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THE AWAKENINGOF JAPAN


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THE AWAKENINGOF JAPAN

BYOKAKURA-KAKUZOAUTHOR OF THE IDEAIS OF THE EAST

NEW YORKTHE CENTURY CO.1905


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Copyright, 1904, byThe Century Co.

Published November, 190U

THE OEVINNE PRESS


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CONTENTSPAGE

Publishers' Preface ixChapter I. The Night of Asia

The sudden development of Japan an enigma to foreignobservers Asia the true source of Japan's inspirationWhile Christendom struggled with medievalism theBuddhaland was a garden of culture Effect of Islamupon Asia The Mongol outburst destroyed Asia's unityThe condition of China and IndiaJapan never con-qaered, but buried alive for nearly 270 years 8

Chapter II. The ChrysalisJapan under the Tokugawa shogunate lyeyasu's influ-enceThe Mikado's palace the Forbidden InteriorThe kuges, or court aristocracy The daimiosThesamurai, or sworded gentry The commoners: farmers,artisans, and traders The outcastsThe nation in apleasant slumber 22

Chapter III. Buddhism and ConfucianismBuddhism and Confucianism never interfered in mattersof state Despite its temples and monasteries, Japan hasno church Neo-Confucianism 53

Chapter IV. The Voice from WithinThree schools of thought united in causing the regener-ation of Japan First, the Kogaku, or School of ClassicalLearning Second, the School of Oyomei Third, theHistorical School 70


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CONTENTSChapter V. The White Disaster

The advent of the West not an unmixed blessing Butthe Japanese eagerly identify themselves veith WesterncivilizationAnd are regarded as renegades by theirneighbors Russia the first European nation to threatenJapan, at the end of the eighteenth century The adventof American war-vessels a mighty shock 95

Chapter VI. The Cabinet and theBoudoirThe coming of Commodore Perry unites the nation Theladies of Yedo Castle and the shogunate The shogunof Commodore Perry's time The conflict on the succes-sion to the shogunate Execution of agitatorsAssassi-nation of the Premier Hikone 113

Chapter VII. The TransitionEight years of rapid changes The Federalists TheImperialists The Unionists The last of the shoguns. . 141

Chapter VIII. Restoration and Refor-mationThe Restoration essentially a return Past conditionsrevived, with the new spirit of freedom and equality'Constitutional government a success in Japan Edu-cation The commoner transformed into a samurai bythe system of military service The Japanese soldier'scontempt of death not founded on hope of future rewardThe exaltation of womanhood The question of treatyrevision The helm in strong hands 162

Chapter IX. The ReincarnationJapan accepts the new without sacrificing the old Theheart of Old Japan still beats strongly In art Japanstands alone against all the world 184

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CONTENTSChapter X. Japan and Peace

The very nature of Japanese civilization prohibits aggres-sion Relations with China and Korea The war withChina in 1894-5 The Yellow Peril The night of theOrient has been lifted, but the worid still in the dusk ofhumanity 201

Chronology 224

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PUBLISHERS' PREFACEOkakuea-Kakuzo, the author of thiswork and of The Ideals of the East,was born in the year 1863. Havingbeen, as he has said, from early youthfond of old things, after leaving col-lege in 1880 he interested himself in theformation of clubs and societies for ar-chaeological research. The JapaneseRenaissance, begun at the end of theeighteenth century, suffered a briefcheck during the civil commotion fol-lowing the opening of the country afterthe arrival of the American CommodorePerry. The work of Okakura was aresumption of that begun by the earherscholars.

In 1886 this scholarly young enthu-siast was sent to America and Europeas a commissioner to report on Westernart education. On returning, he organ-

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ized the Imperial Art School of Tokio,of which he was made director. He wasalso one of the chief organizers, and isstill a member, of the Imperial Archseo-logical Commission, whose duty it is tostudy, classify, and preserve the ancientarchitecture, the archives of the monas-teries, and all specimens of ancient art.Okakura was, naturally, one of the

promoters of the reactionary movementagainst the wholesale introduction ofWestern art and manners. This move-ment was carried on by the starting ofperiodicals and clubs devoted to thepreservation of the old life of Japan,the work being carried on, also, in thefield of literature and the drama.

In 1898 he resigned the directorshipof the Imperial Art School at Tokio,having had some difference with theeducational authorities in the matter ofthe course of instruction to be pursuedtherein. Nearly one half of the facultyresigned at the same time, and started,in a suburb of Tokio, a private acad-


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emy called Nippon Bijitsuin. Hereare kept up the ancient traditions of na-tive art.

Simultaneously with the foundationof this school of instruction, a numberof prominent painters of the nationalschool of art in various parts of thecountry organized the Society of Japa-nese Painters, of which the president isPrince Nijo,the head of the Fujiwarafamily and uncle of the crown prin-cess,Okakura being elected vice-presi-dent.

It is proper to state that the presentwork, like The Ideals of the East, isnot a translation, but is written by itsJapanese author originally in English.This work is based not merely uponprinted material and common hearsay,but upon information derived throughthe author's special acquaintance withsurviving actors in the Restoration.In The Awakening of Japan the

author answers with profound know-ledge, great vividness of expression, and

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of the admirers of the art of Japan:Will Japan's modern successes lead tothe loss of its ancient and distinctive art?He indicates some of the tendencieswhich may affect the future of theOrient; and he speaks especially of theChristian attitude toward woman asan influence upon the society and civili-zation of Japan.

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THEAWAKENING OF JAPAN


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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANamong the family of nations appearsin the eyes of many as a menace toChristendom. In the mysterious no-thing is improbable. Exaggeration isthe courtesy which fancy pays to theunknown. What sweeping condem-nation, what absurd praise has not theworld lavished on New Japan? Weare both the cherished child of modernprogress and a dread resurrection ofheathendomthe Yellow Peril itself 1Has not the West as much to un-

learn about the East as the East hasto learn about the West? In spite ofthe vast sources of information at thecommand of the West, it is sad torealize to-day how many misconcep-tions are still entertained concerningus. We do not mean to allude to theunthinking masses who are still domi-nated by race prejudice and that vague


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THE NIGHT OF ASIAhatred of the Oriental which is a relicfrom the days of the crusades. Buteven the comparatively well-informedfail to recognize the inner significanceof our revival and the real goal of ouraspirations. It may he that, as ourproblems have been none of the sim-plest, our attitude has been often para-doxical. Perhaps the fact that the his-tory of East Asiatic civilization is stilla sealed book to the Western publicmay account for the great variety ofopinions held by the outside world con-cerning our present conditions and fu-ture possibilities.Our sympathizers have been pleased

to marvel at the facility with which wehave introduced Western science andindustries, constitutional government,and the organization necessary for car-rying on a gigantic war. They forget

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANthat the strength of the movementwhich brought Japan to her presentposition is due not less to the innateviriHty which has enabled her to as-similate the teachings of a foreign civ-ilization than to her capability ofadopting its methods. With a race,as with the individual, it is not the ac-cumulation of extraneous knowledge,but the realization of the self within,that constitutes true progress.With immense gratitude to the West

for what she has taught us, we muststill regard Asia as the true source ofour inspirations. She it was who trans-mitted to us her ancient culture, andplanted the seed of our regeneration.Our joy must be in the fact that, of allher children, we have been permittedto prove ourselves worthy of the in-heritance. Great as was the difficulty

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THE NIGHT OF ASIAinvolved in the struggle for a nationalreawakening, a still harder task con-fronted Japan in her effort to bring anOriental nation to face the terrible ex-igencies, of modern existence. Untilthe moment when we shook it off, thesame lethargy lay upon us which nowlies on China and India. Over ourcountry brooded the Night of Asia, en-veloping all spontaneity within its mys-terious folds. Intellectual activity andsocial progress became stifled in the at-mosphere of apathy. Religion couldbut soothe, not cure, the suffering ofthe wounded soul. The weight of ourburden can never be understood with-out a knowledge of the dark back-ground from which we emerged to thelight.The decadence of Asia began long

ago with the Mongol conquest in the7


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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANthirteenth century. The classic civil-izations of China and India shine thebrighter by contrast with the night thathas overtaken them since that disas-trous irruption. The children of theHwang-ho and the Ganges had fromearly days evolved a culture compara-ble with that of the era of highest en-lightenment in Greece and Rome, onewhich even foreshadowed the trend ofadvanced thought in modern Europe.Buddhism, introduced into China andthe farther East during the early cen-turies of the Christian era, bound to-gether the Vedic and Confucian idealsin a single web, and brought about theunification of Asia. A vast stream ofintercourse flowed throughout the ex-tent of the whole Buddhaland. Tidingsof any fresh philosophical achievementin the University of Nalanda,^ or in

^ The center of Buddhist learning in Behar.8


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THE NIGHT OF ASIAthe monasteries of Kashmir, werebrought by pilgrims and wanderingmonks to the thought-centers of Chinaj,Korea, and Japan. Kingdoms often ex-changed courtesies, while peace mar-ried art to art. From this synthesis ofthe whole Asiatic life a fresh impetuswas given to each nation. It is curiousto note that each effort in one nationto attain a higher expression of hu-manity is marked by a simultaneousand parallel movement in the other.That liberalism and magnificence, re-sulting in the worship of poetry andharmony, which, in the sixth century,so characterized the reign of Vikra-maditya in India, appear equally inthe glorious age of the Tang emperorsof China (618-907), and at the coiu-tof our contemporary mikados at Nara.Again the movement toward individual-ism and renationalization which, in the

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANeighth century, is marked in Indiaby the advent of Sankaracharya, theapostle of Hinduism, is followed, dur-ing the Sung dynasty (960-1260), by asimilar activity in China, culminatingin Neo-Confucianism and the recastingof the Zen school^ of Buddhism, aphase echoed both in Japan and Korea.Thus, while Christendom was strug-gling with medievalism, the Buddha-land was a great garden of culture,where each flower of thought bloomedin individual beauty.

But, alas the Mongol horsemen un-der Jenghiz Khan were to lay wastethese areas of civilization, and make ofthem a desert like that out of which theythemselves came. It was not the firsttime that the warriors of the steppes

^ Zen is the sect of Buddhism which seeks illuminationthrough self-concentration. It corresponds to the IndianGnan.10


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THE NIGHT OF ASIAhad appeared in the rich valleys ofChina and India. The Huns and theScythians had often succeeded in tem-porarily inflicting their rule on thehorders of these countries. After atime, however, they were either drivenout, or else tamed and finally absorbedin the peaceful life of the plain. Butthis last Mongol outburst was of amagnitude unequaled in the past. Itwas destined not only to reach the Pa-cific and the Indian Ocean, but to crossthe Ural and overflow Moscow. Thedescendants of Jenghiz Khan in Chinaestablished the Yuen dynasty andreigned at Peking from 1280 to 1368,while their cousins began a series ofattacks on India which ended in theempire of the Grand Moguls. TheYuens still adhered to Buddhism,though in the degenerate form known

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANas Lamaism; but the Mogul emper-ors of Delhi, who came in the foot-steps of Mahmud of Ghazni, had em-braced the Arabian faith as they spedon their path of conquest throughsouthern Asia. The Moguls not onlyexterminated Buddhism, but also per-secuted Hinduism. It was a terribleblow to Buddhaland when Islam inter-posed a barrier between China andIndia greater than the Himalayasthemselves. The flow of intercourse,so essential to human progress, wassuddenly stopped. Our own time-honored relations with our continentalneighbors even began to wane after theMongol conquerors of China at-tempted to invade Japan in the latterpart of the thirteenth century, forcingKorea to act as their ally. Their bel-ligerent attitude continued for nearly

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THE NIGHT OF ASIAforty years; and though, thanks to ourinsular position and the prowess of ourwarriors, we were able successfully torepel their attacks, remembrance of theiraggression was not to be effaced, andeven led to retaliatory steps on our part.The memory of our ancient friend-ship with the courts of the Tang andSung dynasties was lost. One of thelatent causes of our late war with theCelestial Empire may be found in themutual suspicion with which the twonations have now regarded each otherfor many centuries. By the Mongolconquest of Asia, Buddhaland was rentasunder, never again to be reunited.How little do the Asiatic nations nowknow of each other They have growncallous to the doom that befalls theirneighbors.One cannot but be struck by the con-

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANtrast between the effect of the Mongoloutburst on Buddhaland and on Chris-tendom. The maritime races of theMediterranean and the Baltic, by theirlong course of mutual aggression, werewell equipped to cope with the terrificonslaught of the nomadic invaders. Inspite of temporary reverses, Europemay even be said to have gained someadvantage from those struggles whichwere so disastrous to us of the East.It was then that she first developed thatpower of combination which makes herso formidable to-day. The Mongoloutburst, which displaced the Turkishhordes and resulted in the creation ofthe Saracenic and Ottoman empires,gave the Frankish nations the oppor-tunity of uniting against a commonenemy. Before the walls of Jerusalemand on the banks of the Danube met in

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THE NIGHT OF ASIAcomradeship, once and forever, theflower of Christian chivalry, and therewas consolidated a conception of Chris-tendom such as papal Rome couldnever alone have brought into exis-tence. The fall of Constantinoplewas in itself one of the chief factorsof the Italian Renaissance.The peaceful and self-contained na-

ture of Eastern civilization has beenever weak to resist foreign aggression.We have not only permitted the Mon-gol to destroy the unity of Asia, buthave allowed him to crush the life ofIndian and Chinese culture. Fromboth the thrones of Peking and Delhi,the descendants of Jenghiz Khan per-petuated a system of despotism con-trary to the traditional policies of thelands they had subjugated. Entirelack of sympathy between the con-

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANquerors and the conquered, the intro-duction of an ahen official language,ihe refusal to the native of any vitalparticipation in administration, toge-ther with the dreadful clash of race-ideals and religious beliefs, all com-bined to produce a mental shock andanguish of spirit from which the In-dians and the Chinese have never re-covered. Such scholarship as was al-lowed to siu^ive, was confined to thoseservile minds who submitted meekly tobarbaric patronage. What was leftof original intellectual vigor was heardonly among the despairing echoes ofthe forest, or in the savage laughter ofthe bazaar. Art thenceforth becomeseither ultra-conventional or else bizarreand grotesque.Attempts to overthrow the foreign

yoke were not lacking, and some of16


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THE NIGHT OF ASIAthem were even successful. But thedisintegration of the national con-sciousness under alien tyranny maderenationalization almost impossible,and the native dynasties were unable towithstand fresh waves of outside ag-gression. In China, the Ming orBright dynasty, which wrested the gov-ernment from the Mongols in the mid-dle of the fourteenth century, soon be-came a prey to internal discords.Scarcely had the destruction attendanton the Mongol reign been repaired,when, near the end of the sixteenth cen-tury, a fresh invasion came from thenorth, and the Manchus tore the scep-ter from the native rulers. In spite ofthe strenuous efforts made by the wiserstatesmen of this new dynasty, no com-plete fusion of the Manchus and theChinese has ever been accomplished.

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THE NIGHT OF ASIAwhile the souls of others, wafted amongethereal dreams, seek solace in an ap-peal to the unknown. The Night ofAsia, which enshrouds them, is not,perhaps, without its own subtle beauty.It reminds us of the deep gloriousnights we know so well in the East,listless like wonder, serene like sadness,opalescent like love. One may touchthe stars behind the veil where manmeets spirit. One may listen to thesecret cadence of nature beyond theborder where sound bows to silence.

Japan, who had proved herself equalto the task of repelling the Mongolinvasion, found little difficulty in re-sisting that attempt at Western en-croachment which, at the beginning ofthe seventeenth century, came in theform of the Shimabara Rebellion, in-stigated by the Jesuits. It has been

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANour boast that no foreign conquerorever polluted the soil of Japan, butthese attempts at aggression from theoutside hardened our insular preju-dice into a desire for complete isolationfrom the rest of the world. Soon afterthe Jesuit war the building of vesselslarge enough to ride the high seas wasforbidden, and no one was allowed toleave our shores. Our sole point ofcontact with the outside world was atthe port of Nagasaki, where the Chi-nese and the Dutch were permitted,under strict surveillance, to carry ontrade. For the space of nearly twohundred and seventy years we were asone buried aliveYet a worse fate was in store for us.

The Tokugawa shoguns, who broughtabout this remarkable isolation ofJapan, ruled the country from 1600 to

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THE NIGHT OF ASIA1868, and threw the invisible networkof their tyranny over all the nation.From the highest to the lowest, all wereentangled in a subtle web of mutualespionage, and every element of indi-viduality was crushed under the weightof unbending formalism. Deprived ofall stimulus from without, and impris-oned within our own island realm, wegroped amid a maze of tradition. Dark-est over us lay the Night of Asia.

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IITHE CHRYSALIS

THE Tokugawa tyrants, who initia-ted the policy of strict seclusion,

were the successors of various lines ofshoguns who, as military regents of theMikado, had, since the twelfth century,usurped the government of Japan. Be-fore that period, Japan was under thepersonal rule of the Mikado, who, withthe assistance of court functionaries,reigned over the country from Kioto.The over-centrahzation of the imperialbureaucracy, however, was the cause ofits own decay. Its neglect of provin-cial administration led to local disturb-ances and the creation of baronial es-

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THE CHRYSALIStates, over which the Kioto court exer-cised no active control. The real au-thority thus came into the hands of thestrongest baronial power, whose repre-sentative, vested by the Mikado withthe title of shogun, or commander-in-chief, ruled the country as regent, theMikado retaining but a nominal sov-ereignty over the empire.The first, or Kamakura, shogunate,

so called from the city which its repre-sentatives made their capital, exercisedthe powers of government from 1186to 1333. This was followed by a tem-porary restitution of power to the Mi-kado ; but the reins of government soonfell into the hands of another lineof shoguns, the Ashikaga, who from1336 to 1573 ruled the country fromKioto itself. The fall of the Ashikagashogunate was followed by a long period

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANof civil war, during which the variousgreat barons struggled for supremacy.Out of this state of turmoil arose thatNapoleonic genius, Taiko Hideyoshi,who, born a peasant, died, in 1598, themaster of unified Japan. His son was,however, unable to retain the authorityleft him by his father, and the dic-tatorship of the empire devolved, in1600, on lyeyasu, the first of the To-kugawa shoguns.The Tokugawa shogunate differed

from those preceding it in that it wasvirtually a monarchy, despite its ap-parent feudalistic form. Even underthe great Taiko, the government of thecountry was conducted by a councilcomposed of five of the most powerfulbarons, but under the Tokugawa re-gime it became purely autocratic. lye-yasu framed for his descendants aM


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THE CHRYSALIScourse of policy which enabled them toretain their rule through fourteengenerations, until the recent restorationof the Mikado in 1868. He not merely-curtailed the power of the barons untilthey were such only in name, buterected safeguards against every pos-sible source of danger to his dynasty.He not only cut us off from all outsideintercourse, but so separated the differ-ent classes of society, that the idea ofnational unity became completely lost.The subtleness of his machinations ismanifest not less in his elaboratescheme for maintaining military ascen-dancy than in the way in which he tookadvantage of our own idiosyncrasiesand secret vanities to disarm all oppo-sition to his rule. In order that hemight yoke us unresistingly to the carof routine, he soothed our feelings and

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANdelighted our souls by appeals to thatlove and worship for the past that is oneof our national instincts. Our bondswere, in fact, largely of our ownweaving, and lyeyasu but lulled us tosleep, unmindful of the future, withinthe chrysalis of tradition. Perhapsit is for this, that he knew usonly too well, we execrate his memoryto-day.The mechanism of the Tokugawa

rule cannot be adequately described inbrief; not only is it exceedingly com-plicated, but it is without striking par-allel in the history of any country. Itaffords the peculiar spectacle of a so-ciety perfectly isolated and self-com-plete, which, acting and reacting uponitself, produced worlds within worlds,each with its separate life and ideals,and its own distinct expressions in art

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THE CHRYSALISand literature. It exhibits all the sub-tleness of European class distinction,plus the element of caste as understoodin India. We can here but indicate itsmain phases.

First, over all was the Mikado. Thatsacred conception is the thought-in-heritance of Japan from her very be-ginning. Mythology has consecrated it,history has endeared it, and poetry hasidealized it. Buddhism has enrichedit with that reverence which India paysto the Protector of the Law, andConfucianism has confirmed it with theloyalty which China offers to the Sonof Heaven. The Mikado may ceaseto govern, but he always reigns. He ex-ists not by divine right, but by divinelaw,a fact of man and nature. He isalways there, like our beloved mountainof Fuji, which stands eternally in silent

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANbeauty, or like the glorious sea whichforever washes our shore.We must remember, however, thatthe political significance of the Mikadohas not always been the same. As weare often unconscious of the every-dayfacts of nature, because of their un-questioned existence, so we became un-conscious of the Mikado, and baskedin the daylight, unmindful of the sunabove. Clouds of successive usurpa-tions long obscured the heavens, so thatdevotion to the Solar Throne becamea distant though never entirely forgot-ten homage. By the sixteenth century,when lyeyasu assumed the shogunateand became in reahty absolute mon-arch of Japan, all memory of the per-sonal rule of the Mikado had been lostfor four long centuries. The Mikado'scourt at Kioto, the former capital of


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THE CHRYSALISthe imperial government, was still ex-istent, owing to its past prestige, but itwas only a faint reflection of its formerglory.The great genius of lyeyasu is ap-

parent in his full recognition of theMikado in the national scheme. Instrong contrast to the arrogance andutter neglect which the preceding sho-guns displayed toward the court, hespared no effort to show his respect.He augmented the imperial revenues,invited the daimios (feudal lords) toparticipate in rebuilding the imperialpalace, restored the court ceremonialand etiquette, and was unceasing in hisministrations to the welfare of the im-perial household. He even started theunprecedented ceremony of the sho-gun paying personal homage to thethrone, and a brilliant pageant yearly

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THE CHRYSALISof the palace, but its members were cho-sen from the tried body-guard of theTokugawas themselves. They contin-ued to invite one of the imperial princesto take the monastic vows and reside inYedo as lord abbot of the Uyeno tem-ple, by which means they always virtu-ally held at their capital a hostage fromthe Kioto court. No daimio was al-lowed to seek audience of the Mikadowithout their consent.The Mikado, unseen and unheard,

commanded a mysterious awe. Hispalace now became the Forbidden In-terior in the strict sense of the word.The ancient political significance of thecourt was lost in a semi-religious con-ception. No wonder that the Western-ers who first visited our country wrotethat there were two rulers in Japan,the temporal in Yedo, and the spiri-

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANto live the life which preceded thetwelfth century. Their costumes wereof the eleventh, their etiquette of thetenth century. They read Chinese withthe intonation of the Tang period,and danced to the classic measure ofthe Bugaku music, the inheritance ofan era preceding the ninth century.They delighted in the purism of theFujiwara poetry, and affected thetechnic of the ancient school of paint-ing. It is to their devotion to thepast that we owe the preservation ofthe Kharma-kanda (ritualistic obser-vances) of India and the early Buddhistdoctrines of China.The Tokugawa government hu-

mored and honored the court nobles be-cause of their association with the Mi-kado and the place they occupied in thehistory of the nation. The kuges weregiven precedence over the daimios, and

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANbility of Kioto in social position, butactually far prouder and more power-ful, came the daimios, or feudal lords(literally grandees), nearly three hun-dred in number. These were dividedinto classesthe Tozama daimios, whowere the descendants of the barons offormer days, and the daimios of recentcreation, who had been ennobled by theTokugawas, either for their services,or because they traced their Hneageto some member of that family. In theearly days of Tokugawa rule, the To-zama daimios were a source of greatdanger, as their ancient warlike spiritremained as yet untamed. The meth- >ods that lyeyasu and his successors em-ployed in maintaining military ascen-dancy, and in generally bringing thedaimios under absolute control, are astudy in themselves. Any map of Japan


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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANfamily were required to reside perma-nently at the capital as hostages. Inthis manner the greater part of suchtime as the daimios were not under im-mediate control of the shogun was con-sumed in journeying to and from theirprovinces, so that but little opportunitywas given them to form or carry outconspiracies against the government.The newly enacted law of inheritancedemanded the approval of the govern-ment in each case of succession to thedaimiates, and also in all cases of mar-riage. A constant drain was main-tained on their feudatory income byinviting the daimios to assist in repair-ing the imperial palace, and in otherpublic works. Jealousy and rivalrywere encouraged to such an extent thatthey resulted in a lamentable conditionof mutual distrust and espionage.

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THE CHRYSALISThose Tozama daimios who revolted

against this state of things soon foundout their impotence, and were inva-riably punished by the diminution,transference, or confiscation of theirterritorial possessions,the latter pen-alty attended with death. They weretaught to realize that the governmentof the country, though still feudal inform, had become in reahty an absolutemonarchy,patriarchal and benevo-lent, but thoroughly despotic. Theysoon found that their smallest actionswere watched with unceasing vigilance,so that they began to be distrust-ful of even their own retainers. Thisvigorous surveillance was not confinedto the Tozama daimios alone. Dread-ing the combination of administrativepower with hereditary influence, theTokugawas invariably chose their cab-

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANinet ministers from among the smallerdaimios of their own creation. Thepowerful members of their own aristoc-racy were watched as strictly as werethe Tozama lords, a fact which ex-plains why all the daimios were so luke-warm in their sympathy toward theTokugawa government during thestruggles of the Restoration.Below the daimios came the samu-

rai, or sworded gentry, four hundredthousand strong. They served eitherimmediately under the shogun himself,or else under the banners of the variousdaimios. Their appointments werehereditary, and their blood was keptpure by the prohibition of all marriagewith the lower classes, except in caseof the foot-soldiers, who constituted thelowest rank of samurai. They had theright and obligation of wearing two

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THE CHRYSALISswords and bearing family crests.Within their own ranks were manyclass distinctions, each with its specialprivileges. The estates of high-classsamurai were often wider and richerthan those of the smaller daimios. Un-der the code of the samurai, however,all enjoyed that equality that belongsto comradeship in arms; and even as aking of England or France delightedin the title of first gentleman of theland, so the shogun considered himselffirst samurai of the empire.But with the advent of the Toku-

gawa regime the existence of the dai-mio and the samurai, like that of thecourt aristocracy of Kioto, became ananachronism. The samurai, a productof the feudal period intervening be-tween the fall of the imperial bureau-cracy in the twelfth century and the

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANrise of the Tokugawa monarchy in theseventeenth century, clung with singu-lar tenacity to their past ideals. Theirart was that of the Kano school, a re-flection of the fifteenth century. Theirmusic and drama were the No^ the six-teenth-century opera of Japan. Theircostumes, architecture, and languageretained the style of the time imme-diately preceding the Tokugawa pe-riod. Their religion followed thoseZen doctrines which had been the vitalinspiration of the feudal age. In fact,the whole code of the samurai wasan heirloom left to them by the Kama-kura and Ashikaga knights, in whosedays the whole nation was a camp.

>, lyeyasu, accepting Japan as it was,, and utilizing its idiosyncrasies, kept themilitary class quiet through its own

i love of hereditary conventions and4:2


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THE CHRYSALISmilitary obedience. Everything wasregulated by precedent and routine.The son of a samurai or a daimio fol-lowed exactly in the footsteps of hisfather, and dreamed of no change. Bygiving the samurai a Confucian educa-tion, the Tokugawas both pacified hiswarlike instincts and encouraged hisworship of tradition. The blessing ofthat rule which they termed the GreatPeace of Tokugawa was so constantlydinned into his ears that he hoped andbelieved that it would be everlasting.The life of a Tokugawa daimio or

samurai was not devoid of amusements.Besides his fencing-bouts and jiujitsumatches, his falconry and games ofarchery, he had his wo-dances, his tea-ceremonies, and those interminablebanquets at which he would recount theexploits of his ancestors. Moreover,

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANmuch time might be consumed in thecomposition of bad Chinese poems be-neath the cherry-trees. He was oftenwealthy and always extravagant, forhis contempt for gold was ingrained.He would squander a fortune for arare Sung vase or a Masamune blade.The marvelous workmanship of theGotos in metal, and of the Komas ingold lacquer was the result of his pa-tronage. It is to the disappearance ofthe daimio and the samurai that Japanowes her sudden fall of standard in ar-tistic taste.

Such samurai as had been thrownout of employment either through dis-missal by their lord or the extinction ofthe daimiate under which they served,were called ronin (the unattached).Sometimes a second son, with literarytalents or scholastic ambitions, became

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THE CHRYSALISa ronin,and supported himself by teach-ing. The ronins retained all the rightsand privileges of the samurai, whiletheir state of independence gave theman individuality and freedom ofthought unknown among their moreorthodox brethren. It was through theronin scholars that the first message ofthe Restoration was to be announced tothe nation.

Fourth in the social scale came thecommoners, ranked in the order offarmers, artisans, and traders. As inthe case of the rise of European mon-archies the populace ever came to thehelp of the sovereign against the no-bles, so in Japan the Tokugawasfound in the commoners their best al-lies against the daimios, and conse-quently granted them many privilegeshitherto unknown. Then life and prop-

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANerty of the masses found a security un-precedented in the days of the preda-tory barons. Within a limited sphere,they were even allowed to develop self-government. Industry and commerceflourished unmolested. Agriculturewas specially encom-aged, as rice wasthe medium in which the revenues ofthe government were taken. It is tothe commoners that we owe the arts andcrafts which have made Japan famous.It is to them that we are indebted forour modern drama and popular litera-ture, the color-prints of Torii and Ho-kusai.Toward the commoners also, how-

ever, the Tokugawas pursued theirpolicy of segregation, inclosing themby barriers of tradition within a sepa-rate compartment of their social struc-ture. They were welcome to their spe-


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THE CHRYSALIScial vocations and amusements, butthey were forbidden to trespass onwhat belonged to the higher orders.They were not allowed to wear familycrests, or even to bear surnames. Theycould have their theater, with its lineof dangiuros (actors), but might not,^^^indulge in the wo-music of the samurai, 'or the classic dance of the Kioto no-bility.As a precaution against an uprising,

all the commoners were disarmed. Animmense body of secret police was em-ployed to watch their movements, andany breath of discontent met with se-vere punishment. Silent fear hauntedthem, for all the walls seemed to havegrown ears. Theirs it was to work andobey, and not to question. Howeverrich or accomplished, commoners bornmust die commoners. Hemmed in by

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANinexorable customs and restrictions,their energy had to vent itself eitherthrough the frivolity of life or the sad-ness of religion. Can we wonder thatto the more serious commoners religionconsisted in an appeal to the infinitemercy of Amitaba for absorption inthat divine love, the expression ofwhich is so marked in the Bhaktas ofIndia? Can we blame the weaker andmore frivolous among them for seekingforgetfulness in the idealization offoUy?Below the commoners, and, in fact,

ostracized entirely from the socialscheme, were the outcasts known asYettas. They were the descendants ofcriminals, who, in early times, were notallowed to intermarry with other fam-ilies, and so formed a distinct caste bythemselves. Some of them became

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THE CHRYSALISquite wealthy, owing to their posses-sion of a monopoly in the handling ofleather and hide, an occupation consid-ered unclean, according to the Bud-dhist canons. It was from their ranksthat the public executioners were ap-pointed. Before the Restoration, whenall men were made equal in the eye ofthe law, any contact with this class wasconsidered a pollution.The national consciousness, divided

within itself by the dams and dikes ofits own conventions, could but narrowand finally stagnate. The flow ofspontaneity ceased with the end of theseventeenth century. The microscopictendency of later Oriental thought be-came in us accentuated to a degree un-known even in China. Our life grew tobe like those miniature and dwarf treesthat were typical products of the Toku-

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANgawa age. Only in art and litera-ture, essentially the world of freedom,some vitality is to be found. Theself-concentration of a nation duringthat period has given a peculiar charmto Japanese art. The worship of tra-ditions, which is the foundation of styleand elegance, has given a subtle re-finement to all its expressions. Yetthis very classicism was the enemy ofthe romanticist efforts, for true indi-viduality was subdued under the gen-eral trend of formalism. Again, thedemarcation of social life and idealsprevented any creative mind from mir-roring the whole of national loves andaspirations. Despite a certain clever-ness in details, or an occasional dash ofwild fancy, no painter of the caliber ofKorin,* or poet with the strength of

^ Korin, a great colorist in the latter half of theseventeenth century.

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THE CHRYSALISChikamatsu/ is to be found. Some,like beautiful pools, may reflect theshadows of contemporary thought; butin not one do we get a vision of thelimitless ocean of the ideal.Yet the hibernation of Japan within

her chrysalis must have been pleasantin itself, or the nation would not haveslumbered so long. Old folks are stillto be found who cherish the memoryof those days of leisure, when no onewas so vulgar as to think for himself,when life was elegant, if it was formal.There were always chances of beingexquisitely foolish, if one was wiseenough to avail himself of them. SaidKampici, the Chinese Machiavelli, intelling the secret of absolutism twenty-two centuries ago: Amuse them, tirethem not, let them not know. lye-

1 Chikamatsu, his contemporary, the JapaneseShakspere.

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IllBUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISMSOME critics see in the encourage-

ment given to learning that flawin the Tokugawa system of govern-ment which caused its ultimate down-fall. Under the regime inauguratedby lyeyasu every child in the empirewas obliged to learn to read and write,under the instruction of the localpriests, thus giving a certain amount ofeducation to even the meanest peasant,while innumerable academies were es-tablished throughout the length andbreadth of the land. It is doubtlesstrue that the result of these measureswas to prepare the national mind for

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANreceiving the message of the Restora-tion. Yet, when we come to examineinto the nature of the instruction sofreely given to the people by the To-kugawas, we shall find that perhapslyeyasu and his immediate successorswere not so far amiss in their calcu-lations, after all.

All branches of knowledge are inter-esting, but some courses of study tendto encourage ignorance, and such werethe courses in Buddhism and Confu-cianism which formed the sole curricu-lum in the Tokugawa academies. Tothose who have seen our landscapesstudded with pagodas, and heard ourtemple bells calling from every hill, orto those who remember the great hallsof learning in the various daimiates,and the chant of reciting voices inevery Tokugawa village, it must seem

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BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISMstrange that Buddhism and Confucian-^ ^ism played so small a part in the Res-toration. The fact is that their teach- l^ings never interfered in matters of ^state, and their influence was solelydirected toward enforcing ideas of sub-mission and the love of peace.We do not agree with those enemiesof lyeyasu who accuse him of being ...a skeptic and utilizing ethics and re-ligion only as a means to further hisown ends. He was a great statesmanwho combined many of the characteris-tics of Cromwell and Richelieu. Hewas sincere, and acted, according to hislights, for what he considered the bestinterests of the nation. The followinginstance of his humanity is enough torefute those charges of heartlessnesswhich have been brought against him.Noticing, during one of his campaigns,

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANthat the enemy were using loose-shaftedarrows, the heads of which remainedin the wound and caused a cruel andlingering death, he gave orders that allthe Tokugawa arrowheads should besecurely fastened and lacquered to theshafts. We believe, however, that the Old Badger, as he is often nick-named, knew full well the nature ofBuddhist and Confucian teaching, andthat his astuteness and knowledge ofmen did not fail to recognize the bear-ing which the Oriental philosophy ofhis day might have upon the further-ance of his system of government.Buddhism was never a menace to the

. state. The reason for this lies far back^ \ in the antithesis of the Oriental con-^n*j caption of the social and supersocial- \ order. By that antithesis the ethical^ life of the householder is distinguished

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BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISMfrom the religious life of the wander-ing recluse, the two standing in con-trast, though not necessarily antagonis-tic. Eastern society, with all its beautyof harmonized duties and intercalatedoccupations, is based on mutual depen-,dencies, and at best can but end in con-ventionalismthe moral bondage ofthe commune. Religion, on the otherhand, furnishes the means of trueemancipation, and constitutes the acmeof individualism. The ideal monk isthe child of freedom, who, dying to themundane, is reborn to the realm of thespirit. He is like the lotus which risesin purity above the mire. He is silent,like the forest in which he meditates;untrammeled, like the wind that blowshis gown around him. He is of nocaste and no country. What if thronesare overthrown and nations enslaved:

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANdid not Buddha, the great teacher of re-nunciation, watch with undimmed eyesthe total annihilation of his own kinglyrace?

Society, the world of tradition andethics, looked with respect on the worldof freedom, and gazed with wonder atthe achievements of the spiritual work-ers who left behind them the boundarylines of school and sect as they trav-eled through the regions of the unex-plored toward the light. Chinese man-darins dreamed, amid palatial luxuries,of the bamboo forest, and sighed at thecall of the pine-clad hills. The highestdesire of an Indian or Japanese house-holder was to reach the age at which,leaving worldly cares to his children,he might learn that higher Hfe of a re-cluse known as Banaprasta or Inkyo.In donning the monkish robe, a priv-

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BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISMilege open to all, he found release from .^the world of convention. It was in

/ order to escape from social trammels^

.

j that our artists shaved their heads and\ assumed the guise of priests. y

But the social and the supersocialworlds never clashed, for each was thecounterpart of the other. In Indiansociety we find the Shramanic as thenecessary counterbalance to the Brah-manic ideal, while in China the samepositions are held by Taoism and Con-fucianism. Herein lies the secret ofthat toleration which has made of In-dia a museum of religions, and hascaused China to welcome, so long asthey do not interfere with her politicalsystem, the alien faiths of Buddhism,Zoroastrianism, Nestorianism, Mo-hammedanism, and modern Christian-ity. The existence of this twofold

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANdevelopment also explains, in a certainmeasure, that attitude of liberalismand apparent indifference which ourjmodern statesmen of Japan displaytoward religious questions,an atti-tude often construed as a false idea ofEuropean statecraft, if not of agnos-ticism. The demarcation of the polit-ical from the religious life, the divorceof state and church, is no new ideawith us. Indeed, despite our templesand monasteries, we have no church.The innate individuahsm of the

Buddhist ideal, unlike that of the papalchurch of Europe, which is even now asource of concern to some nations, hasever prevented the formation of a sin-gle powerful organization to imposeits influence on the state. The tem-poral power exercised by some of ourmonks was due solely to their personal

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BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISMinfluence over the Mikado or his officers,in the imperial days before the feudalperiod. It was a sort of mundane of-fering laid at the feet of holiness, andwas the temporary result of a purelypersonal relationship. The priesthood,as a body or sect, rarely tried to retainauthority over the government, and thesocial consciousness was always eagerto reclaim what it considered its ownspecial function. A sovereign mightbe carried away by his spiritual zeal,but the dynasty invariably recovered itsequilibrium. With the rise of the Ka-makura shogunate,the Buddhist power,which had its root in the devotion of theKioto court, dechned. The ultra-indi- , M^vidualistic sect of Zen, which at this kl.*-^time became the leading school of W**thought, made no pretense to political rambition. During the turbulent age,^

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANthat followed, the predatory attacks ofneighboring barons on the monasteriescaused the establishment of an armedmonkhood. These warrior-priestsguarded the sanctuaries, and, eitheralone or in alliance with various dai-mios, were a prominent feature in theAshikaga wars, where they are oftenfound foremost in the fray, their robeof mercy ill concealing the blood-stained mail beneath. They had, how-ever, almost disappeared by the timeof lyeyasu, when the Hongangi, thelast sect which still boasted of somemilitary adherents, was easily made tosubmit to the authority of the shogun.The policy of lyeyasu toward Bud-

dhism is characteristic of the funda-mental idea of Eastern statesmanship.Himself a Confucian, he countedamong his best friends the three great

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BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISMBuddhist monks of his ase. He would .... . ilv^^^have tolerated even Christianity, if theJesuit movement had not covered ajpolitical menace. He guaranteed theprivileges of the monasteries, restoredand insured their revenues, andgranted funds for the publication ofreligious works. He even enforcedecclesiastical jurisdiction, and punishedby the pillory and banishment all thosewho broke the monastic vows. But atthe same time he debarred the priest-hood from any participation in the gov-ernment. He abolished the custom ofemploying Buddhist agents in diplo-matic amenities with Korea, and ap-pointed a lay officer to control all af-fairs connected with the clergy. Theinfluence of Buddhism was on the wane. ,.Under the protection afforded to thep^monkhood, and the cultured ease theyl ^

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANenjoyed, the monasteries became uni-versities whose occupants were famedmore for their erudition than for theirholiness. The single new sect whichoriginated in that era differed fromthe others only in discipline, a subjectwidely discussed in that age of orderand strict regime.Like Buddhism, Confucianism had

in its later developments become super-social and indiiferent to politics throughits absorption of Taoist and Buddhistideals. In China, from the latter partof the Tang dynasty, Confucianismtended to become religious instead ofbeing purely ethical, as in previous

.^;. days. In Japan this tendency was^c Wen more pronounced, for during our

tfeudal age all branches of learningIwere confined to the Buddhists, so thatthe early teachers in the Tokugawa

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BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISMacademies were mostly monks who hadbeen induced to return to a secular lifein order to impart secular teaching.They did not give up their Buddhistcostume for a long time, and used toshave their heads even after they beganto wear swords like other samurai.They were all followers of the schoolof Shiuki, a Neo-Confucian of the'Sung dynasty, and the teaching theyimparted accorded well with their dress.Neo-Confucianism, a product of thatremarkable age of illumination, sojrich in creative efforts both in art and^literature, aimed at a synthesis of Tao-jist, Buddhist, and Confucian thought,and marks the result of a brilliant ef-fort to mirror the whole of Asiatic con-sciousness. Its exponents differed intheir interpretation of the Confucian

- classic, according to their mental afiini-6 65

%JJ...S^ li^l-^


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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANties with Chinese or Indian thought.Some of them Were called strayedZen, in the same sense as Sanchara-charya, the Neo-Brahmanist, was ac-cused of being a disguised Buddhist.

Shiuki, however, through his greaterleaning toward the doctrines of theChinese sage, was recognized as thecentral figure of Neo-Confucianism.His Commentaries on Confucius weremade official text-books by the Em-peror Yan-lu of the Ming dynasty, and

] his school was accepted as orthodoxby lyeyasu. The general trend ofNeo-Confucianism, even with Shiuki,tended to make it abstract and specu-lative, so that as a result its votaries

^' differed but slightly from the followersifv^ i.of Buddha, making self-concentration

an important part of mental exercise.The Ming scholars, with their formal-

jj dUjC^v^-t/vt^ ^ CL^A Y'^^'^^'^^ u'W-'T^^'


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BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISMistic instincts, dogmatized the instruc-tions of Shiuki, and wasted their en-ergy on his abstract rules of moralityand terminology,an example fol-lowed by the Japanese academicians.^Confucianism was thus deprived of its'very essencepractical ethics. Asfoolish as a scholar, was a commonwitticism of Tokugawa days. Twoschools of heresy tried to stem the tideand infuse vitality into the Confuciandoctrines, but they commanded an in-significant minority, for the Tokugawacensorship was rigorous in suppressingVall schools of thought that dared to dif- 'fer from the orthodox teaching of its/own academy.Thus the knowledge that lyeyasu

imparted to the nation was, after all,of a kind that gave no great stimulusto social activity. His system of in-

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IVTHE VOICE FROM WITHIN

IT seems to be the general impressionamong foreigners that it was theWest who, with the touch of a magicwand, suddenly roused us from the sleepof centuries. The real cause of ourawakening, however, came from within.Our national consciousness had alreadybegun to stir when, in the year 1853,Commodore Perry reached our shores,and had waited but for that event to in-augurate a universal movement towardrenationalization.

Three separate schools of thoughtunited to cause the regeneration of Ja-pan. The first taught her to inquire;

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THE VOICE FROM WITHINthe second, to act ; the third, for what toact. All were tiny streams at their out-set, finding their source in the solitarysouls of independent thinkers whonursed them always under censure, of-ten in banishment. They even coursedfrom within the prison walls andtrickled from the scaffold. They werealmost hidden beneath the rank vege-tation of conventionalism until the mo-ment when they united to leap in cat-aracts of patriotic zeal inundating thewhole nation.The first, known as the Kogaku

( School of Classic Learning) , arose at/the end of the seventeenth century as aprotest against the dogmas of the gov-ernmental academies. Its originatorsclaimed that the Neo-Confucianism ofShiuki as taught in the academies wasnot really Confucianism, but a new-

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANfangled interpretation of Buddhism andTaoism. They invited scholars to returnto the original texts of the sage himselfand iind anew the real meaning thereof.It was a bold stand for them to take,considering that Shiuki's commentarieswere considered orthodox and their au-thority had remained unquestioned bothin China and Japan since the Sung Illu-mination of the eleventh century. Thisschool for the first time frees the Toku-gawa mind from the trammels of for-mahsm, though its liberahsm does notresult in any particular conclusions.

Its very attitude, that of inquiry, pre-vents it from crystallizing into anysingle solution of Confucianism. Someof its adherents, like Sorai, go as far asto maintain that Confucius was purelya political philosopher and not a teacherof ethics. Some, on the other hand, like

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THE VOICE FROM WITHINYamaga-Soko, to whom we owe the de-velopment of the Samurai Code on aConfucian basis, found in Japanese in-stitutions the expression of the morallaw of the Chinese sage. Yet howeverthey differed individually in their con-clusions, they united in being hereticaltoward the orthodox Tokugawa notions,and all were objects of disapprobationto the authorities,Yamaga-Soko, whocommanded a considerable following,being banished from Yedo to the dis-tant and insignificant daimiate ofAkho. Yet even during his confine-ment there his personality inspiredthe well-known Forty-seven Ronins toachieve their memorable feat of loyalty,remarkable not only as revealing a newideal of samurai-hood, but eloquent inits silent protest against the Tokugawaregime.

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANThe second school, which started at

nearly the same time as the first, iscalled the School of Oyomei, from theJapanese pronunciation of Wangyang-ming, the name of its founder. Thisremarkable man was a great general aswell as scholar who lived in China atthe beginning of the sixteenth century,under the Ming dynasty. He neverceased to discourse even during thebrilliant campaigns in which he was vic-torious over the rebels in SouthernChina. His philosophy was an ad-vance on the Neo-Confucianism ofShiuki, whose doctrines, however, he ac-cepted in the main. His principal con-tribution lay in his definition of know-ledge. With him all knowledge wasuseless unless expressed in action. Toknow was to be. Virtue was real inso far only as it was manifested in

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THE VOICE FROM WITHINdeeds. The whole universe was' inces-santly surging on to higher spheres ofdevelopment, calHng upon all to join inits glorious advance. To reaHze theirteachings it was necessary to live the lifeof the sages themselves, to consecrateone's whole energy to the service ofmankind. -Thus he brought Confu-cianism again into its true domain, that,of practical ethics.His doctrines appear to have had

only a temporary influence on Chinaitself, but they possessed a pecuHarcharm for the Japanese mind, and laterfurnished one of the principal incen-tives toward the accomplishment ofthe Restoration. One of the pioneersof this school in Japan has producedsuch an impression on the moral life ofthe districts around Lake Biwa that hismemory is still cherished as that of the

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THE VOICE FROM WITHINEvery new life was built on the debrisof the past and amid the tumultuouscrash of a myriad of dissolving worlds.A reincarnation was self-realization on ^_.a different plane. How magnificent ischange How beautiful the greattransition known as life and death IThe Japanese Oyomians delighted in

the image of the dragon. Have youseen the dragon? Approach him cau- ) J^tiously, for no mortal can survive the

j

sight of his entire body. The Easterndragon is not the gruesome monster ofmedieval imagination, but the geniusof strength and goodness. He is thespirit of change, therefore of lifeitself. We associate him with the su-preme power or that sovereign causewhich pervades everything, taking newforms according to its surroundings,yet never seen in a final shape. The

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANdragon is the great mystery itself.Hidden in the caverns of inaccessiblemountains, or coiled in the unfathomeddepth of the sea, he awaits the timewhen he slowly rouses himself into ac-tivity. He unfolds himself in the stormclouds ; he washes his mane in the black-ness of the seething whirlpools. Hisclaws are in the fork of the lightning,his scales begin to glisten in the barkof rain-swept pine-trees. His voice isheard in the hurricane which, scatter-ing the withered leaves of the forest,quickens a new spring. The dragon re-veals himself only to vanish. He is aglorious symbolic image of that elas-ticity of organism which shakes off theinert mass of exhausted matter. Coil-ing again and again on his strength, hesheds his crusted skin amid the battle ofelements, and for an instant stands half

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THE VOICE FROM WITHINrevealed by the brilliant shimmer of hisscales. He strikes not till his throat istouched. Then woe to him who dallieswith the terrible oneThe dragon is said never to be the

same. What flower is? What life?The secret of knowledge, according tothe Oyomians, was to penetrate behindthe mask which change imposed upon; iaa^things. So-called facts and forms werel g*merely incidents beneath which the real , olife lay hidden. This they loved to il-|(^UJlustrate by the Taoist parable of the /JReal Horse. Once upon a time, it isrelated, a king of China was desirous ofprocuring the best horse in the world,wherefore he asked Hakuraku, all-knowing in horses, to make search farand wide. After a long time Haku-raku returned and reported to theking that a bay mare on a certain pas-

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANture was the most perfect horse exist-ent. Thereupon the king sent vassalsladen with treasures to bring the steedto his court. When, however, they cameto the place described by Hakurakuthey found not a bay mare, but a blackstallion. This they brought back withthem, and it was found to be the paragonof equine beauty and strength. To thetrue connoisseur of horses the real horse^^ ' was visible in something beyond the sec-

Jbu ondary features of color and sex. Eventhus it is with all true knowledge, saidthe Oyomians.The orthodox academicians were

doubly hostile to the Oyomei School asa perversion of their own Neo-Confu-cianism. The terror of their censorshiplay not so much in open attacks on thedoctrines themselves as in the treacher-ous and unexpected manner in which

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THE VOICE FROM WITHINthey brought punishment upon theirholders.

Yet, in spite of this, the new idea wasfostered and slowly gained ground inthose distant daimiates where censorialinterference was comparatively slight.It is significant that the two provincesof Satsuma and Choshiu, from which allthe great statesmen of modern Japancome, were the chief refuge of thisschool of philosophy. Among those ofour generals and admirals who havedistinguished themselves in the Chineseand Russian wars, many were broughtup as youths in the principles of Oyo-mei. This it is which makes themcalm amid danger, resourceful in plan-ning, and ever alert to meet the dictatesof change. It was largely due to thespread of Oyomian philosophy thatJapan recognized the dragon amid the

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THE VOICE FROM WITHINwell seen where, in an interesting philo-sophical work, he says: Strike like thelightning, be terrible like the thunder,but remember that the sky itself is al-ways clear above.

Neither the heresy of the ClassicSchool nor the virility of the Oyo-mei School would in themselves haveevolved the political conception that ledto the Restoration. They were, afterall, but differentiations in Confucian- .(^r-/^ism, and Confucianism ordained obedi-^jw^ence to existing authority provided that Jp^^the moral Hfe of the community was notthereby destroyed. Hence it was thatthe Ming scholars offered no resistanceto the Manchu rule. It was for thissame reason that the Tokugawa Confu-cians, whatever their school, neverdreamed of instituting a change in ourpolitical system. Oyomei taught to act,


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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANbut not for what or for whom. This de-ficiency it was the mission of the His-torical School to supply./ The Historical School was not a

/ heresy, and was therefore rarely re-garded with suspicion by the censors.On the contrary, the Tokugawas them-selves encouraged it, for it accorded

with their traditional policy. Themovement began early in their rule witha compilation of the genealogies of thechief families in the empire and thepublication of histories redounding tothe credit of the Tokugawas themselves.One important history written by thechief academician of his time is inter-esting as evincing the utmost servility^ to Confucian classicism, in that the au-

f^ jthor tries to prove the descent of the^^y*^ Mikado from the Chinese sages. By

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANledge resulted in the revivification ofShintoism. The purity of this ancientcult had been overflowed by successivewaves of continental influence until ithad almost entirely lost its originalcharacter. In the ninth century it be-came merely a branch of esoteric Bud-dhism and dehghted in mystic symbol-ism, while after the fifteenth century itwas entirely Neo-Confucian in spiritand accepted the cosmic interpretationof the Taoists. But with the revival ofancient learning it became divested ofthese alien elements. Shintoism as for-mulated in the beginning of the nine-teenth century is a religion of ancestrisma worship of pristine purity handeddown from the age of the gods. It

^^' teaches adherence to those ancestralideals of the Japanese race, simplicityand honesty, obedience to the ancestral

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THE VOICE FROM WITHINrule vested in the person of the Mikado,and devotion to the ancestral land onwhose consecrated and divine shores noforeign conqueror has ever set his foot. .It called upon Japan to break loose A^from blind slavery to Chinese and Inj ^dian ideals, and to rely upon herself. ,/The historic spirit swept on through

the realms of literature, art, and relig-ion, until it finally reached the heart ofthe samurai. Till then its effects hadbeen brilliant but not momentous, itsexpressions scholarly and therefore lim-ited in scope. A democratization ofthe new message is found in the worksof the early writers of the last century,among whom the poet-historian Rai-Sanyo stands foremost in rank. It wasfrom his lucid pages that the full mean-ing of the past dawned on the minds ofthe young samurai and ronins. Their

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANmemories traveled back to the dayswhen the imperial sanctity was forgot-ten and the chrysanthemum cowered be-fore the cruel blast of Ashikaga arro-gance, while even the palace itself, withnone so loyal as to undertake its repair,was sinking in ruin within sight ofthe Golden Pavilion of the shoguns.Sadly they read the poems of somelonely loyalist who, like a solitarycuckoo, poured his sad song into themoonless night.They dwelt with mingled pride and

sorrow on the story of the Emperor Go-daigo, who broke the power of the Ka-makura shogunate and for a timereestablished legitimate rule. Theythought of his undaunted courage inraising the country against the usurpers,of his exile to the distant island of Sado,of his miraculous escape in a fishing-

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THE VOICE FROM WITHINboat, of his triumphs over the enemy,and of his fastness in the mountain ofYoshino,* where he held his court untilthe time when the cherry-blossoms cov-ered his mausoleum with their tributeof tender homage.The gaunt image of Masashige rose

before them, that hero who fought forthe Emperor Godaigo knowing that hiscause was already lost. They read howhe it was who first dared answer the im-perial summons to fight the usurper,how he planned and carried out theguerrilla warfare which led to a tem-porary restitution of the Mikado'spower, and claimed no reward when hiswork was accomplished. What is thylast wish? said he to his brother as,wounded unto death, they both emerged

^ Yoshino, a hill in the Nara prefecture noted fromancient times for its cherry-blossoms.

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANfrom their last terrible battle with theAshikaga hosts. Smiling, he listenedto the swift reply, I wish to be bornagain to strike a blow for the Mikado,and said, Though Buddhists teachthat such wishes are sinful and lead tothe hell of Asuras, yet not for once onlybut for seven lives do I wish to be re-bom for that same end ; then each fellby the other's sword. They read howMasatsura, the son of Mashashige, re-fused the first beauty of the court, whowas deeply attached to him, when theMikado offered her to him as a rewardfor his hereditary loyalty, pleading thathis life was for death and not love.

; Soon as the memory of past agesI

came over the samurai, the lost gloryof the Son of Heaven flashed uponthem. They saw the Mikado himselfleading his army to victory. They

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THE VOICE FROM WITHINheard their ancestors beating theirshields with their swords, as they sangthe war-song of Otomo, the terrible joyof dying by the Mikado's side. Theywept when they thought of the shadowthat had come over the throne. Theymade pilgrimages to the imperial mau-soleums, which had long been left to de-cay, and washed their moss-coveredsteps with tears. Who were the Toku-gawas who dared to stand between them

|

and their legitimate sovereign? Oh, todieto die for the Mikado IThe historic spirit now stood sword//,

in hand, and the sword was one of nomean steel. The samurai, like hisweapon, was cold, but never forgot thefire in which he was forged. His im-petuosity was always tempered by hiscode of honor. In the feudal daysZen had taught him self-restraint and

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANmade courteousness the mark of brav-ery. Confucianism had in the Toku-gawa period intensified that sense ofduty which made him disregard all ob-stacles. He did not court useless danger,for his courage was never questioned.He marched to certain death not withthe blind fury of fanaticism but witha set resolution of doing whatever wasdemanded of him. The historical spiritin penetrating his soul made him a newbeing. All the devotion which had for-merly been consecrated to the service ofhis immediate liege was now laid at thefeet of the Mikado.Soon the historical spirit began to

permeate the ranks of the daimios. Itfirst entered the souls of those Tozamadaimios who, hke the lords of Satsumaand Choshiu, felt a hereditary animosity

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THE VOICE FROM WITHINto the shogunate. Later on it began toinfluence even the princes of the Toku-gawa family, especially the princes ofMito and the lords of Echizen. Thescholars of these daimiates, with theirShinto and Oyomian tendencies, werethe apostles of the Restoration. It isto be noted that Keiki, last of the sho-guns, who voluntarily gave up the reinsof government to the Mikado, was aprince of Mito.The hour had come when dreams

were to be translated into action, andthe sword was to leave the quiet of thescabbard and leap forth with the furyof lightning.

Strange whispers traveled from thecities to the villages. The lotus trem-bled above the turbid waters, the starsbegan to pale before the dawn, and that

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANmighty hush which bespeaks the com-ing storm fell on the nation. Oyomeiwas abroad and the dragon was callingforth the hurricane. It was at thismoment that the West appeared on ourhorizon.

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VTHE WHITE DISASTER

TO MOST Eastern nations the adventof the West has been by no meansan unmixed blessing. Thinking towelcome the benefits of increased com-merce, they have become the victims offoreign imperialism; beHeving in thephilanthropic aims of Christian mission-aries, they have bowed before the mes-sengers of military aggression. Forthem the earth is no longer filled withthat peace which pillowed their content-ment. If the guilty conscience of someEuropean nations has conjured up thespecter of a Yellow Peril, may not thesuffering soul of Asia wail over therealities of the White Disaster.

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THE WHITE DISASTERfrom the railway station to the bathingresort, has brought about the possibiHtyof a cosmopolitan culture. The nine-teenth century has witnessed a wonder-ful spread in the blessings of scientificsanitation and surgery. Knowledge aswell as finance has become organized,and large communities are made capa-ble of collective action and the develop-ment of a single personal consciousness.To the inhabitant of the West all

this may well be food for satisfaction;to him it may seem inconceivable thatthe bland irony of China the machine f^^iappears as a toy, not an ideal. The ven-erable East still distinguishes ^^^ween,^ ^means and ends. The West is for pro-i .

.

gress, but progress toward what?When material efficiency is complete,what end, asks Asia, will have been ac-

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANcomplished? When the passion of fra-ternity has cuhninated in universal co-operation, what purpose is it to serve?If mere self-interest, where do we findthe boasted advance?The picture of Western glory unfor-

tunately has a reverse. Size alone doesnot constitute true greatness, and theenjoyment of luxury does not alwaysresult in refinement. The individualswho go to the making up of the greatmachine of so-called modern civiliza-tion become the slaves of mechanicalhabit and are ruthlessly dominated bythe monster they have created. In spiteof the vaunted freedom of the West,true individuality is destroyed in the

c \ competition for wealth, and happiness^ / and contentment are sacrificed to an in-I cessant craving for more. The Westtakes pride in its emancipation from

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THE WHITE DISASTERmedieval superstition, but what of thatidolatrous worship of wealth that hastaken its place? What sufferings anddiscontent lie hidden behind the gor-,geous mask of the present? The voiceof socialism is a wail over the agoniesof Western economics,the tragedy of.Capital and Labor.But with a hunger unsatisfied by its

myriad victims in its own broad lands,the West also seeks to prey upon theEast. The advance of Europe in Asiameans not merely the imposition of so-cial ideals which the East holds to becrude if not barbarous, but also the sub-version of all existing law and author-ity. The Western ships which broughttheir civilization also brought con^uests^jgrjjtefitojates, ex-territorial jurisdiction,lucres of influence, and what not ofdebasement, till the name of the Oriental

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANhas become a synonym for the degen-erate, and the word native an epithetfor slaves.

In Japan the race of those fiery pa-triots who fifty years ago shouted,Away with the Western barbarians 1with all the lusty enthusiasm of theChinese Boxers, is entirely gone. Thetremendous change which has sincecome over our political life, and the ma-terial advantages we have gained byforeign contact, have so completelyrevolutionized national sentiment in re-gard to the West that it has become al-most impossible for us to conceive whatit was that so aroused the antagonism ofour grandfathers. On the contrary, wehave become so eager to identify our-selves with European civilization in-stead of Asiatic that our continentalneighbors regard us as renegadesnay,

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THE WHITE DISASTEReven as an embodiment of the WhiteDisaster itself. But our mental stand-point of a few generations back wasthat of the conservative Chinese patriotof to-day, and we saw in Western ad-vance but the probable encompassingof our ruin. To the down-trodden Ori-ental the glory of Europe is but thehumiliation of Asia.

If we place ourselves in the positionof a Chinese patriot of to-day we shallbe able to understand how the march ofcontemporary events appeared to ourgrandfathers. Their fears were not al-together without reason, for to thewounded imagination of Orientals his-tory told of the gradual advance ofthe White Disaster which was descend-ing on Asia. The Italian Renaissancemarks the time when, freed from itschains, the roving spirit of Western en-

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THE WHITE DISASTERtheir awe of that great Turkish empirewhich still bravely bore the brunt ofWestern advance and often hurled itback to the walls of Vienna. But thebrightness of the Crescent was fastwaning before the combined persistenceof the West, and soon the disastroustreaty of Kutchuk-Kainarji inaugu-rated the imposition of Russian inter-ference in the affairs of the Porte. In1803 the last of the Grand Moguls be-came a British pensioner. In 1839,Abdul Medjid ascended the throne ofOsmanli under the protection ofjEuropean powers.With the increase in credit and cap-

ital during the latter half of the eight-eenth century, the inventive energy ofEuropean industrialism is set in motion.Coal takes the place of wood in smelt-ing, and the flying shuttle, the spinning-


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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANare now the pride of European mu-seums, while the Russians always main-tain a steady encroachment upon thehereditary domains of the Celestial Em-pire along the borders of the Amurand Hi. The kindly intervention of theTriple Coalition after the Japanesewar was but a farce, for thereby Russiagained Port Arthur, Germany Kiau-chau, and France a tighter grasp onYunnan. It is true that the defilementof their sacred shrines goaded the Box-ers to a passionate outburst of fury ; butwhat could their old-fashioned armsavail against the combined armies ofthe aUied powers? Their ill-judgedefforts only resulted in the heaping ofindignities upon China and the pay-ment by her of exorbitant indemnities.In spite of repeated promises of evacua-tion, Russia has endeavored to establish

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANformed of the European encroachmenton Asia, did not hesitate to enhance thevalue of their friendship by paintingthe deeds of other Western nations inthe darkest colors. In fact, unfortu-nately, we had already had some experi-ence of foreign rapacity in the Russianadvance from the north.

It is a curious coincidence that thefirst European nationand let us hopeit may be the lastwhom we have metin battle array is the power whose actsfirst warned us of the possibility of for-eign complications. Russia, sweepingdown from Siberia and Kamchatka, longago laid her hands upon our territory ofSakhalin and the Kurile Islands. Inthe end of the eighteenth century theRussians committed ravages in Yezoitself, and in 1806 the Tokugawas hadto place a military governor in Hako-

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THE WHITE DISASTERdate to guard against their further dep-redations. Alarming stories of North-ern encroachments were poured into ourexcited ears, and many daimios offeredof themselves to chase back the intrud-ers. In 1830 Nariaki of Mito, a pow-erful prince of the Tokugawa family,proposed to settle in Yezo with all hisretainers and the entire population ofhis daimiate. He melted all the bronzebells of the temples in his territory, cast-ing a number of immense cannon, anddrilled his samurai in preparation foran emergency. His zeal was, however,misconstrued by the Tokugawa govern-ment and he was obliged to abdicate infavor of his son and remain in retire-ment. Russophobes were imprisonedfor spreading false alarms, and manydied in confinement. It is interestingto find among some of their memoirs

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANprophecies of Russian aggrandizementin Asia which have been but too trulyfulfilled.The appearance of American war-

ships in the bay of Yedo was a mightyshock. Hitherto the alarms of foreignattack had meant but little to the coun-try at large, for it was a long cry toHakodate or Nagasaki ; but now withina day's march of the city of Yedo laythe black hulks of a formidable fleetwhose admiral refused to retire until atreaty was signed. Recollection of theTartar armada flashed through theminds of our grandfathers. Was thesamurai to be intimidated in his ownwaters? Was not the divine land al-ways prepared to repel an invasion?What right had a foreign nation to im-pose a commerce which we did not want,a friendship which we did not ask? To

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THE WHITE DISASTERarms I Jhoi Jhoi Away with thebarbarians The alarm-bells clangedthroughout the country. Foam-cov-ered riders rushed through every castlegate, spreading the momentous news.Spears were torn from their racks andancient armor was eagerly draggedfrom dust-covered caskets. Night andday could be heard the clanging of steelon anvils forging the accoutrements ofwar. The old prince of Mito was sum-moned from his hermitage to take com-mand, and his cannon lined the principalpoints of defense. Buddhists wore awaytheir rosaries in invoking Kartikiya, thewar-god, and Shinto priests fasted while ^they called on the sea and the tempest[to destroy the invader.The historic spirit that had been

smoldering in our national conscious-ness only waited for this moment to

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANburst forth in a fiery expression ofunity. Custom and formalism werealike forgotten in this hour of commondanger, and for the first time in twohundred years the daimios were askedby the Tokugawa government to delib-erate over a matter of state. For thefirst time in seven centuries the Shogunsent a special envoy to the Mikado toconsult about the policy of the empire,and for the first time in the history ofour nation, the high and the low alikewere invited to offer suggestions as towhat steps should be taken for the pro-tection of the ancestral land. We be-came one, and the Night of Asia fledforever before the rays of the RisingSun.

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THE AWAKENING OF JAPANthe Shogun, as the representative of allexisting authority, to lead the forces ofJapan against what was regarded as aWestern invasion. Thus the Toku-gawa government was given a newlease of life and its final overthrowpostponed for fifteen years, duringwhich time ultra-reformists were keptfrom running riot and the nation wasgiven a chance to prepare itself for themomentous change which was to come.Had the Tokugawas better under-

stood their own position, they mightunder this new condition of affairs,have retained their power for an in-definite period of time; but, unfortu-nately for them, there developed out ofthe rivalry between the cabinet and theboudoir an element of discord whichbrought about the ultimate downfall ofthe entire Tokugawa system.

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CABINET AND BOUDOIRLike all Eastern monarchies, the To-

kugawa shogunate led a twofold exist-ence, that of the outer ministry and thatof the inner household. Of these twomodes of expression, the former exhib-its the sovereign as one who representsthe united political wisdom of the coun-try handed down through a long suc-cession of experiences, the latter as anautocrat whose will is law. The idealruler, who stopped in the midst of a ban-quet to listen to the grievances of hispeople and preferred the discourse ofsour-visaged councilors to the sweetmusic of the court beauties, confinedhimself exclusively to the first role. Buteven in Confucian lands human

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