Etiquette and an Emperor's Title

According to Wikipedia, “Viscount Enomoto Takeaki was a Japanese samurai and admiral of the Tokugawa navy of Bakumatsu period, Japan, who remained faithful to the Tokugawa shogunate and fought against the new Meiji government until the end of the Boshin War. He later served in the Meiji government as one of the founders of the Imperial Japanese Navy.”– Public domain image of Viscount Enomoto

The Use of “Mikado” Obsolete

The name of Mikado is now an entirely obsolete Imperial title, the Japanese using the title of Kotei in Japanese, and Emperor when speaking to foreigners or in a foreign tongue. European countries frequently, however, still make use of the title Mikado, which is a breach of etiquette in Japanese estimation. Russia, for instance, still speaks of the Emperor of China as Bakudahan, and until a few years ago persisted in speaking of the Emperor of Japan as the Mikado, but during Viscount Enomoto's residency in Russia as Japanese Minister he informed the Russian government of its error and pointed out the historical reasons for this title being no longer used, since which time the Russian government has conformed to the use of the European title, Emperor. – Bridgeport Chronicle-Union, 1892

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