Captain F. Brinkley

“ But, in an evil hour, he accepted office, and thus found himself required to discharge the duties of statesmanship at a time of extreme difficulty, when an immense interval separated the rich and the poor, when political power was usurped by some and abused by others, when the arbitrariness and extortions of the local governors had become a burning question, when the nobles and princes were crushing the people with merciless taxes, and when the finances of the Court were in extreme disorder. ”

“ The conception of such a city at such an epoch—half a century before Lodbrok the Dane sailed up the Seine, and fifty-five years before the birth of Alfred the Great—bears eloquent testimony to the highly civilised condition of Japan and to the Emperor Kwammu's greatness of mind and resources.
Note 37.—Such persons were named ronin, literally, "wave men;" that is to say, individuals without any fixed status or employment. They are met here for the first time in Japanese history, where they thenceforth figure as a perpetual element of unrest. ”

“ Another method of naming was inaugurated in very early times: the sovereign bestowed a patronym, much as titles were given in the West. In constructing such a name, the feat that it commemorated was translated into symbolical language—as when a great archer was called "noble target,"—or some natural object of special beauty or grandeur was taken, or else a part of the donor's name was joined to a part of the recipient's. The greatest family that Japan ever possessed—the Fujiwara (wistaria plain) —had the honour of obtaining its designation from an Emperor. ”

“ She proceeded to wash the leper, and when he told her that if there were found in the world any woman sufficiently merciful to draw the venom from his sores with her mouth he should be healed, she did him that service. ”

“ Note 26.—Japanese antiquarians assert that both men and women of rank wore long veils in early times, and were equally averse to exposing their complexions.
Note 27.—Another evidence of the fidelity with which Chinese fashions were copied.
Note 28.—It has been alleged that by striking the palms together when about to worship, a Japanese intends to attract the attention of the deity. The explanation is fanciful and groundless. ”

“ Instead of saying that a room measured so many feet each way, people said that so many mats could be spread there. Two mats made a tsubo (six feet by six feet) , the unit of area for lands and buildings alike. ”

“ A still more indiscriminate extension of this habit is attributable to the levelling of time-honoured social distinctions that took place during the military epoch, when soldiers ruled the country and provincial captains supplanted the Court nobles in the metropolis. The old official titles then began to do duty as personal names, so that (to convert the facts into their English equivalents) the sons of private soldiers received baptismal names such as "Lord Chamberlain" or "Commodore" ”

“ Note 30.—Out of this rule grew the appellation shinzo (new building) still commonly applied to Japanese wives in the middle classes.
Note 31.—Mr. Basil H. Chamberlain, in the admirable preface to his "Classical Poetry of the Japanese," explains this point with great clearness, and M. D. E. Aston, in his exhaustive treatise on "Japanese Literature," shows why rhyme would scarcely be possible to a poet using the Japanese language, namely, that as all Japanese words end in one of the five vowels, constant iteration of the same sound would be inevitable. ”