The Imperial Oath of April 1868: Ritual, Politics, and Power in the Restoration
1996; Sophia University; Volume: 51; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/2385417
ISSN1880-1390
Autores Tópico(s)Japanese History and Culture
ResumoB 5 Y the beginning of April 1868, the leaders of the new Restoration government were close to surmounting two of three major challenges to the legitimacy that they so desperately sought. The first challenge was military and came from the Tokugawa and their allies. After scoring a decisive victory over the Tokugawa at Toba-Fushimi at the end of January 1868, the 'imperial' forces quickly pacified the western provinces and by early March they had begun their eastern advance on the Tokugawa stronghold of Edo. The end of March saw the imperial army camped in Suruga, 160 kilometers from Edo, with the Chief of Staff, Saigo Takamori ffiglfi, planning the final assault. Edo Castle would have been stormed within two weeks had not former shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu JIIe sent to Suruga on 1 April to sue for peace. Saigo's conditions proved acceptable to the Tokugawa and bloodshed was averted.' The swift conclusion to this eastern campaign did not, as it turned out, mark an end to the civil war, but it did provide an immense boost to the Restoration government in its search for legitimacy. The second challenge came from the foreign presence, but it too, at least in one of its many manifestations, had been successfully met by the beginning of April. By declaring neutrality in the civil war in mid-February, the powers signaled that they no longer regarded the Tokugawa as Japan's legitimate rulers. The special satisfaction that this caused the new leadership, coming just two weeks after a murderous attack on unarmed foreigners in Kobe, was almost immediately undermined by another attack, this time on French sailors in
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