著名人物

25.—List of Celebrated Personages. The following list of celebrated personages referred to in this book, and likely to be mentioned by guides when explaining objects of historical or artistic interest, may be found useful. BENKEI, or MUSASHI-BŌ BENKEI, was Yoshitsune's famous henchman. How many of Benkei's valorous achievements are historical, it would be hard to say.

原資料 p. 54

According to the orthodox account, he was eight feet in height, strong as a hundred men, and had even in early years performed so many deeds of violence as to have been nicknamed Oni-waka, “the Devil Youth.” Having attempted to cut down Yoshitsune, then a mere stripling, on the Gojō Bridge in Kyōto, he found in him his master in the art of fencing, and was made to sue for quarter. So great was the veneration thus inspired in his breast, that he thenceforth attached himself to Yoshitsune's fortunes and died battling in his cause. The fight between Yoshitsune and Benkei is a favourite subject with the artists of Japan.

原資料 p. 54

Another is the subterfuge by which Benkei made way for his master and their little band through one of the

原資料 p. 54

barriers where at that time all travellers were liable to be stopped. He pretended that he was a priest sent to collect subscriptions for the building of a new temple, and therefore privileged to travel free. The pictures represent him reading out his supposed ecclesiastical commission from a scroll to the barrier-keepers, who were too ignorant of letters to discover the feint. This story is also the subject of a drama called Kanjin-chō. BUSON (1716-1783), a highly original and vigorous artist of the Chinese school. CHŌ DENSU (second half of 14th century), the best and most original painter of the Buddhist school, is termed by Anderson “the Fra Angelico of Japan.” DENGYŌ DAISHI (flourished about A.D.

原資料 p. 55

800) was the first Buddhist abbot of Hiei-zan. He made a long sojourn in China for the purpose of esoteric study, and brought back with him the doctrines of the Tendai sect. EN NO SHŌKAKU, a famous Buddhist saint and miracle-worker of the 7th century, and the first human being to ascend Haku-san, Daisen, Tateyama, and others of Japan's highest mountains, it being part of his mission to bring all such remote and inaccessible places under the sway of Buddha.

原資料 p. 55

Having been slandered as a magician and condemned to death, he so fortified himself by the use of mystic signs and formulæ that the swords of the executioners sent to behead him snapped in pieces; but afterwards he flew away through the air, and was never again seen by mortal eyes. ESHIN (942-1017), a Buddhist abbot who is famous as a sculptor. GO-DAIGO TENNŌ (reigned 1319-1339) was a Mikado celebrated for his misfortunes. At the beginning of his reign, the throne and the nation were alike trampled under foot by the Hōjō “Regents” at Kamakura, and his endeavour to shake off their domination only resulted, after much shedding of blood, in his being taken prisoner and banished to the Oki Islands.

原資料 p. 55

When the Hōjōs fell in 1333 under the sword of the loyalist warrior Nitta Yoshisada, the Emperor Go-Daigo was recalled from exile. But the times were not ripe for the abolition of military rule, nor was Go-Daigo wise in his choice of counsellors after his restoration. Ashikaga Takauji, who had posed as the champion of Imperial rights, desired nothing so much as to become Shōgun himself, and bribed the Mikado's concubine Kado-ko to poison her master's mind against those who had served him most faithfully, and even against his own son, Prince Moriyoshi, who was declared a rebel, cast into a dungeon at Kamakura, and there murdered. Go-Daigo repented of his folly and weakness when it was too late.

原資料 p. 55

Takauji left Kyōto, and the army sent to smite him received such a crushing defeat that Go-Daigo was forced to seek safety in flight. Thereupon Takauji set another Mikado on the throne. But as Go-Daigo continued to be recognised by many as the rightful sovereign, the Mikadoate was split into two rival branches, called the Southern (legitimate) and the Northern (usurping) Courts. After sixty years of strife and misery, the Northern Court triumphed in 1392, the representative of the Southern dynasty handing over to it the Imperial regalia. Go-Daigo perished at an early period of the

原資料 p. 55

struggle. His Court—if we may so call the mountain fastness where he mostly encamped—was at Yoshino, whose position to the South of Kyōto was the origin of the epithet “Southern” applied to it by historians. GYŌGI BOSATSU (670-749), a Korean by birth, and a Buddhist abbot and saint, is the subject of many artistic fictions. He is credited not only with the invention of the potter's wheel, which was certainly used in Japan before his time, but with a number of important wood carvings and other works of art. HIDARI JINGORŌ (1594-1634), Japan's greatest carver in wood, was a simple carpenter whose nickname of Hidari arose from his being left-handed.

原資料 p. 56

Among the best known of his works are the carved gateway of the Nishi Hongwanji Temple in Kyōto, the ramma, or ventilating panels of the principal apartments in the same temple, and three carvings,—two of elephants after designs by Kanō Tan-yū, and one of a sleeping cat, in the mortuary chapel of Ieyasu at Nikkō. The notice attracted by his labours was so great that the architects and wood-carvers, whose artistic efforts had previously been limited to the execution of mechanical designs and conventional flowers, now came to be regarded as a body distinct from the carpenters to whom they had hitherto been affiliated.

原資料 p. 56

HIDEYOSHI (1536-1598), commonly known as the Taikō Hideyoshi—the word Taikō being a title indicative of exalted rank—has sometimes been called the Napoleon of Japan. Of low birth and so ugly as to earn the nickname of “Monkey,” Hideyoshi worked his way up by sheer will, hard fighting, and far-sighted ability, to the position of Nobunaga's most trusty lieutenant; and when that ruler died in 1582, Hideyoshi, having slain his chief enemies and captured Kyōto, became practically monarch of Japan with the title of Regent (Kwanbaku), which till then had never been accorded to any but the highest nobility.

原資料 p. 56

Hideyoshi carried out many wise measures of internal policy, such as financial reform, the improvement of the great cities of Kyōto and Ōsaka, and the encouragement of maritime trade. He was also more merciful to his foes and rivals than his predecessor Nobunaga had been. His greatest failing was the vulgar ambition of the parvenu. His dream was to conquer China and become Emperor of the whole East. As a first step towards this, he sent an army across the straits to Korea under command of the celebrated generals Katō Kiyomasa and Konishi Yukinaga—the latter a Christian, as were many of the soldiers of the expedition. Korea was ruined, and Japan no wise benefited.

原資料 p. 56

Hideyoshi's death resulted in the withdrawal of the Japanese troops from the peninsula, and in the speedy overthrow of his own family power which he had hoped to render hereditary. IEMITSU (1604-1651), the third Shōgun of the Tokugawa dynasty, inherited the administrative ability of his grandfather Ieyasu, and devoted his peaceful reign to perfecting the system of government established by the latter, including the elaborate system of espionage of which early writers on Japan have so much to say. To him is due the rule according to which all the Daimyōs were obliged to reside during half the year in Yedo, and to leave their families there as hostages during the other half.

原資料 p. 56

It was also Iemitsu who suppressed Christianity as

原資料 p. 56

dangerous to the state, and closed up the country against all foreigners except the Dutch and Chinese, who were permitted to trade at Nagasaki under humiliating conditions. In fact, it was Iemitsu who consolidated what we call “Old Japan.” His tomb is at Nikkō near that of Ieyasu. IEYASU (1542-1616), one of the greatest generals and altogether the greatest ruler that Japan has ever produced, was a Samurai of the province of Mikawa, and a scion of the great family of Minamoto. His own surname was Tokugawa.

原資料 p. 57

Having served under both Nobunaga and the Taikō Hideyoshi, he profited by the latter's death in 1598 to make war on his infant son Hideyori, seized the great castle of Ōsaka, burnt the Taikō's celebrated palace of Momoyama at Fushimi, and finally in the year 1600 defeated all his enemies at the battle of Seki-ga-hara, a small village in the province of Ōmi, now a station on the Tōkaidō Railway. Meanwhile he had, in 1590, moved his own headquarters from Shizuoka, where they had been for many years, to Yedo, then an unimportant fishing-village, which he chose on account of the strategic advantages of its position.

原資料 p. 57

In 1603 he obtained from the fainéant Court of Kyōto the title of Shōgun, which was borne by his descendants during two and a half centuries of unbroken peace, till Commodore Perry's arrival in 1853 led to the revolution of 1868, and to the break-up of Japanese feudalism and dualism. The statecraft which caused so long a reign of peace under one dynasty to take the place of the secular struggles between petty warring chieftains, consisted greatly in a balance of power whereby the rivalries of the greater Daimyōs were played off against each other, and in the annexation to the Shōgun's own domain or to those of his nearest relatives of large strips of territory in all portions of the Empire.

原資料 p. 57

These served as coignes of vantage, whence in those days of difficult communication, the actions of each Daimyō could more easily be controlled. Ieyasu held in his own grasp all the military resources of the country, and forced all the Daimyōs to regard themselves as his feudatories. He likewise had the Court of Kyōto strictly guarded—nominally as a protection for the sacred Mikado against rebel foes, but in reality to prevent His Majesty, who still retained the semblance of Imperial power, from endeavouring to shake off the fetters which made him a passive instrument in the Shōgun's hands.

原資料 p. 57

Ieyasu furthermore built powerful strongholds, made new highways, established a system of posts, and promulgated laws, which—if we accept the theory of paternal government alike in politics and in the family—were very wise, and which were in any case far in advance of anything that Japan had known before. When the government had been established on a firm footing in 1605, Ieyasu followed the usual Japanese plan of abdicating in favour of his son. He retired to Shizuoka, and spent the evening of his life in encouraging the renaissance of Japanese literature which had just begun. To his munificence is owing the editio princeps of many an important work.

原資料 p. 57

Ieyasu was first buried at Kunō-zan, not far from Shizuoka, in a beautiful shrine on a castle-like eminence overlooking the sea. In the year 1617, his remains were removed to their present still grander resting-place at Nikkō. The dynasty of Shōguns founded by Ieyasu is called the Tokugawa dynasty, from the surname of the family. IWASA MATAHEI (16th century) was the originator of the Ukiyo-

原資料 p. 57

e-Ryū, or “popular school,” of Japanese art, which, abandoning the prescribed subjects and conventional routine of the classical schools, undertook to paint life as it is. JIMMU TENNŌ, that is, the Emperor Jimmu, is accounted by the Japanese annalists the first human sovereign of their country, which had till then been ruled over by the Shintō gods. Jimmu Tennō was himself descended from the Sun-Goddess Ama-terasu, and consequently semi-divine. The orthodox account of his career is, that starting from Kyūshū in the extreme West of Japan, he rowed up the Inland Sea with a band of devoted warriors, subduing the aborigines as he went along, in virtue of the commission which he had received from heaven.

原資料 p. 58

After much fighting in what are now the provinces of Bizen and Yamato, and many miraculous occurrences, he died at the age of one hundred and thirty-seven, and was buried at Kashiwabara in Yamato where his capital had been established after the conquest. The date assigned for his accession is the 11th February, 660 B.C., the anniversary of which day has been made a public holiday during the present reign, and was chosen for the promulgation of the new Constitution, evidently with the desire to strengthen the popular belief in the authenticity and continuity of Japanese history.

原資料 p. 58

Jimmu Tennō and his successors during many centuries have, however, been condemned as myths by competent European investigators, though it is allowed that the Jimmu legend may possibly be an echo of some actual invasion of central Japan by Western tribes of adventurers in very early days. JINGŌ KŌGŌ, that is the Empress Jingō, ruled over Japan, according to the native annalists, from A.D. 201 to 269, when she died at the age of one hundred; but Aston, the greatest authority on early Japanese history, while not denying the existence of this Japanese Semiramis, relegates most of her great deeds to the realm of fable.

原資料 p. 58

The chief legend connected with her is that of her conquest of Korea, to which country she crossed over with a gallant fleet, aided by the fishes both great and small and by a miraculous wave, and whence she returned only after receiving the abject submission of the King. During the three years of her absence in Korea, she held in her womb her son Ōjin, who is worshipped as Hachiman, the God of War. Next she turned her attention Eastwards, and, going in her fleet up the Inland Sea, smote the rebels of Yamato, as Jimmu Tennō is said to have done before her. Indeed, it has been suspected that the two legends are but slightly varying versions of the same story. JŌSETSU (flourished about A.D.

原資料 p. 58

1400), a priest and celebrated painter. Anderson calls him the Japanese Cimabue. KANŌ, the family name of a celebrated school of painters, which originated in the 15th century and is not yet extinct. Its manner, which appears highly conventional to Europeans, is classical in the eyes of the Japanese. The greatest of these painters was Kanō Motonobu (born 1477). Other noteworthy members of the family were K. Shōei, K. Eitoku, and K. Sanraku (16th century), K. Sansetsu, and especially K. Tan-yū. K. Naonobu, K. Yasunobu, K. Tōun, and K. Tsunenobu were also famous. All these names, from Sansetsu onwards, belong to the 17th century.

原資料 p. 58

The Japanese custom of adoption is the key to the apparent mystery of so many men similarly gifted arising in one family.

原資料 p. 58

KATŌ KIYOMASA was one of Hideyoshi's generals in the invasion of Korea at the end of the 16th century, and a fierce enemy of the Christians. He is one of the most popular Japanese heroes, and is worshipped—chiefly by the Nichiren sect of Buddhists—under the name of Seishōkō. KIYOMORI (1118-1181), whom Satow calls the Warwick of Japanese history, was head of the great house of Taira during its struggles with the rival house of Minamoto, and during the brief period of triumph which preceded its final overthrow at Dan-no-ura.

原資料 p. 59

From the year 1156 until his death, Kiyomori was all-powerful, engrossing all the highest offices of state for his own kinsmen, and governing the Palace through his kinswomen where boy Mikados succeeded each other like shadows on the throne. To suit his own convenience, he moved the capital for a time from Kyōto to Fukuwara near the site of modern Kōbe—an act of high-handed autocracy which was bitterly resented by the courtiers and the nobility, whose habits were interfered with and resources taxed by the double move. While irritating the upper classes by his nepotism and overbearing demeanour, he ground down the common people by his exactions, and endeavoured utterly to exterminate the Taira clan.

原資料 p. 59

The famous beauty Tokiwa, handmaiden to Yoshitomo, was forced to yield to his embraces in order to save the life of her infant, the future hero Yoshitsune, and every woman that pleased him had to minister to his lust. His eldest son Shigemori remonstrated with him in vain. But the storm did not break in his time. He died in his bed, leaving his whole house to perish four years later in a sea of blood. KŌBŌ DAISHI (774-834), the most famous of all Japanese Buddhist saints, was noted equally as preacher, painter, sculptor, calligraphist, and traveller.

原資料 p. 59

Had his life lasted six hundred years instead of sixty, he could hardly have graven all the images, scaled all the mountain-peaks, confounded all the sceptics, wrought all the miracles, and performed all the other feats with which he is popularly credited. Byōbu-ga-ura, near the modern temple of Kompira in Shikoku, was his birth-place. His conception was miraculous, and he came into the world with his hands folded as if in prayer. He entered the priesthood in A.D. 793. Various legends are told of the trials to which he was subjected by evil spirits during his novitiate. At Cape Muroto in Tosa, dragons and other monsters appeared out of the sea and disturbed him in his prayers.

原資料 p. 59

These he drove away by repeating mystic formulæ called Darani, and by spitting at them the rays of the evening star which had flown from heaven into his mouth. At a temple built by him on this spot, he was constantly annoyed by hobgoblins who forced him to enter into conversation; but he finally got rid of them by surrounding himself with a consecrated enclosure into which they were unable to enter against his will. Having been sent to China as a student in 804, much as promising Japanese youths are sent to Europe and America to-day, he became the favourite disciple of the great abbot Hui-kwo (Jap.

原資料 p. 59

Kei-kwa), by whom he was charged to carry back to Japan the tenets of the Yogâchârya, or, as it is called in Japan, Shingon sect, which occupies itself greatly with mystic formularies, magic spells, and incantations. Kōbō Daishi returned home in 806, bringing with him a

原資料 p. 59

large quantity of Buddhist books and religious paraphernalia, and in 810 was appointed abbot of Tōji in Kyōto. A few years later he founded the great monastery of Kōya-san, where his last days were spent at the close of a life of incessant toil. It is asserted that he did not die, but merely retired into a vaulted tomb, where he still awaits the coming of Miroku, the Buddhist Messiah. Among the innumerable great deeds with which this saint is credited, is the invention of the Hiragana syllabary. It should be noted that the name Kōbō Daishi (lit. the Great Teacher Spreading abroad the Law) is a posthumous title conferred on him by the Emperor Daigo in the year 921. His name while alive was Kūkai.

原資料 p. 60

KOJIMA TAKANORI, a high-born warrior of the 14th century, is celebrated for his loyalty to the ill-starred Emperor Go-Daigo. KŌRIN (latter half of 17th century) was a famous lacquer artist and painter. KOSE NO KANAOKA (second half of 9th century) was the first great Japanese painter. A number of quaint legends testify to the effect which his skill produced on the minds of his contemporaries. KUMAGAI NAOZANE, a warrior of the latter half of the 12th century, took his surname from the town of Kumagai in Musashi, which he received as a fief from Yoritomo. The most famous incident in his life was his encounter with Atsumori at the battle of Ichi-no-tani not far from Kōbe, in the year 1184.

原資料 p. 60

Atsumori was a delicate young nobleman of the Taira clan, scarcely sixteen years of age, who, when the city of Fukuwara had been taken by the Minamoto, sought safety like the rest of his kindred in flight on board a junk, but being pursued by Kumagai Naozane, had to fight for his life. He succumbed to the veteran, who, tearing off his helmet the better to cut off his head, beheld the youthful face and was struck with pity and sympathy, his own son having fallen earlier in the day. He reflected, however, that to spare the boy's life would only cause him to fall into more ruthless hands. So partly out of compassion, and partly for the sake of his own reputation, he resolved to carry out his first purpose.

原資料 p. 60

Atsumori submitted to his fate with heroic courage, while Naozane, overwhelmed with bitter remorse, vowed never more to bear arms, but to forsake the world and devote the remainder of his days to praying for the soul of the fair youth whose life he had so unwillingly taken. He restored to Atsumori's father the head and the other spoils which he had won, and after the conclusion of the war he went to Kyōto, and took monastic vows in the temple of Kurodani, where numerous relics of him are shown to this day. The story has been dramatised under the title of Atsumori. KUSUNOKI MASASHIGE (first half of 14th century) is celebrated for his courage and for his unswerving loyalty to the throne.

原資料 p. 60

Had the Emperor Go-Daigo listened to his advice, the rising power of the house of Ashikaga might have been crushed. As it was, Masashige was unequally pitted against a superior foe; and when his army had been annihilated at the battle of Minato-gawa in 1336, he and a little band of personal followers committed harakiri rather than surrender. A scene which artists often represent, is Masashige about to die, presenting to his son the ancestral roll in order to stimulate him to deeds worthy of the family renown.

原資料 p. 60

MITO KŌMON (1622-1700), second Prince of Mito, a near relative of the Tokugawa Shōguns, helped greatly though unconsciously to the final overthrow of their house, and of the whole feudal system a century and a half later, by means of his celebrated historical work, the Dai Nihon Shi, which first caused men to suspect that the Shōguns were usurpers, and the Mikados the only rightful rulers of Japan. He also patronised the new school of Shintō literati, whose studies led them, and finally the majority of the educated public, to endeavour to bring back the state of things which had existed in pre-Buddhistic and pre-feudal days.

原資料 p. 61

Popular tradition ascribes to this prince many fanciful undertakings, such as the endeavour to raise the great bell from the river at Kōnodai, and to find the bottom of the Kaname-ishi at Kashima, which is supposed to be the pivot of the world. MURASAKI SHIKIBU (flourished about A.D. 1000) was a Court lady, and the most celebrated of Japanese romance-writers. Her chief work is the Genji Monogatari. NICHIREN was born at Kominato in the province of Awa at the mouth of Yedo Bay in A.D. 1222. At the age of twelve, he became a neophyte in the Shingon sect of Buddhists, and was admitted to the priesthood three years later. Shortly afterwards, he adopted the name by which he is known to history.

原資料 p. 61

It signifies ‘lotus of the sun,’ and is derived from a dream dreamt by his mother of the sun on a lotus-flower, in consequence of which she became pregnant. He acquired a thorough knowledge of the whole Buddhist canon by a miracle, and met in the course of his studies with words which he converted into the formula Namu myōhō renge kyō, ‘Oh, the scripture of the Lotus of the Wonderful Law!’—a formula which is still constantly used as an invocation by his followers. Having attracted the attention of the Regent Tokiyori by the unsparing manner in which he attacked other sects, he was banished to the peninsula of Izu in 1261, but pardoned soon after.

原資料 p. 61

Ten years later, his enemies persuaded the Regent Tokimune that Nichiren's doctrines tended to subvert the state. He was seized and thrown into a cave with his six chief disciples, and condemned to be beheaded the same night; but when brought to the place of execution, was saved by a miracle, the executioner's sword failing to act on the head of so holy a man, and Tokimune, warned in a dream, spared his life. Nichiren was, however, banished to the island of Sado in the North, but was permitted in 1274 to return to Kamakura, then the military capital of Eastern Japan.

原資料 p. 61

He next retired to live among the mountains of Minobu in a hut, which he quitted in order to take up his abode with the lord of the manor, Nambu Rokurō, a devotee so zealous that he bestowed on the saint and his sect for ever all the lands in his possession. As crowds of disciples flocked to Nichiren for instruction in the faith, he erected a small shrine which became the nucleus of the now famous monastery of Minobu. In 1282, feeling that death was approaching, he removed from Minobu to Ikegami, near the modern city of Tōkyō, and there died. His body was burnt on the spot and the bones conveyed to Minobu, only a small portion being retained at Ikegami as a precious relic.

原資料 p. 61

His zeal and his intolerance appear to have been inherited by his spiritual children,—the Nichiren-shū, or Hokke-shū, as the sect derived from him is also called, having pushed

原資料 p. 61

the odium theologicum to a degree otherwise rare in Japan. The chief outward and visible—or rather audible—sign of their temples is the drum, which the devotees beat for hours together to keep time to their chanting of the sacred formula Namu myōhō renge kyō. NITTA YOSHISADA, a warrior of the 14th century, famed for his courage and for his devotion to the Mikado's cause against the usurping families of Hōjō and Ashikaga. NOBUNAGA,* properly Ota Nobunaga (1534-1582), was a warrior who, in the general scramble for land and power which went on in the latter half of the 16th century, gained possession of the provinces of Suruga, Mino, Ōmi, Mikawa, Ise, and Echizen.

原資料 p. 62

Having next taken Kyōto, he built the fine castle of Nijō, and sided with Ashikaga Yoshiaki, who by his influence was made Shōgun in 1558. Six years later the two quarrelled. Nobunaga arrested and deposed Yoshiaki, and the power of the Ashikaga family, which had lasted two hundred and thirty-eight years, came to an end. By the aid of his generals, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu, he brought large portions of the Empire under his sway, but never obtained the title of Shōgun, which custom had limited to members of the Minamoto family, whereas Nobunaga was of Taira descent. Though a great soldier, Nobunaga lacked the administrative ability to follow up and consolidate the advantages gained in war.

原資料 p. 62

Consequently, when he was assassinated by an offended subordinate named Akechi, his power died with him. Nobunaga was a bitter enemy to Buddhism. Among his many acts of violence, was the destruction of the great monastery of Hiei-zan near Kyōto and of the Hongwanji at Ōsaka, on both which occasions frightful scenes of massacre ensued. On the other hand, he encouraged the Christians; but it is not to be supposed that a man of his stamp did so out of any appreciation of their religious doctrines. * This article is taken almost verbatim from Griffis's “Mikado's Empire,” Chap.

原資料 p. 62

XXIII. ŌKYO (1733-1795), properly called Maruyama Ōkyo, was the founder of the Shijō school of painting, whose watchword was fidelity to nature, though, as Anderson points out, their practice was far less radical than their theory, and did not lead them actually to reject the conventionalities of their predecessors in art. Ōkyo was specially successful in his paintings of birds and fishes. SAIGŌ, a Samurai of the Satsuma clan, whose youth coincided with the closing years of the Japanese ancien régime, conspicuously distinguished himself on the Imperialist side.

原資料 p. 62

Before the triumph of the latter, he was thrice exiled to Vries Island as a political suspect; but after the revolution of 1868, to the success of which he contributed so materially as to earn the title of Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial army, he became one of the most important personages in the state. His programme, however, was no radical one.

原資料 p. 62

When his colleagues in the government showed that their aim was not, as had at first been asserted, a return to the Japan of early historic days, but the complete Europeanisation of the country and the abandonment of all national usages and traditions, Saigō broke with them, and retired to the city of Kagoshima in Satsuma, where he founded a military school to which all the ardent youth of Satsuma and Ōsumi soon began to flock.

原資料 p. 62

The influence of this school precipitated the inevitable conflict between the old and the new order of ideas. It broke out in 1877, and is known to history as the Satsuma Rebellion. After a struggle of several months, the Imperialists triumphed, and Saigō himself fell on the 24th September, as did the whole of the little band of three hundred that had remained faithful to him till the end. Saigō still lives in popular estimation as the most perfect example of a brave warrior and a true patriot; and even the Imperial Court now honours his memory, the ban of degradation having been removed in 1890, and the dead Commander-in-Chief re-instated posthumously in all his honours.

原資料 p. 63

The common people say that Saigō's spirit has gone to dwell in one of the brightest stars of heaven. The visit of the Czarewitch to Japan in 1891 helped to give credence to a wild notion according to which Saigō had, like Yoshitsune centuries before, escaped to Siberia. The possibility of his returning to Japan in the Czarewitch's train was seriously discussed by several newspapers, and one adherent of the old school of Japanese ethics went so far as to commit harakiri when told by his friends that he must be mad to believe such a tale. SESSHŪ (1421-1527) was the greatest Japanese artist of the Chinese school of painting.

原資料 p. 63

Anderson says of him: “It is difficult for a European to estimate Sesshū at his true value... Notwithstanding the boast of the artist that the scenery of China was his only teacher, and the credit bestowed upon him by his admirers of having invented a new style, he has in no respect departed from the artificial rules accepted by his fellow painters. He was, however, an original and powerful artist, and his renderings of Chinese scenery bear evidences of local study that we look for in vain in the works of his successors.

原資料 p. 63

The grand simplicity of his landscape compositions, their extraordinary breadth of design, the illusive suggestions of atmosphere and distance, and the all-pervading sense of poetry, demonstrate a genius that could rise above all defects of theory in the principles of his art.” SHINRAN SHŌNIN (1173-1262) was the founder of the powerful Ikkō-shū sect of Buddhists, also called Shinshū or Monto, whose splendid temples, known by the name of Hongwanji or Monzeki, are among the chief sights of most Japanese cities.

原資料 p. 63

Hongwanji means ‘the Monastery of the Real Vow,’ in allusion to the vow made by Amida that he would not accept Buddhahood except under the condition that salvation was made attainable for all who should sincerely desire to be born into his kingdom, and signify their desire by invoking his name ten times. It is upon a passage in a Buddhist scripture where this vow is recorded that the doctrine of the sect is based, its central idea being that man is to be saved by faith in the merciful power of Amida, and not by works or vain repetition of prayers. For this reason, and also because its priests are permitted to marry, this sect has sometimes been called the Protestantism of Japan.

原資料 p. 63

In the year 1602, political reasons caused a split in the sect, which since that time has been divided into a Western and an Eastern branch—Nishi Hongwanji and Higashi Hongwanji,—each branch owning a temple in every considerable city of the Empire. Shinran Shōnin was descended from the Imperial family. The abbots of the sect therefore bear the title of Monzeki, or

原資料 p. 63

Imperial Offspring, while the walls enclosing its temples are allowed the suji-kabe, or striped plaster ornamentation, otherwise reserved for buildings inhabited by Imperial princes. During the present reign, Shinran Shōnin has been honoured by the bestowal of the posthumous title of Kenshin Daishi, that is ‘the Great Teacher who Sees the Truth.’ SHŌTOKU TAISHI (572-621), the Constantine of Japanese Buddhism, was son of the Emperor Yōmei and regent under the Empress Suiko, but never himself actually ascended the throne. He founded a large number of monasteries, framed a short code of laws, and is said to have introduced the use of the calendar into Japan.

原資料 p. 64

He is also the reputed author of numerous paintings and sculptures, which Anderson, however, inclines to consider apocryphal. SHŪBUN (15th century), one of the greatest Japanese painters of the Chinese school. SOSEN (1747-1821), an artist of the Shijō school, famed for his paintings of monkeys. TAKENOUCHI NO SUKUNE, the Methuselah of Japan, is said to have lived two hundred and fifty-five years (according to others, three hundred and sixty years), and to have served six successive Mikados. His birth is supposed to have taken place about 200 B.C. TOBA SŌJŌ, an abbot of the 13th century, is famous as the originator of a quaint, coarse style of picture called Toba-e.

原資料 p. 64

YAMATO-TAKE NO MIKOTO, one of the eighty children of the Emperor Keikō, was a great hero of the pre-historic age. While yet a stripling, he was sent by his father to destroy the rebels of Western Japan,—an object which he accomplished by disguising himself as a girl, and making the rebel chieftains fall in love with him while carousing in the cave where they dwelt. Then suddenly drawing a sword from his bosom, he smote them to death. He next subdued the province of Izumo, and finally conquered Eastern Japan, which was at that time a barbarous waste. After many adventures both warlike and amorous, he died on the homeward march to Yamato where the Emperor his father held his Court.

原資料 p. 64

YORITOMO (1147-1199) was the founder of the Shōgunate, the first Japanese Mayor of the Palace, if we may so phrase it. A scion of the great house of Minamoto, as shrewd and ambitious as he was unscrupulous and inhuman, he was left an orphan at an early age, and barely escaped death as a lad at the hands of Kiyomori, the then all-powerful Minister, who belonged to the rival Taira clan. Kiyomori's exactions having roused the indignation of the whole Empire, Yoritomo saw that the moment had come to essay the restoration of his own fortunes.

原資料 p. 64

All the malcontents eagerly flocked to his standard, and first in Eastern Japan, then at Kyōto, and lastly at the great sea-fight of Dan-no-ura near Shimonoseki at the S.W. end of the Inland Sea, Yoritomo defeated the Taira and utterly exterminated them, putting even women and children to the sword. Yoritomo established his capital at Kamakura, which soon grew into a great city, thoroughly reorganised the government by the appointment of military governors chosen from among his own clan to act conjointly with the civil governors who received their nominations from the Mikado, by the levy of taxes for military purposes payable

原資料 p. 64

into his own treasury, and by other far-sighted innovations made in the interests of a military feudalism. At last in 1192, he obtained—in other words forced—from the Court of Kyōto the title of Sei-i Tai Shōgun, that is ‘Barbarian-subduing Generalissimo,’ which soon came to denote the military or actual king of the country, as distinguished from its theoretical head, the heaven-descended Mikado. Yoritomo, whose life had been spent fighting, died peacefully in his bed. Among the many on whom he trampled to satisfy the dictates of personal ambition, was his own brother Yoshitsune, a far nobler hero.

原資料 p. 65

Though Yoritomo's system of government remained in vigour for wellnigh seven centuries, the sceptre dropped from his own family in the next generation after his death, his sons Yoriie and Sanetomo being weaklings who both perished by assassination at an early age. YOSHITSUNE (b. 1159) was younger half-brother to the first Shōgun Yoritomo, being the son of Yoshitomo by a beautiful concubine named Tokiwa. By yielding to the wicked desires of the tyrant Kiyomori, Tokiwa obtained pardon for her son on condition that he shaved his head and became a monk. Accordingly he was placed in the Buddhist monastery of Kurama-yama near Kyōto.

原資料 p. 65

But theological exercises were so little to his taste that he ran away to Northern Japan in company with a friendly merchant, and at once distinguished himself by the valour with which he repelled the assaults of the brigands, slaying several with his own hand, though then himself but sixteen years of age. When Yoritomo rose in arms against the Taira clan, Yoshitsune naturally joined him, and became his greatest general. Indeed, the real guerdon belonged rightfully to the younger rather than to the elder brother. Yoritomo, far from feeling any gratitude, began to burn with jealousy and to detest Yoshitsune as a possible rival. He even went so far as to compass his death.

原資料 p. 65

But Yoshitsune escaped again to Northern Japan, where, according to one account, he was discovered by spies, and killed after a desperate fight on the banks of the Koromo-gawa, his head being sent to Yoritomo at Kamakura preserved in sake. Others say that he committed harakiri when he saw that all was lost, having previously killed his own wife and children. A more fanciful account is that he escaped to Yezo, and then re-appeared on the mainland of Asia as Genghis Khan. This fable probably originated in an accidental similarity between the Chinese characters used to write the names of these two famous men.

原資料 p. 65

But it is a remarkable fact that to this day Yoshitsune remains an object of worship among the Ainos of Yezo. To the Japanese his name is a synonym for single-minded bravery and devotion. The traveller will often hear mentioned in connection with the name of Yoshitsune those of Benkei, his faithful retainer, and Yasuhira, the traitor suborned by Yoritomo to slay him.

原資料 p. 65