Qmea F CANNOT LEAVE THE LIBRARY^ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. te UBRARY OF CONGRESS, m ;;.*iS^^^ sword, now treas- ^^^^^^^fflHHH^^ptt^^^ ured in the temple ^^^_ \h ^Tft^^S^^^^^ilfi.))! Q^ Atsiita, near Nagoya; and the ball of rock crys- tal in possession of the emperor. On the accomplish- ment of the de- scent, the sun and the earth receded from one another, and communica- ; tion by means of the floating bridge ceased. Jimmu Tenno, the first historic emperor of Japan, was the great grandson of Ninigi-no-mikoto. According to the indigenous religion of Japan, therefore, a. religion which even since the adoption of western civilization haf JAPANESE GOD OF RIDING. JAPANESE PEASANTRY. SACREDNESS OF THE MIKADO. 193 been patronized by the state, the mikados are directly descended from the sun goddess, the principal Shinto divinity. Having re- ceived from her the three sacred treasures, they are invested with authority to rule over Japan as long as the sun and moon shall endure. Their minds are in perfect harmony with hers ; there- fore they cannot err and must receive implicit obedience. Such is the traditional theory as to the position of the Japanese emperors, a theory which was advanced in its most elaborate form, as recently as the last century, by Motoori, a writer on Shinto, which of late years has no doubt -been much modified or even utterly discarded by many of the more enlightened among the people. Even yet, however, it is far from having been abandoned by the masses. The mikados being thus regarded as semi-divinities, it is not surprising that the very excess of veneration showed them tended more and more to weaken their actual power. They were too sacred to be brought much into contact with ordinary mortals, too sacred even to have their divine countenances looked upon by any but a select few. Latterly it was only the nobles immediately around him that ever saw the mikado's face ; others might be admitted to the imperial presence, but it was only to get a glimpse from behind a curtain of a portion of the imperial form, less or more according to their rank. When the mikado went out into the grounds of his palace in Kioto, matting was spread for him to walk upon ; when he left the palace precincts he was borne in a sedan chair, the blinds of which were carefully drawn down. The populace prostrated themselves as the procession passed, but none of them ever saw the imperial form. In short, the mikados ultimately became virtual prisoners. Theoretically gifted with all political knowledge and power, they were less the masters of their own actions than many of the humblest of their subjects. Although nominally the repositories of all authority, they had practically no share in the management of the national affairs. The isolation in which it was deemed proper that they should be kept, prevented them from acquiring the knowledge requisite for governing, and even had that knowledge been obtained, gave no opportunity for its manifestation. From the death of Jimmu Tenno to that of Kimmei. in whose 194 THE REIGN OF THE GOOD SUJIN. reign Buddhism was introduced, A. D. 571, there were thirty niikados. During this period of one thousand three hundred and thirty -six years, believed to be historic by most Japanese, the most interesting subjects are the reforms of Sujin Tenno, the military expeditions to eastern Japan by Yamato-Dake, the invasion of Corea by the Empress Jingo Kogo, and the introduction of Chinese civilization and Buddhism. Sujin-or Shujin, B. C. 97-30, was a man of intense earnestness and piety. His prayers to the gods for the abatement of a plague were answered, and a revival of religious feeling and worship ensued. He introduced many forms in the practices of religion and the manners of life. He appninted his own daughter priestess of the shrine and custodian of the symbols of the three holy regalia, which had hitherto been kept in the palace of the mikado. This custom has continued to the present tiine, and the shrines of Uji in Ise, which now hold the sacred mirror, are always in charge of a virgin princess of imperial blood. The whole life of Sujin was one long effort to civilize his half savage subjects. He regulated taxes, established a periodical census, and encouraged the building of boats. He may also be called the father of Japanese agriculture, since he encouraged it by edict and example, ordering canals to be dug, water courses provided, and irrigation to be extensively carried on. The energies of this pious mikado were further exerted in de- vising a national military system whereby his peacably disposed subjects could be protected, and the extremities of his realm extended. The eastern and northern frontiers were exposed to tlie assaults of the wild tribes of Ainos, who were yet unsubdued. Between the peaceful agricultural inhabitants and the untamed savages a continual border war existed. A military division of the empire into four departments was made, and a shogun or general appointed over each. The half subdued inhabitants in the extremes of the realm needed constant watching, and seem to have been as restless and treacherous as the Indians on our own frontiers. The whole history of the extension and development of the mikado's empire is one of war and blood, rivalling that of our own country in its early struggles with the Indians. This constant military action and life in a camp resulted, in the course THE GREAT EMPRESS JINGO. 195 of time, in the creation of a powerful and numerous military class, who made war professional and hereditary. It developed that military genius and character which so distinguish the modern Japanese and mark them in such strong contrast with other na- tions of eastern Asia. Towards the end of the first century A. D., Yamato-Dake, son of the emperor Keiko, reduced most of the Ainos of the north to submission. These savages fought much after the manner of the North American Indian, using their knowledge of woodcraft most effectually, but the young prince with a well equipped array em- barked on a fleet of ships and reaching their portion of tlie island, fought them until they were glad to surrender. It was in the third century that the Empress Jingo invaded and conquered Corea. In all Japanese tradition or history, there is no greater female character than this empress. She was equally renowned for her beauty, piety, intelligence, energy and martial valor. To this woman belongs the glory of the conquest of Corea, whence came letters, religion and civilization to Japan. Tradition is that it was directly commanded her b}^ the gods to cross the water and attack Corea. Her husband, the emperor, doubting the veracity of tliis message from the gods, was forbid- den by them any share in the enterprise. Jingo ordered her generals and captains to collect troops, build ships, and be ready to embark. She disguised herself as a man, proceeded with the recruiting of soldiers and the building of ships, and in the year 201 A. D. was ready to start. Before starting. Jingo issued these orders for her soldiers : " No loot. Neither despise a few enemies nor fear many. Give mercy to those who yield but no quarter to the stubborn. Rewards shall be apportioned to the victors, punishments shall be meted to the deserters." It was not very clear in the minds of these ancient filibusters where Corea was, or for what particular point of their horizon they were to steer. They had no chart or compass. The sun, stars and the flight of birds were their guide. None of them be- fore had ever known of the existence of such a countr}^ as Corea, but the same gods that had commanded tbe invasion protected the invaders, and in due time they landed in southern Corea. 196 INVASION AND CONQUEST OF COREA. The king of this part of the country had heard from his messen- gers of the coming of a strange fleet from the east, and terrified exclaimed, " We never knew there was any country outside of us. Have our gods forsaken us ? " It was a bloodless invasion, for there was no fighting to do. The Coreans came holding white flags and surrendered, offering to give up their treas- ures. They took an oath to become hostages and be tributary to Japan. Eighty ships well laden with gold and silver, articles oi wealth, silks and pre- cious goods of all kinds, and eighty hostages, men of high families, were given to the con- querors. The stay of the Japanese army in Corea was very brief, and the troops returned in two months. Jingo was, on her arrival, de- livered of a son, who in the popular estimation of gods and mortals holds even a higher place of honor than his mother, who is believed to have conquered southern Corea through the power of her yet unborn illustrious offspiing. The motive which induced the invasion into Corea seems to have been mere love of war and conquest, and the Japanese still refer with great pride to this, their initial exploit on foreign soil. The son O.iin. who became the emperor, was, after his death, JAPANESE GOD OF WAR. TOKIO— TYPES AND COSTUMES, CONTINENTAL CIVILIZATION REACHES JAPAN. 199 deified and worshipped as the god of war, Hachiman, and down through the centuries he has been worshiped by all classes of people, especially by soldiers, who offer their prayers and pay their vows to him. Ojin was also a man of literary tastes, and it JAPANESE MUSICIAN. was during his reign that Japan began to profit from the learning of the Coreans, who introduced the study of the Chinese lan- guage, and indeed the art of writing itself. During the immedi- ately succeeding centuries various emperors and empres!>es were 200 CONTINENTAL CIVILIZATION EEACHES JAPAN. eminent for their zeal in encouraging the arts of peace. Archi- tects, painters, physicians, musicians, dancers, chronologists, arti- sans and fortune tellers were brought over from Corea to instruct the people, but not all of these came at once. Immigration was gradual, but the coming of so many immigrants brought new blood, ideas, methods and improvements. Japan received from China, through Corea, what she has been receiving from America and Europe for the last forty years — a new civilization. The records report the arrival of tailors in 283 and horses in 284 from Corea to Japan. In 285 a Corean scholar came to Japan, and re- siding at the court, instructed the mikado's son in writing. In 462 mulberry trees were planted, to- getlier with the silk worm, for whose sus- tenance they were implanted, from China or Corea. And this marks the begin- ning of silk culture in Japan. When in 552 the company of doctors, astronomers and mathematicians came from Corea to live at the Japanese court, they brought with them Buddhist missionaries, and this maybe called the intro- duction of continental civilization. Beginning with Jingo, there seems to have poured into the island empire a stream of immi- grants, skilled artisans, scholars and teachers, bringing arts, litera- ture and religion. This was the first of three great waves of foreign civilization in Japan. The first was from China, through Corea, in the sixth ; the second from western Europe in the fif- teenth century; the third was from America, Europe and the world, in the decade following the advent of Commodore Perry. In the eighth century, during the greater part of which the capital of the country was the city of Nara, about thirty miles JAPANESE SILK SPINNER. NOBLE FAMILIES BEGIN TO RISE, 201 from Kioto, Japan had largely under the government of empresses reached a most creditable stage of progress in the arts of peace. Near the close of the eighth century the emperor Kuwammu took up his residence at Kioto, which until 1868 remained the capital of the country, and is even now dignified with the name of Saikiyo, or " Western Capital." Here he built a palace very unlike the simple dwelling in which his predecessors had been content to live. It had a dozen gates, and around it was reared a city with twelve hundred streets. The palace he named " the Castle of Peace," but for years it proved the very centre of the feuds which soon began to distract the country. This did not happen however until some centuries after the death of Kuwammu. But even after his time there were not wanting indications that the control of affairs was destined to slip into the hands of certain powerful families at the imperial court. The first family to rise into eminence was that of Fujiwara, a member of which it was that got Kuwammu placed upon the throne. For centuries the Fujiwaras controlled the civil affairs of the empire, but a more important factor in bringing about the reduction of the mikado's power and the establishment of that strange system of government which was destined to be so char- acteristic of Japan, was the rise into power of the rival houses of Taira and Minamoto, otherwise called respectfully Hei and Gen. This system of government has almost always been misunderstood in America and Europe. Two rulers in two capitals gave to for- eigners the impression that there were two emperors in Japan, an idea that has been incorporated into most of the text books, and encyclopedias of Christendom. Let it be clearly understood how- ever that there never was but one emperor in Japan, the mikado, who is and always was the only sovereign, though his measure of power has been very different at different times. Until the rise and domination of the military classes, he was in fact, as well as by law, supreme. With the feuds of Hei and Gen commences an entirely new era in the history of the country, an era replete with tales alike of bloodshed, intrigue and chivalry. We see the growth of a feudal system at least as elaborate as that of Europe, and strangely 13 202 BIRTH OF FAMILY FEUDS. enough, assuming almost identical forms, and that during the same period. The respective founders of the Taira and Miuamoto families were Taira Takamochi and Miuamoto Tsunemoto, two warriors of the tenth century. Their descendants were for generations military vassals of the mikado, and were distinguished by red and. white flags, colors which suggest the red and white roses of the rival English houses of Lancaster and York. For years the two houses served the emperor faithfully; but even before any quarrel had arisen between them, the popularity of the head of the Miuamoto clan, with the soldiers with whom he had been placed, so alarmed the emperor Toba (1108-1124, A. D.) that he issued an edict forbidding the Samurai, the military class, of any of the provinces, from constituting themselves the retainers of either of these two families. It was in the year 1156 that the feuds between the two houses broke out, and it arose in this way. At the accession of Go-Shir- akawa to the throne in that year, there were living two ex-em- perors who would seem to have voluntarily abdicated ; one of them, however, Shutoku, was averse to the accession of the heir, being himself anxious to resume the imperial power. His cause was es- poused by Tameyoshi, the head of the Minamoto house, while among the supporters of Go-Shirakawa was Kiyomori, of the house of Taira. In the conflict which followed, Go-Shirakawa was success- ful, and immediately thereafter we find Taira Kiyomori appointed Daijo-Daijin, or prime minister, with practically all political power in his hands. On the abdication within a few years of the mikado, the prime minister was able to put whatever member of the im- perial house he willed upon the throne; and being himself allied by marriage to the imperial family, he at length saw the accession of his own grandson, a mere babe. Thus, to use the term con- nected with European feudalism of the same period, the mayor of the palace virtually, though not nominally, usurped the imperial functions. The emperor had the name of power but Kiyomori had the reality. But this state of matters was not destined to last long. The Minamotos were far from being finally quieted. The story of the revival of their power is a romantic one, but we cannot dwell ROMANCE AND HISTORY COMBINED. 203 upon it. It was in the battle of Atiji that Kiyomori seemed at length to have quelled his rivals. Yoshitomo, the head of the Miuaraoto clan was slain in the fight, but his beautiful wife Tokiwa succeeded in escaping with her three little sons. Tokiwa's mother, however, was arrested. This roused the daughter to make an appeal to Kiyomori for pardon. She did so, presenting herself and children to the conqueror, upon whom her beauty so wrought that he granted her petition. He made her his concubine, and not withstanding the remonstrances of his retainers, also spared the children who were sent to a monastery, there to be trained for the priesthood. Two of these children became famous in the history of Japan. The eldest was Yoritomo the founder of the Karaakura dynasty of shoguns, and the babe at the mother's breast was Yoshitsune, one of the flowers of Japanese chivalry, a hero whose name even yet awakens the enthusiasm of the youth of Japan and who so im- pressed the Ainos of the north whom he had been sent to subdue, that to this day he is worshiped as their chief god. A Japanese has even lately written a book in which he seeks to identify Yoshitsune with Genghis Khan. It is unnecessary to dwell on the circumstances which brought Yoritomo and Yoshitsune into note ; how the two brothers raised the men of the eastern provinces, and after a temporary check at the pass of Hakone, succeeded in utterly routing the Taira forces in a dreadful battle, half by land and half by sea, at the straits of Shimonoseki. Suffice it to say, that Yoshitsune having been slain soon after a famous victory, through the treachery of his brother Yoritomo, who was jealous of his fame and popu- larity, that warrior was left without a rival. Yoritomo received from the emperor the highest title which could be conferred upon him, that of Sei-i-tai-shoguu, literally "Barbarian-subjuga- ting great general." This title is generally contracted to shogun, which means simply general. Thus appointed generalissimo of all the imperial forces, he looked about for a city which he might make the center of his power. This he found in Kamakura about fifteen miles westward of the site of the modern Yokohama. Thus before the close of the twelfth century was founded that system of dual government which lasted with little change until 204 ORIGIN OF THE SYSTEM OF DUAL GOVERNMENT. the year 1868. The Mikado reigned in Kioto with the authority of his sacred person undisputed; but the shogun in his eastern city had really all the public business of the country in his own hands. It was he who appointed governors over the different provinces and was the real master of the country ; but every act was done in the name of the emperor whose nominal power thus remained intact. Yoritomo virtually founded an independent dynasty at Kamakura, but it was not destined to be a lasting one. His son Yoriye succeeded him in 1199, but was shortly afterwards deposed and assassinated ; and the power though not the title of shogun passed to the family of Yoritomo's wife, that of Hojo, different members of which swayed the state for more than a century. After a checkered career of various shoguns of the Hojo family, their tyranny became supreme. None of the family ever seized the office of shogun, but in reality they wielded all and more of the power attaching to the office. The political history of these years is but that of a monotonous recurrence of the exaltation of boys and babies of noble blood to whom was given the semblance of power, who were sprinkled with titles and deposed as soon as they were old enough to be troublesome. In an effort made by the ex-emperor Gotoba to drive the usurping Hojo from power the chains were riveted tighter than ever. The imperial troops were massacred by the conquering Hojo. The estates of all who fought on the emperor's side were con- fiscated and distributed among the minions of the usurpers. The exiled emperor died of a broken heart. The nominal Mikado of Kioto and the nominal shogun at Kamakura were set up, but the Hojo were the keepers of both. The oppression, the neglect of public business and the carousals of the usurpers became intoler- able. Armies were raised spontaneously to support the emperor and the Ashikaga leader in their revolt against the existing evils. All over the empire the people rose against their oppressors and massacred them. The Hojo domination which had been par™ amount for nearly one hundred and fifty years was utterly- broken. The Hojo have never been forgiven for their arbitrary treatment OPPRESSIONS OF THE USURPING HOJOS. 205 of the Mikados. Every obloquy is cast upon them by Japanese historians, dramatists, poets and novelists, and yet there is an- other side to the story. It must be conceded that the Hojos were able rulers and kept order and peace in the empire for more than a century. They encouraged literature and the cultiviition of the arts and sciences. During their period the resources of the country were developed, and some branches of useful handicraft and fine arts were brought to a perfection never since surpassed. To this time belongs the fa- mous image carver, sculptor and architect, Unkei, and the lacquer artists who are the "old masters" in this branch of art. The military spiiit of the people was kept alive, tactics were improved, and the methods of governmental administration simplified. During this period of splen- did temples, monasteries, pagodas, colossal images and other monuments of holy zeal, Hojo Sadatoki erected a monument over the grave of Kiyomori at Hiogo. Hojo Tokimune raised and kept in readiness a permanent war fund so that the military ex- penses might not interfere with the revenue reserved for ordinary government expenses. To his invincible courage, patriotic pride, and indomitable energy are due the vindication of the national honor and the repulse of the Tartar invasion. During the early centuries of the Christian era, Japan and China kept up friendly intercourse, exchanging embassies on vari- ous missions, but chiefly with the mutual object of bearing con- gratulations to an emperor upon his accession to the throne. The civil disorders iu botli countries interrupted these friendly rela- COLOSSAL .JAPANESE IMAGE FIFTY FEET HIGH. 206 FRIENDSHIP OF CHINA AND JAPAN. tions in the twelfth century, and communication ceased. When the acquaintance was renewed in the time of the Hojo it was not on so friendly a footing. In China the Mongol Tartars had overthrown the Sung dynasty and had conquered the adjacent country. Through the Coreans the Mongol emperor, Kublai Khan, at whose court Marco Polo and his uncles were then visiting, sent letters demanding tribute and homage from Japan. Chinese envoys came to Kamakura, but Hojo Tokimune, enraged at the insolent demands, dismissed them in disgrace. Six embassies were sent, and six times re- jected. An expedition from China consisting of ten thousand men was then sent against Japan. They landed, were attacked, their commander was slain, and they returned, having accom- plished nothing. The Chinese emperor now sent nine envoys to announce their purpose to remain until a definite answer was re- turned to their master. They were called to Kamakura, and the Japanese reply was given by cutting off their heads. The Jap- anese now began to prepare for war on land and sea. Once more Chinese envoys came to demand tribute. These were decapi- tated. Meanwhile the armada was preparing. Great China was coming to crush the little strip of land that refused homage to the invincible conqueror. The army numbered one hundred thousand Chinese and Tartars, and seven thousand Coreans in ships that whitened the sea. They numbered three thousand five hundred in all. It was in July, 1281, that the sight of the Chinese junks greeted the watchers on the hills of Daizaifu. Many of the junks were of immense proportion, larger than the natives of Japan had ever seen, and armed with the engines of European warfare which their Venetian guests had taught the Mongols to construct and work. The naval battle that ensued was a terrible one. The Japanese had small chance of success in the water, owing to the smallness of their boats, but in personal valor they were much superior, and some of their deeds of bravery are inspiringly inter- esting. Nevertheless the Cliinese were unable to effect a landing, owing to the heavy fortifications along the shore. The whole nation was now roused. Re-enforcements poured in from all quarters to swell the hosts of defenders. From the mon- asteries and temples all over the country went up unceasing '# m JAPANESE FEMALE 'lYPES. JAPAN REFUSES TRIBUTE TO CHINA. 209 prayer to the gods to ruin their enemies and save the land of Japan. The emperor and ex-emperor went in solemn state to the SHINTO TEMPLE. chief priest of Shinto, and writing out their petitions to the gods sent him as a messenger to the shrines of Ise. It is recorded as a 210 INVASION AND DEFEAT OF THE CHINESE. miraculous fact that at the hour of noon as the sacred envoy arrived at the shrine and offered a prayer, the day being perfectly clear, a streak of cloud appeared in the sky that soon overspread the heavens, until the dense masses portended a storm of awful violence. One of those cyclones called by the Japanese tai-fu, of appalling velocity and resistless force, such as whirl along the coast of Japan and China during late summer and early fall of every year, burst upon the Chinese fleet. Nothing can withstand these maelstorms of the air. We call them typhoons. Iron steam- ships of thousands of horse power are almost unmanageable in them. The helpless Chinese junks were crushed together, impaled on the rocks, dashed against the cliffs or tossed on land like corks on the spray. Hundreds of the vessels sank. The corpses were piled on the shore or floating on the water so thickly that it seemed almost possible to walk thereon. The vessels of the sur- vivors in large numbers drifted or were wrecked upon Taka island, where they established themselves and cutting down trees began building boats to reach Corea. Here they were attacked by the Japanese, and after a bloody struggle, all the fiercer for the despair on the one side and the exultation on the other, were all slain or driven to the sea to be drowned except three, who were sent back to tell their emperor how the gods of Japan had de- stroyed their armada. This was the last time that China ever attempted to conquer Japan, whose people boast that their land has never been defiled by an invading army. They have ever ascribed the glory of the destruction of the Tartar fleet to the interposition of the gods of Ise, who thereafter received special and grateful adoration as the guardian of the seas and the winds. Great credit and praise were given to the Lord of Kamakura, Hojo Tokimune, for his energy, ability and valor. The author of one native history says, " The repulse of the Tartar barbarians by Tokimune and his preserving the dominions of our Son of Heaven were sufficient to atone for the crimes of his ancestors." Nearly six centuries afterward when " the barbarian " Perry anchored his fleet in the bay of Yeddo, in the words of the native annalist, " Orders were sent by the imperial court to the Shinto priest at Ise to offer up prayers for the sweeping away of the bar- RULE OF THE ASHIKAGA FAMILY. 211 harians." Millions of earnest hearts put up the same prayers theii fathers had offered full}^ expecting the same result. To this day the Japanese mother hushes her fretful infant by the question, "Do you think the Mongols are coming?" This is the only serious attempt at invasion ever made by any nation upon the shores of Japan. The internal his- tory of Japan dur- ing the period of time covered by the actual or nom-^ inal rule of the Ashikaga family, from 1336 until 1578, except the very last years of it, is not very at- tractive to a for- eign reader. It is a confused picture of intestinal war. It was by foul means that Ashi-> kaga Takugi, one of the generals who overthrew the Hojos, attained the dignity of shogun, and a period of more than two centuries, during ' f JAPANESE GOD OF THE WIND. which his descend- ants held sway at Kamakura, was cliaracterized by treachery, bloodshed and almost perpetual warfare. The founder of this line secured the favor of the mikado Go-Daigo, after he was re- called from exile, upon the overthrow of the military usurpation. Ashikaga soon seized the reins in his own hands. The mikado fled in terror, and a new mikado was declared in the person of 212 RISE AND PERFECTION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. another of the royal family. Of course this man was willing to confer upon Ashikaga, his supporter the title of shogun. Kania- kura again became a military capital. The duarchy was restored, and the war of the northern and southern dynasties began, to last fifty-six years. The act by which more than any other the Ashikagas earned the curses of posterity, was the sending of an embassy to China in 1401, bearing presents, acknowledging in a measure the authority of China, and accepting in return the title of Nippon O, or king of Japan. This which was done by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the third of the line, was an insult to the national dignity for which he has never been forgiven. It was a needless humiliation of Japan to her arrogant neighbor and done only to exalt the vanity and glory of the usurper, who, not content ,with adopting the style and equip- age of the mikado, wished to be called a king and yet dared not usurp the imperial throne. , / , . Japan of all the Asiatic nations ^''/v; , seems to have brought the feudal system to the highest state of per- fection. While in Europe the na- tions were engaged in throwing off the feudal yoke and inaugurat- ing modern government, Japan was riveting the fetters which stood intact until 1871. The daimios were practically independent chieftains, who ruled their own provinces as they willed ; and the more ambitious and power- ful did not hesitate to make war upon the neighboring clans. There were on all sides struggles for pre-eminence in which the fittest survived, annexing to their own territories those of the weaker class which they had subdued. Nor was it merely rival clans that were disturbing the country. The Buddhist clergy DAIMIOS OF JAPAN. SKETCH SHOWING DEVELOPMENT OF THE JAPANESE ARMY FROM 1867 TO THE PRESENT. RISE AND PERFECTION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 215 had acquired immense political influence, which they were far from scrupulous in using. Their monasteries were in many cases castles, from which themselves living amid every kind of luxury. BUDDHIST PRIESTS. they tyrannized over the surrounding country. The history of these often reads strikingly like that of the corresponding insti- tutions in Europe during the middle ages; indeed the hierarchical 216 THREE GREAT MEN ANP THEIR CAREERS. as well as the feudal development of Europe and Japan have been wonderfully alike. Probably the three names most renowned in Japan are No- bunaga, Hideyoshi and lyeyasu. The second and third of these were generals subordinate to the first, who deposed the Ashikaga shoguns, persecuted the Buddhists, encouraged the Jesuits, and restored to a great extent the supremacy of the mikado. The Buddhists look on this leader as an incarnate demon sent to de- stroy their faith. He was a Shintoist, with bitter hatred for the Buddhists, and never lost an opportunity to burn property of his enemies or butcher priests, women, and children of that faith. These who have just been named, by their prowess and the strength of their armies, rose to highest positions among the dai- mios. When these three great men appeared, the country was in a most critical state. The later Ashikaga shoguns had become as powerless "as the mikado himself in the management of affairs. Nobunaga first rose into note. By successive victories, he became ruler of additional provinces, and his fame became so great that the emperor committed to him the task of tranquilizing the country. He deposed first one usurping shogun and then another, and thus came an end to the domination of the Ashikagas. No- bunaga was now the most powerful man in the country, and was virtually discharging the duties of shogun though he never ob- tained the title. Hideyoshi became virtual lord of the empire, after the assassination of Nobunaga. He rose from the ranks of the peasants to the highest position in Japan under the emperor. Having in connection with Nobunaga and lyeyasu reduced all the Japanese clans into subjection, he looked abroad for some foreign power to subdue. The immoderate ambition of Hideyoshi's life was to conquer Corea, and even China. Under the declining power of Ashikaga, all tribute from Curea had ceased and the pirates who ranged the coasts scarcely allowed any trade to exist. We have seen how it was from Corea that Japan received Chinese learning and the arts of civilization, and Coreans swelled the number of Mongol Tar- tars who invaded Japan with the armada. On the other hand Corea was more than once overrun by Japanese armies, even CONQUEST OF COREA BY HIDEYOSHI. 217 partly governed by Japanese officials, and on different occasions had to pay tribute to Japan in token of submission. Japanese pirates too were for six hundred years as much the terror of the Chinese and Corean costs as were the Danes and Norsemen of the shores of the North Sea. The discontinuance of the embassies and tribute from Corea, thus afforded the ambitious general a pre- text for disturbing the friendly relations with Corea, by the dis- patch of an embassador to complain of this neglect. The behav- ior of this embassador only too clearly reflected the swagger of his overbearing lord, and the consequence was an invasion of Corea. Hideyoshi promised to march his generals and army to Peking, and divide the soil of China among them. He also scorned the suggestion that scholars versed in Chinese should accompany the expedition. Said he, " This expedition will make the Chinese use our literature." Corea was completely overrun by Hideyoshi's forces, although the commander himself was unable to accompany the expedition, owing to his age and the grief of his mother. Further details of this invasion will be found later in the histori- cal sketch of Corea. It may be said here however, that the con- quest terminated ingloriously, and reflects no honor on Japan. The responsibility of the outrage upon a peaceful nation rests wholly upon Hideyoshi. The Coreaus were a mild and peaceable people, wholly unprepared for war. There was scarcely a shadow of provocation for the invasion, which was nothing less than a huge filibustering scheme. It was not popular with the people or the rulers, and was only carried through by the will of the mili- tary leader. The sacrifice of life on either side must have been great, and all for the ambition of one man. Nevertheless, a party in Japan has long held that Corea was by the conquests of the third and sixteenth centuries a part of the Japanese empire, and the reader will see how 1772 and again in 1775 the cry of " On to Corea " shook the nation like an earthquake. After the deaths of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, Tokugawa lyey- asu was left the virtual ruler of Japan. At first he governed the country as regent, but his increasing popularity awoke the jeal- ousy of the partisans of Hideyori, the son of Hideyoshi, who was nominated as his successor, as well as of Nobunaga's family. 14 218 YEDDO BECOMES THE SEAT OF THE SHOGUN. These combined to overthrow him, and the consequence was the great battle of Sekigahara, fought in 1600, in which lyeyasu came off completely victorious. Three years later, he was appointed by the emperor shogun. Like Yorotomo he resolved to select a city as the center of his power, and that which seemed to him most suitable was not Kamakura, which ere this had lost much of its glory, but the little castle town of Yeddo, about thirty-five miles farther north. Here he and his successors, and the dynasty he founded, swayed the destinies of Japan from 1603 until the restoration in 1868. JAPANESE JUNK. It is not difficult to account for the tone of admiration and pride with which a modern Japanese speaks of " The age of Taiko." There are many who hold that Hideyoshi, or Taiko, was the real unifier of the empire. Certain it is that he origi- nated many of the most striking forms of national administra- tion. In his time the arts and sciences were not only in a very flourishing condition, but gave promise of rich development. The spirit of military enterprise and internal national improvement was at its height. Contact with the foreigners of many nations awoke a spirit of inquiry and intellectual activity ; but it was on M^P' if li 3 i iiiiiiilli POSITION OF JAPAN AT THIS PEEIOD. 221 the seas that genius and restless activity found their most con- genial field. This era is marked by the highest production in marine archi- tecture, and the extent and variety of commercial enterprise. The ships built in this century were twice the size and vastly the superior in model of the junks that now hug the Japanese shores or ply between China and Japan. The pictures of them pre- INDUSTRIAL LIFE. {From a Japanese Album.) served to the present day, show that they were superior in size to the vessels of Columbus, and nearly equal in sailing qualities to the contemporary Dutch and Portuguese galleons. They were provided with ordnance, and a model of a Japanese breech-load- ing cannon is still preserved in Kioto. Ever a brave and adven- turous people, the Japanese then roamed the seas with a freedom 222 POSITION OF JAPAN AT THIS PERIOD. that one who knows only of the modern bound people would scarcely credit. Voyages of trade, discovery or piracy have been made to India, Siam, Birmah, the Philippine Islands, Soutliern China, the Malay Archipelago and the Kuriles, even in the fif- teenth century, but were more numerous ia the sixteenth. The Japanese literature contains many references to these adventur- ous sailors, and when the records of the far east are thoroughly investigated, and this subject fully studied, very interesting re- sults are apt to be obtained showing the widespread influence of Japan at a time when she was scarcely known by the European world to have existence. HISTORICAL SKETCH FROM THE COMING OF THE FIRST EUROPEAN TRAVELERS TO THE PRESENT TIME. A New Dynasty of Slioguns— MendBZ Pinto's Visit— Arrival of the Jesuit Missionaries- Kind Recei)lion of Cluistianity— Quarrels Between tlie Sects— Beginning of Christian Per- secution—Expulsion of the Missionaries— Torture and Martyrdom— The Massacre of Shim, abara— Expulsion of all Foreigners— Closing tlie Door of Japan— History of the Last Sho- gunate— Arrival of Commodore Perry's Fleet— Tlie Knock at the Door of Japan— An Era of Treaty Malung— Rapid Advance of Western Manners and Ideas in Japan— Attacks on For. eigners— The Abolition of tlie Shogunate— Japan's Last Quarter Century. Hitherto we have seen two readily distinguishable periods in tlie history of Japan, the period during which the mikados were the actual as well as the nominal rulers of the empire ; and the period during which the imperial power more and more passed into the hands of usurping mayors of the palace, and the country was kept in an almost constant ferment with the feuds of rival noble families which coveted this honor. Successively the power, although not always the title, of shogun, had been held by members of the Minamoto, Hojo, Ashikaga, Ota and Toyo- tomi families. With lyeyasu we pass into a third period, like the second in that the dual system of feudal government still pre- vailed, but unlike it in that it was a period of peace. Much strife had accompanied the erection of the fabric of feudalism, but it now stood complete. The mikado in Kioto and the daimios in their different provinces, alike ceased to protest against the dual administration. Within certain limits they had the regulation of their own affairs; the mikado was ever rec- ognized as the source of all authority, and the daimios in their own provinces were petty kings ; but it was the shogun in Yeddo who, undisputed, at least in practice, whatever some of the more powerful daimios may have said, swayed the destinies of the em- pire. Let us now note the policy which the Shoguns adopted towards the foreigners who as missionaries or merchants had found their (223) 224 THE BEGINNINGS OF EXPLORATION". way to Japan, and the course of settlement and trade of foreigners. It seems now certain that when Columbus set sail from Spain to discover a new continent, it was not America he was seeking, but the land of Japan. Marco Polo, the Venetian traveler, had spent seventeen years, 1275-1292, at the court of the Tartar emperor Kublai Khan, and while in Peking had heard of a land lying to the eastward, called in the language of the Chinese, Zip- angu, from which our modern name Japan has been corrupted. Columbus was an ardent student of Polo's book, which had been published in 1298. He sailed westward across the Atlantic to find this kingdom. He discovered not Japan, but an archipehago in America on whose shores he eagerly inquired concerning Zip- angu. Following this voyage, Vasco de Gama and a host of other brave Portuguese navigators sailed into the Orient and came back to tell of densely populated empires enriched with the wealth that makes civilization possible, and of which Europe had scarcely heard. Their accounts fired the hearts of the zealous who longed to convert the heathen, aroused the cupidity of traders who thirsted for gold, and kindled the desire of monarchs to found empires in Asia. Mendez Pinto, a Portuguese adventurer, seems to have been the first European who landed on Japanese soil. On his return to Europe he told so many wonderful stories that by a pun on his Christian name he was dabbed " tlie mendacious." His nar- rative was, liowever, as we now know, substantially correct. Pinto while in China had got on board a Chinese junk, com- manded by a pirate. They were attacked by another corsair, their pilot was killed, and the vessel was driven off the coast by a storm. They made for the Liu Kiu Islands, but unable to find a harbor, put to sea again. After twenty-three days' beating about, they sighted the islands of Tanegashima and landed. The name of the island, " island of the seed," was significant. The arrival of these foreigners was a seed of troubles innumerable. The crop was priestcraft of the worst type, political intrigue, re- ligious persecution, the inquisition, the slave trade, the propaga- tion of Christianity by the sword, sedition, rebellion, and civil war. Its harvest was garnered in the blood of sixty-thousand Japanese. FIRST ARRIVAL OF EUROPEANS IN JAPAN. 225 The native histories recount the first arrival of Europeans in 1542, and note that year as the one in which fire-arms were first introduced. The pirate trader who brought Pinto to Japan cleared twelve hundred per cent, on his cargo, and the three Por- tuguese returned to China loaded with presents. The new market attracted hundreds of Portuguese adventurers to Japan, who found a ready welcome. The missionary followed the mer- chant. Already the Portuguese priests and Franciscan friars were numerous in India. Two Jesuits and two Japanese who had been converted at Goa, headed by Xavier, landed at Kagoshima in 1549. Xavier did not have great success, and in a short time left Japan disheartened. He had, however, inspired others who followed him, and their success was amazingly great. The success ©f the Jesuit missionaries soon attracted the attention of the authorities. Organ tin, a Jesuit missionary in Kioto, writing of his experiences, says that he was asked his name and why he had come to Japan. He replied that he was the Padre Organtin and had come to spread religion. He was told that he could not be allowed at once to spread his religion, but would be informed later on. Nobunaga accordingly took counsel with his retainers as to whether he would allow Christianity to be preached or not. One of these strongly advised not to do so, on the ground that there were already enough religions in the coun- try, but Nobunaga replied that Buddhism had been introduced from abroad and had done good in the country, and he therefore did not see why Christianity should not be granted a trial. Organtin was consequently allowed to erect a church and to send for others of his order, who, when they came, were found to be like him in appearance. Their plan of action was to care for the sick, and so prepare the way for the reception of Christi- anity, and then to convert every one and make the thirty-six pro- vinces of Japan subject to Portugal. In this last clause we have an explanation of the policy which the Japanese government ultimately adopted towards Christianity and all foreign innova- tions. Within five years after Xavier visited Kioto, seven churches were established in the vicinity of the city itself, while scores of Christian communities had sprung up in the south-west, 226 RAPID PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. In 1581 there were two hundred churches and one hundred and fifty thousand native Christians. In 1583 an embassy of four young noblemen was dispatched by the Christian daimios to the pope to declare themselves vassals of the Holy See. They returned after eight years, having had au- dience of Phillip II. of Spain, and kissed the feet of the pope at Rome. They brought with them seventeen Jesuit missionaries, an important addition to the list of religious instructors. Spanish mendicant friars from the Philippine Islands, with Dominicans and Augustinians, also flocked into the country, teaching and zealously proselyting. The number of " Christians " at the time of the highest success of the missionaries in Japan was, according to their own figures six hundred thousand, a number that seems to be no exaggeration if quantity and not quality are considered. The Japanese less accurately set down a total of two million nominal adherents to the Christian sects. Among the converts were several princes, large numbers of lords, and gentlemen in high official positions, and beside generals of the army and admirals of the navy. Churches and chapels were numbered by the thousand, and in some provinces crosses and Christian shrines were as numerous as the kindred evidences of Buddhism had been before. The methods of the Jesuits appealed to the Japanese, as did the forms and symbols of the faith, but the Jesuits began to attack most violently the character of the native priests, and to incite their converts to insult their gods, burn the idols and desecrate the old shrines. As the different orders, Jesuits, Franciscans and Augustinians increased, they began to clash. Political and religious war was almost universal in Europe at the same time, and the quarrels of the various nationalities followed the buccaneers, pirates, traders and missionaries to the distant seas of Japan. All the foreigners, but especially Portuguese, then were slave traders, and thousands of Japanese were bought and sold and shipped to China and the Philippines. The sea ports of Hirado and Nagasaki were the resorts of the lowest class of adventurers of all European nations, and the result was a continuous series of uproars, broils and murders among the foreigners. Such a picture of foreign influ- ence and of Christianity as the Japanese saw it was not calcu- FRIGHTFUL PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS. 227 lated to make a pei-manently favorable impression on the Japanese mind. Latterly Nobunaga had somewhat repented of the favor he had shown to the new religion, though his death occurred before his dissatisfaction had manifested itself in any active repression- Hideyoshi had never been well disposed to Christianity, but other matters prevented him from at once meddling with the policy of his predecessors. In 1588 he ventured to issue an edict com- manding the missionaries to assemble at Hirado, an island off the west coast of Kiushiu and prepared to leave Japan, and the missionaries obeyed, but as the edict was not enforced they again returned to the work of evangelization in private as vigorously as ever, averaging ten thousand converts a year. The Spanish mendicant friars pouring in from the Philippines, openly defied Japanese laws. This aroused Hideyoshi's attention and his decree of expulsion was renewed. Some of the churches were burned. In 1596 six Franciscan and three Jesuit priests with seventeen Japanese converts were taken to Nagasaki and there burned. When Hideyoshi died, affairs seemed to take a more favorable turn, but only for a few years. lyeyasu was as much opposed to Christianity as Hideyoshi, and his hatred of the new religion was intensified by his partiality for Buddhism. Tlie new daimios, carrying the policy of their predecessors as taught them by the Jesuits, but reversing its direction, began to persecute their Christian subjects, and to compel them to renounce their faith. The native converts resisted, even to blood and the taking up of arms. The idea of armed rebellion among the farmers was some- thing so wholly new that lyeyasu suspected foreign instigation. He became more vigilant as his suspicions increased, and resolving to crush this spirit of independence and intimidate the foreign emissaries, met every outbreak with bloody reprisals. lyeyasu issued a decree of expulsion against the missionaries in 1600, but the decree was not at once carried into effect. The date of the first arrival in Japan of Dutch merchants was also 1600. They settled in the island of Hirado. In 1606 an edict from Yeddo forbade the exercise of the Christian religion, but an outward show of obedience warded off active persecution. Four years later the Spanish friars again aroused the wrath of the 228 HORRORS OF THE PERSECUTIOIf. government by defying its commands and exhorting the native con- verts to do likewise. In 1611 lyeyasu obtained documentary proof of what he had long suspected, the existence of a plot on the part of the native converts and the foreign emissaries to reduce Japan to the position of a subject state. Fresh edicts were issued, and in 1614 twenty-two Franciscan, Dominican and Augustinian friars, one hundred and seventeen Jesuits and hundreds of native priests were embarked by force on board junks and sent out of the country. The next year the shogun pushed matters to an ex- treme with Hideyuri, who was entertaining some Jesuit priests, and laid siege to the castle of Ozaka. A battle of unusual ferocity and bloody slaughter raged, ending in the burning of the citadel and the total defeat and death of Hideyori and thou- sands of his followers. The Jesuit fathers say that one hundred thousand men perished in this brief war. The exiled foreign friars kept secretly returning, and the shogun pronounced sentence of death against any foreign priest found in the country. lyemitsu, the next shogun, restricted all foreign commerce in Nagasaki and Hirado ; all Japanese were forbidden to leave the country on pain of death. Any European vessel approaching the coast was at once to be referred to Nagasaki, whence it was to be sent home ; the whole crew of any junk in which a missionary should reach Japanese shores were to be put to death; and the better to remove all temptation to go abroad, it was decreed that no ships should be constructed above a cer- tain size and with other than the open sterns of coasting vessels. Fire and sword were used to extirpate Christianity and to paganize the same people who in their youth were Christianized by the same means. Thousands of the native converts fled to China, Formosa and the Philippines. The Christians suffered all sorts of persecutions and tortures that savage ingenuity could devise. Yet few of the natives quailed or renounced their faith. They calmly let the fire of wood, cleft from the crosses before which they once prayed consume, them. Mothers carried their babes to the fire or the edge of the precipice rather than leave them behind to be educated in pagan faith. If any one doubt the sincerity and fervor of the Christian converts of to-day, or the ability of the Japanese to accept a higher form of faith, or their willingnesa THE SIEGE AND MASSACRE OF SHIMABARA. 231 to suffer for what they believe, he has but to read the accounts of various witnesses to tlie fortitude of the Japanese Christians of the seventeenth century. The persecution reached its climax in the tragedy of Shima- bara in 1637. The Christians arose in arms by tens of thousands, seized an old castle, repaired it and fortified it, and raised the flag of rebellion. The armies of veterans sent to besiege it expected an easy victory, and sneered at the idea of having any difficulty in subduing these farmers and peasants. It took two months by land and water, however, of constant attack before the fort was reduced, and the victory was finally gained only with the aid of Dutch cannon furnished under compulsion by the traders of Deshima. After great slaughter the intrepid garrison surrend- ered, and then began the massacre of thirty-seven thousand Christians. Many of them were hurled into the sea from the top of the island rock of Takaboko-shima, by the Dutch named Pappenberg, in the harbor of Nagasaki. The result of this series of events was that the favorable policy adopted by lyeyasu in regard to foreign trade was completely reversed. No foreigners were allowed to set foot on the soil of Japan, except Cliinese and a few Dutch merchants. The Dutch gained the privilege of residing in confinement on the little island of Deshima, a piece of made land in the harbor of Nagasaki. Here under degrading restrictions and constant surveillance lived less than a score of Hollanders, who were required every year to send a representative to Yeddo to do homage to the shogun. They were allowed one ship per annum to come from the Dutch East Indies for the exchange of the commodities of Japan for those of Holland. Says Doctor GrifQs in his study of this era of Japanese history, "After nearly a hundred years of Christianity and foreign inter- course, the only apparent results of this contact with another religion and civilization were the adoption of gunpowder and fire-arms as weapons, the use of tobacco and the habit of smok- ing, the making of sponge cake, the naturalization into the lan- guage of a few foreign words, the introduction of new and strange forms of disease, among which tlie Japanese count the scourge of the venereal virus, and the permanent addition to 232 A CENTURY OF CHRISTIANITY AND ITS EFFECTS. that catalogue of terrors which priest and magistrate in Asiatic countries ever hold as welcome, to overawe the herd. For cen- turies the mention of that name would bate the breath, blanch the cheek and smite with fear as with an earthquake shock. It was the synomyn of sorcery, sedition, and all that was hostile to the purity of the home and the peace of society. All over the empire, in every city, town, village and hamlet ; by the roadside, ferry or mountain pass ; at every entrance to the capitol, stood the lilACE or UUDDIIA. public notice boards on which with prohibitions against ihe great crimes that disturbed the relations of society's government was one tablet written with a deeper brand of guilt, with a more hid- eous memory of blood, with a more awful terror of torture, than when the like superscription was affixed at the top of a cross that stood between two thieves on a little hill outside Jerusalem. Its daily and familiar sight startled ever and anon the peasants who clasped hands and uttered a fresh prayer ; the Bonze, or Buddhist priest, to add new venom to his maledictions ; the magistrate to ENGLISH EFFORTS TO OPEN TRADE. 233 shake his head ; and to the mother a ready word to hush the crying of her fretful babe. That name was Christ. So thor- oughly was Christianity or the " corrupt sect " supposed to be eradicated before the end of the seventeenth century, that its existence was historical, remembered only as an awful scar on the national memory. No vestiges were supposed to be left of it, and no knowledge of its tenets was held save by a very few scholars in Yeddo, trained experts who were kept as a sort of spiritual blood liounds to scent out the adherents of the accursed creed. It was left to our day since the recent opening of Japan, for them to discover that a mighty fire had been smoldering for over two cen- turies beneath the ashes of persecutions. As late as 1829 seven persons, six men and an old woman, were crucified in Ozaka on suspicion of being Christians and communica- ting with foreigners. When the French brethren of the Mission Apostolique of Paris came to Nagasaki in 1860, they found in the villages around them over ten thou- sand people who held the faith of their fathers of the seventeenth century. The Portuguese were not the only race to attempt to open a permanent trade with Japan. Captain John Saris, with three ships, left England in April, 1611, with letters from King James I. to the "Emperor " (shogun) of Japan. Landing at Hirado he was well received, and established a factory in charge of Richard Cocks. The captain and a number of the party visited Yeddo and other cities and obtained from the shogun a treaty defining the privileges of trade, and signed Minamoto lyeyasu. After a tour of three months Saris arrived at Hirado again, having yC/Vr/'/aAr- — ■ JAPANESE SAMURAI OR WARRIOR OF THE OLD TIME. 234 PERIOD OF THE LAST SHOGUNATE. visited Kioto, where lie saw the splendid Christian churches and Jesuit palaces. After discouraging attempts to open a trade with Siam, Corea and China, and hostilities having broken out between them and the Dutch, the English abandoned the project of per- manent trade with Japan, and all subsequent attempts to reopen it failed. Will Adams, who was an English pilot, and the first of his nation in Japan, arrived in 1607 and lived in Yeddo till he died thirteen years later. He rose into favor with the shoguns and the people by the sheer force of a manly, honest character. His knowledge of shipbuilding, mathematics, and foreign affairs made him a very useful man. Although treated with kindness and honor, he was not allowed to leave Japan. He had a wife and daughter in England. Adams had a son and daughter born to him in Japan, and there are still living Japanese who claim descent from him. One of the streets of Yeddo was named after him, and the people of that street still hold an annual cele- bration on the fifteenth of June in his honor. The history of the two centuries and a half that followed the triumphs of lyeyasu is that of profound peace and stern isolation. We must pass rapidly in review of them. This great shogun took pains to arrange the empire after the appointment to the office, in such a way that the shuguns of the Tokugawa family? the dynasty which he founded, should have strictest power and most certain descent. His sons and daughters were married where they would be most powerful in influence with the great families of dairaios. It must not be forgotten that lyeyasu and .TAPANESE GENERAL OF THE OLD TIME. {From a Native Drawing.) GREAT IMPROVEMENTS IN THE EMPIRE. 235 his successor were both in theory and in reality vassals of the emperor, though they assumed protection of the imperial person. Neither the shogun nor the daimios were acknowledged at Kioto as nobles of the empire. The lowest kuge, or noble, was above the shogun in rank. The shogun could obtain his appointment only from the mikado. He was simply the most powerful among the daimios, who had Avon that pre-eminence by j^,^>0^-i««s?t. JAPANESE BRIDGE. the sword, and who by wealth and power and a skillfully wrought plan of division of land among the other daimios was able to rule. In 1600 and the years following, lyeyasu employed an army of three hundred thousand laborers in Yeddo improving and building the city. Before the end of the century, Yeddo had a population of more than half a million, but it never did have, as the Hollanders guessed and the old text books told us, two million five hundred 236 GREAT IMPROVEMENTS IN THE EMPIRE. thousand souls. Outside of Yeddo the strength of the great unifier was spent on public roads and highways, post stations, bridges, castles and mines. He spent the last years of his life engaged in erasing the scars of war by his policy of conciliation, securing the triumphs of peace, perfecting his plans for fixing in stability a system of government, and in collecting books and manuscripts. He bequeathed his code of laws to his chief retainers, and advised liis sons to govern in the spirit of kindness. He died on the eighth of March, 1616. The grandson of lyeyasu, lyemitsu, was another great shogun, and it was he who established the rule that all the daimios should visit and reside in Yeddo during half the year. Gradually these rules became more and more restrictive, until the guests became mere vassals. Their wives and children were kept as hostages in Yeddo. During liis rule the Christian insurrection and massacre at Shimabara took place, Yeddo was vastly improved, with aqueducts, fire watch towers, the establishment of mints, weights and measures. A general survey of the empire was executed ; maps of various provinces and plans of the daimios' castles were made ; the councils called Hiojo-sho (discussion and decision), and Wakadoshiyori (assembly of elders), were established and Corean envoys received. The height of pride and ambition which this shogun had already reached, is seen in the fact that in a letter of reply to Corea he is referred to as Tai Kun, (" Tycoon "), a title never conferred by the mikado on any one, nor had lyemitsu any legal right to it. It was assumed in a sense honorary or meaning- less to any Japanese, unless highly jealous of the mikado's sover- eignty, and was intended to overawe the Coreans. The approxi- mate interpretation of it is " great ruler." Under the strong rule of the Tokugawa shoguns, therefore, the long distracted Japanese empire at length enjoyed two-and-a-half centuries of peace and prosperity. The innate love of art, litera- ture, and education, which almost constant warfare had prevented from duly developing among the people, had now an opportunity of producing fruit. And as it had shown itself in former inter- vals of rest, so was it now. Under the patronage of lyeyasu was composed the Dai Nihon Shi, the first detailed history of Japan. Tsunayoshi, his successor, 1681 to 1709, founded at Seido a Con- UNDER THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNS. 237 fucian university, and was such an enthusiast for literature that he used to assemble the princes and high officials about him and expound to them passages from the Chinese classics. Yoshimune, another shoguu, was much interested in astronomy and other branches of science, beside doing much to improve agriculture. Legal matters also engaged his attention ; he altered lyeyasu's policy so far as to publish a revised criminal code, and improved the administration of the law, forbidding the use of torture except in cases where there was flagrant proof of guilt. He built an astro- nomical observatory at Kanda and established at his court a pro- fessorship of Chinese literature. lyenori, shogun from 1787 to 1838, threw the classes of the Confucian university open to the public. Every body from the nobility down to the masses of the people began to appreciate literary studies. Maritime commerce within the limits of the four seas was encouraged by the shogun's government, regular service of junks being established between the principal ports. Nor must it be forgotten that to the Tokugawas is due the foundation of the great modern city of Yeddo with its vast fortifi- cations and its triumphs of art in the shrines of Shiba and Uyeno. It was at this period too that the matchless shrines of Nikko were reared in memory of the greatness of lyeyasu and lyemitsu. The successors of the former, the shoguns of the Tokugawa dynasty, fourteen in all, were with one exception buried alternately in the cemeteries of Zozoji and Toyeizan, in the city districts of Shiba and Uyeno. But throughout all this period of peace and progress the light of the outer world was excluded. The people made the best use of the light they had, but after all it was but dim. The learning by rote of thousands of Chinese characters, and the acquisition of skill in the composition of Chinese and Japanese veise, were little worthy to be the highest literary attainments possible to the most aspiring of the youth of Japan. In the domain of art there was more that was inviting, but scientific knowledge was tantaliz- ingly meagre and that little was overlaid with Chinese absurdities. When we consider that the isolation of the country was due to no spirit of exclusiveness in the national character, that indeed it was the result of a policy that actually went against the grain of 238 AMERICA KNOCKS AT THE DOOR. the people, how many restless spirits must there have been during these long years, who kept longing for more light. Fortunately there was one little chink at Deshima, in the harbor at Nagasaki, and of this some of the more earnest were able to take advantage. Many instances are recorded and there must be many more of which we can know nothing, of Japanese students displaying the truest heroism in surmounting the difficulties that lay in the way of their acquiring foreign knowledge. Let us now see how there came at length an unsettled dawn, and after the clouds of this had cleared, a dazzling inpouring of the light. It was the American Union which opened the door of Japan to western civilization. It had been desired by all of the European nations, as well as by the United States, to obtain access to Japanese ports. Supplies were frequently needed, particularly water and coal, but no distress was ever considered a sufficient excuse for the Japanese to permit the landing of a foreign vessel's crew. Shipwrecked sailors frequently passed through seasons of great trial and danger, before they were restored to their own people. Even Japanese sailors who were shipwrecked on other shores, or carried out to sea, were refused re-admission to their own country when rescued by foreigners. Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry of the American navy, urged upon President Millard Fillmore the necessity and possi- bility of making some sort of a treaty with the exclusive empire. It was decided that the most effective way to advance this desire was to sail into the bay of Yeddo with a squadron sufficient to comwiand respect. A fleet was assigned to the undertaking, under the command of Perry, and the American vessels sailed away to the Orient to rendezvous at the chief city of the Liu Kiu islands, Napha. From Napha the fleet sailed for Japan, the Susquehanna, the flagship, the advance of the line of the ships of seventeen nations. It was on the seventh day of July, 1853, under a sky and over a sea of perfect calm, that the four American warships appeared off Uraga in the Bay of Yeddo. Without delay the officials of Uraga emphatically notified the " barbarian " envoy that he must go to Nagasaki, where all business with foreigners had to be done. The barbarian refused to go. He informed the messengers BAPTISM OF BUDDHA, JAPAN'S DOOR HALF AJAR. 241 that he was the bearer of a letter from the President of the United States to the Emperor of Japan ; that he had sailed as near as possible to the destination of the letter and would now deliver it and continue it on its way by land, but he would not retrace his path until the letter was delivered. The shogun lyeyoshi on re- ceiving information of such decision, was exceedingly troubled and called his officials to a council. Alarm was wide spread, and it was ordered that strict watch should be kept along the shore to prevent the barbarian vessels from committing acts of violence. During the eight days while Commodore Perry's fleet was wait- ing in the Bay of Yeddo, the boats of his ships were busily engaged in taking soundings and surveying the shores and the anchorage. No sailors were permitted to land, and no natives were molested. Every effort was made to indicate to the Japanese the desire for a peaceful friendship. A learned Chinese scholar was sent by the shogun to Uraga, who acted as an official and eminent interpreter in an interview with the American envoy. Continued councils were called by the shogun, not only of his chief officers but of the daimios, the nobles, and the retired nobles of Yeddo. The citizens of Yeddo and the surrounding villages were in great tumult, fearing that there would be a war, for which the country was totally unpre- pared. Meanwhile the envoy was impatiently demanding an answer. At last, after eight days, the patience and the impa- tience, combined with the demonstrations made by the vessels of the fleet, which were highly impressive to the Japaiiese ^vho had never seen a steamboat, won success for Commodore Perry's message. A high Japanese commissioner came to Uraga, pre- pared a magnificent pavilion for the ceremonies, and announced himself ready to receive the letter to the emperor. With great pomp and ceremony the Americans landed and in this pavilion with proper formalities, delivered the letter and presents from the president. Then having, for the first time in history, gained several important points of etiquette in a country where etiquette was more than law or morals, the splendid diplomat and warrior Perry sailed away with his fleet July 17, 1853. It was in response to a temporizing policy on the part of Japan, and to the good judgment and careful decision of Commodore ■242 JAPAN TAKES TIME TO THINK. Perry, that the fleet sailed away wit liout demanding an immediate reply to his letter. The American envoy was informed that in a matter of so much importance a decision could not be at once reached, and that if he now left, lie would on his return get a definite answer. No wonder there was commotion. The nine- teenth century had come suddenly into contact with the fuur- tejnth. The spirit of commerce and the spirit of feudalism, two great but conflicting forces, met in their full development, and the result was necessarily a convulsion. We are hardly surprised to hear that the shogun died before Commodore Perry's return, or that during the next few years the land was harassed by earth- quakes and pestilences. Perry's second appearance was in Febrnarj-, 1854, this time with a much larger fleet. A hot debate took place in the shogun's Council as to the answer that should be given. The old daimio of Mito, tlie liead of one of the three families, which, forming the Tokugawa clan, furnished the occupants of the sliogunate, wanted to fight and settle the question once for all. " At first," he said, " they will give us philosophical instruments, machinery and other curiosities ; will take ignorant people in ; and trade being their chief object they will manage to impoverish the country, after which they will treat us just as they like, per- haps behave with the greatest rudeness and insult us, and end by swallowing up Japan. If we do not drive them away now we shall never have another opportunity." Others gave contrary advice, saying, " If we try to drive them iiway they will immediately commence hostilities, and then we shall be obliged to fight. If we once get into a dispute we shall have an enemy to fight who will not be easily disposed of. He does not care how long he will have to spend over it, but he will come with myriads of men-of-war and surround our shores com- pletely ; however large a number of ships we might destroy, he is so accustomed to that sort of thing that he would not care in the least. In time the country would be put to an immense expense and the people plunged into misery. Rather than allow this, as we are not the equals of foreigners in the mechanical arts, let us have intercourse with foreign countries, learn their drill and tactics, and when we have made the nation as united as one SIGNING OF THE FIRST TREATY. 243 faiuily, we shall be able to go abroad and give lands in foreign countries to those who have distinguished themselves in battle." The latter view carried and a treaty with the United States was signed on the thirty-first of March, 1854. Now be it ob- served that the shogun did this without the sanction of the mikado, whom indeed he had never yet consulted on the matter, and that he subscribed himself Tai Kun, ("Tycoon,") or great ruler, a title to which he had no right and which if it meant any- thing at all involved an assumption of the authority of supreme ruler in the empire. This was the view naturally taken by Perry and by the ambassadors from European countries Avho a few years later obtained treaties with Japan. They were under the impression that they were dealing with the emperor ; and hearing of the existence of another potentate living in an inland city, surrounded with a halo of national veneration, they con- ceived the plausible but erroneous theory that the tycoon was the temporal sovereign, and this mysterious mikado the spiritual sovereign of the country. They little dreamed that the so-called tycoon was no sovereign at all, and that consequently the treaties which he signed had no legal validity. The shogun could ill afford thus to lay himself open to the charge of treason. From the first there had been a certain class of daimios who had never heartily submitted to the Tokugawa administration. The principal clans which thus submitted to the regime under protest against what they considered a usurpation, an encroachment on the authority of the mikado, whom alone they recognized as the divinely appointed ruler of Japan, were those of Satsuma, Choshiu, and Tosa. As the years of peace cast their spell over the nation, making the people forgetful of war and transforming the descendants of lyeyasu into luxurious idlers, much more like impotent mikados than successors of the energetic soldier and law-giver, their hopes more and more arose that an opportunity would be given them to overthrow the shogunate and bring about the unification of the empire at the hands of the mikado. Their time had now come. The shogun was enervated and he had so far forgotten himself as to open the country to foreign trade, without the sanction of the " Son of Heaven." It was this illegal act of the shogun that precipitated 244 THE TREATY AVAS TREASON. the confusion, violence and disaster of the next few years, reach- ing ultimately in 1868 to the complete overthrow of his own power and the restoration of the mikado to his rightful position as actual as well as nominal ruler of the empire. Fearing the consequences of the illegal act into which he had been driven, the shogun lost no time in sending messengers to Kioto to inform the mikado of what had happened and seek his sanction to the policy adopted. It was plead in excuse for the course of conduct, that affairs had reached such a condition that the shogun was driven to sign the treaty. The emperor in great agitation summoned a council. The decision was unanimous against the shogun's action, and the messengers were informed that no sanction could be given to the treaty. The next import- ant step was not taken until July, 1858, when Lord Elgin arrived with propositions on the part of Great Britain for a treaty of amity and commerce. He was unaccompanied by any armed force, and brought a steam yacht as a present from Queen Vic- toria to the tycoon of Japan. A few months later treaties were entered into with all the leading powers of Europe, but if there was a political lull be- tween 1854 and 1858, the poor Japanese had distractions of a very different kind. From a violent earthquake and consequent conflagration, one hundred and four thousand of the inhabitants of Yeddo lost their lives. A terrific storm swept away one hun- dred thousand more, and in a visitation of cholera thirty thou- sand persons perished in Yeddo alone. Moreover, just when the treaties were being signed, the shogun lyesada died, " as if," says Sir R. Alcock, "a further victim was required for immolation on the altar of the outraged gods of Japan." The political tempest that had been gathering now swept over the nation. For the next ten years there was so much disorder, intrigue, and bloodshed, that Japan became among the western nations a byword for treachery and assassination. Defenseless foreigners were cut down in the streets of Yeddo and Yokohama and even in the legations. Twice was the British legation attacked, on one of the occasions being taken by storm and held for a time by a band of free-lances. No foreigner's life was safe. Even when out on the most trivial errand, every foreign resident YEARS OF VIOLENCE AND DISASTER. 245 was accompanied by an armed escort furnished by the shogun's government. It is needless to give an account of all the different assassinations, successful or attempted, which darkened the period. The secretary to the American legation was cut down near Shiba, Yeddo, when returning from the Prussian legation with an armed escort; a Japanese interpreter attached to the British legation was fatally stabbed in broad daylight while standing at the legation flagstaff ; one of the guard at the same legation murdered two Englishmen in the garden and then com- mitted suicide ; an Englishman was cut down on the highway between Yokohama and Yeddo by certain retainei's of the daimio of Satsuma, whose procession he had unwittingly crossed on horseback ; and these were not all. It is not a satisfactory answer to say that hatred of foreigners was the leading motive that inspired all these acts of violence. This was no doubt more or less involved, but the true explana- tion is to be found in the hostility of the mikado's partisans to the shogun's government. All possible means were taken to thwart the shogun and bring him into complications with the ambassadors at his court. Every attack on a foreigner brought fresh trouble upon the Yeddo government and hastened its col- lapse. Long before foreigners arrived, the seeds of revolution had sprouted and their growth was showing above the soil. It is to the state of political parties and of feudalism at this epoch in Japanese history, and not to mere ill will against foreigners, that this policy of intrigue and assassination must be ascribed. It would take too long to discuss all the complications of this period and to inquire, for instance, how far when the Japanese government failed to arrest and execute the murderer of Mr. Richardson, the British were justified in demanding an indemnity of $500,000 from the shogun and $125,000 from the daimio of Satsuma, or in enforcing their demands with a threatened bom- bardment of Yeddo and an actual bombardment of Kagoshima. It is out of our scope here to inquire into the shelling of the batteries of the daimio of Choshiu, at Shimonoseki, in turn by the Americans, British, French and Dutch, the men of Choshiu having fired upon some Dutch, American, and French vessels that had entered the straits against the prohibition of the Japanese. 246 HARD TIMES FOR THE SHOGUN. An iiideraiiity of 13,000,000 was also exacted and distributed among these nations. Such stern measures doubtless appeared to the foreign ambas- sadors necessary to prevent the expulsion or even the utter ex- termination of foreigners. Whether their policy was mistaken or not, certain it is that they can have had no adequate concep- tion of the difficulties with which the shogun had to contend. The position of that ruler was one of such distraction as might well evoke for him the pity of every disinterested onlooker. Do as he would, he could not escape trouble ; on the one side were the mikado's partisans ever growing in power and in determina- tion to crush him, and on the other were the equally irresistible foreigners with their impatient demands and their alarming threats. He was as helpless as a man between a wall of rock and an advancing tide. The internal difficulties of the country were increased by dis- sensions which broke out in the imperial court. The clans of Satsuma and Choshiu had been summoned to Kioto to preserve order. For some reason the former were relieved of this duty, or lather privilege, and it therefore devolved exclusively upon the Choshiu men. Taking advantage of their position, the Choshiu men persuaded the mikado to undertake a progress to the province of Yamato, there to proclaim his intention of taking the field against foreigners ; but this proposal roused the jealousy of the other clans at the imperial court, as they feared that the men of Choshiu were planning to obtain possessiiui of the nukado's per- son and thus acquire pre-eminence. The intended expedition was abandoned, and the men of Choshiu, accompanied by Sanjo, afterward prime minister of the reformed government, and six other nobles who had supported them, were banished from Kioto. The ill feeling thus occasioned between Choshiu and Satsuma, was fomented by an unfortunate incident which occurred at Shimonoseki early in 1864. The former clan recklessly fired upon a vessel, which being of European build they mistook for a foreign one, but which really belonged to Satsuma. Thus Choshiu was in disfavor both with the shogun and with the mikado, and in this year we have the strange spectacle of these tw^o rulers leaguing their forces together for its punishment. ABOLITION OF THE SHOGUNATES. 247 August 20, 1864, the Choshiu men advanced upon Kioto, but were repulsed with much slaughter, only however after the greater part of the city had been destroyed by fire. The rebell- ion was not at once quelled ; indeed the Choshiu samurai were proving themselves more than a match for the troops which tlie shogun had sent against them, when at length the imperial court ordered the fighting to be abandoned. Simultaneously with the Choshiu rebellion the shogun had to meet an insurrection by the daimio of Mito, in the east. His troubles no doubt hastened his death, which took plaee at Osaka in September, 1866, shortly be- fore the war against Chosliiu terminated. Then there succeeded Keiki, the last of the shoguns. it should be noted, however, that before this the mikado's sanction had been obtained to the foreign treaties. In Novem- ber, 1865, British, French, and Dutch squadrons came to anchor off Hiogo, of which the foreign settlement of Kobe is now a suburb, and sent letters to Kioto demanding the imperial con- sent. The nearness of such an armed force was too great an argument to be withstood, and the demand was granted. Little more than a year after his accession to the shogunate Keiki re- signed. In doing so he proved himself capable of duly apprecia- ting the national situation. Now that foreigners had been ad- mitted, it was more necessary than ever that the government should be strong, and this, it was seen, was impossible without the abolition of the old dual system. ' He had secured the mikado's consent to the treaties, on the condition that they should be revised, and that Hiogo should never be opened as a port of foreign commerce. But the end had not yet come. On the same day when the shogunate was abolished, January 3, 1868, the forces friendly to the Tokagawas were dismissed from Kioto, and the guardianship of the imperial palace was committed to the clans of Satsuma, Tosa, and Geishiu. This measure gave Keiki great offense, and availing himself of a former order of the court which directed him to continue the conduct of affairs, he marched with his re- tainers and friends to Ozaka and sent a request to the mikado that all Satsuma men who had any share in the government should be dismissed. To this tlie court would not consent, and 248 IMPERIALISM IN THE ASCENDANT. Keiki marched against Kioto with a force of thirty thousand men, his declared object being to remove from the mikado his bad counselors. A desperate engagement took place at Fushimi, in which the victory was with the loyalists. But this was only the beginning of a short but sharp civil war, of which the principal fighting was in the regions between Yeddo and Nikko. The restoration was at last complete. Proclamation was made " to sovereigns of all foreign nations and their subjects, that per- mission had been granted to the shogun Yoshinobu, or Keiki, to return the governing power in accordance with his own request; " and the manifesto continued : "henceforward we shall exercise supreme authority both in the internal and external affairs of the country. Consequently the title of emperor should be substituted for that of tycoon which had been hitherto employed in the treaties." Appended were the seal of Dai Nippon, and the signa- ture of Mutsuhito, this being the first occasion in Japanese history on which the name of an emperor had appeared during his life- time. With the triumph of the imperial party one might have ex- pected a return to the old policy of isolation. There can be no doubt that when the Satsunia, Choshiu, and other southern clans commenced their agitation for the abolition of the shogunate, their ideas with regard to foreign intercourse were decidedly retrogressive. But after all, the leading motive which inspired them was dissatisfaction with the semi-imperial position occupied by the upstart Tokugawas ; to this their opposition to foreigners was quite secondary. It so happened that the Tokugawa shoguns got involved with foreigners, and it was so much the worse for the foreigners. To go deeper, what was at the bottom of this desire was the overthrow of the shogunate. Doubtless their patriotism, what they had at heart, was the highest welfare of their country, and this they believed imposeible without its unifi- cation. Their primary motive then, being patriotism, we need not be surprised that they were willing to entertain the notion that perhaps after all the prosperity of their country might best be insured by the adoption of a policy of free foreign intercourse. This idea more and more commended itself, until it became a conviction ; and when they got into power they astonished the O 11 liHiii ^iiiiiiiyi RADICAL CHANGES BY THE MIKADO. 251 world by the thoroughness with which they broke loose from the old traditions and entered upon a policy of enlightened reforma- tion. To the political and social revolution which accompanied the restoration of the mikado in 1868, there has been no parallel in the history of mankind. One of the first acts of the mikado after the restoration, was to assemble the kuges and daimios and make oath before them " that a deliberative assembly should be formed, and all measures be decided upon by public opinion ; that impartiality and justice should form the basis of his action ; and that intellect and learn- ing should be sought for throughout the world in order to estab- lish the foundations of the empire." In the mid-summer of 1868, the mikado, recognizing Yeddo as really the center of the nation's life, made it the captial of the empire and transferred his court thither ; but the name Yeddo, being distasteful on account of its associations with the shogunate, was abolished, and the city re- named Tokio, or " Eastern Capital." At the same time the an- cient capital Kioto, received the new name of Saikio or " West- ern Capital." For the creation of a central administration, how- ever, more was necessary than the abolition of the shogunate and the establishment of the mikado's authority. The great fabric of feudalism still remained intact. Within his own territory each daimio was practically an independent sovereign, taxing his subjects as he saw fit, often issuing his own currency, and some- times even granting passports so as to control intercourse with neighboring provinces. Here was a formidable barrier to the consolidation of the empire. But the reformers had the courage and the tact necessary to remove it. The first step towards the above revolution was taken in 1869, when the daimios of Satsuma, Choshiu, Hizen, and Tosa ad- dressed a memorial to the mikado requesting his authorization for the resignation of their fiefs into his hands. Other nobles followed their example, and the consequence was the acceptance by the mikado of control over the land and revenues of the dif- ferent provinces, the names of the clans however being still pre- served, and the daimios allowed to remain over them as governors, each with one-tenth of the former assessment of his territory as rental. By this arrangement the evil of too suddenly termina- 252 ANNIHILATING FEUDALISM. ting the relation between the clans and their lords was sought to be avoided, but it was only temporary ; in 1871 the clan system was totally abolished, and the country redivided for administra- tive purposes, with officers chosen irrespectively of hereditary rank or clan connection. But the payment of hereditary pensions and allowances of the ex-daimios and ex-samurai proved such a drain upon the national resources that in 1876 the reformed government found it neces- sary to compulsorily convert them into capital sums. The rate of commutation varied from five years' purchase in the case of the largest pensions, to fourteen years' in that of the smallest. The number of the pensioners with whom they had thus to deal was three hundred and eighteen thousand four hundred and twenty-eight. The act of the daimios in thus suppressing them- selves looks at first sight like a grand act of self-sacrifice, as we are not accustomed to see landed proprietors manifesting such disinterestedness for the patriotic object of advancing their coun- try's good. But the vast majority of daimios had come to be mere idlers, as the greater mikado had been. Their territories were governed by the more able and energetic of their retainers, and it was a number of these men that had most influence in bringing about the restoration of the mikado's authority. Intense patriots, they saw that the advancement of their country could not be realized without its unification, and at the same time they cannot but have preferred a larger scope for their talents, which service immediately under the mikado would give them. From being ministers of their provincial governments, they aspired to be ministers of the imperial government. They were successful ; and their lords, who had all along been accustomed to yield to their advice quite cheerfully, acquiesced when asked for the good of the empire to give up their fiefs to the mikado. One result of this is that while most of the ex-daimios have retired into private life, the country is now governed almost exclusively by ex-samurai. Such sweeping changes were not to be accomplished without rousing opposition and even rebellion. The government incurred much risk in interfering with the ancient privileges of the samurai. It is not surprising that several rebellions had to be put down during the years immediately succeeding 1868. THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN JAPAN. 263 Dr. William Elliot Griffis, in his exhaustive and interesting ■work, " The Mikado's Empire," discusses at length the change of Japan from feudalism to its present condition, the abolition of the shogunate, and the rebellions that followed that event. He declares that popular impression to be wrong which suggests that the immediate cause of the fall of the shogun's government, the restoration of the mikado to supreme power, and the aboli- tion of the dual and feudal systems, was the presence of foreign- ers on the soil of Japan. The foreigners and their ideas were the occasion, not tlie cause, of the destruction of the dual system of government. Their presence served merely to hasten what was already inevitable. The history of Japan from the abolition of feudalism in 1871 up to the present time, is a record of advance in all tlie arts of western civilization. The mikado, Mutsuhito, has shown himself to be much more than a petty divinity, a real man. He has taken a firm stand in advocacy of the introduction of western customs, wherever they were improvements. The imperial navy, dockyards, and machine shops have been a pride to him. He has withdrawn himself from mediaeval seclusioh and assumed divinity, and has made himself accessible and visible to his subjects. He has placed the empress in a position like to that occupied by the consorts of European monarchs, and with her he has adopted European attire. In the latter part of June, 1872, the mikado left Tokio in the flagship of Admiral Akamatsu, and made a tour throughout the south and west of his empire. For the first time in twelve centuries the emperor of Japan moved freely and un- veiled among his subjects. Again in the same year Japan challenged the admiration of Christendom. The coolie trade, carried on by Portuguese at Macao, in China, between the local kidnappers and Peru and Cuba, had long existed in defiance of the Chinese government. Thousands of ignorant Chinese were yearly decoyed from Macao and shipped in sweltering shipholds, under the name of " passen- gers." In Cuba and Peru their contracts were often broken, they were cruelly treated, and only a small portion of them re- turned alive to tell their wrongs. The Japanese government had with a fierce jealousy watched the beginning of such a 254 DESTROYING THE COOLIE TRADE. traffic on their own shores. In the last days of the shogunate, coolie traders came to Japan to ship irresponsible hordes of Japanese coolies and women to the United States. To their everlasting shame, be it said some were Americans. Among the first things done by the mikado's government after the restora- tion, was the sending of an official who effected the joyful delivery of these people and their return to their homes. So the Japanese set to work to destroy this nefarious traffic. The Peruvian ship Maria Luz, loaded with Chinese, entered the port of Yokohama. Two fugitive coolies in succession swam to the English war ship T'on Duke. Hearing the pite- as story of their wrongs, Mr. \/^atson, the British charg6 7 the foreign consuls, ministers, and a part of the press. Abuse and threats and diplomatic pressure were in vain. The Japanese never wavered, but marched straight to the duty before them, the liberation of the slaves. The British charge and the American consul. Colonel Charles O. Shepherd, alone gave hearty support and unwavering sympathy to the riglit side. During the same year, 1872, two legations and three consulates were established abroad, and from that time forward the number has been increasing until the representatives of Ja^Dan's govern- ment are found all over the world. Scores of daily newspapers and hundreds of weeklies have been furnishing the country with information and awakening thought. The editors are often men of culture or students returned from abroad. The Corean war project had, in 1872, become popular in the cabinet and was the absorbing theme of the army and navy. During the Tokugawa period Corea had regularly sent embassies of homage and congratulation to Japan ; but not relishing the change of affairs in 1868, disgusted at the foreignizing tendencies of the mikado's government, incensed at Japan's departure from Turanian ideals, and emboldened by the failure of the French and American expeditions, Corea sent insulting letters taunting Japan with slavish truckling to the foreign barbarians, declared herself an enemy, and challenged Japan to fight. About this time a Liu Kiu junk was wrecked on eastern Formosa, The crew was killed by the savages, and, it is said, eaten. The Liu Kiuans appealed to their tributary lords at Satsuma, who referred the matter to Tokio. English, Dutch, American, German, and Chinese ships have from time to time been wrecked on this can- nibal coast, the terror of the commerce of Christendom. Their war ships vainly attempted to chastise the savages. Soyejima, with others, conceived the idea of occupying the coast, to rule the wild tribes, and of erecting light houses in the interests of commerce. China laid no claim to eastern Formosa, all trace of which was omitted from the maps of the " Middle Kingdom." In the spring of 1873, Soyejima went to Peking and there, among other things granted him, was an audience with the Chinese em- peror. He thus reaped the results of the diplomatic labors of half a century. The Japanese ambassador stood upright before 258 AN EXPEDITION TO FORMOSA. the "Dragon Face" and the "Dragon Throne," robed in the tight black dress-coat, trousers, and linen of western civilization, bearing the congratulations of the young mikado of the " Sun- rise Kingdom " to the youthful emperor of the " Middle King- dom." In the Tsung-li Yamen, Chinese responsibility over eastern Formosa vi'as disavowed, and the right of Japan to chas- tise the savages granted. A Japanese junk was wrecked on Formosa, and its crew stripped and plundered while Soyejima was absent in China. This event piled fresh fuel on the flames of the war feeling now popular even among the unarmed classes. Japan at this time had to struggle with opposition within and without, to every move in the direction of ad- vancement in civilization. Says Griffis, "At home were the stolidly conservative peasantry backed by ignor- ance, superstition, priest- craft, and political hostility. On their own soil they were fronted by aggressive foreign- ers who studied all Japanese questions through the spec- tacles of dollars and cents and trade, and whose diplo- matists too often made the principles of Shylock their system. Outside the Asiatic nations beheld with contempt, jealousy and alarm the departure of one of their number from Turanian ideas, principles, and civilization. China with ill-concealed anger, Corea with open defiance taunted Japan with servile submission to the ' foreign devils.' " For the first time the nation was represented to the world by FORMOSAN TYPE. WHAT THE EMBASSY ACCOMPLISHED. 250 an embassy at once august and plenipotentiary. It was. not a squad of petty ofQcials or local nobles going forth to kiss a toe, to play the part of figure-heads, or stool-pigeons, to beg the aliens to get out of Japan, to keep the scales on foreign eyes, to buy gun-boats, or to hire employees. A noble of highest rank, and blood of immemorial antiquity, with four cabinet ministers, set out to visit the courts of the fifteen nations having treaties with Dai Nippon. They were accompanied by commissioners representing every government department, sent to study and re- port upon the methods and resources of foreign civilizations. They arrived in Washington February 29, 1872, and for the first time in history a letter signed by the mikado was seen outside of Asia. It was presented by the ambassadors, robed in their an- cient Yamato costume, to the President of the United States on the 4th of March, Mr. Avinori Mori acting as interpreter. The first president of the free republic, and the men who had elevated the eta to citizenship stood face to face in fraternal accord. The one hundred and twenty-third sovereign of an empire in its twenty-sixth centennial saluted the citizen ruler of a nation whose century aloe had not yet bloomed. On the 6th of March they were welcomed on the floor of Congress. This day marked the formal entrance of Japan upon the theater of universal his- tory." In its subordinate objects the embassy was a signal success. Much was learned of Christendom. The results at home were the splendid series of reforms which mark the year 1872 as epochal. But in its prime object the embassy was an entire failure. One constant and supreme object was ever present, be- yond amusement or thirst for knowledge. It was to ask that in the revision of the treaties the extra-territoriality clause be stricken out, that foreigners be made subject to the laws of Japan. The failure of the mission was predicted by all who knew the facts. From Washington to St. Petersburg point-blank refusal was made. No Christian governments would for a mo- ment trust their people to pagan edicts and prisons. While Japan slandered Christianity by proclamations, imprisoned men for their beliefs, knew nothing of trial by jury, of the habeas corpus writ, or of modern jurisprudence ; in short while Japan 260 REBELLION STAMPED OUT. maintained the institutions of barbarism, they refused to recog- nize her as a peer among nations. At home the watchword was progress. Public persecution for conscience' sake vanished. All the Christians torn from their homes and exiled and imprisoned in 1868 were set free and re- stored to their native villages. Education advanced rapidly, pub- lic decency was improved, and the standards of Christendom attempted. While in Europe Iwakura and his companions in the embassy kept cognizant of home affairs. With eyes opened by all that they had seen abroad, mighty results, but of slow growth, they saw their country going too fast. Behind the war project lay an abyss of ruin. On their return the war scheme brought up in a cabinet meeting was rejected. The disappointment of the army was keen and that of expectant foreign contractors pitiable. The advocates of war among the cabinet ministers resigned and re- tired to private life. Assassins attacked Iwakura, but his injuries did not result fatally. The spirit of feudalism was against him. On the 17th of January, the ministers who had resigned sent in a memorial praying for the establishment of a representative assembly in which the popular wish might be discussed. Their request was declined. It was officially declared that Japan was not ready for such institutions. Hizen, the home of one of the great clans of the coalition of 1868, was the chief seat of dis- affection. With perhaps no evil intent, Eto, who had been the head of the department of justice, had returned to his home there and was followed by many of his clansmen. Scores of officials and men assembled with traitorous intent, and raised the cry of " On to Corea." The rebellion was annihilated in ten days. A dozen ringleaders were sent to kneel before the blood pit. The national government was vindicated and sectionalism crushed. The Formosan affair was also brought to a conclusion. Thir- teen hundred Japanese soldiers occupied the island for six months, conquering the savages wherever they met, building roads and fortifications. At last the Chinese government in shame began to urge their claims on Formosa and to declare the Japanese intruders. For a time war seemed inevitable. The ,ii'. ii .,„> * -■^ - THE SATSUMA KEBELLION. 263 man for the crisis was Okubo, a leader in the cabinet, the master spirit in crushing the rebellion, and now an ambassador at Peking. The result was that the Chinese paid in solid silver an indemnity of $700,000 and the Japanese disembarked. Japan single-handed, with no foreign sympathy, but with positive opposition, had in the interests of humanity rescued a coast from terror and placed it in a condition of safety. In the face of threatened war a nation having but one-tenth the population, area, or resources of China, had abated not a jot of its just demands nor flinched from battle. The righteousness of her cause was vindicated. The Corean affair ended happily. In 1875 Kuroda Kiyotaka with men of war entered Corean waters. Patience, skill, and tact were crowned with success. On behalf of Japan a treaty of peace, friendship, and commerce was made between the two coun- tries February 27, 1876. Japan thus peacefully opened this last of the hermit nations to the world. The rebellions which we have mentioned were of a mild type compared with that which in 1877 shook the government to its foundations. In the limits of our space it is impossible to enter deeply into the causes of the Satsuma rebellion. Its leader, Saigo Takamori, was one of the most powerful members of the reformed government until 1873 when he resigned as some of his prede- cessors had done, indignant at the peace policy which was pur- sued. A veritable Cincinnatus, he seems to have won the hearts of all classes around him by tlie Spartan simplicity of his life and the aifability of his manner, and there was none more able or more willing to come to the front when duty to his country called him. It is a thousand pities that such a genuine patriot should have sacrificed himself through a mistaken notion of duty. Ambition to maintain and extend the military fame of his coun- try seems to have blinded him to all other more practical consid- erations. The policy of Okubo and the rest of the majority in the cabinet, with its regard for peace and material prosperity, was in his eyes unworthy of the warlike traditions of old Japan. But we cannot follow out the story of this famous rebellion — how Saigo established a private school in his native city of Kagoshima for the training of young Shizoku in military tactics, how the re- ports of the policy of the government more and more dissatisfied 264 thp: satsuma rebellion. Jiim, until a rumor that Okubo had sent policemen to Kagoshima to assassinate him precipitated the storm that had been brewing. This report was not supported by satisfactory evidence, although the Kagoshima authorities extorted a so-called confession from a policeman. Okubo was too noble to be guilty of such an act. It was only after eight months of hard fighting, during which victory swayed from one side to another, and the death of Saigo and his leading generals when surrounded at last like rats in a trap, and tl)e expenditure of over forty million yen, that the much tried government could freely draw breath again. The people of Satsuma believe that Saigo's spirit has taken up its abode in the planet Mars, and that his figure may be seen there when that star is in the ascendant. By this time railways, telegraphs, lighthouse service, and a navy were well under construction in native works. Two national exhibitions were held, one in 1877 and the second in 1881; the latter particularly was a pretentious one and a great success. In 1879 Japan annexed the Liu Kiu islands, bringing their king to Tokio, there to live as a vassal, and reducing tlie islands to the position of a prefecture in spite of the warlike threats of China. In the same year occurred the visit to Japan of General Grant while he was on his tour around the world. The famous American was entertained most enthusiastically by the citizens of Tokio for some two weeks in July. The enthusiasm awakened by his visit among the citizens was remarkable. Arches and illuminations were on every hand for miles. The entertain- ment provided by the Japanec^e for their distinguished guests at ;iny time is so unique when seen by western eyes that it is always impressive and delightful. LIMITS AND POSSESSIONS OF THE JAPANESE EM- PIRE. The Islands and their Situation— The Famous Mountain Fuji-yama— Rivers and Canals —Ocean Currents and Their Effect on the Japanese Climate— Japan not a Tropical Country —Flora and Fauna— Tlie Important Cities— Strange History of Yokohama— Commerce— Min- jng— Agricultural Products— Ceramic Art— Government of the Realm. The empire of Japan is a collection of islands of various dimen- sions, numbering nearly four thousand, and situated to the east of the Asiatic continent. Only four of these however, are of size sufficient to entitle them to considerable fame, and around these a sort of belt of defense is formed by the thousands of islets. Dai Nippon is tlie name given by the natives to their beautiful land, and from this expression, which means Great Japan, our own name for the empire has been taken. Foreign writers have very often blundered in calling the largest island Nipj^on or Niphon. This more properly applies to the entire empire, while the main island is named in the military geography of Japan, Hondo. This word itself means main land. The other three im- portant islands are Kiushiu, the most southeasterly of all ; Shikoku, which lies between the latter and Hondo ; and Yesso, which is the most northerly of the chain. Japan occupies an important position on the surface of the globe, measured by political and commercial possibilities. Its position is such that its people may not unreasonably hope to form a natural link between the Occident and the Orient. Lying in the Pacific Ocean, in the temperate zone and not in the torrid, as many have the thought, it bends like a crescent off the conti- nent of Asia. In the extreme north, near the island of Saghalien, the distance from the main land of Asia is so short that it is little more than a day's sail in a junk. At the southern extremity, where Kiushiu draws nearest to the Corean peninsula, the distance to the main land is even less. Between this crescent of islands and the Asiatic main land is enclosed the Sea of Japan. For more than four thousand miles eastward stretches the Pacific Ocean, with no stopping point for steamers voyaging to San 17 (265) 266 ISLANDS OF THE EMPIRE. Francisco unless they diverge far from their course for a call at Honolulu. The island connections of Japan are numerous. To the south are the Liu Kiu islands, which have been annexed to Japan, and still farther the great island of Formosa. To the north are the Kurile islands, which extend far above Yesso and were ceded to Japan by Russia in return for Saghalien, over which rule was formerly disputed. The chain is almost continuous, although broken and irregular, to Kamtchatka, and thence prolonged by the Aleutian islands in an enormous semicircle to Alaska and our own continent. The configuration of the land is that resulting from the com- bined effects of volcanic action and wave erosion. The area of the Japanese islands is about one hundred and fifty thousand square miles, or nearly as great as the New England and Middle States. But of this surface nearly two-thirds consists of mountain land, much of it still lying waste and uncultivated though appar- ently capable of tillage. On the main island a solid backbone of mountainous elevations runs through a great portion of its length, with subordinate chains extending at right angles and rising again in the other islands. The mountains decrease in height towards the south and there are few highlands along the sea coast. The range is reached by a gradual rise from the sea, until the back- bone of the great island chain is reached. Japan rises abruptly from the sea, and deep water begins very close to the shore, in- dicating that the entire range of islands may be properly char- acterized as an immense mountain chain thrown up from the bottom of the ocean. The highest peak is Fuji-yama, which rises to a height of more than twelve thousand feet above the sea. It is a wonderfully beautiful mountain, and is the first glimpse that one has of land in approaching Yokohama from the Pacific Ocean. Of the position which this mountain occupies in the affections and traditions of the Japanese, mention will be made in a later chapter. The islands forming the empire of Japan are comprehended in these limits; between twenty-four degrees and fifty-one degrees north latitude, and one hundred and twenty-four degrees and one hundred ^.nd fifty-seven degrees east longitude. That is, speaking FUJI-YAMA. 267 roughly, it lies diagonally in and north of the subtropical belt, and has northern points corresponding with Paris and Newfound- land, and southern ones corresponding with Cairo and the Bermuda islands; or coming nearer home, it corresponds pretty nearly in latitude with the eastern coast line of the United States, added to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and the contrasts of climate in the latter island and in Florida are probably not more remarkable than those which are observed in the extreme northern and southern regions of Japan. The most striking geographical feature of Japan is the Inland FUJI-YAMA. Sea, which is one of the beauties of the world. It is a long, irregularly shaped arm of the sea, with tides and rapid currents, of variable width and no great depth, studded with innumerable thickly wooded islands. It is the water area which separates Hondo from Sliikoku and Kiushiu, and is often spoken of as the Japanese Mediterranean. One or two of the rivers of Japan, such as the Sumida, on the banks of which Tokio, the capital, lies, and which is about as broad as the East River between New York and Brooklyn, are 268 RIVERS. worthy of note. Here at the present time are situated several ship yards, and many modern craft built in the American fashion may be seen along the shore. Here it may be mentioned that any particular appellation given to a river in Japan holds good only for a limited part of its course, so that it changes its name per- haps four or five times in flowing a few hundred miles. Indeed the river which passes through the city of Ozaka changes its name four times within the city limits. Most of the larger rivers in the main land run a course tending almost north and south. The general contour of the land is such that they must be short, but this direction gives them the greatest length possible. There are brief periods of excessively heavy rain, and they are often then in fierce flood, carrying everything before them and leaving great plains of water-worn stones and gravel around their mouths. There are many picturesque waterfalls which attract travelers and command the admiration of native artists and poets. The rivers at a short distance from their outlets are rendered navigable chiefly by the courage and expertness of the boatmen, — who are among the most daring and skillful in the world. Till recently little has been done to deepen river channels or protect their banks, except in the interest of agriculture. In the lower courses, where broad alluvial plains of great fertility have been formed, they are frequently intersected by numerous shallow canals, for the most part of comparatively recent excavation, but some of them are many centuries old and these have been of im- mense service in keeping up communication throughout the country. In spite of their shallowness and rapid silting, some of the rivers of Japan are capable of being improved so as to admit of the passage of steam vessels of the largest size, and there are fine natural iidets and spacious bays which form harbors of great excellence. The Japanese coast is usually steep and even precipitous. Its chief natural features, such as sunken rocks, capes, straits, en- trances to bays and harbors and the mouths of rivers are now well marked with beacons or lighthouses of modern construction. The tides are not great, and in Yeddo bay the rise is only about four feet on an average. In spring tides it rarely exceeds six feet, and in general the height of the flood tide is never very GREAT OCEAN CURRENTS. 26^ great. Navigation in summer is somewhat dangerous and diffi- cult, owing to the mists and fogs which are deemed by its sailors to be the great scourge of Japan. Indeed these malarious cloud banks are probably as dangerous to the health of the landsmen as they are to the safety of the mariner. While a large area of land lying under shallow water, during rice cultivation, may have some share in the formation of these dangerous mists, there is the more general cause which is readily to be found in the ocean cur- rents. Japan occupies a striking position in these currents which flow northward from the Indian ocean and the Malay peninsula. That branch of the great Pacific equatorial current called the Kuro Shiwo, or dark tide or current, on account of its color, flows in a westerly direction past Formosa and the Liu Kiu islands, strik- ing the south point of Kiushiu and sometimes in summer send- ing a branch up the Sea of Japan. With great velocity it scours the east coast of Kiushiu and the south of Shikoku ; thence with diminished rapidity it envelopes the group of islands south of the Bay of Yeddo ; and at a point a little north of Tokio it leaves the coast of Japan and flows northeast towards the shores of America, ultimately giving to our own Pacific coast states a far milder climate than the corresponding latitudes on the Atlantic coast. The yearly evaporation at the tropics, of fully fourteen or fif- teen feet of ocean water, causes the great equatorial current of the Pacific to begin its flow. When the warm water reaches the colder waters to the northward, condensation of the vi^ater-laden air takes place, with the resulting formation of great cloud banks. The water appears to be of a deep, almost indigo-blue color, w^hence the name given to the current by the Japanese. Fish occur in great numbers where the Arctic current of fresher, lighter, and cooler water meets the warm salt stream from the south, amidst great commotion. The analogy of this great cur- rent to the Gulf stream of the Atlantic is apparent, and there can be no doubt as to its great influence on the climate of Japan. A difference of from twelve to sixteen degrees may be observed in passing from its waters to the cold currents from the north, and the effect of this on the atmosphere is very marked. The sudden 270 JAPANESE CLIMATE. and severe changes of temperature are often noticed on the southern coast of Japan and even in Yeddo bay. They are evi- dently due to eddies or branch currents from the great streams of cold and warm water which interweave themselves in the neighborhood. In the island of Yesso, the most northerly of the large ones, the extremes of temperature are nearly as great as in New En- gland. In the vicinity of Tokio the winter is usually clear and mild, with occasional sharp frosts and heavy falls of snow. In summer the heat is oppressive for nearly three months. Even at night the heat remains so high that sleep becomes almost impos- sible, the air being oppressive and no breeze stirring. The great- est heat is usually from the middle of June to early in September. The cold in winter is much more severe on the northwestern coast, and the roads across the main island are often blocked with snow for many months. In Yokohama the snow fall is light, not often exceeding two or three inches. The ice seldom exceeds an inch in thickness. Earthquake shocks are frequent, averag- ing more than one a month, but of late years there have been none of great severity. The winds of Japan are at all seasons exceedingly irregular, frequently violent, and subject to sudden changes. The north- east and easterly winds are generally accompanied by rain, and are not violent. The southwest and westerly winds are generally high, often violent, and accompanied with a low barometer. It is from the southwest that the cyclones or typhoons almost in- variably come. On clear and pleasant days, which in the neigh- borhood of Yokohama prevail in excess of foggy ones, there is a regular land and sea breeze at all seasons. The rainfall is above the average of most countries, and about two-thirds of the rain- falls during the six months from April to October. The flora of Japan is exceedingly interesting, not only to botan- ists and specialists, but to casual travelers and readers. The use. ful bamboo flourishes in all parts of the land ; sugar cane and the cotton plant grow in the southern part; tea is grown almost everywhere. The tobacco plant, hemp, corn, mulberry for silk, worm food, rice, wheat, barley, millet, buckwheat, potatoes, and yams are all cultivated. The beech, the oak, maples, and pina FAUNA. 2tS trees in rich variety ; azaleas, camelias, etc., grow in the forests. Some of the more characteristic plants are wisteria, cryptomeria, calceolaria and chrysanthemums. Various varieties of evergreens are grown, and the Japanese gardeners are peculiarly expert in cultivating these trees in dwarf forms of great beauty. Many familiar wild flowers can be gathered, such as violets, blue-bells, forget-me-uots, thyme, dandelions, and others. The woods are rich in ferns, among which the royal fern is conspicuous, and in orchids, ivies, lichens, mosses and fungi. The beautiful locusts, though imported, may now fairly be considered as naturalized. There are many water lilies, reeds and rushes, some of which are of great beauty and others of utility. The mammalia of Japan are not numerous. In ancient times, before the dawn of history, two species of dwarf elephants ex- isted in the plains around Tokio. There are many monkeys in some parts, even in the extreme northern latitudes. Foxes abound and are regarded with reverence. Wolves and bears are destructive in the north. There are wild antelopes, red deer, wild boars, dogs, raccoons, badgers, otters, ferrets, bats, moles, and rats ; while the sea is specially rich in seals, sea-otters, and whales. The country has been found quite unsuitable for sheep, but goats thrive well, although they are not much favored by the people. Oxen are used for draught purposes. Horses are small but are fair quality, and the breed is being improved. The cats are nearly tailless. The dogs are of a low, half-wolfish breed. There are some three hundred varieties of birds known in Japan. Few of them are what we call song-birds, but the lark is one brilliant exception. Game birds are plentiful, but are now pro- tected. Insects are very numerous, as no traveler will dispute, and Japan is a great field for investigation by entomologists. Locusts are often destructive, and mosquitoes are a great pest. Bees, the silk worm and the wax-insect are highly appreciated. There are several kinds of lizards, a great variety of frogs, seven or eight snakes, including one deadly species, and two or three kinds of tortoise. The crustaceans are numerous and inter- esting, and of fish there is extraordinary variety, especially those found in salt water. Oysters and clams are excellent and plentiful. 274 JAPAN'S GREAT CITIES. Let us now turn to the temporal affairs of the people who dwell in this island empire, their cities, their industries, and to their government. Japan like its oriental companion, China, is a country of great cities, although the smaller empire has not so many famous for their size as has China. With scarcely an exception these greater cities are situated at the heads of bays, most of them good har- bors and accessible for commerce. The largest of these cities, of course, is the capital Tokio, which doubtless passes a million in- habitants, although it is impossible that it should justify the American tradition of not many years ago, that its numbers were twice a million. Tokio, or the old city of Yeddo, is situated near the head of Yeddo Bay, but a few miles from Yokohama, and but little farther from Uraga where the first reception to Commodore Perry was given. Among the other more important cities on the sea coast are Nagasaki, Yokohama, Hakodate, Hiogo, Ozaka, Hiroshima, and Kanagawa. Nagasaki is situated on the southwest coast of the island of Kiushiu, and is built in the form of an amphitheater. The Euro- pean quarter in the east, stands upon land reclaimed from the sea at considerable labor and expense. Desima, the ancient Dutch factory, lies at the foot, and behind it is the native part of the town. The whole is sheltered by high wooden mountains. The city of Nagasaki was almost the first which attracted the at- tention of foreigners, partly from its being already known by name from the Dutch colony established there ; partly because it was the nearest point to China and a port of great beauty ; and also because before the political revolution which overthrew the power of the shogunate, the daimios of the south were there en- abled, owing to its distance from Yeddo, to transact foreign affairs in their own way unmolested. This comparative import- ance did not last long, for affairs soon began to be concentrated in Yokohama, and the opening of the ports of Hiogo and Ozaka further reduced it to a secondary rank among commercial towns. It is still, however, a busy place and a great portion of the naviga- tion of the Japanese seas passes by its beautiful port. But it is not a town of the future, and will be supplanted in prosperity to considerable extent by the more northern cities. YOKOHAMA. 275^ ifokohama, situated on the Gulf of Yeddo, owes its rise and im- portance to the merchants who came to seek their fortunes in the empire of tlie rising sun immediately after the signature of the treaties which threw open the coasts of Japan to adventurous foreigners. When Perry, with his augmented fleet, returned to Japan in February, 1854, the Japanese found him as inflexibly firm as ever. Instead of making the treaty at Uraga he must take it nearer Yeddo. Yokohama was the chosen spot, and there on the 8th of March, 1854, were exchanged the formal articles of convention between the United States and Japan. By the treaty of Yokohama, Shimoda was one of the ports opened to Americans. Before it began to be of much service the place was visited by an earthquake and tidal wave, which over- whelmed the town and ruined the harbor. The ruin of Shimoda was the rise of Yokohama. By a new treaty Kanagawa, three miles across the bay from Yokohama, was substituted for Shimoda. The Japanese government decided to make Yokohama the future port. Their reasons for this were many. Kanagawa was on the line of the great highway of the empire, along which the proud Daimios and their trains of retainers were continually passing. With the antipathy to foreigners that existed, had Kanagawa been made a foreign settlement, its history would doubtless have had many more pages of assassination and incendiarism than did Yokohama. Foreseeing this, even though considered by the foreign ministers a violation of treaty agreements, the Japanese government immediately set to work to render Yokohama as con- venient as possible for trade, residence and espionage. They built a causeway nearly two miles long across the lagoons and marshes to make it of easy access. They built granite piers, custom house and officers' quarters, and dwellings and store houses for the foreign merchants. After a long quarrel over which should be the city, the straggling colony of diplomats, missionaries, and merchants of Kanagawa finally pulled up their stakes and joined the settlement of Yokohama. Yokohama was settled in a squatter-like and irregular manner, and the ill effects of it are seen to this day. When compared with Shanghai, the foreign metropolis of China, it is vastly inferior. The town grew slowly at first. Murders and assassinations of 276 mSE OF THE CITY. foreigners were frequent during the first few years. Diplomatic quarrels were constant, and threats of bombardment from some foreign vessel in the harbor of frequent occurrence. A fire which destroyed nearly the whole foreign town seemed to purify the place municipally, commercially, and morally. The settlement was rebuilt in a more substantial and regular manner. As the foreign population grew, banks, newspaper offices, hospitals, post- offices, and consulate buildings reappeared in a new dignity. Fire and police protection were organized. Steamers began to come from European ports and from San Francisco. Social life began as ladies and children came, and houses became homes. Then came the rapid growth of society and the finer things. Churches, theaters, clubs, schools were organized in rapid succession. Tele- graph connection with Tokio, and thence around the globe, was accomplished, and the railway system increased rapidly. Within the thirty-five years of the life of Yokohama, it has grown from a fishing village of a few hundred to a city of fifty thousand people. Its streets are lighted with gas and electricity ; its stores are piled full of rare silks, bronzes and curios. At present the foreign population of Yokohama numbers about two thousand residents. In addition to these the foreign transient population, made up of tourists and officers and sailors of the navy, and the merchant marine, numbers between three thousand and six thousand. Several daily newspapers, beside weeklies and monthlies, printed in English, furnish mediums of communication and news. Yoko- hama has become and will remain the great mercantile center of American and European trade in Japan. Hiogo, or rather Kobe, as the foreign part has been called since the concession, is near Ozaka, both towns being situated on the inland Sea of Japan, near the south end of the Island of Niphon. Kobe is a considerable foreign settlement, with many fine houses and spacious warehouses. Ozaka, which contains more than half a million inhabitants, is one of the chief trading cities of Japan, and an immense proportion of the merchandise imported into the empire passes through it. The commerce between Japan and western nations, European and American, increases year by year. England enjoys the profits from more than half of the total interchange, the United TRANS-OCEANIC COMMERCE. 279 States is second, with a large portion of the remainder, and the rest of the commerce is divided among Germany, France, Holland, Norway, and Sweden. It is impossible to obtain figures recent enough to be a satisfactory index of the total volume of commerce annually, but it is now very many millions of dollars a j'ear. Japan exports tobacco, rice, wax, tea, silks, and manufactured goods, such as curios, bronzes, lacquer ware, etc. The principal imports of Japan are cotton goods, manufactures of iron, ma- chinery of all sorts, woolen fabrics, flour, etc. Mining in Japan is seldom carried on by modern methods, and the mineral wealth has not been developed as it will be within a few years. In almost every portion of Japan are found ores of some kind and there is scarcely a district in which there are not traces oj*" mines having been worked. No mines can be worked without special license of the government, and foreigners are ex- cluded from ownership in any mining industry. Japan seems to be fairly well, though not richly, provided with mineral wealth. The mines include those for gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, tin, plumbago, antimony, arsenic, marble, sulphur, alum, salt, coal, petroleum, and other minerals. The annual export of tea amounts to nearly thirty million pounds, of which considerably more than half is shipped from Yokohama. All Japanese tea is green and the United States is the chief customer for it. The exact area of Japan is not known, though it is computed at nearly one hundred and fifty thousand square miles, with a population of more than two hundred persons to a square mile. The number of acres under cultivation is about nine million, or one-tenth of the entire area. Not one-fourth of the fertile portion of Japan is yet under cultivation. Immense portions of good land await the farmers' plow and seed to return rich harvests. For centuries the agricultural art has been at a standstill. Pop- ulation and acreage have increased, but the crop in bulk and quantity remains the same. The true wealth of Japan consists in her agricultural and not in her mineral and manufacturing re- sources. The government and intelligent classes seem to be awakening to this fact. The islands are capable of yielding good crops and adapted to support the finest breeds of cattle. With 280 GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN". these brandies of industry increased to the extent that they de- serve, the prosperity of the empire will show constant increase. The ceramic art of Japan and the art of the lacquer worker are two that have helped to make Japanese wares famous in the western world. The various wares of porcelain and faience are made in Japan in quality and art inferior to none in the world. Since the restoration to power of the mikado in 1868, the gov- ernment of Japan has been growing nearer and nearer into the forms of western monarchical governments. In a prior chapter the promise of the young mikado to advance the freedom of his people, and ultimately to adopt constitutional forms of rule, has been quoted. In the later years he has been aiming for the ful- fillment of this promise. Supporting him, the party of progres- sionists, largely influenced by contact with European and Amer- ican civilization, urge on every reform. The present government is simply the modernized form of the system established more than a thousand years ago, when centralized monarchy succeeded simple feudalism. After the emperor comes the Dai Jo Kuan, which is practically a supreme cabinet, and following this, three other cabinets of varying powers and duties. The council of ministers is made up of the heads of departments, the foreign office, home office, treasury, army, navy, education, religion, pub- lic works, judiciary, imperial household, and colonization. The Dai Jo Kuan directs the three imperial cities and the sixty-eight ken or prefectures. The provinces are now merely geographical divisions. In the course of the efforts to bring the Japanese forms of gov- ernment more into harmony with those of Europe and America, many important changes have been made. A system of nobility was devised, and titles were granted to those who were considered to be entitled to them, whether by birth or achievement. The four or five ranks included in this system closely follow the Eng- lish models. Tlie judiciary, too, has been remodeled in many details to make it approach the western system. The methods of procedure are gradually conforming nearer and nearer to our own, as well as the names and jurisdiction of the courts. The Japanese people have been exceedingly anxious of late years to expunge the extra- CONSTITUTION AND PARLIAMENT. 281 territoriality clause which appears in the treaties with all western nations. It provides, in effect, that offenses by a foreigner against a Japanese shall be judged in a consular court presided over by the consul of that country whence the foreigner comes. In othei words, Japanese courts have no jurisdiction over the doings of JAPANESE COURT DRESS, OLD S TYLF,. foreigners having consuls in that country. This provision has become very obnoxious to the Japanese people, placing them on a level, as it does, with barbaric and semi-barbaric countries, where like provisions hold. This has been one of the potent fac- tors in influencing Japan to adopt western legal methods. Recent 282 CONSTITUTION AND PARLIAMENT. treaties which have been drawn with the United States and with England provide that this clause shall be expunged, and if they are finally agreed upon we may soon see Japan more absolutely independent than she has yet been. In 1890 a constitution was granted to Japan by the emperor, and a few months later legislative bodies for the first time began deliberation in Tokio. The powers of this parliament are con- stantly increasing. The war between China and Japan has been a strong influence to weld the people of opposing political faiths into harmony, and in parliament conservatives and radicals alike have risen in patriotism, and have been glad to cast votes for every measure that would hold up the hands of those who were bearing the battles. With a government drawing for itself lines parallel with those of enlightened western nations, increasing the freedom of its people, the power of the people's legislators, and the honesty of the people's courts, Japan has every right to name herself as worthy of a place in full brotherhood with the family of civilized nations. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE JAPANESE PEOPLE. Difference of Opinion as to the True Significance of Tlieir Rapid Adoption of Western Civilizati in— Pliysique of Man and Woman— Two Great Classes of tlie Population— The Samurai— The Agricultural Laborer— Wedding Ceremonies— Elopements— Japanese Babies —Sports of Childliood and of Age— Dress of Man and Woman— Food— Homes of the People —Family Lite— Art, Science, Medicine, Music— Language and Literature— Religion. In such a state of transition are the Japanese people them- selves, as truly as the government, that it is difficult to describe their personal characteristics. Different observers reach different conclusions as to their personality. One affirms that great quick- ness of imitation and judgment in discovering what is wortli imi- tating, seem to be tlie prominent cliaracteristics of the Japanese. They want originality and independence of thought, and character which accompanies it. The Japanese are not slow in adopting the inventions of modern civilization, and even in modifying them to suit their own convenience, but, says another observer, that they will ever add anytliing of importance to them may be doubted. The same is true in a political point of view. The more enlightened of the Japanese are already beginning to recog- nize the superiority of the European forms of government. Tlie upper classes are all sedulously imitating Paris and London fashions of dress. In our own country we have seen the preva- lence of an offensive Anglomania among certain classes of society in the larger cities, but in Japan a corresponding mania for the forms of western civilization has become almost universal, and is reaching the real bulk of the nation. Such extraordinary capacity for change may mark a versatile but unreliable race ; for it seems hard to believe that a people who are parting with their ancestral notions with such a total absence of any pangs of sorrow, will be likely to adhere with much steadfastness to a new order of things. On the other hand, other students of this movement take it to be only a most gratifying indication that Japan was a nation which had outgrown its narrow limits of thought and learning, ready to adopt whatever was good, and yearning for it when the oppor- (283) 284 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RACE. tunitj came, with a strength that made rapid assimilation of ideas entirely proper, and no sign of instability. It is to be hoped that the latter interpretation is the right one. In moral character the average Japanese is frank, honest, faith- ful, kind, gentle, courteous, confiding, affectionate, filial, and loyal. Love of truth for its own sake, chastity, and temperance are not characteristic virtues. A high sense of honor is cultivated by the Samurai. In spirit the average artisan and farmer is lamb- like. In intellectual capacity the actual merchant is mean, and his moral character low. He is beneath the Chinaman in this re- spect. The male Japanese is far less overbearing and more chivalrous to woman than any other Asiatic. In political knowl- edge, or gregarious ability, the countryman is a baby and the city artisan a boy. The peasant is a pronounced pagan, with supersti- tion ingrained into his inmost nature. In reverence to elders and to antiquity, obedience to parents, gentle manners, universal courtesy, and generous impulses the Japanese are the peers of any and superior to many peoples of Christendom. The idea of filial obedience has been developed into fanaticism and is the main blot of paganism and superstition. The Japanese in physique are much of the same type as the Spaniards, and inhabitants of the south of France. They are of middle or low stature. The men are about five feet six inches in height or a trifle less on an average, while the women rarely ex- ceed five feet. When dressed the Japanese look strong, well pro- portioned men, but when in the exceedingly slight costumes which they very often are pleased to adopt, it is then apparent that though their bodies are robust their legs are short and slight. Their heads are somewhat out of proportion to their bodies, being generally large and sunk a little between the shoulders, but they have small feet and delicate hands. The resemblance the Japanese bear to the Chinese is not nearly as marked as popular opinion would have it. The faces of the former are longer and more regular, their noses more prominent, and their eyes less sloped. The men are naturally very hirsute, but they never wear beards. Their hair is glossy, thick, and always black. Their eyes are black, their teeth white and slightly prominent. The shade of their skin is totally unlike the yellow complexions of the JAPANESE PHYSIQUE. 285 Chinese ; in some cases it is very swarthy or copper colored, but the most usual tint is an olive brown. Children and young people have usually quite pink complexions. The women follow the Chinese type a little closer. The eyes are narrower and sloped upward, and the head is small. Like the men their hair is glossy and very black, but it never reaches the length of American women's hair. They have clear, some- times even perfectly white skin, especially among the aristocracy, oval faces, and slender, graceful forms. Their manners are peculiarly artless and simple. But the harmony of the whole is spoiled in many instances by an ugly depression of the chest, which is sometimes observed in those who are otherwise handsomest and best formed. About the end of the eighth century a reform was insti- tuted in the military system of the empire, which had be- come unsatisfactory and de- fective. The court decided that all those among the rich peasants who had capacity and were skilled in archery and horsemanship, should compose the military class, and that the remainder, the weak and feeble, should con- tinue to till the soil and apply themselves to agriculture. This was one of the most significant of all the changes in the history of Japan. Its fruits are seen to-day in the social constitution of the Japanese people. Though there are many classes, there are but two great divisions of the Japanese, the military and the agricultural. This change wrought a complete severance of the soldier and the farmer. It lifted up one part of the people to a plane of life on which travel, adventure, the profession and pursuit of arms, letters, and the cultivation of honor and chivalry were possible, DRESSING THE HAIR. 286 CASTE IN JAPAN. and by which that brightest type of Japanese men, the Samurai v/as produced. This is the class which for centuries has monopo- lized arms, polite learning, patriotism, and intellect of Japan. They are the men whose minds have been open to learn, from whom sprung the ideas that once made and later overthrew the feudal system, which wrought the mighty reforms that swept away the shogunate in 1868, and restored the mikado to ancient powei-, who introduced those ideas that now rule Japan, and sent their sons abroad to study the civilization of the west. To the Samurai Japan looks to-day for safety in war and progress in peace. The Samurai is the soul of the nation. In other lands the priestly and the military castes were formed, in Japan one and the same class held the sword and the pen ; the other class, the agricultural, remained unchanged. Left to the soil to till it, to live and die upon it, the Japanese farmer has remained the same to-day that he was then. Like the wheat, that for successive ages is planted as wheat, sprouts, beards and fills as wheat, the peasant with his horizon bounded by his rice fields and water courses or the timbered hills, his intellect laid away for safe keeping in the priest's hands, is the son of the soil. He cares little who rules him unless he is taxed beyond the power of flesh and blood to bear, or an overmeddlesome official policy touches his land to transfer, sell or divide it. Then he rises to rebel. In time of war he is a disinterested and a passive spectator and he does not fight. He changes masters with apparent unconcern. Amidst all the ferment of ideas induced by the contact of western civilization with Asiatic within the last four decades, the farmer stolidly remains conservative. He knows not nor cares to hear of it and hates it because of the heavier taxes it imposes upon him. The domestic solemnities of the Japanese, marriage especially, are made the subjects of deep and careful meditation. In the upper classes marriage is arranged between two young people when the bridegroom has reached his twentieth and the bride her sixteenth year. The will of the parents is almost without excep- tion the dominating power in the matrimonial arrangements, which are carried out according to agreement among the relatives, but love affairs of a spontaneous kind form a large element in the MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 287 romantic literature of Japan. The wedding is preceded by a be- trothal, which ceremony offers an occasion for the members of both families to meet one another ; and it not unfrequently hap- pens that the future couple then learn for the first time the wishes of their parents respecting their union. If perchance the bride- groom elect is not satisfied with the choice, the young woman re- turns home again. With the introduction of other western ideas, this inconvenient custom is little by little falling into disuse. Nowadays, if a young man wishes to marry into a family of good position or one which it would be advantageous to his prospects to enter, he endeavors first to see the young lady, and then if she pleases him he sends a mediator, chosen usually from amongst his married friends, and the betrothal is arranged without any further obstacle. Even more American-like than this, however, there are many instances, and the number is constantly increasing, in which the match is the result of mutual affection, and sometimes elope- ments are known to occur among the best families. When things are carried through conventionally, the betrothal and wedding are usually solemnized on the same day and without the assistance of any minister of worship. The customary cere- monies are all of a homely nature, but at the same time are ex- tremely complicated and numerous. Upon the day fixed, the trousseau of the young bride and all the presents she has received, are brought to the home of the bridegroom, where the ceremony is to be performed, and arranged in the apartments set apart for the affair. The bride arrives soon afterward, dressed in white and escorted by her parents. The groom, arrayed in gala costume, receives her at the entrance of the house, and conducts her into the hall where the betrothal takes place. Here grand prepa- rations have been made. The altar of the domestic gods has been decorated with images of the patron saints of the family and with different plants, each having its symbolical meaning. When all have taken their places according to the recognized form of precedence, the ceremony is begun by two young girls, who hand around unlimited quantities of said to the guests. These two damsels are surnamed the male and female butterfly, the emblems of conjugal felicity, because according to popular notion butterflies always fly about in couples. The decisive cere- 288 THE WEDDING CEREMONY. mony is tinged with a symbolism which has a considerable touch of poetry in it. The two butterflies, holding between them a two- necked bottle, approach and offer it to the engaged couple to drink together from the two mouths of the bottle till it is emptied, which signifies that husband and wife must drain together the cup of life whether it contain nectar or gall ; they must share equally the joys and sorrows of existence. The Japanese is the husband of one wife only, but he is at lil erty to introduce several concubines under the family roof. This is done in all classes of society, especially amongst the daimios. It is asserted that in many of the noble families the legitimate wife not only evinces no jealousy, but has even a certain pleasure in seeing the number of her household thus augmented, as it supplies her with so many additional servants. In the middle classes, however, the custom is often the cause of bitter family dis- sentions. The heavy expenses of the marriage ceremonies often occasion considerable domestic strife and misery, at least if the}'' are cele- brated according to all the established conventionalities. Debts are then incurred which perhaps the young couple are unable to meet, so that when other expenses grow, and trouble or misfor- tune overtake them, they are speedily plunged into the deepest distress and indigence. The natural consequence of these arbi- trary customs is the increase of runaway matches. The elope- ment, however, is usually wisely winked at by the parents, who feign great lamentation and anger, then finally assemble their neighbors, pardon their recreant children, and circulate the inevi- table saki, and the marriage is considered as satisfactory as if per- formed with all the requisite formalities. The birth of a child is another occasion for the meeting of the whole circle of relations, and the consumption of a great man; more bumpers of saki. The baptism of the young Japanese citizen takes place thirty days later, when the infant is taken to the temple of the family divinity to receive its first name. The father has previously written three different names upon three separate slips of paper, which are handed over to the officiating bonze or priest. The latter throws them into the air, and the piece of paper which in falling first touches the ground contains JAPANESE BABIES. 289 the name which is to be given to the child. There are no god- parents, but several friends of the family declare themselves the infant's protectors and make it several presents, among which is a fan if it be a boy, or a pot of rouge if a girl. The Japanese child is early taught to endure hardships, and is subjected from its infancy to all the small miseries of life, so far as may be thought wise for its training. The mother nurses it till it is two years of age, and carries it continually about with her attached to her back for con- venience. The children are daintily pretty, chubby, rosy, sparkling-eyed. The children's heads are shaved in all curious fashions, some with little topknots, and others with bald spots. The way the babies are carried is an improvement upon the Indian fashion. He is lugged on the back of his mother or his sister, maybe scarcely older than himself, either strapped / loosely but safely, with his head just peering above the shoulder of the bearer, or else enclosed in a fold of the garment she wears. It is a pop- ular belief among travelers that Japanese babies are the best in the world and never cry, but the Japanese themselves claim no such distinction for the little ones, very proud of them though the}^ are, and aflfirm that they have their fits of temper as well as American babies. Education is not forced too early upon the children, but nature is allowed its own way during the first years of childhood. Toys, pleasures, fetes of all kinds, are liberally indulged in. One writer has said that Japan is the paradise of babies ; not only is this true but it is also a very delightful abode for all who love play. The contrast between the Japanese and Chinese character in this re- spect is radical. The whole character, manners, and even the dress of the sedate and dignified Chinaman, seems to be in keep- CHILD CARRYING BABY. 290 SPORTS OF YOUNG AND OLD. iiig with that aversion to rational amusement and athletic exer- cises which characterize that adult population. In Japan, on the contrary, one sees that children of the larger growth enjoy with equal zest, games which are the same or nearly the same as those of the little ones. Certain it is that the adults do all in their power to provide for the children their full quota of play and harmless sports. A very noticeable change has passed over the Japanese people since the recent influx of foreigners, in respect of their love of amusements. Their sports are by no means as numerous or elaborate as formerly, and they do not enter into them with the enthusiasm that formerly characterized them. The children's festivals and sports are rapidly losing their importance, and some are rarely seen. There is no country in the world in which there are so many toy shops for the sale of the things which delight children. Street theatrical shows are common. Sweet meats of a dozen strange sorts are carried by men who do tricks in gym- nastics to please the little ones. In every Japanese city there are scores if not hundreds of men and women who obtain a livelihood by amusing the children. There are indoor games and outdoor games, games for the day time and games for the evening. Japanese kite flying and top spinning are famous the world over, and experts in these sports come to exhibit their -adeptness in our own country. In the northern provinces, where the winters are severe, Japanese boys have the same sports with snow and ice, coasting, sliding, fighting mimic battles with snowballs, that are known to our own American boys. Dinners, tea parties, and weddings, keeping store, and playing doctor, are imitated in Japanese children's games. On the third day of the third month is held the wonderful " Feast of Dolls " which is the day especially devoted to the girls, and to them it is the greatest day in the year. The greatest day hi the year for the boys is on the fifth day of the fifth month, wlien they celebrate what is known as the " Feast of Flags." A Japanese attains his majority at fifteen years of age. As soon as this time has arrived he takes a new name, and quietly discards the pleasures of infancy for the duties of a practical life. His first care, if he belong to the middle classes, is the choice of CHOOSING A BUSINESS. 291 a trade or profession. The opportunities for this choice are much greater than in China, just as the scope of Japanese learning and life has increased in the last quarter century. Practically all of the businesses and trades that we know in our own country are to day known in Japan, those which were not there before, having crept in with the advent of the foreigners. The Japanese young man, if he is -to be a merchant or to learn a trade, serves an ap- prenticeship for a period sufficient to fit hiin for the mastery of liis work, and then it is he provides himself with a wife. The dress of the Japanese is changing in harmony with the in- troduction of other foreign habits. Custom has always obliged married women to shave their eyebrows and blacken their teeth, but of late years the practice has been decreasing and now it does not prevail among the better classes and in the larger cities. They have also made a most immoderate use of paint, covering their brow, cheeks, and neck with thick coats of rouge and white. Some have even gone so far as to gild their lips, but tlie more modest have been content to color them with carmine, and the excessive use of paints is diminishing. The kirimon, a kind of long, open dressing gown, is worn by every one, men and women alike. It is a little longer and of bet- ter quality for the women, who cross it in front and confine it by a long wide piece of silk, or other material tied in a quaint fashion at the back. The men keep theirs in its place by tying a long straight scarf around them. The Japanese use no linen, the women alone wearing a chemise of silk crepe, but it must be re- membered that they bathe daily or even oftener, and that sim- plicity of dress is affected by all. The middle classes wear in addition to the kirimon, a doublet and pantaloons. These are also worn in winter by men of the lower orders, the pantaloons fitting tightly, and made of checked cotton. The peasants and porters usually wear a loose overall in summer, made of some light paper material, and in winter not un- frequently co'xsisting of coarse straw. The women also envelop themselves in one or several thickly wadded mantles. Linen gloves with one division for the tliuinb are very generally worn. Sandals are made of plaited straw, and in bad weather are dis- carded for wooden clogs, raised from the ground by means of two 292 THE DRESS OF MEN AND WOMEN. bits of wood under the the and heel. As might naturally be ex- pected, locomotion under such circumstances is performed with difficulty, and the hobbling gate which these props necessitate has often been commented on. This peculiarity is most noticeable among the women, whose naturally easy gait is almost as much diverted from its normal movement by these small stilts as that of their sisters in the west by their high heeled shoes. The costume of the country is exactly alike for both the lower and higher classes, with the difference that the latter always wear silk material. The costumes worn by officials, and those of the nobility, are dis- tinguished by the amplitude of the folds and the rich- ness of the texture. Wide flowing pantaloons are often substituted for the kirimon, which trail on the ground, complete- ly concealing the feet, and give the wearer tlie appear- ance of walking on his knees, which indeed is the delu- sion it is intended to produce. A kind of overcoat with wide sleeves reaching to the hips completes the costume. The dwelling houses of the Japanese are well adapted to their manners of life, except that they are not always sufficient pro- tection against severe cold. Rich and poor live side by side, although in Tokio there are still traces of the castes of the feudal age, and there are also growing tendencies in the rising mercantile and moneyed classes to separate themselves from the common mass. There are now great portions of the capital densely popu- JAPANESE BATH. DWELLINGS OF THE JAPANESE. 293 lated by the working classes only, and quite destitute of any open spaces of practical value for health and recreation. The proverb " Every man's house is his castle," might very readily be appropriated by the Japanese, whose home, however humble it may be in all other respects, is always guarded by a moat. In a feudal mansion the moat was usually deep enough to prove a genuine obstacle. While it is still almost universally re- tained, the muddy water is hidden in summer time by the leaves of the lotus, and the bridges are not drawn. The smaller gentry imitate the grandeur of those above them, and when at last we come down to the lowest level we still find a miniature moat which is often dry, of a foot or so in breadth, and at most about two inches deep. In houses of some pretensions there is an enbankment behind the moat, with a hedge growing above it. Behind this there is either a wall or fence of bamboo, tiles, or plaster. As the name of the street is not to be found at the street corner as with us, it is repeated on every doorway. The towns are divided into wards and blocks, and the numbers of the houses are often confused and misleading. A slip of white wood is nailed on one of the posts of the gate, and is inscribed with the name of the street or block, the number, name of house holder, numbers and sexes of house- hold. The gates of the larger houses are heavy, adorned with copper or brass mountings, and often studded with large nails. When one enters by the gate there is generally found a court, from the sides of which the open verandas of the building may be reached. The verandas are high and there is a special entrance by heavy wooden stairs. The court is sometimes paved with large stones, and sometimes it is left bare or covered with turf. The gardens even of somewhat humble mansions are graced with carved stone lanterns. The well placed near the kitchen often has a rim of stone around it, and the bucket is raised by a beam or a long bamboo. In front of the doorway there is a small space unfloored called the doma, where one takes off his shoes after announcing himself by calling, or by striking a gong suspended by the door post. There is often only one story in Japanese houses, and very rarely more than two- Almost all of them are built of wood; the ground 294 INTERIOR OF THE HOUSE. floor is raised about four feet above the ground, the walls are' made of planks covered Vi^ith coarse mats ; and the roof is sup- ported by four pillars. In a two-storied house the second story is generally built more solidly than the first; experience having shown that the edifice can thus better resist the shock of an earthquake. Sometimes the walls are plastered with a coating of soft clay or varnish, and are decorated with gildings aiid paint- ings. The stair to the second story is very steep. The ceilings are composed of very thin, broad planks, and are lower than we are accustomed to, but it must be remembered that the people do not sit on chairs and have no high beds or tables. Doorways, or rather the grooved lintels in which the screen doors slide, are very low and the Japanese, who are always bowing, seem to enjoy having an unusual number of them to pass through in extensive houses. No room is completely walled in, but each one opens on one or more sides completely into the garden, the street, or the adjoining room. Sliding shutters, with tissue paper windows, the carpentry of which is careful and exact, move in wooden grooves almost on a level with the floor, which is covered with padded woven mats of rushes. As a protection against the severities of the weather rain shutters are also used. All Japanese dwellings have a cheerful, well-cared-for appear- ance, which in a great measure is the result of two causes ; first, that every one is bound constantly to renew the paper coverings of the outside panels, and next that the frequent fires which each time make immense ravages often render it necessary to recon- struct an entire district. In the interior the houses are generally divided into two suites of apartments, the one side being appor- tioned to the women as private rooms, and the other side being used for the reception rooms. These apartments are all separated from one another by partitions made of slight wooden frames, upon which small square bits of white paper are pasted, or else a kind of screen is used which can be moved at pleasure and the room enlarged or contracted according as the occasion requires. Towards nightfall these screens are usually folded up so as to allow a free passage of air throughout the house. The mats of rushes or rice straw which carpet the floors are about three inches thick, and are soft to the touch. They are of BEDS AND OTHER FURNITURE. 295 viniform size, about six feet by three, and this fact dominates all architecture in Japan. Estimates for building houses and the cutting of wood rest upon this traditional custom. The inhab- itants never soil them with their boots but always walk bare- footed about the house. The mat in Japan answers the purpose of all ordinary furniture, and takes tlie place of our chairs, tables, .md beds. For writing purposes only do they use a low round ^ble about a foot high, which is kept in a cupboard and only '-rought out when a letter has to be written. This they do -reeling before the table, which they carefully put away again JAPANESE COUCH. when the letter is finished. Tlie meals are laid upon square tables of very slender dimensions, around which the whole family gather, sitting on their heels. In the walls are recesses with sliding doors into which the bed- ding is thrust in the daytime. At bedtime out of these recesses are taken the soft cotton stuffed mattresses and the thick cover- lets of silk or cotton which have been rolled up all day, and these are spread upon the mats. The Japanese pillows are of wood, with the upper portions stuffed or padded, and in form something like a large flat iron. Sometimes each one contains a little 296 CONFLAGRATIONS. drawer in which the hTdies put their liairpins. When a Japanese has taken off his day garments he rests his head on this wooden pillow and composes himself to sleep. Everything is put away in the morning, all the partitions are opened to give air, the mats are carefully swept, and the now completely empty chamber ia transformed during the day into an office, sitting room, or dining room, to become again the sleeping apartment the following night. Clothes are kept in plaited bamboo boxes usually covered with black or dark green waterproof paper. The furniture is very simple, and there are often in the best houses no chairs, no tables, no bedsteads. There may be some low, short-legged side tables of characteristic Japanese pattern and one or two costly vases or other ornaments, a few pictures which are changed in deference to guests and seasons, some flowers or dwarf trees in vases and a lamp or two. There are, however, two pieces of furniture which are to be found in the houses of every class. These are the brazier and the pipe box, for the Japanese is a great tea drinker and a constant smoker. Every hour in the day his hot water must be ready for him, and the brazier kept burning both day and night both in summer and winter. The principal meal takes place about the middle of the day, and after it the family indulge themselves with several hours' sleep, so that at this time the streets are almost deserted. In the evening they have another meal, and then devote the rest of the time till bedtime to all kinds of amusements. In the highest Japanese circles the dinner hour is sometimes enlivened by music from an orchestra stationed in an adjoining room. In summer a well-planned Japanese house is the very ideal of coolness, grace and comfort. In winter it is the extreme of misery. There are no fire-places and there is unmitigated venti- lation. People keep themselves warm by holding themselves close over some morsels of red hot charcoal in a brazier, and frost bite is very common. At night, when cold winds blow, a heat- ing apparatus is put beneath the heavy cotton coverlets. It often gets overturned ; a watchman from his ladder-like tower sees afar off a dull red glow, bells begin to clang, and soon the city is in an uproar of excitement over another conflagration. In a few JAPANESE MINIATURE GARDENS. 297 hours a great fan-shaped gap has appeared in the city. One goes at day-break to find the scene of destruction, but it has already almost disappeared. Crowds of carpenters have rushed in, and have already done much to erect on the hot and smoking ruins wooden houses nearly as good as those swept away by the fire of the night before. The yashikis or palaces in which the people of rank reside, are nothing more than ordinary houses grouped together and sur- rounded by whitewashed outhouses, with latticed windows of black wood. These outhouses serve a two-fold purpose, as habi- tations for the domestics, and as a wall of the enclosure. Always low, and usually rectangular, they look very much like ware- houses or barracks. The palace of the sovereign has, however, a certain character of its own. It is a perfect labyrinth of courts and streets formed by the many separate houses, pavilions, and corridors or simple wooden partitions. The roofs are supported by horizontal beams varnished white, or gilded at the extremities, and decorated with small pieces of sculpture, many of which are very beautiful works of art. The ancient palace of the Tycoons is remarkable for boldness and richness of outline. Everything breathes a spirit of the times when the power and prosperity of the shogunate was at its height. Upon the ceilings of gold, sculptured beams cross each other in squares, the angles where they meet being marked by a plate of gilt bronze of very elegant design. The greatest novelties in the eyes of foreigners are the gardens attached to every house. The smallest tradesman has his own little plot of ground where he may enjoy the delights of solitude, take his siesta, or devote himself to copious potations of tea and saki. These gardens are often of exceedingly small size. They consist of a quaint collection of dwarf shrubs, miniature lakes full of gold fish, lilliputian walks in the middle of diminutive flower beds, tiny streams over which are little green arches to imitate bridges, and finally arbors or bowers beneath which a rabbit might scarcely find room to nestle. The Japanese are as strict in the observance of etiquette at a funeral as at their marriage ceremonies. The rites take place both at the time of the actual interment, and afterwards at the 298 FUNERAL CUSTOMS. festivals celebrated in honor of the gods on these occasions. There are two kinds of funerals, interment and cremation. Most of the Japanese make known during life either to the heir or to some intimate friend their wishes respecting the mode of the disposal of their remains. When the father or mother in a family is seized with a mortal illness and all hope of recovery is past and the end approaching, the soiled garments worn by the dying per- son are removed and exchanged for perfectly clean ones. The last wishes of the dying one are then recorded on paper. As soon as life has departed all the relations give way to lamentations ; the body is carried into another room, covered with a curtain and surrounded by screens. In the higher classes the body is watched for two days, but in the lower it is buried a day after death. Contrary to the customs at marriage ceremonies, the bonzes or priests preside over all the funeral rites. It is they who watch beside the dead until the time for interment. This is usually carried out by men who make it their profession. The corpse is placed in a coffin, somewhat of the shape of a round tub, in a squatting position, with the head bowed, the legs bent under, and the arms crossed ; the lid of the coffin is then fastened down by wooden pegs. The funeral procession proceeds to the temple, the bonzes marching first, some carrying flags, others different sym- bols, such as little white boxes full of flowers, others wringing small hand-bells. Then follows the corpse, preceded by a long tablet upon which is inscribed the new name given to the deceased. The eldest son follows, and then the family, intimate friends, and domestics. The nearest relations are dressed in white which is the color worn for mourning. When the procession arrives at the temple the coffin is placed before the image of the god and then various ceremonies com- mence, the length of which is regulated by the rank of the de- ceased, as with us. After that all the friends and acquaintances return home, whilst the relations turn to the place where the body is to be laid. If the deceased has expressed the desire that his body should be burned, the coffin is carried from the temple to a small crematory a short distance away. It is there placed upon a kind of stone scaffold, at the base of which a fire is kept burning until the body is consumed. The men employed in this PROGRESS OF EDUCATION. 299 work draw out the bones from the ashes by means of sticks, the remaining ashes are placed in an urn, and carried to the tomb by the relations. The burials of the poor outcasts from society are very simple. The body is interred at once without entering in the temple, or else it is burnt in some waste spot. Japanese cemeteries are most carefully cherished spots, and are always bright with vendure and flowers. Each family has its own little enclosure, where several simple commemorative stones stand. Once a year a festival for the dead is held. It is cele- brated at night. The cemetery is illuminated by thousands of colored fires, and the whole population resort there, and eat, drink, and enjoy themselves in honor of their dead ancestors. Their incapacity for conceiving sorrow is one of the most characteristic features of the Japanese. Perhaps this psychologi- cal phenomenon is due to the influences amidst which this happy people have the privilege of living. It is an indisputable fact that where nature is bright and beautiful the inhabitants themselves of that particular spot, like the scenery, seem to expand under its sweet influence and to become bright and happy. Such is the case with the Japanese, who while yielding almost unconsciously to these influences, deepen them by their eager pursuit of all things gay and beautiful. Japan is progressive enough that it has a compulsory system of education, which is sure to be ultimately fatal to idolatrous religions. There are more than three million children in the elementary schools, not to mention those in the higher institu- tions. The ability to read and write is almost universal among the people. Steady improvement is observed from year to year, in the attendance and quality of the government schools. The various schools in connection with the protestant and Roman missions, which are numerous and influential are also well at- tended and constantly growing. A large number also of the wealthier classes have their children taught privately at home. The average attendance of the Japanese children at the schools is nearly one-half the total number of school age. Education is very highly esteemed by every class, and all are willing to make genuine sacrifices to obtain it for their children. Penmanship is laid great stress upon, and there are many 300 MEDICAL AND SURGICAL SCIENCE. different styles in use. The blackboard is used in all schools now, and the artistic tendencies of the people are often well dis- played on it. The Arabic numerals are fast displacing the old Chinese system. A great many of the methcjds of European and American teaching have been introduced into Japan, and their use is constantly on the increase. Universities and academies supported by the government have been chiefly under the direction of American and European pro- fessors, and the western languages are taught everywhere. In addition to this educational element introduced into the country, there is that brought in by the large number of Japanese young men who have been sent to the universities of the United States, Germany, France, and England to complete their education. In our own colleges these young men have ranked with the highest as linguists, scientists, and orators. The influence that they have exerted in Japan, where they have invariably taken a high posi- tion, either officially or educationally, has been most beneficial to the advance of learning in the island empire. The excessive cleanliness of the Japanese, the simplicity of their apparel, which allows their bodies to be so much exposed to the open air, added to the salubrity of their country, might rea- sonably lead one to imagine that they enjoy excellent health. Such however is not the case. Diseases of the skin, and chronic and incurable complaints are very prevalent. The hot baths are the great remedies for everything, but in certain cases the aid of the physicians is enlisted. These form a class of society which has existed from a very early date, and enjoy certain privileges. They are divided into three classes, the court physicians, who are not permitted to practice elsewhere, the army physicians, and lastly the common physicians, not employed by the government, who attend all classes of the community. As no formalities used to be required for the practice of medicine, each member entered on the career at his pleasure and practiced according to his own theories on the subject. It is a profession often handed down from father to son, but it is not a lucrative one, and is looked upon as an office of little importance or consideration. Medical men nevertheless abound in Japan, and in addition to recognized practitioners, there is a class of quacks exactly answer- MUSIC. 301 ing to those of our own country. Their science principally par- takes of the nature of sorcery. Where hot baths fail to produce the desired effect, they have recourse to acupuncture and cauter- isation. Acupuncture consists in pricl^ing with a needle the part affected, a mode of healing which has been practiced from time immemorial in the east. After the skin has been stretched suffi- ciently tight, the needle is thrust in perpendicularly either by rolling between the fingers or by a direct gentle pressure, or else by striking it lightly with a small hammer made for the purpose. Cauterisation is performed with little cones called moxas, formed GEISHA GIRLS PLAYING JAPANESE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. of dried wormwood leaves, and prepared in such a manner as to consume slowly. One or more of these is applied to the diseased part and set alight. The mode of cauterising wounds has fre- quently the effect of strongly exciting the nervous system, but does not seem to improve the general health of the patient ma- terially. The national university of Tokio has a medical depart- ment in connection with it, which teaches medical science accord- ing to our own western methods. Hospitals exist in the large cities of Japan which are similarly equipped to those of our own 302 MUSIC. country, and are under the direction of physicians and surgeons, most of whom are either Europeans and Americans, or Japanese who have been educated in medical colleges abroad. Many young women of Japan have come to America to take courses in nursing in our great hospitals and training schools, and on their return to Japan are spreading the knowledge they have thus gained. Music is one of the most cultivated of the fine arts of Japan, and Japanese tradition accords it a divine origin. The Japanese have many stringed, wind, and percussion instruments, but the general favorite is the sam-sin or guitar with three strings. There are also the lutes, several kinds of drums and tambourines, fifes, sy )u:u u y J y ^^L JAPANESE ALPHABET, NEW. clarionets, and flageolets. The Japanese have no idea of harmony. A number of them will often perform together, but they are never in tune. They are not more advanced in melody ; their airs recall neither the savage strains of the forest nor the scientific music of the west. In spite of this their music has the power of charming them for hours together, and it is only among the utterly unedu- cated classes that a young girl is to be found unable to accompany herself in a song on the sam-sin. In the department of jurisprudence great progress has been made. Scarcely any nation on earth can show a more revolting list of horrible methods of punishment and torture in the past, and none ^an show greater improvement in so short a time. The cruel and LAW AND LANGUAGE. 303 blood-thirsty code was mostly borrowed from China. Since the restoration, revised statutes and regulations have greatly decreased the list of capital punishments, reformed the condition of prisons, and made legal processes more in harmony with mercy and justice. The use of torture to obtain testimony is now entirely abolished. Law schools have also been established and lawyers are allowed to plead, thus giving the accused the assistance of counsel for his defense. The Japanese tongue has for a long time been regarded merely -\ ? : ^ 2- J: ^ li \ t ^ ^ JAPANESE ALPHABET, OLD. as an offshoot of the Chinese language, or at any rate as being very nearly connected with it. Study however, and the com- parison of the two languages has rectified this error. Japanese understand Chinese writing because the Chinese characters form part of the numerous kinds in use in Japan. This is easily under- stood when it is remembered that Chinese characters represent neither letters nor meaningless sounds, which are only the con- stituent parts of a word, but are words themselves, or rather the ideas that these words express ; consequently the same ideas 304 LITERATURE OF JAPAN. can be coramiinicated although expressed by different words to any one who is acquainted with the signification of the characters. The Japanese language is very soft and agreeable to the ear, but travelers declare that no one born out of the country could pos- sibly pronounce some of the words. They have a system of forty- eight syllabic signs, which can be doubled by means of signs added to the consonants, which modify the sound, and render it harder or softer. This system, it is said, dates from the eighth century and can be written in four different series of characters. Japanese literature comprises books on science, biography, geography, travels, philosophy, and natural history, as well as poetry, dramatic works, romances, and encyclopedias. The latter seem to be little more than picture books, with explanatory notes, arranged like other Japanese dictionaries, sometimes alpha- betically, but more often quite fancifully and without any attempt at scientific classification. The poets of Japan strive to express the most comprehensive ideas in the fewest possible words, and to employ words with double meanings for the sake of tj^pical allusions. They also delight in descriptions or similes furnished by the scenery, or the rich variety of natural productions with which they are surrounded. Of their older books on science none are of any value but those which treat of astronomy. The proof of their progress in this science is afi"orded by the fact that almanacs, which were at first brought from China, have now become very general and are com- posed in Japan. The Japanese, until western education began to have its influence over them, had only a slight knowledge of mathematics, trigonometry, mechanics, or engineering. History and geography are very fairly cultivated. Reading is the favorite recreation of both sexes in Japan. The women confine them- selves to the perusal of romances, and those works on etiquette and kindred subjects prepared for them. Every young girl who can afford it has her subscription to a library, which for the sum of a few copper coins per month furnishes her with as many books, ancient and modern, as she can devour. Except for their titles, these productions seem all formed on one pattern. In the choice of their characters and their subjects the authors seem by SHINTO. 305 no means desirous of breaking through the narrow limits within which prejudice and custom have confined them. The ancient religion of the Japanese is called " Kami no michi," way, or doctrine of the gods. The Chinese form of the same is Shinto, and from this foreigners have called it Shintoism. In its purity the chief characteristic of this religion is the worship of ancestors and the deifi- cation of emperors, heroes, and scholars. The adora- tion of the personified forces of nature enters largely into it. It employs no idols, images, or effigies in its worship, and teaches no doctrine of the immor- tality of the soul. Shinto has no moral code, and no accurately defined system of ethics or belief. The leading principle of its adherents is imitation of the illustrious deeds of their ancestors, and they are to prove themselves worthy of their descent by the purity of their lives. The priests of Shinto are designated according to their rank. Sometimes they receive titles from the emperor, and the higher ranks of the priest- hood are court nobles. Ordinarily they dress like other people, but are robed in white when officiating, or in court dress when in court. They marry, rear families, and do not shave their heads. The office is usually hereditary. After all the research of foreign scholars, many hesitate to de- SHINTO PRIEST. 306 BUDDHISM IN JAPAN. cide whether Shinto is a native Japanese product or whether it is not closely allied with the ancient religion of China which ex- isted before the period of Confucius. The weight of opinion in- clines to the latter belief. The Kojiki is the Bible of Shintoism. It is full of narrations, but it lays down no precepts, teaches no morals or doctrines, prescribes no ritual. Shinto has very few of the characteristics of a religion as understood by us. The most learned native commentators and exponents of the faith expressly maintain the view that Shinto has no moral code. Motoori, the great modern revivalist of Shinto, teaches with emphasis that morals were invented by the Chinese because they were an im- moral people, but in Japan there was no necessity for any system of morals, as every Japanese acted aright if he only consulted his own heart. The duty of a good Japanese, he says, consists in obeying the commands of the mikado without questioning whether these commands are right or wrong. It was only immoral people like the Chinese who presumed to discuss the character of their sovereign. The opinion of most scholars from America and Europe, studying Shinto on its own soil, has been that the faith was little more tlian an influence for reducing the people to a condition of mental slavery. Its influence is weakening every year. The outlines of Buddhism in its Chinese forms have been indi- cated in a foregoing chapter. It is well, however, to take an- other glance at it here in connection with its Japanese signifi- cance. This religion reached the Japanese empire about the middle of the sixth century after Christ, twelve centuries after its establishment. Buddhism originated as a pure atheistic humanitarianism, with a lofty philosophy and a code of morals higher perhaps than any heathen religion had reached before or has since attained. First preached in India, a land accursed by secular and spiritual oppression, it acknowledged no caste and declared all men equally sinful and miserable, and all equally capable of being freed from sin and misery through knowledge. It taught that the souls of all men had lived in a previous state of existence and that all the sorrows of this life are punishments for sins committed in a previous state. After death the soul must migrate for ages through stages of life inferior or superior, ATHEISTIC TENDENCIES. 307 until perchance it arrived at last in Nirvana or absorption ia Buddha. The true estate of the human soul, according to the Buddhist, was blissful annihilation. The morals of Buddhism are superior to its metaphysics. Its commandments are the dictates of the most refined morality. Such was Buddhism in its early purity. Beside its moral code and philosophical doctrines it had almost nothing. But in the twelve centuries which passed while it swept thi'ough India, Birmah, Siam, China, Thibet, Manchooria, Corea, and Siberia, it acquired the apparel with which Asiatic imagination and priestly necessity had clothed and adorned the original doctrines of Buddha. The ideas of Buddha had been expanded into a complete theological system, with all the appurtenances of a stock religion. Japan was ready for the introduction of any religion as attractive as Buddhism, for prior to that time nothing existed except Shinto, of which there was little but the dogma of the divinity of the mikado, the duty of all Japanese to obey him im- plicitly, and some Confucian morals. Buddhism came to touch the heart, to fire the imagination, to feed the intellect, to offer a code of lofty morals, to point out a pure life through self-denial, to awe the ignorant, and to terrify the doubting. With this explanation of the field which Buddhism found and what it offered, it is sufficient to say that the faith spread with marvelous rapidity until the Japanese empire was a Buddhist land. Tliis did not necessarily exclude Shinto from the minds of the same people, and the two faiths have existed side by side in harmony. Of late years, however, the Japanese have not only been losing faith in their own religions but in all others, and to-day they are said by many to form a nation of atheists. This does not apply to the common people so truly as to the edu- cated ones, and of course is not nearly as general a truth as has been often assumed. In no country of Asia has Christianity made such rapid and permanent advance as in Japan. It is the only oriental country having a government of its own in which there is absolute freedom in religious belief and practice, and in which there is no state religion and no state support. It has been for years the prophetic declaration of missionaries in the east that the first nation to extend full liberty of conscience 308 CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN. in religion would be the dominant power of Asia. That Japan has fulfilled thip condition is not more remarkable than are her rapid strides to political power since that country opened its doors to Christianity. That Japan is sincere in its treatment of an alien religion is attested by the fact that native Christian chap- lains accompany her armies in their marches against China, and these are representative men of the Methodist, Congregational, STREET SCENES. — From a Japanese Album. and Presbyterian churches in Japan There is no doubt that the whole Christian element in Japan, foreign and native, has been loyal to the country and in thorough sympathy with the aggressive movement made by Japan. The sympathy between Corea and Japan has been greatly strengthened by the active support rendered Presbyterian missionaries in Corea by the whole Chris- tian body in Japan. The work of Mr. Johnson, a Presbyterian THE AINOS. 309 missionary in Corea, made him an adviser of the king, and this assisted in leading the latter rather towards Japan than towards China. The corner stone of JajDan's position to-day is religious toleration. All that the Christian missionaries have asked in Asia is equal privilege with other religions, and these they have had in Japan. History is only repeating itself, and the results of re- ligious toleration in Europe centuries ago are being duplicated in Asia in 1895. The student of Asiatic life, on coming to Japan, is cheered and pleased on contrasting the position of women in Japan with that in other countries. He sees them treated with respect and con- sideration far above that observed in other quarters of the Orient. They are allowed greater freedom, and hence have more dignity and self-confidence. The daughters are better educated and the national annals will show probably as large a number of illustrious women as those of any other country in Asia. In these last days of enlightenment public and private schools for girls are being opened and attended. Furthermore, some of the leaders of new Japan, braving public scandal, and learning to bestow that measure of honor upon their wives which they see is enthusiastic- ally awarded by foreigners to theirs, and are not ashamed to be seen in public with them. No women excel the Japanese in that innate love of beauty, order, neatness, household adornment and management, and the amenities of dress and etiquette as pre- scribed by their own standard. In maternal affection, tenderness, anxiety, patience, and long suffering, the Japanese mothers need fear no comparison with those in other climes. As educators of their children, the Japanese women are peers to the mothers of any civilization in the care and minuteness of their training, and their affectionate tendernfess and self-sacrificing devotion within the limits of their knowledge. The Japanese maiden is bright, intelligent, interesting, modest, ladylike, and self-reliant. What the Americau girl is in Europe the Japanese maiden is among Asiatics. So far our attention has been devoted exclusively to the Japanese proper, that is, to those people inhabiting Hondo and the other islands to the south of it. But a few words remain to be said about a people, who, while forming part of the empire of 310 SURVIVING ABORIGINES. Japan, yet differ essentially from the great majority of the popu- lation. They are the Ainos, or the original inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago, now only to be found in the island of Yesso. These people are decreasing in numbers year by year, and will soon be named with those extinct races of whom it is only known that they have once existed. The Ainos, however, have had their day of glory. In olden times, several centuries before our era, they were masters of all the north part of the island of Hondo, and their power equalled that of the Japanese ; but little by little their influence diminished, and they were driven before the Japanese, and finally confined to the island of Yesso. There the Japanese pursued them and a long war ensued, but finally reduced them to complete submission about the four- teenth century. Since then the state of servitude in which their conquerors have held them has been such as to stifle even the instinct of progress within them, so that in the nineteenth century they offer the image of a people hardly past its first infancy. The origin of the Ainos is unknown. Tliey themselves are per- fectly ignorant of their own history, and they have no written documents existing which could throw light upon their past. It is most probable that they originally came from the far interior of the Asiatic continent, for they bear not the slightest resem- blance to any of their neighbors in the tribes scattered along the eastern coasts of the north of Asia. The Ainos are generally small, thick-set, and awkwardly formed ; they have wide fore- heads and black eyes, not sloping ; their skin is fair but sunburnt. Their distinguishing feature is their hairiness, and they never dress their heads or trim their beards. The little children have a bright, intelligent look, which, however, gradually wears away as they grow older. The dwellings are of the simplest construction, and only contain a few implements for hunting and fishing, and some cooking utensils. They are built in small groups or hamlets, never containing more than a hundred individuals. They are a gentle, kindly, hospitable, and even timid people. Fishing is their chief occupation, and hunting is another profitable pursuit. There is no sign of agriculture, nor is any breed of cattle to be found among these people. Dogs are utilized to draw their sledges in winter. Their organization is quite patriarchal. They p^ ,fi^iV.i'vi;i . .. 'hh' /;,„; OUTLOOK FOR JAPAN. 313 have neither king, princes nor lords, but in every hamlet the affairs of the community are vested in the hands of the oldest and most influential member. Although the intelligence of the Ainos is very little developed, they evince great aptitude for knowledge and eagerly seize every opportunity for acquainting themselves with Japanese laws and customs. The London Times, in 1859, predicted that " The Chinaman would still be navigating the canals of his country in the crazy RATS AS RICE MERCHANTS. — FroiH a Japanese Album. old junks of his ancestors when the Japanese was skimming along his rivers in high pressure steamers, or flying across the country behind a locomotive." The railway is now in fact stretching its iron tracks in every direction over the islands; the telegraph spreads its web all over the country ; street car lines are in every city ; the printing press rattles merrily in every moderate sized country town ; and the Japanese who have always read much, now read ten times more than they ever did before. Technical 014 OUTLOOK FOR JAPAN. education of the higher kind is telling upon the people, and many works are now undertaken from which the authorities would have shrunk a few years ago as being impossible for them to grapple with. Original investigation in many lines has been pursued, and particularly in the study of earthquake phenomena has Japan given to the world results of extreme value. The influence of the modern scientific spirit is immense and ever growing. Western influence in its better nature is constantly on the increase. It appears to day as if Japan were to be the civilizing influence in the east of Asia. COREA COREAN LANDSCAPE. HISTORICAIv SKETCH OF COREA, THE HERMIT NATION. Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Land— Founding tlie Kingdom of Cho-sen— The Era of tlie Three Kingdoms— Dependence on Cliina and Japan— Period of Peace and Prosperity— Inva- sion of Corea by the Japanese in the Sixteenth Century— Introduction of Christianity— The Modern History of Corea— Breal^ing down the Walls of Isolation— The French Expedition— American Relations with Corea— Ports Opened to Japanese Commerce— The Year of the Treaties— A Hermit Nation no Longer. Until recent years our knowledge of the remarkable country of Corea, known indeed to the general public by little more than its name, has been limited to the meagre and scanty information im- parted to us by Chinese and Japanese sources. After having been for several thousands of years the scene of sanguinary and murderous feuds between the various races and tribes who peopled the peninsula, and of the intrigues and wars of conquest of its rapacious neighbors, Corea succeeded after its final union under the sway of one ruler, but with considerable loss of terri- tory, in driving back the invaders behind its present frontiers, en- forcing since that time with an iron rule, that policy of exclusion which effectually separated it from the whole outer world. Corea, though unknown even by name in Europe until the sixteenth cen- tury, was the subject of description by Arab geographers of the middle ages. The Arab merchants trading to Chinese ports crossed the Yellow Sea, visited the peninsula, and even settled there. The youths of Shinra, one the Corean states, sent by theii sovereign to study the arts of war and peace at Nanking, the mediaeval capital of China, may often have seen and talked with the merchants of Bagdad and Damascus. As has been said, nearly all that the western world was able to learn about Corea until recent years, has been collected from Chinese and Japanese sources, which confine themselves mainly to the historical and political connection with these countries. Tlie meagre early accounts owed to Europeans on this interesting subject, originate either from shipwrecked mariners wlio have 317 318 WHENCE CAME THE COREANS. been cast upon the inhospitable shores of Corea and there been kept imprisoned for some time, or from navigators who have ex- tended their voyages of discovery to these distant seas and who have touched a few prominent points of the coast. Like almost every country on earth, Corea is inhabited by a race that is not aboriginal. The present occupiers of the land drove out or conquered the people whom they found upon it. They are the descendants of a stock who came from beyond the northern frontier. It may not be a wrong conjecture, which is corroborated by many outward signs, to look for the origin of the people in Mongolia, in a tribe which finally settled down in Corea after roaming about and fighting its way through China. We may also take those who bear the unmistakable stamp of the Caucasian race to have come from Western Asia whence they had been driven by feuds and revolutions. At the conclusion of the long wars which have at last led to the union of the different states founded by various tribes, a partial fusion had taken place, which, though it has not succeeded in eradicating the outer signs of a different descent, at least caused the adoption of one language and of the same manners and customs. Most of the Coreans claim to be in complete darkness and ignorance of their own origin ; some declare quite seriously that their ancestors have sprung from a black cow on the shores of the Japan sea, while others ascribe their origin to a mysterious and supernatural cause. The first mention of the inhabitants of Corea we find in old Chinese chronicles about 2350 B. C, at which period some of the northern tribes are reported to have entered into a tributary con- nection with China. The first really reliable accounts, however, commence only with the twelfth century B. C, at which time the north-westerly part of the peninsula first stands out from the dark. The last Chinese emperor of the Shang dynasty was Chow Sin, who died B. C. 1122. He was an unscrupulous tyrant, and one of his nobles, Ki Tsze, rebuked and remonstrated with his sover- eign. His efforts were hopeless, and the nobles who joined him in protest were executed. Ki Tsze was cast into prison. A re- volt immediately ensued against the tyrant; he -was defeated and Bounding the first kingdom. 519 killed, and the conqueror Wu Wang released the prisoner and appointed him prime minister. Ki Tsze however refused to serve one whom he believed to be an usurper and exiled himself to the regions lying to the north-east. With him went several thousand Chinese immigrants, most the remnant of the defeated arm}', who made him their king. Ki Tsze reigned many years and left the newly founded state in peace and prosperity to his successors. He policed the borders, gave laws to his subjects, and gradually introduced the principles and practices of Cliinese etiquette aiid polity throughout his domain. Previous to his time the people lived in caves and holes in the ground, dressed in leaves, and were destitute of manners, morals, agriculture and cooking. The Japanese pronounce the founder's name Kishi, and the Coreaus Kei-tsa or Kysse. The name conferred by the civ- ilizer upon his new domain was that now in use by the modern Coreans, " Cho-sen," or "Morning Calm." The descendants of Ki Tsze are said to have ruled the country until the fourth century before the Christian era. Their names and deeds are alike unknown, but it is stated that there were forty-one generations, making a blood line of eleven hundred and tliirty-one years. The line came to an end in 9 A. D., though they had lost power long before that time. This early portion of Cho-sen did not contain all of the territory of the modern Corea, but only the north-western portion of it. While the petty kingdoms of China were warring among one another, the nearest to Cho-sen encroached upon it and finally seized the colony. This was not to be permanent however, and there ensued a series of wars, each force becoming alternately suc- cessful. The territory of Cho-sen grew in area and the kingdom increased in wealth, power and intelligence under the rule of King Wie-man, who assumed the authority 194 B. C. Thousands of Chinese gentry fleeing before the conquering arms of the Han usurpers settled within the limits of the new kingdom, adding greatly to its prosperity. In 107 B. C, after a war that had lasted one year, a Chinese invading army finally conquered the kingdom of Cho-sen and annexed it to the Chinese empire. The conquered territory included the north half of the present kingdom of Corea. 320 THE ERA OF THE THREE KINGDOMS. Things remained in this condition until about 30 B. C.,at which time a part of Cho-sen taking advantage of the disorders which had broken out afresh in China, separated itself from the empire and again formed a state by itself, but still remained tributary ; while the other portions of the old kingdom for some time longer remained under Chinese rule, until they also joined the portion that had been freed. Up to this period Cho-sen forming the north-west of the present Corea, had been the only part of that country that had become more closely connected with China. The tracts to the north-east, south-west and south were occupied by different independent tribes, and little more is known of them than that they were ruled by chiefs of their own clan. In course of time three kingdoms, Korai, Hiaksai, and Shinra, were formed out of tliese various elements, subsisting by the side of Cho-sen, at a later date fighting either beside or against China, and almost incessantly at feud with each otlier, until Shinra gained the pre- dominance about the middle of the eighth century A. D. and kept the same up to the sixteenth century. It was then supplanted in the leading position by Korai, which united under its supremacy all those parts of Corea which had hitherto been separate, and constituted the whole into a single state. Like the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Wales, these Corean states were distinct in origin, were conquered by a race from without, received a rich infusion of alien blood, struggled in rivalry for centuries, and were finally united under one nation with one flag and one sovereign. Hiaksai was for a while the leading state in the peninsula. Buddhism was introduced from Thibet in 384 A. D. And to this state more than any other part of Corea, Japan owes her first impulses towards the civilization of the west. The kingdom pros- pered until the decade from 660 to 670, when it was overrun and practically annihilated by an army of Chinese, despite the aid of four hundred junks and a large body of soldiers sent from Japan to the aidof Corea. Korai of course took its turn in struggling with the Dragon of China. Early in the seventh century China had been defeated, and for a generation peace prevailed. But the Chinese coveted Koraian territory and again an invading fleet attacked the country. COREA'S GIFT TO JAPAN. 321 It took years to complete the conquest, but finally all Korai with its five provinces, its one and seventy-six cities and its four or five millions of people, was annexed to the Chinese empire, i- Shinra, in the south-west of the peninsula, was probably the most advanced of all of the states. It was from this kingdom that the tradition reached Japan which tempted the Amazonian queen of Japan, Jingo, to her invasion and conquest. The king of Shinra submitted and became a declared vassal of Japan, but in all probability Shinra was far superior to the Japan of that early day in everything except strength. From this kingdom came a stream of immigrants which passed into Japan carrying all sorts of / knowledge and an improved civilization. It is well to remember from this point that the Japanese always laid claim to the Corean peninsula and to Shinra especially as a tributary nation. They supported that claim not only whenever embassies from the two nations met at the court of Cliina, but they made it a more or less active part of their national policy. During this period Buddhism was being steadily propagated, learning and literary progi'ess increased, while art, science, archi- tecture were all favored and improved. Kion-chiu, the capital of Shinra, was looked upon as a holy city, even after the decay of Shinra's power. Her noble temples, halls and towers stood in honor and repair, enshrining the treasures of India, Persia, and China, until the ruthless Japanese torch laid them in ashes in 1596. From the year 755 A. D. up to the beginning of the tenth cen- tury, Shinra maintained its undisputed rule over the other countries of the peninsula, but about this time successive revolts occurred, Shinra was conquered, and the three kingdoms now united were called Korai, a name which was retained to the end of the fourteenth century. The kingdoms now thoroughly sub- dued, never recovered tlieir old position and independence, and composed from that time forward the undivided kingdom of Corea, such as it has been maintained until the present day. In 1218 A. D. the king of Corea promised allegiance to the Chinese emperor Taitsou who was the Mongol Genghis Khan. Here we find explanation for some features of the war now in progress between China and Japan. Corea has at various times 322 COREA'S VASSALAGE TO JAPAN AND CHINA. acknowledged its dependence upon both of these countries. The Japanese hiid claim to Corea from the second century until tlie 27th of February, 1876. On that day the mikado's minister plenipotentiary signed the treaty recognizing Cho-sen as an independent nation. Through all the seventeen centuries, which according to their annals elapsed since their armies first com- pleted the vassalage of their neighbor,-the Japanese regarded the states of Corea as tributaries. Time and again they enforced their claim with bloody invasion, and when through a more enlightened policy the rulers voluntarily acknowledged their former enemy as an equal, the decision cost Japan almost im- mediately afterward seven months of civil war, twenty thousand lives, and 150,000,000 in treasury. The mainspring of the " Satsuma rebellion " of 1877 was the official act of friendship by treaty, and the refusal of the Tokio government to make war on Corea. It seemed until 1877 almost impossible to eradicate from the military mind of Japan the conviction that to surrender Corea was cowardice and a stain upon the national honor. From the ninth century onwaid to the sixteenth century, the relations of the two countries seem to be unimportant. Japan was engaged in conquering northward her own barbarians. Her intercourse, both political and religious, grew to be so direct with the court of China, that Corea in the Japanese annals sinks out of sight except at rare intervals. Nilion increased in wealth and civilization, while Cho-sen remained stationary or retrograded. In the nineteentli century the awakened "Sunrise Kingdom " has seen her former self in tlie " Land of Morning Calm," and has stretched forth willing hands to do for her neighbor now what Corea did for Japan in centuries long gone by. It must never be forgotten that Corea was the bridge on which civilization crossed from China to the archipelago. About 1368 the reigning King of Corea refused vassalage to China. His troops refused to repel the invasion that threat- ened, and under their General Ni Taijo, deposed the king. Taijo himself was nominated king. He paid homage to the Chinese emperor and revived the ancient name of Cho-sen. The dynasty thus established is still the reigning family in Corea, though the direct line came to an end in 1861. The Coreans in Establishment of the present corean dynasty. 323 their treaty with Japan in 1876, dated the document according to the four hundred and eighty-fourth year of Cho-sen, reckoning from tlie accession of Ni Taijo to the throne. One of the first acts of the new dynasty was to change the location of the national capital to the city of Han Yang, situated on the Han river about fifty miles from its mouth. The king enlarged the fortifications, enclosed the city with a wall of masonry, and built bridges, renaming the city Seoul or "capital." He also redivided PAGODA AT SEOUL. the kingdom into eight provinces which still remain. An era of peace and flourishing prosperity ensued, and in everything the influence of the Chinese emperors is most manifest. Buddhism, which had penetrated into every part of the country, and had become in a measure at least the religion of the state, was now set aside and disestablished. The Confucian ethics were dilli- gently studied and were incorporated into the religion of the state. From the early part of the fifteenth century, Confucian- ism flourished, until it reached the point of bigotry and intoler- ance, so that when Christianity was discovered to be existing among the people, it was put under the ban of extirpation, and its followers thought worthy of death. At first the new dynasty sent tribute regularly to the shogun of Japan, but as intestinal war troubled the Island Empire and 324 JAPAN'S GREAT INVASION OF COREA. the shoguns became effeminate, the Coreans stopped their tribute and it was almost forgotten. The last embassy from Seoul was sent in 1460. After that they were never summoned, so they never came. Under the idea that peace was to last forever, the nation relaxed all vigilance ; the army was dis- ~7 I organized and the castles were fallen into ruin. It was while the I country was in such a condition that the summons of Japan's ! great conqueror came to them, and the Coreans learned for the > first time of the fall of Ashikaga and the temper of their new master. As the Mongol conquerors issuing from China had used Corea as their point of departure to invade Japan, so Hideyoshi resolved to make the peninsula the road for his armies into China. He sent an envoy to Seoul to demand tribute, and then, angered at the utter failure of his mis- sion, commanded the envoy and all his family to be put to death. A second ambassador was sent with more success, and presents and envoys were ex- changed. Hideyoshi, however, became enraged at the indifference of the Coreans to assist him in his dealings COREAN SOLDIERS. -^1, rii,- j 1 j a T, t,i ^u With China, and resolved to humble the peninsular kingdom, and China, her overlord. The invasion of Corea was made as related in the earlier chapters on Japan. The Coreans were poorly prepared for war, both as to leaders, soldiers, equipments and fortifications. The Japanese swept everything like a whirlwind before them, and entered the capital within eighteen days after their landing at Fusan. The accounts of the war are preserved in detail, and are exceedingly interesting, but the limits of this volume compel their omission to provide space for the war of 1894-5. At first Chinese armies coming to reinforce the Coreans were defeated and turned back, but another effort of the allies was more effec- tive and the Japanese troops found advance turned to retreat. The Japanese armies concentrated at Seoul to receive the ad- CHRISTIAN CHAPLAINS WITH THE ARMY. 32C vance of the allies numbering some two hundred thousand. The capital was burned by the Japanese, nearly every house being destroyed, and hundreds of men, women, and children, sick and well, living quietly there, were massacred. The allied troops were beaten back in a ferocious battle, but hunger reached both armies, pestilence entered the Japanese camp, and both were utterly tired of war and ready to consider terms of peace. Konishi, the general of the Japanese army, had been con- verted to Christianity by the Portuguese Jesuits. During this period of tiresome wait- ing he sent to the superior of the missions in Japan ask- ing for a priest. In response to this request came Father Gregorio de Cespedes and a Japanese convert. Tliese two holy men began their labors among the Japanese armies, preaching from camp to camp, and administering the right of baptism to thou- sands of converts, but their work was stopped by the jealousy of the Buddhist power. The Jesuits in Japan were then being expelled for their political machinations, and the chaplains in Corea were brought under the same ban. Konishi was called back to Japan with the priest and was unable to convince the shogun of his innocence. A few Corean converts were made during this time, and one of them a lad of rank, was afterward educated in the Jesuit seminary at Kioto. He endeavored to return to Corea as a missionary, but the condition of affairs in Japan interrupted his intentions and in 1625 he was martyred OLD MAN IN COEEA. 326 CHRISTIAN CHAPLAINS WITH THE ARMY. during the prosecutions of the Christians. Of the large number of Corean prisoners sent over to Japan, many became Christians. Hundreds of others were sold as slaves to the Portuguese. Others rose to positions of honor under the government or in the households of the daimios. Many Corean lads were adopted by the returned soldiers or kept as servants. When the bloody per- secution broke out, by which niiiny thousand Japanese found death, the Corean converts remained steadfast to their Christian faith, and suffered martyrdom with fortitude equal to that of their Japanese brethren. But by the army in Corea, or by the Christian chaplain Cespedes, no trace of Christianity was left in the land of Morning Calm, and it was two centuries later before that faith was really introduced. The fortunes of the war alternated, and finally, after deeds of heroism on both sides, a period of inaction ensued, the result of exhaustion. At this time Hideyoshi fell sick and died, September 9, 1598, at the age of sixty-three years. Almost his last words were, " Recall all my troops from Cho-sen." The orders to em- bark for home were everywhere gladly heard. It is probable that the loss of life in the campaigns of this war was nearly a third of a million. Thus ended one of the most needless, unpro- voked, cruel, and desolating wars that ever cursed Corea. More than two hundred thousand human bodies were decapitated to furnish the ghastly material for the " ear-tomb " mound in Kioto. More than one hundred and eighty-five thousand Corean heads were gathered for mutilation, and thirty thousand Chinese, all of which were despoiled of ears and noses. It is probable that fifty thousand Japanese left their bones in Corea. Since the invasion the town of Fusan, as before, had been held and garrisoned by the retainers of the Daimio of Tsushima. At this port all the commerce between the two nations took place. From an American point of view, there was little trade done be- tween the two countries, but on the strength of even this small amount Earl Russell in 1862 tried to get Great Britain included as a co-trader between Japan and Corea. He was not, however, successful. A house was built at Nagasaki by the Japanese gov- ernment which was intended as a refuge for Coreans who might be wrecked on Japanese shores. Wherever the waifs were picked ADVANCE OF THE MANCHOOS. 327 up, they were sent to Nagasaki and sheltered until a junk could be dispatched to Fusan. The possession of Fusan by the Japanese was, until 1876, a perpetual witness of the humiliating defeat, of the Coreans in the war of 1592-1597, and a constant irritation to their national pride. Yet with all the miseries inflicted on her, the humble nation learned rich lessons, and gained many an advantage even from her enemy. The embassies which were yearly dispatclied to yield homage to their late invaders were at the expense of the latter. The Japanese pride purchased the empty bubble of hom- age by paying nil the bills. J The home of the Manchoos was on the north side of the Ever- white mountains. From beyond these mountains was to roll upon China and Corea another avalanche of invasion. By the sixteenth century the Manchoos had become so strong that they openly defied the Chinese. Formidable expeditions previous to the Japanese invasion of Corea kept them at bay for a time, but the immense expenditure of life and treasure required to fight the Japanese drained the resources of the Ming emperors, while their attention being drawn away from the north, the Manchoo hordes massed their forces and grew daily in strength. To re- press the rising power in the north, and to smother the life of the young nation, the Peking government resorted to barbarous cruelties and stern coercion. Unable to protect the eastern bor- der of Liao Tung the entire population of three hundred thou, sand souls, dwelling in four cities and many villages, were re- moved westward and resettled on new lands. Fortresses were planned in the deserted land to keep back the restless cavalry raiders from the north. Thus the foundation of the neutral strip of fifty miles was unconsciously laid, and ten thousand square miles of fair and fertile land west of the Yalu were abandoned to the wolf and tiger. What it soon became it remained until yes- terday — a howling wilderness. In 1615 the king of the Manchoo tribes was assassinated as the result of a plot by the Ming emperor. This exasperated the tribes to vengeance and they began hostilities. China now had to face another great invasion. Calling on her vassal, Corea, to a^nd an army of twenty thousand men, she ordered them to join 328 COREAN TREACHERY. the imperial array about seventy miles west of the Yalu River. In the battle which ensued the Coreans were the first to face the Manchoos. The imperial legions were beaten, and the Coreans seeing which way the victory would turn, deserted from the Chinese side to that of their enemy. This was in 1619. Enraged by alternate treachery to both sides from the Coreans, the Man- choos invaded Corea in 1627, to which time the war had been prolonged. They crossed the frozen Yalu in February, and at once attacked and defeated the Chinese army. They then began the march to Seoul. Town afte-r town was taken as they pressed onward to the capital, the Coreans everywhere flying before them. Thousands of dwellings and stores of provisions were given to the flames and their trail was one of blood and ashes. After the siege of Seoul began, the king sent tribute offerings to the invaders, and concluded a treaty of peace, by which Corea again exchanged masters, this time confessing subjection to the Manchoo sovereign. As soon as the invading army had with- drawn, the Corean king, confident that the Chinese would be ultimately successful over the Manchoos, annulled the treaty. No sooner were the Manchoos able to spare their forces for the purpose than they again marched into Corea and overran the peninsula. The king now came to terms, and in February, 1637, utterly renounced his allegiance to the Ming emperor, gave his two sons as hostages, and promised to send an annual embassy with tribute to the Manchoo court. After the evacuation of Corea the victors marched into China, where bloody civil war was raging. The imperial army of China had been beaten by the rebels. The Manchoos joined their forces with the imperialists and defeated the rebels, and then demanded the price of their victory. Enter- ing Peking they proclaimed the downfall of the house of Ming. The son of the late king was set upon the dragon throne, and as we have seen in a foregoing chapter the royal house of China came to be a Manchoo family. - ' VWhen, as it happened the very next year, the shogun of Japan demanded an increase of tribute to be paid in Yeddo, the court of Seoul plead in excuse their wasted resources, consequent upon the war with the Manchoos, and their heavy burdens newly laid TRIBUTE TO TWO NEIGHBORS. 329 upon them in the way of tribute to their conqueror. Their excuse was accepted. Twice within a single generation had the little peninsula been devasted by mighty invasion that laid waste the country.^ In r^O a captive Corean maid, taken prisoner in their first invasion, became sixth lady in rank in the imperial Manchoo household. Through her influence her father, the ambassador, obtained a considerable reduction of the annual tribute that had been fixed by treaty. Other portions of the tribute had been re- mitted before, so that by this time the tax upon Corean loyalty became very slight, and the embassy became one of ceremony rather than a tribute bringing. In the seventeenth century some information about Corea began to reach Europe, first from the Jesuits in Peking, who sent home a map of the peninsula. There is also a map of Corea in a work by the Jesuit Martini, published in 1649 in Amsterdam. The Cossacks who overran northern Asia brought reports of Corea to Russia, and it was from Russian sources that Sir John Campbell obtained the substance of his history of Corea. In 1645 a party of Japanese crossed the peninsula, and one of them on his return wrote a book descriptive of their journey. 1707 the Jesuits in Peking began their great geographical enterprise, the survey of the Chinese empire, including the outlying vassal kingdoms. A map of Corea was obtained from the king's palace at Seoul and sent to Europe to be engraved and printed. From this original most of the maps and supposed Corean names in books published since that time have been copied. The first known entrance of any number of Europeans into Corea was that of Hollanders belonging to the crew of the Dutch ship Hollandra which was driven ashore in 1627. Coasting along the Corean shores, John Wetterree and some companions went ashore to get water, a'ld were captured by the natives. The magnates of Seoul probably desired to have a barbarian from the west, as useful to them as was the Englishman Will Adams to the Japanese in Yeddo, where the Corean ambassadors had often seen him. This explains why Wetterree was treated with kindness and comparative honor, though kept as a prisoner. When the Manchoos invaded Corea in 1635, his two companions were killed 21 330 FIRST EUROPEANS IN COREA. in the war, and Wetterree was left alone. Having no one with whom he could converse he had almost forgotten his native speech, when after twenty-seven years of exile, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, he met some of his fellow Hollanders, and acted as interpreter to the Coreans. In the summer of 1653 the Dutch ship Sparwehr was cast on shore on Quelpaert island, off the southwest coast of Corea. The local magistrate did what he could for the thirty-six members of the crew who reached the shore alive, out of the sixty -four on board. On October 29th the survivors were brought by the officials to be examined by the interpreter Wetterree. The latter was very rusty in his native language, but regained it in a month. Of course the first and last idea of the captives was how to escape. They made one effort to reach the sea shore, but were caught and severely punished, after which they were ordered to proceed to the capital. Wherever they went the Dutchmen were like wild beasts on exhibition. When they once reached the palace they were well treated, and were assigned to the body guard of the king as petty officers. Each time that the Manchoo envoy made his visit to the capital the captives endeavored to enlist his sym- pathy and begged to be taken to Peking, but all such efi^orts re- sulted in failure and punishment. The suspicions of the govern- ment were aroused by the studies which the Dutchmen pursued, of the climate, the topography, and the products of the country, and by their attemps to escape, and in 1663 they were separated and put into three different towns. By this time fourteen of the number were dead and twenty-two remained. Finally, early in September 1667, as their fourteenth year of captivity was drawing to a close, the Dutchmen escaped to the seacoast, bribed a Corean to give them his fishing craft, and steered out into the open water. A few days later, they reached the northwestern islands in the vicinity of Kiushiu, Japan, and landed. The Japanese treated them kindly and sent them to Nagasaki, where they met their countrymen at Desima. The annual ship from Batavia was then just about to return, and in the nick of time the waifs got on board, reached Batavia, sailed for Holland, and in July, 1668, stepped ashore at home. Hendrik Hamel, the supercargo of the ship, wrote a book on bis return re- CHRISTIANITY IN COREA. 33I counting his adventures in a simple and straightforward style. It has been translated into English and is a model work of its sort. The modern introduction of Christianity in Corea dates little more than a hundred years ago. Some Corean students studying with the famous Confucian professor Kwem, during the winter of 1777, entered into discussion of some tracts on philosophy, mathe- matics, and religion just brought from Peking. These were translations of the writings of the Jesuits in the imperial capital. Surprised and delighted, they resolved to attain if possible to a full understanding of the new doctrines. They sought all the in- formation that they could from Peking. The leader in this movement was a student named Stonewall. As his information accumulated, he gave himself up to fresh reading and meditation, and then began to preach. Some of his friends in the capital, both nobles and commoners, embraced the new doctrines with cheering promptness and were baptized. Thus from small be- ginnings, but rapidly, were the Christian ideas spread. But soon the power of the law and the pen were invoked to crush out the exotic faith. The first victim was tried on the charge of destroying his ancestral tablets, tortured, and sent into exile, in which he soon after died. The scholars now took up weapons, and in April, 1784, the king's preceptor issued the first public document officially directed against Christianity. In it all parents and relatives were entreated to break off all relations with Christians. The names of the leaders were published, and the example of Thomas Kim, the first victim, was cited. Forthwith began a violent pressure upon the believers to renounce their faith. Then began an exhibition alike of steadfast faith and shameful apostasy, but though even Stonewall lapsed, the work went on. The next few years of Christianity were important ones. The leaders formed an organization and as nearly as they could on the lines of the Roman Catholic church. Instructions were sent from Peking by the priests there, and the worship in Corea became quite in harmony with that of the Western church. But the decision that the worship of ancestors must be abolished, was, in the eyes of the Corean public, a blow at the framework of society and state, and many feeble adherents began to fall away. December 8, 1791, Paul and Jacques Kim were decapitated for refusing to 33^ YEARS OF MARTYRDOM. recant their Christian faith. Thus was shed the first blood for Corean Christianity. Martyrdom was frequent in this early his- tory of the Christian church in Corea, but in the ten years following the baptism of Peter in Peking in 1783, in spite of persecution and apostasy, it is estimated that there were four thousand Chris- tians in the peninsula. The first attempt of a foreign missionary to enter the Hermit Kingdom from the west was made early in 1791. This was a Portuguese priest who endeavored to cross the Yalu River to join some native Christians, but was disappointed in meeting them and returned to Peking^ Two years later a young Chinese priest en- tered the forbidden territory, and was hidden for three j^ears in the house of a__mihle_ woman, where he preached and taught. Three native Christians who refused to reveal his whereabouts were tortured to death and were thrown into the Han River. From the beginning of this century the most bitter general per- secutions against Christians was enforced. The young Chinese priest, learning that he was outlawed, surrendered himself to re- lieve his friends of the responsibility of protecting him, and was executed. The woman also who had so long sheltered him was beheaded. Four oTheFwomen who were attendants in the palace, and an artist who was condemned for painting Christian subjects were beheaded near the "Little Western Gate" of Seoul. The policy of the government was shown in making away with the Christians of rank and education who might be able to direct af- fairs in the absence of the foreign priests, and in letting the poor and humble go free. It is impossible to catalogue the martyrs and the edicts against Christianity. The condition of the Christians scattered in the mountains and forests, suffering poverty, hunger, and cold, was most deplorable. In 1811 the Corean converts addressed letters to the Pope begging aid in their distress. These however could not be answered in the way they desired, for the Pope himself was then a prisoner at Fontainebleau and the Roman propaganda was nearly at a standstill. In 1817 the king and court were terrified by the appearance off the west coast of the British vessels Alceste and Lyra, but be- yond some surveys, purchases of provisions, and interviews with COREAN MANDARINS. MARTYRDOM OF FRENCH PRIESTS. 335 some local magistrates, the foreigners departed -without opening communication with them. Ffteen years later the British ship Lord Amherst passed along the coasts of Chulla, seeking commer- cial connections. On board was a Protestant missionary, a Prus- sian. He landed on several of the islands and attempted to gain some acquaintance with the people, but made little progress. The year 1834 closed the first half century of Corean Christianity. It is not strange that persecutions resulted from the advance of Roman Catholic strength in Corea, for the Corean Christians as- sumed naturally the righteousness of the Pope's claim to tem- poral power as the vicar of heaven. The Corean Christians not only deceived their magistrates and violated their country's laws, but actually invited armed invasion. Hence, from the first, Christianity was associated in patriotic minds with treason and robbery. After the restoration of the Bourbons in France and the strengthening of the Papal throne by foreign bayonets, the mis- sionary zeal in the church was kindled afresh, and it was resolved to found a mission in Corea. The first priest to make entrance was Pierre Philibert Maubant, who reached Seoul in 1836, the first Frenchman who had penetrated the Hermit Nation. A few months later another joined him, and in December, 1888, Bishop Imbert ran the gauntlet of wilderness, ice, and guards at the frontier, and took up his residence under the shadow of the king's palace. Work now went on vigorously, and in 1838 the Chris- tians numbered nine thousand. At the beginning of the next year the party in favor of extirpating Christianity having gained the upper hand, another persecution broke out with redoubled violence. To stay the further shedding of blood, Bishop Imbert and his two priests came out of their hiding places and delivered themselves up. They were horribly tortured, and decapitated September 21, 1839. Six bitter years passed before the Christians again had a foreign pastor. Since 1839 the government had tripled its vigilance and doubled the guards on the frontier. The most strenuous efforts to pass the barriers repeatedly failed. Andrew Kim is a name to be remembered in the history of Christianity in Corea. Year after year he worked to enter Corea, or once in, to advance the 336 MARTYRDOM OP FRENCH PRIESTS. cause, or wlien rejected to help others in the work. He was or- dained to the priesthood in Shanghai, and finally in company with two French priests, in September, 1845, sailed across the Yellow Sea, and landed on the coast of Chulla, to make his final efi'ort to spread Christianity among the Coreans. During July of the same year, the British ship Samarang was engaged in surveying off •Quelpaert and the south coast of Corea. Beacon fires all over the land telegraphed the news of the presence of foreign ships, and the close watch that was kept by the coast magistrates made the return of Andrew Kim doubly dangerous. These records of perseverence, of distress, of martyrdom, from the pages of missionary work in Corea, written in the blood of native converts, who bore their cross with equal bravery to that of the Roman fathers, may be surprising to some who have been unfamiliar with the history of the Corean peninsula. , But they are convincing testimony to controvert the assertions of some incredulous ones who affirm that the "heathen" are never really Christianized, bat are always ready to return to their idols in times of trial. There is no country that can show braver examples of fortitude, in enduring trial for the support of the faith, than the " Hermit Nation." Three priests in disguise were now secretly at work in Corea, Andrew Kim, a native convert, and the Frenchmen, Bishop Ferreol, and his companion Daveluy. Kim was captured and in company with half a dozen others was executed September 16th. While he was in prison the Bishop heard of three French ships which were at that time vainly trying to find the mouth of the Han River and the channel to the capital. Ferreol wrote to Captain Cecile, who commanded the fleet, but the note arrived too late and Kim's fate was sealed. The object of the fleet's visit was to demand satisfaction for the murder of the two French priests in 1839, but after some coast surveys were made and a threatening letter was dispatched the ships withdrew. During the summer of 1845, two French frigates set sail for the Corean coast, and August 10th went aground, and both vessels became total wrecks. The six hundred men made their camp at Kokun island, where they were kindly treated and furnished with provisions, although rigidly secluded and guarded against all communication with the main land. An English ship from Shanghai rescued the crews. During the ensuing eight years re- ALARM IN COREA. 337 peated efforts were made by missionaries and native converts to enter Corea and advance the vpork there, and the labor of prop- agation progressed. A number of religious works in the Corean language were printed from a native printing press and widely circulated. In 1850 the Christians numbered eleven thousand, and five young men were studying for the priesthood. Regular mails sewn into the thick cotton coats of the men in the annual embassy were sent to and brought from China. The western nations were beginning to take an interest in the twin hermits of the east, Corea and Japan. In 1852, the Russian frigate Pallas traced and mapped a portion of the shore line of the east coast, and the work was continued three years later by the French war vessel Virginie. At the end of this voyage the whole coast from Fusan to the Tumen was known with some accuracy and mapped out with European names. It was in the intervening years, 1853 and 1854, that Commodore Perry and the American squadron were in the waters of the far east, driving the wedge of civilization into Japan. The American flag, however, was not yet seen in Corean waters, though the court of Seoul was kept informed of Perry's movements. A fresh reinforcement of missionaries reached Corea in 1857. When three years later the French and English forces opened war with China, took the Peiho forts, entered Peking, and sacked the summer palace of the Son of Heaven, driving the Chinese emperor to flight, the loss of Chinese prestige struck terror into all Corean hearts. For six centuries China had been in Corean eyes the synonym and symbol of invincible power. Copies of the treaties made between China and the allies, granting freedom of trade and religion, were soon read in Corea, causing intense alarm. But the most alarming thing was the treaty between China and Russia, by which the Manchoo rulers surrendered the great tract watered by the Amoor river and bordered bj'- the Pacific, to Russia. It was a rich and fertile region, with a coast full of harbors, and comprising an area as large as France. The boundaries of Siberia now touch Corea. With France on the right, Russia on the left, China humbled, and Japan opened to the western world, it is not strange that the rulers in Seoul trembled. The results to Christianity were that within a few 338 INTRIGUES IN THE COURT. years thousands of natives fled their country and settled in the Russian villages. At the capital, official business w^as suspended and many families of rank fled to the mountains. In many in- stances people of rank humbly sought the good favor and pro- tection of the Christians, hoping for safety when the dreaded invasion should come. In the midst of these vi^ar preparations, the French missionary body was reinforced by the arrival of four o their countrymen who set foot on the soil of their martyrdom October, 1861. The Ni dynasty, founded in 1392, came to an end January 15, 1864, by the death of King Chul-chong, who had no child, before he had nominated an heir. Palace intrigues and excitement among the political parties followed. The widows of the three kings who had reigned since 1831 were still living. The eldest of these. Queen Cho, at once seized the royal seal and emblems of authority, which high-handed move made her the mistress of the situation. A twelve-year-old lad was nominated for the throne, and his father, Ni Kung, one of the royal princes, became the actual regent. He held the reins of government during the next nine years, ruling with power like that of an absolute despot. He was a rabid hater of Christianity, foreigners, and progress. The year 1866 is phenomenal in Corean history. It seemed to the rulers as if the governments of many nations had con- spired to pierce their walls of isolation. Russians, French- men, Englishmen, Americans, Germans, authorized and un- authorized, landed to trade, rob, kill, or what was equally ob- noxious to the regent and his court, to make treaties. This and the rapid progress of Christianity now excited the anti-Christian party, which was in full power at the court, to clamor for the en- forcem_ent of the old edict against the foreign religion. Vainly the regent warned the court of the danger from Europe. Forced by the party in power, he signed the death warrants of bishops and priests and promulgated anew the old laws against the Christians. Within a few weeks fourteen French priests and bishops were tortured to death, and twice as many native mis- sionaries and students for the priesthood suffered like fate. Scores of native Christians were put to death, and hundreds more were in prison. In a little over a month, all missionary operations FRENCH EXPEDITION TO SEOUL. 339 came to a standstill. The three French priests who remained alive escaped from the peninsula in a Chinese junk, and finally reached Chefoo October 26. Not one foreign priest now remained in Corea, and no Christian dared openly confess his faith. Thus after twenty years of nearly uninterrupted labors, the church was again stripped of her pastors, and at the end of eighty-two years of Corean Christianity the curtain fell in blood. With Bishop Ridel as interpreter and three of his converts as pilots, three French vessels were sent to explore the Han River and to make effort to secure satisfaction for the murder of the French bishops and priests in the previous March. They entered the river September 21, and two of the vessels advanced to Seoul, leaving one at the mouth of the river. One or two forts fired on the vessels as they steamed along, and in one place a fleet of junks gathered to dispute their passage. A well-aimed shot sunk two of the crazy craft, and a bombshell dropped among the ar- tillerists in the redoubt, silenced it at once. On the evening of the 25th, the two ships cast anchor and the flag of France floated in front of the Corean capital. The hills were white with gazing thousands, who for the first time saw a vessel moving under steam. The ships remained abreast of the city several days, the officers taking soundings and measurements, computing heights, and mak- ing plans. Bishop Ridel went on shore in hopes of finding a Christian and hearing some news but none dared to approach him. While the French remained in the river not a bag of rice nor a fagot of wood entered Seoul. Eight days of such terror, and a famine would have raged in the city. Seven thousand houses were deserted by their occupants. When the ships re- turned to the mouth of the river two converts came on board. They informed Ridel of the burning of a "European" vessel, the General Sherman, at Ping- Yang, of the renewal of the persecu- tion, and of the order that Christians should be put to death with- out waiting for instructions from Seoul. Sailing away, the ships arrived at Chefoo, October 3. The regent, now thoroughly alarmed, began to stir up the country to defense. The military forces in every province were called out, and tlie forges and blacksmith shops were busy day and night in making arms of every known kind. Loaded junks 340 REPULSE OF THE FRENCH. were sunk in the channel of the Han to obstruct it. Word was sent to the tycoon of Japan informing him of the trouble, and begging for assistance, but the Yeddo government had quite all it could do at that time to take care of itself. Instead of help two commissioners were appointed to go to Seoul and recommend that Corea open her ports to foreign commerce as Japan had done, and thus choose peace instead of war with foreigners. Before the envoys could leave Japan the tycoon had died, and the next year Japan was in the throes of civil war, the shogunate was abolished, and Corea was for the time utterly forgotten. Another fleet of French vessels sailed from China to Corea, consisting of seven ships of various kinds, and with six hundred soldiers. The force landed before the city of Kang-wa on the island of the same name, and captured the city without difficulty on the morning of October 16. Several engagements in the same vicinity followed, all of them successful to the French until they came to attack a fortified monastery on the island some ten days later. Here they were repulsed with heavy loss to themselves and to the foe. The next morning to the surprise of all and the anger of many, orders were given to embark. The troops in Kang-wa set fire to the city which in a few hours burned to ashes. The departure of the invaders was so precipitate that Corean patriots to this day gloat over it as a disgraceful retreat. In the palace at Seoul the resolve was made to exterminate Christianity, root and branch. Women and even children were ordered to the death. Several Christian nobles were executed. One Christian who was betrayed in the capital by his pagan brother, and another fellow believer, were taken to the river side in front of the city, near the place where the two French vessels had anchored. At this historic spot, by an innovation unknown in the customs of Cho-sen, they were decapitated and their head- less trunks held neck downward to spout out the hot life blood, that it might wash away the stain of foreign pollution. Upon the mind of the regent and court the effect was to swell their pride to the folly of extravagant conceit. Feeling themselves able almost to defy the world, they began soon after to hurl their de- fiance at Japan. The results of this expedition were disastrous all over the east. Happening at a time when relations between EFFECTS OF THE llETREAT. 341 foreigners and Chinese were strained, the unexpected return of the fleet filled the minds of Europeans in China with alarm. The smothered embers of hostility to foreign influence, steadily gathered vigor as the report spread through China that the hated Frenchmen had been driven away by the Coreans. The fires at length broke out in the Tien-tsin massacre of 1870. ^ It was this same year, 1866, that witnessed the marriage of the young king, now but fourteen years old, to Min, the daughter of one of the noble families. Popular report has always credited the young queen with abilities not inferior to those of her royal •> ? *^' husband. The Min or Ming family is largely Chinese in blood ■" ,# ^!Lf^ and origin, and beside being preeminent among all the Corean '"'"'^ nobility in social, political, and intellectual power, has been most strenuous in adherence to Chinese ideas and traditions with the purpose of keeping Corea unswerving in her vassalage and loyalty to China. American associations with Corea have been peculiarly interest- ing. The commerce carried on by American vessels with Chinese | and Japanese ports made the navigation of Corean waters a ne- cessity. Sooner or later shipwrecks must occur, and the question of the humane treatment of American citizens cast on Corean shores came up before our government for settlement, as it had long before in the case of Japan. Within one year the Corean government had three American cases to deal withp> June 24, 1866, the American schooner Surprise, was wrecked off the coast of Wang-hai. The approach of any foreign vessel was especially dangerous at this time, as the crews might be mistaken for French- men and killed by the people from patriotic impulses. Neverthe- less, the captain and his crew, after being well catechised by the local magistrate and by a commissioner sent from Seoul, were kindly treated and well fed and provided with the comforts of life. By orders of Tai-wen Kun, the regent, they were escorted on horseback to Ai-chiu and after being feasted there were con- ducted safely to the border gate. Thence after a hard journey via Mukden they got to Niuchwang and to the United States consul. The General Sherman was an American schooner that had the second experience with the Coreans. The vessel was owned by 342 AMERICAN AFFAIRS IN COREA. a Mr. Preston who was making a voyage for health. At Tien-tsin the schooner was loaded with goods likely to be salable in Corea, and she was dispatched there on an experimental voyage in the hope of thus opening the country to commerce. The complement of the vessel was five white foreigners and nineteen Malay and Chinese sailors. The white men were Mr. Hogarth, a young Englishman, Mr. Preston, the owner, and Messrs. Page and Wilson, the master and mate of the vessel, and the Rev. Mr. Thomas, a missionary, who were Americans. From the first the character of the expedition was suspected, because the men were rather too heavily armed for a peaceful trading voyage. It was believed in China that the royal coffins in the tombs of Ping- Yang were of solid gold, and it was broadly hinted that the expedition had something to do with these. The schooner, whether merchant or invader, sailed from Chefoo and made for the mouth of the Tatong River. There they met the Chinese captain of a Chefoo junk who agreed to })ilot them up the river. He stayed with the General Sherman for two days, then leaving her he returned to the river's mouth, and sailed back to Chefoo. No farther direct intelligence was ever received from the unfortvmate party. According to one report the hatches of the schooner were fastened down after the crew had been driven beneath, and set on fire. According to another, all were de- capitated. The Coreans burned the woodwork for the iron and took the cannon for models. The United States steamship Wachusett, dispatched by Admiral Rowan to inquire into the matter, reached Chefoo January 14, 1867, and took on board the Chinese pilot of the General Sher- man. Leaving Chefoo they cast anchor two days later at the mouth of the large inlet next south of the Tatong River, thinking that they had reached their destination. A letter was dispatched to the capital of the province demanding that the murderers be produced on the deck of the vessel. Five days elapsed before the answer arrived, during which the surveying boats were busy. Many natives were met and spoken with, who all told one story, that the Sherman's crew were murdered by the people and not by official instigation. In a few days an officer from one of the villages appeared. He would give neither information nor satis- THE GENERAL SHERMAN CASE. 345 faction, and the gist of his reiteration was "go away as soon a* possible." Commander Shufeldt, bound by his orders, could do nothing more, and being compelled also by stress of weather came away. Later in the year Dr. Williams, Secretary of the United States Legation at Peking, succeeded in obtaining an interview with a member of the Corean embassy, who told him that after the General Sherman got aground she careened over as the tide receded, and her crew landed to guard or float her. The natives gathered around them, and before long an altercation arose. A general attack began upon the foreigners, in which every man was killed by the mob. About twenty of the natives lost their lives. Dr. Williams' comment is, " The evidence goes to uphold the presumption that they invoked their sad fate by some rash or violent act towards the natives." The United States steamship Shenandoah was sent to make further investigation, and this version of the story was given to the commander. The Coreans said that when the Sherman arrived in the river, the local officials went on board and addressed the two foreign officers of the ship in respectful language. The latter grossly insulted the native dignitaries. The Coreans treated their visitors kindly, but warned them of their danger and the un- lawfulness of penetrating into the country. Nevertheless, the foreigners went up the river to Ping- Yang where they seized the ship of one of the city officials, put him in chains, and proceeded to rob the junks and their crews. The people of the city aroused to wrath, attacked the foreign ship with firearms and cannon ; they set adrift fire rafts and even made a hand to hand fight with knives and swords. The foreigners fought desperately, but the Coreans overpowered them. Finally the ship caught fire and blew up with a terrible report. This story was not, of course, believed by the American officers, but even the best wishers and friends of the Sherman adventurers cannot stifle suspicion of either cruelty or insult to the natives. Remembering the kind- ness shown to the crew of the Surprise it is difficult to believe that the General Sherman's crew was murdered without cause. In 1884 Lieutenant J. B. Bernadon, of the United States navy, made a journey from Seoul to Ping- Yang, and being able to speaV 22 346 AMERICAN EXPEDITIONS. Corean, secured the following information from native Christians: The governor of Ping- Yang sent officers to inquire the mission of the Sherman. To gratify their curiosity large numbers of the common people set out also in boats which the Sherman's crew mistook for a hostile demonstration and fired guns in the air to warn them off. When the river fell the Sherman grounded and careened over, which being seen from tlie city walls, a fleet of boats set out with hostile intent and were fired upon. Officers and people now enraged, started fire rafts, and soon the vessel, though with white flag hoisted, was in flames. Of those who leaped into the river most were drowned. Of those picked up one was the Rev. Mr. Thomas, who was able to talk Corean. He explained the meaning of the white flag, and begged to be sur- rendered to China. His prayer was in vain. In a few days all tlie prisoners were led out and publicly executed. In the spring of 1867 an expedition was organized by a French Jesuit priest who spoke Corean, having been a missionary in the country ; a German Jew named Ernest Oppert ; and the inter- preter at the United States consulate in Shanghai, a man named Jenkins. These worthies, it is said, conceived a plan to steal the body of one of the dead Corean monarchs, and hold it for ransom. With two steam vessels and a crew of sailors, laborers, and cool- ies, the riffraff of humanity, such as swarm in every Chinese port, they left Shanghai the last day of April, steamed to Naga- saki, and then to the west coast of Corea, landing in the river which flows into Prince Jerome Gulf. The steam tender which accompanied the larger vessel took an armed crowd up the river as far as possible, and from this point the march across the open country to the tomb was begun. Their tools were so ineffective that they could not move the rocky slab which covered the sar- cophagus, and they were compelled to give up their task. Dur- ing their return march they were attacked by the exasperated Coreans, but were able to protect themselves without great diffi- culty. During the remainder of their buccaneering trip, which lasted ten days, they had various skirmishes and two or three of their party were killed. On their return to Shanghai the Amer- ican of the party was arrested and tried before the United States consul, but it was impossible to prove the things with which Jen- SEEKING A TREATY. 347 kins was charged, and he was dismissed. A few years later Op- pert published a work in which he told the story of his different voyages to Corea, including this last one. In writing of the last he takes pains to gloss over the intentions of his journey and to explain the good motives behind it. . The representations made to the department of state at Wash- ington by the United States diplomatic corps in China concerning these different attempts to enter Corea, directed the attention of the United States government to the opening of Corea to Ameri- can commerce. The state department in 1870 resolved to under- take the enterprise. Frederick F. Low, minister of the United States to Peking, and Rear Admiral John Rodgers, commander in chief of the Asiatic squadron, were entrusted with the delicate mission. The American squadron consisted of the flagship Colo- rado, the corvettes Alaska and Dimitia, and the gunboats Monoc- acy and Palos. In spite of the formidable appearance of the navy, the vessels were either of an antiquated type, or of too heavy a draft, witli their armament defective. All the naval world in Chinese waters wondered why the Americans should be content with such old fashioned ships unworthy of the gallant crews who manned them. The squadron anchored near the mouth of the Han River May 30, 1871. Approaching the squadron in a junk, some natives made signs of friendship and came on board without hesitation. They bore a missive acknowledging the receipt of the letter which the Americans had sent to Corea some months before, by a special courier from the Chinese court. This reply announced that three nobles had been appointed by the regent for a conference. The next day a delegation of eight officers of the third and fifth rank came on board, evidently with intent to see the minister and ad- miral to learn all they could and gain time. They had little authority and no credentials, but the}' were sociable, friendly and in good humor. Neither of the envoys would see them, because they lacked rank and credentials and authority. The Corean en- voys were informed that soundings would be taken in the river and the shores would be surveyed. The best judges of eastern diplomacy think that this mission was very poorly managed. These envoys were sent ashore, and 348 BRAVE FIGHTING. at noon on the 2nd of June the survey fleet moved up the river. The fleet consisted of four steam launches abreast, followed by the Palos and Monocacy. But a few minutes passed until from a fort on the shore a severe fire was opened on the moving boats. The Americans promptly returned the fire, with the result that the old Palos injured herself by the cannon kicking her sides out. The Monocacy also struck a rock and began to leak badly, but after hammering at the forts until they were all silenced, the squadron was able to return down the river and not greatly in- jured. Strange to say only one American was wounded and none were killed. It was a strong evidence of the poor marksmanship of Corean gunners. Ten days were now allowed to pass before further action was taken, then the same force started up the river again, enlarged by twenty boats conveying a landing force of xX hundred and fifty men. These were arranged in ten companies of infantry and seven pieces of artillery. The squadron proceeded up the river on the morning of the 10th of June, and soon after noon, having demolished and emptied the first fort, the troops were landed. The next day they began the march and soon reached another fortification which was deserted. Here all of the artillery was tumbled into the river and the fort was named Monocacy. In another hour, another citadel was reached, attacked, and con- quered by the united efforts of the troops on shore and the ves- sels in the stream. The final charge of the American troops up a steep incline met a terrible reception. The Coreans fought with furious courage in hand to hand conflict. Finally the enemy was completely routed, some three hundred and fifty of them being killed. On the American side three were killed, and ten wounded. Before the day was over two more forts were captured. The result of the forty-eight hours on shore, of which only eigh- teen were spent in the field, was the capture of five forts, probably the strongest in the kingdom, fifty flags, and four hundred and eighty-one pieces of artillery. The work of destruction was car- ried on and made as thorough as fire, ax and shovel could make it, and this was all on Sunday, June 11. Early on Monday morning the whole force was re-embarked in perfect order, in spite of the furious tide. The fleet moved down WAR WITH THE HEATHEN. 349 the stream with the captured colors at the mast heads, and towing the boats laden with the trophies of victory. Later in the day the men slain in the fight were buried on Boisee Island, and the first American graves rose on Corean soil. Admiral Rodgers, having obeyed to the farthest limit the orders given him, and all hope of making a treaty being over, the fleet sailed for Chefoo on the 3rd of July, after thirty-five days' stay in Corean waters. " Our little war with the heathen," as the New York Herald styled it, attracted slight notice in the United States. In China the expedition was looked upon as a failure and a defeat. The popular Corean idea was that the Americans had come to avenge the death of pirates and robbers, and after several battles had been so surely defeated that they dare not attempt the task of chastisement again. When the mikado was restored to supreme power in Japan, and the department of foreign affairs was created, one of the first things attended to was to invite the Corean government to resume ancient friendship and vassalage. This summons, coming from a source unrecognized for eight centuries, and to a regent swollen with pride at his victory over the French and his success in extir- pating the Christian religion, was spurned with defiance. An in- solent and even scurrilous letter was returned to the mikado's government. The military classes, stung with rage, formed a war party, but the cabinet of Japan vetoed the scheme and in October, 1873, Saigo, the leader of the war party, resigned and was re- turned to Satsuma to brood over his defeat. In 1873 the young king of Corea attained his majority. His father Tai-wen Kun, the Regent, by the act of the king was re- lieved of office and his bloody and cruel lease of power came to an end. The young sovereign proved himself a man of some mental vigor and independent judgment, not merely trusting to his ministers, but opening important documents in person. He was ably seconded by his wife, to whom was born in the same year an heir to the throne. The neutral belt of land, long inhabited by deer and tigers, had within the last few decades been overspread with squatters, brig- ands, and outlaws. The depredations of these border ruffians 350 NEUTRAL STRIP ABOLISHED. had become intolerable both to China and Corea. In 1875 Li Hung Chang sending a force of picked Chinese troops with a gunboat to the Yalu broke up the nest of robbers and allowed settlers to enter the land. Two years later the Peking government shifted its frontier to the Yalu River, and Corean and Chinese territory was separated only by flowing water. The neutral strip was no more. In 1875 some sailors of one of the Japanese ironclads, landing near Kang-wa for water, were fired on by Corean soldiers under the idea that they were Americans or Frenchmen. The Japanese before this time had adopted uniforms of foreign style for their navy. Retaliating, the Japanese two days later stormed and dis- mantled the fort, shot most of the garrison, and carried the spoils to the ships. The news of this affair brought the wavering minds of both the peace and the war party of Japan to a decision. An envoy was dispatched to Peking to find out the exact relation of China to Corea, and secure her neutrality. At the same time an- other was sent with the fleet to the Han River, to make if possi- ble a treaty of friendship and open ports. General Kuroda hav- ing charge of the latter embassy, with men of war, transports, and marines, reached Seoul February the 6th, 1876. About the same time a courier from Peking arrived in the capital, bearing the Chinese imperial recommendation that a treaty be made with the Japanese. The temper of the young king had been mani- fested long before this by his rebuking the district magistrate of Kang-wa for allowing soldiers to fire on peaceably disposed people, and ordering the offender to degradation and exile. Arinori Mori in Peking had received a written disclaimer of China's re- sponsibility over Corea, by which stroke of policy the Middle Kingdom freed herself from all possible claims of indemnity from France, the United States, and Japan. After several days of negotiation the details of the treaty were settled, and on February 27 the treaty in which Chosen was rec- ognized as an independent nation was signed and attested. The first Corean embassy which had been accredited to the mi- kado's court since the Twelfth century, sailed from Fusan in a Jap- anese steamer, landing at Yokohama, May 29. By railroad and steam cars they reached Tokio, and on the first of June the envoy JAPAN AND COREA MAKE TREATY. 351 had audience of the mikado. For three weeks the Japanese amused, enlightened and startled their guests by showing them their war ships, arsenals, artillery, torpedoes, schools, buildings, factories, and offices, equipped with steam and electricity, the ripened fruit of the seed planted by Perry in 1854. All attempts of foreigners to hold any communication with them were firmly rejected by the Coreans. Among the callers witli diplomatic powers from the outside world in 1881, each eager and ambitious to be the first in wresting the coveted prize of a treaty, were two British captains of men-of-war and a French naval ofiicer, all of whom sailed away with rebuffs. Under the new treaty Fusan soon became a bustling place of trade with a Japanese population of some two thousand. Public buildings were erected for the Japanese consulate, chamber of commerce, bunk, steamship company, and hospitals. A news- paper was established, and after a few years of mutual contact at Fusan the Coreans, though finding the Japanese as troublesouie as the latter discovered foreigners to be after their own ports were opened, with much experience settled down to endure them for the sake of a trade which was undoubtedly enriching the country. Gensan was opened May 1, 1880. An exposition of Japanese, European, and American goods was established for the benefit of trade with the Coreans. :- Russia, England, France, Italy, and the United States all made efforts in the next few months to make treaties with Corea, and all were politely rejected. Early in 1881 Chinese and Japanese influence began to be enlisted in favor of the United States in the effort to make a treaty. Li Hung Chang, China's liberal states- man, wrote a letter to a Corean gentleman in which he advised the country to seek the friendship of the United States. The Chinese secretary of legation at Tokio also declared to the Co- reans that Americans were the natural friends of Asiatic nations, and should be welcomed. It began to look more hopeful for the United States to secure her treaty through the influence of the Chinese than that of the Japanese, on whom we had previously depended. One of the most important moves in the advancement of Corea's civilization was the sending of a party of thirty-four prominent men to visit Japan, and further study the problem of 352 AMERICAN TREATY SIGNED. liow far western ideas were adapted to an oriental state. The leader of this party, after his return from Japan, was dispatched on a mission to China, where his conference was chiefly with Li Hung Chang. He had now a good opportunity of judging the relative merits of Japan and China. The results of this mission were soon apparent, for shortly after, eighty young men were sent to Tien-tsin where they began to diligently pursue their studies of western civilization as it had impressed itself on China in the arsenals and schools. The spirit of progress made advance from the beginning of 1882, but discussion reached fever heat in deciding whether the favor of Japan or China should be most sought, and which for- eign nation should be first admitted to treaty rights. An event not unlooked-for, increased the power of the progressionists. Kozaikai urged the plea of expulsion of foreigners in such intem- perate language that he was accused of reproaching the sovereign. At the same time a conspiracy against the life of the king was discovered. Kozaikai was put to death, many of the conspirators were exiled, and the ringleaders were sentenced to be broken alive on the wheel. The progressionists had now the upper hand, and early in the spring two envoys went to Tien-tsin to inform Americans and Chinese that the Corean government was ready to make a treaty. Meanwhile Japanese officers were drilling the Corean soldiers in Seoul. The American diplomatic agent, Commodore R. W. Shufeldt, arrived in the Swatara off Chemulpo May 7. Accompanied by thi-ee officers he went six miles into the interior, to the office of the Corean magistrate, to formulate the treaty. Two days after- ward the treaty document was signed, in a temporary pavilion on a point of land opposite the ship. Both on the American and Corean side this result had been brought about only after severe toil and prolonged effort. Four days after the signing of the American treaty, the crown- prince, a lad of nine years old, was married in Seoul. This year will be forever known as the year of the treaties. Within a few months treaties were signed by Corea with Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and China. Within a week there appeared in the harbor of Chemulpo two American, three British, one French, one OUTBREAK IN SEOUL. Coo Japanese, one German and five Chinese armed vessels ; all of them except the French had left by June 8, to the great relief of the country people, many of whom had fled to the hills when the big guns began to waste their powder in salutes. The Japanese legation in Seoul now numbered about forty per- sons. They seemed to suspect no imminent danger, althougli the old fanatic and tyrant Tai-wen Kun was still alive and plotting. He was the centre of all the elements hostile to innovation, and being a man of unusual ability, was possessed of immense influ- ence. During the nine years of his nominal retirement from of- fice, this bigoted Confucianist who refused to know anything of the outer world waited his opportunity to make trouble. Just then the populace was most excited over the near presence of the foreigners at Chemulpo, the usual rainfall was withheld, and in the consequent drought the rice crop was threatened with total failure. The sorcerers and the anti-foreign party took advantage of the situation to play on the fears of the superstitious people. The spirits displeased at the intrusion of the western devils were angry, and were cursing the land. While the king was Qut in the open air praying for rain July 23, a mob of sympathizers with the old regent attempted to seize him. The king escaped to the castle. Some mischief-maker then started the report that the Japanese had attacked the royal castle and had seized the king and queen. Forthwith the mob rushed with frantic violence upon the legation, murdering the Japanese policemen and students whom they met on the streets, and the Japanese military instructors in the barracks. Not satisfied with this, the rioters, numbering four thousand men, attacked and de- stroyed the houses of the ministers favoring intercourse. Many of the Mins and seven Japanese were killed. The Japanese le- gation attaches made a brave defence to the night attack which was made on them. Armed only with swords and pistols, the Japanese formed themselves into a circle, charged the mob, and cut their way through it. After an all night march through a se- vere storm, the little band fighting its way for much of the time, reached In-chiun at three o'clock the next day. The governor re- ceived them kindly and supplied food and dry clothing, tlien post- ing sentinels to watch so that the Japanese could get some rest. C56 JAPANESE FORCE RESPECT. In an hour the mob attacked them there, and they were again compelled to cut their way out. They now made for Chemulpo, the seaport of the city, and about miduiglit, having procured a junk, they put to sea. The next morning they were taken on board a British vessel which was surveying the coast, and a few days later were landed at Nagasaki. Without hesitation the Japanese government began prepara- tions for a military and naval attack. Hanabusa, the minister to Corea and his suite were sent back to Seoul, escorted by a mili- tary force. He was received with courtesy in the capital whence he had been driven three weeks ago. The fleet of Chinese war ships was also at hand, and everything was apparently under the control of Tai-wen Kun, who now professed to be friendly to for- eigners. At his audience with the king, Hanabusa presented the demands of his government. These were nominally agreed to, but several days passing without satisfactory action, Hanabusa having exhausted remonstrance and argument left Seoul and re- turned to his ship. This unexpected move, a menace of war, brought the usurper to terms. On receipt of Tai-wen Kun's apologies, the Japanese envoy returned to the capital and full agreement was given to all the demands of Japan by the Corean government. The insurgents were arrested and punished, the heavy indemnity was paid, and an apology was sent by a special embassy to Japan. Within the next few days Tai-wen Kun was taken on board a Chinese ship at the orders of Li Hung Chang and taken to Tien-tsin. It is generally believed that this action was practically a kidnapping, but whether to rescue Tai-wen Kun from the dangers which threatened him or to maintain China's old theory of sovereign control over Corean rulers it is hard to know. The treaty negotiated with the United States was duly ratified by our senate, and Lucius H. Foote was appointed minister to Corea. General Foote reached Chemulpo in the United States steamship Monocacy May 13, and the formal ratifications of the treaty were exchanged in Seoul six days later. The guns of the Monocacy, the same which shelled the Han forts in 1870, fired the first salute ever given to the Corean flag. The king responded by sending to the United States an embassy of eleven persons led by COREANS IN AMERICA. 357 Min Yong Ik and Hong Yong Sik, members respectively of the conservative and liberal parties. Their interview with President Arthur was in the parlors of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, on September 17. All the Coreans were dressed in their national custom, which they wore habitually while in America. After spending some weeks in the study of American Institutions in several cities, part of the em- bassy returned home by way of San Francisco, leaving one of their number at Salem, Mass., to remain as a student ; while Min Yong Ik and two secretaries embarked on the United States steamship Trenton, and after visiting Europe, reached Seoul in June, 1884. GEOGRAPHY, GOVERNMENT, CIvIMATE AND PRO- UCTS OF COREA. Geograpliical Limits of Corea— Cliaraeteristiesof the Coast Line— The Surface Configura- tion of tlie Country— Isolation Made Easy by the Charntfer of its Boundaries— Rivers of tlie Peninsula— Tlie Climate— Forests, Plants, and Animals— Products of the Soil and of tlie Mine —Extent of Foreign Trade— The Eight provinces of Corea, Their Extent, Cities, and History -Government of the Corean Kingdom— The Dignitaries and their Duties— Corruption in the Administration of Official Duties— Buying and Selling Office- The Executive and the Judiciary. For many a year the country of Corea has been known in little more than name. Its territory is a peninsula on the east coast of Asia, between Cl;iina on the continent, and the Japanese islands to the eastward. It extends from thirty-four degrees and thirty minutes to forty-three degrees north latitude, and from one hundred and twenty -four degrees and thirty minutes to one hundred and thirty degrees and thirty minutes east longitude, between the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea. The Yellow Sea separates it from the southern provinces of China, while the Sea of Japan and the Strait of Corea separate it from the Japanese islandsc It has a coast line of about one thousand seven hundred and forty miles, and a total area of about ninety thousand square miles. The peninsula, with its outlying islands, is nearly equal iir size to Minnesota or to Great Britian. In general shape and relative position to the Asiatic continent it resembles Florida. Tradition and geological indications lead to tlie belief that an- ciently the Chinese promontory and province of Shan-tung, and the Corean peninsula were connected, and that dry land once covered the space filled by the waters joining the Gulf of Pechili and the Yellow Sea. These waters are so shallow that tjje eleva- tion of their bottoms but a few feet would restore their area to the land surface of the globe. On the other side also, the Sea of Japan is very shallow and the Straits of Corea at their greatest depth have but eighty-three feet of water. The east coast is high, mountainous, and but slightly indented, 358 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COASTS OF COREA. 359 with very few islands or harbors. The south and west shores are deeply and manifoldly scooped and fringed with numerous islands. From these island-skirted shores, especially on the west coast, mud banks extend out to sea beyond sight. While the tide on the east coast is very slight, only two feet at Gensan, it increases on the south and west coasts in a north direction, rising to thirty -three feet at Chemulpo. The rapid rise and fall of tides, and the vast area of mud left bare at low water, cause frequent fogs, and render the numerous inlets little available except for native craft. On the west coast the rivers are frozen in winter, but the east coast is open the whole winter through. Quelpaert, the largest island, forty by seventeen miles, lies sixty miles south of the main land. Port Hamilton, between Quelpaert and Corea, was for a time an English possession, but in 1886 was given to China. The Russians are generally believed to have an overweening desire for the magnificent harbor of Port Lazaref on the east coast of the Corean mainland. In its policy of exclusion of all foreigners, the government has had its tasks facilitated by the inaccessible and dangerous nature of the approaches to the coast. The high mountain ranges and steep rocks of the east coast, and the thousands of islands, banks, shoals and reefs extending for miles into the sea on the western and southern shores, unite to make approach exceedingly difficult, even with the best charts and surveys at hand. In the middle of the northern boundary of Corea, is the most notable natural feature of the peninsula. It is a great mount- ain, the colossal Paik-tu or " ever white " mountain, as it is known from the snow that rests upon its summit. When the Man- choorians pushed the Coreans farther and farther back, they reached this mountain, which marked the natural barrier which they were able to make their permanent boundary line. Accord- ing to native account, which in Corea is seriously believed, the highest peak of this mountain reaches the moderate elevation of forty four miles. It is famous as the birthplace of Corean folk lore, and a great deal that is mythical hangs about it still. On the top of the peak is a lake thirty miles in ciicumference. From this lake flow two streams, one to the north-east, the Tumen, which enters the Sea of Japan ; and the other to the south-west, 360 RIVERS OF THE PENINSULA, the Yalu river, which flows into the Corean bay at the head of the Yellow Sea. Corea is therefore in reality an island. These two rivers and the lake forming the northern boundary are about four hundred and sixty miles from the ocean at the southern end of the peninsula. The greatest width of the country is three hundred and sixty miles and its narrowest about sixty miles. The Turaen river separates Corea from Manchooria, except in the last few miles of its course, when it flows by Russian terri- tory, the south-eastern corner of Siberia. The Yalu river also divides Corea from Manchooria. The rivers of Corea are not of great importance except for drainage and water supply, being navigable but for short distances. On the west coast the chief rivers are the Yalu, the Ching-chong, the Tatong, the Han, the Kum ; the Yalu is navigable for about one hundred and seventy miles and is by far the greatest of all in the peninsula. The Han is navigable to a little above Seoul, eighty miles ; the Tatong to Ping-Yang, seventy-five miles; and the Kum is navigable for small boats for about thirty miles. In the south-eastern part of the peninsula the Nak-tong is navigable for small boats to a dis- tance of one hundred and forty miles. The Tumen river, which forms the north-eastern boundary between Corea and Siberia, is not navigable except near the mouth. It drains a mountainous and rainy country. Ordinarily it is shallow and quiet, but in spring its current becomes very turbulent and swollen. Occupying about the same latitude as Italy, Corea is also, like Italy, hemmed in on the north by mountain ranges, and traversed from north to south by another chain. The whole peninsula is very mountainous, some of the peaks rising to a height of eight thousand feet. The climate of the country is excellent, bracing in the north, with the south tempered by the ocean breezes in summer. The winters in the north are colder than those of American states in the same latitude, and the summers are hotter. The heat is tempered by sea breezes, but in the narrow enclosed valleys it becomes very intense. The Han is frozen at Seoul for three months in the year, sufficiently to be used as a cart road, while the Tumen is usually frozen for five months. Various kinds of timber abound, except in the west, whera FAUNA AN^D FLORA. 361 wood is scarce and is sparingly used ; and in otlier parts the want of coal has caused the wasteful destruction of many a forest. The fauna is very considerable and besides tigers, leopa.rds, and deer, includes pigs, wild cats, badgers, foxes, beavers, otters, martens, bears, and a great variety of birds. The salamander is found in the streams as in western Japan. The domestic animals are few. The cattle are excellent, the bull being the usual beast of burden, the pony very small but hardy, fowls good, the pigs inferior. Immense numbers of oxen are found in the south, furnishing the meat diet craved by the people, who eat much more of fatty food than the Japanese. Goats are rare. Sheep are imported from China only for sacrificial purposes. The dog serves for food as well as for companionship and de- fense. Of birds the pheas- ants, falcons, eagle, crane, and stork are common. Among the products are rice, wheat, beans, cotton, hemp, corn, sesame, and perilla. Ginseng grows wild ^ ^ COREAN BAND OF MUSICIANS. — Native Drawing In passionate fondness for music the Coreans decidedly surpass all other Asiatic nations. Their knowledge is indeed primitive, however, not superior to that of their neighbors, and their instru- ments are of rude workmanship and construction. The principal of these instruments are the gong, the flute, and the two-stringed guitar, combining to make a music anything but harmonious. They always sing in falsetto, like the Chinese, in a monotonous and melancholy manner. The Coreans however possess a musical 388 RELIGION. ear, and they know how to appreciate and like to listen to foreign music very much, while the Chinese have not the slighest idea of harmony, and placing our music far below their own, look down upon our art with something like a feeling of pity. The fibres of Corean superstition, and the actual religion of the people of to-day, have not radically changed during twenty centuries in spite of Buddhism. The worship of the spirits of nature and the other popular gods is still reflected in superstition and practice. The Chinese Fung Shuy, which in Corean be- comes Pung-siu, is a system of superstition concerning the direc- tion of the everyday things of life, which is nearly as powerful in Corea as in the parent country. Upon this system, and perhaps nearly equal in age with it, is the cult of ancestral worship which has existed in Chinese Asia from unrecorded time. Confucius found it in his day and made it the basis of his teachings, as it had already been of the religious and ancient documents of which he was the editor. The Corean system of ancestral worship pre- sents no feature radically different from the Chinese. Confuci- anism, or the Chinese system of ethics, holds about the same position that it does in China. Taoism seems to be little studied. In Corean mouths Buddha becomes Pul and his " way " or doctrine Pul-to or Pul-chie. The faith from India has made thorough conquest of the southern half of the peninsula, but has only partially leavened the northern portion where the grosser heathenism prevails. The palmy days of Corean Buddhism were during the era of Korai, 905 to 1392 A. D. In its development, Corean Buddhism has frequently been a potent influence in national affairs, and the power of the bonzes has at times been so great as to practically control the court and nullify decrees of the king. As in Japan the frequent wars have developed the forma- tion of a clerical militia, able to garrison and defend their fortified monasteries, and even to change the fortune of war by the valor of their exploits. There are three distinct classes or grades of the bonzes or priests. The student monks devote themselves to learn- ing and to the composition of books and to Buddhist rituals. Then tliere are the mendicant and traveling bonzes who solicit alms and contributions for the erection and maintenance of t\ie temples and monastic establishments. Finally the military BUDDHISM. 389 bonzes act as garrisons, and make, keep in order, and are trained to use weapons. Even at the present day Buddhist priests are made high officers of the government, governors of provinces, and military advisers. In the nunneries are two kinds of female de- votees, those who shave the head and those who keep their locks. The vows of the latter are less rigid. Excepting in its military phases, the type of Corean Buddhism approaches that of China rather than of Japan. The great virtue of the Coreans is their innate respect for and daily practice of the laws of human brotherhood. Mutual assist- ance and generous hospitality among themselves are distinctive national traits. In all the important events of life, such as mar- riages and funerals, each person makes it his duty to aid the family most directly interested. One will charge himself with the d?i;ty of making purchases; others with arranging the ceremonies. The poor, who can give nothing, carry messages to friends and relatives in the near or remote villages, passing day and night on foot and giving their labors gratuitously. When fire, flood or other accident destroys the house of one of their number, neighbors make it a duty to lend a hand to rebuild. One brings stone, an- other wood, another straw. Each in addition to his gifts in mate- rial devotes two or three days' work gratuitously. A stranger coming into a village is always assisted to build a dwelling. Hos- pitality is considered as one of the most sacred duties. It would be a grave and shameful thing to refuse a portion of one's meal to any person, known or unknown, who presents himself at eating time. Even the poor laborers at the side of the roads are often seen sharing their frugal nourishment with the passer-by. The poor man making a journey does not need elaborate preparations. At night, instead of going to a hotel, he enters some house whose exterior room is open to any comer. There he is sure to find food and lodging for the night. Rice will be shared with the stranger, and at bedtime a corner of the floor mat will serve for a bed, while he may rest his head on the long log of wood against the wall, which serves as a pillow. Even should he delay his journey for a day or two, little or nothing to his discredit will be harbored by his hosts. It is evident after this glance at the history, the conditions, and 390 GENEROSITY AND HOSPITALITY. the customs of the Coreans, that they have many excellent quali- ties, which require but the leavening influence of Christianity and western civilization to make them worthy members of the family of nations. It is quite possible that the influence of the Japanese-Chinese war, iu its ultimate results, may reach this de- sirable consummation. JAPANESE COOLIES FOLLOWING THE ARMT. The War THE WAR BETWEEN JAPAN AND CHINA. In its broadest sense no war between nations can be ascribed to a single cause, defined by exact limits of time and place. A cause of war always suggests the question as to what has made it such ; and so we find that for an intelligent understanding of the re- cent war we have to go back, beyond the Corean rebellions of the early spring of 1894, and take in the whole range of the relations of China and Japan to Corea and to each other. The first formal recognition of Corean independence is found in the earliest treaty between Japan and Corea, that of 1876, by which the Coreans agreed to pay indemnity for an unwarranted attack which had been made upon a Japanese vessel, and to open several ports to Japanese traders. It was through this treaty that Corea was first introduced to the comity of nations. One of the professed objects of Japan during the war, was, therefore, to es- tablish the independence of Corea, which she rec