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acccessible to the ships coming from the entire west coast and from Yezo. On the west and east the natural mountain roads and passes slope down and open toward it. Forty miles to the south are the great harbors lining the bay of Ozaka, the haven of all ships from northern or southern points of the eastern coast. Easy river communications connect Özaka with Kiōto.

The miako is beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole empire of Japan. The tone of reverential tenderness, of exulting joy, the sparkling of the eyes with which Japanese invariably speak of Kiōto, witness to the fact of its natural beauty, its sacred and classic associations, and its place in the affections of the people. The city stands on an elliptical plain walled in on all sides by evergreen hills and mountains, like the floor of a huge flattened crater no longer choked with lava, but mantled with flowers. On the south the river Kamo, and on the north, east, and west, flowing in crystal clearness, the affluents of Kamo curve around the city, nearly encircle it, uniting at the south-west to form the Yodo River. Through the centre and in several of the streets the branches of the river flow, giving a feeling of grateful coolness in the heats of summer, and is the source of the cleanliness characteristic of Kiōto. The streets run parallel and cross at right angles, and the whole plan of the city is excellent. The mikado's palace is situated in the north-eastern quarter. Art and nature are wedded in beauty. The monotony of the clean squares is broken by numerous groves, temples, monasteries, and cemeteries. On the mountain overlooking the city peep out pagodas and shrines. The hill-slopes blossom with gardens. The suburbs are places of delight and loveliness. The blue Lake of Biwa, the tea-plantations of Uji, the thousand chosen resorts of picnic groups in the adjacent shady hills, the resorts for ramblers, the leafy walks for the poet, the groves for the meditative student or the pious monk, the thousand historical and holy associations invest Kiōto with an interest attaching to no other place in Japan. Here, or in its vicinity, have dwelt for seventeen centuries the mikados of Japan.

As the children and descendants of the mikados increased at the capital there was formed the material for classes of nobility. It was to the interest of these nobles to cherish with pride their traditions of divine descent. Their studied exaltation of the mikado as their head was the natural consequence. The respect and deference of distant tributary princes wishing to obtain and preserve favor at court served only to increase the honor of these nobles of the capital. The

fealty of the distant princes was measured not only by their tribute and military assistance, but by their close conformity to the customs of the miako, which naturally became the centre of learning and civilization.

Previous to the era of Sujin, the observance of the time of beginning the new year, as well as the celebration of the sacred festivals to the gods, was not the same throughout the provinces. The acceptance of a uniform calendar promulgated from the capital was then, as now, a sign of loyalty of far greater significance than would appear to us at first sight. This was forcibly shown in Yokohama, as late as 1872, after the mikado had abolished the lunar, and ordered the use of the solar, or Gregorian, calendar in his dominions. The resident Chinese, in an incendiary document, which was audaciously posted on the gates of the Japanese magistrate's office, denounced the Japanese for having thus signified, by the adoption of the barbarians' time, that they had yielded themselves up to be the slaves of the "foreign devils."

The mikado has no family name. He needs none, because his dynasty never changes. Being above ordinary mortals, no name is necessary to distinguish him from men. He need be personally distinguished only from the gods. When he dies, he will enter the company of the gods. He is deified under some name, with Tennō (son, or king, of heaven) affixed. It was not proper (until 1872, when the custom was abrogated) for ordinary people to pronounce the name of the living mikado aloud, or to write it in full: a stroke should be left out of each of the characters.

Previous to the general use of Chinese writing, the mikados, about fifty in all, had long names ending in "mikoto," a term of respect equivalent to "augustness," and quite similar to those applied to the gods. These extremely long names, now so unmanageable to foreign, and even to modern native, tongues, gave place in popular use to the greatly abbreviated Chinese equivalents. A complete calendar of the names of the gods and goddesses, mikados and empresses and heroes, was made out in Chinese characters. It is so much more convenient to use these, that I have inserted them in the text, even though to do so seems in many an instance an anachronism. The difference in learned length and thundering sound of the Japanese and the Chinese form of some of these names will be easily seen and fully appreciated after a glance, by the Occidental reader who is terrified at the uncouthness of both, or who fears to trust his vocal organs to attempt their pro

nunciation. Amaterasu ō mikami becomes Ten Shō Dai Jin; Okinaga Tarashi Himé becomes Jingu Kōgō.

After the Chinese writing became fashionable, the term mikoto was dropped. The mikados after death received a different name from that used when living: thus Kan Yamato Iware hiko no mikoto became, posthumously, Jimmu Tennō.

The Golden Age of the mikado's power ceased after the introduction of Buddhism and the Chinese system of officialdom. The decadence of his personal power began, and steadily continued. Many of the high ministers at court became Buddhists, as well as the mikados. It now began to be a custom for the emperors to abdicate after short reigns, shave off their hair in token of renunciation of the world, become monks, and retire from active life, taking the title Hō-ō (ho, law of Buddha; ō, mikado=cloistered emperor). During the eighth century, while priests were multiplying, and monasteries were everywhere being established, the court was the chief propaganda. The courtiers vied with each other in holy zeal and study of the sacred books of India, while the minds of the empresses and boy-emperors were occupied with schemes for the advancement of Buddhism. In 741, the erection of two great temples, and of a seven-storied pagoda in each province, was ordered. The abdication after short reigns made the mikados mere puppets of the ministers and courtiers. Instead of warriors braving discomforts of the camp, leading armies in battle, or fighting savages, the chief rulers of the empire abdicated, after short reigns, to retire into monasteries, or give themselves up to license. This evil state of affairs continued, until, in later centuries, effeminate men, steeped in sensual delights, or silly boys, who droned away their lives in empty pomp and idle luxury, or became the tools of monks, filled the throne. Meanwhile the administration of the empire from the capital declined, while the influence of the military classes increased. As the mikado's actual power grew weaker, his nominal importance increased. He was surrounded by a hedge of etiquette that secluded him from the outer world. He never appeared in public. His subjects, except his wife and concubines and highest ministers, never saw his face. He sat on a throne of mats behind a curtain. His feet were never allowed to touch the earth. When he went abroad in the city, he rode in a car closely curtained, and drawn by bullocks. The relation of emperor and subject thus grew mythical, and the way was paved for some bold usurper to seize the actuality of power, while the name remained sacred and inviolate.

XII.

THE BEGINNING OF MILITARY DOMINATION.

WITH rank, place, and power as the prizes, there were not wanting rival contestants to dispute the monopoly of the Fujiwara. The prosperity and domineering pride of the scions of this ancient house, instead of overawing those of younger families that were forming in the capital, served only as spurs to their pride and determination to share the highest gifts of the sovereign. It may be easily supposed that the Fujiwara did not attain the summit of their power without the sacrifice of many a rival aspirant. The looseness of the marriage tie, the intensity of ambition, the greatness of the prize-the throne itself-made the court ever the fruitful soil of intrigue, jealousies, proscription, and even the use of poison and the dagger. The fate of many a noble victim thus sacrificed on the altars of jealousy and revenge forms the subject of the most pathetic passages of the Japanese historians, and the tear-compelling scenes of the romance and the drama. The increase of families was the increase of feuds. Arrogance and pride were matched by craft and subtlety that finally led to quarrels which rent the nation, to civil war, and to the almost utter extinction of one of the great families.

The Sugawara were the most ancient rivals of the Fujiwara. The most illustrious victim of court intrigue bearing this name was Sugawara Michizané. This polished courtier, the Beauclerc of his age, had, by the force of his talents and learning, risen to the position of inner great minister. As a scholar, he ranked among the highest of his age. At different periods of his life he wrote, or compiled, from the oldest records various histories, some of which are still extant. His industry and ability did not, however, exempt him from the jealous annoyances of the Fujiwara courtiers, who imbittered his life by poisoning the minds of the emperor and courtiers against him. One of them, Tokihira, secured an edict banishing him to Kiushiu. Here, in the horrors of poverty and exile, he endeavored to get a petition to the mikado, but failed to do so, and starved to death, on the 25th

day of the Second month, 903. Michizané is now known by his posthumous name of Tenjin. Many temples have been erected in his honor, and students worship his spirit, as the patron god of letters and literature. Children at school pray to him that they may become good writers, and win success in study. Some of his descendants are still living.

When Michizané died, the Sugawara were no longer to be dreaded as a rival family. Another brood were springing up, who were destined to become the most formidable rivals of the Fujiwara. More than a century before, one of the concubines, or extra wives, of the Emperor Kuammu had borne a son, who, having talents as well as imperial blood, rose to be head of the Board of Civil Office, and master of court ceremonies-an office similar to the lord high chamberlain of England.* To his grandson Takamochi was given the surname of Taira in 889-one hundred and one years before the banishment of Michizané.

The civil offices being already monopolized by the Fujiwara, the members of the family of Taira early showed a fondness and special fitness for military life, which, with their experience, made them most eligible to the commands of military expeditions. The Fujiwara had become wholly wedded to palace life, and preferred the ease and luxury of the court to the discomforts of the camp and the dangers of the battle-field. Hence the shōguns, or generals, were invariably appointed among sons of the Taira or the Minamoto, both of which families became the military vassals of the crown. While the men led the armies, fought the foe, and returned in triumph, the mothers at home fired the minds of their sons with the recital of the deeds of their fathers. Thus bred to arms, inured to war, and living chiefly in the camp, a hardy race of warriors grew up and formed the military caste. So long as the Taira or Minamoto leaders were content with war and its glory, there was no reason for the Fujiwara to fear danger from them as rivals at court. But in times of peace and inaction, the minds of these men of war longed to share in the spoils of peace; or, having no more enemies to conquer, their energies were turned against their fellows. The peculiar basis of the imperial succession opened an equally wide field for the play of female ambition; and

Princes of the blood were eligible to the following offices: Minister of the imperial household, lord high chamberlain, minister of war, president of the censorate, and the governorships of Kōdzuké, Kadzusa, and Hitachi. The actual duties of the office were, however, performed by inferior officials.

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