I transmit inclosure No. 1, a description of the procession from one of
the local papers.
I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your most obedient
servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
The Mikado’s procession.
Notifications having been published from the Japanese authorities and
the foreign consulates that the Mikado would leave Fugisawa, en
route for Yedo, at 6 a. m. on Tuesday, the 24th instant, and that a
place had been set apart where foreigners might witness the
procession, some excitement was caused in community; and crowds,
some in carriages, others on horseback, and the majority on foot,
besides an immense number of Japanese, flocked out to Karuisawa to
enjoy the spectacle of a live Mikado passing along the tokaido.
Sheds had been erected on the side of the tokaido for the
accommodation of foreigners. Some occupied them from early morning,
but most left the settlement between 1 and 2 o’clock p. m., arriving
on the ground between 2 and 3. Notices in English were posted up
that “foreigners were requested not to cheer whilst his Majesty the
Mikado was passing;” and the only amusement during a couple of hours
was watching a Japanese officer galloping up and down, with a flag
fastened to his back, and making bets whether the mysterious
individual would come or not.
At 3 p. m. detachments of English and French soldiers, accompanied by
their bands, took up position on the tokaido. Close on 3.30 p. m.
the sounds of music were heard, and immediately a murmur was heard
“he is coming,” and then the procession hove in view. Japanese small
officials began shouting staniero, and immediately the crowds of
native spectators crouched down on their heels and became silent as
the dead. It was something wonderful, that crouching crowd, from
whom not a sound was heard; and the more striking, as contrasting
with the hum and laughter all along the line of foreigners who
occupied about a hundred yards on one side of road.
It is hard to describe the procession, for many of its parts were so
totally different from anything that foreigners are in the habit of
seeing, that nothing but a drawing could convey anything like an
approximate idea. It was after this style, however:
A band of drums and fifes.
Eighty soldiers.
The Mikado’s flag.
A band of drums and fifes.
Fifty soldiers.
The Mikado’s flag.
A band of drums and fifes.
Ninety soldiers.
One mounted officer and followers.
Coolies carrying baggage.
Mikado’s flag.
A band of drums and fifes.
One hundred and eighty soldiers.
Three mounted officers.
Followers.
Coolies carrying baggage.
Three mounted officers.
Followers.
Two peculiar shaped kangos carried on coolies’
shoulders, (said to be tabernacles.)
Two mounted officers.
Coolies carrying baggage.
Officers on foot.
Six mounted officers.
Followers.
Two mounted high officers, in white.
The imperial norimon, carried by twenty-four
one-sworded bearers.
Two mounted officers.
A norimon supposed to contain the Mikado, three led
horses highly decorated.
Four mounted officers.
Coolies carrying baggage.
A norimon.
[Page 846]
Followers.
The Mikado’s flag.
Eighty-two soldiers.
One mounted officer.
Twenty soldiers.
Coolies carrying baggage.
A flag with a white border.
Thirty soldiers.
A band of drums and fifes.
Seventy soldiers.
Two mounted officers.
One hundred and twenty soldiers.
A band of drums and fifes.
Thirty soldiers.
One mounted officer and followers.
Two flags.
A band of drummers.
One hundred soldiers.
Coolies carrying baggage.
One mounted officer.
A band of drums and fifes.
Forty soldiers, and an endless train of officers in kangos, and
coolies carrying baggage.
This was the long-talked-of procession. All the foreigners expressed
their disappointment in strong language. Many questioned whether,
first, his Majesty was there at all; secondly, because the whole
turnout presented such a miserable aspect—the soldiers seemed to be
a collection of old men and boys dressed in semi-European style, and
armed with a variety of rifles, generally breech-loaders, that
looked as if they were more dangerous to themselves than to any
enemy who might attack them. Amongst the mounted officers were three
or four Daimios, but to the uninitiated no difference could be seen
between them and the other mounted officials. The appearance of many
of the soldiers afforded a good deal of amusement to the foreign
spectators. Some of those warriors wore immense wigs of horse-hair
under their paper chapeaux, covering up their faces, and contrasting
most ludicrously with their attire of black frock coats, trowsers,
and grass sandals. The bands of the various Daimios’ contingents
were confined to drums and fifes, and, if the melody they played was
not very spirit-stirring, they kept most excellent marching time,
and the drumming was first-rate.
We have taken pains to ascertain whether the Mikado actually was in
the procession, and we have every reason to believe that he was, and
that he occupied the kango following the large norimon.
