Walter G. Dickson

“ Mencius said people have this common saying—“The empire, the state, the family. The root of the empire is the state—the root of the state is in the family—the root of the family is in the person of its head.” And Iyeyas seems to have recognized these principles as the foundation of his rule, believing that when too much weight is given to the state, despotism ensues; when the family preponderates, oligarchy of an aristocracy prevails; and where the interests of the individual man become paramount, democracy rears its head. ”

“ During the century which followed, civil war seems to have been the normal state of Japan—one man after another rising to seize the reins—at one time at Miako, at another at Kamakura. No one chief was able to reduce the whole empire to a settled state of tranquillity. If one rose a little above his compeers, they combined against him; while the monasteries and religious sects were so powerful as to be able to insure success to whatever side they gave their influence and assistance. ”

“ Again, the whole contour, in a sort of proud, queenly sweep, stands out against a cloudless ether, or with a little vapor drifting to leeward of the summit giving the appearance of a crater—or, after a cool night in September, the eye is arrested by the appearance of the bursting downward of a flattened shell, the pure white snow filling the valleys from the top, the haze of the morning half concealing the hill beneath. ”

“ The opposition finds a head in the Emperor, and the only way to avert a rupture is for the lower power to give way and to act only as the representative of the head of the empire. If he fails to see this, he sets himself against the Emperor, who is then supported, not only by his own nobility, but also by those powers with whom he has entered into relations. ”

“ The Jesuits had there most sway, and had used it with the most intolerance; and Iyeyas determined, before striking a blow at Hideyori in Osaka, to remove any chance of a diversion being made in his favor on the part of the Christians in this distant part of the empire. But if we believe the letters of the fathers, the fortitude and courage with which martyrdom was endured by professing natives must be looked on with admiration. The better classes lost everything—lands, position, comforts, in many cases their wives and children, and, last of all, their lives—in the cause of their faith. ”

“ All the servants of Ee are enraged. There were but few Ronins and many servants, and they ought to have overpowered the Ronins. The servants are deeply shamed when they think of Ee nawo massa (the first of the family in the time of Iyeyas) . Whatever is to become of us we care not; but the retainers and friends of Ee wish to know whether the house is, according to the old laws of the empire, to be reduced in rank and impoverished, or if it is to be entirely degraded and removed from the territory. ”

“ Indeed, in the first periods of the history of the country the head of the empire was the commander, the leader of the army. Zinmu led his army to victory; and long after him the Empress Jinku Kogoo led her army into Corea. Her son Osin, better known by his posthumous title of Hatchimang, was at the head of his army. But where there is no enemy to fight the post of commander-in-chief soon falls into abeyance. Japan has long been in this position—of having no enemy to watch or to attack. ”

“ Thinking that an opportunity for revenge had arrived, he put himself at the head of the army of the confederates. He had again failed, and now found himself a prisoner in an ignominious and dishonorable position. But Konishi Setsu, or Tsu no kami, also a prisoner, ran the risk of losing his life, more probably from jealousy of his military capacity than from any other reason. He was the son of a drug merchant in Sakkai. The eulogiums pronounced upon him by the Christian writers may pass for what each values them at; but he had been trusted in a very responsible position by Taikosama in Corea. ”

“ Since the time of Tensio dai jin the country has been to the present time sublime and flourishing; but friendship with foreigners will be a stain upon it, and an insult to the first Mikado (Zinmu) . It will be an everlasting shame for the country to be afraid of those foreigners, and for us to bear patiently their arbitrary and [320] rough manners; and the time will come when we shall be subservient to them. This is the fault of the dynasty of the Shiogoon. It is reported that the Shiogoon has sent to Miako to consult the Mikado about the treaties, but it is impossible to believe it. ”

“ The breaking-up by British troops of the sham of the Chinese as a military nation, no doubt opened the eyes of Western nations. Japan lay in the way. No nation had a better claim to ask it to relax its restrictions upon friendly grounds than America. No nation was, perhaps, better suited to carry out the diplomatic part of such a proposal, whether the character of its officers as individuals, or the generally peaceful professions on the part of the government, be looked at. ”

“ There is no doubt that he is treated with the greatest reverence and respect—that he is, as it were, an ideal abstraction, a thing apart, necessary to the empire—that he is the Lord’s anointed, and not to be touched, and that no subject, however great he may be, or however firmly he may have grasped the power of the empire in the convulsions of a revolutionary period, may contemplate placing himself upon that seat ”

“ So long as the empire was under one emperor who ruled vigorously, this aristocracy seems to have existed in the central provinces as feudal lords, much [47] in the same way as the Daimios of the present day. But when the vigor of rule relaxed, and power fell into the hands of a commander-in-chief, or mayor of the palace, with uncertainty in the rulers, there followed division in the aristocracy. Previous to the beginning of the fifteenth century, the western part of the empire was all that was known to any who could throw light upon its position by writing. ”

“ No position seems to be more easily renounced than that of the occupation of the throne. In a country where the heir may have the misfortune to be brought up in the lap of luxury, and amid sensual excitements and indulgences of every kind, it is not surprising that the irksomeness of his position should make the holder sigh to be relieved from it, or that vigor of mind or body is only to be found in those cases where, the heir-apparent having been cut off, the successor has been adopted at a late period of his life, having been reared without the expectation of subsequent elevation. ”

“ The variations of atmospheric density make it look at one time much higher than at another. It may be seen with its head clear in the blue sky rising out of a thick base of clouds—or the clouds rise and roll in masses about the middle, leaving the gentle curve to be filled up by the mind’s eye from the base to the apex. ”

“ But even the confused and uninteresting mass of names entangled in facts may give an impression of what the state of the country was during a period when nothing but turmoil and boiling brought one after another to the surface, to make way in turn for others from the abyss below. ”

“ The Daimios would now have little hesitation in withholding their allegiance to another Kubosama until it should be settled who was to be the de facto ruler of the empire—the Emperor or the Shiogoon. Many would see that some change must take place in the internal constitution of the empire now when the government must deal as one body with foreign nations. The necessity for dual government was at an end. The mouthpiece of the nation must be one, and give no uncertain sound. The internal resources must be gathered into one treasury. ”

“ In China the first wife is the only wife; the others who may be taken afterward are concubines. In these countries the position of a prostitute is different from what it is in Christian communities, as they are forced to the life, and educated to it from childhood; and the education and mixing with the world in conversation gives them often a cleverness and power of pleasing which are often wanting in the ladies [205] brought up in the quiet and seclusion of a Chinese family. ”