(Tokyo, the largest city in the world since the 18th century; photos taken by EEE Reporter.)"All the City was Gathered"
Princess Kazunomiya Chikako (1846 - 1877) is the only lady in the Imperial Family of Japan who ever married a shogun, the head of the pre-Meiji-era Government of Japan, the samurai class, and all the samurai clans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Kazu
As she was the younger half-sister of Emperor Komei, the preceding emperor to Meiji Emperor, the Tokugawa samurai regime wanted her to marry Shugun Iemochi who faced a fateful diplomatic crisis, with the intention to leverage the authority of the Imperial Family so as to tame anti-Tokugawa samurai clans who claimed that foreign powers should be expelled out to preserve the honor of holy Japan, since Westerners were so rude and uncivilized.
Western powers, including the U.S., had been requesting the samurai government in Tokyo to terminate Japan’s 250-year isolation and open the door to the world, which however caused great turmoil leading to a series of wars among samurai clans. The Tokugawa Administration decided to conclude diplomatic agreements with the U.S. and European countries, while anti-Tokugawa samurais decided to fight against the Tokugawas and foreign powers based on the authority of the emperor.
In this difficult and complex situation, Princess Kazunomiya living in Kyoto with the Imperial Family and other nobility, was requested to marry Shogun Iemochi by both the Tokugawas and the Imperial Family still under a strong influence or control by the samurai regime.
So, though she was just 15-years old, Princess Kazunomiya decided to obey the samurai and imperial request despite the fact that she had a fiance, a nobleman.
Yet in 1860, she wrote a letter to her brother, Emperor Komei, stating that she would with very much reluctance accept the offer in order to contribute to peace of the nation. And then, in 1861, she departed for Tokyo to marry a man she had never met, since Tokyo then called Edo, boasting of more than one million population since the early 18th century and situated 500km northeast of Kyoto, was the seat of the samurai Government.
However, four years after the marriage with Shogun Iemochi, she was left alone in the huge Edo Castle, presently used as the Imperial Palace, as her husband died amid a war with insurgent samurai clans.
In 1868, the most drastic power shift in the history of Japan occurred, as insurgent samurai clans defeated the Tokugawas through a series of military conflicts which however luckily preserved Tokyo intact. Surprisingly or accordingly, the new leaders changed their anti-foreign-powers policy so as to inherit the Tokugawa’s diplomatic policy, adopting Meiji as the name of the new era.
Princess Kazunomiya left the Edo Castle and went back to Kyoto. She was later invited by Emperor Meiji to come and live in Tokyo. Then, she died of disease in 1877 at the age of 32.
It is said that Princess Kazunomiya had a very happy life with Shogun Iemochi and made every effort to support the Tokugawa regime even after the death of her husband.
Indeed, the Meiji Restoration is the greatest incident in the Japanese history as with the Civil War for the American history, as they happened in 1860’s, respectively.
The class system in the samurai-dominant society was largely altered in Japan; the slave system in the European-Americans-dominant society was drastically altered in the U.S.
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It is rainy now around Tokyo.
The NHK TV channel presented live broadcasts of parliamentary proceedings from the National Diet this morning, too.
Prime Minister Mr. Taro Aso happens to have a younger sister who married a cousin of Emperor Showa in 1980.
Once senior Japanese often said, "The Meiji era is now the thing of the hazy past!"
Yet, the letter Princess Kazunomiya wrote to her brother, Emperor Komei, still remains as a witness of the history, since she is believed to have been a great hidden factor in preserving Tokyo intact in 1860’s, the last era of samurai's civil wars in Japan.
(Now, let it fall into oblivion, since your heart belongs to the place where what you love remains. As for me, I always love the future more than anything, though in a very different manner from billionaires'.
http://www.fukuchan.ac/music/popular/bridgewater.html )
Mar 1:30 But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her.
Mar 1:31 And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.
Mar 1:32 And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.
Mar 1:33 And all the city was gathered together at the door.
Mar 1:34 And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.