CHAPTER XCI

HARI-KARI

[Sidenote: 1868. March.]

My fair readers, if I have any, are advised to skip the next twenty pages, which deal with tragedies upon which I reported officially at the time.

Mr. Mitford, who was present at the ceremony of Hari-Kari, sent me the following account. The officer’s name was Taki Zingaburo. The ceremony took place on March 2, at 10.30 P.M., in the Temple of Siefukigi, the headquarters of Satsuma’s troops. The courtyard was filled with soldiers, and lighted by fires and lanterns. The witnesses were conducted into a room in the temple, where Ito Shunski (formerly interpreter on board the _Rodney_), the provisional Governor of Hiogo, came soon after, and, having taken down their names, told them that himself and another officer, on the part of the Mikado, two of Satsuma’s officers, two of Choshin’s, and a representative of the Prince of Bizen, would act as Renshi--sheriffs or witnesses. Seven were appointed, probably that their numbers might agree with those of the foreigners.

After a short delay, they were invited to follow the Japanese witnesses into the principal hall of the temple. On the raised platform, immediately in front of the high altar, was placed a rug of red felt. The temple was dimly lighted with tall candles. The Japanese witnesses took their places on the left, and the foreigners on the right, of the raised floor. No other persons were present in the hall.

[Sidenote: April.]

After an interval of a few minutes, Taki Zingaburo, a stalwart, noble-looking fellow, walked into the hall, attired in his dress of ceremony, accompanied by his Kaishaku and three officers in their jimbasri, or war surcoat. (Kaishaku is one to whom our word executioner is no equivalent: the office is that of a gentleman, usually filled by a friend or kinsman or the condemned. In this instance the Kaishaku was a pupil of Taki Zingaburo, chosen for his skill in swordsmanship.) He advanced slowly, with the Kaishaku on his left, towards the Japanese witnesses and bowed before them; then, drawing near to the foreigners, he saluted, with perhaps rather more show of respect. In each case the salutation was ceremoniously returned.

Slowly, and with great dignity, he mounted on the raised floor, prostrated himself before the high altar, and then seated himself on the felt carpet with his back to the altar, the Kaishaku crouching on his left.

One of the three attendant officers then came forward, bearing a tray, on which, wrapped in paper, lay the dirk. This he handed with a bow to the condemned man, who received it, reverently raising it to his head, and placed it in front of himself. After another profound obeisance, the condemned man, in a voice of some emotion, and with just so much hesitation as would be natural to a man about to make a disagreeable confession, but with no sign of fear, said, “I, and I alone, unwarrantably gave the order to fire on the foreigners at Corvé as they tried to escape. For this crime I disembowel myself. And I beg you who are here present to do me the honour of witnessing the act.” After delivering this speech, he allowed his upper garments to slip down to his girdle--carefully, according to custom, tucking his sleeves under his knees, that he might die as a Samarai should, falling forward. Deliberately, with a steady hand, he took the dirk that lay before him. For a few seconds he seemed to collect his thoughts, and then stabbing himself deeply below the waist on the left side, he drew the dirk slowly to the right. As the dirk reached the right side, he gave a slight cut upwards, and then lent forwards, stretching out his head.

An expression of pain for the first time crossed his face, and the Kaishaku, who had been keenly watching every motion, sprang to his legs, and poising his sword in the air for a second, with one stroke severed the head from the body, during a dead silence. The Kaishaku having wiped his sword, bowed solemnly to the witnesses and removed the dirk as a proof of the death of Taki Zingaburo, aged thirty-two. Ito Shumski and the other representatives of the Mikado left their places, and advancing to where the foreigners sat, called on them to witness that the execution had been faithfully performed.

The ceremony, to which the place and the hour gave a most solemn effect, was characterised by that extreme dignity and punctiliousness which are the distinctive marks of a Japanese gentleman of rank, and it is not unimportant to note this fact, because it carries with it the conviction that the dead man was the officer who committed the crime and not a substitute. I am happy to think that Captain Stanhope did what he could to save this man’s life, but he was in a minority.

This execution was soon followed by a frightful tragedy. At Hong Kong, on March 23, I received a letter from Captain Stanhope of the _Ocean_ off Osaka, informing me that on the 8th the French corvette _Dupleix_ had sent her steam launch, accompanied by her whale-boat, to Sakai, a small town about six miles on the Hiogo side of Osaka, to wait there for Captain Roy of the _Venus_, and the French Consul. The steam launch had been lying some time alongside the wharf, and the townspeople had come down and been very civil to the crew. After a while, at about 5 P.M., the engineer and coxswain of the launch asked the midshipman’s permission to go up for a stroll.

The lieutenant, who was in the whale-boat, had been up for a walk an hour or two previous without so much as having seen a two-sworded man. The mid granted permission, but the engineer and gunner had not gone far before some two-sworded men seized and tried to secure them; from these they broke away and made for their boat; as they did so they were fired on by a number of armed men. The coxswain was shot and fell into the boat; the engineer jumped overboard and got to the off side; two more cut the bow and stern fasts; the stoker tried to turn the engines ahead and was immediately pierced by three bullets; the steam-pipe was likewise shot through; the mid in charge, with six men, jumped overboard.

The First Lieutenant in the whale-boat, who was just outside taking soundings, pulled in and was fired on by some seventy or eighty men. He had one man shot down, and having no arms, he did not advance farther; in meantime the steam launch drifted out and was taken hold of by the whale-boat and towed out of range. Having made sail on the launch, and leaving the engineer, who was the only person on board not wounded, to steer, the Lieutenant proceeded to report matters on board his ship, the _Dupleix_. Out of sixteen men in the launch and five in the whaleboat only five with them were not hurt. The captain of the _Dupleix_ sent a petty officer to report matters to Captain Stanhope; while he proceeded with his remaining boats armed to Sakai to try if he could find the mid and six men who had jumped overboard, not being aware of the force the Japanese might have, and not wishing to compromise the Foreign Ministers residing at Osaka.

It was not the intention of Captain Du Petit Thours to attack the place, but he requested Captain Stanhope to acquaint the ministers with the state of affairs. Captain Stanhope immediately sent Lieutenant Rougemont in his steam launch with a letter to Sir Harry Parkes, offering to send boats for their embarkation, and the _Cockchafer_ gunboat to cover them. The _Rinaldo_ he sent to Hiogo to protect foreign subjects in case of an outbreak there.

The Captain of the _Dupleix_ returned from Sakai at about 11 P.M. without having learnt anything of the missing men, not having been able to land. He saw many Japanese in the fort, while others were running down to field-pieces at the landing-stage.

_Ocean’s_ steam launch returned from Osaka at 6 the following morning, bringing off Captain Roy of the _Venus_ and Captain Creighton of the U.S. _Oneida_, also a letter from Sir Harry Parkes, declining, with his usual coolness, to embark immediately, saying that the Japanese Minister had been to him to express their deep regret at the outrage, and declared that the Mikado’s Government would give full satisfaction.

On the 9th March the French and American Ministers embarked. The French Minister having demanded that the officer and missing men should be given up, whether dead or alive, in twenty-four hours, their bodies were taken alongside the _Adventure_ in a Japanese boat, which was at once towed to the _Dupleix_.

On the 10th Sir Harry Parkes embarked on board the _Ocean_, all the Foreign Ministers being then afloat.

The funeral of the French midshipman and the ten seamen who were killed by the Japanese took place at the cemetery at Hiogo: all the usual honours being paid by the officers and ships-of-war present.

A newspaper report goes on to state that the French Minister, Captain, and officers grasped each other’s hands over the graves, and called on the Almighty to witness the vows they then made not to rest satisfied until they had avenged the blood of their murdered countrymen.

The French Minister then took into consideration the ultimate demands he intended to make, which he would submit to the other Foreign Ministers before presenting them to the Mikado’s Government. These demands are not likely to be either mild or pleasant to the young Mikado’s newly formed Government, and, considering Monsieur Roches’ interest in the Tycoon, and proportionate aversion to his opponents, unless mitigated and smoothed down by Sir Harry Parkes, the ultimatum will, I think, be very embarrassing, and who can see the end of it or the Civil War either. A raw is established, and will be worked.

[Sidenote: _Written on board_ Rodney, _March 29, off Breaker Point_, en route _to Yokohama_.]

In the meantime, preparations on the part of the Mikado’s Government still continue for an advance on Yedo, and likewise on the part of the Tycoon to resist. Then, again, neither Chiefs appear to have much control over the two-sworded ruffians, their followers. An attack by both sets united on the foreign settlements at Yokohama would show little less judgment or recklessness of consequences than the insane attack on the foreigners at Corvé, or the French boat’s crew at Sakai.

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