Miyatake Gaikotsu

Miyatake Gaikotsu was a Meiji period political critic, known for his satirical writings in journals such as the Tonchi kyôkai zasshi ("Journal of the Society of Ready Wit").

A satirical piece published by Miyatake in the February 28, 1889 issue of the Tonchi kyôkai zasshi, accompanied by political cartoons by Adachi Ginkô, resulted in both being imprisoned, for one and three years respectively, for the crime of lèse majesté. The piece was a parody of the Promulgation of the Meiji Constitution, which took place several weeks earlier. Entitled "promulgation ceremony for the sharpening of the ready wit law," a phrase which in the Japanese was only a few syllables different from "promulgation ceremony for the Meiji Constitution," the piece included a number of humorous, almost nonsensical, parodies of individual articles of the Constitution. It was accompanied by an image parodying those depicting the promulgation ceremony, in which the Meiji Emperor was replaced with a skeleton (J: gaikotsu).

Miyatake later wrote that his imprisonment for this crime only hardened his resolve to be critical of the government.

References

• Takashi Fujitani, Splendid Monarchy, University of California Press (1996), 198.