sufferings have been. At sight of you I feel as if my heart would burst with sorrow. But, my dear, be easy in your mind. Only a little way from here is the place called Sayono-Nakayama, where I have been told my father Furubé Saburobei is still living. ”

“ He has particularly allied himself to the spiritual emperor, in whose capital he is popular; we read of him a short time since making a donation to the poor of Miako of ten thousand piculs of rice. Strictly speaking, Shimadzu Sabara is regent of Satzuma, the prince, who is his nephew, being only six years of age. Satzuma, the principality, is on the southerly extremity of the most southerly island of the Archipelago Kiusiu. Its capital, Kagosima, is a rich port, having 500,000 inhabitants; the Loo Choo Islands acknowledge the Prince of Satzuma as suzerain. ”

“ Owotomo, Boongo no kami, was then lord of this province, and of a great part of the island of Kiusiu. An officer, by name Seito, was sent by him with the Portuguese to Miako. Hitherto the history of Japan has been made up entirely from native sources; but after this time the letters of the Jesuits, and the accounts published from time to time by Europeans, become of interest. Kagosima, the port of Satsuma at which these Portuguese merchants first touched, is not a place adapted for carrying on a large trade. ”

“ When Boulte returned from his wanderings he would slap Kurrell between the shoulders and call him “old fellow,” and the three would dine together. Kashima was happy then when the judgment of God seemed almost as distant as Narkarra or the railway that ran down to the sea. But the Government sent Major Vansuythen to Kashima, and with him came his wife.
The etiquette of Kashima is much the same as that of a desert island. When a stranger is cast away there, all hands go down to the shore to make him welcome. ”

“ In Japan very terrible was the position of the man who had lost his sword. Better a thousand deaths of lingering torture. There was no man so low as to give him companionship—and he a noble! Therefore he changed his name to that of Kazuma, and casting aside what money was left he abandoned his wife who was dying of grief and shame, and coming to Yedo took up the study of jujutsu hoping some day to become a teacher of this in the great city. More lonely a man could not be than Kazuma. ”

“ This river the girl had chosen to be her grave. Taking hold of one of the willow-boughs, she was just in act to leap into the stream, when suddenly she felt herself firmly grasped and held. Her captor was an old woman. Miyuki struggled hard to shake her off, crying: "I pray you, let me go." But the old crone grasped her only the more firmly and said in ingratiating tones: "My dear young lady, you seem to be travelling alone. It is a lover that leads you on this chase, I suppose. But if you choose to live, there is no reason in the world why you should not in the end join your lover. ”

“ The truth was, that the Wakasa samurai was a wild young fellow, and bore a reputation for riotous living that did not promise to make him a proper life-companion for Nakayama's refined and cultured daughter. Between Nakayama, Kiku's father, and Yamashiro, the retainer of the Echizen clan, whose home we spoke of in the opening of our sketch, had long existed a warm friendship and a mutual high regard. Yamashiro, though more fond of society and good living than Nakayama, was nevertheless, like him, a high-spirited and well-read man. ”