MUTSUHITO, moo-tsu-hee-to, the 121st in the line of mikados or emperors of Japan and, according to the impersonality ruling in all Japanese history, posthumously called after the year-period, the Meiji Tenn° : b. Kyoto, 3 Nov. 1852, 2d son of the Emperor Komei (1831-67), declared heir-apparent 10 July 1860; succeeded to the throne January 1867; inaugu rated as sovereign, with the three imperial sym bols, mirror, jewel and sword, 31 Oct. 1868; married 28 Dec. 1868 to Haruko, then 19, and the 3d daughter of the noble of the 1st rank lchijo. No children were born of this union, but of the issue from imperial concubines, four sons and four daughters survive in 1918. From the first, brought up amid sounds of battle and in sight of the war fit-es of contending clansmen in Kyoto, as the old and new forces struggled for mastery, and, happily, early surrounded by men of vision and liberal minds, some of whom had been in Occidental countries, Mutsuhito was from the first in hearty and active sympathy with modern progress and civilization. One of his first public. acts was to take the famous charter oath of five principles. In one of these he promised a national deliberative assembly, and in the other to seek for talent through out the world for assistance in relaying the foundations of his empire. He became a shrewd judge of men and motives and a lover of peace. He signed in autograph the treaties, entered warmly into measures of reform and in erecting memorials to the martyrs and those who had advocated mikadoism and unity of government, traveled all over the empire to see his people, paid unique honors to his wife in public and private, and was a laborious servant of the nation. By personal tastes and habits
thoroughly Japanese to the end of his days, he was a cosmopolitan in mind and sympathies, and his character as well as his office turned the scale in great crises, when grave debate was held by rival statesmen in his presence. Every word of the text of the constitution of 1889 was, during the two years of deliberation, dis cussed before him. Most notable and fiercely debated was the guarantee of religions liberty. His reign was marked by many wonderful events and a most extraordinary outburst of intellectual, industrial and military energy. On the 25th anniversary of his marriage, memorial postage stamps were issued and the empress was notably honored, marking a new era in the history of Japanese womanhood. The days of his last illness saw a prayer-meeting that was national and without regard to creed or class, all gods being petitioned, and the general sor row was sincere and profound. His mauseo leum in Kyoto cost over $1,000,000. His eon sort, a true helpmeet and of finest character, followed him in death 8 April 1914. Both sov ereigns were notable poets. From about 1870 the Japanese ceased to use the ancient poetical term mikado and adopted the native term tenshi, or tenno (son of heaven, or heavenly king), or emperor, as best according with the new status of Japan as a world-power. Consult Griffis, The Mikado's Empire' (1909)and Mikado: Institution and Person' (1915); and Mrs. Fraser's (Letters from Japan' (1899).
a sailors' name for the shearwater (q.v.).