brinkley - ii japan history art literature

7/28/2019 Brinkley - II Japan History Art Literature

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(J^riental SeriesJAPAN AND CHINALIBRARY EDITION

Limited to One Thousand Numbered and RegisteredCopies^ of which this is

Number .....J.O.A..


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i

Oriental Jttvitii

JAPANIts History Arts and Literature

BYBRINKLEY

A CORNER OF A JAPANESE TEA HOUSE.

-I'd' Vol

BOSTON AND TOKYO


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JAPANIts History Arts and Literature

BYCAPTAIN F. BRINKLEY

ILLUSTRATED

Volume II

J. B. MILLET COMPANYBOSTON AND TOKYO

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Copyright, IgoIBy J. B. Millet Co.

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England

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CONTENTSCHAPTER I

PageHistory of the Military Epoch i

CHAPTER IIManners and Customs of the Military Epoch 39

CHAPTER IIIManners and Customs of the Military Epoch

(^Continued) 91

CHAPTER IVWeapons and Operations of War during theMilitary Epoch 128

CHAPTER VBusHi-Do or the Way of the Warrior . . . 173

CHAPTER VIRefinements and Pastimes of the Military

Epoch 229

Appendix 279


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ILLUSTRATIONSPage

A Corner of a Japanese Tea-House FrontispiecePalanquins and Carriage . . . Sleeping Place in an Aris-

tocrat's Mansion 16Costumes and Head-dress of the Heian Epoch .... 32Tokugawa lyeyasu 48Japanese Weapons of War ; Sixteenth Century ... 64Samurai of Kamakura Period 80Nagoya Castle 96Mortuary Bronze Lanterns in the Temple Enclosure at

Shiba Park, Tokyo 1 12Weapons of War ; Twelfth Century 128Playing Blindman's Buff in a Side Street Leading to the

Moat in Tokyo 144Temple Bell at Kawasaki 160The Graves of the " Forty-seven Ronin " 176Samurai in Armour 192Examples of Japanese Flower Arrangements .... 208Examples of Japanese Flower Arrangements .... 224House for the Tea Ceremony in the Mito Park, Tokyo 256

II


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JAPANITS HISTORY ARTS ANDLITERATUREChapter I

HISrORT OF THE MILITART EPOCHHAD the conditions existing in the Heianepoch prevailed throughout the wholecountry, Japan would doubtless havepaid the penalty never escaped by

a demoralised nation. But in proportion as theCourt, the principal officials, and the noble-men in the capital, abandoned themselves topleasure and neglected the functions of govern-ment, the provincial families acquired strength.The members of these families differed essentiallyfrom the aristocrats of Kyoto. They had nosympathy with the enervating luxury of city life,and if they chanced to visit the capital, theycould not fail to detect the effeminacy and in-competence of the Court nobles. These latter,on the other hand, sought to win the friendshipof the rustic captains in order to gain their pro-tection against the priests, who defied the author-

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JAPANity of the central government ; against theautochthons, whom the provincial soldiers hadbeen specially organised in the eighth centuryto resist, and against insurrections which occa-sionally occurred among sections of the militarymen themselves. The nation was, in effect,divided into three factions, the Court nobles(Kuge), the military families [Buke), and thepriests.The military men had at the outset no literaryattainments : they knew nothing about the Chi-nese classics or the art of turning a couplet. Armsand armour were their sole study, and the onlylaw they acknowledged was that of might. Thecentral government, altogether powerless to con-trol them, found itself steadily weakened not onlyby their frank indifference to its mandates, butalso by the shrinkage of revenue that graduallytook place as the estates of the local captainsceased to pay taxes to Kyoto. Had the Fujiwarafamily continued to produce men of genius andambition, the capital would probably have strug-gled desperately against the growth of provincialautonomy. But the Fujiwara had fallen victimsto their own greatness. By rendering their ten-ure of power independent of all qualifications toexercise it, they had ultimately ceased to possessany qualification whatever. The close of theHeian epoch found them as incapable of defend-ing their usurped privileges as had been thepatriarchal families upon whose ruins they origi-

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THE MILITARY EPOCHnally climbed to supremacy. And, just as thedecadence of the patriarchal families and theusurpation of the Fujiwara were divided by atemporary restoration of authority to the Throne,so the decadence of the Fujiwara and the usurpa-tion of the military clans were separated by asimilar rehabilitation of imperialism.

Shirakawa (1073 1086) was the sovereign whotook advantage of the Fujiwara's weakness toresume the administration of State affairs.

Yet Shirakawa himself inaugurated a new formof the very abuse he had abolished : he instituted asystem of camera Emperors. Though he actuallyoccupied the Throne for fourteen years only, heruled the Empire forty-three years after his abdica-tion, under the title of Howd (pontiff). In short,though great enough to conceive and consummatethe kingly project of recovering the reality ofimperial power from the Fujiwara nobles whohad usurped it, he afterwards, by reducing thenominal sovereign to the status of a mere puppetvis-a-vis, the retired monarch deliberately placedhimself in the position that the Fujiwara hadoccupied vis-a-vis the Throne. Neither couldhe escape the taint of his time, for though un-doubtedly a man of high ability and forcefulcharacter, he was neither economical nor up-right. He built several magnificent palacesstanding in spacious and beautiful parks ; hedevised new and costly kinds of entertainmenthe lavished vast sums on the construction of Bud-


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JAPANdhist temples and the celebration of grand religiousservices, and he made a parade of his belief inBuddhism by forbidding the slaughter of birds,beasts, fish or insects in any part of the Empire,and never allowing either fish or flesh to beserved at the Palace feasts. Yet he did not hesi-tate to sell official posts, thus deliberately per-petuating what he knew to be one of the worstevils of the era, hereditary office-holding. Sofar was this abuse carried that the post of provin-cial governor became hereditary in thirty casesduring Shirakawa's tenure of power ; three or fourpersons sometimes held the same office simultane-ously by purchase, and in one instance a boy often was governor of a province. Such incidentswere not calculated to consolidate the power ofthe Throne, and the imperial authority was stillfurther discredited by the spectacle of a sover-eign nominally ruling but in reality ruled byan ex-Emperor, who, while professing to haveabandoned the world and devoted himself to alife of religion, had a duly organised Court withministers and an independent military force ofhis own, and issued edicts above the head of thereigning Emperor. Shirakawa and his immedi-ate successors who followed this system of dualimperialism, if for a moment they enjoyed thesweets of administrative authority, must be saidto have invited the vicissitudes that afterwardsbefell the Throne. In truth, to whatever traitof national character the fact may be ascribable,

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THE MILITARY EPOCHhistory seems to show that unlimited mionarchyis an impossible polity in Japan.

By the beginning of the twelfth century, themilitary power, as distinguished from that of theCourt and the priests, had fallen, in tolerablyequal proportions, into the hands of two families,the Taira and the Minamoto/ Both were de-scended from Emperors, and both were dividedinto a number of clans established in differentparts of the Empire. The Taira had their head-quarters in Kyoto, and their clans were para-mount in the provinces near the capital. TheMinamoto's sphere of influence was in the northand east. It was inevitable that these two shouldcome into collision. The events that immedi-ately preluded the shock may be briefly dismissedby saying that they sprang out of a dispute aboutthe succession to the Throne. The Taira tri-umphed, and their leader, Kiyomori, becamethe autocrat of the hour.

Kiyomori was a man of splendid courage andaudacity, but originality and political insightwere not among his gifts. Nothing shrewdersuggested itself to him than to follow the exampleof the Fujiwara by placing minors upon theThrone. He caused one Emperor to retire atthe age of five, and he put the sceptre into thehands of another at the age of eight. He filledall the high offices with his own people ; madehimself Prime Minister ; his eldest son. Minister^ See Appendix, Note i.


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JAPANof the Interior, and his second son, Junior Min-ister of State. He organised a band of threehundred lads who went about the city in disguiseto report any one that spoke ill of the Taira, andthe results of such reports were so terrible thatpeople learned to say " not to be a Taira is to bereckoned a beast." He brought his mailed handdown with relentless force on the Buddhist priestswhen they took up arms against the Taira at theinstigation of an ex-Emperor, and he did nothesitate to seize the person of the ex-Emperorhimself and place him in confinement. Heshowed equally scant consideration for the Fuji-wara nobles, whom the prestige of long associa-tion with the Throne had rendered sacred in theeyes of the nation : some he deprived of theirposts ; others of their lands, and others he put todeath. He set the torch to temples and leviedtaxes on the estates of Shinto shrines. Nothingdeterred him ; nothing was suffered to thwart hisplans, and the Taira chiefs in the provinces fol-lowed his arbitrary example.Such a government was not likely to last long.Twenty-two years measured its life. Then theMinamoto rose in arms and triumphed completelyunder the leadership of Yoritomo, who had foughtas a boy of thirteen in the battle that establishedthe supremacy of his father's foes, the Taira. Thefall of the latter happened in the last quarter ofthe twelfth century. It is remarkable as the com-plete establishment of military feudalism in Japan.

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THE MILITARY EPOCHThat the administrative power should be

wrested from the Throne, was nothing strange,being in truth a normal incident of Japanesepolitics. But hitherto the administrators hadofficiated in the shadow of the Throne. It istrue that Kiyomori, the Taira chief, establishedhis head-quarters at the modern Hyogo, and thus,in a measure, removed the seat of authority fromKyoto. He did not attempt, however, to organ-ise any new system, being content to fill the oldoffices with members of his own family. Yori-tomo, on the contrary, inaugurated an entirechange of polity. He established a militarygovernment at Kamakura, hundreds of milesdistant from Kyoto, and there exercised theadministrative functions, leaving to the ImperialCourt nothing except the power of investingofficials and conducting ceremonials. i

Yoritomo is the most remarkable figure duringthe first eighteen centuries of Japanese history.Profound craft and singular luminosity of politi-cal judgment were the prominent features of hischaracter. A cold, calculating man, ready tosacrifice everything to ambition, he shocks at onetime by inhumanity, and dazzles at another byunerring interpretations of the object lessons ofhistory. Detecting clearly the errors that hispredecessors had committed, he spared no painsto conciliate the Buddhist priests ; won the nobil-ity by restoring to them their offices and estates,and propitiated the Court by leaving its organisa-

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JAPANtion undisturbed and making all high officials itsnominal appointees. After he had crushed hisrivals, the Taira, he found in the provinces civilgovernors (Kokushi), who were practically irre-sponsible autocrats. He found also nobles whoheld hereditary possession of wide estates and hadfull power over the persons and properties of theirtenants as well as over the minor land-holders intheir district. To administer the country's affairsin fact as well as in name, these governors andmanorial nobles must be removed. He there-fore petitioned the Court, and obtained permis-sion to appoint in each province a Constable[Shugo), or military governor, and a chief oflands {yito)j both responsible for preserving orderand collecting and transmitting the taxes. Theseofficials were all appointed from Kamakura, whichthus became the real centre of administrativepower. For himself, Yoritomo obtained the titleof Lord High Constable [So-tsui-hoshi], which wasafterwards supplemented by that of Tai-i-Shogun(barbarian-subduing generalissimo). He was nota great general. In military ability he could notcompare with either his brother, the brilliant andill-fated Yoshitsune, or his cousin, the " morning-sun " captain Yoshinaka. Moreover, if his legis-lative and political talents command profoundadmiration, it is impossible to be certain howmuch of the credit belongs to him, how muchto his able adviser, Oye-no-Hiromoto, who issaid to have suggested all the reforms and drafted

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THE MILITARY EPOCHall the laws that emanated from the Kamakuragovernment. Not the least astute of Oye's per-ceptions was that the supreme power could notlong be held by a family residing in Kyoto ; first,because the Imperial city lay far from the militarycentres whence help could be obtained in timeof need ; secondly, because the Court nobles as-sembled there could not be ignored without pro-voking hostile intrigues, or recognised withoutincurring heavy expenditure ; and thirdly, becausethe atmosphere of the capital was fatal to militaryrobustness. It was for these reasons that Kama-kura became the metropolis of military feudalism.There Yoritomo had, in effect, his Minister ofthe Right and his Minister of the Left, his Min-ister of War, his Minister of Justice, and hisCouncillors ; but he took care not to give themtitles suggesting any usurpation of imperial power,nor to abolish any of the time-honoured posts inKyoto.

These changes were radical. They signified acomplete shifting of the centre of power. Dur-ing eighteen hundred years from the time of theinvasion of Jimmu, the country had been ruledfrom the south ; now the north became supreme.The long and fierce struggle with the autochthonshad produced the Bando soldiery, and these notonly gave the country its new rulers but also con-stituted their support.

Yoritomo's success may further be regarded asthe triumph of military democracy over imperial

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JAPANaristocracy. Many of his followers were de-scended from men who, originally serfs of Kyotonobles, had been sent to the provinces to till thesoil and procure sustenance for their lords. Therise of the Kamakura government was thus arevolution in a double sense, being not only thesubstitution of a military democracy for an im-perial aristocracy, but also the rehabilitation of alarge section of the nation who had once beenserfs.

It is easy to see that the Fujiwara themselvesweredirectly responsible for the development of pro-vincial autonomy. Their attitude towards every-thing outside the capital had been one of studiedinactivity. When a military disturbance arosein one district and was quelled by the efforts ofanother, the ministers in Kyoto refused to recog-nise the services of the latter, on the plea thatlocal interests alone had been concerned. Evenwhen foreign invaders (the Tartars) were repulsed,the Fujiwara Regent, not having himself raised afinger in defence of the country, nevertheless hes-itated to reward the men that had averted theperil. Such a policy, if continued, must haveannihilated all national spirit. Happily it workedits own overthrow by teaching the provincialstheir independence.

Yoritomo made the mistake of estimating hisown personality more highly than the interestsof the great clan he represented. He killed allthe Minamoto leaders that seemed capable of dis-- lO


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THE MILITARY EPOCHputing his sway, and he thus left the clan fatallyweakened at the time of his death. Kamakurawas then divided between two parties, the literaryand the military. With the former were associ-ated Masa, Yoritomo's widow, and her family,the Hojo. A struggle ensued. Masa intriguedto preserve the succession for her own son inpreference to her step-son, who had the right ofprimogeniture. Both of the aspirants were ulti-mately done to death, and the final result was thata baby nephew of Yoritomo was brought fromKyoto to fill the ofRce of S/idguriy the head of theHojo family becoming Vicegerent [Shikken).

Thus, within a few years after Yoritomo'sdeath, there was instituted at Kamakura a systemof government precisely analogous to that whichhad existed for centuries under the Fujiwara inKyoto. A child, who on State occasions wascarried to the council chamber in the lady Masa'sarms, served as the nominal repository of supremepower, the functions of administration beingreally performed by the representatives of a para-mount family.

These were a great pair, the lady Masa andher brother, Hojo Yoshitoki, the Vicegerent.By inflexibly just judgments, by a policy of uni-form impartiality, by frugal lives, by a wise systemof taxes imposed chiefly on luxuries, and by thestern repression of bribery, they won a high placein the esteem and love of the people. There isnothing to suggest that they would have volun-

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JAPANtarily sought to encroach further on the preroga-tives of the Court in Kyoto.

But the Court itself provoked their enmity byan ill-judged attempt to break the power of theShogunate. It issued a call to arms which wasresponded to by some thousands of cenobites andas many soldiers of Taira extraction. Kamakura,however, sent out an army which annihilated theImperial partisans, and from that time all thegreat offices in Kyoto were occupied by nomineesof the Hojo, even the succession to the Thronerequiring their mandate.

It fared with the Hojo as it had fared with allthe great families that preceded them : their ownmisrule ultimately wrought their ruin. Theirfirst eight representatives were talented and up-right administrators. They took justice, sim-plicity, and truth for guiding principles ; theydespised luxury and pomp ; they never aspiredto a higher official rank than the fourth ; theywere content with two provinces for estatesthey did not seek the office of S/iogim for them-selves, but always allowed it to be held by amember of the Imperial family, and they sternlyrepelled the effeminate, depraved customs ofKyoto. But in the days of the ninth represen-tative, Takatoki, a new atmosphere permeatedKamakura. Instead of visiting the archery-ground, the fencing-school, and the manage, menbegan to waste day and night in the company ofdancing-girls, professional musicians, and jesters.

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THE MILITARY EPOCHThe plain, simple diet of former days was ex-changed for Chinese dishes. Takatoki himselfaffected the pomp and extravagance of a sover-eign. He kept thirty-seven concubines, main-tained a band of two thousand actors, and had apack of five thousand fighting dogs.^ Moreover,the prestige of the northern soldiers suffered asevere shock.

A wave of Mongol invasion, striking the shoresof Kiushiu, involved battles on sea and on shore,and in the marine contests the southern soldiersshowed themselves much better fighters than thenorthern. Now it w-as on the reputation of thenorthern soldiers, the Bando Bushi^ that Kama-kura's military prestige rested, and with the de-cline of that prestige the supremacy of the feudalcapital began to be questioned. Yet anotherfactor inimical to the interests of the Hojo wasa recrudescence of the military power of themonks. By Court and people alike the destruc-tion of the Mongol armada was attributed, notto the bravery and skill of the troops, but to theintervention of heaven, and instead of rewardingthe generals and soldiers that had fought sostoutly, the Court lavished vast sums on prieststhat had prayed and on temples where portentshad been observed. Oppressed by the heavytaxes imposed for these purposes, the people lostconfidence in the Hojo, who had hitherto pro-tected them against such abuses, and the monks,* See Appendix, note 2.

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JAPANin obedience to their Imperial benefactor, wereready to take up their halberds once more againstKamakura.The sceptre was held at that moment by Go-daigo (i 3191339). An accomplished scholar,he had acquired intimate knowledge of politicsduring many years of life as Prince Imperial, andit is beyond question that, long before his acces-sion, he had conceived plans for restoring thereality of administrative power to the Throne.A woman, however, that constant factor ofdisturbance in mediaeval Japan was the proxi-mate cause of his rupture with Kamakura. Hisconcubine, Renshi, bore a son for whom hesought to obtain nomination as Prince Imperial,in defiance of an arrangement made by the Hojo,some years previously, according to which thesuccession was secured alternately to the seniorand junior branches of the Imperial family.The Kamakura government refused to entertainGo-daigo's project, and from that hour Renshinever ceased to urge upon her sovereign andlover the necessity of overthrowing the Hojo.

As for the entourage of the Throne at the time,it was a counterpart of former eras. The Fuji-wara, indeed, wielded nothing of their ancientinfluence. They had been divided by the Hojointo five branches, each endowed with an equalright to the office of Regent, and their strengthwas thus entirely dissipated in struggling amongthemselves for the possession of the prize. But

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THE MILITARY EPOCHwhat the Fujiwara had done in their days ofgreatness, what the Taira had done during theirbrief tenure of power, the Saionji were now doing,namely, aspiring to furnish Prime Ministers andEmpresses solely from their own family. Theyhad already given five consorts to five Emperorsin succession, and zealous rivals were watchingkeenly to attack this clan which threatened tousurp the place long held by the most illustriousfamily in the land.An incident paltry in itself disturbed thisexceedingly tender equilibrium. Two provin-cial chiefs became involved in a dispute abouta boundary. Each bribed the Kamakura Vice-gerent to decide in his favour, and each failing toobtain a decision, they finally appealed to arms.Soon the country was in an uproar. A numberof nobles and fraternities of monks formed analliance in Kyoto for the overthrow of the Hojo.The conspirators adopted a peculiar device todisarm suspicion : they abandoned themselves todebauchery of the most flagrant nature. But oneof them took his wife into his confidence, andshe carried the news to her father, an officer inthe Hojo garrison of Kyoto, The conspiracy wascrushed immediately. The Emperor, however,managed adroitly to disavow his own connectionwith it. He thus saved himself, but forfeitedthe sympathy of many of the nobles and retainedthe allegiance of the priests only. At this junc-ture the heir apparent of the junior Imperial line

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JAPANdied, and the Emperor sought once more toobtain the succession for his favourite mistress'sson. But the Hojo ruled that the spirit of thelaw of alternate succession would be violatedunless the representative of each line actuallyoccupied the Throne in turn. A new conspiracyresulted from this failure, and a strong force wassent from Kamakura to destroy the plotters anddethrone the Emperor. Then commenced themost sanguinary era in Japanese history. TheEmperor, disguised as a woman, eluded hisenemies for a time, but was soon captured andsent into exile in the little island of Oki. Never-theless, the Imperial cause still found many sup-porters, and although the Hojo were able to puta large and splendidly equipped force into thefield, it lacked a leader. One man only amongthe Hojo generals possessed all the necessaryqualities, Takauji, the representative of the Ashi-kaga clan. But he had inherited a sacred legacy,handed down from generation to generation inhis family, the task of avenging his ancestor,Yoritomo's son,^ and restoring the rule of theMinamoto. When, therefore, he found him-self at the head of a large section of the Hojo'sforces, he immediately opened communicationswith the Emperor, received an Imperial mandateto destroy the enemies of the Throne, andstormed the Hojo stronghold in Kyoto, whileNitta Yoshisada, another of the most renowned^ See Appendix, Note 3.

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died, and the iix - sought once more toobtain the succession tor his favourite mistress'sson. But the Hojo ruled that the spirit of thelaw of alternate succession would be violatedunless the .'tentative of each line actually-occupied the 1 hrone in turn new conspiracyresulted from this failure, and a strong force wassent from Kamakura to destroy the plotters anddethrone the Emperor. Then commenced thbmost sanguinary era in Japanese history. The^ mperor, d nan, eluded his

iittie Neve;theiess, the -erial cause still foun ^ sup-porters, an. lOUgh the JR ble to put^ PALANQUINS AND C'ARRIAGE. T:. L'V^j;:: ..... nh::ndlc,_, _,^ , , ..5to 11field, it lacke.. ^ader. One Ay amongthe Hojo i>;eni_ Dossesse necessarySLEEPrN&


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THE MILITARY EPOCHheroes of Japanese history, marched an armyagainst Kamakura. The last of the Hojo Vice-gerents committed suicide with many of hiscaptains : Kamakura fell, and the day of gen-uine Imperial sway seemed to have at lengthdawned.

But the Emperor Godaigo, however brave inadversity, was not wise in prosperity. At thevery moment of his escape from the control ofthe Hojo, he ignored the lessons of history, andlaid the foundation of a new usurpation by con-ferring immense rewards and high office onAshikaga Takauji. At the same time he estrangedthe other captains by neglecting their claims.Prince Moriyoshi, whose succession to theThrone had been the proximate cause of all thesetroubles, constituted himself the representative ofthe discontented southern soldiers, for he, likethem, had hoped to see the administrative powerrestored to the sovereign, not handed over to theAshikaga. The Court nobles, on the other hand,imagining that the hour had come to shake offmilitary supremacy, treated the soldier class withcontempt and supported the Emperor's resolvenot to reward them. Godaigo removed themilitary men from the provincial posts ; replacedthem by representatives of the Kyoto aristocracybestowed estates on a multitude of courtiers,from princes to actors and dancing-girls ; levieda tax of five per cent on the property of theprovincial officials, and began to issue paper

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JAPANmoney. Very soon, however, discovering thedanger to which he exposed himself by exaltingTakauji, he tried to avert it by encouraging thelatter's rivals. Thus the situation became againpregnant with elements of disquiet : the Courtnobles against the military ; the southern generals,represented by the renowned Kusunoki Masashigeand Nitta Yoshisada, against the northern, repre-sented by Ashikaga Takauji ; the partisans of theHojo watching for an opportunity to restore thefallen fortunes of the clan, and Prince Morinaga,though distrusted by the sovereign holdingcommand of the Imperial forces. The Hojocommenced the campaign. Saionji Kunimune,whose family no longer supplied Imperial con-sorts and Prime Ministers, as it had done in theHojo days, planned to poison the Emperor ata banquet. The plot was discovered, and in theconfusion that ensued. Prince Morinaga thoughtthat he saw an opportunity to overthrow theAshikaga. But the Emperor willingly denouncedhis son, and handed him over to Takauji, whoimprisoned him in Kamakura, where he perishedmiserably. Shortly afterwards, the Hojo parti-sans attacked Kamakura and recovered possessionof it. Takauji was in Kyoto at the time. Dis-regarding the Emperor's reluctance to commissionhim, he moved against the Hojo and re-capturedKamakura. Undoubtedly in taking that step hehad resolved to free himself from Court control.Thus, when the Emperor summoned him to

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THE MILITARY EPOCHreturn to Kyoto, he paid no attention to themandate.

Japanese historians have been harsh in theirjudgment of Takauji. His attitude towards theThrone has been severely censured. But it doesnot appear that he contemplated more thanothers had previously compassed, namely, theestablishment of a military dictatorship. Thedifference between his case and Yoritomo's wasthat the latter received Imperial recognition, theformer dispensed with it. For the rest, each wasa soldier before everything, and neither aimed atthe Throne. Takauji is the central figure of thegreatest political disturbance Japan ever knew,but the feature that chiefly differentiates himfrom the ambitious nobles who in earlier erasaspired to precisely the same authority, is thatwhereas they climbed to power by espousing thesovereign's cause, in appearance at all events, heestablished his sway independently of Imperialrecognition. That, however, is a distinctionrather than a difference. It is true that the Fuji-wara when they overthrew the usurping Soga,the Taira when they displaced the despotic Fuji-wara, and the Minamoto when they broke thestrength of the arbitrary Taira, all seemed to cometo the rescue of the Throne. But each in turntook as little subsequent account of the Throne'sauthority as though they had ignored it from theoutset, and the Hojo, whom Takauji now crushed,had established themselves at Kamakura in open

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JAPANdespite of the Court's denunciation. It cannotbe said, therefore, that Takauji violated precedentwhen he refused to come to Kyoto for a com-mission and organised a military government atKamakura on his ov^n authority.The empire immediately became divided intotwo camps. The adherents of the Court flockedto Kyoto ; those of the Ashikaga to Kamakura.The Emperor appointed Nitta Yoshisada to com-mand the Imperial army. It moved in twobodies towards Kamakura, one by the sea-coast,the other by the inland route. A third forcemarched to the attack of the place from thenorth. In this supreme struggle the two fore-most figures are those of Yoshisada and Takauji.They were not well matched. Takauji was in allrespects one of the greatest men Japan had everproduced. Yoshisada, though a splendid soldierso far as bravery and daring were concerned,stood on a much lower plane than Takauji as astrategist and politician. Besides, public opinioninclined to the Ashikaga leader. The partialityof the Court had produced an evil impressionon the nation. Men remembered with regretthe wise and beneficent rule of the Hojo's bestdays, and hoped that Takauji might prove thefounder of a similar race of good governors.Takauji's reputation already justified these hopes.He had shown himself not only sagacious anddaring, but also free from the narrow jealousiesand cold reserve that disfigured Yoritomo's char-

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THE MILITARY EPOCHacter. Open-handed and frank, he won loveeverywhere without forfeiting respect. Thesmallest merit did not escape his observation, orgo unrewarded. Ambition, however, overmas-tered him ; want of organising capacity impairedhis success, and when he found himself con-fronted by perils of overwhelming magnitude, hestooped to crimes correspondingly great.

At first victory rested with Yoshisada. Butwhen Takauji himself took the field, the as-pect of things changed at once. He not onlyshattered Yoshisada, but pushed on and tookKyoto. Unable to hold the city, however, hewas soon compelled to retire southward, and theCourt, believing his power completely broken,abandoned all further precautions.

Kusunoki Masashige alone remained vigilant.A noble type of soldierly loyalty, this man, whosememory remains as fresh in the hearts of hiscountrymen to-day as it was five centuries ago,had never wavered in his allegiance to theImperial cause, and by sheer force of stubborncourage had survived situations that appearedoverwhelming. Knowing Takauji too well tocredit the permanence of his defeat, he vainlyendeavoured to procure from the Emperor par-don for the Ashikaga leader. Very soon Takaujijustified these apprehensions. He collected agreat force, naval and military, and establishedhis base at Hyogo. The Emperor ordered Ma-sashige and Yoshisada to march against him.

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JAPANBut Masashige, appreciating the helplessness of adirect conflict, would have resorted to stratagem :he proposed to strike at Takauji's line of com-munications. This wise counsel being deridedas cowardice by the Court nobles, who knewnothing of warfare, Masashige gathered sevenhundred of his stanchest followers and struckfull at the huge phalanx of the enemy. Sixhundred and fifty of the brave band fell fighting,and Masashige with the remaining fifty com-mitted suicide on the banks of the Minato River.Thereafter Yoshisada's army was easily routed,and Takauji re-entered Kyoto.The Emperor now fled to a monastery andTakauji nominated his successor. There was noarbitrary exercise of king-making power : Takaujimerely set up the junior Imperial line in lieu ofthe senior. Democratic as was the spirit of thenorthern captains, they did not venture to openlyflout the national traditions of the sovereign'sdivine right. In the desultory struggle that en-sued there is only one phase worthy of specialattention. It is the conduct of the EmperorGodaigo. Invited by Takauji to return to Kyotoon the slender plea that the Ashikaga had foughtagainst the Imperial followers, not against theImperial person, Godaigo left his son and hisfaithful general, Nitta Yoshisada, disregarded hispromises to them, and abandoned himself to alife of safety under the shadow of the Ashikaga.Yoshisada, with a little band of seven hundred

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THE MILITARY EPOCHfollowers, fled northward, taking with him theyoung prince. Attacked among the snows ofEchizen by a greatly superior force, he barelyescaped to Kanasaki castle, whither Takaujisent a powerful army to attack him by land andby sea. The nation looked to see Yoshisadasurrender at discretion. But such a thoughtdoes not seem to have occurred to him. Heresisted all assaults successfully until a chancearrow killed him. His end was less gloriousthough not less honourable than that of his com-rade and peer, the grandly loyal soldier, KusunokiMasashige.

Meanwhile in Ky5to the Emperor's attemptto recover a semblance of power by submissionto the Ashikaga, failed. Takauji trusted neitherhim nor his followers, but treated them as pris-oners, until the Emperor, taking heart from somesymptoms of provincial support, fled to the mon-astery of Yoshino. This took place in i 337, andfrom that time, during a space of fifty-five years,two sovereigns reigned simultaneously, Yoshinobeing called the Court of the Southern Dynasty,Ky5to that of the Northern. Those fifty-fiveyears were an epoch of almost incessant fighting.The Emperor Godaigo died at Yoshino withhis sword grasped in his hand. His peopleclass him with Tenchi and Kwammu as one ofJapan's greatest sovereigns. Yet it is doubtfulwhether the same credit would be accorded tohim had he occupied a less exalted station.

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JAPANSolid success could never have been achieved bya leader in whose nature the sensuous elementpreponderated so largely. Circumstances, too,were hopelessly against him. Fate condemnedhim to be crushed between the two great forceswhich convulsed his kingdom. That he chosethe weaker side was perhaps an error of judg-ment, but to have chosen the stronger would haveinvolved the sacrifice of his imperial aspirations.The Ashikaga differed from the Hojo chieflyin this, that whereas the Hojo eschewed all theexcesses and extravagances which had weakenedtheir predecessors, the Ashikaga practised them.The Hojo did not seek high rank or great estates,but chose rather to use titles and riches as meansof rewarding proved friends or placating poten-tial foes. The Ashikaga, on the contrary, graspedand enjoyed all the rewards of victory. Theironly bid for popularity was to reduce the taxeslevied on the provincial officials from five percent of their incomes to two per cent. Takaujihimself became SKogun, caused members of hisfamily and prominent men among his followersto be nominated to various high offices, and en-riched himself and them with estates or sinecureswherever such a course was possible. Probablyhis greatest error was that he restored the seat ofgovernment to Kyoto. The beauty and grace ofthe noble ladies of the capital completely intoxi-cated the northern warriors, and alliance afteralliance was formed between these rough soldiers

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THE MILITARY EPOCHand the families of the effeminate aristocratswhom they had hitherto despised. Those thatcould not by fair means obtain wives among thesedainty dames, often had recourse to foul expedi-ents. A passion for gambling was soon added tothe excitements of the capital. Swords andarmour were staked on a throw of the dice, andmen learned to dread war, since it called themaway from the delights of the Imperial city.Even the principle of loyalty, the first article ofthe bushi s creed, began to be weakened, for theturmoil of the time brought such sharp andincalculable changes of fortune that no certainadvantage seemed to accrue from adhering to oneleader, however secure his position might appear.It became every man's first business to look outfor himself. There is no blacker period ofJapan's history. Fealty and honesty disappearedfrom the ethics of the time. Even before Takaujidied, the powers that he had hoped to bequeathto his descendants had been largely usurped byhis lieutenants. Treachery and intrigue were inthe air. Men that espoused the cause of theNorthern Dynasty yesterday were found fightingfor the Southern to-day. The great barons inthe provinces paid little heed to the Ashikagarule. Each fought for his own hand. If anofficial of high aims attempted to stem the cur-rent of corruption and abuses, it closed over hishead, for integrity immediately provoked slander.To Yoshimitsu, third of the Ashikaga ShogunSy

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THE MILITARY EPOCHadministrative post {kwanryo), second in impor-tance to that of Shogun only, was declared to behereditary in three powerful families, and itsholders had virtually uncontrolled discretion ofaffairs at Kamakura. These changes seem tohave been dictated by a policy of opportunismrather than by calm judgment.

Yoshimitsu was swayed at one moment byhigh impulses, at another by sensuous inactivity.Incapable of persistence in great efforts, he hadno sooner accomplished his immediate purposethan he reverted to a condition of luxurious easeand dilettanteism. Just as his study of Bud-dhism, though profound while it lasted, broughtin the end only an access of epicureanism, so thelessons of history taught him to purchase a briefrespite from warfare by concessions which couldnot fail to aggravate the difficulties of his succes-sors. Two years after the unification of themonarchy, he took the tonsure and retired fromofficial life. But he continued to exercise ad-ministrative authority, just as the ex-Emperorshad done at the close of the Heian epoch. Infact he aped the fashions of Imperialism, whereasthe Minamoto and the Hoj5 had carefully pre-served their status of subjects. Whenever hewent abroad, his escort resembled that of asovereign, and the magnificence of his mansionat Muromachi as well as the beauty of thegrounds surrounding it, won for it the nameof the "palace of flowers." He built for him-

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JAPANself in his nominal retirement a three-storeyededifice, the Kinkaku-ji, or " golden pavilion,"which is still one of the sights of Kyoto. Thegreat territorial nobles had to contribute mate-rials for its construction ; the whole interior wasa blaze of gold, and sumptuous banquets weregiven there with accompaniment of music anddancing.From the days of Yoshimitsu the Ashikagaceased to exercise administrative power. That

was done by the Wardens {Kwanryo) at Kama-kura whom they had themselves created. InKyoto the Regents had held the reins of govern-ment, in Kamakura the Vicegerents, and nowthe same procedure was followed by the War-dens, while the SMguns themselves lived a lifeof ease and indolence in Kyoto. But neitheramong the Wardens nor the Shliguns was therefound a genius capable of controlling the ele-ments of disturbance that grew out of the systemof local autonomy established by Yoshimitsu.The country was gradually converted into anarena where every one fought for his own hand.Any man that deemed himself strong enough towin a prize in the shape of estates and power,stepped into the lists and turned his lance againstthe weakest adversary he could discern. Finally,a dispute about the succession to the Shogunatefurnished a line of general division, and thereensued a contest known in history as the " elevenyears' war."

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JAPANrecovered some semblance of prosperity. Butshortly after his departure from the city, noble-men of Imperial lineage might be seen en-deavouring to earn a few cash by deliveringlectures in the streets, or begging for " Regent'spence " to support the Court, and the Emperorhimself was driven by dire necessity to sell hisautographs for daily bread.

Meanwhile, despite the promiscuous characterof the fighting throughout the country, thesouth and the north were still the nuclei ofthe contest, and as each succeeding phase of thestruggle brought with it the ruin of some ofthe great clans that had constituted the strengthof Kamakura or of Kyoto, the provinces thatstood comparatively aloof from this devastatingwarfare, or lay beyond the range of the tide ofbloodshed, developed eminent strength. Suchwere the provinces included in the districtcalled " Tokaido," or the " Eastern-sea circuit,"a naturally rich and densely populated part ofthe Empire.Among the Tokaido chieftains who now beganto act leading roles upon the stage, were TakedaShingen of Kai, Uyesugi Kenshin of Yechigo,Oda Nobunaga of Owari, Hashiba Hideyoshi,afterwards known as the Taiko, a follower ofNobunaga, and Tokugawa lyeyasu of Mikawa.This quintette saved Japan. Without them shemust have become divided into a number ofprincipalities, as her neighbour, Korea, had been,

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THE MILITARY EPOCHand like Korea she might have lost many of thequalities that make for national greatness.

Takeda Shingen seems to have been devoid ofevery feeling that could interfere with the prose-cution of his purposes. His nature lacked anemotional side ; his will was adamant ; his ideaspresented themselves with lightning rapidity andin perfect order. He neglected no resources oftraining and erudition, and he made the welfareof the people an object as important as the disci-pline of his soldiers.

Oda Nobunaga, on the contrary, was the verytype of a jovial, careless warrior. An able leader,an intrepid and daring captain, with all the qual-ities j necessary to secure obedience and attractdevotion, his fault was that he relied chiefly onthe force of arms, and trusted more to the strengthand swiftness of a blow than to the subtlety ofits delivery. These two men already toweredhigh above all their contemporaries when thelong record of war and confusion reached its lastchapter.

Militant Buddhism had now again become agreat power in the State. At the darkest hourof the Muromachi epoch, even the priests inKyoto succumbed to the general demoralisation,and were found among the gamesters and marau-ders. One sect only, the Ikko, possessed largeinfluence, owing to the virtue and eloquence ofits great preacher, Renjo. But this sect believedin the sword as a weapon of propagandism, and

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JAPANdid not hesitate to enlist the most lawless andunscrupulous elements of the population amongits adherents. The religious fanatics were strongenough to defy the governors of the northernprovinces, where their principal centre of powerlay. They destroyed family after family of theiropponents, and even the illustrious HosokawaHarumoto, one of the most powerful nobles ofthe time, had to appeal to the Nichiren sect foraid against them. Thus the religious bodieswielded a power which no one, though he werethe Shogun himself, could afford to disregard.Even the Shinto priests of Ise had a militaryorganisation numbering thousands of halberdiers.

Under such circumstances Christianity madeits advent in Japan. It was brought to Kiushiuby the Portuguese, and with it came fire-arms,as well as many evidences of a new and dazzlingcivilisation. A large number of people adoptedit, less, perhaps, because its doctrines convincedthem, than because several of the prominentnobles, attracted by the material novelties thatcame in the train of the new creed, and by theprospects of the commerce it foreran, set theexample of welcoming the Christian propagan-dists. A fresh element of disturbance was thusintroduced. Christianity did not disarm opposi-tion by displays of gentleness or forbearance. Itrelied on the stalwart methods which in medievalEurope bound the unbeliever on the rack and therecusant to the stake. The Buddhist and Shinto

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.HDOia I4AI3H 3HT 30 883;ia-aA3II iV/LA 83MUT803.'i6irf3-ni--i9bnBmmoO . i

.bieuO .C.JnfibnaJtA soeiE^ .-(>


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J A P A Ndid not hesitate to enlist the most lawless andunscrupulous elements of the population amongits adherents. The religious fanatics were strongenough to deiy the governors of the northernprovinces, where their principal centre of powerlay. They destroyed family after family of theiropponents, and even the illustrious HosokawaHarumot' '>f the most powerful nobles ofthe tin-)' -jal to the Nichiren sect for

Thus the religious bodies^w!. vhich no one, though he werethe 7 himself, could afford to disregard.Kvrn .,.10 priests of Ise had a military'-'^ 'iumbering thon"--H5 of halberdiers.

h circumstance. . aristianity madeCOSTUMES AND HEAD-DkESS^ OF THE HEIAN EPOCHS ^I'v ,,iv I Oi .1. Commander-m-chief. '-;i ic vtiiuv- JiJiC-armS,

as well as t^^^^Z' '.o of a new and dazzlingcivilisation. ^- gace Attendant.umbej- of people adoptedit, less, perhaps, ocuuuse its doctrines convincedthem, than because several of the prominentnobles, attracted by the material novelties thatcame in the train of the new creed, and by theprospects of the commerce it foreran, set theexample of we' "ig the C; n propagan-dists. A fresh '^ disturbance was thusintroduced. Chnsti did not disarm opposi-tion by displays o- r forbearance. Itrelied on the stalwart ch in medievalEurope bound the un on the rack and therecusant to the stake. The Buddhist and Shinto

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^^mP ^.

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tf.-'tS-;

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THE MILITARY EPOCHpriests combined against the foreign faith, and itschief patron, the great Ouchi clan, was over-thrown.Oda Nobunaga had now asserted his superior-

ity to nearly all rivals in arms. He was ablyassisted by Hashiba Hideyoshi, one of the greatmen of the world, not of Japan only. Nobu-naga's career was a series of brilliant victories, butto describe it in any detail would require an arrayof names and an analysis of clan relations intoler-ably confusing to a foreign reader. Among theenemies he had to encounter were the monies ofHiyei-zan and Hongwan-ji, and while, on theone hand, he destroyed these great monasteriesand put many of their inmates to the sword, onthe other, he assumed towards Christianity anattitude of political friendship rather than ofconscientious approval. His protection of thealien creed has been variously interpreted, butthere cannot be much doubt that though heallowed his son to embrace the Roman Catholicdoctrine, and though Christianity, under thexgis of his favour, obtained some twenty thou-sand converts in Kyoto alone, he cared little forit at heart, and saw in it mainly a weapon fordiminishing the dangerous and turbulent strengthwhich the Buddhist priests had long possessed.Nobunaga has been compared to Cromwell, buthis disposition was permeated by a vein of gen-eral bonho7me foreign to the character of the greatPuritan. His method of reform was as thorough

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JAPANas his military discipline. Order and peace weresoon restored in Kyoto 'under his sway, and whenthe SlSogun attempted to resort to the wonteddevice of levying forced contributions on thecitizens for his own luxurious purposes, Nobunagapresented to him a sternly worded document ofarraignment, in which seventeen charges of mis-conduct were categorically set forth. Only onegeneral could make head against Nobunaga in thefield. This was Takeda Shingen, and fortunatelyfor the peace of the realm he died before hisrivalry could effectually change the current ofevents, then at length setting towards adminis-trative unity. Takeda' s exploits need not beconsidered here further than to say that theycontributed materially to regenerate the eraand to restore the nation's ideal of soldierlyqualities.Oda Nobunaga met a fate not uncommon in

that age : he fell a victim to the treachery ofa lieutenant. But swift and signal vengeancewas wreaked upon the traitor by Hashiba Hide-yoshi, who after Oda's death became the mostprominent figure in the realm.

Hideyoshi's career was in one sense typical ofthe era ; in another, strangely inconsistent with it.Had not the time-honoured lines of social distinc-tion and hereditary prestige been entirely obscured,such a man could never have risen to the highestplace attainable by a subject. Born in the familyof a poor soldier, the best future anticipated for

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THE MILITARY EPOCHhim by his father was service in the lowestranks of some nobleman's retinue. As a boy hegave no indications of great capacity, his physicalimperfections a stunted stature, an exception-ally dark complexion, and a strikingly ill-favouredcountenance not being compensated by anyshow of diligence in study or aptitude in acquir-ing knowledge. Wayward, mischievous, unen-dowed with any attractive or seemingly promisingqualities, he received no help from any friendlyhand on the way to fortune. Yet in a sense hishumble origin may be said to have aided him, forhad he belonged to any of the great families whosestruggle for supremacy was deluging the countrywith blood, the mere fact of his lineage musthave arrayed against him a host of hostile rivals.Solely by force of military genius he conqueredwherever he fought ; by an innate perception ofthe value of justice and the uses of clemency hemade content and tranquillity the successors ofturbulence and disaffection ; by an extraordinaryinsight into the motives of men's actions, he wasable to detect and utilise opportunities thatwould have been invisible to ordinary eyes ; bysignal magnanimity he disarmed his enemies,^and by subtle appeals to the emotional side ofhuman nature he won the homage of men who,until the moment of contact with him, hadbelieved themselves his superiors. Himselfswayed by strong emotions, he flashed readily* Sec Appendix, note 4.

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JAPANinto anger, but the errors to which passion mighthave goaded him were generally averted by nobleyielding to impulses of generosity and fair play.-^Capable of profound and lasting attachments, heinspired in his followers sentiments of love anddevotion, and while he shrank from no means toattain an end, it was his delight to repair ulti-mately with generous hand any temporaryinjuries he inflicted on others in his pursuit offortune.^ Born in an epoch where the idea ofnation or empire had little significance in theears of military chiefs each fighting for his ownhand, he set the welfare of the country and thedignity of the Empire above all other considera-tions, and thought rather of the greatness ofJapan than of the aggrandisement of a fief. Ithas been truly said that the Muromachi era wasin many respects the darkest period of Japanesehistory, yet it produced Oda Nobunaga, HashibaHideyoshi, Tokugawa lyeyasu, and many otherswho, though less illustrious, deserved in manyrespects almost equal honour.

Hideyoshi's campaigns need not occupy atten-tion. It is enough to say that he brought thewhole Empire within one circle of administrativesway, of which he himself was the centre. Theoffice of regent he caused to be conferred onhimself, though it had never previously beenheld by any man lacking the qualification ofimperial descent, and he would fain have been* See Appendix, note 5. * See Appendix, note 6.

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THE MILITARY EPOCHShogun also, partly because he had a parvenu'slove of rank, partly because he deemed suchdistinctions essential to the efficient exercise ofgoverning power. But the social canon vt^hichrestricted the SIfogiinate to a prince of the bloodor a descendant of the Minamoto family, couldnot be set aside even in favour of a Hideyoshi.^Thus his career, beginning in hopeless obscurityand culminating in practical headship of the Em-pire, implies a complete overthrow of the oldbarriers of caste and precedent, yet it also indi-cates the existence of a limit beyond which noambition might soar. There were, in fact, twothrones in Japan, the throne occupied by the" Child of Heaven " (Tenshi) and the throneoccupied by the feudal sovereign, the Shogun, andthe occupancy of the former was not morestrictly confined to the lineal descendants ofJimmu than was the occupancy of the latter toa scion of the Minamoto.

Not suffering from the defect that disqualifiedHideyoshi for the S/wgunatCy and succeeding to thefruits of Hideyoshi's genius, lyeyasu, the Toku-gawa chief, was able to organise a feudal govern-ment that lasted for two and a half centuries,whereas the Taiko's sway may be said to have diedwith himself. lyeyasu and his achievements,however, must be spoken of independently.Upon the story of the military epoch one traitof Japanese character is indelibly impressed, a^ See Appendix, note 7.

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JAPANtendency to trespass upon direct authority and tosubmit to it when delegated. During the firstfive centuries of the historical period, this traitis illustrated by the anomaly of a nation's obedi-ence to titles derived from imperialism by aris-tocrats that flouted the imperial prerogatives.During the next five centuries the same pictureis seen in more varied forms, the EmperorShirakawa and his successors ruling under theshadow of the throne they had abdicated ; theHojo Vicegerents governing for the Minamotothrough the authority of a puppet SKbgun; theWardens of later days administering affairs undercommissions from the faineant Ashikaga. It ap-pears to have been a political necessity that thesource of power should be abstracted from theagents of its exercise.

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Chapter IIMANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THEMILITART EPOCHTHE notable points in a retrospect of theMilitary epoch stand out clearly by com-

parison with the imperial system of theeighth century. There ceased to be any

regularly organised provincial army from whichtroops could be detached at fixed intervals forservice under the Central Government in the cap-ital. There ceased to be any pretence that theCrown's right of eminent domain received prac-tical recognition. There ceased to be any activefaith in the doctrine that every subject in theEmpire belonged to the sovereign as a child be-longs to its father. The local chieftains thrustthemselves between the Throne and the peopleheld wide estates where the Government's tax-collector might not set foot, and required oftheir vassals obedience even to the point of ignor-ing the sovereign's mandates and defying hisemissaries. The Court nobles in Kyoto were notwithout vassals of their own ; but this differenceexisted, that whereas the Court nobles receivedtheir servants as a gift from the Emperor, and

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JAPANhad only such power over them as the law per-mitted, the provincial chiefs exercised absoluteauthority over their followers, rewarding themwith lucrative posts or grants of land and punish-ing them with imprisonment or death. It wasthus that there grew up in the provinces a largebody of men skilled not only in administrationbut also in arms ; bound by strong ties of grati-tude, loyalty, and expediency to their own partic-ular chiefs, and strictly forbidden to transfer theirservices elsewhere without special permission.Japan, as an entity, did not exist in the mentalvista of these vassals. For each his fief was hiscountry.

Class distinctions partially lost their ancientvalue under such circumstances. The provincialcaptains, coming into collision with the Courtnobles who were immeasurably superior to themin social rank, by right of might stripped themof their estates and dignities, and even sent theminto exile or contrived their death. The provin-cial vassals, often men of mean origin, the de-spised semmin who formerly laboured under somany disabilities, found themselves raised to thelevel of honoured subjects, brought within reachof high offices, and entrusted with large au-thority. Thus the old distinction oi ry'bmin (re-spectable people ) and semmin ( degraded peopledisappeared in great part, and there grew up inits place a classification derived less from accidentof birth than from the nature of a man's employ-

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MANNERS AND CUSTOMSment. The broad lines of the new division werefour: military {shi),^ agricultural (o), industrial{ko)y and commercial {sho); the merchant beingplaced at the bottom of the '^ scale, the artisanabove him, and the farmer, who paid the greaterpart of the taxes, ranking next after the soldier. >

It is plain, however, that this four-fold classifi-cation of shi-nd-k'o-sho excludes many means ofgaining a livelihood which are practised in everyorganised community. Religious prejudices werechiefly responsible for the exclusion. From whathad been already written about the extremelystrict laws of pollution and purification, thereader will readily infer that not all professions,be they ever so useful and honest, could be re-garded by the Japanese as honourable. Thusevery occupation that brought a man into contactwith unclean things, as the corpses of humanbeings, the carcasses of animals, and offal of alldescriptions, was degraded. In obedience, again,to another code of ethics, occupations that ca-tered for the sensuous side of human nature, andevery occupation without any fixed scale of re-muneration, sufl^ered some taint of ignominy. Alarge section of the population consequently fellunder a social ban, which was not removed untilthe great reformation of the Meiji era in recenttimes. Not infrequently the members of thissection are broadly spoken of as Eta (people ofmany impurities). But the Eta were only a* See Appendix, note 8.

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JAPANfraction of the whole. Originally immigrantsfrom Korea who practised the professions oftanning and furriery, they owed their name totheir polluted occupation, and their descendantsthrough all generations, as well as any Japanesethat drifted into their rank, occupied the positionof social pariahs. The great fifth estate of me-diaeval Japan, however, is very imperfectly de-scribed by the term Rta. It included a largenumber of industrials and professionals whosesocial debasement constitutes an interesting illustra-tion of the ethics of medieval Japan. The CKoriheaded the list. This term has no dishonourableimport : the ideographs used in writing it signify** head officer." Originally the Chori wereBuddhist friars. Their name occurs historicallyfor the first time in the days of the celebratedscholar and philanthropist Shotoku (572-621).He established a charity hospital, and gave to thepriests that had charge of its interior arrangementsand ministrations the name oiCJibri, calling thosethat attended to the exterior duties Hinin, or"outcasts." It has already been stated that, inearly times, the tendance of the sick was held topollute a man, and even the charitable doctrineinculcated by Buddhism could not protect theCKori from the taint of their occupation, whilethose who, for the sake of mere pecuniary rec-ompense, undertook to dispose of the bodies ofthe dead and to perform menial duties in con-nection with the hospital, were considered un-

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MANNERS AND CUSTOMSworthy to rank as human beings. During theinterval of six centuries that separated the timeof Prince Shotoku from the commencement ofthe Kamakura epoch under Yoritomo, nothing isheard of either CJvJri or Hiniriy and it is beUevedthat the latter term was applied only to crimi-nals of the lowest class. But when Yoritomoundertook the re-organisation of society on a ba-sis of military discipline, he appointed an officercalled Danzayemon Yorikane to the post of Chori^entrusting him with absolute control over allpersons excluded from the four-fold classificationof soldier, farmer, mechanic, and merchant. Itappears, therefore, that the office thus rehabili-tated bore no relation whatever to its prototypein Prince Shotoku's time.The list of persons who thus became, in effect,subjects of Danzayemon, was very long. At thehead of it should be placed, perhaps, the Hinin,or outcasts, whose principal duties were connectedwith executions and prisons. The office of heads-man had a special occupant, but all executionsother than decapitation were performed by theHinin, under the direction of the Ch'ori. Tothem was entrusted the head of a criminal forexposure during a fixed period, and it was theirbusiness to conduct a condemned man when hewas carried around the city on horseback as a pre-liminary to execution. They also discharged theoffice of torturers in judicial trials ; they tattooedcriminals ; they wielded the spear at crucifixions,

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JAPANand the saw when heads were taken off with thatinstrument; and they executed all the sentencespronounced against Christians. In battle theHinin were placed in charge of the heads takenfrom the enemy, and at the last great fight whichfinally established the Tokugawa sway, the Dan-zayemon of the time received a gold seal with thesignificant inscription, " gatherer," in token ofthe numerous trophies thus entrusted to him.Beside this seal there lies among the heirloomsof the Danzayemon family an autograph copyof the Lotus Scripture, which, when the cele-brated Buddhist priest, Nichiren, was led out forexecution, he gave to one of the Hinin who com-miserated his fate. Had there been in any age aliterary Danzayemon, he might have enriched hiscountry with some invaluable memoirs.The Eta seem to have occasionally enlisted forservices connected with criminals, but their gen-eral occupation was the tanning of hides and thepreserving of skins. It need scarcely be said thatmen who cremated the bodies of the dead wereclassed among the Hinin, as also were the guar-dians of tombs. The pollution of all these iseasily understood, but that a similar stigma shouldattach to plasterers, and makers of writing-brushesand ink, was due to a less evident cause, namely,that their trade obliged them to handle the hairand bones of animals.The category of degraded persons was largely ex-tended by the inclusion of all who resorted to irreg-

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MANNERS AND CUSTOMSular methods of obtaining a livelihood. Amongthese the most numerous were the beggars. Manykinds of beggars plied their profession in ancientJapan. There was the ordinary itinerant beggar ;the cross-roads beggar; the river beggar (so calledbecause he inhabited a hut constructed of bouldersfrom the bed of a stream) ; the mendicant friar,who sometimes asked for alms in the most com-monplace manner, sometimes went about with awooden bowl and a long-sleeved robe, sometimesbeat a metal vessel or a gourd and recited prayersor intoned formulas about the evanescence of life,sometimes chaunted verses and struck attitudes;and finally, there was the mummer beggar, whoacted a part similar to that of the waits in Eng-land. Almost as numerous as the beggars werethe professional caterers for amusement in variousforms : the man who, with a deftly waved fan inhis hand and a variously folded kerchief on hishead, danced a musicless measure by the roadsidethe puppet-show man ; the performer of the saru-gaku music ; the monkey-master ; the keeper ofa miniature shooting-gallery where flirting andassignations were more important than archerythe actor, the Dog-of-Fo dancer, the brothel-keeper, the peep-show man, the dog-trainer,the snake-charmer, the story-teller, the riddle-reader, the juggler, the acrobat, and the fox-tamer. Necromancers and diviners were alsoreckoned among outcasts, a significant fact, indi-cating the robust sentiment of the military age as

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JAPANcompared with the spirit of the time when inter-preters of the Book of Changes (the Inyo-shi) wereconsulted on the eve of every important enterprise.It is not to be inferred, however, that superstitionhad faded out of the hfe of the people at large.The agricultural, the industrial, and the mercan-tile classes continued to torment themselves asmuch as ever about omens, affinities, coincidences,apparitions, demonology, enchantment, and divi-nation, and even the inferior orders of the mili-tary often laboured under similar delusions. Thegreat founder of the Tokugawa dynasty, lyeyasu,makes a strange appearance in the annals of themonkey-masters just enumerated. On enteringthe city of Yedo to make it his stronghold, hisfavourite horse fell sick, and instead of consultinga horse-leech, he ordered the Ch'ori to summona monkey-man, whose incantations cured theanimal. Thenceforth, on the i ith of January,year after year, the Ch'ori received several stringsof cash in the castle scullery for distribution amongthe monkey-masters.All persons who made a livelihood by meansof performing animals were credited with occultmethods. Even the trainer of the docile dog wasregarded mysteriously. On the occasion of theMoriya rebellion in the sixth century, Toribe-no-Yorozu, whose title shows that he had to tendthe birds kept in the Palace, entrenched himselfwith a hundred companions and defied the Impe-rial troops. Threatened with starvation, he forced

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MANNERS AND CUSTOMShis way through the besiegers, and reaching thebank of a river, cut ofr his own head so that itfell into the stream. His body was thereafterhewed into eight pieces, and these, according toKorean custom, were exposed at eight places. Itis related that a white dog which had been hispet, ran perpetually for several days from fragmentto fragment of the corpse, guarding them frombirds and beasts of prey, and finally, finding thehead in the river, carried it into a deserted house,and having secreted it there, remained at theplace until death from hunger ended the vigil.The Emperor, hearing of these things, causedthe parts of the dead rebel's body to be collectedand decently buried, and erected in memory ofthe dog a tomb which may be seen to th^s dayin the province of Kawachi. Numerous instancesof similar intelligence and fidelity made it easyfor people to believe that the dog was more thana mere beast, and as for the fox, its cunning hadalways been counted supernatural. The fox-tamer spoken of above did not actually exhibitthe uncanny animal at public performances. Hisbusiness was to conjure in its name. There hadonce been a rustic who by virtue of the incanta-tions of a Buddhist priest obtained the brush of afox in a dream. Some intricate process of deduc-tion led men to believe that if certain formulaewere repeated and certain rites observed, onecould procure the services of a fox to benefit one-self at the cost of injuring some one else. If three

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JAPANballs of rice were tied to a straw rope a hund'"edpalms long, and were carried at midnight on ahundred consecutive nights to the shrine of Inari,a palm's length of the rope being deposited at theshrine on each occasioa the rice would ultimatelybe eaten by a fox which thenceforth became theservant of the worshipper, provided that his heartwas free from carnal lust. The professional fox-tamer undertook to produce the same result with-out these troublesome preliminaries, and one couldthus enrich oneself and bring fever or madness onan enemy. On the other hnnd. if a man pos-sessed this power, it was bt..- 1 thrtr the factshowed itself by miraculous and voL,. ...,y xhate-rialisation of his thoughts, so that if he happenedto think of -^ ^^ake as he watched a friend eatinga meal, tiiEOKupAt^A lYEvksu.immediately appearamong the friends viaxn^c^, v_u if a sorrowful moodvisited him as he reflected on another's conduct,the subject of his reflections would at cmce bemoved to tears. The fox-tamer, dog-trainer, orsnake-charmer being thus* unable to fully controlhis wayward servant, ordinary men shunned himcarefully ; r- fact which doubtless helped to deter-mine the degraded position assigned to him byofficial classifiers.The fact that while the keeper of a brothelwas placed among the polluted, no such stigmaattached to the inmates of the brothel, must beattributed to the theory that the adoption of a lifeof shame could never be a matter of free volition,

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MANNERS AND CUSTOMSbut must either be attended by extenuating self-sacrifice or result from uncontrollable misfortune.In truth, the ranks of prostitution were chiefly-recruited with children sold to save their parentsor brothers from starvation or dishonour and withkidnapped girls. No female regarded the pro-fession with any feeling but the profoundesthorror.Among the ignominious populace there weresome whose relegation to such a place is hard to

understand ; as the makers of tiles, of hats, ofbow-strings, of lamp-wicks, and of horse-reinsthe caster of metal, the stone-cutter, the ferry-man, the dyer, and the barrier-watchman.

Danzayemon Yorikane, the first official com-missioned to control this large class of persons,was a military man of some standing, but hisoffice ultimately shared the degradation attachingto its connections. The power he wielded andthe wealth he accumulated must have compensatedto a great extent for his loss of caste. As to hispower, the members of the degraded classes beingdisqualified to enter a Court of Justice, full author-ity to adjudicate their disputes and punish theirofi'ences was vested in Danzayemon ; and as forhis wealth, it is recorded that many merchantsof standing borrowed large sums from him habitu-ally. Such transactions were secretly arranged,for even pecuniary dealings with a C/wri involvedcontamination. The representative of the familyin the beginning of the eighth century, desiring

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JAPANto break down the irksome barriers of caste,invited his debtors to a banquet. The greatmajority of them resented the invitation as agross impertinence, but some few felt constrainedto accept it. When these latter sat down to themagnificent repast prepared for them, they foundtheir soup-bowls filled with gold coins, and thesouvenirs handed to them when they took theirleave were their own promissory notes. Danzaye-mon nevertheless remained an outcast. No pay-ment could purchase his elevation from that grade.It need scarcely be said that alike for him, forhis family, and for all members of the variousprofessions and trades under his control, marriagewith persons of the superior classes was strictlyinterdicted.The extraordinary vicissitudes of men's fortunesduring the Military epoch were reflected in thestate of Kyoto. At one time the very centre, ofluxury and magnificence, it became, at another,a scene of desolation and penury. Kiyomori,the Taira chief, had the wisdom to see that thestrength of his soldiers and the integrity of hisofficials could not be preserved amid the turbu-lence, disorder, lawlessness, and debauchery of theImperial city. He made Fukuhara, near Hyogo,the seat of administration, and moved the Courtthither, much against the will of the aristocraticfamilies. Very soon Kyoto's condition was suchthat a poet of the time described it as a townwhere " the streets had become grassy moors; the

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MANNERS AND CUSTOMSmoonlight shone on ruins only, and the autumnwind told sad stories of the past." But when theHojo family fell from power and Kamakura ceasedto be the seat of government, Kyoto quickly re-covered its old importance. An anonymous plac-ard exposed at the market-place in the early partof the fourteenth century gave the followingpicture of the metropolis :

The things that abound in the capital now are night-attacks ; robberies ; forged Imperial decrees ; calls toarms ; galloping messengers ; empty tumults ; decap-itations ; recusant priests and tonsured laymen ; de-graded nobles and upstart peers ; gifts of estates andconfiscations of property ; men rewarded and menslaughtered ; eager claimants and sad petitioners ; bag-gage consisting of manuscripts only ; sycophant'? andslanderers ; friars of the Zen and priests of the Ritsuleaps to fortune and neglected talents ; shabby hats anddisordered garments ; holders of unwonted batons andstrangers asking the path to the Palace ; Imperial secre-taries who affect wisdom, but whose falsehoods are morefoolish than the folly of fools ; soldiers saturated withfinery, who wear hats like cooking-boards and strutabout fashionably at the fall of evening in search ofbeautiful women to love ; wives who simulate piety butlive lives abominable to the citizens ; ofHcial huntersholding each an emaciated hawk that never strikesquarry ; leaden dirks fashioned like big swords andworn with the hilts disposed for ready drawing ; fanswith only five ribs ; gaunt steeds ; garments of thinnestsilk ; second-hand armour hired by the day ; warriorsriding to their offices in palanquins ; plebeians in bro-cade robes; civilians in war panoply and surcoats ;archers so ignorant of archery that their falls from their

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MANNERS AND CUSTOMSa vivid impression. It is, indeed, bewildering toreflect what a complete subversal of the old orderof things must have taken place when the rudewarriors from the provinces, unlettered, ignorantof Court etiquette, without respect for time-honoured rank and careless of social canons,trooped into the Imperial city and substitutedtheir blunt, practical ways for the effeminateperfunctoriness of the hereditary officials. AJapanese historian, writing when the memory ofthe events he described was still fresh, said : Even when the whole nation was In danger, its

rulers did not know that they were hated by the people.The great families abandoned themselves to luxury, andthought only of finding means to gratify their costlycaprices. Talentless and incapable, they could never-theless obtain ranks and rewards wholesale. They satin the seats of judgment and stood in the places ofguards, but they themselves paid no respect to the lawsnor knew anything of discipline. Simulating loyalty,they made a pretence of seeking the Sovereign's con-sent before initiating a measure, but in reality their actswere purely arbitrary. Thus, when the samurai graspedthe administrative power, they began to ask, " Whatprofit is there in these Court nobles ? " So they de-prived them of their estates, not hesitating even toconfiscate lands that belonged to the Imperial family.The social fetes and feasts were abolished, and nothingsurvived but severe ceremonies. The Imperial Pal-aces became desolate, and subjects no longer repairedthither to do homage to the Sovereign. Ministers ofState, who from generation to generation had receivedthe nation's homage, had to bow their heads to petty

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JAPANofficials appointed by the SJibgun^ who was now the de-pository of power. The Five Great Families began tocurry favour with these low-born officials. Theystudied the provincial dialects and gestures becausetheir own language and fashions were ridiculed by thesamurai whom they met in the streets. They evencopied the costumes of the rustic warriors. But it wasimpossible for them to hide their old selves completely.They lost their traditional customs and did not gainthose of the provinces, so that, in the end, they werelike men who had wandered from their way in townand country alike : they were neither samurai nor CourtNobles.

But the Court nobles had their revenge, forthe luxury and debauchery which the samuraitreated with such contempt at the outset, ulti-mately proved the ruin of the samurai themselves.Kyoto was a kind of political barometer. Whenit reached its highest point of magnificence andsplendour, a revolution could always be pre-dicted. Probably its zenith of glory was in thedays of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (i 368-1 374). Heundertook the building of temples and palaces ona scale suggesting that the resources of the nationhad only one fitting purpose, the embellishmentof the capital. A pagoda three hundred andsixty feet high and a " golden pavilion " (Kinka-ku-ji) were among his most celebrated construc-tions. The former disappeared altogether in the" eleven years' war " half a century later, and ofthe latter only a portion remains, a three-storyed pavilion, the ceiling of its second storey

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MANNERS AND CUSTOMSdecorated with paintings by a celebrated artist,and the whole interior of the third storey, ceil-ing, walls, floor, balcony-railing, and projectingrafters, covered with gilding which was thicklyapplied over varnish composed of lacquer andhone-powder. Traces alone of the gold can nowbe seen, but the effect when the edifice was infull preservation must have been dazzling. Yo-shimasa, who succeeded to the Shogunate in1449 and is remembered as Japan's foremostdilettante, erected a Silver Pavilion ( Ginkakuji)in imitation of his predecessor's foible, but nevercarried it to completion. Of Kyoto as it was inhis days, at the middle of the fifteenth century,before long years of war reduced it once more toruins, only a faint conception can be formedfrom the descriptions of subsequent writers, forthey employ adjectives of admiration instead ofrecording intelligible facts. Here is what oneof them says : The finest edifices were, of course, the ImperialPalaces. Their roofs seemed to pierce the sky and

their balconies to touch the clouds. A lofty hall re-vealed itself at every fifth step and another at everytenth. No poet or man of letters could view thesebeauties unmoved. In the park, weeping willows,plum-trees, peach-trees, and pines were cleverly plantedso as to enhance the charm of the artificial hills. Rocksshaped like whales, sleeping tigers, dragons or phcE-nixes, were placed around the lake, where mandarinducks looked at their own images in the clear water.Beaudful women wearing perfumed garments of exquisite

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JAPANcolours played heavenly music. As for the " FlowerPalace " of the SKogun^ it cost six hundred thousandpieces of gold (about a million pounds sterling.) Thetiles of its roof were like jewels or precious metals. Itdefies description. In the Takakura Palace resided themother of the S/iogun and his wife. A single door costas much as twenty thousand pieces of gold (^32,000).In the eastern part of the city, stood the Karasu-maruPalace, built by Yoshimasa during his youth. It wasscarcely less magnificent. Then there was the FujiwaraPalace of Sanjo, where the mother of the late Shogun wasborn. All the resources of human intellect had beenemployed to adorn it. At Hino and Hirohashi weremansions out of which the mother of the present SKbguncame. They were full of jewels and precious objects.(The writer then enumerates the palaces of twenty-sevennoble families. ) Even men that made medicine andfortune-telling their profession, and petty officials likesecretaries, had stately residences. There were sometwo hundred of such buildings, constructed entirely ofwhite pine and having four-post gates (i. e. gates withflank entrances for persons of inferior rank). Thenthere were a hundred provincial nobles, great and small,each of whom had a stately residence, so that therewere altogether from six to seven thousand houses of afine type in the capital.The writer then devotes pages to enumerating

the great temples that stood in the city and itssuburbs. Of one he says that it was " bathed inblossoms as a mountain is in clouds," and that" in the rays of the setting sun the roof glowedlike gold," while "every breath of air waftedaround the perfume of flowers." Of anotherSh'o-kaku-jiy which Yoshimitsu built he affirms

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MANNERS AND CUSTOMSthat one of the pagodas cost a hundred times asmuch as thirteen pagodas of a century later. Ofa third he says that " its fifty pagodas stood Ukea row of stars." And his eulogies end withthe lament ; ** Alas ! The city of flowers whichwas expected to last for ten thousand years,became a scene of desolation ; the home of thefox and the wolf. Even the temples of T5ji andKitano, which survived for a time, were ultimatelyreduced to ashes. Peace succeeds war, rise fol-lows fall in all ages, but the catastrophe of theOnin era (1467) obliterated the ways of Emperorand of Buddha at once. All the glories of Impe-rialism and all the grandeur of the temples weredestroyed for ever. Well did the poet write* The capital is like an evening lark. It riseswith song and descends among tears.' "

Something must be allowed for the obviousexaggeration of this writer, but the fact remainsthat the city of Kyoto attained its zenith ofgrandeur in the middle of the fifteenth century ;that it was. reduced, a few years later, to a mereshadow of its former self, and that it never againrecovered its old magnificence. Yet, even in thedays of which the writer quoted above speaks insuch glowing terms, Kyoto could not comparewith the city that was destined to grow up in theeast of the country during the eighteenth centuryunder the sway of the Tokugawa Shoguns.One more quotation, from a work compiled

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JAPANadded here for the sake of the plaintive pictureit presents of the ruin caused by the furious andcontinuous fighting which the great trio, OdaNobunaga, Hashiba Hideyoshi, and Tokugawalyeyasu, at last brought to an end :

From the time of the Onin (1467) struggle, thesamurai turned their back on the capital and returnedto the provinces. The days of the Imperial city'ssplendour were over. The Emperor's palace was rebuilt,but on a greatly reduced scale, and Ashikaga Yoshimasacaused some fine edifices to be erected. But when thewar grew still fiercer, in the Kiroku era (i 528-1 532),every street became a battle-field ; the soldiers appliedthe torch to sacred temple, stately mansion, and spaciouspalace alike, and the citizens fled for their lives toremote places. Desolation g

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