What a luck
for our country of rice growers -
so hot!
Issa
The greatest ruler in Japanese history
It is noticed, and very rightly, that when God wants to punish someone, he deprives that person of reason. And then right in front of your eyes the most faithful betray, the brave - shamefully “celebrate the coward”, the smart ones are displaced from your environment by the flattering mediocrity, and you yourself see all this and understand that you can’t change anything, although you seem to have the power. But it also happens in another way. When a person "step by step" ascends, being in his place, higher and higher and achieves everything that, looking at him from the side, at first, it would seem, did not even dream of. Moreover, in this sense, Japan, as well as Russia, is surprisingly lucky. Two (!) Such rulers were born here at once, who at first had every chance to end their lives somehow, but ended up having done something that seems to be impossible to do.
AND
The first such person in Japan is rightfully called Ieyasu Tokugawa. He began his life … hostage in the family of another, more powerful daimyo. That is, his father decided to sacrifice it for his own safety! In this capacity, he was handed over to other daimyo hostages several times and he lived in constant readiness to die. Not every adult can withstand this, however, children take it easier. And then he waited patiently. Not just patient, but very patient. He entered into alliances and broke them, betrayed yesterday's allies and found new ones for himself, but at the same time he also fought skillfully, because otherwise he himself would have been betrayed for a long time. However, as indicated in the chronicles of the time, "heaven did not leave the Tokugawa." That is, God clearly did not deprive him of his mind, and when necessary, Tokugawa always said "yes", and when not necessary - "no"! But more often he preferred to postpone the decision and then fate itself helped him. His enemies were dying, and he had nothing to do with it, as if heaven itself paved the way for him to power.
At the same time, everyone noted that he was generous to the defeated and thus attracted many generals of the opponents he beat, honored local customs and traditions, which attracted commoners to himself, knew how to be content with little, was frugal and even stingy, but when required, he spent money, without hesitation.
When it was required, he, a born aristocrat, bowed to the commoner Hideyoshi, rightly judging that “a live dog (that is, he himself) is better than a dead lion (which he himself could be, openly grabbing with Hideyoshi). And then he died and Tokugawa openly opposed his own supporters, being in fact … one of them.
On October 21, 1600, in the "month without gods", the armies of the Tokugawa and his opponents, led by Ishida Mitsunari, met on the battlefield near the village of Sekigahara. The forces of the "Army of the East", commanded by Tokugawa, consisted of about 100 thousand samurai. The troops of the "West" numbered 80,000. At the beginning of the battle, the advantage of the troops of the "West" was obvious. The units of the Japanese Christians Konishi Yukinaga fought bravely, the samurai Shimazu and Mori fought in full accordance with the concepts of samurai valor. But the outcome of the battle in favor of Ieyasu was decided by betrayal. General of the "western" Kobayakawa Hideaki, to whom the Tokugawa promised new lands and titles, betrayed Ishida Mitsunari, attacked him from the flank and thus forced his troops to flee from the battlefield. It turns out that it was Kobayakawa Hideaki who decided the fate of the country and saved Kobayakawa Hideaki from a protracted and ruinous civil war, but he was never awarded, because Ieyasu, who always used betrayal, nevertheless did not want to encourage him …
Then he revived the shogunate - the third and last shogunate of Japan, which held power for more than 250 years, and again waited for 15 years to physically destroy Hideyoshi's son Hideyori. He transferred the title of shogun and power to his son, but he himself invisibly stood behind him and continued to lead the country. It was he who drew up the "Code on Samurai Clans" ("Buke shohatto"), which determined the norms of samurai behavior both in the service and in his personal life, and in fact created by his decrees that very Japan, which then existed unchanged until 1868. It was he who banned Christianity in Japan and, on the advice of the Englishman Will Adams, cut off contacts with the Catholic countries of Portugal and Spain.
Tokugawa died when he was 73 years old, until the end of his days indulging in gluttony and having fun with pretty women - that's it! And after his death, he became what we used to call the word “god”, and received the posthumous name Tosho-Daigongen (“The great savior god who illuminated the East”), under which he was enlisted in the list of Japanese kami. Agree, not every ruler manages to live such a life and do so much for himself, and for his children, and for his entire state and people!
Then there were different shoguns, different challenges that fate itself threw to Japan, but when the crisis in the country in the middle of the 19th century reached its climax, another person was found who took responsibility for a very sharp change in the country's course. This person was the next emperor of Japan named Mutsuhito.
Emperor as … person and as emperor
Algernon Mitford, an employee of the English mission in Edo (Tokyo), once sketched this portrait of the then very young Emperor Mutsuhito after he first met him in 1868, when he was 16 years old:
“At that time he was a tall youth with clear eyes and clear skin; his demeanor was very noble, which was very suitable for the heir of a dynasty that is older than any monarchy on the globe. He wore a white cape and long, bubbling crimson silk pants that dragged across the floor like a lady's train.
His hair was the same as that of his courtiers, but was crowned with a long, hard and flat plume of black wire cloth. I call it plume for lack of a better word, but it really had nothing to do with feathers.
His eyebrows were shaved off and painted high on his forehead; his cheeks were rouged and his lips were smeared with red and gold. The teeth were blackened. It didn't take much effort to look noble with such a change in his natural appearance, but it would be impossible to deny the presence of blue blood in him."
At birth, the future emperor received the name "Happy Prince", and his great-grandmother took over his education. But here's what's interesting, although the whole life passed in front of many people, some argue that he was physically developed and strong, while others that the prince grew up sickly and weak. In any case, in the photographs of his early years, he does not in any way look like a young sumo wrestler.
On August 16, 1860, the future emperor was recognized as the blood prince and heir to the throne, and on November 11 he adopted the new name Mutsuhito. It is unclear what the prince and future heir learned. It is known that versification, but this is far from enough to rule the country. Nevertheless, on April 7, 1868, he proclaimed the "Five Points Oath" - a radical program aimed at attracting all those who were not satisfied with the previous regime. He abolished feudal relations in the country and proclaimed the creation by that time of a modern democratic government of Japan. This oath was then repeated by Emperor Hirohito after the end of World War II in the Ningen Sengen Declaration. Well, already at the end of May, the emperor did something unheard of: he left Kyoto and took command of the troops, which at that time were fighting with the remnants of the shogun's army. During the three days he traveled from Kyoto to Osaka, crowds of people stood along his route, eager to see their master. He spent two weeks in Osaka and returned home. Soon after, it was announced that the emperor would now manage all the affairs of the state himself and would devote only his free time to studying literature. The emperor took up the current state of affairs in the country only in 1871! Mutsuhito was crowned October 15, 1868 in Kyoto, but made Edo his capital (1889), giving him the name Tokyo - "Eastern Capital". It cannot be said that the emperor was very curious and tried to go everywhere and see everything with his own eyes. But he visited warships, participated in parliamentary sessions.
As a result, Mutsuhito ruled Japan for 45 years. During this time, he acquired a whole bunch of diseases, such as diabetes, nephritis and gastroenteritis, and died of uremia. Historians still argue about whether he was an active reformer or a toy in the hands of his advisers. For example, judging by his poems, he wanted to avoid a war with China and Russia, but both wars were started and ended with the victory of Japan.
After the death of the emperor, his memory was immortalized by the construction of Meiji Jingu, the largest and wood-built Shinto shrine in Tokyo, dedicated to Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken. It is an impressive structure in the heart of Tokyo with traditional Japanese architecture. Interestingly, in the case of Meiji, for the first time in Japanese history, the posthumous name of the emperor coincided with the motto of the era of his reign (Meiji - "bright" or "enlightened" rule).
In general, the impression of the reign of Mutsuhito remains ambiguous. He was a reformer, but … "he always stayed out there somewhere." He broke traditions, but in a very metered manner, and not constantly. Communicated with the people, but very limited. He showed himself to society, but also not often, and just as rarely spoke in parliament. It turns out that this "second man" was just a pale shadow of Ieyasu Tokugawa, but he was, and this is his main merit. He did not rush things, but he did not hesitate, when required, with the modernization of the country and the adoption of overdue laws. And then everything else was done by people from his entourage … the government and ordinary Japanese, for whom non-economic compulsion to labor was replaced by orders from above with economic … and nothing more. The rest of the people of Japan gradually did it themselves!
And here are some more barrels! An interesting custom. What if we had the same custom, and people who worship V. I. Lenin, were they carrying bottles of vodka to his mausoleum ?!
