CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE WASON COLLECTION 
 
 THIS BOOK IS THE GIFT OF 
 
 Mxon Griffis 
 
Date Due 
 
 M^f *'H6/ 
 
 ^atwj. 
 
 "~S^teS=TJ-w— 
 
 
 Cornell University Library 
 OS 835.L85 
 
 The story of old Japan. 
 
 3 1924 023 233 061 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023233061 
 
THE STORY OF 
 OLD JAPAN 
 
 BY 
 
 JOSEPH H. LONGFORD 
 
 LATE H.M.'S CONSUL AT NAGASAKI; PROFESSOR OP JAPANESE, 
 king's college, LONDON ; BARRISTBK-AT-LAW, MIDDLE TEMPLE 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 FOURTH AVENUE & SOth STREET, NEW YORK 
 1910 
 
 ^^■1— iW*^ 
 
Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, 
 
 bread street hill, e.c., and 
 
 bungay, suffolk. 
 
 / 
 
 iJ, SX'^^ 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The writer, in this book, has endeavoured to tell the 
 Story of Japan from the creation to the accession of the 
 present Emperor, when Old Japan — the Japan of feudal- 
 ism and seclusion — may be said to have come to an end 
 and a new nation to have been born, which was destined 
 to startle the world by a wondrous display of military, 
 legislative and industrial progress. 
 
 There are many Histories of Japan by English or 
 American writers, and in the works of Kaempfer, — 
 translated from the German— Dickson, Adams, Griffis 
 and Murray abundant material will be found by those 
 who desire to form more than a general acquaintance 
 with the subject. Those who desire to extend their 
 inquiries still further, to acquire an esoteric knowledge 
 of special periods, personages, or great political or 
 economic movements, will find a storehouse closely 
 pfl.cked with golden treasures of information in the 
 Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, every 
 volume of which contains able monographs by scholarly 
 experts who have investigated in Japan the varied 
 subjects with which they deal. Above all, they will find 
 the beliefs, held by the Japanese themselves, faithfully 
 mirrored in the exact translations of native classics, 
 which have been made by Satow, Aston, and Chamber- 
 lain, the three great English scholars, whose knowledge 
 of the Japanese language and literature does not fa,ll 
 below that of the most accomplished Japanese literati. 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 All these works, whether histories, monographs or trans- 
 lations, are for the serious student, rather than for the 
 lay reader, who, without leisure for painstaking studies, 
 may still desire to possess some knowledge of the inter- 
 esting mythology and history of a country that is now 
 playing so great a part in the theatre of the world,, that 
 is bound to our own by close political and commercial 
 ties. It has been the aim of the present writer to supply 
 this deficiency and to provide a narrative, in logical 
 sequence, of all the great periods in Japanese history, 
 written in a style which will render its perusal no greater 
 task than that of an ordinary novel, to tell, in fact, " The 
 Story " of Japan throughout the long ages of ■ the past, 
 just as the novelist tells the story of his own heroes and 
 their lives. An attempt has been already made to tell 
 this story in an even more concise manner in a series of 
 articles in the Nineteenth Century and After. It was the 
 interest which, the writer found, was aroused by these 
 articles among his own associates that tempted him to 
 use the wealth of material that was at his disposal and 
 his own knowledge to extend the articles into the present 
 volume. 
 
 Its nature has left little scope for original writing. 
 The story of the Mythology and the Dark Ages has been 
 taken principally from Chamberlain's and Aston 's 
 exhaustive translations of the Kojiki and ihe Nihongi, 
 the former published in the Transactions of the Asiatic 
 Society of Japan, the latter in those of the Japan Society 
 of London. The circumstances of the latter society do 
 not render its transactions so valuable a source of 
 original information as are those of the former — except 
 in the papers contributed by its Japanese members, by 
 members who are also contributors to the Asiatic Society 
 of Japan, and in those dealing with the arts of Japan, 
 which are written by the best experts in England — but 
 the society would have amply justified its existence, even 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 to the most exacting historical or sociological critic, had / 
 it done nothing else but publish Dr. Aston's translation. 
 The story of the Minamoto and H5j6 periods has been 
 condensed from Satow's translations of fragments of the , 
 Nihon Guaishi, which were published in the columns of ' 
 the Japan Mail far back in the seventies of the last 
 century, of which there are very few files now in exist- / 
 ence, and those that are accessible only to a very 
 limited number of investigators. All these translations 
 repeat the intense minuteness which characterizes the « 
 origyials, in which the native writers may almost be 
 said to have revelled, and that minuteness, as well as the 
 multiplicity of Japanese names that are recorded with 
 not much greater attempt at literary grace than might 
 be found in an auctioneer's catalogue, renders the task 
 of extracting the pearls of legend and history that are « 
 hidden beneath their unattractive shells, far too weari- 
 some and bewildering to be undertaken by any but 
 earnest and laborious students. The story of the periods 
 of the Ashifeagas, of Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and the 
 early Tokugawas, of Christianity and Foreign Inter- 
 course has been taken principally from monographs in 
 the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan : from 
 the History of the Church in Japan, the record of the 
 work of the early missionaries of the Roman Catholic 
 Church, published in London in the year 1707, of which 
 there are now very few copies in existence : from the 
 diaries of Cocks and Saris, issued by the Hakluyt 
 Society : from Kaempfer's History of Japan : and from 
 Satow's translation of the Genji Yume Monogatari, 
 "Story of the Dream of Genji," which was published in • 
 the same manner and at the same period as his trans- 
 lations of the Nihon Guaishi. A full list of all the works 
 which have been consulted is given in the appendix. 
 
 While making these works the basic material of the 
 present volume, the writer has also largely availed him- 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 self of the knowledge and experience which he acquired 
 
 i during thirty-three years' official residence in Japan, 
 dating from a time antecedent to the abolition of 
 feudalism, with all its outward picturesqueness and 
 romance, when Old Japan was not yet dead, to one but 
 little prior to the Russian War, when New Japan was 
 already acknowledged as one of the Great Powers of 
 the world. During those years, he visited or resided 
 
 V in every part of the Empire from the Kurile Islands to 
 Southern Formosa — the north-west coast of the Main 
 Island alone excepted — always studying as he did so the 
 national and voluminous series of guides to the cele- 
 brated places in each district — and he may^venture to say 
 that there is not one historic spot mentioned in the 
 
 ^ volume on which his feet have not trod, once at least and 
 in some cases many times. He has examined the alleged 
 site of every battle-field; drunk from the spring from 
 which Yamato Dake refreshed himself and climbed the 
 mountain on which he met his death-chill ; rested on the 
 "pillar of the Island" in Awaji, and seen the notices ♦ 
 that still existed on the' gateways of Desima, when he 
 first visited Nagasaki, forbidding under dire penalties 
 ■* intercourse with the imprisoned Dutchmen. He was 
 also throughout all his career a constant student of 
 Japanese literature, and has read, more or less com- 
 pletely, several of the most popular native historical 
 works that have not been translated into English, while 
 he has also studied in the originals both the Kojiki and / 
 the Nihon Guaishi, the published translations of which 
 he has freely used in this volume. He has thus imbibed, 
 in some degree, the spirit of the originals in a way that 
 
 * no translation, no matter how scholarly or faithful, 
 would have enabled him to do. His hope is that he may 
 now succeed in furnishing an easy medium of acquiring 
 a knowledge of the events and traditions of Japanese 
 History which, if not exhaustive, will be correct ; which 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 will explain the motifs of many of the greatest works "^ 
 of Japanese pictorial and glyptic art, and will add to the 
 pleasure of those, whose good fortune it may be to visit 
 Japan, in the same way that an elementary knowledge 
 of English History adds to the sightseer's enjoyment 
 of his first impressions of Westminster Abbey and the 
 Tower of London, or to the foreigner's appreciation of 
 Great Britain and its people ; above all, which will make 
 English readers better acquainted, than their oppor- 
 tunities have hitherto permitted them to be, with the 
 foundations of the national character of a great people. • 
 
 The Temple, 
 June 25, 1910. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I THE COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 
 
 II MYTHOLOGY .... 
 
 III THE DARK AGES 
 
 IV THE DAWN OF HISTORY . 
 V NARA, HEIAN AND THE FUJIWARA 
 
 VI THE RISE OF THE TAIRA . 
 
 VH YORITOMO AND THE GEM-PEI WAR 
 
 VIII THE HOJO USURPERS 
 
 IX THE ASHIKAGA SHOGUNS . 
 
 X NOBUNAGA — THE BUDDHIST PERSECUTOR 
 
 XI HIDEYOSHI AND THE UNIFICATION OF THE EMPIRE 
 
 XII lYEYASU — FOUNDER OF THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNATE 
 
 XIII CHRISTIANITY TO THE FIRST PERSECUTION 
 
 XIV CHRISTIANITY TO THE SECOND PERSECUTION 
 
 XV EUROPEAN TRADE AND INTERCOURSE 
 
 XVI THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNS 
 
 XVII THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 I CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF EMPERORS 
 
 II THE DYNASTIES OF THE SHOGUNS 
 
 III LIST OF PROVINCES . 
 
 IV THE LAWS OF SHOTOKU DAISHI 
 
 V THE LEGACY OF lYEYASU 
 VI LIST OF AUTHORITIES CONSULTED 
 
 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 24 
 51 
 71 
 81 
 
 102 
 
 165 
 178 
 205 
 227 
 249 
 
 3" 
 
 351 
 364 
 368 
 
 371 
 
 375 
 400 
 
 403 
 
THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 
 
 The Empire of Japan — the Land of the Rising Sun — 
 occupies on the east coast of the continent of Asia a 
 position somewhat analogous to that of Great Britain 
 on the west coast of Europe. It consists of about six 
 hundred inhabited islands — the whole number of islands 
 is said to be quite three thousand, but in this total barren 
 rocks are included — and these islands, including 
 Sakhalin in the north and Formosa in the south, both 
 very recent acquisitions, form the arc of a circle opening 
 towards the continent in a long, narrow and continuous 
 chain from 21° 48' to 50° 56' North latitude, or, to take 
 approximate parallels in the West, from about the 
 latitude of the Cape Verde Islands to that of the south 
 of England. Their total area is about equal to that of 
 the German Empire, and they are inhabited by a 
 population of fifty-two million people. Both in the 
 extreme north and in the south — excluding the two 
 recent acquisitions — the islands closely approach the 
 continent. The most northern of the Kurile Islands 
 (called by the Japanese Chishima, or the Myriad Isles) 
 is but a little way separated from the peninsula of 
 Kamchatka and the Island of Kiushiu, the most 
 southern of the principal islands^ by a not much greater 
 distance from Korea. 
 
2 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 The four principal islands, in order of size, are known 
 as Hondo or Honshiu (Main land or Main country), 
 Hokkaido (North Sea District — formerly called and still 
 marked on English maps Yezo), Kiushiu (Nine Pro- 
 vinces) and Shikoku (Four Provinces). The main island 
 runs from north to south for a distance of about 590 
 miles, and then, bending towards the west, from east 
 to west for about 540 miles, its total length being, there- 
 fore, 1,130 miles. For a great part of its length its 
 width is not more than 100 miles, and, at its greatest, it 
 , nowhere exceeds 200 miles. Its area is over 86,000 
 square miles. North of the main island is Hokkaido 
 (Yezo), 350 miles in length by 280 in width, with a 
 total area somewhat less than that of Ireland. South of 
 the western extremity of the main island — separated from 
 . it by the narrow Straits of Shimonoseki — is Kiushiu, so 
 * called from the fact that until the redistribution of 
 territorial districts under the present Emperor it was 
 divided into nine provinces, 200 miles in length and 
 varying from 60 to 90 miles in width, with an area of 
 nearly 14,000 square miles. The last of the principal 
 islands is Shikoku — called for the same reason as 
 Kiushiu, koku and shiu being synonymous terms, both 
 of which are derived from the Chinese and both alike 
 signify province — which lies between the north-east of 
 Kiushiu and the south-east extremity of the main island. 
 Its area is almost exactly half that of Kiushiu, and it is 
 about 170 miles in length by about 95 miles in breadth 
 at its widest point. Excluding Sakhalin and Formosa, 
 which need not be taken into consideration for the 
 purposes of the present work, there are five other fairly 
 large islands, Sado, Oki and Iki on the west coast, 
 Tsushima in the Straits of Korea, midway between 
 Kiushiu and Korea, and Awaji, between Shikoku and 
 the main island. All these islands, exclusive of Hok- 
 kaido, which, down to a modern period in Japanese 
 
THE COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 3 
 
 history, was uncolonized, almost a terra incognita,^ 
 constituted the eight great islands of Japan which are 
 frequently mentioned in Japanese history. 
 
 All the islands are mountainous in the extreme, 
 scarcely less so than Switzerland. Except in the east 
 and north of Honshiu, there are no great plains. The 
 mountains are not so high as those of Switzerland, none * 
 are covered with eternal snow, but they are everywhere, 
 rising steeply from the seashore and sharply alternating 
 with deep valleys, both mountains and valleys being 
 thickly "wooded with evergreen trees, whose varied tints 
 in spring and autumn convey indescribable charms of 
 softness and beauty to all the land. No country in the </ 
 world has a greater wealth of foliage, none more beauti- 
 ful flowering trees, in none are the hillsides decked with 
 more brilliant wild flowers or flowering shrubs that 
 spring spontaneously from the turf, and all combine to 
 make the landscapes, varied as they are by glimpses of '~ 
 islet-studded seas of azure blue, scenes of romantic 
 beauty that are at once the joy and despair of the artist. 
 ■'The terror of nature is only less well known than its 
 loveliness. Among the mountains many are volcanoes, 
 many of which are still in the full career of their active 
 lives. Earthquakes are frequent, and often terribly 
 destructive both to life and property. Tidal waves have •' 
 created devastation on the coasts at what, in the lifetime 
 of a nation, are not very distant intervals, and the seas 
 around the southern islands are among the roughest in . 
 the world, and are swept by storms of which those who 
 only know the Western seas can form but a faint con- 
 ception ; while in the north they are liable to fogs of a » 
 density that would appal a Newfoundland fisherman. 
 
 The original inhabitants of these lovely islands, the 
 
 1 It will be only once even incidentally mentioned in our story, and 
 that will be in connection with the Jesuits who established a mission 
 there. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 people who inhabited them before the dawn of history, 
 are now represented only by a few thousand souls 
 scattered through the northern island, who constitute 
 the sole surviving remnants of a people that once spread 
 itself over the whole of the Japanese archipelago. The 
 Ainu, as they are called, probably came from the north 
 of Asia by way of Kamchatka and the Kurile Islands, 
 and gradually made their way southwards. Traces are 
 also found of another race, which has wholly dis- 
 appeared, that livedTeveli before the Ainu, but continued 
 to exist during their occupation, to whom the name of 
 Cave Dwellers was given by the early Japanese his- 
 torians, whose dwellings were either natural caves or 
 pits hollowed in the earth by themselves. The Ainu are 
 still a race of savages, ignorant, dirty in their habits, 
 drunken, without a written language, without any system 
 of religion beyond the worship of nature; without even 
 a primitive art, mere hunters and fishers, using in their 
 hunting and fishing the same rude implements that their 
 ancestors used two thousand years ago. They possess 
 the savage qualities of bravery, honesty and faithfulness 
 combined with the abject submission and deprecating 
 timidity which are characteristic of a conquered people 
 who have for ages been in the grip of tyrannical task- 
 masters. Physically they are strong, though of low 
 stature, and well made ; and the men are, perhaps, of all 
 human animals on the face of the earth those whose 
 bodies are the most covered with hair. Not only have 
 they, without exception, long, bushy beards, growing 
 down below the chest, but all their bodies and limbs are 
 covered with a coating of hair that is neither thin nor 
 scattered, which vividly contrasts with the smooth and 
 clean faces of the modern Japanese. This physical 
 quality has led the latter to associate their name with 
 inu — a dog — ^though its real meaning in their own 
 language is "men." 
 
THE COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 5 
 
 Two great invasions of the islands of Japan occurred 
 while they were still in the occupation of the Ainu, and ^' 
 it is from the colonists who settled in Japan after these 
 invasions that the present race of Japanese is descended. 
 Geographical conditions combine with history, or rather 
 mythology, to invest with more than mere plausibility 
 the commonly accepted beliefs in the actual occurrences 
 of these migrations. It will be seen from the subsequent 
 chapters in this book that the earliest so-called historical 
 records relate to two widely separated parts of the 
 Empire — to the province of Izumo on the south-west 
 coast of the main island directly facing Korea, and to the 
 province of Hiuga on the east coast of Kiushiu. It was 
 in these provinces that the first invading armies of 
 colonists landed. Izumo is not the nearest point to 
 Korea, but it is still near, while the shores of Hiuga are 
 washed by the Kuro Siwo (Black Brine) — the Gulf 
 Stream of the Pacific — which flows in a steady current, 
 acquiring greater rapidity as it passes the south of Japan, 
 from the equator, past Formosa and the Liukiu Islands, 
 until it strikes the south of Kiushiu. Thence it passes 
 along the whole eastern coast of Japan as far as a latitude 
 somewhat south of the Bay of Sendai, where it branches 
 off into the Pacific towards the continent of America. 
 The first immigrants landed in Izumo, having come by ' 
 way of Korea from the central plateau of Siberia. The 
 second, who arrived long after the first, came from a 
 more southern part of the continent by way of Formosa, '' 
 whence, with the help of the Kuro Siwo, they could 
 easily reach Japan. Some authorities have endeavoured 
 to show that these immigrants were of Malay origin, ' 
 and have found marked similarities in both the physical 
 and mental characteristics of the modern Malays and 
 Japanese to support their theories. While, however, 
 they undoubtedly acquired a strong Malay element in i 
 their southern wanderings, the fact that when the two 
 
6 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 \ colonies at last met their languages and customs were 
 ■' so similar that no difficulty was experienced in the 
 amalgamation of the two shows that the origin of the 
 preponderating elements of the second must be found 
 in thesame race as that of the first. They easily united 
 into one^ people, and, as among colonists of all ages, 
 women have always been in a great minority to men, 
 as it is only the chiefs of the expedition that can or are 
 permitted to bring their wives with them, the lower ranks 
 of the colonists no doubt sought wives among and 
 
 * largely intermarried with the Ainu, however much they 
 may have despised the latter as savage barbarians. 
 
 From these immigrants the modern Japanese are 
 descended, and though all have been fused into one 
 homogeneous whole, they present to this day well- 
 
 * marked physical characteristics which recall the different 
 sources from which they have sprung. The higher 
 classes, who are of the pure blood of the original 
 immigrants, who by the interdiction, under the iron 
 
 ^ restrictions of a rigid feudalism, of intermarriage with 
 their countrymen of lower degree have preserved that 
 blood pure and unmixed, are characterized by taller 
 
 ''- stature and complexions that sometimes rival European 
 
 Jfairness, by more slender waists, longer legs and 
 
 I smaller hands and feet than are found among their 
 
 inferiors; by oval faces, straight or aquiline noses, 
 
 (Oblique eyes set jn deep sockets, with long eyelids and 
 
 jhigh and narrow foreheads; by small mouths with 
 
 ^ delicate lips ; all combining to present us with the inm^ 
 
 * lectual, refined and aristocratic types that are invariably 
 represented in Japanese paintings. All these character- 
 istics are less, pronounced in the men of modern days 
 
 ■^ than in the women. The lower classes, especially the 
 agricultural and labouring, who are of mixed descent, in 
 some instances even of unmixed Ainu descent, are 
 marked by squat figures, with legs short in proportion 
 
THE COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 7 
 
 to the stature, by round, flat faces in which the eyes are '' 
 set almost on a level with the face, with noses broad at 
 the bases and upturning so as to expose the nostrils and -^ 
 large, coarse mouths and heavy lips. All classes with- 
 out distinction have the yellow skin of the Mongolians, 
 straight and coarse black hair, without a vestige of curl, i 
 and prominent cheek-bones. 
 
 Whatever their physical differences are, all Japanese 
 have the same moral qualities, qualities which have 
 marked them throughout the whole period of their 
 authentic history, which have only been modified in the 
 present day by their contact with Western civilization 
 to a degree that is almost imperceptible. Punctilious 
 courtesy, which never fails in tact or politeness ; courage / 
 that knows no more fear of physical pain or death than 
 did that of the ancient Greeks and Romans ; the strictest 
 personal cleanliness, are all qualities which impress even 
 the dullest who come in contact with them. They are 
 impetuous in spirit. They have great powers of endur- 
 ance, whether of heat or cold or long, protracted physical 
 effort. They are unflaggingly industrious, but their 
 highest essays, mental and physical, are often followed r 
 by long periods of mental and physical apathy. Trutb, 
 charityjL_sobriety, and chas^ty in the male, are not y 
 among their virtues? Of cruelty they are scarcelyjcon- 
 scious. To children and household pets they are 
 infinitely tender. To domestic animals used for the 
 purposes of food or draught they are equally, though ^ 
 unconsciously, bruta l. No people in the world are such 
 lovers "o? ^nature in its softer aspects. Flowers, 
 patriarchal trees of majestic grandeur, smiling land or 
 seascapes, the autumn moon reflected on a cloudless 
 night in the placid waters of a lake nestling amid pine- 
 clad hills; trees whose branches are bending beneath a 
 burthen of snow; flocks of wild geese alighting on a 
 desolate shore; all these are not only the subjects of 
 
8 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 poets' songs, but the excuse in their own particular 
 
 seasons for pleasure parties and picnics of all classes, and 
 
 are, even to the lowest labouring classes, as much a 
 
 source of enjoyment as the final tie of the football season 
 
 is to the Lancashire or Yorkshire operative. Japanese 
 
 -V j find their chief source of pleasure in the United Kingdom 
 
 I in the luxurious beauty of Killarney, the Clieveden 
 
 I reaches of the Thames, a snow scene in Richmond Park, 
 
 I a homeward flight of noisy rooks, hawthorn hedges or 
 
 \ may trees, or laburnums ' in the full bloom of the early 
 
 ^ summer. All these appeal strongly to their senses of 
 
 Eesthetic beauty. What we call grand or impressiye 
 
 " scenery e^sercises no influence on them. They go to see 
 
 the rugged hills of Scotland and its gloomy lakes because 
 
 they are told to do so, but they no more affect their sense 
 
 " of beauty than does the Tay bridge. The towering cliffs 
 
 of Western Ireland, beaten by the huge Atlantic rollers, 
 
 might be a subject of awe, but not of joy or pleasure. 
 
 jjf\ The rnasses of bedded flowers in the London parks seem 
 
 1 to them only vulgar and garish, utterly wanting in all 
 
 j the most striking attributes of real beauty. 
 
 The art of writing was not introduced into Japan until 
 
 the beginning of the fifth century of the Christian era. 
 
 , Prior to that time, oral tradition was the sole medium 
 
 "^of preserving history and legends, and yet the Japanese 
 
 claim that their authentic national history begins in the 
 
 -^ ^ year 660 B.C., and they place the same degree of implicit 
 
 ' faith, not only in their early history, but in the story of 
 
 creation, thousands of years prior to this date, in all the 
 
 supernatural events that followed the creation and in 
 
 the superhuman personages who took part in these 
 
 ' The present writer once served at Hakodate. His predecessor 
 who was an enthusiastic gardener, imported and planted, in the Con- 
 sulate grounds, a large number of laburnums, which, like all English 
 plants and trees in that northern climate, throve and flourished. When 
 
 . they were in full bloom many hundreds of Japanese of all classes from 
 
 I all round used daily to come and admire them. 
 
THE COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE 9 
 
 events, that we do in our own biblical narrative. Early 
 in the eighth century of the Christian era, two historical 
 works were completed after more than thirty years' 
 preparation. The art of writing had then been known 
 for nearly three hundred years, and written history and « 
 legends were already in existence. The written court 
 records had been regularly kept during that period. No 
 use was made of the written materials that were available ' 
 in the preparation of the " Kojiki " (" Records of Ancient 
 Matters "), the first of the two historical works, the 
 contents of which were transcribed from the dictation of 
 one person, whose knowledge and powers of memory 
 were such that they enabled him to carry in his own mind 
 the whole of the long and, in many parts, minutely 
 detailed narrative. The "Nihongi" ("Chronicles of 
 Japan "), the second of these works, completed eight 
 years after the first, was compiled from all the written 
 works that were available at the time, though the 
 ultimate source of its contents as far as they relate 
 to the centuries prior to the introduction of writing 
 was also only oral tradition. The "Nihongi" is of 
 similar scope, but, as might be expected, much fuller 
 than the "Kojiki," descending in many places into 
 details that may justly be criticized as meticulous when * 
 mentioned in an historical work of national dignity, and 
 assigning precise dates not only to great events, but to 
 some of the smallest that can occur in human daily life. 
 It is scarcely necessary to say that no credence whatever 
 can be given to these dates. They have" been proved 
 by research in the contemporaneous records of China, 
 whose earlier civilization and authentic literature invests 
 its history with a degree of reliability to which that of <^ 
 Japan can lay no rational claim, to be utterly wrong . 
 where they relate to international incidents which 
 occurred after the art of writing had become known to • 
 the Japanese. Much less faith can, therefore, be given 
 
10 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 to the dates of events, the recollection of which was only 
 i preserved through centuries in the memories of those 
 * who heard them from the lips of their fathers and told 
 them to their sons. The events themselves, once the 
 period of pure mythology is passed, though often dis- 
 figured by the wildest romance and fable, may be 
 ; assumed, without any excessive exercise of credulity, 
 ^ to have had some original foundation of reality not less 
 positive than that which attaches to the stories of the 
 Trojan War or the founding of Rome. The "Kojiki" 
 and "Nihongi" are the Bibles of Japan. In them is 
 described the foundation upon which the national 
 religion has been built, and their contents are accepted 
 by the Japanese of all degrees of rank and intelligence 
 with i mplicit and unquestionin g faith ; with a faith that 
 modern scepticism has not beerT'abTe to shake; that is 
 still the basis of their loyalty , patriotism and pride ; with 
 the same faith as that with which the majority of 
 Christians cling to the Bible narratives of the Creation 
 and the Deluge. The "Nihongi" carries its narrative to 
 a period two hundred years later than does the " Kojiki." 
 In summarizing the contents of both, it will be con- 
 venient to divide them into t hree parts ; the purely 
 mythological treating of the creation, the legends of 
 the gods, and the divine descent of the first Emperor; 
 the dark ages, the primitive period of history extending 
 from the foundation of the Empire to the introduction of 
 the first elements of Chinese civilization, the memory of 
 which was originally preserved by oral tradition, which 
 is therefore rather legend than history; and ancient 
 histoty, that of the period from the introduction of 
 Chinese civilization to the founding of the capital at 
 Nara, which, though not wholly wanting in fabulous 
 incidents, may, in the main, be taken as authentic. 
 
 V 
 
 i 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 MYTHOLOGY 
 
 " Of old Heaven and Earth were not separated. They 
 formed a chaotic mass, the purer and transparent part 
 of which rose up and formed Heaven, while the heavier 
 and opaque settled downwards and became the Earth. 
 The finer element easily became united, but the con- 
 solidation of the heavier was slow and difficult. Heaven 
 was therefore formed first and the Earth afterwards. 
 Between Heaven and Earth a thing sprang up like a 
 reed shoot which became transformed into a God." ^ 
 Four other Gods followed, all spontaneously created. 
 These five Gods are called the " Heavenly Deities," and 
 all died. They were succeeded by seven generations of 
 Gods who were called the "Seven Divine Generations." 
 The first' two generations were like the "Heavenly 
 Deities," solitary males; the last five each consisted of 
 one pair of brothers and sisters, so that the five genera- 
 tions included ten deities. The last pair were Izanagi 
 and Izanami. They were ordered by the other Deities 
 to "make, consolidate and give birth to the floating 
 land." So they stood on the floating bridge of Heaven 
 (Ama no Uki Bashi), and, thrusting down the jewel 
 spear of Heaven which had been given to them by the 
 Deities, they found the Ocean. As they drew back the 
 spear "the brine which dripped down from its end was 
 piled up and became an island. This is the Island of 
 Onogoro," a name which, to the present day, is given 
 
 ^ These are the opening words of the " Nihongi." 
 II 
 
12 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 to a hill that stands on the Island of Awaji, rising from 
 i the plains as an island from the sea. Either Awaj'i 
 * itself or some of the islets on its coast is the Onogoro 
 Island that was the first part of Japan, and therefore of 
 the whole Earth, to be created by the Gods. Having 
 created the Island, the two Deities descended and dwelt 
 in it. 
 
 "Accordingly they wished to become husband and wife. 
 So they made Onogorojima the pillar of the centre of the 
 land. Now the male Deity turning to the left and the female 
 to the right, they went round the pillar of the land separately. 
 When they met together on one side, the female Deity spoke 
 first and said : ' How delightful ! I have met with a lovely 
 youth. ' The male Deity was displeased, and said : ' I am a 
 man, and by right should have spoken first. How is it that, 
 on the contrary, thou, a woman, should have been the first 
 to speak? This was unlucky. Let us go round again.' 
 Upon this the two Deities went back and, having met anew, 
 this time the male Deity spoke first and said : ' How 
 delightful ! I have met a lovely maiden. ' " 
 
 The Deities then became husband and wife, having 
 learned what love is from two wagtails who flew to the 
 spot where they were. The place where they first 
 descended is still shown in Awaji, and near it is a 
 *• stone still called the "Wagtail Stone," on which the 
 wagtails are said to have lighted. In memory of the 
 incident, a pair_ijf wagtails still forms part of the table 
 .decQratiqn^of every marriage feast. 
 
 From the marriage of the two' Deities sprang the 
 ' other principal islands of Japan. Excluding Yezo, 
 which was geographically unknown when the Chronicles 
 ' were compiled, they were eight in number. Having 
 produced the Islands, they said, "Why should we not 
 produce some one who shall be lord of the Universe ? " 
 SoThey produced the Sun Goddess and the Moon God, 
 both so radiantly beautiful that they were straightway 
 sent up to Heaven, the Sun Goddess to "rule the plain 
 
 ^ 
 
MYTHOLOGY 13 
 
 of High Heaven," and the Moon God to be her consort 
 and to rule the Dominion of Night. They next pro- 
 duced Hiru Ko, or the leech child, and Susa-no-O, the ■* 
 God of Storms. The former could not stand upright 
 even at the age of three years, "so he was placed in the , 
 rock-camphor wood boat and abandoned to the winds." , " 
 Susa-no-O was given the charge of ruling the Sea plain. P 
 He had a fierce temper and a cruerdisposition, and, in 
 addition, was given to weeping and wailing. 
 
 "The fashion of his weeping was such as to wither the 
 green mountains and to dry up all rivers and seas. Many 
 people of the land came to an untimely end and every portent 
 of woe arose. So his parents expelled him with a divine # 
 expulsion to the Nether Land." 
 
 The last of many other Deities produced by them — 
 the total number of all was thirty-five — was the God of 
 Fire, in giving birth to whom the Goddess was so 
 burnt that she "divinely retired" (died). Izanagi be- 
 wailed her loss, saying, "Oh, that I should have given 
 my beloved sister in exchange for a single child." 
 Then wishing to meet her once more, he followed her to 
 the Land of Night, and, when she came forth to the 
 gate to meet him, he prayed her to return. She told 
 him not to look upon her until she had consulted the 
 Deity of Hades. Orpheus-like, in his impatience, he 
 violated her injunction, and, breaking a tooth from his 
 comb, he made a torch of it so that he might see her. 
 Putrefaction had already seized her, and, horrified at the 
 sight, he fled back from the foul place. 
 
 Izanami was angry, and said, "Why didst thou not 
 observe that which I charged thee? Now I am put to 
 shame." So she sent the "eight ugly females of the 
 Land of Night " to pursue him and slay him, 
 
 "As he fled, he took his black head-dress and flung it 
 down. It became changed into grapes, which the ugly 
 
14 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 females seeing, took and ate. When they had finished eat- 
 ing they again pursued him. Then he flung down his many- 
 toothed comb, which forthwith became changed into bamboo 
 shoots. The ugly females pulled them up and ate them, 
 and, when they had done eating them, they again gave 
 chase. Afterwards Izanami came to herself and pursued 
 him. By this time Izanagi had reached the even pass of 
 Yomi (the land of darkness)." 
 
 Then he took a rock large enough to require a 
 thousand men to move it, and with it he blocked up the 
 pass, and, having thus barred further pursuit, he pro- 
 nounced the formula of divorce. So Izanami became 
 one of the great Deities of Hades, while Izanagi, his 
 task of begetting both the Islands of Japan and the 
 Gods to rule over them being accomplished, ascended to 
 Heaven and dwelt in the smaller palace of the Sun. 
 
 Of the first three children born to Izanagi, only the 
 
 Sun Goddess and Susa-no-O continue to appear in the 
 
 , subsequent legends. The Moon God is no more heard 
 
 1 of — a curious fact, seeing that there is no object in 
 
 ' nature that is more frequently glorified by poets, or that 
 
 : is looked upon with greater admiration by even the 
 
 ' dullest and most ignorant country clown. The Sun, 
 
 the ancestress of the Japanese nation, the divine 
 
 *^ Goddess, is rarely appealed to by poets, the stars never, 
 
 while the moon is constantly called upon to rejoice in 
 
 the happiness of lovers or to sympathize with the 
 
 sorrows of the unfortunate. 
 
 After his expulsion, Susa-no-O appealed for permis- 
 sion to go for a short time to the Plain of the High 
 Heaven to meet once more his elder sister before parting 
 with her for ever. The permission was given, but his 
 visit was anything but a welcome one to the Sun 
 Goddess. She knew of his wickedness and violence; 
 she was startled and changed countenance when she 
 heard of his coming. Her fears were justified, and her 
 
MYTHOLOGY 15 
 
 brother's conduct while in Heaven was more than 
 worthy of his reputation. In the spring, when the rice ^ 
 seeds were sown, he broke down the fences of her fields ; 
 and in the autumn, when the grain was ripe, he let loose 
 the piebald colts of Heaven to trample it. He defiled 
 the hew palace in which she was about to celebrate 
 the harvest festival; breaking a hole in the roof of the 
 hall in which she was seeing to the weaving of the 
 august garments of the Deities, he flung into it a 
 "heavenly piebald horse which he had flayed with a 
 backward flaying." Some of the women who were ■* 
 weaving died of fright, and the Goddess herself, start- 
 ing with alarm, was injured with a shuttle. Terrified 
 and indignant, she took refuge and secluded herself in 
 the Rock Cave of Heaven. Eternal night prevailed 
 both in Heaven and on Earth, and everywhere there 
 were portents of woe. The other Deities took counsel 
 together, and, on the advice of the God " Thought-Corn- ' 
 biner," they made an eight-hand mirror, a rosary of 
 five hundred jewels, together with blue and white offer- 
 ings of cloth, and hung them on a sakaki tree of five 
 hundred branches, which they planted before the Cave 
 door. Then Ama no Uzume, the "Terrible Goddess 
 of Heaven," performed music and a dance before the 
 door, while a laudatory liturgy was recited by another • 
 God, Ama tsu Koyane, the God of the small roof in 
 Heaven, and the Sun Goddess, hearing both the sound 
 of the dance and of the merriment of the onlooking 
 Deities who were laughing at it, and the beautiful lan- 
 guage of the liturgy, wondered why there should be 
 such happiness in Heaven while she was shut in the 
 Cave, and from within the Cave she asked the reason 
 of it. Uzume answered and said that they rejoiced 
 because they had got a Deity more beautiful than her- » 
 self. So she opened the door slightly and peeped 
 forth. Then the mirror was shown to her, upon which 
 
16 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 she gazed with astonishment at her own beautiful reflec- 
 tion, and, as she did so, she stepped out of the Cave, 
 whereupon one of the Gods, who was hiding near, took 
 her by the hand and led her out, and another tied a 
 straw rope across the entrance and said to her, "Thou 
 must not go back further than this." Her radiance 
 once more filled the Universe, and all the Gods were 
 glad. 
 
 Susa-no-O was for his misdeeds finally banished from 
 Heaven and descended to Earth at Izumo. There he 
 rescued a maiden named Mota Hime from a serpent 
 with eight heads and eight ' tails, who had already 
 devoured her seven sisters, and now threatened her with 
 the same fate. 
 
 "The serpent had eight heads and eight tails. Its eyes 
 were red like the winter cherry and, as it crawled, it 
 extended over eight hills and eight valleys. Eight tubs of 
 liquor were brewed and set ready for it, and when it came, 
 each head drank from one tub until it became drunk and fell 
 asleep. Then the God chopped it into little pieces, but, as 
 he cut the tail, the edge of his sword was notched. He 
 therefore split open the tail and examined it, and found that 
 there was a sword within it. He said : ' This is a divine 
 sword. How can I presume to appropriate it to myself? ' 
 So he gave it to the Gods of Heaven." 
 
 This is the two-handled sword, first called the "cloud 
 assembling sword of Heaven," and afterwards "the 
 grass mower." It is made of steel, double edged, 
 straight in shape, a little over two feet long, and en- 
 graved on both sides with figures of the stars. This 
 sword, with the mirror by which the Sun Goddess was 
 enticed from her Cave, and the rosary of jewels — three 
 crescent-shaped agates, one red, one white and one blue 
 — which was hung on the sakaki tree before the door of 
 the Cave, constitute the Imperial Regalia of Japan. The 
 sword is still preserved at the temple of Atsuta, a few 
 miles from the great city of Nagoya on the Tokaido; 
 
MYTHOLOGY 17 
 
 the mirror at the shrines of Ise; and copies of the 
 sword and mirror and the original rosary in the Imperial 
 palace at Tokio. They symbolize courage, knowledge • 
 and mercy, the necessary attributes of a great sovereign, 
 of whose divine rights the Regalia are the outward 
 manifestation. 
 
 The rescued maiden became Susa-no-O's wife, but 
 she was not alone in that position, and it was from 
 another wife that, in the eighth generation, a God 
 called Onamuji descended. The latter had eighty 
 brothers, all of whom wished to marry the Princess 
 Inaba. So they went together to Inaba, taking with 
 them Onamuji as their attendant, and forcing him to 
 carry the bag. On their way they came across a naked 
 hare which was lying on the ground weeping, and they 
 told it to bathe in the sea and then dry itself in the 
 wind. But, when the hare had done so, the skin of its 
 body cracked as the sea water dried on it, so that its 
 pain was worse and it wept more than ever. Then 
 Onamuji came after his brothers had all passed, and 
 asked, " Why art thou weeping ? " And the hare 
 replied — 
 
 "I was in the Island of Oki, and wished to cross over to 
 this land, but had no means of crossing over. For this 
 reason I deceived the crocodiles of the sea, saying : ' Let 
 you and me compete, and compute the numbers of our 
 (respective) tribes. So do you go and fetch every member 
 of your tribe, and make them all lie in a row across from 
 this island to Cape Keta. Then I will tread on them and 
 count them as I run across. Hereby we shall know whether 
 it or my tribe is the larger.' Upon my speaking thus, they 
 were deceived and lay down in a row, and I trod on them 
 and counted them as I came across, and was just about to 
 get on land when I said : ' You have been deceived by me. ' 
 And as soon as I had finished speaking, the crocodile who •* 
 lay the last of all seized me and stripped off all my clothing. 
 As I was weeping and lamenting for this reason, the eighty 
 Deities who went by before (thee) commanded and exhorted 
 
18 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 me, saying : ' Bathe in the salt water, and lie down exposed 
 to the sun and wind.' So, on my doing as they had 
 instructed me, my whole body was hurt." 
 
 Onamuji told the hare to bathe in the fresh water of 
 the river, and to gather and spread out the pollen of 
 the sedges and roll about on it. When it had done so, 
 its body became whole again, and, in gratitude, it told 
 Onamuji that he and not his brothers should wed the 
 Princess. The hare was the White Hare of Inaba, 
 and its influence caused the Princess to prefer him to 
 his brethren. They were enraged, and made several 
 attempts to slay him. They told him that there was 
 a red_boar upon the mountain which he was to catch 
 when they~drove it down. But they heated red-hot a 
 *" great rock in the form of a boar and rolled it down, and 
 when Onamuji, who was waiting at the base, seized it, 
 he was burnt and died. But he was brought back to 
 , life by the intervention of the Gods. Then his brethren 
 \ enticed him to the mountains, and, having cleft and 
 placed a wedge in a large tree, they made him stand 
 \ in the cleft, and then took away the wedge, so that he 
 Ni was tortured to death. Again the Gods came to his 
 rescue and restored him. Other adventures followed, 
 but in the end he triumphed over all his brethren and 
 slew them, and then established himself as Okuninushi, 
 or Master of the Great Land, fixing his home at Izumo. 
 He married not only the Princess Inaba, but many 
 others, his amorous adventures being as numerous and as 
 varied as those of Jupiter. Once, when he was on the sea 
 coast, a human voice was heard from the sea. Nothing 
 could be seen at first; but, after a while, a dwarf, dressed 
 in the feathers of a wren, came floating in upon the 
 tide. Onamuji took him up and held him in the palm 
 of his hand. Wondering at his appearance, he sent a 
 messenger to report the matter to the Gods of Heaven. 
 Now when Taka-no-musubi, one of the Heavenly 
 
MYTHOLOGY 19 
 
 Deities, heard this, he said, "The children whom I have 
 produced number in all one thousand and five hundred. 
 Among them one was very wicked, and would not yield 
 compliance to my instructions. He slipped through ■^ 
 my fingers and fell. This must be that child, let him 
 be loved and nurtured." The dwarf was the God, Skuna 
 Bikona, a God who still occupies a prominent place in 
 the Shinto pantheon, and who is specially worshipped 
 in the temple of Kanda in Tokio. He became like a 
 brother to Onamuji, and the two were associated in 
 developing the land, in completing the work that was 
 begun by the first two Deities who had descended to the 
 Earth, but which had to be left unfinished by them 
 owing to Izanami's untimely death. 
 
 Onamuji was lord of the Great Land, but in it there 
 were evil Deities who "buzzed like flies," and he was 
 unable to maintain tranquillity, and the land was pain- 
 fully uproarious. So it was decided in the Council of 
 the Gods that met in the bed of the Tranquil River of 
 Heaven that his sovereignty should be taken from him, 
 and, at the advice of the God, Thought-Combiner, 
 whose sagacity had been previously proved, when the 
 Sun Goddess was enticed from her Cave, given to Niniji, 
 the grandson of the Sun Goddess. Ambassadors were 
 sent from Heaven to Earth to inform Onamuji of this 
 decision. Two were unsuccessful. The first, the most 
 heroic God of Heaven, at once fell beneath the influence 
 of Onamuji, and during three years brought back no '' 
 report. The second was the "Heavenly Young Prince," 
 who, before starting, received the gifts of a heavenly '' 
 deer-bow and feathered arrows; but he proved a worse 
 messenger than the first. The first was only negligent; 
 the second became an active traitor. He married the j 
 daughter of Niniji, and plotted to obtain the land, for | 
 himself. As eight years passed without bringing any I 
 report from him, a pheasant was sent to spy upon him. \ 
 c 2 
 
20 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 It perched on an acacia tree in front of his door, and its 
 cry was, "Why hast thou for eight years not made a 
 report on thy mission ? " The Heavenly Young Prince 
 being told that a bird of evil cry was on the tree, killed 
 it with one of the feathered arrows, and the arrow 
 having passed through the pheasant's breast, fiew 
 straight to Heaven, where it arrived stained with blood, 
 and was at once recognized. It was flung down to 
 Earth again, and, as it fell, it hit and killed the young 
 Prince, and the sound of his wife's weeping that was 
 wafted by the winds to Heaven told the Gods that he 
 was dead. Then two valiant Gods were sent as a final 
 embassy : Take-mika-dzuchi (the Brave Thunder) and 
 Futsu Nushi (the Snapping Master), both the sons of 
 Izanagi, born from the blood that dripped from his 
 sword when he slew the Fire God. Both the Gods 
 descended to Izumo, and there, sticking their swords 
 with the hilt downward in the earth, they sat cross- 
 
 ( legged QD, the points and demanded from Onamuji the 
 .surrender of his sovereignty. He yielded after con- 
 
 j sultation with his sons. The eldest was called back 
 from a fishing expedition, and, when told what had 
 happened, at once counselled his father to obey. He 
 then stepped on the side of his boat so as to capsize it, 
 and, with clasped hands, vanished into the sea. The 
 second son was not equally submissive. He met the 
 two Gods in anger, and, bearing on the tips of his 
 fingers a rock that only a thousand men could lift, he 
 challenged them to a trial of strength. He grasped 
 
 [ Takedzuchi's hand, but it turned to an icicle, so that he 
 dropped it in pain. On grasping it a second time, it 
 became a sword blade, so that he again dropped it. 
 Then Takedzuchi grasped his fn return and crushed it 
 like a young reed. So he fled, and when Takedzuchi 
 pursued and overtook him, to save his life he submitted 
 and joined with his father in his surrender to the com- 
 
MYTHOLOGY 21 
 
 mands of the Heavenly Deities. So the two Deities 
 put to death all the rebellious and malignant Deities of 
 the land, and having subdued and pacified it, returned 
 to Heaven to report that the way was clear for the 
 descent of the Heavenly Grandchild. 
 
 The time had now come for the Heavenly Grandchild 
 to take charge of his dominion on Earth. Another 
 messenger was sent to clear the way for him, who re- 
 ported on his return : "There is one God who dwells at 
 the eight cross roads of Heaven, the length of whose 
 nose is s even hands, the length of whose bac^ is seven 
 fathoms, Irom whose mouth a light shines, whose eye- 
 balls are like a mirror and glow like the winter cherry." 
 This was Saruta Hiko, the God of the Cross Ways. 
 Uzume, who danced before the Sun Goddess when in 
 her Cave, the power of whose looks was superior to that 
 of the other Gods, who, though but a delicate woman, 
 was still " a Deity who conquered in facing other Gods," 
 was sent to question this God, and, confronting him 
 with her breasts bared, she demanded why he dared to 
 obstruct the path of the child of the Sun Goddess. He 
 answered that he was there only td wait upon and guide 
 the Heavenly Grandchild to his home on earth. So 
 the Heavenly Grandchild, "leaving the Rock seat of 
 Heaven, and pushing asunder the eight-fold spreading 
 clouds and dividing a road with a mighty road 
 dividing," descended by the floating bridge of Heaven, 
 and, guided by Saruta Hiko, arrived not in Izumo where 
 Onamuji had lived, and where it might naturally be 
 expected he would have made his first landing on earth, 
 but at Mount Takachiho, a peak in the Kirishima range 
 of mountains on the borders of Hiuga, a province of the 
 Southern Island of Kiushiu. A large retinue of attend- 
 ant Gods accompanied him, of whom only one — Ama- 
 tsu-Koyane — need be mentioned who is claimed as the 
 divine ancestor of the Fujiwara, a family which has 
 
22 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 \ played a great part in Japanese history, whose members 
 are now the highest nobility in the Empire. Until this 
 time Heaven and Earth were but a little distance apart, 
 and between the two there had been frequent communi- 
 cation, but now the floating bridge ceased to exist, and 
 the two became widely separated, and were parted for 
 ever. The Sun Goddess, when taking leave of her 
 Grandchild, gave him the Heavenly Mirror, saying, 
 "My child, when thou lookest upon this mirror, let it 
 be as if thou wert looking on me. Let it be with thee on 
 thy couch and in thy hall, and let it be to thee a holy 
 mirror." She also said, "This land is the region of 
 which my descendants shall be for ever the lords. Go, 
 and may prosperity attend thy dynasty, and may it, like 
 Heaven and Earth, endure for ever." Ama-tsu-Koyane 
 was instructed by her to attend upon the mirror. 
 
 Having descended on Takachiho, Niniji built a 
 palace, and afterwards, when walking by the seashore, 
 he saw a beautiful maiden, "the princess who causes 
 
 ^ the flowers and the trees to blossom." She was the 
 daughter of the God, Great Mountain Possessor, one of 
 the many children of the first creators of the Earth, 
 and Niniji proposed to marry her. She had an elder 
 sister, the Princess Rock Long, and the father offered 
 both sisters as wives to the suitor of the youngest. The 
 elder sister was, however, as ugly as the younger was 
 beautiful, and Niniji would have naught to say to her. 
 So he returned her to her father, who, together with the 
 rejected daughter, was covered with shame, and, in his 
 anger, he pronounced the curse which ever afterwards 
 caused the life of man to be so short. 
 
 "My reason for respectfully presenting both my daughters 
 was, that by sending Princess Rock Long, the children of 
 the Heavenly Grandchild might, though the snow fall and 
 the wind blow, live eternally unmovable like the enduring 
 rocks; and, again, by sending the Princess who causes the 
 
MYTHOLOGY 23 
 
 flowers to bloom, they might live flourishingly like unto the 
 flowering of the blossoms of the trees. Now the children 
 shall be as frail as the flowers of the trees." 
 
 Three children were born of the marriage. Niniji 
 doubted their paternity on what seems very slender 
 grounds, but his suspicions were set at rest when both 
 mother and children came safely through an ordeal of 
 fire, and emerged vigorous and uninjured. The last 
 born of the three was Prince Hodemi, Prince Fire sub- 
 side, born when the flames of the ordeal were beginning 
 to grow low. He married the Sea God's daughter, 
 Princess Rich Jewel. Their son married the latter's 
 younger sister, his aunt, and had four sons, the 
 youngest of whom was Jimmu Tenno, the first Emperor 
 of Japan, fourth in the direct line of descent from the 
 grandson of the Sun Goddess who descended from 
 Heaven to Earth. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE DARK AGES 
 
 The birth of Jimmu closes the period of pure legend- 
 ary fable, embodying only supernatural myths, and 
 opens a new period which, though it continues to be 
 tinged for more than a thousand years with supernatural 
 elements, may still rest on a foundation of actual history ; 
 the real traditions of which were distorted by the intro- 
 duction of the miraculous by which they were among a 
 savage and superstitious people verbally passed from 
 father to son prior to the acquisition of the art of writing. 
 Jimmu lived at the base of the Kirishima Mountains 
 until he was forty-five years of age. Only one of his 
 brothers then survived. One had gone into the "Sea 
 Plain," and another, "treading on the crest of the waves, 
 had crossed the ' Eternal Land.' " The eldest remained 
 with Jimmu. Both were dissatisfied with the narrowness 
 and infertility of their domain, while, beyond it, was "a 
 land of promise, a land fair to look upon, of abundant 
 fertility, but habited by tribal savages, every tribe of 
 whom had its own independent chief, between whom 
 there was constant warfare, whose customs were loath- 
 some and cruel." It was the duty of the brothers to com- 
 plete the task of civilizing and tranquillizing the whole 
 land which had been begun by their Heavenly Ancestors, 
 but transmitted to them in an unfinished state. They 
 started on an expedition to the northern coast of Kiushiu, 
 where they embarked, and, thence, sailing along the 
 north and east coasts of that island, entered the Inland 
 
 24 
 
THE DARK AGES 25 
 
 Sea, and finally reached the mouth of the Yodo River, 
 on which the great commercial city of Osaka now stands. 
 Their wanderings had extended over long years. Their 
 victories were not uninterrupted, and they were often in 
 sore straits, from which they were only rescued by the 
 divine interposition of the Sun Goddess. The elder 
 brother died from a wound received in one battle in 
 which they were defeated and forced into a general 
 retreat. They had been advancing against the Sun, and, 
 in doing so, showing a want of respect to the Sun 
 Goddess-. The enemy did not pursue them when they 
 turned to the West in their retreat, and they were able 
 to replenish their ships and their stores and to renew 
 their advance from another quarter. Passing by the 
 Naruto passage between Awaji and Shikoku, the violent 
 currents of which are a dread to mariners at the present 
 day, they were in dire difficulties when a man met 
 them riding over the sea on a tortoise's back. He con- 
 sented to act as their pilot, and they stretched a pole to 
 him and drew him into Jimmu's own ship, and he 
 brought them safely through the passage. Poisonous . 
 vapours overcame the whole army after their landing, 
 and leader and followers all sank helpless on the ground ; 
 but they recovered after the sword of Take-mika-dzuchi 
 had been found in a storehouse, its existence in which 
 place had been manifested to one of them in a dream in 
 which he saw and heard the Sun Goddess and Take- 
 mika-dzuchi conversing. The vapours followed the 
 appearance of a great bear that emerged from the moun- 
 tains, and they vanished on the appearance of the sword, 
 but no explanation is given as to the connection between 
 the vapours on the one side and the bear and the sword 
 on the other. The sword was that on which Take-mika- 
 dzuchi had sat in his interview with Onamuji, and it was 
 found in its old attitude, the hilt in the earth and the 
 point upwards. When they attempted to penetrate into 
 
26 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 the interior, they were ignorant of where to go through 
 the pathless mountains that stood in their way. The 
 Sun Goddess told Jimmu in a dream that she would send 
 the "Eight Hand Crow" to guide him. It came flying 
 down from Heaven and guided them safely to the River 
 Yoshino and the province of Yamato. There "he sub- 
 dued and pacified the savage deities and extirpated the 
 unsubmissive savages," and, having done so, he fixed 
 his residence at Kashiwabara, about midway between 
 Nara and Osaka. His rule was now undisputed. It 
 was acknowledged by those who had been his own 
 followers from the first, by his kith and kin, whether as 
 descendants from the Gods or as immigrants from the 
 continent, from Izumo, and by the tamed and subdued 
 aborigines who had survived the slaughter of their 
 kinsmen. He made Kashiwabara the capital of the 
 Empire which he had founded, and then took his seat 
 on the throne. This was the year 660 B.C., a date not 
 long posterior to the founding of Rome by Romulus, 
 which is assumed by the Japanese believers and taken 
 in the national records to be the beginning of authentic 
 chronology. From Jimmu, the present Emperor of 
 Japan, the conqueror of China and Russia, the sove- 
 reign of a nation which has acquired all the highest 
 elements of Western science and civilization, which 
 produces thinkers and inventors who have shown them- 
 selves not to be on any lower intellectual plane than the 
 most distinguished scientists of Europe, traces his 
 descent in a direct line extending over 2,500 years. It 
 is through Jimmu that he claims his heavenly origin and 
 the divinity which is not only the divinity that hedges 
 other kings of the earth, but whose essence is that of the 
 Gods who rule the world. The title by which he is 
 known to and spoken of by his subjects is Tenno, the 
 Lord of Heaven, or Tenshi, the Son of Heaven, who 
 rules the world as God incarnate. He is not on^ the 
 
THE DARK AGES 27 
 
 ruler of his people, but the source to whose inspiration 
 and guidance everything they have achieved, whether 
 in war or in peace, is due. Throughout all the long 
 ages his ancestors have never ceased to be the acknow- 
 ledged fount of all the authority of the Empire, and not 
 even the boldest and most tyrannical usurper has ever 
 dared to lay sacrilegious hands on the throne, however 
 much he may have reduced its occupants to political 
 impotency. 
 
 The Emperor Jimmu died in 585 B.C. at the age of 
 127 years. The official list of the Sovereigns of Japan, 
 published by the Government, which is universally 
 accepted as authentic by all Japanese, gives the names 
 of eleven Emperors who succeeded him on the throne 
 between the date of his death and the dawn of the 
 Christian Era. Jimmu had left to them an empire which 
 included all that part of Japan which lies to the south 
 of a line drawn from where Kioto now is to the province 
 of Izumo on the west coast. South of this line their 
 authority was recognized, though frequently disputed 
 either by surviving aborigines who had remained in 
 their old homes instead of trekking northwards before 
 the advancing Japanese, or even by Japanese who 
 settled in districts remote from Yamato, where were the 
 throne and government of the Emperors. In what are 
 now called the Five Home Provinces — the five provinces 
 (including Yamato) around Kioto — peace had been estab- 
 lished, the barbarian aborigines absorbed or driven out 
 by Jimmu's followers, who in their turn, under the direct 
 control and eyes of the Emperors, were their obedient 
 subjects, whether willingly or unwillingly. All the main 
 island of Japan to the north of the line was still a 
 terra incognita whose wild and unknown districts, 
 covered with precipitous and thickly wooded mountains 
 and crossed by rapid rivers, were still peopled by savages 
 who not only refused to recognize the authority of the 
 
28 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Emperors, but were prepared to I'esist its extension to 
 the last, and to sacrifice their lives in defence of the 
 land that still remained to them against further advances 
 of the Japanese colonists. The position of the latter 
 under the early Emperors has been very happily com- 
 pared by Dr. Grififis to that of the early settlers in 
 New England, and the history of Japan for fifteen 
 centuries very closely resembles that of Northern 
 America. The colonists had established themselves 
 securely in one small part of the island. Within its 
 limits they could pursue their avocations in peace. 
 Beyond those limits their kin had extensive settlements 
 in the south and west, where, however, they were 
 always obliged to be on guard and were constantly 
 exposed to outbreaks on the part of the original pos- 
 sessors of the land, who had remained around them 
 subdued, but with rebellion ever in their hearts. To the 
 north all was unknown. It was to the Japanese Colo- 
 nists what the wild and pathless forests of the West, the 
 haunts of savage Indians, were to the first American 
 Colonists. Just as the white man gradually drove the 
 Indians further and further westward, just as the 
 Indians steadily diminished in numbers, organization 
 and spirit, until at last the whole continent came under 
 the irresistible domination of the conquerors, and only a 
 handful of the Indians were left in a few remote and 
 isolated reservations, survivors of the people who had 
 once spread over the whole continent, crushed and de- 
 graded, all their virtues of courage and endurance gone, 
 so it was in Japan. The Ainu, now a spiritless, abject 
 and degraded people, who, unlike some at least of the 
 Red Indians of America, have not in one single individ- 
 ual instance acquired even the simplest rudiments of 
 modern civilization, though they have imbibed many of 
 its vices ; of whom only a small remnant survives in the 
 islands of the extreme north, were once a bold and 
 
THE DARK AGES 29 
 
 courageous race of warriors, who fought against their 
 invaders to the last, and who in early years rendered 
 the lot of those invaders one of unbroken disquiet. The 
 Indians of North America were subdued in little over a 
 century. Fully fifteen centuries were destined to elapse 
 before the Japanese could say that they held the undis- 
 puted masterdom of the whole of their Empire as far as 
 the extreme north of the main island, before the last 
 remnant of its former inhabitants fled to what was even 
 then still the unexplored and unknown island of Yezo. 
 
 Jimmu's successors, prior to the Christian Era, were 
 too fully occupied in governing and maintaining their 
 authority in their hereditary dominions to think of 
 extending them, and all their military strength and 
 energy were fully tested in defending their northern 
 frontier against the incursions of the aborigines, who 
 were not always content to remain merely on the defen- 
 sive. The first nine of them have left no marks in 
 history. Neither the Kojiki nor the Nihongi tells more 
 of them than their births, marriages, deaths and places 
 of burial, and as the Nihongi professes to furnish exact 
 details, descending even to precise dates, of all that 
 happened even in those remote ages, it may be assumed 
 that where nothing is told in it, there was nothing to 
 tell. In 97 B.C. the Emperor Sujin ("the Emperor who 
 honours the Gods "), the tenth of the Imperial line, 
 ascended the throne and subsequently reigned for sixty- 
 seven years, dying at the age of 120 years. He has left 
 a reputation as a civil reformer not less distinguished 
 than that of Jimmu as a conqueror. • 
 
 In the early years of his reign "more than half of the 
 people " died of pestilence, and the survivors broke into 
 rebellion. "Therefore, rising early in the morning and 
 being full of awe until the evening, the Emperor re- 
 quested punishment of the Gods of Heaven and Earth " 
 for his own shortcomings in his failure to discharge 
 
30 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 adequately the duties which he had inherited from his 
 divine ancestors. He was rewarded by a dream in which 
 he was shown the true way of serving the Gods, who had 
 hitherto been worshipped together in the Palace Hall. 
 Separate shrines were built in which the Emperor wor- 
 shipped them in turn after having bathed and fasted. 
 But further dreams and further observances were still 
 required before his prayers were answered, and it was 
 only when land and houses were allotted as their shrines, 
 when the heavenly were honoured separately from the 
 earthly deities, that the pestilence abated. Throughout 
 his reign Sujin appears to have united in himself the 
 offices of Emperor and of High Priest, and in both to 
 have merited the gratitude of his people. Never since 
 Jimmu ascended the throne were the Gods so assiduously 
 served, never were their individual idiosyncrasies so 
 carefully or so readily humoured; never were the sug- 
 gestions of dreams or the promptings that came from 
 divine inspirations so profoundly studied, or when a 
 favourable verdict had been pronounced on them, so 
 faithfully followed. The favour of the Gods was won. 
 The Sovereign governed with wisdom, mercy and 
 courage. Pestilence was stayed. Rebellion was 
 quickly stifled. The country had peace, "the five kinds 
 of grain were produced and the peasantry enjoyed abun- 
 dance." The education, "which the example of a wise 
 and beneficent Sovereign gives to his people as to the 
 prudent ordering of their own lives," was widespread. 
 Taxes were equitably levied "on the arrow notches of 
 the men and (?n the finger-tips of the women " — on the 
 products of the chase and of the loom. A census was 
 taken, and as "agriculture was the great foundation of 
 the Empire," a regular supply of water was insured to 
 farmers by extensive irrigation. Shipping is, since the 
 coasting voyage of Jimmu, first mentioned in the Chron- 
 icles. Shipbuilding was, on the Emperor's command, 
 
THE DARK AGES 31 
 
 begun in every province, and the people's sufferings 
 from the difficulties of land transport relieved. In every 
 way the Empire advanced in all the results of civiliza- 
 tion, and the Sovereign received the title of the 
 " Emperor, the August Founder of the Country." 
 
 The succession to the throne was regulated by the will 
 of the reigning Emperor, who during his lifetime nomin- 
 ated the Prince Imperial, and the latter was thence- 
 forward recognized as the Heir-Apparent, and a separate 
 palace was provided for him. Death within the Imperial 
 palace repdered it inauspicious for the occupation of the 
 successor, whose own palace therefore became the 
 Imperial residence on his accession. This is the explana- 
 tion of the fact that the palace was changed simulta- 
 neously with a new accession to the throne, a practice 
 which continued throughout the early centuries of Japan- 
 ese history, and was only ended when the capital was 
 established at Nara early in the eighth century of the 
 Christian Era. Wherever the Imperial palace was, 
 there was also the capital for the time being. The 
 changes were more apparent than real. All the palaces 
 were within the province of Yamato and could have 
 been little distant from each other, and as their con- 
 struction was of primitive simplicity changes were an 
 insignificant burthen on the Imperial revenue. 
 
 As a rule the succession was from father to son, not 
 necessarily the eldest son nor the son of the Empress. 
 In each reign a Grand Empress is mentioned, the wife 
 of the Sovereign, but each Emperor in addition had 
 many concubines, who were chosen from the same rank 
 in life as the Empress, in some cases were the Empress's 
 own sisters, between whom and the legitimate Empress 
 there was so little distinction that the Emperor is usually 
 said to have "wedded them." One Emperor chose as 
 Grand Empress a lady who had been his father's con- 
 cubine, another a lady who was his own aunt; and 
 
32 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 marriage between the children of the same father but of 
 different mothers was not infrequent. In the succession 
 no distinction was made between the children of the 
 Empress and those of the subordinate ladies. If the son 
 of one of the latter won the Emperor's favour in his 
 lifetime, the title and dignity of Prince Imperial was 
 conferred on him, and his succession to the throne 
 naturally followed, though it was occasionally disputed 
 by an ousted brother. 
 
 Sujin had twelve children, seven , of whom were 
 daughters. It was not till the forty-eighth year of his 
 reign, the whole duration of which was sixty-seven years, 
 that he nominated the Prince Imperial. Then he called 
 to him his two best beloved sons, both of them so alike 
 in his affection that he knew not which to choose. So he 
 told them each to dream, and from their dreams he would 
 form an augury. The elder, the son of the Empress, 
 dreamt that he stood on a mountain-top and "turning 
 towards the East he flourished a spear eight times, and 
 eight times dealt blows with a sword " : the younger, the 
 son of a concubine, that he stood on the same mountain 
 and " stretched a cord to the four quarters of the compass 
 with which to drive away the sparrows that fed upon 
 the grain." The Emperor interpreted these dreams 
 that, as the elder had turned only to the east, he should 
 rule over only the land in the east, in subordination to 
 the Emperor, but that as the younger had turned to all 
 directions he should succeed to the Imperial throne. As 
 the Emperor ordered, so it was done, and when he died 
 the younger son became the Emperor Suinin. The 
 augury which guided his father's choice proved to be an 
 auspicious one. The new Emperor was of distinguished 
 personality, talented, a lover of truth, energetic and 
 brave. During his reign of forty-one years he continued 
 to give his patronage both to agriculture, as his father 
 had done, and to extend irrigation so that there were 
 
THE DARK AGES 33 
 
 peace and plenty throughout the land, nor did he fall 
 short of his father's pious care in the conduct of religious 
 observances. 
 
 The Imperial regalia of Japan — ^the mirror, sword and 
 jewels conferred by the Sun Goddess on her grandson 
 when he was about to descend to Earth — were, in accord- 
 ance with the Goddess's instructions, preserved in the 
 Great Hall of the Palace in close proximity to the 
 Emperor's own chamber, in the charge of a virgin 
 daughter of the Emperor, until the reign of Sujin. 
 Early in. his reign, while pestilence and rebellion were 
 still rampant, one of his reforms, made at the height of 
 his religious fervour, was to remove the mirror and the 
 sword for greater security from the palace to a temple 
 specially built for them at Kasanui, a village of Yamato, 
 and to give them into the keeping of one of his 
 daughters. This was in the year 92 B.C., and the same 
 Princess held them in her charge for eighty-seven years. 
 Then a successor was appointed in Yamato Hime — the 
 Princess Yamato, daughter of the Emperor Suinin. She 
 was dissatisfied with their location, and after wandering 
 far and near in search of a better site, she came to Ise, 
 and pleased with it herself, and instructed by the Sun 
 Goddess that "this is a pleasant and secluded land in 
 which I wish to dwell," she built a new shrine and 
 placed the mirror and the sword in it. This was in the 
 year 4 B.C. The mirror remains there to this day, 
 deposited in a shrine which is an exact replica of that 
 first erected more than nineteen hundred years ago by 
 Yamato Hime, preserving all the primitive simplicity 
 of construction without any outward adornment of 
 colour or carving, either in wood or metal, of the archi- 
 tecture of the age in which she lived. On the lapse 
 of every period of twenty years since then, a new build- 
 ing has been erected, in which every detail of the 
 original has been faithfully copied, the old not being 
 
34 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 demolished till the new is completed, and the pilgrims 
 who annually flock in hundreds of thousands to the 
 Mecca of Japan now see there the exact replica of the 
 buildings of simple wood and thatch in which their 
 Emperors lived and worshipped before the dawn of tlie 
 Christian Era. 
 
 The Emperor's piety was not only testified by observ- 
 ance of the honour due to the Gods and by regulating 
 the forms of their worship. It manifested itself also in 
 the clemency which he showed to his subjects. Up to 
 his reign it was the custom on the death of a member 
 of the Imperial family to bury alive with him his per- 
 sonal attendants and horses — to gird his grave, as the 
 saying was, with a living hedge. The Emperor's 
 brother, Yamato Hiko, died in the year 2 B.C., and 
 following the old custom, "his attendants were assem- 
 bled and were all buried alive, upright, in the precinct 
 of the tomb. For several days they died not, but 
 wept and wailed day and night. At last they died and 
 rotted. Dogs and crows gathered and ate them." The 
 Emperor was filled with pity, and ordered his officers 
 to devise some substitute for this ancient custom. So 
 when, five years later, the Empress died, a hundred men 
 of the guild of clay workers were called, and they made 
 clay images which were set up in the tomb of the 
 Empress in the place of her living attendants whom she 
 had loved, who otherwise would have been compelled 
 to follow her in death. The Emperor, greatly pleased, 
 conferred handsome rewards on the officer to whom he 
 owed the suggestion, and decreed that clay figures 
 should be used in future, that men were not to be 
 harmed. Human sacrifices therefore ceased to be part 
 of the Imperial funeral rites, but voluntary suicide, in 
 order that a faithful retainer might follow his master in 
 death, was a common practice for many centuries. The 
 Empress Kotoku, in the year 645, in a series of 
 
THE DARK AGES 35 
 
 sumptuary regulations for the conduct of funerals, fol- 
 lowing a Chinese precedent, forbade people to sacrifice 
 or mutilate themselves, or even to sacrifice at the graves 
 of their chiefs the dead men's horses. But not even an 
 Imperial edict could entirely abolish the observance of 
 an old custom founded on loyalty, and down to a very 
 modern period in Japanese history there were frequent 
 incidents in which one or more of the feudal retainers 
 of great or distinguished lords committed hara-kiri in 
 order that they might accompany their lords in death. 
 
 Two other incidents in the Emperor's reign may be 
 told, as both are the subject of many Japanese paintings. 
 
 One of the Emperor's wives was the Princess Sawo. 
 Her elder brother plotted to secure the throne for him- 
 self, and to that end, presuming on his sister's love for 
 him, he induced her to promise to murder the Emperor. 
 He gave her an "eight times tempered" dagger, and 
 told her, "Gird on this""dagger in thy garments, and 
 when the Emperor goes to sleep do thou stab him in the 
 neck, and thus kill him." But the Empress had given 
 the promise without knowing what it meant, and was 
 troubled in heart, not knowing what to do. When the 
 Emperor lay asleep at noonday, his head pillowed on 
 the Empress's lap, the thought came to her that it was 
 the time to do what her brother asked. Thrice she 
 raised the dagger meaning to strike, but her heart failed 
 her, and she could only weep. This is the moment that 
 has been chosen by artists. Her tears falling on the 
 Emperor's face woke him, and he told her how as he 
 slept a dream came to him that a snake had coiled itself 
 around his neck and that a great rain had wet his face. 
 Then she confessed everything. The Emperor said, 
 "This is not thy crime," and forgave her, but he sent 
 an army against her brother. The Empress could not 
 bear to continue in the Palace after she had brought ruin 
 to her brother, so she fled to his castle, which was 
 
 D 2 
 
36 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 besieged by the Emperor's army; there her child was 
 born, and the Emperor, in pity for her whom he had 
 loved for three years, delayed his attack and called upon 
 those within to send out the Empress and her child. 
 But they would not. So the castle was set on fire, and 
 as it burned the Empress came forth carrying the child 
 with her, and gavie it to the soldiers of the Emperor, 
 saying — 
 
 "The reason why thy handmaiden at first fled into her 
 elder brother's castle was in the hope that her elder brother 
 might be absolved from guilt for the sake of her and her 
 child. But now he has not been absolved, and I know that 
 I am guilty. Shall I have my hands tied behind my back? 
 There is nothing left but for me to strangle myself. But 
 even though I, thy handmaiden, die, I cannot bear to forget 
 the favour shown to me by the Emperor. I pray, therefore, 
 that the Empress's palace, which I had charge of, may be 
 granted to fair mates for thee. In the land of Tamba there 
 are five ladies, all of virtuous minds, the daughters of the 
 prince. Let them be placed in the side courts to complete 
 the number of the consort chambers." 
 
 The best and strongest of the soldiers had been in- 
 structed by the Emperor's orders to save both mother 
 and child, "whether by the hair or by the hands, or 
 whatever you may best lay hold of, clutch her and drag 
 her out." But she had shaved her hair and covered her 
 head loosely with the shaved-off hair, and she had made 
 the jewel strings round her arms and her clothes rotten, 
 and all came away in the soldiers' hands as they seized 
 her. So she escaped back into the castle and there died 
 with her brother. 
 
 The child was dumb, and at the age of thirty, when 
 his beard was eight span long, he had not yet learned 
 to speak. Then one day as he stood by the Emperor a 
 swan flew by, and the Prince spoke and asked "What 
 thing is this ? " So the swan was followed all the way to 
 Izumo, where it was caught, and when it was brought 
 
THE DARK AGES 37 
 
 back to the Prince he played with it and at last learned 
 to speak. The eldest of the five sisters mentioned by the 
 Empress before her death succeeded her. Three of her 
 sisters became the Emperor's concubines, but so little 
 attractive were the physical charms of the fifth that she 
 was sent back to her own country. In shame she threw 
 herself from her car and was killed. 
 
 Suinin died in 70 a.d. and was succeeded by his son 
 Keiko, born to him of the eldest of the five sisters, who, 
 as has just been stated, became Empress. Keiko was 
 a vigorous and courageous sovereign. He took com- 
 mand of his own armies in the field, and in a prolonged 
 campaign, throughout Kiushiu, conducted in person 
 both the operations against, and negotiations with, 
 rebels in arms against him, and finally succeeded in 
 tranquillizing the whole island. His chief title to fame 
 with posterity rests on his son, one of eighty children, 
 who is still one of the darling heroes of Japan, whose 
 exploits are spoken of with reverential admiration as 
 those of a noble, fearless and loyal knight, the mirror 
 of national chivalry, the favoured soldier of the Gods of 
 Heaven. This son was the youngest of twins born to 
 the Empress, and in childhood was known as the 
 " Prince of the Little Mortar." His stature and strength, 
 while still a youth, far exceeded that of ordinary men, 
 his features were noble and his spirit high. 
 
 He soon gave evidence of his fierceness and determina- 
 tion. His eldest twin brother was sent by his father to 
 invite to the Court two maiden sisters, descendants of 
 the Emperor Kaikwa, who were said to be beautiful 
 beyond the common. The son betrayed his trust, and, 
 wedding both the maidens himself, falsely gave their 
 names to others whom he sent to his father in their 
 place. But the father knew of his deception, and while 
 he frequently looked longingly at both the maidens who 
 were sent to him he wedded neither. Then the elder 
 
38 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 brother absented himself from the "morning and even- 
 ing great august repasts." So the younger was told to 
 teach him his duty. Five days elapsed and still the 
 elder came not, and when the father inquired the reason, 
 the younger answered that he had "grasped hold of him 
 and crushed him, and, pulling off his limbs, wrapped 
 them in a matting and flung them away." This is the 
 first recorded incident in the career of the younger, one 
 that commends itself to Japanese admiration as an 
 unflinching performance of filial duty. 
 
 In the far away land of Western Kiushiu the Kumaso, 
 the people who were as savage as bears, had again 
 rebelled, and under the leadership of two brothers, un- 
 submissive and disrespectful men, made unceasing in- 
 cursions on the frontier. Prince Wousu, though only 
 sixteen years of age, was entrusted with the task of 
 taking and slaying them. The young Prince borrowed 
 female clothing from his aunt, Yamato Hime, the 
 priestess of Ise ; then, letting down his hair like a young 
 girl and hiding a sword within his dress, he mingled 
 with the women that were present at a banquet given by 
 the eldest of the brigands. His beauty soon attracted 
 the attention of the host, by whose side he was called to 
 sit, of whose gallant attentions he became the object 
 before all the other women. The evening wore on, the 
 guests dwindled away, and the host, drunk with wine, 
 was more pressing in his gallantries. Then the Prince 
 drew his sword and stabbed him. As he died he asked 
 the Prince his name, and when he heard it, he said, 
 "I have met with many valiant men, but none as yet 
 could match this Prince. Henceforward let him be 
 styled Prince Yamato Dake." Yamato Dake means 
 "The brave man of Yamato," and it was by this name 
 that the Prince was afterwards known throughout his 
 life and is now remembered by posterity. Then the 
 Prince slew all the rest of the band. While returning 
 
THE DARK AGES 39 
 
 from Kiushiu he visited the land of Izumo, where there 
 was another outlaw, to whom "he bound himself in 
 friendship." One day the two went to bathe in the 
 river, the Prince wearing a false sword which he had 
 previously made from wood. Getting out of the river 
 first, he took the outlaw's real sword himself, and the 
 outlaw, following him out of the river, took the false 
 sword of wood. Then the Prince challenged him to a 
 fencing bout, and the outlaw unable to draw the false 
 sword was promptly slain. So the Prince, having slain 
 all the brigands, returned to the Court and to his father, 
 and reported what he had done. 
 
 The west and south were fiow tranquillized, but dis- 
 order was rampant in the provinces of the east, where 
 the Yemishi — the savage aborigines — were still unsub- 
 dued, and not only defied the authority of the Emperor 
 in their own wild and unknown fastnesses, but kept his 
 frontier in a ferment of continual disquiet. They were 
 also constantly at war among themselves. There was 
 no security either of life or property among them. The 
 time had come at which the might and majesty of the 
 Emperor should be manifested by their subjection, and 
 there was in the Empire no one so fitted for the task as 
 the Prince who had signally proved his mettle and 
 capacity in the west and south. He readily under- 
 took to carry it through, and having received the Im- 
 perial commands he started on his expedition into the 
 savage and unknown land, with, however, "lamentations 
 and tears" at the thought that he should never return. 
 
 On his way he stopped at Ise, where he sought the 
 prayers of his aunt, Yamato Hime, the virgin Priestess, 
 on his behalf. She lent him the sacred sword — "the 
 cloud gathering " — and also bestowed on him an august 
 bag, saying, "If there should be an emergency open 
 the mouth of the bag." From Ise he made his way to 
 Owari and Suruga, and "subdued and pacified all the 
 
40 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 savage deities and unsubmissive people of the mountains 
 and the rivers," and at last he reached the land of 
 Sagami. There the savage chiefs tried to destroy him 
 by treachery. They told him that there were deer in 
 abundance on a certain moor, and when the Prince 
 entered on the moor to hunt, they set the long grass on 
 fire in order that he might be destroyed. The emergency 
 spoken of by his aunt had come, so he opened the bag 
 and, finding a fire-drill in its mouth, he kindled a new 
 fire, and then, mowing the grass around him with his 
 sword he made an empty space on the moor and was 
 saved. So the name of the sword was changed to that 
 of "grass mower " (Kusa-nagi). The treacherous natives 
 were all destroyed. 
 
 Then he passed by sea, across the straits that lead 
 from the Pacific Ocean into the Gulf of Tokio, from 
 Sagami to Kadzusa. As he stood on the shores of 
 Sagami before embarking and looked across the straits, 
 he mocked at their name, Hashiri-midzu ("running 
 water"), saying, "This is but a little sea— one might even 
 jump over it." The Sea God was angered when he heard 
 these words and raised a violent storm, so that the ship 
 was in danger of foundering. Then his wife, the 
 Princess Oto Tachibana, who was with him, resolved 
 to propitiate the God by sacrificing her own life and so 
 save that of her lord. So she spread eight rugs of 
 serge, eight of skins, and eight of silk on top of the 
 waves, and seating herself on the uppermost was carried 
 away and drowned. Then the storm was stilled and the 
 ship proceeded in safety. Seven days afterwards her 
 comb floated ashore, and was reverently placed in a 
 shrine. Far away from this shrine, in the little village 
 of Honno, that lies secluded among the mountains of 
 Kadzusa, another temple has been erected to her memory 
 and there she is still worshipped by fishermen, who come 
 from the coast that is miles away to ask for her pro- 
 
THE DARK AGES 41 
 
 tection while they are on the open sea, at the mercy of 
 the great waves of the Pacific that break on the eastern 
 shores. Still more is her memory preserved in the 
 name, beloved of poets, of the eastern provinces of 
 Japan. When Yamato Dake, in his later wanderings, 
 reached the summit of the Usui Pass, a lofty pass on 
 the great central high road of Japan, and gazed from 
 it on the wide extent of the eastern plains that was 
 before his view he sighed, and said, "Adzuma wa ya" 
 ("alas, my wife ! "). So the eastern provinces are called 
 Adzuma to this day. 
 
 After subduing all the eastern provinces, he made his 
 way into the province of Shinano, "the land of high 
 mountains and profound valleys." Here he lost his 
 way, but was miraculously guided by a white dog to 
 safety in the less wild province of Mino. 
 
 Travellers on the Tokaido Railway from Tokio to 
 Kioto, after they pass Gifu, famous for its cormorant- 
 fishing, as they approach Lake Biwa, see on their 
 right hand Mount Ibuki, one of the seven high moun- 
 tains of Japan, which rises precipitously from the 
 plains on the borders of the provinces of Omi and 
 Mino. It is celebrated for the Mogusa,^ the plant 
 from which the moxa is made, which grows on it in 
 great abundance. Its appearance is bare and forbid- 
 ding, offering the smallest attraction to the most ardent 
 climber. Here Yamato Dake heard there was a savage 
 deity. Leaving his sword behind him he ascended the 
 mountain, determined to take the deity by the strength 
 of his arms alone. On the way he met with a white 
 boar, as large as an ox, and thinking this to be only a 
 messenger from the deity he left it unharmed and con- 
 
 ^ Mogusa — the mugwort — means burning grass. It is universally 
 used as a cautery both in China and Japan, and its application to the 
 body is regarded in the Chinese system of medicine as a sovereign 
 specific for almost every illness. 
 
42 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 tinued his climb. It was not a messenger, but the deity 
 himself. In anger at the invasion of his home, he 
 brought clouds on the mountain and caused ice-rain to 
 fall. The Prince lost his way, and in his weariness 
 reeled like a drunken man. But his courage carried him 
 on, not knowing in the mist where he was, till at last, 
 dazed and exhausted, he found himself once more at the 
 mountain's foot. There he sat down beside a spring of 
 clear water, and when he had drunk from it his senses 
 came back to him and he was himself again. Both the 
 spring and the stone on which he sat are still to be seen 
 at the village of Samegai, and the spring is still called 
 the I-zame-shimidzu ("the springof rest and wakening"). 
 
 His life was now near its end. The chill of the moun- 
 tain had done its work, and whereas "his heart had 
 before been so light that he always felt like flying 
 through the sky," now he could scarcely drag his wearied 
 legs along. He reached Owari, where the wife lived 
 who had replaced Tachibana, but all his thought was to 
 make his way to his home in Yamato, and so he did not 
 stay with her. So weary was he that when climbing 
 a short pass on the road near Oiwake, the junction of 
 the roads that lead to Ise and Kioto, he had to use his 
 sword as a staff to help him, whence the pass is to this 
 day called Tsuye-dsuki-saka ("staff-lean pass "). At last 
 he came to the Moor of Nobo in Ise, and knowing that 
 the end had come, he sent a messenger to the Emperor 
 to tell of what he had done and to say that his only 
 grief in dying was that he could not see his father's 
 face once more. Then he died, and was buried on the 
 moor. But his body took the form of a white heron and 
 flew to his home in Yamato, and thence to Heaven, so 
 that nothing was buried of him but his clothes and cap. 
 
 Every incident that has now been told of his life is a 
 favourite subject of Japanese artists, perhaps most of all 
 that of Tachibana sinking on the waves while the ship 
 
THE DARK AGES 43 
 
 sails oflf on a calm sea. All over the eastern provinces 
 shrines are found in which his memory is reverently 
 worshipped as the national model of loyalty, bravery 
 and devotion, -and his name is still used to rouse the 
 courage of the Emperor's soldiers, who are asked, on the 
 eve of battle, to remember Yamato Dake, and to fight and 
 sacrifice their lives freely for the Emperor's sake with the 
 undaunted spirit that he displayed throughout his life. 
 
 Keiko died in 130 a.d., at the age of 143 years, and 
 was succeeded on the throne by his son Seimu, who 
 reigned for sixty-one uneventful years. He left no Son, 
 and was therefore succeeded by his nephew Chiuai, the 
 son of Yamato Dake. In person he was a worthy son of 
 his handsome father. His features were beautiful, and 
 his stature, as did that of his grandfather, exceeded ten 
 feet. Early in his reign rebellion once more broke out in 
 Kiushiu, and the Emperor, as his grandfather had done, 
 took the field in person to suppress it. He was accom- 
 panied by his Empress, a lady of strong character, 
 courage and energy, and of unbounded ambition, the 
 greatest heroine in Japanese history, the equal of its 
 greatest heroes, and the first to display the glory of the 
 divine land beyond the seas. 
 
 One day during the campaign the Emperor was play- 
 ing on his lute, when the Empress became divinely in- 
 spired. The result of her inspiration is described in the 
 Kojiki : — 
 
 " She then charged the Emperor : ' There is a land to the 
 westward, and in that land is abundance of various treasures 
 dazzling to the eye, from gold and silver downwards. I will 
 now bestow this land upon thee. ' Then the Emperor replied, 
 saying : ' If one ascend to a high place and look westward, 
 no country is to be seen. There is only the great sea,' and 
 saying : ' They are lying Deities, ' he pushed away his august 
 lute. Then the Deities were very angry, and said : ' As for 
 this Empire, it is not a land over which thou oughtest to 
 rule : do thou go to the one road. ' Hereupon the Prime 
 
44 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Minister, the noble Takeuchi, said : ' I am filled with awe ; 
 my Heavenly Sovereign, continue playing thy great august 
 lute. ' Then the Emperor slowly drew his august lute 
 languidly to him. So almost immediately the sound of the 
 august lute became inaudible. On their forthwith lifting a 
 light and looking, the Heavenly Sovereign was dead." 
 
 Korea was at this time divided into three kingdoms, 
 and some communications between at least one of them 
 and Japan had already taken place during the reigns of 
 the Emperors Sujin and Suinin, It is not easy, there- 
 fore, to understand Chiuai's incredulity. The Empress 
 had greater faith in the Gods, greater ambition and 
 greater statesmanship than her husband. A foreign 
 conquest would ensure to her greater fame than the 
 subdual of an ordinary local outbreak, and the union 
 of the people against a foreign foe might also bring 
 with it lasting domestic peace. With the aid of the 
 Prime Minister, Takeuchi, who lived to the age of 
 360 years and served six successive Emperors, all 
 knowledge of the Emperor's death was suppressed, his 
 body was temporarily buried at night, and in his 
 name the Empress proceeded with her preparations. 
 Further divine omens promised her success. Out of 
 the threads of her garment she made a fishing-line and 
 from a needle a hook, and standing on a stone in the 
 middle of the river, she said, "If I am to succeed, let 
 the fish of the river bite the hook." She at once caught 
 a trout. Afterwards women only used to fish in that 
 river in the early part of the fourth month in each year. 
 If men tried it they had no success. Then she bathed 
 in the sea, and said, "If I am to succeed, let my hair 
 be parted in two." Her hair parted of its own accord, 
 so she henceforth wore it and dressed as a man. Her 
 fleet and army were then ready, and she took the com- 
 mand in person. She was at this time pregnant, but 
 she tied a stone in her girdle and wore it constantly, 
 and thus delayed her delivery. The day of sailing into 
 
THE DARK AGES 45 
 
 the unknown waters came and the Gods again displayed 
 their favour. A great wave came which carried the 
 whole fleet with it rapidly and safely, and even the 
 fishes of the sea bore on their backs the vessel which 
 carried the Empress herself and brought it at the head 
 of the fleet to the shores of Southern Korea. The waves 
 penetrated far into the land, adding to the terror of the 
 Koreans, who were taken entirely by surprise. They 
 thought their country was going to be swallowed by 
 the ocean, while the fleet of the invaders rode on the 
 waves in perfect security. No tidings of the coming 
 invasion had reached them, and the arrival of the great 
 fleet gave the first intimation of the fate that threatened 
 them. Powerless to resist, they submitted without strik- 
 ing a single blow, and their King promised solemnly, 
 in their names, that they would be subject to Japan and 
 pay annual tribute "until the sun rose in the West, the 
 rivers flowed backwards, and the stones on earth became 
 stars in the sky." Eighty vessels were laden with the 
 spoils of gold and silver and silk ; hostages were taken, 
 and the fleet returned in triumph to Japan after an 
 absence of less than three months. Then the Empress's 
 child was at last born. All these things happened in 
 the year 200 a.d. For hundreds of years afterwards the 
 Koreans faithfully fulfilled their promise of sending 
 annual tribute, and the custom was destined to exercise 
 a great influence on the destinies of Japan. It became 
 the source of a system of civilization which lasted for 
 thirteen centuries; it was freely quoted as one of the 
 grounds which justified Japan's modern interference in 
 the domestic and foreign affairs of Korea, an interfer- 
 ence which was the cause of her wars with both China 
 and Russia. None of the miraculous incidents which 
 accompanied it have prevented the Japanese from re- 
 garding the invasion as a historic event, on which they 
 look back with exulting pride as a triumph of organiza- 
 
46 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 tion and valour achieved under the guidance and com- 
 mand of a woman. The Empress lived and governed 
 for nearly seventy years after her exploit, and she was 
 a hundred years old when she died. She was succeeded 
 by the son whose birth had been so miraculously re- 
 tarded, who became the Emperor Ojin. Although she 
 governed the country throughout all these years with 
 no less vigour and success than she had shown in her 
 conquest, she is considered to have done so only in the 
 name of her husband, who, though dead, was by a 
 fiction, common enough in later history, supposed to be 
 still reigning, and the honour of a separate place in the 
 official list of Sovereigns of the Empire is not given 
 her. Her son was believed to have inspired her with 
 the wisdom and generalship that carried out the con- 
 quest, and while a very subordinate place is given to 
 the mother in the National Pantheon, while her memory 
 is mainly preserved as that of a general and governor 
 of human standard, the son, who throughout his reign 
 was tried neither by civil nor domestic war, who had 
 no opportunity of showing either courage or military 
 capacity, of whom nearly all that is told is of his suc- 
 cess in love, was deified as Hachiman, the God of War. 
 Splendid temples have been dedicated to his honour at 
 Tokio, Kamakura and Kioto; he was chosen many 
 centuries after his death as their patron god by the 
 Minamoto, the greatest family of warriors that Japan has 
 ever produced; and it is to him that soldiers still pray 
 when they are about to proceed on active service. 
 
 The Japanese preserved until the Korean invasion 
 some of the characteristics of a nomadic people, who, 
 though they had emerged from the conditions of abso- 
 lute barbarism, were in their ignorance and customs but 
 a little away above the degree of savages. The Go 
 Kinai, the five provinces around Kioto, enjoyed the 
 benefits of a Government able to enforce its will and to 
 
THE DARK AGES 47 
 
 preserve at least a semblance of order among the inhabit- 
 ants, but the authority of this Government over the out- 
 lying provinces of the west, still more over the island 
 of Kiushiu, was only nominal, and was stoutly resisted 
 when attempts were made to enforce it. The north, as 
 far as the plains of Kuanto, had been overrun and con- 
 quered by Yamato Dake, but no serious attempt had as 
 yet been made to colonize it, and it remained in a state 
 of primitive savagery, held by the fierce and truculent 
 Ainus, among whom Japanese settlers could hope for 
 security neither of life nor property. In the home pro^ 
 vinces, the seat of the Court and Emperor, there were 
 neither towns nor roads. The largest congregation of 
 inhabitants never much exceeded the degree of a village. 
 The capital is frequently mentioned, but the capital 
 meant simply the residence of the Emperor, and that, 
 though always called a palace, was of such simple con- 
 struction that the same palace was never used for two 
 successive reigns. Where the framework of the palace 
 was of wood, its roof of the rudest thatch, its walls also 
 of grass or rushes bound by ropes made from fibrous 
 plants or rushes, destitute of ornamentation, with no 
 pretence to architectural beauty or solidity, with only 
 earthen floors, covered with rugs of skins or grass, the 
 houses even of the nobility can have been little better 
 than fragile huts which gave no inducement to the 
 owners to become permanent dwellers in any one spot. 
 Castles are occasionally mentioned, but the rapidity 
 with which they were constructed forbids aj4y other 
 assumption than that they were merely stocflaades of 
 bamboo grass and timber hastily thrown vk> on the 
 approach of a foe of superior strength, so ag to afford 
 some shelter from his arrows. / 
 
 Rice was cultivated from the earliest times/ and other 
 cereals and plants are occasionally mentionod; but the 
 main occupations were those of hunters and pshers, and 
 
48 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 hunting and fishing were the chief sources of the supply 
 of food. The fermented rice beer, which is the national 
 intoxicating drink to the present day, appears to have 
 been known from the earliest days, and drinking to 
 excess was an ordinary occurrence. Manufacturing 
 industry scarcely existed even in its most primitive 
 aspects. Weaving and sewing were the recognized 
 occupations of the women. Even the Sun Goddess was 
 engaged in the supervision of the weaving of the gar- 
 ments of the Gods when she was the victim of one of 
 the worst practical jokes of her unruly brother, and the 
 Empress Jingo made a fishing-line and hook of the 
 thread of her garments and a needle. The details of the 
 tragic fate of the Princess Tachibana show that silk was 
 not unknown, but this is an isolated instance of its 
 mention. The cultivation and use of cotton were not 
 introduced until the ninth century, and Japan has never 
 been — is not to the present day — a wool-producing 
 country, and hemp and mulberry bark are the only 
 materials that are mentioned as furnishing the fabrics 
 from which clothing was made. The ordinary dress 
 included a considerable variety of garments : skirt, 
 upper garment, girdle and trousers, and hat are all men- 
 tioned. Swords, spears and arrow heads that could 
 penetrate more deeply than would have been possible 
 for either stone or bone, and metal mirrors all testify 
 that the use of iron was common; and when human 
 sacrifices were abolished at Imperial funerals the aid of 
 the guild of potters was invoked to supply earthen 
 images to take the place of the dead princes' attendants 
 and horses, so that it may be assumed that earthenware 
 utensils were in common domestic use. 
 
 At the head of the nation was the Emperor, vested, in 
 virtue of his divine descent and of his incarnation on 
 earth of the Gods of Heaven, once he was placed on 
 the throne, with absolute and unquestioned autocracy, 
 
THE DARK AGES 49 
 
 which, in fact, was only exercised over the people in 
 or near Yamato. The rest of the people were grouped 
 into territorial clans, each clan governed by its own 
 hereditary chief, who was responsible and owed the most 
 complete allegiance to the Emperor, but was free to 
 govern his own clan as he pleased so long as he did 
 nothing that conflicted with the Emperor's wishes or 
 decrees, or made no open defiance to his sovereignty. 
 Rebellions were common on the parts of the chiefs of 
 the clans distant from the capital, and military opera- 
 tions for their suppression were frequent throughout the 
 centuries antecedent to the Christian Era. The clan 
 was composed of families, and outside the pale of the 
 clan families, all of which claimed a certain degree of 
 aristocratic descent and birth, were serfs, attached either 
 to the Imperial or local domains, probably the unmixed 
 descendants of the aborigines who remained on the lands 
 that had fallen into the possession of the conquerors, 
 instead of following their own people to the north. 
 
 Morality — according to our sense of the word — was 
 of a very low degree. There was no legal form of 
 marriage, and the only restriction on consanguineous 
 marriages was that of brother and sister born of the 
 same father and mother. Marriages between brother 
 and sister of the same father but of different mothers, 
 between nephew and aunt, son and father's widow, 
 were all common. Polygamy was universal, and the 
 only distinction between wives and concubines was that 
 of name, the concubines being of the same rank in life 
 as in many cases the younger sisters of the wife, and 
 wife or concubines could equally be divorced at any 
 time at the whim of the husband. Between the children 
 of the wives and concubines there was not even a dis- 
 tinction of name. All were equally the legitimate 
 children of the father, and those of the concubine were 
 not unfrequently preferred in the succession to these 
 
50 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 of the acknowledged wife. Over wives, concubines and 
 children, the head of the family exercised the most un- 
 qualified powers. They were his chattels, to be disposed 
 of as he wished. If he committed a crime that could be 
 atoned for by a fine, wife and children could be sold to 
 defray the fine. If the crime was punishable by death — 
 and the last penalty was inflicted for very trivial offences 
 — wife, concubines and children all shared their master's 
 fate. 
 
 Books there were none, the art of writing was un- 
 known, there was not even a system of hieroglyphs; all 
 communications were oral, and oral tradition was the sole 
 means by which the records of events were preserved. 
 
 The Empress Jingo brought back with her from 
 Korea some perception of a higher order of civilization 
 than what she had hitherto known, and every successive 
 tribute-bearing embassy that came to Japan became a 
 civilizing medium for the spread of knowledge and for 
 softening the manners of a rude and barbarous people. 
 Writing was introduced in the fifth century, and the 
 art and science, literature, religion, laws, social and 
 political systems of China gradually followed and slowly 
 but surely made their impress on Japan. A steady 
 stream of teachers poured into the country, not only 
 from Korea, but from China, and paved the way for 
 the advent of Buddhist missionaries, not only priests 
 and nuns, but temple builders and image carvers, who 
 ultimately achieved what is perhaps the greatest mission- 
 ary triumph that the world has ever seen. They con- 
 verted, not a section, but an entire nation, and even the 
 sanctity of the Court proved no bar to their prosely- 
 tizing energy. The Emperor, who believed himself to be 
 God Incarnate, his consort, and their Court were at last 
 numbered among their converts, and gave both their 
 influence and their wealth to the honour and promotion 
 of the new religion throughout the Empire. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE DAWN OF HISTORY 
 
 The annals of the Emperors who followed Ojin on 
 the throne are mainly occupied with genealogies, with 
 disputed questions as to the succession, and with tales 
 of their amorous adventures. His immediate successor, 
 Nintoku (313-399), was distinguished for benevolence 
 and humanity. He remitted taxation and forced labour, 
 and, until the economic condition of his people became 
 prosperous, lived in such self-denial that even the roof 
 of the palace was left unrepaired, so that the rain leaked 
 in, and the inmates had to make their beds in , places 
 where there was no leakage. He was troubled with a 
 jealous Empress who refused to recognize the usual 
 privileges of the Sovereign. "The Concubines of the 
 Heavenly Sovereign could not even peep inside the 
 palace." The most beautiful among them fled from it. 
 Human nature was much the same in those as in later 
 days. Taking advantage of the Empress's absence on 
 a progress, the Emperor sought consolation in the 
 society of another Princess. The Empress was promptly 
 told of it by one of the ladies of her own train, and in 
 her indignation refused to return to the Emperor. In 
 vain one of the Courtiers attempted to plead with her, 
 and, hoping for an audience, remained prostrate day and 
 night in her courtyard, drenched with snow and rain. 
 The Empress was obdurate till her death. The next 
 three Emperors, Rikiu (400-406), Hanzei (406-410), 
 and Ingyo (412-453), were all sons of Nintoku. Ingyo, 
 
 E2 51 
 
52 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 the nineteenth of the line^ suffered from long illness, and 
 was with difficulty induced to accept the throne. For- 
 tunately the first bearer of the Korean tribute in his 
 reign was a skilled physician, and the Emperor was 
 cured of his sickness by him, and thenceforward the 
 Chinese system of medicine was studied and practised in 
 Japan. His reign was notable for one important 
 domestic reform. Confusion had arisen in the titles and 
 names of the patrician families — many used titles to 
 which they had no right, or claimed a descent, which 
 was wholly spurious, from previous Emperors, or even 
 from the Heavenly Gods. All the patricians were sub- 
 jected to the ordeal of hot water, and, after having 
 fasted and purified themselves, they plunged their bare 
 arms into cauldrons of boiling water or mud. Those 
 who were worthy of the names they claimed came 
 through the ordeal harmless ; the impostors suffered, and 
 many who had no faith in their case refused to undergo 
 the test. The lists of the noble families were rectified, 
 and as they were faithfully preserved from that time, 
 there was no longer any doubt as to their correctness, 
 and the rightful claims of those whose names were 
 entered in them. 
 
 During his lifetime, the Emperor Ingyd nominated 
 his eldest son. Prince Kara, as heir-apparent. The 
 Prince was so beautiful that all looked upon him with 
 admiration; his sister was equally beautiful, and the 
 Prince loved her so that he could not control his passion, 
 and secretly wedded her. Unions between brothers and 
 sisters of the same father but of different mothers were 
 common, and aroused no comment^ but in this case they 
 were of full blood, and when what had happened became 
 known the people were shocked. So when the father 
 died, all the officials and people repudiated the eldest, 
 and conferred the succession on the younger son, the 
 Emperor Ank5 (453-456). The eldest was banished, and 
 
THE DAWN OF HISTORY 53 
 
 his sister followed him, and both died together by their 
 own hands. There was a still younger brother, on whose 
 behalf the Emperor sought the hand in marriage of the 
 sister of Prince Okusaka, both Prince and sister being 
 the children of the Emperor Nintoku, and therefore 
 uncle and aunt of the Emperor Anko and his brother, 
 the suitor for the lady's hand. The messenger whom he 
 sent brought back a false answer that Okusaka refused 
 to give his consent to the proposed marriage, and also 
 appropriated to himself a jewelled head-dress which 
 Okusaka had sent as a token of his willingness to comply 
 with the Emperor's wish. Then the Emperor was wroth, 
 and attacked and slew Okusaka, and took both his 
 widow and sister. As Nintoku died in 399 and it was 
 now 454, the sister at least and the widow in all prob- 
 ability of the slain Prince cannot have been very young, 
 but that consideration did not prevent the Emperor 
 wedding the widow and making her his Empress, and 
 giving the sister in marriage to his younger brother. 
 Now the new Empress had a son by her first marriage, 
 who, being only a boy of seven years of age, was taken 
 to the Palace with her. One day, as he was playing near 
 the chamber in which the Emperor and Empress were 
 resting at midday, he overheard them talking of the 
 death of his father, and angered at what he heard, he 
 waited until the Emperor was asleep, and then, drawing 
 his sword and creeping stealthily into the chamber, he, 
 young as he was^ murdered the Emperor as he slept. 
 Yuriaku, Anko's youngest brother, succeeded to the 
 throne. He possessed both great bodily strength and 
 a violent temper, over which he exercised so little 
 control that "one who saw him in the morning was slain 
 in the evening, and one who saw him in the evening was 
 slain by morning." His brother's murder roused his 
 fiercest anger. Two elder brothers were living. Neither 
 seemed to share his anger to a degree that was worthy 
 
54 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 of the dignity and relationship to themselves of the dead 
 Emperor. So he killed them both, the first with his 
 sword ; the second " he clutched by the collar, pulled him 
 along, and, digging a pit, buried him as he stood, so 
 that by the time h6 had been buried up to the loins both 
 his eyes burst out, and he died." Then the actual 
 murderer became the object of his vengeance. The boy 
 took refuge in the house of the Chief Minister of State, 
 who refused to surrender him. Yoriaku attacked the 
 house, and though a determined resistance was made, 
 the strength of the defenders was soon exhausted. The 
 house was burned, and Prince, minister and all the 
 inmates perished with it. There was one more Prince 
 still living who stood between the throne and Yuriaku. 
 The Emperor Rikiu (400-406) at his death left two sons, 
 who were considered too young to succeed him, and who 
 were therefore set aside in favour of their uncle. Anko 
 had contemplated conferring the title of Prince Imperial 
 on Prince Oshiba, the eldest, so that the succession 
 would have come to him at Ank5's death ; but the 
 latter's murder took place before the investiture was 
 made. Prince Oshiba had therefore only a moral claim 
 to the throne, but all the circumstances rendered it 
 stronger than Yuriaku 's. He had therefore to be 
 removed. The two Princes went on a hunting expedi- 
 tion together. Yuriaku put on armour underneath his 
 hunting clothes, took bow and arrows, and, in an 
 interval of the chase, when Oshiba was riding with a 
 tranquil heart, shot him with an arrow, cut his body to 
 pieces, and buried the pieces without ceremony in a 
 horse's manger, and the other son of Rikiu was soon 
 killed, though in a less treacherous manner. All these 
 events took place within three months from the Emperor 
 Anko's death, and the way to the throne was then clear 
 for Yuriaku, who assumed the Imperial Dignity. His 
 reign lasted for twenty-two years (457-479). Ambas- 
 
THE DAWN OF HISTORY 55 
 
 sadors are mentioned as having arrived from China, and 
 Japanese generals were sent to take part in a war that 
 broke out between two of the Korean Kings; but 
 generally history tells only of his hunting expeditions 
 and of his amours. Some of its incidents, insignificant 
 though they are, have appealed to Japanese painters, and 
 are favourite subjects with the lovers and writers of 
 romance. One at least bears some resemblance to a 
 story in the Bible. 
 
 One of the officials of the Palace was one day praising 
 the beaiuty of his wife to his fellows when the Emperor 
 overheard him, and desired to obtain the wife for him- 
 self. So he dispatched the husband on a mission to 
 Korea, and having thus got him out of the way, at once 
 took possession of his wife. When the husband in 
 Korea heard of what had happened, he threw off his 
 allegiance to his own country, and, leaving his post in 
 Imna, one of the Korean kingdoms, cast his lot with the 
 rival kingdom of Silla, which had ceased to send tribute 
 to Japan, so that he became a traitor, and died without 
 ever returning home. 
 
 Once when hunting the Emperor saw a very beautiful 
 girl washing clothes at a river-side. Pleased with her 
 beauty, he told her not to marry and that he would send 
 for her. So the girl went home and waited. Eighty 
 years passed by, and no message came to her from the 
 Palace. The girl, having become an old and decrepit 
 woman, with face and form lean and withered, though 
 without hope, resolved to present herself at the Palace 
 and tell the Emperor how faithfully she had waited for 
 him. When he heard her story he was greatly startled, 
 and in his pity wished to take her then, but he could 
 not make the marriage on account of her extreme old 
 age. So he sent her back plentifully endowed. 
 
 Again, when he was hunting on Mount Kayurake, a 
 furious wild boar rushed roaring out of the bush and 
 
56 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 charged him. His attendants were terror-struck, and 
 fled and took refuge in the trees ; but the Emperor stood 
 firm, and faced and shot the boar with an arrow and 
 killed it. Then he ordered his cowardly attendants to be 
 executed, but on the Empress's intercession — she told 
 him he would be no better than a wolf himself if he had 
 them put to death — he pardoned them, and was rewarded 
 by the loyal plaudits of the people as he returned with 
 the Empress in their carriage. 
 
 On another occasion, as he was holding a great feast 
 in the open beneath a tree, a leaf fell into the wine-cup 
 just as 9ne of the female attendants was handing it to 
 him. The attendant did not notice the leaf, and the 
 Heavenly Sovereign, angered at her carelessness, 
 knocked her down^ and was about to cut her head off 
 with his sword. But she sang a song which appealed to 
 both Emperor and Empress, and so her crime was 
 pardoned. 
 
 It was in the closing years of his reign that the fisher- 
 boy, Urashima, the Rip van Winkle of Japan, dis- 
 appeared from his home. He went fishing alone in his 
 boat off the coast of Tango, a province on the west coast 
 of the main island, where his home was, and as he was 
 on the sea he caught a turtle, which changed into the 
 form of a beautiful girl as soon as he took it into his 
 boat. Taking Urashima by the hand, she told him that 
 she was the daughter of the Sea God, and then led him 
 beneath the waves, where they came together to an 
 island of wonderful beauty, covered with splendid 
 palaces. This was Horai San, the land of eternal life. 
 There he married the girl, and with her he passed three 
 years of unclouded and unchanging happiness. Then 
 a longing came to him to see his home and parents once 
 more, and his wife, though sad at parting from him even 
 for a brief time, told him that he might go, as his 
 longing was so great ; but in order that he might come 
 
THE DAWN OF HISTORY 57 
 
 back to her and live with her for ever she gave him a 
 casket, which he was to carry with him always, but 
 never to open. Then she placed him again in his own 
 boat, and when he looked round he found that he was in 
 front of his old home on the sea-coast. But when he 
 landed all was changed; he knew neither houses nor 
 people, and when he asked for the family of Urashima 
 he was told that they had disappeared more than three 
 hundred years ago. It was in the year 479 that he went 
 fishing and caught the turtle. It was 825 when he came 
 back. ' Then, sad and lonely, he wandered away towards 
 the East, carrying the casket with him. At last, think- 
 ing of his happy days with the Sea God's daughter and 
 forgetting her earnest injunction, he one day opened the 
 casket. A silver cloud rose from it and floated away 
 towards the sea beneath which lay the enchanted island. 
 The cloud was the elixir of life of Horai San that gave 
 immortality to whomsoever it belonged. Urashima was 
 then in the prime of vigorous youth. In a moment he 
 changed into an old and decrepit man, and in a little 
 while he died from the weakness of old age. 
 
 The story of the treacherous murder of Prince Oshiba 
 has been told. He left two sons^ both of whom were 
 still children at the time of his death. Japanese methods 
 of dealing with political adversaries in that age and for 
 very many centuries afterwards, as far, indeed, as the 
 introduction of the first influence of European civiliza- 
 tion, were thorough, and the Emperor Yuriaku would 
 have been only too ready to destroy the saplings along 
 with the parent tree, and the children would have found 
 little mercy at his unsparing hands. They were saved 
 by faithful servants, and fled from the Court at Yamato 
 to the Province of Harima. Here they were lost to sight 
 and to memory, and fell into such poverty that both 
 became grooms and cowherds, earning their daily liveli- 
 hood by serving the keeper of the State granaries. 
 
58 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Yuriaku's son and successor, Seinei (480-484 a.d.), had 
 no children, and it was a continual sorrow to him that 
 he could not provide for the Imperial succession. A 
 new Governor was appointed to the Province of Harima, 
 and a feast was given by the inhabitants to welcome 
 him. The two young cowherds were present to perform 
 the duty of keeping the fire alight. When the merri- 
 ment was at its height both were called upon to sing 
 and dance, and the new Governor started from his seat 
 when he heard rustic menials sing songs that could 
 have been learned nowhere else than in the Imperial 
 Court. He took both youths on his knees,^ questioned 
 and examined them, and soon satisfied himself that they 
 were the lost children of the dead Oshiba, the rightful 
 heirs to the throne. A messenger was dispatched on a 
 swift steed to the Emperor, who, when he heard the 
 tidings, exclaimed : " Heaven in its bountiful love has 
 bestowed on us two children." So the cowherds were 
 sent for and brought in state to the Palace. There their 
 true rank was restored to them. In the following year 
 the Emperor died^ and the elder of the brothers having 
 ceded his claims, the younger succeeded to the throne 
 as the Emperor Kenzo (485-487). His reign was short, 
 and he also having died childless, the elder brother 
 received the reward of his magnanimity, and became 
 the Emperor Ninken (488-498). Neither reign was dis- 
 tinguished by striking events, but the brothers in their 
 own early lifetimei had experienced the misery and 
 suffering of the poor, both knew the evil results of 
 oppression and cruelty. Both reigned with mercy, used 
 no forced labour, and freely dispensed charity, and their 
 government was so founded on consideration for the 
 welfare of the people that peace, prosperity, abundance 
 
 1 The latest date at which Prince Oshiba s murder can have taken 
 place was 458. It was now 480, so that the Governor must have 
 taken two very substantial youths on his knees. 
 
THE DAWN OF HISTORY 59 
 
 and happiness were universal throughout the land, and 
 the population multiplied. They did not forget the only 
 possibilities of exercising their filial piety that were 
 possible to them. Their father's body had been cast 
 away in an unknown and unmarked grave. By diligent 
 search, a poor old woman was discovered who had 
 witnessed the burial, and had never forgotten the spot 
 where it took place. She pointed it out to the Emperor, 
 and when the place was excavated the bones were found 
 both of the Prince and of a faithful servant who had 
 died with him. The skeletons could not be distin- 
 guished, but the formation of the teeth enabled the 
 Prince to be easily recognized.^ Both were buried in 
 one grave and with the same rites. The poor old woman 
 was taken into the Palace and honoured with the 
 Emperor's own loving care. As she was frail and infirm, 
 a rope was stretched from her own to the Emperor's 
 chambers to support her as she walked, with a bell at 
 the end so that she could ring it and give notice to the 
 Emperor of her coming, without being dependent on 
 the ordinary formalities. As the two Emperors paid the 
 last duties of filial piety, so also did they punish when 
 punishment was due. In their flight as children, they 
 were robbed of their stock of provisions by a rough 
 boarherd with a tattooed face. They sought him out, 
 and when they found him they beheaded him, and cut 
 the knee tendons of all his kindred. So the descendants 
 of that family limped for ever after. 
 
 The second brother was succeeded on the throne by 
 his eldest son, Muretsu (499-506). Heredity makes 
 strange mistakes, but there is no instance in all the 
 history of the world where father and son have presented 
 a greater contrast than in this. The son was even more 
 cruel, tyrannical and extortionate than the father 
 
 1 " Oshiba" means prominent teeth. The Prince was distinguished 
 for the beauty of his teeth. 
 
60 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 merciful, humane and benevolent. He resumed the 
 practice of forced labour, levied increased taxes, and, 
 while living himself in riotous and wanton luxury, took 
 no thought for the suffering of the oppressed people. 
 His only redeeming quality was that he was fond of 
 hunting, of dog and horse racing, and in the pursuit 
 of sport was indifferent to wind and weather. He found 
 his greatest pleasures in the contemplation of human 
 suffering. He always witnessed in person executions 
 and trials by torture. He made men climb to the tops 
 of trees, and then either cut down the trees while the 
 men were at the tops or shot at them with arrows. He 
 pulled off the hair of their heads and the nails of their 
 fingers. He made them lie on the sluices of the dams 
 and then turned the water on them, so that they were 
 washed away. The "horror of his cruelties to women do 
 not bear telling. All the people of the land lived in 
 unceasing dread. Fortunately his reign was not long, 
 and he died childless. 
 
 Three uneventful reigns may now be passed over, and 
 we come to that of the Emperor Kimmei (539-571), in 
 which the inception took place of the great religious 
 revolution which was destined to influence the whole 
 social condition of Japan for more than thirteen cen- 
 turies, and to be the foundation of the system of national 
 civilization which lasted until, in the nineteenth century, 
 it gave way before the greater strength of the civilization 
 of the West. 
 
 More than three hundred years had now passed since 
 the invasion of Korea by the Empress Jingo, and 
 throughout the whole of this period there had been 
 constant intercourse between the two countries. The 
 Koreans had been faithful to their promise to send 
 annual tribute to Japan; the Japanese, on the other 
 hand, had on several occasions interfered in the internal 
 complications that from time to time took place between 
 the three kingdoms into which Korea was divided, and 
 
THE DAWN OF HISTORY 61 
 
 assumed the part of a suzerain in enforcing peace when 
 the differences between the kingdoms eventuated in 
 active hostilities. Notwithstanding its divisions and 
 discords and the military weakness which rendered it an 
 easy prey to the Japanese invaders, inured to warfare in 
 their own country, Korea had already attained to an 
 immeasurably higher degree of civilization than Japan 
 when the invasion occurred. It had reaped the benefit 
 of five centuries' close intercourse with China, and the 
 art, literature and religion of China had already taken 
 firm root, and their luxurious growth spread over all the 
 land. It formed, therefore, an object lesson to its rude 
 conquerors, and as time went on, as the conquerors 
 learned more of the true essence of Korea's social 
 conditions, founded on the religion and civilization of 
 China, the lesson brought concrete results which were 
 destined to become the basis of Japan's own system of 
 government, education and culture ; in fact, of her whole 
 social organization. 
 
 In the reign of the Emperor Kimmei (539-57 i)j the 
 twenty-ninth successor of Jimmu Tenno on the throne. 
 Buddhism began to exercise its influence in the Court. 
 During the first twelve years of this reign, there had 
 been continuous turmoils in Korea, and the influence 
 of Japan had been frequently called upon to aid in the 
 settlement of the quarrels which occurred between the 
 three rival kingdoms. Pekche, threatened by a com- 
 bination of the other two kingdoms, had especially 
 been made the object of Japan's protecting care, and 
 when, towards the close of the year 552, the King dis- 
 patched an embassy to Japan in gratitude for the favour 
 he had received, he sent with it an image ^ of Sakaya- 
 mune in gold and copper, which had been in Korea for 
 more than a thousand years, apd some volumes of 
 
 1 The image was said to have been made by Sakayamune (Buddha) 
 himself from gold found on the sacred mountain, which is the. centre 
 of the universe, and brought to Korea five hundred years after it was 
 made. The Temple in which it is now preserved in the city of Nagano 
 
62 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Sutras, the canonical books which are supposed to 
 contain the very words of Buddha. In a memorial 
 presented along with the image and the books, the King 
 said — 
 
 "This doctrine is amongst all doctrines the most excellent. 
 But it is hard to explain and hard to comprehend. It can 
 create religious merit and retribution without measure and 
 without bounds, and so lead to a full appreciation of the 
 highest wisdom. Imagine a man in possession of treasures 
 to his heart's content, so that he might satisfy all his wishes 
 in proportion as he used them. Thus it is with the treasure 
 of this wonderful doctrine. Every prayer is fulfilled and 
 naught is wanting. Moreover, from distant India it has 
 extended hither to the three Han, where there are none who 
 do not receive it with reverence as it is preached to them. 
 Thy servant, therefore, Myong, King of Pekche, has humbly 
 dispatched his retainer to transmit it to the Imperial 
 Country, and to diffuse it abroad throughout the home 
 provinces, so as to fulfil the recorded saying of Buddha : 
 ' My law shall spread to the East. ' " 
 
 The Emperor, on hearing these words, leaped for joy 
 and said — 
 
 "Never from former days until now have we had the 
 opportunity of listening to so wonderful a doctrine." 
 
 He was, however, unable of himself to decide so 
 weighty a matter as to whether the Buddha, whose coun- 
 tenance was of a dignity such as had never been seen 
 before, should be worshipped or" not, and he therefore 
 submitted the decision to the three chief councillors of 
 his Court. The chief priest, Nakatomi, and another, 
 thought that if foreign Deities were preferred to the 
 National Gods, the country would suffer. Soga asked, 
 "Shall the land of Yamato alone refuse to worship the 
 God that is accepted by all the Western lands ? " So 
 the image was given to Soga to worship as an experi- 
 
 is one of the greatest Buddhist foundations in Japan. The image is 
 enclosed in a series of boxes, fitting into each other, only the outward 
 one of which can be seen. 
 
THE DAWN OF HISTORY 63 
 
 ment. The results were dire; Soga retired from the 
 world and built a temple for the image. Then a pesti- 
 lence broke out in the land, and there was great mortal- 
 ity among the people. It was ascribed by the other two 
 councillors to the rejection of their advice, and, as no 
 remedy could be found for the pestilence, it was ordered 
 that the image should be destroyed. The temple con- 
 taining it was therefore burnt, and the image thrown 
 into the river at Osaka. Then lightning fell from a 
 cloudless sky and consumed the Imperial Palace, and 
 the twa evil councillors perished along with the Palace. 
 The image was then recovered from the river, and Soga 
 permitted to build a new temple for it. In the following 
 year Buddhistic chants were heard from the sea at 
 Izumi, and when investigation was made as to their 
 origin, a log of camphor-wood was found floating on the 
 surface. The Emperor ordered two images of Buddha 
 to be made from it, and priests were brought from 
 Korea to expound the doctrine. The Emperor's reign 
 lasted for another eighteen years, but no further attempt 
 was made by him to extend the new religion, and its 
 feeble life was only kept in being by the reverence of 
 the first great convert, Soga. 
 
 In the following reign, Bidatsu (572-585), two more 
 images were brought from Korea — one of Buddha and 
 one of Miroku — the Buddhist Messiah — and were taken 
 in charge by Soga no Niame, the son of Soga no 
 Umako, who enshrined them in a temple, and had three 
 young nuns instructed in the Buddhist offices, so that 
 they might be competent to serve the temple. Pesti- 
 lence again broke out, and the nation was in danger of 
 extinction, and once more the Emperor, warned by the 
 consequences of his impiety in permitting Soga to 
 continue his idolatrous services, yielded as his prede- 
 cessor had done, and ordered that Buddhism should be 
 discontinued. The Temple was again burned, and the 
 nuns stripped of their vestments and flogged at the road- 
 
64 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 side, and the original image once more thrown into the 
 river. Attempts had been made to burn it, but it resisted 
 the flames; and to smash it with iron sledge hammers, 
 but it was the hammers that were broken, while the 
 image remained uninjured. The pestilence continued, 
 and the land was again filled with the dying. The 
 Eniperor himself was at last attacked, and, as he was 
 dying, he was told that his want of faith was the cause 
 of his illness. So he gave permission to Soga alone to 
 practise the Buddhist religion, and permitted him to 
 rebuild the Temple and to call back and restore the dis- 
 honoured nuns to their old service. For seventeen 
 years the image lay in the river bed where it had been 
 thrown, and then it was recovered by a native of Shin- 
 ano, who took it to his own home, and he and his 
 descendants cared for it for fifty years, when the great 
 Temple of Zenkoji was built at Nagano by the Empress 
 Kogioku. There the image remains till this day, and 
 tens of thousands of pilgrims annually come from the 
 most remote parts of the Empire to do reverence to it. 
 During the reigns of Bidatsu and hisi successors, 
 Yomei (585-587) and Sujun (588-592), Buddhism, 
 though making little headway in the Court, spread 
 widely among the people. Priests and nuns were sent 
 from Japan to Korea to study, and Korean monks in 
 their turn came to Japan, together with nuns, architects 
 and image makers, and a successful proselytizing cam- 
 paign was carried on, which brought thousands of the 
 people within the folds of the new Church. But it was 
 not until the reign of the Empress Suiko (593-628), the 
 first woman to occupy the Imperial throne, that its 
 future prosperity became assured by the conversion of 
 the Empress and her principal minister and champion. 
 The Empress was the daughter of the Emperor Kimmei 
 (539-571), a sister both of Yomei and also of Sujun, 
 and the widow of Bidatsu, her half-brother, so that 
 she was closely related to all her predecessors. Her 
 
THE DAWN OF HISTORY 65 
 
 immediate predecessor was assassinated and left no chil- 
 dren, so that there was no male left to fill the succession, 
 and the Empress, after three refusals, at last listened 
 to the prayers of the ministers and assumed the Imperial 
 dignity. Her appearance was beautiful and her conduct 
 irreproachable. 
 
 In the preceding reign, Moriji, the Omuraji or chief 
 of the clan Mononobe, one of the chief councillors, 
 opposed the Emperor's accession, wishing that the 
 throne should be given to another Prince, the son of the 
 Emperpr Senkwa (536-539), and formed a plot to carry 
 out his purpose. The plot was discovered and the 
 Prince arrested and executed, but the Omuraji, who had 
 a large following, withdrew to Shibukawa in Kawachi, 
 and established himself in a strongly fortified position, 
 where he met the attack of the Imperial army which 
 was sent against him. The attack was three times 
 repulsed. One of the younger Princes serving in the 
 Imperial army was Mumayado, still a mere youth of 
 sixteen years, but already a sincere Buddhist and a 
 valiant soldier. When the third repulse took place, he 
 pKjndered deeply on its cause and said, "Without prayer 
 we cannot succeed." So he carved an image of the four 
 Deva Kings, the Buddhist guardians of the world 
 against evil spirits, and placed it in his queue, and 
 gave all his own personal followers pictures of the 
 Kings to wear upon their armour. Then, having vowed 
 if successful to erect a temple and pagoda in honour of 
 the Kings, he led his own men at the head of a fourth 
 attack. This time it succeeded. The Omuraji himself 
 ascended a tree, from which he directed the movements 
 of his soldiers ; but an arrow fired by an expert archer, 
 under Mumayado's own directions, pierced his breast, 
 and he fell dead to the ground. Then his army, their 
 leader gone, broke and fled, and the victory was won 
 by the piety and valour of Mumayado. This was the 
 first exploit of a prince who, as soldier, statesman and 
 
 F 
 
66 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 proi>agandist, was destined to be the founder of civilized 
 Japan, whose life marked the passing of the last linger- 
 ing stages of barbarism from the land of the Gods, and 
 the firm establishment of a religion that became a 
 guidance and influence for thirteen hundred years. 
 
 The Prince, who was born in 572, was the son of the 
 Emperor Yomei, his father and mother the Empress, 
 being half-brother and sister, the children of the same 
 father by different mothers. One day, when his mother 
 was making a visit of inspection round the Palace 
 grounds, his birth suddenly took place at the entrance 
 of the Imperial stables, and the name of Mumayado 
 ("stable door") was accordingly given to him. He is, 
 however, known to history by his posthumous name of 
 Shotoku Daishi ("great apostle of true virtue "). When 
 this name was conferred on him, the Buddhist priests, 
 dissatisfied with the more prosaic story of his birth, ac- 
 counted for all his virtues by giving him a semi-divine 
 descent, not from the ancient Gods of Japan — which, 
 being the son of an Emperor, and therefore a direct 
 descendant of the Sun Goddess, he could claim already — 
 but from a Buddhist divinity. They said that one day 
 as his mother slept the God Kwannon ^ appeared to her 
 in a dream and said that he would be born again through 
 her to save the world. He then entered her mouth and 
 she became pregnant, and the child that was born at the 
 stable door was really the incarnation of the God. 
 
 Be it as it may, the child from its earliest years gave 
 marked evidence of both piety and intelligence of a high 
 degree. He was able to speak when only four months 
 old, and when little over a year he voluntarily knelt 
 towards the East and, with clasped hands, repeated the 
 holy invocation to Buddha, and when his hands were 
 opened they were found to contain a holy relic of 
 Buddha's body. As he grew in years the promise of 
 
 ' The Buddhist God of Mercy, more frequently, however, spoken of 
 and worshipped as a goddess. 
 
THE DAWN OF HISTORY 67 
 
 his childhood was more than fulfilled. He studied and 
 acquired a complete knowledge of the Buddhist doctrine 
 and the Chinese classics, and as his intelligence and 
 wisdom were equal to his industry, his judgment never 
 failed, and "he could attend to the suits of ten men at 
 one time and decide all without error." 
 
 The Prince served the new Empress, his aunt, 
 throughout the first twenty-nine years of her reign, and 
 during all these years he was her prime minister, her 
 trusted friend and the inspirer of all her policy. As 
 might bfe expected from the story of his childhood, his 
 influence was from the first exerted in favour of Buddh- 
 ism, and the Empress, yielding to it, became the most 
 zealous convert. She ordered that everything should 
 be done to promote the three treasures, Buddha, the 
 Law and the Priesthood, and thenceforward nobles and 
 people alike vied with each other in erecting temples 
 and doing honour to the new religion. Mumayado 
 himself was among the foremost. He fulfilled the vow 
 he had made in his first battle against the traitorous 
 Omuraji by building the Temple of Tennoji in Osaka, 
 a temple which, many times destroyed during the civil 
 wars of the Middle Ages, was always piously rebuilt 
 with increased magnificence, which at the present day 
 still remains one of the greatest Buddhist foundations 
 in Japan. The holy relic of Buddha's body, the pupil 
 of the left eye, which was found in Mumayado's hands, 
 was reverently deposited in the monastery of lioriuji, 
 specially built by the Prince to receive it, half-way 
 between Nara and Osaka, close to the maple-clad banks 
 of the river Tatsuta, the joy of painters and poets, who 
 equally love to depict their autumn glories. Many new 
 buildings were added to the monastery from time to 
 time in succeeding centuries, but the original building 
 remains to this day, the oldest existing type of Buddhist 
 architecture in the Empire, having survived all the civil 
 wars and general ruin that temporarily fell both on 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Buddhist priests and temples in the sixteenth century, 
 
 when both were victims of a merciless crusade. The 
 
 monastery is a holy spot not only to Buddhist devotees, 
 
 to pilgrims to the shrine of one of the greatest national 
 
 heroes, but to antiquaries. Many of the decorations 
 
 placed in it when it was built still survive ; some alleged 
 
 to be the work of Mumayado's own hands, for he was 
 
 both a sculptor and a painter himself, as well as soldier 
 
 and devotee; some the work of the best Korean and 
 
 Chinese artists of the time, when Japanese art was still 
 
 at a very low state of development; some depicting 
 
 incidents in the life of the founder; some subjects 
 
 sacred in Buddhism; but one and all a joy to both the 
 
 antiquarian and the artist. Touching evidence is given 
 
 of the faith of true believers in the swords and mirrors 
 
 that in heaps encumber one part of the temple. The 
 
 sword was the dearest possession of a samurai, the 
 
 mirror the dearest possession of a woman, not so much 
 
 as a medium through which she can rejoice in her own 
 
 beauty, but as the symbol of the Sun Goddess whom 
 
 she worships, Both have been freely sacrificed here as 
 
 thank-offerings for prayers answered by the Gods for 
 
 the restoration of the givers to health after long and 
 
 serious illness.^ 
 
 As a statesman, Prince Mumayado left an impress 
 
 on his country which was but little less marked than 
 
 that of his religious propagandism. He was nominated 
 
 Prince Imperial, heir-apparent to the throne, very early 
 
 in the reign, and, enjoying all the confidence of his 
 
 Imperial Mistress, was entrusted with full control over 
 
 the administration, and he used his powers to lead Japan 
 
 further onward in the paths of civilization of China. 
 
 ^ It is now thirty-five years since the present writer last visited the 
 monastery, and it had already then begun to suffer from the spirit of 
 vandalism that was prevalent among Japanese during the seventies of 
 the nineteenth century, when they thought that neglect or even 
 destruction of their own historical monuments, and even of works of 
 
THE DAWN OF HISTORY 69 
 
 The best teachers were encouraged by the gift of rank 
 of high degree, sufficiently high to enable them to claim 
 enrolment in the nobility, to immigrate both from China 
 and Korea. They brought with them books on astro- 
 nomy, the calendar, geography and medicine, and 
 students were assigned to them to be perfected in these 
 sciences by their teaching. Teachers of magic and 
 sorcery also appeared among the tribute bearers from 
 Korea, and the tribute included gifts of magpies and 
 peacocks among more substantial items. An embassy 
 came fr5m China, and was received with all the public 
 honours and ceremonial that is given by a civilized 
 nation to the accredited representative of a friendly 
 sovereign. Two months were occupied in its journey 
 from Kiushiu to Naniwa (Osaka), but there it was met 
 and conveyed up the river in gaily decorated boats. 
 When the embassy landed, it was received by high 
 officers of the Court specially appointed to entertain it, 
 and at the reception by the Empress all her princes 
 and ministers wore golden head-dresses and were arrayed 
 in embroidered robes of brocade or silk. Prior to this 
 the Chinese system of classification of official ranks in 
 twelve degrees had been adopted, and officials were dis- 
 tinguished, as in China, by the colour of their caps. A 
 code of laws was, for the first time in Japanese history, 
 drawn up by the Prince Imperial with his own hand, 
 embodying the best principles of Chinese philosophy, 
 and laying down those under which the administration 
 should be conducted, and these laws^ serve to the present 
 day as guides for the moral conduct of the state officers 
 in their relations with the people. 
 
 art, was the best way to manifest their devotion to Western civilization. 
 It was seriously contemplated by them at one time in that period to 
 melt down the great statue of " Dai Butsu " at Kamakura, the grand- 
 est statue in the world, for the sake of the gold, silver and copper of 
 which it is composed, and they were only prevented from doing so by 
 the vigorous remortstrances of Europeans m Japan. 
 
 \ 
 t 
 
70 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 One story, which has many parallels in European 
 history, may be told to illustrate the benevolence of the 
 Prince. Once when he was on a journey he found a 
 starving beggar lying by the road in so great a state 
 of exhaustion that he could not even tell his name. The 
 Prince gave him food and drink, and taking off his own 
 cloak, wrapped it round the starving man, saying to 
 him, "Lie in peace." Next day a messenger was sent 
 to see after him, and they found that he was dead. So 
 the Prince had him buried. Many days afterwards he 
 again sent to inspect the tomb. The earth was undis- 
 turbed, but the tomb was empty. There was nothing in 
 it but the coffin, with the cloak laid neatly folded on top 
 of it. So the Prince knew that it was no ordinary man 
 whom he had relieved, and he wore the mantle as he 
 had done before. 
 
 When he died all the people mourned his loss. 
 
 "All the princes and people of the Empire filled the ways 
 with the sound of their lamenting, the old as if they had 
 lost a dear child, the young as if they had lost a beloved 
 parent. The farmer ceased from his plough and the pound- 
 ing woman laid down her pestle. They all said : ' The sun 
 and the moon have lost their brightness. Heaven and Earth 
 have crumbled to ruin — henceforward in whom shall we put 
 our trust? '" 
 
 He left behind him peace where he had found strife 
 and anarchy, the light of civilization in the place of the 
 darkness of semi-barbarism, the knowledge and practice 
 of art and science where there had been none before, 
 reverential observance of a religion which was destined 
 to mould the character of his countrymen for more than 
 a thousand years. He was a great and successful re- 
 former, worthy to take a place in history no less distin- 
 guished than posterity may hereafter assign to the 
 statesmen who have made the New Japan of the 
 Emperor who is now on the throne. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 NARA, HEIAN AND THE FUJIWARA 
 
 Prince Mumatado died in the year 621, and the 
 Empress whom he had served so well followed him seven 
 years afterwards. One event only need be noticed in the 
 reign of her successor Jomei (628-641), a rebellion of 
 the barbarians on the Northern Frontier, a common 
 enough occurrence, only to be distinguished from many 
 others by the part played in it by women, who gave 
 one of the many illustrations of female courage and 
 fortitude that are prominent through all the Japanese 
 history. 
 
 The general who was appointed to suppress the rebel- 
 lion was defeated and forced to intrench himself against 
 the barbarians who vigorously besieged him. His sol- 
 diers defeated and dispirited, deserted and left almost 
 alone, the general was on the point of following their 
 example, and was actually climbing the stockade at 
 night to make his own escape, when his wife interfered. 
 She taunted him with the disgrace that he was about 
 to bring on a family of soldiers ; then she took his sword 
 herself, gathered all the women in the camp around her, 
 and made them all vigorously twang the bow-strings, 
 so the barbarians thought there was still an army behind 
 the defences, and did not press the attack. The General, 
 whom his wife had restored not only by her example 
 but with draughts of wine, took heart again, got some 
 of his lurking soldiers together and turned defeat into 
 victory. History unfortunately records only the name 
 
 71 
 
72 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 of the husband, and leaves both name and parentage of 
 the heroic wife unmentioned and unnoticed. 
 
 Jomei was succeeded by another Empress Kogiyoliu 
 (642-645). Since the introduction of Buddhism the 
 Soga family, the head of which had from the first given 
 his wholehearted influence in favour of the new religion, 
 and had suffered persecution for its sake, had, in keep- 
 ing with its spread, steadily grown in power and dignity, 
 and the chief Ministership of the Sovereign had become 
 hereditary in the family. The Nakatomi, the descend- 
 ants of Ama tsu Koyane, were still the hereditary High 
 Priests of the old national religion, "the way of the 
 Gods," and their conduct gave rise to the saying, "In 
 Heaven there are not two suns, there cannot be two 
 sovereigns on earth." Their pride grew apace with their 
 dignity. They aspired to control the succession to the 
 throne; they built mausoleums on a scale of Imperial 
 grandeur for themselves, commanding forced labour for 
 the purpose, styled their children Princes and Princesses, 
 maintained an armed guard at their residences, which 
 they called palaces, and were always attended by armed 
 guards in their goings out. They hated the Soga both 
 as the apostles of the rival religion and as powers who 
 held the highest civil offices of the court. They readily 
 took part, therefore, in a plot for the assassination of 
 the two heads of the Soga house, father and son. The 
 son was murdered in the Empress's presence. The 
 father was then deserted by his guards, and taken and 
 executed. Thenceforward the Nakatomi rose to civil as 
 well as ecclesiastical dignity and power, and the founda- 
 tions were laid of the control which they were fated to 
 exercise over the destinies of the Empire, for 400 years. 
 The Empress Kogiyoku abdicated ' in favour of her 
 younger brother Kdtoku in 645. He reigned for nine 
 years — a period of great administrative reform, and 
 when he died, although he left sons, Kogiyoku, though 
 
NARA, HEIAN AND THE FUJIWARA 73 
 
 now sixty-two years of age, again ascended the throne, 
 on this occasion under the title of Saimei. She was the 
 great-granddaughter of the Emperor Bidatsu, the Em- 
 press Consort of Jomei, the sister of Kotoku, the mother 
 of her successor Tenchi, and twice reigned as Empress 
 herself. No other lady in Japanese history had so long 
 and close a connection with the throne. When abdicat- 
 ing in favour of her brother she at the same time 
 nominated her son Prince Imperial (heir-apparent), and 
 he held this rank, both through Kotoku's and her own 
 second* reign, and therefore exercised considerable 
 influence in the administration. All his influence, both 
 when Prince Imperial and subsequently when on the 
 throne as the Emperor Tenchi (668-671), was exercised 
 in favour of the haughty Nakatomi family, whose first 
 ancestor came down from Heaven with the grandson 
 of the Sun Goddess. In virtue of the charge given by 
 the Sun Goddess to their heavenly ancestor to attend 
 upon the sacred mirror, the Nakatomi were the 
 hereditary high priests of the Empire. The Emperor 
 Tenchi was personally devoted to Kamatari, the head 
 of the family, the twenty-first in the direct line of 
 descent from their Heavenly Ancestor, both during his 
 own and the three preceding reigns, and when he 
 came to the throne and became himself the fount of 
 honour, he conferred on Kamatari the office of Daijin, 
 the highest civil dignity in the state, and the surname of 
 Fujiwara, Wisteria field, thus founding the great house 
 of the Fujiwara, whose family crest is the Wisteria. The 
 honour was well bestowed. The path to honour was in 
 the early history of Japan too often cleared by assassina- 
 tion to attach any lasting stigma to one who had success- 
 fully used that means for his own aggrandisement, and 
 Kamatari used his powdrs wisely and beneficently, light- 
 ening the taxation of the people, preventing the abuse of 
 forced labour and insj;ituting valued reforms in the 
 
74 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 administration. His successors, for many generations, 
 were worthy descendants of the founder of their family, 
 and not only kept a firm grasp on the dignity which he 
 won and transmitted to them, but amplified it far beyond 
 what he in his wildest dreams of ambition ever con- 
 templated. They added to it that of Kuambaku. The 
 precise meaning of the word "Kuambaku" is "to be 
 charged with and to represent," and the holder of the 
 office of that name is the recognized medium of com- 
 munication between the Sovereign and his subjects. The 
 office became hereditary in the Fujiwara family, and as 
 it included in its prerogatives the regency of the Empire 
 during the minority of an Emperor, they gradually 
 acquired an influence second only to that of the throne. 
 At first this influence was used honestly as well as 
 wisely, but as time went on, their lust and pride of power 
 grew so extravagant that the throne became practically 
 entirely subordinate to them as far as the exercise of all 
 executive authority was concerned. The successive 
 Emperors still remained the nominal heads of the State, 
 the sole legal founts of honour and power, but under 
 the influence of the Fujiwara they were reduced to 
 nullities. 
 
 One of the results of the introduction of Chinese civil- 
 ization was the practice of abdication which became wide- 
 spread through the nation, and (while in the early cen- 
 turies it had its first observance a id was most marked in 
 the case of the throne, it subsequ(!ntly became a national 
 custom among all classes and ran as, from the throne and 
 the greatest houses of the nobility down to the humblest 
 shopkeepers, which continues in jull force till the present 
 day. Until the introduction o: Chinese civilization. 
 Emperors reigned in Japan till t leir deaths. The doc- 
 trine of Buddhism is that perfeqt peace and happiness 
 can only be obtained in solitude find meditation, and the 
 Buddhist devotees seek the opportunity for both in the 
 
NARA, HEIAN AND THE FUJIWARA 75 
 
 complete withdrawal from the cares and anxieties of life 
 and family. 
 
 In the case of the throne, the teaching of the doctrine 
 was first followed by the five Empresses of the sixth, 
 seventh and eighth centuries, each one of whom gave up 
 the throne in her lifetime to her successor and retired into 
 private life, to spend her last days in religious medita- 
 tion. The first Emperor to follow their example was 
 Shomu (724-749), who abdicated in favour of his 
 daughter Koken (749-759), but lived for seven years 
 afterwards, all of which were devoted to the practice of 
 the ceremonies of the Buddhist Church, and his example 
 was followed in the succeeding century by no less than 
 six out of the ten Emperors who reigned. At first, the 
 abdications were entirely voluntary, and their real as 
 well as their ostensible object was the attainment of 
 leisure to be devoted to religion, but as time went on, 
 there were sovereigns who wished to retain the power of 
 the throne and at the same time to be free from its most 
 oppressive claims and responsibilities; who, therefore, 
 outwardly abdicated but continued to direct, from their 
 supposed monastic or rural seclusion, the affairs of the 
 State with as much energy and thoroughness as they 
 had done when on the throne. The first instance of this 
 was the Emperor Shirakawa (1073-1087), and a very 
 striking instance of it in comparatively modern times 
 was furnished by lyeyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa 
 Shoguns at the beginning of the seventeenth century. 
 Emperors who took this course were known as Ho-0, 
 or cloistered Emperors. The practice gradually grew to 
 such an extent that there were several occasions in 
 Japanese history in which two, and on one occasion at 
 least, five Emperors as well as the Emperor on the 
 throne were living at one and the same time. 
 
 At first the practice was entirely voluntary on the part 
 of those who followed it, but it will be easily seen that 
 
76 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 cases might arise in which an iron-willed minister of 
 state who, as regent of the Empire, acquired a strong 
 influence over a sovereign during his minority, could, 
 when it suited his purpose, force the sovereign, however 
 unwilling he might be, to abdicate after his arrival at 
 manhood, before he had time to realize his own strength 
 or prerogatives. Thus it was with the Fujiwara. First, 
 their great services and merits gave them influence on 
 the throne. Then they used this influence to further 
 consolidate their power by marrying daughters of the 
 family both to the Emperors and to the princes of the 
 Imperial line, so that they acquired a strong family as 
 well as an official connection with the throne, and had 
 all the influence on its occupants that can be given by 
 near relationship as well as by hereditary office and 
 strong will. While the Emperors were young, they were 
 easily moulded to the wishes of the chief of the Fujiwara 
 of the time, and if when they arrived at manhood they 
 gave the least sign of independently asserting their own 
 prerogatives, they were promptly forced to abdicate, and 
 the throne given to a boy, perhaps even a child, who 
 would again implicitly submit to the dictation of the 
 hereditary regent, who was also either the boy Emperor's 
 grandfather or his uncle on the mother's side. 
 
 The annals of the Emperors show how frequently and 
 unscrupulously the Fujiwara availed themselves of their 
 power in this way. The Emperor Seiwa (859-877) began 
 to reign at the age of ten, and abdicated at twenty- 
 eight years of age. His successor Yozei (877-885) began 
 at ten years of age, and abdicated at eighteen, and the 
 corresponding ages of subsequent Emperors were 
 Reizei (968-970), eighteen and twenty; Enyu (970-985), 
 twelve and twenty-six; Kwazan (985-987), seventeen 
 and nineteen; Toba (1108-1124), six and twenty-two. 
 With Emperors such as these boys, the Fujiwara had no 
 difficulty in arrogating to themselves all the real power 
 
NARA, HEIAN AND THE FUJIWARA 77 
 
 of the state, and they used their power entirely for 
 the advancement of their own family. No one could 
 hope for any office in the state, for either honour or 
 titles, who was not of the Fujiwara blood, and gradually 
 the whole of the national executive was converted into a 
 Fujiwara preserve. The head of the family, always 
 either regent or first minister, at the same time extended 
 his own prerogatives. Every subject, according to the 
 unwritten constitution of old Japan, had the right of 
 appealing direct to the Emperor, and so much was this 
 recogn»ized that a box was placed outside the palace gate 
 for the reception of petitions. The Fujiwara assumed 
 the right of opening all, and of either rejecting them at 
 once or submitting them to the Emperors as they 
 pleased. None, whether high or low, could approach 
 the Emperor except through them. They became a 
 barrier between the Emperor and his people over which 
 neither could pass, and the Emperors, bereft of all real 
 power, were reduced to mere fain^nts, voluptuaries or 
 dilettanti, who passed all their time among the women 
 of the court or in the cultivation of art or literature, in 
 any way except in the vigorous and active discharge of 
 their duties as rulers of their Empire. They were lost 
 to their people, and though surrounded with all the 
 outward marks of honour and dignity, they became mere 
 prisoners in their palaces, only names to be whispered 
 with the same reverence as were those of the Gods of 
 Heaven. The Fujiwara, in the seventh and eighth cen- 
 turies, were the first usurpers of the Imperial preroga- 
 tives, and [the precedent which they founded continued 
 to be followed without one real break until the accession 
 of the present Emperor to the throne in 1867. 
 
 In the beginning of the eighth century, in the reign 
 of the Empress Gemmyo (708-715), the Imperial palace 
 at last found a j>ermanent site, and Nara became the 
 capital oithe Empire. Its choice shows that, in those 
 
78 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 days, the Japanese had as fervent an admiration of the 
 beauties of nature as their descendants of the present 
 century. Few places in the world are marked by 
 greater charms of nature. The old town, now not a 
 tenth of its former size, lies at the base of a range of 
 hills which rise gently from a richly cultivated plain, 
 amidst groves of cherry and plum trees, that in spring- 
 time glow with a mass of delicately tinted blossoms, of 
 gigantic cryptomeria, oaks and venerable pines. The 
 thick foliage of the groves is pleasantly broken by the 
 roofs of the temples and pagodas that owe their founda- 
 tion to the piety of the sovereigns who reigned at Nara. 
 These were seven in all, three of whom were Empresses. 
 It was the period when the new religion was in the full 
 tide of its prosperity and influence, when its doctrines 
 found no more faithful believers, no more devout fol- 
 lowers amidst its myriads of disciples throughout the 
 world than in the Imperial Court of Japan. Every 
 Emperor, still more every Empress, gave all his or her 
 best influence to its encouragement and to its support, 
 and sought no greater or higher glory than that of pro- 
 moting it among their people, of doing honour to it by 
 the erection of splendid temples in their own capital. 
 Nara lies outside the direct route from Osaka and Kioto 
 to Yedo. It escaped, therefore, much of the destruction 
 and misery which so often fell on other cities through 
 all the, long civil wars of the middle ages, and it pre- 
 serves to this day many of the features that marked it 
 in what is called the Nara period of histWy, which 
 embraces nearly the whole of the eighth century. Some 
 of the temples that were then erected still survive. All 
 that was best in the Empire in art, literature,) architec- 
 ture were gathered there. All their votaries did their 
 best to please their devout sovereigns, and for the first 
 part of the period there were no wars to break the calm 
 of lives consecrated to religion. 
 
NARA, HEIAN AND THE FUJIWARA 79 
 
 Of the sovereigns of the Nara period we need only 
 specifically mention one, the Emperor Shomu (724-749), 
 and him only on account of the vicarious celebrity which 
 he enjoys in history through his wife, one of the historic 
 women of Japan, renowned equally for her dazzling 
 beauty, which procured her the name of Komiyo — 
 Splendour — for her wit, intelligence and strong char- 
 acter, and for her piety. When she stood erect her hair 
 not only reached, but lay on the ground. No church 
 ever had a more devoted believer and patron than she 
 showed herself through all her married life. Monasteries 
 and convents were established throughout all the land 
 either by her or by her husband at her instigation, and 
 he, under her sweet influence, was hardly less pious 
 than herself. A poetess herself, she is worthily honoured 
 as one of the greatest patrons of poets at a period which 
 is still deservedly known as the Golden Age of Japanese 
 poetry. There is only one cloud on her memory, and 
 that is a delicate one. Her husband attempted towards 
 the end of his reign to free himself from the yoke of the 
 Fujiwara, and called into his lay councils a monk named 
 Dokio, his spiritual adviser, still more the spiritual 
 adviser of the Empress. The pious monk is said to have 
 broken his vows for the sake of the witty and lovely Em- 
 press, and, as other great ladies have done in other climes 
 and in all ages, the Empress yielded to the love of the 
 priest. The combined influence of both on the Emperor 
 was not fortunate either for himself or for the Empire. 
 The Fujiwara could not be ousted from their power, and 
 the Emperor, reduced to his old thraldom, was punished 
 by being compelled to abdicate in favour of his daughter 
 Koken (749-758). An armed rising in his favour was 
 attempted by others of the nobility jealous of the Fuji- 
 wara, and the peace and calm of Nara was broken by 
 civil war, which after some vicissitudes of fortune, 
 served in the end only to rivet still more firmly than 
 
80 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 they had been before the fetters of the Fujiwara on the 
 throne. 
 
 In 794, in the reign of the Emperor Kwammu (782- 
 806), the capital was removed from Nara to Kioto, where 
 ;t remained till 1868. The Empress was, as usual, one 
 of the Fujiwara, and the move was made at their, inspira- 
 tion. A castle was erected which was called Heian-jo 
 — the castle of peace — and in the first four centuries of 
 its existence the new capital was known as the city of 
 Heian, the city of peace. These centuries are also called 
 the Heian Period of history, which lasted from the 
 founding of the capital till 1 192, when the first Shogunate 
 of the Minamoto family was firmly established in 
 power at Kamakura. Then the name of Heian was lost, 
 and the Imperial town came to be known simply as 
 Kioto — the capital. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE RISE OF THE TAIRA 
 
 Time in its course avenged the fate which the Fuji- 
 wara, in their selfish greed for power, imposed on their 
 Emperors. Secure in their influence and great offices 
 at the capital, they gradually permitted themselves to 
 lapse into sloth and self-indulgence, and became de- 
 generate representatives of the strong and masterful men 
 who, in the earlier centuries of their domination, had 
 been at the head of their house, letting luxury and 
 effeminacy take the place of the energy and virility that 
 first placed the Government of the Empire in their 
 hands. 
 
 One of the results of the introduction of Buddhism 
 and the wholesale adoption of Chinese institutions which 
 followed it was the division of the executive Govern- 
 ment, on the Chinese system, into civil and military de- 
 partments, the creation of a special class of generals 
 who devoted themselves solely to military affairs, and 
 finally, the permanent demarcation of the civil and 
 military classes of the people. As far as to the seventh 
 century of the Christian era all the freeborn people, 
 without distinction of class, were soldiers, expected and 
 obliged to follow their Emperor or his generals when 
 their services were required for the subjugation of the 
 barbarians on the frontiers or of rebels amongst their 
 own kin, or for the military expeditions against one or 
 other of the three kingdoms of Korea, which were not 
 infrequent through a period of 400 years. As a rule 
 n 81 
 
82 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 the Emperor himself took the chief command, but if 
 he did not, it was given to an Imperial Prince and never 
 to an ordinary subject. As the population increased, it 
 became no longer necessary that all the people should 
 answer every call to arms, and on the other hand, as 
 civilization grew, a greater number was required to 
 minister to the general wants of the nation, the Court, 
 army and people, and to devote themselves exclusively 
 to productive labour. The soldiers were therefore only 
 chosen from the boldest, strongest and most active of 
 the population, who showed the greatest proficiency in 
 horsemanship or archery. They were sent forth to do 
 battle under a Shogun or a general, and as expeditions 
 became more distant and demanded greater time for 
 their accomplishment, they became more absorbed in 
 their military duties, and finally their character of 
 citizens was entirely merged in that of professional 
 soldiers. The less spirited, the physically weak and 
 unskilled in arms, remained to till the soil or work at 
 the increasingly varied industries. Less and less de- 
 mand was made on them for military service, so that 
 they gradually lost all their old character of soldiers, and 
 a complete division was formed between the military and 
 the agricultural and industrial classes. The enthusiasm 
 of war, always natural to professional soldiers, and the 
 hope of plunder operated to keep the military class 
 away from the capital and induced them to attach them- 
 selves to the boldest and most capable leaders who per- 
 manently settled themselves on the lands on which they 
 had fought and from which they had driven either 
 rebels or the original barbarian owners. They became 
 and called themselves soldiers, and in time began to 
 regard with contemptuous indifference the authority of 
 the weak civil Government of the Emperor at Kioto, 
 while, on the other hand, the courtiers looked down 
 upon them with supercilious pride as rough and uncouth 
 
THE RISE OF THE TAIRA 83 
 
 provincials whose sole trade was fighting. In this 
 way the foundations came to be laid of the permanent 
 social classification of the entire Japanese people, 
 which lasted in its entirety till the Restoration in 1868, 
 and in a modified form, retaining to a great degree its 
 original spirit, has lasted until the present day. 
 
 At the capital were the Emperor and his court; the 
 Emperor, however bereft of actual power, always the 
 sole source of all authority and the fountain of honour, 
 to whom every Shogun owed his appointment, whose 
 sanction alone legalized every act done by the Shogun. 
 Around the Emperor were his courtiers, the Kuge, all 
 of whom claimed descent from one of the Emperor's 
 predecessors or, as in the case of the Fujiwara, direct 
 from their own heavenly ancestor, and therefore shared 
 in some degree the prestige of the Emperor's divine 
 descent. They were always the very cream of the haute 
 noblesse, and though sunk in poverty, as they became 
 in later days, when the Emperor was only a name to his 
 people, they always preserved the caste which rendered 
 them the immeasurable superiors of the wealthy and 
 powerful Daimio, the territorial nobles of the period of 
 feudalism. The Shogun and the forerunners of the 
 Daimio were at first Kuge, of the same blood as the 
 Courtiers, who sought their sphere in military life, but, 
 in process of time, in the disorganization of the long 
 civil wars of the middle ages, when might became right, 
 when only the sword won and only the sword could 
 keep, many self-made adventurers found their way 
 among them and acquired the possession of fiefs of 
 greater or less extent which gave them the rank of 
 Daimios. The soldiers became the Samurai, the feudal 
 retainers of the Daimio, who long monopolized the right 
 of wearing and using arms, and the rest of the popula- 
 tion sank to the position of ministers to the needs of 
 those above them, to one or other of the three classes 
 G ? 
 
84 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 of peasants, artisans and traders. The drain of con- 
 tinuous war in the middle ages gave many of these 
 three classes chances of filling vacancies among the 
 Samurai, but from the time when internal peace was 
 firmly established under the Tokugawas, at the begin- 
 ning of the seventeenth century, and there was no more 
 depletion of the ranks of the Samurai by war, that 
 avenue of advancement was closed and they became little 
 better than serfs vis-d-vis the nobles and the Samurai. 
 
 The original unit of Society in ancient Japan was the 
 Uji, the family composed of persons bearing the same 
 name and all recognizing the supreme authority of one 
 head of the whole family or house. In the very earliest 
 days, when the population was still scanty, the Uji were 
 naturally few in number and limited to such families as 
 the Nakatomi and the Soga; but, as the descendants of 
 these families grew, the numbers in each Uji became 
 too large and cumbersome to admit among them all that 
 might rightfully claim membership, either as descend- 
 ants of the first chief of the family or as sprung from 
 Emperors who reigned subsequently to its formation. 
 New families were therefore founded — or rather their 
 foundation was permitted by the Emperor from time to 
 time. In this way the Minamoto, Taira and Tachibana 
 families came into existence, all of the very highest rank 
 among the Court nobility, though less illustrious than 
 the Fujiwara. When members of these families led 
 military expeditions to the disturbed quarters of the 
 Empire and followed their success in tranquillizing or 
 exterminating the inhabitants by permanently estab- 
 lishing themselves on the conquered land, they took new 
 names from the locality in which each found himself. 
 In this way the great territorial families were for the 
 first time established under territorial titles, such as 
 Hojo, Ashikaga, Tokugawa, etc., to quote only such 
 as became most prominent in subsequent history. Each 
 
THE RISE OF THE TAIRA 85 
 
 local leader maintained around him the soldiers by 
 whose arms he had won the land, and they, increasing 
 steadily in numbers, united with him to form the local 
 Uji which came to be known as the Han or Clan, and 
 with their chief were considered to form one united 
 family, bound not only by the ties of interest and 
 safety, but by the fiction that all had a common origin 
 with their chief. They became hereditary soldiers, 
 whose sole trade was fighting, who scorned all other 
 pursuits. 
 
 As they grew in numbers and strength, and as their 
 domains became more distant from the seat of the 
 capital, the authority over them of the central Govern- 
 ment perceptibly weakened, and, in time, every Han 
 became a law unto itself, a petty kingdom, independent 
 in everything except the loyalty which it owed to the 
 Emperor. The executive had, however, fallen from the 
 hands of the Emperor into those of the Fujiwara. So 
 long as the Fujiwara were active, vigorous and master- 
 ful, so long as they preserved the characteristics of the 
 great founder of the house, they were able to exercise 
 the authority of the central Government on the out- 
 lying Han. But, as coincidently with the growth of 
 the Han, the Fujiwara at the capital became weak and 
 indolent and, yielding to the seductions of Court 
 luxury, passed their days in sensuous pleasure to the 
 neglect of all the executive functions which they had 
 assumed, the time naturally came when the great chiefs 
 refused to brook even nominally the authority of the 
 Court voluptuaries, and took the affairs of state into 
 their own hands with a powerful backing of the best 
 fighting men of the Empire enthusiastically devoted to 
 them. They founded the dual system of government, 
 based on feudalism, which reached its highest summit 
 of perfection under the Tokugawa Shoguns in the 
 seventeenth century and lasted until 1868, when it met 
 
86 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 its doom after seven hundred years existence, on the 
 downfall of the last of the Tokugawas and the accession 
 of the present Emperor to the throne. 
 
 The Fujiwara, even before they started on their down- 
 ward path, confined themselves mainly to civil offices. 
 Every active office in and about the Court, every civil 
 post in the executive was exclusively filled with mem- 
 bers of their own family, and to those who were outside 
 the pale of that family, the only avenue of distinction 
 that was open was that of military service. Two 
 families, both of which traced their origin to the Im- 
 perial line, eagerly seized upon the chance which the 
 conditions of the times gave them. These families were 
 the Minamoto and the Taira, and their history is, for 
 a hundred years, the history of Japan. 
 
 The Emperor Kwammu (782-806), the fiftieth of the 
 line, had, by one of his concubines, a son, Prince 
 Katsurawara, who attained high distinction as a scholar 
 at the Court, and the grandson of this prince, Takamochi, 
 was appointed military governor of the Province of 
 Kadzusa and the family name of Taira conferred on him 
 by the Emperor. The history of the family had so far 
 been full of honour, a record of distinguished service to 
 the Emperor; but Masakado, the grandson of the 
 founder of the Taira, was destined to earn an unenviable 
 notoriety in history as a rebel, the only personage in 
 all the long history of Japan who dared to raise 
 sacrilegious eyes to the throne. Angry at the refusal 
 of the Fujiwara to confer on him a high office at' the 
 Court, he withdrew to his own military district in the 
 Eastern provinces, and, being a brave and capable 
 soldier, he soon brought all the Eastern provinces under 
 his own sway. Then, establishing himself at Saru- 
 gashima in Shimosa, he founded a mimic Court with a 
 complete establishment of civil and military officials. 
 Once in his youth he had looked down on Kioto from 
 
THE RISE OF THE TAIRA 87 
 
 the summit of Mount Hiyei and seen how splendid it was, 
 and now, remembering it in the days of his success, he 
 thought that even the throne was not outside the scope 
 of his ambition. A disaffected member of the Fuji- 
 wara joined him, to whom he confided what was in his 
 heart, saying, " I am of the Imperial family ; Heaven has 
 made me a warrior, I shall become the ' Son of Heaven, ' 
 and you, a Fujiwara, shall be Kuambaku." Then both 
 took the field in revolt against the throne. But vigor- 
 ous measures were quickly taken, and Makasado was 
 surprised and defeated by an army under his own 
 cousin, another Taira. Followed by four hundred 
 horsemen, all that remained to him of his great army, 
 he fled to the mountains. There he was again attacked, 
 and, though he fought with desperation and performed 
 prodigies of valour, himself slaying scores of his assail- 
 ants, he was again beaten, his horsemen dispersed, and 
 as he fled alone he was brought down by an arrow fired 
 byhis cousin's own hand. 
 
 The disloyalty of one member of the family was con- 
 doned by the services of another, and as the succeeding 
 generations continued both to display capacity and to 
 render the best military service, there was no falling 
 away of their strength and influence. Makasado's re- 
 bellion took place in the year 940, and five generations 
 later, at the beginning of the twelfth century, the head 
 of the house was Tadamori, whose services made him 
 a favourite with two Emperors, Shirakawa (i 073-1 086), 
 and Toba (1108-1124), and procured for him advance- 
 ment at the Court which aroused the jealousy of the 
 courtiers so that they plotted to murder him. They 
 resolved to take advantage of his attendance at the 
 banquet given by the Emperor to celebrate the feast of 
 Shinjoye (harvest festival); but Tadamori, knowing 
 what was in their hearts, came with his sword and 
 attended by two retainers. The courtiers, seeing his 
 
88 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 sword and knowing his prowess, were afraid, but 
 thought to destroy him by accusing him to the Emperor 
 of coming to the interior of the palace armed. When 
 taxed with this grave offence Tadamori calmly pro- 
 duced the sword, the sight of which had made the 
 courtiers pause, and it was found to be of wood, silver 
 gilt. So, while they dared not attempt to slay him, 
 their accusation Was turned into ridicule. Once he 
 accompanied the Emperor on a midnight ramble to the 
 home, away from the palace, of a lady favoured by the 
 Emperor. It was a night of black darkness and heavy 
 rain, and the pair were startled by what seemed to be 
 the apparition of a devil, with hair erect like needles, 
 that alternately appeared and vanished before them in 
 the street. Tadamori boldly grasped the supposed 
 apparition, which proved to be a priest, with a hat of 
 wheat-straw, carrying a torch, which he blew into 
 flames each time that it was quenched by the rain. One 
 of the palace attendants was another favoured lady of 
 the Emperor. Tadamori's loyalty and devotion did not 
 prevent him secretly sharing with his Imperial master 
 the good graces of the lady, and his intrigue was dis- 
 covered. The Emperor forgave him, gave him the 
 lady in marriage, and said, "If the child is a girl I 
 will adopt it; if it is a boy it shall be Tadamori's son." 
 A son was born in i iiS, to whom the name of Kiyomori 
 was given, who in due time became the head of the 
 Taira and one of the greatest figures in Japanese history. 
 The Minamoto, the second of the two military families 
 mentioned above^ were of later origin than the Taira. 
 The Emperor Seiwa (859-877) had three sons, one of 
 whom became Minister of War, and his son was 
 licensed to found a new family under the name of Mina- 
 moto. The Taira had adopted a red banner and the 
 Minamoto chose a white one. From father to son for 
 generations all were active and daring soldiers. In the 
 
THE RISE OF THE TAIRA 89 
 
 fourth generation one of them, in order that he might 
 be better able to guard the Son of Heaven, commis- 
 sioned a famous swordsmith to forge two swords for 
 him. For fifty days the smith worked, and then he 
 produced two swords of superlative quality. Both were 
 tried by their owner on criminals. One cut through 
 both neck and beard of the criminal at one stroke, and 
 was therefore called Hige Kiri, or beard cutter. The 
 other cut through the neck and knee, as the criminal 
 knelt on the ground with head outstretched and knee 
 forwardf and was therefore called Hiza Kiri, or knee 
 cutter, and both these swords became heirlooms in the 
 family. 
 
 The fourth in descent from the founder was Yori- 
 yoshi, who won renown as a soldier both in the Kuanto 
 and in the far northern Province of Mutsu. Once he 
 dreamt that the God Hachiman had given him a sword. 
 Simultaneously his son Yoshiiye was born, who, prov- 
 ing as valiant and capable a soldier as his father, 
 received from his father's dream and his own exploits 
 the name of Hachiman Taro, or eldest son of Hachi- 
 man. At the end of a long and arduous campaign in 
 Mutsu, which lasted for many years, the enemy took 
 refuge in a stockaded camp in the middle of a marsh. 
 There were deep ditches all round it and swords were 
 planted in them so as to make the crossing more diffi- 
 cult. Yoriyoshi pulled down the houses of all the 
 people around, filled the ditches with their fragments 
 and then stormed the stockades. The enemy's leader, 
 who was of enormous stature, measuring seven feet 
 round the loins, came out and fought alone, and was 
 taken and brought wounded to Yoriyoshi. Yoriyoshi 
 cut off his head and those of his two sons with a blunt 
 sword and sent them to the capital to be laid before 
 the Emperor. Within the stockades he found scores of 
 beautiful women, who had been stolen by the rebels, 
 
90 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 and these he divided among his own officers. Both 
 father and son became very popular in the Eastern pro- 
 vinces, where the calling of arms was highly honoured, 
 and by their dignity and beneficence won all hearts so 
 that the foundations were laid of the popularity of the 
 Minamoto throughout the eight provinces, which en- 
 abled them, in a later generation, to make themselves 
 masters of the Empire. Yoshiiye's grandson was 
 Yoshitomo, the eldest of twenty-three sons of his father. 
 The eighth son was Tametomo, who was of enormous 
 strength, with arms long like those of an ape so that 
 he could bend a bow and discharge an arrow that were 
 far beyond the capacity of any ordinary men. He was 
 so violent in his youth that he was sent on service to 
 Kiushiu where, at the age of fifteen, his conduct made 
 him the terror of all the local governors, none of whom 
 could control him. A Court intrigue gave Yoshitomo 
 a brief influence. In 1156 there were three Emperors 
 living, one, Konoye (1142-1156), on the throne and 
 two in retirement, Toba (1108-1124), the cloistered 
 Emperor, the father of Konoye, and Sutoku (1124-1142), 
 Konoye's immediate predecessor. Konoye died in this 
 year, and Sutoku, who abdicated fourteen years before, 
 was desirous to reassume the throne; but Toba, at the 
 instigation of his favourite concubine, Tokuko, placed 
 on it the Emperor Go Shirakawa, her son and the 
 brother of Konoye. Shortly afterwards Toba died, and 
 Sutoku then determined, at the instigation of the Fuji- 
 wara, to take the throne by force of arms, and to that 
 end called the Minamoto family to his help. Toba, on 
 his deathbed, had given his beloved concubine a box to 
 be opened only in the case of trouble. Her and his 
 son's throne was now threatened, so she opened the box 
 and found in it a list of military commanders who 
 might be trusted, and Yoshitomo's name was at their 
 head. She called him and Kiyomori, the head of the 
 
THE RISE OF THE TAIRA 91 
 
 Taira, the two greatest warriors of the age, to her aid, 
 and both espoused her cause and tooli up arms in 
 defence of the young Emperor. On the other side, the 
 side of the ex-Emperor, the leaders were Yoshitomo's 
 father and brothers, foremost among them being the 
 great archer Tametomo. In the battle that took place, 
 the latter were hopelessly defeated. Both father and 
 brothers were taken prisoners and all were ruthlessly 
 put to death by Yoshitomo. His four youngest brothers 
 were still boys, almost children, too young to have 
 taken part in the plot or in the fight, but their youth 
 did not save them. Their implacable brother ordered 
 that all should be executed. The boys, except the 
 eldest, asked for mercy, saying that they had done no 
 wrong. The eldest rebuked them, told them that "he 
 who had killed his father would not spare his younger 
 brethren. He has fallen into the snares of Kiyomori 
 and is wounding himself. Let us die at once and follow 
 our father." So all placed their heads in a row and 
 "received the sword." Only Tametomo escaped. He 
 endeavoured to make his way to Kiushiu, but, once 
 when he was taking a bath, his enormous bulk attracted 
 the attention of those who saw him, and they told the 
 authorities of their suspicions. Officers were at once 
 sent to take him, and Tametomo, naked as he was, 
 sprang out of his bath and seized a pole and killed 
 several of the officers before he was taken. Then he 
 was bound and, though his life was spared, the sinews 
 of his arm were cut so that he could no longer draw a 
 bow, and he was banished to the Island of Oshima. 
 Here some of his old henchmen followed him. He 
 gathered a band of fighting men about him and, from 
 being a prisoner, made himself master of the Island. 
 The story of what he was doing was brought to the 
 capital, and officers were sent to the Island to take him 
 again. His arm had now recovered its strength and 
 
92 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 he was again the strong and skilful archer of his youth. 
 With one arrow he shot from the beach he sank the 
 boat that was bringing the officers to arrest him. He 
 is said to have escaped after this exploit to the Liu 
 Kiu Islands, where he founded the royal family which 
 afterwards ruled over the Islands as kings. 
 
 Yoshitomo had borne the brunt of the fight which 
 secured Go Shirakawa on his throne, and for his sake 
 had fought with and slain his own father and brethren, 
 but the greatest rewards were given to Kiyomori, the 
 head of the Taira, and it was not long before a quarrel 
 broke out between the two, and the quarrel was soon 
 followed by hostilities. Shirakawa only held the throne 
 for three years, when he abdicated in favour of Nijo 
 (1159-1165), but he continued himself to direct the 
 administration. Both Emperor and ex-Emperor took 
 refuge with Kiyomori on the renewal of hostilities, and 
 their presence in his camp gave him and his followers 
 the prestige of the Imperial and loyal army and made 
 Yoshitomo, who was in arms against it, a rebel. His 
 followers began to desert him, and, when the fight came, 
 he was largely outnumbered. All day long, from early 
 dawn, his men fought continuously till their swords 
 were broken and their arrows exhausted. Meanwhile, 
 his foes had been fighting in detachments, constantly 
 bringing fresh men to make new attacks on the weary 
 and worn. At last all was over. Yoshitomo wished 
 to die fighting on the field, but a faithful retainer, 
 Masaiye, prevented him, telling him it was better to 
 fly to the Eastern provinces and await a better day than 
 to meet death at the hands of a common soldier. He 
 escaped from the field with thirty horsemen, but safety 
 was far away. The priests of Mount Hiyei tried to 
 stop him with three hundred men. One of the horse- 
 men rode to them and said, "We are only disbanded 
 soldiers. If you want our armour you are welcome to 
 
THE RISE OF THE TAIRA 93 
 
 it, but we have not enough for all of you. Take this 
 as an earnest." Then he threw his helmet among them, 
 and while the priests scrambled for it the whole party 
 put their horses to the gallop and rode through them. 
 Further on priests again tried to stop them, and in the 
 struggle Yoshitaka, Yoshitomo's grand-uncle, now an 
 old man, the last surviving son of Hachiman Tard, was 
 killed, and Tomonaga, his son, was shot by an arrow 
 through the thigh. The youth pulled out the arrow 
 himself and fought on. Later on the wound festered, 
 and he could not continue the fight. He prayed his 
 father to kill him rather than leave him to fall into the 
 enemy's hands, and Yoshitomo killed him with his own 
 sword. A band of peasants surrounded him and at- 
 tempted to take him. One of his followers killed ten 
 of them, and then, saying, "I am Yoshitomo," slashed 
 and disfigured his own features so that the face could 
 not be recognized and killed himself. The peasants, 
 thinking they had Yoshitomo's head, were not eager to 
 come to grips again with the rest of the little band, now 
 reduced to half-a-dozen in number, and allowed it to 
 escape. At last he reached Utsumi, a port on the bay 
 of Owari, where he found refuge in the house of Tada- 
 mune, the father-in-law of Masaiye, the faithful vassal 
 who still followed him. Konno, another equally faith- 
 ful, was also still with him. Tadamune resolved to 
 murder Yoshitomo, and, for this purpose, hid three 
 stout swordsmen in the bath-room. But they could do 
 nothing as Konno accompanied his lord to the bath and 
 stood by him with his sword. Unfortunately the bath 
 gown had been forgotten and, as no one answered to 
 the call, Konno left his post to get it himself. Then 
 the three swordsmen did their work on the naked and 
 unarmed man. Konno, hearing the noise, rushed back, 
 but only in time to avenge his master by killing all three 
 swordsmen. Masaiye was at the moment drinking with 
 
94 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 his father-in-law and host in another part of the house, 
 and, as he rose, on hearing the disturbance, was cut 
 down from behind and killed. The heads of both lord 
 and vassal were sent to Kiyomori. Masaiye's wife, 
 horrified at her father's treachery, killed herself with 
 her dead husband's sword. This was in the year 1160. 
 Long before this happened Kiyomori had become the 
 head of the Taira. The son of a brave and successful 
 soldier, he gave from his earliest years ample evidence 
 that he would equal if not surpass his father's greatest 
 exploits. While still a mere youth he was, at his own 
 desire, sent on service against pirates who swarmed on 
 the west coast, and in his operations against them dis- 
 played not only dauntless courage, but military capacity 
 of a high degree. Afterwards he steadily ascended in 
 Court favour and rank, while his reputation as a suc- 
 cessful and ambitious soldier attracted so many followers 
 to the red banner of the Taira that he became the most 
 powerful territorial noble of the Empire. The Court 
 intrigue of 1156 gave him his great opportunity. Yoshi- 
 tomo's name was first on the list of generals contained 
 in the box given by the dying Emperor Toba to his 
 concubine, the mother of the child whom he had 
 nominated as his successor on the throne, and Kiyo- 
 mori's name was not on the list at all, but Kiyomori's 
 strength and character soon gave him the lead, and 
 the story has just been told of his ultimate quarrel with 
 and triumph over Yoshitomo. Yoshitomo's death left 
 Kiyomori the undisputed master of the Empire. The 
 Emperor was in his hands to give legality to all his 
 actSj no matter how violent or tyrannical, and could 
 be moulded at his will. No subject in Japan's history 
 had previously reached such a pinnacle of authority 
 with irresistible military force to back it. Kiyomori 
 was as cruel and relentless as he was ambitious. For 
 three centuries the Minamoto and Taira had been 
 friends, bound by the ties of their common service as 
 
THE RISE OF THE TAIRA 95 
 
 soldiers of the Empire and as enemies of the dominant 
 Fujiwara. The memory of the days when they had 
 fought side by side might well have softened Kiyomori's 
 heart, hard though it was, in favour of the Minamoto 
 in their hour of darkness after Yoshitomo's death, when 
 they were left without competent leaders and were 
 scattered in flight throughout the East. But he had 
 determined to leave no possible enemies to his own 
 family, none who could interfere with the grandeur 
 which he proposed to ensure to them in the future, and 
 a war of extermination was decreed against all the 
 Minamoto. 
 
 Three sons accompanied Yoshitomo in the flight from 
 his last battle. The fate of one has been told. The 
 eldest, Yoshihira, and the third Yoritomo, the first 
 twenty and the last thirteen years of age, survived their 
 father. Yoshihira was at Kamakura in the East when 
 he heard of his father's quarrel at Kioto with the Taira. 
 He galloped night and day the whole intervening 
 distance — nearly three hundred miles — to join him, and 
 in the fight he showed himself a valiant soldier, lead- 
 ing a charge right into the lines of the Taira army. 
 Once, during the flight after the battle, Yoritomo in 
 weariness fell asleep on his horse and lagged behind the 
 rest of the little band. Some peasants, seeing only a 
 boy alone and asleep, attempted to capture him, but he 
 woke at once, cut down two of them with the sword 
 "Beard-cutter," which his father had given him, and 
 succeeded in rejoining his father. Both sons, after- 
 wards, for better chances of escape from the Taira who 
 were seeking for them and to secure that all of the Mina- 
 moto might not perish at one blow, by the father's 
 orders, separated from the party. Their adventures 
 after their father's death were full of romance. 
 
 At first the eldest hid among remote hills, and there, 
 deserted and left alone, thought to take the usual refuge 
 of a Japanese warrior in an honourable death at his 
 
96 THE STORY OP OLD JAPAN 
 
 own hand. But he remembered it was his duty to 
 avenge his father's murder. So he made his way in 
 disguise to Kioto where the triumphant Taira were all 
 popular. There he found an old Minamoto retainer, 
 and, in the character of his servant, lodged with him 
 in an inn. The landlord saw that he was no ordinary 
 person, and spying upon them, discovered that the 
 apparent master and servant changed places when they 
 took their meals. Information was quickly given to 
 the Taira officers, and the house was surrounded by 
 three hundred men; but Yoshihira, after cutting down 
 ten of the officers who attempted to stop him, escaped 
 by the roof. Then he tried to make his way once more 
 to the Eastern provinces, remote from the capital, where 
 he would have found sympathy and shelter, but, as he 
 crossed the Auzaka, a steep mountain pass on the road 
 from Kioto to the town of Otsu at the end of Lake 
 Biwa, he lay down to rest by the wayside and, in his 
 weariness, fell asleep. As he slept the very same officer, 
 who had failed in his attempt to arrest him at Kioto, 
 happened to pass by at the head of a troop of fifty 
 horsemen. He recognized the sleeping youth at once, 
 and, seizing him as he slept, bound him and brought 
 him a prisoner to Kjoto. Arrived there, he was told 
 to stand at the gate of the palace, but, indignant at this 
 affront to one of his blood, he forced his way into the 
 interior and boldly confronted Kiyomori, and on the 
 tyrant taunting him with having been taken by fifty 
 men after having escaped from three hundred, he 
 laughingly answered, "It was just my luck. When your 
 luck fails you, you will also come to an end like this." 
 Then he was straightway led forth and decapitated on 
 the dry bed of the River Kamo, a spot which, in its 
 associations, resembles Tower Hill. Many of the most 
 noted characters in Japanese history, whose lives have 
 closed with failure, have there taken their last look 
 on earth. 
 
THE RISE OF THE TAIRA 97 
 
 Yoshihira was twenty years of age when he died. 
 His brother,' Yoritomo, was then only thirteen. After 
 his father's death he also became a wandering fugitive, 
 seeking shelter and support wherever they cpuld be 
 found. A poor fisherman disguised him as a girl and, 
 hiding his famous sword, "Beard-cutter," in a piece of 
 matting, tried to carry him on his own back tp a place 
 of safety. But a Taira commander, Munekiyo, found 
 him and took him prisoner and brought him to Kioto. 
 There a day was at once fixed on which he was to pay 
 the last penalty on the Kamo. But his captor, Mune- 
 kiyo, had in turn been captured by the boy's beauty and 
 spirit. He went to Kiyomori's step-mother, Iki no 
 Ama, the nun Iki, who had shaved her head and sought 
 peace from the affairs of the world in the retirement of 
 a Buddhist convent, and told her that Yoritomo re- 
 sembled her own son, Uma, who had died in youth. 
 Her pity was aroused. She besought Kiyomori's mercy 
 with tears and repeated supplications, and he at last 
 yielded and spared the boy's life, but exiled him to the 
 distant province of Idzu. Some of those who stood 
 round him when the sentence was pronounced, advised 
 him to ensure his continued safety by shaving his head 
 and so manifesting that he had done with worldly affairs ; 
 but another, a retainer of his own family, whispered in 
 his ear, "Wait and see." The youth nodded in answer, 
 and as he left, holding his head high and fearlessly 
 looking in the face of the Taira courtiers who were 
 grouped around, some of them struck by his spirit, who 
 had heard of what he, a boy, had done in action and 
 during his father's flight, said that, in sparing his life, 
 their lord was "letting a tiger loose in the fields." 
 
 All the Prince Charlie-like romances of the two young 
 nobles, of scores of their principal retainers who were 
 eluding the vigilance of the Taira emissaries all over 
 the country and awaiting in poverty and obscurity the 
 dawn of the day of retribution, yield in pathos, in the 
 
98 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 fascination which they continue to the present day to 
 exercise over Japanese painters and romanticists, in their 
 power of drawing tears to the eyes of gentle maidens, 
 who are now, it may be, studying European science and 
 philosophy in' the high schools and colleges of Tokio, 
 to the story of Tokiwa, the peasant girl of humble birth, 
 whose marvellous beauty had raised her to the proud 
 position of Yoshitomo's mistress, a position in Japan 
 of those days only one degree less honourable than that 
 of legal wife. She had borne three sons to her lover, 
 and, when the lover was killed, she fled with her three 
 children on a dark winter's night, when the ground was 
 thick with snow, and sought shelter in a lonely wood. 
 Her two eldest boys clung to her skirts, one on each 
 side; her youngest was still an infant in arms. No 
 scene in all Japanese history has been more represented 
 by painters of every degree of skill or reputation than 
 that of the lovely mother and her three numbed and 
 wearied children, all wondering at the sudden change 
 from the luxury of a palace to homelessness and hunger, 
 struggling through the falling snow in the gloom of 
 the dark forest. Death appeared to be inevitable for all, 
 but fortune was not wholly unkind to them. A soldier 
 of the Minamoto, a fugitive like themselves, found 
 them, brought them safely to a secluded village, and 
 there sheltered them. There they might have awaited 
 better fortune, but the Taira were determined to secure, 
 if not extirpate, the whole Yoshitomo brood. They 
 sought in vain for Tokiwa and her children; but they 
 found her mother and publicly proclaimed that, if the 
 daughter did not surrender, the mother must die. Tid- 
 ings of this came slowly to the lonely mountain village 
 where the daughter thought she had found a safe 
 shelter, but they came and placed before the distracted 
 mother a cruel alternative, to sacrifice her children, the 
 sons of her great lover, or her own mother. Filial piety 
 is the basic element of all Japanese morality. For father 
 
THE RISE OF THE TAIRA 99 
 
 or mother, son or daughter must always be ready for 
 sacrifice at any moment, in any form. For them a son 
 must sacrifice his life, a daughter life or what is 
 dearer than life, and Tokiwa's struggle, if bitter, was 
 short. She returned to Kioto with her children and 
 gave herself and them into the hands of the Taira 
 officers. 
 
 Like other men who have played a great part on the 
 stage of the world's history, Kiyomori was susceptible 
 to female beauty, and, when Tokiwa was brought before 
 him, all 'his strongest passions were stirred by her 
 irresistible charms. He at first tried to win her in 
 secrecy, but failed. More open wooing was equally 
 fruitless. Tokiwa was faithful to the memory of her 
 murdered lord. Threats succeeded where persuasion 
 was in vain, and when her mother, with floods of tears, 
 showed her the "misery of refusal and the happiness 
 which yielding would ensure to all," Tokiwa at last 
 gave way and, becoming Kiyomori's mistress, pur- 
 chased the lives of her mother and children. Her in- 
 fluence over the tyrant lasted for ten years, and then, 
 when released by him, she married another man, and 
 nothing is told of the rest of her life. The lives of her 
 children were spared, but the well-being of the Taira 
 demanded that they should be brought up in such a way 
 as to make them powerless for ill in the future. The 
 three were sent to monasteries to be reared and trained 
 as members of a priesthood vowed to celibacy. 
 
 Kiyomori's triumph was now complete and his posi- 
 tion as head of the state seemed assured. The Emperor 
 was in his power, and was soon made to feel it. The 
 nomination to the great office of Dai jo Dai jin. First 
 Minister of State, was extorted in Kiyomori's own 
 favour from him, and all the chief offices, civil and 
 military, metropolitan or provincial, were conferred on 
 relations or adherents of the Taira, and everywhere con- 
 fiscated domains throughout the kingdom were given to 
 
100 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 them so that their lands spread over more than thirty 
 provinces. All that had been done by the Fujiwara in 
 the days of their most unquestionable dominance was 
 now done or excelled by Kiyomori, who, like them, 
 crowned and deposed Emperors as he pleased. The 
 ex-Emperor Sutoku and his son, the cause of the first 
 quarrel between the Minamoto and the Taira, shared in 
 the fate of their defeated champions, and were promptly 
 banished to a distant and uncivilized province with such 
 contumely and indifference that Sutoku is said to have 
 died in his banishment of starvation. Go-Shirakawa, for 
 whom Kiyomori had fought in the disputed succession, 
 was made to abdicate the moment he showed a semblance 
 of mild resistance to his minister's will. The throne was 
 then given in succession to three boys of seventeen, two, 
 and twelve years of age at their accession, the first two 
 of whom were only allowed to reign for a few years in 
 order to make way for the third, Taka-kura (1169-1180), 
 whose mother, a concubine of the Emperor Go-Shira- 
 kawa, was an elder sister of Kiyomori's own wife. To 
 this Emperor Kiyomori gave his daughter in marriage, 
 first making her Niogo, or principal concubine, and then 
 advancing her to the dignity of Chiugu, or second wife, 
 again following the precedent of the Fujiwara, who, 
 when at the height of their power, forced all the Em- 
 perors to take wives from among the daughters of their 
 house. When a son was born to this marriage the 
 father was deposed, and the child, though still an infant, 
 crowned as the Emperor Antoku (1180-1185). Kiyo- 
 mori's ambition had thus carried him to its highest 
 flight. He was the grandparent of the Emperor, who 
 was the Son of Heaven and the direct descendant of the 
 Gods. His pride and ostentation were unbounded. 
 Imperial honours were rendered to him and a large 
 escort accompanied him wherever he went, like the 
 Imperial family. When he visited the Emperor he 
 passed through the palace gates without descending 
 
THE RISE OF THE TAIRA 101 
 
 from his car; he entered the presence still wearing a 
 sword, a boldness on which none other had ever pre- 
 sumed before. He built a palace at Fukuwara where 
 the great port of Kobe now stands, and transferred the 
 Emperor to it so that it became the capital of the 
 Empire. But his last years were not happy. His 
 eldest son, who to all his father's courage and capacity 
 added all the true nobility of mind in which the father 
 was lacking, who was chivalrous and merciful to beaten 
 foes, died before him. He had been torn between con- 
 flicting duties, honour to the Emperor and obedience to 
 his father, and, in his agony, he had prayed for death 
 and his prayers were answered. The second son gave 
 no promise that he would be able to take his father's 
 place. The Fujiwara, sick of his tyranny, indignant at 
 their subjection to one who was their inferior in descent, 
 were secretly conspiring against him at the Emperor's 
 Court. Yoritomo, now grown to manhood, was already 
 raising the Minamoto standard and was gathering a 
 formidable army in the distant Kuanto.^ Too late 
 Kiyomori realized how true it was that he had let loose 
 a tiger in the fields. He died in 1181 at the age of sixty- 
 four, and his last words on his death-bed were — 
 
 " He that is born must necessarily die. Why should I 
 alone expect to escape? My rank has been the highest to 
 which a subject can attain, and I stand in the relation of 
 grandfather to the Emperor by his mother's side. What 
 should I have to complain of? What I complain of is that 
 I must die without seeing the head of Minamoto no Yori- 
 tomo. After I die do not perform Buddhist rites for me; 
 do not read the liturgies for me; but simply cut off Mina- 
 moto no Yoritomo's head, and hang it up before my tomb. 
 Let all my offspring and retainers obey my words, and not 
 dare to neglect them." 
 
 ' For Kuanto, see Appendix III. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 yORITOMO AND THE GEM-PEI WAR 
 
 When Yoritomo's life was spared and he was 
 banished to Idzu, the Hojo, a family of territorial 
 nobility whose domains lay in Idzu, were made, respons- 
 ible for his safe custody. The family were of Taira 
 descent, the founder having been the son of Kiyomori's 
 predecessor in the seventh degree in the headship of the 
 Taira. Their faith could, therefore, it was assumed, be 
 trusted. The head of the house at this time was Hojo 
 Tokimasa. He had two daughters, the eldest of whom 
 was reported beautiful, the younger the reverse. Yori- 
 tomo wished to marry one of them, and thought he 
 should best conciliate the father's sympathy in his own 
 interests if he chose the younger and plainer. So he 
 sent her a letter by his servant. Now the girl had, on 
 the previous night, a dream in which a pigeon came to 
 her carrying a golden egg. She awoke and told her 
 sister of it, and the sister then said : "I will buy my 
 younger sister's dream." So she gave her younger 
 sister her toilet mirror, saying : " It is little, that with 
 which I pay the price." Next morning she received the 
 letter, and in the end formed a connection with the 
 sender. 
 
 The elder sister's name was Masago. She was at this 
 time twenty-one years of age, and was promised in 
 marriage to the Taira governor of Idzu. Her father, 
 Tokimasa, discovered her relations with Yoritomo, and 
 was both pleased and frightened. He had formed a 
 
 1 02 
 
YORITOMO AND THE GEM-PEI WAR 103 
 
 high opinion of Yoritomo's abilities, and foresaw the 
 possibilities of a great future for him. But he was 
 bound by his promise to the governor, and dreaded the 
 consequences of offending the powerful Taira by form- 
 ing a relationship with the outlawed scion of the Mina- 
 moto. So he insisted on the performance of the marriage 
 ceremony with the governor. The same night, the night 
 of the marriage ceremony, it rained heavily, and in the 
 darkness and storm Yoritomo played the part of 
 Lochinvar, and carried off the willing bride to the 
 mountains, and there hid with her. The father soon 
 forgave them, and when, in the following year, a son 
 was born to Masago and declared the heir of the Mina- 
 moto, he became devoted to Yoritomo, and thence- 
 forward forgot his loyalty to his own clan, and entered 
 heart and soul into Yoritomo's plottings for the revival 
 of the fortunes of the fallen house. 
 
 From early days the Minamoto were connected with 
 the Kuanto. Their name and history were well known 
 throughout the eight provinces, and as the provinces 
 were separated from the capital by a mountain barrier 
 over which there were only three passes available for 
 troops, the majority of the surviving clansmen sought 
 and found refuge in them during the domination of the 
 Taira at Kioto. Communications were opened by 
 Yoritomo with all of them whose whereabouts could be 
 found, and ere long a considerable army was gathered 
 of men who hated the Taira as the authors of all their 
 misfortunes, many already veterans in service, all with 
 physique and endurance developed by their rough and 
 arduous lives, so as to render them individually far more 
 formidable than the Taira, who were living in ease and 
 luxury at Kioto or Fukuwara. Recruits other than their 
 own clansmen at first came in slowly. Their cause still 
 seemed a forlorn hope. One influential magnate, on 
 being asked to join, burst out laughing, and said : 
 
104 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 " Does the mouse propose to attack the cat ? " Yori- 
 tomo, nothing daunted, resolved to put his fortunes to 
 the test, and, as an omen of ultimate success or failure, 
 to surprise the fort of the Taira governor of the province, 
 the same governor whom he had previously robbed of 
 his bride. Tokimasa, the father of the bride, led the 
 attack on the fort, and if successful was to signal the 
 result to his waiting son-in-law by kindling a fire. The 
 fort was strong, but the assailants crossed the fosse and 
 forced an entry. An officer named Kagekado when in 
 the fort came to a room where the door was open and a 
 light was burning. He placed his helmet on his sword- 
 point and gently thrust it in as if some one were peeping. 
 A blow was struck at the helmet from within, whereon 
 Kagekado rushed in and cut down the inmate. It was 
 the governor. The fort was then set on fire as the signal 
 to Yoritomo, and, soon following the signal, the head 
 was laid before him of his rival in love, his enemy in 
 war, equally unfortunate in both aspects. This was 
 taken as an omen that "he should give peace to the 
 Empire." 
 
 Secret plotting was now replaced by open war, and 
 an initial success having been gained, the local chiefs, 
 who had hesitated before, now boldly joined Yoritomo's 
 white banner and threw in their lot with his. With 
 three hundred men he took up a position on Mount 
 Ishibashi, a thickly wooded hill which rises at the foot 
 of the Hakone pass, a pass that is known to every 
 European resident who has ever sought relief from the 
 exhausting summer heat of the plains of Tokib in the 
 picturesque mountains of the Hakone range. Here he 
 was suddenly attacked by a force that outnumbered his 
 by ten to one, which meant to annihilate him before 
 reinforcements, which were known to be on the way, 
 could join him. It was a night of intense darkness, and 
 the rain fell in torrents. Friend could with difficulty be 
 
YORITOMO AND THE GEM-PEI WAR 105 
 
 distinguished from foe, but in the end Yoritomo was 
 beaten, and his men broke ^nd fled in headlong rout. 
 At dawn, Yoritomo was found by six of his own men 
 as he was resting against a tree. They all resolved to 
 separate to meet again, one only remaining with Yori- 
 tomo. The Taira pursuers were soon at hand, and both 
 hid themselves in the hollow trunk of a tree. One of the 
 enemy thrust his bow inside and searched the hollow, 
 actually touching the sleeve of Yoritomo 's armour. 
 Yoritomo prayed fervently to Hachiman for his protec- 
 tion, and his prayer was answered. Two wood-pigeons 
 flew noisily out of the hollow^ and the Taira soldiers, 
 taking this as a sign that no one could be within, 
 abandoned their search. In reporting their victory at 
 Kioto, they said, to Kiyomori's great joy, that Yoritomo 
 was dead. The descendants of the Minamoto have ever 
 since refrained from using pigeons as food. 
 
 After hiding for some time in the mountains, and 
 being nearly betrayed by a priest who was a friend of 
 the Taira governor and wished to avenge his death, 
 Yoritomo escaped to Awa, on the opposite shore of the 
 Gulf of Tokio, crossing the same " Running Water " 
 where Yamato Dake was saved by the sacrifice of his 
 wife. Fortune had been cruel to him, but the darkest 
 moment precedes the dawn. Nothing daunted by failure, 
 he sent out proclamations far and wide through all the 
 eight provinces, and they were answered in such a way 
 that he was soon once more at the head of a great army, 
 with which he marched to Kamakura, his old family seat. 
 There the chiefs of all the eight provinces hastened to 
 join him with their men, and ere a year had passed he 
 had such numbers in his command and so perfected all 
 his military organization that he was able to take the 
 offensive, and cross the Ashigara pass at the head of 
 two hundred thousand men. The Ashigara pass lies 
 about ten miles to the north of Hakone Lake, and is the 
 
106 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 most northern of the three passes which cross the 
 Hakone range from the eastern plains and give access 
 to the South through the province of Suruga. From it 
 the road passes along the lower slopes of Mount Fuji, 
 through long and picturesque avenues of venerable pines 
 and cryptomeria, to Gotemba, the site, a few yeajs later, 
 of one of the great hunting camps founded by Yoritomo 
 when at the height of his glory, now well known to every 
 European who has made the ascent of Mount Fuji. 
 Along these slopes the railway now runs from Tokio to 
 Kioto, and everywhere along its route scenes of impres- 
 sive beauty present themselves to the traveller's eye. 
 Close on his right, as he journeys southwards, Fujiyama 
 rises in all its majestic grandeur, while on the left the 
 fertile slopes, gradually descending to the sea-level, are 
 covered with cultivated fields and gardens, the thatched 
 roofs of the farmers' houses peeping out from the midst 
 of groves of camellia-trees that, in early spring, are a 
 glory of bright-red blossoms. Now the scene is one of 
 gentle beauty, amidst which the railway descends to the 
 mouth of the River Fuji, away to the west of the great 
 mountain. It was along the present railway route that 
 Yoritomo passed with his great army in 1189, through 
 what was then a wilderness of forest and brushwood, 
 amidst which only the wild boar and deer found a home. 
 Kiyomori's joy at the news he had heard of Yori- 
 tomo's death in the fight at Mount Ishibashi was short- 
 lived. It was soon reported to him that his enemy was 
 not only alive, but full of energy and hope, that recruits 
 were flocking to him in thousands, and that preparations 
 for a great campaign were in active progress at Kama- 
 kura. Kiyomori, though now old and ill, paying the 
 penalty in his later years of his debauchery and luxury, 
 unable to take the field himself and lead the van of his 
 troops, as he would have done ten years earlier, was still 
 vigorous in mind^ and had lost none of the unflinching 
 
YORITOMO AND THE GEM-PEI WAR 107 
 
 courage which had raised him to his high position. He 
 quickly organized a powerful army, which marched 
 eastward from Kioto under the command of his youngest 
 brother, Tadamori, and his grandson, Koremori, to meet 
 and crush Yoritomo. 
 
 The two armies came face to face on the banks of the 
 River Fuji. The Fuji, descending sharply from the 
 eastern slopes of the mountain, its course in many parts 
 marked by impetuous rapids that rush through lofty 
 gorges, down which, in the present day, boatmen take 
 many jJarties of foreign tourists with marvellous skill, 
 is always one of the most rapidly flowing rivers even in 
 such a land of mountain torrents as Japan. When the 
 two armies faced each other on the opposite banks, 
 heavy rain had swollen the river, and its current rushed 
 with even more than usual violence. Neither army dared 
 to cross in front of an entrenched foe on the other bank. 
 The Easterns sent a herald to the Taira to inquire 
 whether a day and means could not be arranged for the 
 two armies to try their fortune on equal terms, the 
 crossing of the river by one being placed out of bounds 
 so far as fighting was concerned, but the Taira vouch- 
 safed no answer. Then one of the Eastern commanders 
 secretly led a division northward over the hills, crossed 
 the river where it was narrower by hanging bridges — 
 fragile bridges of bamboo rope ^nd planks suspended 
 from either side of a narrow ravine — and came down at 
 night in the rear of the Taira. As he passed through the 
 marshland, large flocks of wild geese and duck rose with 
 loud cries, and the Taira, thinking that Yoritomo's 
 whole force was on them, retreated in disorder. Yori- 
 tomo wanted to pursue them at once, but his generals 
 dissuaded him. The Eastern provinces were not yet 
 wholly his; his force and material were insufficient for 
 a prolonged campaign against an enemy that had all the 
 advantages of unlimited wealth and, still more, which 
 
108 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 was thrice armed, in that it fought with all consciousness 
 of legal right to defend the government of the Divine 
 Emperor against Yoritomo, who was now, in the eye of 
 the law, a rebel. So the army was withdrawn and 
 marched back to Kamakura, where Yoritomo devoted 
 himself not only to the organization of his army, but 
 to the founding, at the home of his ancestors, of a great 
 city which, in size and wealth, would rival the ancient 
 capital of Kioto, and be a worthy residence for himself 
 when he had reached the summit of his ambition. 
 
 One night, at the beginning of the march backward, 
 the army bivouacked outside the town of Numadzu, 
 which lies on the Tokaido at the western foot of the 
 Hakone pass. It was announced to Yoritomo in his 
 own apartments that a knight whom no one knew, about 
 twenty years of age, of distinguished mien, had sud- 
 denly appeared in camp at the head of twenty horsemen 
 and demanded an interview. Yoritomo exclaimed : 
 "This must be Kuro of Mutsu. Admit him at once." 
 The knight entered within the curtain, and it was 
 Yoshitsune (Kuro was his second name — "Ninth Son," 
 corresponding to our Christian name). The brothers 
 had not met since both were boys, captives in the hands 
 of Kiyomori, apparently doomed to death. They wept 
 tears of joy together, hardened soldiers though they 
 were. Yoshitsune, in the far-off province of Mutsu, 
 had heard of his brother's uprising, and with a follow- 
 ing, small but devoted, had ridden night and day to join 
 him. To Yoritomo his coming was as welcome "as if 
 the great father of both had risen from the dead." 
 
 It has been already told that when the lives of 
 Tokiwa's children were spared it was on the condition 
 that all should be placed in monasteries and brought up 
 as priests. Yoshitsune, the youngest, a child in arms, 
 was for that purpose consigned to the care of the monks 
 of Kuramayama, a monastery lying among the hills 
 
YORITOMO AND THE GEM-PEI WAR 109 
 
 about ten miles to the north of Kioto. The good Fathers 
 did their best to discharge honestly the trust that had 
 been reposed in them, but they found the task more 
 than they could accomplish. Their novice, though short 
 in stature^ was so strong that he was called by the name 
 of Ushiwaka — the young bull — and his fiery and im- 
 petuous disposition was the reverse of that which 
 becomes a holy priest. He passed his days in practising 
 archery and swordsmanship, in athletic exercises of all 
 kinds, and his nights in study, not of books of holy writ, 
 but of the history of his own ancestors, of their proud 
 descent, their exploits, their glory and their downfall, 
 and the story stirred his boyish heart with a passionate 
 desire to emulate all they had done, to avenge what they 
 had suffered. The priests were at their wits' end with 
 him. In vain they urged him to shave his head as the 
 outward manifestation of an irrevocable decision to 
 become a member of the priesthood, pointing out to 
 him that it was the one and only way to ensure his 
 safety while the great tyrant was alive and the Taira at 
 the zenith of their power ; but his answer was : " My two 
 brothers have become priests, and I am ashamed of 
 them. Am I to imitate them?" At last he escaped 
 from the monastery with the aid of a travelling gold- 
 smith who was on his way to Mutsu, and the monks, 
 thankful to be rid of one who was a perpetual disturb- 
 ance to their monastic decorum, made no attempt to 
 pursue him. The Province of Mutsu, in the far North, 
 was governed by an official of the Fujiwara family. It 
 was still the wild background of Japan, still untranquil- 
 lized, still inhabited by wild aborigines who were a 
 constant source of danger to the scattered Japanese 
 colonists. Kiyomori had not thought it worth his 
 attention, or the expense and difficulties of a campaign 
 that would bring him no material profit and be both 
 costly and difficult. So it was safe from his far-reaching 
 
110 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 hand. Here the governor was glad to welcome so 
 promising and high-borti a recruit. This was in the 
 year 1174, and Yoshitsune was then fifteen years old. 
 During the succeeding years he had his fill of active 
 service, and became a daring and experienced soldier. 
 
 The stories that are told of his exploits both at this 
 period of his life and in its later stages are endless, and 
 still delight the high-spirited school-boys who love to 
 see in them the mirror of all the daring and fortitude 
 that are the glory of the national chivalry. While still 
 little more than a boy, a bandit, notorious for his 
 strength and skill at arms, stole a horse from the camp, 
 but was pursued and overtaken. Sword in hand, with 
 his back against a tree, he defied his pursuers, and none 
 but Yoshitsune dared to approach him. Yoshitsune 
 disarmed and took him single-handed. On another 
 occasion a large band of robbers boldly attacked the 
 camp. In the fight Yoshitsune slew four of them. 
 Once, in later years, on the bridge of Gojo, near Kioto, 
 he was attacked by a noted robber, eight feet in height, 
 "stronger than a hundred men"; Yoshitsune disarmed 
 him and forced him to sue for mercy. This was Benkei, 
 who vowed, and kept his vow, that he would serve and 
 never part from his victor, that he would be his true 
 man till death, and Benkei 's exploits in his master's 
 service are only less joy to the school-boy than those of 
 his heroic and high-born master. When Yoritomo was 
 in doubt as to which of his younger brothers he should 
 entrust with the command of the army after the death 
 of Yoshinaka, he heated a metal water-jug red-hot, and 
 called upon each brother in turn to serve him with it. 
 All except Yoshitsune dropped it as soon as they took it 
 into their hands. He alone held it till his lord and 
 brother's requirements were satisfied. When he was 
 commander-in-chief of the great expedition that was 
 pursuing the flying Taira on the way to Dan no Ura, a 
 
YORITOMO AND THE GEM-PEI WAR 111 
 
 skirmish took place near Takamatsu, a town about half- 
 way down the Inland Sea. The Taira retreated to their 
 boats, and Yoshitsune, leading the pursuit, rode after 
 them into the sea. There he dropped his bow, and as 
 he stooped from his saddle to recover it the Taira, from 
 their boats, eager to capture such a prisoner, tried to 
 take him by fastening a long hook into his helmet. 
 Yoshitsune parried the hook with his sword in one hand, 
 and with the other still sought his bow. His own men, 
 from the beach, implored him to come back, but he 
 would not till he was able to bring the bow with him. 
 The enemy rained arrows around him from their boats 
 as he retreated, but a brave soldier covered him with his 
 own body and received the arrows intended for the 
 general. Yoshitsune helped the dying man ashore, and 
 then, as he breathed his last, held his head in his own 
 lap and thanked him for what he had done. All the 
 army were proud and ready to die for a leader who could 
 be at once so brave and kind. 
 
 It was in the year after the retreat from the Fuji that 
 Kiyomori died, and the master-mind that had created 
 the glories of the Taira was lost to them in their hour of 
 peril. It now began to be felt that the Taira was a 
 losing cause, and their enemies, who, without affection 
 for or interest in the fortunes of the Minamoto, hated the 
 Taira for their cruelty, tyranny and greed, who had only 
 submitted to them through fear, hastened to join the 
 leader of what was becoming a national crusade. It is 
 not necessary in this volume to follow all the details of 
 a campaign that was carried through the Provinces of 
 Mino and Omi under the command of Yoritomo's uncle, 
 Yukiuji, and his cousin, Yoshinaka. Yoritomo himself 
 remained at the base, Kamakura. No one could doubt 
 his courage, and from the base he could superintend all 
 the operations of the different armies that were fighting 
 for him. The Taira resisted every step of the advancing 
 
112 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Eastern armies, and had some gleams of temporary 
 success ; but these successes were invariably followed by 
 greater victories of their foes. Once the whole Taira 
 army was driven over the brink of a deep ravine, and 
 more than twenty thousand men met their death by 
 falling into the ravine, and it was so filled that the victors 
 were able to cross on their piled-up corpses. On another 
 occasion panic seized them at a bridge, and as they 
 crowded across it more than a thousand men fell from 
 the bridge and were drowned in the river below. At last 
 the conquerors entered into Kioto in triumph, carrying 
 the white banner where it was thought it would never 
 have been seen again. Munemori, Kiyomori's son and 
 heir, fled from the capital to his palace and fortress at 
 Fukuwara, taking with him his nephew, the young 
 Emperor Antoku, and the sacred regalia of the crown 
 that were kept in the Imperial palace, and by so doing 
 still preserved for himself and his followers the status 
 of loyalists. 
 
 In the general massacre of the Minaraoto after Yoshi- 
 tomo's death, Yoshinaka, then a boy, was, like his 
 cousins, Yoritomo and Yoshitsune, ordered for execu- 
 tion, but his jailors spared him and hid him. While a 
 boy, living in obscurity, the only sports in which he 
 would take part with his fellows were those in which 
 they played at soldiers, and as he grew up he developed 
 unusual physical strength and skill as a mounted archer. 
 His rough upbringing among social inferiors gave him 
 no chance of acquiring the polish of a courtier, even 
 that of a squire. His manners were coarse and vulgar ; 
 he had no patience with the etiquette and ceremony of 
 a court, and he soon became an object of hatred to the 
 courtiers who remained in Kioto after the flight of the 
 Emperor, and of ridicule to the mass of the inhabitants, 
 who were accustomed to look for all the outward mani- 
 festations of dignity and rank in their rulers. He was a 
 
YORITOMO AND THE GEM-PEI WAR 113 
 
 valiant and capable soldier, but all the life he knew in 
 his manhood was that of the camp, and that did not 
 supply the deficiencies in the training of his youth. He 
 was also proud and overbearing. He had led the con- 
 quering army to Kioto. He had performed great serv- 
 ices, had borne the brunt of the fighting while the head 
 of his family, for whose sake he fought, remained in 
 safety at Kamakura, but he set an extravagant estimate 
 on what he had done. In his pride he forgot that he 
 was a vassal, and assumed in his triumph at Kioto the 
 airs and powers of an irresponsible dictator. Yoritomo 
 was not the man to admit any equal with him in 
 authority. He remonstrated with his cousin in vain. 
 Then he determined to crush him. Yoshitsune, who 
 had not taken part in the march on Kioto, was recalled 
 from the North, where he had been sent to collect troops, 
 and placed in command of a new army, with orders to 
 take or destroy his cousin. 
 
 The common foes of all the Taira, who were still 
 powerful, though so often defeated, were now to fight 
 against each other. Yoritomo still remained at Kama- 
 kura, but showed his prescience as a strategist by his 
 instructions to Yoshitsune : " If Yoshinaka is taken at 
 all, it will be at the River Uji. Take care that you 
 have men and good horses to carry them across the 
 river." 
 
 Japanese have a peculiar custom of giving different 
 names to one and the same river, the names varying with 
 the districts through which the river flows in its course 
 from source to sea. The River Yodo flows out of Lake 
 Biwa and enters the sea at Osaka. In its course it 
 passes through the tea-growing district of Uji, justly 
 famed for centuries for producing the finest tea that is 
 grown in all Japan. As it flows between the prosperous 
 towns of Uji and Fushimi in this district it is called 
 the Uji, and it was on its banks that Yoritomo rightly 
 
114 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 foresaw that Yoshinaka would make his stand. Near 
 the town of Uji is a Buddhist monastery, Byodo-In, 
 renowned for its Phoenix Hall, and it was in this 
 monastery that Yoshitsune took up his position when 
 about to force the passage of the river. He had twenty- 
 five thousand men with him. Yoshinaka defended the 
 opposite bank with a thousand, but he had stripped the 
 bridge of its planks, and had planted stockades and 
 occupied a strong defensive position. Yoshitsune beat 
 the drum of fhe monastery to command attention, and 
 then issued his orders that the main strength was to 
 swim the river, while the best archers should cover them 
 from the standing beams and posts of the bridge. The 
 passage was disputed to the last, but it was made, 
 though at heavy loss to the victors. Yoshinaka, with 
 the few survivors of his gallant thousand, fled to Kioto. 
 The Easterns were hot on his trail^ there was no abiding 
 place for him there, and he paused only to take leave 
 of his wife. In the first days of his triumph he had 
 married a daughter of the Fujiwara, and the high-born, 
 gentle lady of the court had won the heart of the rough 
 and uncouth soldier. He dallied so long in her company 
 that two of his men remonstrated with him, and gave 
 the usual Japanese emphasis to their remonstrances by 
 committing hara-kiri at the gate of his palace. Then 
 he fled once more, and all that remained faithful to him 
 of the great army he had so lately commanded and led 
 to victory were three hundred horsemen. His pursuing 
 foes — his own kith and kin — were close behind him, and 
 his flight was a continued battle. At last only thirteen 
 men remained to him, and they were surrounded by 
 thousands. Yoshinaka tried to gain a hill on which to 
 make a last stand, but his horse got bogged in a rice- 
 swamp, and as he struggled to get through an arrow 
 struck him on the head and killed him. Two of his 
 followers, to whom he was strangely related, had clung 
 
YORITOMO AND THE GEM-PEI WAR 115 
 
 to him to the last moment. He had a mistress named 
 Tomoye, a woman of extraordinary strength and stature, 
 who rode and fought as a man among his knights. 
 When the pursuers were close to him, she turned and 
 with one sword-stroke killed their leader. Yoshinaka 
 begged her to save herself, saying : "I am going to die. 
 What will be said of me if I take my mistress with 
 me ? " She begged to be allowed to die with him, but, 
 as He insisted, she bade farewell to him with tears and 
 left hirri. Her brother, Kanehira, stood by his leader 
 and fought vigorously to the last. He had only eight 
 arrows left in his quiver, but with every arrow he slew 
 an enemy. Then hearing a cry that his lord was dead, 
 he said: "My work is done," and fell from his horse 
 on his own sword and died. Tomoye escaped and made 
 her way to the distant province of Echigo, where she 
 became a nun, and spent the remainder of her life in 
 praying for her lover's happiness in the next world. 
 
 The tragedy did not end with the death of the 
 principal character. His son had married Yoritomo's 
 daughter, and remained at Kamakura as the guest of 
 his father-in-law, in reality as hostage for his father. 
 When the father rebelled against Yoritomo, the son 
 endeavoured to escape, but was taken, and had to pay 
 the last penalty for his father's crime. Yoritomo wished 
 to marry his widow to one of the Fujiwara, to directly 
 ally his family with the most noble house in the Empire ; 
 but subservient though daughters in Japan are to their 
 fathers' wishes, trained as they are from birth to practise 
 the extreme of self-abnegation, here the daughter had 
 her father's courage and determination, the spirit of a 
 true daughter of a Samurai, and the memory of her 
 young, slaughtered husband was too dear to her to 
 permit her to give herself to another, and so she killed 
 herself with her dead husband's sword. 
 
 Yoshinaka being dead, the chief command of the 
 
 I 2 
 
116 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Minamoto army, in Yoritomo's absence, devolved on 
 Yoshitsune. The Taira, while the Minamoto were at 
 war among themselves, had recovered both strength and 
 spirit. They had been reinforced by large levies of 
 troops from the South, and they had strongly entrenched 
 themselves at Fukuwara, converting Kiyomori's great 
 palace into a formidable fortress. Fukuwara lies close 
 to the sea on the banks of the River Minato, the western 
 boundary of the modern town of Kobe. It is a site of 
 great natural beauty, with a background of thickly 
 wooded hills, and in the foreground the blue waters of 
 the Izumi Nada, the Bay of Izumi, which at the present 
 day are always enlivened by the numerous ships that 
 pass in and out of the great commercial port. The bank 
 of the river is a favourite walk of the European mer- 
 chants and traders of Kobe, few of whom, as they stroll 
 through the long avenue of venerable pine-trees, give 
 even a passing thought — if indeed they have any know- 
 ledge at all of them — ^to the great events of which the 
 riverside was once the scene, though to the people 
 among whom they live, with whom they trade, by;, whom 
 they are now governed, these events are as full of interest 
 as those of Bannockburn or Culloden are to the most 
 devoted lover of his country in Scotland. Here, the 
 Taira were so strong that they planned an advance on 
 Kioto and the recovery of their influence in the ancient 
 capital. But they had an enemy who did not loiter. 
 Marching by night, and lighting the way for his troops 
 by burning the houses on the road, Yoshitsune sud- 
 denly appeared before the fortress. The Taira lines 
 extended on either side of the fortress for a total dis- 
 tance of eight miles, from the temple of Ikuta in the 
 immediate rear of the European residential quarters at 
 Kobe, to the valley known as Ichi no Tani, which runs 
 from the shore to the hills between Kobe and Akashi. 
 At the entrance to this valley the Taira had established 
 
YORITOMO AND THE GEM-PEI WAR 117 
 
 their strongest post, and their defences, made as strong 
 as engineering science of the day could effect, extended 
 from the valley to the sea, while off the shore a large 
 fleet was anchored from which archers could maintain 
 a heavy flank fire on the enemy advancing by the 
 shore. Ichi no Tani was the scene of the greatest 
 struggle in the battle which raged along the entire line, 
 and it is by that name that the battle is historically 
 known. Twice the Minamoto were beaten back from 
 the strong earthworks with heavy loss, and many of 
 their bfist officers were killed. Then, as night fell, a 
 boy was found, the son of an old hunter who, had passed 
 his whole life among the hills, and the boy knew them 
 as well as the father. He said there was a path, but it 
 was so steep as to be fit for neither men nor horses, 
 only deer could descend it. Yoshitsune answered, 
 "Where a deer can go, so also can a horse." In the 
 darkness of the night Yoshitsune led three thousand 
 men to the summit of the pass, which they reached 
 just as the day broke, and from the summit they could 
 look down on the battlefield below and on the inside of 
 the Taira defences. But the descent was as forbidding 
 as the guide had foretold. It was many hundred feet 
 in height, and steep as a: precipice. The horsemen 
 looked at each other, but none dared to lead the down- 
 ward way. Then Yoshitsune whipped his horse, forced 
 it to the bank and slid down, reaching the bottom in 
 safety, and, when he had done so, his men followed 
 him. They were now in the rear of the Taira, where 
 their defences were open. At once, knee to knee and 
 helmet to helmet, they charged, and the Taira, taken 
 suddenly in the rear, were seized with panic, and broke 
 and fled for refuge to their ships. A hideous scene of 
 carnage followed. The panic-struck fugitives were cut 
 down in thousands by the victors. Tiiousands more 
 were drowned. Even then the ships could not receive 
 
118 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 half the survivors, and the crews, to prevent swamping, 
 were obliged to beat back the soldiers, who fought in 
 frantic terror to climb on board, so that the ships were 
 filled with amputated arms and hands. The loss was 
 not confined to the rank and file. Of Kiyomori's own 
 family, a brother, two sons, two grandsons and five 
 nephews were among the slain, and the story of the 
 death of the youngest among them is, amidst all the 
 romantic incidents in Japanese history, the one that, 
 next to that of Tokiwa, still appeals most strongly to 
 the compassion of the Japanese. 
 
 The story is that of Atsumori, the youngest son of 
 Kiyomori's youngest brother, a boy of singular beauty 
 and delicate frame, scarce sixteen years of age. When 
 the panic occurred, he, with the rest, endeavoured to 
 escape to the ships. When he saw the maddened 
 crowds struggling around them, he stayed his horse for 
 a moment in the sea, then turned him round to the 
 shore to face his pursuing foes and die in a manner 
 worthy of one who belonged to a noble family of 
 warriors. He had scarcely reached the beach when 
 he was attacked by Kumagai Naozane, a strong and 
 veteran soldier of the Minamoto. He defended himself 
 valiantly, but was overborne by Kumagai's greater 
 strength and skill, and at length lay prostrate on the 
 ground. Seeing by his armour that he was of high 
 rank, Kumagai dismounted to take his brave enemy's 
 head as the custom was, but when he knelt on his chest 
 and pulled off the helmet so that he might cut off the 
 head with greater ease, he discovered the handsome 
 boyish face beneath. For a moment his pity was stirred 
 and he was minded to spare the boy's life and give him 
 one more chance to fly. But his gentle mood was of 
 short duration. The chances of escape for the boy were 
 remote in such a debacle. The head of such a noble 
 was too great a prize to be lightly foregone, and if 
 
YORITOMO AND THE GEM-PEI WAR 119 
 
 Kumagai did not take it, some of his comrades, less 
 pitiful than he, would be sure to do so. So he hardened 
 his heart and cut off the head of the boy, who had 
 scorned to utter a single word in appeal for mercy. But 
 remorse soon seized the victor. The noble face haunted 
 him for ever. His lifelong trade of arms, which de- 
 manded such horrors, became loathsome to him, and he 
 became a Buddhist priest, and spent the rest of his days 
 in the monastery of Kurodani at Kioto. A pine-tree 
 still stands in the yard of the monastery, on which he 
 is said* to have hung his own armour when he doffed 
 it for the last time, and two simple monuments mark the 
 graves in which he and his victim's head are buried. 
 Two elder brothers of Atsumori fell on the same day. 
 Their father was present, but escaped only to die in the 
 following year, in the final holocaust of all his kindred. 
 A brother of Kiyomori was taken prisoner, sent all the 
 long way to Kamakura in a cage, and there executed. 
 
 A year and a quarter passed away. The Taira re- 
 organized themselves and gathered a fleet of five 
 hundred ships in the long and narrow straits of Shimo- 
 noseki, the western outlet of the Inland Sea of Japan 
 to the China Sea. They had been beaten on land, but 
 they had yet to test their fortune on the seas, and as 
 sailors they had greater experience than the Minamoto. 
 But the latter had now greater resources, and Yoshitsune 
 was able to follow them with a fleet of seven hundred 
 ships, whose crews gained experience as they slowly 
 made their way through the channels of the Inland Sea. 
 At last the two fleets met in the straits on a bright 
 morning in May. The Taira were about to fight for 
 their very existence. They had been driven from point 
 to point the whole way from Kioto. They had been 
 pursued "as the hawk urges the pheasants when the 
 moors are burnt and no cover is left." Occasionally 
 successes had contributed to lengthen their long 
 
120 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 struggles and to prevent them losing all confidence in 
 themselves and their leaders, and now that the first trial 
 of strength on the sea had come, they hoped that the 
 day would be the beginning of the retrieval of their 
 fallen fortunes. With them, on board, were their wives 
 and children, whom they had carried with them in their 
 flight from the East, who could find no safe refuge 
 elsewhere, when all the land was overrun with the con- 
 quering and merciless Minamoto. A still more sacred 
 charge was the young Emperor, their divine sovereign, 
 the descendant of the Gods of Heaven, whom it was 
 their duty to protect at all cost from sacrilegious hands. 
 He had been carried with them throughout the whole 
 retreat from Kioto, and was now on board the flagship, 
 in which were also his mother, the Empress, and Kiyo- 
 mori's widow. The head of the Taira, Munemori, the 
 son who succeeded Kiyomori, was in supreme com- 
 mand, and in the other ships were all the members of 
 his family who had survived to that day, all determined 
 to conquer or to die as became noble warriors. The 
 Minamoto ships were unencumbered by women and 
 children. They came to the attack with untried sailors, 
 but with a long record of victory on land behind them, 
 under a leader who had never known defeat, with the 
 prospect of exterminating their hated foes. The Taira 
 fought with the courage of desperation. The first 
 Minamoto attack was beaten back. The narrowness of 
 the straits prevented the simultaneous employment of 
 their whole fleet, but they had a reserve of fresh ships 
 to bring up when the first line was beaten, and they 
 soon rallied and came on again. This time they were 
 aided by treachery. Taguchi Shigeyoshi, a Taira com- 
 mander, who had brought a strong force of ships and 
 men from Kiushiu, allied with the Taira though not 
 of their blood, had previously been in traitorous corre- 
 spondence with Yoshitsune. In the crisis of the action 
 
YORITOMO AND THE GEM-PEI WAR 121 
 
 he deserted his flag, and, with the ships under his com- 
 mand, crossed over to the enemy, after first remaining 
 a passive spectator for a while until he saw how the 
 day was going, and turned his arrow fire on his former 
 comrades. His desertion left the Taira hopelessly out- 
 numbered, and decided the fortune of the day. Guided 
 by the traitor, Yoshitsune marshalled all his strength 
 against the flagship and boarded it himself. He was 
 driven back, and Noritsune, a nephew of Kiyomori, as 
 young and brave and active as Yoshitsune, followed 
 him so vigorously that he was obliged to seek refuge in 
 another ship. Then Noritsune, left alone in his enemy's 
 ship, which had now cast off from his own, with certain 
 death before him, jumped into the sea and was drowned. 
 Omens came to inspire the Minamoto with courage and 
 fill the Taira hearts with gloom. Yoritomo's life was 
 once saved by a pair of doves. Another pair now flew 
 to Yoshitsune's ship while the action was at its height, 
 and lit on his flagstaff. The Minamoto flag appeared 
 in a dense mass of black clouds which came from the 
 East and darkened what had hitherto been the brightest 
 May day of glorious sunshine. Yoshitsune again came 
 to the attack with fresh ships and men, and the Taira 
 flagship was taken. All was now over except the 
 slaughter of the beaten. Those who stuck to their ships 
 were now largely outnumbered by their foes, and, fight- 
 ing to the last, were cut down and speared without 
 mercy. The sea was red with their blood. Both shores 
 of the straits were lined with Minamoto cavalry, who 
 had been leisurely watching the progress of the long 
 naval action, and as the Taira sailors, whose ships were 
 sunk or taken, struggled through the swift current of 
 the straits to the shore, swimming or borne on the 
 wreckage of their ships, wearied and nearly all wounded, 
 the horsemen galloped to meet them as they endeavoured 
 to land after having been carried by the rapid current 
 
122 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 miles perhaps from the scene of the action, and butchered 
 them ruthlessly. When night fell the Taira had been 
 exterminated. A handful escaped and hid themselves 
 in the wild and unknown mountain recesses on the 
 borders of the provinces of Higo and Hiuga in Kiushiu, 
 where they were entirely lost to sight. Their very 
 existence was unknown till many years later, long after 
 their ruthless conquerors had ceased to be a powerful 
 political factor, and they have ever since lived, and live 
 to this day, in this lonely district in seclusion, entirely 
 apart from the rest of their countrymen. Many of their 
 wives and daughters were saved alive. Without dis- 
 tinction of rank or class, gently born and delicately 
 reared ladies, the humbler wives of the lower officers 
 and men and serving wenches, all alike were given as 
 prostitutes to the conquerors. Kiyomori's own family, 
 which in the hour of his pride he thought to establish 
 for ever as rulers of the Empire, was wiped out of exist- 
 ence. Two of his brothers, one the father of Atsumori, 
 one son and two grandsons were killed in action. Mune- 
 mori, his son and successor to his rank and titles, was 
 taken alive. Along with his own son, who was also 
 taken alive, he was sent in a cage to Kamakura, a 
 journey of over five hundred miles, taking months to 
 perform. There both father and son were made to 
 walk barefoot seven times round Yoshitomo's tomb, and 
 then both were executed as common criminals, and their 
 heads exposed on the prison gates. Kiyomori's widow, 
 worthy spouse of the great soldier and dictator, scorn- 
 ing to yield, took the child Emperor and, despite his 
 mother's entreaties, threw herself into the sea. The 
 mother, the ex-Empress, followed her, but she was 
 hooked up by the Minamoto sailors and saved and taken 
 into Yoshitsune's own ship. A general proscription 
 was ordered, and Taira were sought for throughout the 
 Empire. Little children, born of mothers of other 
 
YORITOMO AND THE GEM-PEI WAR 123 
 
 blood, had been left with their maternal relatives in 
 Kioto. Their fathers' blood was their condemnation, 
 and they were slaughtered without pity. Neither age 
 nor sex afforded any protection against even a suspicion 
 of kindred with the unhappy race. The men were uni- 
 versally condemned to die, the women to die or to a 
 worse fate. 
 
 Yoshitsune returned in triumph to Kioto after his 
 great victory at Dan no Ura, bringing with him his 
 prisoners and the heads of the most noble of the slain 
 Taira. Thence he proceeded to Kamakura to lay all at 
 the feet of his lord and elder brother, for whom he had 
 fought. Slanderers had, however, been whispering ill 
 of him into Yoritomo's ears, and Yoritomo, who, not- 
 withstanding all his great qualities, had the jealousy 
 and spite of ignoble minds and was beginning to dread 
 that his brother's renown might overcloud his own, lent 
 a ready ear to the slanders. Tokimasa, his father-in- 
 law, anxious to be his sole councillor, to have no rival 
 in his thought or affection such as Yoshitsune, a hero, 
 of his own blood, might naturally be, encouraged the 
 suspicions and jealousy that were growing in his heart, 
 and when Yoshitsune reached the little village of Koshi- 
 goye, only a few miles to the west of Kamakura, he 
 found there orders from his brother not to proceed 
 further. Publicly humiliated, with a heart full of grief 
 at the consciousness of unrequited merit, but still loyal 
 and affectionate to the only brother that was left to 
 him, the only surviving member besides himself of their 
 father's family, he sent him a letter in which he re- 
 counted the struggles of his childhood and youth and 
 the services he had rendered, and besought the brother's 
 forgiveness for aught in which he might unwittingly 
 have erred, and his protection in the future. The draft 
 of the letter is still preserved at the monastery in the 
 village. It is said to have been written by the faithful 
 
124 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Benkei, and is full of infinite pathos from beginning to 
 end. Yoshitsune having waited at Koshigoye in vain 
 for an answer, returned to Kioto, not now as a proud 
 and triumphant conqueror, but as one who was in the 
 cold shade of disfavour with the real master of the 
 Empire. His brother's malignity followed him, and 
 descended so low as to cause an attempt to be made to 
 assassinate him. When this failed, he resolved to lead 
 a military expedition to Kioto himself and there take 
 Yoshitsune ; but before he had advanced far on his way, 
 he heard that Yoshitsune had fled. He then returned 
 to his capital, and there passed sentence of outlawry on 
 Yoshitsune. 
 
 The latter at first took refuge in Yoshino, a moun- 
 tainous district in the south of Yamashiro, famed far 
 and wide for the beauty of its cherry-trees, the groves 
 of which cover the slopes of the hills all round the little 
 town that bears the name of the district, and in spring, 
 when their branches are hidden beneath a mass of pink 
 and white blossoms, they present a wondrous scene of 
 delicate beauty. No spot in the world could afford a 
 fairer refuge ; in none is there such a combination of the 
 softest and wildest aspects of nature. Only a little way 
 beyond the dell where thousands of happy picnickers 
 annually come in springtime to revel in the joys of the 
 fairest flowers of Japan there are still dense forests and 
 impenetrable brushwood, through which herds of wild 
 boars roam now as they did a thousand years ago. Here 
 his relentless brother's emissaries found him, and he 
 was again obliged to seek safety in flight. This time 
 he thought of the home of his youth, and, with his wife, 
 the ever-faithful Benkei, and a handful of equally faith- 
 ful followers who had fought under him in the days of 
 his triumph, he made his way to the distant province of 
 Mutsu, far away in the North, where he had found 
 sanctuary even from the far-reaching arm of Kiyomori. 
 
YORITOMO AND THE GEM-PEI WAR 125 
 
 But times had changed. Kiyomori's authority had 
 never reached the North. Yoritomo's now did so. The 
 local chief who had defended Yoshitsune had just died, 
 but he had left instructions to his son to defend him once 
 more at all hazard. The son, dreading Yoritomo's 
 vengeance, was false to his father and to his family's 
 honour. With an overwhelming force he attacked 
 Yoshitsune's little band on the bank of the River 
 Komoro, and after a fierce fight, in which the old and 
 tried soldiers defended their beloved leader to the last, 
 all were killed. Yoshitsune, when he saw that the end 
 had come, killed his wife and children with his own 
 hand, and then died, as a noble Samurai should, when 
 everything but honour is lost, upon his own sword. His 
 head was found and sent to his brother in a lacquered 
 box "moistened with strong wine," and it came to his 
 brother just as he was celebrating with pompous cere- 
 mony the completion of the temple of Hachiman which 
 he had erected in his capital in gratitude for all his 
 victories. Benkei, faithful to the last, when his master 
 and his comrades were dead around him, walked into 
 the river, and there was shot to death by arrows fired 
 from the bank by soldiers, not one of whom dared to 
 come within reach of his mighty arm. 
 
 A sad story is told of Yoshitsune's lovely mistress, 
 Shidzuka Gozen, that yields in pathos to that of Tokiwa 
 only in the fact that she had no children and suffered 
 alone. She was with him in Yoshino, but when he was 
 forced to flee thence, he sent her back to Kioto under 
 the escort of his own servant. The servant robbed and 
 abandoned her on the way, and, alone and moneyless, 
 she wandered helplessly in storms of snow and wind 
 on the wild Yoshino mountains. She was found by 
 some priests, who sent her to Kioto, and thence she was 
 sent on to Kamakura. There she was examined as to 
 her knowledge of Yoshitsune's whereabouts, but, though 
 
126 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 examination meant torture, she firmly refused to tell any- 
 thing that she knew. She had the reputation of being 
 a graceful dancer, and she was called upon to dance 
 before Masago, Yoritomo's wife, whose curiosity had 
 been aroused. At first she refused, but at last gave 
 way, and the platform on which she is said to have 
 danced before Yoritomo and Masago still exists at 
 Kamakura. She not only danced, but sang so pathetic- 
 ally of her love for Yoshitsune that all around were 
 melted to tears; only Yoritomo himself was wroth, and 
 angry at her praises of his outlawed brother he ordered 
 that she should be put to death. Masago, though hard, 
 and full of contempt for a dancer and the concubine of an 
 outlaw, had still some relic of womanly gentleness in 
 her heart. She interceded for her fallen sister, and sent 
 her away with rich gifts. Her trials were, however, 
 not yet over. One of Yoritomo's officers, tempted by 
 her grace and beauty, tried to make her his own mistress. 
 She indignantly repelled his advances. Then her child 
 — Yoshitsune's child — was born. Yoritomo ordered 
 that the child should be killed, but the unhappy mother 
 was allowed to go and bury her sorrows and her 
 memories in obscurity. 
 
 Yoritomo's triumph was now complete. He had 
 avenged his father's death and established his own 
 supremacy and that of his family so that none could 
 dare to dispute it. The death of the Emperor at Dan 
 no Ura left the throne vacant, and another very youthful 
 scion of the Imperial family was placed on it. The 
 new Emperor, Go Toba (1186-99), was in Yoritomo's 
 power, and henceforth gave legality to every step and 
 every action which he thought fit to take in the 
 interests of himself, his own family or the Emperor. 
 Throughout the war he had remained at Kamakura. 
 He now made a triumphant progress and entry into 
 Kioto, where honours were heaped upon him by the new 
 
YORITOMO AND THE GEM-PEI WAR 127 
 
 Emperor, and where he was received into the closest 
 confidence by the cloistered Emperor (Go-Shirakawa). 
 Among the honours was that of "Sei-i-tai-Shogun " — 
 Barbarian-repressing-great general. This was the first 
 occasion of the bestowal of this full title. Many had 
 held the title of Sei-i-Shogun, which was very commonly 
 given, throughout many generations, to generals when 
 proceeding on active service, but Yoritomo was dis- 
 criminated from them by the addition of the adjective 
 "great," and that addition lent to the title a new sig- 
 nificance with the nation. Holding all the de facto 
 power of the executive, Yoritomo had now a dignity 
 which brought with it almost sovereign prestige, and, in 
 the progress of time, the true sovereigns, the Emperors, 
 came more and more to be only a name to their subjects, 
 and as they became lost to vulgar view in the sacred 
 seclusion of their courts at Kioto, the ancient capital lost 
 a large part of its importance, while the new capitals, 
 first of Kamakura and later on of Yedo, where the 
 Shoguns resided and had their government, came into 
 existence and grew in wealth and magnificence, industry 
 and population, as well as in political influence. The 
 Tai Shoguns, at the same time, gradually acquired the 
 positions of de facto sovereigns. To Europeans, in the 
 early days of intercourse between the West and Japan, 
 the Shoguns appeared to be the true sovereigns of the 
 Empire, de jure as well as de facto. The Europeans 
 heard vaguely of a sacred being who lived at Kioto, but 
 he seemed to be almost a myth, or, if he had any func- 
 tions at all, they were only those of a pope. Kaempfer, 
 the first and still one of the greatest writers on Japan, 
 wrote of him in the seventeenth century as the Ecclesi- 
 astical Emperor, while he called the Shogun the Secular 
 Emperor. The Jesuit Fathers, in their writings of the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, invariably refer to 
 the Shogun as "His Majesty," while in the last century. 
 
128 THE STORY OP OLD JAPAN 
 
 when Japan was forcibly drawn from her seclusion into 
 the Comity of Nations, all the treaties of the great 
 powers of the West were made with "His Majesty, the 
 Tycoon," the Chinese substitute for the term Sh5gun 
 (Tai-kun) being anglicized in this way, and in none was 
 the real Emperor referred to even by name. The estab- 
 lishment of this office, and the appointment of members 
 of his own family by Yoritomo, though in the Emperor's 
 name, as military governors of the provinces, responsible 
 to the Shogun for the efficient discharge of their duties, 
 to act with and, in time, to displace the civil governors, 
 who had hitherto administered them, and had been 
 answerable to the Court at Kioto, laid the foundation of 
 the dual system of government — that of a de facto 
 sovereign at Kamakura or Yedo, and of a de jure 
 sovereign at Kioto — which lasted until the year 1868. 
 
 Yoritomo had fought his way to power through a sea 
 of blood, and the long wars had been the cause of untold 
 misery to the country. But once his power was estab- 
 lished on an indisputable basis, he set himself to restore 
 prosperity with an energy and statesmanlike intelligence 
 that in no way fell below that which he had shown in 
 the suppression of his enemies. He established taxation 
 on an equitable basis, relieved the peasantry of their 
 most oppressive burthens, and encouraged industry and 
 commerce. Lest the manly spirit and physical vigour 
 of his soldiers should degenerate in peace as those of 
 the Taira had done during the days of Kiyomori's power, 
 he encouraged hunting, and, an ardent sportsman him- 
 self, he established great hunting camps on the wild 
 slopes of Mount Fuji, over which his army had marched 
 at the outset of his campaign against the Taira, and 
 amidst the still wilder hills of Shinano, and these camps 
 were the scenes of acts of love, murder and revenge 
 which to this day are among the most popular subjects 
 of drama and romance. But his main energies were 
 
YORITOMO AND THE GEM-PEI WAR 129 
 
 devoted to the extension and enrichment of his own 
 capital at Kamakura, the home of his ancestors, which, 
 under his fostering care, became the most magnificent 
 city of the Empire, rich in wealth, industry and archi- 
 tectural splendour. 
 
 Yoritomo lived for fourteen years after he had reached 
 the apogee of his power. Early in the year 1199 he 
 attended in regal state at the ceremony of the opening 
 of a new bridge over a river which crosses the Toliaido, 
 the great eastern high road that leads from Tokio to 
 Kioto, and flows into the sea between Kamakura and 
 Odawara, As he rode across the bridge, amidst the 
 cheers of the people who crowded both banks of the 
 river, the ghost of Yoshitsune, the murdered brother 
 whom he had treated so basely, suddenly rose out of the 
 water and appeared before him. He fell fainting from 
 his horse, and was carried home to die within a month. 
 The horse plunged into the river, whence the river is 
 still called Ba-niu — horse-enter. 
 
 With his death, the Gem-Pei ^ period of Japanese 
 history may be said to have ended. It was one whose 
 duration was of a brief space in the life of a nation that 
 claims to have a history of 2,700 years, but its story 
 has now been told at some length, as it is recognized 
 by the Japanese people as the most heroic period 
 throughout their history. No other is so full of inci- 
 dents of chivalrous courage, of heroic struggles against 
 adversity, of both persons and incidents that are to this 
 day the delight of poets, painters and romanticists; no 
 other has afforded such material for dramatists; none 
 has produced sadder tales of youth and beauty destroyed 
 in their early bloom, of more bitter falls in fortune, of 
 more remorseless cruelty and relentless vengeance, of 
 more glaring treachery and ingratitude. The two prin- 
 
 1 Gem-Pei is the Sinico-Japanese reading of Minamoto and Taira. 
 
130 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 cipal actors in it, Kiyomori and Yoritomo, are among 
 the greatest statesmen and generals that Japan has ever 
 produced either in ancient or modern times. Yoshitsune, 
 as the mirror of the soul of Japan, as the national model 
 of a gallant and devoted soldier, as a fearless knight, is 
 second in the national annals only to the mythplogical 
 hero, Yamatodake. His henchman, Benkei, is equally 
 the national type of unquestioning fidelity, unreasoning 
 courage and muscular strength. While Yoshitsune and 
 Benkei were wandering amidst the maples of Yoshino, 
 Richard Coeur de Lion and Robin Hood were simulta- 
 neously holding revel amidst the oaks of Sherwood, and 
 what the latter are in English history, Yoshitsune and 
 Benkei are in that of Japan. The names and memories 
 of both, even in these days of materialism, still stir the 
 hearts and quicken the pulses of the youth of Japan in 
 a way that their English prototypes no longer do to the 
 youth of England. Japanese school-boys in their games 
 love nothing better than to play their parts, and the 
 faces of both are the most favourite decoration that they 
 can have on their kites. Lastly, it was the period that 
 witnessed the final establishment of the political system 
 that lasted to our own day, and ended only at the 
 accession of the present Emperor to the throne. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE HOJO USURPERS 
 
 YoRiTOMO left two sons, Yoriiye and Semman, the 
 first eighteen and the last nine years of age at the time 
 of his death. The story of his marriage has already been 
 told. His wife, Masago, continued throughout his life 
 to give evidence of the strong and ambitious character 
 which the circumstances of her marriage promised, and 
 to exercise an influence over her husband which has been 
 seldom paralleled among Japanese women of the upper 
 classes. Her influence combined with her extreme 
 jealousy to prevent her husband indulging in the 
 pleasures of love — of the love that is called illicit in the 
 West, but is recognized as the reasonable privilege of 
 man, from whom chastity is not expected, in the East — 
 and imposed on him a degree of continency that is rare 
 among the great characters of history in Japan, from 
 Yamatodake down to the heroes of very modern days. 
 Yoritomo is only one of the great names in history. 
 That of his wife is perhaps the greatest female name, 
 second only to that of the mythological Empress Jingo, 
 and is only second to hers as it is not that of an Empress 
 or of a princess of the Imperial line. Her father, Hojo 
 Tokimasa, was such as the father of his daughter might 
 be expected to be : ambitious, intelligent, far-seeing, 
 wholly unscrupulous in the means which he adopted to 
 attain his ends ; implacable and pitiless to his rivals and 
 enemies, generous to his own partisans and devoted to 
 his kindred. Throughout all his son-in-law's career, 
 from his exile in Idzu to the last day of his state 
 procession to the bridge of Baniu, he was his constant 
 K2 131 
 
132 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 adviser, his prime minister, his personal representative 
 in absence, and the credit of much of Yoritomo's success 
 as a statesman was justly due to the father who was 
 always by his side to counsel or encourage him. The 
 father was the head of an ancient clan, and, in the spirit 
 and pride of clanship carried to the extreme, he was 
 ambitious to raise the clan from its status of comparative 
 insignificance to the foremost position in the Empire in 
 wealth and in influence. Before he died, he had assured 
 for it a dominance in the state which lasted for 130 
 years, the dominance in everything but name which 
 Kiyomori and Yoritomo had in turn schemed and 
 fought to obtain for their descendants. 
 
 Yoriiye succeeded his father in all his honours. It 
 has been noticed already, and other instances will be 
 quoted hereafter, of the marked way in which history 
 has repeated itself in Japan. It did so in the cases of 
 Kiyomori and Yoritomo in giving them each eldest sons 
 whose characters were as opposite as the poles to those 
 of their fathers. Kiyomori's son, Higemori, was as 
 merciful, gentle and restrained as his father was cruel, 
 merciless and lustful. Yoritomo's son was as idle, 
 frivolous and dissipated as his father was austere, 
 earnest and frugal. Such a youth gave little serious 
 thought to duty, and on Yoritomo's death, Tokimasa 
 easily vested in himself all the active functions of Chief 
 Minister of State, and, in his contempt for his grandson, 
 soon ceased to make even a pretence of consulting him. 
 He naturally filled all the great public offices with his 
 own relatives and partisans, and, at the same time, 
 secretly encouraged the grandson in the indulgence of 
 his vices in the companionship of worthless favourites, 
 so that he came to be regarded by the nation as a mere 
 voluptuary, incompetent, as he seemed to be indifferent, 
 to exercise the functions of his high office. But there 
 was still some of his father's spirit in him, notwith- 
 
THE HOJO USURPERS 133 
 
 standing all his frivolity. Indignant at the disclosure 
 of a plan which Tokimasa had formed to force him to 
 abdicate in favour of his (Yoriiye's) son, a child, he 
 made an effort, with the aid and counsel of his own 
 father-in-law — a Minamoto noble — to rid himself of his 
 tutor and minister. While they were discussing their 
 plans in Yoriiye's bedchamber, where he was at the 
 time lying ill, his mother, Masago, listened from out- 
 side the door, and filial piety compelled her to sacrifice 
 her son to her father, whom she informed at once of all 
 she had overheard. His measures were prompt, sharp 
 and final. Yoriiye's father-in-law and all his house- 
 hold, men, women and children, whether relatives or 
 retainers, were slain after a sharp fight, and with them 
 Yoriiye's child, who was intended to have succeeded 
 him, also perished. Yoriiye himself was forced to shave 
 his head and enter a monastery, but even that step did 
 not satisfy Tokimasa's sense of his own security, and 
 in the following year he caused his ill-fated grandson 
 to be strangled in his bath. This was in the fourth year 
 after Yoritomo's death. 
 
 Yoritomo's second^ son, Semman, who was now twelve 
 years old, succeeded to his brother's honours. As the 
 elder brother had neglected duty for the sake of pleasure, 
 so did the second for that of literature and poetry. He 
 was studious, religious and benevolent, but was content 
 to look idly on while the Hojo exercised a complete con- 
 trol over all the affairs of the state. Many of the senior 
 officers who had served or fought for Yoritomo had now 
 grown old and infirm or had died. Those who remained, 
 who had the personal vigour or the power that might 
 have made them formidable opponents to the Hojo, were 
 removed from office and sent to distant posts; those 
 who attempted to resist were crushed as rebels, so that 
 the young Shogun was soon left without a single adher- 
 ent on whose independent advice and support he might 
 
134 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 rely in case of difference with the Hojo. But his 
 life was destined to last but little longer than that of his 
 brother whom he had succeeded. 
 
 A younger son of Yoriiye survived his father. His 
 name was Kugio, and he was four years of age at his 
 father's death. He was consigned to a Buddhist 
 monastery, so that, enrolled in a priesthood whose 
 members are vowed to celibacy, he could nejther him- 
 self, when arrived at manhood, be any obstacle to the 
 Hdjo's ambition, nor leave behind him posterity who 
 might become so in later years. One of the great 
 temples at Kamakura, which survived the destruction 
 of the city in the fourteenth century and exists to this 
 day, is that of Hachiman, the God of War, the patron 
 God of the Minamoto family, which was erected by 
 Yoritomo when at the height of his power. Kugio was 
 appointed a high priest in this temple when he was 
 only nineteen years of age. The temple still exists, and 
 though the present building is not the same as that 
 over which Kugio presided, it conserves all the features 
 of the original. The entrance, through an avenue of 
 pines, interspersed with high willows and icho, which 
 are said to have been planted in the time of Semman, 
 leads past two ilarge ponds which, in summer, are 
 covered with the white flowers of the lotus, and through 
 three great toriye to the main building. The whole 
 avenue is a scene of solemn impressiveness as well as 
 of great natural beauty, and it remains to this day as it 
 was when trodden by the feet of the famous Shogun and 
 his retainers. 
 
 Kugio had learned of the circumstances of his father's 
 death, and, blaming his uncle as the instigator of the 
 crime, he constantly cherished in his heart the prospect 
 of revenge. Early in the year 1219 Semman received 
 from the Emperor the appointment of Udaijin, third 
 minister of state in the Empire, and his religious dis- 
 
THE HOJO USURPERS 135 
 
 position prompted him to return thanks for the honour 
 at the shrine of Hachiman. In the ordinary course he 
 would have done so in daylight, but on this occasion 
 it was ascertained by divination that a night service 
 would be more propitious. Attended by a large escort 
 and by all the high officers of state, he went to the 
 temple in solemn procession, but he left the main part 
 of his retinue at the gate, and entered the shrine attended 
 by only one member of his personal suite. He wore 
 neither sword nor armour himself, though he had been 
 urged to use both. As he left the shrine, having finished 
 his devotions, a man rushed on him and, with one 
 sweeping blow, cut off his head. Raising his voice, the 
 assassin cried out loudly, "I am Kugio, and have 
 avenged my father's murder." Then he escaped in the 
 darkness and confusion, carrying the head with him. 
 Troops were sent in his pursuit, and when they over- 
 took him he defended himself to the last; but numbers 
 prevailed and he was killed, and with him ended the 
 last of the direct line of Yoritomo. The family which 
 its greatest member had fondly hoped would be estab- 
 lished in power for ever only survived him for twenty 
 years. Semman's head was never found. Before start- 
 ing on his last procession, he had laughingly given a 
 hair of his head to the servant who was dressing him, 
 saying, "Keep this in memory of me." As his head 
 could not be found, this hair was, in lieu of it, buried 
 with the body. 
 
 The Hoj5 Period i of history now began, a period 
 which was remarkable, among other things, for having 
 witnessed the vicious system which had eaten into the 
 national polity carried to its extreme limit. The Fuji- 
 wara, as has been already told, were the first to deprive 
 the Emperors of their de facto authority. They were 
 followed by Kiyomori and Yoritomo, Yoritomo being 
 the first to assume, on the Emperor's grant, the great 
 
136 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 title of Sei-i-tai-Shogun. Yoritomo's two sons, who 
 in turn succeeded him in this office, both nominally 
 held the entire executive, but all the real power was 
 vested throughout the lifetime of both, at first in their 
 masterful grandfather, Hojo Tokimasa, and, when he 
 died in 1216, in their equally masterful mother,* Toki- 
 masa's daughter, Masago. The last of the two sons 
 was assassinated and the assassin killed in 12 19, and 
 Yoritomo's direct line came to an end. The way was 
 therefore open, for the daughter not only to conserve 
 the power in her own hands, but to ensure its trans- 
 mission to her own descendants, and render the head 
 of the clan from which she sprang the supreme master 
 of the Empire. Neither Tokimasa nor any of his 
 descendants ever assumed the title of Sei-i-tai-Shogun. 
 They were always content to leave that office to another 
 as a purely nominal dignity, while they exercised the 
 real authority themselves under the title of Shikken or 
 regent, and the result was that they ruled the Empire 
 in the name of the Shogun, -who in turn could legally 
 act only in the name of the Emperor. This continued 
 while the chiefs of the Hojo preserved the ability and 
 vigour of the founder of their line. But, as time went 
 on, the creeping paralysis which reduced the Emperors 
 to faineants, which rendered the Shogun impotent, got 
 hold also of the Hojo, and while the last members of 
 their dynasty continued to be nominally Shikken, they 
 allowed all the power to fall into the hands of their 
 Kanrio, a minister taken from among their own sub- 
 ordinate retainers who acted in the name of his feudal 
 lord. There were thus simultaneously four degrees in 
 the chief authority of the Empire, Kanrio, Shikken, 
 Shogun and Tenno, minister, regent, vicegerent and 
 Emperor. The Kanrio was the de facto head of the state, 
 exercising his functions and holding his office in the 
 name of, and as representative of, the Shikken, the 
 
THE HOJO USURPERS 137 
 
 Shikken in that of the Shogun and the Shogun in that 
 of the Emperor, the last three being mere cyphers, as 
 far as any active or influential participation in the 
 affairs of the state was concerned. They had all the out- 
 ward pomp and dignity of their great offices, but were 
 mere puppets in the hands of the wire-pullers beneath 
 them. There were, however, some rare exceptions to 
 the general rule. The Emperors were not invariably 
 mere voluptuaries content to pass their lives in idle 
 enjoyment of court luxury, finding their pleasure or 
 occupation, according to their individual taste, in poetry, 
 literature, art or sensualism, and occasionally one appears 
 on the scene of both mental and bodily vigour, who, 
 fretting in the meshes in which he is involved by the 
 usurpers of the authority that rightfully belongs to him 
 alone, makes an attempt to assert the dignity and pre- 
 rogatives of the throne and to take into his own hands 
 the active control of the Empire that was held and 
 exercised by his remote ancestors. There was such 
 an instance in the beginning of the Hojo Period, and 
 another at its close. In both the end was the same as 
 far as it related to the throne. The first ensured the 
 dominance of the Hojo, the second their downfall, but 
 in each case the Emperor's grasp of power was moment- 
 ary and he paid for it by his deposition and banishment. 
 In 1219 the Emperor Juntoku (1211-1222) was on the 
 throne, but his two immediate predecessors, his father, Go 
 Toba (i 186- 1 199), who succeeded the boy who perished 
 at Dan no Ura, and his elder brother, Tsuchi Mikado 
 (1199-1211), both of whom had abdicated, were still 
 alive, living in nominal retirement. Go Toba was a 
 man of character and strength who was eager to see 
 the restoration of the Imperial prerogative even though 
 not in his own person. The weakness and idleness of 
 Yoritomo's sons seemed to furnish the opportunity, and 
 preparations were made at Kioto to enforce the 
 
138 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Emperor's claims by arms. Go Toba, in order to 
 render his own authority more effective, forced his son,' 
 Juntoku, 'to abdicate in favourof the latter's son, Chukiyo, 
 a boy, so that there were actually four Emperors living 
 at one time, the oldest of whom was for the moment 
 the controlling spirit of the court, while the« actual 
 occupant of the throne was a child of five years of 
 age. The head of the Hojo clan was now Yasutoki, 
 the grandson of Tokimasa, but the mastering spirit was 
 still his aunt Masago. On the death of her husband, 
 she shaved her head and retired into a nunnery, but 
 her abandonment of the world and its affairs was only 
 a shadowy fiction, so well recognized that she was 
 always spoken of throughout the country as the "Ama 
 Shogun " — the nun-vicegerent. She now boldly came 
 to the front, so that the two guiding spirits of the rival 
 parties were the ex-Emperor, Go Toba, nominally a 
 monk and the ex-Shogun's widow, nominally a nun, 
 both of whom emerged from their religious seclusion 
 to direct a great constitutional movement. 
 
 Masago called before her all the principal generals 
 and councillors at Kamakura, and there, modestly 
 obscured, as a woman should be, from common eyes by 
 a screen which hung half way down before her, she 
 addressed them, saying — 
 
 " I am going to-day to take leave of all you gentlemen. 
 The late Shogun wearing hardness (armour) and wielding 
 sharpness (the sword) pierced the way through the weeds 
 and established a great position, as all of you gentlemen 
 know. Now slanderers and evil speakers have deceived and 
 misled the Lord of the people, and desire to overturn the 
 Kuanto position. I suppose that none of you gentlemen 
 forget the benefits you received from the late Shogun. 
 Therefore unite your strength and hearts. Destroy and 
 remove the slanderers, and thus preserve the old plan 
 complete. Then those who desire, in obedience to the 
 Imperial command, to go up West, let them at once decide." 
 
THE HOJO USURPERS 139 
 
 Modern Japanese writers love to find in this incident 
 a parallel to Maria Theresa's appeal to the Hungarian 
 diet. Masago's words, spoken with equal solemnity, 
 had the same effect on her followers as those of Maria 
 Theresa had on the Hungarians. No one thought of 
 forsaking her, all vowed to follow and fight for her 
 to the last. The fight was sharp, but ended, as all 
 struggles between the brave but pleasure-loving courtiers 
 of the West and the fierce warriors of the East had 
 ended before, in the complete overthrow of the court 
 party and the triumph of the regent at Kamakura. The 
 unfortunate Emperors were ruthlessly dealt with. 
 Chukiyo was deposed after a reign of only three months, 
 and Go Horikawa (i 221-1232), a boy barely ten years 
 of age, crowned in his stead. The old Emperor, Go 
 Toba, was banished to the island of Oki; his sons, 
 Tsuchi Mikado, though he had neither sympathized 
 with, nor taken part in, his father's coup, to Awa, and 
 Juntoku to the Island of Sado, where they were all aban- 
 doned to poverty and desolation in remote and semi- 
 savage districts. The fiefs of the nobles, more than 
 three thousand in number, who had espoused their 
 cause, were confiscated and bestowed on the clansmen 
 and followers of the Hojo. Unlike previous and later 
 military conquerors, Yasutoki had no desire for personal 
 riches. He gave all the spoils of war, power only 
 excepted, to his followers, and kept nothing for himself. 
 The nomination of a young prince of the Fujiwara to the 
 Shogunate was easily procured from the new Emperor, 
 and, in his name, Yasutoki continued to exercise the 
 supreme power at Kamakura, while a watch and check 
 over the Emperor were maintained by a cadet of the 
 family, who resided at Kioto. Both Emperor and Shogun 
 were, throughout the whole of the Hojo period, mere 
 puppets, to be directed, deposed and appointed entirely 
 at the will and caprice of their masters at Kamakura. 
 
140 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Masago died in the year 1225, but she had lived to 
 see the political ascendency of the family in which she 
 was born established on a firm basis. It lasted for a 
 hundred and nine years after her death, and was succes- 
 sively transmitted through seven generations and, in the 
 beginning, was productive of untold benefit > to the 
 nation, which, under firm rule, enjoyed the blessings of 
 peace after a century of devastating civil wars. Three 
 of the Hojo rulers after Masago's death have especially 
 left their mark on the pages of history. 
 
 Yasutoki, on whom fell the burthen of organizing 
 their government, was distinguished both as a lawgiver 
 and an administrator, still more for his unflagging in- 
 dustry, his conscientious devotion to duty, his economy 
 in the state and his self-denial. He had seven younger 
 brothers, sons of different mothers, among whom he 
 divided all his father's lands, saying, "I have power, 
 let my brothers have wealth." He promulgated a code 
 of regulations for hearing and deciding civil cases ; and 
 as to criminal cases, he abolished the practice of extend- 
 ing the punishment of the offender to his relatives and 
 servants when the crime was not of a grave nature. His 
 diligence and economy became an example to all his 
 officers. When famine came, he opened his granaries 
 freely to the people, and by his encouragement of 
 literature and art he did something to revive them from 
 the consequences of the neglect they had suffered during 
 the civil wars. When he died, the whole nation mourned 
 him. 
 
 Tokiyori, the fifth in the line, imitated all the virtues 
 of his grandfather, and even surpassed him in economy 
 and industry and in his self-denial. In selecting his 
 officials, he paid no attention to birth or lineage, but 
 sought for merit wherever it could be found. One of his 
 officials, Aoto Fujitsuna, whom he raised from low rank, 
 earned a reputation which causes him to be regarded to 
 
THE HOJO USURPERS 141 
 
 this day as a model of a just and incorrupt judge. The 
 sixth regent was Tokimune, son of Tokiyori, under 
 whom the attempted invasion of Kublai Khan, the story 
 of which will be told later on, was triumphantly repulsed. 
 
 In 13 15. Takatoki, the last of the Hojo, succeeded to 
 the regency. His predecessors had all been active in the 
 discharge of their duties, and while not earning the 
 gratitude of the country to the same extent as the three 
 who have been mentioned, they endeavoured to follow 
 in their steps, and ruled with firmness and justice that 
 commanded the respect of the nation. Takatoki was of 
 a different nature. He was dull in intellect, dissipated, 
 too indolent to attend to his duties himself, or even to 
 take the trouble of selecting honest and capable officials. 
 He left the exercise of power entirely to his minister 
 (Kanrio), who abused his authority and was influenced 
 both in appointments and judgments solely by the 
 bribes which he received. Meanwhile the unworthy 
 regent spent his time in the society of dancing and 
 singing girls, with musicians of whom he kept many 
 thousands constantly in his pay, in drinking and feast- 
 ing, indifferent to all that was occurring around the walls 
 of his own palace. He found a strange amusement in 
 watching dog-fights. Everywhere he sought out the 
 fiercest dogs, of which, like the musicians, he kept many 
 thousands, and his pleasures were divided between the 
 dogs by day and the musicians by night. 
 
 During all the years that had now elapsed since the 
 assumption of power by the H6j5, both Emperors and 
 Shogun had been raised to the throne or office and 
 deposed at the arbitrary will of the regents. Boys were 
 nominated either as Emperors or Shoguns, chosen 
 always, it is to be remembered, from the legitimate line, 
 and the moment they displayed any impatience in their 
 fetters or, in some cases, they arrived at an age when 
 they might be expected to do so, they were forthwith 
 
142 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 called upon to abdicate in favour of another boy. The 
 list of the Emperors duiring this period contains the 
 names of eleven Emperors whose average age at the 
 time of their accession did not exceed fourteen, and the 
 average length of whose reigns was little over eight 
 years. The case of the Shoguns was even worse^ Here, 
 not boys, but almost infant children were chosen, and 
 though in the first two cases they were sons of the 
 noble Fujiwara family, and in the remainder princes of 
 the Imperial line, they were looked upon with such 
 contemptuous indifference to their claims of rank and 
 birth by the Hojo that, in one instance, where one of 
 their number ventured, on arriving at manhood, to assert 
 himself and his office, he was promptly not only deposed, 
 but ignominiously sent back to his Imperial relatives at 
 Kioto, heels upwards, in a norimono (palanquin). 
 
 In 1318, Go Daigo, an Emperor of a different type, 
 came to the throne. He was already thirty-one years 
 of age, mentally and physically vigorous, and though 
 not free from vice or the influence of unworthy favour- 
 ites, possessed many of the best qualities of a capable 
 -ruler. He was a student of history, and his studies 
 taught him the prerogatives of his ancestors, which he 
 saw, to his indignation, were usurped by the H6j5, 
 who, though they were no more than the vassals of the 
 Shogun, who, in turn, was the Emperor's vassal, 
 assumed the right of disposing of the throne at their 
 own will. Takatoki was now at the height of his mis- 
 government. Murmurs against his rapacity and tyranny 
 were rife throughout all the country not immediately 
 under the influence or profiting by the wealth and luxury 
 of Kamakura, and the time seemed ripe for an effort to 
 assert once more the authority of the Emperor. But, 
 however unpopular the Hojo had made themselves, how- 
 ever weak and pleasure-loving their chief leaders, they 
 were still strong enough to suppress any armed revolt 
 
THE HOJO USURPERS 143 
 
 that could be raised by the feeble court at Kioto, and, 
 though the court army was commanded by a brave and 
 efficient soldier, Kusunoki Masahige, it was easily de- 
 feated. It was again the old story. The soldiers of the 
 East, now no longer trained by hardship and constant 
 service as had been those of Yoritomo and Masago, but 
 still retaining their old military spirit and skill, fell 
 irresistibly upon the outnumbered and weak soldiers of 
 the West and crushed them. The Emperor, who was 
 responsible for the emeute, was deposed and exiled to 
 the island of Oki, as was his predecessor. Go Toba, a 
 hundred years previously when he attempted to oppose 
 the rise of the H5jo to power. But, on this occasion, 
 the exile was not till death. The Emperor escaped from 
 his prison. Masahige, though beaten, was not dis- 
 couraged. He collected another army and again took 
 the field, and this time he was joined by troops both 
 from the South and East, and had the co-operation 
 of two other soldiers who have left great names in 
 history, though in different aspects, Ashikaga Takauji 
 and Nitta Yoshisada, both scions of the Minamoto, both 
 descended from grandsons of Yoshiiye, the founder of 
 the Minamoto fortunes. Their ancestors were endowed 
 by Yoshiiye with important fiefs, the first in the province 
 of Shimotsuke, the second in that of Kodzuke, both far 
 away to the north of Kamakura, both the homes of 
 even more virile races of men than those reared in the 
 provinces nearer to Kamakura. Takauji was sent from 
 Kamakura to command an army to reinforce the. H5jo 
 forces that were fighting around Kioto, but he deserted 
 with all his men and threw in his lot with Masahige, 
 and the two then attacked Kioto, which was held by 
 the Hojo. The defending army was composed of 30,000 
 men, half of whom were untrained to arms, and this force 
 was soon so much reduced by desertion and loss in 
 action that little more than a thousand fighting men 
 
144 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 were left to them. The general evacuated the citadel 
 and attempted, with his remaining force, to retreat to 
 the North, but every hand was against them. They 
 were not only pursued by the victors, but harried on 
 all sides by the peasantry, so that, before they had gone 
 far in the province of Omi, they were forced tp take 
 refuge in a Buddhist temple. Here their general, Naka- 
 toki, who had commanded them at Kioto, saw that no 
 more could be done. So he called together the surviving 
 officers, thanked them for their services, and then killed 
 himself, and more than four hundred officers and men 
 "accompanied him in death." 
 
 Nitta Yoshisada, unlike Takauji, had no stain of 
 treachery on his name. The H5j6 sent to his fief to 
 demand both men and money, but he put the messengers 
 to death, and, instead of coming to the assistance of the 
 Hojo in their hour of need, he gathered an army and 
 led it southwards to attack their capital, Kamakura. 
 Dark clouds were now gathering over the heads of the 
 Hojo. They heard simultaneously of the destruction 
 of their army at Kioto and of the army of Yoshisada 
 that was advancing against them at Kamakura. But, 
 however hated they had made themselves throughout 
 the rest of the Empire by the greed and tyranny of those 
 who now ruled in their name, and by their sacrilegious 
 cruelty to the Emperors, they had still abundance of 
 brave soldiers and competent generals who were devoted 
 to their cause, and vigorous preparations were made to 
 defend Kamakura to the last. Its land approaches were 
 so strongly fortified as to render it impregnable, but it 
 lies on, and was then open to, the sea. Yoshisada, 
 finding it was impossible to make any impression on it 
 from the land, led his army along the seashore. There 
 he found his way blocked by a chevaux de frise which 
 extended down to the water's edge, while off the shore lay 
 a large fleet of boats manned with archers ready to pour a 
 
THE HOJO USURPERS 145 
 
 flank fire on his men. He ascended alone to the summit 
 of the lofty bluff, from the foot of which the chevaux 
 de frise extended, and there prayed fervently to the Sea 
 God for help. Then he flung into the sea his sword, 
 the last and greatest treasure of a Samurai, as a votive 
 offering. Next morning he found that the sea had 
 miraculously retreated from the beach with such rapidity 
 as to sweep the fleet of boats far into the offing, and a 
 passage was left dry on the sand which, but a little before, 
 had been covered with deep water. The attack was 
 made, and the city taken, though not without a bloody 
 battle that lasted through the whole day, the Hojo 
 defending themselves to the last and the victors being 
 forced to fight from street to street. The city, with its 
 great triumphs of architecture, was almost entirely 
 destroyed, and little but smouldering ashes remained of 
 all the beauty and magnificence of Yoritomo's proud 
 capital which, since his death, had grown into the first 
 city in the Empire, and under the benefipent adminis- 
 tration of the early Hojo, had become the home of all 
 that was best in art and literature, in the refinement and 
 luxury of life, as well as of trade and industry of a 
 degree of prosperity that had never hitherto been known 
 in the Empire. 
 
 No more mercy was shown by the conquerors to the 
 Hojo than by the Minamoto to the beaten Taira a hun- 
 dred and fifty years before. Men, women and children 
 were pitilessly slaughtered wherever they could be 
 found, and the burning city was a holocaust with more 
 than a hundred thousand charred corpses. The last 
 chapter of this story is redolent of gruesome horror, but 
 a vivid reflection of the Samurai spirit that scorns sur- 
 render to a conquering foe and cherishes a fealty to the 
 feudal lord that is only ended by death. 
 
 Takatoki, idle voluptuary though he was, in no way 
 failed in the martial spirit of his ancestors, and however 
 
146 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 worthless he had been as a governor or a general, he 
 showed in the final struggle that he was a brave soldier 
 and a worthy Samurai. His palace was defended to the 
 last. Then, driven out of it, fighting as he retreated, 
 he took refuge in a temple which was the family bury- 
 ing-ground of the Hojo. A thousand of his officers 
 and men followed him, and the whole body gathered as 
 the evening shades were falling in the great hall of the 
 tempte. One officer, Takashigi, resolved to try fortune 
 once more. , With a hundred volunteers, all of whom 
 had discarded their banners and crested armour, he 
 sallied forth, and in the darkness mingled with the 
 victors to seek and slay their commander, Yoshisada. 
 Just as they were at the point of reaching him, they were 
 recognized and surrounded by more than a thousand of 
 his staff and escort. They fought with desperation, 
 Takashigi was disarmed, but he seized one of the enemy's 
 generals and flung him from his horse, and then burst 
 through the line of horsemen around him and rode back 
 to the temple. All the rest fell. When he reached the 
 temple, Takatoki was just pledging his followers in a 
 farewell cup. Takashigi took the cup, drained it twice, 
 then committed hara-kiri, and pulled out his bowels with 
 his own hand. "This is a nice dish," said another 
 officer, laughing, and followed his example. 
 
 There was one officer among them whose niece was 
 Yoshisada's wife. She sent a message to him asking 
 him to surrender and promising that his life should 
 be spared. "My niece," he said, "is the daughter of 
 a Samurai. How could she speak in such a shameless 
 manner ? How is it that Yoshisada did not stop her ? " 
 Then he folded her letter on his sword and plunged 
 both into his stomach and died with the others. Then 
 Takatoki and his followers all killed themselveSj and 
 the line of the Hojo was ended. They had already been 
 exterminated in the West by Takauji and Masahige, and 
 
THE HOJO USURPERS 147 
 
 whatever fugitives of the clan could be found through- 
 out the country were killed without pity or mercy. 
 
 One chapter in their story has not yet been told — that 
 of the attempted invasion of Japan by the great Mongol 
 Emperor, Kublai Khan, who, having conquered the 
 whole of China, was now ambitious to bring the Island 
 Empire under his sway, to make it the acknowledged 
 tributary of China. He had, it must be admitted, other 
 reasons for bringing his military strength to bear on 
 Japan than those of mere personal ambition. The Japan- 
 ese w«re brave and adventurous sailors, and those of the 
 western coasts, far away at all times in those days from 
 the restraining hands of their own government, and in 
 the turmoil of civil wars, able to indulge in licence at 
 their own will, found that piracy was their most profit- 
 able trade. Kiyomori, in his youth, had suppressed it 
 in the Inland Sea, but it continued to live and flourish 
 in the Japan and China seas, and the whole coast of 
 China was so constantly harried by the incursions of 
 Japanese pirates that the inhabitants lived in almost 
 daily dread of their appearance. Kublai Khan's first 
 demands, made in a letter sent through Korea, were that 
 this piracy should be discontinued, but as no notice was 
 taken of his letter, he followed it up by sending an 
 embassy whose instructions were to demand the payment 
 of tribute by Japan. Tokimune, the seventh of the Hojo, 
 had all the vigour and determination as well as the 
 ability of his predecessors. He was a bold soldier, a 
 bold huntsman, overflowing with physical courage, and at 
 the same time a scholar and a strict and impartial admin- 
 istrator of justice, full of patriotic pride in the country he 
 ruled. Such a man was the very last to submit to the 
 arrogance of any foreigner, however great and powerful 
 he might be. He considered the demands an insult, 
 and ordered that the embassy should be sent back to 
 China without being admitted either into his own pre- 
 
 L 2 
 
148 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 sence at Kamakura or to that of the Emperor at Kioto. 
 Five more embassies met with the same reception. None 
 was allowed to continue the journey further than Kiushiu 
 where each landed. Then Kublai Khan tried the experi- 
 ment of a small expedition to Tsushima, the island 
 lying in the straits of Korea, midway between Japan 
 and Korea, an acknowledged part of the Japanese 
 Empire. The expedition was driven back with heavy 
 loss. This was at the close of the year 1274. In the 
 following year, another embassy consisting of nine 
 envoys came, and as the envoys refused to return to their 
 own country without a formal answer to their demand, 
 Tokimune caused, them to be arrested and brought to 
 Kamakura, where they were decapitated on the common 
 execution ground. Four years passed, and then another 
 embassy was sent, only to meet with the same fate, on 
 this occasion at their landing-place. The indignation 
 of the great Emperor of China was now thoroughly 
 roused, as it well might be, and he determined to make 
 the audacious islanders, the breeders of pirates and 
 violators of the laws of nations, pay the penalty of their 
 misdeeds. He spent two years in preparing a huge 
 armada of more than three hundred great ships. In 
 them an army of a hundred thousand men was embarked, 
 and the whole set sail for Japan. 
 
 The Japanese had full warning of all his preparations 
 and of the sailing of the fleet, and on their side had 
 not been remiss. Fortunately, the country enjoyed 
 domestic peace. Tokimune ruled with a firm hand, his 
 authority was undisputed, his popularity great through 
 the whole country and all his orders were promptly 
 obeyed. Troops were dispatched to Kiushiu, the western 
 defences of the island strengthened and a fleet of ships 
 put in commission. But the Japanese ships were smaller 
 than the Chinese, and while the Chinese were armed with 
 great catapults, capable of hurling huge stones with 
 
THE HOJO USURPERS 149 
 
 precision and force, in the use of which the crews were 
 thoroughly trained, the Japanese, until they came to 
 close quarters, had no weapons but their arrows to rely 
 on. Their sliill and experience as sailors were, on the 
 other hand, far in advance of the Chinese, and their 
 ships, if small, were more easily handled than the tower- 
 ing war junks of China. 
 
 The Japanese compare the story of Kublai Khan's 
 attempted invasion with that of the Spanish Armada, 
 and a strong similarity appears in all the details of both 
 stories, excepting only the execution of the ambassadors, 
 as they are told from the conception on the side of the 
 continental sovereigns of the first ideas of the invasions 
 down to the final catastrophes in which both ended. 
 Tokimune was not, like Elizabeth, legitimately the 
 supreme ruler of his country, but he was like her in all 
 the individual characteristics that could be common in 
 persons of opposite sex. Both Philip of Spain and 
 Kublai Khan equipped what each thought an invincible 
 armada to exterminate a nest of insolent pirates and 
 bring to their feet an island country of infinitely inferior 
 resources to their own. In both cases the resolution, 
 skill and valour of the defenders might perhaps have 
 failed had not the forces of nature come at an opportune 
 moment to their assistance, and in both the disaster 
 which fell upon the invaders was wholesale and com- 
 plete. 
 
 The Chinese fleet sailed slowly across the seas which, 
 in our own day, have witnessed the destruction of the 
 Russian fleet. Its voyage was not uninterrupted. The 
 light Japanese ships hung on its outskirts as it neared 
 the shores of Japan, just as the English did on the 
 Spanish fleet while it made its way up the Channel, 
 and succeeded in inflicting some loss while suffering 
 none themselves. But still the great fleet kept on its 
 way, and finally anchored off the coast of Kiushiu. 
 
160 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 There it lay close to the shore, the ships anchored in 
 a long line and fastened together with chains. From the 
 towers the catapults discharged huge stones on the 
 Japanese defences on the shore, endeavouring to clear the 
 way for a landing, but however powerless the Japanese 
 were against the ships, their swordsmen at close quarters 
 were more than a match for the bravest Tartar spearsmen 
 that endeavoured to climb over the defences, and every 
 attempt at landing was beaten back with heavy loss to 
 the invaders. Prayers for help and the protection of the 
 divine country, peopled with their descendants, had been 
 offered to the Gods. The Emperor, Go Uda (1274-1288), 
 fifteen years of age at the time, had gone in person to 
 the sacred shrines of Ise to implore his divine ancestress 
 the Sun Goddess's aid. The prayers were answered. 
 The season at which the monsoon changes had arrived, 
 and the change is usually prefaced by a typhoon, the 
 most terrible form of storm that sweeps the seas in any 
 part of the world, which nowhere rages with greater 
 violence than along the coast of Western and Southern 
 Kiushiu. One burst upon the great fleet as it lay at 
 anchor in close order, unable to manoeuvre or make its 
 way from the shores. The ships were hurled together 
 and shattered and sunk at their anchors. The sea was 
 blocked with bodies of their crews. Those that escaped 
 from the anchorage fell upon the unknown rocks that 
 line the coast everywhere, and the Japanese ships, 
 issuing from the harbours and inlets where they had 
 lain securely hidden throughout the storm, completed 
 the destruction of those that escaped the rocks, the ships 
 crippled and shattered and the crews demoralized. Of 
 all the grand armada that had so proudly sailed from 
 China a few months before, only three persons, the sole 
 survivors, returned to tell their story to the Emperor. 
 The lesson derived from the whole story by the Japanese 
 historian is one that the Japanese apply to themselves at 
 
THE HOJO USURPERS 151 
 
 the present day. "The secret of victory and of defeat 
 lies in the spirit of men, and not in their weapons. We 
 have a quality in which we naturally excel, and in that 
 we should put our trust." The glory of this great 
 exploit, the services which they rendered to the nation in 
 their civil government, the equally great personal virtues 
 of many members of the dynasty have not given the 
 Hojo a place in the affectionate memories of their 
 countrymen. Their merits were insufficient to atone for 
 their wicked treason to their Emperors. All their benevo- 
 lence, all their mercies, all their self-denial, were but 
 penances for their great wickedness, and "their fall was 
 a just retribution for their offences to both Gods and 
 men." 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE ASHIKAGA SHOGUNS 
 
 The ostensible cause of the war which terminated in 
 the downfall of the Hojo was the restoration of the 
 Emperor to his legitimate position as de facto as well 
 as de jure Sovereign of the Empire, and the abolition of 
 the dual form of government founded by Yoritomo. It 
 was the same cause as that which brought about the 
 overthrow of the Tokugawas in 1868 and the restoration 
 of the present Emperor, but its results were different. 
 In 1868 the cause was loyally supported to the end by 
 those who successfully fought for it, and the Imperial 
 Government was firmly established. In the fourteenth 
 century the treachery and self-seeking of one man 
 counteracted all the loyalty and devotion of those who 
 had hoped to see the revival of the ancient regime of 
 their country, and their Sovereign once more exercising 
 in person the supreme control of its affairs from his 
 ancient capital in Kioto. The only result was to rivet 
 the fetters of the Emperor more firmly, and to establish 
 on a more secure and permanent basis the administration 
 of a new line of military usurpers. 
 
 The Emperor Go Daigo was once more on his throne at 
 Kioto, and there was neither Shogun nor Shikken to take 
 the power out of his hands, while the Fujiwara, the great 
 family of the Court, who without any backing of military 
 strength had, by moral force, by the triumph of strong 
 over weak characters, rendered his predecessors from the 
 seventh to the twelfth century mere faineants, though 
 
 152 
 
THE ASHIKAGA SHOGUNS 153 
 
 they were still vested with all the dignity and influence 
 that flow from rank and ancient lineage in an aristocratic 
 country such as Japan, had been too long bereft of all 
 political power to make themselves now an independent 
 factor able to make its influence felt to the detriment of 
 their sovereign's prerogative. The Emperor himself 
 had also shown qualities of industry, courage and states- 
 manship that could be found in few of his predecessors 
 throughout the antecedent periods of the usurpation of 
 the Taira, Minamoto and Hojo. Exile, however, had 
 not improved him, and after the years of suffering and 
 want through which he had passed he yielded to the 
 temptations of the luxury and sensualism of the court. 
 
 Of the three generals to whom he owed his new 
 fortunes, Masahige and Yoshisada had not only ren- 
 dered the greatest services to him during the war, but 
 both were faithful to his cause from the first. The third, 
 Takauji, had not only rendered less meritorious service, 
 but was at first among the Emperor's enemies, and 
 became his champion only by acting as a shameless 
 traitor to those who had trusted him and for whom he 
 had promised to fight. But it .was on Takauji that the 
 Emperor bestowed the highest rewards, and it was 
 Takauji whom he took into his closest confidence. Cun- 
 ning, unscrupulous, dissimulating, Takauji soon sowed 
 suspicion in his Imperial master's ears of his best 
 friends, and then, feeling sure of that master's com- 
 pliance with any request he might prefer, and lord him- 
 self, by the Emperor's gifts of the forfeited domains of 
 the Hojo, of the Provinces of Kuanto, with all the 
 powerful military strength that lordship gave him, he 
 claimed from the Emperor the revival of the Shogunate 
 in his favour, alleging that it was his due as a descendant 
 of the Minamoto family, the family who were the first 
 to hold the office. The grant of this claim would have 
 undone everything that had been gained by the war — 
 
154 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 it would have been merely the transfer of the power 
 held and exercised by the Hojo to the Ashikaga — and it 
 was refused by the Emperor. Then Takauji resolved to 
 take by force what he had been refused by favour, and 
 marched on Kioto with a large army. Too late the 
 Emperor learned that a man who has shown himself a 
 traitor once is likely to do so a second time when tempta- 
 tion comes. But he also learned that true loyalty, 
 founded on no vulgar self-ambition, is proof against 
 ingratitude and the consciousness of unrequited merit. 
 Yoshisada and Masahige, whom he had rewarded so 
 inadequately, whom he had remitted into the cold shades 
 of disfavour while he was fawned on by Takauji, once 
 more took up arms on his behalf, as they had done to 
 free him from the tyranny of the Hojo. The issue was 
 fought out on the banks of the Minatogawa, the site of 
 Kiyomori's palace, close to the scene of the battle of 
 Ichi no Tani one hundred and fifty-two years before, 
 where Yoshitsune gained his first great triumph over the 
 Taira. Takauji, by superior generalship, contrived to 
 get between the two divisions of the Imperial army, 
 commanded respectively by Yoshisada and Masahige, 
 with an army far superior in numbers to the aggregate 
 of both, and destroyed both in turn. At the end of the 
 battle, Masahige, with seventy-two of his followers, all 
 wounded like himself, withdrew into a farmer's house 
 near the battlefield, and there, disdaining to yield when 
 escape was hopeless, died in the usual Samurai fashion. 
 Just as Yamatodake and Yoshitsune are looked upon 
 as noble types of Japanese chivalry, so is Masahige 
 regarded to this day as the highest and noblest model 
 that Japan has produced of the still higher quality of 
 unselfish and devoted loyalty, the quality which, in the 
 Japanese moral code, ranks far above any other, even 
 that of filial piety. Filial piety owes, indeed, its value 
 chiefly to the fact that it is the foundation of the loyalty 
 
THE ASHIKAGA SHOGIJNS 155 
 
 that is due to the Emperor. Unless a man respects his 
 parents, how can he respect and obey the Emperor, who 
 is the father of the whole nation ? The national rever- 
 ence for Masahige continues unabated to this day. A 
 statue has been erected in the heart of Tokio by the 
 present generation to his memory, and when one of the 
 great leaders of modern thought in Japan once con- 
 demned his final sacrifice of his own life, his cold-blooded 
 criticism was received with universal execration. Yoshi- 
 sada escaped from the battlefield with six thousand men 
 out of the twenty-five thousand he had led into it. He 
 carried on the war in the west for two more years. One 
 day, when at the head of only fifty men, he was surprised 
 and surrounded by a force of over three thousand. As 
 he charged, in the wild hope of breaking through the 
 lines around him, he was struck by an arrow in the eye. 
 He drew out the arrow, but, being mortally wounded, 
 cut off his own head with his sword. His little band all 
 died with him, and his head was sent to Kioto, where 
 it was publicly pilloried on the prison gate, as had been 
 the heads of many brave men before him. As a loyal 
 and devoted soldier, his memory is only less reverenced 
 than that of Masahige. 
 
 Takauji had now overcome all opposition, and was as 
 much master of the situation as Kiyomori after the death 
 of Yoshitomo or Yoritomo after the battle of Dan no 
 Ura. At the head of his victorious army he marched at 
 once on Kioto. The Emperor Go Daigo, whom he had 
 assisted to recover his throne only three years before, 
 to whose gratitude and favour he owed so much of his 
 present wealth and power, who had, on the other hand, 
 offended him by refusing him the title of the Great 
 Shogun, fled from the capital, taking with him the 
 Imperial regalia, and sought refuge among the hills of 
 Yoshino, as Yoshitsune had done when he fled before 
 the anger of his brother. There the Emperor found a 
 
156 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 home in the very same temple that Yoshitsune and 
 Benkei had occupied. The Emperor's rooms still remain 
 as they were when he used them nearly six hundred 
 years ago, and his grave is shown but a little way from 
 the Temple. The flight of the Emperor and the removal 
 of the regalia left the capital without the authoritjr that 
 could alone legalize whatever Takauji chose to do. 
 Every act of his that was not done in the name and 
 with the nominal sanction of the Emperor was that of a 
 rebel, and no pretence could be made to the nominal 
 sanction when the Emperor was a fugitive and in hiding 
 from him who wanted it. Takauji was in the same 
 plight as Yoritomd when the Taira fled from Kioto 
 and Fukuwara to the west, taking with them the young 
 Emperor Antoku and the regalia. Yoritomo awaited 
 the death of the Emperor and the recovery of the regalia 
 before raising a new sovereign to the throne, but 
 Takauji was not so scrupulous. On entering Kioto, he 
 at once declared that Go Daigo's flight was tantamount 
 to abdication, that the throne was vacant, and as dic- 
 tators, with whom might was right, had done before, 
 he at once nominated to it Prince Kogen, a son of the 
 previous Emperor, Go Fushimi (1298-1301), and from 
 the new Emperor he obtained for himself the coveted 
 title of Sei-i-Tai-Shogun, for the sake of which he had 
 proved a traitor to his legitimate sovereign and 
 slaughtered his own friends and allies. A curious 
 constitutional situation was thus created. The fugitive 
 Emperor was in possession of the sacred regalia, and 
 according to all the traditions of the Empire from the 
 most ancient times, whatever member of the Imperial 
 family was in actual possession of the regalia acquired 
 the sovereignty by divine right, and no loyalty was due 
 to one who claimed to be the Emperor and whose claim 
 was not supported by his possession of the outward and 
 visible tokens of his divine sovereignty. On the other 
 
THE ASHIKAGA SHOGUNS 157 
 
 side, the new Emperor held the throne, the palace and 
 the capital with the support and protection of the most 
 powerful military leader in the Empire, whose strength 
 none dared to challenge. This situation continued for 
 nearly sixty years. Throughout all this time there were 
 two rival Imperial dynasties, one called the Northern 
 Dynasty, which continued to reign at Kioto, and to 
 exercise the nominal influence in the affairs of state 
 which was all that the Emperors had done for nearly 
 six centuries. The other, called the Southern Dynasty, 
 retained in its keeping the only true symbols of legiti- 
 macy, and remained at Yoshino, with neither real nor 
 nominal influence, in poverty and helplessness, poverty 
 that was not the fiction of a great house unable to 
 maintain itself with the splendour that becomes its 
 dignity, but one that sometimes amounted to the in- 
 ability to provi(^ the actual necessaries of daily life. In 
 1393 a reconciliation was effected between the two 
 Imperial houses, and a compromise arranged under 
 which Go Kameyama, the Southern Emperor, surren- 
 dered the regalia to Go Komatsu, the Emperor of the 
 Northern Dynasty. There were in all six Emperors of 
 the Northern Dynasty who reigned with outward splen- 
 dour at Kioto, but history has treated all but the last, 
 who recovered the regalia, as usurpers, and called them 
 the "False Emperors," and the official list of the 
 Sovereigns of Japan ignores their names, and includes 
 only those of the Southern Dynasty, who passed a 
 miserable existence in obscurity at Yoshino. 
 
 All the previous Shoguns, from the great Yoritpmo 
 down to the helpless children who held the office under 
 the dictatorship of the Hojo, lived at Kamakura, which 
 was therefore inseparably associated with the office in 
 the minds of the nation. Kamakura had now begun to 
 rise from its ashes, and to give promise of recovering 
 in time some degree at least of its former wealth and 
 
158 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 magnificence. It was the capital of the Eastern prov- 
 inces, from which Takauji derived his wealth and 
 strength, and all the considerations both of sentiment 
 and interest seemed to point to it as his residence and 
 the seat of his government. But he was no halfway 
 reformer. He determined to institute a new regime, 
 and building a palace at Muromachi in Kioto, one whose 
 size and splendour threw that of the Emperor far into 
 the shade, he fixed that as the residence of himself and 
 his successors^ and nominated a cadet of the family to 
 represent its government at Kamakura. The name of the 
 site of the palace was given to the dynasty, following 
 the custom under which historical characters are often 
 spoken of by their territorial titles rather than by their 
 personal names, and the years in which the Ashikaga 
 Shoguns governed the Empire are therefore- frequently 
 mentioned as the Muromachi period in the national 
 history. 
 
 Takauji, the founder of the line, lived for twenty 
 years after he attained the summit of his ambition. In 
 previous dynasties, when a Shogun died, or abdicated, 
 or was deposed, the ofSce remained theoretically vacant 
 until the Emperor made a new nomination of a suc- 
 cessor, but another drastic reform made by Takauji was 
 to render the office hereditary in his own family, inde- 
 pendently of the Emperor's nomination, and his direct 
 descendants succeeded in turn without going through 
 the formality of asking for or receiving the Imperial 
 sanction. In a country where the Emperor had been 
 always the sole source of all honour and authority, this 
 reform was of a more serious nature than might appear 
 on first glance, and it formed the justification for great 
 territorial nobles in later years to flout and rebel against 
 Takauji's successors. There were in all fourteen 
 Shoguns of his dynasty between 1335 when the office 
 was first conferred on him, and 1573, when the line came 
 
THE ASHIKAGA SHOGUNS 159 
 
 to an end. It would be apart from the scope and inten- 
 tion of this work to give a detailed story of the domestic 
 events in Japan throughout this period. It is one that 
 is full of all the worst horrors of unbroken civil wars, 
 slaughter, plunder, burning, national want and misery 
 among all classes, high as well as of low degree ; and it 
 is redeemed by none of the chivalrous and heroic figures, 
 by none of the noble acts which brightened the dark 
 periods of the wars of the Gempei or the overthrow of 
 the Hojo. Territorial nobles were at constant feud 
 among themselves. Every one desired to increase his 
 own domains at the expense of his neighbour, and he 
 could only do that by the sword. The power and wealth 
 of the most powerful and wealthy among them steadily 
 increased, while the weaker disappeared from the face of 
 the land. At the close of the dynasty there were many 
 feudal chiefs whose strength was equal or even superior 
 to that of the Ashikaga, and who were able to treat the 
 usurping government with insolent contemptuousness. 
 Another great and growing influence that made itself 
 felt as a political factor was that of the Buddhist priest- 
 hood, whose members combined the occupations of 
 warriors and priests. Their monasteries were converted 
 into fortresses, and their members were as expert in 
 wielding the sword and lance as they were in interpret- 
 ing the sacred books. Mount Hiyei, a few miles to the 
 north of Kioto, on whose slopes and summit there were 
 more than three thousand monasteries, was a huge 
 fortified camp, and the alliance of the priests was 
 eagerly sought for by rival factions, and was often 
 sufficient to turn the scale in favour of the side to which 
 it was given. Many of the territorial nobles, in addition 
 to the fortresses on their own domains, maintained 
 palaces at Kioto, which also partook largely of the 
 character of fortresses, and the peace of the capital was 
 often broken by brawls among their retainers. In some 
 
160 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 cases the streets became the scene of a great battle in 
 which the whole strength of two rival clans was engaged, 
 and between the two the sufferings of the unfortunate 
 citizens, whose lives were as little secure as their prop- 
 erty, were pitiable. Driven from their burning houses, 
 they were forced to seek safety in flight through a crowd 
 of infuriated clansmen, mad with the lust of blood, and 
 they were fortunate indeed if they escaped, the men with 
 life and the women with honour, having lost all their 
 worldly goods, destitute and homeless, knowing not 
 where to find either food or shelter. Mediaeval Rome or 
 Edinburgh under the early Stuarts were sanctuaries of 
 peace arid security as compared with Kioto in the four- 
 teenth and fifteenth centuries. Similar conditions 
 occurred at different periods throughout the whole 
 Empire; Kamakura and every feudal town were all, in 
 their turn, battlefields. Town and country were alike in 
 turn wasted; agriculture was neglected when farmers 
 felt no certainty of either life or property, and famine 
 and pestilence followed, amid which the people died like 
 flies. While such was the internal disorder, no control 
 could be observed on Japanese beyond the seas. Piracy 
 became rampant, and the coasts of China and Korea 
 were once more harried without mercy, as they had been 
 a hundred times before. There were, of course, brief 
 interludes of peace when exhaustion induced rival clans 
 to lay down their arms for a while, or the extermination 
 of one enabled its conquerors to tranquillize its own and 
 its acquired domains. Then the country got some 
 breathing time, and with the wonderful capacity for 
 rising from misfortune which the Japanese possess both 
 individually and nationally, the people woiild recover in 
 some degree from their material degradation, but when 
 war broke out again, as it invariably did, the same story 
 of butchery and rapine was repeated with all its grue- 
 some details. Twice under the Ashikaga, the Eastern 
 
THE ASHIKAGA SHOGUNS 161 
 
 capital, Kamakura, met with the same fate it had done 
 at the overthrow of the Hojo, and from its last downfall, 
 which occurred in 1524, when the Ashikaga were also 
 drawing near their close, it never recovered. 
 
 A list of the Ashikaga Shoguns will be found in the 
 Appendix. Few of them need be mentioned here, though 
 some were men of strong character, who, while they 
 lived, succeeded in preserving some semblance of peace 
 and order. Yoshimitsu, the third of the line, governed 
 with justice and firmness. In his youth he had the 
 advantage of a capable and honest guardian, by whom 
 his character was trained so that he became a strong and 
 determined governor when he arrived at manhood, able 
 to keep the turbulent nobles in check and maintain 
 peace. But his pride and love of display led him into 
 a step which has brought on his memory the execration 
 of his countrymen. Not satisfied with the great title of 
 Shogun, with other honours bestowed on him by the 
 Emperor, he aspired to the dignity of royalty. Even he 
 could not dare to trespass on the exclusive honours of 
 the Imperial crown, so he assumed the title of king, one 
 till then and since unknown in Japan, and in order to 
 procure his recognition as such he paid a large sum to 
 the Emperor of China. The ostensible reason for pay- 
 ment was that of indemnity for losses which the subjects 
 of the Emperor of China had suffered from the depreda- 
 tions of the Japanese pirates, but the Chinese accepted 
 it as tribute, and Japan was thenceforward included 
 among their tributary kingdoms. The very thought of 
 this national humiliation is to this day sufficient to stir 
 the indignation of the mildest and gentlest peace-lover 
 among the subjects of the Tenno. 
 
 It was under the Ashikaga that Japan made her first 
 acquaintance with Europeans and that Christianity 
 found a foothold in the Empire, the story of which will 
 be told in a later chapter in this work. What is now to 
 
 M 
 
162 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 be told is that of the influence which the Ashikaga 
 exercised on the development of national art, which 
 under their encouragement received an impetus that has 
 caused this period of history to be called the golden age 
 of Japanese art. 
 
 Whatever were the disorder and misery of the Empire, 
 the Ashikaga always contrived to live in luxury and 
 splendour in their palaces at Kioto. Many of them 
 possessed literary and artistic tastes and capacity of a 
 high order, and when, following the national custom 
 of every class from the Court downwards, a Shogun of 
 their line abdicated in favour of his son, his later years 
 of ease and irresponsibility were spent in the society of 
 artists and literati, and in the cultivation of their best 
 talents. Yoshinori, the sixth of the line, was himself 
 a poet and historian. To Yoshimasa, the eighth, are 
 due the graceful ceremonies of the Cha no Yu, or tea- 
 drinking, the highest development of aesthetic refinement 
 in the social customs of Japan, which to this day are 
 observed in the noblest society, in the Imperial Court 
 itself, with the same reverential formality that they were 
 in the time of their first great patron. The lovely 
 monastery of Ginkakuji, the silver pavilion, the roof of 
 which was once sheathed in pure silver, was built by 
 him, as a garden summer-house in which he could 
 practise the ceremonies he loved in the midst of all that 
 was most beautiful in art and nature; and the pictures, 
 the work of the best artists of China and Japan, which 
 adorn the ceiling and walls of the pavilion, testify to 
 Yoshimasa's critical skill and taste. The Kinkakuji, or 
 golden pavilion, an equally beautiful monastery in 
 another part of Kioto, where not only the roof but the 
 pillars, rafters and ceiling were all sheathed in gold, 
 was built by Yoshimitsu as a retreat for his old age, 
 and it is even richer in pictorial treasures than Ginka- 
 kuji. Not far from it is Toji-in, another monastery 
 
THE ASHIKAGA SHOGUNS 163 
 
 founded by Takauji, which contains effigies of all the 
 Ashikaga Shoguns, modelled by contemporary artists, 
 and presumably, therefore, faithful representations of 
 what the originals were in life. 
 
 The greatest painters that Japan has ever produced 
 were all born and lived and worked under the Ashikaga. 
 They include Josetsu, Mutsunobu, Cho Densu, Sesshu, 
 Mitsuhige, and the two great classical painters of the 
 Kano school, Masanobu and Motonobu, all names as 
 worthily venerated in Japan as are those of Raphael, 
 Titian, Rubens and Murillo by lovers of art in Europe. 
 Goto, the founder of the art of damascening weapons 
 and armour, the art which has given to us the beautiful 
 sword guards and ornaments that are the joy of modern 
 European art collectors, and himself the greatest master 
 of the art, died in 15 13 at the age of seventy-eight; but 
 neither sculpture nor carving seems to have appealed to 
 the aesthetic perception of the Ashikaga, as their age 
 is practically destitute of great representatives of the 
 two arts, many masters in which lived and worked in 
 other periods of the history. The most classic form of 
 drama, the No^ was for the first time introduced into 
 Kioto, and it was taken under the special patronage of 
 Yoshimochi, the fourth Shogun, under whom it acquired 
 such favour that it never subsequently failed in the 
 fascination it exercised over the nobles and most culti- 
 vated classes of the Empire. To the present day repre- 
 sentations of the plays are given in the Imperial palace 
 by the direct lineal descendants of the very actors who 
 performed them more than five hundred years ago in 
 the palace of the Ashikaga at Kioto. The stage of 
 to-day is the exact model of that on which they were 
 first performed, with the same decorations, the same 
 absence of scenery or mechanical effects. Masks are 
 amongst the essential properties of the No performances, 
 and the wonderful skill which the Japanese show in 
 M 2 
 
164 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 modelling these masks is largely due to their desire to 
 produce those whose artistic merits would be worthy of 
 the classic objects for which they were required. Artists 
 in lacquer, in ceramics, in landscape gardening — all 
 three closely associated with the celebration of the Cha 
 no Yu — may also be mentioned as among those who 
 reflected honour on their patrons, under whose protec- 
 tion they were able to work in safety, to give with 
 tranquil minds their whole thought to their labours of 
 love, while around them were ruin and desolation. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 NOBUNAGA — THE BUDDHIST PERSECUTOR 
 
 The three last Shoguns of the Ashikaga line were 
 Yoshiharu (1521-1545), Yoshiteru (1546-1567), and 
 Yoshiaki (1568-1573). Like the sons of Yoritomo and 
 the last of the Hojo, all three gave way to idleness and 
 self-indulgence in the society of favourites as destitute 
 of industry and ability as themselves, and left the inter- 
 ests of the state entirely in the hands of their ministers 
 and advisers. The germ of the disease, which caused 
 the official deaths of Minamoto Semman and Hojo Taka- 
 toki, had entered into their system and it was destined to 
 have the same fatal effects upon their dynasty as it had 
 on the Minamoto and Hojo. In Yoshiteru, the usual 
 delinquencies were intensified, and two of his ministers, 
 Miyoshi Yoshitsugu and Matsunaga Hisahide, rose in 
 rebellion against him. Yoshiteru made a feeble attempt 
 to resist them, but was defeated, and he, his family and 
 his retainers were all killed. His younger brother, 
 Yoshiaki, who escaped the massacre by taking refuge 
 in a monastery in Omi, was now his legitimate heir. 
 Unable to enforce his rights, he applied for help to 
 several of the territorial princes, and among them to 
 Ota Nobunaga. The latter took up his cause, and 
 marching on Kioto, attacked and defeated the rebels 
 with a much larger army than their own, and then in- 
 stalled Yoshiaki in his hereditary office as Shogun. It 
 is with Nobunaga that we have now to deal. With him 
 opens an entirely new chapter in our story, and 
 
 i6s 
 
166 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Yoshiaki may be dismissed with a few words. His effigy 
 in Toji-in represents a sensual, unintelligent type of 
 countenance, and his career as Shogun was such as 
 might be expected from a man of weak and vicious 
 character. It only lasted five years. Then Nobunaga, 
 his protector, to whom he owed his dignity, lost-patience 
 with him and deposed him. He again took refuge in a 
 monastery, and lived for twenty-six years afterwards, 
 retaining to the last, even in his monastic imprison- 
 ment, the title of Shogun, but interfering no more in 
 state affairs. The long line of the Ashikaga Shoguns 
 came to an end with his deposition, having lasted in all 
 for 238 years. This was in the year 1573. 
 
 The Ota family were said to be descended from the 
 Taira. Their paternal ancestor was killed at Dan no 
 Ura, but his wife escaped from the general massacre 
 with her child to the province of Omi, where she married 
 again. The child grew up and is said to have become 
 a Shinto priest and the founder of a family of Shinto 
 priests. Be the truth of this story as it may, Nobunaga's 
 father forsook the priesthood and adopted the calling 
 of arms, and was so successful as a soldier, at a 
 period when success in arms was rewarded by territorial 
 grants, that he became the prince of a small fief in 
 Owari. The father died in 1549, leaving the fief to his 
 son, who was then sixteen years of age. It was almost 
 the worst period of national disorder under the Ashikaga, 
 one which gave abundant opportunity to a man of 
 courage, decision and military genius, and Nobunaga, 
 who possessed all these qualities, who, in addition was 
 assisted from the beginning of his career by four 
 officers in his service of scarcely less genius than him- 
 self, one of whom afterwards showed infinitely greater 
 genius, was able to extend his patrimony so rapidly, 
 that before ten years elapsed he was undisputed master 
 of the whole of the province of Owari. Thence, he 
 
NOBUNAGA— THE BUDDHIST PERSECUTOR 167 
 
 gradually extended his domains until they included four 
 other provinces, and before 1568, when the fugitive 
 Shogun Yoshiaki appealed for his help, the soldier who 
 started as the lord of a small and insignificant fief was, 
 in his strength and resources, one of the most powerful 
 feudal chiefs in the Empire, and his own personal 
 qualities combined with those resources to render him 
 unquestionably the foremost among them all. The 
 career of Yoritomo was before him as a precedent of 
 what might be achieved by a brave and competent 
 general, backed by a strong military force, confident in 
 and devoted to their leader, and Nobunaga now saw in 
 the future the day when he, too, might become as much 
 the master of the Empire as Yoritomo was in his lifetime. 
 All our story so far derives its material from Japanese 
 sources. Europeans had now made their appearance in 
 Japan, mercantile adventurers in the first case, shortly 
 to be followed by missionaries, who have left vivid 
 descriptions of the events in Japan of which they were 
 actual witnesses, of the great historical characters who 
 were contemporary with them, and of the daily life and 
 industry of the people, and as their descriptions harmon- 
 ize with those of the native writers, when due allowance 
 is made for the different points of view from which 
 events and personages were regarded by Europeans and 
 natives, they may be relied upon as being fairly accur- 
 ate. It is mainly from their writings that the rest of 
 our story will be summarized. The earliest is the 
 "History of the Church in Japan," the story told by the 
 Jesuit Fathers of their missionary labours in the six- 
 teenth and seventeenth centuries; and the next is the 
 "History of Japan," by Kaempfer, the physician to the 
 Dutch Factory at Nagasaki. Both works are full of the 
 most absorbing interest. The Jesuit Fathers tell of 
 what they saw, of what they experienced themselves, in 
 language as graphic as their experiences were thrilling. 
 
168 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Kaempfer tells what he saw, and also gives a profound 
 and philosophic study of the nation, so complete as to 
 render his work, first published in England nearly 200 
 years ago, inaccurate though it is in some of its infer- 
 ences, still among the very best books of the many 
 thousands that have been written on Japan. . 
 
 The Jesuit Fathers had the most ample opportunities 
 of studying the character of Nobunaga, and, as he is 
 the first great personage in Japanese history whose 
 portrait has been drawn by Europeans, we shall quote 
 what the Fathers say of him in full — 
 
 "Nobunaga was a Prince of large stature, but of a weak 
 and delicate complexion, which made him appear less fit to 
 support the toil and fatigues of War. Nevertheless, he had 
 a heart and soul that infinitely supplied all other wants, and 
 was naturally ambitious above all mankind. He was both 
 brave, generous and bold, and not without many excellent 
 moral virtues, being of his own humour inclined to Justice 
 and a sworn enemy to all Treason. He was endued with a 
 quick and penetrating wit, and seemed cut out for business. 
 Above all he properly excelled in military discipline, and 
 was generally esteemed the fittest to command an Army, 
 or to manage a siege, or to fortify a town, or to mark out a 
 Camp of any general in Japan. He never used any other 
 head in his Councils but his own. For if he asked advice, 
 it was more to know their hearts, than to profit by their 
 thoughts. He practised inviolably the Counsel of those 
 hypocrites who teach that one ought to see into others, but 
 never to lay himself open; for the most refined Politicians 
 could never dive into his counsels, for very private and 
 secret was he in his designs. As for the Worship of the Gods, 
 he laughed and ridiculed it, being thoroughly convinced that 
 the Bonzes (Buddhist priests) were nothing but Impostors, 
 and for the most part wicked men that abused the people's 
 innocent simplicity, and screened their own debauches under 
 the specious veil of Religion." 
 
 The battle in which Nobunaga — he was not present 
 himself; his army was under the command of Shibata, 
 one of his four great generals, scarcely less distinguished 
 than himself — defeated the two ministers who deposed 
 
NOBUNAGA— THE BUDDHIST PERSECUTOR 169 
 
 and murdered the Shogun, Yoshiteru, took place at 
 Sakai, a few miles to the south of Osaka, then a flourish- 
 ing seaport, the seat of all the shipping trade of the 
 southern provinces of the Main Island, now a still more 
 flourishing manufacturing town, with large carpet- 
 weaving and cutlery industries. In the time of Nobu- 
 naga Sakai was the seat of one of the most successful 
 of the Jesuit missions in Japan. The Fathers of the 
 church there were actual witnesses of the battle and 
 have left a very vivid description of it, which, as it is 
 the first described by Europeans, long though it is, is 
 worthy of being quoted in full— 
 
 "After the truce was expired, the two Armies marched out 
 of the Camps, and drew up in line of battle. Yoshitsugu 
 commanded the right, and Hisahide the left. Both of them 
 marched through the ranks exhorting their men to signalize 
 themselves this day, on which depended an Empire. They 
 represented to them that Shibata had only a handful of raw 
 and inexperienced men, that Nobunaga, having the Shogun 
 in his power, made this only a sconce for his ambition, 
 being certainly resolved to put him to death and seize on 
 his estates, by the ruin of those that now stood between him 
 and Conquest; that being a most bloody and ambitious 
 tyrant, no quarter was to be expected, and so they must 
 either conquer or die. 
 
 " Shibata, being a great captain, drew up his army into two 
 lines and animated his men to revenge the death of their 
 master,! tjje best of Princes, whom these two barbarous and 
 unnatural rebels had assassinated, because he had no more 
 favours to bestow on them besides the Crown itself, which 
 they resolved to purchase with the price of his blood. That 
 the same was intended against Yoshiaki, his brother and 
 only heir to the Crown, to divide the Empire of Japan 
 amongst themselves, that this young Prince's fortune 
 depended on their valour ; that if they gained the battle there 
 was no favour which they might not expect from him, seeing 
 that he would stand indebted to them for both his Crown 
 and Life. 
 
 " Shibata, seeing his men resolute and determined, marched 
 
 1 Yoshiteru. 
 
170 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 straight against the enemy, who was also well advanced to 
 receive him. The shock was very rude and bloody, and 
 the victory for a long time seemed doubtful, for the two 
 rebels, seeing life and death depended on the action, played 
 the parts of great Captains and soldiers. Shibata, on his 
 part, flew on every side to give necessary orders, and though 
 his Army in number proved far inferior to the Enerny, yet 
 they far surpassed them in valour and courage. 
 
 "The victory, being very dubious for some time and 
 Shibata 's men beginning to give way, he marched up with 
 a body of reserve, and fell upon Yoshitsugu's right wing 
 with such resolution that he broke through the Cavalry and 
 put the Infantry into an absolute rout. 
 
 " The two rebels, seeing their men upon the flight, followed 
 sword in hand and forced them to wheel about. The Cavalry 
 also rallying again, returned to the charge, and the combat 
 was immediately revived. Shame and confusion for the late 
 disgrace spurred on the rebels to repair their honour. The 
 others, on the contrary, puffed up with the late success, 
 looked upon them as already conquered. In effect, after a 
 slight skirmish they took to their heels, and the vanguard, 
 falling upon the rear, put all to confusion. It was then 
 nothing else but a downright butchery and slaughter; and 
 as Shibata aimed principally at the two Rebel commanders, 
 he followed close and charged in the rear; but they, by 
 the help of good horses, saved themselves in the woods 
 and thence retreated into their forts. 
 
 " Most of their troops cried out for quarter, and went over 
 to Shibata ; the rest were all put to the sword. " 
 
 Both armies included in their ranks many Christians, 
 the battle took place on Christmas Day, and a touching 
 story is told by one of the Fathers of the way in which 
 the eve was celebrated. The head of the church invited 
 the faithful on both sides, as the two armies, preparatory 
 to the battle, lay in front of each other near Sakai, to 
 attend the church and assist in the celebration of the 
 High Mass on Christmas Eve, which is a solemn func- 
 tion in the Roman Catholic Church. The Christian 
 officers and soldiers of both sides, who, on the morrow, 
 were to engage in deadly combat, came to the Mass 
 together as brethren, prepared for and partook of the 
 Holy Sacrament, and before they parted to return to 
 
NOBUNAGA— THE BUDDHIST PERSECUTOR 171 
 
 their camps, "to show that they had all one heart," they 
 brought dishes of fruit and ate them together at the 
 Fathers' table. 
 
 Established at Kioto, with the Emperor in his power, 
 Nobunaga was able to pursue the conquest of the rest 
 of the Empire, not as an adventurer seeking rank and 
 wealth and glory for himself and his followers, but as 
 the accredited minister and general of the only legitimate 
 sovereign, aiming in the Sovereign's name to restore 
 the centralized Government and to secure the ultimate 
 unification and peace of the Empire now split up into 
 numerous petty kingdoms, all professing to recognize 
 the overlordship of the Emperor, but all disdaining to 
 acknowledge his authority as exercised in his name and 
 for him by his ministers; all, in fact, claiming the 
 most complete executive independence in both the 
 domestic and external affairs of their fiefs. Success 
 followed him everywhere. It is not necessary to re- 
 count the successive victories achieved by himself or his 
 generals, or how in detail he subdued all the great feudal 
 chiefs in the north and centre of the Main Island, and 
 we must be content in saying that before his death more 
 than half of the whole Empire acknowledged his 
 authority and was in his power. He increased his own 
 domains so that he became the most powerful feudal 
 prince in the Empire, his fiefs comprising many of the 
 richest provinces, and he rewarded the generals who 
 served him well with the forfeited estates of his beaten 
 foes, so as to make them only less powerful chiefs than 
 himself. With all his wealth, power and influence, he 
 never solicited from the Emperor nor assumed himself 
 the title of "Tai Shogun," so that he continued to be 
 only the nominal equal in rank of other great feudal 
 princes and therefore gave to those who did not oppose 
 him no reason for either jealousy or suspicion that he 
 aimed at the tyrannical dictatorship of Yoritomo. 
 
 One of his campaigns — it might rather be called a 
 
172 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 crusade — has to be made an exception to our intention 
 of not entering into the miHtary details of his life sub- 
 sequent to the battle of Sakai. 
 
 The great power of the Buddhist priesthood, the 
 fortresses which they held under the guise of temples, 
 the military strength which they maintained in their 
 service have been already indicated. The contempt in 
 which Nobunaga held the Buddhist religion and priests 
 is shown in his portrait by the Jesuit Fathers. The 
 priests cordially returned his hatred, sided with his 
 enemies wherever they could, and thwarted his plans 
 with all the religious influence they could bring to bear, 
 which among a people, deeply impressed with the truths 
 of the gospel of Buddhism, who could take no serious 
 steps without the priestly blessing, was naturally large. 
 Nobunaga showed his contempt for Buddhism in a 
 manner that was both spiteful and petty, not at all in 
 keeping with the general greatness and magnanimity 
 of his character. When he became master of Kioto in 
 1565 and was building a palace for his own occupa- 
 tion, he not only pulled down monasteries to make room 
 for it, but used as building materials the stone idols 
 and the wainscoting of temples that he spared from 
 total destruction, and he made the unhappy priests of 
 Kioto and its suburbs drag their own sacred images 
 with ropes through the streets to the site, where they 
 saw them ruthlessly broken and fitted to the walls and 
 rooms of the new palace. It may be easily imagined 
 how this wanton desecration and outrage on the holiest 
 sentiments of the best of the priests intensified the 
 hatred which they already bore to him and made them 
 more than ever his implacable foes. Apart from Nobu- 
 naga's own personal feelings, he had ample grounds 
 which would have justified any statesman, which would 
 have indeed even compelled a statesman honestly 
 desirous to ensure the peace and orderly government 
 of his country, to break the power of the priests, even 
 
NOBUNAGA— THE BUDDHIST PERSECUTOR 173 
 
 though he himself was a conscientious member of their 
 Church. 
 
 The great monasteries and fortress of Mount Hiyei, 
 the greatest in the country, have already been men- 
 tioned. The priests and their men-at-arms there were a 
 terror to Kioto at all times in which it was not under 
 the direct protection of a great and powerful military 
 leader. Not only were they wont to sweep down and 
 levy requisitions on the city, but, commanding as they 
 did the high road which led from it to the north and 
 east, they could at any moment cut off all its land com- 
 munications. In the rising town of Osaka there was 
 another great fortress monastery, which commanded the 
 whole town, and was the refuge of Nobunaga's enemies 
 from every part of the Empire. There his beaten foes 
 could interchange their sentiments of hatred with the 
 priests, and both vow together to give their lives and 
 influence to vengeance on the tyrant and infidel who 
 was the author of their own and their Church's wrongs. 
 The political and military power of the priests, both 
 materially great, was intensified by their religious in- 
 fluence and their own sacred character, which often 
 saved them from the penalties that were exacted without 
 mercy or scruple from men-at-arms of the ordinary 
 laity. All combined to render the priesthood an im- 
 portant political factor, a serious menace to the peaceful 
 government of the state. Nobunaga determined to end 
 it for ever. 
 
 After the battle of Sakai the lives of Yoshitsugu and 
 Hisahide were spared, but they were reduced to poverty 
 and obscurity by the confiscation of their estates, money 
 and offices. Nobunaga misjudged their influence and 
 character. They were again able to raise an army and 
 attack him, but were again defeated. This time they 
 fled to the monks of Hiyei, by whom they were wel- 
 comed and sheltered. Nobunaga had now the oppor- 
 tunity for which he longed. He called his generals 
 
174 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 together and announced to them his intention of destroy- 
 ing the Hiyei monasteries and all they sheltered. At 
 first his generals were horrified at what they considered 
 sacrilege — the destruction of a national religious founda- 
 tion which had existed over 800 years; but they could 
 not long withstand one who had been their master and 
 guide through all their lives. The mountain was sud- 
 denly invested on all sides with an immense army, so 
 closely that not a soul could pass from it. 
 
 "The Bonzes, much surprised, endeavoured to appease him 
 by a great sum of money. Nobunaga sent back word to 
 defend themselves, for he valued neither their money nor 
 their wealth. Then they laid before him the sanctity of the 
 place, alleging it most unlawful of him to come thither in 
 hostile manner, without evidently incurring the anger of the 
 Gods. The Gods (replied Nobunaga) will defend you if you 
 prove their friends ; if you are not, I am come to revenge 
 their quarrel. Seeing neither remonstrances nor promises 
 took effect, they interposed the authority and interest of the 
 Kubo and Dairi,l but Nobunaga would hearken to no 
 accommodation ; on the contrary, he burnt Sakamoto with 
 two other villages at the foot of the mountain, and by 
 favour of the smoke his men climbed up the rocks, entered 
 the fortress, and put all to fire and sword. They made a 
 horrible slaughter of these false priests. Some, indeed, 
 precipitated themselves from the rocks, others took sanc- 
 tuary in their temples, and others hid themselves in grottos 
 and caves ; but Nobunaga had concerted his business so well 
 that not one of them escaped. He set fire to the Temple 
 of the God Kwannon, which had cost immensely, and burnt 
 all the other Temples and Monasteries ; in a word, he put his 
 men into every hole and cave, as if he had been in chase of 
 some wild beasts, and there butchered these miserable 
 wretches. Thus God punished these enemies of his glory 
 on St. Michael's Day in the year 1571." 
 
 Mount Hiyei being thus destroyed, the great fortress 
 of Osaka had next to be dealt with. Here there could 
 
 1 Kubo and Dairi were the terms most frequently used by the 
 Fathers to describe the Shogun and the Emperor. The political in- 
 significance into which the latter had fallen is shown by the fact of 
 placing his title after that of his vassal, the Shogun. 
 
NOBUNAGA— THE BUDDHIST PERSECUTOR 175 
 
 be no surprise. The warrior priests knew that the fate 
 of their brethren of Hiyei threatened them, and were 
 ready to meet Nobunaga's assault whenever he might 
 come. Three times within four years he laid siege to it, 
 on each occasion in vain. Once, when the garrison was 
 reduced to great straits, they attempted to relieve them- 
 selves of the burthen of supporting the old men, women 
 and children, who were in the fortress, by sending them 
 out under the cover of a stormy night. The wretched 
 fugitives fell into the hands of the besieging army, and 
 the garrison was informed that they had done so by 
 receiving on the following morning the gruesome token 
 of their ears which had been cut off by their captors. 
 Both sides were in time wearied and exhausted. A com- 
 promise was effected by the terms of which the monks 
 were allowed to retreat and find a new home in Yechizen, 
 and the castle surrendered to Nobunaga. This was in 
 the year 1580. In the following year Nobunaga deter- 
 mined to subdue Mori, the Lord of all the Western 
 provinces of the Main Island, who still refused to 
 acknowledge his authority, who had given at least his 
 sympathy to the priests in their struggles, and Hide- 
 yoshi was entrusted with the task. Mori was a power- 
 ful foe, and Nobunaga denuded himself of all his avail- 
 able troops and remained at Kioto, with nothing but a 
 small bodyguard for his own protection, in order that 
 Hideyoshi, now the greatest of his generals,, could take 
 the field with an overwhelming force. One division of 
 the army, the last to leave the capital, was commanded 
 by Akechi Mitsuhide, "a soldier of fortune, valiant and 
 brave, a perfect courtier," who was a personal favourite 
 of his prince, and who had been enfeoffed by him with 
 tHe province of Tango and Mount Hiyei, the home of 
 the priests. Nobunaga had the most implicit trust and 
 confidence in his loyalty; but he had bitterly, though 
 unconsciously, offended him at a carousal in the palace 
 in the presence of courtiers and soldiers. Nobunaga, 
 
176 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 in festive humour, took his head under his arm and 
 beat it with his fan as though playing a drum. The 
 incident was probably forgotten by Nobunaga the next 
 day, but it rankled in the heart of Akechi, who waited 
 for an opportunity of revenge. The opportunity had 
 now come. Instead of continuing his march to the 
 West, he wheeled back on Kioto. At first he appeased 
 the curiosity of his ofiScers as to this unexpected 
 manoeuvre by saying he was acting under secret orders, 
 but he finally disclosed and won them over to his plan 
 by the hopes of plunder and by calling for revenge for 
 the slaughtered priests of God. A forced night march 
 was made and the army entered Kioto at dawn. Nobu- 
 naga, who "foolishly imagined himself above any at- 
 tempt of fortune which suddenly proved his ruin," had 
 just risen from his bed and was actually washing his 
 face when news was brought to him that his palace was 
 invested. He opened the sliding windows of his room 
 and looked out, to see the yard full of soldiers and to 
 find himself the target for a shower of arrows. Wounded 
 he rushed for his sword, but a crowd of the traitorous 
 soldiers poured into the room and soon all was over. 
 It is unknown whether he died by his own or by the 
 rebels' swords, as the palace was burnt, but whatever it 
 was, he met a Samurai's death, brave and unflinching 
 to the last. A young page, the son of the Lord of Mino, 
 stood by him with his guard and valiantly defended 
 him, but all— page and guard — perished with him. This 
 was on the 2?nd of June, 1582. Shortly before his 
 death, in an excess of pride, he proclaimed himself a 
 God. It was perhaps only anticipating a divinity which 
 would have been conferred on him by his countrymen 
 after his death, among whom the apotheosis of human 
 heroes has been a custom from the dawn of history to 
 the present day; but for a hero, no matter how great, 
 to arrogate it in his lifetime is, to say the least, unusUal. 
 At Azuchi, in the province of Omi, on the shores of 
 
NOBUNAGA— THE BUDDHIST PERSECUTOR 177 
 
 Lake Biwa, he had already built a great castle which 
 was a storehouse of his treasure. To the castle he added 
 an equally magnificent temple, the principal feature in 
 which was an idol of himself, and he called upon all his 
 countrymen to bow down and worship it, promising 
 wealth and power to those who did so, that the childless 
 would be blessed with issue, that the sick would recover 
 health and live to a great age. Lest these inducements 
 should not prove sufficiently attractive, penalties, differ- 
 ent in foml but no less terrible than that ordered by 
 Nebuchadnezzar, were threatened to those who refused 
 or abstained. The threats — ^which the people knew only 
 too well were no empty formality — were more efficacious 
 than the promises. The town became so crowded that 
 the worshippers, nobility, gentry and commoners, had 
 to encamp in the surrounding fields or take shelter in 
 boats on the lake. The native Christians, of whom 
 there were many in the town, were as firm as the Hebrew 
 prophet. Not one attended the ceremony, but either 
 they were not missed among the huge crowds, or Nobu- 
 naga was satisfied by his success with the Buddhists, 
 and thought it politic not to push his experiment too 
 far. In any case, none of the Christians suffered for 
 their firmness. 
 
 "God who rejects the proud and humbles the lofty Cedar 
 of Lebanon was not long before He avenged this horrible 
 attempt. . . . Nobunaga died a little after he had taken upon 
 him the title of God, and had made himself be adored by 
 his subjects. Heaven, in recompense of his services done 
 to the Church in ruining the idolatrous Temples and favour- 
 ing the preachers of the Gospel, had hitherto blessed him 
 with a prosperous gale of fortune; but forgetting him- 
 self and affecting resemblance with God, the Omnipotent 
 struck him in His fury, and from Temporal fire precipitated 
 him into everlasting flames, to teach men that there is only 
 one God above that rules over Kings and humbles the 
 Proud." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 HIDEYOSHI AND THE UNIFICATION OF THE EMPIRE 
 
 HiDEYOSHi was in command of the army in the cam- 
 paign against Mori, the Lord of the Western Provinces, 
 and was at the moment engaged in the siege of the 
 fortified town of Takamatsu, when the news of Nobu- 
 naga's murder reached him. Mori had already realized 
 that the campaign could only have one end— his own 
 ruin, — and had made overtures for peace. Negotiations 
 were now resumed, and, under the new conditions which 
 had arisen, Hideyoshi was glad to accept the terms that 
 Nobunaga at the height of his power might have scorned. 
 An armistice was promptly arranged, and Hideyoshi 
 hastened back to Kioto, with a strong division of his 
 army, as fast as the swiftest galleys could carry them. 
 His first task — that to which loyalty to the memory of 
 his murdered chief and the present and future safety of 
 the state alike urged him — was to effect the speedy and 
 condign punishment of the traitors. After his coup at 
 Kioto, Akechi led his followers straight to Nobunaga's 
 palace at Azuchi. It was taken without difficulty, the 
 slender garrison and all the inmates, men, women and 
 children, were massacred, and all its treasures, the 
 accumulations of Nobunaga from fifteen years' spolia- 
 tion, were divided among the soldiers. "So great was 
 the treasure that the men received from ten to twenty 
 thousand ducats each." Then the palace and town were 
 burnt to ashes. "God without doubt permitted it so as 
 
 178 
 
HIDEYOSHI AND UNIFICATION OF EMPIRE 179 
 
 to raze the very foundations of that proud and impious 
 theatre wherein they had committed such abominable 
 idolatry." By this time he had heard that Hideyoshi 
 was on his way back to Kioto, of the coming concentra- 
 tion of all Nobunaga's army, and knew that he would 
 soon have to fight for his very existence. He led his 
 men back to Kioto, hoping to reach it by a forced march 
 and be there in possession of the Emperor before his 
 foes. He found his way opposed by Takayama, one of 
 Nobunaga's generals, who had only a thousand men 
 with him, while Akechi's exceeded eight thousand. 
 Takayama was a Christian — one, as will be seen here- 
 after, of the most distinguished and faithful converts — 
 and so also were nearly all his men. 
 
 For a moment he hesitated whether he could give 
 battle with so small a force, but "confiding in God and 
 the justness of his cause," he charged with all his men, 
 who were determined to conquer or die, and broke the 
 traitor's vanguard, killing two hundred of them without 
 the loss of a single man. Reinforcements came up at 
 full gallop to his help and panic seized the traitors, and 
 their whole army broke and fled in the utmost confusion 
 and disorder. They were all killed by the pursuing 
 victors. Akechi himself, wounded in the fight, tried to 
 hide in a wood, where he was found and killed with 
 every incident of cruelty by a band of marauding 
 peasants. His body was sent to Kioto, where the head 
 was placed on Nobunaga's tomb and the body crucified. 
 His career as a successful traitor had lasted precisely 
 twelve days. 
 
 Nobunaga left a grandson and two sons, and, like his 
 great predecessors, Kiyomori and Yoritomo, hoped to 
 found a family that would last for ever. History was, 
 however, now destined to afford another instance of 
 its frequent repetitions in Japan; and as Kiyomori 
 and Yoritomo failed, so did he. It is unnecessary to 
 
 N 2 
 
180 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 enter here into a long series of political negotiations 
 that ensued between Hideyoshi and Nobunaga's other 
 great generals, and it will be sufficient to say that 
 Hideyoshi in time succeeded in establishing himself as 
 the head of the state, first in the capacity of guardian to 
 Nobunaga's grandson, and ultimately in his owrf name, 
 with even greater power and resources at his back than 
 had ever been at the disposal of his predecessors. Con- 
 ciliation and mercy were the keynotes of his policy, both 
 a new departure in Japan, where hitherto the sword had 
 been the only arbiter. lyeyasu, next to himself the 
 greatest of Nobunaga's generals, was conciliated by 
 being enfeoffed with the Kuanto Provinces. Nobu- 
 naga's own descendants — though both his sons tried an 
 appeal to arms — were brought to see that they had 
 neither the strength nor the ability to step into their 
 father's shoes as dictator. One son ended his life on 
 his defeat in the usual Samurai manner, the other and 
 his grandson were content to accept the lordships of 
 wealthy domains where they could live in comfort 
 though in comparative obscurity, and there was no other 
 in the whole land who could dare to raise hand or voice 
 against the man who had greater power and incompar- 
 ably greater genius than could be found in any possible 
 combination of the great feudal lords. There was, how- 
 ever, one exception, and, as the story is, though a sad 
 one, a marked illustration of the spirit of Japan, it will 
 be told. 
 
 Among Nobunaga's generals was Shibata, who won 
 the battle of Sakai, who was also Nobunaga's brother- 
 in-law. He made his name and rose to high rank and 
 command long before Hideyoshi, but was afterwards 
 passed in the race, and had the mortification of seeing 
 himself subordinate where he had previously been first. 
 He was in command of the army at Echizen on the coast 
 when Nobunaga died, and there, in the strong fortress 
 
HIDEYOSHI AND UNIFICATION OF EMPIRE 181 
 
 of Fukui, he ventured to dispute Hideyoshi's authority. 
 Hideyoshi soon closely besieged him with forty thousand 
 men. The garrison held out till their provisions and 
 material were exhausted, and there was no hope of relief 
 from any quarter, and so the last stern determination 
 was taken. The story is told by the Jesuit Fathers — 
 
 "The poor gentleman, feeling himself straitened without 
 any hopes of relief, resolved rather to murder himself than 
 to fall into the hands of the enemy. He assembled all his 
 friends and told them he was resolved to commit hara-kiri, 
 and so desired they would please burn his body. As for 
 yourselves, says he, agree with Hideyoshi and save your 
 lives. They one and all then protested against this last, and 
 declared they would follow his example. Shibata thanked 
 them for their kindness, and invited them to a great feast, 
 which was made expressly on this occasion. After this was 
 done, he commanded them to fill the hall and chambers with 
 faggots and wood and set fire to them ; then, drawing his 
 sword, he killed both his wife and children and the maids 
 of honour with his own hands, and the other gentlemen 
 of his acquaintance did the same to theirs. After that they 
 committed hara-kiri, and lay there wallowing in their blood, 
 till the fire kindled and burnt them to ashes. All, it's true, 
 had not the same courage, for some few forcing their way 
 through the flames made their escape and recounted what 
 had passed." 
 
 Hideyoshi's authority was now unquestioned through- 
 out the whole of the Main Island and Shikoku, and 
 there was peace, where peace had scarcely been known 
 for centuries. He was to fight two more great cam- 
 paigns, one in the Island of Kiushiu and another in 
 Korea, but for the present he was able and resolved to 
 devote himself to the material regeneration of the land, 
 wearied and exhausted with the long wars, and to restore 
 to it the prosperity which its fertility and the innate 
 industry of the people so well merited. 
 
 Hideyoshi is one of the greatest characters in the 
 history of Japan. He has been called the "Napoleon 
 
182 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 of Japan," and the title is well merited. One other great 
 character, lyeyasu, was equally distinguished as a 
 general and as a constructive and administrative states- 
 man, but his ambition did not tempt him to carry his 
 military operations beyond his own country. Unlike 
 Napoleon, Hideyoshi died when at the heights of his 
 glory. Like him, he rose from a humble position in 
 life, from a far humbler class than Napoleon, with 
 nothing to aid him but his own courage and ambition 
 and genius. If not the greatest, he is certainly the most 
 interesting character in Japanese history, the one in- 
 stance of a man who rose to the highest dignity of the 
 state, next to that of the Emperor, from the very lowest 
 class of the people. It is common to speak of the great 
 statesmen, Okubo, Kido, Ito and Inouye, who, serving 
 the Emperor who is now on the throne, have, in our 
 own day, raised Japan to the status of one of the great 
 Powers of the world, and of the generals and admiral, 
 Yamagata, Oyama and Togo, who triumphed over all 
 the military and naval strength of Russia, as self-made 
 men. But they were only self-made men when their 
 origin is compared to the great positions to which they 
 ultimately attained. All of them were of gentle blood, 
 squires of a good degree, who started life with all the 
 advantages that long descent can give in a country that 
 is aristocratic to the core in all its traditions and sym- 
 pathies. They are all self-made men in the sense that 
 Washington was; Hideyoshi is the one and only self- 
 made man in the sense of Lincoln. His greatness of 
 character was not inferior to that either of the founder 
 or of the saviour of the Union. 
 
 His father was a peasant labourer in the Province of 
 Owari, one of the poorest of the poorest class in Japan, 
 who eke out a scanty and penurious livelihood by unre- 
 mitting toil. He was not even a cultivator of the soil, 
 and his support was derived from woodcutting on the 
 
HIDEYOSHI AND UNIFICATION OF EMPIRE 183 
 
 hills. In this occupation Hideyoshi passed his child- 
 hood, cutting wood on the hills one day and hawking 
 it in the streets the next. From that he became a groom 
 in Nobunaga's service when Nobunaga was still an 
 insignificant feudatory. The boy had not even the 
 advantage of good looks to recommend him. He was 
 short of stature, awkward and ungainly, with a face of 
 apish ugliness, and the dark complexion that is universal 
 among the field labourers of Japan; but his face was 
 lightened by eyes of startling brilliancy; "they sent out 
 fire in flashes enough to pass through." So comically 
 ugly was his appearance that he was derisively named 
 "the Monkey" at the outset of his career. His smart- 
 ness, perhaps also his extraordinary appearance, soon 
 attracted the attention of his new master, and the master, 
 one of whose great qualities was an unerring judgment 
 of men, quickly recognized the capacity of his servant, 
 and from a groom advanced him to the dignity and rank 
 of a soldier. Thenceforward Hideyoshi's rise in the 
 service of his lord was as rapid as the lord's own rise 
 in the service of the state, and in 1582, when Nobunaga 
 died, Hideyoshi, the poor peasant's son, at the age of 
 forty-six years, was unquestionably the greatest man in 
 the Empire. His lowly birth was, however, an obstacle 
 to obtaining one of the great offices of state from the 
 Emperor. None had hitherto been held by those that 
 were not of the bluest blood. Hideyoshi tried to remedy 
 this deficiency by adoption, which, through all ages, 
 has carried with it in Japan every privilege and eclat 
 of birth. Yoshiaki, the last of the Ashikaga Shoguns, 
 was still living in monastic retirement, but he was now 
 old, and his share in affairs was over; he had nothing 
 to fear and nothing to hope for, and he flatly refused to 
 take the son of a peasant into the sacred folds of the 
 Minamoto, to help to make him his own successor in the 
 Shogunate. The still more illustrious family of the 
 
184 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Fujiwara were poor, with a wide circle of relatives to 
 provide for. Their needs, if not their will, consented, 
 and Hideyoshi was enrolled among the descendants of 
 Koyane tsu Ame, the God who had come down from 
 Heaven along with the grandson of the Sun Goddess. 
 Nothing could now be said of his low origin, and the 
 office of Kuambaku, which could only be held by a 
 Fujiwara, was conferred on him, so that he had now 
 both the name and the reality of power. 
 
 His civil administration was productive of unqualified 
 blessings to the country. Taxation and coinage 
 were reformed, agriculture, trade and industry were 
 encouraged, and, ever mindful of the miseries and hard- 
 ships of his childhood, he protected the peasantry 
 against Ibcal tyranny and extortion, so that all the land 
 was soon smiling in prosperity. Kioto, well governed 
 once more, was rebuilt and adorned with temples of 
 imposing grandeur. Osaka is now, and has been for 
 centuries, the greatest and wealthiest commercial city of 
 Japan, the home of banking and trading families whose 
 names are household words ; who, in their own way, are 
 as proud of their history as the haughtiest noble of the 
 Court or feudalism is of his own ; who are as scrupu- 
 lous in observing the principles of commercial honour 
 as the merchant product of the present generation of 
 foreign trade in Japan is the reverse. Osaka owes its 
 rise to this position from that of a poor fishing village 
 to Hideyoshi's judgment, which foresaw all its material 
 advantages. He built a great castle there on the site 
 of the monastery destroyed by Nobunaga, and round 
 the castle a great town soon grew, and Hideyoshi 
 resolved to make it the most spacious and beautiful 
 town in all Japan. "The roof of his palace was all gilt, 
 and it darted out so great a lustre that one could have 
 taken it for some terrestrial sun that eclipsed in some 
 manner the very light of the Celestial Sun itself." 
 
HIDEYOSHI AND UNIFICATION OF EMPIRE 185 
 
 The island of Kiushiu was the last part of the Empire 
 to acknowledge his authority. The Satsuma clan were 
 there all-powerful, and had made themselves masters of 
 no less than eight of the nine provinces which together 
 formed the island. Satsuma was the last part of the 
 Empire to acknowledge the government of the present 
 Emperor after the Restoration in 1868, and was only 
 forced to do so after a long and bitterly fought cam- 
 paign, the last of all the many civil wars in Japan. As 
 it was in 1868, so it was three hundred years before. 
 SatsQma, secure in his strength, still more so perhaps 
 in his distance from the central government, in the 
 obstacles that the natural conditions of the island offered 
 to campaigning on a large scale, thought he could bid 
 defiance to Hideyoshi, and did so in the most offensive 
 manner that was possible. He tore Hideyoshi's letter, 
 the wording of which was strictly in keeping with the 
 requirements of diplomatic courtesy, to pieces, after an 
 affectation of hastily glancing at its contents, in the 
 presence of the messenger who brought it, flung the 
 pieces to the ground and trampled on them, and then 
 told the messenger that was the only answer for him 
 to take back to his upstart master. This was in the 
 year 1586. Satsuma had at this time an army of seventy 
 thousand men ready for immediate/service. The island 
 of Kiushiu was its own ground, in which it was accus- 
 tomed to fight and conquer, in which for a generation 
 it had not known a single reverse, with every hill and 
 dale of which its officers were familiar. To Hideyoshi, 
 on the other hand, Kiushiu was little better than terra 
 incognita. It was far from his base, and an invading 
 force would have to be transported a great distance both 
 by sea and land. To ensure success, the invading army, 
 which would be called upon to fight every foot of its 
 way and to attack veteran soldiers securely entrenched 
 on steep and narrow mountain passes, and on the moun- 
 
186 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 tain slopes that commanded the main roads, must largely 
 outnumber the defenders. He therefore fully recognized 
 the magnitude of the task that was before him. He 
 had, however, all the resources and men of the Main 
 Island at his disposal. Mori, the Lord of the Western 
 Provinces, the most powerful feudatory of the Empire 
 next to Satsuma, except Satsuma, the last to recognize 
 Hideyoshi, was now his cordial ally, and to him was 
 assigned the van of the invaders. Hideyoshi did 
 nothing hurriedly, left nothing unprovided for, and in 
 all his efforts gave a marked forecast of the exhaustive 
 organization which the modern generation of his 
 countrymen showed before they staked their national 
 existence in the war with Russia. While collecting 
 men, arms and material, he sent a small army of spies 
 through Kiushiu, and their reports enlightened the 
 topographical darkness which was one of his most for- 
 midable difficulties. It was in summer that his message 
 was flouted by Satsuma. By the end of the year, Hide- 
 yoshi had an army of a hundred and fifty thousand men 
 concentrated at Osaka. Mori was ready to join him 
 with thirty thousand more, and every necessary step had 
 been taken to provide for the transport of the great force 
 to the seat of war and for its provisioning when it 
 arrived there. Nothing that human experience and fore- 
 sight could suggest was overlooked or forgotten. At 
 this time the Japanese had become acquainted with fire- 
 arms. Soldiers still relied on their swords and spears 
 at close quarters, but the bow had been discarded in 
 favour of the matchlock. 
 
 Our limits do not admit a description of the details 
 of the campaign which was carried through under 
 Hideyoshi's own personal command. The Satsuma men 
 fought with the same heroic courage that they did under 
 the command of the great Saigo in 1877, and man for 
 man they proved themselves better swordsmen, more 
 
HIDEYOSHI AND UNIFICATION OF EMPIRE 187 
 
 unflinching warriors than their invaders. Many tales 
 of heroic valour and self-sacrifice are told. On one occa- 
 sion three officers, each with a handful of men, covered 
 the retreat of the whole Satsuma army and saved it from 
 annihilation, but all — ^both officers and men — fell to the 
 last man. Valour, however, failed, as it must in the 
 end always do, against overwhelming numbers handled 
 by supreme genius, and Hideyoshi's march from Kokura 
 on the Shimonoseki Straits, across the unknown country, 
 right to the walls of the fortified Satsuma capital, was 
 a continued series of unbroken successes in battles, 
 sieges, skirmishes, and marches. At last he crossed 
 the steep mountain frontier of the Province of Satsuma 
 in the remote south of the island, and the clan, for the 
 first time in their history, found their own territory 
 invaded, their capital on the point of having to undergo 
 a siege which could only have one end; and when that 
 end came it involved, according to all Japanese tradition 
 and custom, the deaths of every one who had taken part 
 in the defence, from the Lord of the Clan and all his 
 family down to the lowest soldier, and the confiscation, 
 for the benefit of the invaders, of all the land and 
 property — in fact, the extermination of Satsuma as a 
 clan. 
 
 It was now that Hideyoshi once more showed his 
 genius and courage as a statesman. Satsuma would 
 have met with no mercy from Nobunaga, not to mention 
 the great leaders of the past. They would have exacted 
 the bitter penalty to the last fraction. The memory 
 of the insulting reception of his messenger, the scorn 
 flung at his own origin, galling in his most tender 
 point, might well have embittered Hideyoshi and 
 tempted him to say vae victis. What he actually did 
 was to proclaim that he had come to Kiushiu by the 
 Emperor's orders only to establish peace and secure the 
 tranquil administration of that part of his Majesty's 
 
188 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 dominions under the control of the unified government 
 at Kioto. The ruin of an ancient house was no part of 
 his plan, still less the extermination of those who should 
 be his Majesty's faithful subjects. Treachery to friends 
 is common enough in Japanese history. Satsuma suffered 
 bitterly from it in this campaign. Thousands of 
 Samurai throughout the whole of Kiushiu, not belonging 
 to the clan, had eagerly enlisted in his army when 
 Satsuma was all-powerful and master of the island. The 
 lords of petty fiefs had become his allies. Samurai and 
 petty chiefs both deserted with equal eagerness when it 
 became evident that Hideyoshi's march would be a 
 triumphal progress, and fought against their old com- 
 rades. Treachery to foes was not only common, but was 
 recognized as an integral part of justifiable policy in 
 war. Satsuma might well, therefore, have hesitated 
 to accept any overtures coming from a general in the 
 moment of his triumph when his beaten foes were 
 already at his mercy, and only the coup de grace had to 
 be given. But Hideyoshi's record was that of mercy to 
 his beaten foes, of not pushing his victories to the very 
 last extremity, and that record served him in good stead 
 now. The clan submitted. They lost the provinces 
 which they had acquired by force, they were compelled 
 to recognize and submit to the Imperial Government at 
 Kioto, where the chief remained as a hostage for the 
 good behaviour of the clan, but they were left with 
 territory which made them still the most powerful 
 feudatories in Kiushiu. 
 
 All Japan was now at Hideyoshi's feet. He ruled as 
 the national constitution required, in the name of the 
 shadowy Emperor who dallied with poetry and music 
 in his palace at Kioto, but his rule was universally recog- 
 nized. Still his ambition made him long for further 
 conquests. His own country offered no further military 
 scope for him. He determined to make his glory shine 
 
HIDEYOSHI AND UNIFICATION OF EMPIRE 189 
 
 beyond the seas, to found for himself as great a position 
 in the national Pantheon as that of Hachiman, the God 
 of War, and as the means to that end he contemplated 
 the conquest of the great Empire of China as an initial 
 step in bringing the whole world beneath him. The 
 way to China was through Korea. 
 
 The story of the Empress Jingo's invasion of Korea 
 has been told, as has also that of Japan's civilization and 
 religious reformation which she owed entirely to what 
 she learned from Korea. The limits of the present 
 voltftne, however, prevent more than the incidental 
 mention of the intercourse that was carried on between 
 the two countries throughout the centuries that succeeded 
 Jingo's invasion or of Japan's continued interference as 
 a suzerain in the domestic affairs of Korea, of the part 
 she played in the war between the three rival kingdoms 
 into which the country was originally divided. Korea 
 promised, as one of the conditions of peace extorted by 
 Jingo, that she should pay tribute to Japan, and for 
 many centuries this promise was faithfully kept. In the 
 fourteenth century, Korea was unified into one state 
 under the influence and protection of China. From 
 that time she regarded China as her suzerain, and the 
 payment of tribute to Japan ceased. Japan was then 
 and for two centuries afterwards too much absorbed in 
 her own domestic wars and miseries to have any thought 
 for countries beyond the sea, but Hideyoshi from an 
 early part of his career, long before he could have fore- 
 seen his own ultimate greatness in anything but the 
 wildest intoxication of ambition, had Korea in his 
 mind's eye, and one of his first acts after Nobunaga's 
 death, when his own future was still in the balance, was 
 to make a demand on Korea for a renewal of her tribute- 
 bearing embassies. It was not till 1590 — eight years 
 later — that Korea at last complied, and an embassy of 
 becoming dignity was sent. Its reception by Hideyoshi 
 
190 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 was characteristic of the man. He kept the ambassador 
 waiting many months for an audience, then gave the 
 audience with as little courtesy as though it was that 
 of a sovereign condescending to receive an inferior, him- 
 self sitting in state throughout it in the midst of a large 
 retinue of ofificers in state dress. Leaving the ambas- 
 sador and his suite and his own officers still waiting, he 
 withdrew without a word from the audience hall. In a 
 few moments he reappeared, in deshabille, carrying his 
 infant child in his arms, and, still carrying the child, 
 strolled unconcernedly among the assembly; and the 
 grotesqueness of the whole scene was intensified when 
 the child, before grand officers of state and ambassadors, 
 soiled its great nurse's clothes in a fashion that is ordi- 
 nary with childhood. The indignation of the ambas- 
 sador, a slave to the most rigid ceremonial, was not 
 lessened when he learned that Hideyoshi was not the 
 legitimate sovereign, but merely the Kuambaku, the 
 chief Minister of State, and an upstart at that, and when 
 at last, after more weary waiting, Hideyoshi's written 
 reply to his own royal master was received by him, 
 his cup was full. The letter in its concluding sentences 
 said — 
 
 " I will assemble a mighty host, and invading the country 
 of the great Ming, I will fill with the hoar frost from my 
 sword the whole sky over the four hundred provinces. Should 
 I carry out this purpose, I hope that Korea will be my 
 vanguard. Let her not fail to do so, for my friendship with 
 your honourable country depends solely on your conduct 
 when I lead my army against China." 
 
 The Koreans returned to their own country convinced 
 that Hideyoshi meant war, and they did not contribute 
 to soften his menaces when, in a later letter, they told 
 him that his project of attacking China was like an 
 "attempt to measure the ocean with a cockle-shell, or 
 of a bee to sting a tortoise through its shell." The 
 
HIDEYOSHI AND UNIFICATION OF EMPIRE 191 
 
 Jesuit Fathers in Japan, though they had witnessed his 
 meteoric rise and his unbroken triumphs in his own 
 country, thought little better of his project than did the 
 Korean ambassador. " It was a temerarious enterprise if 
 ever there was any, Japan being hardly one handful of 
 earth in respect to the vast Empire of China." 
 
 The Kiushiu campaign had taught Hideyoshi what 
 was necessary for a campaign far from the main base, 
 and all that he had learned was now put to the best use. 
 A powerful army was concentrated at Karatsu, a port 
 on tjie north-western shore of Kiushiu, now the seat 
 of a great coal industry, and ships gathered to transport 
 it across the seas, and by the month of June 1592, one 
 hundred and thirty thousand men, well found in every 
 requisite, the majority veteran soldiers, were landed in 
 Southern Korea, and these were soon followed by thirty 
 thousand more. Hideyoshi's ambition was to head his 
 own army, and to provide for the administration of the 
 Empire in his absence, he abdicated the office of 
 Kuambaku, and caused the Emperor to bestow it on his 
 nephew, Hideyoshi himself assuming the title, by which 
 he is best known in history, of Taiko. At the last 
 moment his health forced him to abandon his idea. He 
 was now fifty-six years of age, and, hard-fighting soldier 
 though he was, he had not led a life of continency and 
 abstinence. The command of the first army was given to 
 Konishi Yukinaga, a Christian, as were also many of 
 his men, and of the second to Kato Kiyomasa, who 
 hated Christians with a bitter hatred. Both were 
 generals of long-tried experience, both were men whom 
 Hideyoshi had raised from low degree, Yukinaga the 
 son of a druggist, and Kiyomasa of a blacksmith. 
 
 The Koreans had otily one advantage over the 
 Japanese — their ships were larger and stronger. Once 
 the passage of the sea was secured, all was easy to the 
 Japanese. The Koreans had enjoyed peace for centuries, 
 
192 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 and were therefore destitute of military experience. The 
 Japanese had firearms and were now skilled in their 
 use ; the Koreans only had bows and arrows. All Korea 
 was open, and as there were no fortresses, there were 
 neither artificial nor natural difficulties to confront the 
 invaders, while the country, richly cultivated, furnished 
 abundant supplies for the necessaries of life. Under 
 such circumstances, Yukinaga had an easy task. The 
 ill-armed and worse-drilled Koreans made vain efforts 
 to stop his progress. On each occasion they were 
 defeated with great loss, and in twenty-five days from 
 their landing at Fusan, the invaders were in the capital, 
 Seoul, and the Korean King and his Court had fled to 
 the northern frontier, enduring pitiable privations on the 
 way. The Japanese then extended their conquest to the 
 town of Ping Shang. China was Korea's suzerain, 
 bound to protect her in case of need, and she now began 
 to recognize her obligations. An army of five thousand 
 men was sent to Korea and an endeavour made to retake 
 Ping Shang, but it was defeated, and the Chinese sur- 
 vivors of the battle, panic-struck, never drew bridle in 
 their retreat until they were over the border of their 
 own country again. Then a turn of the tide took place. 
 The Koreans, notwithstanding their superiority in ships, 
 at first made no attempt to try their fortune on the sea. 
 They now got their fleet together and appeared off a 
 harbour a little to the west of Fusan, in which that of 
 Japan lay at anchor. By feigning a retreat, they in- 
 duced the Japanese to follow them on to the open sea. 
 There, the Koreans turned on their pursuers and totally 
 defeated them, sinking many of their ships, and driving 
 the rest back to their harbour in utter confusion. The 
 action had many important results. It encouraged the 
 Koreans, who till then had only known defeat, to take 
 heart again. Everywhere the beaten soldiers sub- 
 jected the Japanese to a harassing guerilla warfare. 
 
HIDEYOSHI AND UNIFICATION OF EMPIRE 193 
 
 They laid waste their own country round the Japanese 
 camps so that the latter could get no supplies, and being 
 now masters of the sea, they were able to cut off all rein- 
 forcements from Japan, whether of men or provisions. 
 In the winter Yukinaga was reduced to the utmost 
 straits. The winter in Korea is incomparably more 
 severe than that of East or South Japan, from which the 
 Japanese troops in Korea were exclusively drawn, and 
 only the best and most careful provision of food and 
 clothing would have enabled them to endure it under 
 any circumstances. As it was, they were destitute of 
 everything, and suffered to the utmost all the worst 
 privations of cold and hunger. And when everything 
 was at its worst, when naked and starving men were 
 shivering in the bitter cold of February, they suddenly 
 heard that a great Chinese army was on them. Resist- 
 ance was useless, and the Japanese were only too glad 
 to make a hasty retreat to the capital. 
 
 Kiyomasa's army had, while Yukinaga was in the 
 bloom of his first successes at Ping Shang, overrun the 
 north-east part of Korea. It now followed his retreat, 
 and both armies met and concentrated at Seoul. Here 
 they beat off a second attack by the Chinese, but at 
 terrible loss to themselves, and it was only their superior 
 skill in swordsmanship that gave them the victory. 
 "The enemy fell on them like lions, but the Japanese, 
 who knew that they must either conquer or die, fought 
 with desperation." Neither side was keen for another 
 trial, and the Japanese were glad to enter into an armi- 
 stice by which they were permitted to continue their 
 retreat to Fusan, the harbour on the coast where they 
 had first landed a year before. Here they were in milder 
 climatic conditions, and were able to entrench them- 
 selves. Yukinaga, being a Christian, endeavoured to 
 conduct the war with the mercy of Christian soldiers. 
 Kiyomasa's methods still partook of ancient savagery, 
 o 
 
194 TgHE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Fearing an outbreak of the Koreans within the city when 
 the attack of the Chinese on Seoul took place, he 
 massacred all the full-grown men, and, on the evacua- 
 tion, set fire to and destroyed what remained of the 
 town. The condition of the unhappy Koreans was de- 
 plorable. The army of their rescuing allies had to be 
 supported as well as that of their invading foes. Both 
 exhausted all available supplies, and the people died 
 from starvation in thousands. 
 
 One of the terms of the armistice was that China and 
 Korea should send a joint embassy to Japan to treat for 
 peace. The promise was kept, and the embassy arrived 
 in Japan in the summer of 1593, where it was well re- 
 ceived by Hideyoshi, but no permanent Treaty of Peace 
 was concluded; and while the embassy was actually 
 in Japan, the Japanese army was still in Korea, and 
 acting, it is said, under Hideyoshi's own orders, attacked 
 and took Chinchu, a fortified town to the west of Fusan, 
 and slew more than sixty thousand Koreans in the 
 assault on the town and in the battle in the open which 
 preceded the assault. There was no more fighting after 
 this, and in the following year the Chinese troops were 
 withdrawn from Korea, and the Japanese left with only 
 a garrison at Fusan. There was as yet no formal peace, 
 and the Koreans burned with resentment at the thought 
 of the miseries to which their country had been wantonly 
 subjected. 
 
 Yukinaga remained in Korea, and, after much 
 negotiation, siiceeeded in inducing the Chinese to send 
 another embassy to Japan to treat for a formal peace on 
 a basis which he arranged, the principal conditions of 
 which were that the Emperor of China should invest 
 Hideyoshi with the dignity of King of Japan, that all 
 Japanese should leave Korea and that they should never 
 again invade it. The embassy, which consisted of two 
 ambassadors, with a splendid retinue, in due course 
 
HIDEYOSHI AND UNIFICATION OF EMPIRE 195 
 
 reached Fusan, where they were detained in the Japanese 
 camp, according to the Jesuit Fathers, by Hideyoshi's 
 own orders, who, in the excess of his personal vanity, 
 wished to have time to make preparations for giving the 
 ambassadors a reception which would impress them with 
 adequate ideas of his splendour. He built a great Hall 
 of Audience, "so large that a thousand tatami ^ were 
 spread in it. The mats were edged with gold and silk 
 fringe; the pillars were partly plain, partly fluted and 
 twisted, but all adorned with figures wrought in pure 
 gold.' Gold was everywhere, even on the roof and pave- 
 ment." The Jesuits, who were at Osaka and saw it, say 
 that a hundred thousand men were engaged in its con- 
 struction, and that nothing could exceed it. While this 
 was in progress, the two ambassadors, who were both 
 young men, were detained in a sort of honourable cap- 
 tivity in the Japanese camp at Fusan, and as their cap- 
 tivity continued, the senior began to mistrust the good 
 faith of his captors, and finally secretly absconded in 
 the night, disguised and unattended, leaving behind 
 him even his seals of office. As soon as his flight was 
 discovered, he was pursued, but he succeeded in making 
 his way back to his own country by byways. 
 
 " This precipitous flight was variously discoursed on. Some 
 attributed it to melancholy and grief upon his confinement 
 to the fortress, others to a vile and servile fear, Chinese 
 mandarins being for the most part of mean descent, and 
 promoted to their offices in the government upon slender 
 proofs of their abilities in the academies where they study, 
 they want that fire and martial greatness which good blood, 
 the example of predecessors and honour of families usually 
 inspire into children that are better born. So this young 
 cavalier, being the son of one of these mandarins of fortune, 
 and warrior only by book, feeling himself surrounded by 
 guards, and amongst the bravoes of Japan, the very looks 
 of those warlike heroes struck him into such a panic fear 
 
 1 The mats which are still the universal floor covering in Japan. 
 Each measures six feet by three. 
 o 2 
 
196 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 that he believed all was lost. What yet improved this 
 suspicion was the unadvised discourse of a certain Japanese, 
 who told him that the Tycoon detained them purposely in 
 Korea, by way of reprisal, to be avenged on the Chinese 
 for assisting his enemies, and well if his resentment went 
 no further. There needed no more to make him believe that 
 there was a design on his life and force him to fly." 
 
 Whatever the cause of his flight, its result was dis- 
 astrous to the unfortunate youth. He suffered great 
 hardships, which he was ill fitted to bear, on his journey, 
 and his own Emperor was so indignant at his conduct 
 that he threw him into prison, confiscated his estate, 
 and his whole family was involved in his ruin. It had, 
 however, also the result of putting an end to any further 
 delay on Hideyoshi's part. The second ambassador, 
 now chief, was brought to Japan and arrived at Sakai. 
 Unfortunately, all Hideyoshi's great preparations were 
 nullified by two of the terrible earthquakes which are 
 so frequent in Japan, and the two on this occasion estab- 
 lished what is to this day a record of ruin and disaster. 
 On the night of the 30th August (1596), and again on 
 the 4th of September, the earth was shaken with such 
 violence that all Hideyoshi's great buildings were 
 levelled to the ground, and he himself barely escaped 
 from his own palace, carrying his young child in his 
 arms. Seven hundred ladies of the court were killed, 
 and of all his great palace nothing was left but the 
 kitchen. Temples and houses throughout the city fell 
 in a moment, and "it was as if the devils of hell had 
 broke loose." 
 
 Hideyoshi received the embassy with a ceremony 
 which was vastly diminished from what he intended, 
 but still splendid. All went well until the contents of 
 the ambassador's credentials and the written message of 
 the Chinese Emperor were explained to Hideyoshi. 
 They were as usual written in classical Chinese, and to 
 an educated Japanese were as intelligible as a document 
 
HIDEYOSHI AND UNIFICATION OF EMPIRE 197 
 
 in Latin would have been to a statesman of the days of 
 Elizabeth. But Hideyoshi had no literary education, 
 and had to invoke the help of a priest to interpret both 
 the contents of the letter and the credentials. When he 
 found that he was called a tributary to China, that he 
 was desired in future to respectfully follow the com- 
 mands of the Emperor, and that instructions were given 
 to him as to the conduct of his own people, his rage 
 knew no bounds. He tore off the robe he was wearing, 
 a present from the Emperor of China, "he frothed and 
 foamed at the mouth, he ranted and tore till his head 
 smoked like fire and his body was all over in a dropping 
 sweat." The unfortunate ambassador was ordered to 
 quit Japan without delay, he was unceremoniously 
 bundled on board his ship at Sakai, and Hideyoshi pre- 
 pared for the immediate renewal of war. A new army 
 of a hundred and thirty thousand men was soon landed 
 in Korea, and China on her sidei hastened to send troops 
 once more to the relief of her tributary in the hour of need. 
 The war lasted for two more years. Into the details 
 of its varying fortunes we need not enter, and we will 
 only mention some of its most important incidents. In 
 the previous war, the Koreans were triumphant on the 
 sea. They had now given command of their navy to 
 an officer who distinguished himself only by his incom- 
 petence, while the Japanese, on the other hand, had been 
 taught by their previous reverses to reorganize and place 
 their navy on a sound footing. The Koreans rashly 
 attacked them when they were safe in harbour, and the 
 Korean sailors, wearied with a long day at their oars 
 and exhausted by hunger and thirst, were easily beaten 
 off. The Korean admiral was flogged for his failure, 
 but, instead of rousing himself under this experience, 
 he sought consolation .in drink, and he and his whole 
 fleet were taken by the Japanese. In this war the 
 Japanese had, therefore, the advantage of the command 
 
198 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 of the sea. Still their supplies could not be kept up, 
 and on one occasion they were invested in Yolsan and 
 reduced to such extremities that they chewed earth and 
 paper, and at night used to steal beyond their lines to 
 see if, happily, in the haversack of some dead Chinese 
 soldier they could find a few grains of rice. 
 
 There is still a hill in Kioto, near to the Daibutsu 
 Temple and to Hideyoshi's own tomb, which is shown 
 by the guides to every European tourist as the "Ear 
 Mound " (Mimidzuka). In the battle of So-choii, fought 
 towards the close of 1598, thirty-nine thousand Chinese 
 and Koreans were slain. So many heads could not 
 easily be transported, so the ears and noses of the dead 
 soldiers were cut off and were sent packed in salt to the 
 great Dictator in Japan as evidence of thd glorious deeds 
 of his soldiers, and this mound marks the spot where 
 they were buried. But before the gruesome trophies 
 reached Japan, before even the battle was fought, 
 Hideyoshi was no more. In June he fell ill. His last 
 days were devoted to the attempt to secure the inherit- 
 ance of all his honours and wealth to his son, a child of 
 eight years of age. lyeyasu, his comrade and friend, was 
 summoned to his side from his own domains in the 
 East, and there swore to the father in the most solemn 
 form that is known to the Japanese, sealing the written 
 oath with his own blood, that he would guard the inter- 
 ests of the son. The thoughts for the future of his son 
 did not prevent the old general from remembering his 
 soldiers in Korea. He was wearied of the war and all 
 its long list of casualties, and he charged lyeyasu not 
 to let his soldiers "become ghosts in Korea." This 
 charge, at least, was faithfully fulfilled, and by the end 
 of the year the Japanese soldiers were on their way to 
 their homes, having left behind them utter desolation 
 in Korea, a memory of slaughter and misery which to 
 this day causes the words "the accursed nation" to be 
 
HIDEYOSHI AND UNIFICATION OF EMPIRE 199 
 
 the ordinary vernacular terms for the Japanese, having 
 suffered enormous losses and terrible privations them- 
 selves, without having acquired one particle of material 
 good for their own country, 
 
 Hideyoshi died on the 15th of September, 1598, vain 
 to the last, for his last injunctions on his deathbed were 
 that he should be apotheosised among the national Gods 
 of Japan as the new Hachiman. His personal vices, 
 great though they were, are obscured in the national 
 estimation by his great services to the state. It was by 
 him- that the unification of all Japan was completed; 
 that a strong centralized government, able to enforce 
 its will over the whole country, was first established; 
 that the firm foundations were laid of the dual govern- 
 ment which, completed by lyeyasu, maintained domestic 
 peace for nearly two hundred and fifty years, and that 
 material prosperity was restored to the country, wasted 
 for centuries by civil war. He was the only man of the 
 people who ever reached the highest office in the state, 
 who sought his confidants and advisers from the class 
 fromi which he sprang, and who made the happiness and 
 well-being of that class the cardinal point of all his 
 policy. And if not merciful by nature, policy taught 
 him to be so. Under him there was no ruthless exter- 
 mination of defeated enemies. He had to overcome the 
 prototypes of the Taira and Hojo; but when victory 
 was on his side, as it always was, his clemency was 
 such as to turn his erstwhile foes into grateful friends, 
 and to preserve their valour and talents for the service 
 of his country. He is, and is worthily, a great national 
 hero to this day, whose name and story all the Japanese 
 are proud to recall, whose glory equalled that of 
 Napoleon, but who brought nothing but good to his 
 country (the sufferings and losses of the Korean wars are 
 forgotten in their glory), and left it when he died in 
 every way better for his life. 
 
200 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 We have left the story of one passage in his career 
 till the last. It is the only one in which — save in the 
 case of the Christians — he departed entirely from his 
 usual policy of mercy and conciliation, in which he 
 displayed a degree of remorseless cruelty and revenge 
 that would not have misbecome Kiyomori, which leaves 
 a sad blot on his name, though it is entirely forgotten 
 by his own countrymen, who remember only his great 
 glory and services. 
 
 It has already been told that on the eve of the war with 
 Korea, he resigned his office of Kuambaku in favour of 
 his nephew Hidetsugu, the son of a step-sister who 
 married the Prince of Musashi. At that time Hide- 
 yoshi, notwithstanding his frequent marriages, was still 
 childless, and Hidetsugu was regarded by himself and 
 all the people as his heir. Hidetsugu was over thirty 
 years of age, and his character as drawn by the Jesuits 
 was marked by strangely contradictory qualities. 
 
 "He was endowed with all the qualifications that can be 
 desired in a young prince. He had a quick and penetrating 
 wit, and excellent judgment, and withal a most courteous 
 and obliging manner. He was wise, prudent and discreet. 
 He naturally abhorred the abominable vices of the country, 
 and, what is rare in young princes, he loved learning, and 
 took pleasure in it. And for this reason he was delighted 
 in the company of the Fathers, and knowing that our 
 Religion set a value on virtue and good manners he took a 
 particular affection to it." 
 
 Such is the description given of him by one of the 
 Fathers who knew him well. On the other hand, he 
 took a pleasure both in the contemplation and the actual 
 infliction of human suffering which recalls the horrible 
 vices of the Emperor Muretsu. He was not only fond 
 of witnessing public executions and trials by torture, but 
 he acted at times as the executioner or the torturer. Not 
 satisfied with the ordinary methods of execution, he used 
 
HIDEYOSHI AND UNIFICATION OF EMPIRE 201 
 
 to slowly hack criminals to pieces with his sword, to cut 
 off their arms or legs, or to make them living targets to 
 be slowly shot to death with firearms or arrows. The 
 horrors of his cruelty to women rival those of Muretsu, 
 and, like Muretsu's, do not bear telling. With all these 
 savage qualities, he was favourably disposed towards 
 Christianity, and was regarded by the Jesuit priests as a 
 promising convert. 
 
 The birth of a child from Hideyoshi's sixth wife, 
 Yodo, daughter of Azai, Prince of Bizen, and, according 
 to the Jesuits, "the dearest and best beloved of all his 
 wives," changed all the nephew's prospects in life. He 
 could no longer hope to inherit the wealth and dignity 
 of his uncle, and the disappointment was embittered by 
 the fact that he had three children of his own, two of 
 them sons, in whom he fondly hoped the family honours 
 would have been vested on his own death, to continue a 
 race of hereditary rulers of the Empire. The disappoint- 
 ment was still further embittered by the credence which 
 was generally given to the report that Hideyoshi's 
 newly-born child was supposititious, a credence in which 
 the nephew's own interests made him too readily share. 
 He received, it is true, the great dignity of Kuambaku, 
 but enjoyed it only in name. Hideyoshi retained abso- 
 lute power in his own hands, and it was only natural 
 to expect that he should use it to secure the future of his 
 son to the detriment of that of the nephew. Jealousy 
 and suspicion soon arose between the uncle and the 
 nephew. Outward civilities were interchanged between 
 them. The nephew lived at Kioto, the uncle in the new 
 palace which he had built for himself at Fushimi. A 
 state visit was made by the latter to his nephew. The 
 road between the two palaces was lined on both sides 
 with guards with drawn swords, and a retinue of three 
 hundred nobles attended on Hideyoshi, "who rode in a 
 car all inlaid with gold, drawn by two large black oxen 
 
202 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 with gilded horns arid embroidered trappings of crimson 
 velvet that hung down to the ground." For the banquet 
 at which he was entertained, thirteen thousand tables ^ 
 were prepared on which the successive courses were 
 served to all the guests. But beneath all the outward 
 display of pomp and friendliness, there was nothing but 
 distrust. Hideyoshi's own personal guards never left 
 his side by day or night, and he refused to lodge in the 
 same palace with his nephew, on the ostensible grounds 
 that there was none sufficiently spacious to accommodate 
 the families and followers of both. The visit ended 
 without mishap, but soon after his return to Fushimi, 
 Hideyoshi ordered his nephew to visit him there, un- 
 attended except by pages. On his way he was arrested 
 and conducted to Fushimi not as a guest but as a 
 prisoner, and on his arrival was at once ordered to con- 
 tinue his journey to the monastery of Koya, fully sixty 
 miles distant. 
 
 Koya, near the northern limits of the province of 
 Kishiu, stands on a steep hill. It is one of the most 
 ancient Buddhist foundations in the land, famed for its 
 hall of ten thousand lamps, some at least of which have 
 been kept perpetually lighted, both day and night, for 
 many centuries. It is said that none can voluntarily 
 enter it who is not pure of heart, but it was often used 
 in the middle and later ages as a place of confinement 
 for high-born political offenders, and many, whose 
 hearts may have been pure but were certainly sad, have 
 crossed the " Bridge of Paradise " which leads to it, never 
 again to quit it. In no other spot are there so many 
 memorials of great personages, both of old and new 
 Japan, as are found in the cemetery which is attached 
 to it. Burial in the cemetery is presumed to open the 
 gates of paradise to the dead, and those who die too far 
 
 ' These tables were the small stands on which dishes are still 
 served separately to each guest at Japanese dinners. 
 
HIDEYOSHI AND UNIFICATION OF EMPIRE 203 
 
 away to admit of the actual interment of even a fragment 
 of their bodies, obtain the full privileges of burial, 
 though there is no grave, if a monument is erected to 
 their memories. 
 
 Arrived there, after three days' travelling, Hidetsugu 
 was closely confined in one small room, and the Prince, 
 who, a few weeks before, had entertained his guests 
 with thirteen thousand tables, was scarcely supplied with 
 the ordinary necessaries of life. He was still attended 
 by the ten pages who had accompanied him to Fushimi. 
 Five of these were recalled. Then orders came that 
 Hidetsugu and the remaining five should all commit 
 hara-kiri. There was no thought of disobeying these 
 orders. To have done so would have been to invite 
 degradation and a felon's death at the hands of the 
 common executioner, to leave a stain upon their names 
 that no time could efface. The pages, boys none of 
 whom was older than nineteen years, one of whom was 
 only sixteen, each in turn, in his master's presence, used 
 his sword upon himself in the sickeningly painful fashion 
 that honour prescribed, and the master then performed 
 for each the last duty that a faithful friend can render, 
 that of cutting off the head when the youth was quiver- 
 ing and bleeding from the gash that he had inflicted 
 upon himself. Last of all, the Prince, the lord and 
 master, also died on the same sword that he had used 
 on them. 
 
 Having thus removed the chief offender from his 
 way, it might have been thought that Hideyoshi would 
 have been satisfied, but a frenzied lust of blood seemed 
 to have momentarily taken possession of him. Not only 
 was every one of Hidetsugu's adherents, whether bound 
 to him by ties of blood or friendship, put to death, 
 but hig wife and children, and all the ladies of his court, 
 all of noble birth, were also condemned to die like 
 criminals by the executioner's hands, on the common 
 
204 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 execution ground, the dry bed of the river Kamo. The 
 Jesuits witnessed their procession through the streets of 
 Kioto to the ground. The ladies, "with the very image 
 of death in their faces," were carried in carts, but the 
 most pitiable sight of all was that of Hidetsugu's three 
 little children, the eldest not five years of age. On the 
 execution ground, the head of their dead father, husband 
 and lord was thrust in their faces. The children at- 
 tempted to run from the horrid sight, "and wept as if 
 their hearts would have burst," but they were taken one 
 after the other and beheaded before their mother's eyes ; 
 then all the ladiels were also beheaded. Vengeance 
 was not satiated even with their deaths. Their bodies 
 were all thrown into a pit, and it was labelled " The tomb 
 of beasts," beast being the most offensive term that the 
 Japanese vocabulary affords for application to human 
 beings. It is not surprising that the Jesuits, forgetting 
 many chapters in the previous history of Japan, call this 
 "one of the bloodiest tragedies that has ever been acted 
 in the theatre of this world," and that they saw in it the 
 presage of the fate which afterwards fell upon them- 
 selves. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 lYEYASU, FOUNDER OF THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNATE 
 
 Every great dictator of Japan was anxious to found a 
 fam^y of hereditary rulers. It was so with Kiyomori 
 and Yoritomo, with Hojo Tokimasa, with Ashikaga 
 Takauji and with Nobunaga. It was equally Hideyoshi's 
 ambition. Tokimasa and Takauji succeeded; Kiyomori 
 and Yoritomo failed. Hideyoshi's ambition was even 
 more overweening than theirs. They were both of noble 
 birth, sprung from and reared among the ruling class. 
 Hideyoshi was an upstart, whose genius forced his 
 acceptance on the nobility of the Empire, despite the 
 natural aversion which they held to one born far beneath 
 them, to whom they were forced to bend the knee in 
 outward and abject submission, while the outraged pride 
 of caste was bitterly rankling in their hearts. The young 
 son, whom Hideyoshi left as his heir, was of doubtful 
 paternity to every one but the reputed father, who 
 cherished the child with all the pride and devoted love 
 that the fondest father could show. It was not likely 
 that a child of low descent at best, possibly with no 
 rightful hereditary claims to his father's honour, would 
 retain the lealty of a proud nobility in such a degree 
 that it would be devoted to preserve his dignity until 
 he became of age to defend it himself. Hideyoshi was 
 far too sagacious to let fatherly pride and affection 
 blind him to the complications that might follow his 
 death, and on his deathbed he did all that human 
 wisdom could do to provide for his son the protection 
 
 205 
 
206 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 he could no longer give himself. lyeyasu was next to 
 himself the most powerful subject of the Empire. They 
 had been comrades in arms under Nobunaga. Both 
 rose to fame and fortune together, and Hideyoshi, at 
 the height of his power, enriched lyeyasu with the gift 
 of the Eastern Provinces, the richest and finest in all the 
 land, where lyeyasu's descent made him an acceptable 
 ruler, and secured for him the feudal devotion of the 
 descendants of the people who had faithfully served his 
 ancestors. lyeyasu alone could provide for the child's 
 future security, and Hideyoshi, in appointing him his 
 guardian, thought to ensure his fidelity in uniting his 
 interest with his duty, and to that end he arranged the 
 marriage of his son' with lyeyasu's granddaughter. 
 Four other great territorial Princes were associated with 
 lyeyasu in his office, and to the five were entrusted both 
 the guardianship of the child and the regency of the 
 Empire, always, of course, under the Emperor, until he 
 came of age. 
 
 lyeyasu was born at Okasaki, in the Province of 
 Mikawa, in 1542 — a year remarkable in the national 
 history as that in which the Portuguese, the first 
 Europeans to discover Japan and to enter into com- 
 mercial relations with it, first landed on its shore. He 
 was a descendant of the Minamoto. Except under the 
 Hojo, the Shogunate, which was first conferred by the 
 Emperor on Yoritomo, the great chief of the Minamoto, 
 was always held by that family, and it had come to be 
 regarded in the national estimation as their exclusive 
 right. It was for this reason that neither Nobunaga nor 
 Hideyoshi ever assumed it — it has been already told how 
 Hideyoshi vainly endeavoured to surmount the obstacle 
 by adoption — but the title was now open to lyeyasu, if 
 ever his influence and power justified him in claiming it. 
 By Nobunaga he was enfeoffed with the province in 
 which he was born, and, as has just been stated, Hide- 
 
lYEYASU 207 
 
 yoshi's bounty subsequently made him Prince of the 
 eight Eastern Provinces. Here he founded Yedo 
 (Tokio) in the year 1590, making it the capital of his 
 rich domains, and Yedo soon acquired the greatness 
 which had formerly belonged to Kamakura. His family 
 name, Tokugawa, was, like those of H5j6 and Ashikaga, 
 geographical in its origin, derived from a district in the 
 province of Shimotsuke, in which his ancestors at one 
 time lived. 
 
 It was not long after Hideyoshi's death before dissen- 
 sions occurred among the guardians, and suspicions as 
 to lyeyasu's motives soon began to develop themselves 
 in the minds of the colleagues. The suspicions were 
 inflamed by jealousy of the preponderating influence 
 which his means and ability and the great trust re- 
 posed in him by Hideyoshi gave him. From sus- 
 picion and jealousy it was, in those days, not a long 
 way to action. lyeyasu had taken possession, on 
 Hideyoshi's death, of his palace at Fushimi, a suburb 
 of Kioto, and made it the seat of the government. A 
 league was formed against him, the guiding spirit of 
 which was Ishida Mitsunari, one of Hideyoshi's 
 ministers, but not one of the guardians of his son, and 
 during lyeyasu's temporary absence in one of his own 
 provinces a sudden assault was made on Fushimi, and 
 the castle was taken after a few days' siege by an army 
 got together by the league. Civil war was now inevit- 
 able. The league, supported by Choshiu and Satsuma, 
 as well as other great feudatories, ^fathered an army of 
 over a hundred thousand men at Osaka, while lyeyasu 
 quickly assembled under his banner all the fighting 
 strength of his Eastern Provinces, and his army, in two 
 divisions, was soon on its march to the west, followed 
 a little later by himself. Their march led through the 
 provinces of Mino and Owari. Mino was now the fief 
 of Hidenobu, the surviving nephew of Nobunaga, and 
 
208 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 his castle seat was at the town of Gifu, the home of his 
 great-uncle before he built his castle at Azuchi, on Lake 
 Biwa. It was a place of supreme strategic importance, 
 and its acquisition was vital to the interests of both the 
 league and lyeyasu. Its lord, a zealous young Christian 
 Prince of twenty-two years of age, had given his, adher- 
 ence to neither, and would have been only too willing 
 to have abstained from all share in the coming conflict. 
 But the army of the league was already on his southern 
 frontiers, and lyeyasu was rapidly advancing from the 
 north, and he had to choose between them. He took the 
 side of the league, and prepared to defend himself until 
 their army could come to his assistance. lyeyasu did 
 not loiter on his march. He reached Gifu first. Then 
 he sent an advance party of six hundred men against the 
 castle, while he kept the main force of the division in 
 ambush in the rear. The impetuous young Prince, see- 
 ing only the advance party, sallied out of his castle and 
 drove them back, but fell into the trap prepared for him. 
 He made a gallant effort to redeem his folly, but the 
 Easterns "were on his heels through all his retreat, 
 killing and slaying on every side," and they entered the 
 castle simultaneously with the fugitives, and took it 
 without opposition, putting all the garrison to the sword. 
 With this fortress in his rear to furnish a safe retreat, 
 lyeyasu pushed on with the whole of his army to Seki 
 ga Hara, where he found the army of the league in his 
 front. 
 
 Seki ga Hara (Moor of the Barrier) is a wide plain 
 at the foot of Mount Ibuki, the mountain on which 
 Yamatodake contracted his death-chill. It is crossed by 
 the River Seki no Fuji, which takes its rise on the moun- 
 tain and flows into the sea at the Gulf of Owari. The 
 army of the league was encamped on the western bank of 
 the river, where it lay in idle inaction, while lyeyasu was 
 vigorously capturing Gifu and bringing up all his force. 
 
lYEYASU 209 
 
 When he had collected his full strength, all he could 
 muster was fifty thousand men. The league, on the other 
 hand, had eighty thousand, but while there was only 
 one supreme head of lyeyasu's army, while all its 
 elements were united in their own common interest and 
 in devotion to and confidence in their general, that of 
 the league had many chiefs, all suspicious of each other, 
 without unanimity either of interest or sentiment, their 
 only bond of union being hatred and jealousy of 
 lyeyasu. Treachery added itself to disunion on the day 
 of the battle, and caused the battle to be, in fact, little 
 more than a massacre. The army of the league included 
 many veterans of the Korean War. Among its generals 
 was Konishi Yukinaga, the Christian soldier, who had 
 fought through the whole of that war and of the Kiushiu 
 campaign, whose experience and skill were not inferior 
 to those of lyeyasu himself. But when the charge was 
 sounded, and the battalions of the league began to move 
 with colours flying, several of the generals, with their 
 troops, marched straight over to the enemy. Panic 
 seized the rest^ veterans and recruits alike, and they fled 
 in disorder, having scarcely struck a single blow. The 
 Easterns, "falling on them like an avalanche," 
 slaughtered them in thousands. A mound is still shown 
 on the battlefield called Kubi dzuka, or head-pile, the 
 counterpart of the Mimi dzuka in Kioto. Beneath it are 
 said to be buried the heads of more than forty thousand 
 men who were slain, more than half of the strength of 
 the league's army. Only a few of the leaders, with their 
 own immediate retainers, withstood the Eastern charge. 
 Most were efther slain or took the last Samurai step. 
 Among them was Yukinaga, the Christian hero of a 
 hundred fights. Seeing his army in a hopeless rout, he 
 threw himself, sword in hand, among the pursuers, 
 "slaying on every side, and bearing all down before 
 him, till, overpowered and wounded from head to foot, 
 
210 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 he was forced to surrender himself a prisoner." His 
 religion forbade him to take his own life, as a Samurai 
 should when all is lost, and rather than offend his God 
 he chose to expose himself to an ignominious death and 
 the reputation of a traitor to the inflexible code of 
 honour of his class. lyeyasu, who knew w^ll the 
 character and skill of his prisoner, endeavoured to enlist 
 him on his own side, and, to tempt him, offered one of 
 his granddaughters in marriage to Yukinaga's son. 
 But nothing would seduce him from the allegiance to 
 the child of Hideyoshi, his old master. His choice lay 
 between ignominious death as a common criminal on the 
 one side, and wealth, distinction and a continued career 
 on the other, but he never wavered for an instant from 
 the path of Christian duty. So he was condemned to 
 die. To his judges he made only one prayer : that he 
 might be allowed the services of a priest of the Church. 
 It was referred to lyeyasu, who, angry at his failure to 
 bring to his side so great a man, refused it. Ishida 
 Mitsunari, who was also taken prisoner, was likewise 
 condemned to death, and when the day came both 
 general and statesman were put into a common cart, 
 their hands tied behind their backs, and thus publicly 
 carried through the streets of the capital to the common 
 execution ground on the bed of the River Kamo. The 
 statesman was overcome with shame and ignominy, and 
 bent his head in despair, but Yukinaga faced the mob of 
 people with "an air of majesty that showed the great- 
 ness of his soul and the joy he found to share with his 
 Saviour in His ignominy and torments." 
 
 Seki ga Hara was the third of the great decisive 
 battles of Japan. Dan no Ura confirmed the absolute 
 power of Yoritomo; Minatogawa that of Takauji, and 
 Seki ga Hara now made lyeyasu master of all Japan. 
 Feudatories, who had stood aside or opposed him, 
 hastened to offer their submission. Black-hearted 
 
lYEYASU 211 
 
 treachery was not always content with mere craven sub- 
 mission. Mori, the Lord of the Western Provinces, next 
 to lyeyasu, the most powerful feudatory in the Empire, 
 one of the guardians of Hideyoshi's child, thought to 
 win favour by murdering the son of Yukinaga, a boy 
 of twelve years old, and sending his head to lyeyasu. 
 But the boy had been the possible husband of lyeyasu 's 
 own granddaughter, and lyeyasu was both disgusted 
 and angry at the offering. While other nobles were 
 pardoned in the general submission, Mori was mulcted 
 of a large slice of his domains. All these events which 
 have been described occurred in the year 1600, the great 
 battle being fought in the month of October. Hide- 
 yoshi's son was now ten years of age, and was with 
 his mother in the castle at Osaka. No one would have 
 condemned lyeyasu had he made away with the boy, 
 secretly or openly, and by so doing removed a possible 
 danger in the future from his path. History told him 
 the consequences that followed Kiyomori's mercy to 
 Yoritomo under the same circumstances. But he had 
 seen also the good results of Hideyoshi's clemency, and 
 he determined to be guided by the later precedent. Of 
 all the great leaders who had opposed him, only Yuki- 
 naga and Mitsunari were put to death. The others were 
 forgiven, and Hideyoshi's widow and her child were 
 assigned a revenue sufficient for their support, if not in 
 the same splendour as Hideyoshi had lived, still in a 
 style becoming nobles of the highest rank, and were left 
 in undisturbed possession of the castle at Osaka. 
 
 Fortified both by claims of irresistible power and of 
 birth, lyeyasu was justified in asking for the resumption 
 in his favour of the title of Sei-i-Tai-Shogun, and it was 
 conferred on him by the Emperor in 1603, so that hence- 
 forth he enjoyed both the reality and the name of the 
 chief administrative authority in the Empire. He at 
 once set about completing the task which Hideyoshi had 
 p 2 
 
212 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 begun, of establishing the dual system of government 
 on an enduring basis, and of ordering it in such a way 
 that it would remain in the hands of his descendants. 
 He had already acquired considerable experience in civil 
 administration in his own great fief, which he now turned 
 to benefit in the larger field of the whole Empire., With 
 all his clemency, he had large confiscated estates to 
 dispose of. These were naturally given to his own 
 relatives and followers, and those held by his beaten 
 foes or lukewarm supporters were redistributed in such 
 a way as to render impracticable any future combination 
 between them to the disturbance of the peace of the 
 Empire. To his own sons were given the great fiefs of 
 Owari, Kishiu ^ and Echizen, all commanding in various 
 degrees the approaches to the capital. The confiscated 
 provinces of the traitor, Mori, were given to Tokugawa, 
 adherents of tried faith, so that they commanded what 
 may be called the midlands of the Empire, and Mori 
 himself, once the lord of eight provinces, the rival of 
 lyeyasu in wealth and power, was left only the provinces 
 of Nagato and Suwo, in the extreme west, where he was 
 harmless for national ill. The Eastern Provinces 
 lyeyasu retained in his own hands, to be his own and 
 his successors' domains, and they effectually commanded 
 all the more northern fiefs, from which, however, no 
 disaffection to the Tokugawa cause was to be dreaded. 
 When his grand scheme of the reorganization of the 
 fiefs was complete, their number amounted to two 
 hundred and ninety-two, of which eighteen comprised 
 one or more provinces, and were of the first rank. Of 
 the whole number, no less than a hundred and seventy- 
 six were held by what were called Fudai lords. They 
 were either relatives or vassals of the Tokugawa, or if 
 not connected with them by ties of blood or service, had 
 
 > It is a common mistake among Europeans to confuse Kishiu and 
 Kiushiu. Kiushiu is, of course, the great Southern Island. Kishiu is 
 a province in the south-east of the Main Island. 
 
lYEYASU 213 
 
 shown their fealty by casting in their lot with lyeyasu 
 from the first, when his fate was still in the balance. 
 They were distributed in strategic positions, principally 
 in the main island, where their assistance was always at 
 the call of the head of the family. To secure the good 
 conduct of those not connected by blood with the Toku- 
 gawa, whose strength or the remoteness of their fiefs 
 might induce them at any time to become restless under 
 the authority of the central government which it was 
 lyeyasu's desire to render all-powerful in the Imperial 
 matters — the details of local administration he left to 
 the chiefs of each fief, so long as they created no scandal 
 by cruelty or extortion towards their own people — each 
 feudal chief was forced to spend part of each year in 
 Yedo, the Shogun's capital, and when he returned to his 
 fief, to leave his wife and children in the capital as 
 hostages for his good behaviour.^ Every one was also 
 obliged to obtain investiture from the Shogun on each 
 succession, and to maintain in his service and pay a 
 number of armed retainers, proportionate to the wealth 
 and extent of his domains, who were the soldiers of the 
 Empire in time of need. Thef feudal chiefs and their 
 armed retainers were the Daimio and Samurai, the 
 territorial nobles and gentry of Japan. 
 
 The Ashikaga Shoguns lived at Kioto, but lyeyasu 
 determined to revert to the more ancient precedent of the 
 Minamoto and Hojo periods, and make his capital in his 
 own home. Kamakura had fallen into utter decay, but 
 lyeyasu resolved to revive all its glories in his new 
 capital at Yedo. He had chosen the site in 1590, when 
 he was first enfeoffed with the Eastern Provinces ; it had 
 already acquired considerable importance when he 
 became Shogun, and with all the eclat that was given 
 to it as the capital of the Shogun, its growth advanced 
 by leaps and bounds. The territorial nobles, obliged to 
 1 This was only made a legal obligation by lyeyasu's grandson, 
 lyemitsu. 
 
214 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 spend part of each year in it, and accompanied on their 
 visits by a huge train of followers, built palaces for their 
 own and their retainers' accommodation, and vied with 
 each other, while in residence, in the display of their 
 splendour. There was, therefore, a constant flow of the 
 wealth of the provinces to Yedo, and it became the home 
 of luxury and all that was best in art and literature. 
 Kioto, where the Emperor lived in his impotent 
 seclusion, retained all the sanctity that was given to it 
 by its ancient history, and by the fact that it was the 
 residence of the Divine Sovereign, the Descendant of 
 the Gods. Osaka retained and increased its commercial 
 importance, but Yedo became the most populous and 
 wealthy city of the Empire, the living centre of its 
 political system. It not only revived but surpassed the 
 glories of Kamakura. 
 
 lyeyasu only held the title of Shogun for two years. 
 In 1605, while still in the full prime of his mental and 
 physical vigour, following the ordinary Japanese cus- 
 tom,^ he abdicated in favour of his son Hidetada, and 
 retired to Shidzuoka, his original home prior to the 
 founding of Yedo. The retirement from active life was 
 only on the surface. He continued to keep a watchful 
 eye on all the affairs of the state, and in the name of his 
 son to exercise an authority no less absolute or universal 
 than he had done while he retained the name as well as 
 the reality of power. All was peaceful in the Empire, 
 and the work of consolidation of the central government 
 went steadily forward. But one source of disquiet still 
 remained, one that might yet become the cause of the 
 overthrow of the Tokugawa family, and bring upon 
 them the fate that had befallen so many of their 
 predecessors. 
 
 Hideyori, Hideyoshi's son, grew to manhood, and 
 was deficient neither in capacit)r nor courage. He con- 
 1 See page 74. 
 
lYEYASU 216 
 
 tinued to enjoy the revenue assigned to him by lyeyasu, 
 and to reside in the castle of Osaka with his mother, a 
 woman of strong character, prudence and intelligence. 
 Both son and mother were content with their condition, 
 and neither desired to give cause of offence to the 
 Shogun, to whose bounty they owed both life and 
 sustenance, and whose granddaughter was the wife of 
 the son. 
 
 Unfortunately malcontents of the Empire gathered 
 around them, feudatories whose estates were confiscated 
 by lyeyasu, retainers whose fortunes had perished with 
 those of their lords, and soldiers whose trade seemed to 
 be at an end, who had nothing to lose and everything 
 to gain in another civil war. Hopes were gradually 
 instilled into Hideyori's mind that he might one day 
 recover the dignity of his father, and he gave a ready 
 ear to those who told him that he had only to raise his 
 standard to bring to its side all in the Empire who 
 remembered and shared in his father's glories, and all 
 who had suffered under lyeyasu. Nothing of this was 
 unknown to lyeyasu. His spies and emissaries were 
 everywhere, and reports of everything that occurred in 
 Osaka were brought to him in his rural retreat at Shid- 
 zuoka as fast as the fleetest messengers could carry them. 
 His conduct to Hideyori had not been wanting in dis- 
 ingenuousness. He had persuaded the young man, full 
 of reverence to the memory of his father, that it was his 
 duty to rebuild the great temple of Daibutsu at Kioto, 
 destroyed in the earthquake of 1596, in the hope that his 
 revenues would thereby be so depleted that nothing 
 would be left for the support of the soldiers who were 
 resorting to Osaka. It was in the year 1610 that lyeyasu 
 urged this project on Hideyori, and its magnitude may 
 be estimated from the fact that it required four years to 
 carry it out. The temple was completed in 1614, and its 
 dedication was fixed for the close of the year. Three 
 
216 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 thousand priests were already assembled for the cere- 
 mony from all the great Buddhist foundations through- 
 out the country, and all the people, both of Kioto and 
 Osaka and of all the country around, had gathered in 
 crowds for a festival of rare splendour and holiness, 
 when, at the last moment, when the priests had actually 
 commenced the service, mounted messengers arrived in 
 hot haste from lyeyasu, in his retirement, far away 
 at Shidzuoka, with orders that the dedication ceremony 
 should be stopped. It is said that he considered the 
 inscriptions on the great bell of the temple were person- 
 ally offensive. The bell was in keeping with the general 
 magnificence of the temple, and was in itself a triumph 
 of the founder's art. It was fourteen feet in height, and 
 its weight exceeded sixty-three tons. On the one side 
 it bore the inscription : " May the State be peaceful and 
 prosperous," and on the other: "On the East it wel- 
 comes the bright moon, and on the West it bids farewell 
 to the setting sun." Unfortunately the third and fourth 
 syllables in the first inscription, "Kokka Anko " in the 
 original, though when read in Sinico-Japanese gave 
 sounds of "Ka" and "Ko," when pronounced in pure 
 Japanese are read as lyeyasu, and the combined effect 
 of the two inscriptions was, lyeyasu alleged, an offensive 
 comparison between himself and Hideyoshi, in which 
 Hideyoshi was likened to the great Sun Goddess of 
 Japan, and he to the minor luminary of the night. 
 
 The indignation both of Hideyori and of his mother 
 at this affront and of the people, disappointed both of 
 their pleasure and the opportunity of displaying their 
 religious fervour, was great, and on the people's part it 
 took the form of a serious riot. A deputation was sent 
 to lyeyasu of the two leading citizens of Kioto, accom- 
 panied by two ladies to represent Hideyori's mother, to 
 assure him that no offence was intended; but the old 
 recluse was implacable. He had determined to quarrel 
 
lYEYASU 217 
 
 with Hideyori, and he had now found an ostensible 
 cause, and, trivial as it was, he determined to use it. 
 He gave the deputation three conditions to take back 
 with them on which alone he was willing to condone the 
 alleged insult : (i) That the outer works of the castle at 
 Osaka should be destroyed. (2) That Hideyori should 
 leave the castle, his father's residence, in which he had 
 been born and passed his whole life, to which he was 
 bound by every tie of affection and interest, and reside 
 for the future in another province. (3) That Hideyori's 
 mother, from whom he had never been separated, by 
 whom he had been wisely guided through all the dan- 
 gerous times through whith he had passed, should in 
 future reside in Yedo, under the direct eye of the 
 Shogun, as a hostage for the son's good conduct. 
 
 The castle of Osaka still exists, shorn only of its 
 donjon and outer works, and of the great palace which 
 stood within its walls. Its strength and situation 
 equally testify to the military engineering skill of the 
 Japanese in the sixteenth century. Saris, one of the 
 earliest English visitors to Japan, described it, and his 
 description in its main points applies to it at the present 
 day — 
 
 "A castle marvellously large and strong, with very deep 
 trenches about it and many drawbridges with gates plated 
 with iron. The castle is built all of free stone with bulwarks 
 and battlements, with loopholes for small shot and arrows, 
 and divers passages from which to cast stones upon the 
 assailants. The walls are at least six to seven feet thick, 
 all of solid stone. The stones are great, and cut so exactly 
 to fit the place where they are laid that no mortar is used." 
 
 Some of the stones in the wall measure forty by ten 
 feet. The outer moat, not now in existence, varied from 
 eighty to a hundred and twenty feet in width, and the 
 depth of the water in it from ten to twelve feet. Within 
 the castle was the great palace, the most splendid that 
 
218 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 ever was built in Japan, "a wonderfully costly house 
 gilded with gold in abundance." 
 
 The indignation aroused by lyeyasu's wanton 
 arbitrariness brought great additions to Hideyori's 
 adherents, so much so that room could not be found for 
 all in the castle, and many were forced to encamp beyond 
 its walls. Confident in the impregnable strength of the 
 castle, defended by a great force, Hideyori gave a cate- 
 gorical refusal to all lyeyasu's demands. Both sides 
 then prepared for the inevitable test of arms, Hideyori 
 laying in an ample store of provisions — there was an 
 inexhaustible well, called the "O-gon-sui" (the yellow 
 metal water), within the walls — and lyeyasu, mobilizing 
 his army, and also, following his usual methods, suborn- 
 ing the governor of the castle, whom he promised to 
 create one of the greatest lords in Japan. The governor, 
 "being as arrant a cheat himself," promised faithfully 
 to betray both the castle and his lord. His treachery 
 was, however, discovered in time to prevent him carry- 
 ing out his designs, though not to prevent his escape 
 from the castle. 
 
 In due course lyeyasu's army appeared. The castle 
 was invested, trenches opened, and several assaults 
 made — all in vain. The garrison not only beat off every 
 attack, but made several successful sallies. lyeyasu 
 again had recourse to treachery. Another high officer 
 within the walls was bribed. On this occasion the 
 traitor was discovered in good time, and lyeyasu's 
 designs turned to his own undoing. He was allowed 
 to remain in the belief that nothing had gone wrong, 
 and when his men advanced in the darkness of night, 
 believing that the gates would be opened to them, the 
 defenders suddenly fell on them and drove them back 
 in utter rout with enormous loss. 
 
 lyeyasu now began to realize that he had undertaken 
 a task which was beyond his power. His own men were 
 
lYEYASU 219 
 
 deserting, and his resources were being taxed to the 
 utmost. He humbled his pride so far as to send pro- 
 posals for peace. Within the castle, the store of pro- 
 visions, great though it was, had begun to run very 
 low, and amidst such a heterogeneous garrison, gathered 
 from all parts, treachery was also to be feared ; Hideyori, 
 on his side, therefore readily received lyeyasu's over- 
 tures, and peace was concluded ^ on the conditions that, 
 on the one side, lyeyasu should disband his army and 
 interfere no more in Hideyori's affairs, and on the other, 
 that "the outer moat of the castle should be destroyed. 
 
 Hideyori loyally observed his part of the bargain, and 
 the great moat was filled up and levelled with the ground 
 in three weeks. lyeyasu was still determined to destroy 
 him, and only withdrew to recuperate his forces and 
 supplies. Within a few months the siege was renewed. 
 The castle was now shorn of one of its main defences, 
 but the garrison was still strong and determined, and all 
 the first assaults were beaten off as before. Then a 
 general assault of the whole besieging army was ordered. 
 It was "sharp and bloody," but once more victory was 
 on the side of the defenders. lyeyasu's whole army was 
 driven back, and he, giving up all as lost, had given 
 directions to his own bodyguard to strike off his head, 
 so that it should not fall into the enemy's hands. One 
 of the strange transformations in the fortunes of war, of 
 which the world's history, both ancient and modern, 
 gives so many examples, then occurred, and in a moment 
 defeat was turned into victory, < A fire broke out within 
 the castle. Whether it was accidental or deliberately 
 kindled by traitors has never been disclosed. Hideyori, 
 
 • Both parties signed the compact in the most solemn form that is 
 known to Japanese — with their blood. lyeyasu, who had not the least 
 intention of keeping it, compounded with his conscience in a fashion 
 somewhat similar to that adopted by perjuring witnesses in English 
 courts of justice who kiss their thumbs instead of the book. He drew 
 the blood from his ear instead of from the gums as he should have done. 
 
220 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 in the impetuosity of youth, led the pursuit of his beaten 
 foes. Seeing the fire, he turned and galloped back at full 
 speed, and his soldiers, seeing him pass, turned and fled 
 with him. The besiegers rallied; the pursued, recovered 
 from their panic, became pursuers, and, carrying all 
 before them, entered the castle along with the fugitives, 
 and the great virgin fortress was at last taken. It is not 
 known how Hideyori and his mother died. Neither was 
 ever seen again, though the most diligent search was 
 made for them after the battle. Two Jesuit priests were 
 in Osaica throughout both sieges, and, according to 
 their reports, more than two hundred thousand men fell 
 on both sides in the last siege and capture. One of them 
 travelled "two whole days over dead bodies." It was 
 one of the most bloody struggles in the history of Japan. 
 The battle of Seki ga Hara confirmed the government 
 of the Empire by lyeyasu. Osaka was taken on the 
 1st of Jurie, 1615, and its fall insured the transmission 
 of lyeyasu's power to the successors of his own family. 
 
 lyeyasu was now seventy-three years of age. He was 
 severely wounded in the battle, and the consequences of 
 the wound at his age were likely to be serious. Whether 
 it was from his anger at seeing his own life was to be 
 the penalty of his crowning mercy, or that he determined 
 to give such a lesson as would prevent rebellion in the 
 future, need not be discussed, but, whatever his reasons, 
 he now departed entirely from his previous policy. 
 Hitherto he had shown clemency and endeavoured to 
 conciliate his beaten foes. Now he exterminated them. 
 Hideyori left one son, the child, not of his wife, lyeyasu's 
 granddaughter, but of a concubine, a boy of seven years 
 of age, who was taken alive. The boy had his father's 
 courage, and when brought before lyeyasu taunted him 
 with his perjury. He was ordered to instant execution 
 with all the ignominy of a common criminal. 
 
 lyeyasu returned to Shidzuoka. He never recovered 
 
lYEYASU 221 
 
 from his wound, and died on the 8th of March in the 
 following year, leaving to his son the legacy of a 
 government firmly established, with no possible rival 
 claimant throughout the entire Empire. 
 
 In the Japanese Pantheon there are certain Gods who 
 are regarded as earthly incarnations of Buddha, and are 
 known as Gongen, and Temples in their honour are 
 found everywhere, both in towns and villages. lyeyasu, 
 after his death, was included among them, and just as 
 Hideyoshi is known as Taikd Sama or The Taiko, so 
 is lyeyasu honoured in the description, higher than 
 Hideyoshi 's, because it is divine, whereas his is only 
 earthly, or Gongen Sama, or The Gongen. 
 
 lyeyasu was only one of the military adventurers in 
 Japan who rose to the highest authority in the Empire, 
 but he was unique among all in that he not only founded 
 a dynasty which lasted for 268 years, but he ruled with 
 so strong a hand and was able to transmit to his succes- 
 sors a Government based on such secure foundations, 
 that both he and they were able to preserve unbroken 
 peace throughout the entire Empire while their dynasty 
 lasted, and to maintain as their hereditary and acknow- 
 ledged right an authority and precedence that were 
 originally founded only on military strength. Kiyo- 
 mori, Yoritomo, Nobunaga, and Hideyoshi all ruled in 
 their lifetime as dictators, but none succeeded in 
 securing the continued succession of his posterity to his 
 own dignities. The H6j5 contrived to hold the reins of 
 Government for 130 years, and the Ashikaga for 235 
 years, but both depended for their influence entirely on 
 their military strength, and when that failed them, both 
 families fell. The Hojo, when at the height of their 
 power, maintained peace throughout those portions of 
 the Empire that were immediately under their influ- 
 ence. The Ashikaga failed even in that, and in the last 
 century of their rule had only a shadow of authority 
 
222 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 which was contemptuously disregarded by the great 
 feudal princes, every one of whom was anxious to 
 increase his own fief at the expense of his neighbours, 
 and the inter-clan wars of these princes never ceased 
 to add to the misery and impoverishment of the people. 
 For over 250 years not a murmur was ever raided of 
 rebellion or even of impatience with the Government of 
 the Tokugawas; not a sound was heard of local wars 
 among the territorial magnates, all of whom were the 
 equals in birth and many but little inferior in wealth 
 and strength to the family of the Shoguns, before whom 
 they were content to bow their heads in reverential 
 homage, to whose mandates they rendered an unques- 
 tioning obedience. It was but natural that they should do 
 so while lyeyasu still lived and had all the prestige of 
 his unbroken career of victory, and of his acknowledged 
 military genius. Few — only one, perhaps, his grandson, 
 the third Sh5gun — could lay claim to even an approach 
 to l}is ability or commanding strength of character, 
 and judging from all the previous history of Japan, it 
 is unlikely that the Tokugawas could have succeeded 
 where others utterly failed, had it not been for the 
 system of government organized by the great founder 
 of the dynasty and faithfully followed by his successors, 
 a system which shows that lyeyasu was not only a great 
 general and civil governor, but a constructive states- 
 man of the highest order of genius, able to profit by all 
 the lessons of the past in establishing a government 
 which would be saved from the errors and pitfalls that 
 had been the ruin of its predecessors. During the last 
 years of his life, in the comparative leisure which he 
 enjoyed in his retirement at Shidzuoka in the interval 
 between his abdication of the Shogunate in favour of 
 his son and his last campaigns at Osaka, he was a deep 
 student of history and literature, and from his studies 
 and his own experience of life he was able to compile 
 
lYEYASU 223 
 
 — he specifically disclaims originality himself — for the 
 benefit of his posterity, a code of moral and political 
 precepts, which he bequeathed to them as their Bible, 
 by which they were to be guided in their relations with 
 the Emperor, their own officials, the territorial mag- 
 nates, the Samurai and the people. It is known as the 
 "Yuigon" or "Legacy" of lyeyasu, and that it was 
 intended for the direct benefit of his own successors, 
 as a guide only for them in their conduct in the office 
 which he designed to be hereditary, is shown by its own 
 internal evidence and by the fact that it was never 
 published or known to the people till the dynasty was 
 near its fall. The original was preserved in Kioto, but a 
 copy was kept in the Shogun's court in Yedo, where 
 none but the members of the Gor5jiu — council of elders 
 or the cabinet — had access to it. As the manifestation 
 of the principles which guided lyeyasu in his own life, 
 as the explanation of the social system and of the feudal 
 life in Japan which endured throughout his dynasty, 
 it is full of interest. 
 
 The whole consists of one hundred concise chapters, 
 not arranged in any logical sequence, but each dealing 
 with one separate subject. Seven of them relate to inci- 
 dents in lyeyasu 's own career; sixteen contain moral 
 maxims, and ten practical instructions for the personal 
 guidance of his successors in the details of their govern- 
 ment. Fourteen chapters are devoted to the peculiar 
 privileges and duties of Samurai. The common people 
 are, however, not forgotten, and there are chapters deal- 
 ing with marriage, inheritance and adoption, agricul- 
 ture, the building of farm houses, the maintenance of 
 roads and villages, taxation, and the general care that 
 is to be taken for the welfare of the people and to 
 prevent their oppression by the princes. Other chapters 
 are devoted to the succession to the Shogunate; to the 
 constitution of the executive ; to the freedom of religion, 
 
224 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 "always excepting the false and corrupt school" of 
 Christianity ; to criminal law, punishments and rewards ; 
 to precedence among the Daimios; and to the main- 
 tenance of the castles of the Shoguns. 
 
 "The married state is the great relation of mankind," 
 and there are therefore chapters enjoining marriage at 
 the age of sixteen years; providing for adoption in the 
 case of childlessness, so as to insure the continuity of 
 the family; defining the mutual spheres of husband and 
 wife; regulating concubinage and the relation of the 
 wife to the concubine, and prescribing the penalties for 
 adultery. The basis of all piety in the national morality 
 was the respect due by children to their parents or 
 elders, by vassals to their lords, by servants to their 
 masters. lyeyasu advises his successors that the same 
 Heaven cannot cover a man and the murderer (direct 
 or indirect) of father, mother, elder brother, master or 
 lord, and that vengeance is a sacred duty. But this 
 principle might possibly be made a pretext for wanton 
 murder, or if recklessly carried out might disturb the 
 public peace. Notice must therefore be given to the 
 proper authorities of the intention to perform this duty, 
 else the avenger too may be treated as a criminal. And 
 when a servant or a vassal attempts to or kills master or 
 lord, his guilt is so great that it extends to all his rela- 
 tions, and all must be destroyed with him, not by master 
 or lord, but by the public officers of justice. 
 
 History showed that the Hojo regents and the Ashi- 
 kaga Shoguns brought upon themselves the odium of 
 posterity by the want of reverence which, in the intoxi- 
 cation of their own military pride, they displayed to- 
 wards the Emperors, the Sons of Heaven, to whom alone 
 they owed all their legal authority, and also that their 
 insolent domination, when at the height of their power, 
 over the territorial princes, who were their own equals 
 in rank, and the hatred and jealousy which it provoked, 
 
lYEYASU 225 
 
 contributed to their ultimate downfall. lyeyasu warned 
 his successors against both errors. They were not only 
 to provide for the necessary expenditure of the Emperor 
 on special occasions, such as accession to the throne or 
 great national festivals, but always to display a rever- 
 ential homage, not only to the Emperor, but to the 
 Imperial princes, and the nobles of the Imperial Court, 
 the Kug6 — who all shared in the prestige of the 
 Imperial divinity. To the Samurai, among whom the 
 Daimios are included, they were in like manner enjoined 
 to act^with courtesy, to avoid oppression and injustice, 
 but at the same time they were to select their principal 
 ministers and officers only from those Daimios whose 
 relationship or long connection with the Tokugawas 
 ensured their unchanging fidelity. Prior to lyeyasu 's 
 time, the territorial princes were divided into two classes 
 — the Daimios (great names), who were either princes 
 of whole provinces (Kokushu) or of territories that did 
 not comprise an entire province (Riyoshu), and Shomios 
 (small names), or lords of castles (Joshu). He altered 
 this division into those of Fudai and Tozama, the former 
 being the territorial princes who pledged themselves 
 and their fealty to him before his final triumph at the 
 taking of Osaka, and the latter those who only did so 
 after Hideyori's death removed the last of the possible 
 rivals to his future career. From the former he directed 
 that all the principal ministers and officers of the 
 Government should be exclusively chosen. The whole 
 prosperity of the Empire depended upon the continued 
 preservation of peace that it might recover all that had 
 been lost in the long civil wars. It was to be his suc- 
 cessor's main object to secure that peace, and they could 
 only do so by assisting the people; by treating the 
 Samurai courteously but firmly, not being too apt to 
 view as crimes what might be only trivial faults or even 
 differences of opinion; by preventing malfeasance on 
 Q 
 
226 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 the part of the officials, and selecting them with wise 
 consideration of their merits and qualifications; by 
 themselves setting the example of observing the laws of 
 industry and sober lives; by a just distribution both of 
 rewards and punishments; by pursuing and sternly 
 punishing those guilty of heinous crimes; alcove all, 
 perhaps, by carefully preserving harmony between the 
 lord and vassal, between the Emperor and Shogun, the 
 Shogun and the Daimios, and between all the people. 
 These were the leading principles which were the 
 foundation of lyeyasu's own successful rule, and by 
 them he hoped that his successors woiild be for ever 
 guided.^ 
 1 The full translation of the legacy of lyeyasu is given in Appendix V. 
 
CHAPTER Xin 
 
 CHRISTIANITY TO THE FIRST PERSECUTION 
 
 Our story has hitherto concerned itself only with the 
 Japanese people. We have now to tell that of the inter- 
 course between Europe and Old Japan. Religion and 
 trade were so closely associated and so intertwined that it 
 is difficult to tell the story of one entirely independently 
 of the other, but we shall endeavour to discriminate 
 between thepi and to tell each in its proper place. First 
 we shall take that of religion. What we shall tell of it 
 will be in the main condensed from the History of the 
 Church in Japan, a work to which we have already 
 referred and from which we have made many quotations, 
 in which the missionary labours of the Fathers are 
 modestly described without undue laudation or magnifi- 
 cation of what they did or suffered. Its narrative bears 
 throughout a strong impress of the truth, but we shall 
 tell nothing that has not been amply confirmed by the 
 results of the researches of modern European scholars 
 in the Japanese annals of the time, and horrible though it 
 is in many of its details, what we shall tell of it in this 
 chapter may be accepted as the faithful and unvarnished 
 story of what actually occurred, nothing but the truth, if 
 not the whole of the painful truth. 
 
 In the year 1543, a Japanese rich and well born, about 
 thirty-five years of age, arrived at Malacca in a Portu- 
 guese ship from Japan. There he met Francis Xavier, 
 the great Jesuit missionary, perhaps the greatest mis- 
 sionary the world has seen since St. Paul, then in the 
 Q 2 227 
 
228 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 full tide of his proselytizing career in the Far East, by 
 whom he was converted to Christianity. The disciple 
 also in a sense converted the apostle. Xavier was so 
 interested in what he was told of Japan that he deter- 
 mined to visit it himself, notwithstanding the strong 
 protestations of his co-religionists in Goa and Malacca, 
 both priests and converts, against his abandonment of 
 the great but unfinished work which he was success- 
 fully carrying on in the Portuguese colonies, in order 
 to undertake a hazardous journey, through unknown and 
 dangerous seas, infested with pirates, to a still more 
 unknown country, of whose language and people he was 
 equally ignorant. 
 
 The great missionary felt that God had given him a 
 new field which it was his duty to cultivate, and having 
 bid farewell to his friends and disciples, he sailed from 
 Goa, and after a long voyage arrived at Malacca. 
 
 There he took passage in a Chinese junk, the master 
 of which was a notorious pirate, and sailed for Japan on 
 the 24th of June, 1549. The voyage fully justified all the 
 forecasts of its dangers, but it was happily completed, 
 and Xavier landed at Kagoshima on the Feast of the 
 Assumption in the same year. He was accompanied by 
 two other priests, Cosmo de Torres and John Fernandez, 
 the former "one of the greatest wits and learned'st men 
 of his time," and by the converted Japanese, who was 
 now known by his new baptismal name, Paul Saint Foy, 
 Paul of the Holy Faith, who, in his stay at Goa, had 
 learned to speak and write Portuguese. Kagoshima hap- 
 pened to be Saint Foy's birthplace. The Prince of 
 Satsuma, then in the very plenitude of his prosperity, 
 learning of their arrival, at once sent for Saint Foy, by 
 whom Xavier was soon presented to him. 
 
 Their stay at Kagoshima lasted little over a year. 
 The Prince and his mother were both interested - and 
 impressed by what they heard from Xayier, and a hun- 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO FIRST PERSECUTION 229 
 
 dred converts were made by his exhortations, interpreted 
 by Saint Foy, who afterwards remained firm in their 
 faith through all trials, but the native priests so worked 
 upon the conscience of the Prince, holding out to him 
 the perils he incurred by forsaking the Gods of his 
 ancestors at the bidding of three foreign beggars, that 
 he forbade his people to become Christians under dire 
 penalties. Xavier accordingly left Kagoshima and went 
 to Hirado, then the chief seat of the foreign trade of 
 Japan. Some Portuguese ships happened to be in har- 
 bour when he arrived, and the Japanese, always suscep- 
 tible to outward pomp and show, were astounded to see 
 the ships decked and salutes fired to the accompaniment 
 of bugles, in honour of a poor priest in an old threadbare 
 cassock, and the richly dressed Portuguese officers con- 
 duct him with every mark of deference to the palace of 
 the local Prince. 
 
 A mission was established at Hirado, and leaving De 
 Torres in charge of ft, Xavier set out for Kioto, to obtain 
 the licence of the Emperor and Shogun to preach the 
 Gospel in all Japan. Fernandez and a Japanese Chris- 
 tian accompanied him. They passed by Yamaguchi, the 
 capital of Mori, the Prince of Choshiu and the Western 
 Provinces, where they abode a month, and then started 
 for Kioto. The land journey from Yamaguchi to Kioto 
 is little over 300 miles, but they were three months upon 
 the road. It was midwinter, the most inclement 
 season of the year, and they had neither money nor 
 guides. 
 
 "These three servants of God made their journey in this 
 hard season, and these rough ways, commonly barefoot, 
 having to pass rivers and torrents, which sometimes over- 
 flow the plains; besides, they were ill provided with warm 
 clothes to resist the inclemencies of the air; they were also 
 laden with their necessary equipage; and thus they travelled 
 without any other Supports of Life, than a little rice roasted 
 
230 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 or dried by the fire, which Bernard carried in his sleeve 
 by way of a Wallet, so that they were forced to take up 
 at night at the first place they met, both weary, wet and 
 spent for want of food; happy when they could light on 
 some forsaken hut to shelter them in the night from wind 
 and rain ; for being extremely poor, the people looked upon 
 them with contempt and refused them lodging. 
 
 " That which gave them the greatest trouble was the want 
 of guides, for they continually lost their ways, and knew 
 not what path to follow; being one day lost in a forest they 
 met a horseman, who was going towards Kioto. Xavier 
 followed him, and offered to carry his mail if he would con- 
 duct them through the forest. The horseman accepted his 
 offer, but trotted on at a round rate, so that the Saint was 
 constrained to run after him over flints and thorns, which 
 tore his feet, and this fatigue lasted almost all the day." 
 
 In February 1551, they at last reached Kioto. It was 
 a time of the utmost disorder. The Ashikaga Shoguns 
 were drawing to their fall, and the capital, wasted by 
 fires and war, was a daily scene of riot and broils between 
 rival clansmen. Xavier, who had by this time acquired 
 some experience in the language, tried to preach in the 
 public places of the city, but no one had leisure or in- 
 clination to listen to him. His keen perception aided 
 him in learning that the Emperor had no real authority 
 at all, and that the effective authority of the Shogun did 
 not extend beyond the Go Kinai, the five provinces 
 around the capital. Their licence to preach would be 
 useless for the rest of the country ; preaching was equally 
 useless in Kioto in its present condition, so it was aban- 
 doned to wait for better times and the mission resumed 
 at Yamaguchi. Here, and later in Bungo, Xavier and 
 his fellow workers met with success that made ample 
 amends for the failure at Kioto, and not only was a 
 knowledge of the Gospel widely spread, but converts 
 were made in every class in life. Letters earnestly im- 
 ploring his return to the Indies now came to him, so 
 earnest that he could no longer resist them, and having 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO FIRST PERSECUTION 231 
 
 founded his mission in Japan, having made the first 
 converts and seen that the great work was fully organ- 
 ized, he sailed from Bungo about the end of November 
 155 1. He took with him two natives whom he wished 
 to send to Rome as the firstfruits of the Church of 
 Japan. One died on the way at Goa, the other — the 
 same who had accompanied him on his pilgrimage to 
 Kioto — reached Rome and afterwards entered the Jesuit 
 College at Coimbra, where he also died. Xavier him- 
 self died at Chang Cheung, a little island near the mouth 
 of th§ Canton River, on the 2nd of December, 1552, 
 when, after a visit to his beloved Church at Goa, "having 
 brought the East under the sweet yoke of Jesus Christ," 
 he was on the point of embarking on a new missionary 
 enterprise in China. 
 
 De Torres and Fernandez remained to carry on the 
 work in Japan, and now that the new field was known 
 in Europe, a steady stream of able and ardent Jesuit 
 missionaries, full of zeal and devotion, began to flow to 
 it. Three, Balthazar Gago, Lalcaceva, and Da Silva, 
 accompanied Xavier when on his way to Canton, and 
 left him at Malacca for Japan, where they arrived in 
 August 1552. They were followed, three years later, by 
 Melchior Nunez, the Provincial of the Indies, Caspar 
 Villela and other priests, all of whom were richly pro- 
 vided with funds for their future work by Mendez Pinto, 
 the Portuguese merchant adventurer, who was one of 
 the earliest Europeans to visit Japan, and who made a 
 fortune in trading between the Indies and China and 
 Japan. The work now rapidly spread. Bungo, where 
 Xavier had his greatest success, was the centre, but 
 during the next fifteen years Churches were founded at 
 such widely separated places as Kioto and the Goto 
 Islands; Sakai, the port of Kioto, and Yamaguchi; 
 Hakata and Shimabara, and the converts included 
 feudal Princes and their ladies, courtiers, the flower 
 
232 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 of the nobility, officers of high rank, soldiers and 
 people. "The Church was now like a vine that spreads 
 its branches on all sides, breathing out in its flowers a 
 sweet odour of sanctity among the heathen." The 
 internal conditions of Japan had now changed. Nobu- 
 naga was at the zenith of his fame and might, and had 
 made up his mind to break the military power of the 
 Buddhist priests. He saw what a factor the Christian 
 missionaries would be in undermining their religious 
 influence, and he therefore gave the Christians full 
 licence to preach their gospel in every place where his 
 own influence extended, more especially in the very 
 hearts of the chief Buddhist strongholds. "Buddhism," 
 he said, "had been introduced from abroad, and he saw 
 no reason why obstacles should be thrown in the Way 
 of another foreign religion." He gave very practical 
 illustration of his liberality by permitting the erection 
 of a church in his own city of Azuchi, at the very door 
 of the great temple which he built for his own deification. 
 The opposition of the Buddhist priests was bitter, though 
 there were converts even from their ranks. They stirred 
 up frequent riots in the two irriportant fiefs of Omura and 
 Arima, revolutions in which churches were destroyed 
 and the Fathers in imminent danger, but still converts 
 came in abundance, and there were now also Japanese 
 priests of the Church who were no less zealous propa- 
 gandists than the Fathers themselves. Ladies of high 
 birth also took the holy vows and gave their lives and 
 services to the Church as nuns. 
 
 After Nobunaga's death in 1582, Hideyoshi for a few 
 yestrs pursued Nobunaga's policy of toleration, though 
 he had never sympathized with it. At first he even 
 exceeded Nobunaga in marked courtesy to the heads of 
 the Church. He permitted the ladies of the Court, maids 
 of honour to his wives, who were Christians, whose 
 modesty and piety particularly impressed him, to attend 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO FIRST PERSECUTION 233 
 
 Mass, and hinted that he himself would become a Chris- 
 tian were it not for its inhibition of one of the great 
 frailties of human nature, common to Princes of all 
 lands and all ages, in which Hideyoshi himself par- 
 ticularly indulged. In 1587, thirty-eight years from 
 Xavier's landing in Japan, "the Church was grown so 
 fair and flourishing that one might well compare it to 
 an orange-tree laden on all sides with fruit and blossom. 
 It was a ship under full sail, driven by the wind of the 
 Holy Ghost, daily discovering new places and countries." 
 There were more than 200,000 Christians. Then a new 
 and unfortunate condition was created for which the 
 Christians were themselves in some degree to blame. 
 
 Four causes are assigned by the Jesuit Fathers for 
 the sudden change which took place in Hideyoshi's 
 demeanour towards them, which made him the Nero 
 instead of the protector of the Church. First, the dis- 
 solute conduct of the Portuguese merchants and sailors 
 in Japan, so much at variance both with the lives of 
 the priests and the doctrine preached by them. They 
 spent days and nights in debaucheries, and when the 
 Fathers reprehended them, they put into other ports at 
 which the Fathers had no residence, where they con- 
 tinued to give -the most unrestrained licence to their 
 passions. This cause will read strangely when in juxta- 
 position with the next. Hideyoshi's own reason for not 
 adopting Christianity has just been stated. He was mar- 
 ried no less than six times, but he maintained a seraglio 
 of nearly 300 women at Osaka. He was always adding 
 to them, and as he could not carry them with him on his 
 various military expeditions, he required that others 
 should be provided for him in every place to which he 
 came. A Buddhist priest who had forsaken the priest- 
 hood and become a physician, whose name is given as 
 Hiakunin, was his principal servitor in these delicate 
 matters, and this person made it his business to search 
 
234 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 out everywhere fair and beautiful ladies and none, no 
 matter what their rank, dare resist him. But his pro- 
 posals were indignantly rejected by the Christian ladies 
 in Arima, and furious not only at his failure, but at the 
 reproaches which the ladies heaped on him for such vile 
 traffic on the part of one who had been a priest^ he used 
 all his influence to inflame Hideyoshi's anger against 
 the Christians in general, and especially at the greatest 
 convert that had yet come within the fold of the Church, 
 Takayama Ukon, one of Hideyoshi's most distinguished 
 and favourite generals, the one who defeated the traitor, 
 Akechi, the murderer of Nobunaga. Lastly, Hideyoshi's 
 abnormal vanity was offended in two ways. A Portu- 
 guese ship of more than the ordinary tonnage had just 
 arrived at Hirado. Hideyoshi, curious to see it, ordered 
 that it should be brought to the port of Hakata, where 
 he was at the time, but as this harbour would not admit 
 the entry of so large a vessel, deeply laden, the captain 
 was obliged to refuse, which he did with every possible 
 courtesy. Hideyoshi none the less considered the refusal 
 an affront. A still greater and a continuing affront was 
 the obstacle which he saw Christianity must always be 
 to his own deification, the great object of his ambition, 
 as one of the national heroes of Japan. 
 
 The combined result of all these causes of offence to 
 Hideyoshi was an order to the Fathers to leave Japan 
 within twenty days, and an absolute prohibition of any 
 further preaching of the Gospel on pain of death. 
 
 So far we have told the story of the change of Hide- 
 yoshi's attitude to Christianity and the origin of the 
 persecution entirely from the point of view of the Jesuit 
 Fathers, but there is another side to it. Xavier and his 
 companions came to Japan in all outward humility, 
 poor in dress and in means of subsistence, and, as will 
 be seen from what has been told of their early work and 
 experience, presenting to the Japanese only the aspects 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO FIRST PERSECUTION 235 
 
 of the humblest of the poor. It was not long before 
 their successors, flushed with their great triumphs, began 
 to adopt a very different attitude and to claim the rank 
 and all its privileges which they had enjoyed in their 
 own countries, where they had all the terrors of the 
 Inquisition to support them. The Buddhist priests were 
 never more active and implacable foes to the Catholic 
 missionaries than the missionaries showed themselves, 
 when they felt sure of their influence, to the priests, a 
 fact for which there is no need to have recourse for its 
 confirmation to native sources, whether Buddhist or 
 otherwise. It is fully shown in the History of the 
 Church. The Princes of Arima, Omura, Amakusa and 
 Bungo were among the earliest converts. There is no 
 need to question the sincerity of the conversion in any 
 of these cases, and in some the fullest proof was given of 
 it in the days of the persecution when the Princes 
 suffered loss of rank, property and life rather than abjure 
 their faith. But the conversion had its material as well 
 as its spiritual benefits. In each case the seaports of 
 the fiefs of the converted princes became seats of 
 foreign trade with all its huge profits, and still more 
 with the means of furnishing an unlimited supply of 
 firearms, of the latest pattern, and gunpowder, both 
 valuable acquisitions at a period of universal civil war, 
 when the authority of the Central Government was 
 scarcely felt in the remote provinces, when every feudal 
 prince's hands were directed against his neighbour, 
 when estates could only be retained or added to by 
 military force. And when the princes were converted 
 it was not a difficult matter to induce their feudal sub- 
 jects to follow their example. Persecution was, in fact, 
 originated by the Fathers themselves. They tell exult- 
 ingly of how one prince destroyed great temples which 
 had existed for centuries and idols which were ancient 
 works of art, and drove the Buddhist priests headlong 
 
236 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 from his territories : how others ordered all, whether lay 
 or cleric, who were not Christians to leave their dominions, 
 forsaking home and property; and all these steps were 
 taken under the Fathers' influence, if not at their in- 
 stigation. Two quotations from the History of the 
 Church will serve to illustrate both the original, spirit of 
 the converted princes and the means they took to testify 
 their zeal — • 
 
 "The Prince of Omura wrote to Father Torres and 
 promised if he would send over some of his Religious, that 
 he would both build a Church and give them a sufficient fund 
 for maintaining them and all others who came thither on 
 that same account. Secondly, that he would give the 
 Portuguese a seaport, free from all taxes and customs, 
 with all the fiefs belonging to it for two leagues about, and 
 not let any heathen remain there without the Father's 
 express leave. Moreover, on condition the Portuguese 
 landed in the same port, he was resolved to exempt them 
 and all others that trafficked with them from all duties 
 and imports belonging to the Crown for ten years together." 
 
 "The divine spirit inspired the Prince with such horror 
 of the Heathenish superstitions, that he could not hold from 
 persecuting them. The Japanese adore an idol called 
 Hachiman, the God of War, and this idol wears an helmet 
 with a spread cock for the crest. The Princes being for 
 the most part at variance, they pay particular honour to 
 this God, and never enter upon a war before they consult 
 this idol about the event. When the armies make their 
 rendezvous, the Troops constantly pass by this temple, and 
 every soldier makes a profound reverence to the Idol, lays 
 down his arms and kisses the Standard for a sign of respect 
 and submission. The Prince coming before this tepiple, 
 commanded his Army to make a halt, and in great trans- 
 ports of zeal, ordered them to break down the idol and 
 drag it about the streets ; then drawing his sword he struck 
 at the Cock and helmet, and never ceased until he had cut 
 off the head. His zeal did not stop here, for he made them 
 in conclusion burn both the idol and the temple; then 
 erecting a Cross, he prostrated himself before it, and the 
 whole army did the same after his example; he afterwards 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO FIRST PERSECUTION 237 
 
 dispatched some squadrons throughout the Kingdom to ruin 
 all the idols and temples, without any regard to the Priests' 
 rage, which so much frightened him before baptism." 
 
 If the lower classes yielded readily to the orders of 
 their princes to become Christians, they showed a very 
 different aspect afterwards in the dark days of the 
 Church. Few, when persecution came, abandoned their 
 faith under the most horrible tortures that were only 
 ended by death. 
 
 Kaempfer states — ^and it is to be remembered that, 
 hostile AS he was to the Portuguese and their religion, 
 his history was written long after both had been finally 
 driven from Japan, and when there was no material 
 benefit to be gained by libelling either — that the haughty 
 conduct of the priests, and their refusal to pay the 
 ordinary marks of respect to the great men of the 
 Empire, contributed not a little to Hideyoshi's anger 
 against them — 
 
 " I was told by an old Japanese, that the following in- 
 cident, with many more of the like nature, very much 
 incensed the Emperor, and hastened his resolution to let 
 the proud Portuguese feel the effects of his displeasure. 
 Taiko,^ to be nearer at hand to second his expedition into 
 Korea, set up his Court and residence for some time at 
 Hakata. One day a Portuguese priest meeting upon the 
 road one of the principal Counsellors of state on his way 
 to Court, caused himself to be carried by without alighting 
 from his chair, as is usual in the country, nay, indeed, 
 without showing him so much as common marks of respect 
 and civility." 
 
 It is not difficult to imagine how conduct such as this, 
 wanting even in the elements of ordinary courtesy, must 
 have inflamed the anger of the nobility of a nation where 
 politeness is the universal rule and the most profound 
 
 ^ Hideyoshi. Taiko was the title given to the Kuambaku after his 
 retirement. Hideyoshi is best known in history as Taiko Sama, the 
 Taiko, the greatest of all who ever held the title (see pages 191 and 221). 
 By " the Emperor " in this quotation is meant Hideyoshi. 
 
238 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 respect is manifested in public to both rank and office. 
 The priests, in fact, forgot that they were in Japan and 
 not in their own country, and their doing so no doubt 
 was one of the contributory causes of all their later 
 sufferings. 
 
 Both Fathers and native Christians were overwhelmed 
 by the totally unexpected blow which had fallen on 
 them, as surprising to the non-Christian Japanese as 
 it was to themselves. Both behaved with the most 
 admirable prudence and fortitude in their hour of 
 trial. A conference of all the Fathers, seventy in 
 number, was held, and they all met at Hirado in 
 August 1587. They decided to pray that Hideyoshi's 
 heart should be softened; that, if the prayers were not 
 answered, the Fathers should remain at their posts even 
 to the sacrifice of their lives; that they should in future 
 hold their services and carry on their mission in private, 
 as was done in heretical countries in Europe, and do 
 nothing to cause open offence; and that they should 
 prepare themselves by prayer and mortification to suffer 
 torments or death for the Holy Faith. As for the con- 
 verts, though they were threatened with death or banish- 
 ment, not a soul wavered. Takayama, great general 
 and feudal prince, was ordered to renounce his religion 
 or forfeit both office and property. He chose poverty 
 for himself and all that were dear to him, and his 
 example was followed by hundreds of others, both men 
 and women. Two exceptions were made in the general 
 persecution. Konishi Yukinaga, afterwards the con- 
 queror of Korea, and Kuroda Yoshitaka were both 
 generals and devoted Christians. Dreading to add to 
 the heavy loss which he suffered by dismissing Taka- 
 yamaj Hideyoshi was obliged to dissemble his anger in 
 their case. Both were retained in their rank and offices, 
 and both, through the personal influence which they 
 exercised on Hideyoshi, were afterwards able to render 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO FIRST PERSECUTION 239 
 
 great services to the Christians. The blow was not so 
 heavy in its fall as in its threats. The Fathers all took 
 refuge in the territories of Christian feudatories, where 
 they were kindly treated, and pursued their work in the 
 secrecy they had enjoined upon themselves. Churches 
 were ruthlessly levelled to the ground, and there were 
 some instances of converts who lost their lives for the 
 faith, but within a few years an incident occurred which 
 gave brighter prospects. 
 
 In 1582 the Princes of Arima, Bungo and Omura, 
 all converts, at the suggestion of the Fathers dispatched 
 a mission to the Pope of four nobly born youths. The 
 mission, which was accompanied by Father Valignani, 
 the Provincial of the Order in Japan, arrived in Rome 
 in 1585, and they were received with every mark of high 
 honour by Pope Gregory XIII and generally fSted in 
 the capital. On reaching Goa on their return journey, 
 accompanied both by Father Valignani and seventeen 
 new missionaries of the Church, they heard of the perse- 
 cution. The priests were in doubt as to whether they 
 should proceed or not, but Father Valignani, having 
 received a letter from the Viceroy of the Indies accredit- 
 ing him as ambassador to Japan, they decided to do so, 
 and continuing with the mission, finally arrived at Naga- 
 saki on the 2istof July, 1590, Valignani and the Japanese 
 having thus been absent for eight years. Before con- 
 tinuing our narrative we may turn aside for a moment 
 to relate an incident only indirectly connected with our 
 subject. 
 
 The island of Amakusa, a small island in the south 
 of Kiushiu, covering the entrance to the Shimabara 
 Gulf, was the fief of a prince who was numbered among 
 the Christians. He revolted against Hideyoshi, not as 
 a Christian, but for political reasons, probably thinking 
 that he would be secure in the remoteness and inacces- 
 sibility of his island. A force was sent to punish him 
 
240 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 commanded by Konishi Yukinag^, the Christian 
 general, and Kato Kiyomasa, who hated all Christians, 
 the two generals who later on commanded the Japanese 
 army in the great invasion of Korea, and they quickly 
 overran the island and laid siege to the castle. Here 
 Yukinaga would have spared the defenders, but his col- 
 league insisted on a general assaul|:, and in the fight 
 nearly all the defenders were killed. Then three hundred 
 women, unwilling to survive their husbands, took up 
 their swords and, running to the breach in the walls, 
 beat back the besiegers and filled the ditches with their 
 dead. Victory hung in suspense for some time, but the 
 besiegers rallied and charged again, and all the women 
 were cut in pieces and the castle taken. 
 
 Considerable delay occurred while Hideyoshi's objec- 
 tions to receive Valignani at Court were being overcome, 
 but at last his consent was given on the strict condition 
 that it was as ambassador and not as priest that Vajignani 
 was presented to him. Once this understanding was 
 clearly established, every possible honour was rendered 
 to the ambassador by the Court. He was lodged in a 
 palace in Kioto, formerly occupied by Hideyoshi him- 
 self ; a high officer of the Court was sent to conduct him 
 to the jaudience; and carriages and richly caparisoned 
 horses were provided for himself and his retinue. In the 
 hall of audience, Hideyoshi, clad in gold brocade all 
 shining with pearls, was seated on a high throne, over 
 which there was a rich canopy hung with the best 
 tapestry of China, and the whole hall was lined by all 
 the grand officers of state. The walls and wainscots 
 were inlaid with gold, wrought in curious figures of 
 birds and flowers. On his side, the Father's procession 
 to the Palace was worthy of his new function. It was 
 on the first Sunday in Lent in 1591. 
 
 " First of all a fine Arabian horse covered with carnation- 
 coloured velvet, plate harness and gold stirrups. The Viceroy 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO FIRST PERSECUTION 241 
 
 of the Indies had sent two, but one died on the way. 
 Two young men clad in long robes of silk, with turbans, 
 walked on each side, and led the horse by the reins be- 
 tween two Portuguese on horseback. After them followed 
 two pages, so richly clad that one would have taken them 
 for two Prince's sons. They marched immediately before 
 the two Japanese Lords, who formed part of the mission to 
 the Pope, who were clad in black velvet trimmed with 
 gold lace, which Sixtus Quintus had given them at Rome. 
 As for Father Valignani and his two companions, they were 
 clad in the usual dress of the Order and carried in litters. 
 The march was closed with the Portuguese in so rich attire, 
 that they might have appeared before the greatest monarch 
 of the world." 
 
 The whole was so impressive that the populace said it 
 far exceeded the procession of the Korean envoy who had 
 visited Hideyoshi only a few months before. Civilities 
 did not end with the formal audience. Hideyoshi was 
 pleased with the presents, with all he heard of Europe 
 from the young nobles who visited the Pope, and evinced 
 such symptoms of a gentler spirit that the fairest hopes 
 were held of the speedy return of the old days of tolera- 
 tion. When the ambassador left Kioto to return to 
 Nagasaki, Father Rodriguez, who was proficient in the 
 Japanese language, was, by Hideyoshi's special desire, 
 left behind in the capital as agent. During the next two 
 years the Jesuits faithfully followed the resolutions of 
 the conference at Hirado, and the Church, though forced 
 to work and worship in private, had continued prose- 
 lytizing successfully and was left in peace and un- 
 noticed by the Japanese authorities. Then a new storm 
 burst over it. 
 
 Hitherto the priests of the Jesuit fraternity had monopo- 
 lized the new missionary field in Japan, the soil of which 
 they were the first to break. Their monopoly was con- 
 firmed by Bulls of Popes Gregory XIII and Clement 
 VII, and Philip II of Spain ordered his Viceroy in the 
 Indies to see that these Bulls were obeyed. Trade 
 
242 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 jealousies arose, as will be shown in another chapter, 
 between the Spaniards and the Portuguese, and the 
 Governor of the Philippines, in the hope of placing his 
 own countrymen on a better footing, sent an enibassy 
 to Japan. The ambassador brought with him in his 
 train four "religious recollects" of the Ord^r of St. 
 Francis, Fathers Baptiste, Ruys, Francis and Gonzalez. 
 The embassy was received by Hideyoshi at Nagoya, 
 not very cordially as Hideyoshi arrogated a claim to 
 the sovereignty of the Philippines which at one period 
 he thought of enforcing by arms, and at the audience 
 the Franciscans asked and received permission to visit 
 Kioto and Osaka "to see his noble palaces." The 
 permission was given on condition that they did not 
 attempt to preach or hold services. The Franciscans, 
 being resolved not to observe this condition, "gave no 
 promise, but made a low reverence." One of the Jesuits, 
 Father Organtin, was living quietly in Kioto; he had 
 been thirty years in Japan and was now an old man, too 
 infirm to undertake the voyage to Europe, and when 
 his presence was reported to Hideyoshi, he said, "Let 
 him end his days among us. Having no church he 
 can do no harm." There were secretly four other priests 
 in Kioto, none of whom ever appeared in public, but all, 
 together with Rodriguez and Organtin, who had both 
 permission to reside there, assisted in the private cele- 
 bration of the sacraments of the Church in a little 
 chapel erected within Organtin 's house and in minister- 
 ing to their converts. 
 
 The Franciscans recognized none of the obligations 
 of the Jesuits. Their ardent zeal made them believe 
 that such deference to the orders of the Sovereign was 
 contrary to the liberty of the Gospel, and that they 
 ought to preach the faith to the infidels despite of all 
 laws to the contrary. The precise terms of the Bulls 
 of the Pope which conferred the monopoly of the field 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO FIRST PERSECUTION 243 
 
 on the Jesuits, only forbade, they argued, "going to 
 Japan." Now that they were actually in Japan, although 
 they had come there not as priests, but as part of the 
 retinue of a lay ambassador, there was nothing in the 
 Bulls that prohibited their preaching. This may have 
 been true as regards the wording of the Bulls, but it 
 was entirely contrary to their spirit. Nothing, however, 
 could stand in the way of the zeal of the Franciscans. 
 On the site assigned to them as a diplomatic residence 
 in the capital they built a church and convent, and from 
 the 4th* of October, 1594, regularly and openly celebrated 
 Mass in it, though they were warned, both by the most 
 wise and prudent of the converts and by friendly 
 heathen, of the danger they provoked not only to them- 
 selves, but to the Church. The city Governor ordered 
 them to desist, but they paid no attention to his orders. 
 The Governor, being alone in Court with Hideyoshi on 
 one occasion, said to him, " I fear those priests who call 
 themselves ambassadors from the Governor of the 
 Philippines intend both to preach and baptize like the 
 rest." "They won't," replied Hideyoshi in a passion, 
 "if they be wise, for if they do, I'll make them examples 
 and teach them to laugh at me." The Governor again 
 advised the Fathers of the danger they were in, but then, 
 thinking he had done his duty, took no further notice 
 of them, and the Fathers, finding no material opposi- 
 tion, extended their work. Three more members of the 
 Order, Rodriguez, Ribadeney and Jerome, joined them 
 at their invitation from the Philippines. Another con- 
 vent was built at Osaka, and intoxicated with their 
 success, they resolved to extend their work to Nagasaki, 
 where there was a large establishment of Jesuits work- 
 ing quietly among a large native congregation. The 
 Superior of the Franciscans asked permission from the 
 Governor of Kioto for two of his brethren who were 
 sick to go to Nagasaki for change of air, and was told, 
 R 2 
 
244 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 "In case of health there need be no further leave, all in 
 Japan being free to go and reside where they pleased." 
 
 Fathers Baptiste and Jerome accordingly went to 
 Nagasaki, and there soon began to say Mass and preach 
 publicly without any regard to the prohibition. 
 
 At this period all Hideyoshi's anger against the 
 Christians seemed to have gone. He knew that many 
 Fathers, though banished from Japan, remained in the 
 country, but he made no search for them; on the con- 
 trary, he gave leave to ten of them to reside at Naga- 
 saki and, as has been told, to Rodriguez to reside and 
 the venerable Father Organtin to finish his days at 
 Kioto : he had just received the newly arrived Bishop 
 of the Church with every mark of honour and esteem, 
 and more than once silenced his courtiers for speaking 
 reflectingly on the Christians, "particularly in time of 
 the Earthquake, when one was pleased to say, they 
 were justly punished for receiving a stranger religion 
 into Japan. You have reason indeed (said the Em- 
 peror), as if there had never been earthquakes in Japan 
 before Christians came amongst us." 
 
 It was under these circumstances that the Franciscans, 
 "little acquainted, being newly arrived in the country, 
 with the genius of the people, and still less with Hide- 
 yoshi's designs," gave full scope to their proselytizing 
 in public, preaching publicly in the churches, hearing 
 confessions and baptizing the infidels without any regard 
 to Hideyoshi's orders. No warnings or remonstrances 
 were able to stop their torrent of zeal. While they were 
 thus employed an unhappy incident occurred. A great 
 Spanish galleon, richly laden, called the St. Philip, 
 bound from the Philippines to Goa, took refuge in a 
 port in Tosa, mastless, rudderless and leaking. She 
 had six priests among her passengers. Hideyoshi was 
 persuaded to take possession of the galleon as a prize 
 on the ground that she brought soldiers, arms and 
 priests, and that she was a wreck on the coast of Japan. 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO FIRST PERSECUTION 245 
 
 The unhappy captain protested against such an outrage 
 on a ship in distress belonging to a friendly nation 
 with which there was a Treaty of Commerce, and think- 
 ing to support his protests by showing the might of his 
 King, he pointed on a map to all the Spanish posses- 
 sions in the world. The Governor inquired how the 
 King of Spain had acquired such great possessions, and 
 the Spaniard told him — 
 
 "that this was done by the help of Missioners, whom his 
 Master sent to all parts of the world to preach the Gospel 
 of Jesus Christ, for so soon as these Religious had gained 
 a sufficient number of Proselytes, the King followed with 
 his troops, and joining the new Converts made a conquest 
 of the Kingdoms." 
 
 The contumacy of the Franciscans and the indiscretion 
 of the unfortunate Spanish captain were simultaneously 
 reported to Hideyoshi and received by him with an out- 
 burst of passion. No time could have been more unfor- 
 tunate at which to give him new cause of irritation. 
 Shortly before, his pride had been wounded to the quick 
 by the failure of the Chinese Embassy which, coming, 
 as he thought, to do him honour, had addressed him as 
 a vassal of China. The renewal of the war with Korea 
 was at hand, and his abilities and resources were being 
 tried to the utmost. A terrible earthquake had just 
 ruined the majestic temple and palace on which he had 
 lavished millions, which he fondly hoped would have 
 borne witness to his wealth and greatness. Now both 
 had been wrecked to their foundations, and he himself 
 had for a time been forced to seek safety from the 
 repeated shocks in a wretched mountain hut. His 
 health was beginning to break. On all this came the 
 news that his orders had publicly been flouted by 
 foreigners in his own dominions, that these very 
 priests whom he had spared were the forerunners of the 
 conquering arms of Spain. And beside him was still 
 the vile Pandar, Hiakunin, still full of hatred and 
 
246 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 malice against the Christians, to inflame his anger 
 still further, and to urge him to spare none, neither the 
 priests who had misled the Japanese from the national 
 Gods, nor the Japanese who had forsaken these Gods. 
 Is it to be wondered at that Hideyoshi, an autocrat 
 whose word none of his own people dared to dispute, 
 declared he would hang or burn every man ? The news 
 was quickly spread that all Christians were to die, 
 Jesuits, Franciscans and Japanese without distinction. 
 Not a convert faltered. Women and children showed 
 the same courage as did the men. 
 
 The days of wholesale persecution were, however, 
 not yet come. Hideyoshi exempted the Portuguese 
 Jesuits. They had obeyed the laws, and he feared an 
 outbreak among the Christians in Kiushiu, a large and 
 influential body, if he condemned the priests who had 
 lived and worked among them for so many years. Three 
 native Jesuit priests were, however, included among 
 those condemned to die — twenty-four in all. Many 
 more could have been taken, for, once the edict went 
 forth, the native converts boldly professed their faith 
 and sought the honour of dying with their priests. But 
 the officers charged with the arrests were merciful ; they 
 were appalled by the number that presented themselves, 
 and took only those whom they found in the actual 
 service of the Mass. Their mercy went even further. 
 They gave four of the Franciscans at Nagasaki the 
 chance of leaving Japan by the first vessel that sailed. 
 The Father Provincial of the society refused to take it. 
 The sufferings of the condemned were long and agoniz- 
 ing. The tips of their ears were cut off. Then with 
 hands tied behind their backs, they were carted through 
 the streets of Kioto and Osaka — then in the same fashion 
 on the long journey from Osaka to Nagasaki by land, 
 that all the people on the way might see them. It was 
 midwinter, the same season and the same journey that 
 Xavier had taken on his first visit to the capital, and 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO FIRST PERSECUTION 247 
 
 the sufferings of the ill-clad prisoners were intense, so 
 much so that their guards, fearing they might die on 
 their hands, at last relieved them with additional clothing 
 and food. It was on the 3rd of January that they started 
 on their march from Kioto. It was thirty-three days 
 later when they reached the ground at Nagasaki on 
 which they were to die. The first intention was that 
 they should be crucified on the common execution 
 ground, but at the entreaty of the Portuguese residents 
 at Nagasaki they were spared this indignity by the 
 ■ local governor, and taken to the hill on whose slopes the 
 Roman Catholic cathedral now stands. There all were 
 crucified,^ their last glances lighting on one of the fairest 
 spots on the earth. Only the baptismal names are given 
 of the Japanese who died ; two of them were boys twelve 
 and thirteen years of age, but those of the six Franciscan 
 priests were Francis Baptiste, Commissary Superior 
 of the Order, a native of Avila, Spain, aged forty-eight 
 years; Martin de Luynes, of Biscay, aged thirty; Philip 
 of Jesus, of Mexico ; Gonzalez Garcia de Bazaine ; Francis 
 le Blanc, a Gallician, aged thirty years; and Francis 
 Michael of Valladolid. They were the first of the long 
 list of European martyrs in Japan who cheerfully gave 
 up their lives in their Master's cause. They brought 
 their fate upon themselves by their obstinate defiance 
 of the law of the land in which they lived. They were 
 the ultimate causes of the ruin of the Church for which 
 they died, but they paid the penalty of their errors with 
 
 ' Crucifixion, a punishment which was abolished less than forty 
 years ago, and, while it lasted, was considered less severe than decapi- 
 tation, though very horrible in its form, was not so crud as with the 
 Jews and the Romans. The cross had two bars, one at the head and 
 one at the feet, and between the two was a small seat. The con- 
 demned man was tied — ^not nailed — hands and feet, in spread-eagle 
 fashion to the two bars, with the weight of his body resting on the seat. 
 When the cross was erected, an expert spearsman stood on each side, 
 and at a given command, both drove their spears simultaneously so 
 that both spears passed crosswise in the shape of an X through all the 
 vital organs of the body, and death was instantaneous. 
 
248 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 unflinching courage, and faced death in a horrible form 
 rather than take the choice that was given to them of 
 abandoning the field in which they worked and leaving 
 their converts without the spiritual ministrations of the 
 priests of their fraternity. A strong military guard 
 kept the people at a distance during the execution, but 
 when all was over the Christians broke through the line 
 of soldiers to dip their handkerchiefs in the blood that 
 flowed from the bodies. 
 
 The execution was soon followed by orders that all 
 priests — even those of the Jesuit fraternity — should leave 
 Japan at once, and that all churches should be destroyed. 
 
 Under the second, 137 churches were demolished in 
 the three fiefs of Arima, Omura and Hirado, the Princes 
 of which were Christians, where Christianity had its 
 chief stronghold, but the first could not be carried out 
 as there were no ships in which so large a body could 
 sail, and before it could Hideyoshi sickened and died. 
 
 "To be short, this unhappy Prince died the 15th, in the 
 morning, at the age of sixty-two, laden with honours and 
 crimes, equally hated and dreaded by all his subjects, the 
 first that dipped his hands in the blood of Christians, and 
 the first that subdued all Japan by a most tyrannical usurpa- 
 tion. None were sorry for his death, but such as proposed 
 to enrich themselves by his life; for the Nobility, they were 
 all much better pleased to see him on the list of the dead 
 Gods, than in the land of living men." 
 
 This is the verdict of the Fathers on the first perse- 
 cutor of their Church in Japan. That of Hideyoshi's 
 own countrymen has already been given. ^ 
 1 See page 199. 
 
 Note. — In this and other chapters, the territorial feudal lords — the 
 Daimio — are frequently mentioned as " Princes." The latter is the 
 term that was almost invariably employed, not only by the Jesuit 
 Fathers and Kaempfer, but by European writers on and residents in 
 Japan — it was used even in official documents — down to the restora- 
 tion of the present Emperor. It was and is, of course, incorrect. The 
 feudatories were never entitled to it. They were not called Princes in 
 their own language, but for the sake of convenience the old custom of 
 using it has been followed to some extent in this book. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 CHRISTIANITY TO THE SECOND PERSECUTION 
 
 The Church now had a respite. Some of the most 
 influential members of the new Government — Ishida 
 Mitsunari, the most active and the ablest of the civil 
 members of the Council of State; Konishi Yukinaga, 
 the greatest general in the Empire — were devoted Chris- 
 tians, lyeyasu was at first far too occupied with his 
 controversies with the League and afterwards with his 
 campaign to be able to spare either time or thought for 
 a detail of administration that was insignificant in com- 
 parison with the great problems of statesmanship and 
 civil war that faced him. Every consideration of pru- 
 dence also forbade him, while his fate still hung in the 
 balance, to alienate an important section of the people, 
 more formidable in their intelligence, rank and military 
 distinction than their numbers, large though they were. 
 Christianity was predominant throughout Kiushiu ; it 
 was strongly represented among the veteran soldiers 
 that were now returning from Korea, and its votaries 
 would constitute a very formidable addition to those 
 who were already his declared enemies. 
 
 The Jesuits not only remained in Japan, but received 
 substantial reinforcements — their whole number was 
 now over a hundred — and while still working unosten- 
 tatiously and celebrating their Masses in privacy, they 
 made such an infinite number of new converts, that 
 "they were transported out of themselves to see God so 
 prosper their labours." The culmination of their joy 
 
 249 
 
250 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 was reached when Mori, the Prince of Choshiu, the 
 most puissant prince in all the land next to lyeyasu, 
 gave them permission to settle a residence in his capital 
 of Yamaguchi. It has been already told how Xavier 
 preached and founded a mission in this town. When 
 he left, Cosmo de Torres was placed in charge Qf it, and 
 his work was so successful that by 1556 he had made 
 two thousand converts. Then a local revolution occurred 
 — it will be remembered that at that period the Central 
 Government held no real authority over the Provinces — 
 and the town became as great a scene of rapine and blood- 
 shed as was Kioto in the last days of the Ashikaga. A 
 great part of it was burnt, including the church and 
 mission-house, and De Torres was forced to leave it, and 
 for twenty-seven years afterwards foreign missionaries 
 were forbidden to reside in it by the new Government 
 established by the local revolution. Then, when Chris- 
 tianity was free and flourishing through all Japan, the 
 permission was given, but no use could be made of it, as 
 all the Fathers were fully occupied in other dioceses. 
 It was again withdrawn under Hideyoshi's edicts. It 
 was found when the mission was reopened that more 
 than five hundred Christians, without the encour- 
 agement of the presence of foreign priests, without 
 ordained priests to minister to them, had conserved all 
 their faith in its primitive purity from the days of 
 Xavier and De Torres, nearly fifty years before. All the 
 original prosperity of the Church seemed to have now 
 returned to it : " It was like the earth in springtime, 
 flourishing in virtue and perfuming the country with the 
 sweet odour of its sanctity." Seventy thousand new 
 converts were baptized in the years 1599 and 1600, and 
 fifty churches rebuilt. Before opening the details of 
 the dawn of its new period of tribulation we shall divert 
 a little from our main story to tell that of a Christian 
 lady who won for herself a position among the great 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO SECOND PERSECUTION 251 
 
 women of Japan, by her fortitude, courage and devotion, 
 not as a Christian, but as a type of Samurai spirit in 
 the noblest form in which it can be displayed by women. 
 As a Christian she was a heroine of the Church, but 
 when that page in her story was entirely obliterated for 
 two and a half centuries by the national hatred of the 
 very name of Christianity, she was still a national 
 heroine in the eyes of all her countrymen. 
 
 The story has already been told of Akechi Mitsuhide, 
 traitor and murderer .^ His record, until that of the last 
 dark chapter in his life, was that of a brave Samurai. 
 His wife, in her own womanly way, was no less brave 
 than her husband. It is told of her that once, when 
 her husband was suddenly called upon to entertain im- 
 portant guests and was without the means to do so, his 
 wife provided them by selling her own hair. The 
 daughter of this couple, a girl of "surpassing beauty, 
 of quick wit, of sound judgment, and of a spirit and 
 genius above the common sort," was married to Hoso- 
 kawa Tadaoki, a brother ofHcer of her father, in the 
 service of Nobunaga, who was rewarded for his services 
 by the grant of the fief of Tango. Her husband was a 
 bosom friend of Konishi Yukinaga, who made vain 
 attempts to lead him into Christianity. He told his 
 wife, whom he passionately loved, all that he had heard 
 from Yukinaga about the new doctrine, and her interest 
 was kindled in it. The husband's duties as a soldier 
 necessitated frequent absences from home throughout all 
 Hideyoshi's long wars, and fearing lest so beautiful a 
 woman as his wife might, in his absence, be taken by 
 force to become the victim of Hideyoshi's inexhaustible 
 sensuality, he forbade her to stir beyond the walls of her 
 residence in Osaka. He provided her with abundant 
 ladies to enliven her solitude, but ordered the guards to 
 admit no one else, no matter of what quality. Her 
 
 ' See page 176. 
 
252 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 longing to hear of the doctrine of Christ was proof 
 against locks and bars, and with four of her ladies she 
 secretly attended the service of the church. What she 
 heard there filled her with the desire to be baptized, and, 
 as she might never find another opportunity, she earn- 
 estly begged that the ceremony should be performed at 
 onfce. The Father (Cespides) was not satisfied that she 
 was sufficiently fnstructed and prepared for the sacra- 
 ment. He saw besides that she was a person of rank, 
 and as she refused to tell her name, saying that reasons 
 obliged her to conceal it, but that she was a servant of 
 God, a true Christian at heart, her wondrous beauty 
 made the Father think she was one of Hideyoshi's three 
 hundred concubines. In the meantime, her absence 
 from home had been discovered. The guards, filled 
 with anxiety, sought her everywhere, and at last found 
 her among the Christians. They carried her home in 
 a palanquin, and from that day the strict watch that 
 was kept on her took away all hope of ever again being 
 able to go abroad. 
 
 There was no restriction on her ladies ; daily she sent 
 some of them with written queries to the Father, and the 
 result was that seventeen of these ladies were themselves 
 baptized. Then came the news of Hideyoshi's edict of 
 expulsion, and terrified lest the Fathers should be 
 driven from Osaka, she sent one of her ladies — one of 
 the seventeen — to implore the Fathers to baptize her 
 before they left. Access to her was as impossible for 
 them as it was for her to come to the church. So as a 
 last resort the Fathers instructed the lady, whose own 
 baptismal name was Mary, in the sacrament and com- 
 missioned her to perform it on her mistress. The lady 
 was herself both beautiful and of high birtfi, already 
 contracted in marriage to one of her own rank, but she 
 was so filled with the inspiration of the Divine Ministry 
 conferred on her by the Fathers, that she cut off her hair 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO SECOND PERSECUTION 253 
 
 and made a vow to devote herself in perpetual chastity 
 to the Church. Soon after Hosokawa returned home, 
 to find his wife a Christian. Torn between his love for 
 his wife and his hatred of Christianity, he was dis- 
 tracted what to do. It was within his marital rights to 
 kill her for her disobedience, but his love for her would 
 not allow him to take so violent a course. So he tried 
 severity, both in threats and actions. All this was in 
 the year 1587. Throughout thirteen years she remained 
 firm to her faith, and, though bereft of all priestly aid 
 and comfort, she was equally firm against both the 
 angry threats and loving entreaties of her husband. 
 
 In the war between the League and lyeyasu, Hoso- 
 kawa threw in his lot with lyeyasu, and was with his 
 army in its march to Gifu and at the battle of Seki ga 
 hara. Like many others in the same service he left 
 his wife at Osaka. There the League determined to take 
 the wives as hostages that their husbands would not 
 serve in the army of the enemy against the rightful 
 prince, the son of Hideyoshi, their former lord. Hoso- 
 kawa, before leaving Osaka, had foreseen this possi- 
 bility, which was an ordinary incident in the Civil Wars 
 in Japan, and had given orders to the guards of his 
 house that rather than let his wife be taken, they should 
 put her to death. The soldiers of the League were now 
 round the house, ready to seize their hostage, and the 
 time had come when it was the guard's duty to carry out 
 their master's orders. They were in tears when they 
 came to their lady and sadly told her of what they had 
 to do. She was at once resigned, begging only for a 
 few minutes to prepare herself by prayer and to bid 
 adieu to her own ladies. There was little time as the 
 soldiers at the gate were about to force their way in. 
 Her ladies wished to die with her, but she forbade them 
 as Christians and dismissed them. Then she received 
 the guards alone in her own chamber without a tremor. 
 
254 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 and she only begged them, knowing the Samurai code 
 of honour and duty, that they would do no harm to 
 themselves. "Madam," they answered, "how can we 
 survive you — we must do our duty to our master, but 
 justice condemns us also, whose hands will be stained 
 with your blood, to die with you." Then she fell on her 
 knees and bared her neck, and with one stroke her head 
 was severed from her body. Her body was reverently 
 covered with a silk cloth, and as it would have been 
 disrespectful to die in the room in which it was, the 
 guards withdrew to another and there all performed 
 hara-kiri, first setting fire to the house, that all the 
 bodies, their mistress's and their own, might be con- 
 sumed. All the details of the story were told by the 
 ladies of the household who survived.^ 
 
 We will now return to our main story. Seki ga hara 
 gave lyeyasu the mastery of the Empire, and when he 
 had settled the main and most pressing political diffi- 
 culties that confronted him he was able to give his 
 attention to Christianity. He was at first minded to 
 pursue the policy of Hideyoshi, and actually did issue 
 
 1 The story of this lady is told here as it is by the Jesuit Fathers. 
 It is also told in more than a hundred native works of history or 
 romance, but in not a single one is there, the present writer believes, 
 the slightest reference to the fact that the lady was a Christian, and 
 the cause assigned in them for the differences between herself and her 
 husband was the latter's horror at the taint cast on the daughter by her 
 father's treachery. In all native works she is also represented as 
 having died by her own hand when the attempt was made to arrest 
 her. The account of the Jesuit Fathers is probably the correct one. 
 They were her compeers, and in the city when she died, and the utter 
 disrepute into which Christianity fell soon after her death is quite suf- 
 ficient to explain the silence of later native writers on this feature of 
 her life which might have been held to dim the glory of her heroic 
 self-sacrifice. In the days of Old Japan it was only less common for 
 women of Samurai birth to die by their own hands to avoid capture or 
 dishonour than it was for their husbands or fathers. Men died by 
 hara-kiri, cutting the belly open with a sword — a very vivid description 
 of the ceremony of which is given in the " Tales of Old Japan " by 
 Lord Redesdale, who witnessed it— and women by thrusting a sword 
 into the throat. 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO SECOND PERSECUTION 255 
 
 an edict of expulsion, but he soon withdrew it in defer- 
 ence to the wishes of Christians who had fought for 
 him. The missionaries continued their work uninter- 
 rupted by official interference. Their staff was con- 
 stantly reinforced, and, as a new Bull of Pope Paul V 
 cancelled the monopoly of the Jesuits, the recruits in- 
 cluded priests of all the societies of the Roman Church, 
 Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustins as well as 
 Jesuits. All were equal in zeal and ability, and the 
 numbers of converts increased enormously. There were 
 churches everywhere from Tsugaru in the far north to 
 the Goto Islands in the extreme south; even in Yedo, 
 lyeyasu's own capital, and in the barbarous Yezo, still 
 little more than a terra incognita to the Japanese them- 
 selves. Sado, a remote island on the West Coast famed 
 for its gold mines, the source from which came the gold 
 that was so abundantly used in the decoration of the 
 palaces and temples of Kioto and Osaka, was not left 
 untried, and here, too, a devoted priest laboured among 
 the rough miners, many of them political, many more 
 criminal, -fugitives from justice. 
 
 While all was fair and promising, when the prosperity 
 and future of the Church seemed to be once more at 
 their height, another storm burst upon it, a storm that 
 was only to be lulled into calm when Christianity was 
 swept off the face of the waters and buried deep beneath 
 the angry waves. 
 
 The Dutch had now gained a foothold in Japan. 
 They hated Spaniards, and Portuguese with the bitter 
 hatred that is born of religious and political antagonism 
 and of trade rivalry. The Japanese found that they 
 need no longer depend only on the Spaniards and 
 Portuguese as the sole mediums of foreign trade, and 
 while both the latter persisted in uniting proselytism 
 with trade, the Dutch were bent on trade alone and, pro- 
 vided they were allowed to trade, willingly submitted 
 
256 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 to any conditions. In 1603 their privateers, practically 
 pirates, captured two large Portuguese ships at sea, 
 which among other things carried the funds and stores 
 for the Church in Japan, and great were the suffering 
 and the interruption to the work owing to the heavy 
 loss. In Japan, through the succeeding years, they 
 unceasingly vilified both Spaniards and Portuguese, 
 and convinced lyeyasu that in no long time in the 
 future he might expect to be called upon to defend his 
 own country against all the might of Spain, which was 
 for ever extending its possessions in the East. Spain 
 already held the Philippines, a frontier, as it were, of 
 Japan. She was constantly sending fresh troops there, 
 and against whom could they be intended to serve if 
 not Japan ? A Spanish sea captain, anxious only to 
 benefit navigation, took soundings openly and in broad 
 midday of some of the harbours. The Japanese thought 
 nothing of it till the Dutch told them it was a gross 
 infraction of international hospitality, and was only 
 being done for one purpose, to make the way easy for 
 a Spanish fleet. 
 
 A fracas occurred at Nagasaki between the sailors of 
 a Portuguese ship and Japanese on shore; it was prob- 
 ably a drunken row, such as are not uncommon between 
 European sailors and native rowdies at Japanese sea- 
 ports at the present day; but before it ended several 
 were killed on both sides. It was reported to lyeyasu, 
 who, without hearing a word of the Portuguese story, 
 without giving them any chance to exculpate them- 
 selves, ordered that the ship should be taken and the 
 crew put to death, and gave the Prince of Arima, a 
 Christian, the task of carrying out his orders. The 
 conduct of the Portuguese sailors was, as has been 
 already stated, not edifying to the native Christians, 
 who entirely disassociated them from the missionaries, 
 and the Prince of Arima had no compunctions in under- 
 
CHMSTIANITY TO SECOND PERSECUTION 257 
 
 taking the task that was given to him. The Portuguese 
 captain, a stout and valiant sailor, hearing of what was 
 threatened, put to sea, but was windbound at the mouth 
 of the harbour for two days. A fleet of Japanese boats 
 started in pursuit with three thousand soldiers on board. 
 On one of their largest boats a tower of strong wooden 
 beams was built from within which two hundred 
 musketeers could fire without exposing themselves in 
 any way to a return fire. The Portuguese did all he 
 could to escape, but it fell a dead calm. His ship was 
 helpless, while the Japanese manceuvred all round with 
 oars, and the tower ship laid herself by his stern where 
 his great broadside guns could not be brought to bear. 
 The Portuguese then attempted to destroy the tower 
 ship with a fire ball, but the fire took hold instead of 
 their own mizzen-sail and spread thence to the rest of 
 the ship, so that the men had to leave the guns to fight 
 the flames, while the Japanese all round fired on them 
 incessantly. The captain, seeing that all was lost, blew 
 up his ship. Even Christianity had not taught the 
 Japanese to spare their beaten foes. Christians though 
 the commander and most of his men were, they merci- 
 lessly shot the few Portuguese who survived the ex- 
 plosion and tried to escape by swimming. Not a soul 
 of all the crew and passengers was left, while the victors 
 themselves had heavy losses.^ This was in the year 1609. 
 All these incidents and circumstances had their in- 
 fluence on lyeyasu. In 161 1 he banished Christians 
 from his own Court. Even ladies of the Court were 
 banished to the wild and desolate island of Oshima. 
 The province of Arima had long been the home of 
 Christianity, and both the Prince and people were 
 devoted Christians. Through intrigues at Court, which 
 need not be detailed, the Prince, notwithstanding his 
 
 ^ The spot in the harbour at which this took place was eTCr after- 
 wards called " the place for burning foreign ships." 
 S 
 
258 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN ' 
 
 services in the case of the Portuguese ship, was deposed 
 and banished and finally executed without trial, his 
 chief offence being his Christianity. His son, the anti- 
 thesis of his father's virtues, apostatized and was in- 
 stalled as Prince in his stead on condition that he should 
 wipe out Christianity in his fief. Then a persecution 
 began in Arima. Banishment was tried at first, but it 
 was without effect. All who suffered were content to do 
 so rather than renounce their faith. Then the last 
 penalty of death was put in force, at first against sonie 
 of the gentry of the fief, who were executed with their 
 wives and children, some by the sword, some by being 
 burnt to death in slow fires; then against two younger 
 brothers of the Prince, both less than eight years of age, 
 and finally against the people, who were executed and 
 burnt like their betters. A limit was only drawn when 
 the Prince became frightened at the numbers of those 
 who stood firm in the face of all the tortures with which 
 they were threatened. 
 
 For two years lyeyasu was satisfied with the persecu- 
 tions in Arima, in his capital and in his own personal 
 town of Shidzuoka, but in 1614 he issued a further decree 
 in which it was ordered that all priests, whether Euro- 
 pean or Japanese, should be banished out of Japan; 
 that all churches should be pulled down; and that all 
 Christians should be enrolled, and those who refused to 
 renounce their faith should be tortured and put to death. 
 The immediate and ostensible cause of this final edict 
 was that a Christian condemned to be crucified for an 
 ordinary criminal offence was accompanied to the execu- 
 tion ground by some of his co-religionists to console 
 him in his last moments. Just as the executioner was 
 about to thrust his lance, they all with one accord fell 
 on their knees to pray for mercy for the soul of the 
 condemned, and this act was construed into honouring 
 and worshipping a famous criminal, which was "perni- 
 
CHRI^TtANITY TO SECOND PERSECUTION 259 
 
 cious to the state, opposite to good manners, and incon- 
 sistent with the public tranquillity." 
 
 It must be laid to the credit of the officers commis- 
 sioned to carry out lyeyasu's orders that, before pro- 
 ceeding to the last measures, they made every effort to 
 induce the people to conform outwardly at least to the 
 renunciation of their faith. They enrolled only the 
 masters of the Christian households, but wives, children 
 and domestics insisted on their names being added. 
 They practised a pious fraud and induced many to sign 
 their names in what they thought was the roll of 
 Christians. In reality it was headed, "The list of those 
 who recanted." In Kioto the officer threatened burn- 
 ings, and, to show that he meant it, set up many stakes 
 on the execution ground. Next day every Christian 
 house in the capital had a similar stake in front of it 
 as a sign of the faith of the inmates, and to show that 
 no tortures were feared. When they were brought 
 actually to the stake they were loosely tied so that, if 
 they weakened when the fire was kindled, they could 
 escape. All endured the torment to the last. The 
 foreign and Japanese priests were hastily collected at 
 Nagasaki, and in the anxiety to get them out of the 
 country at once they were forced to embark on three 
 ill-equipped Chinese junks, the only sea-going vessels 
 that were available. Several of the oldest died on the 
 voyage to Manila and Macao. Along with them went 
 Takayama, who adhered to his religion and was also 
 banished. He was received with almost royal honours 
 at Manila, but died soon after his arrival. 
 
 Fifteen European priests and some catechists re- 
 mained behind after the general expulsion. They 
 refused to leave their flocks in the hour of trial wholly 
 without the spiritual aid of experienced pastors, and 
 with the help of their converts they escaped the general 
 muster. Thenceforward their lives were those of hunted 
 s 2 
 
260 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 fugitives, hunted with far more energy, far more relent- 
 lessness than were the Irish priests of the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries by the Protestant soldiers and 
 settlers of Elizabeth and James. Their chances of 
 escape were infinitely less than those of their Irish 
 brothers. In Ireland priests, once they had discarded 
 their clerical robes, were indistinguishable from the rest 
 of the population. Every one around them was devoted 
 to them and ready to run all risks of life and property 
 to conceal and defend them. In Japan no possible dis- 
 guise could render the European priests indistinguish- 
 able from the people around them; complexion, eyes, 
 hair, stature, and accent, no matter what was their skill 
 in the language, all betrayed them, and the moment 
 they were seen they were known, They hid in caves, 
 in wretched huts amid thick forests on wild mountain 
 sides, amidst the rocks on lonely shores, enduring all 
 the worst privations of cold and hunger, and in the 
 slums of the cities,^ everywhere aided, as far as human 
 help could be given to them, by their converts, though 
 great rewards were offered for their apprehension, re- 
 wards so great that they meant riches for life to a 
 Japanese even if he were of what may be called the 
 well-to-do middle classes, and ruin and death threatened 
 to those and all their relations, who helped to hide or 
 succour them. There was not one solitary incident of 
 betrayal, but many of the priests were found, many 
 came boldly out of their hiding to give their spiritual 
 ministration to their converts in their last hour of suffer- 
 ing, and to share that suffering and die with them. And 
 as one priest died, two were smuggled into the country 
 to replace him. The perils of the ocean voyage from 
 Macao or Manila, not only from storm and uncharted 
 seas, but from pirates, were great. Many were lost at 
 sea. One ship with seven priests on board was taken 
 ' One remained four days at the bottom of a well. 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO SECOND PERSECUTION 261 
 
 by Chinese pirates, and all were slaughtered. The 
 Dutch privateers harried them throughout, and no more 
 mercy was to be expected from them than from the 
 most savage Malay or Chinese pirate ; if their lives were 
 spared, it was only that they might be handed over to 
 the officials of the first Japanese port at which they 
 touched, the Dutch being content to buy commercial 
 privileges for themselves by giving their fellow Chris- 
 tians over to the horrors of Asiatic torture. And when 
 all the perils of the sea were overcome and the priest 
 safely smuggled on shore in some secluded spot on the 
 coast, the prospect before him was that of a miserable 
 fugitive life for a few years, perhaps for a few months, 
 and then a cruel death by torture. Still new priests of 
 all fraternities came, and to the last chapter, till there 
 was not a single avowed Christian left in Japan, till all 
 intercourse with foreign countries was forbidden and 
 by no possibility could strangers land or even approach 
 the coastj^ the Japanese were never left without the aid 
 of foreign priests to keep their faith strong and to share 
 their martyrdom. 
 
 lyeyasu died in 1616, but the crusade started by him 
 was carried on by his son and successor and again by 
 his successor, with increased relentlessness. Successive 
 edicts were issued in 1616, 1624, 1633, 1634 and 1637, 
 each succeeding one more drastic than its predecessor. 
 The whole story of the persecution is full of horrors, 
 full of tales of heroic courage and suffering. It does not 
 pale before the worst records of the cruelty of Nero or 
 Alva, and there are none of the incidents of the persecu- 
 tion of the primitive Christians in Rome that do not 
 find their counterpart in those that took place in Japan, 
 whether in the sufferings or in the constant faith and 
 heroism of the martyrs. At first, death was only in- 
 flicted in the ordinary forms of decapitation, crucifixion 
 or burning. When this was found ineffective, and 
 
262 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 when not only martyrs went in triymph to the cross or 
 stake, and openly prayed to God till the last gasp of 
 agony was over, but relations and friends pressed 
 eagerly around to share the glories of their martyrdom, 
 further measures were taljen. Parents were slowly done 
 to death in the presence of their young children, and 
 young children in the presence of their parents. The 
 victims were of every rank, sex and age, from the 
 territorial prince, the Court lady delicately reared and 
 accustomed to refined luxury, down to the lowest 
 labourer of the fields. All were brethren, and all 
 suffered alike. An old woman ninety years of age was 
 crucified, a female infant only one year old was be- 
 headed. Scores and scores of children, of both sexes, 
 under twelve years died unflinchingly after they had 
 first seen their parents tied to the stake and slowly 
 perish in flames before their eyes. All this failed to 
 accomplish its end. Christians still gloried in their faith, 
 and new and horrible forms of death were devised, and 
 even these were preceded by slow and agonizing tortures. 
 
 "The tyrant, finding them constant to their resolution 
 (notwithstanding the persuasion of friends to the contrary), 
 ordered they should be stripped naked and plunged into the 
 cold frozen river. The Executioners did as they were com- 
 manded, and every now and then took them out to see if 
 they would comply with the Governor's orders and renounce 
 the faith. After they had endured this torment for a con- 
 siderable time, they mounted them, naked as they were, 
 on horseback, and carried them about the streets for a show. 
 At the turning of the streets the officer commanded them 
 to alight, and demanded of them to renounce Jesus Christ, 
 or expect what followed; and immediately the soldiers 
 poured pails of water over their heads. Being washed 
 after this manner in all the public places of the town, they 
 tied them at night to one of the gates, leaving them exposed 
 there to the indignities' and insolences of the mob, who 
 repeated the torment again, till the natural heat was quite 
 extinguished." 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO SECOND PERSECUTION 26S 
 
 "Soon after they conducted Father Caravail to Prison, 
 where he continued till the 22nd of February. Early that morn- 
 ing he was taken out, in order, as was thought, to be burnt, 
 but contrafy to expectation they cut short in the way, and 
 threw him into the ditch again, where he continued that 
 whole day. As night came on the water froze, and drifts 
 of snow beating upon him at the same time, the torment 
 grew insupportable. He yielded up his soul to God about 
 midnight, after fifteen hours' torment in the frozen water." 
 
 "The Governor, finding entreaties took no effect, com- 
 manded the soldiers to lay old Thomas on two iron bars 
 over hot coals. Two men held his feet and two his hands, 
 not foj fear of his running away, but to turn him from 
 side to side like another St. Laurence. In a word, they 
 roasted him from head to foot, and yet, what is stupendous, 
 old as he was, he endured the torment with invincible 
 patience. The judges, in hopes of working upon the son 
 by the Father's torments, made him be present there the 
 whole time. 
 
 "Then they used the son like the Father, and turned him 
 from side to side. The fire was so quick and sharp that 
 one might see his bones through his skin." 
 
 "At the entrance of the enclosure stood an officer to 
 question them about their religion, and such as remained 
 steady and constant he thrust in among the Executioners, 
 who immediately fell upon them, tearing off their hair (the 
 greatest affront that can be offered to a Japanese), plucking 
 off their ears with hot pincers, treading them ynder foot, 
 beating them with sticks, and tormenting them all the ways 
 imaginable, to tire out their patience, and make them feel 
 the pangs of death without yet killing them quite out. 
 
 "After this first prelude they stripped them naked, bound 
 them with cords on the ground, buffeting them with old 
 shoes and besmearing them with dirt, and after a thousand 
 other indignities and affronts they were thrown Hand over 
 Head into a hole, where several had like to have been stifled 
 in the throng. 
 
 " Next morning they brought them again into the List, and 
 renewed the combat by a most unheard-of cruelty. The 
 Executioners took two octangular pieces of wood, and placed 
 thfe Martyrs' feet between them. Then, tying them straight 
 at one end, they danced and leaped upon the other, to crush 
 their bones to pieces." - 
 
264 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Not far from Nagasaki there is a range of lovely 
 forest-clad mountains, varying in height from two to 
 five thousand feet, the turf on which, in spring and 
 summer, glows with a surpassing- wealth of the bright- 
 est wild flowers. They command glorious prospects of 
 vale and sea, their glens, through which rusl^ sparkling 
 streatnlets, are scenes of romantic and wild beauty, and 
 no more delightful spots could be imagined amid which 
 to idle away a summer's day. These hills are now 
 visited every summer by large numbers of European 
 residents, not only from Nagasaki, but from all the 
 ports on the coast of China, who come here to find 
 refuge and change from their malarious homes in the 
 pure and health-giving mountain air. They are in the 
 centre of a highly volcanic region, and among the hills 
 are some sulphur springs, some of them large ponds of 
 great depth, \^hose desolate sulphur-covered surround- 
 ings form a vivid contrast to the beauties of nature amid 
 which they lie. The water in these ponds is for ever 
 boiling and seething with subterranean fires, with such 
 violence that it rises in great bubbles often to the height 
 of several feet from the level. The names given to them 
 by the Japanese well typify the horrors of their appear- 
 ance. "Great, little and middle Hell," "The mouth of 
 Hell," "The Infernal waters," varied occasionally by a 
 more poetical title such as, "The Loud Waller." The 
 temperature of the water is over 200° Fahrenheit. The 
 Jesuits well compared them to the "Lakes of Brimstone 
 and Fire described in the Apocalypse." 
 
 Finding the torture of the sea ^ without effect, the per- 
 secutors resolved to try the boiling waters of Unzen. 
 Sixteen obstinate Christians were taken out of prison and 
 brought there. All of them were bound on the verge of the 
 precipice overlooking the great pond, then stones were 
 tied to them and they were pitched in. This was not 
 
 ' Repeated immersions in the sea in winter utitil the victim died. 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO SECOND PERSECUTION i65 
 
 sufficient. The last was slowly lowered by ropes head 
 downwards and immersed and taken out three times be- 
 fore being allowed to sink to the bottom. A few days later 
 ten more were taken. Their deaths were slower and more 
 refined than the first. They were repeatedly immersed, 
 the women up to their breasts; then not drowned as 
 were the first, but taken out and the boiling water 
 poured on them till they died. Wounds were cut in the 
 men with knives and the water poured into the wounds. 
 In all these sufferings the priests shared. There was 
 no torture before death, no hideous form of death itself 
 through which the priests did not pass along with their 
 converts, not even the boiling waters of Unzen or the slow 
 agonizing death of the pit.^ On the 2nd of September, 
 1622, more than fifty Christians were beheaded or burnt 
 at Nagasaki. Eighteenwerepriests, all of whom were burnt 
 alive, among them Charles Spinola, a cadet of one of the 
 most noble of the great families of Genoa, perhaps next 
 to Xavier the greatest missionary who worked in Japan. 
 
 " Many of the priests had been in prison for four years 
 before their execution. Nine of them were of the ' Society 
 of Jesus,' the rest partly of St. Dominick, and partly of 
 St. Francis' Order, together with ten pious Christians. 
 They lay winter and summer exposed to the weather. 
 Brother Fernandez was perfectly starved to death. Father 
 Charles Spinola never once changed his clothes in three 
 years' time, so that he was covered over with ordure and 
 filth. But the greatest torment of all was the intolerable 
 stench and the noisomeness and filth of the prison, which 
 bred such swarms of Vermin about them that they were little 
 better than eaten alive. In a word, the place was in itself 
 
 ' The torture of the pit was both long and terrible. A deep hole 
 was dug in the ground and a gallows erected in it. From this the con- 
 demned, tightly bound, was suspended head downwards in the hole, 
 the mouth of which was covered with planks, so that all the agony had 
 to be endured in darkness. Each day the planks were taken off for a 
 few minutes to give an opportunity to the condemned to show, with a 
 motion of one hand, which was left free for the purpose, if he recanted. 
 In many cases, both of the priests and natives, four or more days 
 elapsed before death put an end to their sufferings. 
 
266 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 a perfect resemblance of Hell, and their life a continual 
 martyrdom. Their common allowance was a spoonful of 
 black rice boiled in water, with porridge made of roots, and 
 sometimes a herring half rotten; but this dainty was soon 
 retrenched. " 
 
 In 1623 fifty were burnt alive at one time in Yedo, 
 and twenty-five at another, many priests and' well-born 
 ladies among them. Soon after, eighteen children, so 
 young and innocent that they played with their usual 
 toys as they passed through the streets on their way to 
 the execution ground, were not burnt, but beheaded, cut 
 in two, or hacked to pieces with swords, and all this 
 was done in the presence of ladies, who expected soon 
 to share the same fate. In November 1629 seventy- 
 two were simultaneously executed at Omura, forty of 
 whom were burnt alive, twenty-nine beheaded, and 
 three crucified. Most of them sufifered for. having given 
 shelter to the European priests. In 1636 Father Mas- 
 trilli, a Neapolitan, after some years' service in India, 
 landed secretly in Japan, but was almost immediately 
 arrested. He underwent the torture of water ^ in both 
 its forms on one day, and of the pit for five days before 
 being beheaded. At his death there were only five 
 European priests left, more than four score having 
 already undergone martyrdom, and it was not long 
 before the last of these five had given up his life in the 
 pit. With their deaths, the story of European mission- 
 aries in Japan closed for nearly 230 years, and almost 
 simultaneously the last chapter of that of native 
 Christianity also came to its end. 
 
 In no part of the Empire was the persecution carried 
 on with more severity than in the Northern Province of 
 Oshiu, the fief of Date Masamune, one of the greatest 
 of the territorial princes of ancient lineage, a soldier 
 
 > The torture of water was similar to that practised in Europe in the 
 Middle Ages. 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO SECOND PERSECUTION 267 
 
 who fought both in Korea and by lyeyasu's side in the 
 Osaka campaigns, who in his early youth, before Hide- 
 yoshi had quelled local wars, used his strong arm and 
 his military genius and strength to increase at the 
 expense of his neighbours the domains which he in- 
 herited from his father. He was deep in the confidence 
 of lyeyasu, and was regarded by him as one of his most 
 trusted supporters, and honoured by being included 
 among five princes whom it was the Shogun's duty to 
 meet outside the city on their annual arrival at Yedo. 
 Miss|pnary work was at first freely permitted in Sendai, 
 his capital, and throughout his fief, but when lyeyasu 
 decreed, in his final edict, that Christianity should be 
 extirpated, Masamune was far too devoted to his own 
 interests in maintaining the favour of the Shogun to 
 hesitate as to the course he should take, and he gave 
 himsdf heart and soul to carrying out the work which 
 his suzerain enjoined. Sendai lies far to the north of 
 Yedo. The winter is incomparably more severe, and 
 it was there that the torture of exposure to the cold, of 
 casting the condemned priests and native converts into 
 rivers and ditches to slowly freeze to death, was most 
 frequent. It was there that Father Caravail, whose 
 death has been described, and many other priests suf- 
 fered their last agonies. And yet, only a few months 
 previous to the issue of lyeyasu's edict, when Chris- 
 tianity had already gone through its first persecution, 
 but was enjoying the lull that followed it, this very 
 same Prince sent, in his own name, an embassy to the 
 Pope, which was charged with messages that he was 
 anxious that all his subjects should be converted, and 
 that he therefore begged that a large number of mis- 
 sionaries should be promptly sent to his own domains. 
 
 This was the second embassy that left the shores of 
 Japan for Europe. The story of the first has been told 
 in the preceding chapter. Neither can properly be 
 
268 THE STORY OP OLD JAPAN 
 
 called an embassy, as neither represented the Sovereign. 
 The first was sent by a few Southern princes, the second 
 by one Northern prince, but both were received in 
 Europe as though they came from Sovereign lords. 
 Dat^, in the credentials which he gave to his own mis- 
 sion, actually described himself as the King of Oshiu, 
 and the imposture was successful. Jesuit priests at 
 Rome, who knew from their correspondents in Japan 
 that there was no King of Oshiu, pointed out that the 
 messenger only represented a local prince, but they were 
 disregarded, and their remonstrances were ascribed to 
 their jealousy at the fact that the mission was accom- 
 panied, guided and introduced by a priest of the Fran- 
 ciscan order. There can be little doubt that the priest 
 was wholly deceived by the astute old prince. The latter 
 had no desire to see Christianity introduced into his fief 
 on a large scale. His hope was through missionaries 
 to get a share of the foreign trade that was enriching the 
 South, to procure teachers of foreign science for his 
 people, and so increase his own wealth and importance. 
 Perhaps he may have cherished in the inmost recesses 
 of his heart the hope that if not he himself (he was 
 already of ripe middle age), some one of his successors 
 might become another Nobunaga or lyeyasu, and rule 
 the whole Empire as they had done or were doing. 
 lyeyasu's future was not then absolutely assured. Hide- 
 yori was still safe in his great castle at Osaka, still had 
 a powerful following in the Empire. He was young, 
 and if he survived lyeyasu and disputed the succession to 
 the Shogunate with lyeyasu's son, who had little of the 
 ability of his father, a powerful territorial prince, who 
 was also a veteran and talented general, might possibly 
 obtain the prize for which both were contending. 
 
 Be the reasons what they may, the mission was sent. 
 It was a spirited and venturesome undertaking. The 
 mission sailed in a small ship and crossed the little- 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO SECOND PERSECUTION 269 
 
 known Pacific Ocean, finally, after a voyage of four 
 months' duration, arriving at Mexico. From there it 
 made its way to Spain, where the members were received 
 with all honour by the King, Philip III. Then it pro- 
 ceeded to Genoa, where it was received with no less 
 honour by the republican dignitaries, and in the end it 
 arrived at Rome. Tidings of the new persecutions in 
 Japan had, however, reached Europe, and neither the 
 request for more missionaries nor a further one that 
 the Pope should use his influence in cementing a formal 
 alliaqce between Masamune and the King of Spain for 
 their mutual interests in the Eastern Seas was cordially 
 heard, and the favourable consideration of both was 
 deferred. The head of the mission was one of Masa- 
 mune's principal vassals named Hasekura. His adviser 
 and colleague was Father Sotelo, a Franciscan priest, a 
 Spaniard, who had lived and worked for many years in 
 Japan. Hasekura and his staff of his own countrymen 
 all gave evidence of their sincerity by receiving baptism 
 when in Rome. It was in the autumn of the year 1613 
 that they sailed from Oshiu. It was in the winter of 
 1615 that they arrived at Rome, and returning to Japan 
 by the same way as they had come, by Mexico and the 
 Pacific, but this time calling at Manila, they only 
 reached Sendai in 1620. There they found that every- 
 thing was changed. Persecution was in full force. 
 They brought no new missionaries with them, and none 
 were wanted. Hasekura promptly recanted, and Sotelo, 
 who parted from him at Manila, and landed on his 
 return journey at Nagasaki, was on his arrival there at 
 once arrested and burnt to death. Many interesting 
 mementoes of this embassy, the letters which it bore 
 with it and received, are still in the possession of the 
 Dat^ family and have been published, and the interest 
 attached to these documents renders the whole of its 
 story worth telling ; but, while the first embassy sent 
 
270 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 from the South was sincere in its object, while its' mem- 
 bers were devoted Christians (one at least of them suf- 
 fered martyrdom), whose main objects were to promote 
 the welfare of their religion in their own country and to 
 receive the apostolic blessings of the Pope, the second 
 was conceived in dishonesty, fraudulent in the character 
 which it assumed, and no further evidence that Chris- 
 tianity was among the last of its real aims is required 
 than the fact that the Prince who sent it, and who pro- 
 fessed a desire for his own and his people's baptism, was 
 among the most cruel persecutors before it reached 
 Rome, and was actually slaying and torturing Chris- 
 tians while his accredited messenger was professing his 
 faith to the Pope. 
 
 KiUshiu was always the stronghold of Christianity, 
 and, except in the town of Nagasaki, Christians were 
 more numerous, relative to the whole population, in the 
 fiefs of Arima and Omura, in the extreme south of the 
 province of Hizen, than in other parts of the island. 
 Here the Christians, plundered and tortured beyond all 
 human endurance, fled from other parts, and, seeing 
 that they had no choice between extermination and re- 
 cantation of their faith, they gathered together to the 
 number of more than 40,000, men, women and children, 
 and took possession of the castle-town of Shimabara, 
 which lies on the sea, just below the Unzen mountains. 
 Most of them were peasants unused to arms, and they 
 had no capable leader. Many were, however, Samurai, 
 and 'Samurai and peasant alike were animated by the 
 same spirit, knowing that there was no escape for them, 
 or for those dear to them, from death, and that being so 
 they would sell their lives in battle, fighting bravely to the 
 last rather than lose them at the hands of the torturer 
 and the executioner. Their fighting strength at first 
 seemed contemptible, but Shimabara is strongly situated ; 
 defended by trained soldiers it might have been im- 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO SECOND PERSECUTION 271 
 
 pregnable, and it was well provisioned from the fertile 
 districts around it and from the Government rice stores 
 which were seized. 
 
 The Government soon realized that the suppression 
 of this outbreak would be no light task, and an army 
 of 160,000 men, commanded by Itakura Shigemasa, the 
 most capable general of the time, was considered neces- 
 sary to carry it to its end. The siege commenced in 
 the last days of 1637. Repeated assaults were made, 
 but beaten back by the defenders, all of whom, knowing 
 that there were no hopes of mercy in any form for those 
 who were both rebels and Christians, fought with equal 
 desperation and courage. The walls of the castle re- 
 mained intact, and after the siege had lasted for over 
 six weeks, after many men had fallen, and the end 
 seemed just as remote as ever, the commander of the 
 besiegers sent to the Dutch at Hirado for assistance. 
 The guns in the hands of the besiegers could make no 
 impression on the walls, but the Dutch ocean-going 
 ships were armed with much heavier artillery, which was 
 served by more skilful gunners than the Japanese could 
 call on among themselves. Koeckebecker, the head of 
 the Dutch factory, knew the object for which his help 
 was asked. He and his predecessors had often witnessed 
 the dying agonies of the Christian martyrs : he knew 
 that Shimabara was defended by Christians driven to 
 despair by persecution, and he knew the fate which 
 awaited them when the castle fell. With all this know- 
 ledge he did not hesitate. The trading privileges of his 
 company were dearer to him than any thought of mercy 
 to those, who, though of a different sect, were of the 
 same religion of Christ as himself. Those privileges 
 depended on the Japanese Government, and here was a 
 chance to win its favour, perhaps to secure a monopoly 
 which would bring untold riches to his Company for 
 generations to come. To his own eternal infamy, to the 
 
272 , THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 everlasting dishonour of his country, he not, only sent 
 his greatest and most powerfully armed ship to Shima- 
 bara, which lay on the sea, safe against any ships that 
 the Japanese possessed, but went in command himself. 
 Anchored at a safe distance off the devoted town, where 
 no shot that its defenders could fire could reach him, 
 over four hundred balls from his great guns were fired 
 into the town within fifteen days.^ Still the defenders 
 held out. At last a breach was made in the walls, 
 through which the besiegers poured in, and the inmates 
 of the town and castle, men, women and children, were 
 slaughtered without pity or mercy. The besiegers' 
 general, Itakura, was killed when leading his men, and 
 his tomb can still be seen in Shimabara. How the 
 Dutch were rewarded will be told in the next chapter. 
 It was on the 12th of April, 1638, that Shimabara fell, 
 and more than two and a quarter centuries were destined 
 to elapse before Japanese were again in arms against 
 each other on their own soil. 
 
 With this massacre, the story of Christianity in old 
 Japan may be said to have ended. Many Christians 
 still survived, but they were all of the lowest classes, 
 and leaderless and priestless, cowed by the terrors of 
 the terrible persecution which had destroyed their co- 
 religionists, none of them dared profess their faith in 
 
 ' It will scarcely be credible that a Dutch gentleman of tlie last 
 quarter of the nineteenth century openly defended the action of his coun- 
 trymen in this affair. A most interesting and exhaustive account of it is 
 contained in a paper read before the Asiatic Society of Japan by Dr. 
 Geerts, a distinguished scientist in the service of the Japanese Govern- 
 ment, in which he alleges that Koeckebecker only did what every wise 
 man would have done — assisted the Government to put down rebels. 
 Even the Japanese at the time had considerable hesitation in asking 
 for the services of the Dutch, inquiring first whether they would be 
 willing to take part in the operations against Christians. All the 
 "banners of the defenders were marked with the cross, and everywhere 
 crosses were visible on the walls. The secret of Koeckebecker's action 
 is to be found in his instructions : — " He was to save at any price the 
 commerce with Japan." These instructions were from the head office 
 at Batavia. 
 
CHRISTIANITY TO SECOND PERSECUTION 273 
 
 public, and to preserve their lives they no doubt all had 
 to submit to the ordeal of public abjuration of their faith. 
 The most rigid system of supervision was instituted, 
 one so thorough in its exhaustiveness, so cumulative in 
 its responsibilities, that none could escape. It is fully 
 described by Kaempfer, who saw its operation. The 
 Governor of the town was responsible for all in it : the 
 district chiefs for all in their own districts : the ward 
 masters for all in one street, and the householders in 
 every street were registered in groups of five, and the 
 hfead of the five was responsible for the other four. If 
 one single Christian was permitted to remain, all from 
 the head man of five up to the Governor had to answer 
 for it, perhaps with their lives. Once every year a tablet, 
 engraved with the cross, was carried from house to house, 
 and in the presence of officers appointed for the purpose 
 — their official title was Kirishtan Bugiyo — Christian 
 Commissioners — every member of each household, from 
 the master down to the lowest coolie, was forced to 
 trample on the cross, and thus testify his abjuration of the 
 hated doctrine. In every street, in every village, and on 
 every high road in Japan, public notices were affixed 
 forbidding the practice of the "evil sect," and promising 
 rewards to informers.^ It was a curious principle of 
 the Tokugawa Government to keep the provisions of the 
 Criminal Law secret. People, they argued, if they 
 knew, the utmost prescribed penalty for an offence, 
 might be inclined to risk it, and the best of people 
 would be all the more careful of their conduct if they 
 were ignorant of what might possibly be a crime. An 
 exception was made in the case of Christianity, and 
 
 1 These notices were not finally removed until the present Emperor 
 had been five years on the throne. The crosses on which the natives 
 were forced to trample were engravings of the Crucifixion on metal 
 slabs, which were made from metal taken from the altars of the 
 destroyed Christian churches. Some that were actually used are now 
 preserved in the Tokio Museum. 
 T 
 
274 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 there was no citizen of the Empire who could plead 
 ignorance that it was forbidden and that its practice 
 meant death. 
 
 With all this, Christianity did not die in Japan, nor 
 was it forgotten by the followers of those who first 
 introduced it. Sidotti, an Italian Jesuit, stole into the 
 country in 1707, to try and rekindle the fires which his 
 brethren had lighted, and the story of his life and death 
 in Japan is one that only the length to which this 
 chapter has already attained prevents our telling. When 
 Japan was at last thrown open to the world in 1858, and 
 it became under the new Treaties free once more, after 
 two hundred and fifty years, to missionary enterprise, 
 priests of the Roman Church found in obscure villages, 
 in every quarter, in Kiushiu, where the poorest toilers of 
 the people lived, even in the mines of Sado, hundreds 
 who, through all the long years which had passed since 
 they last had priests to guide and comfort them, had 
 clung to the faith for which their fathers died, and still 
 in secret practised all the formalities of its worship to 
 the best of their simple knowledge. They had to go 
 through another era of persecution, when their exist- 
 ence, which had never even been suspected by their own 
 authorities, became known to the newly established 
 Government of his Imperial Majesty who is now on the 
 throne. This time Japan had to count not with a few 
 handfuls of Spaniards and Portuguese, but with all the 
 might of the Great Powers of Europe, who had no will 
 to see the profession of the religion, whose great prin- 
 ciples were common to all of them, made a crime. The 
 persecution was limited to the breaking up of com- 
 munities and their removal to other districts. That only 
 lasted till 1872, and then the people were restored to 
 their old homes, the public notices withdrawn, and 
 religion became free to all. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 EUROPEAN TRADE AND INTERCOURSE 
 
 The name of Japan was first made known to Europeans 
 by the famous Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, who lived 
 for seventeen years, in the last quarter of the thirteenth 
 century, at the Court of Kublai Khan, the account of 
 whose travels was first published at Genoa in the year 
 1298, where he was then a prisoner of war. Marco Polo 
 never visited Japan himself, but he had every oppor- 
 tunity of hearing of it, as it was during his residence 
 at the Court that Kublai Khan's ill-fated attempt to 
 invade the islands was made, the story of which we have 
 already told. Many particulars are given in his book 
 as to the foreign trade of Japan, which he calls Zipangu, 
 its people, its government and geography, and, above 
 all, its wealth : "gold was so abundant that the riches 
 of the king were incalculable, and even the roof of his 
 palace was covered with gold, as are those of the Italian 
 churches with slate and lead." For two hundred years 
 after his death his book was lost. In the fifteenth century 
 it once more came to light, and, as printing was then 
 invented, copies of it were soon in circulation, and 
 among the people into whose hands it fell was Chris- 
 topher Columbus. The Cape of Good Hope was still 
 undiscovered. The only way to the Far East and all its 
 riches, of which Marco Polo brought back very material 
 evidence to support his glowing descriptions, was by the 
 long, toilsome and dangerous overland route, and it was 
 to discover a new way both to Cathay and Zipangu that 
 T2 275 
 
276 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Columbus set out on his historic voyage, and when he 
 first landed at San Salvador he thought that it was one of 
 the outlying islands of the Zipangu group, little though 
 the condition of the natives harmonized with that of the 
 inhabitants of Zipangu as depicted by Marco Polo. 
 
 The discovery of the Cape of Good Hope by Vasco 
 da Gama in 1497 opened up a new field of adventure to 
 the Portuguese, who, in the reign of Emanuel the For- 
 tunate (1495-1521), were both the greatest ship-owners 
 and the boldest and most adventurous seamen in Europe, 
 who explored and sailed through all the Eastern Seas, 
 seeking and finding wealth and preaching their religion, 
 two objects which were closely associated in their aspira- 
 tions. In 1 5 ID the great Albuquerque founded the 
 colony of Goa, and in 1521 Andrada succeeded in reach- 
 ing Peking, and a prosperous trade was soon instituted 
 between Goa and China, for the better convenience of 
 which a factory was afterwards founded at Macao in 
 1557. The spread of religion kept pace with the pro- 
 gress of trade. A great university was founded at Goa, 
 and missionaries made their way into and worked in 
 China. The commercial and missionary success which 
 rewarded the Portuguese in China at first gave them no 
 inducement to venture across the stormy seas and risk 
 their ships on the unknown, rock-bound coasts of Japan, 
 and all the knowledge which Europe possessed of Japan 
 was still only what could be learned from the writings of 
 Marco Polo. But in 1542 three Portuguese adventurers, 
 while on a voyage from Siam to China on board a 
 Chinese junk, were driven out of their course by a storm, 
 and found themselves at Tanegashima, an island at the 
 entrance of the Gulf of Kagoshima. Among the other 
 passengers on the junk was a Chinese literate, through 
 whom the Portuguese could communicate with the 
 natives in writing. Their interpreter was not very com- 
 plimentary. He described the Portuguese to the natives 
 
EUROPEAN TRADE AND INTERCOURSE 277 
 
 as "being ignorant of etiquette and writing, of the use 
 of wine cups and chop-sticks, and as being little better 
 than beasts of the field." Such as they were, they 
 seemed to have impressed the natives not unfavourably ; 
 they were well treated, and on leaving they presented 
 the local governor, as a return for his kindness, with 
 some firearms and gunpowder, hitherto unknown in 
 Japan, and taught him their use. A few years later, 
 probably in 1545, Mendez Pinto, a celebrated mercantile 
 adventurer, who acquired an immense fortune by trade, 
 no doubt accompanied by piracy, in the Far East, a 
 fortune which in his old age he devoted to the Church, 
 followed his countrymen and also visited Tanegashima 
 in a Chinese junk, and while there he received an invita- 
 tion from the Prince of Bungo to visit him at the capital 
 of his fief. The result of his visit was the beginning of 
 regular trade between the Portuguese colonies and 
 Japan, and from that time onwards Portuguese mer- 
 chantmen frequently visited the various ports of Kiushiu, 
 Funai, Kuchinotsu, Shimabara and the Island of 
 Hirado, bringing with them merchandise to barter with 
 the Japanese and Jesuit priests to convert them. None 
 of these ports were very suitable for large ships — even 
 the ships of those days — and having discovered the 
 great advantages of Nagasaki as a safe harbour, the 
 Portuguese applied in 1570 to the Prince of Omura, in 
 whose territory it then lay, for permission to trade there. 
 The permission was very readily granted, as local 
 princes were only too anxious to bring to their fiefs a 
 share of the great profits of foreign trade. Nagasaki 
 then became the chief seat both of foreign trade and 
 missionary enterprise in Japan. A Portuguese factory 
 and a church, with all the usual accompaniments of 
 monasteries, schools, alms-houses, hospitals, etc., were 
 established, and the town grew rapidly, both in wealth 
 and in the number of its inhabitants who were professed 
 
278 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Christians. The priests seem to have obtained some 
 form of exterritoriality or even more — not only the 
 right to govern themselves, but also to exercise jurisdic- 
 tion over the natives in Nagasaki — by threatening to 
 withdraw to another part of Kiushiu unless their demands 
 were granted. The Prince of Omura at first- refused, 
 but finally, dreading the loss of the great profits of the 
 trade, assented, and the result was that Nagasaki, in 
 1573, became the territory of the Christian sect. 
 
 Whatever may be the correct explanation of this con- 
 cession, there is no doubt that the advent of Europeans, 
 both traders and Churchmen, in the sixteenth century 
 laid the foundations of Nagasaki's greatness as a city, 
 just as it did in regard to Yokohama and Kobe in the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
 "When the Fathers first set up there to assist the inhabit- 
 ants and Portuguese there were not full five hundred souls 
 in the whole town ; but by continual trade and commerce 
 the place grew so opulent and rich, that in the year 90 they 
 reckoned above five thousand families residents of the place, 
 besides merchants and tradesmen, who came thither in June 
 from all parts at the arrival of the fleets." 
 
 Throughout all the years between 1573 and 1590, the 
 whole of central Japan had been torn with civil war, and 
 Nagasaki, lying at the extreme end of a peninsula, was 
 far out of the line of Hideyoshi's march through Kiushiu 
 in his triumphant campaign against Satsuma. When 
 that campaign was over he was, as has already been told, 
 firmly established as dictator, not only over the main 
 island, which was all that the most powerful of his 
 predecessors could substantially claim, but over all 
 Japan, and hearing of the prosperity of Nagasaki, he 
 soon gave it his attention, and sent five commissioners 
 to i'nquire into and report on its condition. The result 
 was that Omura was ousted from his lordship, and in 
 1592 Nagasaki was incorporated in the Shogun's own 
 
EUROPEAN TRADE AND INTERCOURSE 279 
 
 domains, not personally, but as the head of the Execu- 
 tive, and thenceforward it remained, both for the rest 
 of Hideyoshi's life and throughout the long regime of 
 the Tokugawa Shoguns, an appanage of the central 
 government, distinct from and independent of the feudal 
 principalities around it. The disappropriation of the 
 Prince of Omura was unfortunate for the Church. He 
 and all his people were Christians. So great had been 
 the success of the Jesuits " that there was hardly a person 
 in Nagasaki who was not a Christian," and while the 
 Jesuits had splendid churches, in which they openly 
 performed Mass, and celebrated their great saints' days 
 by the gorgeous processions through the public streets 
 which are so prominent a feature in the Roman Catholic 
 Church, all the old Buddhist temples were destroyed, 
 and their priests driven as fugitives to other districts. 
 Now the tables were turned. The Buddhists were 
 restored, and the Jesuits obliged to hide their heads and 
 work in secret. Trade was, however, not affected. 
 Portugal's "sixty years of captivity (1580-1640)," when 
 both Spain and Portugal were united under one crown, 
 had in the meantime begun, and the Spanish galleons 
 from the Philippines now shared with Portuguese from 
 Macao in the trade with Japan, and both exploited it in 
 more or less friendly rivalry. 
 
 They continued to enjoy all the great profits of their 
 monopoly, not only of trade with Japan and China, but 
 with all the East, till the close of the sixteenth century. 
 So great were these profits that they provided the whole 
 of the crown revenue of Portugal, and there was no need 
 for taxation. The goods which they brought from the 
 East were carried to Lisbon, and there distributed by 
 ships to other nationalities through Europe, but in 1595 
 Philip II, King of both Spain and Portugal, laid an 
 embargo on the Dutch ships, and the Dutch, who were 
 then second only to Spain and Portugal as ship-owners, 
 
280 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 were deprived of their profits in the carrying trade of 
 Europe, as far as Eastern merchandise was concerned. 
 They soon took their revenge for this short-sighted 
 piece of malignity on the part of the Spanish Sovereign. 
 Unfortunately for themselves, the Portuguese had for 
 some years in their service a Dutch pilot named Cor- 
 nelius Houtman, who acquired a thorough knowledge 
 of the Eastern trade and seas. His great experience 
 was now at the disposal of his own countrymen, and in 
 1595 he led a Dutch fleet to the Indies, which got as far 
 as Batavia. From Batavia it is not a long cry to China 
 and Japan; and on the coasts of both Empires Dutch 
 traders were soon found competing with the Spaniards 
 and Portuguese, while Dutch privateers were harrying 
 and capturing their ships in all the seas between the Cape 
 and Goa on the one side and China and Japan on the 
 other. 
 
 In 1609 the Dutch established a factory at Hirado, and 
 from this time they made it their main object to supplant 
 the Portuguese and Spaniards, and to acquire for them- 
 selves the profitable monopoly the former had so long 
 enjoyed. It was a sufiSciently legitimate enterprise to 
 undertake, justifiable not only in fair commercial rivalry, 
 but still more so from thie fact that the Spaniards and 
 Dutch were hereditary enemies, and were, at the incep- 
 tion of Dutch trade in Japan, actually at war, and Spain 
 and Portugal were, as before stated, united under one 
 crown. But it is impossible at the present date to justify 
 methods which the Dutch did not disdain to adopt to 
 gain their own ends. One incident may be mentioned, 
 of which there are conflicting accounts, but we will here 
 take that which is given by Kaempfer, who must be 
 presumed to have heard the facts from his own Dutch 
 employers or to have read them as they were recorded 
 in the archives of the factory at Nagasaki. The Dutch 
 captured a homeward-bound Portuguese ship off the 
 
EUROPEAN TRADE AND INTERCOURSE 281 
 
 Cape of Good Hope, on board which they found some 
 traitorous letters, written by a Japanese who was a great 
 zealot for the Christian religion, to the King of Portugal. 
 The Dutch took special care of the letters, and handed 
 them without delay to the Japanese authorities. The 
 writer was arrested, and though he and all the Portu- 
 guese at Nagasaki firmly denied all knowledge of the 
 letters, "hand and seal convicted them," and the writer 
 was sentenced to be burned alive, a sentence which was 
 duly carried out. 
 
 " The letters disclosed a plot which the Japanese Christians 
 had formed, in conjunction with the Portuguese, against the 
 life of the Shogun, and to bring Japan into subjection to 
 Portugal (Spain), the want they stood in of ships and 
 soldiers, the names of Japanese princes concerned in the 
 conspiracy, and lastly their hopes to receive the papal bless- 
 ing. This discovery made by the Dutch was afterwards 
 confirmed by another letter from the same writer to the 
 Portuguese Governor of Macow, which was intercepted and 
 brought to Japan by a Japanese ship. Considering this and 
 the suspicions which the Court had already then conceived 
 against the Portuguese, it was no difficult matter 
 thoroughly to ruin the little credit and favour they had as 
 yet been able to preserve, the rather since, the Imperial 
 order notwithstanding, they did not leave off privately to 
 bring over more ecclesiastics." 
 
 Kaempfer relates this incident with complete approval. 
 It need not be argued here whether, as a question of 
 ethics, it would be justifiable on the part of a people 
 desirous to bring ruin upon trade rivals, against whom 
 they were further inflamed by all the worst passions of 
 religious and racial hatred, to gain their ends by means 
 which were certain to involve the deaths under torture 
 of numbers of their fellow creatures. Apart from that, 
 there can be no hesitation in condemning the act of the 
 Dutch as one of the most cold-blooded incidents of 
 perfidy that the world has seen, when it is known, as 
 
282 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 later researches have disclosed, that the letters were 
 forgeries, perpetrated by the Dutch in Japan, and, in 
 the last case, contrived by them to be hidden in the place 
 where they were found, and that the Dutch silently stood 
 by and saw many innocent Japanese put to painful 
 deaths without, .an effort to save them. The discovery 
 of these letters had further disastrous consequences. 
 They provoked the Japanese Government into new 
 repressive measures against native Christians, the 
 severity of which drove them into the revolt of Shima- 
 bara, and that, as has been told in the last chapter, 
 ended in the massacre of forty thousand people and the 
 final extirpation of Christianity in Japan. 
 
 The Dutch, however, gained their end. In 1637 a new 
 edict was issued by the Shoguli, lyemitsu, the grandson 
 of lyeyasu, the consequences of which were far-reaching 
 and enduring. Japan, until the opening of the seven- 
 teenth century, was free to all the world. Not only were 
 people of all nationalities, European and Asiatic, at 
 liberty to come at any time to any part of the country, 
 but they were as cordially welcomed as the pioneers of 
 Chinese civilization had been at the dawn of history in 
 the sixth and seventh centuries. When in the country, 
 they found that all in Japan were free to go and reside 
 where they pleased, they were at liberty to practise their 
 own religions, and they could not be more eager for 
 trade with the people than the people were to trade with 
 them. They found the people thirsting for knowledge 
 of Europe and all that related to it, its nationalities, 
 productions, sciences and history. The religion of 
 Europe was received with toleration by the whole nation, 
 and with reverence by a large section. The Japanese 
 themselves were bold and enterprising sailors and ex- 
 plorers, making their way to and their mark in all the 
 great countries of the East. All this was changed by 
 one stroke of the pen. Foreigners of all races were 
 
EUROPEAN TRADE AND INTERCOURSE 28S 
 
 forbidden by a new edict to come to Japan, and Japanese 
 equally to go abroad. The penalty of death was pre- 
 scribed for all, whether Japanese or foreigners, who 
 violated its terms, for all who propagated the doctrines of 
 Christians or bore their scandalous name. It especially 
 banished the whole race of Portuguese, their families, 
 servants, and whatever belonged to them, and offered 
 large rewards for the discovery of priests. It prescribed 
 the penalty of death even for one who brought a letter 
 from abroad, or presumed to intercede on behalf of those 
 who were condemned under its other provisions. Japan 
 now became the hermit nation which she was destined to 
 remain for two hundred and seventeen years, until, in 
 J 854, Commodore Perry and his powerful fleet of 
 American warships once more opened her doors. 
 
 It required two years to enable all the Portuguese 
 residents to be finally deported, and the last of them 
 did not leave till the close of 1639. "They had amused 
 themselves " in these years with hopes that they might be 
 able to obtain leave to remain and continue their trade, 
 "which they were as unwilling to lose as their lives," 
 but the Shogun was adamant. In the next year an 
 embassy was sent from Macao, fortified with full creden- 
 tials, bringing with them neither priests nor merchan- 
 dise, as honestly as it was apparently a purely diplomatic 
 mission. It consisted of four Portuguese of rank and 
 experience : Lewis Paez Pacheo, Commander of the 
 Army of Portugal; Rodericus Sanchez de Paredos; 
 Gonsalez Monteiro de Cavallo ; and Simon Vaz de Pavia, 
 "all wise, virtuous and prudent men." They were 
 accompanied by a retinue of seventy persons. On their 
 arrival in Nagasaki they were immediately arrested, their 
 ship seized, and though they protested that they were 
 neither merchants nor priests, but ambassadors who had 
 come to conclude a treaty with Japan, and were, there- 
 fore, under the law of nations entitled to safe conduct. 
 
284 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN >' 
 
 all were condemned for violating the edict of the Shogun. 
 They were forced tb walk above a league, with their 
 hands tied behind their backs, to the "Mountain of 
 Martyrs," and were there beheaded on the spot which had 
 already been the scene of so much bloodshed and agony. 
 Thirteen of the members of the retinue of the lowest 
 rank were spared to carry back to Macao the news of 
 what had happened. Before they sailed they were 
 brought to see the graves of their countrymen, over 
 which a notice had been erected — 
 
 "For the future, let none, so long as the .Sun 
 illuminates the world, presume to sail to Japan, not even 
 in the quality of ambassadors, and this declaration is 
 never to be revoked on pain of death." 
 
 Guard-houses were established on the summits of the 
 high hills around Nagasaki, where materials for bon- 
 fires were always kept ready at hand. On every hill- 
 top, the whole way to Yedo, fully six hundred miles as 
 the crow flies, similar fire stations were established. 
 Orders were given that whenever a fleet of not less than 
 ten European ships should be seen approaching the 
 harbour, the fires should be lighted at once and con- 
 tinued from hill to hill, so that the news could be known 
 at the capital in less than twenty-four hours,^ and every 
 feudal prince throughout the Empire knew the precise 
 post which he was to take with his men to defend his 
 country. Everything was so organized in advance that 
 all the coast defences would have been fully manned 
 within a few hours after the mountain fires had signalled 
 their warning. 
 
 Although the natural harbour advantages of Nagasaki 
 induced the Portuguese to fix their chief establishment 
 
 ' To the present day, when there are tele|:raphs all over the country, 
 the Japanese still send messages by flag signals from hill-top to hill- 
 top, and they say that a message can be communicated by flag signals 
 from Osaka to Himeji, two great rice markets, about forty milesxapart, 
 more quickly than it can by telegraph. 
 
EUROPEAN TRADE AND INTERCOURSE 285 
 
 in the town, their ships were free to enter and themselves 
 to reside in any part of Kiushiu until 1635. They required 
 the consent of the local feudal prince in whose fief the 
 port lay, but so far from that being any difficulty, all 
 the princes were vying with each other as to which 
 could offer the foreigners the greatest inducements to 
 make use of his own port. In this year a change was 
 made, and as a measure to prevent the smuggling of 
 priests, all the Portuguese traders were restricted to the 
 artificial island of Desima in Nagasaki harbour. The 
 Dutch, on the other hand, who imported no priests, were 
 permitted to continue their original factory at Hirado, 
 which they had by this time established on a scale of 
 great size and magnificence, so as to be worthy of the 
 prosperous trade they hoped for. "No measure was 
 neglected, no trouble or expense spared by them that 
 Could please of conciliate the Japanese authorities, from 
 the Shogun at the Court down to the pettiest local 
 official. The most exquisite curiosities of nature and 
 art were brought over for the annual presents. The 
 hardest and most unreasonable commands were blindly 
 and impassively obeyed." Honour was sacrificed and 
 Christianity outraged in the ignoble and cruel part that 
 was played at Shimabara, and the reward was permission 
 to reside and trade in Japan, when all the rest of the 
 world was excluded. But the Japanese, with their high 
 ideals of honour and patriotism, with the utter scorn for 
 money for money's sake which is one of the cardinal 
 points of the Samurai faith, formed their own estimate 
 of the people who, for the sake of commercial privileges, 
 were willing to soil their hands with the blood of those 
 of their own faith. 
 
 "Many generous and noble persons at the Court and in 
 the Empire judged quite otherwise of our conduct, and not 
 too favourably for the credit we had thereby endeavoured to 
 gain. It seemed to them inconsistent with reason that the 
 
286 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Dutch should ever be expected to be sincerely faithful to a 
 foreign monarch, and one, too, whom they looked upon as a 
 heathen prince, whilst they showed so much forwardness to 
 assist him in the destruction of a people with whom they had 
 otherwise agreed in the most essential parts of their faith. 
 In short, our humble, obliging conduct notwithstanding, we 
 were so far from bringing this proud and jealous nation to' 
 any greater confidence or more intimate friendship', that on 
 the contrary their jealousy and mistrust seemed to increase 
 in proportion to the many proofs of faithfulness and sincerity 
 we gave them, and that the better we deserved of them 
 the more they seemed to hate and despise us." 
 
 The Dutch were allowed to continue their trade, but 
 they were ordered, at a moment's notice, to level their 
 grand factory at Hirado to the ground, and to move with 
 all their belongings to the vacated Portuguese settlement 
 at Desima, and there to suffer perpetual imprisonment, 
 under conditions so degrading as to be scarcely credible 
 when one remembers that they were imposed on citizens 
 of one of the most independent nations of Europe. The 
 history of the Jews at their worst period in the Middle 
 Ages shows no more striking incidents of abject servitude 
 than that of the Dutch traders in Japan. Ten years ago 
 Desima still existed as it was two hundred years before, 
 and some of the old Dutch residences were still stand- 
 ing. Its length is six hundred, its breadth two hundred 
 and forty feet, and its shape resembles a fan without a 
 handle. It lies in the upper end of Nagasaki harbour, 
 the widest point directly facing the harbour entrance. 
 On this little spot the Dutch were rigidly interned as 
 close prisoners from year's end to year's end. The 
 whole island was enclosed with high deal boards, 
 covered with a projecting roof, so that none within the 
 island could see anything outside other than the high 
 slopes and summits of the surrounding hills^ on which 
 the Dutch were permitted to gaze but never to set foot. 
 A few paces off the island thirteen very high posts were 
 
EUROPEAN TRADE AND INTERCOURSE 287 
 
 erected in the sea at regular intervals, with notices in 
 large writing forbidding, under severe penalty, all boats 
 to come within the rails, or even to approach them on 
 the sea. The island is connected with the town by a 
 stone bridge, where there was a guard-house with sen- 
 tries always on watch. No unlicensed Japanese was 
 permitted to enter, no Dutchman to go out, except on 
 rare and special occasions, and then permission had to 
 be obtained with many formalities, and each individual 
 Dutchman had to be accompanied by and defray the 
 expenses of an escort of not less than thirty persons. 
 "They were perpetually guarded and narrowly watched 
 as if they were the greatest malefactors on earth, spies 
 or traitors, in a word, the worst and most dangerous set 
 of people." Once every year the head of the factory 
 and some of his staff were required to make the long 
 journey to Yedo to have an audience with the Shogun. 
 Throughout the whole journey, a journey which can 
 now be made in two days, but then occupied two months, 
 they were kept in the same rigid seclusion as they were 
 in their island, lodged at night only in the back rooms 
 of inns, forbidden to communicate with the people, even 
 with the domestics of the inn, male or female, except in 
 the seclusion of their own rooms, through the bribed 
 connivance of their guards; in the daytime, while on 
 their way, they were carried in veiled palanquins, and 
 prevented, as far as possible, from seeing the country 
 through which they passed. 
 
 Their imprisonment was the smallest part of the 
 degrading humiliation to which they had to submit. 
 They were forbidden to display any of the symbols of 
 Christianity or to celebrate divine service, and the present 
 writer, when in Nagasaki, was more than once told by 
 native scholars that they had also to undergo the ordeal 
 of trampling on the cross. He was, however, never able 
 to find any confirmation of this story. Their annual 
 
288 THE STORY QP OLD JAPAN 
 
 audience with the Shogun in the capital, the chief object 
 of which was to lay before him the presents sent by the 
 Company, lasted for a little over two hours. They entered 
 the presence crawling on their hands and knees, and bent 
 their foreheads humbly to the ground, and then they 
 were called upon to make a display of the manners and 
 customs of the Europeans for the amusement of the 
 Court. In the presence of the Shogun and his ladies, 
 who were behind a screen through which they could see 
 without themselves being seen, and of the Court, the 
 grave and serious Dutchmen, the representatives of one 
 of the greatest commercial companies in the world, men 
 of Tiigh reputation and standing in their own country, 
 were called upon — the description is Kaempfer's— 
 
 "to sit upright, to take off our cloaks, to tell him our 
 names and age, to stand up, to walk, to turn about, to dance, 
 to sing songs, to compliment one another, to be angry, to 
 invite one another to dinner, to converse, to discourse in a 
 familiar way like father and son, to show how two friends or 
 man and wife compliment or take leave of one another, to 
 play with children, to carry them about upon our arms, and 
 to do many more things of like nature. Then again we were 
 commanded to read and to dance, separately and jointly. 
 We were then further commanded to put on our hats, to 
 walk about the room discoursing with one another, to take 
 off our perukes. Then I was desired once more to come 
 nearer the screen, and to take off my peruke. Then they 
 made us jump, dance, play gambols, and walk together. Then 
 they made us kiss one another, like man and wife, which the 
 ladies particularly showed by their laughter to be well pleased 
 with. They desired us further to show them what sorts of 
 compliments it was customary in Europe to make to inferiors, 
 to ladies, to superiors, to princes, to kings. After this they 
 begged another song of me." 
 
 It was, however, only in those parts of the country, 
 Nagasaki and Yedo, where their record was best known 
 and remembered, that the Dutch were subjected to these 
 galling buffooneries, and the innate courtesy and 
 
EUROPEAN TRADE AND INTERCOURSE 289 
 
 hospitality of the Japanese were amply displayed during 
 their journeys to and from the capital. They were, as 
 before stated, rigidly guarded, and prevented from hold- 
 ing any communication with the natives on the route, 
 but some of the compliments that were obligatory on 
 the passage of the trains of the Japanese feudal princes 
 were shown to the Dutch by the local authorities of the 
 districts through which their journey lay. The roads 
 were swept, and all foul objects removed, in advance of 
 their coming, and as they passed crowding of the people 
 was restrained. Though they had to pay handsomely 
 for the'privilege, they were lodged in the very best inns, 
 and one strange exception was made to the iron restric- 
 tions imposed upon their sight-seeing. In Kioto, the 
 sacred capital, the town of the mysterious Ecclesiastical 
 Emperor, the very holy of holies among the Japanese 
 cities, the Dutch, though they seem to have thought so 
 little of the Ecclesiastical Emperor, at the very doors of 
 whose palace they were, that they never asked one single 
 question about him, were escorted to all the great and 
 historic temples, and the greatest trouble was taken to 
 show them all the treasures in each. It is evident that 
 the presence of foreigners was not then looked upon as 
 a pollution in the Land of the Gods, and that all the 
 humiliation which the Dutch suffered was due only to 
 the contempt engendered by their own degraded conduct. 
 In the early period of their trade, six or seven Dutch 
 ships arrived annually, but their number was later 
 reduced to two. When the ships, after their long 
 voyage, dropped anchor in the harbour, they were at 
 once surrounded by guard-boats ; all arms of every kind 
 were taken, and retained so long as the ship remained 
 in harbour, even the heavy guns and the rudder of the 
 ship being removed; a list was made of every man on 
 board; and although the ship was only three hundred 
 yards from the island, no one was allowed to land or 
 u 
 
290 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 embark without passes, not even the sailors of the ship 
 to take what exercise was possible for them within the 
 confines of the little island after their long confinement 
 on board. Before the ship arrived in the port, all 
 papers, books, Bibles, anything, even coins, which bore 
 the semblance of a cross or any words that remotely 
 indicated Christianity, were packed away and hidden in 
 the lowest depths of the hold. Such were the conditions 
 under which European trade was conducted from 1641 to 
 1858, when, under the new treaties, Japan was, after her 
 long seclusion, opened to the trade of all the world. 
 
 If the conditions of trade were humiliating, its profits 
 were great. In 1641 eighty tons of gold and fourteen 
 hundred chests of silver were exported in payment for 
 the goods sold to the Japanese; but as more and more 
 onerous restrictions gradually fettered the interchange 
 of merchandise, the staff of the factory, which at first 
 consisted of over twenty persons, was reduced to seven 
 or eight, and the volume of trade dwindled until, in 
 1665, only ten tons of gold and three hundred chests of 
 silver were received. The aggregate profits continued, 
 however, to the close to be at the rate of from eighty to 
 ninety per cent., while the gains from the private trade, 
 which the individual members of the factory were per- 
 mitted to carry on, were so great that only three years' 
 service was required to enable the head to retire with 
 an ample competency. 
 
 While the whole record of the Dutch at Desima is one 
 of sordid degradation, which, at the present day, can 
 only bring a blush to the cheeks of every European who 
 reads it, it was relieved by one romantic incident. In 
 the Napoleonic wars Holland was blotted out of the map 
 of Europe, and in 181 1 Batavia, the head-quarters of the 
 Dutch Company in the East, was captured by the 
 English. In the political confusion, the little settlement 
 of Desima was entirely forgotten and shut off from all 
 
EUROPEAN TRADE AND INTERCOURSE 291 
 
 communication with the outward world, till the Treaty 
 of Paris re-established Holland as a nation and restored 
 to it its colony in Java. During the four years that 
 passed in the interim the Dutch flag was daily hoisted 
 in Desima, and it was the only place in all the world in 
 which it was kept flying. 
 
 When the Dutch, Portuguese and Spaniards were all 
 at their highest rivalry, the English also made attempts 
 to gain a foothold in Japan, and for a brief period also 
 maintained a factory at Hirado. The first Englishman 
 who, so far as is known, ever landed in Japan was Will 
 Adams. According to his own account of himself, he 
 was a " Kentish man born in a town called Gillingham, 
 two English miles from Rochester, one mile from 
 Chatham, where the King's ships doe lie," who from the 
 age of twelve years was brought up at Limehouse, 
 "being apprenticed twelve years to Master Nicholas 
 Diggins." Adams served as master and pilot in her 
 Majesty's ships for eleven or twelve years, and with 
 "the Worshipful Company of the Barbary merchants, 
 until the Iridish traffic from Holland, in which Indish 
 traffic he was desirous to make a little experience of the 
 little knowledge God had given him." In July 1598 he 
 set sail from the Texel as pilot-master of a fleet of five 
 Dutch ships, "which was made ready by the Indish 
 Company to trade with Spanish America, he himself 
 being in the flagship De Leeuw." 
 
 In April 1599 they arrived at the Straits of Magellan, 
 where they remained six months; and then, when the 
 winter was over, they again set sail, this time being 
 minded to reach Japan, where "Dick Gerrilson, one of 
 the crew who had been there with the Portugals," told 
 them there was a great market for woollen cloth. Six 
 months later, on the 19th of April, 1600, De Leeuw, the 
 one surviving ship of the fleet, arrived at Bungo with 
 only twenty-three men of all her crew left, and only five 
 u 2 
 
292 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 of them were able to carry on their work, so terrible had 
 the ravages of scurvy been on their voyage. They were 
 landed and kindly treated, and their arrival reported to 
 the Shogun, lyeyasu, who soon summoned them before 
 him. Adams tells his experience in one of his own 
 letters — 
 
 "I was carried in one of the King's gallies to the Court 
 at Osaka, where the King lay, about eighty leagues from 
 the place where the ship was. The 12th of May, 1600, I 
 came to the King's city, who caused me to be brought into 
 the Court, being a wonderfully costly house gilded with gold 
 in abundance. Coming before the King, he viewed me well, 
 and seemed to be wonderfully favourable. He made many 
 signs unto me, some of which I understood and some I did 
 not. In the end there came one who could speak Portu- 
 guese. By him the King demanded of me what land I 
 was, and what moved us to come to his land, being so far 
 off. I showed him the name of our country, and that our 
 land had long sought the East Indies, and desired friend- 
 ship with all kings and potentates in the way of merchandise, 
 having in our land divers commodities which these lands had 
 not, and also to buy such merchandise in this land which 
 our country had not. Then he asked whether our country 
 had wars. I answered him yes, with the Spaniards and 
 Portuguese, being in peace with all other nations. Further, 
 he asked me in what I did believe? I said in God that 
 made heaven and earth. He asked me divers other questions 
 of things of religion and many other things, as the way 
 we came to the country. Having the chart of the whole 
 world, I showed him, through the Straits of Magellan. At 
 which he wondered and thought me to lie. Thus from one 
 thing to another I abode with him to midnight. And having 
 asked me what merchandise we had in our ship, I showed 
 him all. In the end, he being ready to depart, I desired 
 that we might have trade of merchandise as the Portuguese 
 and Spaniards had. To which he made me an answer, but 
 what it was I did not understand. So he commanded me 
 to be carried to prison. But two days after, he sent for me 
 again and inquired of the qualities and conditions of the 
 countHes, of wars and peace, of beasts and cattle of all 
 sorts, and of the heavens. It seemed that he was well 
 content with all my answers to his demands. Nevertheless 
 I was condemned to prison again, but my lodging was 
 bettered in another place." 
 
EUROPEAN TRADE AND INTERCOURSE 293 
 
 He was fated never to leave Japan again. lyeyasu 
 recognized his abilities and his honesty, and kept him 
 at his own Court, employing him both as a shipbuilder 
 and teacher of mathematics and astronomy, and also as 
 an intermediary with the Dutch and English, who were 
 now beginning to find their way in greater numbers to 
 Japan. His captivity was rendered as easy as it could 
 be made. A wife and an estate were given to him, so 
 that he might live in comfort, but though lyeyasu was 
 willing to listen to all his entreaties to be allowed to 
 return to his native land and see once more the English 
 wife and children whom he had left there, the oppor- 
 tunity never presented itself in circumstances that 
 enabled him to take advantage of it, and the old sailor 
 had to find such consolation for his exile as prosperity 
 and good report could give him in his Japanese home. 
 He died on the 6th of May, 1620, having lived almost 
 exactly twenty years in Japan, and during those twenty 
 years the only attempts that were made by the English 
 to enter into commercial relations with Old Japan began 
 and ended. 
 
 The East India Company of England was incorporated 
 in 1600, and following in the trail of the Dutch, it sent 
 the good ship Clove, one of three fitted out by the 
 Company for their eighth voyage to the Indies, to Japan, 
 under the command of Captain John Saris, with Mr. 
 Richard Cocks as supercargo or master merchant. The 
 Clove arrived at Hirado on the nth of June, 1613, and a 
 factory was established close to that of the Dutch, and 
 placed in charge of Cocks, who had eight other English- 
 men under him. Through Adams's good offices. Saris 
 obtained an interview with lyeyasu, and ample privileges 
 were given which might have been extremely advan- 
 tageous to the Company, privileges, indeed, which 
 afforded the most convincing testimony of the extreme 
 liberality of the Japanese at this period of their history, 
 even though they had already begun to be suspicious of 
 
294 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 the ultimate motives of their Christian visitors. More, 
 far more was granted to Saris, at the head of his adven- 
 turers in one single ship, through the intermediation of 
 a rough old sailor, than Perry with his great squadron 
 of United States war-ships, or Lord Elgin, fresh from 
 his triumph in China, with not only a fleet, but an army, 
 at his call, was able to exact two hundred and fifty years 
 later. Not only was exterritoriality granted— the right 
 of the officials of the factory to punish their own men 
 according to their own laws for offences committed on 
 Japanese soil — but the very widest privileges of trade 
 were freely and unreservedly given. English ships were 
 permitted to carry on trade of all kinds without hin- 
 drance of any kind, and to put into any harbour, either 
 for trade or refuge. The ports in Kiushiu, far away 
 from Yedo, had hitherto been the only places to which 
 the Dutch and Portuguese had access. The English 
 were specially invited by lyeyasu to settle in his own 
 flourishing and rapidly growing capital. They were 
 told that they might erect houses and reside and trade 
 there, and that they should be at liberty to return to 
 their country whenever they wished, and to dispose of 
 their houses as they pleased when they did so. No 
 wider commercial concession was ever granted by one 
 independent country to another. It filled the Dutch, 
 who had already been settled at Hirado for five years, 
 with envy at the prospect of the unlimited scope that 
 was thus given to the English of a trade of the enormous 
 profits of which they had already such full experience. 
 How were these great privileges obtained ? The English 
 were perfect strangers to lyeyasu, except in the person 
 of the old seaman who had landed in Japan, broken with 
 sickness and in destitution. It was the transparent 
 honesty of that old sailor, his rough tact and willing 
 services, which had so impressed the great Shdgun, one 
 of whose marked qualities was that of being a keen judge 
 
EUROPEAN TRADE AND INTERCOURSE 295 
 
 of men, that he was more favourably disposed to his 
 countrymen than he ever was to the priest-smuggling 
 Portuguese or the avaricious and unscrupulous Dutch. 
 With all these promises, the English adventure proved 
 an utter failure. Despite the coveted privileges which 
 had been given them, despite all Adams's persistent 
 remonstrances, despite the fact that he had prepared 
 charts of the Eastern coast, and had pointed out that 
 it was infinitely less dangerous to navigation than the 
 rocky and island-studded shores of Kiushiu, Saris, in 
 a fatuity of obstinacy and ignorance, insisted on estab- 
 lishing his factory at Hirado at the very doors of the 
 Dutch, in a district already thoroughly exploited by them, 
 which, even if it had not been so, was in all its resources 
 and potentialities as far beneath Yedo as in any country 
 a remote, not over-populated province would be to a 
 prosperous and rapidly growing capital. The Dutch 
 had already acquired much experience of Japanese taste 
 and requirements, and were able to satisfy their cus- 
 tomers better than the English, who were utterly 
 ignorant of both, and they were wise and farseeing 
 enough to be content to suffer present loss, in the hope 
 of securing a monopoly that they saw would be a verit- 
 able gold-mine in the future. They deliberately under- 
 sold the English in whatever goods the latter happened 
 to have that were found attractive by the Japanese. At 
 sea the ships of the two nations fought whenever they 
 met, and the Dutch, larger and better found, were 
 usually victorious. On shore the Dutch and English 
 sailors were constantly fighting, to the disturbance of 
 peace and good order to such an extent that Japanese 
 guards had to be placed in the English residency to 
 protect it from the Dutch, who were far superior in 
 number. Finally, the acme of ingratitude was reached 
 when Saris and Cocks alienated the man to whom they 
 owed everything, who had tried his very utmost to serve 
 
296 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 them, by a series of petty squabbles over charges and 
 remittances, which, however substantial they may have 
 been in the eyes of a poor sailor, were utterly contempt- 
 ible from the point of view of the chief representatives 
 of a wealthy company of commercial prospectors trying 
 to lay the foundations of a prosperous trade. Adams 
 perhaps found the Dutch more grateful friends than his 
 own countrymen, and it is possible that the great influ- 
 ence he possessed with lyeyasu may have been exercised 
 in favour of the Dutch traders after he had quarrelled 
 with his own countrymen. Whatever the reason, 
 whether it was Adams's influence, or the inability of 
 the English to serve the wants and humour the temper 
 of lyeyasu as well as the Portuguese and Dutch had 
 done, the factory was not a commercial success, and in 
 1619 it was finally withdrawn, after having suffered 
 aggregate losses which have been variously estimated at 
 from seven to forty thousand pounds. 
 
 In 1672, when England was at war with Holland, two 
 ships, the Experiment and the Return, were dispatched 
 to the Far East for the purpose of injuring the Dutch 
 trade, especially to break up the factory at Desima, 
 and to secure their good reception by the Shogun, the 
 commander carried with him an autograph letter from 
 Charles II. The expedition was a failure both as a 
 political and commercial venture. The Experiment was 
 captured on her way by the Dutch, and only the Return 
 reached Nagasaki, where she arrived in 1675. Her 
 experience there was worthy of her name. The Japanese 
 refused to enter into any relations at all, an attitude 
 which was confirmed by the Dutch, if confirmation was 
 wanting, who told them the King of England had 
 married a Portuguese Princess, and was both politically 
 and matrimonially allied with countries where the hated 
 Catholic religion was part of the national foundation, 
 and the Return was directed to leave the harbour. 
 
EUROPEAN TRADE AND INTERCOURSE 297 
 
 From that time no further attempt was made to share 
 in Japan's trade by the English until Lord Elgin con- 
 cluded his treaty in 1858. English vessels occasionally 
 appeared off the coast. The Phaeton, a celebrated 
 frigate, commanded by the equally celebrated Sir 
 Edward Pellew, suddenly entered Nagasaki in 1808 in 
 search of Dutch prizes. Consternation spread through 
 the city, but, nothing daunted by her appearance, which 
 was "that of a strong castle," the local governor made 
 preparations to seize or destroy her, "as the Spaniards 
 had been destroyed ninety years before,^ although with 
 the barges he had at his disposal he might as well have 
 tried to batter down a stone wall with eggs." Fortun- 
 ately, before the harbour could be blocked or the attack- 
 ing flfeet assembled, the Phaeton sailed away uninjured 
 and having done no injury herself. Her visit was, how- 
 ever, not unattended by unhappy consequences, as the 
 governor and several officers committed hara-kiri in their 
 shame at having allowed her to escape. When she had 
 gone and her sails had sunk below the horizon, the fleet 
 that had been summoned from the neighbouring ports 
 to destroy her entered the harbour — 
 
 "The squadron of eighty ships approached the anchorage 
 in fine like a flight of wild geese, gradually coiling them- 
 selves up into a circular form like a chrysanthemum, with 
 the Admiral's ship in the centre. Unfolded, their array 
 would have filled the whole harbour like a great sea serpent. 
 The signal for advance was a drum ; for halting, a gong. 
 The waters of the bay were stained with the reflections from 
 
 1 The destruction of a Spanish three-decked ship in the harbour of 
 Nagasaki is related by Kaempfer. The date is not given by him, but 
 the archives of the Dutch factory, now preserved at the Hague, show 
 that it was in 1610. The Spanish ship was surrounded and boarded, 
 and her crew, driven from deck to deck by overwhelming numbers, 
 blew up each upper deck in turn as they retreated to the lower. At 
 last the ship sank, and all on board perished, but they fought with 
 the utmost bravery to the last, and more than three thousand Japanese 
 were killed, so that the harbour was covered with Japanese bodies. 
 The name of the Spanish ship was the Madre de Dios. 
 
298 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 their green and crimson screens; their flags waved to the 
 wind, and the swords and spears glanced in the sunlight. 
 The rows of matchlocks in sheaths of red cloth, which were 
 leant over each ship's side, reminded one of the claws of a 
 lobster, while the gold and silver ensigns and standards 
 dazzled all beholders. Every one was full of admiration." 
 
 Fo^' over two hundred years — from 1643, wlien the 
 Dutch were first consigned to their prison at Desima, 
 till 1853, when Commodore Perry and his fleet entered 
 the Gulf of Yedo — the story of foreign commerce in 
 Japan may be said to be a blank. During all this time 
 Japan saw nothing of the outer world, and the very little 
 she heard of it filtered through the Dutch settlement, 
 to reach her in a form so purified that it contained no 
 germs injurious to her own arrogant pride. She was 
 happy in her isolation, and in her ignorance of all the 
 great events that were stiri-ing the world and of the 
 scientific discoveries that were revolutionizing all the 
 details of daily life. She enjoyed perfect domestic peace, 
 and thought herself secure from foreign incursions in 
 the valour of her people and in the stormy seas that sur- 
 rounded her coasts, while all that was necessary for the 
 comfort and luxury of her own people was produced in 
 abundance within her own borders. But while other 
 nations were advancing, Japan stood still. As she was 
 in 1637, when lyemitsu closed the doors of the country 
 against all but a handful of degraded Dutchmen, so she 
 was in 1853, the same socially and economically, with 
 the same appliances for both peace and war, the same 
 communications both by land and sea. The Dutch, the 
 only Europeans she saw, were still her subservient 
 tools, still only the hucksters, whose sole thought was 
 that of gain, whose sole occupation was that which was 
 in her eyes the most degraded of all. Her estimate 
 of all Europeans was based on her knowledge of the 
 Dutch, traitors to their co-religionists, abject slaves to 
 
EUROPEAN TRADE AND INTERCOURSE 299 
 
 the Japanese, and that knowledge convinced her that 
 her own people were in reality what their religion was 
 teaching them to believe, the inhabitants of a land 
 favoured above all lands by the Gods of Heaven, and 
 worthy in all their own virtues to possess it. All this 
 belief had a rude awakening. 
 
 The great Powers of Europe were still too fully 
 occupied in international complications among them- 
 selves to give any thought to an unknown island empire 
 so far away, when the United States, unhampered by 
 external politics, resolved to take upon herself the task 
 of drawing Japan out of her isolation and into the comity 
 of the nations of the world, by fair means if possible, 
 by force if argument failed. The Government of the 
 States had reasons to move it which did not apply to 
 the great Powers of Europe. The discovery of gold in 
 California gave a great impetus to the prosperity of the 
 West. China was opened to foreign trade by English 
 arms, and between China and California a great trade 
 might well arise. Japan lay on the ocean highway 
 between the two countries, and it was essential that her 
 ports should be open for refuge to vessels passing 
 between them. The whale-fishing industry in the Pacific 
 was large and prosperous. Some vessels engaged in it 
 had been already wrecked on the coasts of Japan, and 
 their treatment had not been all that could be desired; 
 others might be, and it was essential that security be 
 exacted that the previous experience of the ship- 
 wrecked crews should not be repeated. The decision 
 was taken to send to Japan an envoy with a fleet at his 
 command sufficiently strong to ensure a respectful hear- 
 ing of all he had to say. The envoy chosen was 
 Commodore Perry, the commander of the fleet. The 
 Japanese had been warned of his coming by the Dutch, 
 but they had paid little heed to the warning, and when 
 Perry's fleet sailed into the Gulf of Tokio on the 8th of 
 
300 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 July, 1853, they were taken almost by utter surprise, and 
 the surprise was greater when Perry answered the 
 demand that he should take his fleet to Nagasaki and 
 there deal with the Japanese, as was required by their 
 national laws, through the medium of the Dutch, by 
 declaring that the laws of his country and Jiis own 
 instructions required him to deal directly with Japanese 
 authorities of his own rank at the seat of the Central 
 Government of the Empire. He brought with him a 
 letter from the President addressed to the Emperor of 
 Japan in which the object of his mission was described, 
 and on his first visit he contented himself with delivering 
 this letter, with the intimation that he would return in 
 the following year for an answer. 
 
 In the following February he reappeared, this time 
 with a greatly increased fleet, and proceeding, without 
 asking permission, further up the Gulf than he had done 
 on the first visit, calmly awaited the reply to his letter. 
 The Government of the Shogun had, in the intervening 
 months, recognized their incapacity, with their anti- 
 quated weapons and their long desuetude from war, to 
 oppose him by force. Many of the most powerful 
 Daimios advocated resistance at all hazard, but the 
 Shogun's Government, better informed than the local 
 Daimios, better able to judge European military strength 
 and Japan's weakness, yielded to necessity, and after 
 much discussion a treaty was signed on the 31st of 
 March, 1854. Its main provisions were that the ports of 
 Shimoda and Hakodate should be opened to American 
 shipping and trade, that shipwrecked crews should be 
 relieved and the necessary supplies of provisions fur- 
 nished to ships, and that a consul might be stationed at 
 Shimoda. 
 
 The outbreak of the Crimean War was then in view. 
 A Russian naval squadron was in the Chinese waters, 
 and an English squadron was watching it. In order 
 
EUROPEAN TRADE AND INTERCOURSE 301 
 
 that the Russians might not find refuge in the unknown 
 harbours of Japan, the British Admiral, Sir James 
 Stirling, called at Nagasaki to inquire as to the attitude 
 which the Government proposed to adopt towards the 
 belligerents, and incidentally to his visit he concluded a 
 convention on similar terms to those of Commodore 
 Perry's. As events turned out, the Russian Admiral, 
 Puliatin, did enter the harbour of Shimoda, where his 
 ship the Diana was wrecked by the great tidal wave of 
 1854. Perry and Stirling had- both left the coasts. 
 There was yet no communication between Japan and 
 the outward world, and Putiatin and his crew had no 
 means by which they could escape from the scene of 
 their shipwreck, and they were compelled to remain in 
 Japan till May of the following year. Some were then 
 taken away by an American schooner which called at 
 Shimoda, the first merchant ship to profit by the new 
 treaty. The rest escaped in a vessel which they built 
 for themselves from the wreckage of their own ship and 
 from the materials that were available in Japan. Putiatin 
 utilized his enforced stay to conclude a convention on 
 behalf of Russia, and in the following year another was 
 obtained by Holland, so that Japan had now entered into 
 treaty relations with four of the Powers of the West, 
 and the rights she had claimed to drive Europeans from 
 her coast, to put them to death if they deliberately 
 landed, were at an end. 
 
 None of the new conventions could be called com- 
 mercial treaties in the fullest sense of the words, as the 
 trade for which they stipulated was only that of supply- 
 ing ships with their essential requirements, and the main 
 result that was achieved was that of providing what 
 was, after all, nothing but harbours of refuge. The first 
 step had, however, been taken, and the first use that was 
 made of the privileges of the treaty was fortunate beyond 
 measure. A consul was stationed at Shimoda, and the 
 
302 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 person chosen for the post, Mr. Townsend Harris, the 
 first foreign official of any Western nationality to residp 
 in Japan, was one singularly gifted with tact, courage, 
 patience and firmness. The story of how, unbacked by 
 any display of force under his country's flag, he suc- 
 ceeded by his own personal efforts in overcoming the 
 traditional hatred of centuries to even the Smallest 
 association with foreigners, is one of marvellous tact 
 and patience, of steady determination and courage, of 
 straightforward uprightness in every respect, that is not 
 exceeded by any in the entire history of the international 
 relations of the world. He won, in his long residence in 
 Japan, the confidence and trust of the Japanese, and 
 when, four years later, he told them that the conquering 
 fleets of England and France, fresh from their victories 
 in China, would soon be in their waters, prepared to 
 extort from them as comprehensive a treaty as they had 
 secured from China, they yielded to his advice and 
 signed a Treaty of Trade and Shipping so complete that 
 when the British and French ambassadors arrived 
 shortly afterwards, nothing was left for them but to 
 follow the precedent he had made. Under the new 
 treaties, certain ports were at once opened to the trade 
 and residence of the citizens of the contracting Powers, 
 and a new chapter began in Japanese history. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNS 
 
 Iyeyasu on his death in the year 1616 was succeeded 
 by his son Hidetada. As has been before stated, 
 Iyeyasu abdicated in 1603, though he continued to retain 
 in his own hands the de facto administration of the 
 Government, and Hidetada was therefore nominally 
 Shogun from 1603 till 1623, when he in his turn also ab- 
 dicated, but it was only on his father's death that he 
 began to govern in reality. He was content to carry on 
 his father's policy — ^including the persecution of the 
 Christians — and having both the aid of the ministers 
 who had served his father and a country to govern that 
 was brought into complete submission by his father's 
 victories and statesmanship, every inhabitant of which 
 enjoyed the blessings of universal peace after centuries 
 of civil war, he had an easy task, and nothing of a 
 political nature occurred during his tenure of the 
 Shogunate that requires specific mention. Carrying 
 out his father's dying wishes, he began the erection of 
 the splendid mausoleum at Nikko, the greatest triumph 
 of architectural and decorative art that has ever been 
 achieved in Japan, which to this day is, in itself and its 
 natural surroundings, the synonym of beauty in Japan 
 and the subject of wondering admiration to every 
 foreign tourist. 
 
 On his abdication in 1623, Hketada was succeeded by 
 his son lyemitsu, who, next to Iyeyasu, was the ablest 
 of all the Tokugawa Shoguns, who, though he had no 
 opportunity of displaying military capacity in either 
 
 303 
 
304 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 foreign or domestic wars, showed that in other respects 
 he had inherited his grandfather's courage, capacity and 
 determination in the fullest degree. He furnished an 
 exception to the general custom of abdication by retain- 
 ing both the name and reality of power till he was 
 actually on his death-bed. It was under him that the 
 Christian persecution reached its apogee of relentlessness 
 and cruelty, that the final massacre took place at Shima- 
 bara, that the Dutch were interned at Desima, and the 
 Empire closed to foreign intercourse, and, as regards 
 purely domestic policy, that his grandfather's hold over 
 the territorial princes was irresistibly strengthened by the 
 obligation which he imposed on them of spending part 
 of each year in Yedo, his own capital. He greatly 
 extended the capital^ which was further ennobled by the 
 palaces which th&Daimios built everywhere throughout 
 it for the accommodation of themselves and their re- 
 tainers, and contributed to the health and comfort of the 
 inhabitants by the construction of the Tama Gawa aque- 
 duct, which brings water to the city from a distance 
 of twenty-seven miles, and is to this day one of the chief 
 sources of its supply. An estimate may be formed of 
 the size to which the capital had grown from statistics 
 of one of the most destructive fires that is recorded in 
 the Japanese annals. It took place in 1657, ^nd 5°° 
 palaces of the territorial princes, 770 residences of lesser 
 nobility, 150 temples and 1200 streets are said to have 
 been totally destroyed, while over 107,000 lives were 
 lost. 
 
 The next Shogun, Tsunayoshi (1681-1709), was born 
 under the zodiacal sign of the dog, and his character 
 may be estimated from the fact that dogs were ordered 
 by him to be regarded as sacred animals. A higher 
 degree of protection was afforded to them while he lived 
 than was given to human beings, and injuries to them 
 were punished by more severe penalties. It was in his 
 
THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNS 305 
 
 reign that Kaempfer lived in Japan, and it was at his 
 Court that Kaempfer underwent the humiliating ordeal 
 that has been described in the previous chapter. In 
 speaking of the dogs, Kaempfer says — 
 
 "Since the now reigning Emperor came to the throne 
 there are more dogs bred in Japan than perhaps in any 
 one Country whatever, and than there were before even in 
 this Empire. They have their masters, indeed, but lie about 
 the streets, and are very troublesome to passengers and 
 travellers. Every street must, by special command of the 
 Emperor, keep a certain number of these animals, and 
 provide them with victuals. There are huts built in every 
 street, where they are taken care of when they fall sick. 
 Those that die must be carried up to the tops of mountains 
 and hills, as the usual burying places, and very decently 
 interred. Nobody may, under severe penalties, insult or 
 abuse them, and to kill them is a capital crime, whatever 
 mischief they do. In this case, notice of their misdemeanours 
 must be given to the keepers, who are alone empowered 
 to chastise and punish them. This extraordinary care for 
 the preservation of the dog-kind is the effect of a superstitious 
 fancy of the now reigning Emperor who was born in the 
 sign of the dog, and hath for this reason so great an 
 esteem for this animal, as the great Roman Emperor 
 Aug'ustus Caesar is reported in histories to have had for 
 Rams. The natives tell a pleasant tale on this head. A 
 Japanese, as he was carrying up the dead carcass of a dog 
 to the top of a mountain, in order to its burial, grew 
 impatient, grumbled and cursed the Emperor's birthday and 
 commands. His companion, though sensible of the justice 
 of his complaints, bid him hold his tongue and be quiet, 
 and instead of swearing and cursing, return thanks to the 
 Gods that the Emperor was not born in the Sign of the 
 Horse, because in that case the load would have been much 
 heavier. " 
 
 In Nagasaki the orders were not so strictly complied 
 with as in other parts of the Empire, 
 
 "yet the streets lie full of these animals, leading a most easy 
 and quiet life, giving way neither to men nor horses. If 
 they happen to hurt anybody, or otherwise do mischief, so 
 as to deserve punishment or death, nobody dares presume to 
 
306 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 touch them but the public Executioner, and not even he 
 without a direct order from the Governor. 
 
 " Our servants brought a native of Nagasaki, who, they 
 said, had worked for us, to me to dress him. As he was 
 walking along the streets a great dog caught hold of him 
 and bit him cruelly in the calf of his leg. Upon our asking 
 whether or no he had revenged himself upon the dog, he 
 returned in answer that he was not such a fool as to run 
 the hazard of his life into the bargain. For, said he, we 
 are forbid under severe penalties to kill any tame cock or 
 hen; and to kill a dog, for which animal the Emperor hath 
 a peculiar esteem, is a capital crime. If a dog or other 
 tame animal dies, the housekeeper must notify its death to 
 the commanding officer of the street." 
 
 With all his superstition, and a taste for debauchery, 
 especially as he grew older, which led him to the society 
 of degraded favourites and was in a certain sense the 
 cause of his death, he was an enlightened patron of art, 
 science and literature, and the period of Genroku in the 
 Japanese calendar is noted as that of the greatest activity 
 in art, recalling in that respect the brightest days of the 
 Ashikaga. But, as the Ashikaga Period was also the 
 most terrible period of suffering from civil war, so was 
 that of Tsunayoshi from natural calamity. In 1703, a 
 fire, little less devastating than that of 1657, broke out 
 in Yedo. Destructive earthquakes were frequent, one 
 of them being that which was accompanied by a terrible 
 eruption of Mount Fuji, when the perfect symmetry of 
 the sacred mountain was spoilt by the new peak called 
 Hoyei which was, on this occasion, developed on its 
 north-western slope. The eruption lasted fifteen days, 
 and the dust carried from the mountain fell on Yedo, 
 seventy miles distant, to a depth of two inches. This 
 was Fuji's last effort. Since then its fires have dis- 
 appeared and the mountain has preserved an unbroken 
 repose. Tsunayoshi paid for the degrading debauchery 
 of his last years with his life. He had no children. His 
 lawful heir was his nephew. He wished to adopt one of 
 
THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNS 307 
 
 his unworthy favourites as his son, and so exclude the 
 lawful heir. His own wife prevented the accomplish- 
 ment of this purpose by assassinating him and then 
 killing herself. lyenobu (1709-1712), his successor, for 
 whom the lady had made so great a sacrifice, lived only 
 for three years, but endeavoured in that short period 
 to wipe out by his conduct and government the un- 
 savoury record of his predecessor. His son again, 
 lyetsuga, a boy ten years of age when he succeeded, 
 only reigned for two years, and with him lyeyasu's 
 direqt line came to an end. Provision had been made 
 for this contingency by lyeyasu. In the redistribution 
 of the fiefs after his accession to the Shogunate, three 
 of the richest fiefs in the Empire, Ki, Owari and Mito, 
 were conferred on three of his sons. Their descendants 
 were called the Go San Kei, the three illustrious 
 families; they took precedence of all the other Daimios, 
 and lyeyasu directed that successors to the Shogunate 
 shoald be chosen, in the event of the failure of his own 
 direct line, from the cadets of one of these three families. 
 Yoshimune (i 716-1744) of the Ki family was now, in 
 accordance with these directions, chosen as Shogun, and 
 the remainder of the Tokugawa Shoguns, six in all, were 
 his direct descendants. Two of his sons and a grandson 
 subsequently founded three noble houses, Tayasu, 
 Hitotsubashi and Shimidzu, which were known as the 
 Go San Kio, or Three Nobles, and the right of suc- 
 ceeding to the Shogunate was extended to them. Yoshi- 
 mune himself was a capable governor, and made many 
 important reforms, among which may be mentioned 
 the abolition of the torture of witnesses and of suspects 
 accused of trivial offences — the torture of persons 
 accused of grave offences continued till long after the 
 accession of the present Emperor — and the grant of 
 appeal to the Shogun in all cases which involved the 
 penalty of death, both very drastic reforms in the admin- 
 X 2 
 
308 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 istration of the Criminal Law. The old, old story was 
 repeated in the case of all his successors. As did the 
 Emperors, the Fujiwara, the H5jo and the Ashikaga 
 in past ages, so now the Tokugawa Shoguns allowed 
 themselves to lapse into idleness and effeminacy, to neg- 
 lect the affairs of the state for indulgence in voluptuous 
 or artistic pleasures, and to leave the conduct of the 
 administration entirely to their ministers and councillors. 
 Their direct personal authority became as nominal as 
 that of the Emperor had been for 1200 years. Through 
 all their reigns there is little to record in the domestic 
 history of the country, and foreign history it had none. 
 But these years gave a great lesson as to the heavy 
 price the nation had to pay for its seclusion. In a 
 previous chapter we have stated that the country pro- 
 duced within its own borders all that it required for the 
 luxuries and comforts of life. This was perfectly true 
 as a rule, and in all the normal years. All years were, 
 however, not normal. Drought and floods played havoc 
 with the crops then, as they do now in Japan, and when 
 the harvest failed, no help could be had from the great 
 rice-producing countries that were within a few days' 
 sail from Japan, where the supply of rice, the main 
 staple of the people's food, was overflowing and crying 
 out for new markets. The Japanese had abundant 
 means to pay if they could only buy, but that their 
 law forbade them to do. Their own rice failed. They 
 could not live on their hoarded gold, on the products 
 of their mines or on their manufactures, whether artistic 
 or purely economic. And so they had to starve, while 
 they had only to stretch out their hands to find food in 
 abundance. There is a long list of the national famines 
 in the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth 
 centuries. No less than twenty-one are recorded in less 
 than one hundred and fifty years, nearly an average of 
 one in every seven years. Some were of terrible severity. 
 
THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNS 309 
 
 The horrors of that of 1836 far exceeded the worst that 
 are told of the Irish famine of 1848. And famine was 
 alwaysaccompanied oi" speedily followed by cholera, which 
 carried off the weak and exhausted people by thousands. 
 Nothing has been more remarkable in all the recent 
 history of Japan than the rapidity with which the popu- 
 lation has grown. Since the restoration, an annual 
 census has been accurately taken — the system of house- 
 hold registration in Japan renders this a much simpler 
 task than with us — and figures, whose absolute accuracy 
 cannot be doubted, show that there has been a steady 
 annual increase of over half a million in the population. 
 It has grown from thirty millions in 1858 to fifty-two 
 millions in 1898. In the eighteenth and the first half 
 of the nineteenth centuries no census was taken as such, 
 but strict records of the people were kept for the purpose 
 of disciplinary supervision and taxation. In 1750, the 
 population was less than thirty millions, it was almost 
 exactly the same in 1800, and it remained stationary at 
 that figure till the country was open to foreign trade. 
 No drain was made on the people either by war or 
 emigration. They enjoyed absolute and unbroken peace ; 
 they could not go abroad; famine and pestilence wiped 
 out their natural increase. Earthquakes, tidal waves and 
 conflagrations contributed their fatal quota, but it was 
 insignificant when compared to the ravages of the two 
 great destroyers. Further volcanic eruptions occurred 
 in 1783 and 1793 : the first that of Asamayama, a volcano 
 about eight thousand feet high, in the province of 
 Shinano, which is still in full action — in it the natives 
 say the fires are always burning — and the last at the 
 sulphur springs at Unzen in Kiushiu, in which so many 
 of the Christians met their deaths in the great perse- 
 cution. The eruption of Asamayama began on the 25th 
 of June and lasted till the 21st of August. 
 
310 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 " The noise it made was like that of a thousand thunders. To 
 the very foot the whole mountain seemed to be on fire, and 
 from the midst of the smoke lightning flashed in every direc- 
 tion. Night and day were equally dark. All that happened could 
 not be told with the tongue nor described with the pen. The 
 lava streams flowed on to the plains to the distance of thirty- 
 eight miles. Stones, hundreds of tons in weight, were 
 hurled into the air and fell like the leaves of tl;ie trees, and 
 these very stones still lie on the slopes of the mountain." 
 
 All the villages around were destroyed, the country 
 wasted and thousands of the villagers died both in the 
 eruption and from the famine that followed. The erup- 
 tion and earthquake at Unzen were even worse. The 
 boiling water of the springs overflowed and poured down 
 the mountain side, sweeping the villagers before it, and 
 condemning them to a death hardly less horrible than 
 their ancestors may have seen the Christians suffer a 
 hundred and fifty years previously. And at Shimabara, 
 where the last massacre took place, earthquake spread 
 ruin and destruction. More than 53,000 people, more 
 than the toll of the Christians slaughtered on the last 
 fatal day of 1643, are known to have perished in the 
 earthquake and the eruption. 
 
 The last of the Tokugawa Shoguns was Yoshinobu, 
 who still lives, no longer as ,Sh5gun, but as Prince 
 Tokugawa, in the highest rank of the ordinary nobility 
 of the Emperor. The story of his accession and fall and 
 the final close of the dual system of government belongs 
 to the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 
 
 The advent of foreigners was undoubtedly the direct 
 cause of the fall of the walls which encircled the Govern- 
 ment of the Shogun and shielded it from assaults by its 
 own people, but these walls were already tottering 
 before the middle of the nineteenth century, and Perry 
 only set in active motion the ram which was ready to 
 batter them down long before his ships sailed up the 
 Gulf of Yedo. 
 
 It has been told how Buddhism obtained a firm hold 
 on the nation in the sixth and seventh centuries. Its 
 influence was for a time, long in itself but only a brief 
 interlude in the life of a nation, somewhat diminished 
 under the persecution of Nobunaga and in its conflict 
 with Christianity, when the Jesuits were at the height 
 of their success, but it continued to be the principal 
 factor in the spiritual guidance of the people, and, after 
 the extirpation of Christianity, it regained, under the 
 fostering care of lyeyasu and his successors, even more 
 than it had ever lost. While the nation was devoted 
 to it, the ancient national religion was neglected, almost 
 forgotten, and its precepts, among the foremost of which 
 was that which claimed a divine origin for the Emperor, 
 invested him with the sanctity that was due to his 
 descent, and imposed on all the duty of implicit 
 obedience in virtue of that descent, fell into utter neg- 
 lect. The people knew that their Emperor lived at 
 Kioto, but he was so shrouded from their gaze, his 
 
 311 
 
312 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 personality so utterly lost to tfieir knowledge, that they 
 had practically ceased to regard him as an entity in 
 the political system, though, theoretically, he never 
 ceased to be the sole foundation of all honour, law and 
 authority, even at the darkest period of his thraldom 
 under iron-willed dictators. Nothing can better demon- 
 strate the condition of the impotency into whicfi he had 
 fallen than the fact that he is only twice mentioned in 
 the voluminous History of the Church, and is only 
 referred to by Kaempfer as "the Ecclesiastical Emperor " 
 who seems, in Kaempfer's estimation, to have been at 
 best no more than a Pope, but less than a Pope in that 
 he concerned himself, neither directly nor indirectly, in 
 secular affairs. When Xavier visited Kioto, he found 
 that the Emperor's influence was so shadowy that he 
 did not think it worth soliciting for the Church, and 
 Kaempfer, though he passed through Kioto on both 
 his journeys to and from Yedo, made no effort while 
 there to learn aught of the mysterious sovereign who 
 lived in it, and he ignores him with a silence that is 
 almost contemptuous. Wherever either the Jesuit 
 Fathers or Kaempfer speak of the Emperor, they 
 invariably mean the Shogun. 
 
 In the eighteenth century, a great school of native 
 research and learning was founded at his capital by Mit- 
 sukuni, the second Prince of Mito, who, just as Hideyoshi 
 is called the Warwick of Japan, has been described as 
 the Maecenas of Japan on account of his own scholar- 
 ship and his encouragement of learning in others. He 
 governed the fief of Mino from 1661 to 1690. Working 
 under his patronage, the best scholars of the Empire 
 explored the ancient traditions and records of the time 
 when the Emperor was the real de facto as well as the 
 de jure governor of the land. The result of their work 
 was the Dai Nihonshi, the history of Great Japan, from 
 the accession of the Emperor Jimmu to the abdication 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 313 
 
 of Go Komatsu, the ninety-ninth Emperor of the line. 
 It was finished in 1715, but the times did not permit 
 its publication, and it was not printed till 1857. Manu- 
 script copies were made and widely circulated and, as 
 it was used and studied, so was the long dormant 
 national interest aroused in the ancient faith, the in- 
 evitable concomitant of which was increased reverence 
 for the Emperor and the spread of the conviction that 
 the continued maintenance of the dual form of govern- 
 ment was incompatible with the full observance of that 
 reverence. The Prince of Mito was of the Tokugawa 
 blood, the grandson of the great founder of that family. 
 His own family was one of the greatest branches of the 
 Tokugawa house, one of the three which had the right 
 to furnish a successor to the Shogunate. His zeal for 
 learning overcame his family loyalty and, though the 
 Bakufu ^ attempted to repress it, the study of the 
 national literature went on, and the true relations of the 
 Emperor and the Shdgun, those of lord and vassal, were 
 exposed and the desire was roused to restore them to 
 their proper standing. 
 
 In 1827 another great work was completed, the Nihon 
 Guaishi ("The External History of Japan"), which tells 
 the history of the Shogunate, from its foundation by 
 Yoritomo in the twelfth century down to the accession 
 of lyeyasu in the beginning of the seventeenth century. 
 The Nihon Guaishi was as widely read by scholars as 
 the Dai Nihonshi. The teaching of both works was 
 that the Mikado was the only legitimate sovereign of the 
 
 1 " Bakufii " — curtain office — was the usual vernacular term for the 
 Shogun's government. In military camps, it was customary to surround 
 the general's quarters with a curtain. The Shogun having been origin- 
 ally a general, the curtain, that he would have had in the field, was 
 supposed to be hung round the office in which he administered his 
 government, and the term finally extended to the government itself. 
 The use of the curtain still survives, though in a humbler way. It 
 may be seen at any time round happy picnic parties when the cherry- 
 trees or the azaleas are in flower. 
 
314 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Empire to whom the allegiance of every Japanese was 
 alone due, and that the government of the Shogunate 
 was a usurpation, founded only on the power of the 
 sword. The style of both, it may be stated, written as 
 they were in the most classical Chinese, rendered them 
 as unintelligible to the masses, who, however, did not 
 count as political factors, as Milton's Deferice of the 
 People of England would have been to the common 
 people of Great Britain in the days preceding the 
 Restoration. 
 
 The revived doctrine was eagerly imbibed by the 
 great territorial princes, who had long fretted under 
 the domination of one who was of no higher origin 
 than themselves and the political and social disabilities 
 which were imposed on them. While the Shogun was 
 a man of strong character and great military capacity 
 and was backed by a force that was immeasurably 
 superior to any that could be placed in the field against 
 him, might was right, and his power had to be accepted 
 and bowed to. These conditions no longer existed 
 when he was a mere faineant, equally destitute of ability 
 or energy. The superior military force was still at his 
 command, but it lost its effect when there was no master 
 mind to direct it, no general of supreme ability to 
 handle it in the field, and the prestige of invincibility 
 which the genius of lyeyasu gave to the Tokugawa 
 soldiers ceased to have any existence. Another doctrine 
 which, though it fell into abeyance in the Early and 
 Middle Ages, had its origin in the most remote' period 
 of antiquity, was that Japan, being the Land of the 
 Gods, could only be worthily inhabited by people who 
 were the children of the Gods. This doctrine entirely 
 disappeared under the influence of Buddhism. It had 
 no place at all in lyemitsu's reasons for excluding 
 foreigners which were entirely political — to guard 
 against the danger of invasion following on a whole- 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 315 
 
 sale conversion of the people to Christianity. To 
 foreigners as such, lyemitsu had no more objection than 
 his predecessors who ruled the Empire through preced- 
 ing generations, and of the good-will of those pre- 
 decessors we have already given numerous illustrations. 
 But the new doctrine brought with it a very different 
 spirit. The very touch of foreigners was regarded as 
 pollution, their presence as desecration to the divine 
 land, and they must be kept out at all hazards, at all 
 cost. This was the spirit that permeated the whole 
 natioo from the Imperial Court down to the humblest 
 Samurai in the service of the most insignificant Daimio. 
 The Bakufu might also have acted on it, but that they, 
 knew they could not. Bfetter informed than the Court 
 and the local princes, they were fully conscious of 
 Japan's military impotency, and when the foreigners 
 came with their ships, their men, and their heavy 
 guns, prepared to use them if their demands were not 
 complied with, they knew that it was better to yield 
 with grace, even though it was but temporarily, than 
 suffer the humiliation of having to bow down to force. 
 The last Emperor we have mentioned in our story as 
 an active political factor was Go Daigo, who reigned in 
 the fourteenth century. Since then not one single 
 occupant of the Imperial throne directly interfered in 
 the affairs of the state. Some of them, while on the 
 throne, never passed beyond the stage of boyhood, but 
 those who did had been brought up in such a way that 
 they were equally destitute in manhood of mental and 
 physical energy, and could not, if they would, make 
 their names a power to influence the Government. 
 They were immured in their palaces, in the society of 
 women and courtiers, little better informed than them- 
 selves, cut off from all the active intellects of their 
 Empire, and at their palace doors they were watched 
 and guarded by emissaries of the Shogun, whose duty 
 
316 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 it was to see that none had ever acces;s to them on 
 whose devotion to himself the Shogiin qould not 
 implicitly rely. 
 
 The Emperor on the throne at the time of Perry's 
 arrival, and for the fourteen years that followed it, was 
 Komei (1847- 1867), the father of the present sovereign, 
 the hundred and twentieth of the line, who ascended 
 the throne in 1847 at the age of seventeen years. When 
 Perry first appeared he was therefore twenty-three years 
 of age, in the very prime of early manhood, and he 
 neither then, nor afterwards, lapsed into the mental 
 degeneration of so many of his predecessors. The 
 revived national ideal of patriotism sank into his heart ; 
 he hated the Bakufu as the usurper who had reduced 
 his Imperial prerogatives to a nullity; he hated still 
 more the foreigners, whom he had never seen, of whom 
 he knew nothing, who now threatened to pollute his 
 divine country with their presence. Nominal though 
 the Emperor's authority was, it had never ceased to 
 exist in name, and now it was becoming something 
 more than nominal. But even if it had still been as 
 shadowy as in the worst periods of the Imperial 
 impotency, the Emperor's sanction would have been 
 required to legalize so great a constitutional reform as 
 the opening of the country to foreign intercourse. The 
 Shogun's Government, in their distraction at the new 
 complications which the advent of foreigners imposed 
 upon them, ignored their constitutional obligation and 
 signed the Treaties with Harris, with Lord Elgin, and 
 with the other Powers, without going through the form-' 
 ality of asking the Emperor's consent in advance, and 
 when what they had done became known at Kioto, the 
 anger of the Emperor and the indignation of the Court 
 were great. They were rendered still greater when it 
 was disclosed that, in the Treaties with the foreigners, 
 the Shogun had described himself as Tai Kun, 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 317 
 
 Sovereign Lord, an altogether new title, hitherto un- 
 known, which assumed the sovereignty that really only 
 belonged to ^he Emperor. Still the Bakufu might have 
 treated both; with contemptuous disregard in their 
 hearts, howeVer outward their deference. An Emperor, 
 without men or money, a poverty-stricken Court without 
 experience, were negligible quantities, no matter how 
 great their theoretical prestige. But now the great 
 feudal Princes, Satsuma, Choshiu, Kaga, Tosa and 
 others were ranging themselves by the Emperor's side, 
 and they had both men and money. Singly, they could 
 do nothing against the Shogun; united for a great 
 cause, under a great rallying cry, they might, though 
 it was not at all certain, be a match for all the might 
 and wealth of the Bakufu and of the feudal Princes who 
 were bound to the Tokugawa Shoguns by ties of blood 
 and long alliance, who would still, no doubt, support 
 its cause as they had done from the old time when 
 lyeyasu first threw down the gauntlet to the Leaguers 
 of Osaka. Both the cause and the cry were now 
 found : " Honour the Emperor and expel the Barbarians" 
 were watchwords that were soon ringing through all 
 the land to the west and south of Kioto. The north 
 and east still remained firm in allegiance to the Shogun, 
 prepared to defend to the last the prerogatives that he 
 had held and exercised in Yedo ever since the capital 
 was built. 
 
 The position of the Shogun's Government was dis- 
 tracting enough to have tried to the utmost the ability 
 of the greatest statesmen. On the one side, they had 
 foreigners demanding the rights to trade and reside in 
 the Empire, and they knew they could not resist these 
 demands. On the other, they had the legitimate 
 sovereign and the most powerful feudatories demand- 
 ing that the foreigners should be driven out by force 
 and the old seclusion maintained unimpaired, the 
 
318 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 Emperor himself proposing to lead the njational army 
 in person, as his ancestors had done sixljeen hundred 
 years before, in the holy war against the} sacrilegious 
 barbarians. And another complication dirose .;to be- 
 wilder them all. All Samurai were in the service of 
 some feudal lord who, while he was bound to maintain 
 them and their families and could claim their lives in 
 his service if he willed, was, at the same time, respons- 
 ible for their conduct towards the state. It was the 
 custom that Samurai, whose conduct either actually 
 involved their lords in complications with the Govern- 
 ment or with their peers, or threatened to do so, should 
 disassociate themselves from their allegiance and be- 
 come what was called ronin (wave-men), vagabonds, 
 who, though still gentlemen and retaining the privileges 
 of their caste and their swords, were subject and owed 
 lealty to no lord, for whose conduct therefore no lord 
 could be held responsible. The clans as such were not 
 yet prepared to go to the last resort of open warfare 
 against the Shogun, but large numbers of the retainers, 
 craving to show their patriotism by deeds, now became 
 ronin and, spreading over all the country, sowed the 
 seeds of disaffection and vented at once their hatred of 
 the Shogunate and of the barbarians by frequent 
 murders of the newly arrived foreign residents, and 
 by equally frequent assassinations of partisans of the 
 Shogunate among their own countrymen. The Govern- 
 ment was at its wits' end. The foreign ministers, 
 whose legations were in the capital, demanded the con- 
 dign punishment of these murderers and the prevention 
 of the recurrence of the outrages they committed. The 
 Government could not always find the murderers, and 
 no effective discipline could be imposed on the ronin, 
 who wandered everywhere, openly or in secret, but in 
 either case could not without some act of violence be 
 brought within the grasp of the law. Heaven added 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 319 
 
 its quota to the distractions and burthens of the be- 
 wildered Government. In 1855 an earthquake caused 
 ruin through the Eastern Provinces, the personal 
 domains of the Shogun, and the death of over 104,000 
 persons. In 1858 a cholera epidemic spread through 
 the land, and the deaths, again in Yedo alone, in less 
 than one month, exceeded 30,000. When bewilderment 
 and confusion were at their height, the Shogun, lyesada, 
 suddenly died. He was childless, and the question of 
 his heir was, before his death, a matter of acute policy, 
 which was further accentuated by differences in regard 
 to the opening of the country. 
 
 The Sh5gun's Court was divided into two strongly 
 antagonistic parties on both points. At the head of 
 one party was Nariaki, the Prince of Mito, the descend- 
 ant of the great Maecenas of the seventeenth century, a 
 near relation of the Shogun, a man of strong will and 
 character, who had filled many great offices in the 
 Government. The head of the other party was li 
 Kamon no Kami, Prince of Hikone,^ a descendant of 
 one of lyeyasu's most trusted generals. An office in 
 the Court of the Shogun, somewhat analogous to that 
 
 ' The full name and titles of this nobleman may be mentioned as a 
 specific illustration of Japanese nomenclature : — Hikone, li Naosuke, 
 Kamon no Kami. Hikone was his territorial name taken from his 
 fief in the province of Omi ; li his family and Naosuke his own personal 
 name. Kamon no Kami — Lord of the Grounds — was the name of the 
 office he held at the Court of the Emperor. Just as with ourselves a 
 great nobleman is proud to accept an office at the Court of the King, 
 such as Lord Chamberlain or Master of the Horse, so were the greatest 
 of the territorial nobles in Old Japan both proud to accept and eager 
 to obtain even the most insignificant offices in the Court of the Em- 
 peror which invested the holders with a much higher dignity in the 
 eyes of their countrymen than did the territorial titles even of the 
 wealthiest and most powerfijl fief Shimadzu, the Prince of Satsuma, 
 and Mori, the Prince of Choshiu, the two most powerful of all the 
 feudatories, were in this way respectively Shuri no Kami and Daizen 
 no Kami, Lords of the Carpenters and of the Kitchen. The office, once 
 obtained, became hereditary and, as in the present instance, the actual 
 holder was usually mentioned by its title, while his territorial title was 
 borne by his eldest son in the father's lifetime. 
 
320 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 of Kuambaku in the Court of the Emperor, with the 
 exception that it was not invariably filled, and was only 
 filled of necessity on occasions of national emergency, 
 was that of Tair5 — chief elder — virtually Prime Minister. 
 This office was first conferred on lyeyasu's general, 
 and it had become almost hereditary in the Hikone 
 family, which, an exception to the general rule of 
 territorial princes, had seldom failed in having at the 
 head of the house men of character and ability. 
 
 li Naosuke was a younger son of his father, brought 
 up in the most frugal manner, without any expectation 
 of ever succeeding to the property and title. The founder 
 of the family left instructions for the guidance of his 
 posterity that only the most moderate competency should 
 be given out of the family estates to sons who were neither 
 heirs in his own family, nor were adopted into others, 
 nor attained high official rank, and the story of Naosuke 
 and his brethren is a very curious illustration of family 
 life in the nobility of that time. When the father died 
 the eldest son naturally succeeded. He, having no 
 children, adopted his own brother, next in years, as his 
 son and heir. A third brother was adopted by the Prince 
 of Hiuga, and so became heir to a principality of more 
 than moderate wealth, and Naosuke alone was left to 
 experience in his own person the full effects of his 
 ancestor's directions. An allowance was assigned to him 
 not more than sufficient to maintain the position of a 
 squire of good degree, and on this he livedj from 
 the age of twenty to thirty-five, on a humble estate 
 in the family fief. Many, under such circumstances, in 
 the consciousness of neglect and indifference on the part 
 of those nearest to them, would have given way to the 
 temptations of such pleasures as were within reach or 
 to despair. Not so Naosuke. All his earliest years were 
 devoted to earnest study, both of civil and military 
 subjects, and the consequence was that, when he arrived 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 321 
 
 at the prime of manhood, he was exceptionally gifted 
 in all the accomplishments and knowledge that became 
 a Samurai of the highest type. In a moment, as it were, 
 all his future was changed j the sudden death of one 
 brother made Naosuke the heir of the family, and within 
 a very short time afterwards, the death of the prince 
 made the brave and accomplished Samurai who, a year 
 before, had been working hard in the country and living 
 on his slender means in the utmost frugality, the power- 
 ful and wealthy Prince of Hikone, the feudal head of a 
 warlike and numerous clan, entitled by descent to a 
 foremfist place in the council of the Bakufu. This was 
 just three years before Perry arrived. Both Nariaki and 
 Naosuke were in Yedo when the question arose, during 
 lyesada's lifetime, of the choice of a successor. The 
 form of the Shogun's Government may be here described. 
 The Shogun himself nominally was at the head of all, 
 but he had ceased to exercise any direct control, and the 
 administration was left entirely in the hands of the state 
 councils. First in authority was the "Go-ro-jiu," the 
 elders — sometimes called the Goyo-beya, or chamber of 
 public business — which was composed of five or six of 
 the greatest of the Fudai Daimios, the descendants of 
 the Daimios who adhered to lyeyasu before the fall of 
 the castle of Osaka, who were bound to the Tokugawas 
 by strong ties of common interest and ancestral con- 
 nection, who together formed "the cabinet, and one of 
 whom practically occupied the post of Prime Minister, 
 though each member formally presided over the meetings 
 in monthly rotation. Next in rank came the "Waka- 
 Toshiyori " — the young elders — usually five in number, 
 who were also Fudai Daimios, and formed a second 
 cabinet. These two councils practically constituted the 
 Government. Beneath them were a number of depart- 
 ments presided over by Bugiyo — commissioners or 
 secretaries of state — dealing with finance, religion. 
 
322 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 justice, military and such naval affairs as coast defence, 
 the administration of the city of Yedo and the general 
 business of a Government. The Princes of the three 
 great houses, from which alone an heir to the Shogunate 
 could be chosen, had as such no corporate existence and 
 no administrative functions to discharge outside their own 
 dominions, but they were, if old enough, Osually but not 
 necessarily members of one or other of the great councils, 
 but whoever the members were, they were invariably 
 chiefs or members of clans whose devotion to the Toku- 
 gawa was ancestral and unquestionable. If not members 
 of either council, the heads of the Go San Kei could, from 
 their wealth, power and prestige, still exercise a consider- 
 able influence on the public policy, still more so when any 
 one was a man of ability and strong will. In the heyday 
 of the Tokugawa's might and influence, none of the 
 other clans, great and powerful though they were, were 
 consulted, and that compliment was paid to them for the 
 first time in the general national distraction and in the 
 division in the Shogun's own councils that followed the 
 arrival of Perry. Until then, the Shogun's rule was 
 absolute in its most complete sense, saving always the 
 shadowy authority of the Emperor. 
 
 At Kioto, the Court of the Emperor, the Shogun was 
 represented by an officer called the Sho-Shi-Dai, whose 
 duty it was to act as intermediary with the Emperor, 
 to administer the Emperor's finances, for the provision 
 of which he was almost entirely dependent on the 
 Shogun, and to safeguard the Shogun's interests at 
 Court. It is always to be remembered that, in view of 
 the theoretical prerogatives of the Emperor, it was all- 
 important to keep him under the influence of the 
 Shogun, to the exclusion of all the great territorial 
 princes unconnected with him by family ties who, had 
 they once succeeded in getting the Emperor into their 
 possession, would from that fact alone have become the 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 323 
 
 constitutional governors, so long as their possession 
 continued. As a safeguard against this, the Daimios 
 were not permitted to have residences in Kioto, and the 
 city was always garrisoned by clans on whose fidelity to 
 the Tokugawas the most implicit reliance could be 
 placed. 
 
 Between 1853 and 1857, Nariaki was a member of the 
 Gorojiu, being called into it on Perry's first arrival, but 
 he threw up his office in the latter year, disgusted with 
 what he considered to be degradation to the country, the 
 Shogun's weak submission to the demands of the 
 foreigners. Harris had, by this time, arrived at Shimoda 
 with credentials from his own Government to reside as 
 their representative in Japan, and he demanded the right 
 to proceed to Yedo and there present his credentials in 
 person to the Shogun. To this course Nariaki was 
 bitterly opposed, so much so that he advised not only 
 that the members of the Gorojiu who supported it should 
 be called upon to commit hara-kiri, but that Harris him- 
 self should be decapitated, and from the time of his 
 resignation he entered into secret negotiations with the 
 court at Kioto with the view of inducing the willing 
 Emperor to assert his prerogative and forbid further con- 
 cessions to the foreigners. After Nariaki resigned, 
 Naosuke became the leading spirit of the Bakufu, and 
 was appointed to the office of Tairo — Chief Minister. 
 Simultaneously, the question of the succession which had 
 long been pending was brought to the front, and as the 
 Shogun was in failing health, it was urgent that it should 
 be settled without delay. 
 
 There were two candidates for the Shdgunate, Hitotsu- 
 bashi,^ Nariaki's own son, a young Prince, twenty years 
 of age, who had already given signs of great ability, 
 
 1 Thg son had previously been adopted into the Hitotsubashi family. 
 His personal name was Yoshinobu, but he is sometimes spoken of as 
 Keiki, the Sinico-Japanese reading of the characters which in pure 
 Japanese are read as Yoshinobu. 
 Y 2 
 
324 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 and lyemochi, the still younger Prince of Ki. Both 
 were relations of the; Shogun, lyemochi, however, in the 
 nearer degree. Nariaki naturally supported the claims 
 of his son; Naosuke, on the other hand, favoured 
 lyemochi and carried the day. Hardly had he done so, 
 when lyesada died (August 15th, 1858), and Naosuke 
 was now chief minister in the Government of a boy only 
 twelve years of age, and was therefore de facto ruler of 
 the Empire. He used his power with vigour against his 
 opponents. Nariaki was ordered to confine himself to 
 his house, and the Daimios, who had now, in the diffi- 
 culties in regard to the opening of the country, been for 
 the first time consulted by the Bakufu, who were opposed 
 to Naosuke's foreign policy, were also ordered to inter- 
 fere no more in public affairs. 
 
 The sanction of the Emperor had been won to Perry's 
 treaty, notwithstanding his hatred to foreigners. Nariaki 
 had, however, great personal influence at Kioto. His 
 wife was the daughter of one of the Imperial princes; 
 his sons were married to daughters of nobles of the 
 highest rank at the Emperor's Court, and his intrigues 
 were successful in confirming the Emperor's antipathy 
 to any extension of the concessions that had already been 
 made to foreigners. His consent to any new treaties 
 was firmly refused. Meanwhile, Harris was vigorously 
 pressing for the signature of the new treaty, and the 
 English and French fleets might any day arrive from 
 China. Naosuke courageously took the responsibility 
 on himself, and, knowing that it was hopeless to await 
 the Imperial sanction, that meanwhile the Empire was 
 threatened with pressing dangers, concluded the Treaty 
 with Harris and a little later with the other Great Powers. 
 On the 1st of July, 1859, all the new treaties came into 
 force. Sir Rutherford Alcock, the first British Minister 
 to Japan, took up his residence in Yedo along with 
 American and French colleagues, while European 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 325 
 
 traders came in large numbers to Yokohama, the port 
 which was assigned as the seat of foreign trade and 
 residence. 
 
 The beginning of commercial intercourse was 
 shadowed with the darkest clouds. The experience 
 which the Japanese had acquired in their dealings with 
 the subservient Dutch was an obstacle rather than the 
 reverse to the successful conduct of business with traders 
 who claimed the rights of equals; who were all com- 
 peting with each other to gain the first advantages in an 
 entirely new field; who were as ignorant of Japanese 
 spirit and customs as the Japanese were of them ; who, 
 it must be confessed, were imbued with ideas of con- 
 temptuous superiority to Asiatics, the open manifesta- 
 tion of which filled a high-spirited people, which 
 regarded itself as the very salt of the earth, with horror 
 and indignation. Many of the new traders, an over- 
 whelming majority of whom were British or American, 
 were unscrupulous adventurers, ready to profit by the 
 ignorance and inexperience of the Japanese ; and oppor- 
 tunity made the better class, representatives of great firms 
 of long standing and high reputation in China, yield 
 to temptation in such a way as to leave little to choose 
 between their conduct and that of the worst types of the 
 former class. On the other side, the Japanese, forced 
 to enter into trade relations in violation of all their 
 national traditions; despising the foreigners, both from 
 the facts that they were foreigners and that they were 
 following what, in the Japanese ideal, was the most 
 degrading of all occupations, that of trade, and dread- 
 ing them at the same time, thinking that if they made 
 trade both difficult and unprofitable, the foreigners 
 might in the end quit the country in disgust, placed 
 every impediment that their ingenuity could devise in 
 the way of the smooth working of the Treaties or the 
 Trade Regulations that were attached to them, and 
 
326 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 systematically endeavoured to render both fruitless. 
 And if some of the European traders who flocked to 
 the new port were dishonest and unscrupulous adven- 
 turers, they soon found that they were out-HerodeJ in 
 their worst qualities not by some, but by all the Japanese 
 with whom they could deal. There were plenty of old 
 and historic commercial houses in Japan with long and 
 unblemished records of their upright dealing with their 
 own countrymen, and if the principals or representatives 
 of these houses had been encouraged, or had had the 
 enterprise to adapt themselves to the new order of affairs 
 and bring their wealth and sense of honour on to the 
 new field that was open to them, many of the difificulties 
 that beset the early days of commercial intercourse would 
 never have occurred, and Japan might have been saved 
 from the unsavoury reputation of commercial dishonesty 
 which clings to it to this day. Unfortunately, all pre- 
 ferred to adhere to their long-established businesses and 
 declined to enter upon unknown paths and speculative 
 experiments. The result was that the native traders, 
 who came to Yokohama, were the lowest of the low, 
 equally dishonest and cunning, without either capital 
 or reputation. "They were," Sir Rutherford Alcock 
 said, with his long experience of the East, 
 
 "among the most dishonest and tricky of Easterners. The 
 incessant examples of the most ingenious and deliberate 
 fraud which they give leaves no doubt on the subject. Bales 
 of silk are continually sold with outward hanks of one 
 quality and the inner ones of coarser material, most craftily 
 interwoven. Jars of camphor with the top only the genuine 
 article and the rest powdered rice. Tubs of oil, the lower 
 half water. Money taken for contracts immediately appro- 
 priated to their own use and unblushingly confiscated. 
 They were pre-eminent in ingenuity and universality of 
 cheating." 
 
 These men were the fathers and grandfatliers of many 
 who are now millionaires; who from the first have 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 327 
 
 absorbed the whole foreign trade of Japan and retained 
 it to this day. 
 
 One incident in the story of the beginning of Japan's 
 foreign trade is still often told to the alleged dishonour 
 of the Europeans who profited by it. A provision in 
 the Trade Regulations appended to the Treaty was that, 
 to facilitate trade transactions, the Japanese authorities 
 should change foreign bullion, weight for weight, for 
 the native current coin. The ratio in the relative values 
 of gold and silver in the world was then fifteen to one. 
 In Japan, where gold was relatively far more abundant 
 than silver, the ratio in the days of her seclusion was 
 three to one, and this ratio still existed when the first 
 foreign traders arrived in 1859. They were not slow to 
 realize the wondrous opportunity that was before them. 
 They could buy silver in abundance in China, distant 
 only a week's steaming, change it into current silver 
 coin in Japan, and with this coin buy one-third of its 
 weight in gold. To give a concrete illustration, with 
 silver that cost less than six shillings in China they 
 could buy in Japan gold that could subsequently be sold 
 in China for eighteen shillings. With a certain profit of 
 200 per cent, before their eyes on one transaction, with 
 the possibility of repeating that transaction as often as 
 they could find steamers to transport the bullion to and 
 from China, is it any wonder that human nature gave 
 way, and that the newly arrived European merchants 
 devoted themselves not to the ordinary operations of 
 commerce, but to those of traders in the precious 
 metals? The Japanese saw their country was being 
 rapidly denuded of the whole of its gold, and their local 
 officials were daily besieged by crowds of foreigners, all 
 bringing silver and demanding its immediate exchange 
 for current coin. The local authorities tried to cause 
 delay by insisting that signed applications for exchange 
 should be made in writing. The demands still poured 
 
328 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 in on them. Wholly incapable of satisfying these 
 demands, they notified that they could only meet them 
 pro rata, that only a certain percentage of each would 
 be met. Immediately the demands rose to billions and 
 trillions, signed by fictitious names — ^Tearem and 
 Scratchem, John Snooks and a host of others equally 
 insulting. It was not only merchants whom the mania 
 seized. An American frigate came into port, the frigate 
 that was specially sent by the United States to convey 
 to California an embassy that the minister, Harris, had, 
 with great difRculty, persuaded the Japanese to send to 
 his Government to formally return Perry's visit. One 
 officer immediately resigned his commission, chartered 
 a ship and started a firm. The applications of the rest 
 of the officers were, as coming from officers and not 
 from the despised traders, treated with special favour by 
 the Japanese authorities and honoured at once, and the 
 result was that all the officers became as eager brokers in 
 exchange as were the worst of the merchants on whom so 
 much odium has been cast, whose legitimate province 
 it was to profit by the chance that fortune had given to 
 them. At last, driven almost to distraction, the, Japanese 
 took the only step that was open to them. The Treaties 
 provided for the free and unrestrained export of gold, 
 and the foreign Powers insisted on its observance in all 
 its clauses. So the export could not be prevented by law, 
 as might have been done in any country unhampered 
 by conventions. Nothing was left but to alter the 
 domestic ratio in the values of gold and silver and risk 
 the consequences of the sudden derangement in domestic 
 finance and economy. The step was taken and the export 
 of gold stopped, but not before millions had been taken 
 out of the country. The Japanese were left with the 
 conviction that they had been spoiled, the national hatred 
 of foreigners and commercial intercourse was intensified, 
 and the best classes of tl^eir traders were confirmed in 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 329 
 
 their resolution that contact with the European robbers 
 could only mean degradation and loss to themselves. 
 
 Foreign affairs were sufficiently difficult to tax the 
 ability to the utmost of a Government secure in the con- 
 fidence of a united people. But the Shogun's Govern- 
 ment had to face still greater difficulties in the united 
 antagonism of a large and powerful section of their own 
 people, incited by able leaders, and the disapproval of 
 what they had done by the legitimate sovereign, to whom 
 they owed both allegiance and theoretical obedience. 
 The sanction of the Mikado to Perry's Treaty had been 
 won with difficulty, but it had been won. He forced 
 himself to recognize that it was unavoidable. He wholly 
 disapproved of the new and extended treaties giving the 
 right to foreigners to reside in the Empire, and he con- 
 sidered the signing of those treaties without his consent 
 an outrage on his prerogative. When domestic broils 
 were all at their worst, the only man capable of settling 
 them by his personal influence and ability, the one who, 
 seeing the necessity of yielding to the foreigners' 
 demands, had the courage to face the situation boldly, 
 despite alike of conservative Emperor and people, fell 
 beneath assassins' hands. On the morning of the 24th 
 of March, i860, all the members of the Government were 
 obliged to present themselves at the Shogun's Court, 
 the day being a festival of the Tokugawa family. li 
 Naosuke, among others, left his mansion for the purpose. 
 Spring has generally well opened in Japan by that date 
 and begun to display all the natural beauties that are 
 characteristic of the season, but on this day it happened 
 that snow fell heavily and everything was buried in a 
 deep white mantle. The usual escort of his vassals 
 accompanied their lord's palanquin, but they were 
 covered with raincoats which made their swords not 
 easily available, and they were blinded by the snow 
 which still continued to fall heavily. As they entered 
 
330 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 the Sakurada gate of the castle, they were suddenly beset 
 by twenty Samurai; many of the escort, encumbered 
 and blinded, were cut down without being able to strike 
 a blow in return, and when the rest recovered from their 
 surprise, they found the headless corpse of their lord 
 lying outside his palanquin. ^ The assassins ,were Mito 
 Samurai, who had become ronin and taken this means 
 to avenge the humiliation imposed on their own lord, 
 the disregard of the Mikado's prerogative, and the 
 contamination of their country. Nariaki did not long 
 survive his great enemy. He died within six months. 
 
 It would be impossible to describe in a work of this 
 nature the details of the long political controversies that 
 ensued between the advocates of foreign intercourse on 
 the one side, and its opponents on the other, after 
 Naosuke's death, nor need it be related how controversy 
 developed into hostilities and civil war again occurred 
 in Japan after an unbroken peace of 230 years, and we 
 will confine ourselves to those incidents in which 
 Europeans had a direct share. Murderous assaults had 
 continued not only on individual Europeans, but twice 
 the British Legation in Tokio was attacked at midnight 
 by bands of fanatics with the object of murdering the 
 minister and all his staff, and though the attacks were 
 beaten off by combined English and Japanese guards, it 
 was not without loss of life. In 1862 another murder 
 occurred which was destined to have far-reaching con- 
 sequences. 
 
 On a September afternoon a party, consisting of one 
 
 * At the time of his death, there was no one so universally hated in 
 Japan by the Emperor, Court, and all the conservative princes and 
 their retainers, for having yielded to the demands of Europeans to 
 open the country ; and by the lower classes for the losses they had 
 suffered by the great increase of prices and the financial confusion 
 that followed the alteration of the ratio of gold and silver values. In 
 1909 the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Yokohama to foreign 
 trade was celebrated with great ceremony and enthusiasm, and part of 
 the celebration was the unveiling of a majestic statue of li Naosuke. 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 331 
 
 lady and three English merchants from Yokohama, started 
 for a ride in the direction of Yedo, on the great high- 
 road of Central Japan, which passes just outside of 
 Yokohama. During their ride they met with the pro- 
 cession, composed of fully 800 armed Samurai, of the 
 Chief Dignitary of the Satsuma fief, who had just left 
 the capital on his return journey to his own province. 
 Japanese customs required that the road should be 
 cleared before this procession, and that all travellers 
 should make way for it. The foreigners drew up their 
 horses to one side of the road, not, however, dismount- 
 ing, as a Japanese would have been required to do, and 
 waited quietly till the procession passed. "Suddenly a 
 man in the centre of the procession threw the upper part 
 of his clothes off his shoulders, leaving himself naked to 
 the waist, and drawing his sword, which he swung with 
 both hands, rushed upon the little party of unarmed 
 foreigners ; " others of the procession joined him, and 
 though the foreigners took to instant flight, one fell dead 
 on the roadside from terrible wounds. The two other 
 male members of the party were also severely wounded, 
 while the lady, though her hat was cut away by a sword 
 aimed at her head, escaped uninjured. It must be stated 
 that the Japanese, in their ignorance of foreign dress, 
 in the absence of any idea that a woman would be found 
 on horseback (Japanese ladies do not ride even at the 
 present day), had no idea of the lady's sex when she was 
 assaulted in common with her companions. 
 
 Reparation was at once demanded by the British 
 Government for this outrage; the usual apology and 
 indemnity and the punishment of the murderers. The 
 indemnity was paid and the apology given, but the 
 Shogun's Government professed their utter inability to 
 enforce the final condition on the most powerful clan in 
 the Empire, the territories of which were far remote from 
 their own sphere of active influence, equally inaccessible 
 
332 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 by land or sea. They endeavoured to induce the Lord 
 of Satsuma to give up the murderer, but he replied, as 
 haughtily as his ancestor had done to Hideyoshi, "The 
 English insulted me, and for so doing were simply 
 punished by my escort. But if the English desire to 
 get hold of me, let it be decided by an appeal to arms." 
 Great Britain accepted the challenge, and determined to 
 undertake the task herself. A fleet of seven ships of war 
 accordingly sailed for Kagoshima, the capital town of 
 the fief, and on the 13th of August^ 1863, the forts by 
 which it was protected were bombarded, the batteries 
 cleared, the magazines and arsenals and a great part of 
 the town destroyed, not without considerable loss on the 
 part of the assailants. In the evening a heavy gale 
 sprung up, and the British ships withdrew, some of the 
 forts still firing as they did so. The object of the 
 expedition was not attained, and to this day the Japanese, 
 notwithstanding the heavy loss they suffered, both in life 
 and in the destruction of property, claim as the result 
 of the action a victory over the British fleet. 
 
 The two most powerful clans in the Empire were those 
 of Satsuma and Choshiu. Both were equally opposed 
 to foreign intercourse, and both were equally among the 
 leaders of the national revolutionary movement against 
 the Shogun. One principle was easily made ancillary 
 to the other. Outrages on foreigners complicated the 
 Shogun 's relations with the foreign representatives at 
 the capital, and gave the latter the right to demand 
 reparation which the Sh5gun could not refuse, but the 
 grant of which seemed to lower his prestige still further 
 in the eyes of his countrymen. The Satsuma clan had, 
 in this case, brought a heavy penalty on themselves, but 
 it taught them a valuable lesson — that the project of ever 
 being able to expel foreigners by force was hopeless, 
 unless a great change took place in the material resources 
 of Japan, unless Japan acquired a full knowledge of the 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 333 
 
 foreign military methods and weapons which were so 
 much superior to her own. A similar lesson with 
 similar results was soon afterwards given to Choshiu. 
 In the case of Satsuma, Great Britain was the only 
 injured party, and the lesson was therefore given by her 
 alone. In that of Choshiu, Great Britain played the 
 chief part, but she had the moral and physical co-opera- 
 tion of France, Holland and the United States. 
 
 The Imperial Court of Kioto, throughout the whole of 
 the years 1862 and 1863, had been strongly urging the 
 duty qf expelling foreigners both on the unwilling 
 members of the Shogun's Government and on the 
 sympathetic feudal princes. Edict followed on edict in 
 rapid succession from the Court, all in the same strain, 
 "Expel the despised foreigner, and purify the Land of 
 the Gods," and, finally, one appeared specifically fixing 
 the 25th of June, 1863, as the date on which active 
 measures should be initiated for carrying out the Em- 
 peror's wishes. This edict was communicated to all the 
 princes, among others to the Prince of Choshiu. The 
 Straits of Shimonoseki constitute the western entrance 
 to the Inland Sea, and the Choshiu territories lay along 
 their entire northern shore. The Mikado's edict was 
 cordially received by the Prince as a command that was 
 not to be disobeyed, and on the very day named in it an 
 opportunity was given to him of putting it in practice. 
 An American merchant steamer passed through the 
 Straits, and was fired upon by the batteries, but she 
 escaped without injury. A few days later a French gun- 
 boat and a Dutch corvette were also fired upon, in both 
 cases suffering some loss. The insult to the American 
 and French flags was promptly revenged by ships of war, 
 which proceeded to the spot and shelled the batteries, 
 and the Dutch corvette at the time gave back as much as 
 she got; but the batteries remained effective, and the 
 feudatory determined to use them whenever occasion 
 
334 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 arose. The passage of the Straits, and consequently of 
 the whotp Inland Sea, the high sea-road from Yokohama 
 to Shanghai, thus remained closed to all foreign mer- 
 chant ships trading between the two places. These ships 
 were at that time almost exclusively English, and Eng- 
 lish interests were therefore most materially affected by 
 the closing of the Straits. 
 
 All the four Powers joined with absolute unanimity 
 in pressing on the recognized Government, that of the 
 Shogunate, the only one with which they were in com- 
 munication, its duty of at once reducing the truculent 
 Prince to submission. But, as in the case of the Satsuma 
 clan a year previously, the Government was powerless. 
 It could only remonstrate, and its remonstrances were 
 treated with absolute contempt, even the envoy who 
 carried them to the clan being ruthlessly put to death. 
 It had no fleet and no transports. After more than a 
 year of fruitless diplomatic negotiations, the Powers 
 determined, as England alone had done in the case of 
 Satsuma, to take the matter into their own hands. A 
 combined fleet, in which the British ships enormously 
 preponderated, was sent to the spot, and on the 5th of 
 September, 1864, all the forts were bombarded, and their 
 total demolition completed on the following day by, a 
 large force which was landed. Both at Kagoshima and 
 Shimonoseki, the Japanese gunners, though exposed to 
 the concentrated fire of artillery far heavier than their 
 own, and suffering severe losses, stood to their guns 
 manfully, and time after time, when their batteries were 
 cleared, resumed their stations and reopened fire. The 
 allied landing force at Shimonoseki also met with a 
 severe resistance, and suffered considerable loss. 
 
 The result of the operations was that the Prince was 
 at last reduced to unconditional submission, not to his 
 own de facto Government, against which he continued 
 hostilities till its fall, four years later, but to foreign 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 335 
 
 Powers. He promised not only that the navigation of 
 the Straits should be henceforth free, but that ships 
 should be allowed to coal and purchase provisions ; that 
 the dismantled forts should not be repaired nor rearmed, 
 and that no new ones should be built. 
 
 The objects of the Powers were accomplished, and had 
 the matter terminated at this stage, not a vestige of a 
 stain would have been left behind. But, in addition to 
 his other undertakings, the Prince also promised that he 
 would pay both a ransom for his town, which had been 
 spared in the bombardment, and the expenses of the 
 expedifion. For reasons which it is now difficult to 
 fathom, this obligation was transferred by the diplomatic 
 representatives of the Powers to the Shogun's Govern- 
 ment, which was called upon, when distracted by internal 
 difficulties, with a depleted treasury, to pay an indemnity 
 of three million dollars (;{^65o,ooo), a very large sum for 
 the Japan of those days. Time was given for the pay- 
 ment, the last instalment, indeed, was only finally paid 
 by the Emperor's Government in 1875, long after that of 
 the Shogun had ceased to exist, and the Choshiu fief had 
 lost all its independence and been merged in the 
 Empire; but this indulgence continued until the final 
 payment to be used as a thumb-screw for extorting 
 diplomatic concessions from the Government of Japan, 
 both that of the Shogun and of the Emperor. The posi- 
 tion of the United States Government in the matter was 
 somewhat different to that of other Powers. The in- 
 demnity was apportioned equally among the four. The 
 bombardment took place while the American Civil War 
 was still in progress, and the Alabama on the high seas. 
 The United States fleet had therefore other occupations 
 in abundance than that of vindicating the rights of the 
 flag against a small section of an insignificant and little- 
 known people in the Far East, and at Shimonoseki it 
 was only represented by a chartered merchant steamer 
 
336 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 manned by a score of blue-jackets. America therefore 
 incurred no expense in the expedition, while that in- 
 curred by the three other Powers, England above all, 
 was considerable, but not even in the case of England 
 amounting to her share in the indemnity. The United 
 States had therefore more reason than the others for the 
 tardy awakening of conscience which she displayed 
 years later, when she returned her entire share in the 
 indemnity. 
 
 The spirit of the Court at this period may be esti- 
 mated from the fact that the Emperor gave his highest 
 praise to both Satsuma and Choshiu for their heroic 
 conduct. 
 
 In September 1866 the Shogun whose succession had 
 been the cause of the bitter quarrel between Nariaki and 
 Naosuke, died, and Hitotsubashi, who had been dis- 
 carded in 1857, was chosen to succeed him. Within 
 six months, the Emperor Komei, the inveterate oppo- 
 nent to foreign intercourse, also died (February 3, 1867), 
 and was succeeded by his son, the present Emperor, 
 Mutsuhito, then a boy of fifteen years of age. The 
 agitation against the Shogunate continued, still accom- 
 panied by the old cry, "Expel the foreigners,"^ and as 
 it was now fully realized that a nation divided against 
 itself, under two conflicting Governments, could not hope 
 either to attain this object or protect itself against out- 
 ward aggression on the part of foes incomparably better 
 armed and organized than the Japanese, the movement 
 for the return to the ancient system of government by 
 the Emperor grew in strength and influence. Memorials 
 were addressed to the Shogun by several of the greatest 
 Daimios, urging him, as the only means to attain that 
 end, to resign his office, and feeling the helplessness of 
 his position, unable either to coerce the Daimios who 
 
 ^ The terms that were used to describe Europeans, even in Court 
 notifications, before Komei's death were " the ugly " or " the red-haired 
 barbarians." 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 337 
 
 were plotting for his fall, or to carry out the engage- 
 ments he had made with foreign Powers, he at last 
 accepted the advice that was given to him, and in 
 November, 1867, he formally handed over to the 
 Emperor the administration of the Government which 
 he had held for only a few months with constant heart- 
 burnings and vexations. Thus came to an end on one 
 day not only the Tokugawa Shogunate, which had lasted 
 in regal splendour and despotic power for 260 years, but 
 the dual system of government, which was first estab- 
 lished ^by Yoritomo in the twelfth century, and the 
 Emperor was once more vested with the control of the 
 Empire that theoretically belonged to him ever since its 
 foundation. 
 
 For a while it seemed that the final step in the great 
 revolution would be peacefully accomplished, and that 
 the chief of the Tokugawas, having bowed to the times 
 and yielded to the superior forces which were arrayed 
 against him, his adherents would accept and be guided 
 by his decision, and in their patriotism submit to the 
 loss of their old privileges, and recognize the new 
 Government. But this was not to be. Kioto, at the 
 time of the Shogun's resignation, was guarded by the 
 Aidzu clan, one of the most devoted to the Tokugawa. 
 They were ordered to give up their charge to the allied 
 Samurai of Satsuma, Choshiu, Tosa, and other great 
 clans, who were waiting within a little distance of Kioto, 
 and when they had done so, when the allied clans 
 became the guardians of the Emperor and were re- 
 sponsible for the safety of the "Sacred Person," they, 
 as such guardians, became the legal Government 
 according to the ancient Constitution. They were 
 "Kwangun," the Imperial and loyal army. Along with 
 the Shogun, the Aidzu clan retired to Osaka, burning 
 with indignation and resentment, and there all the 
 adherents of the Tokugawas soon gathered; all bitter 
 
338 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 at the downfall of the ancient house from its old 
 grandeur and power; all still confident in their old 
 prestige and skill at arms ; all determined not to give up 
 for ever the power they had so long held without one 
 final struggle. Satsuma had been the prime instigator 
 of the movement which had brought about their fall, and 
 there was a Satsuma Yashiki ^ in Osaka. It was taken 
 and burnt, and the defenders, a mere handful, all killed 
 by the angry Tokugawas, and then their whole force, 
 of more than 30,000 ^ fighting men, marched on Kioto 
 to attack the Satsuma army that was in the capital. By 
 thus attacking the guardians of the Emperor, they 
 became Choteki, rebels who were lifting sacrilegious 
 hands against the Emperor himself. They could have 
 crushed Satsuma had Satsuma been their only enemy, 
 but the Satsuma clansmen were not alone. Choshiu and 
 other, clans were at their side, and they met, with all 
 their combined force, the advancing Tokugawas at 
 Fushimi, seven miles outside Kioto. In the Gem-Pei 
 War, the Taira, enervated by ease and luxury at Kioto, 
 were invariably beaten by the hardy warriors from the 
 Eastern Provinces, trained in the roughest schools of 
 hardship and self-denial. Now the conditions were 
 reversed. It was the Easterners who had degenerated 
 in the ease and luxury of Yedo, while the Southern 
 clans, accustomed to rural life, were possessed of greater 
 physical strength, vigour and endurance. The battle 
 which took place lasted for three days, and as it was 
 bitterly fought, the lossi on both sides was heavy. Once 
 more treachery played its part, as it had done at Dan 
 no Ura and Seki ga hara. The Samurai of the Tsu clan, 
 a powerful clan from the province of Ise, whose chief, 
 
 > " Yashiki "—spread house— was the common term for the urban 
 residence of a Daimio. It included both his own palace, the apart- 
 ments of his officials, and the barracks of his armed retainers. 
 
 " This is the number given in Japanese histories, but Europeans, 
 who were on the spot at the time, say that it is greatly exaggerated. 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 339 
 
 Todo, was descended from one of lyeyasu's greatest 
 allies, who was rewarded by lyeyasu with territorial' 
 grants according to his merits, were trusted implicitly 
 by the Tokugawas and were posted on their left flank, 
 the maintenance of that position being entirely left to 
 them. On the night of the second day of the battle, 
 they abandoned their post and passed over to the 
 Emperor's side, leaving the whole of the left flank of the 
 Tokugawas exposed. The latter knew nothing of the 
 treachery, and when on the following morning they 
 found their enemies pouring down on them from the 
 quarter where they thought they were absolutely secure, 
 p>anic seized them and they fled in headlong rout. 
 Victors and vanquished entered Osaka almost together, 
 and the Shogun, who had there awaited the result of the 
 battle, took refuge first on board a United States man-of- 
 war and then on one of his own ships, and in her made 
 his escape to his home in Yedo. The officers of the 
 United States ship were ignorant of the personality of 
 the guest they had entertained. His clansmen and all 
 their allies, broken by their defeat, dispersed, and sought 
 shelter wherever it could be found in the country. Their 
 last act, as they fled from Osakaj^ was one worthy of the 
 Communists of Paris. They set fire to the great palace 
 within the castle walls where Hideyoshi had lived, and 
 the whole of the most magnificent palace that had ever 
 been erected in Japan, rich in the greatest treasures of 
 art, was destroyed. The battle of Fushimi may be 
 called the fifth decisive battle of Japan. The forces and 
 the dead on both sides were incomparably less than in 
 the previous great struggles, but the results were greater. 
 The previous battles had, in each instance, only con- 
 solidated the authority and power of a usurper, and 
 subjected the nation to the tyranny of a dictator whose 
 sole claim was founded on might; who either in himself 
 or his descendants could only hope to retain his power 
 
 Z 2 
 
340 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 so long as it was supported by the military strength that 
 won it; whose dynasty could never win the united and 
 loyal affection of the Empire; who could only rule by 
 fear. 
 
 Fushimi revived the long dormant authority of the 
 throne, and gave the first dawn of hope that the unity 
 of the Empire might be accomplished and founded no 
 longer on fear but on patriotic reverence for a legitimate 
 sovereign, that it would enable Japan to present to the 
 world the front of a people bound together in harmony 
 by their loyalty to their Emperor. 
 
 The battle of Fushimi was fought from the 28th to 
 the 30th of January, 1868. On the ist of January in the 
 same year, the ports of Kobe and Osaka were formally 
 opened to foreigners and foreign tr^de under the pro- 
 visions of the treaties. This opening had been long 
 delayed, and had been a sore point with the Emperor 
 Komei, and it was only by the persistence of the Foreign 
 Representatives, headed by the British Minister, Sir 
 Harry Parkes, a man of the most irresistible energy and 
 overbearing strength of character, who had succeeded 
 Sir Rutherford Alcock in 1864, that the Shogun's 
 Government, in its dying agonies, had been induced to 
 carry out its obligations in this particular respect. The 
 opening of the great historic commercial city in the 
 immediate neighbourhood of the sacred capital, the 
 home of the mysterious and divine Emperor, was re- 
 garded as so important an event, as well as a triumph 
 of Western diplomacy over the haughtiest and most 
 rigid Japanese conservatism, that all the Foreign diplo- 
 matic representatives left their Legations in Yedo, and 
 with a large fleet came to Osaka to give its opening the 
 eclat of their presence. All, with large staffs, were 
 temporarily residing in Osaka when the flying Toku- 
 gawas entered it after the battle, with their conquerors 
 fast on their heels. The Shogun, before his flight, sent 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 341 
 
 hasty word to the Representatives that he could no longer 
 be responsible for their safety, and they had all to make 
 a somewhat undignified move to Kobe, and there find 
 such accommodation as they could in the little fishing 
 village which has since become the greatest seat of trade 
 in all the Far East. The Shogun's officials, who were 
 in charge of the new local Government at Kobe, all 
 followed their master's example and forsook their posts. 
 The beaten and fugitive soldiers were wandering every- 
 where, and it was quite possible, even probable, that 
 they would follow the example previously given! them by 
 the enemies of the Tokugawas and involve the young 
 Government of the Emperor in new and serious com- 
 plications by a general massacre of foreigners. One 
 incident did occur, which at the moment seemed 
 ominous, but the investigation which was made of all 
 its incidents in subsequent cooler moments shows that it 
 is not one over which Europeans can now feel pride. A 
 detachment of Samurai of the Bizen clan escorting the 
 Karo, the chief councillor of the Prince, passed Kobe 
 on their way to Kioto to join the loyal party. A French 
 marine broke the line of their procession, a gross insult 
 in the eyes of a Japanese Samurai, and though an 
 attempt was made to stop him, he persisted in passing 
 through it. He received a lance-prick for his paiiiis, and 
 he and his comrades, one of whom was also slightly 
 wounded, then ran away. The Japanese followed them 
 with a desultory rifle fire which did no harm, but an 
 extraordinary panic seems to have then seized the whole 
 of the residents in the new Foreign settlement in the 
 direction of which the fire went. Large forces were im- 
 mediately landed from the great fleet of men-of-war of 
 all Western nationalities that lay in the offing, and a 
 pursuit started of the Japanese, who broke and fled to 
 the near hills. The marines were retained on shore, 
 and Kobe, in the first days of its history, became an 
 
342 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 armed camp, guarded by the marines of every Western 
 power. 
 
 Sir Harry Parkes was a man of the most undaunted 
 courage, who had often been under fire in China, and 
 the last to b'e influenced by panic or anything remotely 
 approaching to it, but in this instance he thought that 
 an example should be made to Japanese of the armed 
 class — it will be remembered that many cowardly 
 murders of Europeans had already taken place, some 
 of which had gone unpunished — to teach them the con- 
 sequences of assaults on Europeans, and the officer who 
 gave the order to fire was, notwithstanding the great 
 provocation he had received, in compliance with the 
 demand of the Foreign Representatives for his condign 
 punishment, condemned to death, by hara-kiri, the mode 
 of death which the law of that time prescribed for a 
 Samurai guilty of an offence which did not involve per- 
 sonal dishonour or degradation from his status. In one 
 item, the incident strongly illustrated the change that in 
 a few years had come over the spirit of the clans. Bizen 
 was, as a clan, only less powerful than Satsuma. When 
 the ShSgun's Government, whose authority at the 
 time, though morally weakened, was still openly 
 unquestioned, asked the Satsuma clan to surrender the 
 murderer of Richardson,^ the demand was met with a 
 contemptuous refusal. Now, when the newly established 
 Government of the Mikado, still in the infancy of its 
 birth, with no prestige of military strength, demanded 
 the surrender of the officer in this case, the clan gave 
 him up without demur, though he was infinitely less 
 guilty than the murderer of Richardson. In the Bizen 
 case, it was not denied that the provocation was actually 
 given which in that of Satsuma was only alleged and 
 was always strongly denied by the English concerned 
 
 ' The English merchant who met his death in the incident described 
 on page 331. 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 343 
 
 in it. The lesson, if such was its intention, was not so 
 speedy in its results as to prevent the occurrence of 
 another outrage of a more serious character. 
 
 While the Foreign Representatives were still in the 
 midst of their camp in Kobe, an Imperial envoy arrived 
 from Kioto to announce to them that the Emperor had 
 taken over the supreme control of all the affairs of the 
 state, both internal and external, and this announcement, 
 conveyed in writing under the young Emperor's own 
 hand and seal, was promptly followed by a public 
 notification, in which the Emperor informed all his 
 subjects that he gave his consent to the Treaties made 
 by the Shogun. The long conservative antagonism of 
 the Imperial Court to foreign intercourse had ended, 
 and both the Emperor, his Court and his supporters 
 among the territorial nobles were definitely committed 
 to the new order of affairs. The garrison was then 
 withdrawn from Kobe, and the Foreign Representatives 
 returned to Osaka. There, further proof was soon given 
 to them that a new order had arisen. They were invited 
 to an audience with the Emperor, on whose features no 
 European eye had ever rested, who had only been seen 
 by the nearest attendants of his own Court among all 
 his own subjects, in the sacred city, never trodden by a 
 European foot since the days when the Dutch passed 
 through it as virtual prisoners. Before the audience 
 could be held the second tragedy occurred. A French 
 boat's crew was fired on near Osaka and eleven of the 
 crew killed. For the firing in this case, no provocation 
 could be alleged, but the penalty enacted was heavy — a 
 large indemnity, an apology from the Imperial Govern- 
 ment, and the execution of the guilty men and their 
 officers. Twenty were condemned to die, but when 
 eleven — the number of the killed bluejackets — had paid 
 the penalty by hara-kiri, the French officers who were 
 present, sickened at the horrible sight, begged for mercy 
 
344 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 for the rest, and it was granted. The men in this case 
 belonged to the Tosa clan, one of the four that were 
 the prime movers in the overthrow of the Shogun and 
 the restoration of the Emperor, and had therefore strong 
 claims on the Imperial gratitude and clemency. The 
 clan was exceptional in that the Prince actively con- 
 trolled and directed its affairs. The canker that had 
 eaten into the Imperial Court, and into the Courts of 
 every dynasty of Shoguns that ever reigned, had also, 
 in the 260 years of peace under the Tokugawas, pene- 
 trated into almost every feudal clan in the Empire. 
 Just as the Emperors and the Shoguns became faineants, 
 leaving the executive entirely to their ministers, so did 
 the feudal chiefs in their principalities, leaving all the 
 management of their affairs and the direction of the 
 policy of the clan entirely to the ablest and most active 
 of their retainers, to their Karo, or councillor, or to the 
 Yonin, business men, retainers of a lower degree than 
 the Karo. The Karo, holding hereditary offices, very 
 often in their turn followed the example of their lords. 
 The Yonin, on the other hand, always attained their 
 positions entirely by their ability and industry, and in 
 many cases — in the majority, indeed — the Yonin were the 
 brains of the clan, and exercised all the real control 
 over all its affairs.^ The Prince of Tosa, unlike his 
 compeers, took all the matters of his clan into his own 
 charge, and the clan's share in the events that pre- 
 ceded the revolution was taken entirely under his 
 direction. 
 
 When the restoration was accomplished and peace 
 finally established, it is sad to itell that the able and 
 vigorous Prince abandoned himself to debauchery and 
 drink in Yedo, and died within a few years, describing 
 
 ^ The great statesmen of the Restoration and afterwards, with very 
 few exceptions, Ito, Inouye, Okubo, Kido, etc., whose names are now 
 household words, were Yonin in the clans. 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 345 
 
 himself at the last as "the drunken old recluse of 
 Tosa." 
 
 The 22nd of March was the day fixed on which the 
 audience of the Diplomatic Representatives of the 
 Treaty Powers of the West was to take place with the 
 Emperor. It was interrupted by another tragedy. 
 When the English Minister, attended by a large escort, 
 was on his way to the palace in full state, two fanatics 
 of the old school, maddened with fury at what they 
 thought was the defilement of the divine sovereign and 
 the desecration of the ancient city, suddenly burst with 
 drawn swords on the procession as it turned the corner 
 of one of the narrow streets. Sir Harry Parkes was 
 guarded by his own mounted escort, men specially 
 selected from the London police, who, well mounted, 
 armed with lances and dressed in picturesque uniforms, 
 resembling' those of the Carbineers, made a gallant 
 show. They were followed by a large detachment of 
 the gth Regiment of the Line, now the Norfolk regi- 
 ment, which was then stationed in Yokohama.^ The 
 two Japanese ran down both sides of the long proces- 
 sion, slashing furiously with their terrible swords as 
 they did so. Then one of them, a youth of seventeen 
 years of age, was cut down and killed on the spot by 
 two of the Japanese officers in attendance on Sir Harry 
 Parkes as representatives of the Emperor, and the second 
 fell wounded by a bayonet thrust. None of the 
 European escort was killed, but ten were more or less 
 severely wounded. The audience was postponed for a 
 few days. More apologies and indemnities followed. 
 The wounded would-be assassin was degraded from his 
 
 1 In 1864, when the disorder was at its worst and civil war actually 
 in progress, both British and French troops were stationed at 
 Yokohama to ensure the protection of the European residentialquarters, 
 which, it was believed, the Shogun, in the midst of all his political 
 difficulties, could not guarantee. The troops were not finally with- 
 drawn till 1874. 
 
346 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 status as a Samurai and executed, this time not by the 
 honourable process of hara-kiri, but as a common 
 criminal, by decapitation, followed by exposure of his 
 head on the pillory. 
 
 The Shogun, as already stated, fled to Yedo after the 
 battle of Fushimi. There, there was soon a large 
 gathering of his adherents, some refugees of the army 
 beaten at Fushimi, some from other quarters, clansmen 
 from the North, animated by traditional hatred of the 
 Southerners, all not only ready but eager to try the 
 ordeal of arms once more. His cause was not yet quite 
 hopeless. He had greater military supplies than the 
 loyal army; he had at least as many fighting men; he 
 had his strong ancestral castle of Yedo, and from behind 
 its lofty walls and wide and deep moats, he might have 
 made as great a stand as Hideyori did, in 1616, in the 
 castle of Osaka against the Shogun's own ancestor, 
 lyeyasu. But he was weary of the struggle. All his 
 own longings had from the first been for peace. The 
 resort to arms that had already been made was against 
 his wishes, and, that having been in vain, he was more 
 than loath to put his fate once more to the fortune of 
 arms. He ordered his adherents not to fight, and he 
 formally surrendered his castle to the advance guard of 
 the loyal troops who were now marching on Yedo and 
 close on it. The great Eastern capital was then for the 
 first time under the control of the Imperial Government 
 at Kioto. The clansmen, who had remained faithful to 
 the Shogun to the last, were not so submissive as their 
 lord. The majority retreated to the North, where, in 
 their own native provinces, they maintained a stout 
 resistance to the loyal army for another six months. 
 Another party, taking possession of all the ships that 
 the Shogun owned, made their way to Hakodate and 
 there held out till the summer of the following year, 
 fighting as boldly on the sea, with as much skill and 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 347 
 
 reckless bravery, as their fellows had ever done on 
 land, surrendering only when their ships, supplies and 
 ammunition were all gone. One small body refusing 
 even to abandon Yedo without a fight, took possession 
 of the hills at Uyeno, the site of the beautiful mauso- 
 leums of some of the Tokugawa Shoguns, and there 
 made their last stand. On the 4th of July, 1868, just as 
 the summer day was dawning, they were attacked by an 
 overwhelming force of the loyalists, and after a struggle, 
 fought in a violent storm of rain and wind, that lasted 
 through the greater part of the day, they were killed 
 almost to the last man. The great temple, Toyeizan, 
 built by lyemitsu, when at the summit of his glory, in a 
 degree of grandeur that was worthy of the wealth and 
 dignity of the Tokugawas, that was second only to Nikko 
 as a triumph of Japanese architecture, so splendidly 
 endowed that it was always ruled by a Chief Priest of 
 the Imperial family, took fire as the last remnant of the 
 defenders made their final struggle in the shelter of its 
 walls and pillars, and was burned to the ground. So 
 high did the flames rise from it that, as night fell, they 
 were clearly seen in Yokohama, full twenty miles 
 distant. The Shogun, when the surrender of his capital 
 was decided on, was advised by one of his chief retainers 
 to take the traditional refuge of a defeated lord in death 
 by hara-kiri. He declined, and the retainer then, to 
 show the sincerity of his advice, more japonico, com- 
 mitted hara-kiri himself. The Shogun retired to his 
 ancestral home at Shidzuoka, where he relapsed into the 
 ordinary status of a private gentleman, interfering no 
 more in the affairs of the state, where he has ever since 
 lived in peaceful seclusion.^ 
 
 Successful revolutions were in Old Japan almost in- 
 variably followed by the universal proscription of the 
 
 ' He never even visited Tokio until he was compelled to do so to 
 obtain medical attendance. 
 
348 THE STORY OF OLD JAPAN 
 
 vanquished, by wholesale executions and confiscations, 
 by the slaughter of all the adherents of the lost cause, 
 men, women and children, without distinction of rank, 
 without \any regard to degrees of responsibility. Hide- 
 yoshi w^s the one exception that proved the general 
 rule. The first sign that Ne\y Japan was born was given 
 in the clemency that was extended to the beaten vassals 
 and allies «jf the Tokugawas. There were no executions, 
 no confiscations; not only was Yoshinobu spared and 
 left with Sufficient of his old family estates to provide 
 for his future in a degree becoming to his rank, but 
 every one, high or low, who had fought for him found 
 the same rpercy. No one was put to death except those 
 who died in battle, sword in hand. There was no ruin, 
 no suddep descent from wealth and dignity to poverty 
 and obsciirity. When the triumph of the Imperial cause 
 was finally assured, all past enmity to it was forgiven 
 and fo/rgotten, and that this was so was entirely owing 
 to the budding knowledge of the principles of Western 
 civilization. Except by Hideyoshi, no defeated foe was 
 eve/ before spared in Japanese history. Until the last 
 struggle in the North there were no prisoners of war 
 nor wounded in battle — all were ruthlessly slain. The 
 first lesson in sparing the wounded in battle was given 
 to the Japanese by an Irish doctor, the one and only 
 European ever engaged on a Japanese battlefield till 
 that time, who accompanied the Imperial forces in their 
 final campaign in the North, and it was from him that 
 the Japanese soldiers first acquired the elements of mercy 
 which showed its best fruits in Manchuria in their last 
 great war. The Imperial Government had its reward 
 for its clemency. Many of those who fought for or 
 served the Tokugawas in civil capacities, who, if 
 Japanese tradition had been faithfully preserved, would 
 have been either executed or would have died by their 
 own hands on its downfall, were, within a decade after- 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPEROR 349 
 
 wards, among the ablest and most loyal of the Emperor's 
 servants, military, naval and civil, and many have since 
 held offices of the highest responsibility in the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 For more than a thousand years Kioto had been the 
 capital of the Empire and the home of the Emperor. 
 With the exception of the Ashikaga, all the Shoguns, 
 who ruled while the Emperors slumbered in the monastic 
 seclusion of their palaces, lived in the Eastern Provinces, 
 first at Kamakura and in the later and last generations 
 at Yedo, and the Eastern capital had come to be indis- 
 solubly associated in the minds of the whole nation 
 with the direct and effective exercise of authority. Now 
 that the Empire was to be consolidated under a central 
 Government with the Emperor as its one and visible 
 head, it was felt that the people would be more speedily 
 familiarized with the new order of affairs if the Govern- 
 ment was established in the quarter in which it had been 
 so long administered, and that Kioto, associated as it 
 was mainly with memories of the subjection of the 
 legitimate sovereign's influence to that of successts^e 
 dynasties of usurpers, should cease to be the capital of , 
 the Empire. 
 
 The Emperor and all his Court removed to Yedo; 
 there his ministry was established, and it was decided 
 that henceforth Yedo should be called Tokio — the 
 Eastern Capital — and that it should be the capital and 
 seat of government. A few months later the Daimios, 
 the territorial princes who had ruled their fiefs for 
 centuries as quasi-independent kingdoms, though 
 always acknowledging the suzerainty of the Emperor, 
 surrendered all their rights. With that step Feudalism 
 died, and the unification of the Empire, in its fullest 
 sense, became an accomplished fact, and with it also 
 Old Japan came to an end, and our story therefore 
 closes. 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE EMPERORS OF 
 
 JAPAN 
 
 The pr,esent Emperor of Japan, according to the official 
 list authenticated by the Government, is the one hundred 
 and twenty-first sovereign in the direct line of descent from 
 the first Emperor Jimmu. Of the whole number nine were 
 Empresses, but two of these Empresses abdicated and sub- 
 sequently reascended the throne, in the first instance under 
 a different name, and in each case their two reigns are 
 counted separately. On the other hand, the regency of the 
 Empress Jingo, which lasted for sixty-eight years, is not 
 reckoned as a separate reign, her husband, the Emperor 
 Chiuai, having, by a fiction, been supposed to live until the 
 accession, seventy years after his death, of his son, the 
 Emperor Ojin. When allowance is made for the double 
 reigns of the two Empresses and the regency of the third, 
 the total number of sovereigns becomes one hundred and 
 twenty. 
 
 The names in the list are posthumous or canonical. Each 
 Emperor had his individual Japanese name — that of Jimmu 
 was Kamu-Yamato-Iware-Biko or Prince Divine-Yamato- 
 Iware (Yamato is the province in which Jimmu established 
 his capital and Iware the name of a locality in it) — but the 
 Emperors were so sacred that their names were never pro- 
 nounced in their lifetime, and it is only by their canonical 
 names that they are known to history. Whenever an 
 Emperor was mentioned during his life ^ it was always by the 
 title Tenno, "Lord of Heaven," or Tenshi, "Son of Heaven," 
 with the addition, in the ordinary vernacular of daily life, 
 
 ' The first recorded instance of the use of the personal name of an Emperor 
 in his lifetime is that of the present Emperor in 1868, when he signed the 
 document in which he announced to the sovereigns of all the foreign nations 
 that he would " henceforward exercise supreme authority both in the internal 
 and external affairs of the country." 
 
 3SI 
 
352 APPENDIX I 
 
 of the honorific word "Sama," a word ' that is equally 
 applied, for politeness' sake, to the Emperor or to a com- 
 moner. In the case of the Emperor, " Tenshi Sama " would 
 be translated "His Majesty the Emperor." In that of a 
 commoner, "Sama" would simply mean "Mr.". The term 
 Mikado, by which Europeans are accustomed to speak of 
 the Emperor, means "Honourable Gate," involving the 
 same idea as that which is contained in " Sublime Porte " ; 
 it is rarely used by his subjects. Other terms are : — Kotei, 
 the sovereign who rules over nations ; Kinri, the forbidden 
 interior; Dairi, the term almost invariably used by the 
 Jesuits, the Imperial Palace; and Chotei, the Hall of 
 Audience. 
 
 In the following list, translations are appended to the 
 majority of the names, and where there is none, the name is 
 taken from a locality — Nijo, Rokujo and Shijo, for example, 
 are the names of wards in Kioto; Tsuchi Mikado was that of 
 a palace; Fushimi and Nara are well-known towns near 
 Kioto. The prefix Go signifies the second of the same name 
 (Go literally means " after "). Go Ichijo thus means Ichijo 
 the Second. There is no instance of three sovereigns of the 
 same name. The dates given as those of the beginning of 
 each reign are those of the formal investiture of the new 
 sovereign, which seldom took place till a year and some- 
 times not till a longer period after his predecessor's death. 
 Slight discrepancies occasionally occur in the ages of the 
 sovereigns at accession and at death or abdication and in 
 the length of their reigns, but these are unavoidable owing 
 to the different months in which the years began under the 
 Chinese and the Julian or Gregorian calendars. 
 
 I. The Dark Ages 
 
 Fifteen — or, including the Regent Empress Jingo, sixteen — 
 sovereigns reigned during this period, the average of whose 
 ages at death exceeded 107 years. The explanation of this 
 extraordinary longevity is, according to the late Mr. Bram- 
 sen, who made a most exhaustive investigation of Japanese 
 Chronology, that the year was counted from Equinox to 
 Equinox, thereby making two years of what we now call one. 
 Even this explanation will not account for the age, 360 years, 
 of the Empress Jingo's Minister, Takeuchi (page 44). 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
 353 
 
 Date of 
 
 Age at 
 
 Date of 
 
 Accession. 
 
 Accession. 
 
 Death. 
 
 B.C. 
 
 
 B.C. 
 
 660 
 
 52 
 
 58.S 
 
 S8i 
 
 S2 
 
 549 
 
 S48 
 
 20 
 
 5" 
 
 Sio 
 
 44 
 
 477 
 
 47S 
 
 32 
 
 393 
 
 392 
 
 35 
 
 291 
 
 290 
 
 52 
 
 215 
 
 214 
 
 59 
 
 158 
 
 iS8 
 
 55 
 
 98 
 
 97 
 
 53 
 
 30 
 
 A.D. 
 
 29 
 
 41 
 
 70 
 
 A.D. 
 
 
 
 71 
 
 84 
 
 130 
 
 131 
 
 49 
 
 190 
 
 192 
 
 44 
 
 200 
 
 201 
 
 32 
 
 269 
 
 270 
 
 70 
 
 310 
 
 Age at 
 Death. 
 
 1. Jimmu (Divine Valour) 
 
 2. Suizei (Tranquillity) 
 
 3. Annei (Peace) . . . 
 
 4. Itoku (Admirable virtue) 
 
 5. Kosho (Filial piety) . . 
 
 6. Koan (Piety and peace) 
 
 7. Korei (Spirit of piety) . 
 
 8. Kogen (Origin of piety) 
 
 9. Kaikwa (Civilization) . 
 
 10. Sfljin (Honour the Gods) 
 
 11. Suinin ^Dispense benevolence) 
 
 15- 
 
 Keiko (Great conduct) . . 
 Seimu (Perform duty) . . 
 Chuai (Middle grief) . . 
 Jingo (Merit of the Gods) 
 _ (Empress Regent) . . 
 Ojin (Meeting the Gods) . 
 
 127 
 84 
 57 
 77 
 
 114 
 
 137 
 128 
 116 
 
 "5 
 120 
 
 141 
 
 H3 
 108 
 
 52 
 
 100 
 no 
 
 II. .The Dawn of History 
 
 Seventeen Emperors and one Empress reigned during this 
 period, which extends from 313, the date of the accession 
 of the Emperor Nintoku, to 638, when the Empress Suiko 
 died. The first in the line, it will be seen, like so many of 
 his predecessors, died a centenarian, but (though the Kojiki 
 records Yuriaku also as a centenarian) the average accepted 
 age of his seventeen successors did not exceed the very 
 human standard of sixty -three years. Mr. Bramsen's ex- 
 planation of this decrease is that in the reign of Nintoku, 
 the Chinese year, double the length of that from Equinox to 
 Equinox, became known to the Japanese, through their inter- 
 course with Korea, and that at the end of his reign it was 
 formally adopted. One curious result, Mr. Bramsen sug- 
 gests, would follow the adoption of his theory : Nintoku died 
 1059 years after the accession of Jimmu; if, however, the 
 lengths of the reigns of Jimmu and his sixteen successors are 
 to be reduced by one half, the foundation of the Empire took 
 place at a considerably later date than 660 B.C. 
 
 AA 
 
354 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 Date of 
 Accession, 
 
 Age at 
 Accession. 
 
 Date of 
 Death. 
 
 Age at 
 Death. 
 
 I6. 
 
 17- 
 i8. 
 
 19- 
 
 20. 
 21. 
 22. 
 
 23- 
 
 24. 
 
 2S- 
 26. 
 27. 
 28. 
 29. 
 30- 
 
 31- 
 
 32- 
 
 33- 
 
 Nintoku (Benevolence and virtue) 
 Rikiu (Treading in the middle) 
 Hanzei (Facing right) . . . 
 Ingyo (Sincerely courteous) . 
 
 Ank5 (Peace) 
 
 Yiiriaku (Grand counsel) . . 
 Seinei (Pure and truthful) . . 
 Kenzo (Illustrious Ancestry) . 
 Ninken (Benevolence and talent) 
 Muretsu (Martial ardour) . . 
 Keidai (Succeed body) . . . 
 Ankan (Peaceful space) . . 
 Senkwa (Spread civilization) . 
 Kimmei (Reverence) . . . 
 Bidatsu (Cleverness). . . . 
 Yomei (Employ enlightenment) 
 Sujun (Venerable and lofty) . 
 Suiko (Reasoning from antiquity) 
 (Empress) 
 
 313 
 400 
 406 
 412 
 4S3 
 457 
 480 
 
 48s 
 488 
 
 499 
 507 
 534 
 536 
 539 
 572 
 58s 
 588 
 
 593 
 
 34 
 70 
 
 56 
 39 
 S3 
 40 
 
 38 
 36 
 41 
 50 
 57 
 69 
 70 
 31 
 35 
 67 
 69 
 
 40 
 
 399 
 406 
 410 
 453 
 '456 
 479 
 484 
 487 
 498 
 506 
 531 
 535 
 539 
 571 
 585 
 587 
 592 
 
 628 
 
 120 
 76 
 60 
 80 
 56 
 62 
 42 
 38 
 SI 
 57 
 81 
 70 
 73 
 63 
 48 
 69 
 
 73 
 75 
 
 III. From the Establishment of Buddhism to the Close 
 OF THE Nara Period 
 
 As the national annals were regularly kept during this 
 period its history may be regarded as authentic. There were 
 in all seventeen reigns, but only fifteen sovereigns, two 
 Empresses who abdicated having been re-enthroned on the 
 deaths of their successors during their lifetime. It will be 
 noticed that an unusual interval elapsed between the death of 
 the Empress Saimei and the accession of her son as suc- 
 cessor. No reason is given in the Nihongi for the delay. 
 A shorter but still a substantial interval elapsed between the 
 death of Temmu and the accession of his widow. The 
 latter governed very vigorously during the interval, but it 
 was only in the year 690 that the " Divine tokens " (the 
 Imperial regalia) were delivered to her. "Then she assumed 
 the Imperial dignity, and the ministers and public function- 
 aries, ranged in order, made obeisance in rotation and 
 clapped their hands." 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
 355 
 
 34. Jomei (Extend enlightenment) . . 
 
 35. Kokyoku (Royal perfection) 
 
 (Empress) 
 
 36. Kotoku (Piety and virtue) .... 
 
 37. Saimei (Uniform bright) 
 
 (Re-enthronement of Kokyoku 
 nnde( a new name) 
 
 38. Tenchi (Heavenly intelligence) . . 
 
 39. Kobun (Pious hearing) 
 
 40. Temmu (Heavenly valour) . . . 
 
 41. Jito (Supreme control) (Empress) . 
 
 42. Mommu (Civil and military) . . . 
 
 43. Gemmyo (Original enlightenment) 
 
 (Empress) 
 
 44. Gens ho (Original righteousness) 
 
 (Empress) 
 
 45. Shomu (Saintly valour) .... 
 
 46. Koken (Modesty) (Empress) . . . 
 
 47. Junin (Magnanimous benevolence) . 
 
 48. Koken (re-enthroned) 
 
 49. Konin (Brilliant benevolence) . . 
 
 50. Kwammu (Magnificent valour) . . 
 
 Date of 
 Accession. 
 
 629 
 
 642 
 64s 
 
 655 
 668 
 672 
 
 673 
 690 
 697 
 
 708 
 
 715 
 724 
 
 749 
 759 
 76s 
 770 
 782 
 
 Age at 
 Accession. 
 
 37 
 
 49 
 50 
 
 62 
 
 55 
 
 25 
 
 52 
 46 
 
 15 
 48 
 
 36 
 24 
 32 
 27 
 48 
 62 
 46 
 
 Date of 
 Death. 
 
 641 
 
 654 
 
 661 
 671 
 672 
 686 
 702 
 707 
 
 721 
 
 748 
 756 
 
 76s 
 770 
 781 
 806 
 
 Age at 
 Death. 
 
 49 
 
 59 
 
 68 
 58 
 25 
 65 
 58 
 25 
 
 61 
 69 
 
 56 
 
 33 
 53 
 73 
 70 
 
 IV. The Heian Period 
 
 The practice of abdication began during the previous 
 period, but it was in this, which extends from the foundation 
 of the capital at Kioto to the beginning of the military 
 domination of the Taira, that it was first made compulsory 
 under the tyranny of the Fujiwara (vide page 76). A fifth 
 line has been added to our dates giving the ages at which 
 the Emperors abdicated, either voluntarily or under com- 
 pulsion. This line is blank in cases in which the Emperors 
 died while still on the throne. (Vide table on next page.) 
 
 A a 2 
 
356 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 51. Heijo 
 
 52. Saga . . . . . . 
 
 53. Junwa (Magnanimous 
 
 peace) 
 
 54. Nimmyo (Benevolent 
 
 enlightenment) . . . 
 
 55. Montoku (Civil virtue) . 
 
 56. Seiwa (Peace) .... 
 57- Yozei (Positive-accom- 
 plish) 
 
 58. Koko (Brilliant piety) . 
 59- Uda 
 
 60. Daigo 
 
 61. Shujaku . ■ . 
 
 62. Muragami 
 
 63. Reizei 
 
 64. Enyu (Whole softening) 
 
 65. Kwazan (Flowery moun- 
 
 tain) 
 
 66. Ichijo 
 
 67. Sanjo . .... 
 
 68. Go Ichijo . . . . 
 
 69. Go Shujaku .... 
 
 70. Go Reizei 
 
 71. Go Sanjo 
 
 72. Shirakawa 
 
 73. Horikawa 
 
 74. Toba 
 
 75. Sutoku (Reverend virtue) 
 
 76. Konoye (Life-guards) . 
 
 Date of 
 Accession. 
 
 806 
 810 
 
 824 
 
 834 
 851 
 859 
 
 877 
 
 88s 
 
 931 
 947 
 968 
 970 
 
 98s 
 
 987 
 
 1012 
 
 1017 
 
 1037 
 1047 
 1069 
 
 1073 
 1087 
 1 108 
 1 124 
 1142 
 
 Age at 
 
 Accession. 
 
 33 
 
 2S 
 
 39 
 
 25 
 25 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 56 
 22 
 
 14 
 IS 
 22 
 18 
 12 
 
 17 
 8 
 38 
 10 
 28 
 23 
 37 
 21 
 
 9 
 6 
 6 
 4 
 
 Age at 
 Deposition 
 
 or 
 Abdication. 
 
 Date of 
 Death. 
 
 35 
 38 
 
 49 
 
 28 
 18 
 29 
 
 20 
 26 
 
 19 
 
 34 
 
 22 
 23 
 
 824 
 842 
 
 840 
 
 850 
 858 
 880 
 
 949 
 887 
 
 931 
 930 
 946 
 967 
 
 lOII 
 
 991 
 1008 
 
 lOII 
 
 IOI7 
 1036 
 
 1046 
 
 1068 
 1072 
 1 129 
 1 107 
 1156 
 1 164 
 "55 
 
 Age at 
 Death. 
 
 SI 
 57 
 
 55 
 
 41 
 32 
 31 
 
 82 
 
 S8 
 6s 
 46 
 
 30 
 42 
 
 62 
 
 33 
 
 41 
 32 
 43 
 29 
 37 
 44 
 40 
 
 77 
 29 
 
 54 
 46 
 17 
 
 V. The Gem-Pei Wars 
 
 This period, which may be called the beginning of the 
 middle ages of Japan, covers that of the rise and fall of the 
 Taira family. The Court intrigue which was the beginning 
 of the war is described at page 90. The last three Emperors 
 in the preceding list are : Toba, who acceded to the throne 
 at the age of six and abdicated at the age of twenty-two; 
 his son Sutoku, who was six years old at his accession and 
 abdicated at the age of twenty-three; and Konoye, brother 
 of Sutoku, who succeeded at the age of four and died, while 
 still on the throne, at the age of seventeen. The succession 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
 357 
 
 was then disputed, but by the aid of Kiyomori, Go Shira- 
 kawa, also a brother of Sutoku, was placed on the throne, 
 and Sutoku and his son were banished to the province of 
 Sanuki. Go Shirakawa in his turn was soon deposed and 
 banished by Kiyomori, and of his two successors, both boys, 
 one died and one was deposed. A third boy, the son of Go 
 Shirakawa and nephew by marriage of Kiyomori, was then 
 placed on the throne, and afterwards married to Kiyomori's 
 daughter. When a son was born to this marriage the 
 Emperor was deposed, and the son, Antoku, Kiyomori's 
 grandson, placed on the throne. He was drowned at the 
 battle of Dan no Ura. 
 
 77- Go Shirakawa. 
 
 78. Nijo 
 
 79. Rokujo 
 
 80. Takakura 
 
 81. Antoku (Tranquil virtue) 
 
 Date of 
 
 Accession. 
 
 H56 
 
 "59 
 1 166 
 1169 
 1 180 
 
 Age at 
 Accession. 
 
 30 
 
 17 
 
 3 
 9 
 3 
 
 Age a.t 
 Deposition 
 
 or 
 Abdication. 
 
 32 
 
 Date of 
 Death. 
 
 1 192 
 1165 
 1 176 
 
 n8o 
 1185 
 
 Age at 
 Death. 
 
 66 
 23 
 13 
 21 
 8 
 
 VI. The Minamoto Period 
 
 This period covers the Shogunate of Yoritomo and his two 
 sons. The "Cloistered Emperor" (vide page 75), Go 
 Shirakawa, was still alive at its beginning, and though he 
 had been deposed by Kiyomori in the year 11 58, he had 
 since, during the reigns of his four boy successors, con- 
 tinued in their names to discharge all the functions which 
 could only be legalized by the Emperor's name and authority. 
 When the Taira fled from Kioto they carried with them the 
 boy Emperor Antoku, and so long as he retained the throne 
 and continued in the possession of the Taira, the latter were 
 the loyal party and the Minamoto rebels. Yoritomo was, 
 however, not the man to let a quibble of this kind stand in 
 his way. The Cloistered Emperor was forced to declare the 
 throne vacated by the flight of the Emperor and to select a 
 new nominee for it. Takakura had two other sons besides 
 Antoku, both of whom were left by the Taira in Kioto, an 
 oversight which they afterwards bitterly regretted. The 
 
358 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 Cloistered Emperor decided to select one of these for the 
 throne, and resorted to divination to decide which it should 
 be. The lot fell on the elder, but as the Cloistered Emperor 
 was urged by his favourite mistress to nominate the younger, 
 he tried divination again, and this time it was in favour of 
 the younger, so he became the Emperor Go Toba. This was 
 in the year 1I83, but the reign only dates from the formal 
 investiture with the regalia in 11 86 after they had been 
 recovered at the battle of Dan no Ura. Six years after- 
 wards Go Shirakawa died and his obsequies were celebrated 
 by Yoritomo, then at the summit of his glory, with great 
 splendour. Among other things, he provided gratuitous 
 baths for the whole population of Kioto for one hundred 
 days. All the Emperors of this period were, it will be seen, 
 boys who abdicated or were deposed on the approach of or 
 in early manhood. Go Toba abdicated in favour of his 
 eldest son, Tsuchi Mikado; then he made the latter resign 
 in favour of the youngest Juntoku, he himself retaining all 
 the time the real exercise of the Imperial functions, and 
 later forced Juntoku to abdicate in favour of his son. Go 
 Toba was a strong exception to the general run of sovereigns, 
 showing himself a very vigorous and ambitious intriguer, 
 who keenly resented the domination of the Minamoto and 
 was anxious to see the Imperial prerogatives restored to 
 their fullest extent. 
 
 
 Date of 
 Accession. 
 
 Age at 
 Accession. 
 
 Age at 
 Deposition 
 
 or 
 Abdication. 
 
 Date of 
 Death. 
 
 Age at 
 Death. 
 
 8z. Go Toba 
 
 83. Tsuchi Mikado . . . 
 
 84. Juntoku (Meek virtue) . 
 
 85. Chukiyo (Middle respect) 
 
 1 186 
 
 "99 
 1211 
 1222 
 
 7 
 S 
 
 IS 
 S 
 
 20 
 
 17 
 26 
 
 S 
 
 1239 
 1231 
 1242 
 1234 
 
 60 
 
 37 
 46 
 
 17 
 
 VII. The Hojo Period 
 
 The last three reigns are included in the Minamoto 
 period, but the Hojo influence commenced at the death of 
 Yoritomo, and the history of the three reigns was that of 
 the struggle for the mastery between them and the ex- 
 emperor Go Toba. In 1222, the triumph of the HsjO was 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
 369 
 
 complete and the power of the Imperial Court and its sup- 
 porters entirely broken. The Hojo regent promptly signal- 
 ized his triumph by deposing the boy Emperor Chukiyo and 
 setting up in his stead Go Horikawa, the son of a younger 
 son of Takakura. All the ex-emperors were banished, Go 
 Toba to the island of Oki, Juntoku to Sado, and Tsuchi 
 Mikado to the province of Awa, where they passed the 
 rest of their lives in miserable poverty. Go Horikawa 
 voluntarily abdicated in favour of his eldest son Shijo, who 
 died while still on the throne. Then Go Saga, a son of the 
 exiled Tsuchi Mikado, was enthroned by the Hojo. He 
 abdicated, and was succeeded while still alive by his two 
 sons, Fukakusa and Kameyama; the latter was succeeded 
 by his .eldest son Go Uda, and he by Fukakusa's son 
 Fushimi. He was followed by his son, Go Fushimi, and he 
 by Go Nijo, a son of Go Uda. When the latter ascended the 
 throne there were five ex-emperors still alive, all, except the 
 last, men of mature years, all of whom had been deposed 
 and their successors in every instance selected at their 
 arbitrary will by the Hojo regents. 
 
 Go Nijo died while still on the throne. Then Hanazono, 
 a younger brother of Go Fushimi, was crowned in defiance 
 of the will of the Imperial Court, where it was desired that 
 the succession should be given to a son of Go Nijo. Hana- 
 zono in his turn was deposed in favour of Go Daigo, the 
 second son of Go Uda, and the last Emperor of the Hojo 
 period. His story is told in Chapter VIII. 
 
 
 
 Age at 
 
 
 Date of 
 
 Age at 
 
 Deposition 
 
 Date of 
 
 Accession. 
 
 Accession. 
 
 or 
 
 Abdication. 
 
 Deatli. 
 
 1222 
 
 10 
 
 20 
 
 1234 
 
 1232 
 
 3 
 
 — 
 
 1242 
 
 1242 
 
 23 
 
 27 
 
 1272 
 
 1247 
 
 5 
 
 ^l 
 
 1304 
 
 1259 
 
 II 
 
 26 
 
 1305 
 
 1274 
 
 8 
 
 21 
 
 1324 
 
 1288 
 
 24 
 
 34 
 
 I317 
 
 1298 
 
 II 
 
 14 
 
 1336 
 
 1302 
 
 19 
 
 — 
 
 1307 
 
 1308 
 
 12 
 
 22 
 
 1348 
 
 1318 
 
 31 
 
 " 
 
 1339 
 
 Age at 
 Death. 
 
 86. Go Horikawa . . . . 
 
 87. Shijo 
 
 88. Go Saga 
 
 89. Fukakusa 
 
 90. Kameyama 
 
 91. Go Uda 
 
 92. Fushimi 
 
 93. Go Fushimi . . . . 
 
 94. Go Nijo 
 
 95. Hanazono (Flower gar- 
 
 den) 
 
 96. Go Daigo 
 
 22 
 12 
 
 S3 
 62 
 
 57 
 S8 
 53 
 49 
 
 24 
 
 52 
 52 
 
360 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 VIII. The Ashikaga Period 
 
 Go Daigo's reign lasted for the first few years of this 
 period, but he and his three successors were all in exile, 
 while the False Emperors (vide pages 156-157) reigned at 
 Kioto. The names and reigns of the False Emperors, who 
 are not historically recognized as having reigned, were — 
 
 Kogon . 
 
 • 1333-1336 
 
 Komyo . 
 
 ■ 1336-1349 
 
 Shinko . 
 
 • 1349-1352 
 
 Go Kogon . 
 
 ■ 1352-1372 
 
 Go Enyii 
 
 . 1372-1383 
 
 Go Komatsu. 
 
 • 1383-1393 
 
 In 1393, Go Komatsu was acknowledged as the legitimate 
 Emperor, and his official reign commences in that year. 
 Of him and his successors, there is nothing to tell. They 
 were allowed to reign, but amid all the contending factions 
 who disputed and fought at their capital, they were mere 
 nonentities. It was in the reign of the last Emperor in the 
 list that Nobunaga and Hideyoshi rose to power, and the 
 interregnum of the Shoguns began. 
 
 
 
 
 Age at 
 
 
 
 
 Date of 
 
 Age at 
 
 Deposition 
 
 Date of 
 
 Age at 
 
 
 Accession. 
 
 Accession. 
 
 or 
 Abdication. 
 
 Death. 
 
 Deatii. 
 
 97. Go Murakami . . . 
 
 1339 
 
 12 
 
 
 1368 
 
 41 
 
 98. Go Kameyama . . . 
 
 1368 
 
 22 
 
 46 
 
 1424 
 
 78 
 
 99. Go Komatsu .... 
 
 1393 
 
 17 
 
 37 
 
 1433 
 
 57 
 
 100. Shoko (Admiring en- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 lightenment) . . . 
 
 1414 
 
 14 
 
 — 
 
 1428 
 
 28 
 
 loi. Go Hanazono . . . 
 
 1429 
 
 II 
 
 46 
 
 1470 
 
 52 
 
 102. Go Tsuchi Mikado . . 
 
 1465 
 
 24 
 
 — 
 
 1500 
 
 59 
 
 103. Go Kashiwara . . . 
 
 1501 
 
 38 
 
 — 
 
 1526 
 
 63 
 
 104. Go Nara 
 
 1527 
 
 32 
 
 — 
 
 1557 
 
 62 
 
 105. Ojimachi 
 
 1558 
 
 40 
 
 68 
 
 1593 
 
 75 
 
 IX. The Tokugawa Period 
 
 The first Emperor in this list reigned through nearly the 
 whole of Hideyoshi 's domination, but the only exercise he 
 made of his authority was his refusal of the title of Shogun 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
 361 
 
 lo Hideyoshi. The remainder all lived in peaceful splendour 
 at Kioto under the protection of the Tokugawas, and there 
 is no record of their interference in the affairs of State until 
 the indignation of the Emperor Komei was stirred by the 
 admission of Europeans to reside and trade in Japan. In 
 1868, the present Emperor resumed the full prerogatives of 
 the throne, which had not been exercised by his ancestors for 
 more than a thousand years. 
 
 
 
 
 Age at 
 
 
 
 
 , Date of 
 
 Age at 
 
 Deposition 
 
 Date of 
 
 Age at' 
 
 
 Accession. 
 
 Accession. 
 
 or 
 
 Death. 
 
 Death. 
 
 
 
 
 Abdication, 
 
 
 
 106. Go Yozei 
 
 1587 
 
 17 
 
 42 
 
 1617 
 
 47 
 
 107. Go Mizuo .... 
 
 1612 
 
 17 
 
 34 
 
 1680 
 
 8S 
 
 108. Myosho (manifest 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 righteousness) (Em- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 press) 
 
 1630 
 
 8 
 
 22 
 
 1696 
 
 74 
 
 109. Go Komyo .... 
 
 1644 
 
 12 
 
 — 
 
 1654 
 
 22 
 
 no. Go Nishio .... 
 
 1654 
 
 18 
 
 27 
 
 168s 
 
 49 
 
 III. Reigen (Marvellous 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 originality) .... 
 
 1663 
 
 10 
 
 34 
 
 1732 
 
 79 
 
 112. Higashiyama. . . . 
 
 1687 
 
 13 
 
 
 1709 
 
 35 
 
 113. Naka Mikado . . . 
 
 1710 
 
 12 
 
 — 
 
 173s 
 
 37 
 
 1 14. Sakuramachi .... 
 
 1736 
 
 17 
 
 27 
 
 1750 
 
 31 
 
 115. Momozono .... 
 
 1747 
 
 7 
 
 — 
 
 1762 
 
 22 
 
 116. Go Sakuramachi 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 (Empress) .... 
 
 1763 
 
 24 
 
 32 
 
 1813 
 
 74 
 
 117. Go- Momozono . . . 
 
 1771 
 
 14 
 
 
 1779 
 
 22 
 
 118. Kokaku (Enlightened 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 standing) .... 
 
 1780 
 
 10 
 
 47 
 
 1840 
 
 70 
 
 119. Ninko (Benevolent 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 piety) 
 
 1817 
 
 18 
 
 — 
 
 1846 
 
 47 
 
 1 20. Komei (Pious enlighten- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ment) 
 
 1847 
 
 17 
 
 — 
 
 1867 
 
 37 
 
 121. Mutsuhito (Reigning 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Emperor) .... 
 
 1867 
 
 15 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 The KuGifes 
 
 The Kug^s, the nobles of the Imperial Court, have been 
 referred to at page 83. Throughout all history until the 
 accession of the present Emperor they formed a class by 
 themselves, entirely distinct from, and in rank and lineage 
 far above, the territorial nobles, only a few of whom (among 
 
362 APPENDIX I 
 
 whom the Tokugawas were included) could claim a share in 
 their descent from the Emperors. After the Restoration in 
 1868 they were formed into one class with the Daimios, 
 under the title of Kwazoku or Peers. There were then 
 one hundred and thirty-seven fan;iilies of Kug^s, of whom 
 no less than ninety-five claim to be of the Fujiwara blood 
 and descended therefore from the God, Ama tsu Koyane, 
 who accompanied Ninigi in his descent to , earth from 
 Heaven. In the time of Tokiyori (1246-1256) — the fifth of 
 the Hojo regents — the Fujiwara had increased so largely 
 that they were divided into five branch families, to whom 
 were given the family names or titles of Konoye, IchijS, 
 Kujo, Nijo, and Takatsukasa, the first three, names that 
 had been previously held by Emperors, and these were 
 called the Go Sekkei, or five regent families, from among 
 whom a Court regent could be selected during the minority 
 of an Emperor, to act for him in all matters in which the 
 Imperial interference was necessary. When the modern 
 peerage was created in 1884, the highest rank, that of 
 Prince or Duke, was conferred on the heads of these five 
 families. They are still regarded as the noblest in the 
 Empire, both on account of their ancient lineage and their 
 long history, as well as from their present position, and 
 the Empresses have been frequently chosen from their 
 daughters, the present Empress being a daughter of Prince 
 Ichijo, and the Crown Princess a daughter of Prince Kujo. 
 The remaining families of the Kug6s of Fujiwara descent 
 have been gradually founded by younger sons of one of 
 these branches, just as the families who are not of Fujiwara 
 blood, such as the Sugiwara and Kiowara, were founded 
 by the younger sons of reigning Emperors. Throughout 
 the long State impotency of the Imperial Court, the Kug^s 
 naturally suffered with their Imperial masters, and were 
 both poor and without influence on the destinies of the 
 Empire ; but, just as the Emperors throughout all their 
 obscurity remained the fount of honour and law, so did the 
 Kugds conserve all their pride and prestige of long descent 
 and Court honour, and were always regarded as almost 
 immeasurable superiors of the wealthy and powerful Daimios. 
 It was the highest ambition of the greatest of the latter to 
 obtain even the smallest offices of the Imperial Court which 
 the Kug6s regarded as their own peculiar appanage, and as 
 the latter, living at the Court, in daily contact, if not with 
 the Emperor, with his highest officials, were often able to 
 
APPENDIX I 363 
 
 exercise considerable influence in the bestowal of these 
 offices, their favour was largely conciliated with rich pre- 
 sents aiid their daughters sought in marriage by the 
 Daimios. Many of them added to the scanty doles, which 
 they received from the Imperial exchequer, by giving lessons 
 in Court etiquette or polite accomplishments for which even 
 the members of the Shogun's Court were glad to pay hand- 
 somely. Some practised the fine arts, and sold their paint- 
 ings or triumphs of ornate penmanship. Some were abbots 
 or abbesses of great temples. On the other hand, they were 
 free from the burthens of the Daimios in having no armies 
 of feudal retainers to support, no extensive domains or 
 castles to keep up, no costly journeys to undertake to Yedo, 
 and their poverty had at least one good result — it prevented 
 them falling into physical and mental degeneration and 
 becoming mere sensualists, as did so many of the Daimios, 
 and when the Restoration of 1868 gave them their chance, 
 many of them stepped into the foremost places of official 
 life, and several are at the present day high in the 
 Government. 
 
APPENDIX II 
 
 THE DYNASTIES OF THE SHOGUNS 
 
 From the seventh to the twelfth centuries the Government 
 was administered by the successive heads of the Fujiwara 
 family. In 1161 Kiyomori, the head of the Taira family, 
 assumed the executive after the defeat of the Minamoto, 
 and held it till his death in 11 81, and it was also held by 
 his son and successor till 1185, when the Taira were over- 
 thrown and destroyed by the Minamoto. In 1192 Yoritomo, 
 the head of the Minamoto, received from the Emperor 
 Go Toba the appointment of Sei-i-Tai-Shogun — Barbarian- 
 repressing generalissimo — and became the first of the 
 Shoguns, who continued to govern, as Vice-Gerents of the 
 Emperor, either directly or through regents, till 1868, with 
 the exception of the period 1573— 1603. The following are 
 the dynasties of the Shoguns : — 
 
 I. The Minamoto Family (1185-12x9) 
 
 Yoritomo 1192-1199 Governed from 1185, but was only ap- 
 pointed Shogun by the Emperor in 
 1192. 
 Yoriiye, eldest son of 1199-1203 Deposed and murdered by his maternal 
 
 Yoritomo grandfather. 
 
 Sanetomo, second son 1203-1219 Assassinated by his nephew, Yoriiye's 
 of Yoritomo son. 
 
 II. HOjO Family (1220-1337) 
 
 None of the Hoj5 family ever assumed the title of Shogun, 
 but they carried on the Government as Shikken (Regents) 1 in 
 the name of the ShOguns appointed, on their nomination, by 
 the Emperors. The nominees were invariably boys or even 
 
 ' Shikken literally means "Power Holder." 
 364 
 
APPENDIX |II 
 
 365 
 
 children, the first two scions of the Fujiwara and the other 
 three of the Imperial families, who were deposed on arriving 
 at manhood, or as soon afterwards as they showed any spirit 
 of impatience at the Hojo authority. 
 
 The names of the Shoguns and the contemporary Regents 
 were : — 
 
 Fujiwara Yoritsune 
 
 Fujiwara Yoritsugu 
 Prince Munetaka (son 
 
 of the Bmperor Go 
 
 Saga) 
 Prince Koreyasu (son 
 
 of Munetaka) 
 
 Prince Hisaakira (third 
 son of the Emperor 
 Go Fukakusa) 
 
 Prince Morikuni (son 
 of Hisaakira) 
 
 SHOGUNS 
 
 1220-1244 Age at accession, 9 — deposed and sent 
 
 back to Kioto under a guard. 
 1244-1251 Age at accession, 6 — deposed. 
 1251-1266 Age at accession, 13 — deposed, 
 
 1266-1289 Deposed and sent to Kioto, heels up- 
 wards, in a palanquin, by the Regent 
 Sadatoki. 
 
 1289-1308 Age at accession, 16 — deposed. 
 
 1 308-1 333 Age at accession, 7 — deposed, and died 
 after the taking of Kamakura. 
 
 REGENTS 
 
 I. Tokimasa 
 
 2. Yoshitoki 
 
 3. Yasutoki 
 
 4. Tsunetoki 
 
 5. Tokiyori 
 
 6. Nagatoki 
 
 7. Tokimune 
 
 8. Sadatoki 
 
 9. Morotoki 
 10. Takatoki 
 
 1199-120S 
 
 1205-1224 
 1225-1240 
 1 242- 1 246 
 1246-1256 
 
 1256-1270 
 1270-1284 
 I 284- I 30 I 
 
 1300-1311 
 «3iS-i353 
 
 Did not assume the title of Regent, but 
 governed from the death of Yoritomo. 
 In 1205 he nominally retired from 
 active life in favour of his son Yoshi- 
 toki, but continued to exercise his 
 influence till his death in 1215. 
 
 Son of Yoshitoki. 
 
 Grandson of Yasutoki. 
 
 Brother of Tsunetoki, abdicated and died 
 1263, aged 37. 
 
 Nephew of Tokiyori. 
 
 Son of Tokiyori. 
 
 Son of Tokimune — succeeded at the age 
 of 14 — abdicated and became a priest, 
 but continued to direct till his death in 
 1311. 
 
 Grandson of Tokiyori. 
 
 Son of Sadatoki— killed himself when 
 Kamakura was taken — Takatoki being 
 only nine years of age at Morotoki's 
 death, the regency was conducted by 
 commissioners till 1315. 
 
366 
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 III. The Ashikaga Family (1333-1573) 
 
 I. Takauji 
 
 2. Yoshiaki 
 
 3. Yoshimitsu . 
 
 4. Yoshimochi. 
 
 5. Yoshikatsu . 
 
 6. Yoshinori 
 
 7. Yoshikatsu 
 
 8. Yoshimasa 
 
 9. Yoshikisa 
 
 10. Yoshitane 
 
 11. Yoshisumi 
 
 12. Yoshiharu 
 
 13. Yoshiteru 
 
 14. Yoshiaki 
 
 I333-»3S7 
 
 1358-1367 
 1368-1393 
 
 1394-1422 
 1423-1425 
 
 1428-1441 
 1441-1443 
 
 1443-1473 
 1473-1489 
 1490-1493 
 
 1494-1507 
 
 1521-1545 
 1546-1567 
 1568-1573 
 
 Founder of the dynasty - 
 Shogunin 1335. 
 
 ■ appointed 
 
 The second, third and fourth Shoguns 
 each abdicated in favour of his son. 
 Yoshikatsu, the fifth, died at the age 
 of nineteen, and his father, Yoshimochi, 
 then resumed office and held it till his 
 death in 1428, when he was succeeded 
 by his younger brother. 
 
 Died while still a youth, and was suc- 
 ceeded by his brother — both were sons 
 of Yoshinori. 
 
 Abdicated in favour of his son. 
 
 Died ; succeeded by his brother. 
 
 Deposed by his own ministers in favour of 
 his son. 
 
 Deposed, and his father restored to office, 
 which he again held till his death in 
 1521. 
 
 Abdicated in favour of his son. 
 
 Murdered. 
 
 Deposed by Nobunaga and bereft of all 
 power ; but, though retired to a monas- 
 tery, continued to hold the title of 
 Shogun till his death in 1597. 
 
 IV. Interregnum of the Shoguns (1573-1603) 
 
 I. Nobunaga 
 2. , Hideyoshi 
 
 3. Hideyori 
 
 1573-1582 
 1586-1598 
 
 1598-1600 
 
 Between 1582 and 1586 Hideyoshi 
 governed in the name of Nobunaga's 
 grandson, a child. 
 
 Government carried on by a council in 
 the name of Hideyori, a child. In 
 1600 lyeyasu overthrew the council, 
 and took the Government into his own 
 hands, but was not appointed ShOgun 
 by the Emperor till 1603. 
 
APPENDIX II 
 
 367 
 
 V. The Tokugawa Family (1600-1868) 
 
 I. lyeyasu . 
 
 Hidetada 
 lyemitsu 
 lyetsuna. 
 Tsunayoshi 
 lyenobu . 
 lyetsugu . 
 
 8. Yoshimune 
 
 9. lyeshige. 
 
 10. lyeharu . 
 
 11. lyenari . 
 
 12. lyeyoshi. 
 
 13. lyesada . 
 
 14. lyemochi 
 
 15. Yoshinobu 
 
 1600-1605 
 
 1605- 1623 
 1623-165 I 
 1651-1680 
 1681-1709 
 1709-1712 
 1713-1716 
 
 1717-1744 
 174S-1762 
 1762-1786 
 1787-1836 
 1837-1852 
 1853-1858 
 1858-1866 
 1866-1868 
 
 The founder of the dynasty. Gpverned 
 from 1600, but was not appointed 
 Shogun by the Emperor till 1603. In 
 1605 he abdicated in favour of his son, 
 but continued himself to direct the 
 government till his death in 1616. 
 
 Abdicated ; died 1632. 
 
 Abdicated; died 1652. 
 
 Murdered by his wife. 
 
 Abdicated; died 1751. 
 
 Abdicated : died 1841. 
 
 Known also as Keiki — that being the 
 Sinico-Japanese pronunciation of the 
 Chinese characters in which his name 
 is written — and as Hitotsubashi, from 
 the fact that he was, in his youth, 
 adopted into the family of that name. 
 The last of the ShSguns — still living. 
 
APPENDIX III 
 LIST OF PROVINCES 
 
 In the reign of the Emperor Seimei (a.d. 130-igo) Japan, 
 as far as it was then known, was divided into thirty-two 
 provinces, and in that of Mommu (697-707) the number was 
 increased to sixty-six by the subdivision of some of the old 
 and the additions, which increased geographical knowledge 
 enabled to be made, of new provinces. 
 
 One of the results of the invasion of Korea by the Empress 
 Jingo was the classification of the provinces into circuits 
 on the Chinese system which was in use in Korea, and the 
 arrangement made by her, with some modifications intro- 
 duced by her successors, continued in force till 1872. 
 
 The circuits were as follows : — 
 
 1. The Go Kinai or five Home Provinces, the provinces 
 
 that lay immediately around the capital — 
 
 Yanjashiro, Yamato, Kawachi, Idzumi and Setsu. 
 The Go Kinai stood apart and were, strictly speak- 
 ing, not a circuit, but are for convenience' sake 
 here included in the general list. 
 
 2. The Tokaido or Eastern Sea Circuit, the fifteen pro- 
 
 vinces extending from the Northern Frontier of 
 Yamato along the east coast of the main island to 
 Hitachi, the northern frontier of which was about 
 one hundred miles north of Tokio — 
 
 Iga, Is6, Shima, Owari, Mikawa, Tot5mi, Suruga, 
 
 Idzu, Kai, Sagami, Musashi, Awa, Kadzusa, 
 
 Shimosa and Hitachi. 
 
 3. The Tozando or Eastern Mountain circuit; eight pro- 
 
 vinces, extending from the extreme north of the main 
 island through its centre as far as Lake Biwa. The 
 first two were subsequently subdivided into seven 
 provinces — 
 
 Mutsu, Dewa, Kodzuk^, Shimotsuk^, Shinano, 
 Hida, Mino and Omi. 
 368 
 
APPENDIX III 369 
 
 4. The Hokurikudo or Northern Land Circuit; seven 
 
 provinces all lying along the west coast and includ- 
 ing the Island of Sado — 
 
 Sado, Yechigo, Yechiu, Noto, Kaga, Yechizen and 
 Wakasa. 
 
 5. The Sanind6 or Mountain Back Circuit; eight pro- 
 
 vinces on or touching the south-west coast of the 
 main island — 
 
 Tamba, Tango, Tajima, Inaba, Hoki, Izumo, 
 Iwami and the Oki Islands. 
 
 6. The Sanyodo or Mountain Front Circuit ; eight pro- 
 
 vinces lying along the north shore of the Inland Sea 
 from Akashi to Shimonoseki, except Mimasaka, which 
 is inland and does not touch the coast — 
 
 Harima, Mimasaka, Bizen, Bitchiu, Bingo, Aki, 
 Suwo and Nagato. 
 
 7. The Nankaido or Southern Sea Circuit; six provinces, 
 
 one in the extreme south-east of the main island, the 
 Island of Awaji, and the four provinces of the Island 
 of Shikoku — 
 
 Ki, Awaji, Sanuki, lyo, Tosa and Awa. 
 
 8. The Saikaido or Western Sea Circuit, the nine pro- 
 
 vinces constituting the Island of Kiushiu — 
 
 Bungo, Buzen, Chikuzen, Chikugo, Hizen, Higo, 
 Satsuma, Osumi and Hiuga. 
 
 It will be seen that the provinces of the first six circuits 
 are all in the main island, and with the addition of the 
 first province in the seventh, constitute the whole island. 
 The two islands of Iki and Tsushima, the last of the eight 
 great islands, were not comprised in any circuit. The above 
 are the original Japanese names of the provinces, but some 
 are more commonly mentioned by the Chinese reading of the 
 first syllable of their Japanese names with the word shiu 
 (province) attached to it. Thus, Nagato is much better known 
 as Choshiu, Ki as Kishiu, and Shinano as Shinshiu, than 
 by their proper Japanese names. The "KuantO," so fre- 
 quently mentioned in the text, were the eight provinces, 
 Shimotsuke, Kodsuke, Hitachi, Shimosa, Kadzusa, Awa, 
 Musashi and Sagami, which lay around Yedo, just as the 
 Go Kinai lay around Kioto. The term means " East of the 
 Barrier," and it signifies the provinces that lay to the east 
 of the important military barrier that was formerly main- 
 tained at Azuka, the mountain pass between the provinces 
 
 BB 
 
370 APPENDIX III 
 
 of Omi and Yamashiro, which all persons travelling between 
 Yedo and Kioto had to cross. 
 
 The provinces from which the San Kei and Kokushiu 
 Daimios ^ took their titles under the Tokugawa administra- 
 tion were Owari, Ki, Mito (these three were the San Kei or 
 three families), Sendai, Mutsu, Kaga, Omi, Yechizen, Aki, 
 and Choshiu in the main island ; Tosa and Awa in Shikoku ; 
 Higo, Hizen, Satsuma, Chikugo and Chikuzen in Kiushiu, 
 and the Island of Tsushima. 
 
 The Island of Yezo and the Chishima Islands to the north 
 of it were constituted in 1868 a ninth circuit under the term 
 Hokkaido or Northern Sea Circuit. In 1872 the whole 
 country was, for administrative purposes, divided into pre- 
 fectures. Several rearrangements have since been made, 
 and the whole number of prefectures at the present day is 
 forty-seven. Their official titles, which were given quite 
 irrespective of the original provincial boundaries, are now in 
 general use for geographical purposes. The provincial 
 nomenclature belongs to Old Japan. 
 
 ' Vide p. 225 and 307. 
 
APPENDIX IV 
 
 THE LAWS OF SHOTOKU DAISHI 
 
 [The following version of the Laws o Shotoku Daishi (vick page 69) is 
 extracted from the translation of the Nihongi by Dr. W. G. Aston, published 
 in the Transactions of the Japan Society, London. It is here reprinted with 
 the permission of the Chairman and Council of the Society. While called 
 " Laws "^ by the Japanese, it is, it will be seen, rather a code of moral precepts 
 than of Laws. As such it is still held in high veneration, and is regarded in a 
 somewhat analogous way to that in which we look upon the Sermon on the 
 Mount.] 
 
 I. Harmony is to be valued, and an avoidance of wanton 
 opposition to be honoured. All men are influenced by class- 
 feelings, and there are few who are intelligent. Hence there 
 are some who disobey their lords and fathers, or who main- 
 tain feuds with the neighbouring villages. But when those 
 above are harmonious and those below are friendly, and 
 there is concord in the discussion of business, right views of 
 things spontaneously gain acceptance. Then what is there 
 which cannot be accomplished? 
 
 n. Sincerely feverence the three treasures. The three 
 treasures, viz. Buddha, the Law and the Priesthood, are the 
 final refuge of the four generated beings, and are the supreme 
 objects of faith in all countries. What man in what age 
 can fail to reverence this law? Few men are utterly bad. 
 They may be taught to follow it. But if they do not betake 
 them to the three treasures, wherewithal shall their crooked- 
 ness be made straight? 
 
 in. When you receive the Imperial commands, fail not 
 scrupulously to obey them. The lord is Heaven, the vassal 
 is Earth. Heaven overspreads, and Earth upbears. When 
 this is so, the four seasons follow their due course, and the 
 powers of Nature obtain their efficacy. If the Earth at- 
 tempted to overspread, Heaven would simply fall in ruin. 
 Therefore is it that when the lord speaks, the vassal listens ; 
 when the superior acts, the inferior yields compliance. 
 Consequerttly when you receive the Imperial commands, fail 
 BB2 371 
 
372 APPENDIX IV 
 
 not to carry them out scrupulously. Let there be a want 
 of care in this matter, and ruin is the natural consequence. 
 
 IV. The Ministers and functionaries should make decorous 
 behaviour their leading- principle, for the leading principle 
 of the government of the people consists in decorous be- 
 haviour. If the superiors do not behave with decorum, the 
 inferiors are disorderly : if inferiors are wanting in proper 
 behaviour, there must necessarily be offences. Therefore it 
 is that when lord and vassal behave with propriety, the 
 distinctions of rank are not confused : when the people 
 behave with propriety, the Government of the Common- 
 wealth proceeds of itself. 
 
 V. Ceasing from gluttony and abandoning covetous desires, 
 deal impartially with the suits which are submitted to you. 
 Of complaints brought by the people there are a thousand in 
 one day. If in one day there are so many, how many will 
 there be in a series of years? If the man who is to decide 
 suits at law makes gain his ordinary motive, and hears causes 
 with a view to receiving bribes, then will the suits of the 
 rich man be like a stone flung into water, while the plaints 
 of the poor will resemble water cast upon a stone. Under 
 these circumstances the poor man will not know whither to 
 betake himself. Here too there is a deficiency in the duty of 
 the Minister. 
 
 VI. Chastise that which is evil and encourage that which 
 is good. This was the excellent rule of antiquity. Conceal 
 not, therefore, the good qualities of others, and fail not to 
 correct that which is wrong when you see it. Flatterers 
 and deceivers are a sharp weapon for the overthrow of the 
 State, and a pointed sword for the destruction of the people. 
 Sycophants are also fond, when they meet, of dilating to 
 their superiors on the errors of their inferiors; to their 
 inferiors, they censure the faults of their superiors. Men 
 of this kind are all wanting in fidelity to their lord, and in 
 benevolence towards the people. From such an origin great 
 civil disturbances arise. 
 
 VII. Let every man have his own charge, and let not the 
 spheres of duty be confused. When wise men are entrusted 
 with office, the sound of praise arises. If unprincipled men 
 hold office, disasters and tumults are multiplied. In this 
 world, few are born with knowledge : wisdom is the product 
 of earnest meditation. In all things, whether great or small, 
 find the right man, and thpy will surely be well managed : 
 on all occasions, be they urgent or the reverse, meet but 
 
APPENDIX IV 373 
 
 with a wise man, and they will of themselves be amenable. 
 In this way will the State be lasting and the Temples of the 
 Earth and of Grain will be free from danger. Therefore did 
 the wise sovereigns of antiquity seek the man to fill the 
 office, and not the office for the sake of the man. 
 
 VIII. Let the Ministers and functionaries attend the Court 
 early in the morning, and retire late. The business of the 
 State does not admit of remissness, and the whole day is 
 hardly enough for its accomplishment. If, therefore, the 
 attendance at Court is late, emergencies cannot be met : if 
 officials retire soon, the work cannot be completed. 
 
 IX. Good faith is the foundation of right. In everything 
 let there be good faith, for in it there surely consists the 
 good ahd the bad, success and failure. If the lord and the 
 vassal observe good faith one with another, what is there 
 which cannot be accomplished? If the lord and the vassal 
 do not observe good faith towards one another, everything 
 without exception ends in failure. 
 
 X. Let us cease from wrath, and refrain from angry looks. 
 Nor let us be resentful when others differ from us. For all 
 men have hearts, and each heart has its own leanings. Their 
 right is our wrong, and our right is their wrong. We are 
 not unquestionably sages, nor are they unquestionably fools. 
 Both of us are simply ordinary men. How can any one lay 
 down a rule by which to distinguish right from wrong ? For 
 we are all, one with another, wise and foolish, like a ring 
 which has no end. Therefore, although others give way to 
 anger, let us on the contrary dread our own faults, and 
 though we alone may be in the right, let us follow the 
 multitude and act like them. 
 
 XI. Give clear appreciation to merit and demerit, and deal 
 out to each its sure reward or punishment. In these days, 
 reward does not attend upon merit, nor punishment \ipon 
 crime. Ye high functionaries who have charge of public 
 affairs, let it be your task to make clear rewards and 
 punishments. 
 
 XII. Let not the provincial authorities or the Kuni no 
 Miyakko ^ levy exactions on the people. In a country there 
 are not two lords; the people have not two masters. The 
 sovereign is the master of the people of the whole country. 
 The officials to whom he gives charge are all his vassals. 
 How can they, as well as the Government, presume to levy 
 taxes on the people? 
 
 ' Kuni no Miyakko, the local governors of the Provinces. 
 
374 APPENDIX IV 
 
 XIII. Let all persons entrusted with office attend equally 
 to their functions. Owing to their illness or to their being 
 sent on missions, their work may sometimes be neglected. 
 But whenever they become able to attend to business, let 
 them be as accommodating as if they had had cognizance of 
 it from before, and not hinder public affairs on the score of 
 their not having had to do with them. 
 
 XIV. Ye ministers and functionaries ! Be not envious. 
 For if we envy others, they in turn will envy us. The evils 
 of envy know no limit. If others excel us in intelligence, it 
 gives us no pleasure; if they surpass us in ability, we are 
 envious. Therefore it is not until after a lapse of five 
 hundred years that we at last meet with a wise man, and 
 even in a thousand years we hardly obtain one sage. But 
 if we do not find wise men and sages, wherewithal shall the 
 country be governed? 
 
 XV. To turn away from that which is private, and to set 
 our face towards that which is public — this is the path of a 
 Minister. Now if a man is influenced by private motives, he 
 will assuredly feel resentments, and if he is influenced by 
 resentful feelings, he will assuredly fail to act harmoniously 
 with others. If he fails to act harmoniously with others, he 
 will assuredly sacrifice the public interests to his private 
 feelings. When resentment arises, it interferes with order, 
 and is subversive of law. Therefore in the first clause it was 
 said, that superiors and inferiors should agree together. 
 The purport is the same as this. 
 
 XVI. Let the people be employed (in forced labour) at 
 seasonable times. This is an ancient and excellent rule. 
 Let them be employed, therefore, in the winter months, 
 when they are at leisure. But from Spring to Autumn, 
 when they are engaged in agriculture or with the mulberry 
 trees, the people should not be so employed. But if they 
 do not attend to agriculture, what will they have to eat? 
 if they do not attend to the mulberry trees, what will they 
 do for clothing? 
 
 XVII. Decisions on important matters should not be made 
 by one person alone. They should be discussed with many. 
 But small matters are of less consequence. It is unnecessary 
 to consult a number of people. It is only in the case of the 
 discussion of weighty affairs, when there is a suspicion that 
 they may miscarry, that one should arrange matters in concert 
 with others, so as to arrive at the right conclusion. 
 
APPENDIX V 
 THE LEGACY OF lYEYASU 
 
 [The following translation of the Legacy of lyeyasu was made by the late 
 Mr. J. F. Lowder, formerly H.M. Consul at Yokohama, and published at 
 Yokohama in pamphlet form in 1874. It has never been published in 
 England, and as the original edition has been long out of print, it is here 
 reprinted, with the consent of the widow of the translator, leaving out some 
 chapters which deal only with items of administrative detail. The explanatory 
 notes are by the present writer.] 
 
 This manuscript, consisting of one hundred chapters, was 
 written by Toshogu of Kuno, in the province of Suruga. 
 It is contained in the Imperial depository, and may not be 
 seen by any but the Gorojiu, who profoundly secreting it 
 even when within the precincts of the official residence in 
 order to conceal it from the sight of others, shall reflect 
 upon, and record it in their hearts. ^^ 
 
 Chapt. I. — It is necessary before all to apply the undivided 
 attention of the mind to that which is naturally distasteful, 
 setting aside one's own inclinations. 
 
 Chapt. II. — Show special commiseration for the widower, 
 the widow, the orphan and the lone; for this is the founda- 
 tion of charitable government. 
 
 Chapt. III. — Keep your heart pure; and as long as your 
 body shall exist, be diligent in paying honour and veneration 
 to the gods. 
 
 ' This heading, which is that of the copy preserved in the Court of the 
 Shogun, is not part of the original manuscript. Toshogu is the posthumous 
 name of lyeyasu, the name that is bestowed after death by the Buddhist priests. 
 Kuno is the name of the temple near Shidzuoka in which lyeyasu was first 
 buried, prior to the erection of the great mausoleum at Nikko, in which many 
 people say that his remains still rest, only a hair of his head having been 
 carried to Nikko. 
 
 375 
 
376 APPENDIX V 
 
 Chapt. IV.— In future ages, in the event of there being 
 no direct successor to^ a dynasty, the Chief Councillors of 
 li, Honda, Sakakibara, and Sakai,i will assemble in confer- 
 ence ; and after mutual deliberation and consultation, un- 
 biassed by considerations of consanguinity or affinity, choose 
 a fit and proper person, and duly insure the succession. 
 
 Chapt. V. — The etiquette to be observed upon being in- 
 stalled as Sei-Shogun, is to be patterned after the example 
 of the Lord of Kamakura (Yoritomo). 
 
 The whole amount of the revenue of the Empire of Japan 
 is 28,190,000 koku [of rice]. Of this 20,000,000 is to be 
 divided among the Daimio and Shomio who render faithful 
 service, and the remaining 8,190,000 koku form the public 
 revenue, which should provide for the effectual protection 
 of the Emperor, and for keeping in subjection the barbarians 
 of the four coasts. 2 
 
 Chapt. VI. — Although it has been said that ancient 
 customs are to be preserved as laid down in the several 
 articles of the laws framed for the military classes, these 
 may be modified or supplemented as it becomes beneficial. 
 
 Chapt. VII. — ^The Fudai are those samurai who followed 
 me, and proffered me their fealty before the overthrow of 
 the castle of Osaka, in the province of Sesshiu. 
 
 The Tozama are those samurai who returned and sub- 
 mitted to me after its downfall, of whom there are 86. 
 
 There are 8,023 Fudai cavalry-lancers. Besides these there 
 are eighteen samurai of my own house, and five Guests of 
 honour. 
 
 This division is recorded, that they be not regarded as all 
 holding the same position. 
 Chapt. VIII (Omitted). — Describes the castle at Yedo and its guards. 
 Chapt. IX (Omitted). — Names the Fudai samurai who accompanied lyeyasu 
 from his ancestral seat at Mikawa, and directs that the members of the 
 Gorojiu shall be chosen from them. 
 
 Chapt. X. — The Fudai Samurai, great and small, all have 
 shown the utmost fidelity, even suffering their bones to be 
 ground to powder, and their flesh to be chopped up for me. 
 
 ^ The four leading Fudai Daimios ; li, the first named, was the ancestor of 
 li Kamon no Kami, in whose family the ofBce of Tairo or regent for the 
 Shogun was hereditary. 
 
 ^ Public revenue means the revenue of the Shogun's Government, the chief 
 duties of which were to guard the Emperor from danger, and to preserve peace 
 in every quarter of the Empire. Rice was the standard of value, and one 
 koku at that period was worth about fifteen shillings. 
 
APPENDIX V 377 
 
 In what way soever their posterity may offend, — for any- 
 thing less than actual treason, their estate may not be 
 confiscated. 
 
 Chapt. XI. — If there be any one, be he Kokushi, Rioshiu, 
 or Joshiu,! Tozama or Fudai — none are excepted — who shall 
 disobey the laws, to the injury of the people, his territory 
 or castle shall immediately be confiscated, that martial 
 severity may be reverenced. This is a part of the Shogun's 
 duty. 
 
 Chapt. XII. — In order to prevent any misunderstanding 
 as to precedence among officers of the higher grades of the 
 same seniority, it is decreed that they take order according 
 to the amount of their revenue. [This does not apply to 
 the Gorojiu and Wakadoshiyori. ] 
 
 Chapt. XIII. — The magistrates of the Civil and Criminal 
 Courts are reflectors of the mode of Government. The 
 persons invested with this office should be chosen from a 
 class of men who are upright and pure, distinguished for 
 charity and benevolence. Once every month one of the 
 Gorojiu should be sent unexpectedly, to inquire into their 
 mode of administration ; or the Shogun should himself go 
 unexpectedly, and investigate and decide the case on hand. 
 
 Chapt. XIV (Omitted). — Table of precedence among the ofEcials of the 
 Shogun's Government. 
 
 Chapt. XV. — In my youth, ray sole aim was to conquer 
 and subjugate inimical provinces, and to take revenge upon 
 the enemies of my ancestors. Yuyo teaches, however, that 
 "to assist the people is to give peace to the Empire," and 
 since I have come to understand that the precept is founded 
 on sound principle, I have undeviatingly followed it. Let 
 my posterity hold fast this principle. Any one turning his 
 back upgn it is no descendant of mine. 
 
 The People are the foundation of the Empire. 
 
 Chapt. XVI. — The reclamation and filling in of new 
 ground was originated in the time of Yoritomo; and there 
 are doubtless ancient regulations extant, bearing upon this 
 subject. Petitions having in view the recovery of land 
 should be taken into consideration, and no opposition should 
 be made to them ; but if there exists the slightest objection, 
 according to ancient usages, it is strictly prohibited to 
 entertain them. 
 
 1 Vide page 225. 
 
378 APPENDIX V 
 
 Chapt. XVII. — In the absence of precedent, forbid the 
 making of new ground, new water courses, and so forth, 
 and framing of any new measures of what kind soever. 
 Know that disturbances always arise from such innovations. 
 
 Chapt. XVIII. — It is forbidden to alter a faulty regulation 
 if, through inadvertency, it has been allowed to remain in 
 force during fifty years. 
 
 Chapt. XIX. — There will always be some individual of 
 ancient lineage to be found living among the lower classes 
 of district towns and hamlets. Such a one as this should 
 be selected for appointment to minor official situations ; 
 but care should be taken not to choose refugees and the like. 
 
 The import of this should be notified to the Tax-Collector- 
 ates particularly; and also to Kokushi, Rioshu, Jito,i and 
 downwards. 
 
 Chapt. XX, — The Daimis and Shomio of the Fudai and 
 Tozama classes, who do not hold official appointments, are 
 divided into two halves. One of these is to reside in Yedo, 
 until relieved by the other. 
 
 When relieved, they are to employ their period of rest in 
 making a tour of inspection into the prosperity or adversity 
 of the population of their territories. 
 
 Those on service should be entrusted with the various 
 duties connected with the castle, and the protection of the 
 outer enclosures. They should lend assistance in repairing 
 rents and damages, in the erection of new buildings, and in 
 extinguishing fires, and so on. 
 
 These duties are not exacted solely for myself or my 
 house ; but for the Shogun, whose duty it is to protect and 
 defend the Emperor. 
 
 Chapt. XXI. — The modes of commending virtue and 
 rewarding merit are : 
 
 ist — Grant of name or title [often bestowed after death]. 
 
 and — Spoken commendation. 
 
 3rd — Rank and Revenue. 
 
 4th — Official situation. 
 
 5th — Minor superintendencies. 
 
 The modes of punishing crime for the repression of vice 
 are : 
 
 I St — Branding (or tattooing). 
 
 2nd — Splitting the nose. 
 
 3rd — Banishment. 
 
 ' Jito = lord of a district 
 
APPENDIX V 379 
 
 4th — Transportation. 
 
 Sth — Imprisonment. 
 
 6th-— Decapitation and exposition of the head. 
 
 7th^ — Crucifixion and transfixion. 
 
 Sth — Burning. 
 
 gth — Decapitation, and so on. 
 
 These rewards are to be bestowed and punishments to be 
 inflicted only after a strict investigation into the merits of 
 commendable or criminal conduct; and although a notifica- 
 tion to the above effect has been issued to the Courts of 
 Law, particular pains should be taken to impress it upon 
 their strict observance. 
 
 The infliction of the" severe punishments of tying a 
 criminal's 4egs to two oxen, and driving them in different 
 directions, and of boiling in oil, is not within the power of the 
 Shogun. 
 
 Chapt. XXII. — You should not hastily attach to your 
 person officers of the higher grades who are ever ready and 
 obedient; nor should you precipitately dismiss the luke- 
 warm. They should be attached or dismissed in a quiet 
 way, after due consideration of the behaviour of each, and 
 consultation with the Gorojiu. Neither should be done in a 
 hurried or inconsiderate manner. 
 
 Chapt. XXIII. — It has been said of old, "Although advised 
 on all sides to put to death, put not to death : but when all 
 the people of the country advise capital punishment, inflict 
 it only after reiterated investigation into the merits of the 
 case in question. 
 
 "Though advised on all sides to confer reward, confer 
 not reward ; but when all the people of the country advise 
 the bestowal of reward, concede only after reiterated inquiry 
 into the merits of the case in question." 
 
 The art of governing a country consists in the manifesta- 
 tion of due deference on the part of a suzerain towards his 
 vassals. Know that if you turn your back upon this, you 
 will be assassinated, and the Empire will be lost. 
 
 Chapt. XXIV. — Although a person of former days depre- 
 cates the custom of fishing with divers, and of hawking, 
 such sauntering for amusement does not entail a needless 
 destruction of life. "The tribute offering, by noblemen, of 
 the spoil of the hunt and of the chase to the Emperor " is 
 an ancient custom among the military class of other countries 
 as well as of Japan. It tends to render soldiers expert in 
 the use of the bow, and in horsemanship; and in times of 
 
380 APPENDIX V 
 
 great peace is beneficially remindful of the excitement of 
 war. It is a custom which should not be discontinued. 
 
 Chapt. XXV. — Although singing and instrumental music 
 are not the calling of the military class, at times they ex- 
 pand the spirits, and relieve depression, and are delightful 
 recreations in the joyfulness of great peace. In the first 
 festivals of the years and months, these also should not be 
 discontinued. 
 
 Chapt. XXVI. — The successive generations of military 
 chiefs of the family of Gen,i from Sadazumi Shin-no down- 
 wards, are enshrined at Momijiyama in the Western In- 
 closure, for the repression of evil influences, and for the 
 protection of the shrines dedicated to ancestors within the 
 boundaries of the castle. Future generations shall pay 
 them the highest respect and veneration, and shall be diligent 
 in sacrificing to, and worshipping them. 
 
 Chapt. XXVII. — I, although the offspring of Seiwa, and 
 born in the family of Matsudaira of Mikawa, was overcome 
 by inimical provinces, and for a long time depressed and con- 
 fined among the common people. Now, I am thankful to 
 say, being engirdled with the favour of Heaven, the ancestral 
 estate of Serata, Nitta, Tokugawa, and Matsudaira have 
 returned to me. Henceforth let succeeding generations 
 venerate these four families, and not depart from the teach- 
 ing : — "Let there be a careful attention to parents, and let 
 them be followed when long gone." 
 
 Chapt. XXVIII. — Reverting to the scenes of battle at 
 which I have been present during my career, there must 
 have occurred eighty or ninety hand to hand encounters. 
 Eighteen times have I escaped with my life from ten 
 thousand deaths. 
 
 ^ The Minamoto family. Seiwa was the fifty-sixth Emperor (859-877), and 
 Prince Sadazumi was his sixth son, from whom the Minamoto claimed to be 
 descended. One of the Minamoto founded a branch family which took the 
 surname of Nitta from its estate in the province of Hitachi. The branch ^ain 
 subdivided in later years into new femilies which bore the surnames, alljof 
 geographical origin, of Serata, Tokugawa and Matsudaira, and lyeyasu was 
 entitled not only to use any one of the four surnames, but that also of Mina- 
 moto. All the Kamon daimio (the daimio of the house and blood of the 
 Tokugawas), exclusive of the San Kei, bore the name of Matsudaira, and the 
 name is largely represented in the new peerage of the present day.- There 
 is an omission in the translation here. The chapter concludes with the in- 
 struction that Tokugawa should thenceforward be the distinguishing name of 
 lyeyasu's own family. Momijiyama (Maple Hill) is part of the gardens of the 
 castle at Yedo, now the Imperial palace. 
 
APPENDIX V 381 
 
 On this account I have founded eighteen "Danrin" (lit., 
 sandal groves, or temples) i at Yedo as a thank-offering. Let 
 my posterity ever be of the honoured sect of Jodo (Buddhist 
 sect). 
 
 Chapt. XXIX. — With respect to the temple of Yeizan on 
 the East of the Castle in the Military capital (Yedo) I have 
 received much and repeated instruction from the late Daishi. 
 Is it well that I should not demonstrate my gratitude? I 
 have reverentially begged for him the office of Preceptor of 
 the first degree, and Chief Priest of Tendai and have offered 
 up prayers and supplications that wicked resentment may 
 entirely cease, and that the country and its households may 
 enjoy undisturbed peace and harmony.2 
 
 Chapt. XXX. — The Preceptor will be a sufficient pro- 
 vision for the defence of the royal castle; and in the event 
 of the Imperial residence being assailed by inimical bar- 
 barians, he shall be elevated to the "Throne of divine 
 blessings," and the Shogun shall aid and assist him in 
 subjugating and exterminating them. 
 
 Chapt. XXXI. — High and low alike may follow their 
 own inclinations with respect to religious tenets which have 
 obtained down to the present time, except as regards "the 
 false and corrupt school " [Roman Catholic]. Religious 
 disputes have ever proved the bane and misfortune of the 
 Empire, and should determinedly be put a stop to. 
 
 1 These temples include not only those at Shiba and Uyeno in Yedo, but 
 others in other parts of the Empire. 
 
 ^ Yeizan is the temple of Toyeizan at Uyeno, destroyed in the last fight of the 
 war of the Restoration (wzflfe p. 347). Daishi is the highest honorary title that 
 can be given to a Buddhist priest. Tendai is one of the great Buddhist sects. 
 This and the following chapter illustrate the far-seeing pblicy of lyeyasu. The 
 legality of his oiKce depended on the Emperor, who, living at Kioto, might, 
 though he was always closely guarded by lyeyasu's own adherents and though 
 all the territorial princes were forbidden access to him or even to visit Kioto, 
 some time fall into the power of, or, like Go Daigo, joimenemies to the Shogun- 
 ate. A prince of the Imperial family was therefore always installed as Chief 
 Abbot (or Preceptor) of Toyeizan, where he was always under the direct eye 
 of the Shogun, so that, in either of the above eventualities, the deposition of the 
 Emperor and the installation of the Princely Abbot on the throne might be 
 proclaimed at once. When the adherents of the last of the Shoguns were 
 finally driven from Yedo in i868 they endeavoured to put this policy in force, 
 and carrying the Princely Abbot at that time with them to the North, they pro- 
 claimed him as Emperor. Their subsequent defeat rendered the policy useless. 
 The Abbot was subsequently known as Prince Kita Shirakawa. He forsook 
 the priesthood for the army, became a distinguished general, and died while in 
 command of the army engaged in the subjugation of Formosa after its cession 
 by China. 
 
382 APPENDIX V 
 
 Chapt. XXXII.— The families of Gen, Pei, T5, Kitsu, the 
 two families of Kan and Ki-Ariwara and Kiowara,! derive 
 their names from the Supreme Ruler (Emperor). It would 
 be no shameless thing if one among these, attaining to the 
 military command-in-chief, although apparently possessing 
 the necessary capability, were nevertheless a man void pf 
 knowledge and erudition, to whom the path of wisdom and 
 virtue is dark, all whose deliberations proceed" from his own 
 mind, ignorant of the military accomplishments necessary 
 in a military man. 
 
 From time to time colleges should be instituted, where 
 by self-exertion others may be stimulated and encouraged 
 to enter, and receive virtuous instruction. 
 
 Chapt. XXXIII. — The way to govern a country and to 
 keep an Empire tranquil originally proceeds from the "Gate 
 of Perfection of Wisdom " (Confucian teachings). 
 
 To endeavour to attain to literary or military perfection in 
 any other path is like "climbing a tree in search of fish, or 
 plunging into the water to look for fire." 
 
 Reflect that this is the height of shallow-brained stupidity. 
 
 Chapt. XXXIV. — ^There is always a certain amount of 
 sickness among the population of the Empire. A sage of 
 old, being grieved at this, established a medical code; and 
 although there may be proof, in the effectual cure of disease, 
 that others have drawn from this stream, such should not be 
 endowed with large territory, lest being in possession of 
 landed estate they straightway become indolent in the exercise 
 of their profession. A suitable reward should be bestowed 
 upon them, adequate to the shallowness or depth of the cure 
 effected. 
 
 Chapt. XXXV. — By an ancient custom of the Empire, 
 Niidono, the Spiritual Chief,^ has the entire control of every 
 particular connected with the physical study of the Heavens, 
 and the management of the Spirits of the five grains. Should 
 any one, however, set himself in opposition to the examples 
 and precepts of the Military Chieif of the Empire, there 
 should be no hesitation or 'delay in punishing him severely. 
 
 Chapt. XXXVI. — All wandering mendicants, such as male 
 sorcerers, female diviners, hermits, blind people, beggars, 
 
 ^ The families of Minamoto, Taira, Fujiwara, Sugiwara, etc., all claiming 
 divine descent through the Emperor, or directly as in the case of the Fujiwara. 
 " The chief Shinto priest. 
 
APPENDIX V 383 
 
 and tanners, have had from of old their respective rulers. 
 Be not disinclined, however, to punish any such who give 
 rise to disputes, or who overstep the boundaries of their own 
 classes, and are disobedient to existing laws. 
 
 Chapt. XXXVII. — A girded sword is the living soul of a 
 samurai. In the case of a samurai forgetting his sword, 
 act as is appointed ; it may not be overlooked. 
 
 Chapts. XXXVIII and XXXIX (Omitted).— Regulate the number oi 
 Cavalry soldiers to be furnished by each Daimio in proportion to the value of 
 his domains as assessed in the survey of 1592. 
 
 Chapt. XL. — By a fortunate choice on my part, li 
 Manchio-maru is created Commander-in-chief, and holds the 
 " Golden, Baton. " Honda Hehachiro is created second com- 
 mander, and holds the " Silver Baton. " Murakami Hikotaro 
 is created third commander, and is authorized to bear the 
 "Paper Baton." It is necessary that every samurai should 
 know these particulars. 
 
 Chapt. XLI. — The boundary lines of possessions held by 
 samurai may not be varied or trespassed upon so much as a 
 hair's breadth. In the event of disputes of this nature being 
 referred for decision, the plan in the Civil Court should be 
 compared with the Register, and the boundary line fixed. 
 But if there should be any difficulty in determining the 
 matter, an Inspector, a Chief Supervisor, and a Judge 
 should repair to the place in dispute, and in the usual manner 
 give their decision in accordance with the Register. In the 
 event of such decision not being accepted, and one of the 
 disputants making still further complaint, the place in dis- 
 pute shall be confiscated, and the amount of the possessions 
 of the appellant reduced. 
 
 Chapt. XLII. — There is a difference in the ceremonies to 
 be observed by direct retainers and secondary retainers of 
 rank. 
 
 Chapt. XLIII. — Parties fighting and wounding each other 
 with sharp instruments are equally culpable, but should be 
 judged according to the severity of the wounds inflicted. 
 The rule of procedure on such occasions is to arrest the 
 criminal party; but at times it may not be expedient to 
 trace him. 
 
 Chapt. XLIV. — The strictest and most careful search shall 
 be made for persons guilty of murder by stratagem, or with 
 malice prepense — of poisoning for selfish purposes, and of 
 
384 APPENDIX V 
 
 wounding others while robbing a house — who, when found, 
 shall be executed. 
 
 Chapt. XLV. — The samurai are the masters of the four 
 classes. Agriculturists, artisans, and merchants may not 
 behave in a rude manner towards samurai. The term for 
 a rude man is " other than expected fellow " : and a samurai 
 is not to be interfered with in cutting down a fellow who has 
 behaved to him in a manner other than is expected. 
 
 The samurai are grouped into direct retainers, secondary 
 retainers and nobles and retainers of high and low grade; 
 but the same line of conduct is equally allowable to them 
 all towards an "other than expected fellow." 
 
 Chapt. XLVI. — The married state is the great relation of 
 mankind. One should not live alone after sixteen years of 
 age, but should procure a mediator, and perform the cere- 
 mony of matrimonial alliance. The same kindred, however, 
 may not intermarry. 
 
 A family of good descent should be chosen to marry into ; 
 for when a line of descendants is prolonged, the foreheads 
 of ancestors expand. All mankind recognize marriage as 
 the first law of nature. 
 
 This subject should be circulated, that it be not lost sight of. 
 
 Chapt. XLVII. — A childless man should make provision, 
 by the adoption of a child, to ensure the succession of the 
 family estate; but it is not customary for a person under 
 fifteen years of age to adopt a child. 
 
 An adopted son of the Emperor is called " Hom-miya " ; 
 of the Shogun is termed Shokun (heir apparent) ; of a Lord 
 of a province is designated Seishi ; of Hatamoto ^ and down- 
 wards is called Yoshi (adopted child). 
 
 The family estate of a person dying without male issue 
 and without having adopted a son, is forfeited without any 
 regard to his relations or connections. 
 
 Nevertheless, as it is taught by the sages and worthies 
 that the Empire is the Empire of its people and does not 
 appertain to one man alone, in the event of an Infant on 
 the point of death wishing to adopt a child, there is no 
 objection to his being allowed to prolong his race in the 
 person of one who is of age. 
 
 1 Hatamoto were a class of territorial gentry created by lyeyasu, who occu- 
 pied a position inferior to that of the daimio, but as landowners higher than that 
 of the squires or retainers of the daimio. 
 
APPENDIX V 385 
 
 Chapt. XLVIII. — In lieu of the practice which has hitherto 
 obtained, viz., that of the Emperor in person making a 
 tour of investigation to the several provinces for the purpose 
 of hearing verbally from the Princes an account of their 
 several administrations, let an Inspector be sent every five 
 or seven years to the different provinces to examine into 
 the traces of the behaviour of the Kokushiu and Rioshiu 
 during their absence from Yedo. The inspection into the 
 well-being or dissatisfaction of the peasantry, the increase or 
 decrease of the produce, the repairs and alterations effected 
 In the castles, and so on, are not to be discontinued. 
 
 Chapt. XLIX. — The territories entrusted to the Daimio, 
 with the exception of the Kokushiu, shall not be perpetuated 
 to successive generations. They should be interchanged 
 every year, the territories being apportioned relatively. 
 Should the territory entrusted to one Daimio remain in his 
 possession for too long a time, he is certain to become 
 ungovernable and oppress the people. 
 
 Chapt. L. — If a married woman of the agricultural, 
 artizan, or commercial class shall secretly have illicit inter- 
 course with another man, it is not necessary for the husband 
 to enter a complaint against the peisons thus confusing the 
 great relation of mankind, but he may put them both to 
 death. Nevertheless should he slay one of them and spare 
 the other, his guilt is the same as that of the unrighteous 
 persons. 
 
 In the event, however, of advice being sought, the parties 
 not having been slain, accede to the wishes of the com- 
 plainant with regard to putting them to death or not. 
 
 Mankind, in whose bodies the male and female elements 
 induce a natural desire towards the same object, do not look 
 upon such practices with aversion; and the adjudication of 
 such cases is a matter of special deliberation and consulta- 
 tion. 
 
 Chapt. LI. — Men and women of the Military class are, 
 expected to know better than to occasion disturbance by 
 violating existing regulations, and such a one breaking 
 the regulations by lewd trifling or illicit intercourse, shall at 
 once be punished without deliberation or consultation. It 
 is not the same in this case as in that of agriculturists, 
 artizans and traders. 
 
 Chapt. LII. — In respect to revenging injury done to 
 c c 
 
386 APPENDIX V 
 
 master or father it is granted by the wise and virtuous (Con- 
 fucius) that you and the injurer cannot live together under 
 the canopy of heaven. 
 
 A person harbouring such vengeance shall notify the same 
 in writing to the criminal court; and although no check or 
 hindrance may be offered ■ to his carrying out his desire 
 within the period allowed for that purpose, it is forbidden 
 that the chastisement of an enemy be attended with riot. 
 
 Fellows who neglect to give notice of their intended 
 revenge are like wolves of pretext; and their punishment 
 or pardon should depend upon the circumstances of the case. 
 
 Chapt. LIII. — ^The guilt of a vassal murdering his suzerain 
 is the same in principle as that of an archtraitor to the 
 Emperor. His immediate companions, his relations, and all 
 even to his most distant connections shall be cut off (and 
 mowed to atoms) root and fibre. The guilt of a vassal 
 only lifting his hand agains^ his master, even though he 
 does not assassinate him, is the same. 
 
 Chapt. LIV. — The position a wife holds towards a concu- 
 bine is the same as that of a lord towards his vassal. 
 
 The Emperor has twelve imperial concubines. The 
 Princes may have eight concubines. Officers of the higher 
 class may have five mistresses. A samurai may have two 
 handmaids. All below this are ordinary married men. 
 
 A sage of old makes this known in his Book of Rites, and 
 it has been a constant law from of old to the present day. 
 
 Silly and ignorant men neglect their true wives for the 
 sake of a loved mistress, and thus disturb the most import- 
 ant relation. In olden times the downfall of castles and the 
 overthrow of kingdoms all proceeded from this alone. Why 
 is not the indulgence of passion guarded against? Men so 
 far sunk as this may always be known as samurai without 
 fidelity or sincerity. 
 
 Chapt. LV. — It is a righteous and world-recognized rule 
 that a true husband takes care of outside business, while a 
 true wife manages the affairs of the house. When a wife 
 occupies herself with outside affairs, her husband loses his 
 business, and it is a pre-evidence of ruin to the house : it is 
 as when a hen is afflicted with a propensity to crow at morn, 
 and an affliction of which every samurai should beware. 
 This again is an assistance in the knowledge of mankind. 
 
 Chapt. LVI. — The nine Castles, viz., those of Iwatsuki, 
 
APPENDIX V 387 
 
 Kawagoi, and Oshi in the province of Musashi, of Sakura, 
 Sekiyado and Kogawa in the province of Shimo-osa, of 
 Takazaki in Kozuke, of Utsunomiya in Shimodzuke, and 
 of Odawara in Sagami, are all branch-castles of the chief 
 Castle at Yedo. 
 
 They may not be entrusted to the charges of any one but 
 a samurai of the Fudai class specially appointed to the trust. 
 They are outworks for the protection of the chief Castle. 
 
 Chapt. LVII. — The two castles of Fuchiu and Kuno in 
 the province of Suruga shall be intrusted to the guardianship 
 of the Chief of the "Private Guards." They are accessory 
 to the principal castle. 
 
 Chapt. LVIII. — The Warden of the two castles of Osaka 
 in the province of Setsu, and of Fushimi in the province of 
 Yamashiro should be a vassal of ancient lineage, and above 
 the "Fourth Grade." Certain of the "Guards" should be 
 stationed there as resident guards. When war is made, one 
 of these Castles should be the head-quarters of the Main 
 Army. 
 
 Chapt. LIX. — There are sixteen guard-houses established 
 on the main roads and by-roads of the districts and pro- 
 vinces, some on the seashore, some inland, in order to pre- 
 vent man or woman disturbing the public peace, and for 
 defences of the boundaries of the state. The superintend- 
 ence of these should be entrusted to a samurai of the Fudai 
 class of ancient lineage, without regard, however, to his 
 wealth. He shall see that the rules written for their regula- 
 tion are properly carried out. Under certain circumstances 
 not even a needle should be permitted to pass; but on 
 ordinary occasion horses and vehicles may go through, i 
 
 ^ From a very early period it was the custom to maintain barriers guarded 
 by troops at certain mountain passes and other strategic points. Their original 
 object was to guard against incursions by the savage Ainu into the Japanese 
 colonies, but from the time of Yoritomo onwards, their sole object was to pre- 
 vent treacherous communications between the Shogun's Court in the Eastern 
 provinces (Kuanto) and the Imperial Court at Kioto. The best known were 
 Auzaka near Kioto (page 96) and Hakone (page 104). The latter was only 
 abolished in 1871, and its remains still exist. A watch was kept here to pre- 
 vent the wives of Daimios escaping from Yedo (page 213), and women proceeding 
 to Yedo were also subjected to a strict search, lest they should be the medium 
 of carrying treasonable documents. One curious result of this was a large 
 number of barbers' shops in the town of Odawara, at the foot of the Hakone 
 Pass, who drove a prosperous trade in re-dressing the locks of the ladies, 
 dishevelled in the search to which they were subjected at the barrier. 
 
 CC 2 
 
388 APPENDIX V 
 
 Chapt. LX. — The protection of the Castle of Nijo i shall be 
 entrusted to some reliable and trustworthy Fudai of good 
 lineage, instead of to that of the Commander-in-Chief; he 
 shall be called "The Kioto Representative," and on all. 
 occasions of disturbance the Thirty Western States shall 
 take their orders from him. 
 
 Chapt. LXI. — ^The office of Prefect of Kiushju has for a 
 long time, since the time of Odono, been temporarily dis- 
 continued. This office should be entrusted on alternate 
 years to the two houses of Shimadzu (Satsuma) and Nabe- 
 shima (Hizen).^ 
 
 It is forbidden to give this trust to any other house for 
 
 Chapt. LXII. — In the inner inclosure, beneath the Castle 
 at Yedo, there are twenty-eight curtained 3 guard-houses ; 
 and there are also twenty-eight in the outer inclosure. 
 
 The superintendence of the Inner Inclosure shall be en- 
 trusted to a Fudai, for the time being resident in Yedo; 
 that of the Outer Inclosure to a Hatamoto on duty at the 
 time. 
 
 They shall be directed as a matter of course to attend to 
 the guard-house regulations, and to see that the military 
 weapons, swords, insignia, and all the implements of war 
 are kept clean and in proper order. 
 
 Chapt. LXIII. — The several duties about the castle to be 
 performed by the samurai on duty, and the work to be 
 done in connection therewith should be well considered, and 
 allotted in proportion to their revenues; but they should not 
 be appointed to high oifices of state. Some three, four or 
 five of them should be set apart for the transaction of con- 
 tingent official business. 
 
 1 The castle used as a residence by the Shogun when he visited Kioto — still 
 existing. 
 
 2 Odono — more properly Otomo — was the family name of the Territorial 
 Princes of Bungo, who were the greatest feudatories in Kiushiu, until their power 
 was destroyed by Satsuma early in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. 
 From tile time of Yoritomo until then, they had continuously held an office 
 which might be described as the Vice-Royalty of Kiushiu. Both Otomo and 
 Satsuma were said to be direct descendants of illegitimate sons of Yoritomo. 
 Nabeshima was the Territorial Prince of Hizen, one of the Kokushiu daimios, 
 whose direct descendant is now the Marquis Nabeshima, and was some years 
 ago Japanese minister at Rome. 
 
 ' Vide^. 313. 
 
APPENDIX V 389 
 
 Chapt. LXIV. — Nagasaki, in the province of Hizen, 
 being a port at which vessels of other countries touch, has 
 dominion over three nationalities. ^ The administration of 
 this place should be entrusted to the chief member of the 
 Gorojiu. 
 
 The resident guard shall consist of four chiefs from among 
 the Fudai samurai, each in receipt of 3,000 koku upwards. 
 They shall each be provided with a riding horse and foot 
 soldiers, and are salaried officers. 
 
 Chapt. LXV. — In the revolution of nature, lands, houses, 
 mountains, rivers, and ferries become damaged and ruined, 
 and considerable outlay is requisite to put them in repair. 
 
 A parfe of such expenses is to be borne by the neighbour- 
 ing province in proportion to the number of koku it pro- 
 duces. This tax is called "Provincial thank-tribute." 
 
 Yoritomo introduced this custom, taking example from 
 the period of the sages ; the principle is by no means a 
 selfish idea of my own. It is a custom which shall be 
 observed by future generations for ever. 
 
 Chapt. LXVI. — Regarding thoroughfares, both in 
 Government territory and throughout the empire, 36 feet is 
 the proper width of the " great sea road " ; but including the 
 trees on either side, it should have a uniform width of 120 
 feet; 18 feet is the proper width of the "small sea road"; 
 but including the margins on either side it should be of a 
 uniform width of 60 feet. 
 
 Twelve feet is the proper width of cross-roads and horse 
 roads ; inclusive of the side-walks, 30 feet should be the 
 uniform width. 
 
 Six feet is the proper uniform width of foot-paths, 
 inclusive of margins on either side. 
 
 Three feet is the proper uniform width of by-paths, and 
 paths through the fields, inclusive of margins on either side. 
 
 On either bank of a river, where crossed by a ferry, there 
 should be an open space of 360 feet or thereabouts. 
 
 Post houses have been established at intervals for the 
 dispatch of public business, and are also of manifest assist- 
 ance to foot passengers. 
 
 This is an ancient regulation, handed down from Oinos'ke, 
 an ancestor of the Tokugawa. 
 
 ' Japanese, Chinese and Dutch, the two latter the only foreigners permitted 
 to reside in Japan. 
 
390 APPENDIX V 
 
 Chapt. LXVII. — The several taxes leviable on hills, rivers, 
 seas, and ports, should not be exacted irregularly. They 
 should suffice for the current expenses of the Imperial house- 
 hold. 
 
 Chapt. LXVIII. — Dwellings shall not be erected on ground 
 under cultivation by husbandmen, as the growth of bamboos 
 and trees round the walls is prejudicial to the crops. 
 
 When disputes arising from a question of new and old 
 plantations is referred for decision, the test is in the height 
 of the trees forming the enclosure of such plantation. 
 
 If they are seen to be three feet high, the plantation may 
 be known to be an old one; if they are not three feet high, 
 the plantation is a new one, and the trees should be cut down, 
 and the party in the wrong confined to his house for one 
 hundred days. 
 
 Chapt. LXIX. — If the boughs of large trees in the imme- 
 diate neighbourhood of villages in which the houses are built 
 consecutively, become so large as to interfere with the drying 
 of grain, or to interrupt the payment of annual tribute, in the 
 first place the branches shall be cut off; and if that is not 
 sufficient the whole tree shall be cut down. 
 
 Overshadowing branches should be lopped off annually. 
 
 Chapt. LXX. — ^Although there are many bad roads and 
 bridges in the frontier villages of the different provinces, 
 there is a great deal of carelessness and neglect evinced, and 
 the consequence is great inconvenience to travellers. 
 
 The care of aqueducts for water in case of fire also is 
 neglected, and water is allowed to stagnate in the drains, 
 because it is not the business of any particular individual 
 to look after them. And the deepening or filling in of the 
 beds of rivers is overlooked as entailing trouble. 
 
 Circular instructions should be issued in the customary 
 years from the Inspectorate, that such neglect cease to exist. 
 
 Chapt. LXXI. — From of old the harmony between lord 
 and vassal has been likened to that existing between water 
 and fish. Ought it not to be so? It is, indeed, no difficult 
 thing ! If the golden rule, "Do not unto others that which 
 you would not have others do to you," be so firmly grasped 
 in the heart as not to be lost sight of for a moment, the 
 force of example will induce inferiors to conform to this 
 virtuous teaching; and not only immediate attendants, but 
 the population at large, will naturally flow smoothly along 
 as water to its outlet. 
 
APPENDIX V 391 
 
 Chapt. LXXII. — My body, and the bodies of others, 
 being born in the "Empire of the Gods," to adopt the 
 teachings of other countries in toto, such as Confucian, 
 Buddhist, and Tauist doctrines, and to apply one's whole 
 and undivided attention to them, would in short be to desert 
 one's own master, and transfer one's fidelity to another. Is 
 not this to forget the origin of one's being? 
 
 Judging from a medium and unprejudiced point of view, 
 a clear decision should be arrived at as to what is proper to 
 adopt, what to reject. The delusions of witchcraft and 
 superstitious arts should on no account be unquestionably 
 accepted ; but on the other hand they should not be forcibly 
 and obstinately rejected. 
 
 Chapt. LXXIII. — Virtuous men have said both in poetry 
 and standard works that houses of debauch for women of 
 pleasure, and for street-walkers, are the worm-eaten spots 
 of cities and towns.. But they are necessary evils, which if 
 forcibly abolished, men of unrighteous principles would be- 
 come like ravelled thread, and there would be no end to daily 
 punishment and flogging. 
 
 These separate characters are intended to suffice as a 
 general basis to the law of the Empire; but with regard to 
 minute details affecting the inferior classes individually, learn 
 the wide benevolence of Koso, of the Kan dynasty. 
 
 Chapt. LXXIV. — As a pattern for the house of Tokugawa, 
 adjust your line by that of the Lord of Kamakura (Yoritomo) ; 
 you may not adopt the fashions of other houses. Neverthe- 
 less, the tendencies of the Lord of Komatsu should not be 
 entirely rejected. ^ 
 
 Chapt. LXXV.— Although it is undoubtedly an ancient 
 custom for a vassal to follow his Lord in death, there is not 
 the slightest reason in the practice. Confucius has ridiculed 
 the making of Yo. These practices are strictly forbidden, 
 more especially to primary retainers, and also to secondary 
 retainers even to the lowest. 
 
 He is the opposite of a faithful servant who disregards 
 this prohibition ; his posterity shall be impoverished by the ^ 
 confiscation of his property as a warning to those who disobey 
 the laws. 2 
 
 ' Komatsu, the posthumous name of Higemori, Kiyomori's eldest son, who 
 died before his father, whose virtues and mercy were as prominent as his father's 
 vices and cruelty. Vide pp. loi and 132. 
 
 ^ The compulsoiy observation of this practice was forbidden by the Emperor 
 
392 APPENDIX V 
 
 Chap. LXXVI. — ^A knowledge of military tactics, and the 
 art of managing an army, are nothing but necessary accom- 
 plishments in a leader. 
 
 An ordinary man is like a manufactured article, he is 
 not composed of many bodies. Every manufactured article 
 has its own separate use, and a hammer will not answer the 
 purpose of a chisel, nor can a gimlet be used for the purpose 
 of a saw. 
 
 In precisely the same manner, every individual man has a 
 special use. Make use of a wise man's wisdom; of a brave 
 man's courage; of a strong man's strength; of a weak 
 man's weakness ; of each, in short, acording to his individual 
 capability; for just as a gimlet will not answer the purpose 
 of a sawj neither will an ignorant or a weak man answer the 
 purpose of a strong man, and should therefore not be em- 
 ployed in his stead. The substance of this is inculcated as 
 an incipient principle by the five virtues; and the adoption 
 or disregard of this principle tests the ability or inability of 
 a chief. 
 
 In looking at the principle again as applied to men who 
 are employed for purposes of war, unity of feeling among 
 one another and mutual regard between high and low, will 
 ensure peace and tranquillity in the Empire without having 
 recourse to arms. This does not apply exclusively to times 
 of war, but is equally applicable to all occasions. 
 
 Chapt. LXXVII. — ^When military power becomes full to 
 overflowing, even in the absence of all ambition, the proper 
 veneration for the " Throne of Divine blessings " is apt to 
 become blunted; and there arrives a tendency, as has been 
 demonstrated in the persons of so many of old, to remissness 
 in respect, and oblivion of the origin of the " Kingdom of 
 the Gods," — the source of self-desire is apt to overflow. 
 Such a sin is not a light one, and will be undoubtedly 
 followed by annihilation from Heaven. 
 
 Suinin, and its voluntary observation was several times forbidden by edicts of 
 subsequent Emperors. It still continued, however, and there were frequent 
 occasions not only in lyeyasu's lifetime, but afterwards, notwithstanding his 
 drastic prohibition, in which vassals killed themselves on their lord's death. 
 Dat6 Masamune, one of the most celebrated of the territorial princes, both 
 during lyeyasu's lifetime and in his son's, when on his deathbed, honoured his 
 retainers by selecting those who were to follow him in death, all of whom com- 
 mitted hara-kiri when he died. On the death of lyemitsu, the third of the 
 Tokugawa ShOguns, two of the daimios, who must have been well acquainted 
 with the legacy of lyeyasu, also committed hara-kiri. 
 
APPENDIX V 393 
 
 Chapt. LXXVIIL— The ShinnS and the several Miya, 
 being related to the son of Heaven, should be treated with 
 the highest respect. This immediately concerns the Shosho. 
 You should not set yourself in opposition to the Kug6, who 
 by ancient custom come next in order. Impolite behaviour 
 and a rough and indifferent manner are to be avoided, i 
 
 Chapt. LXXIX. — ^There are five families whose heads are 
 by custom Guests of honour; and mindful of the circum- 
 stances on record from which this custom originated, your 
 intercourse with them should resemble the mutual friendship 
 of neighbouring states. The manners, customs, and fashions 
 of their houses are not under the care of the Tokugawa 
 family; nevertheless, if any one among them evince con- 
 tempt towards superiors, or injure the people by tyrannical 
 oppression, he should be immediately reprimanded. This is 
 a duty of the " Barbarian destroying Shogun," and one which 
 should not be delayed for a moment. 2 
 
 Chapt. LXXX. — With regard to the posterity of Owari, 
 Kishiu, and Mito, and the fifteen Kamon immediately follow- 
 ing them, the fortune descends to the eldest male child, 
 and the revenue of their possessions shall not be divided 
 among the remaining children. These last should choose 
 some family of good pedigree and great wealth, and marry 
 into it. The family thus allied shall rank only with the 
 Kamon, who should receive them with amity. The thirteen 
 families, however, may not become thus united. 
 
 Chapt. LXXXI. — Daimio with an annual revenue of 
 100,000 koku and upwards, — the Gorojiu, — public officers 
 of the higher grades, and all Generals though in receipt of 
 small incomes, are entitled to the same distinguishing 
 insignia, etc., as the Lord of a province or a castle. 
 
 Chapt.— LXXXII. — The travelling suites of Fudai and 
 Tozama, and likewise higher grades of officers, who may be 
 on their way to assume their duties at Yedo, or returning 
 from Yedo after being relieved, shall strictly observe the 
 established rules. They shall not carry their flowery mani- 
 
 ^ Shinn5 is the Prince Imperial and Miya are the other princes of the 
 Imperial family. Shosho (properly Sho-shi-dai) was the Shognn's representa- 
 tive at Kioto. Vide Chapt. LX. 
 
 ^ The five families were those of the five greatest territorial princes, who on 
 their annual arrival in Yedo were entitled to the courtesy of being met and 
 escorted to their palaces in the capital by a high officer of the Shogun. 
 
394 APPENDIX V 
 
 festations beyond the adjusted limits, neither shall they in 
 aught detract from the regulations. They shall not disturb 
 or harass the people at the post-houses, being puffed up with 
 military pomp. 
 
 This subject should be impressed upon their attention by 
 the Gorojiu at the time of leave taking. 
 
 Chapt. LXXXIII. — Regarding the charges for boats and 
 rafts, — men and horses, horse-hire, boat-hire, porterage, 
 and so on should be regulated by the distance to be travelled, 
 and weight by scale. This regulation should be made 
 generally known to prevent misunderstanding. 
 
 The Horse-express, and Government Carriers, however, 
 are not included in this regulation : particular care should 
 be taken to afford them every facility for speedy locomotion. 
 
 Chapt. LXXXIV (Omitted). — Regulates the complimentary presents to be 
 made by Daimio to the Gorojiu. 
 
 Chapt. LXXXV. — Among the many employes there will 
 be some who flatter, adulate, and endeavour to bribe in- 
 fluential men having authority; again there will be others, 
 true men, who evince a grave and decorous respect towards 
 their superiors. 
 
 The faithful and unfaithful are clearly apparent among 
 these, and ignorance in distinguishing between them tends 
 to degeneracy in the Government. Much reflection and 
 grave consideration is requisite; and a liberality in punish- 
 ment and reward. 
 
 Chapt. LXXXVI. — Regarding the erection of (temples 
 called) "Ji-in " and "Sam-mon." ^ At the time I established 
 the "Sandal Grove," an embarrassing remonstrance was 
 
 ^ "Ji-in" means simply a Buddhist Temple or Monastery. Sandal Grove 
 is the literal translation of the word Danrin, which is a fanciful term also for 
 Buddhist Temples or Monasteries. Sam-mon means the front gate of a Bud- 
 dhist Temple, but it is specifically used to denote Enriaku, the Temple of the 
 Tendai Sect of Buddhists in Japan on Mount Hiyei, founded by the Emperor 
 Kwammu (782-806), the first Emperor to establish his capital at Kioto, 
 destroyed by Nobunaga in 1591 (p. 174), and restored, though with very 
 diminished splendour, by lyeyasu. The Tendai sect took their name firom 
 Mount Tien-tai in China, where their doctrine was first preached, and where 
 the welfare of the Emperor of China was specially prayed for. Kwammu 
 erected an exact replica of the Chinese Temple on Mount Hiyei, intending 
 that the welfare of tne Kioto Court should be specially prayed for as was that 
 of China in the original Temple at Tien-tai. It was known as the Sam-mon, 
 and the Abbot's grievance was, that lyeyasu had extended the honourable term 
 to the other Temples which he built in Yedo and elsewhere. 
 
APPENDIX V 395 
 
 made by the Chief Priest of the Sect of Tendai (Buddhist). 
 He argued thus : 
 
 "My mountain is situated Immediately under the Three 
 felicitous stars exactly in the centre of the heavens, by per- 
 mission of a former Emperor, who intended that it should 
 give adequate protection to the Imperial Palace of the 
 Empire. The idea was taken from the Tendai Sam-mon, 
 instituted for the defence and protection of the Imperial 
 Capital of another Empire [China]; and for this reason 
 the term Sam-mon can be properly applied to my mountain 
 alone throughout the Empire of the Rising Sun. By what 
 right does the Shogun raise another Sam-mon? " 
 
 On this occasion I was dumb before him ! But at last I 
 found Wbrds, and replied that I had established it in per- 
 petuity in order that the omniscient Being of Kin jo [Emperor 
 at the time] might attain eternal longevity ! I at the same 
 time made a reform in the nomination of the "Ji-in" 
 throughout the Sixty-six provinces and seventy-three differ- 
 ent temples came to be termed "Sam-mon." A memoran- 
 dum was drawn up, setting forth their number and situation, 
 and sent to the chief temple of Tendai on the nth day of the 
 fourth moon of the 2nd year of Bunroku (a.d. 1593). 
 
 From the first, though cognizant of the law, I yet wilfully 
 made an innovation. This should not be done. 
 
 Chapt. LXXXVII.— The title of Sei-Tai-Shogun origin- 
 ated in the person of Yoritomo, and the ceremonies observed 
 on appointment are the bestowal of the " Sancho-no- 
 Fuyetsu " and "Chingo-no-In," and the grant of the 
 " Sambo-no-Gor6i " by the Emperor. 
 
 This office is similar to that of " Shingi-K'wan," 1 inasmuch 
 as samurai employed under it to fill official situations, high 
 
 ^ Shingi Kwan — more accurately Jingi Kwan — was, in' former ages, the 
 department of the Imperial Government which administered all matters 
 connected with the Shinto religion, both Temples and ceremonies. The 
 writer has consulted several Japanese friends in London as to the other terms 
 in this chapter, but in the absence of reference books and of the original 
 Japanese version of the Legacy, none are able to explain or even translate them 
 any more than the writer. Sancho-no-Fuy^tsu probably refers to a sword 
 bestowed by the Emperor on the Shogun at his investiture, though Fuyetsu 
 strictly means battle-axe, Sambo-no-Gorei probably means the order or 
 commands of the three precious things — Buddha, the Law, and the Priesthood ; 
 and Cbingo-no-In, the protecting palace, perhaps the castle of Nijo. The two 
 last explanations are in the circumstances little better than guess-work as 
 Sambo and In both have many meanings, varying according to the original 
 Chinese characters with which they are written. 
 
396 APPENDIX V 
 
 and low alike, are required, upon the death of a blood rela- 
 tion, to retire into solitary confinement to purify themselves 
 from contaminating uncleanness, in accordance with ancient 
 custom. This custom should be carefully and circumspectly 
 maintained. 
 
 Chapt. LXXXVIII. — To neglect one's daily occupation in 
 gambling and excess in wine to stupefaction, is to rob the 
 clear day light : and although to yield to this can hardly be 
 pronounced an insubordination, it is a practice eminently 
 calculated to have an evil effect upon the lower classes, 
 eventually resulting in the destruction of their families and 
 the extermination of their lives. 
 
 It has been well said that "To be a teacher and not to 
 teach, is the fault of the teacher ; but to neglect his teaching 
 is the fault of the pupil." By this rule the severity or 
 leniency of the punishment should depend upon circum- 
 stances. 
 
 Chapt. LXXXIX. — ^When the four classes neglect their 
 several avocations, they are reduced to hunger and cold, 
 and eventually commence to break the laws, and vex and 
 disturb mankind. These are serious crimes, and should be 
 distinguished as capitally punishable. 
 
 Incendiaries, forgers of seals, poisoners, forgers of coin, 
 all these ruffians are liable to the severe punishments of 
 burning, exposition of the head after decapitation, and 
 crucifixion and transfixion. 
 
 Chapt. XC. — In cases of investigation, if public and 
 martial intimidating power is- properly directed, there is 
 nothing between Heaven and Earth, in the distant abodes 
 of the Barbarians throughout the four quarters of the globe, 
 at the roots of the grass, or even under the earth, which 
 cannot be brought to light. The only thing which is difficult 
 to discover is the thread of the heart of man. Yoritomo 
 adopted an ingenious plan of Sokutaku of the Daito dynasty, ^ 
 and caused the Sotsu-hearts of the lower orders to be re- 
 flected by suspending gold and silver, or advertising rewards, 
 on notice boards which were exhibited in the thoroughfares 
 and streets of the capitals. 
 
 This custom is still kept up; but it is to be feared that 
 there is an indisposition on the part of samurai to respond 
 to the spirit of this principle of reflection, 
 
 ' Daito, an Imperial dynasty of China. 
 
APPENDIX V 397 
 
 Chapt. XCI. — When the Imperial mode of government is 
 unclear, the five grains do not ripen. 
 
 When punishments and executions abound in the Empire, 
 it may be shown that the Shogun is without the virtue of 
 benevolence, and degenerate. Such crises should induce 
 reflection upon past conduct and concern not to act remissly 
 or carelessly.! 
 
 Chapt. XCII. — When laws are made by the eminent and 
 issued to the people, a nonconformity to the provisions of 
 such laws on the part of the eminent engenders ridicule and 
 opposition on the part of the lower orders. 
 
 It is no easy matter to make one's practice conform to 
 what one preaches ; so that it is incumbent to face one's 
 own self, and investigate each particle of conduct with 
 grinding torture. 
 
 Chapt. XCIII. — When a Kokushiu or Rioshiu of great 
 wealth shall unwittingly commit a fault against the Shogun, 
 or in the event of a difference of opinion between them, it 
 hardly amounts to a punishable crime; but when it is of 
 such a nature as not to admit of its being lightly passed 
 over, instead of criminating the offender, appoint him some 
 arduous duty incommensurate with the amount of his 
 revenue. 2 
 
 Chapt. XCIV. — The departure from life of the Emperor, 
 the Imperial Sire, the Imperial spouse or the Imperial mis- 
 tresses, or any of the Imperial blood relations, are occasions 
 of profound darkness, and great and ominous calamity for 
 the whole Empire. In high antiquity on such occasions the 
 eight sounds ^ were suppressed within the four seas ; and 
 holidays and festivals on the ist day of the year and months, 
 the "Gosek'ku," the feast of the first appearance of the 
 Boar, and all kinds of festivals were observed in silence. 
 
 When an occasion of public mourning arises, a fixed term 
 of mourning should be appointed for observance by the 
 
 1 The five grains are rice, barley, millet, sorghum and beans. Wheat is 
 included in barley. , . , tt-j 
 
 2 This was the method employed by lyeyasu, when he advised Hideyon 
 to rebuild the Temple of Daibutsu at Osaka. 
 
 ' The eight sounds included music, dramatic performances, street cries, etc. 
 The Go Sekku were the five principal annual festivals. The last occasion of 
 great public mourning was on the death of the Dowager Empress in 1897. All 
 music, etc., was then strictly forbidden throughout the Empire for one month. 
 
398 APPENDIX V 
 
 Ministers of State, the " Sanko," ^ the Shogun in office at the 
 time, and by all Government officers ; during which every 
 instrument that emits a sound, of what kind soever, shall 
 cease. 
 
 Chapt. XCV. — It is the duty of the ShOgun to provide the 
 necessary expenses upon the accession of the Emperor to 
 the throne, and for the "Daijoy^." They should not be 
 parsimoniously diminished in an infinity of ways. 
 
 Chapt. XCVI. — On those occasions when foreigners come 
 to offer presents, they should be entertained with proper 
 abundance and uniform politeness. The beauty and elegance 
 of the military accoutrements and the caparisons of the 
 horses should be made to appear to the utmost advantage. 
 From the port at which the ship arrives, as far as the Yedo 
 capital, whether the road lie through Government or other 
 territory, the castles and moats, and all the houses on the 
 way should be in a thorough and complete state of repair, 
 that the broad and extensive affiuence, and the intrepidity of 
 the military power of the Empire may shine forth. The 
 whole management should be undertaken by the Ministers 
 of the ShOgun. 
 
 Chapt. XCVII. — When foreign vessels arrive by chance 
 at our shores information of the fact shall immediately be 
 given, and by means of written communication through an 
 interpreter their business shall be learned. According to 
 circumstances, they shall be treated with commiseration and 
 benevolence, or with dignified reserve. In all cases a guard 
 shall be placed on board for their restraint. 
 
 Chapt. XCVIII. — ^The accessor to the imperial throne 
 should look upon the people as one who nourishes an infant. 
 How much more should the Shogun to whom the Empire is 
 entrusted cherish this feeling. The term applied to this 
 feeling is " benevolence " ; and benevolence includes the 
 whole of the five relations. Further through its practice the 
 noble and ignoble become apparent. 
 
 I, having learnt this, distinguish between the attachment 
 of the Fudai and the reserve of the Tozama; nor is this 
 discrimination at all at variance with Heavenly principles; 
 it is by no means a partial and one-sided idea of my own. 
 
 ' The Sanko were the three principal ministers of state at the Imperial 
 Court at Kioto, the Daijo Daijin, the Prime Minister, and the Sa Daijin and U 
 Daijin — the ministers of the Left and Right. In Japan, the left takes precedence 
 of the right. 
 
APPENDIX V 399 
 
 I cannot particularly accord this for transmission to 
 posterity by tongue or pen; but it is a subject which will 
 naturally develop itself if viewed with deep attention from 
 a medium point between the two extremes. 
 
 Chapt. XCIX. — ^When rewards and punishments are not 
 properly administered, faithful servants are hidden, and not 
 made manifest; when they are properly regulated all man- 
 kind esteem the one and dread the other. 
 
 There should not be the difference of the slightest particle 
 of dust either in excess or insufificiency ; but they should be 
 administered with self-possession, and after deep reflection. 
 
 Confucius has exemplified my meaning in his "Comments 
 on the Law of the Mind." 
 
 Chapt. C. — Since I have attained to my present office, I 
 have increased and diminished the ancient examples of suc- 
 cessive generations of the house of Gen : and although I 
 have drawn up these several heads of rules of conduct, my 
 object has been to be a transmitter, not a framer. I have 
 not allowed myself to be in the slightest degree influenced 
 by selfish motives; but have rather embodied the foregoing 
 Chapters as an example, which, although it may not hit the 
 mark, will not be very far wide. 
 
 In all questions of policy cherish precedents and do not 
 give exclusive attention to small or large matters; let this 
 be the rule of your conduct. 
 
 There are further subjects I would bring under notice, but 
 I have no leisure. 
 
 Let my posterity thoroughly practise with their bodies the 
 particulars I have above declared. They are not permitted 
 to be looked upon save by the Fudai-Gorojiu. In them I 
 have exposed and laid bare the limited reflections of my 
 breast. Let not future generations be induced to ridicule 
 me as having the heart of a venerable old grandmother. 
 
 I bequeath this record to my posterity. 
 
APPENDIX VI 
 
 LIST OF AUTHORITIES CONSULTED 
 
 Tavernier 
 
 L'Abb£deT. . 
 Kaempfer 
 
 Alcock . 
 
 Dickson . 
 
 MlTFORD . 
 
 Adams . 
 Griffis . 
 
 The Japan Mail . 
 Chamberlain . 
 Black . 
 
 Maunde Thompson 
 (Editor) 
 
 Satow and Hawes 
 
 Denning 
 Batchelor 
 Murray - 
 Chamberlain 
 Aston . 
 Satow (Editor) 
 
 Aston . 
 
 Receuil des Plusieurs Relations. 
 
 Part II. Japan .... 1681 
 
 History of the Church in Japan . 1707 
 History of Japan. (Reprinted in 
 
 three volumes, 1906) . . 1727 
 Capital of the Tycoon. Two 
 
 volumes 1863 
 
 Japan 1869 
 
 Tales of Old Japan. Two volumes 1 87 1 
 
 History of Japan. Two volumes . 1874 
 
 The Mikado's Empire . . . 1876 
 
 1870-1877 
 
 Classical Poetry of the Japanese . 1880 
 
 Young Japan. Two volumes . 1881 
 
 Diary of Richard Cocks, Cape 
 Merchant in the English Factory 
 in Japan, 1615-1622. Printed 
 for the Hakluyt Society 
 Murray's Handbook. Second edi- 
 tion 
 
 Life and Times of Hideyoshi 
 The Ainu of Japan 
 Japan. The Story of the Nations 
 Things Japanese. Third edition 
 A History of Japanese Literature 
 The Voyage of John Saris to Japan 
 in 1613. Printed for the Hak- 
 luyt Society .... 
 Shinto. The Way of the Gods . 
 400 
 
 1883 
 
 1884 
 1890 
 1892 
 1896 
 1898 
 1899 
 
 1900 
 190S 
 
APPENDIX VI 
 
 401 
 
 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF JAPAN 
 
 Satow 
 
 Aston . 
 Grigsby 
 McClatchie . 
 Longford 
 
 GUBBINS 
 
 Atkinson 
 McClatchie . 
 Aston . 
 Hattori 
 Satow . 
 Stout . 
 Anderson 
 Aston . 
 Summers 
 
 GUBBINS 
 
 Aston . 
 
 WOOLLEY 
 MiLNE . 
 
 Chamberlain 
 Aston . 
 
 Geerts . 
 
 Summers 
 
 Gubbins 
 
 Aston . 
 Clements 
 
 DD 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 3 
 3 
 
 S 
 5 
 
 6 
 6 
 6 
 6 
 6 
 
 The Geography of Japan . . . Vol. 
 
 The Shinto Temples of Ise . 
 
 The Revival of Pure Shinto 
 
 An Ancient Japanese Classic 
 
 The Legacy of lyeyasu 
 
 Japanese Heraldry 
 
 The Japanese Penal Codes . 
 
 Introduction of Christianity into Japan 
 
 and China 
 Water Supply of Tokio 
 The Castle of Yedo . 
 Hideyoshi's Invasion of Korea 
 Destructive Earthquakes in Japan 
 The Church of Yamaguchi, 1550-1586 
 Inscriptions in Shimabara and Amakusa 
 A History of Japanese Art . 
 H.M.S. Phaeton at Nagasaki in 1808 . 
 
 Notes on Osaka 
 
 Hideyoshi and the Satsuma Clan in the 
 
 Sixteenth Century .... 
 Hideyoshi's Invasion of Korea. Parts 
 
 IL and III 
 
 Historical Notes on Nagasaki 
 
 The Pitdwellers of Yezo and the Kurile 
 
 Islands 
 
 Translation of the Kojiki . 
 Hideyoshi's Invasion of Korea. Part 
 
 IV „ II 
 
 The Arima RebelKon and the Conduct 
 
 of Koeckebecker . . . . „ 1 1 
 Buddhism. Translations concerning its 
 
 Introduction into Japan . . . ,,14 
 The Feudal System under the Toku- 
 
 gawa Shoguns » 15 
 
 Early Japanese History . . . „ 16 
 The Tokugawa Princes of Mito . . „ 18 
 
 10 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abdication, 74, 75 
 
 Adams, Will, his early life, 291 ; lands in 
 
 Japan, 292 ; appears before lyeyasu, 293 ; 
 
 death, 293 
 Admiral Futiatin and crew wrecked, 301 
 Admiral Sir James Stirling calls at Nagasaki, 
 
 301 
 Adzuma, Provinces of (origin of name), 41 
 Ainui description of, 4 ; decline of, 28 
 Akashi, 116 
 Akechi Mitsuhide, trusted general of No- 
 
 bunaga, 175 ; treachery, 176 ; death, 179 ; 
 
 wife of, 251 ; daughter of, 251 
 Alcock, Sir Rutherford, first British minister 
 
 to Japan. 324, 326 
 Ama no Uki Bashi, bridge of Heaven, 11 
 Ama no X7zume, dances before Cave of Sun 
 
 Goddess, 15 
 Ama tsu Koyane, divine ancestor of the 
 
 Fujiwara, 15 ; attends sacred mirror, 22 
 Amakusa, Island of, 235 ; revolt at, 239 ; 
 
 women fight, 240 
 Antoku, Emperor, 100 ; carried away by 
 
 Munemori, 112 
 Aoto Fujitsuna, the incorrupt judge, 140 
 Arima, revolution in, 232 ; as Christian settle- 
 ment, 234, 2^5 ; Prince of, 239 ; churches 
 
 demolished m, 248 ; slaughter of Portu- 
 guese b^ Prince of, 256 
 Art of writing introduced, 8 
 Asamayama, eruption of Mount, 309 
 Ashigara, Pass of, 105 
 Ashikaga, territorial title of, 84; ShSguns, 
 
 list of, 161 ; interest of ShSguns in 
 
 Europeans, 161 
 Atsumori, bravery of, 118 ; death of, 119 
 Atsuta, temple of, 16 
 Augustin priests, arrival in Japan, 255 
 Awa, Province of, 105, 139 
 Awaji, Island of, 2 ; Gods first descend at, 12 
 Azai, Prince of Bizen, 201 
 Azuchi, castle of, 177 ; temple built by 
 
 Nobimaga, 177 
 
 B 
 
 Bakufu, term for ShOgun's government, 313 
 Baniu, River, 129 
 Bell of temple of Daibutsu, 216 
 Benkei, appearance of, no; devotion to 
 Yoshitsune, 125 ; death of, 125 
 
 Bidatsu, Emperor, 63 
 
 Bizen, Prince of, 201 ; retainers of, assault 
 
 French marine, 341 
 Buddha, doctrines of, 61 ; image of, 61 
 Buddhism, scorned by Nobunaga, 172 ; 
 
 restored to favour, 279 
 Bungo, Prince of, 277 ; sends for Mendez 
 
 Pinto, 277 
 ByQdfl-In, Buddhist monastery, 114 
 
 Caeavail, Father, torture of, 263-267 
 
 Cathay, the object of explorers, 275 
 
 Cave dwellers, 4 
 
 Census, annua), 309 
 
 Chang Cheung, Island of, 231 
 
 Cha-no-Yu, ceremony of, 162 
 
 China, Emperor of,; 197 ; message to 
 Hideyosbi, 197 
 
 Chinchu, taken by Japanese, 194 
 
 Chinese ambassadors, first arrival of^ 55 
 
 Chinese Embassy to Hideyori, failure of, 
 
 ^245 . 
 
 Chinese influence felt, 50, 6g, 74 
 
 Chingu, rank of, 100 
 
 Chisnima, Mjriad Isles, i 
 
 Cho Densu, great painter, 163 
 
 Cholera, outbreaks of, 309, 319 
 
 Choshiu, Prince of, joins league against 
 lyeyasu, 207 :_ joins side of Emperor, 317 
 hatred of foreigners, 332 ; insults to foreign 
 ships, 333 ; takes part in battle of Fushimi, 
 
 Christianity introduced, 227 ; downfall of, 
 
 273 
 Christopher Columbus, sets forth to find new 
 
 way to Zipangu, 275 
 Chuai, Emperor, 43 
 Churched, destruction of, 248 
 Cocks, Richard, 293 ; takes charge of 
 
 Hirado factory, 293-4 
 Code of laws drawn up, 6g 
 Commercial intercourse with foreigners, 325 ; 
 
 treaty negotiated by Harris, 324 
 Commodore Perry, expedition to Japan, 383. 
 ^ =99 , . 
 Concubmes, position of the Emperor s, 31 ; 
 
 children of, 49 j authority of husband over, 
 
 So ; Hideyosni'Sf 233, 252 
 Consul, first American, 302 
 Cosmo de Torres, arrival of,_ 228-231 ; takes 
 
 charge of Yamaguchi mission, 230 
 
 PP3 
 
 403 
 
404 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Cotton, when introduced, 4S 
 Council of Gods, 19 
 Cross, trampling on, 273 
 Crucifixion, practised in Japan, 247 
 
 pAiBUTSUj temple at Kioto, 215 
 
 I)ai jo Dai Jin, office of, instituted, 99 
 
 Daimios, rank of, 83 ; meaning of word, 
 
 22J ; advocate resistance to Perry, 300 ; 
 
 opinion of, concerning foreigners, 336 
 Dai Nihonshij when compiled, 312 
 Dan no Ura, great battle of, 119-123 
 Da Silva, comrade of Xavier, 231 
 Desima^ Island of, 285 ; description, 286 
 Deva kings, images made by Mumayado, 
 
 65 
 
 Divine descent of the Emperor, 26 
 
 Divine sword, where found, 16 
 
 Dogs in Japan, 304 
 
 Dokio, monk, 79 
 
 Dominican priests come to Japan, 255 
 
 Dutch gain foothold in Japan, 255 ; gain 
 permission to trade, 261 ; take part in siege 
 of Shimabara, 272 ; factory at Hirado, 
 z8o ; treachery to Portuguese, 281 ; 
 transfer to Nagasaki, 286; ships, 289; trade, 
 290 ; corvette fired on at Shimonoseki, 333 
 
 Ear Mound (Mimidzuka) at Kioto, origin 
 
 of, 198 
 Earthquakes, occurrence of disastrous, 196 ; 
 
 cause death of 104,000 persons, 319 
 East India Company sends ship to Japan, 
 
 29^ 
 Echigo, Province of, 115 
 Echizen, Province of, 180 
 Eight Hand Crow guides Jiramu, 26 
 Elgin, Lord, treaty with Japan, 297 
 Embassy sent to the Pope, 239 ; second, 
 
 sent by Prince Dat6 to the Pope, 267 ; to 
 
 United States, 328 
 Empress, Grand, chief wife of the Emperor, 
 
 31 
 English ship Clove at Hirado, 293 ; Return 
 
 at Nagasaki, 296 ; Phaeton at Nagasaki, 
 
 297 
 Europeans' first appearance in Japan, 167 
 Expulsion of foreigners ordered, 333 
 
 " False Emperors," ignored in official list 
 
 of Sovereigns, 157 
 Famine, caused by drought and floods, 
 
 308, 309 
 Fernandez, John, comrade of Xavier, 228 
 Feudal system organized and established, 
 
 212 ; death of, 349 
 Firearms presented to Japanese, 277 
 Franciscans, arrive in Japan, 242 
 Fudai lords, created by lyeyasu, 212 
 Fugitive European priests, 260 
 Fuji river, retreat of the Taira at, 107 
 Fujiwara family, divine descent of; found- 
 ing of) 73 J unscrupulous use of power 
 
 over Emperor, 77 ; usurpers of the Im- 
 perial rights, 81 ; revolt of the, against 
 the Throne, 87 ; Empresses chosen from 
 the, 100 
 
 Fujiyama, description of, 106 ; eruption of, 
 306 
 
 Fukui, siege of, 181 
 
 Fukuwara, palace at, 101 ; Munemori 
 retreats to, X12 ; battle at, 116 
 
 Funai, Port of, 277 
 
 Funeral ceremonies modified, 34 
 
 Fusan, Japanese landing; at, 192 
 
 Fushimi, Hideyoshi resides at, 20Z ; became 
 seat of government and taken by assault, 
 Z07 ; battle of, 339 
 
 Futsu Nushi (The Snapping Master), son of 
 Izanagi, 20 
 
 Gemmvo, Empress, 77 
 
 Geih-Pei period ended, 129 
 
 Genroku, noted period, 306 
 
 Gifu, famous for cormorant-fishing, 41 
 
 Ginkakuji, monastery of, 162, 208 
 
 Goa, Xa^der's head-guarters in Far East, 228 ; 
 
 trade between China and, 276 
 Go Daigo, Emperor, 142 ; character of, 153 ; 
 
 fied from the capital with the Imperial 
 
 regalia, 155 ; rooms and grave of, 156 
 God of Fire, last deity produced by Izanagi 
 
 and Izanami, T3 
 Go Kameyama, the Southern Emperor, 
 
 surrenders regalia, 157 
 Go Komatsu, one of the " False Emperors," 
 
 ^57 . 
 Go-Kinai, five provinces called, 46 ; bound- 
 ary of the ShOgun's power, 230 
 Gongen, meaning of the term, 221 
 GorOjiu, council of elders, 223 
 Go San Kei, three illustrious families, 307 
 Go San Kio, three noble families, 307 
 Go-Shirakawa, Emperor, 90 ; abdicates, 92 
 Gotemba, great hunting camp of, 106 
 Go Toba, Emperor, 126 ; character of, 137 ; 
 
 banishment of, 139 
 GotS, founder of the art of damascening, 163 
 Goto Islands, church founded by Christians 
 
 in, 231 
 Go Uda, Emperor, invokes aid of Sun 
 
 Goddess at Ise, 150 
 Gunpowder, introduced by the Portuguese, 
 
 277 
 
 H 
 
 Hachiman, the God of War, 46; temple of, 
 
 134 ; new, 199 
 Hakone Pass, 104 
 Hall of Audience, 195 
 Hara-kiri^ volimtary suicide, 34, 254 
 Harima, Province of, 57 
 Harris Townaend, first American consul, 
 
 302 ; character of, 302 
 Hasekura, ambassador to Pope, 269 
 Hashiri-midzu," running water," 40 
 "Heavenly deities," created, 11 
 " Heavenly Young Prince," sent to earth an 
 
 ambassador, 19 ; death of, 20 
 Heian Period, four centuries of, 80 
 
INDEX 
 
 405 
 
 Hiakunin, ex-Buddhist priest, 233 ; a bitter 
 enemy of the Chiistians, 246 
 
 Hidenobu, nephew of Nobunaea, 207 ; his 
 castle of Gifu, 208 ; zealous Christian, 208 
 
 Hidetada, becomes ShOgun, 30^ 
 
 Hidetsu^, parents of, 200 ; attitude towards 
 Christianity, 201 ; dissensions with Hide- 
 yoshi,^ 202 ; banished and ordered to 
 commit hara-kiri^ 203 
 
 Hideyori, son of Hideyoshi, resides at Osaka, 
 215; rebuilds temple of Daibutsu, 216; 
 defends castle of Ozaka, 218 ; defends and 
 fails to keep the castle in a second siege, 
 220 
 
 Hideyoshi, of humble orijgin, 182 ; reforms 
 introduced by, 184 ; his revenge for No- 
 bunaga's death, 179 ; adoption into 
 Fujiwara family, 184 ; expedition against 
 Satsuma, z86; peaceful settlement of 
 difficulties, 188 ; assumes the title of TaikG, 
 191 ; invades Korea and defeats Koreans, 
 192 ; receives Chinese embassy, 196 ; 
 second invasion of Korea, 197 ; character 
 and death, 199 and 248 ; what Japan owes 
 to, i§9 ; son of, 20Z ; guardians of his son 
 appomtedby, 206 ; treatment of Christians, 
 232 ; reason for expulsion of Christians, 
 234 . . 
 
 Hige Km, sword, 89 
 
 Hikone, family of, 320 
 
 Hirado, mission established by Jesuits, 229 ; 
 conference of Jesuit Fathers, 238 ; Dutch 
 factory, 280 ; Dutch factory destroyed by 
 order, 286 
 
 History of the Church in Japan, compiled, 
 167 ; quotations from, 236 
 
 Hitotsubashi, candidate for the ShSgunate, 
 323 ; becomes SbGgun, 336 
 
 Hiuga, Prevince of, 5 
 
 Hiyei, Mount, 87 ; monasteries built on, 159 ; 
 priests of, 173 ; destruction of, 174 
 
 Hiza Kiri, sword, 89, 
 
 HsjO, family of the, 102 ; historical reputa- 
 tion of the, 135 ; treason to their Emperors, 
 151 
 
 Hokkaido, district of, 2 
 
 Hondo, main island of Japan, 2 
 
 Honno temple, to the memory of Princess 
 Tachibana, 40 
 
 Hg-O, or cloistered Emperors, ^5 
 
 HSrai San, the land of eternal life, 56 
 
 Hoyei, -p^ak. on Fujiyama's north-western 
 slope, 306 
 
 I 
 
 Ibuki, Mount, 41 
 
 Ichi no Tani, battle of, 1x7 
 
 Idzu, Province of, 97 
 
 Idzumi Nada, Bay of, 116 
 
 li Naosuke, Kamon no Kami, prime 
 
 minister, 319 ; concludes treaties with 
 
 foreign powers, 324 ; murder, 330 
 Iki no Ama, step-mother of Kiyomori, pleads 
 
 for the life of Yoritomo, 97 
 Imna, kingdom of Korea, 55 
 Imperial regalia, divine origin of, 16 ; 
 
 priestess appointed to watch over, 33 
 Inaba, Princess, wife of Onarauji, 18; 
 
 legend of the white hare of, 18 
 
 IngyO, Emperor, 52 
 
 Inland Sea, 3^4 
 
 Ise, shrines of, built by Princess Yamato, 33 ; 
 province of, 338 
 
 Ishibashi, Mount, 104 
 
 Ishida Mitsunari, headed a league against 
 lyeyasu, 207 ; execution of\ 210 
 
 Itaicura Shigemasa besieges Sbimabara, 271 ; 
 death of, 272 
 
 lyemitsu, grandson of lyeyasu, closes the 
 country to foreigners, 282 ; persecutes the 
 Christians, 304 ; feeling to foreigners, 315 ; 
 retirement of, 347 
 
 lyemochi. Prince of Ki, 324 
 
 lyenobu, Shogun, 307 
 
 lyesada, Shogun, 319 ; death of, 319 
 
 lyetsuga, the last du-ect descendant of 
 lyeyasu, 307 
 
 lyeyasu, birth and descent, 206 ; founds 
 Yedo, 206 ; war with league, 207 ; ap- 
 pointed Sh5gun, 211 ; government of, 212 ; 
 abdication, 2x4 ; differences with Hideyori, 
 Z15 ; captures castle of Osaka, 220; death, 
 220 ; legacy, '223 ; persecution of Christians, 
 258 ; reception of Will Adams, 282 ; grants 
 trade privileges to English, 294 
 
 I-zame-shimidzu, spring of, 42 
 
 Izanagi, deity who created the earth, 11 ; 
 ascent of, to heaven, 14 
 
 Izanami, divine consort of Izanagi, 12 ; death 
 of, 13 
 
 Zzumo, Province of, 5 
 
 Japan, described, 1 
 
 Japanese, seclusion of, 298 
 
 Jesuits, arrive in Japan, 227 ; encouraged by 
 
 Nobunaga, 168 ; cause of Hideyoshi's 
 
 unfavourable attitude towards, 234 ; success 
 
 of, 279 
 Jimmu Tenno, divine descent, 23 ; heads 
 
 colonizing expedition, 24 ; date of death 
 
 of, 27 
 Jingo, Empress, wife of Chuai, 43 ; influence 
 
 of her invasion of Korea on destinies of 
 
 Japan, 45 
 Jintoku, Emperor, 137 
 Jomei, Emperor, 137 
 Josetsi^ famous painter, 163 
 Joshu, meaning of word, 225 
 
 Kadzusa, temple erected at, 40 
 
 Kagoshima, Prince of, turns agdnst Chris- 
 tians, 229 ; English ships off, 332 ; bom- 
 bardment of, 332 
 
 Kaikwa, Empress, 37 
 
 Kamakura rises to importance, 80 ; becomes 
 the residence of Yoritomo, 108 ; temple at, 
 134 ; capture of, 144 ; downfall of, 161 
 
 Kamatari, the founder of the Fujiwara 
 family, 73 
 
 Kamo River, the place of execution, 96 
 
 Kanda, temple of, 19 
 
 Karatsu, port of, 191 
 
 Kashiwabara, the first capital of Japan, 26 
 
406 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Kato Kiyomasa commands the army in 
 Korea, 193 ; hatred towards Christians, 
 240 
 
 Kimmei, Emperor, 60 ; court of, influenced 
 by Buddhism, 61 
 
 Kinkakuji, monastery of, 162 
 
 Kioto,^ the Imperial capital, 80 ; Xavier's 
 mission to, 229 ; persecution of the Chris- 
 tians in, 259; Dutch visit, 289; first visit 
 of foreign representative, 345 
 
 Kishiu, Province of, 212 
 
 Kiushiu, Island of, 2 
 
 Kiyomori, the head of the Taira family, 88 ; 
 rises to fame, 94; death of, ziz ; one of 
 Japan's greatest statesmen and generals, 
 130 
 
 Koeckebecker, head of Dutch factory at 
 !l^urado, 2?x ; action at Shimabara, 271 
 
 Kogioku, Empress, builds the temple of 
 ^nkOji, 64 
 
 Kojiki, records of ancient matters, 9 
 
 Kokushu, meaning of, 225 
 
 KOmei, Emperor, 316 ; opposes foreign in- 
 fluence, 316 ; death of, 336 
 
 Korea, invaded by the Empress JingS, 45 ; 
 civilization of, affects Japan, 60 ; sends 
 ambassadors to Japan, 190 ; invaded by 
 Hideyosbi's army, 191 ; defeats Japanese 
 navy, 192 ; armistice concluded with Japan, 
 194 ; sends second embassy to Japan, 196 ; 
 return of Japanese soldiers from, ig8 
 
 KOtoko, Empress, makes new funeral regu- 
 lations, 35 
 
 Koyane tsu Ame, God, 184 
 
 Kuambaku, office of, 74 ; title of, conferred 
 on Hideyoshi, 184 
 
 KuantG, plains of, 47 
 
 Kubi dzuka, 209 
 
 Kublai Khap, embassy to Japan, 147 ; expe- 
 dition against Japan, 1^8 ; second embassy, 
 148 ; attempted invasion of Japan, 149 ; 
 fleet destroyed, 150 
 
 Kug£, Court nobles, 83 
 
 Kumagai Naozane, slayer of Atsumori, itS 
 
 Kurile Islands, z 
 
 I^urodani, monastery of, 119 
 
 Kuro Siwo, Black Brine, current of, 5 
 
 Kurumayama, monastery of, loB 
 
 Kusa-nagi, the sword of Yamato Dak£, 40 
 
 Land of Night, X3 
 
 Legacy of lyeyasu, original copy, 223 ; its 
 
 ^provisions, 224 
 Lmcoln, compared to Hideyoshi, Z82 
 
 M 
 
 Malay element in Japanese, 5 
 
 Marco Polo's first mention of Japan, 27s 
 
 Masago, wife of Yoritomo, 102 ; character 
 
 of, 131 ; known as the Ama ShOgun, 138 ; 
 
 speech at Kamakura, 138 
 Masahige, the model of unselfish loyalty, 1^4 
 Masamune (Dat£), persecutes Christians m 
 
 Oshiu, 267 ; sends embassy to the Pope, 
 
 268 
 Masanobu the classical painter, 163 
 
 Mastrilli, martyrdom of, 266 
 
 Masukado, rebel, 86 ; death of, 87 
 
 Medicine, Chinese, introduced, 52 
 
 Mikawa, Province of, 206 
 
 Mimidzuka, "ear mound" at Kioto, 198 
 
 Minamoto, family of, came into existence, 
 
 84 ; struggle with the Taira, 95 ; massacre 
 
 of, zze; triumph of the, ZZ7 
 Minato gawa, scene of great battle, 116; 
 
 Takauji defeats the Imperial army at, 154 
 Mino, Province of, 4r 
 Mirror, Heavenly, 22 
 Mission to the Pope, znde Pope 
 Mito, Prince of, founded a great school of 
 
 learning, 312 j advance of learning under, 
 
 ^Z3 ; Samurai assassinate li Naosuke, 330 
 Mitsuhige, famous painter, 163 
 Mogusa, or burning grass, 65 
 Mononobe, clan of, 65 
 Moon God, produced, 12 ; rarely mentioned, 
 
 14 
 
 Mori, lord of the Western Provinces of Main 
 Island, rebels against Nobunaga, Z75 ; 
 makes overtures for peace, 178 ; becomes 
 ally of Hideyoshi, x86 ; befriends the 
 Christians, 250. See also Choshiu 
 
 Mountain of Martyrs, 284 
 
 Mountains of Japan, 3 
 
 Mumayado, a sincere Buddhist at sixteen, 
 65 ; birth and piety of, 66 ; builds temple 
 of TennOji and places therein holy relic, 
 67 ; as statesman, 68 ; reforms introduced 
 by, 69 ; death of, 70 
 
 Muretsu, Emperor, noted for his cruelty, 59 
 
 Muromachi, Palace at Kioto, 158 
 
 Mutsuhito, reigning emperor, 336 
 
 Mutsunobu, celebrated painter, 163 
 
 N 
 
 Nagasaki, Christian priests sent from, 
 259 ; scene of severest persecution, 260 ; 
 Father Sotelo burnt at, 269 ; foundation of 
 greatness of, 278 ; harbour, 284 ; Dutch 
 settlement, 286 
 
 Nagato, Province of, 2x2 
 
 Nara, capital established at, 77 ; description 
 ofj 78 ; capital removed to Kioto, 80 
 
 Nariaki, Pnnce of Mito, 319 ; resignation, 
 ^23 ; death of, 330 
 
 Nihon Guaishi, completed, 313 
 
 Nihongi, 9 
 
 Nikko, mausoleum of, erected by Hidetada, 
 303 
 
 Nintoku, the Wise Emperor, remits taxation, 
 etc., sz 
 
 Nitta Yoshisada, Minamoto warrior, casts 
 his sword into the sea and prays to sea- 
 god, 145 ; faithful to the Emperor Go 
 Daigo, ZS3 ; death of, 154 
 
 N5, classical dmma, 163 
 
 Nobunaga (Otai origin of, x66_; description 
 by Jesuit Famers, 168 ; relations towards 
 the Emperor, 171 ; attitude towards 
 Buddhists, 174 ; proclaimed himself a 
 god, 176 ; death ol^ 176 
 Numadzu, town on the Tokaido, the meeting 
 place of Yoritomo and Yoshitsune, 108 
 
INDEX 
 
 407 
 
 Official distinctions arranged, 69 
 
 O-gon-sui (the yellow metal water), the 
 inexhaustible well, 2x8 
 
 Ojin, Emperor, birth of, 45 ; worshipped as 
 Hachiman, the God of War, 46 
 
 Okasaki, birthplace of lyeyasu, zo6 
 
 Old, Island of, 2 
 
 Omi, Province, 4r 
 
 Omura, riots in, 232 ; prince converted to 
 Christianity, 239 ; churches demolished, 
 248 ; execution of Christians^ 266 ; effects 
 of Portuguese trade withj 277 
 
 Onogoro, Island of, zr ^ 
 
 Organtin, Father, thirty years in Japan, 242 
 
 Osaka, rises to importance, 184 ; castle taken 
 by lyeyasu, 207 ; commercial importance, 
 214 ; castle described by Saris, 217 ; palace 
 burnt, 339; port opened to foreign trade, 
 
 O^iba, trocherous murder of, 54 
 
 Oshima, Island, 91 ; Christians banished to, 
 
 257 
 Oto Tachibana (Princess), 40 
 C>tsu, town of, 96 
 Owari, Yamato Dak£ at, 42 ; province, 182 ; 
 
 childhood of Hideyoshi spent in, 183 ; 
 
 gulf, 208 
 
 Parkes, Sir Harry, British minister, 340, 
 342 ; attacked by fanatical Japanese, 345 
 
 Pekche, King of, sends embassy to Japan, 
 61 
 
 Perry, Commodore, heads expedition to 
 Japan &om America, 209 ; delivers letter 
 from the President to the Emperor, 300 ; 
 treaty negotiated bjr, 300 
 
 Persecution of Christians commences under 
 Hideyoshi, 234 ; in Arima, 25S; described, 
 263, 266 
 
 Physit^ characteristics of Japanese, 7 
 
 Pinto Mendez, Portuguese merchant, be- 
 friends Jesuits, 231 ; arrival in Japan, 277 
 
 Piracy, 147 
 
 Pirates, Dutch, 256, 261 
 
 Plain of High Heaven, 14 
 
 Pope, embassy from Japan to the, 239 ; 
 second embassy sent to the, by Northern 
 prince, 268 
 
 Population under the Tokugawas, 30Q 
 
 Portuguese merchants* and sailors' evil beha- 
 viour, 233; destruction of ship, 257 
 
 Portuguese trade with Japan, 279 ; embassy 
 arrives from Macao, 283 
 
 R 
 
 Racb, Japanese, probable origin of, 5 
 Rank, Chinese distinctions of, 69 
 Regalia, divine origin of the Imperial, x6 
 Richardson, murder of, 331 
 Rock C^ve of Heaven, sun-goddess secludes 
 
 herself in, 15 
 Rodriguez, Father, left as agent at Kioto, 
 
 241 
 
 R5nin, description of, 318; murder ofli 
 
 Naosukcj 330 
 Russian ship Dzana wrecked, 301 ; admiral 
 
 concludes convention with Japan, 301 
 
 Sacred sword, lent to Yamato Dak^, 39 
 
 Sado, Island of, 2 ; famed for its gold mines, 
 255 
 
 Sakai, battle of, 169 
 
 Sakayamune, image of, sent to Japan, 6z 
 
 Samegai, village of, 42 
 
 Samurai, privileged to wear arms, 83 ; 
 lyeyasu enjoins courtesy towards, 225 ; 
 relation to their overlords, ^x8 
 
 Saris, Captain John, arrives in Japan and 
 has interview with lyeyasu, 293 ; failure 
 of factory, 296 
 
 Sarugashima, rebel court of Masakado held 
 at, 86 
 
 Satsuma, invaded by Hideyoshi, 185 ; 
 courage of men of, 186 ; clan exterminated, 
 187 ; Prince receives Ji^vier, 228 ; Yashiki, 
 338 
 
 Sei-i-tai SfaQgun, title of, first bestowed, 127 , 
 title conferred on lyeyasu, 211 
 
 Seki ga Hara (Moor of the Barrier), battle at, 
 202 ; piles of heads buried at, 209 
 
 Sendai, Bay of, 5 ; Christianity in, 267 ; 
 {lersecution in, 269 
 
 Shimabara, Christians in, 270 ; siege of, 271 ; 
 fall of, 272 ; earthquake at, 310 
 
 Shimoda, consul^ appointed at, 300 ; port of, 
 opened to foreign trade, 300 
 
 Shimonoseki,^ Straits of, 2 ; naval engage- 
 ment of Taira and Mlnamoto, X2i ; Straits 
 of, key to the Inland Sea, 333 ; batteries 
 fire on foreign ships, 332^ bombardment, 
 334 ; opening of, to foreign ships, 335 ; 
 indemnity returned by U.S.A. Govern- 
 ment, 336 
 
 Shinano, Frounce of, 300 
 
 Shipbuilding, Emperor Jimmu <n:ders, 30 
 
 Ships, Engl&h, Experiment and Return^ 
 296 ; capture of Experiment^ 296 ; Return 
 ordered to leave, 296 
 
 Shogun, position in the Empire^ ofj 136 ; 
 Government recognizes imp<»sibility of 
 resisting foreigners, 300 ; government of^ 
 described, 321 ; blamed for attacks on 
 foreigners, 334 ; takes refuge on board 
 American ship, 339 ; escapes to Yedo, 339 ; 
 retires to his ancestral home, 347 
 
 Sho-Shi-Dai, ShSgun's representative at 
 Kioto, 322 
 
 Shotoku-Daishi, Tnde Mumayado 
 
 Sidotti, Jesuit priest, 274 
 
 Spanish galleon takes refuge in port of Tosa, 
 244 ; treatment of, by Japanese, 245 ; 
 destruction of ship, 297 
 
 Spinola, Charles, death of, 265 
 
 Succession to the throne of Japan, 31 
 
 Suiko, Empress, converted to Buddhism, 64 
 
 Suinin, Emperor, orders clay images to be 
 buried in place of H^nng retainers, 34 ; 
 pious rule of, 34 ; contemplated murder of, 
 35 ; death of, 37 
 
408 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Sujin, Emperor, reputation, 29 ; peace and 
 
 prosperity during reign^ 30 
 Sun Goddess born, 12 ; withdraws herself in 
 
 anger, 15 ; commands to ancestor of the 
 
 Nakatomi family, 73 ; prayers offered to, 
 
 150 
 Sutras, volumes of, sent to Japan, 61, 62 
 
 Tachibana, Princess, sacrifices herself to 
 save her husband, 40; family came into 
 existence, 84 
 
 Taguchi Shigeyoshi, traitor to the Taira 
 ramily, 120 
 
 TaikC, title assumed by Hideyoshi, 191 
 
 Tai Kun, title assumed by the Shesgun in 
 foreign treaties, 316 
 
 Taira, the, rise of^ family, 86 ; revolts against 
 the Throne, 87 ; Kiyomori, head of, 94 ; 
 struggle with Minamoto, 107 ; retreat of, 
 107 ; advance on Kioto, 116 ; fall of, 122 
 
 TairG, chief elder or minister, 320, 323 
 
 Takachibo, Mount, 21 
 
 Takatoki, last of the HQj5, 141 ; death of, 146 
 
 Takauji, Ashikaga, member of Minamoto 
 family, 143 ; receives confidence of Uie 
 Emperor, 153 ; marches on Kioto, 154 ; 
 traitorous conduct, 143 and 154 ; power 
 confirmed at Minatogawa, 210 
 
 Takayama, general in Nobunaga's army, 
 179 ; convert to Christianity, 234 ; ordered 
 to recant or forfeit his property, 238 ; 
 chooses poverty, 238 ; death, 239 
 
 Tama gawa aqueduct constructed by lye- 
 mitsu, 304 
 
 Tametomo, famous archer, 91, 92 
 
 Tanegashima, Island of, 276 ; arrival of 
 Fortiiguese, 276 
 
 Tango, Province of, 173 
 
 Tatsuta river, 67 ^ 
 
 Taxes, first mention of, 30 
 
 TennOj meaning of the word, 26, 136 
 
 TennCji, Temple of, 67 
 
 Tidal waves, 3 
 
 Toji;in, monastery of, 162 
 
 Tokimune, one of the HQjS, repulses in- 
 vasion of Kublai Khan, 141 
 
 Tokiwa, mother of YoshitoAio's three sons, 
 98 J story of, 98 ; subject for paintings, 98 
 
 Tokiyori, one of the three Hojo famous for 
 his virtues, 140 
 
 Tokugawa, family name of lyeyasu, 207 ; 
 government of, ShSgun's, 222 ; curious 
 principle of government respecting 
 criminal law, 273; ShOguns lapse into 
 idleness, 308 ; last, 310 
 
 Tosa, Prince, prime mover in overthrow of 
 the ShOguns, 3.^4 ; death of, 345 
 
 Trade relations with foreigners entered into, 
 3=5 
 
 /Treaty negotiated by Perry, mde (Commo- 
 dore) Peny ; emperor's disapproval of, 334 
 
 Tribute paid to China by Yosnimitsu, 161 
 
 Tsunayoshi, ShCgun, 304 ; orders protection 
 of dogs, 305 ; patron of art, science and 
 literature, 306 ; death of, 307 
 
 Tsushima, Island of. 2 
 
 Tsuye-dsuki-5aka'( staff-lean pass")) 42 
 
 U 
 
 Udaijin, appointment of, X34 
 
 Uji, original unit of society in Japan, 84 ; 
 
 known as " Han,*' 85 
 Uji, river, scene of Voshinaka's death, 113 ; 
 
 reason for name, 11^ 
 United States, opening of trade between, 
 
 and Japan, 299; consul resides at Shi- 
 
 moda, 302 
 Unsen, description, 264 ; hideous persecu- 
 tion of Christians at, 265 ; eruption an<J 
 
 earthquake at, 310 i 
 
 Urashima, story of, Rip van Winkle of 
 
 Japan, 56 
 Ushiwaka (young bull), nickname of Yo- 
 
 shitsune, 109 
 Usui Pass, 41 
 Utsumi, Bay of Owari, 93 
 Uyeno, battle of, 347 
 
 Valignani, Father, accompanies Japanese 
 mission to the Pope, 239 ; returns to 
 Japan, 239 
 
 Volcanic eruptions, 306, 309 
 
 W 
 
 Waka-Toshivosi, young elders, 321 
 Wousu, Prince, afterwards called Yamato 
 
 Dak6, 38 
 Writing, the art of, 8, 9, 50 
 
 X 
 
 Xavier, meeting of, with wealthy Japanese, 
 22^ ; lands at Kagoshima, 228 ; establishes 
 mission at Hirado, 229 ; visits Yamaguchi, 
 229 ; journey of, to Kioto and reception 
 there, 229 ; deam of, 231 
 
 Yamaguchi, the capital of Mori, 229 ; church 
 founded, 231 ; residence permitted to the 
 Jesuits, 250 
 
 Yamato, early importance of, 27 \ authority 
 of emperors over^ 49 
 
 Yamato Sake, Prince Wousu first called, 
 38 ; kills his elder brother, 38 ; subdues 
 the Kumaso, 38 ; outlaw slain by, 39 ; 
 expedition ^ to the East, 39 ; mourns the 
 death of his wife, 41 ; death of, ^2 
 
 Yamato Hiko, buried with all his retmue, 34 
 
 Yamato Hime, guardian priestess of the 
 regalia, 3 
 
 Yasutoki, nephew of Masago, 138 
 
 Yechizen, monks of Hiyei San allowed to 
 retreat to, by Nobunaga, 175 
 
 Yedo, ^ lyeyasu makes, his capital, 207 ; 
 glories of Kamakura revived in, 21^ ; 
 Christians in, 2^; persecution of Chris- 
 tians at, 267 ; Dutch ordered to make 
 yearly visit to, 287 ; first British minister 
 resides at, 324 ; Emperor Mutsuhito and 
 his court remove tq, 349 ; name changed 
 to Tokio, 349 
 
 Vemishij early savage inhabitants of Japan, 39 
 
 Yodo River, other name of, 113 
 
INDEX 
 
 409 
 
 Yokohama, port assigned as seat of foreign 
 trade and residence, 323 
 
 Yolsan, Japanese army reduced to extremities 
 in, zq8 
 
 Yezo, Northern Island of Japan, position 
 and area of, i 
 
 Yamei, Emperor, father of Mumayado 66 ^ 
 
 Yomi, land of darkness, entered by Izanagi, 
 14 
 
 Yfinin, business men of Daimios, 344 
 
 Yoritomo, son of Yoshitomo, 95 ; life of, 
 spared by Kiyomori, 97; gathers army 
 together, loi ; overpowered at Hakone 
 Pass, 104 ; reported death of, 105 ; at the 
 battle of the Fuji river, 107; appoints 
 Yoshitsune to command of army, ii3_;_ dis- 
 trusts Yoshitsune, 123 ; becomes Sei-i-tai- 
 Shdgun, 1,27 ; death of, 129 ; successors 
 to, 131 
 
 Yoriyosbi, one of the early Minamoto, 39 ; 
 long campaign of, in Mutsu, 89 ; character 
 of, go • 
 
 Yosnmira, son of Yoshitomo, 95 
 
 Yoshiiye, son of Yoriyoshi, 89 
 
 Yoshimitsu, third Ashikaga ShOgun, char- 
 acter of] i6z ; builds the Kinkakuji, 162 
 
 Yoshimune, chosen as ShQgun, 307 
 
 Yoshino, refuge of Yoshitsune, 124 ; and of 
 Emperor Go Daigo, 124 
 
 Yoshisada (Nitta), vide Nitta 
 
 Yoshitomo, grandson of Yoshiiye, 90 ; kills 
 his father and brothers, 91 ; becomes a 
 rebel, 92 ; kills his son, 93 ; death of, 23 
 
 Yoshitsune, joins Yoritomo, 108 ; early life of, 
 109 ; escape of, from monastery to Mutsu, 
 109 ; conquers the Taira at Dan no 
 Ura, 121; brother's jealousy aroused and 
 sentence of outlawry pronounced against, 
 124 ; death of, 125 ; story of mistress of, 
 
 I2S, 
 
 " Yuigon," vide Legacy of lyeyasu 
 Yukinagi (Konisba), Christian general, com- 
 mands the first army of Hideyoshi in 
 Korea, 191 ; tries to show mercy in war, 
 193 ; remains in Korea, and urges embassy 
 be sent to Japan to treat for peace, 194 ; 
 fights against lyeyasu, 209 ; death of, 210 
 
 ZenkOji, Temple of, 64 
 Zipangu (Japan), 27 
 
Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, 
 
 bread street hill, e.c., and 
 
 bungay, suffolk.