Identifier: mikadosempire05grif (find matches)
Title: The mikado's empire
Year: 1894 (1890s)
Authors: Griffis, William Elliot, 1843-1928
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, Harper & brothers
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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zaka on the evening of the 27th of January, with the Aidzu and Kuwana clans in the front of his following, amounting to over ten, or,as some say, thirty thousand men. At Fushimi his messengers wererefused passage through the barriers. The kuan-gun (loyal army,Kioto forces) fired their cannon, and the war was opened. The sh5-guns folloAvers, by their last move on the political chess-board, hadmade themselves chdteki. Their prestige had flown. The battle lasted three days. In the presence of overwhelming 314 THE MIKADOS EMPIRE. forces, the Southern samurai showed not only undaunted valor, butthe result of previous years of military training. The battle was notto the strong. It was to the side of intelligence, energy, coolness,and valor. The shoguns army was beaten, and in wild disorder fledto Ozaka, the historic castle of which was burned by the loyal army.The chief, unrecognized, found refuge upon an American vessel, and,reaching Yedo on one of his own ships, sought the seclusion of his
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Keiki, the last Shogun of Japan. (From a photograph.)
castle. His own family retainers and most of the subject clans (fudai),and the daimios of Aidzu, Sendai, and others of the North and East,urged him to renew the fight and restore his prestige. One of his min-isters earnestly begged him to commit hara-kiri^ urging its necessityto preserve the honor of the Tokugawa clan. His exhortation beingunsuccessful, the proposer solemnly opened his own bowels. With alarge army, arsenals, munitions of war, and fleet of ships vastly exceed-ing those of the mikado, his chances of success were very fair. But THE RECENT DEVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 315 this time the vassal was loyal, the waverer wavered no more. Refus-ing to listen to those who advised war, abhorring the very idea of be-ing a choteki, he hearkened to the counsel of his two highest minis-ters, Katsu and Okubo Ichio, and declaring that he would never takeup arms against his lord, the mikado, he retired to private life. Thecomparison of this

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