Emperor Hirohito, the world's longest reigning monarch, received three blood transfusions today and was in stable condition after vomiting blood, imperial officials said. The Imperial Household Agency and other officials did not confirm a Kyodo News Service report that the 87-year-old emperor appeared to be in critical condition this morning despite night-long treatment by a team of court physicians. Kyodo attributed its report to an unidentified person who attended a Cabinet meeting this morning. It said a pre-dawn transfusion had not stopped a hemorrhage in his digestive tract. The imperial agency said no such announcement had been made. But in briefings later for Japanese reporters, Iwao Miyao, vice grand steward of the imperial agency, said doctors had given Hirohito 1.6 pints of blood during the night, then 0.4 pints more during the morning and 0.4 pints again during the afternoon. An Imperial Household Agency official quoted Miyao as saying in a briefing at 9:30 p.m. ``I don't think the emperor's condition is becoming worse, but rather that it is stabilizing.'' ``The emperor is in stable condition. He has a slight fever and is receiving intravenous drip,'' said palace spokesman Takenari Sugawara. Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita's Cabinet was expected to approve plans Thursday to place Crown Prince Akihito, 54, in charge of state matters, Defense Agency head Kichiro Tazawa told reporters. The emperor's worsening health caused one former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone to cut short a trip to London and return home. At least one morning newspaper, the English-language Japan Times, printed a single-page extra this afternoon. It bore the headline ``Ailing Emperor Vomits Some Blood'' and a photo of a jogger who paused to pray in front of the palace. In a briefing to palace reporters this afternoon, Miyao said the emperor would continue to receive blood and intravenous fluids, Kyodo said. Japanese news media mounted an intense watch on the imperial palace, in central Tokyo, and reported the arrivals of a stream of well-wishers, including Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita and U.S. Ambassador Mike Mansfield. The Japan Broadcasting Corp. reported that Hirohito said ``thank you'' to his son Akihito and the prince's wife, Crown Princess Michiko. The emperor's death would plunge Japan into official mourning. Hirohito has occupied the Chrysanthemum Throne since 1926 and, after renouncing his divinity after World War II, is a figurehead with the constitutional role of ``symbol of state'' but no power. Older Japanese grew up revering him as the divine descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu and still honor him highly, while younger people tend to have less interest in the imperial family. Marine biology is the emperor's passion. Indeed, Hirohito is a widely respected authority on the subject, having written or co-authored at least 12 books on hydrozoa, or sea animals, his specialty. Late Monday, court physicians were summoned to the palace to treat the emperor, and early today Miyao told a news conference that the emperor had vomited blood _ a sign of hemorrhaging _ and the doctor had administered the first transfusion. The monarch was conscious through the procedure, Miyao said. Hirohito has been frail since an intestinal bypass operation in September 1987 but he appeared in public for his 87th birthday on April 29 and on several later occasions. He and Empress Nagako, 85, spent most of the summer at an imperial villa outside Tokyo, returning to the capital on Sept. 8. Since late summer, he has suffered from colds and fevers and a news report last week said he had lost 20 pounds of the 130 pounds he carried before his surgery.
