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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Mutsuhito Biography MEIJI TENNO, mā’e-jē tēn’no (1852–1912). The posthumous name of an emperor of Japan; during life he was known in Europe and America as Mutsuhito (gentleman), but in Japan he was called by the common people Tenshi Sama (august son of heaven) and by the educated class Shu-jo (supreme master). He was born Nov. 3, 1852, in the mountains of Kyoto, and was the one hundred and twenty-first of his line. His education, liberal as measured by the standards of the time, was supervised by his mother, who had been a lady of the Imperial household. He succeeded his father, Osahito, in 1867, but was not crowned (at Osaka) until Oct. 31, 1868. Immediately, in order to carry out a purpose of concentrating power in the hands of the Emperor himself, the capital was moved from Kyoto to Yeddo, and the city renamed Tokyo. The next year Mutsuhito returned to Kyoto and took as his consort Haruko (died 1914), a princess of the house of Ichijo. During a reign of 45 years he did much to promote the progress of his country, his biography being merged in the history of the New Japan. Largely through his exertions Japan was freed from the restraints of centuries and took her place among the great powers of the world, after triumphing over China and Russia. The Emperor was the first constitutional monarch in the Far East; as an administrator he is generally held to have been very successful, although opinions differ as to his activity in later years. He followed a policy of trusting state affairs in large measure to such loyal advisers as Iwakura, Kido, Okubo, and Ito. A lover of books and the collector of a large library of Japanese and Chinese classics, he was also one of the notable writers of verse of his time and country. It is said that he composed 38,000 poems of five lines or tanka. He died July 29, 1912, and was succeeded by his son Yoshihito. The New International Encyclopaedia Vol. XV (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 356. |