Captain F. Brinkley

“ With the Tsukasa-ke rests the sole right of conferring upon the great champion of the era, the man who has remained undefeated for six years consecutively, the badge of premiership, a girdle formed of two thick strands of white straw, finely plaited, with tapering ends and short streamers suspended from it—a facsimile, in short, of the rope festooned over the lintels of houses at New Year's time. It is not known when the badge of supremacy took this form, but the wrestlers' records show that there have been only seventeen premier champions since history began to be written. ”

“ Grown men, middle-aged men, and even old men do not disdain to join the fun, and seem to find genuine pleasure and excitement in delving after hidden crustacea, while the sea-breeze whispers of luncheon and toys with the crimson yumoji of the gentle gleaners. Luncheon, of course, is a special feature of these outings; for in each boat there is a little furnace piled with glowing charcoal, and on this the captured shell-fish crack and sputter, until, sweetened by a drop of soy at the proper moment, they become a delicacy fit for any palate. ”

“ In the case of the plum there are features that appeal with special force to the æsthetic instincts of the people. The gnarled, age-worn aspect of the gloomy tree contrasts so powerfully with the fresh softness of its pearl-like blossoms, and the absence of leaves so enhances the sanguine temerity of the fragile flowers, that the Japanese discover in this effort of nature a hundred allegories pointing the victory of hope over despair, the renewal of vigour among decay, the triumph of fortune over the blight of adversity. ”

“ Born in an epoch where the idea of nation or empire had little significance in the ears of military chiefs each fighting for his own hand, he set the welfare of the country and the dignity of the Empire above all other considerations, and thought rather of the greatness of Japan than of the aggrandisement of a fief. It has been truly said that the Muromachi era was in many respects the darkest period of Japanese history, yet it produced Oda Nobunaga, Hashiba Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Iyeyasu, and many others who, though less illustrious, deserved in many respects almost equal honour. ”

“ In the eyes of a Chinese connoisseur, no blue-and-white porcelain worthy of consideration exists, or ever has existed, except the Kai-pien-yao, with its imponderable pâte, its wax-like surface, and its rich, glowing blue, entirely free from superficiality or garishness, and broken into a thousand tints by the microscopic crackle of the glaze. The Japanese, although they obtained from their neighbour almost everything of value she had to give them, did not know this wonderful ware, and their ignorance is in itself sufficient to prove their keramic inferiority. ”

“ The suspension of the earth in space, the functions of the human body, the flight of birds and insects through the air, the blossoming of plants and trees, the ripening of seeds and fruits, — do not these things transcend human intelligence as hopelessly as the begetting of matter and the birth of the sun? And if it be called irrational to believe in gods that are invisible to human eyes, may we not answer that the existence of many things is unquestioningly accepted, though our eyes cannot discern their shapes? ”

“ It captivates the senses by degrees, and lifts them at last to an ecstasy where reason ceases to discern that the components of the grand ceremony are nothing more than deftly interwoven fragments of a chaunted litany, gorgeous vestments, a heart of glowing gold and soft colours in a vast sepulchre of shadow, and an edifice of noble proportions. But that analytical consciousness certainly comes to the average layman sooner or later. ”

“ Deserted dwellings stand desolate. Discharged samurai troop through the streets, preserving their official strut, but without any business except to make obeisances to one another. The old-time hills of blossom and groves of peach are unvisited. Men and horses crowd the Imperial city. Samurai with high-sounding titles, relics of past glory, would fain lay aside these encumbrances, but men who in the morning were foddering beasts of burden, find themselves in the evening with full purses and in high favour on account of some petty service rendered to the Emperor. ”

“ The Taikō threatened to put the women to death unless their sons returned to his camp, whereupon Hikoyemon's mother wrote to her son: "Fealty to his lord is the first duty of every man in the empire, and it is the law of nature that parents should die before their children. My life is sacrificed to the cause of our lord and the cause of our house. Let no one mourn for me. Do you, true to the way of the warrior and the path of filial piety, remember that to have a mother is no reason to be unfaithful." ”

“ Certainly the lustre of Japanese lacquer appeals to the least educated eye, so much so that a box or tray of fine black lacquer without ornamentation of any sort possesses an indescribable charm, and tempts the spectator not merely to gaze at it, but also to feel and caress it. Durability and hardness, too, though they are not qualities that enter into a normal estimate of beauty, have much to do with the artistic developments of Japanese lacquer, for had it not possessed these attributes, it could never have been considered worthy of the magnificent and costly decoration lavished upon it. ”

“ The character of the Japanese underwent very marked modification during the first sixteen centuries of their history. At the time of their arrival as invaders they were hardy, fierce people, fond of fighting and ready to reduce to slavery every one that they overcame by force of arms. But by degrees the comparatively genial climate of their new home, its soft scenery, the introduction of Chinese civilisation with its endless codes of ceremony and etiquette, and the spread of a literature which occupied itself chiefly with tender sentiments and scenic charms, produced enervating effects. ”

“ Delicate bamboo blinds, coloured green and having bands of red brocade and tassels of silk, hung at the four sides, and the ox, generally a jet-black beast of fine proportions, was handsomely caparisoned with red harness. One of these carriages, moving along at a stately pace and escorted by a strong body of officers in flowing robes of silk and brocade and men at arms with picturesque costumes and glittering accoutrements, presented a spectacle in harmony with the luxurious extravagance of the time. "Carriage folk" stood on a special social pedestal then just as they do now. ”

“ Now the only islands spoken of by the early Chinese historians in terms suggesting Japan, are described as the abode of genii, the land of immortals possessing the elixir of life, a corpse-reviving drug, golden peaches weighing a pound each, timber of immense strength yet so buoyant that no superimposed weight would sink it, rare trees, a mountain plant that could be plaited into mats and cushions, mulberries an inch long, and an environment of black sea, where the waves, not driven by any wind, rose to a height of a thousand feet. ”

“ They shared every hardship that their men endured, ate the same food, were content with the same shelter, and took the larger share of danger. The Japanese officer has this fine quality, that to a hereditary love of fighting he adds the zeal of a professional soldier. His heart is in his calling. He loves his uniform, has no aim in life higher than the discharge of his duty, and possesses the capacity for obedience which lies at the root of power to command.
There is nothing decrepit about such a nation. It is old in years, but the infused blood of Western civilisation has renewed its youth. ”

“ The common craftsman, as he bends over his task, is for ever estimating the wage it will bring. Thus the taint of covetousness is inevitably transferred to his work, constituting a feature which becomes more and more repellent as time goes by, and finally banishes the specimen to some degraded shop of a dealer in old metal. The true artist, though conscious that he toils for a living, has his recollection of the fact effaced by love for his work. At times he will lay aside his chisel for months if he finds that his heart is not in his work. ”

“ The petitions of humanity are wafted by the wind to the plain of high heaven: "I say, with awe, deign to bless me by correcting the unwilling faults which, seen and heard by you, I have committed; by blowing off and clearing away the calamities which evil gods might inflict; by causing me to live long [14] like the hard and lasting rock, and by repeating to the gods of heavenly origin and to the gods of earthly origin the petitions which I present every day, along with your breath, that they may hear with the sharp-earedness of the forth-galloping colt." ”

“ It is a passionate patriotism, a fierce patriotism, overlaid from time to time in the past by ashes of disloyal ambition or domestic dissension, but now fanned into strong flame by the wind of Western masterfulness and intolerance. Whether any Japanese subject could openly dissociate himself from the tenets of this national cult — for patriotism in modern Japan is nothing less than a national cult — and could yet lead a pleasant, peaceful existence, is at least problematical. ”

“ For when Japan sent her first envoys to Loyang, the then capital of the Middle Kingdom, she had never been invaded by her neighbour's forces, nor ever even threatened with invasion, and in the complete absence of tangible displays of military prowess—the only universally recognised passport to international respect in those epochs—the homage that China received from the island empire bears eloquent testimony to the position the former held in the Orient. In truth she towered gigantic above the heads of Far-Eastern States in everything that makes for national greatness. ”

“ Those whose eyes have become accustomed to the beautiful porcelains of the Orient with their imperishable pictures in brilliant yet soft enamels or blue under the glaze, can never again look without disgust at the productions of that hybrid branch of Western art which smears upon the surface of porcelain dull, lustreless paints, adapted only to canvas or paper, and incapable of resisting any of the cleansing processes to which vessels in every-day use must of necessity be subjected. ”

“ In the exchange of productions that took place between Japan and these distant regions, a ware falsely attributed to the factories of Cochin China had come into the hands of the Japanese dilettanti, immediately attracting their admiration by its rarity and the beauty of its colours. It was hard faience, inferior in the preparation of its pâte to the pottery of Satsuma or Kyōtō, but covered with glazes, purple, yellow, green, and metallic bronze-red, of remarkable lustre and brilliancy. Small pieces only of this Kōchi-yaki (Kōchi is the Japanese name for Cochin China) were procurable. ”

“ Nothing is more remarkable in the history of the Tokugawa epoch than the absence of anything like organised rebellion for many generations. Nevertheless at an early period of the epoch there appeared upon the stage a turbulent figure which remained more or less in evidence until modern days. This was the rōnin, or "wave-man," an epithet applied to samurai who, believing themselves charged with a mission to mend the times, refrained from joining the service of any fief, and wandered about, ready to take a part in all adventures that showed a colouring of sentiment. ”

“ But to a Japanese artist or lover of art the dragon, with its fierce vitality and mysterious suggestions, is a creature of the highest interest. The painter and the sculptor alike understood the immense difficulty of depicting or chiselling it so that it should have the semblance of ferocious vigour and implacable malignity, not the appearance of a limp, fantastic worm. All the Goto masters made a close study of the dragon. ”

“ Yet no sooner is the struggle ended, than these men who, a moment before, appeared ready to trample upon each other's corpses, may be seen seated in tea-houses, chatting, laughing, circulating the wine-cup, and behaving as if such an incident as a desperate struggle for the favour of the deity had never interrupted the even tenor of their placid existences. ”